Holy God!
I have been reading a really fantastic book over the last few weeks called, The Courage To Be Protestant by David Wells. It is a summary of four other outstanding books he wrote during the 1990s and early 2000s about the evangelical church and how it has interacted (and often absorbed uncritically) the hopes and dreams of Western culture. I wanted to pass along a quote from him that I think summarizes why we struggle with many of the problems that we have in our churches today. Here it is…
Our situation today is not that different from what pertained in much of Israel’s history. The Old Testament people of God were religious, but often their religion made little difference. This, apparently, is exactly what we have in the born-again sector in America today. The ancient Israelites’ religion was not an impediment to idol worship or to a whole assortment of pagan practices. They had the written law and the temple worship. They had the prophets. They had all they needed to please God, but so often they would not listen. They would not reckon with his holy will. They became careless, living as if he were not there, living as if their ways were nothing more than a lifestyle choice, always hearing but never understanding, seeing but remaining blind – hearts hard, ears deaf, eyes blind. And the problem? The problem was that again and again, with monotonous repetition, they lost sight of the holiness of God. And they paid the painful consequences for this, again and again.
Is this really so different from what we have now in the West? We have enough Bibles for every household in America a couple of times over. We have churches galore; religious organizations; educational institutions; religious presses that never stop pouring forth books, Sunday school materials, and religious curricula; and unparalleled financial resources. What don’t we have? All too often we don’t have what the Old Testament people didn’t have. A due and weighty sense of the greatness and holiness of God, a sense that will reach into our lives, wrench them around, lift our vision, fill our hearts, make us courageous for what is right, and over time leave behind its beautiful residue of Christlike character.
Is this a matter so impractical that we can claim that it has nothing to do with our lives? Is this really so abstract that we can dismiss it as not being “practical” and therefore as irrelevant to what is important to us on a day-to-day basis? We may claim that, and indeed, many in the evangelical church are doing so.
Let us not mince words. If we could see more clearly God in the full blaze of his burning purity, we would not be on easy terms with all the sins that now infect our souls and breed easy compromises with the spirit of the postmodern age. This is what leads to the casual ways in which we live our lives with their blatantly wrong priorities. If we could see this more clearly, the church would be filled with much more repentance and, in consequence, much more joy, and much more authenticity.
Do you think he is right? Is the failure to esteem God as holy at the heart of many of the problems in the evangelical church today?
#1 from Shaun on September 15, 2009
I cannot speak for the evangelical church , but i will speak for me. When times are good , when i feel His presence and hear His voice , relationship with Him comes naturally. When things turn sour , i do too. I quickly abandon the same God that saved me , in some way with my actions saying ‘what have you done for me lately God?’ I treat God horribly. I should live life like every second is a complete and utter joy to serve and submit to Him who gave me new life. But what i actually do , is have some weird experiences , followed by some choice encounters with very wonderful people , and somehow justify these things as a means of salvation, while still ignoring all the the things about me which God hates. I love you God , but don’t dare interfere. This mentality is one that is not obvious to an outside observer , not even obvious to me.
The things I am doing at this very moment (literally , i just got hit a bomb unlike anything ive experienced during my new life, persecution up the ying yang) would appear to anyone on the outside looking in good , and ‘on the right track’ I have had people tell me that ‘God has big plans for you’. What people see is not truly accurate to whats inside. Im ripped apart , full of inexplicable pain and fears. Pains and fears which in themselves speak of a mindset in which God is not holy nor sovereign. On top of that the extent to which the ways of the world have seeped their way into my life is astonishing. Im amazed at how ‘cultural’ i really am. And this is of the things to which im currently aware , how much more would i be oblivious to? I make great efforts to not adhere to the ‘cultural inclinations’ but i feel as if i am on a treadmill which is turning faster than i can run. I do not see myself as drowning , i see myself the way the world tells me to see myself. Strong , intellegent , attractive , capable of accomplishing any feat ..... quite the opposite of what i “know” the truth to be. Yet somehow despite the fact i have intellectual “knowing” of these things , my actions tell me that i do not believe them. Why was i saved? I spend far to much time entertaining myself , thinking about myself , talking about myself , whining to God about myself to be what needs to be respect to reasons of salvation. Upon deep insight (most of which i have left out , as it would take far too long to state)ive concluded that i have a cancer , which is ravaging its way through ever cell in my body. There is nothing i can do to stop it….... and it is not that it is stronger than me ..... its that it IS me. And the one whom took all the cancer into His veins so that i may one day be free this ailment, i ignore most of the time. Im currently going to great lengths and sacrificing much to help someone that treats me like dirt , how much more must i do the same to God. For God is perfect , and i far from it.
So im rambling here (bad habit) but what im getting at is seemingly every source of conflict in my life is attributed to not really believing God is who He is. To be in such dire straits yet so lethargic….. its kind of scary. Why do i entertain myself so often? Why to i turn a blind eye to the travesties of the world and not weep nightly about them? Why do i talk to God only when He talks to me? Why am can i be such an ass (can you say that on a church blog?)? Why do i live a life of comfort and not one of desperate appreciation? I think the fellow who wrote that book is on to something.