PASTORAL MINISTRY-ENCOURAGEMENT
To be a true
minister to men is always to accept new happiness and new distress. The man who gives himself to other men can
never be a wholly sad man; but no more can he be a man of unclouded
gladness. To him shall come with every
deeper consecration a before untasted joy, but in the
same cup shall be mixed a sorrow that it was beyond his power to feel before.
The Influence of Jesus, H.R. Allenson, 1875, p. 191.
Called by God
to preach!… Commissioned of God to teach the
word! A herald of the great King! A witness of the Eternal Gospel! Could any work be more high and holy? To this supreme task God sent His only
begotten Son. In all the frustration and
confusion of the times, is it possible to imagine a work comparable in
importance with that of proclaiming the will of God to wayward men?
W.E. Sangster
The Craft of Sermon Construction,
Epworth, 1949, p. 14-15.
You
are not your own; you are a man under orders.
And the One who has drafted you and signed your orders expects that you
carry them out in a manner worthy of Him, and in such a way that His authority
and His kingdom cannot be ignored. Now
go, labor, work, and do your duty well knowing that it is the greatest
privilege under heaven to be in the personal service of the Almighty.
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach,
Christian Focus Publications, 1999, p. 48.