Robert Murray M'Cheyne

We're tested, we're tried, but maybe in some ways he's using it as a loving father to loosen our grasp of things of this world, helping us to see we're m- we're made and meant for eternity with him.

And so it makes me think of my all-time Christian hero, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, uh, pastored in the 1800s in Scotland.

He had this line that always has gripped me of, you know, thinking of suffering.

He said, "Every, every wave of suffering brings us closer to the sunny shores of a sinless eternity."

I believe the reading of holy biographies has been exceedingly blessed of God.

The life of such a man as M'Cheyne or the diary of Brainerd or the story of Whitefield's ministry, such things make us think, what are we? What are we living for? Put microscopes upon our eyes and yet we can hardly see ourselves.

We are so little.

We are as grasshoppers in their sight, yea, we are as grasshoppers in our own sight.

They couldn't figure out that you can't put unholy leaders in a battle without loss.

One of the godliest leaders the church has known over the past few centuries has been the Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne from Edinburgh.

His writings are convicting and challenging.

He wrote to a fellow pastor over two hundred years ago that should be a letter today to every leader, pastor, denomination, and Christian.

Jesus Christ is interceding for you as well.

Romans 8:34 says, "Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life," listen, "is at the right hand of God, and he's interceding for you." An old preacher from days gone by, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, said this, and I quote, "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies, yet distance makes no difference.

He is praying for me." End quote.

And Jesus is saying, "I'm praying that your faith will not fail." Jesus is saying, "You're going to have a lapse, but you're gonna come back stronger as a result." Verse 32 of Luke 22, "I prayed for you that your faith will not fail.

There's a difference in godly sacrifice and needless burnout.

There's a quote from Robert, Robert Murray M'Cheyne.

He was a, a 19th century, uh, Scottish preacher.

He died at 30 years old, okay? You can read about him if you want, but, but you, you...

According to its teachings, we are in the presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to experience that presence actually.

The fiery urge that drove men like McCheyne is wholly missing, and the present generation of Christians measures itself by this imperfect rule.

Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal.

We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions, and for the most part we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.