Friday, May 2, 2008

When the church desires the world...

In our present study of worldliness, I came across these three outstanding quotes...read and may we be affected...



Whatever commands our time, energy, and resources commands us. And if
we are honest, we will admit that our lives really aren’t that different from those of
our secular counterparts. I suspect that one of the reasons we are so ineffective in evangelism is that we are so much like the people around us that we have very little to which we can call them. We hang around church buildings a little more. We abstain from a few things. But we simply aren’t that different. We don’t even do hedonism as well as the folks around us … but we keep on trying. As a result of
this unfortunate accommodation, Christianity is reduced to little more than a spiritual crutch to help us through the minefields of the upwardly mobile life. God is there to help us get our promotions, our house in the suburbs, and our bills paid. Somehow God has become a coconspirator in our agendas instead of our becoming a coconspirator in His. Something is seriously amiss. -Tom Sine (Christianity
Today [3/17/89], p. 52)



John MacArthur, in his book “The Truth War,” states:



“We live in an age where church leaders are obsessed with style and methodology,
losing interest in the glory of God and becoming grossly apathetic about truth
and sound doctrine. Nothing in all the world is more important or more valuable
than the Truth. And the church is supposed to be ‘the pillar and ground of the
Truth’



Prayer by C. H. Spurgeon December 30, 1877:



"Lord, there are so many today who are running away from the truth. Oh,
that You would be pleased to speak by Your Spirit that Your word may be
known. Lord, hold us fast to the truth of Your word, bind us to it. May we
not be ashamed of the truth of Your word but proclaim it boldly without
compromise. May we not wish to be thought cultured, nor aim to keep in step
with the times. May we be side by side with You, O bleeding Savior; and be
content to be rejected, be willing to take up unpopular truth, and to hold
fast despised teachings of sacred Scripture to the end. Oh make us faithful
unto death."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent quotes.

Here is one I ran across today at lunch.

The world will lose its charms!
(David Harsha, "Christ, and Him Crucified")

"As for me, God forbid that I should boast
about anything except the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my
interest in this world died long ago, and the
world's interest in me is also long dead."
Gal. 6:14

There is nothing so animating to
the Christian as a sight of Calvary.

How despicable does the world appear
in his view, when he obtains a glimpse
of that cross on which his Savior died!

Everything else loses its luster when, by
the eye of faith, the cross of Christ is seen.

"A sight of Jesus on the cross,
Makes all this world appear as dross."

In this wicked world, the Christian thirsts for
God, and pants to reach the mansions of glory.

The Christian looks beyond this dying world
to his eternal home in glory. The cross of Jesus
enables him to soar on high, and leave the
world behind him. He looks forward to the
glory that is to be revealed in him. He sets
his affections on things above.

Oh, keep gazing on a crucified Savior,
and the world will lose its charms!

We overcome the world through the cross.

It is a sight of the cross of Christ that weans
the affections from sublunary objects, and
centers them on heavenly and divine things.

Take care my friend.

Matthew said...

Outstanding! Thanks bro! These are great! As I was reading some of those comments I was just thinking of how true it is that as a man grows in Christ, how he becomes more and more easily affected by the Cross...how a man grows in becoming "quicker" in loving God and hating the world. I see this in older men of the faith and think, "oh Lord, I want that now, and even more so then as I grow older in the Lord!"

That also gives me (as well as other pastors) hope that in the misdt of our attempts at gospel-centered preaching, people will still grow because it is through the word and His Gospel that people change. This is very encouraging. Too often, we, as preachers or leaders can try to animate people to the Gospel - which is not bad - but how comforting it is to know that "there is NOTHING so animating to the Christian as the sight of Calvary." This is not man-made, but instead born of grace. Good stuff! Thanks for your comments bro!