My wife and son and I were passing through a medium size town in Pennsylvania many years back....and attended a local Presbyterian church for the Lord's Day service. It was Mother's Day. The gentleman in the pulpit was polite in his speech....and preached a typical Mother's Day sermon. This was a denomination that such a sermon should never have been given. I asked my wife and son at the end of the service to go on ahead of me.....and told the pastor very calmly and even softly.....so that no one else would hear....that that was a terrible sermon.....where Christ was not preached.
I was ready for his rebuke. I didn't care. I would do the same thing that 16th century English Protestant pastor Rowland Taylor is said to have have done when told to report to a trial for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ....I would "tell him (the bishop in Rowland Taylor' case) to his beard....that he doth naught."
The man was about my age.....probably about 55 at the time. He looked at me.....with a sincere loving face that a Christian should have.....and apologized. He said that he was only filling in for the pastor who was called away....and he did the best that he could.
OK....what to do now? I had been rebuked and humiliated by love. It was me that here God "trieth and correcteth." My memory is a little bit hazy.....but I believe that I wrote a letter to him when I returned home....asking for his forgiveness.
I no longer so rashly challenge anymore. When put in that situation today....and it does happen sometimes....I sit....and I listen....and I pray....but I write these posts....that if it is God's will....they will somehow appear on some pastor's computer....somewhere....who does need to consider if it is he who...."doth naught."
Five English Martyrs post....March 5, 2019
I was ready for his rebuke. I didn't care. I would do the same thing that 16th century English Protestant pastor Rowland Taylor is said to have have done when told to report to a trial for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ....I would "tell him (the bishop in Rowland Taylor' case) to his beard....that he doth naught."
The man was about my age.....probably about 55 at the time. He looked at me.....with a sincere loving face that a Christian should have.....and apologized. He said that he was only filling in for the pastor who was called away....and he did the best that he could.
OK....what to do now? I had been rebuked and humiliated by love. It was me that here God "trieth and correcteth." My memory is a little bit hazy.....but I believe that I wrote a letter to him when I returned home....asking for his forgiveness.
I no longer so rashly challenge anymore. When put in that situation today....and it does happen sometimes....I sit....and I listen....and I pray....but I write these posts....that if it is God's will....they will somehow appear on some pastor's computer....somewhere....who does need to consider if it is he who...."doth naught."
Five English Martyrs post....March 5, 2019
