Thursday, August 25, 2016

Revival in the Ministry

Hey... one of you posted a comment on a blog from a few weeks back, and I did not "approve" it because I have not been here in a while.  Sorry!  Thanks for the comment, and I will try to address it in a while, if I can!

What I want to do today is give you another nugget from "Words to Winners of Souls," Robert Coleman's compilation of some words from Horatius Bonar.

"It is easier to speak and write about revival than to set about it.  There is so much rubbish to be swept out; so many self-raised hindrances to be dealt with; so many old habits to be overcome; so much sloth and easy-mindedness to be contended with; so much ministerial routine to be broken through; and so much crucifixion, both of self and the world, to be undergone....

"So thought a minister of the 17th century; for after lamenting the evils both of his life and ministry, he thus resolves to set about their renewal:

1. In imitation of Christ and His apostles, and to get good done, I purpose to rise timely every morning

2. To prepare as soon as I am up some work to be done, and how that I do it, and to engage my heart in it, and in the evening to call myself to account, and to mourn over my failings

3. To spend a competent portion of every day in prayer, reading, meditating, spiritual exercises, morning, midday, and evening and before I go to bed.

4, Once a month either in the middle or the end of it, I keep a day of humiliation for the public condition, for the Lord's people and their sad condition, for the raising up of the work and the people of God

5. I spend, besides this, one day for my private condition in conflicting with spiritual evils, and to get my heart more holy, or to get some special exercise accomplished, once in six months

6. I spend every week, once, four hours, over and above my daily portion, in private prayer for some special causes relating to myself or others

7. To spend some time on Saturday, towards night, for preparation for the Sabath

8. To spend six or seven days together, once a year, when I have greatest convenience, wholly and only on spiritual accounts

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