I read these interesting thoughts on whether we should go to church or withdraw and worship privately.

Apparently, this was a discussion during the seventeen hundreds

as it is for some today.

"Human nature makes us seek the approval or sympathy of others in every significant act or event.

Religion is personal—

like marriage,

the birth of a child,

or the death of someone we love—

yet we still mark these publicly.

We neither laugh nor weep alone;

why then should we pray alone?

Religious feelings are among the most contagious we have.

If devotion really exists in the heart of each individual,

it is morally impossible it should exist there apart and single.

If genuine devotion exists in individual hearts,

it almost inevitably spreads and merges into a shared flame.

Public and private worship each have clear strengths,

so both are valuable.

Public worship is livelier and more energetic;

private worship feels more intimate and tailored to our personal circumstances.

Most criticisms of one apply equally to the other:

superstition, wandering thoughts, dullness, and selfish requests

can appear in either setting.

Public worship has distinct advantages.

It teaches people how to pray

who would otherwise struggle,

and it trains us to pray as members of a community

rather than for purely private gain.

Public worship has another advantage over private worship:

it helps guard against both spiritual coldness

and unhealthy enthusiasm.

Without the encouragement of shared worship,

many people struggle to maintain devotion

in silence and solitude.

Yet if a person's sense of spiritual realities is especially strong,

prolonged isolation can also lead the imagination

into mystical extremes

and the overheated mysticism

that can arise from unchecked solitary brooding. (I found that interesting.)

Public worship helps preserve a healthy balance,

avoiding both indifference and excess.

For worldly minds, solitary devotion is too weak;

for weak minds, it is unhelpful;

for passionate minds, it is unsafe." Anna Lititia Barbauld.

 

I love Jeremy Taylors sermons! Bold, shocking and colorful illustrations of sin and its deception and allurements.

Taylor is considered the "Shakespeare of the divines," this is one example.

I put the original at the bottom.

"Learn to despise the world;

or, better yet, learn to truly understand it.

It is a deception all the way through.

Its head is a rainbow,

its face is flattery;

its words are charms, and all its stories are false.

Its body is a shadow,

and its hands knit spiders' webs.

It is an image and a noise,

with a hyena's lip and a serpent's tail with a scorpion’s sting.

It was given to serve the needs of our nature,

but instead it craves strange appetites

and nourishes thirsts and fevers.

It brings care and worry,

corrupts our nature,

and rewards all our labors with shame and death.

Our nature is a disease,

and the world nourishes it;

but if you refuse to feed on such unwholesome fare,

your nature returns to its original purity

and becomes receptive to the grace of God."

Here is the original unabridged --

"Learn to despise the world; or, which is better compendium in the duty, learn but truly to understand it; for it is a cousenage all the way;

the head of it is a rainbow, and the face of it is flattery;

it words are charms, and all its stories are false;

its body is a shadow, and its hands do knit spiders webs;

it is an image and a noise,

with a Hyena’s lip and a Serpents tail with the sting of a scorpion;

it was given to serve the needs of our nature, and instead of doing it,

it craves strange appetites, and nourishes thirsts and fevers;

it brings care and debauches our nature,

and brings shame and death as the reward for all our cares.

Our nature is a disease, and the world does nourish it;

but if you decline to feed upon such unwholesome diet,

your nature reverts to its first purities,

and to the entertainment of the grace of God."

“The Christian walk requires more than 

skill, 

use, 

experience, 

and reason—

though these help, they are not enough. 

It must be wrought by a new principle: 

the Spirit of grace. 

Human nature and reason alone cannot do it; the proper cure comes by 

inviting, 

cherishing, 

getting, 

and yielding to God’s Spirit. 

When we have pursued these means, we may count ourselves sufficiently instructed for repairing our breaches and reforming our evil nature.” Jeremy Taylor, 1600s

 

The response I get most often from non-Christians is how they've picked and pieced together from all the different religions what they like and consider to be truth. I applaud all who seek, I always have faith they will find. This quote by Alexander McLaren addressed that --

There are people like the merchant in the parable

who went all over the world seeking goodly pearls,

who, with eager longing to possess light, truth, goodness, or rest,

search up and down and find it nowhere

because they are looking for it in a hundred different places.

They expect to find a little here and a little there,

and to piece it all together to make one all-sufficing restfulness.

Then, when they are most eager in their search—or when, perhaps,

it has all died down into despair and apathy—

the veil seems to be withdrawn, and they see Christ,

whom they have been seeking all the time,

and knew not that He was there beside them.

All, and more than all, what they sought in the many pearls

is stored for them in the one "Pearl of great price."

The ancient covenant stands firm today as ever:

“Seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

When speaking of the supernatural workings of God, they are often better experienced than explained.

For most people, the work of the Holy Spirit comes unexpectedly—not something we can manufacture, predict, or even seek on our own timetable.

God gives His gifts to edify, encourage, and comfort others, both inside and outside the church. If we are neglecting or avoiding opportunities to serve those around us, it is unlikely we will experience much of the Spirit's moving power.

