Category: Quote of the Day

I dreamed that I walked down the street of a town-it could have been any town-and came to a church-it could have been almost any church. The congregation was singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” and if there had been one more verse they might have sung themselves to sleep. The text was, “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). I said to myself, “If they really believe this, it will be interesting to see what happens after the benediction.” After the sermon they sang “Rescue the Perishing” and I could hardly wait to see them start rescuing the perishing. But nothing happened. Someone made a remark about the weather and when I asked “But when do you start rescuing the perishing?” He looked at me in alarm and hurried away. As I walked down the street there walked beside me One whom I did not recognize at first. I asked Him, “Do they always act like this at church?” Then I knew who He was when He said, sadly, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8).

The television performer watches his ratings, the politician his votes, the public speaker his applause, but the prophet who speaks for God is not governed by such responses. He delivers his message though it may fall on deaf ears and gain him only scorn and maybe a prison cell. Amos did not rate with the big-wigs of Bethel, nor did John the Baptist win applause in the courts of Herod. The forerunner had crowds but he stepped aside and left the center of the stage to One greater than himself. We live in a day when men will not endure sound doctrine but look instead for pleasant ticklers of itching ears. Is there not somewhere a coming prophet who will forget comfort and security and status and retirement benefits for the loneliness of a Jeremiah, the perils of a Savonarola, the conflicts of a Luther, to speak for God in these last days? Barclay says that the settled ministry has always resented wandering prophets who disturb their congregations. So the wilderness voice is not welcome either at home or abroad. But his reward is in the approval of God and the verdict of history.