BRING THE HEAT

This post appeared on The Gospel-Driven Church and is written by Jared Wilson. - Steve

We must not equate passion with style. But we must have hearts aflame with passion. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously defined preaching as, "Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! . . . Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire."

The story is told that when W.E. Sangster was interviewing a candidate for the ministry, the nervous young man explained that he was quite shy and not the sort of person ever to set the River Thames on fire. "My dear young brother," responded Sangster, "I'm not interested to know if you could set the Thames on fire. What I want to know is this: if I picked you up by the scruff of your neck and dropped you into the Thames, would it sizzle?"

Never mind his eloquence; was he himself on fire?

-- from Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching (p.67)

When on Sunday morning, then, when you go out before their faces, we must walk up not worn out with misery but full of Christ, hot with Christ, on fire: burn them with the force of our belief.

-- John Updike, Rabbit, Run