Everybody needs encouragement. We all agree to that, yet we often fail to be encouragers in the world around us. An American, called Mr. Wright, gave his boys, Wilbur and Orville, a toy flying machine to play with - the world got Concorde.
Everybody needs encouragement toward the best mountains in life to climb, the highest and noblest ambitions to have, the most rewarding treasures to possess. So, go to it, Christian!
EVERYBODY needs encouragement. Simple, isn't it? Those in the Church, those outside, those on the edges - we all want to be encouraged and we can all encourage others. If we are not very good at it, we can learn to be better - practice makes perfect! So why don't we?
In this book, Derick Bingham looks at this ministry: the one all Christians can fulfil, and asks why, instead of encouraging each other, Christians are often so quick to discourage, to criticise, to hurt.
He looks at the way first Christ and then the New Testament Church encouraged and supported the sick, the poor, those in trouble ... After analysing the three New Testament words for encouragement, he points out that it is often those in the same profession and same denomination who are the most critical, and states: Genuine godly love never - ever - looks on another believer's success as a threat:
it looks upon it as a blessing.
Having pointed out that sometimes we may be good at giving out encouragement but too proud to accept it - and to give others the blessing of having given - he moves on to the difficult ministry of encouraging those who have failed, those who have been going on with God but who have sinned.
Focusing on Barnabas, Derick Bingham lists the essential qualities of an encourager; generosity, great courage, an unsectarian spirit and humility. He admits that giving encouragement in difficult situations becomes loving confrontation, and then moves on to how to encourage ourselves when God seems silent. The book ends with a list of 'little encouragements' - letters, phone calls, meals, flowers and cards.
Derick Bingham's Encouragement: oxygen of the soul is a book that reminds us that everyone can have a ministry of encouragement. We know that people need encouraging, yet we often fail to give it. This book, by an internationally renowned speaker and preacher, ought to stimulate us to be ready to give help and encouragement to our fellows.
-- Iain D. Campbell, The Monthly Record