I know I'm sounding like a stuck record, however the quote that is sticking out to me and bringing me to tears literally is this:
"The church has lost its soul. The quest for contemporary relevance has led it down the path of increasing irrelevancy and marginalization. The stream of historic orthodoxy that once watered the evangelical soul is now damned by a worldliness that many fail to recognize as worldliness because of the cultural innocence with which it presents itself. This is characterized by a decline of Christian content in teaching and preaching, with an accompanying interest in self-help programs that merely promise a better management of everyday crises." ("The Place of Theology in the Postmodern World," Reformation and Revival Journal, Winter, 2002)
And the reason it is bringing me to tears is because it's true! The opening sentence defines the organized church as a whole and it's a thing that we should take seriously. However it seems as though we just blow this off like a piece of lint on a sweater. When in all actuality we should take this as serious as anything we do in life. If where we are as a Christian is the most important thing, then why do we go about our lives like it is ok? Do we really realize that the organized church has lost its place in society. We have lost our clout as we try to change an ever changing world. It's sad to see generation after generation pass the topic on by as though the next one will do something about it. Why do we do this and pretend that it is ok to have the world view us through jaded glasses and let our authority go as though God doesn't matter as much as He used to? When is there going to come a point that we start standing up for what matters and not get hung up on the little things? The most important thing I have learned this week is to always, always, always keep Christ in the center of my life, ministry, marriage, and anything I do. If I let that go and blow that off as though it doesn't matter then I am falling into the trap that Satan has placed for me to fall into. He rejoices when we don't praise God with everything we do, because he knows that if we don't praise Jesus then we're praising Satan. It's a hard reality we have to face but if we're not of Christ then we're of the Devil and are sourced by what we're of! I want to take from this week the importance of living a life that shows others around me how Christ is. I want to be mistaken for Christ from here on out and I'm going to get so wrapped up in Him that I take on His nature, the way He speaks, acts, and reacts to things. I don't want to be like Him, I want to be Him to my world. I want Him to live in and through me and source me so that people are not able to say that my opinion as a Christian has no validity. We must change the way we are thinking and I have learned this week that it needs to happen and happen quickly. I am going to take the initiative and be an example for those around me, I'm not going to wait around for somebody else to start this, no. I'm going to be the one who is seeking the very face of Jesus and get to know the very Son of God closer and closer.
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