This thread (EGO) reminds me of the story in
II Sam 18th chapter of the two runners...and some preachers too.
One runner was very fleetfooted. He ran soooo swiftly to deliver a message to the King. When he got to the king, out of breath, exhausted, falling down, he had no more of a message than what the king already knew. The king already knew that there was a great tumult but he wanted to know something specifically. The fleetfooted runner had no message. The king told him to just stand aside.
Isn't it true today? Swift runners with NO message other than that which we already know. Swift runners but no new message from heaven...nothing fresh, nothing fresh from the Word of God...no fresh news from heaven. But never mind all of that, our runners are so swift. They can preach like a house-a-fire.
Some of those runners employ the dexterity of fine phrases with wingled eloquence, moving the crowd with resolved agreement...but NO message. By the use of the sublimest poetry adorn the presentation of what we ALREADY know, drawing attention to the messenger's selfhood, though the audience is moved, yet there is NO message. Sir, please stand aside.
The race is not always to the swiftest messenger whose speech is winged with eagle's pinions to dart into the hearer's soul except they have a FRESH message. Sir, please stand aside.
Your swiftness, your eloquence, your loss of breath, the distance you ran neither the message that you bear is of any affect except it be a fresh message.
Swift runners are not a few. They all demand a hearing. Please stand aside. We are waiting on the runner with a fresh Word. My interest is not wheter he has an ego or not. My interest is not whether he preaches his own meeting or not. I highly suspect that if he DOES NOT preach his own meeting, he probably does not have a fresh message but rather the same message that all the other runners breathlessly give out. Nothing new! Nothing fresh! Nothing that gladdens the heart or encourages the king to hope. Run, runners run. But unless you have a fresh Word from heaven, it is better to save the breath and stay home until you can give a fresh report.
OK, so I am known to be a little radical. Not too politcally popular, I suppose. But EGO is not even the LEAST cosideration in a preacher unless the messenger wishes, so moved by his ego to draw attention to his "greatness." One eyed Bob with half a brain can tell the difference...if he has at least a half ounce of Holy Ghost.
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