Last night I was at work, and I on a small break I perused through the local newspaper. I report caught my eye that horrified me, sickened me, and angered me. Reading it shook me to the very core of my being.
Last week a 2 month old infant was mauled to death by an older puppy. The infant was left unattended, strapped in a swing, for several hours. While the puppy bit and mauled the infant, the mother and possibly the grandmother slept on the other end of the house. They were allegedly in a drug induced sleep, or there was too much distance and too many walls between either of them and the infant. Either way, they did not hear the infant's screams and cries for help or come to it's aid. The infant died helpless and alone.
I read this and I was stunned. Why? Why did this happen?
I was so sickened I had to run to the manager's office to hide and pull myself together. I screamed out to God.
Time and time again I read, see, and hear of God's precious children being tossed away as trash. Mothers are given one of more of the most precious blessings only to mistreat, neglect, and reject them. These children are unwanted, unloved, and unheard when they cry out for love and help.
In my anger and hurt I questioned God.
How could God let this happen? Didn't God hear? Where was God when this baby cried out for help? Was He really for real? If He was, did he really care? Or was Jesus loves the little children only a lie?
After my rant I calmed down and pulled myself together. After all I still had 4 hours of a shift to manage. I went back out into the front of house and watched over the store, feigning that everything was ok. But on the inside I was still in turmoil. And praying. Still asking God for an answer.
After the store closed, and everyone was gone, I was in the quiet of the office. Trying to just get my paperwork finished so I could go home. But I couldn't focus enough. So I just sat there, waiting, hoping to hear from God through the turmoil in my soul.
Somehow, in the quiet of the office, God started "speaking" to me. And showing me that Yes... He was there.
He showed me that the grief I feel each time I hear of these things, it's God grieving too.
The anger I feel each time is the Righteous Anger He feels too.
He was there when the tiny babe cried out for help. He was there, but helpless to do anything. All He could do was stand and wait with His Angels to receive the little babe's spirit and take it to be with Him forever.
He was there in His spirit. But His arms, His hands, His feet, His mouth wasn't. His body was not there to help.
You see... we are the body of Christ. Jesus is the head of the body. We are His arms, His hands, His feet, His mouth. Nothing God does on this earth can be done unless it is through us. Nothing can be done unless it is through our mouths that His Word is spoken. Nothing can be done unless it is through our arms that reach out with His compassion. Nothing can be done unless it is though our hands that work and our work is caused to prosper. Nothing can be done unless it is through our feet that goes to possess every place we tred.
And what is the body doing? It is sleeping.
We are playing fashion show on Sunday mornings. We are talking "Christianesse" with our "Praise God's" and "Hallelujahs" to make ourselves more inclusive.
We are fellowshiping with each other, and not reaching out the undesirable who need our fellowship.
We have sat back and only focused on taking care of ourselves.
We have allowed a broken worldly system to take on the responsibility of the orphaned, the poor, the widowed.
We have allowed a broken worldly system to take on the responsibility of teaching mothers how to halfway care for their children instead of truely love an nurture them.
We have tied our own hands behind our backs and allowed the worldly system to take away more of our freedoms. We have allowed the world to forget our Godly heritage and purpose. We have allowed the world to forget that we are descended from God.
We have lost our saltiness, and hidden our light and made it harder to find in this ever darkening world.
When are we going to wake up? When is the righteous anger of God going to be awakened in us? When are we going to allow the compassion of God to over rule our apathy and self centeredness?
WAKE UP CHURCH!
Mother's murder their unborn each day, while those hoping for children loose hope. WAKE UP CHURCH!
Terrorists desecrate our God given soil and we allow them to be offended becuase a tired soldier kicks the Quran. WAKE UP CHURCH!
Families go hungry, and some loose their homes only to live in cars or under a bridge, while we lift our eyes and pray that God would bless us so we could have more for ourselves. WAKE UP CHURCH!
More and more teens turn to each other and become more peer dependant to find worth and purpose while we hide ourselves from them because they are not part of our culture. WAKE UP CHURCH!
More and more drug lords push drugs every day. People take them to cover and hide their pain while we hide the One True King within ourselves because we don't want to be to pushy! WAKE UP CHURCH!
People, young and old, die without hope in hospitials, because we fail to go and lay hands on the sick and share the Word of God that is more powerful than the most terminal prognosis. WAKE UP CHURCH!
We are passionate about what happens inside an althletic arena while we are lethargic in a worship service. WAKE UP CHURCH!
WAKE UP! Feel the righteous anger of God inside you! Feel the compassion and mercy of God for the lost inside you!
Yes... I feel anger! I am angry! It was totally wrong that the young mother neglected her young baby, only for it to die alone. In my opinion it was murder to let that baby die like that. And yes. There will be justice. There has to be. If not full justice here on earth, there will be full justice when they die, unless they repent and turn to God.
But I also have compassion and mercy.
This young mother and her mother were deceived. They were blinded. They were hardened in their hearts. they turned to drugs as a false answer. And as a result they will never feel the joy of holding that baby close again, feeling it's soft skin caressing their own. They will never again get to look into eyes that love them and depend on them. Because of that I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry that they allowed themselves to be deceived. I feel sorry for them that they listened to the father of lies.
