Ray Stedman on Maintaining Humility and Integrity in Preaching

Early in his preaching ministry Ray Stedman sensed God giving him three principles to help him maintain humility and integrity in preaching:

First, never be concerned with how many people you’re preaching to, whether it’s two or three, or two or three hundred, preach the message God gives you. Second, never be concerned with how much they’re going to give you when you get through. Third, never be concerned with how well you think you’ve done.

“I can’t say I’ve always followed those,” Ray admitted, “but when I’ve departed from them I’ve felt the Spirit of God depart from me as well. When I’ve been faithful to them, I’ve left it up to God and He’s done His usual wonders with some very feeble work on my part.”

- from Portrait of Integrity: the Life of Ray C. Stedman by Mark S. Mitchell (page 99)

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R.I.P. Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar died today. I met him back in 1989 at the First Baptist Church of Dallas. I was in Dallas that weekend for a conference for young people who were going into full-time vocational ministry, hosted by Dallas Baptist University. We went to the early service to hear W. A. Criswell preach. We arrived rather early and I was standing in one of the aisles admiring the beauty of the old sanctuary when suddenly I heard an enthusiastic and loud raspy voice say, “Hi, I”m Zig Ziglar!” With a big smile, his hand was extended toward me. I warmly greeted him, introduced myself and we spoke briefly. He graciously autographed my Bible.

From everything I can tell, Zig was a true Christian gentleman. For a few years I enjoyed using his Performance Planner and used it as a model to custom make my own. His life story is quite remarkable, an example of the power of Jesus to radically change a life. The Southern boy from Yazoo City, Mississippi inspired millions to focus on the positive, go after their dreams, and be unselfish along the way. Here is a sample of Zig’s teaching…

One of Zig’s sayings was, “I’ll see YOU at the top!” Zig is now above the top, with his Savior.

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Rich Mullins Graduated to Glory Fifteen Years Ago Today

On September 19, 1997, somewhere on I-39 north of Bloomington, Illinois, Rich Mullins was involved in an accident that resulted in his death. I was privileged to meet and hang out with Rich for about 30 minutes one night in college with a few of my classmates. He was down-to-earth, engaging, provocative, and fun. As I reflect upon his life, I loved his music, his artistic word pictures, and his anti-celebrity. Hard to believe it’s been fifteen years.

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They Still Speak: J. C. Ryle

I want to start a new series of posts titled “They Still Speak” which will feature authors I recommend. These authors will all have one thing in common…they are deceased. And though they are dead they still speak to us today with relevance and power. The first one I’d like to feature is J. C. Ryle (1816-1900).

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