If Only I Could…

Go back to a time when the church really did love the lost.When the church actually was a real part of the community and lived and thrived in the midst of the people.Where churches were located where the needs were the greatest and building committees were not focused on property values,but rather the value of a person’s eternal soul.

Back to a time and place when the prayer meeting was the focus of the church,and men and women cried out to God to heal their cities and save the lost.To a time when on any given Sunday morning all the attention was upon Jesus,not on the trendy pastor or how many varieties of coffee are served in the cafe’.

If only I could sit with the saints of just a few generations past and observe their walk with Christ.To see them living the gospel in a way that brought no special attention to themselves,but rather to Jesus alone. To hear their testimonies of how they overcame one obstacle after another through their faith in God,and to know that kind of rock steady faith that is in such short supply today.

Faith that brought them through.Faith that healed their sick children and supplied food from only God knows where.The kind of faith from a made up mind that knew that the Christ life was the best life,the only life.

 

I’m reminded from time to time that I have a tendency to spend too much time looking back,and not enough time looking forward.I suppose that comes from reading the scriptures for so long now and comparing the words of Jesus and the writings of the disciples to the world in which we now live.

I want the church to be the church that Jesus died for.

I can’t help it,I really can’t.For you see,everything in me longs for the church to fulfill it’s divine mandate,it’s purpose,to love.

Unconditionally…unashamedly…without reservation…without hope of gaining anything in return…freely.

I cannot remember the last time I saw or heard a minister of the gospel weeping over the condition of the church at large.And I wonder…where are the shepherds? Have they not gone the way of the world?Are our pulpits filled with hirelings and not shepherds? The way of the shepherd has been cast aside and in it’s place are cookie cutter impostors in skinny jeans developing 3-5 year business plans instead of developing the flock.Instead of preparing the flock for what is to come.

And we wonder: where are the miracles of days gone by? Where is the next generation of warriors? Where are those who have been to the mountain and heard from on high?Indeed…where is God?

Where are those who love their sheep with the burning fire of the love of God?

If only I could…how about you?

Be blessed,

Ron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be blessed everyone,

Ron