Where did our spine go? Where did the severity and urgency of the gospel go? Where did the need for truth go?
Last Sunday, as I sat in church and listened to a woman from Kenya talk about Maisha Orphanage, it hit me: we’ve lost our boldness. And what that looked like was a simple comment…”if he (talking about a kid at the orphanage) doesn’t know Christ, he will go to hell.” It feels like we haven’t had boldness in a long time as a whole. Granted there are those who are giving their lives for the cause of the Gospel. There are those who risk everything for the one thing that matters. Sadly, it seems as if this is the exception instead of the standard.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. We don’t say things like that anymore. We don’t talk about how our neighbors/friends/families are going to hell if they don’t know Jesus. We have become so preoccupied with being politically correct that we skirt around the severity of salvation. We have lost our urgency. No one knows the time or hour HE will come back but we act like we have all the time in the world.
We spend so much time in our Christian bubbles. Oblivious to what is going on around us. Oblivious to what is going on in the world. Oblivious to what is going on in our neighborhoods and in our neighbors’ lives because we are afraid. What happens if they bring me down with them? What if they reject me? What if ? What if? What if?
Friends, that is the purpose of community. As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another! People who are constantly seeking the Lord aren’t worried about being carried away because they are in communion with the One who corrects. They are surrounded by others who are pursuing the Lord. We don’t have to fear rejection cause we know we will be rejected…He said that they who reject us are actually rejecting Him, which, if I may point out, is a much bigger deal!
Now I am not saying you just go talk to every random person and tell them they are going to hell and try and convert them. I mean if God tells you to talk to someone…obviously do it. We have ruined our own reputations with those who don’t know Christ. He said the world would know we were his by how we love each other…but we don’t show that to the world. Instead we argue over meaningless things. We aren’t honest in business. We quit on our marriages. Our word is no longer our bond. Again, speaking in general here.
I do think we must get serious about being intentionally relational with those who don’t know Christ. That doesn’t mean you know their name so you can condemn them. It means you actually care. You want to know what is going on in their heart. Your motive isn’t so you can simply “convert” them…but that so that you can bring freedom over the lies they have been living in! God doesn’t want our actions, he wants our hearts.
I pray for a stirring of hearts. I pray for a new boldness to fall on those who are His. I pray that we would no longer be satisfied with the status quo of today but that we would be radical. That we would run with reckless abandon after the one who gave his life that we would know him. I pray for the fear of man to be demolished in Jesus’ name!