I feel at times
like I live in a time and place spoken of by Amos, a time when there is a
famine on the land, not a famine of bread or thirst for water but of hearing
the words of God. The Christian’s Story
has been deemed by some as a meta narrative and been reduced to a relative and
pluralistic attitude that if it works for you fine, but keep it to yourself;
there are a lot of stories so pick one that works for you, where you live.
God, Jesus, and
the Bible have been lumped together and categorized under the label
Christianity. Christianity has been
often an abusive and destructive force in the world throughout history. It has intruded upon cultures, been the
instigator of wars, and is consumed with power and control over the minds and
lives of people. Therefore, like any
other evil force or evil empire in the world today it must be stopped and
destroyed; ‘Shock & Awe’ style. As
one who has suffered harm by that system, I have no problem or objection to
eliminating the system.
What I do have a
major problem and objection to is that God, Jesus, and the Bible are identified
with that system and have been disrespected and done away with as well; tossed
out with the proverbial baby thrown out with the bath water, or an innocent man
being crucified and killed by the very system itself.
Anything that
replaces God in the hearts and minds of people is an idol. When the system of Christianity, or the
Church itself replaces God in the hearts and minds of people they too become an
idol. God commands that there are to be
no idols, no other God before Him, no matter how good they may look or
religious they may seem. Whatever
replaces Him in the minds and hearts of His people is anathema to God.
As people consider
and envision how God’s people are suppose to be in this world today; how the
church is suppose to be in the world and in our neighborhoods today, we must
attune our ears and eyes to God Himself and His voice, not to what a world
living in famine requires and is demanding.
The church is a manifestation of God; it is not about us working for
God; it is about God being the object and motivation for our work and our life
in this world.
As people of God
we need to know God’s eternal purpose for all things; we need to have eyes to
see and ears to hear the prophetic vision laid out since the beginning that
will culminate in the end of time, in God’s time. We need to fix our eyes on Him, tune our ears
to His Word and walk with eternity in our hearts. Anything else is idolatry and will not
do. We must return to God, the fountain
of living waters and stop building our own cisterns, broken cisterns that hold
not water.
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