40 Days of Preparation Day 13

Today, Thursday March 8, 2012, is the thirteenth day of preparing our hearts, souls and minds for the most high of all Christian holy days, Easter Sunday. Today I need to “put off” disobedience and “put on” obedience. As we prepare ourselves each day I ask you to consider an area of your lives over which Jesus may not have complete control.

It is my contention that pastors and teachers in the American church have done a great disservice to the Christians they have taught by teaching people to know facts about Christ, His ministry, and the Gospel but not teaching  those who make up our churches the absolutely critical importance of obeying Christ. We need to ask God to take every aspect of our life and bring it under Christ’s control.  Jesus is clear in His expectation of our absolute obedience. Consider the following passage from the Gospel of John;

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” ²² Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. John 14:15–24

Jesus clearly teaches that if we disobey Him it is because we do not love Him.  This message, however, does not seem to be getting through to the average person who attends church on Sunday.  Recently I was told by someone with great knowledge in statistics and polling that if a polling company is pushed for time and cannot generate a proper statistical sample that a shortcut method is for them to poll a group of Southern Baptist’s, because the churches which make up the Southern Baptist Convention provide the most accurate sampling of today’s American culture. Other statistical information confirms this statistician’s findings. Divorce is as frequent, if not more so, within the church than outside her, premarital sex is as frequent in the church as outside her.  This can be said about abortion, drug addiction, alcoholism and a whole host of other common societal ills (read “sins”).

Such behavior among those who claim the name of Christ is criminal.  We are to be salt and light to the greater society. Jesus taught that if the salt has lost its savor it is no longer good for anything and must be cast out.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13–16

I fear that if those of us who populate the churches of America do not change our ways and begin to live holy lives by obeying the commands of Christ we will suffer His judgment and He will remove His candle-stand from among us. Why is the removal of the candlestick or lampstand by Christ from our churches such a big issue?

¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. ⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵ Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Revelation 2:1–5

The Apocalypse of John, also commonly known as the book of Revelation is a apocalyptic genre of literature which is filled with picturesque and symbolic language.  The idea of Christ removing the candlestick from a church is similar to that of worthless salt being cast out and trampled underfoot.  The candlestick in question was filled with oil and contains seven (seven being a number which symbolizes holiness or completeness in the Bible) branches like today’s Jewish menorah and is used here symbolically for the Holy Spirit. A church without the Holy Spirit is worthless and cannot preserve the society in which it resides or be a light in the darkness. Without God’s Holy Spirit you and I are powerless and unable to affect any eternal change in this world or the world become.

For this reason I must ask God the Holy Spirit to reveal to me every area of my life were disobedience reigns.  When these areas of disobedience or revealed to me I must confess them, repent of them and “put off” disobedience and “put on” obedience so that I might both please Christ and be used of Him to bring others to both a saving knowledge of Christ and an obedient Christian lifestyle.