Article Library

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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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Be a Lifelong Student of God’s Word

“You know what? Every mentor I’ve ever had has been a great, lifelong student of God’s Word. Every one of them. And when I was with them, they were still learning from, studying, memorizing, teaching, preaching from this book. What great models they were. All of them very human, all of them imperfect, but all of them men of God that had marked my life, and Moses had been that to Joshua.”

God Calls the Shots

“You never get so powerful or important that you don’t need to be obedient. And obedience requires humility. It requires listening. It requires changing. It requires adapting. Obedience means you don’t get your way. When the Lord directs your steps, you don’t go where you’re going to be comfortable. He’s the one calling the shots. He’s the one leading you.”

Base Your Life on the Word

“You want to be known as an expositor. You want to build a reputation that’s based on this book. You want to be known as a student of the Word of God. You want to be a reliable source of hope and help for people who are struggling, trying to make it through life, and they don’t know what you know. And they come to you not needing your opinions, they need to know, ‘what does this say to me? If this is God’s eternal Word, how can I link up with it?’ Let me tell you something, you won’t know what to tell them if you don’t dig in right now and from here on.”

Confess Your Wrongs

“You are never so significant that you are not in need of confessing to someone you’ve hurt that you were wrong in hurting them. Live in such a way that when you wake up in the morning, you don’t drag any anchors.”

The Importance of Preparation

“C. S. Lewis said, ‘If you give me 10 minutes to chop down a tree, I’ll spend my first two minutes sharpening my ax.’ You’re sharpening your ax. Donald Grey Barnhouse, whose name was a household name in Christian circles back in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, as I was growing up. Donald Barnhouse said, ‘If I had only three years to serve my Lord, I’d spend two of them studying.’ Billy Graham was interviewed not long ago at one of his birthdays. Isn’t it great how long he’s living? Isn’t it terrific? This prophet with honor. He was interviewed and asked, ‘If you had anything you could do differently in your life, what would it be?’ He didn’t take but a couple of seconds before he answered. And I quote, ‘I would have studied more and preached less, at least three times more than I had done.’ That’s Billy Graham. I would have prepared better. I would have spent longer getting really solid in my roots, theologically, academically, prepared better. There’s a Chinese proverb that says, ‘Dig the well before you are thirsty.’”

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 finger tips. 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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