My Motivation (A Work In Progress)

   Today‘s churches are far to comfortable. Now, it is possible to find a church to fit any whim or preference. Far too often, the messages that are spoken are pleasant and do not make our hearts ache for the lost or for our Lord. Sin is never dealt with properly, and when done so, it is always quickly covered by the salvation we have. Granted it is important to remind people of this, but this happy ending robs sin of its dire situation in the world. There is no longer a fear of the consequences of sin or a desire to help those that are living in their sin.
   As a result, and from other failings of the Church, the contemporary Christian is not living a fully God seeking life. How often do we see a lack of unity within the Church? Sunday mornings, people slide in and then try and slide out of church with as little interaction as possible. Listen to the conversations of those around you. How often do we ask how each other are doing, and then say our goodbyes after the other’s response. Even more so, how many actually listen to or care about the person they are talking to? Just about every response you will hear is something along the lines of them doing “good“. They never are in a slump, for that would require them to share themselves with those around them, for them to become vulnerable and human, and that would just be uncomfortable.
   As Christians, we are supposed to be representatives of Jesus. Instead, we are far to focused on doctrinal purity. We have a desire to be comfortable, so we sit in our churches and slowly become more apathetic as we play the “religion game”. Our comfortableness has taken us away from the rest of the world. Instead of focusing on those outside the Church, we argue amongst ourselves. If you look to the past, the Church was most effective in society during times of persecution. Although we wont likely face the kind of persecution the early Church did, what are we doing that will cause the world to react against us? Due to our comfortableness, we cannot come to a place where we have only God to rely on.
Another thought, why, when we are praying for revivals, is it only for the local areas around us and other parts of the world? Why is there never a prayer of revival for the Church itself? Are we so on track that we are not in need of it? When was the last time the Church was fervently awake for its mission?
   Brought to my attention in a class recently on the topic of Spiritual Warfare: This is a huge issue for any Christian and especially those involved in any kind of mission. Ephesians 6:12 reads, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Through all the services I have gone to, why can I only count on one hand the number of times that Spiritual Warfare has been discussed? If it is our struggle and we are commanded to “not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28), then shouldn’t this issue be dealt with more often within the church. And here on campus, why is there no class based around Spiritual Warfare? If it is not addressed within congregations as a serious issue facing all of us, then what are we, as a body, supposed to do to prepare ourselves for those moments when we find ourselves caught in this war? Yes, we can be and have been pointed to Ephesians 6: 10-18 which speaks about the full armor of God. And yes, it does show us what we need to protect ourselves, but rarely does anyone dig in and go in depth about each facet of the armor of God and the application of it or ability to strengthen those aspects of our lives that deal with the different sections. We must do more than simply say, “cloth yourselves with the armor of God.” Good, you told them, but now what do they do? How do they know how to put it on? Yes, maybe we don’t mention it too often because we don’t like the terms “war” or “warfare”. Warfare is a terrible thing but so is the battle that is going on for our souls. If what is going on within our spiritual lives as terrible as the type of warfare the world is used to, then why not adopt those terms that relate to war to show the seriousness of our spiritual war?

Reviews

[Ivan Appel]

It's always fun to time, how long does it take for a person to shift focus from "as a good Christian, what should I do and not do" into "as a good Christian, what should I nag other people about doing and not doing"

Venerated saints can sometimes stand for up to five minutes, for normal laymen it's rarely more than fifteen seconds.