Orator? or Prophet?

Last week I mentioned my lawn needing baled. Well, what normally takes me about 2-1/2 hours (edging, trimming and mowing) took me 6 hours spread out over Friday night and Saturday morning. Then, while planting some shrubs on Saturday afternoon, I hit the water line to one of my sprinkler heads. So I got to repair that yesterday afternoon.

I think I will mow again tomorrow evening because Beverly and I are going to Houston on Thursday and I will return Saturday night. I sure don't want to face mowing a hay meadow again.
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Tozer really had a way of holding us preachers feet to the fire. Here is today's devotional thought:

And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, "You are My people." --Isaiah 51:16

The Christian minister, as someone has pointed out, is a descendant not of the Greek orator but of the Hebrew prophet.

The differences between the orator and the prophet are many and radical, the chief being that the orator speaks for himself while the prophet speaks for God. The orator originates his message and is responsible to himself for its content. The prophet originates nothing but delivers the message he has received from God who alone is responsible for it, the prophet being responsible to God for its delivery only. The prophet must hear the message clearly and deliver it faithfully, and that is indeed a grave responsibility; but it is to God alone, not to men. God Tells the Man Who Cares, 85.

The late seminary chaplain Richard Seume once said, "When your people sit in front of you on Sunday morning, they're not interested in hearing another man tell them how to live their lives; they've come to hear a word from God."

May that be my prophetic perspective this week.