HERE ARE SOME quotes from men of God that have served the church. They distill down the basic secret of Christian ministry. They begin with a first century apostle, move to a 17th century Puritan, and to present day leaders. Enjoy!
2 Corinthians 4:11-12. “For we who live are always being give over to death for Jesus’ sake; so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us but life in you.”
John Flavel (17th Century Puritan): “I may say to him that snatched at the ministry, as Henry IV did to his son, that hastily snatched at the crown, He little knows what a heap of cares and toils he snatcheth at. The labors of ministry will exhaust the very marrow from your bones, hasten old age and death.’ They are fitly compared to the toil of men in harvest, to the labours of a woman in travail, and to the agonies of soldier in the extremity of battle. We must watch when others sleep.”[1]
Dave Harvey: “No man achieves ministry by pursuing his ambition. He achieves it by pursuing God’s glory…The ultimate test of a called man is whether he desires the advancement of the gospel more than the advancement of his own ministry. This is the constant daily test for the called man.”[2]
