A Christian’s heavenly journey with his feet on the ground. Treasures shared that are discovered along the way.
Please note that this blog has now moved to: "Senior Eagle walking with Father"

Sunday, February 22, 2009

If My People - 2

We’ve just had a day out at a country estate with our grandchildren. In one of the gardens there was an old solid oak door that caught my attention. What I felt was very significant was the network of small branches that crisscrossed the door, barring the way and partly obscuring it. Also the small handle was very rusty with lack of use. I felt that with some careful pruning, these obstructions could be removed to allow access to the hidden delights beyond.

In my post If “My People -1” I referred to the world being in a dire state., but I’ll confine these comments now to the state of the nation in Britain. I love my country - I hasten to add that this is in the right way after God - and it hurts to see that it has lost it’s way and no one seems to have the answer. However, this must be as nothing compared with how it must pain God to see what is happening.

The Gospel remains largely hidden from view and the media - apart from some notable exceptions - portray Christianity as irrelevant and a butt for comedians. We now have a second generation of children, the majority of whom are ignorant of the Gospel. Christianity as a living relationship with Jesus is rarely taught in schools. Many organisations are afraid to be seen giving deference to Christianity incase they offend followers of other religions. For example employees are wished a ‘happy holiday’ at Christmas. The gap between the rich and the poor grows larger, as the ‘haves’ are in a headlong hedonist pursuit of pleasure and financial security to fill the aching void within. The Christian moral foundations are in decline and the financial and manufacturing fabric of the country is in disarray.

What can the Christian response be? I don’t think that as Christians we can wash our hands of all this, saying it’s not our fault?

This poses questions for me such as: Am I following Jesus with every fibre in my body? Am I in the centre of His will? In my complacency and indifference, have I somehow been complicit in allowing all this to happen? Have I been a witness to the hope that is within me in whatever way is right for me? Have I spoken up against injustice? Am I caught up with the materialism around me? What am I about? And what about prayer?

How do we pray? I’m not sure I can repent for someone else? In the New testament Jesus shows the way to an individual relationship with God; however the theme of corporate and communal responsibility runs all the way through the Bible. When something is wrong with one part of the body, the whole body is affected!

Some of us may be called to be intercessors, but all Christians are exhorted to pray - continually.


“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2Chronicles 7:14
Perhaps you would like to have a look at state of the nation ?



4 comments :

  1. Anonymous said...

    The state of the nation only reflects the state of the church.

    Until christians abandon their fixation with having their spiritual life governed by another believer, they will remain infantilised like the nation is.

    Whatever happened to "my sheep hear my voice".
    Apparently only Pastors can hear God, just like the Pope!

    We are all called to be functioning parts of the Body with Christ as our head, and there is no intermediate headship. If we cannot hear God ourselves then we need to take steps to learn.

    Going to bible college does not get anyone closer to God nor does it qualify them to rule over another's life. Such an idea of elevating anyone above another,is plain idolatry.

    Until the members of Body Of Christ grow up, and start listening to, and following their King, we cannot criticise the nation for following its king, into oblivion.

  2. wayfarerjon said...

    Amen to that!

  3. Anonymous said...

    It is not by mistake that Britain is facing much of what is facing us here in the USA. We are losing our freedoms today faster than we realize.

    We can't count on the church as much of the church is still tied up in religion created by man to control God.

    As God calls the members of His bride, we are all called into greater intimacy with Christ. In this intimacy, we find that we are much stronger as the Church,(aka; The Bride), than we are in the church.

    God is calling the next great transformation out of our young people. We are seeing that the truth transcends all boundaries and we don't need it to be mentioned in school.

    We truly can change the direction of our society. Just like Khrushchev recognized, in the early 60's, in the Communist effort to take over the free world. We change it one person at a time. The church never understood that evil also knows spiritual truths.

    The Holy Spirit recently revealed to me that the scripture you cited, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not a request, it is a command. Prayer takes many different purposes. In some cases it is to petition, but now the time to petition is passed. It is now time to be the warrior and command as we take back our world through spiritual warfare.

    Keep up the great work; you, my brother, and your nation are in my prayers.

    Dave http://dadtalk.wordpress.com

  4. wayfarerjon said...

    Well said and Amen again!