America surely needs the kingdom of God as much as ever. We live in a world of deeply pained where the saving grace of Jesus is both necessary yet ignored. Christianity is finding itself in a most awkward yet blessed state; rejected.
The days of friendly confines where churches dismissed at Sunday noon to have a picnic under the shade of the Oak trees is slipping away. Believers are going to find ourselves being increasingly pressured by opponents who are vocal and nasty. It will not be a matter of where we stand. Such religious lameness with be purified only to wonderfully force us to determine rather will we hold fast to our commitment to the name of Jesus. This is coming in America.
I watched Oprah for fifteen long minutes today. I like her; especially when she works on health issues as well as displaying extreme and admirable generosity. But theologian, Oprah is not. I sense she is reacting to a negative childhood which had its betrayals and pains...including a closed-minded belief system with a Christian name tied to it. Millions of us carry similar baggage.....some left the church while others stayed in it.
The portion of today's program was rehearsing the recent statements by Rev. Ed Bacon of Seattle that gays are blessed to be gay by God. Their exchange (Rev/Oprah) was smug under the guise of openness to truth. The irony is their intolerance of their assumed intolerant. It is one message of scripture to love your neighbor which very much includes every gay person. Christianity could use great improvement in applying this command. It is in the same package that same sex desires is not God's will nor blessing. Oprah dug at the "right-wingers" (her terminology) as if our position is stupid and way behind in understanding of God.
Christianity is being forced by a darkness hovering the world to shine brighter than ever. Our petty in-fighting will ultimately and rightly die in the mud of fear and ignorance. Voices of brand-name church competition along with which version one reads will wilt in the face of issues which matter. We will find ourselves pressed from more opponents we thought possible only to find our faith ignited like a torch for the cause of Christ which we haven't gained thus far through conventional church practices. We like what we are doing, I like what we are doing, but a new era of faith is approaching.
Get your people ready. Train them for combat. Persecution is coming from the cynic and the the religious airhead alike. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ for handing the American church her greatest threats in decades. We will work to keep from being swayed by the popular talking heads of fame as well as the undermining threats of religious imposition. We will note the approach of current waves slamming the nature and name of Jesus; but we will not go away. Neither will we hide. Finally....church....finally the mission field is rushing at us and we are forced to throw up our hands in praise of God as we say to our opponents, "You found us and have cornered us. Are you ready to surrender?"
Do not forget Jesus arrested the entire world.....from the cross so powerfully.....as he more than conquered.
3 comments:
So absolutely dead-on in every way. We've had it too easy and have grown dull and lazy. I have the feeling that my grandchildren won't have a season of time such as this...
I have noticed the increase in hostility toward Christians, too (even in churches). Soon, it's likely that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and hospitals will be forced to participate in unnecessary abortions or stop practicing medicine. Some chapters of the bar association have been considering forcing lawyers to pledge to defend homosexuality in order to gain or to retain their licenses. I have had to sit through a training session in which employees on my job were told that sexual immorality should be accepted and not spoken against. (I told my supervisor afterward that it went against my Christian values and that we should not have been given that message. She agreed, but the meeting was mandatory.) You are correct in warning us that persecution is coming. It is not really bad yet, but the trends are not good. We will need to hold firmly to faith in Christ, trust in the word of God, and to support for each other when the hard times arive. When others (even within the church) try to discourage us or try to get us to compromise, we must remember that Jesus is more important than their approval. Thanks for this post! Let's hold onto Christ and love those who oppose us.
I agree about the hostility toward Christians and absolute truth.
But I was amazed at this video by an avowed atheist who was touched by the kindness of a believer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM
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