No Time for Business as Usual

 

This week, Michael writes that in the midst of a crisis, we respond as we have been trained. These are the days that try a person’s hearts. Crisis situations are characterized by an attack causing acute pain in the midst of an emotionally significant event or life changing situation. In a crisis situation there is a distinct possibility of an undesirable outcome. A crisis is a situation that has reached critical mass. Today, there is a crisis in our culture where the “politically correct” call evil good and good evil. When the crisis comes, God expects his men and women to respond as they have been trained as disciples of Christ. Satan, the Adversary, has a goal is take the culture captive and hold it against its will. 

 

“Business as usual” is to carry out normal activities as if there is no crisis. However, a crisis requires immediate corrective action. William Bennet writes that people in our culture have been marginalized and relegated to a position of dishonor and insignificance in our politically correct culture. The danger is that men and women aspire to succeed in things that do not matter in the light of eternity. According to George Gallop in “The Search for Faith in America,” never before has the Gospel of Christ made such inroads, yet at the same time making so little affect in the lives of men, women and children with no requirement that people repent, turn around, and turn from their wicked ways. A time when people think they are in the light of righteousness before God, yet living in the dark. This was the same situation in Leviticus chapter 33. The people came before God and listened to the Word of God and the songs of praise and worship, but did not put them into practice.

 

Jesus, during an urgent time in Matthew 26, just before His crucifixion, asked his disciples to watch while He prayed. Jesus prayed, “If it be possible, allow this cup to be passed from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Though He had asked His disciples three times to watch and pray, He found them sleeping in the crisis of the spiritual battle.

 

The story of Noah is the warning about the flood of God’s judgement. The Ark was a symbol of God’s way of deliverance. However, the people disregarded God’s way of salvation and perished in the face of the flood of the judgement of God. They performed their business as usual and did not understand the urgency of the crisis situation. The times are similar today. The warning signs are all around us as the culture is imploding into the darkness of sinful pagan political correctness. Jesus himself cried over Jerusalem … he lamented that only if Jerusalem had known the things that God had meant for peace. He came to minister unto His own … the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus had said, my peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.

 

A disciplined soldier performs as he or she has been trained in the crisis of the battle. The freedom and the joy in the midst of the crisis is to turn your eyes upon Jesus and not on the things of the God-rejecting world. The training of a Christian disciple is to walk in fellowship with Christ. A disciple is a disciplined follower, walking in his master’s footsteps. The disciple’s heart’s desire is to walk in the dust of the Rabi. Casual Christians are casualties of war in the crisis of the spiritual battle. A disciple is disciplined to follow his Commander in Chief intentionally, deliberately, purposefully and whole heartedly. Therefore, set your affections on things above, not on the things of the world. Our battle cry is David’s battle cry when he confronted Goliath: “Who are you to defy the armies of the Living God.” 

 

We have not been called to “business as usual.” Jesus has called us to watch and pray. Though Peter, James, and John fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. The spirit is the power of God in manifestation. We have this same power as men and women of God. Therefore, be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. When we live in the light as he is in the light, we shall have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. 

 

This is no time for business as usual. God has called us to be His photomultipliers (metaphoric instruments used to detect and amplify the light from very faint sources) : Therefore, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. In the midst of the crisis of the spiritual battle, God has called His people for such a time as this.

 

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ, Michael