Pastor Jeremiah Blasi continues to teach through the Old Testament Minor Prophets on Wednesday night at Lawrence Street Baptist Church. This past Wednesday, he covered chapters 1 and 2 of Habakkuk. This is a great message dealing with the sovereignty of God and the problem of good and evil that we all wrestle with.
“Great writing is the creative use of words. It comes from reading, writing, failing and repeating.
It takes time to become a good writer. Since few have the time, fair is the new good.”
This was the last two lines of an editorial I happened across in the Tulsa World newspaper. The article was entitled, “Graduates commence to join the real world” and for the most part, at least to me, it wasn’t an article I was impressed with, until the last two lines. For some reason, it really made me think about what passes for modern Evangelical Church today. Have we become so busy in this world that we no longer expect “good” from the Church? It seems to me that all we want to do is show up, spend 45 minutes having a “worship experience” and then go on about our lives, happy with the fact that we have punched our ticket for another week.
“Oh, preacher,” thinks the little old gray haired lady, “You preached too long and now I won’t be able to get that handicapped parking spot and a good seat at the restaurant because all the other church’s have already finished their services.” “Man, I’m going to miss the opening kickoff if he doesn’t wrap this up soon,” is the thought running through that guy who used to be the college fullback! “If this pastor doesn’t shut up soon, I’m going to miss DW’s ‘boogity, boogity, boogity, let’s go racing boys,'” 
thinks the guy who always shows up in the NASCAR hat.
I realize that some who read this might push back some, but isn’t it the truth? For the most part, we as human beings, desire the “fair” over the “good.” Don’t believe me, take a look at the furniture you have in your house. How much of it came from Walmart and how much of it was crafted by true furniture maker and will be passed down to your grandchildren? How many of us get up in the morning, turn to our Bible’s and spend an hour digging 
into the Word of God and then praying that God apply His Word to our lives instead of just getting our “fix” on Sunday?
The problem, as I see it, is that we have such low expectations of ourselves in the area of our spiritual lives, which, by the way, is the most important area of our lives, that we come to expect even our Sunday Service to be just “fair.” That, sir or ma’am, is absolutely wrong 
(wow, did this guy just make an absolute moral judgement, why yes he did). We should go to Church expecting to be fed meat, and not just any meat, but the meat that has been tenderized by the study of God’s Word, marinated in days of agonizing prayer, and served up to us with the knowledge that it was God Himself that chose to allow us to hear from Him through His chosen servant.
If we end up settling for less than the best of God’s Word, then I submit that we have failed (can you believe this guy, he has committed a major faux pas by making his second absolute moral judgment). If, as Ephesians 1:3 states, “…[He] has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” and we blow that off by settling for less, what does that say about us as Christians.
Just a little food for thought today!
If All Religions Are True – If all religions are true, then God is cruel. And not just cruel—God is an incompetent, cosmic child-abuser.
Two Favored Sons – Want to know how to read the Old Testament? Here’s a quick primer: Martin Luther said that everything bad in the Old Testament (and there’s a lot) is there to point out our sin, while everything good in the Old Testament is there to point us to our Savior.
Dragged Into the Kingdom, Kicking and Screaming – God often pursues us long before we have any inkling of what he’s up to. More often than not, we don’t like the pursuit.
Can Natural Man Do Good? – The unbeliever’s moral inability to do good—good that may be credited to his account by way of righteousness—means that there is only one possible way of salvation: it must come from outside himself.
Salvation In A Dementia Ward – “I know who you are,” she growled at me with eyes I could now see were wild with fear and anger. “You are Mr. Holy-Holy-Holy!”
Quote:
Tolerance has become such a god in our culture that not to have it is heresy. The effect is that tolerance swallows up truth, negating any need to search for things that might offend or challenge our preferences. It conveniently avoids the notion that certain things might just apply to all of us, no matter who we are or what we believe. It is a comfortable place to be, for it challenges nothing but truth, but it may also be a dangerous home to inhabit. – From the book Truth Matters.
Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good?
Have you, when you have thus been emptied of yourself and weaned from this vain world, found a better good?
Have you had those discoveries of Christ, or that sense of his excellency or sufficiency and wonderful grace, that has refreshed and rejoiced your heart, and revived it as it were out of the dust, and caused hope and your comfort to spring forth like the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain?
Has there been light let into your soul, as the light of the sun pleasantly breaking forth out of the cloud after a dreadful storm, or as the sweet dawning of the light of the morning after long wandering in a dark night, or the bright and beautiful day star arising with refreshing beams?
Have you had that divine comfort that has seemed to heal your soul and put life and strength into you and given you peace after trouble and rest after labor and pain?
Have you tasted that spiritual food, that bread from heaven, that is so sweet and so satisfying, so much better than the richest earthly dainties?
Have you felt something of the divine comfort and peace, which can’t be expressed and which passes all understanding?
Have you tasted that in Christ that has turned the stream of your affections that way and filled you with longings after more of him?
–Jonathan Edwards, “Like Rain Upon Mown Grass,” in Works, Yale ed., 22:315
Rated R For Reformed 