So Terribly Lacking

My dear brothers and sisters, I must share with you the burden which has been laid upon my heart. Know that what I say does not exclude myself in any way, for I am weak in so many ways. I write this, because I believe so many of us share a common weakness. I write this, because I desire to encourage you all to pour your every being out to God. I write this, because I must.

What I see so terribly lacking, among us all, among so many churches of this land, and of so many parts of this fallen world, is our passion. For what may be given to a king who suffered so brutally and died that we may be saved. What may be given but our very all. What do I see. I see my brothers and sisters willing, no desiring, to watch a movie for a couple hours, or play video games through the night, or watch sports all the day long. I see us devoting a full day going to an amusement park, or road trip, or even sleep. I cannot say any of these things are bad, do not misunderstand me. But the question must then be asked, when do we pray, for a couple hours, or through the night, or all the day long. When do we devote an entire day to prayer (yes, even fasting). I see this neither in my own life, nor in so many other lives. Do we wish to see our lives grow beyond imagination? Do we wish to know God ever more intimately? Do we wish to see revival around us? In this nation? Around the world? Can we not see the thousands of dying souls around us who do not know Jesus. Who give their lives over to the evils of this world, living without truth and love and peace. And what of the millions of this nation. What of the billions of this world. Does it not wrench the heart and soul to see these dying souls surround. What of our brothers and sisters who have no fellowship, no encouragement, apart from the body. What of our brothers and sisters around this globe who daily starve, who face prisons and death for believing in our Lord Jesus Christ. Does it not wrench the heart and soul to see our family suffer so. I must be honest. It is tearing me apart inside to see so little commitment to God. To see so little prayer for these lost and suffering souls. To see more people come out to play basketball than to come to prayer. And what's worse, to see more passion in that game, than is seen in any time of prayer. What are our priorities? Where are our hearts?      

Quotes to Ponder

"A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story."
           - K.P. Yohannan

"It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home."
           - J. Hudson Taylor

"As long as there are millions destitute of the word of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote my time and energy to those who have both."
           - J.L. Ewen

Unable to Understand

Should I be able to understand this world about me!
A world filled with those would dare to call themselves Christians, who would dare to say they follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and yet who are not willing to give up their lives for his sake!
Did not Jesus come to this earth to suffer and bleed and die on our behalf, for which we gladly accept, yet we are not willing to live out such a fate ourselves!
Having received so great a gift, how can we not be willing to suffer as well!
What is happing here!
I cannot understand this!
It defies my very being, my logic, my heart, and dare I say, God's scripture itself!
We are not willing to give up the pitiful, weak, and so very few days of our lives on this earth, that another may be saved from the fires of hell!!!
Does anyone even think of hell anymore, does anyone even realize it's reality anymore!
Have we philosophized away such things in this thinking world today!
Enough with it!
We have sat in these dusty pews long enough!
We have heard the teaching, we've been to bible studies, we've read the books, are we not willing to do something now!
Is this just another religion we've invented here, just looking for something to make us feel better in this dying world!
Is there nothing more than this!
Is there no heart for the dying masses across planet earth!
I may never understand God, nor his Word, nor anything of this created universe.
But if there is one thing that I will understand least of all, it is why those who have received everything, are unwilling to give up anything.

Shall we think, yet not do?

I wrote this last week in church:
"The hypothetical questions, always so prevalent, always so far removed from all reality. How 'would' you proclaim the gospel 'if' you had the chance. Not that such a chance would occur. Nor is it challenged, prayed, or hoped for. The possibility of its occurrence is presupposed non-existent."

This was written in response to the question of how we would proclaim the gospel to a crowd before us. A fun exercise I suppose it was, but really of what worth is it to those who participated? Who really expects that they would ever in their lives have the chance to proclaim the gospel to a crowd of any size? I do think people should consider and then do indeed proclaim the gospel always, whether crowd or individual. But that is another issue. The reality is, these people do not consider doing such a thing, and to make up an exercise so far removed from reality seriously hinders the audiences ability to apply the words spoken. Of course I did not take issue with this as an individual incident. Unfortunately I find such instances all to common in the church today, whether it be sermon, sunday school, or seminar.
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As well I wrote:
"If the gospel is thought or spoken of, yet not done, is it any less watered down than actually weakening the words spoken."

A remark was made of the gospel being 'watered down', during this same sunday school entitled "what is the gospel?", to which I wrote the above paragraph. This is in fact an issue which has been most disturbing to me as of late. For I find the christian world saturated with a seeking of knowledge, a looking after some greater intellectual truth. I recently read an article which said the ancient Greeks held to the theory that ignorance was the cause of problems in the world, and knowledge was the solution. Such is the case in the church, where it seems some new truth is always sought after, but the application of such truth in the lives of the hearers is so rarely seen. Nor is any challenge by the speaker given, that those who hear his message may live out the truth they have heard. May people be content to merely attain to some higher level of intellectual knowledge of their God? It seems there is a great deal of action by men in the Bible, yet we desire to convert their actions into measurable units of theology or rules to further contemplate. Is there so little consideration that perhaps those actions ought to be taken as example to be followed with a similar passion?

Are you willing?

For a God who gave as our God gave, are you not willing to give all you may give, to Him? Are you willing to never have a home, a ‘real’ job, a family, or any form of security for this life? Are you willing to give up the praise of men, so easily received, though only by following this pattern of the ‘American Dream’? Are you willing to give up the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of your dreams, the pursuit of all earthly pleasures? Would you never feel the love of a spouse, never know the pleasures of sex, never to care for, never to be cared for, so tenderly? Will you have children, only to endanger their lives, to watch them bleed, to watch them die? For such was Jesus the child of God, bleeding and dying upon a cross, for your sake. Will you go, to bare the pain of watching you spouse and children die a painful death, that you may return to tell their story? Though unspeakable sorrows would surely be known, though a quick death, a quick end to such pain, would surely be desired, would you press on? Will you give up what you cannot keep, to gain what you cannot lose? Will you always, under all circumstances, rich or poor, loved or hated, in comfort or bleeding your very last drop of blood, will you always praise the Lord? At times of pain, at times of weakness, through depression and desperation, persecution and plague, will you look ahead to the eternity to come? Will you look upon the things of this world with disgust, by comparison to the everlasting things to come? Will you lose your life that you may save it? Will you now give all you can, your hobbies, your entertainment, your every little joy, that you may draw nearer to God? Will you give up food and drink and sleep, that you may feel the hunger, thirst, and desperate longing for your Father? Will you ask, will you seek, if such things may be His will? Will you wait, will you listen, for if you are called to such things? Are you truly willing?