-Robin Mark
when we sing this song, what are we asking God to do?
what does this word Revival mean?
· an awakening?
· a raising from the dead?
in 2002, recognizing that this moment of clarity would soon pass, i frantically scribbled a vision down in my journal while it could be contained in words:
I dream of a time when Revival of historical proportions lights this city on fire for months on end; a time when people are phoning us from all around the country asking what God is doing here because they have heard it on The National; a time when the only thing that matters will be that God's name is lifted up and his people are found faithful in serving him through truly loving those whom he loves and whom he died to save.
As God lights the fires of Revival in this city, I long to see him use our church... that we might not be boxed into these four walls, but that we would be part of God's larger work in this city and this world.
That we might be part of the day of the Lord.
yes yes, very nice
but what about the mass-murderers and the drug-dealers and the pornographers and the baby-killers and the war-mongers and those who misuse power to exploit others to some degree to their own ends... does this day of the Lord hold any hope for them?
1 corinthians 6.9-10 seems to be pretty clear that there are no easy spots to be flippantly had. we're all in the same soup and any winking at sin cheapens the shed blood of Christ. the writer of 1 corinthians is pretty frank in 6.11 when he speaks of being washed, sanctified and justified in Jesus' name by the Spirit of God.
and what about that frowning woman in the honking car with LOVE stamped on her license plate? does the 'day of the Lord' and all of this grace from God even include her?
i think i have more immediate grace for manson family member susan atkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Atkins) than i have for someone who is simply rude to me.
it is humbling, considering how rude i myself can be.
yet Jesus made it abundantly clear when he spoke to his boys in john 14.1-7 that he was modeling, for us all, the extent to which we are to offer grace to another.
to one who has transgressed,
am i ready to offer unconditional forgivenness?
to one who is needy,
am i ready to offer food, clothing, shelter and fellowship?
to one destined for an eternal separation from God,
am i willing to offer my life in order to share the truth?
am i willing even to put my own forever in jeopardy
for another?
hmmm...
in his book, the brothers karamazov, fyoder dostoevsky tells a story of a woman who did one good thing for another in her entire life:
Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire.
So her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell to God; ‘She once pulled up an onion in her garden,’ said he, ‘and gave it to a beggar woman.’
And God answered: ‘You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the lake, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.’
The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. ‘Come,’ said he, ‘catch hold and I’ll pull you out.’ he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her.
But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. ‘I’m to be pulled out, not you. It’s my onion, not yours.’ As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away. (dostoevsky)
in his book, Son of a Preacher Man, jay bakker (son of television evangelist, jim) urges the church to get over itself...
We should abandon the unimportant trappings of religion in order to meet real people where they really are. (Bakker)
interesting that the things that we hold dear, the things that give our faith experience some structure, are often referred to as 'trappings' (something that somehow ties us up from living a life of freedom.)
meeting real people where they really are may mean that we need to not only go out of our way to find them, but even further- living there with them, serving them, forgiving them, offering them the kind of fellowship that we would offer the king of kings if he were to grace us with a visit.
if not able to even imagine this, then how truly far are we from this kingdom- this realization of God’s glory and purpose for all humankind?
what if the coming of the day of the Lord relies more on our faithful response to the needs of the other than we realize?
***
Assistance and perfection, insistence and inspection
Two of me, two of you, two of us, two by two
The double life we live
Distance and direction run straight ahead
To your better world (to your better world)
We're putting on our make-up. but we never make-up
We're the beauty and the beast, we're dead men telling tales
Sleeping through our wake-up
Two of me, two of you, two of us, two by two
The double life we live
Distance and direction run straight ahead
To your better world
(Terry Taylor, circa 1982)
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