Last week’s news out of Des Moines was a shocker. A unanimous court declared that Iowa’s law banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional and the judges opened the door for homosexuals to wed. Yesterday Vermont’s legislature over-rode the governor’s veto and put that state on the map as the fourth state in the United States to make marriage available to same sex couples. I am surprised that so many Christians are surprised! I think we’ve only seen the foreword of the story yet to be written in this land. The authority of the Scripture and reverence for the Truth are lost in our country.
God, for the majority of Americans, is now a Sunday hobby enjoyed on the occasional holiday. God as a Reason for living, God as the Source of Law, God as Creator, Jesus Christ as the Revealer of Truth and only Savior – no longer exists, for a significant percentage even among those who go regularly to a church. Thus, we have become a nation of secular humanists, some of whom wear a thin veneer of religiosity. The late Francis Schaeffer warned of this tsunami of social change all the back in the 1980’s. Most of the time, for most Americans, God is isolated from commerce, law, and public policy, though He is given a nod as a unifying Tradition, useful in times of crisis.
Romans 1, written in another time, is an apt description of 21st century America. "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." (Romans 1:25-28, NIV)
Disciple, we can wring our hands and bemoan our loss of majority status, or we can do what true Christ-followers have done in other times and cultures: be faithful to our calling! That calling is not to power, but to service. Consider Jesus’ own words. "Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves." (Luke 22:25-27, NLT)
A spiritual awakening will not come from hateful speech, attacks on certain groups of ‘sinners,’ or demonstrations with signs demanding change in laws or courts. The government will never be the Church, especially in a democracy where policies are shaped by ‘leaders’ who are elected only if they can appeal to the greater numbers of people. I believe is it is time that we abandon the quest to own the government with the hope of making America a “Christian nation” and recover our divine mandate to be the “Christian church.” It is time for the church to return to her high and unique calling to be the “Body of Christ.” When we are the ‘salt and light’ that Jesus commissioned us to be, we will influence the culture and the laws as we should.
Jesus and His disciples had no access to government power structures and yet, they changed the world! They did it despite persecution and oppression. Their holy lives and passion for the weak, the poor, and those who were enslaved by sin allowed the Holy Spirit to work through them to bring about a transformed world – one life at a time. This, disciple, should be our goal, as well.
How?
Our minds must be trained to think Biblically, our lives oriented to the Cross of Christ.
Our hands must be yielded to service, obscure and forgotten except in Heaven.
Our wealth must be invested in the true temples of the Spirit – men and women – not in huge complexes that mostly exist to feed our need for respectability or comfort! When Jesus Christ is our passion, when we treat sinners like He did – dying for them instead of attacking them – perhaps our doctrines will be credible once again, first to our own children.
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Lord, the light of Your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness shining;
Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us;
Set us free by the truth You now bring us.
Shine on me, shine on me.
Lord, I come to Your awesome presence.
From the shadows into Your radiance;
By the blood I may enter Your brightness,
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness.
Shine on me, shine on me.
As we gaze on Your kingly brightness,
So our faces display Your likeness;
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirror'd here, may our lives tell Your story.
Shine on me, shine on me.
Shine, Jesus, shine.
Fill this land with the Father's glory;
Blaze, Spirit, blaze.
Set our hearts on fire.
Flow, river, flow.
Flood the nations with grace and mercy;
Send forth Your Word,
Lord, and let there be light.
Shine, Jesus, Shine
Kendrick, Graham© 1987 Make Way Music (Admin. by Music Services)
CCLI License No. 810055
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