In the last Aspastor John episode, in episode 218, you said you believed the pressures

of pastoral life, the need to prepare sermons and devotions and talks and lessons and

homelies for all kinds of occasions, that these pressures were God's means of giving

you more insight into Scripture for the sake of your people, probably giving you more insights

from God than you might have had if you had been given more leisurely time for study in

the academic life.

Is this just based on your experience or are there passages from the Bible that help

explain this dynamic?

Right.

What I said, it was a real fear when I left Bethel after teaching for six years and God

seemed to be driving me into the pastoral ministry where I knew there would be a lot

more pressured preparation than leisure for study.

What I said was I didn't find it to be the case.

I found that God seems to love his people in such a way that when a pastor is pressured

to have to get a message ready for them, he makes up for any deficiency in time by just

opening him in ways that he wouldn't open him to the text in any other way.

Yes, there have been texts that have really made a difference in my thinking about that.

I'll mention just a few here.

For example, I love the text where Jesus says to Peter, the Simon, son of John, do you

love me?

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me?

And he said to him, Lord, you know everything.

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