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Monday,
Oct. 31 (Reformation Day)
By
David Alan Black
The
Covenant News ~ October 31, 2005
6:28 AM The Reformation that began 488 years
ago today is not over. It is time to amend our ways. Some
things are not to be accepted but challenged and changed.
The problem with our generation is that we fail to get to
the root of our troubles. We spread talcum powder on cancer
and use a feather duster to get rid of deeply-ingrained
unbiblical traditions. It is time to forsake all such
temporary palliatives. No longer can we remain silent about
a church that has become cluttered with superficial
“believers” who refuse to sell all and follow Jesus.
These troubling times find our generation intoxicated –
not necessarily with wine from a bottle but with all the
stimulants of our over-programmed and superficial
Christianity.
- We bring our Sunday School lesson books
to church but not our Bibles.
- We refuse to open our hymnals let alone
sing joyfully unto the Lord as we are commanded to do.
- We fall for religious fads – our
“Rickshaw Rallies” – that work up mere positive
thinking that only further deceive the sinner.
- We prefer peaceful coexistence with the
state to the kingdom of heaven.
- We exalt human leaders (our
“senior” pastors) over the one Head of the Church.
- We substitute activity – a farce
without force – for Christian living.
- We shunt our children off to church and
school yet fail in our parental responsibility to teach
them the Word of God at home.
- We emphasize the new birth and fail to
give corresponding emphasis to the new life.
- We preach “seeker-sensitive” drivel
while our people perish for lack of knowledge.
- We gather multitudes of professed
believers but few disciples.
- We sacrifice quality to quantity and
the novices never mature.
Our churches are filled with spoiled children
who need to grow up, milk feeders who should be on meat. We
must avoid rashness and impatience, but it is just as wrong
to slip into an unoffensive acceptance of things that can
and ought to be changed. God is not a Benevolent Butler,
awaiting our bidding. He is not a Big Buddy, winking at our
childishness. The church is not a civic club. The brave
General Armistead, at the Emmitsburg Road, asked, “Who
will come with me?” In a day when the secular press mocks
our inflated membership statistics, it is time for the
follower of Christ to say “I will rise to the
challenge!”
Let us return to the solas of the Reformation. Let us
believe the Word of God and receive it for what it is,
letting God be true and every man a liar. Let us refuse to
soothe the unsaved with a false peace or stir them with an
artificial joy. Let us stand – and stand alone if
necessary – for conviction and principle. Instead of
dodging issues, let us meet them head-on as Paul did at
Corinth. Above all, let us weep for our sins that put Christ
on the cross, our iniquities that made Calvary necessary,
and our godless traditions that led to Good Friday.
God is ready to work in us to will and do that which He
expects. To be satisfied with anything less is to doubt and
disobey God. Let us raise the horizons of our expectations
and believe God for the “above and beyond” (Eph. 3:20)!
The Great Awakener of the church, of whom it is said “He
stirreth up the people” (Luke 23:5), is sounding the
reveille. Every Christian ought to be a co-agitator, working
with God to awaken a church stupefied with the spirit of
deep sleep.
Let the Reformation Begin!
Dave Black
daveblack@daveblackonline.com
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.
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