Last night my husband and I, along with 50,000 others around the world, participated in a gathering called "Secret Church". For those of you who are unfamiliar with Secret Church, it's a time of in-depth study of God's Word, led by Dr. David Platt, a pastor at The Church at BrookHills in Birmingham, AL. This is the first time they've been able to stream/simulcast, so we were actually able to be a part of the night right here in Eastman.
Dr. Platt started Secret Church to represent what it was like for our persecuted brothers and sisters who may only have one day or night to meet to study God's Word. Dr. Platt has actually been in those places, and he dives into the Word and keeps going, in our case, for 6 hours. The first time Joe and I went to Secret Church in Birmingham I kept thinking...6 hours, how am I going to make it? Sometimes I struggle to sit through a 30 minute sermon on Sunday mornings! It's convicting to admit that. There are so many people who would love to have the opportunity to study and hear God's Word as freely as we do. But when we were there, I wasn't thinking about the time. I was absorbed in the truth that was being taught. At each Secret Church, you're given a study guide, filled with scripture references, quotes, and blanks to fill in. Your mind (and pen) are fully engaged throughout the 6 hours. We also worshipped together, learned about a specific country that is under persecution, had a few breaks, and prayed together. Each Secret Church meeting has a different topic that is the focus of the night. Last night it was "Crucifixion, Salvation, and the Glory of God". Wow, folks. I learned so much last night. One thing I love about David Platt's teaching is that he doesn't make any point without supporting it with one or multiple references in scripture. God was at work last night, and I look forward to going back and looking through my study guide. I wish I could leave you with more about what we learned, but I'm still digesting a lot of it myself. I will leave you with two quotes that I liked that were in our study guide. May God bless you this Easter. We had a really Good Friday.
"Our external delights, our earthly pleasures, our ambition, our reputation, and our human relationships, for all these things, our desires are eager, our appetites strong, our love warm and affectionate. When it comes to these things, our hearts are tender and senstive, deeply impressed, easily moved, much concerned and greatly engaged. We are depressed at our losses and we are excited and joyful about any worldly success or prosperity. But when it comes to spiritual matters, how dull we feel. How heavy and hard our hearts; we can sit and hear of the infinite height and length and breadth and love of God in Christ Jesus, of his giving his infinitely dear Son, and yet sit there, cold and unmoved. If we are going to be excited about anything, shouldn't it be our spiritual lives? Is there anything more inspiring, more exciting, more loveable and desireable in Heaven or on Earth than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? We should be utterly humbled that we are not more emotionally affected than we are."
~Jonathan Edwards~
"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum becuase he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
~C.S. Lewis~
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