For years have I sat under emotional and academic yet lifeless preaching about repeated affirmations of basic truths. It merely stunted my growth. But I believed I had to sit through it because it was the program, and I convinced others to do the same. The glaring truth stared me in my face the whole time yet I closed my eyes because the system was set up as such, that I had to be bodily present, never mind if my spirit remained unfed. It was assumed that the Spirit was always present in the external exercises, but the lives of those who sat with me told differently as they remained lethargic and uninterested.
In our first church, it was about the grandeur of gifts, achievements and humanism. In our second, comfort, richness, and identity. With our third, which professed to be reformed in doctrine but definitely not in deed, it was timidity and dead religion. There was rampant gossiping, backbiting, and taking sides. The pastor was then in a secret relationship with the youth leader who arrogantly berated us for not doing anything good for the church. With our fourth, hidden pride and using scripture as a weapon to bully the congregation and play the victim. After the last two traumatic experiences I've developed a sour taste for churches promoting themselves as heralds of truth while lording it over the flock. The last two fellowships did implement a certain degree of "discipline", but it was founded less upon a biblical application of scripture, and more on the biased personality of the minister.
I have always believed the river never rises higher than its source. And that the pulpit though occupied by men ordained - did not guarantee unction. Just because you own a restaurant does not mean you serve good nourishing food. I believe God has preserved true churches; they are still here, like diamonds in the rough. And they remain untainted by man's bias and kept pure in humility before the God of Scripture, wanting nothing to do with today's acceptable, social friendly church. Praise God for them. The congregation continues to intercede for faithful pastors, believers, missionaries, and their families.
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We are right in the middle of a great dearth of discernment much like that which the prophet Jeremiah had during his time. There was a program, but God was not in it. Because the people who were at the helm ran the exercise through the arm of the flesh, arguing with the saved instead of preaching to the lost. There is no shortage of churches today that claim to stand on the truths of Scripture, but what we lack is the power of the Spirit to mount an offense in the advancement of the kingdom outward. This lack is attributed not on the pew, but on the pulpit. The life of the minister is a great matter that is settled not in front of the church or in seminary, but in private. Like Moses in the exclusive intimacy of the cloud. Between only himself and God.
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Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine;
1 Timothy 4:16
Every workman knows the necessity of keeping his tools in a good state of repair, for 'if the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength'. If the workman lose the edge from his adze', he knows that there will be a greater draught upon his energies, or his work will be badly done.
It is true that the Lord.. can work with the faultiest kind of instrumentality, as he does when he occasionally makes very foolish preaching to be useful in conversion; and he can even work without agents, as he does when he saves men without a preacher at all, applying the Word directly by his Holy Spirit; but we cannot regard God's absolutely sovereign acts as a rule for our action.
He may, in his own absoluteness, do as pleases him best, but we must act as his plainer dispensations instruct us; and one of the facts which is clear enough is this, that the Lord usually adapts means to ends, from which the plain lesson is, that we shall be likely to accomplish most when we are in the best spiritual condition; or in other words, we shall usually do our Lord's work best when our gifts and graces are in good order, and we shall do worst when they are most out of trim. This is a practical truth for our guidance; when the Lord makes exceptions, they do but prove the rule.
For the herald of the gospel to be spiritually out of order in his own proper person is, both to himself and to his work, a most serious calamity; and yet, my brethren, how easily is such an evil produced, and with what watchfulness must it be guarded against!
It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it. You all know the injurious effects frequently produced upon water through flowing along leaden pipes; even so the gospel itself, in flowing through men who are spiritually unhealthy, may be debased until it grows injurious to their hearers.
It is to be feared that Calvinistic doctrine becomes most evil teaching when it is set forth by men of ungodly lives, and exhibited as if it were a cloak for licentiousness; and Arminianism, on the other hand, with its wide sweep of the offer of mercy, may do most serious damage to the souls of men, if the careless tone of the preacher leads his hearers to believe that they can repent whenever they please; and that, therefore, no urgency surrounds the gospel message.
We may miss our mark, lose our end and aim, and waste our time through not possessing true vital force within ourselves, or not possessing it in such a degree that God could consistently bless us. Beware of being 'shoddy' preachers.
Spurgeon, C.H. (n.d.), Lectures To My Students: The Minister's Self Watch. The Banner of Truth Trust.
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