Sadly in a church where there is little
persecution, the default is for the church to have “a form of
religion, but deny it's power” (2 Timothy 3:5; Luke 10:19). But
actually For many years in the West, the church had too much of the
wrong kind of power, and the default kicked in. While things are
changing, especially in the atmosphere of hostile political
correctness, much of the church is in still in denial about its
ineffectiveness and irrelevance to it's own problems and pain and
those of the age. But as our society becomes sicker and sicker, the
principles and promises of Scripture, and the power of the Holy
Spirit's work to heal, and bring the abundant life, become more,
and more relevant. And with it comes the opportunity to teach and
demonstrate the good news that Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted,
and to set the captives free (Luke 4:18).
Sadly (again) part of
the church denies even the need for recovery and inner healing (see
20, 21 May). We need to come out of such denial, and tap into the
resources the Lord is opening up in this season, to accomplish His
Luke 4:18 agenda. “What resources” you ask? Well, When the enemy
comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD always lifts up a
standard against him (Isaiah 59:19). And in face of the success of
the enemy's current killing, stealing and destroying (John 10:0a),
the Lord is raising up many inner healing ministries both secular and
sacred. I'll mention several, Restoring the Foundations, Elijah house
ministries, Shiloh Place Ministries, Celebrate Recovery, but there
are many, more. Since I'm most familiar with the first and last
of these, I tend to reference them.
Now there are clear
commands in the Scripture, that are either ignored, or have fallen
into disuse. The one I am about to mention will be familiar to those
who read my blog. It is “confess your faults one to another and
pray for one another that you may be healed” (James 5:16). It’s
not a suggestion by the way, it’s a command. The problem though, is
that it’s not safe, and the problem with that, is that when it’s
not safe, we are not going to obey the command. What I am
saying then, is that we need to create safe places, and we need
to create them in Church. If we don't do this, the Church won't be
the hospital for the sin sick it's intended to be. Celebrate Recovery
(CR) gives us one model. It takes Jesus as our higher power, but
otherwise follows traditional twelve-step programs. Even within the
fellowship of such programs, is the recognition we need to start
small. In particular step five reads “Admitted to God, to
ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.” We confess to God to be forgiven and cleansed, we confess
to each other to be healed (1 John 1:9; James 5:16). I have been
talking about denial, but we cannot expect the church to come out of
hiding, without it being transformed into a safe place.It has to
start with us.
Father, we need Your
help to transform church into safe places. Be it in small groups, or
in programs like CR, please bring it to pass. Unless we can be honest
with ourselves we will not be real, and we will not be relevant to
the sickness of the age. Please Lord do not leave us in our
dysfunction in Jesus Name Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment