May 19, 2008
Smiley Faces
As congregations are being dismantled and remolded there are unhappy faces all around. Those in leadership want carte blanche when it comes to implementing their targeted vision, and those in the layman classification want consideration for all the membership. Both sides have taken the turn the other cheek teaching to a whole new level…we’re turning our backs to one another. One of the accusatory comments directed towards older, more mature people is that they don’t like change. We’ve been force fed this mantra so often that many not only accept it as fact, but they’re starting to repeat it themselves. In truth, people willingly accept change when they see God’s hand in those changes. Besides, how else can you explain all those smiley faces seen in new church plants? Talk about change!
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Gail;
-----I remember my bride, seventeen years ago, in her peach bridal gown, with rosy, smiling cheeks. She was not perfect, but she was beautiful, and she was mine by both our choices. So also was our wedding. It mostly was how she wanted it, because that is how I wanted it. She came to it complete with the bride’s maids, who were there to assist her with her needs. Now, I forget exactly why she chose a peach colored dress, but no bride’s maid tried to bleach it to white, nor to sell her on pink. She chose the music to play also without back-lip, and she chose the church, the preacher, and most other elements of the wedding without a bunch of all-knowing bride’s maids dismantling and remolding her wedding. That allowed her rosy cheeks to continue smiling.
-----So why do the bride’s maids of Jesus Bride think they own her to the extent of telling her what to wear, what music she needs to choose, and who to invite to the wedding? It would be audacious if the maids of my bride tried such a stunt, or the maids of yours. Yet the maids of Christ’s Bride treat her like she is their bride, not His. Now I understand, if Char had selected Led Zepplin’s Lemmon Song for her walk down the isle her bride’s maids would certainly have offered some alternatives through humbly clearing throats. But pardon me, The Sweet Hour of Prayer is hardly Led Zepplin’s Lemmon Song. And the maids of Christ’s Bride should not be treating it as if it were.
-----John wrote in a short epistle about the message we, “…heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” (I John 3:11). For this was the new command that Christ gave to us. John tells us that we have passed out of death to life because we have loved the brethren, and that the one who does not love still abides in death. He tells us that we know love in that Christ laid His life down for us, and that we ought to lay our lives down for the brethren, loving in deeds and in truth, not in words and braggadocio. And he tells us it is by this love in truth and in deed that we know we are of the truth. And it is by it that our hearts are assured we are in Him whenever we feel dirty and guilty. (ref. I John 3:13-20).
-----Yet, the Bride’s maids accosted her for her Sweet Hour of Prayer and her chosen attire. Even the hour she chose for assembly and her chosen vows of worship to God they mocked as dowdy and dusty, insisting that she not worship as she wanted, but celebrate as they wanted. The Rick Warren’s of the world were able to fill the hearts of the Bride’s maids full of guilt and self-doubt. Being not themselves well grounded in the Instructions to the Bride from the Groom Himself, the Bride’s maids did not assure their guilty hearts by loving the Bride in who and what she was, but rather, they hated who and what she was, calling it evil and selfish from their own accusations, while there were none, or at least precious few, of His Instructions which agreed. From their own standards the Bride’s maids have stirred tremendous confusion into the Bride’s mind concerning the very choices freely granted to her by a loving and pleasing Groom. Thus they stole the Bride’s choices, forcing upon her their own, demonstrating their love for the Bride was not love after all, but rather selfish, conceited possessiveness having more in nature with hatred. Will they be saying, “Lord, Lord…” on that Day? I hope not.
-----As you well said, Gail, they have for so many years brain washed those of His bride that this selfish foisting of one’s own ways upon others is becoming the accepted and expected culture of the church. A young man whom I admire preached a sermon at our church Sunday comparing church and Church, a difference I present in terms of churchianity and Christianity. I detected no wince in the congregation as he crossed the topic of why one needs not dress up to go to Church. Evidently, he was now speaking an accepted idea that berates looking better than normal (see, I can hardly force myself to say it), NO, looking your best to worship your God who has delivered you from eternal hell into eternal bliss. My friend, that is worth at least a neck tie! Oh, alright then, yes, even a tie-dye.
-----Yes, Gail, the change that the Bride of Christ should accept, the only change she should be compelled to accept, is the change directed by the Groom‘s Instructions. In as much as the wedding supper has not occurred yet, in as much as the Bride is still preparing Herself, the Bride’s maids have at this stage much involvement with what the Bride is doing. And yes, as maids of service, if they are going to be truly loving maids, they won’t let the Bride prepare herself with blue jeans and sneakers (ahemm, uhh, cht, cht, is it legal to say that?) They will try to dissuade Her from playing the Lemmon Song for the Groom, at least not in public. And they will let Her know where Her remaining little smudges are before the procession begins. Certainly, they will be careful to know and apply only the standards from the Grooms Instructions should they even dare try overriding one of Her choices! After all, She is who they are there for, not themselves.
-----So Gail, I keep wondering why these contemporary bride’s maids keep putting Her in tie-dyes, blue jeans, and sneakers while trying to sell Her celebration lyrics set to the tune of The Lemmon Song for Her public procession. It just so baffles me as to whether or not I should actually notice their refusal to truck with His Word in these matters. Because that refusal seems to stand behind the, “Lord, Lord…” tune. It is no wonder that the new church plants actually involve a new selection of the Bride’s maids.
Love,
Steve Corey
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