One month into my second semester at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, I’ve found my head continually in the books. This is of course, well-known and expected for any M.Div. student. An elective course I’m enrolled in is a class titled classics in Christian Devotion. It has quickly become my favorite.
The class involves reading a number of devotional works by Christian authors through history: Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Andrew Fuller, St. Teresa of Avila and Jonathan Edwards among them.
I just finished The reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. Baxter, a 17th century English Puritan Pastor in the Church of England published in 1656 what is considered a classic in pastoral care. The book is an incredibly convicting, motivating and earnest piece for any man desiring to go into the ministry. Baxter sets the bar at a level most would consider unattainable. A noteworthy theme he addresses is evangelism. He is passionate about the salvation of souls and declares that no man should be a preacher of gospel if he does not care for the lost.
He proved his words in practice by transforming the people of Kidderminster from ‘an ignorant, rude and reveling people to a godly, worshipping community ’during his generation.
Below are a number of quotes I found convicting for any Christian, but especially to those desiring to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“Brethren, if the saving of souls be your end, you will certainly intend it out of the pulpit as well as in it! If it be your end, you will live for it, and contribute all your endeavors to attain it.” P. 65
“Every Christian is obliged to do all he can for the salvation of others; but every minister is doubly obliged, because he is separated to the gospel of Christ, and is to give up himself wholly to that work” P. 196
“Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God you seek after in them. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in his works –this is the true and only philosophy; the contrary is mere foolery, and is so called again and again by God himself.” P. 58
“Take heed, therefore, brethren, for enemy hath a special eye upon you. You shall have his most subtle insinuations, and incessant solicitations, and violent assaults. As wise and learned as you are, take heed to yourselves, lest he outwit you. The devil is a greater scholar than you, and a nimbler disputant: he can transform himself into an angel of light to deceive: he will get with in you, and trip up you heels before you are aware.” P. 75
“When your minds are in a holy, heavenly frame, your people are likely to partake of the fruits of it. Your prayers, and praises, and doctrine will be sweet and heavenly to them. They will likely feel when you have been much with God: and which is most on your hearts, is like to be most in their ears. I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience, that I publish to my flock the distempers of my own soul. When I let my heart grow cold, my preaching is cold; and when it is confused, my preaching is confused; and so I can oft observe also in the best of my hearers, that when I have grown cold in preaching, they have , and the next prayers which I have heard from them have been too like my preaching.” P.61
“To cry down the sin of others, and engage them against it, and direct them to overcome it, will do much to shame us out of our own; and conscience will scarcely suffer us to live in that which we make so much ado to draw others from” P. 186
“But most have an ungrounded trust in Christ, hoping that he will pardon, justify, and save them, while the world hath their hearts, and they live to the flesh. And this is the trust they take for justifying faith.” P. 196
“I marvel how I can preach of them slightly and coldly, and how I can let men alone in their sins, and that I do not go to them and beseech them, for the Lord’s sake, to repent, however they may take it, and whatever pains or trouble it may cost me!” P. 203
“And now, brethren, what have we to do for the time to come, but to deny our lazy flesh, and rouse up ourselves to the work before us. The harvest is great, the labourers are few; the loiterers and hinderers are many, the souls of men are precious, the misery of sinners great, and the everlasting misery to which they are near is greater, the joys of heaven are inconceivable, the comfort of the faithful minister is not small, the joy of the extensive success will be a full reward.” P. 202
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May 4, 2012
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