Hunger for God

Note: I wrote this five years ago, when I was 77; now I’m 82 years old, soon to be 83. I’m hungrier for God than ever, but my hunger has changed. I want His presence. I want His glory. I want to be filled to overflowing with His love and pass it on to others. The vision I write about in this letter educational effort without the reviving presence of God will be flawed. With His presence guiding teachers and students it would be glorious. 

Here’s an excerpt from a letter I wrote last April; the first paragraphs explain why I’m posting it now.

Last Sunday I visited a grand old church. Its pastors were well trained and caring. Music by a top-notch organist, a choir and orchestra was exceptional. A sincere sermon was sprinkled with supporting Scriptures. Promos for their Advent charity bazaar drew me in, the weekly activity was list long—but not one Bible Study or prayer meeting was on the list.  I liked this church and hope to visit again, but my heart ached and I left hungry, wanting more, because I was fed soul food, not spiritual meat.

In a church that offers a steady diet of teaching God’s Word and prayer, most well fed believers will mature and grow strong in spirit. Without Bible teaching and prayer, many sincere believers will stay weak and immature. Nothing new. It’s been a concern in the body of Christ since the Book of Hebrews in the first century.

Personally, I need meat, not milk, but fewer and fewer pastors are trained to serve it in any appealing, loving, well-balanced and powerful way.

I’ve been thinking about this lack for a while now. Last April, the Holy Spirit prompted me to write the following letter about it. This week, I’m prompted by my hunger and  experience at such a fine old church from such a solid denomination to post this excerpt. I hope that other believers in other churches will see the need, pray, and take action as God leads.

Dear —,

While I was thinking of you as a church that loves God and a maturing people who seek His will, my heart began to ache.

It ached with a hunger, a hunger for God’s Word. I began to hurt inside, and to grieve over the growing lack of Biblical literacy in God’s children. I hurt for the teachers in Christ’s body who have no place to teach, for the evangelists who are not Biblically balanced, for young people whose hard questions are not answered with soundly reasoned apologetics and for lay people who are blown about by the winds of this world because they are not grounded in God’s Word.

One hundred years ago, Christian children grew up in church listening to Scripture explication on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Families went to church together and discussed the Sunday’s preaching and lesson around their dinner tables; family devotions were common. Our entire culture was salted by Biblically literate believers, by men, women, boys and girls whose consciences were sensitized by the word of God; citizens whose personal, political and social choices were based on Biblical principles; people who were living Bibles, living witnesses, with the Word of God written upon their heart.

I’m seventy-seven years old now, and though I grew up in a minimally Christian family that was secular, not spiritual, I distinctly recall men and women, teachers, neighbors who were different; they had a light about them that even as a small child I knew came from their faith in God and pointed me toward Him.

This is no longer so. In my community, sincere Christians now work on Sundays or chauffer their children to school athletic events. Few born again Christians are deeply rooted and grounded in the Word of God that is Jesus Christ. Most young people are not able to defend their faith and expose the illogic of cultural idols. Pastors do not have the time or skills for in depth explication of the Word and rely on building faith by psychological sermons and by personal testimonies, stories and anecdotes with Christian application.

As I grieved for weak, undernourished and vulnerable Christians, I knew I was grieving for myself. Recently, it has become easier for me to spend an evening watching a DVD than in watching with the Lord.

You-all know how God works.  All this went on inside of me almost simultaneously, inside a moment. And at the same time God dropped a vision into my spirit.

That’s the point of this letter.  I think the Holy Spirit wants Schools of Biblical/Christian Inquiry. I think it He wants your church to spearhead this. I believe that God wants to lead and confirm and undergird each step, each teacher, class and student by prayer. I think He has prepared men and women to for this work and put unfulfilled longings to learn and teach God’s word within their hearts.

I believe that if you will step out in faith and share with the churches and pastors in your community that the Holy Spirit will bring you together in agreement, so that these schools of inquiry will become citywide, taught by many pastors, and not denominational.  I see the Holy Spirit reaching out to feed the hungry and help the uncertain find answers to their questions in His Word.  I believe He will bring many ages, many races, many economic groups and church streams together to learn about God through studying His Word, Christian Classics and sound apologetics.

I believe that if this vision is of God, others will share it and the first small steps of faith will become clear to you.  As you pray, He will lead.

May God bless you in His love.