Pastor's Circle - Jerry Horner

Jerry Horner joined the Pastor's Circle today, sharing how the Apostle Paul has had an impact on his life.


Who are some Bible characters - outside of Jesus - who have provided inspiration to you?

If I had to pick one outside of the Lord, of course, it would have to be the apostle Paul.

I supposed Paul has been my mentor. Here's a man who was in rebellion...here was a champion of the traditional way.

I felt myself to be a traditional champion of the faith. But when God opened my eyes to the scripture, I saw that I was wrong on many fronts.

Here was Paul on the way to Damascus.

As far as he was concerned Jesus was dead.

He was not too big to admit his mistakes. When he and Barnabas had this dispute about John Mark...later Paul admitted that he was wrong. Paul was not too big to recognize his own mortality. He was not too big to recognize that he needed people's prayers.

Why did God call Paul?

Paul had a reputation - a terrible reputation. So much so that when he did leave Jerusalem, nobody wanted to have anything to do with him.

I think that the apostle's would have been comfortable in Jerusalem and in Judea until one thing happened. Stephen's martyrdom and the accompanying persecution.

Paul did set things into motion for the worldwide spread of the gospel.

One of the things we've got to learn from Paul is you're going to have some suffering in you life.

You know what, the Lord himself said that.

I'm all for stressing the benefits of discipleship...but I want to tell you, let's not leave out commitment. Let's not leave out the lordship of Jesus Christ. Anyone who's going to pattern his life after the Lord Jesus Christ is going to face persecution.

Looking back in Christian history, who would be your heroes?

There have been many who I've looked towards.

I look to a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon as a model preacher, as an expositor of the gospel.

When I was in seminary, I bought a set of commentaries...one of the best investments I ever made was when I traded those books for a set of Spurgeon sermons.

Why was he so great?

We can praise God that somebody had enough foresight to take down notes and devised some kind of shorthand to preserve those sermons.

I think what made him so terrific was his commitment ot the word of God...and this man had a way of bringing out the word of God to the situation he was addressing.

How can we be the kind of speakers who were relevant like Spurgeon?

I think it's very simple. First, make reading the newspaper a daily habit.Read the newspaper and read the Bible.

Stay abreast, know what is happening.

In every particular country that I'm in, I have to be relevant to what they're going through.