That is the question Wesley Duewel asks Christian leaders. He is afraid that we don't. He challenges us by quoting George Whitefield who said, "I am persuaded that the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ. Many congregations are dead because dead men are preaching to them (Ablaze for God, 121)." I guess Whitefield did not soft peddle the truth.
This quote challenges me. And so does the story that Duewel goes on to share.
A notorious British murderer was sentenced to die. On the morning of his execution the prison chaplain walked beside him to the gallows and routinely read some Bible verses. The prisoner was shocked that the chaplain was so perfunctory, unmoved, and uncompassionate in the shadow of the scaffold. he said to the preacher, 'Sir, if I believed what you say you believe, even if England was covered with broken glass form coast to coast, form shore to shore, I would walk over it--if need be on my hands and knees--and think it worthwhile, just to save one soul from an eternal hell (Ibid.).
Lord, help me to remember that I am preaching in the shadow of the scaffold this weekend. Guard my heart and touch me so that I will not be guilty of preaching an unfelt Christ as a dead man. Lord, I love the people that you have called me to lead. So keep me from that kind spiritual deadness that so often kills congregations. And let us become the kind of people who will crawl over broken glass to save one soul from hell.
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