In this letter, Paul writes...
Illustration
In this letter, Paul writes with a white hot fire: "Now is the day of salvation!" he urges. Then he lists the dangers and suffering he and others have endured in order to proclaim the message of the gospel. William Sloane Coffin once lamented that preaching is too often "the bland leading the bland." Not always so! John Wesley once explained why such crowds gathered to hear him preach: "God has set me on fire and people come to watch me burn." Richard Caemmerer, a consultant on church architecture, was meeting with a building expansion committee at a Roman Catholic church when he noted that a fire extinguisher was kept in that church's pulpit. "I want to hear that guy's sermons!" he remarked concerning the priest. Paul's urgency and determination to preach the good news still reverberates within his letters. Is that same fiery determination evidenced in our church today? -- Bristow
