February 01, 2011
Revive Us Again
I‘ve always been impressed with the disciples who immediately left everything, including their father, to follow Jesus. Even the eunuch when he heard the Word explained by Philip saw the water and was baptized on the spot. Their actions appear effortless compared to our actions today, where we first have to think about it, organize it and make a plan. Today’s church has lost a lot of the spontaneity and immediacy of following Jesus. Maybe it’s time for a revival.
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Gail;
-----Paul’s directions in the seventh chapter of I Corinthians are very interesting. He summed up his advice to the unmarried and married, circumcised and uncircumcised, slaves and free at verses seventeen and twenty, “Only, let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him... Every one should remain in the state in which he was called.” Of course, he was not setting a hard and fast rule, “Were you a slave when called? Never mind. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.” (verse 21) Rather, these principles soften and slow down any ideas that one must dump all of the circumstances of his life upon accepting Christ and hurry off to be a missionary in some far corner of the world. The twelve apostles left their lives to follow Jesus at His very specific calling. Many others whom He healed, though, He bade to go and sin no more. This is probably the first and foremost evidence my logic finds for the truth of the Word of God. If God were who the Bible states Him to be, He would be intensely personal with the individual. And He is.
-----Most of those around us are leading the lives in which they were called and are holding to the measure of faith God has assigned them (Rom 12:3). I think you are right in that it would be more inspirational to see more impressive responses to God’s messages being sounded in church and around about. Yet, many of the folks we worship with do not spontaneously turn their lives upside down and inside out at hearing a message because that has already occurred for them whether quickly or over much time. However much they remained in the circumstances in which they were called, it is what they were that underwent metamorphosis.
-----I don’t get the feeling that the church must steer a collective course. It is His body for working on the earth, and therefore, its activity should be quite noticeable. But I remain bothered by the amount of expectation held for the members of it to respond to the leaders as if they were coaches strategizing their every effort for the winning play of the Super Bowl. The teamwork of the church is much different. Christ is not its head through a few elite thinkers directing its every motion. He is its head through every member of it, directing their every motion. The leaders do guide, train, and correct with authority, but they also must withdraw their hands where Christ’s hand personally guides. So I am not surprised to see a church not responding immediately to messages, for it is after all a gathering of individuals within varying degrees of response.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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