the Lord. We are afraid to stand up in our churches and confront a pastor about something because we don't want to be ostracized by our peers. I am thankful that the disciples did not cower to this fear or we would not even have a church today. The reason we do have a church today is that all through the ages there have been men like the disciples, Paul, Martin Luther, Tyndale, Wesley, and many others that would not back down from their convictions. Today there are few that have convictions strong enough to stand against opposition for them.
Men were burned at the stake for not compromising the truth of God's word yet today we have replaced that truth with entertainment and emotionalism and are too cowardly to speak out against anything. We fear speaking against the pastor because after all he is the "man of God" and his knowledge is much vaster than mine is. We are given instructions on the Biblical way to take our differences up with leadership. We are told to go to them first, then take a witness if they refuse to listen, then we are told to take it in front of the church. I would never advocate bypassing these steps and making a scene in the church service. There are few that have the knowledge or courage to talk to a pastor in private or with a witness. I believe that this is drastically needed in today’s churches.
In today's church you must have a doctor's degree or some official title to be heard by anyone or held in a place of knowledge. Today there is a surge to have all the official titles that will bring prestige and boost book sales. The so-called "Christian Psychologists" have made their mark in Christianity also. In the church world today the messages by such men are generally accepted with little or no opposition or even questioning. People just assume that they must know what they are talking about after all look at the titles they bear and all the accomplishments they boast about. I am glad that the same standard was not applied to those that listened to the message of the unlearned fishermen that turned the world upside down. I am glad that there was a group called Bereans that would not accept all messages without first comparing them with the scriptures. I am glad that John the Baptist was not a seminary professor. I am glad that we had men that took their learning directly from the Holy Spirit instead of "man." The Holy Spirit is the teacher that surpasses all conventional wisdom of man. However in the church world it is still more acceptable to listen to someone that has some type of title attached to their name regardless what the message is.
We do not heed the scripture above, and cower in the face of opposition and the fear of what people might think about us. I am sure that Ananias and Sapphira would take a different approach if given the chance. The fear that the people experienced in that day was one of true sincerity for the unadulterated presence of God. They were not interested in any gimmicks or quick paths to get God's blessings. They were perfectly content with "waiting" on the Lord and spending time in sincere honest prayer. Today we have microwave prayers and all kinds of methods and gimmick approaches that will take you half the time and give you bigger blessings. When will people look in the Word and see that this is all superficial and will not fill that void that still exists? Unfortunately that void will always exist until the church wakes up and realizes that it is caused by a desire that God has placed in us as Christians.
Continued to Page 4
Back to INDEX
