Thirty years ago there were five Christian bookstores within a few mile radius of my house. Today there are none. Whereas once someone with a little time on their hands might very well stop in a Christian booskstore just to look around, as I did in 1982, now he cannot. Genuine news is becoming harder and harder to come by. Legitimate journalists and broadcasters are being picked off one by one. Almost gone is the rigorous and challenging intellectual life on America's college campuses, replaced by censorship and Doublespeak. Conversation has become dull and boring. The American mind has officially closed up...put out of business by the Internet.
Could The Closing Of The American Mind be written today? Could The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind be written today? Probably not, for they accomplished their purpose, albeit in a losing cause. The battle was won on November 8th but the war was lost. We had an opportunity in the past year to humble ourselves before our Creator but chose another road. We are the high and mighty right now....we conservatives....but we may soon find out that that which we hoped for.....political power.....was not the answer....Where do we then turn.....another political savior?
I submit to you that we will by then have had our fill of trusting in men and princes and ourselves. When that happens.....should God will it.....we will put a Bible in front of us as if it were the very first time. We'll open it and immediately hope will fill our heart. "What is this....I've seen these words before....why are they now penetrating a part of me I didn't even know existed?" We will devour the words....stare at them....pause and look up to heaven as they sweeten the palate....lift them to our face to take in the beautiful fragrance where there should have been mustiness!
At sixty-seven years old and thirty-five years bringing up the rear of God's army marching towards heaven, I now dwell on verses... and on individual words. Why have I been so fortunate to have been given this treasure? Of course I know the answer....in that God ...".... giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." So, why are you reading this post when somewhere in your home is the greatest treasure on earth? Please go to it...."Take up and read"!
Lifeguard On Duty
The Psalmist pondered this question in the eighth Psalm...."What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.....O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
If I have learned anything about man in the thirty-five years of my Christian walk it is the intellectual frailty of man. Not in technology and the various professions and crafts for man's abilities only amaze, but in common sense and logic is where our weakness is, and even here it can be great and honor God at times, but when it is absent all hell breaks loose.....and that is where we are today!
I was a blue collar middle class union member my whole adult life and there is nothing that I desired that I could not have. I couldn't buy a Maserati...but I didn't desire a Maserati. I don't live in a mansion overlooking the sea but I'm very happy in my home in our little town. I have been blessed so much that I weep at God's mercy upon one who deserves none of it.
How is it possible that God is not in our minds every hour of the day? How is it that we cannot see Him in the majesty of the sea, the grandeur of a fertile valley, the beauty of a flower and the wonder of a bird? How can we even stand erect in His presence without the aid of an angel? And how can we focus on the mundane necessities of life when His glory is everywhere? The answer is in our frailty which encompasses too much to adequately describe in a post such as this.
I write this to the reader who might somehow apply the word 'fanatical' to many of my Christian posts. On the contrary, whatever this rapt attention to God, you must go out and get! You must see what drives a Billy Graham or an R. C. Sproul! You must read the life of a Luther or a Spurgeon! You must read His Word with His Spirit forming your thoughts! You must do this before you take your last breath of which you have absolutely no idea when that will be.
The Christian who is not deemed to be fanatical by those who do not know Christ is in need. The happiness the world provides is not only temporal and fleeting but a poor substitute for what God offers. I'm writing this overlooking the sea, and directly overlooking a kiddie pool with contraptions that toddlers have fun in. One such contraption is a post with a bucket that is constantly being filled with a stream of water. Every minute and a half the bucket is full and then being top-heavy turns over and spills the water near or on the toddler to his glee. This is part of the Christian faith and the Christian life. The bucket is always being filled with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tipping it over is hopefully pouring it on others.
There is a lifeguard directly in front on me watching over everyone, and a yellow flag is perched next to him on the stand signifying calm but care is to be taken anyway. The surf is gentle right now but six hours from now he will put a black flag in the post that warns of dangerous currents as the tide is low and the waves are huge. This also is the Christian life. God's Word is the flag and right now in America it is blood red. A storm is approaching...or a tsunami...either way we have to be on full alert. I've lived sixty-seven years and have never seen this flag.
