This is Day 1 of Lent, the forty days of preparation leading up to Easter. A quick check of the Wikipedia entry will give you some helpful background. Note that in the Western tradition, Lent starts today with Ash Wednesday and continues until Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Sundays are not counted as part of the forty days because each …
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 26, “Unconscious Decay."A man growing better does not measure the stages of his progress, nor does a man becoming worse realize the headway of his descent. Men who live nearest to the heart of God do not prate of their visions nor boast of the light in t…
I’ll be on the radio four times this week. Today I’m co-hosting “Today’s Issues” along with Marvin Sanders from 10AM-12Noon CDT. During the first hour our guest will be Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, author of the mega-bestseller Love and Respect. When I wrote about my Top Ten Books of the Last Decade, I included “Love a…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 25, “Eagles, Race-horses and Plodders.”The high art of walking is one which the minister must master. He must have a genius for plodding. The clergyman who is able to trudge bravely through the years, filling the months with quiet honest work, pressing h…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 24, “Near to Men Near to God.” A man may be a pagan alone, he cannot be a Christian. A preacher of Christianity must live as close as possible to men. Isolation to him is fatal. If he has a disposition which shrinks from the society of others his disposit…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 23, “Books and Reading."There are preachers who would be stronger in their ministry if they read fewer books.Books are numerous and cheap and no other working man in the town has so many hours in a wee which can be given to reading as the minister. A par…
If you would like some help in keeping on track with your daily devotions, you may want to check a website called Family Times devoted to helping families read the Bible together. Each day Lou Nicholes offers a short devotional based on a Bible passage. Today’s passage talks about Jesus healing the nobleman’s son in John 4:43-54. You ca…
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 22, “Thy Speech Betrayeth Thee."The greatest danger to which a young man is subjected in the Seminary, is not, as many timid folks imagine, heretical interpretations of the Scriptures but a style of language which the plain people do not understand.The …
Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 21, “Mannerisms."Mannerisms as a rule are veritable dragons which throwing themselves between the preacher and his hearers must be warred against and slain. Eternal vigilance is the price the man of God must pay for deliverance from this plague of pulp…
Odds and ends, a little of this and a little of that . . . *Just got off the phone with Ernie Schulz who said they just got a ton of new snow in Chicago. Ernie runs our Anchor Book Depot, which means that when we ship boxes of An Anchor for the Soul, Ernie is the one who actually makes the mailing labels, goes to the warehouse where we store the bo…