My wife and I have a philosophical difference in this one thing.....she will look at an object....any object....and say.....if I'm not using it right at this very minute....throw it out. I on the other hand will look at any object....and say....that somewhere in the future....twenty or thirty years possibly....I might have a need for just such an object. So in an attempt to breach this philosophical divide I have been trying my best to sort through things in the basement for most of this week to find some things to throw away....and I came across some letters-to-the-editor that I had written back in the 1990s.
I think that in the process I may have discovered why I do not have many friends....for in one letter....that the newspaper titled....Only God Can Save America....there was this paragraph...."And to the churchgoers who meet in their Bible studies once a week with a pencil in one hand and a doughnut in the other. I recommend that they put down the pencil and the doughnut and pick up a Kleenex. For as they meditate in Scripture surely tears should be produced by what they read." In retrospect I probably could have expressed the same thought in a different way....so....put down the doughnut....turn off the country music....forget the Super Bowl....and concentrate on the topic at hand!
I have been writing for a long time. Before these posts that began in November of 2008 I was putting out a newsletter....that I titled....A Pilgrim's Progress....and sent it out to 125 friends and acquaintances....and as I mentioned I wrote letters-to-the-editor....and there were journals where I was basically writing to myself. Back in the 80s and 90s.....before email and texting....we wrote letters.....with a pen and paper. I know that that may seem odd to you but believe me....the world existed for millenia using this type of communication. So I had to sort through all of these papers as I was working in my basement....and as I read through what were all basically.....my thoughts.....on this and that and anything....I was very disappointed....in myself. Oh I have always had the same love of country mentality....and I had always warned that America was going down hill fast....and there was always an unction for seeing men saved ....but looking back on it....it was twenty-plus years....of just....data in-data out.....regurgitating the thoughts of others....a follower. of someone somewhere...mistakenly confident that I was somehow advancing in maturity and knowledge. Yes....it was disappointing to say the least.
So as I look back at the past ten years or so....I have to confront myself....OK Special Dog....you do indeed know how evangelicalism has collapsed....and how the church accepted a genuine biblical destroyer false prophet into the fold.....and how the church....has little discernment or even a desire to gain wisdom on the return of our Lord and Savior and King....but do you not realize that you went twenty-five years basically in the same condition as they are now?
If you read my 'profile' to this website....written back in 2008....you would see that I rightfully consider myself the....least of the least. It's not that I have ever thought myself any better than anyone else....as a matter of fact I realized that I was nothing but a messenger....who God seems to want to make a point that anyone can be forgiven....and anyone can actually be used to warn and direct.
So looking back to the past fifteen years....I seem to be OK in reaching people in France or Germany or the Netherlands....or even India or Saudi Arabia or Vietnam....or California or Georgia.....but maybe not so good at reaching people on the next street over or the next town over. Ultimately my advice is not to stay and listen to me as if I were a street preacher...but more as a ship steward.....shouting to the people on the top deck who are standing around wondering what they were summoned out of their staterooms for.....and pointing them down to the second deck with all the lifeboats....and making sure that the boats are filled to overcapacity....not concerned about the waves capsizing the boats....for Jesus controls the waves....and will see these boats safely to harbor!
Note: In one entry to the journals that I read through....I was mad at our dog who I found drinking some dirty water....and then I saw that his water bowl was empty. Therein is the lifeboat for us at this time. As I am critical of how evangelicalism is drinking the dirty water of politics and false prophets and false teachers....it would do me well to remember that....our bowl is empty! We are not getting the preaching of the glory of Jesus Christ in the sermons of today. That is a simple fact....born out by history if one is aware of what preaching should be....so....go to the lifeboats.....Google the sermons of Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones or John Piper....these are three sure examples of the 'means of grace'....that we need!
