The Clarion Call- Wake Up!- TUESDAY
The Clarion Call
by
Rocky Fleming
Tuesday - Wake Up!
Yesterday I spoke of "getting our house in order." I believe everything I read about world and national events tells me that dynamic change as we have never faced before is about to happen, and is happening right now at an alarming pace. I believe God is telling His family to get ready for it. What do I mean by getting our house in order? The "house" I speak of is God's family ... the Church ... the followers of Christ in this Country and in other lands.
Now this part is very important to make note of: I believe God is telling every follower of Christ, you and me, no matter the race, the color of skin, the culture, the nationality, the denomination, or the differences that we all have, to get ourselves right with each other. We must understand that as God's family we have all been saved by His grace and the atonement of Christ, not as a result of our heritage, our culture, our privilege, or our personal goodness. We must remember that we all enter this relationship with Him in the same way. We should also remember that we all have been given a sacred responsibility, a stewardship entrustment from our King to live as Priests to this world. His priest has always represented a picture of Himself with being reconciled to Him, and through Him as His priests, we are to be reconciled with each other, before we can make a difference to the world. Jesus in fact is called our High Priest, for He reconciled sinners like you and me to God. God is now reminding us of this and is telling us that we must connect a very important dot that as His royal priesthood we cannot maintain the divisiveness with each other that He is seeing, and at the same time embrace our priestly duties before Him. Look what the Apostle Peter said about our practice as Christians:
"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2:1-3
It is clear to me that the clarion call that I hear from God tells me that the people in the Body of Christ (our Family) should no longer live with the adversarial relationships and spirit that we have toward each other. Look and listen to what we are seeing and hearing in the news and the conflicts that rage? It is one thing for this to go on in the world. This is expected, for they do not know Christ. But as God's family, we cannot join anything that stirs up strife and divisions and at the same time carry out our duties as theroyal priesthood of Christ. Can we hope to be an influence in this troubled world if we join with it in behaving the same way as people that do not know Christ? Can we hope to receive His blessings while at the same time shame His name that we carry? As God's royal family, we must listen only to Jesus and not be under the sway of any leadership that promotes division and adversity, and especially among our family in Christ. These divisive and angry messages go against everything taught by Christ and His disciples about relationships in the Body of Christ, and with the people outside the Body of Christ. We must leave this kind of behavior and leadership and embrace the God given privilege He has given us to influence our world with His love, and compassion. This compassion and influence begins with our love for each other. Look what Peter said about our motivation and reason for "putting away" those things of the past that divide Christians?
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9 ESV
So let's be clear. This exhortation by Peter was written to Christians who were multi-racial Jew and Gentile converts about their purpose. It was written to those particular people, for they were Christians who had forgotten who they were and Who they serve, and they needed a wake up call. They had the same spirit of strife and division knocking on their door then that we have knocking on our door today. This evil knock comes from Hell itself, and is given for one purpose. It is to divide and weaken. Their house was out of order and it needed to be put in order. If Peter was alive today, I think he would write the same message to the Church in this Country today, for we also need a wake up call. Like the challenges those people had at the time, we are seeing similar challenges in the Church today. There is major discord in this country that has been embraced within the Church that needs to be addressed. There are schisms. There are prideful exclusions of people because of color, or lack of it. There is a root of bitterness and unforgiveness that angry, manipulative leaders tap into. There is a work of the enemy of our soul who wants to create this divisiveness by giving us the angry voices of agitators who pick at our wounds, and try to drown out the voice of people who strive for harmony and healing. There is ignorance, which simply means to ignore. We can no longer ignore God's Clarion Call to us. We must seek reconciliation and reform with each other. But this change will not be addressed by political and social reform. Rather a reformation of our hearts is required to change things elsewhere. I believe when that is addressed, the social issues that have created wedges between people in our family and this nation will be removed and we can get down to some long needed healing. I am talking about the Church in this Country. But, I believe when the Church gets its house in order, we will see a nation that will be the recipient of the blessings that comes from it. So let's get our house in order, and in the process show what is missing to a world desperate for it.
This week I would like to propose several alternatives to the discouraging messages we are getting and to do something about taking some real action instead of hiding under our desk and hope that something bad will not happen. Folks, something bad is going to happen if we do not take corrective measures immediately. As God's Priests, we have an opportunity to bring hope to this world by creating harmony where it is needed the most, which is in God's family. Pray that we as His priests will embrace our sacred responsibility to influence this world toward Christ, which includes you and me, starting at home with each other.