To Know the Lord
September 24, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Uncategorized Feedback : 2 comments
Come, let us return to the LORD;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
—Hosea 6:1-6 ESV
There is a fearfulness among many today, even Christians, to know the Lord. The result is that we have became a church largely devoid of people who know God.
It is said of A.W. Tozer that he would go into his office at his church every morning at seven and pray on his face till noon. Did he know God? Reading his works, it is hard NOT to see how well he knew Him. The Knowledge of the Holy is one of his masterpieces, filled with an astonishing revelation of the character of God. Tozer knew God.
But do we?
Jesus said in John 17:
And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
If eternal life is truly knowing the triune God, then why do we give so little time to that endeavor? We pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” once, thinking we are saved, but what if our lack of desire to know God means that real eternal life escapes us? Why are we Christians consumed only with doing things for the Kingdom, but never knowing the King of the Kingdom we purport to serve?
The Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah:
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
—Jeremiah 31:33-34
Discipleship has fallen on hard times. We no longer teach our neighbor, saying, “Know the Lord,” not because everyone knows, but rather the opposite; no one knows at all. Worse yet, not only have we we have failed to see the value of teaching others to know God, but of even asking for a greater depth of that knowledge. Merely inquiring of someone, believer or not, as to their knowledge of God is taboo—our own paucity of knowledge the new millennium’s version of the mad aunt in the attic.
Our knowledge has been replaced with activity, in all its spiritual forms, or with the simplemindedness of “just being loving.” (Although, it is beyond me how we can possibly extend love to fallen men without a deep well of supernatural love that comes from knowing God in His manifest fullness.) We think that if we do, we don’t have to know. We think that if that if we only believe, we don’t have to dwell. Neither of those positions is what God desires of us.
I am troubled by my own shallowness in knowing God. But I look at the example of Tozer and I no longer wonder just why we are still struggling to make progress; we have confused the hard and easy paths. Five hours a day of prayerfulness will overcome five hours of church committees any day, yet how much easier it is for us to think we are going in the right direction if we soldier on through one activity after another?
There is a healthy fear of God, but the misbegotten fear we have today is of the still, small voice that comes in the silence of our days. It speaks, that voice, and we fear what it may tell us about ourselves, things we do not wish to have exposed, things that might be healed if we only pressed on.
In the end, not only do we avoid knowing God, but in our avoidance of Him, we no longer know ourselves, nor the very people we are called to serve.
No tags for this post.Related posts
The Superficial vs. The Supernatural
September 21, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Boldness, Charismatic, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Dying to Self, Godhead, Godly Character, Maturity, Prayerfulness, Revival, Supernaturalism, The Holy Spirit Feedback : 7 comments
A church without the supernatural is superficial. —Leonard Ravenhill
It cannot be about numbers. If our churches are only concerned with how many people are packed into the seats rather than being concerned about the power of the Spirit of the Lord made manifest in our meetings, then we have lost the war and we should all go home and wait to die.
If the people who run our churches do not understand that the measure of spiritual depth in those who show up on Sunday can only be the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling in fullness, then we will never see revival, only irrelevance.
We can jabber on about church models, worldviews, programs and such, but none of those ever raised the dead and never will, no matter how hard we work to refine them.
But when you talk with most people who claim to be Christians about this, more often than not you can count on a glassy-eyed stare. This is usually accompanied by the inevitable question, "But how do you measure that?"
No one who has encountered the shekinah glory of God ever asks that question. That the question is so prevalent is a shameful mark of our abominable lack of seriousness about what we believe.
I am not satisfied with my own spiritual state. And while I only have myself to blame, I am disheartened that the leaders of our churches today have aspired to so little, looking for plastic trinkets when the storehouse of heaven is ready to be poured on us. Why are we aiming so abysmally low?
Personally, I've had it with all the debates over process, programs, and progress. It's a lie from the enemy of our souls to keep us away from the One who can accomplish it all through us if we only submit to His workings and not our own.
Does anyone out there get this? If you do, how do we band together and seek to revive the dead thing the Church in America has become?
