Discontentment
More thoughts on why the true seekers of God are discontinted with the typical church service.
From Fresh Power by Jim Cymbala – “Church services today in many places have become totally predictable, timed to the minute, devoid of any spontaneity, and with little or no sense of the Spirit’s presence.” “The very people who are thumping the Bible the most vigorously are often the ones trying to have a church without the Holy Soirit. They think that teaching alone can cause their members to live a ‘victorious Christian life’ — but it can’t be done without experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit.”
This mechanical, lukewarmness is nothing new. There are of course accounts in the Bible, but to bring it into perspective to the older generations who have shaped the church of today, A.W. Tozer made the following statement in a sermon preached during the first half of the previous century. “I say that a Christian congregation can survive and often appear to prosper in the community by the exercise of human talent and without any touch from the Holy Spirit! All that religious activity and the dear people will not know anything better until the great and terrible day when our self-employed talents are burned with fire and only that which was wrought by the Holy Ghost will stand forever!” – A.W. Tozer, Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts
Thus where we are today. Perhaps we should take Jim Cymbala’s advice – “If the spirit of our churches bears no resemblance to those in God’s Word, then we had better humble ourselves and admit it.”
from my notebook 