My wife and I have been book people over our entire marriage. She was a librarian....and we owned a Christian bookstore for a few years.....We met while working together at Pitt's library...and I have distributed well over a thousand Christian books and Bibles over the years. These four men alone.....R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and Michael Horton and John Piper have written many books that I have often posted on and purchased just to give to friends....and of course there is John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress....that wonderful book that Charles Spurgeon said that he had read a hundred times. A hundred times! Can you imagine that?
As wonderful as books can be....and so very helpful....and powerful....Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict had an enormous effect on my conversion....as beneficial as they are....there is absolutely....positively....no comparison whatsoever to the written Word of God. If we....even evangelicals....fully understood that which we readily attest to....that this is God's very words to us....it would be read and reread every day of our lives. I should have marked the date down back then when I resolved....to use Jonathan Edward's favorite word.....resolved to read God's Word every single day of my life....Lord willing....and so far He has....for it has been I believe about three and a half years now. Nothing as of yet....not eyes that I can barely keep open....or emergencies of various sorts....have kept me from going to God's Word every day.
Having said that....here is the difficult analogy that I'll attempt.....and it has been the topic of quite a few posts as of late....as it concerns preaching. There is preaching where God's Holy Spirit is bringing down the glory of God to the congregation....a means of grace as we know it to be....and there is preaching that may be useful....and even at times wonderful....as those great books by those men that I mentioned....but as beneficial as they might be at times...."there is absolutely....positively....no comparison whatsoever to"....the preaching of the man in the pulpit....when God's Spirit is upon him.
I want to keep this short....so....read all the wonderful Christian books....much of my life is based on encouraging this....and go to your regular church....be loving and attentive to what that man is trying to do....but you will drift off and possibly flounder....and lack discernment on many things....and not realize the nearness of the return of our King....and not be able to warn others of the need to be born again....if you are not fed the glory of God....humiliation and mortification....resulting in true joy and David's passion of praise.
There is only one way to find out if I know what I am talking about. You would have to....resolve....to use that wonderful word again....to resolve to find these men....either those with us today....or those who God has blessed His church with in times past even up to today....and incorporate these sermons into your life. It may be that I am as fanatical on this as I am because I have also resolved to listen to God's Word preached every day of my life. You need properly fed! America is today....in large part....because our pulpits have fallen asleep....with these exceptions like Sproul and MacArthur and Horton and Piper....and many other men who preach as they do....few and far between as they are. So yes....as Augustine did....'pick up and read'.....God's Word....and....resolve to listen....to men who did....pick up and read!
Note: Have you watched C. H. Spurgeon, The People's Preacher yet? I've recommended it so many times. I believe that ROKU has it....and you can boot it up on your computer in less than a minute!
