Generally....weather permitting....the birds are usually at my bird feeder early every morning....but there are exceptions....as right now.....for I was away this past week.....and therefore there was no food in the feeder. This always happens....after three or four days with no food....the birds give up on me. It is 10 am as I type this....the feeder is full....but no birds. It will take a few hours....maybe half a day....for them to come back.
Are we in evangelicalism not like that in a way with God? We crave the excitement of a music ministry....or the latest Jonathan Cahn book. We....as with the birds....want the free food from the old guy....instead of working to find it in the bushes. They're probably a bit peeved with me right now.
I had an interesting experience the first night in a hotel....a great blessing really. I walked out late in the evening for some air....and there was man sitting on a bench. I greeted him and made a comment on the fancy motorcycle parked there....he made a comment....and we wound up talking for quite a while. He had a beer can in his hand and was tipsy....but nice. I heard a good bit of his life story....and near the end....tears were rolling down his cheek. He talked about his small church that he fell away from. I was praying as I encouraged him as best as I could. We met again in the morning before we each went out separate ways....talked a little while....hugged.....and I promised him that I would faithfully pray for him for thirty days....as he was intent to go back to his church for the evening service when he got home....for this was the Lord's Day. Please offer up a prayer for John that the Holy Spirit would keep the enemy away from him during this time that he tries to return to Jesus!
Forty-eight hours from right now.....give or take a few hours....men will enter their pulpits. Somewhere along the line they felt a calling from God to be pastors and preachers....they prayed and maybe even cried a little over the next few hard years....and then somewhere along the since then....the tears all dried up....they settled in to running a church....trying to keep some sort of excitement coming for the congregation.
Forty years experience speaking here folks....the excitement is not in the music....or 'revivals' or events of any kind. The excitement....the real excitement....is in the realization that this was all true.....God picked the most undeserving of all....to have mercy upon! He gave us an inheritance that the government cannot take away or even tax! He gave us a book like no other book....for when you open it up you see a picture of yourself in torment.....you turn the page and see an outstretched arm....sweat and blood on it....a thick nail jammed into the flesh of the wrist....and you hear the metal to metal as the nail is driven through the wrist. Turn the page and you feel an earthquake....and see a giant purple temple curtain ripped in two. Turn the page and you are looking down upon yourself again....turning pages in a book....eyes wide open in amazement. Turn the page one last time and you read....
"He who testifies to these things says. 'Surely I am coming quickly.' Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus!' The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
Addendum: It is 11 am and the birds are back. Since posting the above I listened to John Piper's daily offering from his desiringgod.org website and recommend to you....God's Supercharged Promises.
