Tomorrow is another Lord's Day. As I type right now many men are putting the finishing touches on their sermon. They will enter their pulpit or more likely step behind the lectern and give that sermon....and nothing will happen.....because nothing ever happens anymore...but then maybe tomorrow! Maybe God is at this moment preparing 7000 pastors out there? Maybe they are right now sitting under a single light in an otherwise darkened room pleading with God to give them words to wake not only their congregation but this generation up? Maybe tomorrow as the heat wave broils much of America that the Holy Spirit will move across the American church as wind blowing in waves wheat fields.
A lot has been made of the recent Summit with North Korea....nothing will come of this. The next few weeks will most likely give hopes for a Middle East peace....nothing will come of that either. We simply do not adequately understand the implications of a twenty-one trillion dollar national debt. Right now we are a nation of chaos. All of this does not even mention geological and cosmic possibilities that God only has to will into action. We have one hope and one hope only....the Lord Jesus Christ....and His coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
There's no specific day that I can remember when I came to faith in Jesus Christ.....but Oh what a time period it was! The gospel was everywhere. I was a coal-fired power plant operator and if I wasn't covered with coal dust then I was ankle deep in lime slurry. New Christians seemed to be everywhere. We had prayer meetings after working a midnight shift! Christian bookstores were everywhere. Billy Graham crusades were on television.....and the books.....the books actually addressed the mind.
One major weekly magazine named 1976....'The Year of the Evangelical.' Our President said that he was 'born again.' Charles Colson....one of the Watergate conspirators....became born again. The 700 club was a force with which to be reckoned. R.C. Sproul was introducing the church to the holiness of God which had a transforming effect on Bible study. Sound biblical ministries were everywhere on the radio. An astronaut who walked on the moon could only see God's glory in the heavens....and one of the best and most fanatical basketball players ever to play the game....after coming to Christ....regretted that his life up until then had been more basketball than the Bible. Christians were actually reading and studying John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress....I've read it a dozen or more times and listened to it on cassette an equal number of times....Charles Spurgeon read it 100 times in his day! David Wilkerson preached the glory of Christ like George Whitefield. Christian music was simple yet profound. A wonderful and humble man was our President. Nightline type of television shows would choose Jerry Falwell to interview....and he would keep his head up....smile confidently....look straight into the camera....and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
I remember that time period.....and I came in late....I remember it as Jews must have remembered their temple......and I often feel like weeping at what has become of America since those wonderful days. No longer are there Christian bookstores in just about every community....no more Billy Graham crusades.....no more R. C. Sproul......Bunyan's book is never read....but we're really not aware of any of this....and when you're not aware of something.....you don't know what you are missing.
How had all this started? Well I don't know....but I know this....God started it....and if it happens again....then it would be He that starts it again. I know what we need though. We need an unction in our pulpits.....tears if necessary.....we need to dust off our grandparent's books if they are still stored away somewhere. We can still listen to Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul on our computers....but there is one thing that we must understand.....our beloved nation is crumbling fast.....chaos is everywhere....our enemies are taking advantage of it....and politics cannot save us!!! If we could only see the mist from the falls that are just ahead....and hear the roar of the water that will soon crush us....then we might look to what is our only hope....cast off our unbalanced dalliance with politics....and call out to Him whom we have presumed upon....."Have mercy on us Lord.....for thy name alone....and for thy glory alone!"
NOTE: There are two older books....but easy to find....that I would recommend. The first.....The Holiness Of God by R. C. Sproul (1984) was instrumental in the gospel fervor of the 1980s. The second....Ashamed Of The Gospel, When The Church Becomes Like The World (1993) by John MacArthur....focuses on the church in England during the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Both books can help us put politics in a more proper perspective.
A lot has been made of the recent Summit with North Korea....nothing will come of this. The next few weeks will most likely give hopes for a Middle East peace....nothing will come of that either. We simply do not adequately understand the implications of a twenty-one trillion dollar national debt. Right now we are a nation of chaos. All of this does not even mention geological and cosmic possibilities that God only has to will into action. We have one hope and one hope only....the Lord Jesus Christ....and His coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
There's no specific day that I can remember when I came to faith in Jesus Christ.....but Oh what a time period it was! The gospel was everywhere. I was a coal-fired power plant operator and if I wasn't covered with coal dust then I was ankle deep in lime slurry. New Christians seemed to be everywhere. We had prayer meetings after working a midnight shift! Christian bookstores were everywhere. Billy Graham crusades were on television.....and the books.....the books actually addressed the mind.
One major weekly magazine named 1976....'The Year of the Evangelical.' Our President said that he was 'born again.' Charles Colson....one of the Watergate conspirators....became born again. The 700 club was a force with which to be reckoned. R.C. Sproul was introducing the church to the holiness of God which had a transforming effect on Bible study. Sound biblical ministries were everywhere on the radio. An astronaut who walked on the moon could only see God's glory in the heavens....and one of the best and most fanatical basketball players ever to play the game....after coming to Christ....regretted that his life up until then had been more basketball than the Bible. Christians were actually reading and studying John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress....I've read it a dozen or more times and listened to it on cassette an equal number of times....Charles Spurgeon read it 100 times in his day! David Wilkerson preached the glory of Christ like George Whitefield. Christian music was simple yet profound. A wonderful and humble man was our President. Nightline type of television shows would choose Jerry Falwell to interview....and he would keep his head up....smile confidently....look straight into the camera....and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
I remember that time period.....and I came in late....I remember it as Jews must have remembered their temple......and I often feel like weeping at what has become of America since those wonderful days. No longer are there Christian bookstores in just about every community....no more Billy Graham crusades.....no more R. C. Sproul......Bunyan's book is never read....but we're really not aware of any of this....and when you're not aware of something.....you don't know what you are missing.
How had all this started? Well I don't know....but I know this....God started it....and if it happens again....then it would be He that starts it again. I know what we need though. We need an unction in our pulpits.....tears if necessary.....we need to dust off our grandparent's books if they are still stored away somewhere. We can still listen to Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul on our computers....but there is one thing that we must understand.....our beloved nation is crumbling fast.....chaos is everywhere....our enemies are taking advantage of it....and politics cannot save us!!! If we could only see the mist from the falls that are just ahead....and hear the roar of the water that will soon crush us....then we might look to what is our only hope....cast off our unbalanced dalliance with politics....and call out to Him whom we have presumed upon....."Have mercy on us Lord.....for thy name alone....and for thy glory alone!"
NOTE: There are two older books....but easy to find....that I would recommend. The first.....The Holiness Of God by R. C. Sproul (1984) was instrumental in the gospel fervor of the 1980s. The second....Ashamed Of The Gospel, When The Church Becomes Like The World (1993) by John MacArthur....focuses on the church in England during the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Both books can help us put politics in a more proper perspective.