And we as a church have shamefully kept ourselves quiet and allowed the voice of the father of lies to grow stronger.
We are commanded to go into the highways and the hedges and compell them in. Those in the hedges are the undesirable that sit along the wayside of our busy lives. Compell them in.
I'm sure this young mother was among the undesirable. What would of happened if some member of the body of Christ had reached out to her in love and compelled her into eat at the banquet of Christ?
Would she of then made the choice to turn to drugs, which smothered the very drive of a mother and made her so out of it she couldn't even come to the aid of her dying infant?
WAKE UP CHURCH!
Quit being so self focused and centered that we only care that our needs and desires are met. Actually activate your faith and trust that God will meet every single one of you needs, and reach out to those who are more needy than you.
WAKE UP CHURCH!
Quit being so self focused and self centered as parents that we only care to survive raising our own children. Trust God for the wisdom to raise your own children. Fathers rise up and be leaders in your own homes and raise children of influence and authority. Mother's reach out to other young mothers and teach them to love their children as we are commanded to in Titus 2!
WAKE UP CHURCH! Use His word to shut out the voice of the father of lies. Allow His spirit within you to lead you, guide you, and instruct you. Use your hands to work to prosper the Kingdom of God. Use your feet and go and possess every place which your feet tread. Do not go with the spirit of fear. Go with the power, love and sound mind you have with the mind of Christ.
WAKE UP CHURCH! Burn with Righteous Anger towards the sin. Have compassion and mercy on the sinner.
Love the sinner. Reach out to the sinner. Hate the sin.
3 comments:
I got an email from a friend stating that not much more can be done... we can't force people to make right choices... etc. So I'm posting my responce here..
I know not much more can be done... And yes people do reject God. But do they reject God because they have never been shown the true nature of God becuase most "christians" are so self centered or so screwed up with fake religion that they can't even help themselves?
I just was trying to make the point that as Christians, we need to be more of a reflection of God and His nature. We need to be stepping up and doing more to establish God's covenant on the earth.
We shouldn't be accepting of the fact that government has taken on the responsibility of the poor, widows, or orphans. If the government is their source (at the expence of the taxpayers... thank you so much welfare!!!) then in their minds they will not need God and will not learn that He is the True Source.... of everything including comfort, satisfaction, and fulfillment.
If the church body as a whole, stepped up to establish His covenant, we would be the ones with a voice stronger than the government. We would be the ones with a voice stronger than the pharmaceutical instustry to tell the world that Jesus really does heal. We would be a voice stronger than the darwin movement in the schools and would be able to effectively preach the message that each and every baby ,whether planned, unplanned, wanted, or unwanted, is created by God and does have a purpose and is a blessing. We would be the ones with voices stronger than drug lords who push their temporary highs and be more effective in leading people to find satisfaction in Christ and that there is no need to escape from their problems because Jesus has already over come them.
No... we can't force people to make the right decisions. But a strong church body would make it hard to make the wrong decisions.
I was also trying to make the point that we need to get out of our comfort bubble and be more willing to reach out to those we come in contact with that we might deem undesireable. What if one christian had effectively reached out to that momma and sowed some seed? What if one christian had effectively preached and shown her the goodness and mercy of God and she didn't need drugs..... would her baby still be alive? I don't know. Yes, the choice is hers. We can't force her to change for the better. But was that choice and opportunity ever shown to her by Spirit filled, bible believing, full of authority, submitted to the church, children of God?
I do know that we need a wake up call for the church body as a whole to quit playing church and be The Church, The Bride of Christ. I don't expect all of us to be super heros running from one house to the next.
I do believe God expects us to listen to Him, and be faithful and obedient in who he wants us to reach out to. Not looking at what it costs us, but believing God meets every need we have and provides every resource for what He calls us to do.
I'm just simply asking what if??? I believe if we wake up "What ifs" will turn in to "What God did!!"
I just wanted to say that I'm kind of tired of people slamming christians and telling us we aren't doing our jobs. Most christians I know are doing a fabulous job for our father. And there are way too many hearbreaking things that happen that it's really overwhelming. I think most christains do a great job in there little worlds of reaching out and helping others and making a difference
Trish,
This was in now way meant as a slam. I'm sorry if I took it that way. If you are surrounded by Christains that are truely indeed reaching out to the lost and the unchurched, then THAT IS AWESOME!
I am in a church that is designed to reach the unchurched. To reach those that would never step foot in a traditional church. And we do reach a lot of people. But our church is not the norm.
There are still churches, large and small, that are more concerned on religious traditions than reaching out to those who probably don't fit into their church culture. There are churches that are concerned more about fishing from other church's ponds than going out and catching their own fish, per say. There are churches that are dead churches because they only focus in the needs and wants within their walls, and don't reach out to the hurting and lost of the world around them.
I do agree there are Christians who do a great job of going into all the world. But more could be done. There are more Christians out there that should be doing their share. Those are the ones this rant was directed at. If it doesn't pertain to you, you can ignore it.
Post a Comment