“A weak conscience is an over-scrupulous conscience. And although, even when mistaken, it is not to be violated, it does need to be educated” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 194).
So It All Works Out Then
“We need, then, to ask people questions and get them talking. We ought to know more about the Bible than they do, but they are likely to know more about the real world than we do” (Stott, p. 192).
Depending on the Library
“As Austin Phelps put it at the end of the last century, a thoroughly trained preacher is first a human being, at home among human beings, and then a scholar, at home in libraries” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 191).
What Jesus Keeps in His Tent
In Luke 11, Jesus has an encounter with some who were saying that He had cast out a devil through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Throughout the exchange that follows there are clear echos of the Goliath story. Those saying this about Jesus thought, in effect, that the slaying of Goliath must have been …
Of Course, Neither Are We Supposed to Be
“It is essential to give up the illusion that we come to the biblical text as innocent, objective, impartial, culture-free investigators, for we are nothing of the kind” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 185).
A Form of Insanity
INTRODUCTION:Goliath was a very great giant, but envy is a greater giant still. Just as giants devour, so envy devours. Envy grows on unnatural food, and when a person gives way to temptation and eats this food, the results are perverse. THE TEXT:“And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking …
Two Kinds of Study
“The preacher’s life must be a life of large accumulation . . . He must not be always seeking to make sermons, but always seeking truth, and out of the truth which he has won the sermons will make themselves . . . Here is the need for broad and generous culture. Learn to study …
Conviction is Not Delivered Shrink-wrapped
“Our task as preachers, then, is neither to avoid all areas of controversy, nor to supply slick answers to complex questions in order to save people the bother of thinking” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 173).
Silent Pulpits Not Really Silent
“What is certain is that the pulpit has political influence, even if nothing remotely connected with politics is ever uttered from it . . . The neutrality of the pulpit is impossible” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 168).
As a Political Prisoner
“As for our Lord Jesus Christ, his message had more far-reaching political implications than is commonly recognized. His contemporaries certainly thought so, for they had him arrested, tried and condemned on a charge of sedition” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 164).