I am re-reading a classic in my life: The Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace. I found a used copy online and have begun a fresh journey through these pages.
Lovelace, writing decades ago, gets at why we are in such a mess in our current spiritual state in the white conservative American church. We have no awareness of God and also no awareness of our sin.
“Men and women cannot know themselves until they know the reality of the God who made them, and once they know the holy God, their own sin appears so grievous that they cannot rest until they have fully appropriated Christ.” (p. 82)
We are stubborn in our sin. We are blind to the error of our ways. Worse, we do not see the need of repentance. We are waiting for the “sinners” to repent… when it is us.
We are a church unaware of the powerful reality of God.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 