This is such a great quote I hesitate to set apart any of it with italics or bold; it must be taken as a whole - a challenge to pastors and to the expectations of his people.
"The Word will not abide within us if we are in a hurry. We pastors deceive ourselves when we are so busy doing good things that we snatch a text and a prayer on the run and think that we will be mighty men of God and bear spiritual fruit. To be very specific, Glenn, so that you will remember it, almost no minister of the gospel will be a spiritually fruitful person if he is spending less that two hours a day in prayer and meditation in addition to his sermon preparation. Holy, powerful, life-changing spiritual men of God are not made on the run. There are so few people who believe that, Glen, that the expectations laid on you in the service will probably be a constant threat to your spiritual power and fruitfulness. But Christ has appointed you to go and bear fruit. So resist those expectations with boldness."
-John Piper, I Chose You to Bear Fruit (John 15), Ordination of Glen Bloomstrom, 1981.
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing this with us, Jonathan! Looking forward to hear you preach the sermon!
I am thankful for you all and all at CBCW too!
In Christ Alone,
'Guerite ~ BoldLion
Jonathan,
Thanks for the quote. I've never read that particular sermon by Piper, but I've often felt like lingering long in study and prayer with Jesus was crucial to spiritual vitality and power. However, I've never put it into practice. I've always been too tired or too busy or, more frequently, too lazy to set aside that time. So...
My question is, do you do this? I know you're as busy as anyone that I know of, so if you do this, how do you pull it off?
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