Iron Sharpens Iron

 Journal Entry for my Book Study. 2.42AM. July 1st, 2021

Impatience will but lengthen out the days of sorrows. Every impatient act adds one more link to the chain; every act of frowardness adds one lash more to those who have already been laid out; every act of muttering will but add stroke to stroke, and sting to sting; every act of murmuring will but add burden to burden, and storm to storm. The most compendious way to lengthen out your long afflictions is to fret, and vex  and murmur under them. As you would see a speedy end of your long afflictions, sit mute and silent under them.

They shall last no longer than there is need, and then they shall work for your good. God will not allow the plaster to lie one day, no - not one hour, no - not a moment longer than there is need. Some flesh heals quickly; proud flesh is long a-healing. By affliction God heals some, but others, longer. 'If need be, you are in heaviness, through many trials," 1 Peter 1:6.

Consider this Christians,  that of all men in the world, you have the least cause, yes, no cause, to be murmuring and muttering under any dispensation that you meet with in this world. Is not God your portion? Chrysostom propounds this question, Was Job miserable when he had lost all that God had given him? and gives this answer, No, he had still the God who gave him all.

Thomas Brooks

In my juvenile years, when I was in the prime of my skateboarding, we were fond of visiting different cities in the Metro. I had choice friends whom I frequently hung with, our occupation was mainly on doing stunts and tricks on the flats, down the stairs, on the handrails, and so on. Those skills were fraught with real danger; a small miscalculation will send you to the hospital, and leave with a cast on. And so with this in mind, we all avoided taking risks, and stayed comfortably with what we can get away with. Until we met some American skateboarders who were very comfortable doing the dangerous things we deliberately avoided.

This encouraged us to attempt what we thought we could not do, or that which we thought we should not do. The longer we bonded with them, the more we became as good as them. Had we remained among ourselves, we would not have progressed.

The same mindset applies to modern Christianity. We either become as bold, as faithful, as zealous - or as timid, unbelieving, and disinterested with the things of God, as those we bond within. The saying that birds of the same feather flock together rings true to scripture: As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17 

There is a sickness I have seen in the psyche of the Filipino: the words of a fellow Filipino will only have credence if a foreigner says the same thing. Filipinos will crowd around a celebrity unashamed. I have seen this time and again during my time working with celebrities. People and families will inconsiderately ask to have a photo taken with them, as we were in the middle of our meal in public. The Filipino mindset is oversaturated with countless media influences that severely blur the line between simple admiration and respect, all for the sake of a photo they can show to their friends. Christians, and yes, the church -  are not exempt. 

The reason most Christians are suffering from contemptible zeal is they tend to flock with people who have the same. People commending people. Pastors commending pastors. Bias inside the church is alive and well. May the LORD grant us boldness to confront this sin. 

Gurnall puts it well, a minister without boldness is like a smooth file. The Christian will not attempt great things for God, because he has found it comfortable to remain in the company of those who do not attempt great things for God. And so he will settle for the things he CAN do; sing songs, sit in church, and listen to sermons he will forget next year. 

There can be no personal and congregational revival, until the church realizes it has dangerously strayed far from the sacrificial gospel, and sorrowfully comes back to it. A revival of religion can only be brought about by a revival of zeal for the word of God - in every family home. Not in church. The church is guilty of taking away family worship from the homes where it needs to be. It has unknowingly supported the neglect of family devotions. It approves of the idea, but it does not do anything to encourage and mandate it. 

There is no greater source of divine revelation than God's holy word, and our timidity has placed such a low premium upon it, and driven the modern professing Christian to simply fold his arms and wait for somebody to read and explain it for him. We will spend both time and money to study and master earthly courses 5 days a week for years in school, and we expect to grow in the knowledge of God half-heartedly attending an hour's worth of lecture only once a week. Seeking to bring about zeal in the heart of the Christian inside the church is to walk backwards. Thus the convents in the land are filled with fathers and mothers who have great interest in the church but very little interest in God; giving much to the church but knowing very little of God. Their children growing up to be the same. 

Hosea 6:6 
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Prophets were hated because of the nature of their office: declaring the counsels of God as it is. The same still goes on today. The most hated men in churches are those who cry out against its secret faults. And before any Filipino with a warped mindset reads this and marks it for being "offensively hurtful to their feelings",  I will instead quote Spurgeon: I am astonished at the number of Christians today who are afraid to speak the truth to their brethren.

Modern Sunday schools are the sad indication that parents are neglecting their God given roles as disciplers, and would rather have other people teach their children about God for them. This crippled and diseased mindset is fatal. Professing Christians must unabashedly revive reverence for the word of God in their homes and teach it relentlessly to their own children with or without the help of the unbelieving spouse, or they might as well surrender the nation to the devil.

There was a young man who with their entire rugby team, and their relatives, took a chartered plane for a cross country trip. Their plane crashed deep in the middle of the Andes mountains. A third of them were killed instantly. The survivors spent 72 weeks stranded in the freezing snow without food and water, as their remaining friends and families died one by one, day after day, week after week. Through an incredible instance they were rescued. Severely malnourished but alive they were all both joyful, sorrowful, and quiet. But as the world found out, the victorious celebration of their rescue turned into horror as it was later learned, that they have eaten the corpses of their friends just to survive. Thinking back on the incident now as an old man, on how we in society tend to complicate the simplest things, and take the ordinary for granted, he shares his realization.

"We have received a lot more than what we need, and have done a lot less than what we can."

Is this not true of the modern church? May God have mercy.