I'm inclined to believe that should God will it to have mercy upon
America that it will begin on a Sunday....on The Lord's Day, and it will
begin in His pulpits through His shepherds. My hope is that this very
Lord's Day a pall enters the sanctuaries, a soberness at what our nation
has become, at who we have become as a people, at who our leaders are;
but we have become acclimated, capable only of voicing displeasure, feigning outrage, unsure
of what to do.
Our discernment skills are at low ebb and only God's Word, either read or primarily preached, can awaken us. So once again I'll listen intently in the coming week for comments from brothers and sisters in Christ that something strange happened in their worship services.... not a frivolous invented miracle that only titillates but a power that causes us to cry out as Peter did in "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.".
I'll look in the mirror more intently to see if I have changed. And my prayer, as always, will be....... Lord give us one more move of your Spirit, one more generation where the Gospel scatters your enemies and dispels the zeitgeist that bewitches us. Give us leaders Lord, who know that only you can protect us and that only you can fulfill us. We have let down our guard Lord, our children's futures have been mortgaged, our wisdom has dried up but you are able to restore us and to use us.....do this O Lord, if it be thy will and only if it be to thy glory!
Last Train To Smyrna....February, 2013
The third verse in the Book of Revelation reads "Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." (ESV) A fair amount of my reading in the Bible is in this book along with the Old Testament prophets. These books have been for every believer in every age since they were written but one would be especially unwise to ignore them today. The second and third chapters of Revelation are seven letters written to seven churches. They were real churches that existed. Some Christians believe that these churches describe seven church ages. I have never been convinced of that theory. Other Christians believe that those seven churches exist today according to the descriptions given. I do ascribe to this theory. There is an Ephesus church today, and a Smyrna church, and a Pergamum church, and a Thyatira church, and a Sardis church, and a Philadelphia church and a Laodicea church. I'm not talking about denominations or even continents where these churches might be located, rather a mindset for each church that could be located anywhere.
I really don't go any further with this other than to say that it would behoove all Christians to meditate on the warnings given to see where our churches and we as individuals might fit in. It seems to me that this is the purpose of this part of Scripture. I can see myself described in all of these churches excluding only Smyrna and Philadelphia and stand in dire need to hear these warnings.
Yesterday I just happened across a church website of a fairly large church in a very large denomination. There must have been thirty or forty pages listing every ministry imaginable and their calendar was filled with activities that involved the community. Although I didn't listen to any of the sermons, the topics were generic and non-offensive. Most troubling of all was the mission statement and beliefs links which were far less words in total than I have written so far in this particular blog entry.
This type of church is in every city of America, maybe in every community of America and we are what we are today in no small part because of it. No...Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophesy..!. The warnings given in these words of Revelation are never far from my mind and from my own self-examination. Although all seven of these churches are probably within America somewhere, we seem to be mostly Laodicean. This last statement would probably upset many pew sitters, ministry leaders and pastors but such is to be expected. I, for one, take these warnings very seriously and encourage any readers to this blog to do the same thing....for the time is near!
Our discernment skills are at low ebb and only God's Word, either read or primarily preached, can awaken us. So once again I'll listen intently in the coming week for comments from brothers and sisters in Christ that something strange happened in their worship services.... not a frivolous invented miracle that only titillates but a power that causes us to cry out as Peter did in "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.".
I'll look in the mirror more intently to see if I have changed. And my prayer, as always, will be....... Lord give us one more move of your Spirit, one more generation where the Gospel scatters your enemies and dispels the zeitgeist that bewitches us. Give us leaders Lord, who know that only you can protect us and that only you can fulfill us. We have let down our guard Lord, our children's futures have been mortgaged, our wisdom has dried up but you are able to restore us and to use us.....do this O Lord, if it be thy will and only if it be to thy glory!
Last Train To Smyrna....February, 2013
The third verse in the Book of Revelation reads "Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." (ESV) A fair amount of my reading in the Bible is in this book along with the Old Testament prophets. These books have been for every believer in every age since they were written but one would be especially unwise to ignore them today. The second and third chapters of Revelation are seven letters written to seven churches. They were real churches that existed. Some Christians believe that these churches describe seven church ages. I have never been convinced of that theory. Other Christians believe that those seven churches exist today according to the descriptions given. I do ascribe to this theory. There is an Ephesus church today, and a Smyrna church, and a Pergamum church, and a Thyatira church, and a Sardis church, and a Philadelphia church and a Laodicea church. I'm not talking about denominations or even continents where these churches might be located, rather a mindset for each church that could be located anywhere.
I really don't go any further with this other than to say that it would behoove all Christians to meditate on the warnings given to see where our churches and we as individuals might fit in. It seems to me that this is the purpose of this part of Scripture. I can see myself described in all of these churches excluding only Smyrna and Philadelphia and stand in dire need to hear these warnings.
Yesterday I just happened across a church website of a fairly large church in a very large denomination. There must have been thirty or forty pages listing every ministry imaginable and their calendar was filled with activities that involved the community. Although I didn't listen to any of the sermons, the topics were generic and non-offensive. Most troubling of all was the mission statement and beliefs links which were far less words in total than I have written so far in this particular blog entry.
This type of church is in every city of America, maybe in every community of America and we are what we are today in no small part because of it. No...Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophesy..!. The warnings given in these words of Revelation are never far from my mind and from my own self-examination. Although all seven of these churches are probably within America somewhere, we seem to be mostly Laodicean. This last statement would probably upset many pew sitters, ministry leaders and pastors but such is to be expected. I, for one, take these warnings very seriously and encourage any readers to this blog to do the same thing....for the time is near!
