Update: I'm wondering how many pastors from yesterday's streamed sermons may have had their congregations look inwardly....or led them in prayers pleading mercy for what has befallen America due our years and decades of increasing rebellion? My guess would be that it would hardly be any other than in small fundamentalist churches that may not be tech savvy but are Old Testament prophet savvy....or possibly small old-time Pentecostal churches that had never become more charismatic than holiness....or entertainment driven over maranatha driven....or maybe the few remaining older pastors who never were in their pulpits to please men....nor will they ever be.
So another Lord's Day is upon us.....but this is one such as we have not had in a number of years....if ever....for there are no sports to take away a certain percentage of the population.....no family gatherings to take away even more....no vacations....no music concerts....and no awards ceremonies to watch on the television in the evening. Well....there's one more thing that we won't have....there's no church services....at least in my part of the country anyway.....but honestly.....I don't know if that's a bad thing. There will be a lot of sermons streamed over the Internet....but it's even less likely that these pastors might actually attempt to 'prick the conscience' or show any urgency in their sermon.....for if they won't preach what is difficult to their own congregations....they certainly won't do it for a much wider audience.
Maybe you have read in the newspapers or on the Internet how a woman in California purchased a potted plant two years ago and gave it tender-loving care until just recently when in attempting to...."transplant it to a pretty new pot".... she discovered that it was a plastic plant.
If we during this crisis should go to the Internet for our sermons from men of the past such as Charles Spurgeon or George Whitefield.....or men of our day who preach like men from the past....such as R. C. Sproul or D. A. Carson or O. Palmer Robertson or Michael Horton....we might also find that we nurtured a 'plastic plant' in many of our churches for most of our lives.
Oliver North's lawyer Brenden Sullivan....during the Iran-Contra hearings....famously remarked when his objections were being brushed aside....."I'm not a potted plant....I'm here as a lawyer....that's my job." Well....I'm not a potted plant either. I'm here as one Christian who has taken the time to read of what God's servants once preached in their pulpits....and what I personally have found is that we have been....in most cases....nurturing 'plastic plants.'
So another Lord's Day is upon us.....but this is one such as we have not had in a number of years....if ever....for there are no sports to take away a certain percentage of the population.....no family gatherings to take away even more....no vacations....no music concerts....and no awards ceremonies to watch on the television in the evening. Well....there's one more thing that we won't have....there's no church services....at least in my part of the country anyway.....but honestly.....I don't know if that's a bad thing. There will be a lot of sermons streamed over the Internet....but it's even less likely that these pastors might actually attempt to 'prick the conscience' or show any urgency in their sermon.....for if they won't preach what is difficult to their own congregations....they certainly won't do it for a much wider audience.
Maybe you have read in the newspapers or on the Internet how a woman in California purchased a potted plant two years ago and gave it tender-loving care until just recently when in attempting to...."transplant it to a pretty new pot".... she discovered that it was a plastic plant.
If we during this crisis should go to the Internet for our sermons from men of the past such as Charles Spurgeon or George Whitefield.....or men of our day who preach like men from the past....such as R. C. Sproul or D. A. Carson or O. Palmer Robertson or Michael Horton....we might also find that we nurtured a 'plastic plant' in many of our churches for most of our lives.
Oliver North's lawyer Brenden Sullivan....during the Iran-Contra hearings....famously remarked when his objections were being brushed aside....."I'm not a potted plant....I'm here as a lawyer....that's my job." Well....I'm not a potted plant either. I'm here as one Christian who has taken the time to read of what God's servants once preached in their pulpits....and what I personally have found is that we have been....in most cases....nurturing 'plastic plants.'
