In a way I would love to land on American soil again and meet friends.    And yet I don´t know.  I would be a lonely wolf over and a church stranger  with what Paul called "the testimony (i.e. the testimony of the gospel) given as the proper time" (1 Tim. 2:6) - or "at the fitting time" as the NEB (New English Bible) puts it. Does it fit in? Hardly in the church machinery.

The holy incentive with Paul and his followers ("Be imitators of me as I am of Christ", 1 Cor. 11:1) is the outreach of the gospel for the salvation of souls.  A friend of mine said to me, "you keep pressing on in your old age at which point most aged people are brought to a standstill",  or strangely "peaceable" about the passion of the gospel.

But my friend is not right.  The apathy may overwhelm me too, and I constantly need to be revived.  I would be lonely all right with the streamlined American churches with all their loud "worship" programs that may arouse good feelings, but no real passion for souls.

The apostle didn´t lose his healthy gospel senses.  Close to his death he wrote, " I endure everything  for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" 2 Tim. 2:10

At the recent funeral of a female relative and a gospel singer (only 54), where the gospel had been preached with warmth, the casket was carried out accompanied with deafening and deadening music of "worship".  In awaking days there would have been a quiet awe after such a message, but it was all drowned in music (read noise). I was deeply grieved.

John Bunyan wrote in his Bible, "Either this Book will keep you away from sin or sin will keep you away from this Book".  And I may add, either the stagey church will keep you away from soul winning or soul winning will keep you away from the stagey, noisy church. The gospel itself is at stake!

July 7, 2019 - jn