Something is Wrong

Something is Wrong part one

From my early stages of coming back to God and asking Him back into my heart there has been this theme constantly running in the back of mind. “Something is wrong!” There was a reason I left the church at a young age, something is wrong, I look around and I see churches dying left and right, something is wrong. You can’t watch ten minutes of television without hearing a sexual innuendo, or a slam on Christianity, something is wrong.  

Having this theme running in my mind may seem at first very pessimistic or unhealthy but I have found it to be quite the opposite. The way it plays out in mind is something is wrong, now let’s fix it. Taking a car into be serviced by a mechanic because something is wrong, the first thing he or she is going to do is find the problem.   Going under the hood all willy-nilly with a wrench replacing parts left and right might fix the problem temporally but chances are you will be back probably worse off than you started.

Having this theme running in my mind also helps to prevent me from playing church. If I am going through a struggle with the family or I am having an unresolved conflict at work it doesn’t do me any good to just offer a simple prayer and wash my hands of the matter while leaving God to do all the cleanup. Being active with God at my side teaches me where I went wrong. It straightens my walk and strengthens my faith. If I were having an issue with my temper, can you see God cleaning up my mess while leaving a card saying its ok he’s with me? I don’t think so. We can’t control our struggles or strives when they pop up but we can control how we respond to them. If I cannot respond with the love of Jesus I want to know why. Something is wrong, now let’s fix it.

To be continued

 

Testimonies of the 'Saints'

An aspect of being a pastor that I appreciate most is hearing people's faith stories.  Sometimes in the midst of being a pastor, I can become distracted from what exactly we are doing.  From a trustee meeting where we discuss plumbing issues, to a church council meeting where we discuss the next big project or ministry initiative to a Bible study to explain the Word of God, it is possible to forget that what we are all really doing is living our lives, seeking God in the midst of them, and discerning what it means to live our lives for God.  

To that end, there is nothing better than someone sharing how they came to know God, how God called them toward a particular ministry, where they see God at work in their family, or in their jobs.  It is a reminder that God is in fact working in the lives of those around us.

Lillian Daniel writes: 

Many people struggle with testimony.  We don't want  to shove our faith down people's throats.  We don't want to be pushy, obnoxious, or self-righteous....  [But] testimony is calling out that you have seen light in the midst of darkness.  Testimony is telling the story about how you met God, even when you have forgotten it.  (When Spiritual, But Not Religious is not Enough, p. 21).

Telling our God-stories is important because it helps all of us remember, and reconnect to God and one another.  Behind everything is a story.  If this week's message really hit home for you, you probably have a story to tell about why.  If, rather, the message was a struggle for you, rubbed you the wrong way, there is likely a story about that.  Whether you are "on fire" or exhausted, inspired or flat--there is almost always a life story about why, and God is involved.  Sharing such stories and testimonies of experiencing God in the midst of life is among the greatest gifts we can offer one another.  In this way we inspire one another to continue along the path that leads to life.

 

Changing a Nation

Pastor Nakov in Macedonia attended a conference in 2013 in Turkey. His heart ached when he saw many mosques in contrast with early Christian ruins. He wondered "Why is Islam flourishing?" and "What happened to the gospel witness?"

He returned home and during the night he sensed the Holy Spirit's presence. The Spirit asked him piercing questions that showed him he was not praying much, nor was his church. He was ashamed and convicted. He saw that the Imams were rising to pray earlier that he was.

He wept as he saw just how much they were playing church, and he asked God to change him.

The next Sunday he issued a call to prayer. They started with just one or two, then six. Finally about half the church responded. They were praying corporately and God was responding. Then pastors began praying together.

Now they are seeing answers as they pray not only for their own church but also for their nation to be in unity with others in the Balkans. Last year the Serbian president publicly asked for forgiveness for Serbia's past violence and bloodshed. Bulgarian officials have asked for forgiveness from its citizens of Turkish nationality who were expelled from their homes decades earlier.

"All of Europe needs to come before God and repent for the preaching of a cheap gospel that does not change lives; it is no gospel," said Pastor Nakov. "We in the Church must repent, ask forgiveness, and experience reconciliation. We now want only God's presence and His power to flow in us and through us."*

One pastor who asked God to change his own prayer life and who called his church to corporate prayer is changing his nation! God works when one leader obeys!  God is still looking for just one person who will take the lead.

