I confess that I have a deep-seated fear of getting caught up in the unimportant matters of this world rather than staying focused on God’s kingdom. There are so many distractions that I find so tempting and I always want to keep my guard up so I can resist finding myself compromising my convictions.
For example, years ago we were supporting US missionaries in Mexico, and when they would return home for visits we would ask them what they had noticed had changed since they left. Sometimes they noticed the latest rage like when all the little boys got Game Boys and were continuously playing video games. Other times they noticed things that were more serious—they told us they were shocked that women were dressing so immodestly. Or, they visited a church that was known for being alive and they found they seemed very lethargic to them. Base on this experience I continue to try to imagine what things are changing in my culture that I should be resisting.
There are many biblical images about this that I find help me to
recognize how important this is. For example, in Matthew 16 Jesus
criticizes the religious leaders and calls them wicked because they are
looking for miraculous signs to show Jesus has come from God. Instead,
Jesus says the only sign they will receive will be from prophets like
when God sent Jonah to call Nineveh to repentance. Another examples
comes from Revelations 2-3 where we see seven different ancient churches
all drifting off into different problems and distractions—and each one
needs a warning to set them straight. Years ago when I took a course to
study the Bible our final exam on the Old Testament came from Nehemiah
9. This chapter presents a short summary of how many generations of
God’s people had continually become unfaithful and drifted from
obedience. I’m convinced this is happening to us right now in 2011 and
so I’m asking myself—how can we be found faithful in times of spiritual
decline?
I think one of the answers is to recognize that the Lord sends prophets in
every generation and we must be careful to welcome prophets to speak
into our lives. I remember years ago that David Wilkerson, the author
of “The Cross and the Switchblade” wrote about how the Lord called him
to reach out to inner city gangs in New York. Later on in his life he
would often speak very challenging and unpopular messages to
Christians. He would often give these messages with tears and
sadness—which so impressed me because he was so courageous and broken
hearted over the sins of our times. I would say my favorite prophet of
our times was Pope John Paul II who on so many occasions was willing to
completely contradict so many popular leaders and viewpoints. Another
favorite was Mother Teresa who came to speak at Harvard and dared to
say, “you are the truly poor people of the world.” We need prophets to
speak to today’s church, and we also need prophets who will be willing
to speak into our personal lives. With so much uncertainty in today’s
world let it be said of us that prophets are always welcome in our
fellowship.
No comments:
Post a Comment