The distance between who we think we are and who we really are may be extremely wide. It’s hard to know ourselves.
The distance between who we are and who we ought to be may be even wider.
Even if we know who we are and know who we ought to be it is impossible to transform ourselves. Praise God for redeeming, transforming, sanctifying grace that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think!
Identity matters. It’s true of individuals. It’s true of organizations. And it’s true of churches.
So what kind of a Church does God want us to be?
Is He looking for a people who will hide themselves away and isolate themselves from the culture that continues slouching towards Gomorrah?
Is He looking for a people who will adopt the spirit of the age in the name of “relevance?”
Is He looking for a people who will adapt their message and abandon their insistence upon righteousness so that they better fit the times? A place where we can feel good without being good?
Is He looking for a cool church? A place where we wow one another with our tech-savvy, show-time church services, model our skinny jeans, and stand around drinking Starbucks?
Is He looking for a people with a new twist, a new angle,
or a new doctrinal
accent?
Or, is He looking for a laid back, pat on the back, and “you all come back” church?
The vast majority of American churches fit into one of these models. And yet an honest appraisal of the cultural indicators and the spiritual life of the professing Church is disquieting at best, and frightening at its worst. Tragically the world is transforming the Church. But God is looking for a Church that will transform the world.
We are to be Crusaders! Lifting up the cross and gathering enlistments wherever, whenever, and whoever.
We are to be a mighty Army. Our only hope is that the Church Militant will stop dancing with the stars and start marching for Cause of Christ.
We are to defeat the devil, disprove his deceptions, and dismantle his domain.
We must give attention to the military code (God’s infallible Word), put on the uniform (no more bending, blending, or blurring our distinctive God given gender or our Commander’s call to modesty), and get moving! The hour is late. The cause is great.
Rise up oh men of God,
Have done with lesser things,
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of Kings!
The distance between who we are and who we ought to be may be even wider.
Even if we know who we are and know who we ought to be it is impossible to transform ourselves. Praise God for redeeming, transforming, sanctifying grace that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think!
Identity matters. It’s true of individuals. It’s true of organizations. And it’s true of churches.
So what kind of a Church does God want us to be?
Is He looking for a people who will hide themselves away and isolate themselves from the culture that continues slouching towards Gomorrah?
Is He looking for a people who will adopt the spirit of the age in the name of “relevance?”
Is He looking for a people who will adapt their message and abandon their insistence upon righteousness so that they better fit the times? A place where we can feel good without being good?
Is He looking for a cool church? A place where we wow one another with our tech-savvy, show-time church services, model our skinny jeans, and stand around drinking Starbucks?
Is He looking for a people with a new twist, a new angle,
or a new doctrinal
accent?
Or, is He looking for a laid back, pat on the back, and “you all come back” church?
The vast majority of American churches fit into one of these models. And yet an honest appraisal of the cultural indicators and the spiritual life of the professing Church is disquieting at best, and frightening at its worst. Tragically the world is transforming the Church. But God is looking for a Church that will transform the world.
We are to be Crusaders! Lifting up the cross and gathering enlistments wherever, whenever, and whoever.
We are to be a mighty Army. Our only hope is that the Church Militant will stop dancing with the stars and start marching for Cause of Christ.
We are to defeat the devil, disprove his deceptions, and dismantle his domain.
We must give attention to the military code (God’s infallible Word), put on the uniform (no more bending, blending, or blurring our distinctive God given gender or our Commander’s call to modesty), and get moving! The hour is late. The cause is great.
Rise up oh men of God,
Have done with lesser things,
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of Kings!
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