Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Power Through Prayer (original 1913; edition 2005)by E. M. Bounds
Work InformationPower Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds (1913)
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. "There are preachers innumerable who can deliver masterful sermons..., but the effects are short-lived and do not enter as a factor at all into the regions of the spirit where the fearful war between God and Satan, heaven and hell, is being waged because they are not made powerfully militant and spiritually victorious by prayer." So says E.M. Bounds in this classic book on prayer. Bounds says over and over from every angle, that a pastor may be highly educated, earnest and gifted in rhetoric, but if his life and sermons are not saturated in prayer, his preaching will be ineffectual. "Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is holy because the man is holy." A sobering, instructive book. “The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”(pg. 1) From page one this book is a powerful punch in the spiritual gut. It’s 89 pages of powerful reflection on the Christians most basic and most neglected power, the power of prayer. Bounds was a civil war era Methodist preacher, from an age when the claim of being ‘Methodist’ wouldn’t make you blush. His writing is less than elegant, unsophisticated to the core, and straight to the point. This is not a feel good book. If you curled up with a cup of coffee, wrapped in a blanket on a cold winter day with this tiny tome you’d end up crying your heart out in the snow…yes, its that good. This fiery work enflames the soul and humbles the intellect. I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m more head than heart. This book has often served to break me and remind me that “Preachers who are great thinkers, great students must be the greatest of prayers, or else they will be the greatest of backsliders, heartless professionals, rationalistic, less than the least of preachers in God’s estimate.” (pg. 25) The book is mainly directed to pastors, but every believer has much to gain from this book. Bound’s tends to repeat himself near the end, but his repeats only serve as strong reminders. Favorite quotes: “The man makes the preacher. God must make the man.” “Preaching is to give life; it may kill.” “Life-giving preaching costs the preacher much – death to self, crucifixion to the world, the travail of his own soul. Only crucified preaching can give life. Crucified preaching can only come from a crucified man.” no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher Series
In a penetrating and forthright style, Edward M. Bounds offers stimulating advice to Christian servants. "The preaching that kills may have insight and grasp of principles, may be scholarly and critical in taste, may have every minutia of the derivation and grammar of the letter, may be able to trim the letter into its perfect pattern, and illume it as Plato and Cicero may be illumined, may study it as a lawyer studies his text-books to form his brief or to defend his case, and yet be like a frost, a killing frost...Preaching which kills is prayerless preaching. Without prayer the preacher creates death, and not life." This audio book nourishes the heart and mind with Bounds' message about the role of prayer in the life of the Christian servant. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)248.32Religions Christian Devotional Literature and Practical Theology Christian Life; experience and practice Prayer and private worship PrayerLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
A pity, because the other book I read by EM Bounds was encouraging and helpful. ( )