“Hope has two beautiful daughters: Anger, at the way things are, and Courage, to work for change.”
My fellow staff writer goes on to write (and I quote),
"This sums up where I (we) am (are) these days and why I grow more passionate about Jesus. He is the hope of the world—you know. Without hope, all is lost. This is why I have become angry at how I have wasted so much precious life doing things that don’t matter. Anger can be a useless passion if it is not harnessed in the right direction. When it is, it can change people, places and things. It does not allow you to remain silent, absent, immobile or with excuse. I thank God for righteous anger. But what I need most is courage. Courage to think, to be, to do what needs to be done—to do what Jesus did. It is courage that I pray for most.
What he said resonates with me. I pondered what he said and realized I'm angry too. I'm angry how I have wasted time doing what I thought were "churchy" things: serving on the deacon board, playing in the worship band, serving as a leader in various sub groups of the church- things I thought were necessary to advance the kingdom of God that Jesus mentions so much when He spoke to his disciples in the Gospels. I believed it was my "ministry" to help keep the church finely tuned allowing it to be "attractional" to the "lost". I believed this was God's plan for me and this was necessary so they ("the lost') would come to a church service, listen to the pastor "do his job" (since I already did mine) by preaching a rousing sermon, and then at the end they would "make a decision" for Jesus by repeating a salvation prayer at the end of the service. This was the means to the end. From there they would join the church (and maybe a small group or a Sunday Bible class) and come faithfully every week. Then maybe once in awhile invite a co worker or a neighbor to a church service. Please don't read me wrong-It's important that everyone comes to a faith decision concerning Christ, but is this where it ends? Is this what Jesus was talking about concerning the advancement of the Kingdom? Jesus admonished us to go (Matt 28:19). His instruction wasn't getting people to come to church. I'm not down on "coming to church", I'm down on this being the primary exclusive role of the church. In the book, "Right Here, Right Now", the authors mention there is no distinction between the NT phases kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven. It should catch our attention that these phrases are used over eighty times in the Gospels regarding Jesus' message, while the word church is used a mere three times in all the Gospels. It is also intriguing that the word disciple is used over 260 times in the Gospels alone. The author points this out because of the undeniable fact that the vast majority of Christians and their leaders emphasize church but give scant attention to the kingdom of God and disciple making. I pray we all have the "courage" to be disciple makers and to what Jesus commands us to do-GO!
I know it's not easy to go "back to the basics". Can even be a little scary to get out of our comfort. But at the end of the day it really does all come back to people...ALL people being given the gift of Life not just those who enter a building.
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