I don't know a whole lot about classical music.....only what I like. Ralph (Rafe) Vaughan Williams is my favorite composer for daydreaming......Bach for studying....(Aah Bach)......Mozart for trying to impress visitors to our home.....Beethoven when I'm happy.....Wagner (Vahg-ner) when I'm angry....and Claude Debussy simply because I like to say his name....(claw...duh...byu...see....(say it fast)....claw...duh...byu....see...love that!) I still remember a Smothers Brothers skit where Tommy butchered....'Claude Debussy's Clair De Lune.' It took him three tries to get it right. It only takes me two.
I also don't have any personal friends who are classical music aficionados....or symphony musicians. Actually I don't have many friends at all....but I would imagine that these folks listen to Bach....(aah Bach)....and Beethoven....all the time played by various symphonies. I'm sure that artists in oils take every chance they get to view in person great paintings......I even do that. We tend to go to the great in whatever our interests are in.....which I why I have all eight seasons of Monk and all eight season of Everybody Loves Raymond. I probably should not admit that.
OK....enough of the facetiousness....in reality I listen to R. C. Sproul tapes almost every other day of my life. Right now I listen to two in the morning while on the treadmill. How could I not read the old books.....and listen to the old tapes of sermons....and read Pilgrim's Progress about every other year....or read Spurgeon's daily devotions all the time.....for these were all gifts to us from God....to know Him better....and how can we not read God's Word every day as if peering through a magnifying glass at a treasure map?
So.....having expressed this which I think would be natural for those who want to be the very best that they can.....and all the more so when it comes to serving God....how can it be that pastors do not take advantage of these things every day of their life? It saddens me when I hear....which I hear all too often.....that a pastor is always busy puttering around the church. Do they not realize their great responsibility? Why would not a reformed pastor listen to R. C. Sproul regularly.....the same messages time after time if need be.....(I've listened to Sproul's last sermon a half dozen times since he went to be with his Lord fifteen months ago)....or a Baptist pastor listen to John MacArthur to sharpen his discernment?
We have lost the ability to preach today. Don't believe me? Google Charles Haddon Spurgeon sermons and read a few....or listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or even David Wilkerson....or obviously R. C. Sproul....or Michael Horton. We are only going to be as strong of a church as what we hear from our pulpits. Pray for these pulpits folks.....and the men who step into them....plead to hear the glories that those who came before us heard.....and do this to the glory of God....that we might....in whatever abilities God has given us....expend every bit of energy on them.
I also don't have any personal friends who are classical music aficionados....or symphony musicians. Actually I don't have many friends at all....but I would imagine that these folks listen to Bach....(aah Bach)....and Beethoven....all the time played by various symphonies. I'm sure that artists in oils take every chance they get to view in person great paintings......I even do that. We tend to go to the great in whatever our interests are in.....which I why I have all eight seasons of Monk and all eight season of Everybody Loves Raymond. I probably should not admit that.
OK....enough of the facetiousness....in reality I listen to R. C. Sproul tapes almost every other day of my life. Right now I listen to two in the morning while on the treadmill. How could I not read the old books.....and listen to the old tapes of sermons....and read Pilgrim's Progress about every other year....or read Spurgeon's daily devotions all the time.....for these were all gifts to us from God....to know Him better....and how can we not read God's Word every day as if peering through a magnifying glass at a treasure map?
So.....having expressed this which I think would be natural for those who want to be the very best that they can.....and all the more so when it comes to serving God....how can it be that pastors do not take advantage of these things every day of their life? It saddens me when I hear....which I hear all too often.....that a pastor is always busy puttering around the church. Do they not realize their great responsibility? Why would not a reformed pastor listen to R. C. Sproul regularly.....the same messages time after time if need be.....(I've listened to Sproul's last sermon a half dozen times since he went to be with his Lord fifteen months ago)....or a Baptist pastor listen to John MacArthur to sharpen his discernment?
We have lost the ability to preach today. Don't believe me? Google Charles Haddon Spurgeon sermons and read a few....or listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or even David Wilkerson....or obviously R. C. Sproul....or Michael Horton. We are only going to be as strong of a church as what we hear from our pulpits. Pray for these pulpits folks.....and the men who step into them....plead to hear the glories that those who came before us heard.....and do this to the glory of God....that we might....in whatever abilities God has given us....expend every bit of energy on them.
