"The Tongue of Fire"

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (eddie) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:57:02 PST

yes only and i say only THE BLOOD OF JESUS can forgive sin

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (Karen) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:12:23 PST

m thomas d wrote: "Only the BLOOD, and the power of a ressurected Jesus and cause dead to live". Amen!!!

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (m thomas d) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:16:18 PST

you can go down the list of great preachers that are known by their results, and find one thing in common. It isn't good catch phrases, it isn't slogans and stories, it isn't evengreat oratory.

It is simply this. CHRIST and HIM crucified for sinful mankind. The rest is extra. The best programs with all the big names and fluff won't save a mouse from a fat sleep cat without the preaching of the BLOOD.

Many try to teach the things of growth to a unsaved audience, with very predictable results. you can't teach a dead man to walk in newness of life.

Only the BLOOD, and the power of a ressurected Jesus and cause dead to live.

Then you can teach of baptisms, laying on of hands, and the rest.

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (eddie) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:39:32 PST

that is not preaching in my opinion preachig is telling GODS WORD and letting people know about JESUS

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:18:28 PST

Francis L. Paddon speaks of the modern minister in the pulpit as minimizing the gospel by taking a few tablets of doctrine and dissolving them in a gallon or two of rose water, or sentimentality. Then he puts a little in an atomizer and sprays the congregation to an accompaniment of the sweetness of Christianity and the fragrance of a benevolent life.

But the New Testament tell only one story -- that a man is a sinner, and he has been redeemed. That the only way to salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to the gospel and all that it entails. Don't talk, I beg you, about value judgments. We cannot use big words and phrases that people don't understand or that change and will become completely outmoded in a few months or years. No man is do dated as the man who tries to use the latest scientific jargon. No man can believe with...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (bold22) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:38:26 PST

preaching can be very firey indeed

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:26:31 PST

Real preaching in these days is preaching Christ, preaching Christ in the Word and from the Word. It is preaching the everlasting gospel in all its fullness. It is preaching the message for this day and generation. It is preaching a complete message. It will bring no tame sermons, but fervent messages. They will not be too long. They will be practical. They will apply to the people. They will be clear and easily understood.

The success of this cause does not depend upon our having a large number of ministers, but it is of the highest importance that those who do labor in connection with the cause of God be men who really feel the burden and sacredness of the work to which He has called them. A few self-sacrificing, godly men, small in their own estimation, can do a greater amount of good than a much larger number, if a part of these are unqualified for...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (Karen) — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:49:16 PST

No I haven't, good point EJM!

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:53:46 PST

Too many of us ministers do not preach simply enough. Our English is too bookish, our style to involved. We want to be a Demosthenes or a Cicero. We are not content to be shepherds. We feel that we need to be applauded or admired by the scholarly. We do not wish to be scoffed at by stiff-necked, unreasonable sinners.

However, here is something to think of. I do not believe any minister has ever had anyone come to him and say: "Your subject was too clear, too simple, too easy to understand. Please make it more difficult, more involved, for me." Did you ever have anyone say that to you?

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (Karen) — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:57:58 PST

Great share EJM! It makes me think of the great difference between some of the churches, or Christian programs I've heard where some will feed you spiritual food to grow on whereas others never can you any meat. The difference is the one of meat gives the congregation food/substance to grow and mature with that is exciting, whereas the other continues to give milk from the baby bottles or non food substance which stagnates and is so very boring. My advice is go where you are fed and grow into useful mature Christians so that when trials come your way you'll have to tools learned on what to do so we will be able to stand on the rock of Jesus and not get blown away. Thanks for this message because it confirms to me how important is it that you attend a church that produces growth in Jesus for our everyday lives.

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:04:05 PST

Sometime ago a group of ministers were gathered in a farming community to discuss what could be done to get more people to attend church services. They spent days and days discussing advertising, entertainment, propaganda, and all sorts of means to attract the people.

A farmer driving by saw all the automobiles parked around the church and wondered what was going on. He stopped, went inside, and listened to those preachers. After hearing many long discussions, the farmer in disgust called one of the ministers aside and gave him this bit of logical advice: "My brother," he said, "when we farmers get together we don't spend hours thrashing around about how we can get the cows into the barn. We discuss what's the best kind of food to give them and, brother, the cows will come running for it." And more reasonable creatures that...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:08:26 PST

. . . . God's message will be preached, and preached with a tongue of fire, until the very end. Every pin and pillar of the faith that was established by the Word of God and by the revelation of His Spirit will be sustained and proclaimed by somebody.

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:48:23 PST

The biblical preacher will possess an advantage that anyone can comprehend. First, he can speak with authority because he knows, as he speaks, that he is delivering a message from God. Second, he knows that he is right, and can be bold as a lion. Third, he cannot mislead sinners, for he tells them just what the Master has said. Fourth, he builds up Christians who enjoy his ministry, and they become an intelligent, robust people who will not listen to the voice of false teachers, though they charm ever so cleverly.