My promise to you is that it will start with me. I cannot endure this powerless thing we have made from the vital, living, fire-breathing Church Jesus set in motion more than two thousand years ago. If what we have now is the best it can ever be then Jesus take me right this second.
I know this blog doesn't get much readership. I don't care. I can only pray that it gets the right readership, people who feel the same way and are angered by what is happening to the Church in this country. You have to have your head in the sand not to see how we are failing, but where are the prophets who are calling us back to repentance and prayer and weeping between the horns of the altar? We've had our eyes gouged out by the worldly, just like Samson, but he prayed, "Lord, just one more time strengthen me." Before the Lord comes again, let that be our prayer.
Oh, Most Holy God, send the Fire! Your people are content with smoke when we need your Fire! Spirit of God, descend upon the altar of our hearts and make us again a supernatural people, a people to whom the lost can look and say, "Truly, God is among them." May your glory burn brightly in the breast of each of us who name you, that we take up our holy calling that is our destiny, tearing down the pillars of hell by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Make us content with nothing less than the fullness of your indwelling, Lord Jesus, that the works you have set aside for us to work from the foundation of the world be made manifest in these last days, that none should perish, but all come to knowledge of you. Kindle again in us your Fire before your great and final day. For your glory and honor, always in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Tags: Boldness, Charismatic, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Dying to Self, Godhead, Godly Character, Holy Spirit, Maturity, Prayerfulness, Revival, SupernaturalismRelated posts
Rushing into the Vacuum
September 17, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Uncategorized Feedback : 1 comment so far
This is a continuation of the ideas in yesterday’s post, That Hideous Strength, wherein I discuss how we are doing church without the Holy Spirit.
Paradoxology, a great site I never fail to read, has brought up the issue of the American Church’s fascination with being culturally relevant. This is an issue I feel very strongly about, particularly since it has been pushed for the last two decades as being the solution to drawing in the lost. Making our churches look like the world so we don’t scare off seekers, or preaching only to topics that directly incorporate pop culture, or immersing ourselves in culture so we in the Church don’t look hopeless un-hip are typical manifestations of the quest to be culturally relevant.
Yesterday, I wrote concerning a relatively new movement within the Church in America called “The Emerging Church” or “Emergent.” Being culturally relevant is one of the foundational premises of Emergent theology. Emergent is rooted in sociological study more than any previous church movement, finding the work of scientists who study human behavior to be the figurative “elders” of the congregations that arise from Emergent thought.
But what did Jesus say about cultural relevancy and its ability to draw in the lost?
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
(Matthew 11:7-9)
What are seeking people going out to see when they show up in church? In their deepest hearts they are not going because the church meets in a Starbucks. They are not going because the teaching is on how to have a better marriage. They are going because they truly want to see a prophet, a real live person aflame in the Holy Spirit! To be around transformed people who know God intimately! To actually have an experience of Jesus in all His glory!
It is said of the great preacher George Whitefield that the reason thousands came to see him preach, draining the populace of towns where he preached as they packed out the rural places he spoke, was that they came simply to see a man on fire. Whitefield’s ministry had a profound effect wherever he preached, but none more than in America, where his legacy formed the Christian backbone of this country.
The great revivalist Leonard Ravenhill once noted that you never have to advertise a fire. Do our churches realize this? But what are we giving instead to those who are seeking Jesus? Why do we so often bait and switch when they come hoping to meet up with Jesus and instead we give them a supposedly relevant dog and pony show?
Relevance is only relevant when the Church in America has nothing else to give people. If we have spurned the Holy Spirit in our midst, then what rushes into the vacuum He leaves behind is our fascination with cultural relevance.
What if the cultural relevancy in our churches today looked like this?
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
The apostles here gave the man exactly what he needed. They could not have been more relevant. But an outsider watching them approach the man would certainly not be considering this outcome, rather that the two would simply drop a few coins into his cup. That’s the relevant response, right?
No, we are not here to dispense silver and gold. We have got to be meeting people where they are by being filled with the Spirit, not by being filled with the latest bankrupt cultural phenomenon. What this lame beggar needed more than anything was Jesus, and that was what the Church gave him—and he was healed in the process.
