I am burdened for the church in America. I believe Jesus when He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” but I’m struggling to put my arms around His truth and what I see. I know that the world will know we are Christ’s followers “by our love one for another,” but I’m troubled that not many are meeting the test. God is doing something and whatever it is, I want to be a part of healing… restoring… and building the church in any way I can.
Maybe part of where I am is to bring in a very small way some realization of the church’s condition. A good physician tells people what their symptoms mean, so maybe the churches need to hear messages that are more prophetic about how church is supposed to be conducted. The first step is to herald a warning… to yell “fire” so that those who are sleeping can wake up. If that’s the case, maybe these few posts might make a slight difference at least in some believer’s understanding of what is going on in the church in America.
Consider how it is possible for a church to lose its effectiveness from Dr. D. A. Carson…
“The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it–admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively over the long haul. Building the church with superficial ‘conversions’ and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembling of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism–all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: ‘If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:17). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Again let me thank you for a wonderful lesson, something I need and all the Churches need. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Love these lessons and thoughts.