Bread Crumbs

a book recommendation, and some preachers to dig into

Here is a book recommendation for the New Year, a daily devotional book for next year: This Day With The Master, by Dennis Kinlaw.  You can get it from The Francis Asbury Society, [click here]

Good preachers to listen to: John Piper, Alistair Begg, Greg Laurie.  I know, I know, Piper and Begg are Reformed, but have you heard Piper preach on holiness?  It will cut you.  And there is not much difference between him and Methodists on that issue.  Begg is, in my mind, the best preacher in the U.S.  Greg Laurie is a great evangelist and pastoral preacher, good for weary souls.

To go back to some classics: Martyn Lloyd-Jones and W.E. Sangster.  They were the two great 20^th century preachers in England.  They overlapped in interesting ways.  Both started their ministries in London in the days—literally days—before World War 2 erupted; Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and Sangster at Methodist Central Hall, also in Westminster.  Sangster’s church basement was a bomb shelter, and he and his family lived there among the frightened people, Sangster working on his doctorate. You may think you are a hardtail, but are you a finishing-a-Ph.D.-dissertation-during-The-Blitz hardtail? Didn’t think so.  Lloyd-Jones is more well-known, and many of his sermons are available in audio format.  Sangster you have to look a little harder for.  Some of this is because Reformed people take preaching more seriously than Methodists—probably why we are stuck with Begg and Piper as our greatest preachers; there are great Methodist preachers, but we don’t really care, so…

There are some Leonard Ravenhill sermons on youtube and there is an app, “Leonard Ravenhill Sermons,” conveniently enough.  But fair warning, Ravenhill is not for wimps.  I was listening to one and had to go to bed halfway through because my brain hurt and my soul was in mourning.  I woke up a couple hours later with a strong feeling I needed to go to the church to pray, was not sure why until I was: I was called to weep and pray for all of us who want anything at any time other than Jesus.

If I get industrious, I will put some links together, a book list… but for those of you who are hungry, these bread crumbs will lead you to the table.