Speaking life – with life
Reading Romans the other day it occurred to me that had the apostles penned the New Testament in the same tone in which we often preach it, it would not have survived two readings. Many a sermon is intoned in dry monotony borne of even drier scholarship. The scriptures were on the contrary penned with passion, with feeling; even the eminently theological and Christological dissertation in Romans carries zeal, fire, logic yes but overwhelming passion.
Indeed the epistle pulsates with the apostle’s passion for the marvel of redemption, the centrality of Christ and the astounding power of faith in Christ to effect salvation where the law despite its many provisions falls woefully short. He waxes forth on the subject of his own people the Jews and their position in God’s plan. He enjoins the church to right living borne of gratitude for the awesome work of the cross.
Logic, truth, heart, feeling, emotion, passion all combine in the epistles to portray a picture of people who felt deeply about the things of God; people who were absolutely convinced of the veracity of God’s truth in Christ, people who took radical stands for the gospel and who communicated it with all their vigour, energy, spirit, passion and being. And each letter carries that heat and that fire. Consequently, they must be preached as they were written, with logic, and with passion, fire, hope, joy, tears, with life; ‘the words of this life’ spoken with life.
Might I add, the same goes for any communication of the gospel. What God is, what God did in Christ utterly beggars description, so when His people speak of it, in any context, over dinner with friends, at work, out in the streets, how can it not be with the same passion, animation, joy with which we would have it preached from the pulpit? How you feel about and speak of Jesus will most likely be the catalyst for people’s interest before they get round to examining the content of the message. I pray for passion all the time, to be so overwhelmed by the beauty of the gospel that i will speak it as I ought.
Shalom!
Preaching with more tears than prose
Allow me to be expansive in my celebration of the goodness of God today. I confess, were you not to allow it, I would be still. How can one not celebrate One so loving, so caring, so powerful, and able to move beyond our human frailties to demonstrate His awesomeness!
God came to church yesterday, somewhat despite us. We were bone tired having worked late, unadvisedly, Saturday night preparing for our January prayer conference. He woke me up early and I sensed Him speaking to my heart saying you should be up now, let others sleep. I dutifully arose and began to prepare for the service, work on my message, pray and do all the sundry things godly pastors do at four thirty am on Sunday morning.
Halfway through worship I cried out to God to do something; and He did. The glory of God enveloped us, I lay prostrate. Finally I got up to preach and could not, could not read the text of Scripture. Oh I tried. The presence of God filled the house, the Holy Spirit began to touch people, and move in the place. I would go back to my text and would have to give up again; so for some moments we simply reveled in His presence.
In the midst of such glory I had a carnal thought, Read more
Why I preach.
This Saturday night as i sit in the presence of the Lord before service tomorrow i am deeply moved, and in fact the only reason i am writing this is to release some of the intensity of the moment; how do you weep on screen? I have always wondered, since i began to get close to God, what on earth does He see in us?
Why does He bother? No do not give me the theological answers to that, I know them, i can recite them. But aren’t there those times when despite what you know, you still are dumbfounded and confounded by what you hear, sense and see, you still are speechless and incapable of a coherent explanation?
Not surprising, after all can the Most High fit into our neat boxes? It has pleased Him in His greatness to make Himself accessible, so accessible that some will even accuse us of anthropomorphism, never mind. Yet there are those times when you are so overwhelmed by the consciousness of His Person, that you can only sit, kneel, worship and weep. Read more
AUTHOR
pastor bola olivia ogedengbe,
The Theophilus Company,
ABBA HOUSE, Paris,
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