Sunday, November 19, 2006

Crowding out God with the things of God

We all know busyness. As more things are tacked onto the to-do list (especially this time of year), we realize we're no longer focused on Jesus. Ironically, time with God can be easily substituted by time with church work. We rush through our personal devotion so we can work on our next lesson; we skimp on prayer because our time was spent practicing a musical piece for Lord's Day worship.

B.B. Warfield's address The Religious Life of Theological Students is a helpful reminder of the danger and privilege of routinely handling divine things.

He asks, "are you, by this constant contact with divine things, growing in holiness, becoming every day more and more men of God? If not, you are hardening! If you do not find Christ in the conference room [we could easily substitute "private worship"] it is because you do not take him there with you. If after an ordinary day's work you are too weary to close the day with common prayer, it is because the impulse to prayer is weak in your heart. If there is no fire in the pulpit it falls to you to kindle it in the pews. No man can fail to meet with God in the sanctuary if he takes God there with him. How easy it is to roll the blame of our cold hearts over upon the shoulders of our religious leaders!"

"Do you prosecute your daily tasks as students of theology as "religious exercises"? If you do not, look to yourselves: it is surely not all right with the spiritual condition of that man who can busy himself daily with divine things, with a cold and impassive heart."

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