Article Library

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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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Set Apart for His Majestic Name

“Oh God, set us apart unto the majesty of Your name. Guard us from handling the Bible as if it were another of the books in our libraries. Keep us on tiptoe as we anticipate from one day to the next what You’re going to teach us and how we’re going to use it and what a significant role that will play in our lifetime of ministry. Guard us from the pride of learning, from the discouragement of testing. Guard us, Father, from a competitive spirit with other classmates. Hold us close to Yourself and remind us often we have said, ‘Here am I, send me.’”

Guard Against Cynicism

“There’s nothing attractive about cynicism. I meet up with it regularly among men and women in ministry. It’s a tragedy on parade. Perfunctory spirit, business as usual, another communion service, another wedding, another sermon, another illustration, and you forget the epical moment when you said, ‘Here am I, send me.’”

God Touched the Place of Isaiah’s Struggle

“I think there’s significance in where the coal was placed, the very place of his struggle. He just said, ‘I’m a man of unclean lips.’ That coal is placed right on his lips. That’s a great thought, isn’t it? The Lord touches us in the place of our greatest struggle. How good of Him to do that. There isn’t a rebuke. There isn’t shame. There isn’t a long sermon delivered how he needs to clean up his mouth. He knew all of that, but this burning coal from that same throne scene is now touching his lips.”

Declare His Message

“For whatever the reason, and I won’t take the time to enumerate them or to describe them, but you will feel finished. That’s it. You will entertain thoughts of quitting more than you ever dream right now. That’s the way the enemy works, you know. You will realize how unqualified you are, or I hope you will realize it. You’ll go through the transition of it being all about you, as it may have been through much of your life, to realizing it is not at all about you. No one cares that much about you. God wants His spokesmen and women to be voices that He can use, but it’s never about the voice. It’s about His presence, His message.”

“I Am Ruined!”

“He said, ‘Woe is me, I am ruined!’ (Isaiah 6:5). What an interesting response. Reminds me of the fifty-first Psalm where David writes of ‘a broken and contrite heart which God does not despise.’ Not self-humiliation, but true humility. A brokenness, a bruising, a realization of one’s own sinfulness. How helpful is that in our being equipped for ministry—never to forget that we are mere human beings.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your fingertips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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