Preaching: Master Your Medium

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.—2 Timothy 2:15

Among the countless gifts of God, one of the most precious to us is our beautiful, expressive English tongue. That such a gift should be neglected by busy men and women in their wild race to make a living is at least understandable, if unfortunate; but that it should be neglected as well by the ministers of the sanctuary is not only impossible to understand but completely inexcusable.

For the very reason that God has committed His saving truth to the receptacle of human language, the man who preaches that truth should be more than ordinarily skillful in the use of language. It is necessary that every artist master his medium, every musician his instrument. For a man calling himself a concert pianist to appear before an audience with but a beginner's acquaintance with the keyboard would be no more absurd than for a minister of the gospel to appear before his congregation without a thorough knowledge of the language in which he expects to preach. The Size of the Soul, 41-42.

"Lord, earlier this month we focused on the fact that the key ingredient to preaching is not great oratorical skills but the enabling of the Holy Spirit. That certainly doesn't preclude our mastering our medium, as this thought points out. Help me to be a faithful servant, skilled in the task to which You have called me. Amen."