Oh boy, we’re getting pretty deep into the thing. The ‘thing’ I’m referring to is Life. Like, every day is so confrontational. No more ‘fence sitting’ allowed. Not much gray area left. More and more it seems we’re coming face to face with things that challenge our peace, our logic, and some people’s lives. It’s not casual little things that just show up on our front porch, it’s things purposed specifically by ‘calamity’ himself to frustrate or discourage us, dark things that we must deal with each day. They’re similar to the scriptures describing a time of kingdom against Kingdom. (Luke 21:10). Many of today’s issues are very similar to the Garden of Eden arguments at the very beginning of Creation.
Did God create them male and female? Or, do we create them male and female using our criteria?
Should 5 year olds (maybe even two year old children) be encouraged to identify with ‘my feelings’ sexual orientation? Is that best for their futures?
There’s a 10 Commandments issue: Is there a justifiable shooting of an insurance executive being shot in the back and killed?
Is fraud understandable in our culture, justifiable because of inequalities or power or just simply theft?
Is women’s sports best defined as a sport for any who ‘identify’ as women?
Is science and the bible a part of the conversation, i.e., do chromosomes XY-XX come into play at all?
Name a culture or time when those kinds of issues are celebrated so universally around the world. I guess we could go so far as to think maybe Cain did have a gripe, a justifiable tiff, with Abel? You know we’re pretty wise people, after all we did improve those original 10 Commandments and ballooned them into 613 Jewish laws! There’s no exact number but it’s generally accepted that there are over 300,000 federal statutes and regulations. And, just in California alone you can add in 395,608 regulations if you’re keeping count. How are those doing to make us more ‘civil’? I think the Wisdom of the first 10 would cover most of those. Many of our efforts can simply be put in the same basket of self-gratifications or value signaling. All these moral and ethical improvements are created in ‘our attempt’ to do ‘good’. However, if that’s not influenced by the Spirit we’re still falling far short of Life as the Father would have it for us.
In our mind and attitude we believe we’ve really ‘improved’ culture. However, when you consider how we have run this world for 2000 years, just look at the issues we’re still struggling with today. How we’ve managed the world illustrates how, if we were in charge of the Church, we would mess it up. History tells us, and I think obviously proves, that the Church must have been, and will be, in God’s hands in order to fulfill its purpose and prophecies. Fortunately, He remains a Puppeteer that influences the program. I’m pretty sure that the Gospel of Jesus would not have been able to get to 2025 (expressing a 6000 year old story) without the divine fingerprint of God on it. That fact alone should at least calm us down a bit about the future of the Church. There must have been ‘help from above’ for us to continue today to declare this Faith. Just look at the message we inherited and share today. We’re defending something referred to as a chosen people, we’re pushing a virgin birth, we depend upon the literal death and resurrection of our hero, our leader. In a world that requires proof of just about everything to be believed, we minister an unseen, un-provable ‘Holy Ghost’. Simply, the Jesus story would not have existed for all those years if left up only to His ‘rebellious’ creatures. I’m confident He will continue to put His fingerprints on the Church in the future. If we were left in charge we would mess it up.
Using today’s logic, Jesus would probably have passed up the leper, just not enough numbers for witnessing such a miracle. He could have just walked past Philip or simply looked the other way while passing the women at the well. Given today’s ministry economics I suppose Jesus would have paused and counted the cost before heading to Jerusalem for that final time. But, in God’s Wisdom each was a significant preface to Salvation.
It’s been interesting to experience 70 Celebrations during BVN’s 35 years. We know that His fingerprints must be on the ‘things’ of WBVN. We held our recent Spring Celebration with the full intent of sharing this Gospel for our 36th year. It’s been such a blessing for us that counting numbers has not been used to define our success or purpose. We didn’t do a headcount of people attending our concerts to determine their value. We’ve used no Neilson ratings to represent our listening audience. We don’t use any exact dollar amount to be raised during our Celebrations to measure either the ministry value or its accomplishments.
During our Celebrations we’ve not expressed a dollar goal to define our future efforts; rather our prayer is that ‘enough’ is the appropriate goal. We’ve been blessed to simply do this Gospel without measuring this Gospel using mathematical numbers. We’ve done concerts for as little as 125 people and had some attended by more than 2000 people in one day. The ministry attitude is we simply trust we’ve added something to the culture, the communities. It’s a believer’s voice that we express. Our radio voice is ‘Trust this Gospel’.
We live each day with the knowledge that without His help we cannot expect very good results in this world. With His fingerprints we can expect glorious results. Every moment of our lives will not look encouraging but the whole experience will be glorious. Maybe day to day the Church might look defeated, maybe the world will declare ‘God is dead’. But for more than 6000 years He has ministered to His Church.
Rich Mullins had a quote I’ve used in these newsletters before: ‘Don’t hold on for dear life, rather, let go for dear life.’
‘Measure the day by Trust, don’t use your circumstances,’ would be a simple way to define Mullins’ quote. God encouraged us to live Free in Christ (John 8: 32 and 36). The ability to live free is promised to us and should be common in our Gospel Life.
All these controversies and challenges have put us in a place where we only hope the Gospel is real, but the Gospel requires a little more from us than that. Part of its remedy is that we must declare the Gospel out of our ‘being,’ not just out of our mouth, our mind, will and emotions (soul). In these times we need a strong declaration from our heart. I’ll call it an ‘I know’ statement. When Jane went to Chicago paralyzed head to toe for 4 months, she left there a different believer; when she returned 4 months later, her exact words, ‘I now know something.’ No longer just hoping something, but something more. Her conversations went from ‘I hope in God’s power’ to ‘I know God’s power.’
From here on it’s going to be similar to the time of the disciples: no ‘cushy’ expressions allowed. Jesus expressed it while addressing the Pharisees of that day: ‘If you are not with me you’re against Me.’ (Matt. 12:30, Luke 11:23) The word ‘against’ in that scripture is very specific. It doesn’t mean you’re necessarily against Jesus; it represents more standing in the way of Jesus. One Bible translation states: ‘If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.’ His statement is not condemnation, it’s simple wisdom and fact. I like to express it like this: You’re either one or the other, no in-between. Truth is, you automatically default into one or the other. You can choose to be for me, but if you don’t choose that you’ll be the other. No neutrality. There’s no middle ground here. Jesus’ preference: be hot or cold, you’re not going to get away with being lukewarm. (Rev. 3:14-15) Look around our lives today, evaluate the kind of choices we’re being forced to choose.
I think Deu.30:19 might sum it up: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose Life, that you may live, you and your seed… This is the kingdom against His Kingdom stuff expressed long ago.