A Surrendered Life
What made the uneducated American evangelist D.L.Moody so successful? He lived a surrendered life. He had a dramatic baptism in the Holy Spirit experience, and he was a man who had strong prayer backing for every crusade.
Another major factor was his message. The gospel can be presented in many different ways. D.L.Moody was particularly known for both what he said, and the way he said it.
The ‘what he said’ part was enormously influenced by the revelation of God’s love for the world. In the early days, Moody rarely mentioned God’s love. He strongly thundered down message after message about the anger and judgement of God. Many responded and were genuinely born again. But it was the preaching of an Englishman, John Moorehouse, that dramatically turned Moody around. Moorehouse was only ever known to preach on one text – John 3:16. Even if preaching ten consecutive meetings to the same people, they were always asked to turn to the same text to begin the sermon.
Moorehouse made the love of God his central theme – always.
The other aspect of Moody’s preaching was the ‘way he said it.’ With only four years education through his lifetime, the man was not eloquent. But that never proved a handicap. His simplicity was in stark contrast to most preachers of his day whose ‘flowery’ manner failed to penetrate the heart. Moody was simple but sincere, and his delivery broke hearts wide open.
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