a record of struggle and victory to know the mind of Christ
We often grow impatient with God. We fear He has forgotten us. We convince ourselves that our sins are so great that God no longer loves us.
We must remember: God’s love is perfect; His timing is impeccable. His ways are above our ways, and we cannot comprehend.
Only Trust Him.
What would happen if your church building lost electricity? How many people would have their Bible with them? How many people would be able to follow the music in the hymnal if the projector didn’t work? How many people would simply stay home because the building would be too hot, too cold, too stuffy, or too dark?
Now let’s pretend that not only your church building loses electricity but your pastor’s house, too. Would your pastor be able to prepare a sermon without Internet? Would he or she have any stories to tell or illustrations to relate without searching online? Could your pastor speak from the heart or would he or she be lost with no light to read from a manuscript?
I imagine a church full of people wandering around in the dark, not knowing when to start the service because the countdown is not projected on the viewscreen. I imagine a congregation That cannot worship because they don’t have music and lights to manipulate their emotions, and because they have never been alone with God.
I remember attending church before viewscreens, before endless choruses, before the Internet, before Bible apps on smart phones, and before dark, cavernous multi-purpose meeting halls with manipulative lights, mood-affecting music, and polished performers.
I remember when we had a pastor to whom we could speak when we had a need, but that was before senior pastors, teaching pastors, youth pastors, children’s pastors, senior pastors, and church CEOs. I remember when we had to learn the books of the Bible and their order. I remember when we committed Scripture to memory. I remember when we were guided by the Spirit instead manipulated by the worship service .
And, I remember when we measured the success of a church not by the number of attendees but by the number of people whose lives were changed.
Why is the Church in the West dying? Because churches are social clubs doing “good works” based on social justice and humanistic principles, reaching out to people based on psychological precepts, marketing themselves like the newest trendy nightclubs, and presenting the prettiest, most talented, and charismatic musicians leading the newest music on a high-dollar sound system.
The dying Church in the West preaches “I can do all things through He that strengthens me,” and “I know the plans I have for you.” The dying Church preaches living “life abundantly.” It preaches giving with a “joyful heart.” But it forgets repentance and deliverance from sin, transformed lives, and freedom from the Law.
I long to find a church where the pastor preaches true Victory in Jesus because he has experienced it himself, not because he finds it in a Bible app. I pray for a church where the congregation is full of humble sinners whose lives are redeemed and transformed by the blood of the Lamb, and who are willing to reach out and lift others from the muck and mire of sin. I long for a church whose musicians play and sing to God’s glory, and not their own. I long for a song leader who doesn’t care if he or she is a little pitchy, because he or she is led by the Spirit and not the latest trends.
I pray let THE CHURCH BE THE CHURCH.
There are many obstacles to pursuing holiness in the Western Church of the 21st Century. Two of the most impeding are polar opposites.
The first is the idea that if you don’t pray enough, read your Bible enough, or go to church enough, God will be angry at you or love you less. This is legalism and it is absolutely wrong. You didn’t do a thing to earn God’s love, so how can you lose it? His love is unconditional. He loves us because His Son loves us so much that He laid down His life for us.
The second obstacle is, as I said, just the opposite. It is the idea that, because Grace is not conditional, we can then do whatever we want… abuse alcohol, indulge in sexual perversion, and abandon Christian ethics, and that none of that matters because we are, after all, simply human and frail. After all, according to this line of thought, we didn’t earn our salvation, so we cannot lose it. This is lawlessness, or Antinomianism. It is wrong because Christ asks us to walk with Him. He expects us to share His yoke. He compels us to pick up our own cross and follow Him.
Either of these two extremes, lawlessness or legalism, leads to bondage. The one who is truly saved realizes that his (or her) salvation depends on faith alone. The one who has truly been rescued by God from sin does not continue to live in depravity because that one is so full of God’s love (and love for others) that there is no room for debauchery. We love Him so much that we dare not again step away into a life of sin.
We find freedom only when we first acknowledge that our very breath is dependent upon Him, and then walk beside Him, holding the hand of the one who would guide us. Only then may we find rest.
From Steve Hager, The Quest for the Mind of Christ.