Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 19
September 21, 1967
NUMBER 20, PAGE 10b

Preacher Shortage

Pryde E. Hinton

Have you lately studied Philippians 3, especially verses 7-14? When we shall have attained unto a fraction of the mind Paul displays in verses 7 to 14, we shall have NO "preacher shortage." I firmly believe that our preacher shortage is commensurate with our faith, like that taught in Galatians 5:6. Sincere trust in God (Hebrews 13:5,6) and unconditional surrender to Christ (Acts 9:6, A. V.) and a faithful following of Paul, as he followed Christ, according to Philippians 3:7-14 or Galatians 2:20, will end all kinds of spiritual shortages among preachers and all Christians! Then two men and God will be considered an unbeatable team again, as Jonathan said, "for there is no restraint with the Lord to save by many or by few" (I Samuel 14:6)! And then shall we do as God promised Israel, "And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight..." (Leviticus 26:8); and we shall say, as the Spirit says in Rom. 8: "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" All this assurance — "blessed assurance," is ours, if we will remember what Romans 8:28 says, and live by it! (Williams says in his translation: "for the good of those who keep on loving God.")

When this mind is once more general among God's people, a thousand dollars a month would not cause any more to faithfully teach and preach the gospel of Christ. More money and finer meeting houses are not the answer, brethren. These things rather cause God's people to forget Him. See Deuteronomy 6:4-12 and Jeremiah 2:32. I think that Philippians 3:18,19 sums up our deficiencies and the cause of our defeats. How can we expect young people who have had almost every material want handed to them "on a silver platter" to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (II Tim. 2:1-3)?

Loving (?) parents almost break their necks to supply every desire of their children, while they themselves live in a "Fool's Paradise" of false prosperity, and set the example that material things are things worth striving for in this earthly life.

-Dora, Alabama