I’ve encountered too many
churches that have their names in a public directory as though they are open for
business, but their phones are disconnected, they’ve shuttered their doors, or moved
and left no forwarding address. Recently I received the following reply from an
email I’d sent: "Gail, Sorry it took so long to respond. We are not
doing the prayer center at this time. I'm sorry. Mark" It's not unusual to hear
people say that the Lord has moved them on to a different ministry. However, to
say, “We are not doing the prayer center at this time,” sounds like something
you’d hear from the owner of a kiosk when he wanted to close up shop for the
winter. Jesus said to the self-deluded members of the church in Laodicea, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with
me” (Rev 3:20 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----The guest host on “Bill Bennett’s America” blurted out again a nasty, little statement which has dissolved the small amount of integrity the world struggled to amass by the end of the nineteenth century. That morsel of “wisdom”: “Perception is reality.” It later came to be known as: “Everyone has their own reality”. Like ok, create me something Mr. Reality. Change the pitiful mess the world is in if reality is yours, for I’m quite tired of it. Oh! You can’t? Well, not much of a possessor of reality are you now?
-----Paul said we see dimly as in a mirror. This admits perception is a reflection of reality, not reality itself. It means everyone has his own reflection of reality. “Well now, Steve, that’s just too much to say.” Maybe its not short and pithy and doesn’t sound all fancy like “Perception is reality“ sounds, but it puts a straighter link into the chain of public thought. It says we each must submit our minds to the piece of reality discernible in our own situation. With it our present circumstances would have been built of much humbler materials.
-----I’ve seen people start groups for varieties of causes. At the time of starting, everyone is all spry and certain that the Lord is putting together this or that ministry. Although He usually is, does that mean He’s putting it together perpetually? Or is He putting something together for ministering to a present need? There’s no spiritual pizzazz in that! If we want to be spiritually impressed with ourselves, our plans must overarch the present as well as the local. And so our groups must have self identities, which means names and addresses and presence in listings, and stuff like that. But reality may have been different; the intended need may have been served; so the chosen path may have ran out of ground to meander into. Those vacant names in listings show that reality rules after all, while perception is just a puff of mind.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment