…… is to preach with full conviction.

Preach the gospel with full conviction because it is the power of God for people to be saved. Don’t flint in your preachings. Give it all out because you know God’s message of love and grace is something people need. Jesus is the only answer. Not self help. Not how to’s but who is Jesus and what can He do for the people listening to you preach. Remember, you don’t have to make anything happen; you just have to make sure it’s happened to you!!!

From Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching:

We must not equate passion with style. But we must have hearts aflame with passion. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously defined preaching as, “Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! . . . Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire.”

The story is told that when W.E. Sangster was interviewing a candidate for the ministry, the nervous young man explained that he was quite shy and not the sort of person ever to set the River Thames on fire. “My dear young brother,” responded Sangster, “I’m not interested to know if you could set the Thames on fire. What I want to know is this: if I picked you up by the scruff of your neck and dropped you into the Thames, would it sizzle?”

Never mind his eloquence; was he himself on fire? (p.67)

And from John Updike’s Rabbit, Run:

When on Sunday morning, then, when you go out before their faces, we must walk up not worn out with misery but full of Christ, hot with Christ, on fire: burn them with the force of our belief.