I love this passage from Jeremiah 17:7-8 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit”. This is a tree that stands alone, but is dependent on the water to stay alive and bear fruit. It is not moved or swayed by its “aloneness” or when storms come its way. Its roots are firmly planted deep in the source of life.
This photo by my brother-in-law who is a nature photographer is not his prettiest of this fall’s tree pics, but to me, it best symbolizes the theme of this blog. We see here trees planted by the water. Some are green, some are fading away for the winter that is coming, and others are already dead. There is even barren land that once had beautiful trees on them but was cut down to provide for man’s pleasure (skiing in this case).
In these end times, we are experiencing more division and strife in our culture than ever before. The darkness of this world and the conclusion of its sinful nature have left many people wounded, separated from loved ones both physically and spiritually, and with a brooding sense of doom in this world. This should not surprise us if we are in touch with what the Bible predicted for the last days which seems to be upon us if you understand the parable of the “fig tree” (Matthew 24:33-35).
I have mostly enjoyed being back in faith and in a church for over a year after rejecting faith and any church for over three decades. Still, I have to admit some of it still feels “strange” to me. I have reacquainted myself with what the Bible says about the role of the church in this world and how the “Body of Christ” is supposed to function. Some of the reasons I rejected faith decades ago was my strong sense of hypocrisy and worldliness of the church at that time, falling far short of what I saw as the purpose and meaning of “church” in the Bible. Fortunately, it was pointed out to me in my struggle to return to the faith that to a degree all of us are “hypocrites” and controlled by carnality at times. “No one is righteous, no not one”. We are fortunate to be forgiven and loved through simple reliance on the shed blood of Christ on the cross so that God no longer sees or remembers our sins, but is committed to our sanctification until the final day when that trumpet will sound.
As part of my studies since returning to faith, I have once again been awestruck with contemporary heroes of our faith. I have re-read some writings of Deitrich Bonhoeffer who for the sake of truth and righteousness stood against the Nazi regime of his country and paid the ultimate price for it with his life just days before the end of World War 2. He was very critical of the contemporary church of that time who in many cases folded under the oppression of that regime and did not stand against it…even though the “real” church still stands.
This week I have read anew of Watchman Nee in China who was called of God as a young man and miraculously healed of extreme tuberculosis in the early-1900s. He was a prolific writer and gifted speaker…who ended up spending his last 20 years and died in a Chinese prison for disobeying that government and speaking up strongly for the Gospel of Christ.
While these men obviously had followers and friends in faith who prayed for and supported them, the paths they trod were very independent and different from a standard “ministry” or minister. While they experienced many miracles and leading from God that set them apart from traditional Christians, they strongly believed in the church while exposing its fallacies and weaknesses. I think these times are calling for similar spiritual leaders to do the same and more…or different.
The fundamental value I see in these contemporary spiritual leaders was their willingness to stand alone against evil and tyranny. Then there are the Biblical heroes of old like Stephen who was stoned to death in his early 30s for his teachings (Acts 7:54–8:1). Peter, Paul, and all Jesus’ disciples were isolated, tortured, and martyred for speaking the truth of the Gospel in building the early church. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who refused to bow down to the King of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar were rejoicing and singing praises to God as they were marched down and thrown into a fiery furnace and miraculously rescued by God (Daniel 3). It is hard to understand why a loving God would allow these things to happen to his people. Yet, Biblical history is ripe with stories of how God chooses INDIVIDUALS to step up, even in their imperfections, to lead people through certain moments in time or turn things in a different direction. Conformity or submission to this world’s ways does not accomplish this. We are never guaranteed that God’s way is easy or promises comfort in THIS life.
In comparison, most Christians of Western Civilization have it very easy. Yet, we still have martyrs most every day in this world who are dying for their faith in Jesus Christ. Christians in China, Afghanistan, and many places in Africa and the Middle East are being killed for not “blending in” with Islamic extremists or the totalitarian governments they have been placed in. We are now seeing the cultural civil wars in Canada and the USA where governing authorities and maybe a majority of the people see Biblical morality and the Gospel as foolishness. We all now see our freedoms to travel or associate freely limited by many of these governing authorities. Where does it stop?
God doesn’t call “nations” to repentance or faith. He calls individuals. Those individuals are usually squares that others want to fit in round holes. They are not part of the norm, and in almost all cases they end up living or dying in very solitary lives. The prophets of old were not usually popular, successful, beautiful people admired by the masses. In most cases, their messages from God were rejected. Many of them lived in the desert or somewhere away from other people. I think God called them there because it is hard to hear the voice of God in the clamor and din of the disobedient, decadent masses.
Many times the Bible has encouraged believers to set themselves apart from the world. Paul had it right in his letter to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:3-5 when he wrote “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.” I don’t know about you, but I see this everywhere today in Christian churches of all persuasions and on hundreds of Youtube videos expounding on different theologies of interpretations taken out of context or Christians attacking each other for “heresies” real or perceived…in front of the whole secular world of men. This is not Biblical or the spiritual way to handle differences within the Church.
It strongly appears to me that most Christians are spending way too much time looking and comparing themselves to each other than having their focus on Christ and His Holy Spirit, the founder and finisher of our faith. It seems a simple solution to keep our eyes and minds on Jesus and not concern ourselves with what “other people” are doing or not doing, but it obviously isn’t. God calls us individually to do HIS will for US. Hopefully, God leads us to a church or fellowship of believers who generally share the same vision and concerns in the world we live in, but we are only responsible for ourselves and our obedience to His call…not the judgment of others.
To this end, I encourage all my brothers and sisters in Christ to stand alone, in Christ alone. Yes, we are to minister to and encourage each other in the faith, but ultimately we each have the daily or minute-by-minute individual decisions to make in our lives to do what He calls us to do…or not.
So we… if we are to be spiritual people… must keep our roots deep in the Word of God, not the opinions or examples of other people. This is true leadership. We bear fruit not depending on other people or moving this way and that with the times. The Holy Spirit is that water that nourishes us, leads us, and comforts us when the storms come. Let us not be easily moved or discouraged by our circumstances. Instead, may we grow and prosper spiritually even in the midst of these times…standing alone on the Word of God and the ONE who it is all about.