While serving as an exchange...
Illustration
While serving as an exchange minister on the Isle of Man during the summer of 1983, I had occasion to thumb through an annual journal of a particular denomination. In addition to including the minutes of the annual meeting, a list of ministers and their parishes, and addresses of various official agencies, a section was reserved in the back of the journal for memorials. Brief biographical sketches paid tribute to ministers who died since the last annual meeting.
Randomly scanning the memorial sketches, I paused to read the tribute to a minister, deceased at age ninety-one, who had preached the Gospel for seventy-one years. It had been his custom to walk to his preaching appointment and he was on his way to preach when he died. His tribute read like 2 Timothy 4:2.
Our text has found expression in other settings. Consider the minister who sits patiently behind on of his own church members at a football game. The member is carping loudly at the hometown quarterback. Finally, the minister discretely whispers to the man, "You ought to know that the boy's parents are sitting just four rows in front of you." The disgruntled fan replies, "I don't care if they hear me; the kid ought to be replaced."
"Very well," sighs the minister, "but remember, God is sitting closer to you than the quarterback's parents." There are no more outbursts.
The Word is preached in season and out of season in many ways.
Randomly scanning the memorial sketches, I paused to read the tribute to a minister, deceased at age ninety-one, who had preached the Gospel for seventy-one years. It had been his custom to walk to his preaching appointment and he was on his way to preach when he died. His tribute read like 2 Timothy 4:2.
Our text has found expression in other settings. Consider the minister who sits patiently behind on of his own church members at a football game. The member is carping loudly at the hometown quarterback. Finally, the minister discretely whispers to the man, "You ought to know that the boy's parents are sitting just four rows in front of you." The disgruntled fan replies, "I don't care if they hear me; the kid ought to be replaced."
"Very well," sighs the minister, "but remember, God is sitting closer to you than the quarterback's parents." There are no more outbursts.
The Word is preached in season and out of season in many ways.
