“Ezekiel rails against the adulterous idolatry of the Israelites by using sexual imagery of the most graphic sort. He uses obscenity to reveal the real obscenity of doing such things in defiance of God’s law . . . Ezekiel was more concerned about the obscenity he was exposing than the obscenity he was using . …
Turning Over Flat Rocks
“We live at a time when the world does not hesitate to teach on sexual behavior. Broad evenagelical churches usually mimic the world’s teaching with a thin Christian gloss, and the more conservative churches hesitate to teach on this subject at all. The result is that such things are done among us, but in a …
True Balance
“When men finally pick up the mantle of full responsiblity in ministry, they will then discover what a tremendous help their women are — but not until then” (Why Ministers Must Be Men, p. 60).
What Is Our Crown? Is It Not You?
“When the Lord dispenses rewards, or crowns, we will see that it will not be a mercenary affair at all. No one in heaven will be rewarded with a chest full of doubloons” (Why Ministers Must Be Men, p. 57).
Maybe Just Talking . . .
“Again, note the need for high levels of courage. If we are preaching in such a way that courage is not necessary, then what are we doing” (Why Ministers Must Be Men, p. 56).
Knocked Down and Picked Up by the Same Thing
“This means that a minister must not be the kind of person who apologizes for breathing. Every man called to the ministry shares Paul’s sentiment on the one hand — who is sufficient for these things (2 Cor. 2:16)? On the other hand, he must be the kind of man who tells these sentiments of …
Not Macho, Masculine
“Masculine leadership is not the same thing as machismo. The apostle Paul, one who demanded that ministers be masculine men, and who labored to provide a model for such men in their ministry, compared his manner of ministry to a woman breastfeeding [1 Thess. 2:7-8]. Gentleness in appropriate ways and places is not effeminate” (Why …
No Vain Pomp
“Paul avoided vain pomp, and so must we. And if a man wants to go into the ministry because he thinks the robes are fabulous, then we have a related problem” (Why Ministers Must be Men, p. 52).
Preaching Under An Open Heaven
“Consequently, the preacher of the word must not answer to his audience. He answers to the one who commissioned him, that is, Christ. The evaluation of whether a message is right is not to be found primarily in the mortal audience, but rather in the eternal audience. This means that we need men who know …
And It Doesn’t Matter What Kind of Knife You Use
“A brave minister is the kind of man who would be willing to charge Hell with a bucket of water. But all too often, to modify a comment once made by Teddy Roosevelt, when it comes to contemporary ministers, we find ourselves thinking that we could carve more courageous ministers out of a banana” (Why …