http://www.christianity.com/theology/end-times/jesus-is-coming-11578602.html
These messages were given by Roger Willmore
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Monthly Archives: February 2015
America’s Keswick Podcast
One of my favorite places in the world is America’s Keswick in Whiting, New Jersey. Since 1997 I have spoken a Summer Conferences with an emphasis on the Victorious Christian Life. It is a place where God speaks to hearts and transforms lives. The link below is a podcast that will give a sample of the ministry in the summer of 2014. I am also adding the website address to America’s Keswick so you can visit and get acquainted with this historic ministry. http://www.americaskeswick.org
http://discoveringvictorypodcast.com/tag/roger-willmore/
Enjoy!
The Portrait of a Pastor
Roger D. Willmore
The link below will take you to an article I wrote some time ago on a biblical picture of a pastor. I believe one of the great struggles within the church today is that the office of a pastor is not viewed by church members through a biblical lens. So often our understanding of the pastor and his God given role is determined by culture, inside and outside the church. This problem is not just in the pew…it can also be in the pastor.
I am strong advocate for church life being governed by the Word of God and not by the opinions of man. This article is my attempt to present a biblical portrait of a pastor.
W. Graham Scroggie on the Christian’s Devotional Life
Dr. W. Graham Scroggie
Dr. William Graham Scroggie, was born in 1877 in Great Malvern, England. He attended Spurgeon’s College in London in training for the ministry. As a result of his opposition to modernism and worldliness, he was turned out of his first two churches. During the following years he laid the mental and scholarly foundations for all his subsequent works. His pastorates included churches in Sunderland, Edinburgh, and Spurgeon’s Tabernacle in London where he served during World War II. Between 1914 and 1954 he had the exceptional privilege of giving 12 Bible Readings (teaching sermons) at the historic Keswick Christian Life Convention in the Lake District of England. The late Dr. Stephen F. Olford was a student of Graham Scroggie. One day Scroggie was teaching on prayer. Student Stephen Olford said to his teacher, “Dr. Scroggie, sometimes I don’t feel like praying,” to which Scroggie replied, “Stephen, pray when you feel like it…pray when you don’t fee like it…pray till you do feel like it.” I heard Dr. Olford tell this story many, many times as he urged pastors to place a high priority on their devotional life.
These words, used of the Athenians, “…for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim.” (Acts 17:23), are of universal significance. Man is essentially a religious creature, and the instinct to pray is as widespread as the race. I trust that the following may prove a means of help to many who yearn to live a true devotional life.
I. THE PROFOUND IMPORTANCE OF THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE
1. Its Meaning, or How It May Be Defined… Devotional life is much more than the sum of devotional acts; it is an essential atmosphere, an attitude, an energy. Miss Havergal has a poem entitled, “Be a Prayer,” and that is much more than saying a prayer. Acts of prayer should be but the focusing of a life-spirit and habit.
1 Its Relationship To The Whole Cycle of Christian Life…It must be central. In every life there are things central and foundational, from and upon which everything else radiates and rests, and in the Christian life that should be devotion to God and His service. If your life has anything else for center, it is a disarranged and disorganized life. “Your Devotions” should be the “large upper room furnished,” which covers and rules all the other rooms in the house of your soul.
3. Its Claim Upon Every Child Of God…It demands time. Devotional acts, cold and calculating, may be pushed in anywhere, and with a scrupulous economy of time, but not so the devotions of a true Christian. Those who have spent most time in prayer have accomplished most. Daniel prayed three times a day, and Ezra seven times, and religious history is full of illustrations of the need for, and fruitfulness of time devoted to prayer. Time is necessary!
To be continued, next point 2, “The Careful Cultivation of the Devotional Life. (Taken from, “The Problem of Unanswered Prayer,” W. Graham Scroggie.
