Pastor's Blog

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Take not away Thy Bible

The other day I came across the following remarkable account of John Rogers’ preaching. What a powerful reminder of the importance of reading, treasuring, and obeying the Bible we say we believe in.

‘A great Puritan evangelist, John Rogers, warned his congregation against neglecting Scripture by telling them what God might say: “I have trusted you so long with my Bible … it lies in [some] houses all covered with dust and cobwebs, you care not to listen to it. Do you use my Bible so? Well, you shall have my Bible no longer.”

Rogers then picked up his Bible and started walking away from the pulpit. Then he stopped, fell on his knees, and took on the voice of the people, who pleaded, “Lord, whatever Thou dost to us, take not Thy Bible from us; kill our children, burn our houses, destroy our goods; only spare us Thy Bible, take not away Thy Bible.”

“Say you so?” the minister replied, impersonating God. “Well, I will try you a while longer; and here is my Bible for you. I will see how you use it, whether you will search it more, love it more, observe it more, and live more according to it.”

Thomas Goodwin [one of the great Puritan writers] was so moved by Rogers’s dramatic presentation that when he left church he wept upon his horse’s neck for fifteen minutes before he felt strong enough to mount it.’

PCF, may we say to God (and mean it): take not away Thy Bible!

Posted by Stephen Witmer on May 16, 04:28 PM

2 Comments

Today’s sermon (5-23) on the WHOLE armor ALL the time resonated with me and reminded me of something I read. In Jerry Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness he confesses that his objective regarding holiness was “not to sin very much.” He realized that God was calling him to a deeper level of holiness than he had previously been willing to make. “Can you imagine a soldier going into battle with the aim of ‘not getting hit very much’? The very suggestion is ridiculous. His aim is not to get hit at all! Yet if we have not made a commitment to holiness without exception, we are like a soldier going into battle with the aim of not getting hit very much. We can be sure that if that is our aim, we will be hit — not with bullets, but with temptation over and over again.” (p.81)

Posted by Wendy Cummings May 23, 02:24 PM

When Pastor Stephen preached about how a Christian must put on every single piece of spiritual armor,I connected to a prophetic vision I read about in Rick Joyner’s The Final Quest. In part 1, “The Hordes of Hell are Marching,” Joyner describes a battle he saw. “As I looked more closely at the army of the Lord the situation seemed even more discouraging. Only a small number were fully dressed in their armor. Many only had one or two pieces of their armor on; some did not have any at all. A large number were already wounded. Most of those who had all of their armor still had very small shields which I knew would not protect them from the onslaught that was coming…Very few of those who were fully armed were adequately trained to use their arms.” (pp. 22-23) What good is having a sword if it remains in the sheath? What benefit is there to having a Bible if we don’t read and meditate on it? The Lord has given us armor because we need it for what is going to happen. May we increase our shields of faith and “ENDURE hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2Tim2:3). Don’t we want to please our commanding officer?

Posted by Wendy Cummings May 23, 06:15 PM

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