I started my day with a little bit of Charles Spurgeon's wisdom. Sometimes I grow weary of "swimming against the tide"--of fighting against our seemingly inpenetrable culture of "live and let live," a society steeped in Hindu values and Hindu mantras:
Don't confront . . . . Accept.
All religions are true and worthy.
The great 'I' is the center of all.
The Hindu mindset produces a terribly apathy and what I call the "Oh well" attitude in the hearts of some Christians (and I was one of them). It's easier to live and let live; easier to accept all religions as having a right to exist; easier to smile and nod and say, "Whatever works for you."
My neighbor is a Mormon. Oh well . . .
My brother will spend an eternity in hell. Oh well . . .
The holy name of Jesus is a curse-word. Oh well . . .
Sin is everywhere. Oh well . . .
It's very difficult to break free from the sticky web of self (and satanic) deceit: I'm not important . . . I can't do anything to stop this.
But . . .
The truth of God says you are a VIP: Vitally Important Person.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God ! 1 John 3:1
The truth of God says that all religions DO NOT have a right to exist.
"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
The truth of God teaches us to confront.
"Brood of vipers ! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:34-35
The truth of God transforms and empowers us to change our world.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19
It's so wonderful, when you are weary, to wake up and discover the refreshing words of a great man of God:
"Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy law." Psalm 119:53
My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David's cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness; Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel's vision, were those who sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem.
It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder, because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man's highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in others horrifies a believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, "He fell to-day, and I may fall to-morrow."
Sin to a believer is horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God to His face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it, the just God will have it, or repay His adversary to his face.
An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin's fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord's enemy--view it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. *
* Biblesoft, 2002.
4 Comments:
You sound a lot like my Pastor in kirkland, Washington.
please post november listening library, i have been emailing the links to my sister in Boston.
Great material!
Only there's something often abstract even in the material covered by the greats like CHS. Ownership of sin.
The longer I live the more I see that what Paul (in Romans 7) speaks about it being no longer I that sin but sin lives in me, refers to our positional righteousness (credited to our account but not actual righteousness on our account).
To put it another way, all the times my parents and grandparents cornered me and said "why did you do this?" and I would always say, "I dooon't knooooow" now has a very concise answer... "because it's natural for me too" or "why wouldn't a sinner sin?"
Peter, for all his goof ups at least was right on the mark when he said from day one "depart from me Lord I am a sinful man."
Dr. Walter Martin and Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse were also right on the mark pointing out the fact that we sin because we are sinners. Dr. Martin used humor more often than not "come on you hypocrites, put up your hands..." and Dr. Barnhouse usually listed the 7 deadly sins and applied them to sternly to believers (as did Dr. Peter Marshall Sr.).
What the modern Church has done is taught a happiness Gospel that while positive and upbeat negates the fact that we are only sinners saved by grace. That we still possess a sin nature and that it must be sternly kept in check by each of us especially now that we are all ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
The world sees little or no difference in us the message is Jesus doesn't mean enough to the believer for them to even try to change their behavior. Oh the world knows the difference between right and wrong alright. Watch them judge Christian behavior. They know how a "Christian" should act... therefore they know right from wrong.
I don't know, maybe I am making more of it than needs be. But it's like we disown our sin the way we talk about it and write about it. Forgetting that the Church (congregation) is a spiritual hospital as well as a spiritual university.
Incidentally, owning our sin is not (for the blood-washed Christian)a matter of feeling guilty all the time. That would be wrong, and the Church has too often capitalized on making believers feel guilty.
This is about responsibility rather than guilt... about feeling broken hearted (for the price our Lord paid for our sin) rather than guilty. If we approached our lives and each other and the world from this perspective what a difference it would make in the Church and in the world.
I'm ok you're ok
I'm just as good as the next guy
I never murdered anyone...
...all popular denials which played some role in the disconnect people have today with their sins.
God help us.
Nov. 7th news has Romney pulling ahead in South Carolina. What is the difference between voting for Rudy or Romney they are both not Christian. One is Mormon and the other very worldly. Right now Romney may pull an upset.
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