We are all familiar with the parable of Jesus found in Matthew 13 – the Parable of the Sower, the Seed and the Soil. As you study the parable, it is obvious that the Sower is Jesus, the seed is the Word of God, and the soil is the heart of man.

I want to capture verses three and four and then comment on them as it relates to preachers and preaching. “And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, ‘Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds feel beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.’” Continue reading →

“Praying will do more to make the Church what it ought to be than anything else we can do. Prayer will do more to root out heresy than all the heresy trials ever held. Prayer will do more to straighten out tangles and misunderstandings and unhappy complications in the life of a church than all the counsels and conferences held. Prayer will do more to bring a deep and lasting and sweeping revival, a revival that is real and lasting and altogether of the right sort, than all the organizations ever devised by man.” – R. A. Torrey

We are in a battle. The enemy hates the gospel, the church, revival, and families. He hates your children. He hates a God-fearing nation. He loves disorder, chaos, confusion, guilt, fear, and anger. Continue reading →

The danger of talking about prayer is it has been defined in terms that are often not biblical. Prayer is not a magic wand that you wave to get what you want. Prayer is not rubbing a magic lamp and God popping out as a heavenly genie to grant you three wishes. Prayer has been trivialized, distorted, and redefined in ways that are not biblical. Continue reading →

St. Augustine said, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.” How does God reach the lost and restore lives? He uses people. Praying people are motivated to love, share the gospel, forgive an offense, and reconcile. The reason we have so many churches that fight, fuss, and split is because they are run by carnal, prayerless people. You can measure the health of a church by her Prayer Ministry. If that’s the case, it means the health of a church is determined by the individual health of her members. So, how healthy are you spiritually? The church can never rise above the level of praying done by or the spiritual health of the membership. Continue reading →

One of the great blessings of my life has been to know some great men of God, including Vance Havner, Ron Dunn, Lehman Strauss, and others. They were not only mentors and heroes…they were friends. They loved me unconditionally, and I am forever indebted to them. One of the last of that generation died this past week. He was one of a kind.

On April 22, Don Miller, a great prayer warrior, went to be with the Lord. He was 93 years young. More than anyone else, Don helped me to understand the importance of Intercessory Prayer Ministry in the local church. Continue reading →