Blogging or Brokenness

Blogging or Brokenness: (for those who don't know what I am talking about here, please hear Paul Washer's recent sermon, Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church in America, found at www.sermonaudio.com)

Before leaving for Alaska last week, I listen to Paul Washer's sermon as it was streaming live from the Sermon Audio Conference in Georgia where he was preaching; after arriving in Alaska, I received emails about it and began to read various bloggers and online chat comments about the sermon.

In doing so, something struck me very clearly as I read people's comments. We American Christians are so used to vast amounts of new information all the time, so used to having a steady flowing stream of truth and theology, and so used to hearing and passing on info about the newest or most powerful sermon which appears new online, that we grab it quick, don't fully process or appreciate it, and then move on- its the newest evangelical fad, it seems. Just in a rush with all the truth that comes to us.

The comments were flowing, with either high praise or critical evaluation, in comparing, contrasting, and analyzing the sermon, and its power or its weak points.

Then the thought came to me-- why do we respond this way to a word from God through a sermon? Is it proper and right? Is it what the Lord Himself would have us do immediately after hearing His word come forth? Should we be dialoguing, blogging, commenting, and playing intellectual verbal ping-pong with each other over a sermon just heard? Or is there a better way?

Would it not be wiser to shut our mouths, withdraw from everyone, get before God, search our own hearts, evaluate where we are, examine ourselves to see how we are not in conformity with God's Word, and deal with our own hearts, rather than being evangelical pundits, like the political experts who gather after the presidential debates, to discuss the sermon and give fire-side analysis.

Seems to me that Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, the Apostles, and the Lord Jesus Christ, or any truth preacher for that matter, including Paul Washer, would not care one whit if we are blogging over their latest sermon--what they would desire in response to a message would be humility, quietness, heart-searching, and fresh brokenness before God in the secret place.

Did God speak in The 10 Indictments for all of us, including the most trendy evangelical bloggers, to discuss OR apply to our own hearts and churches? Seems to me that less blogging and more brokenness might be in order when God speaks from His Word.

- Mack Tomlinson