What has happened to our tears? It
is though we have been drugged with a Satanic sedative. We
stand idle, saddled with our lil' burdens of piety while our
ducts are as dry as an Autumn bird nest. We read Romans
9:2, and shrug it off, intact in our lighthearted religiosity;
dreamy of the perpetual morrow, but minus all the sorrow over
sin or its consequences.
"And when he had given
thanks, he brake it, and said, take, eat: this is MY body, which
is broken for you: ..."
We, like our SAVIOR, have been commissioned to be broken bread
and poured out wine, but instead we are steely and composed.
"JESUS wept" over
Lazarus, and later over Jerusalem. Jeremiah was dubbed the
weeping prophet. Paul wept over the work of winning souls
and planting churches, but not us, we abide dry eyed, dignified,
and chapped from head to toe.
"And GOD shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away." Keep to the
context and chronology; these are the words
of GOD in Revelation, not those of CHRIST in Matthew. The
headwind of
fast-forward spirituality has dried us up prematurely; and we
desire to be raptured, just not enraptured!
"... put thou my tears into thy bottle:
..." Are you bottled up in your
Christianity? "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; ..."
Could the distance from GOD we are experiencing in the Church be due to our
dryness?
There is a distinction to be had between a
burden and a brokenness; the former being something that you
carry away, the latter being something that carries you away.
"For
I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to
be with CHRIST; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in
the flesh is more needful for you."
Paul would carry, without complaint,
the burden of the churches, but the brokenness over lost souls
swept him off his feet with sorrow. The salty eyed saint
is the best lubricant for the gears of the gospel. The
friction impeding our movement today however, is nothing more
than the fruit of a focus grown cold and dead.
"there is ... a time to
weep"