David Platt, the author of the book Radical, made a distinction in the book about how effortless, easy it is to have church in the United States of America compared to the millions of believers around the world where faith in Christ and faith in the teachings of the Bible are not only discouraged but actually dangerous. We go on Sundays, dressed in our finest or what we consider appropriate for church, expecting music, lights, sound, AC, Heat, comfortable seats, a good sermon, and a great choir or praise band to entertain us....the men and women that fear for their lives to worship God do so in private, secret, sometimes memorizing the majority of the Bible because they cannot own one, they go to hear a man preach in secret meetings underground, in homes, where it is hot, crowded...to just hear the word of God preached...sometimes for hours on end because they never know if this may be the LAST time they get to meet. They are the persecuted. Are we to feel sorry, hopeless, scared, angry, or guilty? I think not...we are to be humble and thankful that we have such freedom. Ever since I read the book Radical and now have read the book Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World, when we read and pray as a family each more...I am sure to Thank God for the blessing and gift we have to worship freely without such persecution. The book opened my eyes to such things and to realize that when we sit in our comfy churches on Sundays to be humble, thankful, and realize that our worship is not about ourselves....think about if it was the last time I would get to sit in a church and hear the word preached, think if it was the last time I could hold the Word of God...
David Platt started "Secret Church" at his place of worship as a way to honor and pray for those being persecuted, a way to teach long passages, dig deeper without all the extras like music, worship bands, lights, action, etc. A way to provide those that thirst for the scripture to dwell in it and take heed....and then pass along what they have learned so that they can make disciples of Christ in all Nations. During Secret Church there is always a time of prayer and meditation for those in countries where Christians are persecuted....last night the prayer emphasis was on Egypt. He allows for the Secret Church sessions to be simulcast all over the world. For example....last night we sat at a local church and watched it in real time.....7 hours of Bible Teaching...and that is 7 hours of scripture folks. David Platt doesn't play...there isn't a lot of "real life" stories, jokes, riddles, fill in the blanks, catchy phrases, etc....it is straight up scripture, verse by verse about the topic being covered. The topic for this Secret church was Marriage, Family, Sex, and the Gospel. I can't even begin to go into what we learned. I have never every listened to anyone preach as he did, he does not mence words but he shows through scripture that it is all about the Gospel, how Christ came, died on the cross, rose again to give us the one true, free, perfect gift of eternal life and EVERYTHING we have, what we do, the way we act, live, has to do with this...some of the topics covered were singleness, adoption, taking care of widows, sex, marriage, parenting, worldview, pornography, divorce, and the list goes on......it was the most loving but most truthful to scripture sermon I have ever heard on all of the above topics. I did not feel like I had been there for 7 hours...I could have listened to more. It was a great great experience for John and I and we will be digging deeper into our study guides, asking forgiveness in certain areas, and are commited to sharing what we have learned. John and like the idea of this type of digging deeper bible teaching so much that we might hold the next simulcast in our home. What a great way to spend 7 hours on a Friday night.
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