Dear Jesus, please allow leaders to see their potential influence to turn our nation back to You.

"Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city" (Jer. 5:1).

 

- from Come to the Fire devotions by Aletha Hinthorn

Urgent Call to Prayer

Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, usually has a full schedule of speaking arrangements across the country.  However, when her husband became ill, she took time to stop and just care for him.  It was in this period that she suddenly had more time just to sit and listen to the whispers of God's Spirit.  And as she listened, she heard God calling her to call our nation to prayer, because the time of judgment is coming.  Like in the book of Joel:  "Blow the trumpet... sound the alarm...  For the day of the Lord is coming, it is close at hand.  Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord..."

It is tempting when we read the warnings in Scripture to think of them as not applying to us or our country.  As if that is somehow unpatriotic.  But that is obviously silly.  God cared about how nations treated other nations and the poor within their own nation back then, but we are the United States.  We have permission to do whatever we want and God will bless it???  When I was reading Amos last winter, I was strongly convicted by the reality that a number of the clothes we wear were made by children in atrocious work environments overseas so that we can have more, more, more.  Whenever we turn on the television, ads and shows confront the audience with images and ideas that blatantly and intentionally try to stir up all kinds of greed, envy, and lust, and God has strong words to say about those things throughout Scripture. 

It is tempting to feel stuck.  What can I, just one small person, do about where the clothes available to me are made?  What can just one small person do about the culture that so blatantly disregards God and just doesn't care.

I can do what Scripture says for that one person to do: repent of my sins and repent on behalf of my nation.  

Anne is calling for our nation to do just that through the month of July.  As a part of this, she is organizing as many people as who will participate to fast for 7 hours (of the person's choice) on July 7.  In Scripture, when even just a few persons repent, God notices and hears.  She also has daily prayers of repentance to pray available everyday through July 7 here:
http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/events/urgent-call-to-prayer/.


 

The Insane Sanity of Christianity

In setting up his explanation for how he came to an orthodox faith in God, GK Chesterton describes the "materialist" who relies ultimately on logic as a "madman."  For instance, Chesterton argues that a mad person might claim to be God--and the way one would work with such a person is not to deny that they are God but to point out that if they are indeed the creator of the universe, then what a small and insignificant universe it must be. Similarly, Chesterton argues that a non-believer who demands all truth claims meet the rule of logic, limits truth possibilities to a small circle. The basic argument is that Christian spirituality is more creative, less limited, and therefore more "sane" than materialistic rationality.  He writes:

Spiritual doctrines do not actually limit the mind as do materialistic denials. Even if I believe in immortality I need not think about it. But if I disbelieve in immortality I must not think about it. In the first case the road is open and I can go as far as I like, but in the second, the road is shut.

Chesterton's argument is not that the rational skeptic is not rational--rather rational skepticism is infinitely rational, it just happens to be a small and limited infinity. "Their position is quite reasonable, nay, it is infinitely reasonable, just as a three-penny is infinitely circular... [it is] a base and slavish eternity." 

All this is to set up what I believe to be the best use of the image of the cross that I have ever encountered:

For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed forever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms forever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox at its center, it can grow without changing.

This image of the cross having a collision and paradox at its center is why we can know things to be true that may not fit our limited reason. Like, "The one who loses their life for my sake will find it."  This is not a rational statement, but in the cross it makes sense. Which is true: that God is sovereign over all and knows everything before it happens, or that God has given humans free will?  They are both true. Sure it is paradoxical but it works when our reasoning is not circular, but based in the cross. Do we seek righteousness or surround ourselves with sinners?  Both!  Are we holy or imperfect? Both!  Does God judge whether or not we are faithful, or is God's approach merciful?  Both!  Christianity makes the most sense when we allow for paradox, when we don't try to reshape the cross into a small circular logic.

"The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything becomes lucid." (GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

Discerning Reality

During seminary, Fr. Emmanuel Katongole, taught a course on the role of Christianity during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.  We studied the history of the conflict, the influence of colonial missionaries, and the establishment of Hutu and Tutsi “people groups.”  He led us in an interesting discussion about the nature of “reality.”

