God-Centered in a God-Ignoring World

Jesus told the disciples that when the Spirit of truth comes “He will guide you into all the truth…He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and disclose it to you” (John 16:13-14).  Whatever it means for a people of God to be present in a community in the name of Jesus the Holy Spirit will make clear.  He is the Guide.  He is the One who, in the midst of God’s people, takes what Jesus has given and discloses it to the people of Jesus.  He will guide the people “into all the truth,” about what it means for Jesus to be who He is and what it means for Him to be in the midst of a people who call Him Lord.

All that the presence of the Holy Spirit means is focused toward glorifying Jesus.  As the people of God we are present to be guided by the Spirit to take what Jesus has given us and to use it as the source and foundation of our being faithful in this place at this time.  True to the Spirit, we also seek to glorify Jesus.  This is our mission, and it is our passion.

If someone asks you what the church is supposed to be doing just tell him or her that we are here to glorify Jesus.  We are here to be a recipient Christian community, who takes what we are given by God and then lives here in faithfulness to God and His Word.  That is why we worship and give ourselves to hearing and obeying the Word of God.  That is the context in which we fellowship and live out the implications of being a God-centered people in a God-ignoring world.

The key to our being present for God is for us to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit’s presence.  He knows what Jesus has, takes of it and then guides us into all the truth concerning it.   We are a Jesus-glorifying community because the Spirit is the Jesus-glorifying Spirit of God among us.

As we all seek to be a presence for God in the world we need to hear what God is saying to His local churches around the world.  I find a helpful and needful story in Exodus that might just help us all to realize that the work of God must be done according to the will of God, for the purposes of God, and for the establishment of the kingdom of God.

On the shore of the Red sea where faith and fact met face to Face, Moses made a most remarkable statement to the people of God. 

The army of the Pharaoh was behind them and the sea lay before them.  If the sea would not open up before them, they were in trouble – deep trouble.  But, on the seashore Moses said, “Do not fear!  Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today” (Exod. 14:13).  The rest is history.

As was their custom, in the spirit of grumbling the people of Israel took their eyes off of God and focused their attention on the situation at hand.  So it was that Moses stepped up to encourage the people. 

Apparently God was not impressed with the grumbling and told Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward” (Exod. 14:15). 

           

I’m not sure how to receive God’s statement here, but I sure like it.  I believe it signifies that if God is God in the group, then the group had just better “go forward” regardless of what lies ahead. 

But we might drown.  Well, so be it; go forward anyway.  But it doesn’t make sense.  Well, so be it; go forward anyway.  But the odds are against us.  Well, so be it; go forward anyway. 

So the question comes down to “Who is Lord around here, the sea or God?  Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit or the Sovereign power of Almighty God?”

I have decided that maybe trapped is not a bad place to be, because it forces us to know that the only way out is GOD

I invite you to hear and reflect upon a wonderful poem by E. Stanley Jones, which appeared in his book, The Christ of the Indian Road, (The Abingdon Press: New York, 1927), 144-145. Ever since I discovered the book and this poem, they have rocked my world. 

                                               Rick Savage

WHAT LIFE HAVE YOU?
WHAT LIGHT HAVE YOU?

I took my lamp and went and sat

Where men of another creed and custom

Dwelt together in bonds of common search.

I pressed my lamp close to my bosom,

Lest adverse winds of thought and criticism,

and the damp of unsympathy should snuff it out.

And many a trembling prayer hung upon my lips.

But I determined that I would love--just love.

I loved and listened and learned, and now and then

threw in a thought or word or observation.

I heard their gentle speech, saw their mild ways;

felt the Hand of Peace rest gently on my soul.

Here was not the tearing of the flesh,

nor the fierce agony of the spirit, in its quest for

                  God.

They gently searched and, through the crevices of

                  their thought,

the light of the Father's Face streamed in.

They caught the footfalls of the Mighty Spirit,

as he moved each moment through palpitating

                  Nature.

And I heard them tune their heartstrings to catch

                  the music

of God, as he hummed and sang through things.

But when, in sympathetic talk and mutual quest,

I asked the learned pundit whether he had found

A "jiwan mukta," one who knew deliverance, here

                  and now;

He sadly shook his head and said, "I have not seen."

In his voice spoke an aching world: "I have not

                  seen."

Then there stole within my heart a quiet joy;

for I saw, amid the search of peoples and races,

One standing who, with Chalice in hand, offered here

                  and now

to thirsty souls a crystal draught of life eternal,

which, if a man drink, he shall never thirst again.

Had I not drunk?  Had he not put the Chalice

To my parched lips, and, with thirst assuaged,

had not my happy soul gone singing down the years?

A child had thus revealed to him, through prayer and

Surrender of the mind and will, that for which

the wise and prudent had vainly searched

and caught but glimpses; while I, unworthy,

stood face to Face.

As I pondered thus, I glanced, with trembling, at my lamp--

And lo, it burned up brighter than before!

Isn’t it true that together, in Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit, there is just about nothing a group of Christian couldn't do if they decided in their hearts to do it. The issue is not "can we do it?" or "should we do it?" or "do you think we ought to do it?" The issue, always, is deciding what to do and then staying on task with faithfulness and diligence.

In their booklet called, Leadership 2000; Building Leaders for the 21st Century, The International Reed Institute has a statement from Fernando Edwardo Lee who says, "On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, sat down to rest, and resting died." Victory was in their grasp. They sensed it. They knew it. They could smell the aroma of success. But tired from the battle, and knowing victory was imminent any way, they sat down to rest, and while they rested, the enemy gathered, positioned and prepared itself, and those would be victors turned the victory over to others. Their downfall was a hesitation born of an incorrect conclusion, a conclusion that led to a premature acceptance of victory, a premature rest and ultimately to premature failure.

