That is a title of a sermon that
George Whitefield preached on the
onset of the Great Awakening in the
1700's...American Colonies. That
also is what my high school students
were to read for today's class.
One of these students called on her
way , an hour's drive, to class.
"Can I write on that sermon in my
journal?" She was catching up on
something else for me and wanted to
do that too. . So I said:
"You can lead the discussion today!"
She did and all of them wrote how to
apply what Whitefield preached to their
own mind, heart and soul.
Ben Franklin was a close friend of
Whitefields. He wrote:
"wonderful...change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."
The Lord gave me something .....
Grace. I was searching for what to do
in class when she called.
The Lord cares more than I
ever can imagine about the hearts
and the minds of each in class today.
He showed me that!
I could have sang! Imagine walking
our streets as Franklin did and
hearing...........psalms!
3 comments:
Bonnie, I have only recently joined a PCA church and one thing I love about it is their honest message: God is holy. We are not. But, he has a plan to reconcile us to him.
What Whitfield wrote is so true today, even more so in this age of self-esteem:
"The words, then, refer primarily unto outward things, but I verily believe have also a further reference to the soul, and are to be referred to those false teachers, who, when people were under conviction of sin, when people were beginning to look towards heaven, were for stifling their convictions and telling them they were good enough before. And, indeed, people generally love to have it so; our hearts are exceedingly deceitful, and desperately wicked; none but the eternal God knows how treacherous they are. How many of us cry, Peace, peace, to our souls, when there is no peace! How many are there who are now settled upon their lees, that now think they are Christians, that now flatter themselves that they have an interest in Jesus Christ; whereas if we come to examine their experiences, we shall find that their peace is but a peace of the devil's making _ it is not a peace of God's giving _ it is not a peace that passeth human understanding."
That sermon stirred up hearts to be awakened. May it do so and more sermons today. You could have joined in on our discussion yesterday!
Great trip you are back from!
Thanks for this, Bonnie - for sharing how God's grace stepped in for you once again. And that Franklin - he never ceases to fascinate, does he? When visiting a nearby Hutterite colony, I did experience the singing of Psalms coming out of doorways - it was unearthly!
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