The fifth reason that the Bible preacher has the advantage is that he is free from the worry that almost invariably attends preaching fine sermons, because he has faithfully and prayerfully spoken what God has told him to say and leaves the results with God. Sixth, if his hearers do not like his teachings, he can inform them quietly that their...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:09:04 PST

The apostolic preachers of the first days of the church and others down through the ages were men who turned the world upside down. They were Bible preachers. Look at the texts quoted in the apostle Peter's sermon in the second chapter of Acts; and in the apostle Paul's sermon in the thirteenth of Acts. They are really what we would call glorified Bible readings, aren't they? That's really what they are.

Those old-time preachers of power often began at Creation, or at least with the call of Abraham, and came down step by step to their own time. And then they looked forward into the future.

When Paul was in Thessalonica he went into the synagogue "and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures" (Acts 17:2). Notice those...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:52:11 PST

The preacher is never a mere lecturer or scholar, and certainly not a ranter; but he has something on his soul to deliver, and some personal message from the heart of God to the hearts of men. Henry Ward Beecher said: "A man should be a fanatic after men, and care nothing for his sermon, however good, unless it catches them. . . . "

Horace Greeley, the noted editor, once received a letter from a woman saying that her church was in a distressing financial state. The members had tried every device they could think of -- fairs, strawberry festival, oyster suppers, donkey parties, turkey banquets, Japanese weddings, poverty sociables, mock marriages, grab bags, box sociables, and necktie sociable. Would Mr. Greeley be so kind as to suggest some new device that would keep the struggling church from disbanding? He replied, "Why not try...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:42:58 PST

You will not know everything about the Bible when you begin to preach or when you end your preaching days. A long lifetime of prayer and research will leave much unexplored and unexplained. But what we know not now will be revealed hereafter.

There are many things about the Scriptures that we shall understand in the world to come much better than we do now. One text that is good for young preachers, as well as old ones, is Deuteronomy 29:29: "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us." Let us leave those secret things with God. It is all right for us to consider them and think about them, but they should not hinder us in our work. We should not hesitate or quit our preaching of the gospel until we can fully understand some difficult text or subject that may have challenged the thoughts of...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:11:43 PST

No man can be an effective minister of the gospel, no man can have a tongue of fire, unless the Word of God is in his heart, unless he understands it, unless he can read the Word distinctly, correctly, and clearly to the people. . . . He must have an intelligent knowledge of truth for this time and be able to explain it intelligently. Above all things, the preacher, must, by prompt, energetic, earnest action, for himself as well as for others, be sure that he preaches with the power of the Holy Spirit. Think of people trembling in the balance in your audience, some never to hear another sermon, and their eternal destiny depending on how you give the message as well as on the message itself -- whether or not there is power with it.

What do I say? How will my words affect the people? Have I preached a godless discourse like Cain's offering, lacking a...

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Sun, 10 May 2009 05:50:35 PST

If we are the ambassadors of Christ, if we are His representatives, then the voice of the Savior should be heard in us. If the people are ignorant in regard to the plan of salvation, they need to be told in simple words how to be saved. They need more instruction on this than on any other point of divine truth.

We need to preach repentance and faith and the love of God We are to preach practical truths, and we should never preach a sermon without presenting Christ, and Him crucified, as the foundation of the gospel and the only hope of the world. We cannot preach these practical truths unless we know them and believe them in our own hearts. We must preach in such a way that our hearers will see and feel that they are sinners and need to be converted. "What Christ said, what He did, and what He taught" is what we should preach.

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Sat, 09 May 2009 11:36:46 PST

To preach with the tongue of fire, our life must be holy. It is a fearful thing to minister in sacred things when the heart and hands are not holy. To be a coworker with Christ involves fearful responsibilities. The day is coming that will test every man's work.

The apostle Paul said: "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. . . . For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:5,6). It is a great text.

Our sufficiency is not in ourselves but in the gracious influence of the Spirit of Christ. We are living epistles, known and read of all men (2 Cor. 3:2).

Re: "The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:16:35 PST

We have our orders from Christ. We must preach the preaching that He bids us. Remember, as preachers we are holding a light, and we must let it shine in the darkness. We are blowing a trumpet. In the din of battle "the trumpet" must not "give an uncertain sound." We are kindling a fire in this cold world. We must keep the blaze burning. We are striking with the hammer, and we must continue to strike until the stone breaks. We are wielding a sword. We must not stop with one or two thrusts that may be parried. We are to keep on wielding the sword of truth until it cuts to the "dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow," and proves itself "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).

A man may move his hearers with eloquence, but he will never move them with a tongue of...

"The Tongue of Fire"

feeds@kickapps.com (EJM Missouri) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:09:15 PST

The following excerpts come from
H M S Richard's 1957 sermon titled "The Tongue of Fire"

The Tongue of Fire

"And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as of fire
and it sat upon each of them." (Acts 2:3).

A great many people did not like the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. Lots of people today wouldn't like it. His sermon would be considered dry by many who do not like preachers to make them go to the trouble of thinking. . . . Lots of people...