pardoned.net

Found some videos from a new Keith Green concert DVD up on youtube, of course I immediately ordered the dvd.

Estes Park ‘78

1. He’ll Take Care Of The Rest 

2. To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

3. The Sheep And The Goats

4. Asleep In The Light

5. The Victor

6. Make MyLife A Prayer To You

Jesus West Coast ‘80

1. So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt

2. My Eyes Are Dry

Live from The Daisy Club – LA

1. When I Hear The Praises Start

2. I Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven

3. I Can’t Believe It

4. Dear John Letter (To The Devil)

5. Easter Song

I have never made theology a study. The great doctrines of depravity and repentance and justification and regeneration and of the judgment and final award, I have preached with all the clearness of my mind and all the unction of my heart. I have never tried to show a congregation the difference between evangelical and legal repentance. I have never discussed whether depravity was total or partial, or simply developed. I have never tried to prove there was a God, or that Christ was divine, or that there was a heaven or a hell. I have made these things, not an objective point, but a starting point. They have furnished the basis for all I have said, and they are either the inspirations of my hopes, or the ground-works of my fears. I have left the proof of the inspiration of the Bible, the demonstration of the fact that there is a God, the settlement of the question as to heaven and hell, to those who make a specter of such things and then speculate upon them, to the “muddy physicians.” My idea has always been that Christ meant what he said when he said, “Preach the Gospel,” not defend it; “Preach the Word,” not try to prove the Word is true.
…
The finest compliment I have ever had was in the second year of my ministry, when a little son of one of my members said: “Father, will Mr. Jones be returned to this circuit next year?”
The father replied he hoped so, and asked his son, “Why?” “Well,” said the boy, ” I want him to come back, because he is the only preacher I ever listened to that I can understand every thing he says.”
I believe it is possible to preach our best thoughts and highest conceptions of God and truth so that children may understand us. The fact that they do not understand us is better proof that we are “muddy” than that we are high, for truth is like the water of the River of Life—clear as crystal.

-Sam P Jones, 1887 (from Sam Jones’ Own Book, pp.34-35, 36-37)

I have been very blessed recently by reading the testimony of Sam P Jones, 19th century Methodist Evangelist and Revivalist. One of the great things I’ve found out about on the internet is Google books, so partly for my own reference, but also your edification I have copied links to the following wonderful books containing Sam Jones’ sermons and writings. If I ever see any of these for a small amount of money on bookfinder I’ll probably pick them up.

Sam Jones’ Own Book: A series of sermons collected and edited under the author’s own supervision. 1887 - 539 pages

Thunderbolts: Most earnest reasonings, delightful narratives, poetic and pathetic incidents, caustic and unmerciful flagellation of sin, together with irresistible appeals to the higher sensibilities of man to Quit His Meanness and Do Right. 1895 - 584 pages

Sam Jones’ Gospel Sermons: Delivered by the Great Preacher Rev. Sam. P. Jones. 1898 - 334 pages

Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones. 1909 - 127 pages

Not digitized but highly desirable is the 507 page long book of Sam Jones sermons titled, ‘Quit Your Meanness.’ Published in 1886 by Cranston & Stowe.

I have one Sam Jones book ordered, although this could become a costly habit, so for now, I’ll read from these online if I need any inspirtation.

From October 31st 1517, the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the castle church door in Wittenberg until William Carey set sail for India on June 12th 1793, Protestants had been largely ignorant of any missionary obligation. In this interim period of nearly three hundred years there was very little missionary fervor among men and women who claimed to know the bible more personally than their Roman counterparts. However there was one small band of Slavic believers who found God’s heart for the nations at the very core of His Word. This discovery propelled them to make great sacrifices to travel to distant peoples with the very love of the Gospel, often at the price of their own lives.

These fiery believers were the Bohemian Brethren. However they were not always so sold out for the souls of others. Their story begins well enough, but falls into divisiveness and petty squabbling but eventually ends up on distant shores in glory. 

The Moravian Church, also called the Unity of Brethren or Unitas Fratrum in Latin, began as persecuted reformers in there native Moravia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. Jan Hus, identified as one of the earliest reformers in the spirit of Protestantism began his work in the region in the early 1400’s. He was persecuted by the Roman church and eventually burned to death as a heretic, but not before planting the seeds of the church that would become the Bohemian Brethren, and not before speaking prophetically upon his death. His documented last words were, “in one hundred years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” which would be fulfilled in the life and work of Martin Luther. But Jan Hus was more than Luther’s ‘John the Baptist,’ his own sparks of reformation grew into a conflagration separate from the embers glowing in the West.

Part two tomorrow.