Recent Reading And Research Makes Me Seek And Hunger For A Deeper Dimension Of Real Spirituality

There are things I am reading and hearing about in these present
days and if they be true then we are in dangerous times indeed.I am
reading that God is bypassing men, not because they are too ignorant,
but because they are too self-sufficient. If this is right then we
have to do something about it. Might it be the case that our abilities
are our handicaps and our talents our stumbling blocks? This is a
salutary thought.In the scriptures we know that Elijah lived with God,
and that he thought about the nation's sin like God. Elijah was most
powerful man of God. Do read about him. He grieved over sin like God
and he spoke against sin like God.Elijah was full of passion in his
prayers and passionate in his denunciation of evil in the land. Elijah
had no smooth preaching tongue. Passion fired his preaching, and his
words were on the hearts of men as molten metal on their flesh.When
looking around our nation in Scotland in the United Kingdom in
general, sin needs to be challenged with light of Jesus Christ. Would
it not be very similar in the United States of America? Debt and
immorality and greed and corruption and mismanagement are ruining
economies and personal finances. This is being written as Ireland face
crippling financial burdens and it will affect millions. What is
behind it all? The answer can come in one word and that one word is
sin.If we do not face up to sin and deal with sin the situation will
deteriorate.It has been said that if we will do God's work in God's
way, at God's time, with God's power, we shall have God's
blessing.Mere preachers may help anybody and hurt nobody, but prophets
will stir everybody and upset those who enjoy sin and think they can
do well by sinning. Prophets always challenge sine and usually they
have to pay a high price!A preacher may go with the crowd, but a
prophet sent by Almighty God goes against it.A man freed, and fired,
and filled with God will be branded unpatriotic because he speaks
against his nation's sins. It will not be easy to speak against sin
particularly when you touch the pockets of the rich who have been
ripping off the poor and deceiving so many.A prophet's words will be
regarded at times as unkind because his tongue is a two-edged sword,
as described in the letter to the Hebrew disciples of Jesus Christ.The
prophet may even be considers as unbalanced, because the weight of
preaching opinion is against him.Is it not so very true that we love
the old saints, missionaries, martyrs, and reformers? We will write
their biographies, and reverence their memories, and frame their
epitaphs, and even build their monuments. Is it not true that we will
do anything except imitate them? It has been said that we cherish the
last drop of their blood, but watch carefully the first drop of our
own!Recently it was suggested that much of our praying is giving God
advice. Our praying is discoloured with ambition, either for ourselves
or for our denomination. Perish the thought!Our goal must be God
alone. It is His honour that is defiled, His blessed Son, Jesus Christ
who is ignored, His laws broken, His name profaned, His book
forgotten, His house made a circus of social efforts. So much of that
is so true and I am glad I read it and have been challenged by
it.God's problem today is no longer communism, nor Romanism, nor
liberalism, nor modernism. God's problem is dead fundamentalism!"This
generation of preachers is responsible for this generation of
sinners." I found that challengingly true.Sin today is made to look
glamorous. as it is popularized and made 'acceptable', thrown into the
ear by radio, thrown into the eye by television, and splashed on
popular magazine covers.Those attending church services, it is
alleged, are tired, and leave the meeting as they entered it,
visionless and passionless!"Oh God, give this perishing generation ten
thousand John the Baptists!" proclaimed a prophetic preacher and
passionate evangelist. This would bring about a spirituality of a very
different nature!Sandy Shaw