Two Streams of Christianity

There are two different streams of Christianity present among us.  One is Scriptural Christianity and the other is cultural Christianity.  The first is authentic; the second is a pretender.  The first looks to the written Word as the final authority.  The second holds the Scripture as a truth, but one which is given its authority only as it blends and affirms changing social mores.  Scriptural Christianity lives with the tensions inherent within accepting its authority while cultural Christianity erases the tension by compromise.  

The two streams have been flowing alongside each other almost from the beginning.  There have been times when one would overflow and overwhelm the other, but eventually it seems they separate and once again move in different ways.  From the beginning the two have always been incompatible and even now such is true.  The Apostle Paul recognized the two separate and divergent streams.  Instead of denying the reality of what existed as something other than Scriptural Christianity, he wrote, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and true."  (Romans 12:2).  

One of the real challenges for the church and the believers of this day is to stand fast and to live in submission to the authority of the holy Scripture.  Wanting it to say something we want it to say, or not wanting it to say something which we do not want it to say speaks only of our desire for it to speak a word which is comfortable instead of one which creates tension in our life.  Too many times we have chosen what makes us feel good, or what seems less likely to offend than to chose an authority which transcends the ever changing cultural mores.  Today's mores will change even has as the ones of yesterday.  The Word of God; however, is as Isaiah said long ago, "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God will stand forever."  (Isaiah 4):8) 

The Prayers of Not Knowing

It must be true that God sometimes speaks so softly that the sound of His voice is sensed, but the words are too faint to understand.  It becomes a strange moment of knowing and not knowing.  We know His presence.  We know there is something unique about the moment of revelation, but it is more a sensory knowledge than one that is visual or auditory.  We cannot argue ourselves out of the awareness that God is near and speaking to us.  It is something experienced and known more out of faith than certainty.   

It is the kind of spiritual intuitiveness which came to Cornelius and Peter before their encounter in the centurion's home.  Both were in separate places when the Spirit broke into the ordinariness of their day.  The first movement of the Spirit alerted Cornelius of Simon Peter's presence in Joppa.  Before the messengers of Cornelius arrived, Peter who was in Joppa on a roof top was brought by the Spirit into a puzzling moment of heightened awareness and expectation.  (Acts 10) What neither of them knew would happen at the sunrise of that day was a holy rendezvous which was first experienced in the spirit and required each to act out of faith that was operating not on the basis of what was known, but what was sensed at a level that was beyond understanding.  

When we come into those moments of knowing something so deep in our spirit that we do not have the words to speak of it, it may be the Spirit praying within us in the way spoken in Romans. "Likewise, the Spirit  helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs to deep for words."  (Romans 8:26).  There are certainly times when the Spirit works in the heart we have given to Him to lead us into the unknown will of God.  In those moments we know His presence and we know He is seeking to lead us, but knowing is beyond what we can know.  In such times we pray not because we know, but because we have faith in the One who is speaking to us out of holy mystery.

Movie Musings

A few days ago, I saw the movie, "A Great Awakening."  It is a great movie.  It is one I would encourage everyone to see.  It is a piece of historical fiction which is centered on a great spiritual awakening which took place in this country shortly before the Revolutionary War.  The characters through whom the story is told are George Whitefield, an evangelist, and Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of our nation.  It is a movie which is about more than just history.  Any serious historian will find some moments when the eyebrows of disbelief will be raised.   

The movie, however, is not a historical document, but is more a witness to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The letter to the Roman Christians has a word from Paul in which he proclaims, "...it (the gospel) is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith..."  In visual form "A Great Awakening," captures the power of those words.  Anyone wondering what happens when the raw power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is unleashed through witness and proclamation will be able to see clearly the answer to such a question.  

One of the things noted by many who love the church is that the signs and wonders of the book of Acts are seldom seen in the church of our day. There is little to amaze; instead what the Holy Spirit is allowed to do in the church is hindered by our need for control and predictability.  A result of this is that we no longer see the power of the gospel unleashed to change and transform lives.  My wonder when the credits had finished rolling was what would the church look like if it once again made a decision to risk presenting the gospel in such a way that people were consistently confronted with the life changing power of the gospel of Christ.

It is Sunday!

This past week it has seemed every day that tomorrow was Sunday.  Today, Sunday has finally arrived.  Yesterday I received a sign that tomorrow was Sunday when I overheard two preachers talking about tomorrow's sermon.  When I went to bed last night, I knew that the sun would rise tomorrow on Sunday, which is by the way, today.  Today is Sunday.  Today is, therefore, the day I will be blessed by the opportunity of going to a sanctuary to join with others to worship God.   

