Kingdom Chronicles:
Earning the right to be heard
Patterns of relevance for today’s church.
Demographics of the western church are shifting over the past years. One only needs to look at the integration and presence of bible-based churches in the general landscape to see that its urgent need for new measures.
Over the broad sense there has been a bankruptcy in the policies of Christian political parties across Europe and beyond. And this time we cant blame the devil …nor his step wife…!
More then ever the world seeks things that really work and not just religious mumbo-jumbo.
Faith that really moves mountains, real power and not a religious surrogate.
Time to tap from the root.
The church in the book of Acts offered the real deal and more. They had relevance and impact.
So somewhere between then and now some fundamental truths have been lost.
The church has lost its right to be heard…
Defining the need for relevance…
Both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ Himself gave plain answers to real problems. (please read: Luke 3:10-14//Matt5:21-48). In other words the content of their words and deeds was important and beneficial to the hearers not just on a spiritual level. I get spammed to overflow with invitations to go and listen to conferences.
The “superstars” from Canada to Buenos Aires get flown in to tickle the ears of the west…
Nothing wrong with having a conference, but what is the benefit to the visitors or the body, let alone the world?
Is what I’m going to hear influencing me to become a better father, a better husband, a better citizen or just give me goosebumps…?
Living in Europe only a few hours away from where Martin Luther penned the words that changed the world caused me to journey into the Word of God to look where have we lost relevance and impact.
The bible states in Exodus 22:22-24
22 “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; 24 and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
This was written on the canvas of 400 years of oppression. The children of Israel knew what it was like to be oppressed, abused and a stranger in a foreign land. Now they were finally free and it was at that given time God began to establish moral and spiritual principles which would be the foundation for the next 1400years.
Isn’t it interesting how God has a way of using our pain to free others?
In this scriptures God clearly stipulated the protection of the social weaker: widows and orphans. God warning His people that He listens to the cry of the social outcast, but do you?
God takes it even a step further and says that unfair treatment of the social weaker would trigger His anger and could cost you your life….!
Awww.. that doesn’t sound to mushy charismatic does it…?
Gods care goes even further:
1. He commanded tithes to be given to the widows & orphans Dt 26:12-15
2. He invites them to parties Dt 16:14/Luke 14:12-14
3. He is the Father of the fatherless and a defender of the widows Ps 68:5
4. He defends the poor and orphans Ps82:3/ Ex22:21-24
5. The care for the weak would influence the financial state of the nation Dt 26:14-15
In the new testament, the first church didn’t wait for bread to fall out of the sky to make a difference.
Acts 6:1-7 tells how the first church obtained the right to be heard by heeding the need of the people outside of the church and by taking care of widows. Result was that the church multiplied!
Read James 1:27
Waking up from “ Soapbox Christianity”
We can no longer bury our head and pretend that all is well. While most sermons on tv teach us 10 steps to get blessed and 5 step to get rich, the heart of the Father of fatherless is tuned to a different channel.
If we want to capture what He is really saying we need to get out of our soapbox mentality and listen to what people around us really need. Love, acceptance, friendship, support, food, clothing, compassion and not religious sales talk! It is then only that we will once again obtain the right to be heard. When the church will provide real answers for a real world.
Downloading new technologies
Joseph even went beyond this level (which is basic Christianity by the way) and touched a part in God concerning the future. Read (Gen 41:14-36). Let me just say that no soothsayer, no devil, no tarot reader knows the future. So we can stop reading our horoscope to see if we’re gonna win the lottery. Only God knows the future! And so Joseph caught a glimpse of the future and helped millions of people to escape an economic disaster. Interesting enough he did not do it to promote himself nor his ministry (read Gen41:33) but just gave to help humanity. He downloaded new technologies in God that became answers for the world he lived in.
And that’s what we need today,
P.Nsongo