The natural initial assumption with regard to a conflict between two groups is that the nature of that conflict must be identified and dealt with—there must be some acknowledgement of “reality.”  So if there is a conflict between Hutu and Tutsi people, we ignore that there must be some real differences to work out.  And yet in this case, the classification of these people groups was a construct of Belgian colonialists, who differentiated the people based on things like measurements of their nose.  Is there a real difference between the two groups?  What if we broaden the scope to other cultural and nationalistic differences—are any of those “real?”  Or is Paul correct in asserting that in Christ there are no more distinctions between man or woman, slave or free, Jew or Gentile etc. (Galatians 3: 28)

I am reminded of this every time I am tempted to approach ministry and life while remaining grounded in “reality.”  If we ask ourselves what is realistically possible, then we cannot be quick to assume what realistic means.  We gather as a community that celebrates victory over death through resurrection.  Death is no longer our reality.  We tell the stories of Jesus breaking a few loaves and fish to feed thousands.  Scarcity is no longer a reality.  Jesus ended the storm by telling it to calm down; better than a wound up child, the storm listened and ceased.  In this reality, power and authority are not lacking.

For this reason I am slow to accept pessimistic measures of the future of Christianity, given our present cultural “realities”.  I don’t give into those who offer pessimistic views of the degree to which people’s lives can "really" be transformed.  After all, what is real? How does Christ change reality for you in your life and in your ministry?

Praying for Love Ones

When Marion Price discovered that E. M. Bounds, the famous author of nine books on prayer, was buried less than three hours from where he lived, he determined to visit that cemetery. But when he visited the cemetery in Washington, Georgia, he could not find Bounds' resting place.

As a last resort he searched the telephone directory, and found an Osborne M. Bounds, Sr. listed. A young lady answered the phone, and he asked if Osborne Bounds might possibly be a distant relative of E. M. Bounds.

"Yes, Osborne is his son. He is 84 years old, and I am his granddaughter," she said. She invited him to visit her grandfather saying he would be delighted to see him.

Osborne was a thin, frail, white-haired gentleman. In a few minutes, Osborne's 81-year-old sister, Mary, joined them. Mary offered to take him to the cemetery, but before they left, Marion Price felt a strong impulse to ask Osborne Bounds about his spiritual condition.

"Mr. Bounds, are you a saved man?"

Osborne dropped his head, and in a few moments said meekly, "Oh, I don't know. I hope so, but I'm not sure."

Mary interrupted, "Why Oz is one of the best men in the county...You won't find a better man anywhere." Immediately she said, "Let me take you to the cemetery.

On the way she told him that her father would rise at four o'clock each morning and pray until breakfast at seven. In his later years, he would rise at three o'clock. He went to bed early before others, and if there were visitors in the house, he would excuse himself by saying something like, "I have an early appointment."

As Rev. Price drove home, the Spirit burdened his heart with the thought that neither of these children was saved. He wept for them and contacted 12 ministers asking them to help him pray for these two people.

He began occasionally visiting Osborne, but each time there were people around and he did not feel free to talk with him about the gospel. The last time he visited him, a nurse met him at the door and took him to Osborne's room who was in a hospital bed. This time the two of them were alone, and Rev. Price sensed the presence of the Living Lord. He asked Osborne if he could read the scriptures.

"Certainly. Please do," he replied. Then he shared with him the hopelessness of man without Jesus and that a man must come to God with a repentant heart, confessing his sin, and then by faith receive Him as Lord and Savior.

When he asked Osborne if he thought much about spiritual matters, he replied, "All the time."

"Are you ready to call on the Lord and ask Him to save you?"

Osborne said, "Yes," and began to pray without being coaxed. He confessed his sinful condition and his doubting heart, asking the Lord to forgive him.

"Mr. Bounds, did you mean what you just prayed?"

"Well, I guess I did!" he said with a peaceful smile.

After Osborne's death, his daughter told him, "From the time Daddy talked with you that last time, he had more peace than he had ever had before."

Rev. Price wrote, "God is not limited to my lifetime or yours. Sixty-three years after we die, He can send a simple gospel witness to speak to those for whom we have prayed."

"Whoever comes to me I will never drive away" (John 6:37).

Adapted from an article in Herald of His Coming. Originally found in the booklet Never Quit Praying for Your Loved Ones by Marion H. Price, Sr.

- by Aletha Hinthorn's Fireseeker devotional emails