Tuesday: This Is Not Preaching; It Is Revelation
WEEK 34
TUESDAY
THIS IS NOT PREACHING; IT IS REVELATION
Luke 4:17-19
We are looking at the mastery of the complicated and a reduction of life to the simple. The account says that the Pharisees tempted Jesus to speak “about many things” (Luke 11:53). Many ministers are tempted to speak “about many things”—of everything except the one thing they are sent to speak of—Jesus! Or as someone has said, “We speak about Jesus instead of being his spokesman.”
As “Mary” was listening to a devoted preacher of Jesus, she heard Jesus say to her: “Listen, ears, this is not preaching—it is revelation.” The face of Jesus was being unveiled—people saw him—it was revelation!
In contrast to this, note the caption of a Whitney Darrow cartoon that showed two ministers conversing in a comfortable, luxurious library. Said the older man to the younger, “Drawing upon my not inconsiderable experience, Andrews, my advice to a young man ambitious of preferment in our calling is to steer clear of two subjects—politics and religion.”* Many preachers follow that advice!
A senator voted for a bill that went against his convictions, and when a friend took him to task, he said, “But you don’t know how many pressures are brought upon us.” The friend replied, “Pressures, man, where were your inside braces?” The early Christians had inside braces—the Spirit within! The Spirit within made the pressures from without seem trivial. This was the pressure of the Almighty on them, from within!
Someone experimented with the strength of a growing squash. It was harnessed with pulleys and it lifted over a thousand pounds in growing! Its fiber became as tough as wood. These Christians were growing through the indwelling Spirit, and they lifted the world in their growth. They overturned systems and religions. The inner dynamic toughened them in their tasks. They were no longer tender-minded; they were tough-minded. There can be no growth without singleness of purpose!
O Christ of the single heart and the single eye, make me single-purposed, driving toward a single goal—the kingdom. Then I shall have drive. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The braces within me shall be greater than the pressures upon me.
* We are unable to verify the quotation directly, but the cartoon appeared in the May 28, 1949 issue of The New Yorker.