Lord's Day Post

                It was August of 2011....and my wife and I were vacationing on Hilton Head island. Sunday was our first full day. We usually arrive on beach vacations on a Saturday....and it is my habit to surf the web for a church to attend the following morning. That is not an easy thing to do....to find a church were the gospel will be preached. Often if all the Presbyterian and Baptist churches advertise on the web as a 'friendly church" or a "come and grow with us' type of evangelizing.....I'll then look for a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod....for I know that the liturgy at least will contain the gospel....and these churches usually turn out fine.
                Well that year at Hilton Head we did find a Missouri Synod church....and attended. It was announced that the regular pastor was away and that a retired pastor was filling in. I wrote a post on this back then....and that is why I can relate some of the details. Anyway....it was a wonderful sermon as that old man....("Old man?"....he was probably as old as  I am today)....he preached slow....and softly as I remember....but it was a glorious proclamation of the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ....and humbling sermon on our need to hear that our sins have been taken away by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross!
                As we were leaving.....(the people were very friendly)....a woman came up to us and in an apologetic manner told us that we should come back the next week when their normal pastor would be back. Well that my friends is the predicament that we are in today. The pastor has to be upbeat....stylish helps....and comforting. You have to leave church with a smile on your face or the pastor had failed.
                I've related this many times before.....(hey....it's been 15 1/2 years of posts so far)....where a young 15 year old Charles Haddon Spurgeon....(this was January of 1850)....where this young man could not get to his regular church because of a snowstorm....so he stopped into a Primitive Methodist Chapel on the way.....probably for warmth more than anything else.
                 Well the regular pastor could not even get to church so an elder was forced into the pulpit. While relating this church service later on in his life....Spurgeon described the man as not even able to pronounce all the words correctly. The man preached on Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none other." The pastor would say....."Look....all you have to do is look. It don't take a college education to look!"
                  The greatest preacher of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in at least the past two centuries....was gloriously saved that snowy morning. Spurgeon said later in life that not every man can go into a pulpit to preach....but God can choose any man to go into a pulpit and preach.
                  I could ramble on for a few more paragraphs on Charles Spurgeon....but there is a 110 minute....2009 documentary.....titled....C. H. Spurgeon....The People's Preacher....that you could....and really should....boot up on your computer....(no signing this or joining that)....and watch. I believe that you can type it into the search on ROKU and watch it.
                  Now....personally.....our television has only been on once on the Lord's Day in the past forty years. I'll relate that one time....it was Super Bowl Sunday.....I guess that I could look it up but can't remember the year....and my elderly mother had to have her Steeler games. Well I got a frantic call at game time.....the Super Bowl was not on! I told her....'Ma....the Steeler game must be on!" She was panicking.....'No it's not on!" What do I do....get in the car and travel 45 minutes to tune it in for her? I called the television station to see if there were any problems. No....the Super Bowl was just starting. I had no choice. I turned the television on on the Lord's Day in my home....and tuned in the Super Bowl....to prove to my mother that the Super Bowl was on....and then told her...."Let's do this. Do you see the little arrow that changes the stations?" She did. "Well....push it once....did the station change?" She said yes...."OK hit it again.....any Super Bowl?" "No!" After about fifteen or so pushes of the button she said...."Oh...There it is!"
                  I guess you really didn't need to know that all....but I might suggest to you that right now.....(it will probably be Sunday afternoon or evening)....that you put the world aside if at all possible....and watch this wonderful film....and be blessed!