IT'S ALL RELEVANT

I was pondering on the word relevant this morning.  I hear that word a lot in the many discussions about why “the God hypothesis” is no longer necessary in our 21^st century thinking, or why the churches must change the way they do things.  The goal is to make things relevant, useful, and meaningful to the world’s needs today.

I was looking out the window at my Tree that is glowing like gold.  This is an old tree and has been planted there, doing what trees do for many years.  It’s pretty much doing the same thing that all trees do, even the century old tree I used to sit under at Pendle Hill.  It’s pretty much doing the same thing that all of the trees in the ancient forests do, in the same way they have done since the creation of time.  But then most of nature is that way as well, when left untouched by human hands.  It’s how God made them in the beginning.  The sun appears every morning and disappears every evening; the oceans tides rise and ebb everyday; the rain falls and waters the earth.  Those things don’t change.  Are they still relevant?

My tree goes through the seasonal changes.  In spring the buds blossom and the leaves develop.  In fall the leaves turn beautiful colors and then die and fall to the ground.  The following spring the cycle begins again.  Every spring and fall are different yet very much the same.  The fruit of the tree may vary but the foundation of the tree remains the same; the paradox of being different but being the same.

There are things that can change without destroying the foundations and I believe the church needs to hear that more than ever today.  God is not a hypothesis.  God is the Creator of everything created and that needs to remain True as the foundation.  God is relevant, yesterday, today, and forever for the entire world.  Jesus is relevant, from the Alpha to the Omega for the church.  The foundation does not need to change to be relevant to the people.  The people need to change to be relevant to the Foundation.

There is a lot of building on sand these days that will be washed away with the first storm; and that storm is coming.  This world has become godless by choice, which is very foolish.  The picture that Paul paints of the people in the last days, that he warns Timothy about, is much like a picture of contemporary society.  “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unforgiving, slanderous, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:2-5).

It’s time for all who call themselves Christians and lovers of God to wake up and listen.  Now is not the time to turn away from the Foundations of the faith that Jesus taught and lived out. Now is not the time to turn our ears away from the Truth.  Now is not the time to be deceived.  Now is the time to turn to the God who is Relevant throughout all time, not out of fear but in faith and love.

Paul exhorts Timothy to, “Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:14, 15).

There are many good examples throughout the centuries, of godly men and women who built on the foundation of the Rock and who knew God to be relevant in their lives.  I want to listen and learn from them.