I was listening to somebody preaching yesterday while I was driving all over NW Arkansas for work, and he said that it's a shame that so many people go into Christian bookstores these days and keep buying up more judgment against themselves.
Dadgum.
The post is about Christians who don't get anything out of sermons because they don't know how to listen to preaching. Unfortunately (or fortunately!), as Spider Man's uncle said, "with great power comes great responsibility." In other words, with every portion of the word your faithful pastor rightly divides, you have fewer and fewer excuses for sin, and more and more truth for which you are accountable before God.
Read that quote again:
...it's a shame that so many people go into Christian bookstores these days and keep buying up more judgment against themselves.
That convicts the heck out of me, folks. How often have I read a jewel of Christian writing, or listened to an excellent sermon, and gone right on with my tragic, sinful plans? Times without number, I confess. I take too much delight in the reading of many books and not enough delight in applying the truth contained therein.
My prayer is that I would recognize what a great responsibility it is to learn the ways of the Lord, and that He would enable me to live what I learn.
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3 comments:
That is a good thought. Maybe those with alot of books should just read the same ones again, I'm not sure. Maybe some people need to read less paperback self helps, and more bible. I need to read more.
I think paperback self-help books are the root of all evil. Or, wait... but they are pretty bad anyway.
Thanks for your contribution Jonny.
Dearest Dadgum,
This note is for you. Laura writes to you, Dadgum. You are hard-headed, lazy, self-centered, full of sinful naughtiness, etc. Since my own congregation won't be reading this comment, allow me to say that you, Dadgum, sound a lot like my congregation. Unfortunately, though I loathe to mention it, you also sound like me. It's easy to get wrapped up in the experience of music, but really thinking about the worship service, especially preaching, requires thought. It requires meditation, self-examination, real worship, and suffering. Some sermons require more suffering than others (even mine occasionally...ok, maybe "often"), but as Christians we are called to suffer. So, Dadgum, remember the words of a wise person I once knew, "Satan only needs demons of Laziness and Stupidity." Why didn't C. S. Lewis think of that? It would have made a great book.... Who is this "Dadgum"? Is it the congregation at Sojourn, maybe my congregation, maybe me, or even (gasp) Laura? No, "Dadgum" is all of us. Sometimes it is so terribly painful to be humble and admit such things, but God give us the grace to admit it and the strength to overcome by the cross of Christ and all it represents.
Silly yet serious,
Heath, a.k.a., a "Dadgum"
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