Allen Murray

“A pastor will not grow except by faithfulness in the study that spills over in the pulpit. A pastor may be popular and even successful in the eyes of the world without this kind of diligence, but he will not have a word necessary for his flock as they walk through trials, struggle with loss, and mourn over their sins. A pastor’s sermon preparation sharpens his pastoral skills.”
― Phil A. Newton, Shepherding the Pastor: Help for the Early Years of Ministry

“While we condemn papal infallibility, too many of us want to be popes ourselves and have everyone hold to our decision or opinion, as if we were infallible.”
― Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor: The Duties and Methods of Labors for the Souls of Men [Updated and Annotated]

“the gospel keeps us from self-righteousness because the gospel is only for sinners.”
― Jerry Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel

“The best preparation for the study of [the gospel] is neither great intellectual ability nor much scholastic learning but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. A deep conviction of sin is the one thing needful in such an inquiry, a conviction of the fact of sin, as an awful reality in our own personal experience of the power of sin as an inveterate evil cleaving to us continually, and having its roots deep in the innermost recesses of our hearts.”
― Jerry Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel