The news you broke to me last night was most distressing and disappointing. I feel sick even as I write this. It is so difficult to believe that reformed Christian ministers could be so tunnel-visioned when the church at large is dying. I recall how Nero mused while Rome burnt!
What is happening within our reformed constituency? I am tempted to see traces of Romanism emerging where it was effectively thrown down. Is this the old Phoenix of Rome rising from the ashes of your church?
It seems that if you had done something very wrong, you would not have been treated in a more unchristian manner. Why do Christian ministers not want to move on spiritually? Why is it assumed that so long as we are theologically correct, that is all there is? Men who assume this position are also those who do not see that anything is missing from church life today. They are like those self-righteous men who need no repentance. How sad!
Why is it that those who oppose spiritual advance are not the liberals and ecumenicals, but the men of our own ilk? I suppose Christ was wounded in the house of His friends. How much more will we find it so.
What a commentary! What a judgement! I am tempted to ask how God can bless and use such a church, but then again I think that it is churches like this that need His blessing most. Then I wonder how they would react if God were to visit them as they worship Him so correctly. These are my reflections on the situation.
Whatever you do, do not give up. Like you, I too am convinced that you are on the right track. You will find this a very lonely pathway - indeed anyone who goes ahead of the crowd will leave themselves vulnerable to attack from every quarter. Tozer: "It is hard to draw a crowd where the only attraction is God." The crowd, spiritual and otherwise, will stay far away when God starts to work. They do not want to get too close to Him, for He has the habit of messing things up, just when we thought we had got it all sorted out. He is an uncontrollable God - sovereign, almighty, surprisingly gracious, the God who does those who-would-have-thought things amongst His people.
You have put your hand to the plough - you cannot turn or look back. Keep going forward - onward and upward. It is through much tribulation that we will enter the Kingdom of God. 'Going through with God' as the old preachers talked about is uncommon in much of today's preaching. We tend to shy away from the cross, because it is too painful - in fact, rather than being something that evangelicals admire and wear as a badge, it is in reality an instrument of death.
Do you feel yourself to be on it, my dear brother? Do you feel as if you are being crucified? The way of the cross leads home; it is the way to glory. It is even a prerequisite of blessing, for after the cross comes resurrection life and power.
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