The wind of the Spirit often blows in the direction of love put into action.

Consider this example.

A woman struggles with her prayer life.

It feels dry and difficult,

and she wonders why she seems so distant from God.

One day she meets a poor, young single mother who is overwhelmed by the relentless, twenty-four-hour demands of caring for a baby.

With little experience in raising a child, the young mother feels alone, inadequate, exhausted, and discouraged.

The older woman quietly steps in.

She helps with household chores, shares practical wisdom she has learned over the years about calming a crying baby, prepares a few meals,

and even volunteers to watch the baby one evening each week so the young mother can simply rest, breathe, or enjoy a few hours of freedom.

Something begins to change.

When the older woman enters her prayer closet,

her heart is suddenly alive.

Words begin to pour out as she prays for this young mother.

The Lord meets her there, giving her insight she had never considered before, and filling her with a deep, overflowing love for someone who had recently been a complete stranger.

The wind of the Spirit has begun to blow.

Her compassion deepens,

her imagination fills with new ways to help,

and her affection extends even to the baby.

Her thoughts become occupied with love and with finding practical ways to express it.

She is now living under the gentle power and influence of the Holy Spirit in a way she has never known before.

She did not expect it.

She did not pursue it for its own sake.

She simply found herself resting in the joy of God's love flowing through her into another person's life.

All the prayer, Bible study, and worship in the world can become mere exercises if they never overflow into loving service.

Yet one simple act of self-forgetting love can open the heart to experience the living work of the Holy Spirit in ways that years of private devotion alone may never accomplish.

For me, more than through any other avenue, this is how the Holy Spirit revealed His gifts in my own life.

 
The Jail service was extra rich last night. As always, a wide range of ages, races and appearances. One man I'd estimate mid or late fifties, was British and had never been to church, but one of the brothers in his dorm had been talking to him about the Bible so he agreed to come. I bumped into the brother before the service so I knew the situation and my mind started thinking if I should do something a little different? Because I'm vividly aware of the stakes, and in many cases I have but one opportunity to reach them, I pledge to God I will treat that pulpit, and that time, with absolute sacredness as well as urgency. It's not lost on me that in the group of men, there are perpetrators of vicious crimes, domestic violence, sexual assault, bloodshed, and ever manner of evil, so trust me when I say, before I leave home to go there, I cry out to God to penetrate the room with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to fall on every mind and move hearts and lives by His word and unction! Suffice to say, He ALWAYS answers that prayer! and I always leave shaking my head at how His presence permeated the room. That being said, I always come well prepared, but there are these spontaneous combustions where the Holy Spirit comes like fire! and moves me emotionally and I've learned not to hold it back or quench it. 

That was the case last night, my soul caught fire a number of times. I'll share one example because this was spontaneous; I was taking about the demon possessed man who lived in the tombs and was exceedingly violent because he had a "legion" of unclean spirits within. But when Jesus left Him "he was sitting, clothed, and in his right mind." Mk. 5:15 I paused and asked, 'what does it mean to be in your right mind?'  

I'll tell you what it means! -  you're at a family gathering and your four year old son or grandson calls out while rushing to you: smiling, filled with excitement and glee, holding a jar with a bug he captured saying, look, look what I have!  I paused, stepped away from the pulpit, sat down in a chair and said: you then, open your arms and say "Oh! bring it hear so I can see! And he has your full attention! for as long as he wants! That's one example of what it means to be in your right mind! I stood back up and got behind the pulpit and made a quick survey of the men and noticed one man, sixties, thin, missing a tooth, faced lined with sorrow, slumping in his chair sobbing. I didn't stare, and this man has come a number of times and always sat stoically, but tonight he broke down. I suspect this man is no first time offender, and I also think he's missed out on more experiences than we can number. 

Another 30 year old man, clean cut, tall, handsome and one would expect him to say he was a college professor or some dignified position. But he too, lost his son because of his violent drunken assaults that have led to prison time more than once. He stayed after the service and we talked at length as he poured out his losses, but also shared how his faith has grown, how he has cried out to God and repented and is brimming with hope. 

After the service all the men wanted to shake my hand and thank me, so I didn't have but a few seconds to talk to the British fella, I really was curious what he thought, but all he said was, "I'll come back."  

"It is a sad reality that prayer, 

though surely the sweetest and easiest of all duties, 

is often the one we avoid most. 

It requires no exhausting labor, 

no weariness of body, 

no strain on the eyes, 

no conflict with our natural desires, and brings no sickness—

only comfort and even greater hope. 

Yet we are strangely reluctant to pray, 

impatient with its length, 

and quick to find excuses to neglect it. 

There is no clear reason for this reluctance; 

nothing in the nature of prayer itself, or in the duty it requires, 

that explains why we resist it.

We are so bound to the desires of this world 

that we lose our taste for the things of the Spirit. 

The glories of heaven can only be appreciated by those 

who have learned to turn from the world's empty appetites 

and delight instead in the richer feast of God.”  Jeremy Taylor.