If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today. Gandhi
The Church?
I'm at it again because it has been bugging me, bugging me enough to make me irate & when I get irate I write. So either make yourself a cuppa & settle in comfortably to thrash it out with me or bolt for the hills because I'm good & mad.
Well, you're probably thinking, thinking I'm upset already with our small fellowship, that didn't last long! Nope, not upset with our fellowship. And seriously there's nothing I can actually do about this either.
You've heard me rabbit on about discipleship as opposed to conversion. Well, every so often you run into someone who puts what you're thinking into words better than you can & has the scholarship to back it up. For me that someone on this issue is Keith Green. That Keith Green. The dead one. The musician. That Keith Green.
Green has a list of things the church has used down the years that have become a trap & actually prevent people from coming to true salvation. Now initially I think these things were good & anointed by the Holy Spirit but as so often happens when man gets his hands on spiritual things he chokes the life out of them & persists with something that has been long dead because we are creatures of habit & like our comfort zones to remain undisturbed. I know I do.
So what are these things? The alter call. The *Sinner's Prayer.* *Salvation* tracts. Bumper stickers. Follow up programmes. Now before all my dear Christian sisters jump all over me & testify to one or other or all of these things bringing someone they know to Christ let me remind you of the parable of the sower. Lots of people hear the gospel message. Lots of people receive it gladly but... that is no proof of salvation. The proof is in changed lives... & I am not talking about external things like going to church. Our churches are full of the unsaved who don't know they're not saved.
Think I'm a kook? Well try this. Scripture says that those who worship the Lord must worship Him in spirit & in truth. We know that the truth will set us free. We know that the Spirit is the one who changes the heart because it is the heart God looks on, so we are talking about an internal change here that has an external application. That application is in worship.
As I've mentioned we've been reading through Philippians. Chapter 3 this week. The word used for worship in Philippians chapter 3 is latreuo. What an interesting word that is! We get the English word liturgy from it. If you're Catholic or Anglican you will have a good understanding of what a liturgical worship service entails. Now comes the interesting part. Guess what the primary meaning of latreuo is? To minister; to serve! Uh~huh. Put that alongside of offering our bodies as a living sacrifice & I think you get a much better picture of what Paul is talking about when he talks about worship.
We are so afraid of coming across as cranks or weirdos or extremists that we water down the gospel seeking to make it more *acceptable*. Interestingly that wasn't Christ's way. The man was constantly upsetting people. His home congregation tried to throw him over a cliff because of his teaching! That was some time before he had a go at the money lenders in the synagogue.
If I am truly not my own, having been bought at great cost, if I am truly the libation poured out, a living sacrifice, then preaching a half hearted gospel is just not good enough because it is not the truth. Discipleship comes at a cost. I know I have 5 kids & every single one of those 5 kids has made a *decision for Christ*. I am not naive enough to think that decision is enough to save them. It is evidence of a work of the Holy Spirit but as they mature so must their faith or it will be abandoned as serving no purpose. Each must, like Jacob, wrestle with the Lord into a personal relationship with Him...& then continue on. You seriously want to know how many nights I've sat up with teenagers thumbing through my bible trying to explain stuff to them? What to know about all the phone calls I field answering questions?
How many *Christian* kids do you know who leave home & abandon their faith? Does this not suggest to you that we are doing something wrong? Gandhi got it right.
7 comments:
OK, was always given to understand that after conversion the "Holy Spirit" indwells us and so then it teaches you everything the right way and you magically are on the right path. *zing* Follow the yellow brick road. :]
Reading the book of Acts seems like little snippets of this all over. You know, preach the ol turn and burn, get a bunch of converts and then TA DA the church grows. Then *zing* they're on the same road.
I just thought it was poor obedience by each of these wayward "Christians" that they turned away or didn't get enough *zing* in their conversion.
And...
If we concentrated on "discipleship" I wouldn't wonder that we would have two converts on each continent and everyone else would go to hell.
Hmmm...
excellent post. **Excellent** post my dear dear friend. It is tempting to live a life of comfortable Christianity (and Lord knows I succumb to that temptation often enough:() But when I test my life and my choices against the Word, it does not often allow me to make the comfortable choices. Usually the Godly thing to do is very very hard... too hard for me to do on my own. And so I MUST depend upon Him, MUST stay in close relationship with Him or I just cannot do it.
Did you know that Ghandi was intrigued with Jesus, wanted to know more about Him, and so he went to a church one Sunday. The ushers would not let him in.. they said that he should go to worship with his own people. I have often wondered what would have happened had he been "allowed" to enter, to worship Christ? How different would the India of today be? How different would the world be? The small mean choices of those very human (like *me*) ushers might just have changed the course of history. God prevent me from thinking that any of my choices are too small or insignificant to matter.
Preach it, Sista Ganeida!
Diane I knew you would like the Gandhi quote. I've never forgotten you telling me about Gandhi being turned away. Scary stuff.
MrsC. You are discipling ~ every single day ~ 5 beautiful children. The trouble with blogging (at least as I do it) is that there simply isn't time to nit~pick every arguement because in a general way I would agree with your assessment & it is certainly how the *Billy Graham* phenomenen works & yes, I would agree the Holy Spirit teaches us. My upset is more that many people believe they are saved who aren't but because they've said the prayer or answered an alter call think they are, KWIM? But there's no evidence of the new life. Maybe it's poor teaching? I get tired of the *Don't judge, don't judge* thing because we *are* to judge. We are to examine ourselves & assess our spiritual condition. We are to judge the truth of what we're told or taught by scripture. So in my thinking there is a continum...You hear the word, get saved & work out your salvation in fear & trembling. James says faith without works is dead. Paul says worship is ministry (our living sacrifice) & it is born of the new life within us. It is not about keeping the pew warm on Sunday.
Scripture has a bit to say about blunting our consciences & grieving/quenching the Holy Spirit but I know I can't sin & expect to get away with it lightly. The Holy Spirit goes to town till I can't live with myself, which is pretty uncomfortable. Given some of the things I see & hear come out of *Chrisians* I gotta wonder...It reminds me of the whole *itching ears* thing.
BTW Discipleship doesn't have to be one on one ~ it can be done it large groups but it *should* be done. Just my think.
What an excellent post! Yes, it is easy to go along with the flow, sometimes, but aren't we lucky that Jesus didn't just do what He wanted, but rather accepted His Father's will for Him.
Gandhi's quote is absolutely awe-inspiring, and so very true. How different India would have been if Gandhi had been allowed to enter the church to find out more about Jesus!
Discipleship is what we are called for after conversion, and it's evidenced by what people see in our lives, the fruit of our works, if you like.
I cannot live a half-hearted life if I expect my children to live wholeheartedly for the Lord. My whole being needs to be living life for the Lord!
Ganeida, now that you put it that way, I totally agree with you. I do wonder if people who said the prayer one time a zillion years ago and we see no evidence of salvation in their lives are truly saved. I wouldn't want to get all condemning and stuff, but it does seem there are many people out there fooling themselves.
For my part, God's grace has got to cover in the gaps I have in my life. :]
Me too. Thank God for Grace. I'd be in a sad way without it. It rminds me of the Evelyn Waugh story. He had, by all accounts, been abominably rude throughout a dinner until the lady opposite remarked in disdain, 'And you call yourself a Christain!' Waugh replied, 'Yes, but just think how awful I would be if I wasn't!' lol.
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