There is never a reason to advertise a fire. Forget cultural relevance. The Holy Spirit is always relevant. Let’s be filled with His holy fire!
No tags for this post.Related posts
That Hideous Strength
September 16, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Charismatic, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Dying to Self, Humility, Supernaturalism, The Holy Spirit Feedback : 11 comments
I have news for every author of every book I have read recently on the subject of how to fix the American Church's problems:
You are wrong. Every last one of you.
To your credit, though, your ability to note everything that is awry in churches across this country is astute and well-cataloged. It's just that your solutions are no solutions at all.
Over the last year, I've been following much of what is being called "The Emerging Church" or "Emergent." This is a new movement that is calling churches out from their country club mentalities into a vital first century NT church life. It caters to the postmodern crowd, is heavily invested in relationships, story, mystery, and being "organic." It has a whole host of its own buzzwords, authorities, and conventions. And—to its credit—it loathes consumeristic, megachurch seeker-sensitivity.
But any random reading of authors like Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, Len Sweet, Randy Frazee, and a growing legion of others finds the very core of the movement very much rooted in a sort of sentimental humanism. Buried beneath the buzzwords and angry polemics against the crusty institutional church is the real source of this trend's power: what I like to call (with apologies to C.S. Lewis) "That Hideous Strength."
That Hideous Strength has been behind much of what churches in America call progress in the last forty or fifty years. In recent years, the Church Growth Movement largely abandoned itself to that strength, and Emergent is taking it one step further—at least if a decent reading of the acolytes of Emergent is any indication.
What is That Hideous Strength? Well, for my purpose here it is not quite what Lewis defined in his novel as the power of the Eldils (fallen angels), but it is another monstrosity virtually on par with it: the power of Man.
Here is where we are going wrong. Here is why the Church in America is failing to live up to Her glorious potential. We have put all our faith in what we can do through our own strength. In almost every Ermegent book I have read, I have come away noting that to make the solutions they espouse a reality, we really don't need the Holy Spirit at all. If we just love people and love God, reach out with a tender touch in a missional way to our communities and to the downtrodden, then all will be well.
Except we left the Lord out of the equation altogther. My heart breaks thinking about this.
Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit to His disciples in the upper room and then told them to await the Spirit coming in power at a later time. When the Spirit fell on the disciples, they went out and ministered in a power that was not their own.
Check out every occurance of the Spirit falling on believers in Acts. The result was that they went from being average people to being someone touched by the Divine. Everything they did after that point was extraordinary. No longer were they people who were satisfied with being loving neighbors or nice people, but they were energized and bold saints of God!
How is it that in a charismatic generation, we have entirely forgotten the Holy Spirit? Why do we think a model, no matter how wonderful it sounds, will make a difference in our churches if our people are not filled with the Holy Spirit?
Some will argue that the average person in the pew is filled with the Holy Spirit. My question then is, when was the last time that person's shadow fell on the sick and they were healed? When was the last time he was caught up to the third heaven? When did she last prophesy? When did his testimony drive the lost to cry out, "Brothers, what shall we do?" or cause others to pick up rocks to stone him?
The major distinction between all of us in the Church and those of all other religions is the fact that the Spirit of the Living God dwells in us! All those advocates of Emergent are preaching a Gospel that is no different than what the average Buddhist or Shintoist preaches if there is no Holy Spirit involved. You can be missional all you want, you can have a love for other people around you who don't know Jesus, but if nothing you do is flooded with power from on high, then it is doomed to failure in the long run.
Are we ever going to learn this lesson? The reason no one cares about our message anymore is largely because we Christians in America are no longer supernatural people. Our faith has become one largely of mental assent and Hallmark card sentimentality, devoid of the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. We have shoved the Spirit out the doors of our churches and tried to do it all on our own strength.
And just who out there on the street is impressed with that? Our bankrupt results speak for themselves.
Tags: Best of Cerulean Sanctum, Charismatic, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Dying to Self, Holy Spirit, Humility, Supernaturalism
Posts
Comments
