TRUTH MATTERS
CENTURY OF GENOCIDE 1850-2000 AD
In my almost sixty years of being involved in the Lord’s work in 100 different countries of the world (and some of these countries have been some of the most difficult) the Lord has shown me several things.
First, there is a need for us to always be on the offensive. I think of the words of Alfred the Great: “Give me men that can build, men that can pray and men that can fight and I will go out and build Western civilization.”
We read in Matthew 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”
The forceful men/women that Alfred The Great said that he needed are men who can build, pray and fight for what’s right. However, we need to keep in mind that we are not fighting flesh and blood, but principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places, etc. We also need to understand that our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual: prayer, the Word of God, using our faith like a shield against the devil’s arrows; all activated by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
God is calling us to shake the world system. How do we go about doing this? We must start with the truth. It was truth that launched American anti-slavery. The truth was simple: slavery is sin. Truth matters. Truth has the power to change people. When truth is recognized – the terms of debate change completely. We need to be able to powerfully and convincingly articulate the truth. Where we often fail is the inability to articulate the truth powerfully and convincingly.
Truth will lead to conflict and conflict will sort out our friends as well as enemies. The truth has enemies. Starting with the truth and speaking the truth is crucial. We must understand that we speak the truth in love. These two go together just like a hand and glove.
Have you ever noticed that here in the Western world you can talk about “God,” but as soon as you mention “Jesus Christ” (other than in a flippant or blaspheming way) people get so irritated? Why? Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6) No one comes to the Father except through Him.
“The truth,” Jesus said, “will set you free.” When a society is deeply enslaved to sin it will take the crucible of suffering to set it free. Freedom may come, but not without the cross of suffering for it.
In every society we have what is known as a “structure of sin.” Some would refer to it as “institutional sin” and often that can be confusing because people, not institutions are the sinners. However, we see that institutions play a large part in shaping the way we think which keeps us from breaking free. The institutions consist of laws, habits, customs, etc. that keep a society in the “structure of sin” that has been established. This is also one of the reasons why we are told to ‘occupy’ by bringing ‘the truth’ into these different institutions.
We are faced with seven global challenges: The sad state of children in many parts of the world, women who are abused and taken advantage of, poverty and the system that keeps them in this state, HIV/Aids (killer diseases) that has decimated whole populations in some countries in Africa, protecting the unborn, the need for clean water and our environment.
I come back to the statement that Alfred the Great made that he wanted men who could pray, build and fight. I would also like to add one more thing to this list and that is men/women who have ‘staying power.’ We need people who are in it for the long haul. We need to see that we are not in a 100 yard or 100 meter dash, but in a marathon with a finish line. If we are going to be successful in meeting the seven global challenges listed above then we are going to need people with staying power.
Discouragement and burnout are real factors in anything that we do in seeking to make a difference in this world and see the Kingdom of God advancing. This is why staying power is so important. Staying power is not passive or fatalistic, but rather hopeful and energetic.
Other than learning to pace ourselves we also need several other things. We need to learn to live a day at a time. And we need a supportive community. It takes time and effort to build good relationships, but they are a must if we want to be ‘shakers for God.’
Another important ingredient is ‘sustaining faith.’ In all that we do we need to cultivate prayer, worship, study the Word of God and learn to celebrate. Faith brings staying power.
God is constantly working in us to bring about a sustaining faith. In 1 Peter 1:6-8 Peter said, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” We need to be running the race until we hear the final gong.