The American Church, Part 2

No matter the threats he received, the Apostle Paul remained on the offensive for faith because Jesus Christ changes everything. That is the need of the hour if the American Church is going to be great again. We must embrace Jesus as the reason behind everything we do.

Doing this involves us following Paul’s example. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Wars are not won by evacuations.”

When people ask me what I think is the greatest hindrance to the building of the Church in America, I respond with, “Christians who want to sneak into Heaven without ever considering the radical call that Jesus has on our lives.”

Not long ago, I was struck by a statement by Peter Drucker, a management consultant known worldwide for helping Japan rebuild after World War II. He said, “Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of decades, society altogether rearranges itself—its world view, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born.”

I believe that you and I are in the midst of that transformational generation.

As Christians, we have the spiritual responsibility of showing people the freedom that they can have through Christ’s cross. In Luke 4, Jesus stands up in the synagogue, unrolls the scroll written by Isaiah, and reads one of the greatest passages about freedom in the Bible.

“‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” -Luke 4:18-21

He is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and He is all in when it comes to bringing freedom to the poor, imprisoned, oppressed, blind, and sinful.

That is Jesus’ mission, and He longs to continue doing the same in our time.

There are three questions that I wrestle with almost daily, and they help me determine if I am following the mission of Christ or my own.

1. Am I living for the fame of Earth or the fame of Heaven?
2. Am I living for the immediate or the eternal?
3. When I am by myself dreaming, what am I thinking about—God’s agenda or my agenda?

C.S. Lewis liked to say, “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.” What are you pursuing today—the things of Heaven or Earth?

Brothers and sisters, let’s encourage each other to wrestle with these questions and act to bring God’s message of freedom to the captives around us.

Next week, we’ll take a further look at these questions and how Jesus instructs each of us as we struggle with them. I can assure you, it is worth the struggle!

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