Friends, take joy in Christ if you truly know Him. Revel in His glory, prostrate yourself before His holiness, and stand with His sword at your side at times such as are quickly
Could The Closing Of The American Mind be written today? Could The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind be written today? Probably not, for they accomplished their purpose, albeit in a losing cause. The battle was won on November 8th but the war was lost. We had an opportunity in the past year to humble ourselves before our Creator but chose another road. We are the high and mighty right now....we conservatives....but we may soon find out that that which we hoped for.....political power.....was not the answer....Where do we then turn.....another political savior?
I submit to you that we will by then have had our fill of trusting in men and princes and ourselves. When that happens.....should God will it.....we will put a Bible in front of us as if it were the very first time. We'll open it and immediately hope will fill our heart. "What is this....I've seen these words before....why are they now penetrating a part of me I didn't even know existed?" We will devour the words....stare at them....pause and look up to heaven as they sweeten the palate....lift them to our face to take in the beautiful fragrance where there should have been mustiness!
At sixty-seven years old and thirty-five years bringing up the rear of God's army marching towards heaven, I now dwell on verses... and on individual words. Why have I been so fortunate to have been given this treasure? Of course I know the answer....in that God ...".... giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." So, why are you reading this post when somewhere in your home is the greatest treasure on earth? Please go to it...."Take up and read"!
Lifeguard On Duty
The Psalmist pondered this question in the eighth Psalm...."What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.....O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
If I have learned anything about man in the thirty-five years of my Christian walk it is the intellectual frailty of man. Not in technology and the various professions and crafts for man's abilities only amaze, but in common sense and logic is where our weakness is, and even here it can be great and honor God at times, but when it is absent all hell breaks loose.....and that is where we are today!
I was a blue collar middle class union member my whole adult life and there is nothing that I desired that I could not have. I couldn't buy a Maserati...but I didn't desire a Maserati. I don't live in a mansion overlooking the sea but I'm very happy in my home in our little town. I have been blessed so much that I weep at God's mercy upon one who deserves none of it.
How is it possible that God is not in our minds every hour of the day? How is it that we cannot see Him in the majesty of the sea, the grandeur of a fertile valley, the beauty of a flower and the wonder of a bird? How can we even stand erect in His presence without the aid of an angel? And how can we focus on the mundane necessities of life when His glory is everywhere? The answer is in our frailty which encompasses too much to adequately describe in a post such as this.
I write this to the reader who might somehow apply the word 'fanatical' to many of my Christian posts. On the contrary, whatever this rapt attention to God, you must go out and get! You must see what drives a Billy Graham or an R. C. Sproul! You must read the life of a Luther or a Spurgeon! You must read His Word with His Spirit forming your thoughts! You must do this before you take your last breath of which you have absolutely no idea when that will be.
The Christian who is not deemed to be fanatical by those who do not know Christ is in need. The happiness the world provides is not only temporal and fleeting but a poor substitute for what God offers. I'm writing this overlooking the sea, and directly overlooking a kiddie pool with contraptions that toddlers have fun in. One such contraption is a post with a bucket that is constantly being filled with a stream of water. Every minute and a half the bucket is full and then being top-heavy turns over and spills the water near or on the toddler to his glee. This is part of the Christian faith and the Christian life. The bucket is always being filled with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tipping it over is hopefully pouring it on others.
There is a lifeguard directly in front on me watching over everyone, and a yellow flag is perched next to him on the stand signifying calm but care is to be taken anyway. The surf is gentle right now but six hours from now he will put a black flag in the post that warns of dangerous currents as the tide is low and the waves are huge. This also is the Christian life. God's Word is the flag and right now in America it is blood red. A storm is approaching...or a tsunami...either way we have to be on full alert. I've lived sixty-seven years and have never seen this flag.
Friends, take joy in Christ if you truly know Him. Revel in His glory, prostrate yourself before His holiness, and stand with His sword at your side at times such as are quickly
