I listen to bare minimum two sermons a day from....men of the past....or men today who preach like men of the past....and I have for years. Why am I telling you this....as it only will get you mad at me for one reason or another? I tell you this because no one else is going to tell you that you need to hear God's Word preached in power as it has been preached in the past....and your pastor is not going to lead you in this direction....because he may have no idea....having settled long ago into therapeutic preaching to people's felt needs. May God have mercy on these shepherds today who voluntarily took on the responsibility of feeding the sheep....but only feed their careers. This is the sad church age that we live in at the present moment. I tell you also because it is one reason that I....along with multitudes of other brothers and sisters in Christ....know that these are not just perilous times that we live in....but that The Lord of Glory is most certainly at the very door. Test me on this! Google Spurgeon sermon youtube....or John Piper....or MacArthur or Michael Horton or J. C. Ryle or Martyn Lloyd-Jones or Michael Reeves or Derek Thomas....and see if God's Holy Spirit does not grab onto you and bless you in ways that would astound you. Incorporate the helps that are there for you....for God blessed men like this....to bless you! They are out there but someone has to point you towards them!
There are two murder scenes in the news....one from yesterday in Pennsylvania....and one from today in Northern California. I've been doing this commentary here for a long time folks....but I cannot bring myself to describe them. You can look them up if you wish. Violence as in the days of Noah....do we even remember that concept? I certainly have no excuse but neither does the reader here. We are there folks....and if it turns out that there is substantial time left....then we wouldn't even want to be there. On those news stories....apparently they are not salacious enough to make the top of the page.
"Therefore the showers have been withheld." Jeremiah 3:3 The 'showers' here would be blessings that God had not given Israel. I'm not going to attempt to put a date on it but will say that it has been many years....that the showers have been withheld from America. We wonder about that....why has God stopped blessing us? Our mistake is that we put the blame on Progressives and Democrats and all the rest....that's why God has not blessed us....but the blessings stopped further back than we want to admit. We went after our idols long ago....all of us in America....and forgot God....and now when we go to Him.....he in as much as says....again as from Jeremiah...."But where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them arise." (2:28a) God is telling us....'you thought you could protect yourselves....well go ahead and do it'....but even here He says to us...."Yet return to me." (3:1b)
Is it possible that the Lord's Day.....known today only as Sunday.....has become to evangelicals a day of rest....from God? We deal with the world on the other six days....and God can at least come into our mind and conversation amidst the insanity....but do we on Sundays rest from the world....and consequently from God also. Don't agree with me? Pot Lock dinners after the service....when is the last time you went to one and anyone talked about or even mentioned our Lord and Savior....and coming King....or even the sermon? Yet this is called Christian fellowship. Yes they promote friendship and togetherness and hospitality and generosity....but that strengthens my hypothesis....that because it is Sunday....and we went to church....or we are in church....God talk or Bible talk is a redundancy....superfluous.
They are not going to be able to contain artificial intelligence. Pandora's Box has been opened.
Movie stars get old....the become elderly....they die.....from one generation to the next....and we never learn anything from that....for there is always the new crop to keep us wandering the expanding metaverse.
God told Judah in Jeremiah 11:13..."For your gods have become as many as your cities....and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up...." Friends....wherever you go in America....in cities of any size to them....there is going to be a major league sports teams of some sort....or college teams. They may not be idols to everyone....but they are all idols or gods to some. Go back a little further than a century and we didn't have any of this. Television is an idol to some....movies and all kinds of entertainments are idols to some. I know because I worshiped at these altars....and still struggle with some.