Prayer and Preaching by Eric J. Alexander
Dr. Eric J. Alexander has been a minister of the Church of Scotland for over fifty years. His last pastorate was at St. George’s Tron , Glasgow. He has been a frequent speaker at the Keswick Convention in the Lake District and similar conventions around the world.
(I have the profoundest respect for Dr. Eric Alexander. He is among the favored speakers at the historic Keswick Convention, Keswick, England. I was first introduced him through his ministry at Keswick. In 1997 he was a guest speaker at Samford University, Beeson Divinity School Pastors School. I was a workshop leader that year and was afforded the opportunity to spend time with Dr. Alexander. In the years that followed he preached in my pulpit numerous times, always to the great delight and blessing of the people. I count him among the greatest expositors of our time. He has a scholar’s intellect and a pastor’s heart. He is an authentic Christian.
Dr. Alexander on Prayer and Preaching
Prayer and preaching belong together, and not just because of alliteration. They belong together in the mind and wisdom and purpose of God. Prayer is the sine qua non of preaching, because true preaching is not merely an intellectual or oratorical exercise, depending on human skills. It is a spiritual work, depending on the power of God to make His word living and effective, and the anointing of God, to make the preacher the vehicle of God’s grace. That is why it is possible for someone to be brilliantly gifted as a scholar, an orator and a communicator, and yet, in the pulpit to be an irrelevance so far as God is concerned. The prayerless preacher is a contradiction in terms, as is the prayerless church. Dr. Campbell Morgan, who preceded Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Westminster Chapel, London, often told of a crisis in his ministry when he became aware that he was popular in the world, but largely useless to God. It was as if God was saying to him, ‘Preach on, great preacher–without me.’ He went through a spiritual battle all that night, until the morning he was bowed before God, acknowledging his absolute dependence on Him.
It is this question which is at issue when we think of the relationship between prayer and preaching; where is my confidence? On what power do I ultimately depend? Do I covet a reputation more than the anointing of God on my ministry? Have I, also, allowed a division between prayer and preaching? It is never too late to put this right. Go now and confess your error to Him, and then settle before Him the God-given priority of ministry as in Acts 6:4, ‘We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ Pray for prayer partners to be raised up to pray for you. If you do not yet have a prayer meeting in your own church, seek the help of other prayer meetings to pray for your preaching.
The church leaders who may read this, let me urge upon you the absolute necessity of a praying people for the preaching of God’s word. You cannot separate prayer and preaching. A friend of mine (more bold than I!) once spoke with the leading laymen in a church he was visiting, ‘Do you have a prayer meeting?’, he asked. The reply was, ‘No, we do not have such a meeting, but we have just invited a fine young preacher to be our new minister.’ My friend responded, ‘If you do not have a prayer meeting in your church, you have no business inviting a minister into your pulpit.’ Professor Finlayson of the Free Church College in Edinburgh was once asked, ‘What is the greatest need of a young man entering his first ministry?’ His answer was, ‘A praying people.’
It concerns me that in many evangelical churches which do have prayer meetings, the part of the work least prayed for is the preaching of the word on the Lord’s day, and the one who has that responsibility. Paul pleads with the church at Ephesus to pray for him, ‘that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.’ May the church of Jesus Christ in our generation learn in depth how inseparable are prayer and preaching, and put what we learn into practice.
Eric J. Alexander, Epilogue to, Prayer a Biblical Perspective.
Reverend George B. Duncan, Keswick England, 1951
The Reverend George B. Duncan, former pastor of St. George’s Tron, Church of Scotland, Glasgow; and one of the most popular speakers at the English Keswick and Keswick’s around the world.
Spiritual Priorities
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection. Philippians 3:10
You may be disappointed, because of some dreadful failure in your life. I want to say to you that the intention of God is surely not that His children should be disappointed. Do you read anywhere in the New Testament that God’s intention is that you and I should be depressed and disappointed and cast down and dismayed? I do not. Instead, I read a note of confidence coming again and again- ‘I can do all things through Christ.’ ‘This is the Victory’- not maybe, or ought to be, but ‘This is the victory that overcometh the world.’ ‘Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.’ An amazing note of confidence runs all through the Word of God. It is not the intention of God that we should be disappointed. Provision is made for our confidence; the power of His risen life.
