More from Whitefield

As I've said elsewhere I'm currently using 'loo-time' to enjoy some George Whitefield. Just the other day I came across this nugget (bits put in bold by me for emphasis). George Whitefield is talking about the promise of a bodily resurrection for Christians;

"Fear not, therefore, O believers, to look into the grave: for to you it is no other than a consecrated dormitory, where your bodies shall sleep quietly until the morning of the resurrection; when the voice of the archangel shall sound, and the trump of God given the general alarm, 'Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment'; earth, air, fire, water shall give up your scattered atoms, and both in body and soul shall you be ever with the Lord."

How exciting is that? In Christ death becomes little more than sleep. And what a great picture of God re-forming and re-generating our bodies even though they might be decomposed and scattered across the globe.

He goes on to describe what great news it is for us as we live our lives now in creaky, fallen bodies prone to illness and decay, that one day we'll have renewed bodies like Christ's.

And while we're on the subject, given that we're going to be getting resurrection bodies, is it ok to put in a request now to be re-made with a six-pack rather than a beer belly?

More Gleanings from the WC

More about George Whitefield's preaching (I should mention he was massively used by God in a trans-atlantic revival - literally thousands came to Christ through him);

He was not content, as many, with sticking on a meagre tail-piece of application at the end of a long discourse. On the contrary, a constant vein of application ran through all this sermons.

And more;

It was no uncommon thing with him to weep profusely in the pulpit...He felt intensely for the souls before him, and his feelings found an outlet in tears...(this) smoothed down the prejudices which many had conceived against him. They could not hate the man who wept so much over their souls. 'I came to hear you' said one man to him; 'with my pocket full of stones, intending to break your head; but your sermon ot the better of me, and broke my heart.' Once become satisfied that a man loves you, and you will listen gladly to anything he has to say.

I'm going to make sure my sermons are riddled with thought out prayerful application.

I'm going to pray for the Whitefield kind of love for people.

(The quotes are from a J. C. Ryle essay about Whitfield in a book called 'Select Sermons of George Whitefield', in case you're interested)

Toilet

Reading in the toilet is a great thing and I commend it to everyone. The lavatory is an ideal place for reading those magazine articles (for me this means UNCUT and The Briefing) and anything else that you want to read that's not very mentally-taxing but that you wouldn't otherwise get the time for.

Recently I've been discovering the benefits of reading about George Whitefield (1700s preacher to thousands who often found himself on the wrong side of the Church of England, people from Christ Church Central take note!). Here's something written about Mr Whitefield's preaching that struck a chord with me;

He never used that indefinite expression 'we', which seems so peculiar to English pulpit oratory, and which only leaves a hearer's mind in a state of misty confusion. He met men face to face, like one who had a message from God to them...The result was that many of his hearers used often to think that his sermons were specially meant for themselves.

I can't help but read things like that and think that

a. all our talk of 'explaining the bible' to people misses this dynamic, prophetic, direct and urgent aspect of preaching God's word out all together. Preaching is not less than 'explaining the bible' but it is surely much more.

b. our attempts to be winsome and accessible (a very good thing) sometimes mean we are light, vague, sometimes frivolous even.