Tomorrow will be a rare day in the life of the Christian church in America....a once a year day to be more precise....where the cross of Calvary will be preached just about everywhere.....the pulpits have to do this.....for how can you preach a resurrection without first mentioning the cross?
I am just not in total agreement anyway with the method of constructing sermons where the pastor picks a Bible verse....or verses.....and then explains them in the sermon. God's Word is perspicuous in that much of it is very easy to understand. So to me....what we have here are pastors explaining to us what is right before our eyes. We therefore....over time....rely on the pastor explaining to us what God has already given us.....(His redeemed)....the ability to do....but tomorrow....tomorrow the cross will be mentioned....and an empty tomb....it takes more than perspicuity here.....it takes the saving power of faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ....through His Holy Spirit....and it would have to be the Father's will!
This once great bastion of common sense....and rational thinking....America....and the Christian church within it....is now but a people of emails or texting or sound-bites or talking points....and it's time for some of us....laity and clergy alike....to step out in faith and break this mold....crush it in a thousand pieces.....and let God's Holy Spirit mold His church once again.
It's been my hope throughout the ten years of this....electronic pamphleteering.....that God would begin on a Lord's Day.....and shake the timbers of this church.....and move as a strong wind on wheatfields.....all across America.....not revival.....for that's too small a word.....not even an awakening....but a general awakening....a great awakening....where Christians from Bangor, Maine to Seattle.....and from Corpus Christi to Green Bay....fall on their knees....fall on our knees....in humility and repentance at our great failures......and that unbelievers.....showing up for their yearly sermon and egg hunt.....would encounter the Living God.....and fall to the floor under conviction of their need for a Savior....not an ethereal savior who shines nicely hooked to a necklace....but an Almighty Savior.....that blinds us in His light as in what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.....and a coming King.....with myriads of powerful angels. Ah but that's only my prayer. Let repentance begin to work O Lord....should it be your will....and let it begin within your church....and let it begin with me!
UPDATE....Tuesday.....April 23: I have heard no reports of pastors waking and/or warning their congregations. From the pulpits.....the message of the day remains...."ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT"
I am just not in total agreement anyway with the method of constructing sermons where the pastor picks a Bible verse....or verses.....and then explains them in the sermon. God's Word is perspicuous in that much of it is very easy to understand. So to me....what we have here are pastors explaining to us what is right before our eyes. We therefore....over time....rely on the pastor explaining to us what God has already given us.....(His redeemed)....the ability to do....but tomorrow....tomorrow the cross will be mentioned....and an empty tomb....it takes more than perspicuity here.....it takes the saving power of faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ....through His Holy Spirit....and it would have to be the Father's will!
This once great bastion of common sense....and rational thinking....America....and the Christian church within it....is now but a people of emails or texting or sound-bites or talking points....and it's time for some of us....laity and clergy alike....to step out in faith and break this mold....crush it in a thousand pieces.....and let God's Holy Spirit mold His church once again.
It's been my hope throughout the ten years of this....electronic pamphleteering.....that God would begin on a Lord's Day.....and shake the timbers of this church.....and move as a strong wind on wheatfields.....all across America.....not revival.....for that's too small a word.....not even an awakening....but a general awakening....a great awakening....where Christians from Bangor, Maine to Seattle.....and from Corpus Christi to Green Bay....fall on their knees....fall on our knees....in humility and repentance at our great failures......and that unbelievers.....showing up for their yearly sermon and egg hunt.....would encounter the Living God.....and fall to the floor under conviction of their need for a Savior....not an ethereal savior who shines nicely hooked to a necklace....but an Almighty Savior.....that blinds us in His light as in what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.....and a coming King.....with myriads of powerful angels. Ah but that's only my prayer. Let repentance begin to work O Lord....should it be your will....and let it begin within your church....and let it begin with me!
UPDATE....Tuesday.....April 23: I have heard no reports of pastors waking and/or warning their congregations. From the pulpits.....the message of the day remains...."ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT"
