Reading again from Robert Murray Mccheyne is very inspiring – read his life story and sermons
There are times when you come across spiritual gems while reading and wish you had written these words down before they slip into oblivion. It was the famous Scottish preacher Robert Murray McCheye who said: “A dark hour makes Jesus bright.” He ministered in Dundee and died at the age of only 29, but he exercised a very powerful and influential ministry.
What was it that made me look again at the life of Robert Murray McCheyne? When I returned home from speaking and teaching in Kenya a year ago this week, there was an invitation to attend a Conference for Pastors and Leaders. I have been a member of this Conference group for over 30 years and 230 of us met in early January in Crieff.
A guest contributor was going to speak about the life and ministry of Andrew Bonar. That immediately caught my attention for several reasons. Andrew Bonar was a close friend and colleague of Robert Murray McCheyne and Andrew Bonar preached and taught in Collace, which is just outside Perth in central Scotland.
When I was a divinity student at Edinburgh University, I was invited to lead worship services and preach at Collace, so the connection was obvious and appealing. At that time, in the mid-1960s, it was an honor to be invited to lead others in prayer and preach the Word of God where Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray McCheyne used to minister.
And, now, here was a man, who knew the lives of these two men intimately, and who was going to open us up to various aspects of their lives. I must say that he did not disappoint me. He was inspiring.
Soon it will be January again and that very special New Year’s Conference will once again be held in Crieff. to have been involved in this since very close to its inception is a privilege. These pastors and leaders are almost all much younger than me, but some of us who have been there from the beginning continue to attend.
There are times when an invite comes along and it just sounds different. Do not let these important moments pass you by. We stand to lose a lot if we neglect these opportunities.
But let me encourage you to read the life and work of Robert Murray McCheyne and then go ahead and read Andrew Bonar’s informative and moving journal. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. These men of God do not disappoint. They have something vital to share and tell us that we so need inspiration in these current global circumstances.
In light of that, it’s good to remember that there are really only two days on my calendar; today and on judgment day. What a healthy thought!
You can pay for the book in which the Gospel is contained and for the Church or chapel in which it is preached, and even for the minister who preaches it to you, but the Gospel itself is as free as the light that shines, as the rain and dew that fall from above; like the air you inhale and like any other blessing from God.
If the service of God is worth something, it is worth everything. We shall find our best reward in the Lord’s work if we do it with determined diligence. Our labor is not in vain in the Lord, and we know it. And the psalmist certainly knew it too. Bathe in the riches of the Psalms.
The evangelist who preaches for eternity is never good at numbers. He is not fit to count hundreds of converts where there is no restitution, no confession, no shout of joy that he proclaims: ‘The lost is found, the dead are raised!’
It has been said by those who know what they are talking about and would say it without hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching, and since it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest. need of the world too.
I wish leaders’ summits and conferences would understand this reality. These Prime Ministers and Presidents and Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers could benefit greatly.
sand shaw