Does any feel downcast to the point of despair because of some tragic failure? Do not add to your sins the sin of under-estimating the measure of God’s forgiveness, and having got the measure of God’s forgiveness which has no limit, take this to your heart, disappointed, defeated- it may be even disgraced- child of God; that you have resident within you ‘the power of His resurrection’. God can give no more than that. God has no more to give; and God gives this to every child of His. So we must be confident, not in ourselves, but in Him.
Preached at the Historic Keswick Christian Life Convention, Keswick, England, Summer 1951
Taken from: Daily Thoughts From Keswick, A Year’s Daily Readings, Hebert Stevenson, editor
Prevailing Prayer
Wesley Duewel
God intends your praying to secure divine answers. Prayer is not just God’s diversion to keep from being lonely. He delights in your fellowship. He always draws nearer when you pray. Also, prevailing prayer is one of the most important ministries in God’s kingdom plans.
Prevailing prayer is not simply a spiritual exercise to help you grow in grace. Certainly nothing is more beneficial to growth in grace than growth in the life of prayer. The more you prevail, the more you learn the secrets of God’s grace and the powers of His kingdom. The more you intercede, the more intimate will be your walk with Christ and the stronger you will become by the Spirit’s power.
Prevailing prayer is God’s ordained means for extending His kingdom, for defeating Satan and his empire of darkness and evil, and for fulfilling God’s eternal plan and bringing into effect His good will on earth. It is God’s means of covering the earth with His blessings. Prevailing prayer is God’s priority strategy for our age and dispensation. The history of the church can never be fully written until Christ in eternity reveals the mighty hidden prayer involvement of all His praying people. What a joy that revelation will bring to Christ’s prayer partners…
Prevailing prayer is the most divine ministry you will ever have. Nothing is more Christlike or involves more cooperation with Christ. No form of Christian service is both so universally open to all and so high on Christ’s priority for all Christians as prevailing prayer. It is Christ’s desire, Christ’s call, and Christ’s command. Lord, teach us to prevail!
Wesley Duewel, Mighty Prevailing Prayer.
E.M. Bounds on Prayer and Preaching
E.M. Bounds
By a slight perversion, the sweetest graces may bear the bitterest fruit. The sun gives life, but sunstrokes are death. Preaching is to give life, but it may kill. The preacher holds the keys; he may lock as well as unlock. Preaching is God’s great institution for the planting and maturing of spiritual life. When properly executed its benefits are untold. When wrongly executed, no evil can exceed its damaging result.
It is an easy matter to destroy the flock if the shepherd is unwary or the pasture is destroyed. It is easy to capture the citadel if the watchman is asleep or the food and water are poisoned. The preacher is invested with gracious prerogatives, exposed to great evils, involving so many grave responsibilities. It would be a parody on the shrewdness of the Devil- a libel on his character and reputation- if he did not use his master influences to adulterate the preacher and preaching. In the face of all this, Paul’s exclamatory question, Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:16) is never out of place…
The great hindrance is in the preacher himself. He does not find within himself the mighty, life-creating forces. There may be no deficiency in his orthodoxy, honesty, cleanness, or earnestness. But, somehow the man- the inner man- in his secret places has never broken down and surrendered to God. His inner life is not a great highway for the transmission of God’s message, God’s power.
Somehow, self, not God rules in the holy of holiest. Somewhere, all unconscious to himself, some spiritual nonconductor has touched his inner being. The divine current has been arrested. His inner being has never felt its thorough spiritual bankruptcy, its utter powerlessness. He has never learned to cry out with an ineffable cry of self-despair and helplessness until God’s power and fire come in, fill, purify, and empower. Self-esteem- self-ability in some wicked form- has defamed and violated the temple that should be held sacred for God.
