Found on the Kingdom People blog:
"What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading.
I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety, there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian.
O begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not: what is tedious at first, will afterwards be pleasant.
Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a petty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you in particular."
- John Wesley to John Premboth on August 17, 1760, quoted in Ben Witherington’s
Embedded Link
Google+: View post on Google+
Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.
No related posts.
hi eric i'm here in dumaguete! it's great to be back =D
The issue is what is to be read… just reading blogs & FB/G+ posts ain't gonna cut it. I do think there's a need for both daily Bible reading, devos & useful outside reading materials. I remember a guy who would only read the Bible & no other books. He became more & more one-dimensional & pharisaic in his ways, eventually becoming cultish.
By outside materials I don't mean romance novels, but by the same token I think there's needs to be some sense of what's going on beyond the Christian bubble of books.
YouTube clips and blogposts won't cut it, for sure. I think Wesley probably had being well rounded as one of the goals of his encouragement. He may have been talking about only bible reading though – as I think the AVERAGE guy is gonna lean more toward too much other stuff, rather than being like the guy you refer to.