"Oh....He's Just One Of Those....Born Agains!"

                I don't know if you hear stories like this anymore....I don't....but in the 80s....(I guess that I should write 1980s.....for readers might ask....'80s....what's that mean?' Anyway back then this storyline was the norm in many places....someone would get....'saved'....or....'born again'....and to their friends and family that seemed like all they would talk about. A standard line that one might hear would be...."Oh he's (she's) one of those 'born agains'!" Looking back on those days....what a blessing to have been labelled like that!
                So I had a short drive ahead of me this afternoon....and booted up a Charles Spurgeon sermon to listen to. I didn't have time to search for a new one....so I picked one that I heard many times....The Holy Spirit....The Need Of The Age. Now....please bear with me on this....for it's a little difficult to explain. There are various options....one of which will play the sermon.....(read by someone else obviously)....and every fifteen minutes or so an advertisement will suddenly interrupt the sermon. I'm used to it and it only takes two seconds to reach down and press the skip button.
                 So today....the reader....with a British accent....began with Micah 2:7...."O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straightened? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" The flow of the sermon could be described in these words of Spurgeon very early in the sermon...." 'O thou that art called the church of God'...to be named Christians, and not to be Christians, is to be deceivers or deceived." This was an 1887 sermon and Spurgeon was lamenting what the church was becoming.
                 I'm listening as intently as I can....hoping to glean even more than the first few times that I heard the sermon....and all of a sudden came Donald Trump's voice in a political ad....(they don't give you any warning here)....."We will make America powerful again....we will make America wealthy again....we will make America strong again....we will make America proud again.....we will make America safe again....and we will make America.....great again." It was only about twenty seconds of a Trump speech....and then the British accent reading Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon continued with this...."I believe, brethren, that whenever the church of God declines, one of the most effectual ways of reviving her is to preach much truth concerning the Holy Spirit. After all, He is the very breath of the church."
                  I have nothing profound to add to this other than to say that when I heard the abrupt change from a British accent of a Spurgeon sermon....to Trump....back to the British accent reading the Spurgeon sermon....I think that I just laughed actually....and looked at it as an opportunity to write a small post with a link to the sermon. And here it is....