Let me start this post with a very important verse of Scripture....a verse that we in this modern and compromised church need to heed....Jeremiah 6:16....this from the ESV...."Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."
           Have your ever heard the word....anabaptists? They separated from the Reformation because they didn't want anything to do with creeds. They only wanted what they thought was the simplicity of the church at its beginning. They were going to be the pure church. It was a terrible mistake....and the Mennonites and the Amish came out of that movement.
           We do need to go back...but only to truer paths....and away from this church that has become too Laodicean....that no longer wants to be bridled by doctrinal truths....one of which is Matthew 11:12....this from the NASB...."And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has been treated violently, and violent men take it by force."
           This is one of those verses that we need help with....and the highly regarded Puritan preacher Thomas Watson was the first one to help me....from his well-known and greatly valued book....Heaven Taken By Storm....Showing the Holy Violence A Christian is to Put Forth in the Pursuit After Glory. 
           An army is full of soldiers....and soldiers by theory are violent.....and we are to be soldiers for Christ....so there has to be a holy violence on our march toward heaven. I'll try to make this short in describing the 'violence' that Thomas Watson writes about in his book.

We need to be violent in reading God's Word as a father's....last will and testament....to see what has been left to us...."pardon of sin and adoption and consolation."

We need to be violent in hearing God's Word....that we should prepare for....and expect our next sermon to possibly be the last time that we hear His word to us before we enter into glory. The advice that I give so often in these posts is that in this modern age of weak preaching....we should incorporate into our weekly lives....sermons from preachers of the past....and the few preachers today who preach like men of the past. It is so easy to boot up and listen to sermons from Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones or John MacArthur or R. C. Sproul and many others if we but put our minds to it!

We need to be violent in prayer....as Watson writes...."Mercy is purchased by Christ's blood....but is conveyed by prayer."

We need to violent in meditation. Spurgeon preached on this also....as we need to train our minds to push out the things of the world....and onto our Savior. Watson writes that...."Satan does what he can to hinder this duty. He is an enemy of meditation."

We need do violence through self-examination. Watson points out that...."the foolish virgins thought they had oil in their lamps the same as the wise."

We need to offer violence by sanctifying the Lord's Day. This is a hedge of protection....and today we have brush-hogged that hedge and replaced with artificial turf.

We need violence through holy conversation. Spurgeon lamented the fact that many in his congregation would leave a worship service and immediately enter into trivial conversation. He likened it to....(remember this would have been the nineteenth century)....striking the flint....(the sermon)....starting with small embers....and immediately upon leaving the church....putting the lid on the tinder box....before it could grow into a fire. Watson writes that holy conversation with brethren edifies....but that Satan wants to enter the conversation by taking us back into the world.

Watson writes that Christian violence is to be offered to Satan himself who tries to storm the castle of our heart....by force if he can...or by fraud....which would be deception. One striking example he makes is that a pirate ship often would hang out false colors....and that Satan attempts to draw men to evil under the pretense of doing something good. This is what politics has done to us today.

We need to offer violence to the world's lure for.....as Watson writes...."Filthy lucre."  

We need here also violence towards heaven...."Fight the good fight of faith." Watson rightly says that the way to heaven is not an easy one....and writes that Calvin rebuked Melanchthon in that...."he should not so affect the name of moderate....that at last"....he would lose...."all his zeal." Watson wrote...."to be lukewarm in matters of religion is far from offering violence to heaven.

             I have given here such a poor description of Thomas Watson's book....for there is so much more of Watson's thoughts. One last thing....that verse from Jeremiah six....has a few more words...."But they"....(the people of Jerusalem and Judah)..."But they said....'We will not walk in it.". So many have tried to get us back on the path....MacArthur and Billy Graham and Piper and especially Paul Washer....and we listened....but in as much as walked out of the church....and rejected the essence of what we heard or read!
               I'll end here with some of my own advice....to college students....because I am so often on their campuses. Seek others to meet with....and want to seek those old paths....just as John Wesley and George Whitefield and a few others gathered together at Oxford! Here's an idea....for starters....find a setting with a big TV....gather together....invite others....and watch that wonderful new film....A Great Awakening!