The Cave

May all of you have a wonderful and happy 2009!

This was passed along to me on an email group.  It has some incredible insight.  The church today needs to hear these things.

I found this at Denny Burk’s blog and thought all the fellow children of the 80’s would appreciate it. Enjoy!

Yesterday I received an anonymous ecard that had a good quote on it:

“Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today, and Hope for Tomorrow.”

Sounds like a good perspective for the Cave.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Powerful words and video here from John Piper that desperately need to be heard today by the church.

It had been awhile since I had went away for the sole purpose of just recharging my own batteries, so the last two days I spent in Kansas City attending a Preaching Conference.  The conference was put on by the Missouri Baptist Convention and was led by Dr. Greg Heisler, Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of the new book Spirit-Led Preaching and Rev. Kenny Qualls Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Arnold, Missouri.

One of the passages that the conference focused on was Colossians 1:24-29: 24Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

There is no hope in accomplishing anything in the work of preaching or ministry without uniting the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit.  Too often we try to serve the Lord in our own power and with our own words and it continually results in frustration and discouragement.  It is only when we seek to serve with the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit that we will see the Lord at work in the way that He truly intends.

Our generation is rapidly losing its grip upon the supernatural; and as a consequence the pulpit is rapidly dropping to the level of the platform.  And this decline is due, more than anything else, to ignoring the Holy Spirit as the supreme inspirer of preaching. We would rather see a great orator in the pulpit, forgetting that the least expounder of the Word, when filled with the Holy Spirit, is greater than he  — A.J. Gordon