final days forum

A church unafraid of a 'pagan' world

Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière, R.A.

It is abundantly clear that not everyone in America, let alone the planet, upholds the Bible as a constant, self-evident truth. Not everyone believes what Jesus the Christ said about himself, that he was born to die, that he died to live again, and that he is the son of God.

Being a Christian has always been a spiritual choice that goes against culture. The Christ-based life is counter intuitive because it rests on claims that are first grasped by faith. So why are followers of Jesus surprised when the world rejects him? Why do we feel defensive when the culture doesn't get our God? Or us?

Jesus didn't fear the world and described it as the workplace for his followers. He lived under a Roman regime that was as worldly as they come, but fearlessly, and incessantly, Jesus talked about doing his Father's work. He spoke of his return to earth and his kingdom, despite what was happening in the Roman empire. 

So why did GOP leader Newt Gingrich on Saturday at the Rock Church in Virginia Beach, Va. during the "Rediscovering God in America"  state the obvious? Gingrich is quoted as saying:  "I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history,"  he said. "We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism."

The times are critical, but Gingrich's statement sounds like fear-based politics dusted with religion rather than an authentic display of Bible-based strength. Why should Christians feel defenseless and backed into a corner? Again, the world is our workplace! Daniel didn't get the heebie jeebies when he was in the service of a "pagan" government. He wasn't even distraught by a den of lions! The God Daniel served, though unseen, was bigger and badder. Daniel was a skilled leader in a world that did not worship as he chose.  He didn't run away from that fact. He understood that God possessed all authority. Do we view God that way?

A world with lots of "un-biblical" things happening 24-7 is the world to which God has called every believer. We are not submitting to his eternal purposes by whipping up fear about the people God has called us to serve. Jesus did not live in isolation and he is not directing us to live ensconced in a subculture of only Christian music and neighbors who sport a fish on the back of their Honda.

If we are not stretched by the challenge of serving in the world, if we do not venture beyond our mega-sanctuaries, how will we experience how powerful the Almighty actually is? How will the world?

Judy Howard Ellis

 

The difficulty of jumping

Stepping away from the comfort that a dysfunctional thing can give is hard because it's like getting from under a scratchy blanket on a cold night to retrieve the downy comforter in the closet. Do you stay in the bed and toss all night? Or do you allow yourself to leave the warm bed and endure the icy night for a few moments?

 Pursuing the creative thing that beats in all of us is like embracing the downy comforter in the closet. We know the current thing we're doing saps strength and steals joy. But that thing may be a job that pays the bills -- underwriting meager vacation days, keeping kids in good schools and the family in a nice neighborhood.

Maybe the thing is a person -- relentless in his or hers resistance to change, and this person is your spouse, friend or parent. Fear of confronting them dwarfs everything else.

Even the very thing you were born to do.