Need some proper reverence

‘My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.’  Jeremiah 2:13

So, to say it different…

‘My people, who are called by my name, have committed two evils in particular; they have cast me off and rejected me the fountain of life-giving waters, and they have dug themselves some new wells; but these are man-made and broken, and can hold no water, neither give any life to those who would seek to drink from them.’

The church lost the streams of living waters when it dug new water holes: but they are broken cisterns (broken wells) that can hold no water. 

The real truth is that the people who claim to know God have turned away from him, and have recreated church in their own image. In this new era of ‘popularity’ preachers and smoke machines, dancing ‘worship groups’ (so-called) gyrating round the stage, and fashion conscious audiences, there is hardly any difference between their performances and a high street nightclub without the booze.

But God never changed. (Malachai3:6)

He is not some modernized deity that changes his fashion according to the times of this world. He is the Ancient of Days. (Daniel 7:9) The church-goers sing about the Ancient of Days, but they view him as a God who compromises with all of our desires and expectations, and who we imagine he should be.

I saw this picture recently of one of the new songs a congregation was singing, with their hands raised above their heads like at a rock concert:

'God’s love is big, God’s love is great, God’s love is fab, And he’s my mate.'

What a load of nonsense! God is nobody’s ‘mate’. He is Almighty, unfathomable, unmeasurable in wisdom, power, and glory. He has need of nothing, and holds the entire universe together by his word. He is majestic beyond any comparison, and at his voice the mountains crumble to dust, the rivers dry up from end to end, and all the demonic powers of darkness flee and scream out in terror.

He is not your mate. He is holy; he is to be feared; he is to bowed down to; he is to be held in the highest reverence. He is surely a God of love, but he is also a consuming fire.  (Hebrews 12:29 and see the previous verse.)

And yet he calls us to him and makes us his children.

The modern Christian songs, with their uninspired cheap lyrics, cannot compare to the depths of previous generation song-writers who possessed a truly profound spirituality. 

One of the best things I ever did as a new convert was to get a copy of Redemption Hymnal, and learn the words of the songs. All the tunes are downloadable now, but of course the modern church just smirks, and dismisses this amazing godly heritage from the real saints of old as being too old-fashioned, and fit only for the bin. 

But just look at the depth and nature of such words,

Oh, this uttermost salvation! 

'Tis a fountain full and free, 

Pure, exhaustless, ever flowing, 

Wondrous grace! it reaches me!

It reaches me! it reaches me! 

Wondrous grace! it reaches me!

Pure, exhaustless, ever flowing, 

Wondrous grace! it reaches me!

How amazing God's compassion, 

That so vile a worm (as me) should prove 

This stupendous bliss of Heaven, 

This unmeasured wealth of love! 

Jesus, Saviour, I adore Thee! 

Now Thy love I will proclaim, 

I will tell the blessed story, 

I will magnify Thy name!

These old songs have stood the test of time; and the lives of those who wrote them go way above the lives of our cheapened contemporary Christianity.

 

Pilgrim Warrior