Hesitation can be a greater enemy than the enemy. And I have come to believe that hesitation can indicate several issues--and unwarranted confidence, a lack of preparedness, vision and determination, a faith that has not gone far enough so as to captivate the imagination of persons and set their heart on fire with a tenacity that will see the journey through to completion. Men and women of Christ-centered faith do not set down at the dawn of victory; they plow through, they hang in, they never quit, they keep their eyes on the goal and they don't stop until that goal has been reached and apprehended for God.

One caution, however. People of Jesus ought to be careful not to fret, worry, and fuss their way through life. Sometimes, seeing things through to victory can be tiring and with tiring can come irritability and fretting. Jesus’ people stay at the wall for Christ but they stay there in the right mind and spirit, a spirit that stays faithful and thorough but also drenched in the amazing grace of God.

So even as God’s people are serving with all their heart they are also resting in the Lord, waiting patiently for Him (see Psalm 37:7). This attitude keeps them open and pliable in the hands of God, a condition that keeps them energized and focused, not allowing them to set down too soon to rest, and in resting, die.

As God’s people we are in this thing together until the end. In that light take David’s counsel to heart, “Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord” (Psalm 31:24).

Great words from E. Stanley Jones

Break Jesus If You Can

There came the time when I inwardly let go. I became willing to turn Jesus over to the facts of the universe. I began to see that there was only one refuge in life and that was in reality, in the facts. If Jesus couldn’t stand the shock of the criticism of the facts discovered anywhere, if he wasn’t reality, the sooner I found it out the better. My willingness to surrender Christ to the facts was almost as great an epoch in my life as my willingness to surrender to him. In the moment of letting go I could almost feel myself inwardly turning pale. What would happen? Would the beautiful dream fade? To my happy amazement I found that he not only stood, but that he shone as never before. I saw that he was not a hothouse plant that would wither under the touch of criticism, but he was rooted in reality, was the very living expression of our moral and spiritual universe – he was reality itself.

I have, therefore, taken my faith and have put it out before the non-Christian world for these seventeen years and have said, “There it is, my brothers, break it if you can.” And the more they have smitten upon it the more it has shone. Christ came out of the storms and will weather them. The only way to kill Christianity is to take it out of life and protect it. The way to make it shine and show its genius is to put it down in life and let it speak directly to life itself. Jesus is his own witness. The Hindus have formed societies call Dharm Raksha Sabhas – Societies for the Protection of Religion. Jesus does not need to be protected. He needs to be presented. He protects himself.

-- (The Christ of the Indian Road: Abingdon Press: New York, 1925, 1927 – pp. 140-141).

In my congregation we have been dealing with some ongoing questions about what it means to be the church in our local neighborhood and town, what it means to be a Christian people, a witnessing people, a Christ-centered people. And, we have been asking these questions in the context of some very real accusations that have been thrown against the church in America these days. Also, we have been asking these questions in light of the fact that many believers are bailing out on the church because they see it as hypocritical and phony. This is of great concern to us.

In these days of Real or imagined accusations, and choices to walk away from the church and maybe even the faith, local churches live in this culture at this time in history. This is our field. In that light, we have been asking:

What can we do to capture the imagination of people, for a lifetime, to follow Jesus, and not drop out?

What can we do to better tell the story of Jesus so that people will be drawn to Him and come to faith in Him?

Why would anyone today who is not following Jesus decide to follow Him?

What is there about Jesus that is inviting to people? That is, in the clash and struggle for the hearts and minds of people, why would someone choose Jesus?

What is there about the Church that might awaken someone's appetite for Jesus?

How can we correct the perception that the church is hypocritical and phony? And, how can we convince people in the church who might, in fact, be hypocritical and phony, to own their sin, repent, and turn to Christ in true brokenness and humility?

These aren’t the only questions to be asked, but they have certainly grounded our feet in reality as we seek to be honest in our quest to be faithful to call of Christ in our town.

If Jesus is building His Church then it behooves those of us who believe in Him to bring our lives into conformity with who He is and what He is doing. Maybe this is why Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).

Sounds like serious business to me, demanding “"my soul, my life, my all!" ("When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" by Isaac Watts, 1707).

Perhaps you’ve read the following entries found in the Journal of John Wesley. I pass them along to you today in hopes that if you are discouraged about your ministry for Christ, don’t be. Rather, turn your ministry over to Christ again. Stay faithful. Trust His faithfulness in you. Keep your eyes on Jesus and let the Holy Spirit continue to work into the very fiber of your life the grace, mercy and majesty of God. It is God who is at work in you, so trust His presence in you, and stay true to what you know to do, leaving results to God.

Hear Mr. Wesley’s Testimony:

"Sunday a.m., May 5 -Preached in St. Ann's; was asked not to come back any more.
Sunday p.m., May 5- Preached at St. John's; deacons said, 'Get out and stay out.'
Sunday a.m., May 12 -Preached at St. Jude's; can't go back there either.
Sunday p.m., May 12-Preached at St. George's; kicked out again.
Sunday a.m., May 19- Preached at St. Somebody Else's; deacons called a special meeting and said I couldn't return.
Sunday p.m., May 19-Preached on the street; kicked off the street.
Sunday a.m., May 26- Preached out in a meadow; chased out of meadow when a bull was turned loose during the service.
Sunday a.m., June 2-Preached out at the edge of town; kicked off the highway.
Sunday p.m., June 2-Afternoon service, preached in pasture; 10,000 people came."

That's Wesley's story. It may not be yours; but the God He served and you now serve is still God. We don't know exactly and precisely where our stories will go with God, but we do know that we are in His hands, that He is guiding and leading with divine insight and authority. So, stay faithful, trusting His faithfulness in you. God is present and He is at work.