The following post is from November of 2012, two days before our last presidential election. It has been four years but every Lord's Day since then I
have hoped for the same thing... that I will hear stories from brothers and
sisters in Christ that something strange happened in their church
service.... that there was a a dread and a soberness akin to paralysis where God's
presence was so overwhelming
that all of the baubles and all the entertainments of this world
are seen as the vanity that they are.
Post Tenebras Lux
Roughly twelve hours from my beginning this particular post pastors will be taking the pulpits of America, at least in the Eastern time zone, and continuing each hour for the few hours after that as the earth turns to greet the new Lord's Day. America's decline is rapidly speeding up and we were given a glimpse of that in the aftermath of the superstorm (Hurricane Sandy) that wreaked havoc on the east coast. We have an election for president coming up that could be described as theater of the absurd. I'm sitting in front of a fireplace as I type... and just as I ended that last sentence the small flickering flame died out. This is what will happen to the small flame of liberty and Christianity in America if we continue as we are, seeking our own will over God's, our own glory over His. Our only hope is in those pulpits but there are no signs, to my knowledge anyway, that they are being infused with life. God is longsuffering but we have taken him to the limit on this. (Four years later and there are still no signs of life even though the danger to our nation is increasing inexorably.)
My hope for some time has been that I would begin to hear stories from brothers and sisters about their church services where a deathly pall fell over the congregation, where the stillness of despair overwhelmed the festivities of the day, where the pastor's ever-present smile was now a frown as if he was preaching from a bombed out sanctuary.
Eighteenth century pastor and theologian Jonathon Edwards preached more on love than he did on hell but his sermon Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God had just such effects on his congregation. God has been warning us for quite some time now. I watched more football today than in the last twenty years combined as I was lured by the Pitt/Notre Dame game, a game which I lived for way back then. After about an hour I was shaken by the memory of the power that sport once held over me. The coward in me pleads with God to awaken us before judgment comes. There are no signs of awakening but there are signs all around of that judgment.
Many others see this...... I'm not the only one. Maybe this Monday morning I'll hear a story about someone's strange church service that was filled with dread. Maybe God will have mercy upon us once again. There was a Latin phrase widely used at the time of the Reformation....post tenebras lux.... after darkness...light. Jesus said "I am the light of the world." This is our hope....our only hope....not political elections.
Post Tenebras Lux
Roughly twelve hours from my beginning this particular post pastors will be taking the pulpits of America, at least in the Eastern time zone, and continuing each hour for the few hours after that as the earth turns to greet the new Lord's Day. America's decline is rapidly speeding up and we were given a glimpse of that in the aftermath of the superstorm (Hurricane Sandy) that wreaked havoc on the east coast. We have an election for president coming up that could be described as theater of the absurd. I'm sitting in front of a fireplace as I type... and just as I ended that last sentence the small flickering flame died out. This is what will happen to the small flame of liberty and Christianity in America if we continue as we are, seeking our own will over God's, our own glory over His. Our only hope is in those pulpits but there are no signs, to my knowledge anyway, that they are being infused with life. God is longsuffering but we have taken him to the limit on this. (Four years later and there are still no signs of life even though the danger to our nation is increasing inexorably.)
My hope for some time has been that I would begin to hear stories from brothers and sisters about their church services where a deathly pall fell over the congregation, where the stillness of despair overwhelmed the festivities of the day, where the pastor's ever-present smile was now a frown as if he was preaching from a bombed out sanctuary.
Eighteenth century pastor and theologian Jonathon Edwards preached more on love than he did on hell but his sermon Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God had just such effects on his congregation. God has been warning us for quite some time now. I watched more football today than in the last twenty years combined as I was lured by the Pitt/Notre Dame game, a game which I lived for way back then. After about an hour I was shaken by the memory of the power that sport once held over me. The coward in me pleads with God to awaken us before judgment comes. There are no signs of awakening but there are signs all around of that judgment.
Many others see this...... I'm not the only one. Maybe this Monday morning I'll hear a story about someone's strange church service that was filled with dread. Maybe God will have mercy upon us once again. There was a Latin phrase widely used at the time of the Reformation....post tenebras lux.... after darkness...light. Jesus said "I am the light of the world." This is our hope....our only hope....not political elections.
