• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Outward OPC

Engage | Connect | Reach

  • Featured Posts (Home Page)
  • Blog (All Posts)
  • About
  • Email Us

Wisdom & Encouragement From the Past

February 21, 2023 By Home Missions

Came across two quotes that seemed like a fitting post for this week to give everyone some encouragement in our efforts to reach the lost, both in our daily lives and in our churches.

First, Andrew Bonar directed toward our everyday lives:

“Our power in drawing men to Christ springs chiefly from the fullness of our personal joy in Him, and the nearness of our personal communion with Him. The countenance that reflects most of Christ, and shines most with His love and grace, is most fitted to attract the gaze of a careless, giddy world, and win restless souls from fascinations of creature love and creature-beauty. A ministry of power must be the fruit of a holy, peaceful, loving intimacy with the Lord.”
– Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls

How often do we contemplate that our personal joy in Christ is directly connected to our evangelism?

Next Charles Spurgeon, more specifically to our churches and pulpits, which of course spills out into our everyday lives:

“I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. People have often asked me, “What is the secret of your success?” I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel,—not about the gospel, but the gospel,—the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news. Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon. You remember the story of the old minister who heard a sermon by a young man, and when he was asked by the preacher what he thought of it he was rather slow to answer, but at last he said, “If I must tell you, I did not like it at all; there was no Christ in your sermon.” “No,” answered the young man, “because I did not see that Christ was in the text.” “Oh!” said the old minister, “but do you not know that from every little town and village and tiny hamlet in England there is a road leading to London? Whenever I get hold of a text, I say to myself, ‘There is a road from here to Jesus Christ, and I mean to keep on His track till I get to Him.'” “Well,” said the young man, “but suppose you are preaching from a text that says nothing about Christ?” “Then I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get at Him.” So must we do, brethren; we must have Christ in all our discourses, whatever else is in or not in them. There ought to be enough of the gospel in every sermon to save a soul. Take care that it is so when you are called to preach before Her Majesty the Queen, and if you have to preach to charwomen or chairmen, still always take care that there is the real gospel in every sermon.”
-CH Spurgeon, The Soul Winner.

Share this post...Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Primary Sidebar

New Content, Resources & Stories (occasional email updates)
* indicates required

Follow OPC Home Missions

Facebook
Twitter

Series & Categories

  • … (251)
  • 10 Things I've Seen (11)
  • Brad Peppo: On the Frontlines (Video) (9)
  • Building A Culture of Evangelism (7)
  • Eric Hausler: On the Frontlines (Video) (8)
  • Eric Watkins: On The Frontlines (Video) (7)
  • Evangelism & Ministry During Pandemic (10)
  • Evangelism in Difficult Times (8)
  • Evangelism Reader's Digest (11)
  • Format: Article (159)
  • Format: Podcast/Audio (39)
  • Format: Video (46)
  • Hartshorn Evangelism Conference (4)
  • Hidden Gems (4)
  • How Do You View The Landscape? – With Eric Hausler (11)
  • Lessons in Leadership (7)
  • Millennials Talk Millenials (10)
  • OPC Pastors Talk Outreach (27)
  • Racial Unrest & The Church (5)
  • Shane Lems: Welcoming Church (9)
  • Stories From the Field (20)
  • Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth in Speech & Action (21)
  • You Are What You Love (3)

Recent Posts

  • Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #11 – Lean Into Other Religions
  • Hidden Gems – Part 3
  • 5 Years & A Hidden Gem
  • Wisdom & Encouragement From the Past
  • More From Michigan: Church, People, & Story
  • Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #10 – The Gospel Isn’t a Sweatsuit
  • Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #9 – When Does Your “Testimony” End?
  • Church Life & Reaching Younger Folks in A Reformed Church in Michigan
  • Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #8 – The Inconvenience of Sowing Widely