To my last post, Mrs. Sinta replied: "You just don't get it. You assume that they care about people."
And therein lies the problem. What kind of Christians are they? Are we? Christians who love like Jesus loved? Or Christians who think we could force the world to love if only we could get the right person/people in power?
My pastor has been preaching for several weeks on what he calls "Radical Obedience". It has been an awesome series of sermons. Last night he talked about how Jesus as the Messiah went against the common belief at the time of what a messiah would do. Apparently there had been many men claiming messiahship in the previous 200 years. People believed in them, followed them, obeyed them. When those men died, the people thought "Well, THAT wasn't the messiah" and moved on to the next candidate. Maybe the disciples thought that Jesus wouldn't die since they believed he was the true Messiah. Jesus told them that he too would die. The difference being that on the third day he would be raised to life. (Luke 9:22) The disciples argued about who would be the greatest once Jesus was in charge of things. To that, Jesus called a child to him and said the least would be the greatest. (Luke 9:46-48) Jesus' kingdom does not fit with any of our human ideas of kingship, it is counter intuitive to how we think things should be. Thinking about that is what brought me to the question in yesterday's post. So many people are spending so much time, energy and money trying to fix the world through political means, societal norms. God has never operated within political means or societal norms. I cannot help but think that all of these people are wasting their time, money and talent. Let the politicians be what they will. Live out the love that Jesus taught. How many are being changed by politics? Not many. Pray, give, serve, love. How many people would be changed by that?
And by the way, Mrs. Sinta is one who does live out the love of Jesus. She has shown His love to me in many ways over the years. Don't think for a second that I was offended by her comment. I was glad for the opportunity to use it to springboard into a bit more of what I was thinking.
The zeal of the church for the glory of her King will not rise until pastors and mission leaders and seminary teachers make much more of the King. When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when he predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzzwords and cultural trends, then the people might begin to feel that he is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of his glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans."
ReplyDelete-John Piper
"Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions"
Indeed. Good post, and comment.
ReplyDeleteThis week I've been a little confounded by the idea that every church has issues with unity among themselves, which is destracting to the glory of God.
And how the distractions and disharmony over petty issues or church politics limits the potential of the entire congregation to grow.
It is overwhelming.
But I heard a great quote that brought hope: It is possible to move men through God by prayer alone.
Our duty is clear, if we are to see any change.
-Hudson Taylor.