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 come only from a crucified man.
E.M. BOUNDS, chapter, Our Sufficiency is of God
The Lordship of Jesus Christ
http://www.uu.edu/centers/rglee/fellows/spring03/willmore.htm.
This link will take you to the Union University website and to the page containing the manuscript of the sermon on The Lordship of Jesus Christ which was my submission to the R.G. Lee Fellowship.
Osaka Japan Keswick Christian Life Convention 50th Anniversary
2008 Osaka Japan Keswick Christian Life Convention. Dr. Jonathan Lamb, Chm. of the English Keswick, Keswick, England is speaking. Rev. Timothy Konishi is translating.
In 2008 I traveled to Japan to speak in a series of Keswick Christian Life Conventions. It was a dream come true for me. My mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Olford, was one of the regular speakers in the Japan Keswick Conventions. I can remember the times he and Heather would return from ministry in Japan and give a report on the Keswick ministry. I carried in my heart a desire to minister in Japan a long time before my first invitation came.
Keswick has had a significant influence on the Christian church in Japan for over 50 years. The Tokyo Keswick recently celebrated 50 years of convention ministry. This month, February, Osaka is celebrating 50 years of Keswick ministry. Dr. David Olford will be among the guest preachers in the Osaka Convention.
Dr. Hiroshi Nishikori translating. Roger Willmore preaching.
I have been back to Japan numerous times since 2008 to speak in Keswick Christian Life Conventions and other conventions. My love and appreciation for the Japanese people has deepened over the years. The Lord has blessed me with many wonderful Japanese friends for whom I give thanks.
I want to take this opportunity to Congratulate Osaka Keswick Christian Live Convention on this 50th Anniversary of convention ministry. Only God knows the impact this convention has had on the Christian Church in Japan.
“All One in Christ Jesus.” All who attend the Keswick Convention in Keswick, England become synonymous with the Keswick Convention worldwide.
The Osaka Keswick Convention stands in the grand tradition of the English Keswick. I give thanks to God for the opportunity to say a personal word of congratulations to the leaders and participants of the Osaka Keswick Christian Life Convention on the occasion of the Convention’s 50th Anniversary. On this Golden Anniversary the Osaka Keswick Convention celebrates fifty years of bringing to the people of Osaka and to the country of Japan the preaching of the message of fullness of life in Jesus Christ.
Some of the greatest preachers of the 20th and 21st century have preached from the Osaka Keswick pulpit. I want to commend the members of the Central Committee and the Osaka Committee for keeping the Japan conventions closely tied to the English Keswick. The integrity of the Keswick Conventions in Japan speaks well of the leadership provided by pastors and laymen.
I cannot think of the importance of the preaching of God’s Word in Japan Keswick’s without thinking of the pastors who translate for us foreign guest preachers. I have profound appreciation for the ministry of these men and can honestly say that I count each one as a friend. Those who have translated for me in the Keswick Conventions are: Rev. Ryo Iwahashi,(who has translated for Franklin Graham numerous times), Dr. Stephen Mitsuhashi, (who has translated for Billy Graham numerous times), Rev. Timothy Konishi, and Rev. Yutaka Ikeda.
BBR & BR (Big Bro. Roger & Bro. Ryo) Roger Willmore and Ryo Iwahashi. We make a good team and good friends. Ryo has become like a younger brother to me over the past seven years.
In just a few days the Keswick Conventions in Japan will be taking place in their various locations across Japan. I pray God’s blessings upon each convention and each preacher and translator. I pray for a special blessing upon the Osaka Convention. May this 50th Anniversary year be one of great blessing to the people and great glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the words of the Apostle Paul, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making requests for your all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:3-6
Sincerely,
Roger Willmore
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Roger Willmore 