This has been a rough week with covid symptoms. Normally I might experience the intensity of one symptom, say, difficulty breathing. Earlier this week I got hit with a convergence where the mental (depression, anxiety), physical fatigue and difficulty breathing hit at once. Moments ago I felt so weak I considered skipping writing this week.
Naaah.
So here goes with the latest edition of Musings of a Rogue Christian.
Earlier this week, the Christian Post reported that Brandon Lake, the Christian musician, stated that the church should ease up on worship songs with an overtly Biblical message in order to be more pleasing to the unbeliever, or, as he put it, the man who was “forced to go to church by his wife.” Lake gives “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty” as an example of being over the top. Brandon Lake has a worldwide following. When we put what an unbeliever or others in the church thinks over the holiness and glory of God and pleasing Him, we’re dead. Read Peter’s first short sermon in Act 2 and you’ll see that Peter told the audience “you crucified Christ twice.” We are in desperate need of Heaven-sent Jeremiahs and John the Baptists.
This year the financial markets have been signaling that the era of runaway deficits is at the end. A nation’s finances reflects its moral character; ours continues to plumb new depths. Jonah comes to mind with his warning in Jonah 3 that “in 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed.” The warning signs have been getting increasingly louder in recent years that our moral collapse will soon trigger a financial fall. It’s hard to see the US in the book of Revelation or Matthew 24. Are we on day 38 of our “40 day” warning? Should we not respond the same way they did in Jonah 3 with ongoing fervent prayer and confession of sin? No conference or gifted speaker needed (in fact, a speaker would be a distraction.) The challenge is to get our sophisticated, proud, western churches off their butts, on their knees, and crying out for mercy during their weekend services. Temporarily shutting the pulpits down, silencing the worship band, and making our churches houses of prayer would be powerful.
Years ago, I heard James Dobson say some of the wisest words I’ve ever heard about marriage: “Before you get married, keep your eyes wide open. After marriage, keep them half shut.”
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told His disciples to pray, twice (Luke 22:39-46). If they had known the events that were just minutes away, they would have hit their knees in all-out fervent prayer. Jesus commands us to pray, and the end times are here. Are we playing, sleeping, or praying?
70% of youth have been walking away from the church for decades. Why is there no sense of urgency about this coming from our pulpits?
A recent night of prayer and worship in East London that ran from 7:00pm to 7:00am drew 2,000 attendees, most of whom were young people. Our youth are hungry for more than they’re getting at most churches. So are the adults. When are we going to start firing up the prayer meetings and realize that the church is its most powerful when it’s on its knees? See the books of Acts. Or how God called the church a “house of prayer” (Isaiah 56:7, Matthew 21:13).
Or just read the entire Bible.
During my recent interview with Celeste McKinney, a nurse, she shared that during her years working in hospice and holding the hands of men and women as they died, no one said they should have worked more. They looked back at regret at not having more time with their loved ones.
In First Corinthians 5, Paul reams the Church of Corinth for not confronting the sexual sin in their midst, then, in verse 2 says “Ought you not rather to mourn?” Some preach about sin, but how often do we see someone mourning about it?
Do we mourn about our own sin?
I share my weaknesses and mistakes in my writings because Paul encouraged it in 2 Cor 12:9 (“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”) But also, I can’t relate to a teacher or preacher who doesn’t struggle with temptation, have to crucify his flesh every day, make mistakes, struggle with weakness, or have to overcome in spiritual warfare often. Peter gives me great hope because of how Jesus restored him after the massive failure of denying Jesus three times. There are no masks in the Bible (we see plenty of pride, though). We give people hope when we share our weaknesses and failures. Have you shared your weaknesses lately? Or do you wear a mask and fake it as so many do?
This week Sean Feucht has been accused of financial, spiritual, and moral misconduct, Michael Tait, formerly of the Newsboys, is facing allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use, and the comments by Brandon Lake above came to light. I often wonder what God might be saying when there’s a trend like this. What came to mind is how we love our Christian celebrities, and God doesn’t do second place. We can also tend to overestimate our Christian celebrities’ influence. When the Newsboys cancelled their Canada tour last month, the promoter stated they had hoped the tour would spark a “nationwide revival.” No, revivals are set on fire when people go hard at prayer and confess and turn away from their sins.
Every once in awhile, I’ll get asked what I do. I’ll say something like “I run an organization that helps people with porn and sex addiction.” More often than not, their eyes glaze over, and the conversation is over.
This happens outside of the church too.
If I were to name the top issues that should be discussed from the pulpit in detail so that God’s people were thoroughly equipped in those areas, it would be prayer, sexual issues (including porn), and spiritual warfare (including the occult, which many professing Christians are playing with).
If I were pastoring a church, we would begin with a 20-25 minute message. We would break everyone up to share their struggles and pray for each other for 20-25 minutes, then come back and pray as a body. No one would walk out of that church without being given the opportunity to share their struggles and receive prayer. We would decimate isolation and prayerlessness. We would make teaching, fellowship, and especially, prayer, a high priority, just as they did in the book of Acts. We would run prayer meetings 7 days a week and I would challenge everyone to participate. Once every 6 weeks, we would devote one entire Sunday morning to prayer. I expect that such a church would be small, but we would be spiritually powerful. Give me a prayer-powered church of 40-100 committed believers, and we will change the world.
