Fri, Sep 4th - 11:13PM
JESUS WAS NOT A PACIFIST
JESUS WAS NOT A PACIFIST
Passive Christians are the
equivalent of lukewarm Christians.
Passive Christians sit back and
say things like, "well, we just have to pray about it" or, "you
know, God is in control, so it doesn't matter what we do, if it's in His will
it is going to happen anyway" or, "well, we are to just preach the
Gospel, and let God take care of the rest", and one of my personal
favorites, "You know, we have to love people like Jesus loved people, we
can’t be offensive, so we'll just have to pray for them". To which I say,
all of these statements are correct in their proper contexts and depending on
the situation at hand. We certainly must love people like Jesus loved people;
and He loved them enough to be brutally honest with them!
That's why I do not believe that
God has called Christians to be passive; on the contrary, there is overwhelming
evidence that God calls us to be just the opposite; fearless and courageous,
action-taking, radical, warrior-like, dogmatic, and a host of other descriptions
that would characterize the true child of God!
Imagine if Moses would have said,
"well guys, we're just going to pray about this and believe that God will
make a way". God did, but there was some action required on Moses', and
the children of Israel's part. For
example, God said, "when I see the blood, I will pass over you". He
did not say, "I am going to go get the lamb and slay it for you and put
the blood on the doorpost for you." They had to do that!
Or what if Joshua had told Israel that "we
are going to just pray and believe that the walls of Jericho are going to
come down, and wait for it to happen." Jericho might still
be standing! No, they had to get out and march for 6 days around the city, then
7 times on the 7th day. But, that's not all. God told them that on the 7th time
around they were to blow the trumpets and "shout with a great shout",
then the walls "fell down flat"!
Jesus was
anything but, passive! Not only Hollywood, but even
worse, the modern day church has soft-peddled an emasculated, soft-spoken,
effeminate Jesus. However, a close examination of the Scripture reveals that
Christ was anything, but that! Oh, he was gentle at times, but please don't ever
mistake "meekness" for "weakness". But, I digress.
TIME FOR THOSE PRAYER-LEGS TO
START WALKING!
The point I want to get back to and
focus on is the fact that, yes, we absolutely should pray and need to
pray. However, there is an old cliche'
that says, "you have to put legs under your prayers." It's not Scripture, but there is a lot of
truth to the saying, and probably a number of verses of Scripture that probably
support that idea.
As Christians we are at a place in
this country now where we must get past this passive praying, and start being
militant about our prayer life. Where at
all possible, we have to pray then engage the culture.
Yes, we pray against the horror of
abortion and the atrocities of Planned Parenthood; but then, we have to get
engaged from calling, writing, emailing or visiting our legislators to
protesting, peacefully and prayerfully, at the abortuaries.
Yes, we pray that God will convict
those involved in the homosexual agenda; but then again, we call, write, email
and visit our legislators and attend or hold rallies speaking out against the
Supreme Court ruling on sodomy-based marriage.
Yes, we pray that God will once
again be welcomed back into our public school system and that students and
faculty alike, have their freedom to exercise their Constitutional First
Amendment right to freedom of religion and speech once again recognized without
fear of reprisal! Yes, pray about it, but then pick up your phone, your pen and
paper, go to your computer, or better
yet, if possible, go to your state capital and get an audience with your
legislators and work on getting this thing done!
Yes pray, but do not remain silent
once you've said, "Amen". Get
to work! Form or join groups and
organizations and peacefully, but forcefully, fight for what is right!
Prayer - real prayer - genuine prayer - has never been and never will
be passive. Again, our
most powerful example is Jesus.
The reason most real prayer
meetings have the least attendance is because of several reasons, but just to
name a few:
1. Professing Christians don't really believe prayer works.
2. We have our priorities out of whack.
3. Christians are lazy. Real
prayer is W-O-R-K!
There are probably several more
reasons, but these are among the first that come to mind.
· Christ did not
shed His blood and die for us, then come back from the grave on the third day
because He was passive!
· A passive
Christ doesn't go into a temple with a whip and turn over tables and chairs and
wreck the place when He sees the desecration that is taking place in His
Father's House! (John 2:13-17)
· A passive
Christ doesn't deliver a message and eight times in the message, call the
religious rulers and leaders hypocrites at least 8 times, then call them a
bunch of snakes, then asks them they are! (Matthew 23:13-33)
Numerous other passages give us
example after example that the Lord Jesus was anything but passive. Passionate - not passive. Compassionate - not passive.
We need for God's people to get
out of the pews and tap into the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit and get
involved, active, passionate, fired up and engage the culture! That's what prayer warriors do! God has called
us to be salt and light. And He hasn't done so based upon the contingency of
our comfort zone and convenience!
Let's do more than be passive
prayers; let's be Prayer Warriors! Our
nation, the world and ultimately the Kingdom of God needs you -
NOW!
Pastor Mike
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