Soul creation

"If we preach the effects of redemption in human life instead of the revelation regarding Jesus, the result in those who listen is not new birth, but refined spiritual culture... We [preachers] have to see that we are in such living sympathy with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in souls the things which He alone can do."
Oswald Chambers "Sires, We Would See Jesus" (quoted in Enrichment, Wint 2004, Vol 9, No 1, page 121)

This quote grabbed me like a hand from under the bed.

I see a lot of "refined spiritual birth" stuff going on but that seems more like dressing up a mannequin than a real life, bloody, squiggling baby being born.
We work hard at making people nice and good, and then beat them for not having a more virile life.
I can build a lot of altars but in the end I can't create the fire and I can not sustain it either.