It Was Going So Good! And Then...Welll....
Let's just say that I once again noticed a familiar refrain in this article.
As I was reading it, I came across this passage and got really excited:
The evangelistic strategy will be "flexible, multifaceted," Page said. It will encompass "the more traditional people within our convention and the more contemporary or non-traditional people, old and young, various styles and philosophies of evangelism and church planting, Calvinists, non-Calvinists, various people groups ethnically and various groups from the geographical areas across our country
Wow...you had me at Hello! I was fired up, excited, and anxious to read more. Perhaps, things were headed in the right direction. And, as almost always in the case, the high point was indeed followed by a less than stellar rest of the article. I read this and realized just how little is really going to change:
Asked if he believes revival in the SBC is possible, Page said he does, noting that God voices "no equivocation" in 2 Chronicles 7:14. "I am convinced that the way to turn it around -– [struggles the SBC is having with] baptisms, soul-winning, church transformation -– is going to be through a movement from God that 2 Chronicles 7:14 tells us must be prefaced by our humbling, praying, seeking His face and repentance," Page said.It is probable that "in our current culture we're going to continue being in love with things, activities that are not of God, priorities that pull us away," Page said. "I believe God wants us to have a broken heart. And so far, I've seen no broken hearts except on rare occasions."But if enough of God's people get serious about those requirements [in 2 Chronicles 7:14], those prescriptions for revival, then I believe revival can occur," Page said
Do you see the problem with this prescription. It is all based on MAN's ability. If man watches less pornography, then we'll see true revival. If man spends his family into debt less, then we'll see revival. If man cuts off fewer people in traffic, then we'll see revival.
The only problem is that MAN CAN'T BRING REVIVAL and focusing on NOT DOING THINGS is NOT the path to revival. It simply isn't. Search the whole article and you'll see the name of Jesus exactly ZERO times. NONE. ZILCH. NADA.
If we are going to see revival, it has to be by falling in love with Jesus and talking about HIM incessantly and painting Him as powerful and as beautiful as he is. And the crazy thing about that, is that Jesus controls every bit of it. I agree with Dr. Page that prayer is the key. Passionate prayer for Jesus to do something only He can do. God, grant me a heart of flesh. God, take my heart of stone. Jesus, be my righteousness. JESUS, JESUS, JESUS. Maybe if we talked more about Jesus, The Whole Jesus, and Nothing But Jesus and less about strategies, we'd see a spiritual fervor and honoring of God that we desire.
It will not come about by following the Law better.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
2 comments:
Marc, here are some inadequate answers to your queries:
1) An HTML tag is a bit of code that is used to alter the presentation of a text. Each "tag" surrounds the word that it modifies and must be opened and closed. For example, < i > word < / i> (with no spaces) would render, word. The first < i > opens the "tag" and the second < / i > with a backslash closes the tag. Some of the tags are intuitive (i.e., < b > is the tag for bold; < strong > also works for bold), but some of them are more complex. With HTML tags you can do a variety of different things, including display links (though if you link to more than a couple things in a comment, it might be considered spam by many blog services). Not all tags are recognized by all blogs or websites. There are many introductory web pages that give an overview of HTML, like this one.
2) A trackback is like an "acknowledgment" of sorts. Regarding blogs, it shows in the comments section of a post any blog or site that has linked to that specific post. The mechanics of this are explained here.
3) Most site monitoring services provide records of incoming links, but the best place I've found that you can see who permanently links to your site is Technorati.com. You simply have to claim your blog (after you set up an account), and Technorati will monitor how many permalinks your site gets, and will subsequently rank your blog accordingly.
I hope this helps.
I just linked to your blog from Tim Challies. I like your posts. It is funny how similar the posts are to my and other reformed type blogs. I am really thankful for the internet and good books to open my eyes to things I had never heard in the SBC.
Post a Comment