The Rock of Offense
The sad reality of modern day Christianity is that it has been reduced to a mere concept of being good. Doctrine and correct theology is indeed essential to differentiate what is true from what is false. But theology and doctrine was never ordained to bring down God's power upon the church. The first commandment is not 'Thou shalt love doctrine and theology', but this seems to have become the mantra for modern day Christianity.
Ask any group of young church goers to play games or music and they will happily indulge you. But rarely, if not never, will you find young people asking, nay, begging to pray instead. There is no brooding of the things of the Holy Ghost, no brokenness, no discontentment for not being able to take a hold on God. Am I being too harsh? Have you never heard of the little 7 and 8 year old children of Herrnhut, Germany who travailed and agonized in prayer? Your objection reveals your ignorance. An old puritan preacher was correct when he said, "many professing Christians know the word of God, but not the God of the word."
Our lack and unfamiliarity with persevering and unrelenting prayer necessitates we boast before men that we do Christian deeds, but our powerless intellectual preaching bring no conviction, our harmless but meaningless self-indulgences pander our pride, and we delude ourselves into thinking this is the pinnacle of our Christianity, and the Christian way of doing things. Hence we need to borrow and study the minds of other men who walked with God to maintain a program of preaching from a powerless pulpit to a powerless pew.
May the LORD revive our zeal for desiring Him. Only then can we make a difference amidst these dark days. This is a short excerpt from a sermon on Matthew 21:19-43, given to the blessed saints of Batia, Bulacan on the 13th of December, 2020.
with rev'rence and with fear.
though dust and ashes in your sight,
we may, we must draw near.
We perish if we cease from pray'r;
Oh, grant us pow'r to pray.
and when to meet thee we prepare,
Lord, meet us on our way.
Give deep humility; the sense
of godly sorrow give;
a strong desire with confidence,
to hear your voice and live;
Faith in the only sacrifice
that can for sin atone;
to cast our hopes, to fix our eyes
on Christ, on Christ alone.
uttered or unexpressed;
the motion of a hidden fire
that trembles in the breast.
that infant lips can try,
prayer the sublimest strains that reach
the Majesty on high.
the Christian's native air,
his watchword at the gates of death:
he enters heaven with prayer.
the Life, the Truth, the Way,
the path of prayer thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray!
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