Love isn’t like a reservoir. You’ll never drain it dry. It’s much more like a natural spring. The longer and the farther it flows, the stronger and the deeper and the clearer it becomes.
~Eddie Cantor (1892-1964)
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
~ from Revelation 2
Oh beloved. There is sometimes a time to preach the word. Actually that time is always.
There is among us – in the church – a problem that we must face. We live in a world whose filth and lies would push themselves into the doorways of our churches, and into both our theology and religious practice. And as surely as it is always wrong to do the wrong thing, we must always contend for the truth.
However, there is a problem. Often, in fighting against something which is clearly wrong, we lose the battle by applying force in exactly the wrong places and ways. And actually, this problem is a bit easier to see in hindsight than upon approach to the same.
It is exceedingly easy to point out the horrible flaws of the denominational church, and of education, and of people, and of society in general – in both the East and the West. This is true because we live in a fallen, evil world, in the domain of the prince of darkness. And that darkness has begun to spread its fetid wings wide in the end times of this fallen world.
However, it does seem to this fool of a writer that the bigger issue is coming to a realization that identifying the problem is only about 3% of the solution. We then we must begin to fight effectively. Simply wailing about the problems and blaming and demonizing people or institutions that we already know are evil was tried in America throughout the 70’s and 80’s – and we lost the culture war.
We fought the wrong war.
It is called spiritual warfare, not a culture war. And there is effective weaponry in this battle (which is actually finished anyway). And, because this is where the vast portion and power of the arsenal we wield dwells, this is were we should focus our energies. And notice this writer says, “focus.” We must move beyond the lip-service the church has given this in the past. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal – nor informational. They are:
1) Sacrificial Love
2) Intercessory prayer
3) Proclamation of the gospel
And as each of these three is driven only by the Love Who has invaded our lives and made them completely new, there is nothing that could stop these instruments of the Kingdom. It is unassailable that 20-30 people of completely one mind and heart, and under complete surrender to the Holy Spirit, are unstoppable in any milieu. Nothing would stop the revival. Doubt me? Read your history books. And read the book of Acts.
However, the liar continues to wave his own flung garbage in front of us – and we scream, “Oooh, that stinks!” Oh beloved, we know it stinks. But the problem (as it almost always is) is that we continue to stay in “identifying the problem” mode, rather than: “solving the problem” mode.
G_d is Love.
He is The Way.
He is The Truth.
He is The Life.
So, yes, stand and speak the truth. Yes, bring the truth to the light. And once in the light, draw people towards The Light with Love and prayer and blessing and the message of the very good news of the Gospel. This approach alone will attract people away from the false religions and filth and selfishness of the world.
Attacking the world only compounds the issues of division and worry and anxiety… and then the liar wins. Will we simply shine the light of Love and truth and commit ourselves to living righteous, holy, and quiet lives that will actually attract people out of the darkness – rather than simply attack the incorrect positions of others in an already fallen world?
What if we tried it for a while?
