A-What?
There is a crisis happening in our country. It’s a big deal. Bigger than the election, bigger than the pandemic even. In fact without addressing this issue we will no longer have a country worth voting in. This one mistake single handedly will be the iceberg that sinks the Titanic. To ignore this would be unbiblical and our silent signature on the death certificate of this great Nation. Here’s the scarier part, it's the church’s fault that the solution is not being implemented…
What is the problem you ask? What can be worse than a global pandemic during the most contested election in American history? Simple, we have allowed God to be reduced to information and an idea, rather than a living person and a relationship. I was stunned to find out that a Missouri Congressman and United Methodist Pastor opened the 117th congress like this.
“We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, brahma, allah, and god known by many names by many different faiths. Amen and A-women.” Absolutely insane, and contradictory and just plain dumb. After I finished rolling in laughter that a seminary trained, ordained pastor didn’t know what the word Amen meant. (It means so be it, it has nothing to do with gender, A-women is not a word.) I begin to lament. It really is not funny, in fact it is kinda sickening. What happened in one of the highest offices of our government, by someone who is supposed to be a spiritual guide and leader, is the fruit of American Religion.
This is what happens when the Person and experience of God becomes philosophy and information. When God is reduced to a tradition, culture slips into compromise. Murdering babies becomes a medical procedure, sin becomes a celebrated identity, and we slowly destroy the concept of love that gives life ,and replace it with affirmation that destroys for temporary comfort. What's happening in our country is a direct result of the American Church allowing God in our country to be preached as a tradition and an idea, and it grieves the Holy Spirit.
There is one God, he is the God of Abraham and Isaac. His name is Jesus in English, but he is the God that dwells among his people (Emmanuel). He is perfect in nature. He took on the form of a man to die and resurrect on our behalf for the healing of our sin. He then poured out the Gift of his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, so that we may forever enjoy his presence and power dwelling within us. This is who God is, his name is Jesus. He’s a man that is fully God, not a set of rules, not an idea, or a philosophy you can implement as needed. He is alive, and he speaks uniquely to those who have received salvation by putting faith in him through confessing him Lord and Savior in their hearts and before man. He confirms what he is speaking by giving us his Holy Scripture the Bible, which is perfect in word and context. Whether you know him or not, HE LOVES YOU and desires a deep and meaningful relationship with you that you need. All of this is true and there is nothing you can do about it. He is God so he determines truth into what he created. AMEN!
If you are claiming to be a Christian and cannot confidently say that you are experiencing God regularly, you have a serious problem. That's not Christianity as described in the bible. Going to church can’t save you, following rules can’t save you. Only a relationship with Jesus grants us salvation. What's happened in the American church is we have sacrificed the living God who encounters us with his presence, for dead religion that keeps us dead in the comfort of our sin. Instead of worshipping in Spirit and in truth, we passively sing songs that we prefer. Instead of engaging with and submitting to the Word, we show up to church to listen to preachers that look and sound good but are full of themselves. Instead of reaching the lost by preaching the Gospel with signs and miracles. We pass out tracks and open up coffee shops to get people in the doors. It has to stop. Church we have to wake up! The condition of our culture would not be a problem if houses of worship repented of man-made tradition trying to replace his presence. What I saw and heard in congress is what happens when Jesus becomes an idea, and the Church loses her value for his wonderful presence. Church people have become cold and without love. The fire of his presence has left the American church, and as a broken world continues to search for purpose and life, culture is left with pseudo pastors praying to brahma and saying A-women.
Church wake up! Let's declare the truth. Let’s cast aside every idol that has consumed our hearts and fall in love again with the one true living God. Jesus!
Love and Amen,
Pastor John