Fire and Brimstone Preachin'

By Brother Ritechus N Dignation

I like to get fired up!  Most folks say I stay fired up, but I like to get fired up with some good preachin'.  Now good preachin' to me is an old fashioned tell-it-like-it-is sermon in plain English that demands action. For those young'uns that don't know what I'm talking about, let me try to explainify it.  I like it when the preacher says that Heaven's sweet, hell is hot and sin is black.  Three points and a poem don't get it, in my book.

My Great Grampa preacher, Thaddeus Behuskus Mitchell, had a name for this style of preachin'.  He called it barnstormin', window rattlin' shingle pullin' preaching.  Now let me also add that not all stompin' and snortin' is preaching.  I don't mean a man has to yell to the top of his lungs . . . but he ought to be excited about his message. Not ever'body is the same.  Some are a little louder than others, but every preacher ought to have fervor in his preachin'.  One old time preacher  was asked why so many people came to hear him and he said that when he climbed into the pulpit, he just caught on fire and people came to watch him burn. A sermon needs to be Scriptural  with sound doctrine,  but the preacher needs to moved also, or the people won't be.  If the message don't speak to the man of God, it won't speak to the people of God or the sinners.  I like to hear a preacher with fire in his gizzard.

The preachin' also needs to be pointed.  Folks need to know the preacher is talkin' to them, not the people who aren't there.  And he should call a spade a spade.  Pink tea and lemonade sippin', sissy britches preachers make people comfortable in their sins and few get converted. A preacher ought not to beat people up, but should be brave enough to preach the whole counsel of God, and then let the Spirit do the beatin'. 

Some folks say we should change so as to reach people.  Dadgum right.  We need to change BACK to some hell fire and damnation preachin'.  Sin is still sin.  It's not a mistake, bad choice or alternative to holiness.  It's sin and God still hates sin.

Of course, that's just me.  And who am I but a lone voice ranting in the wilderness.

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