We all have our own distinct personalities and characteristics. Some of us are extroverts while others are introverts. Some are inquisitive while others could care less. Some are easy-going while others are easily-angered. Some are optimists while others are pessimists....or realists.
There are today a lot of people who are known as....'preppers'....or.....'survivalists.' It's a radical idea unless one lives in Florida....where one is considered wise to be well-stocked up on food and water and various other....living-without-electricity....schemes.
The every-day evangelical of today is anything but a prepper....rather he is the eternal optimist. Actually it's a little worse than that....for any serious talk about God's judgment is considered obsessive and discouraging and divisive.....and doesn't Paul tell us to stay away from people like that?
There are more ways of prepping than with material goods. I cringe today whenever I hear of a church planning a new addition or some other major project that is not absolutely necessary. This is not a time for building. This is a time for preparing.
Joseph saw that coming seven year famine....and prepared for it.....for the obvious reason.....but also so that we learn from it. There is a figurative and literal seven year famine coming. We are in a famine of the word right now....which is why we cannot see what is just ahead.....indeed.....why we cannot see the storm that is already....from only the far outer bands....taking roofs off and uprooting trees. We have put in place no protection for the storm surge.
Our meteorologists....in other words our pastors....are not doing their jobs. They are not warning nor preparing anyone. Hey....maybe they don't know of the storm that is about to come ashore....I wouldn't be surprised as they are too busy trying to be perceived as being a cool pastor who loves his Steelers....but then maybe they are concerned....but without a sign from heaven they don't want to risk ridicule. That would be too bad for the signs are literally everywhere in God's Word and observable in the world....if they would but look as if they wanted to know the truth wherever it would lead.
So evangelicalism today is extroverted....we'll talk you blue in the face....but only of the good things to come. We are like Bunyan's Pilgrim at the beginning of his walk.....telling Pliable how great things are going to be. We as a church are about to be like Christian and pliable who fell into the muck and the mire. In effect....for many if not the majority of us....our pilgrimage will not even have begun until we emerge from the other side of the bog.
Addendum: I had second thoughts about the above post....and actually took it down for while as I looked back to find an older 'Lord's Day' post to bring back....and I came across that which is below....from May 31 of 2019....which at the time was only a preface to a post. The similarities were so similar to what I wrote today.....and had doubts about....that I'm bringing both back!
May 31, 2019
Will this be the Lord's Day where pastors begin to weep in their pulpits over what America has become? I don't think so....not this week anyway as Franklin Graham will have so many pastors dedicating their service to Donald Trump's successful 2020 campaign....but maybe next week as America continues to crumble. I have some advice for these pastors....forget what you learned about preaching in seminary or Bible school. If it has produced what we have today then it must have missed the mark somewhere. Try this....put down the paint brush for sprucing up the vestibule....and the softball glove to show everyone just how cool you are....put them down for a while and listen to a sermon every day on the computer from men from the past....one sermon every day. What? Are you already done with your learning? If not....then Martyn Lloyd-Jones might be a good place to start. A month of this and you may not be able to go into the pulpit anymore without pleading the mercies of God upon us....individually....and as a people.
Second Addendum....today September 1: I pray for pastors literally every day.... and throughout every day. Our primary defense is to be the gospel of Jesus Christ....not our pastor....although he may be a very nice man and of whom we love. You are going to have to figure out for yourselves what pastors we have to support and stay with....and what pastor....for the sake of our very own soul....we have to leave them to what they do. I'll give you here a sermon by Charles Spurgeon delivered on February 21, 1886....as he was in the midst of the Downgrade controversy....where he defended the gospel against the modern liberal gospel that was taking over England. He is pleading for prayer for himself here....for strength! the title as you see below is....Pleading For Prayer.
