This is for all the pastors and leaders out there who have had a bad day or two… or three. You aren’t alone.
Got this out of a devotional book I was reading this morning.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg ( 1711-1787) was the first influential Lutheran pastor in this country, who came from Germany to serve a congregation in Pennsylvannia. He soon discovered he wasn’t in Germany any more.
When I preached my first sermon in the counntry upon my arrival in Pennsylvania, an aged man came up to me and said with amazed wonder in his face, “Dear Pastor, I felt just as though I was listening to the dear God in heaven Himself.” In the meantime, I learned a little more about his life, and when, after the second service, he again declared to my face that it had been like hearing an angel from heaven, I took him aside and urgently besought him to leave off his sinful, disorderly life and surrender wtih his whole heard to the Lord Jesus, the true friend of repentant sinners, and thus find peace for his soul. I had hardly given him this advice wehn he burst out, “Who is this devil’s priest to give me advice? This is a free country.”
Oh, well. Some people don’t go to church because of all the hypocrites. I guess they have been around a lot longer than we realized. 🙂
He lives!