Perhaps, part of my inner confusion this week speaks of the lack of a fixed daily schedule such as I knew before retirement, but the truth which I know to be true is that it speaks of my longing for God.  There are times in our life when it might seem to us that we can get along fine without God.  Most of us are guilty of such at some point in the past which is a part of our life, but there have also been those times when something, or Someone, within us draws us toward Him as surely as the waters of the ocean are pulled by the distant moon.  Such is how the Holy Spirit has been drawing me in these recent days. 

A Psalm often quoted is the 42nd Psalm which begins with the words of longing, "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God."  (Psalm 42:1-2).  Sunday has finally come once again and while worshiping God is something we can do anytime and anywhere, it is good to gather in the house of the Lord.  "One thing I ask of the Lord, that will I seek after; to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." (Psalm 27:4).  Thank God it is Sunday once again!

The Lord God of the Universe

Isaiah 55:8-9 has a Word spoken in behalf of God through the prophet; therefore, we need to hear it as if it is the voice of God speaking to us.  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."  When trouble comes, and it will even as it has, and we find ourselves trying to figure the way forward, this Word reminds us of our first source of help.  

Our troubles may surprise us, but they never surprise God.  We can only see as far as the curve up ahead in the road, but God's vision gives Him sight we do not possess.   The good news is that He not only sees what we cannot see nor understand, but He sees them differently.  In other words, the trouble which we see as overwhelming and impossible to manage has been seen through different eyes and is being held in different hands.  

The passage in Romans which reminds us that God works for good in the lives of those who love Him (Romans 8:28) certainly speaks of the Lord God of the Universe as the One who is at work.  His thoughts and ways are different, higher, and better than ours.  The Lord God of the Universe can do what we deem to be impossible; therefore, the first step into any trouble should not be one of human determination, but one of faith.  

The Word and Prayer

George Muller, a spiritual giant of the 19th century and a great man of prayer, was influenced by an 18th century preacher who stood in the spotlight of religious life in America as a great evangelist.  George Whitefield is known for many things, but one of them is his prayer life.  He has an unusual discipline which brought together the Scripture and prayer.  "I began to read the Bible upon my knees; laying aside all other books and praying over...every line and word," he said.  While I have heard of praying the Scripture, this particular discipline was a new one for me to consider.   

I love to be in the room when someone is praying the Scripture.  It is one thing to quote Scripture while praying as some do when they pray and acknowledge something the Scripture says as a way of enforcing their request from God and another when someone speaks life into the Word as if it something not memorized, but something which has a voice that speaks more of the heart than the head.  Several times in the last year I have been blessed by being present in the sanctuary when someone led the congregation in such a prayer.  

There are obviously many ways of bringing together the Word and prayer.  I have a friend who lives in Korea.  She recently celebrated her 90th birthday.  I met her years ago when she came to visit her daughter who was a Minister of Music in the church I was serving.  Many years before her 90th birthday she began the practice of hand writing and copying the Scripture as a part of her quiet time with the Lord.  If I recall correctly she not too long ago finished her sixth journey through the Word and has gone back to Genesis again.  I have been blessed many times by the prayers of this saintly woman who brings together the Word and prayer in her spiritual journey.

The Resurrection Message

By the time I made it to seminary in 1970, it was obvious the church was not too concerned with heaven.  It was the beginning of an era when the church did not want to be regarded as being other worldly.  There was not really much need to worry since the church was in the process of becoming too earthly.  The church which was being accused of having been too other worldly was moving toward becoming a church that could only see what was in this world.  Service took the place of spirituality.  Sermons about life after death were reserved for the final words at the cemetery.   

At some point the church seems to have come to a place of being embarrassed to preach the resurrection of Jesus and the life that is promised in the heavenly place.  It became something which was out of step with the secularism of the culture and the church out of its desire to be attractive and to blend with culture started watering down what was left of any proclamations about the resurrected Jesus.  Easter Sunday sermons became messages about difficult things being made new instead of of preaching which announced that death has been overcome by the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  

I Corinthians 15 makes it clear that the resurrection of Jesus is the primary doctrine of our faith.  Without the resurrection of Jesus, the church has no message and the only task remaining for it is to lock the doors after a final benediction.  The message that Jesus has died for us and has risen from the grave is a message which shakes the foundation of every power of evil and, yet, even now a congregation is fortunate to hear it boldly proclaimed at least one Sunday out of the year.  Anyone wanting to hear about heaven needs to go to a funeral instead of the church.