Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes
"He [Jesus] came unto his own, but his own did not receive him."1
Way back in AD 10 Julius Frontinus said, "Inventions have reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development." Even Thomas Edison, the great inventor, was at times himself a doubting Thomas. He said, "Fooling around with alternating current is a waste of time." In 1934 Albert Einstein, of all people, declared, "There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will be obtainable."
For many of us if change doesn't compute with what we have seen or experienced, there can be a tendency for us to reject it.
Most of the religious people of Christ's day died without ever having found their Messiah even though they were looking for himâ€"and saw him in person. They rejected him because he didn't come in the way that they expected, nor did he do what they expected a Messiah to do; that is, to come in great power and overthrow the Roman rule.
When God wants to do a new, or at least a renewed, work in many of our churches, organizations, and/or individual lives, sometimes we don't want to see it because we resist change.
True, there are some things that don't change, such as moral principles as taught in the Word of God; and we need to stand firm on these issues. And while the gospel message never changes, we need to change some of our methods of communicating it. The Internet and email have revolutionized communications, but take a look at the average church web site and you'll be hard pressed to find a relevant gospel message. What you will mostly find is an electronic bulletin board for the church members. Once again we're mostly using this incredible God-given means of communication and outreach to "preach to the choir."
You don't catch fish in the bathtubâ€"you go to where the fish are. It's the same with reaching the non-church community. We need to go where non-church people are, and that's outside the four walls of the church. To do this effectively we need to have a message that is relevant to the needs of non-church people … spoken in non-churchy language and addressed to the felt needs of non-church people.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me the insight to see what changes I need to make in my life, and give me the courage to do what I need to do to implement these changes so I will be a more effective Christian and a more effective witness to your saving power in my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. John 1:11 (NKJV).
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