At church last night my FIL made an interesting statement. We were talking about things that create differences in church. We all pointed out many of the obvious things like music, preferences, background, etc. We were talking about barriers that can get in the way of creating a multigenerational and multicultural enviornment. It is something that we have been talking about for weeks as we have been attempting to reach out to new and young families in the community.
He talked about how we all draw lines and say I will meet someone where they are as long as I don't have to ________ and you don't ask me to accept _________. Then he made a comment that really sort of stuck out.
He said... "God is in the business of erasing lines."
He talked about how everyone has "lines" that they aren't always so willing to cross even if it is to show love to someone who hasn't yet found the love of Christ. Most of the time it comes down to our dumb preferences and our personal set of rules and not theology.
How about you? Do you have lines? Because if you do, I believe that God will be erasing those soon and stretching you like he will be here...
2 comments:
This would have been an interesting conversation to be a part of. I don't know where one would get an idea that God is "in the business of erasing lines." While reading this post my mind was directed to James 3:13-4:1-8. Please read this for yourself. I will submit to you why people in churches have supposed lines. In a nutshell most folks in churches are worldly minded. The church in America is a very proud church. Finding folks who are truly submitted to the Lord and are seeking His face continually would be like finding pure gold. How often does that happen. So what is going on in the church today? A better question is James 3:13 "Who among you is wise?" Heavenly wisdom is manifested through deeds sown by gentleness of wisdom. Now wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. Now would a wise Christian have lines? Yes they would especially when it comes to truth verses man's opinions.
So what does man's opinions produce? James tells us that they produce bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts. Man's opinions produces arrogance so that one lies against the truth. Man's wisdom is earthly, natural, and demonically inspired. It is sad that this is the picture painted of the church in America. There is very little biblical preaching going on these days in churches across America. Biblical preaching has been replaced with man's opinions. Because of this it is no wonder why there is so much division in churches all across this nation.
Is God in the business of erasing lines if these lines are demonically inspired? Would not the solution be to recognize these faults in one self then repent of them? We might be saying the same thing here, but the blog post mentioned nothing of any scripture. So again I wonder if these conversations were just another opinion of a man?
Now to the topic of worldliness. James asks another question. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Because these people have worldly wisdom they quarrel against one another. They have conflicts with one another(lines). They lust, they are envious, they ask with selfish motives in order that they would please themselves. James calls these believers adulteresses who are friends with the world and hostile towards God! Now my friend this is deep stuff. But if we want to get healthy we need to expose to people the truth as to why there are lines in the church. It is because there is worldly minded people who have worldly wisdom.
So what is the solution? James tells us there are 5 things we need to do. We need to jealously desire the Spirit which Jesus made to dwell in us. In other words we need to seek His face continually. We need to humble ourselves before God. If we don't He will oppose us. Wow, God will oppose those believers who are worldly. It is no wonder that the church in America has lost its testimony. God is in opposition to those worldly Christians and churches. Today in America the church has replaced biblical Christianity with American churchianity. We need to submit to God. We need to resist the devil. Then finally we need to draw near to God. The wonderful promise is that He will draw near to us. I suppose when a believer looks at this passage and recognizes their sin, then after they repent God will restore them back onto the narrow path. While walking with their Lord on their journey home I suppose these lines will subtly disappear.
make yourself ready for His coming,
Steve Gales
So Steve, I find it interesting that you lump every church in America into the same pot. You said that the "church in America is a very proud church," and "there is very little Biblical preaching going on these days in churches across America," (among other things) and then you use a passage from James to support your conclusions. Have you been to every church in America? Have you heard every pastor preach an unbiblical sermon? What about other countries? Are their churches and members more spiritual and their pastors preach Biblically? Is that a conclusion based on man's wisdom or God's? Those are some pretty bold glittering generalities.
There are churches in America and around the world that are humble and spiritually strong. There are pastors in America and around the world that are accurately and consistantly preaching God's Word. There is not one reason that you can point to as the cause for spiritual decay in a person's life other than the generality of sin. But thankfully God is a gracious and merciful God. His plan is carried out despite what we do... or say!
-Paul Hunter
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