A Terrific Battle

Having just finished the hard graft of my sermon preparations for another week, I can agree with every word from the pen of James Stalker:

“But preparation of this sort for the pulpit is not easy. It requires time, self conquest and hard work. Perhaps the greatest ministerial temptation is idleness in study – not in going about and doing something, but in finding and rightly using precious hours in one’s library, avoiding reverie and light or desultory reading, and sticking hard and fast to the Sabbath work. I, for one, must confess that I have had, and still have, a terrific battle to fight for this.”

(James Stalker, quoted in Toward an Exegetical Theology, W. Kaiser, p 243)

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