So much to do….
The legacy of Charles Finney – who taught salvation by moral fortitude, the unofficial religion of America. It is the religion of Ben Franklin and Ralph Waldo Emerson and the McGuffey readers, and it is deadly.
So now when we think of Christianity, we sigh and say, So much to do, so much to keep track of, so much, so much…
Do I shop there, or not. If I shop there I might be accidentally putting money in the wrong pocket.
Is it OK to watch this show? Is it OK to listen to this kind of music? Is there a list somewhere of what music is OK and what music might lead me astray?
If I am a woman, is it OK for me to get a job? Can I speak to a man and keep myself pure? Is it OK to go to dinner with friends?
If I am a man, is it OK to take a woman to the hospital? Is it OK to speak to her? Can I have a conversation with her and still be pure?
How should we raise our kids? Should we home-school? Private School? Charter?
Who should I ask? Should I read this blog or that blog? Can I ask a celebrity preacher to tell me what to wear, where to shop, what to read, what to listen to?
How much am I supposed to desire God? Do I desire him enough? What if I die and miss the mark? What if I am caught in an R rated movie when Jesus comes again.
I’m depressed trying to figure it all out. Should I see a therapist? Should I take a pill? Should I just talk to my pastor and have him pray for me? What if I do it wrong?
What if I make the wrong choices and am not masculine enough? What if I am not feminine enough? What if I die wearing the wrong color shirt or writing a poem?
I read the other day that worry was a sin. I wondered if I worried too much. Then I worried about it. That made me worry about worry, which made me anxious. And then a preacher shouted that anxiety was a sin. So I worried about that.
Worry, anxiety, depression, sin, trouble…
So many shouty people. So many ready to pounce and condemn. So much contempt for the outsiders.
What if they find out what I’m really like and throw me out? What if they already did, I just don’t know about it?
Stop. Rest.
This is why God gave us a Sabbath. That we might rest in him and know that he is the LORD God, and he alone sanctifies his people.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.
And rest.
The Jewish sabbath gives way to the everlasting Sabbath, where we learn to rest at the foot of the cross, and meet him outside the city, with the other outcasts. It is a good company. It is the company of those who learned to grieve this dying world and its lusts. So that we might gain Christ, and attain the resurrection of the dead.
Sing praises to our Redeemer and leave Finney’s legacy in the grave where it belongs. it is the old man. Crucify it with Christ and live.
Learn to walk in newness of life, and live!
My Only Comfort 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have had many of these questions answered through listening to your sermons over the last few years and it has been so freeing. God has gifted you with such a talent to preach and teach the scriptures and that has been my sabbath rest. I and my family will miss your weekly sermons and Bible studies on Sermon Audio so much. Keeping you in my prayers as you start your new ministry.
Thank you. After a brief sabbatical, it is my plan to continue. I don’t think that the Lord is finished with me just yet.
I don’t know how it will work out, but it it’s my intention to continue to preach online as much as I can. Follow me on Facebook or sampowellministries.com for updates!
Thank you for the kind encouragement
Welcome to a time when Jeremiah and Ezekiel are books to turn to for guidance, comfort and consolation!
We are plainly, now, in a time when God’s Judgement is plainly visible to all, having fallen on our world, three years ago. And God’s Judgement begins with the household of God; His judgement has been falling on His Church, for much longer, and in other ways just as plain in our divided nation.
If we can’t see God’s Judgement falling in Covid, we are truly self blinded, having superglued our eyes shut! If we can’t see it falling on the church in America, then we have become ‘blind guides’ like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day!
The ‘salt’ now divides and creates hostility, rather than seeking to reconcile a world hostile to God, as His ‘ambassadors of reconciliation’.
We have been given a ministry of LOVE; yet some preach that ’empathy is sin’… how clueless they are…
And the hurting suffer all the more, and their numbers grow. So God raises laborers for the large harvest that American ‘evangelicalism’ ignores, to its shame!
We need more ‘laborers’ who walk among the wounded, with the gospel message of true hope, for a radically different life than the empty promise of transient ‘material comfort’ the modern evangelical church proclaims. Jesus came to bring LIFE; a life John equates with ‘love’ and ‘light’, both. the LIGHT OF THE WORLD has come, the GOD OF LOVE has come, the God of LIFE offers NEW LIFE to any who come to Him!
a life meant to be SHARED in a true ‘community’ of faith.
Brothers and sisters, walking in LOVE, knowing the God Who IS LOVE, who CARES about Justice and Righteousness and Faithfulness and Mercy.
a Life is offered that begins NOW, an ETERNAL Life.
A life in community with one another.
So God leads us on paths that aren’t always easy; so that He might send some among the wounded in our world, allowing us to suffer in ways that shape and expand our hearts, so that we can speak with understanding to those around us who are wounded more severely, offering them a message of hope that WE KNOW, having come to know the God of LOVE, who ministers to us, and through us to others who are hurting. We walk as exiles among the exiles in our world.
We learn to value the love of simple empathy and ‘can relate’ to those in our world who suffer; hurting with them; HE bore all our hurts on the cross; the means for bearing those hurts, is the comfort HE offers to US and gives US to offer to OTHERS who are struggling. So we learn to speak the gospel in life, where it is seen first, and thus, can be heard and embraced by people who are struggling. Jesus walked among the hurting, ministering to them, day by day. And He calls all who are His followers, to walk in HIS Way, among the hurting in our world.
God gives us weakness so that we can walk in HIS strength, enabling others who are weak to gain strength in God, from the strength God gives us…
Brother, you have been a strong encouragement.
As have others whom God ordained to suffer wounds, that they might speak comfort to all of us who are wounded…
God be with you; make Himself known to you more fully, and work in you to continue to labor in HIS Kingdom in true ‘ministry of the gospel’ that He called and set you apart for.
God bless you, strengthen you, be with you and work mightily in and through you in the power of His Indwelling Spirit, as He leads you into a new venture in your lives.
Bill