One day two men went to church to pray.- Josh Harris, Humble Orthodoxy
The first man was a shallow, uninformed evangelical. Everything about him shouted of squishy theology. He didn’t know or use big theological words. He watched Christian TV and thought it was deep. He bought books from the inspirational section of the bookstore. He attended one of those megachurches where the sermons are short and the worship leaders look like American Idol contestants.
The second man who went to pray was different. He was a Christian of theological depth and substance--this was obvious by the heavy study Bible he carried with him. He only read books by long-dead theologians. He subscribed to the podcasts of all the solid, gospel-centered expository preachers who didn’t tell funny stories or make jokes in their sermons. He felt cheated if a sermon was less than an hour long.
This second man began to pray. He said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people--doctrinally ignorant, theologically clueless, superficial in their saccharine-sweet evangelicalism. I thank you that you have made me what I am: true to good doctrine, uncompromising on teaching, orthodox to the core.”
But the first man would not even look up to heaven. Instead he beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Convicted? Yeah, me too.
(HT: Challies)
9 comments:
"Convicted?"
No.
Because it's a very poor use of the parable.
And it's application is suspect at best -
Ditto what Steve said...
I think you guys just proved what camp you are in.
Irony alert!
John 13:35
Ok, guys you pushed me over the edge:
This is stupid.
For starters, you had it wrong which guy was prayiing what.
Or maybe one of them said,
"Oh big guy up there, in the words of The Who, I don't need to be forgiven. Sure am glad You like rock and roll up there."
It must be popular to falsly caricature Reformed Christians this way. It then gives us a platform to rejoice we are not like those young, restless and reformed. When the true irony is that if you have good doctrine and you are orthodox to the core..... Then the good doctrine and orthodoxy includes humility and love.
Hey I like it, despite the other comments. Thanks for posting.
"Convicted?"
Ummm, no. You completely missed the point of that parable. If you have repented of your sins and put your faith in Jesus, as I have, then you can have great assurance of your place with God. I can therefore look at the liberal preacher and know that I am not lost like he is. And I do thank God that I am not like a liberal preacher or homosexual or the millions of other lost people. And I can look to fruits (Matthew 7) in my life to prove it: good and solid doctrine, reading my Bible 7 times a week, repenting of my sins, conviction of when I do sin.
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