The God They Never Knew

Proverbs tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish… " (Proverbs 29:18). The Hebrew word for perish in this scripture is para, which literally means "to cast off restraint." The picture this suggests is marvelous. Our vision consists of the revealed plan of God for our lives during any given period. God's plans are not, as some appear to think, coloring books in which He supplies a general outline and we fill in the detail according to our discretion. A God-given vision is pregnant with detail. The general outline is there, but He also supplies us with detailed instructions regarding the colors He wants.

I am frequently approached by confused believers beset with discouragement and frustration. I generally get around to asking, "Well, what is your vision?" More often than not there is no answer—and that is the answer—for where there is no vision the people perish (cast off restraint). Let me illustrate it this way: The will of God for our lives, the specific, tailored purpose for our lives, our vision, becomes as it were the walls of a conduit or pipe. As such, it performs a constraining and a restraining function. Characteristically it channels our life's energy and flow to a prescribed end, while at the same time prevents our thoughts and energies from dissipating arbitrarily and prematurely into useless stagnant puddles.

The frustrated Christians had become stagnant puddles. They weren't going anywhere. Because they had no vision they had cast off the restraining qualities of the will of God. Their life's energies were spewing out of gaping holes in the pipe. When God desires to accomplish some task through them and turns on the faucet, nothing happens—there is no longer any water pressure. Instead of allowing the will of God to channel their lives in an energetic, purposeful fashion, they have become shallow, stagnant pools of aimless inactivity.

I'll Keep God to Myself

It is impossible for men to 'settle' in the world completely without God. Although proud of its successes and attainments, the world sees, every day, more clearly the provisional and insufficient nature of its civilization. On the verge of having its foundations shaken to the core, it thirsts as never before for the true Light.

But the most surprising fact in modern spiritual life must be considered our indifference toward this thirst, our own too-easy consent to the division existing between the Church and the world. We refuse to recognize that this external division is supported not only by the 'willfulness of the world,' but also by our own stagnant Christianity… is it not we ourselves who have helped to reduce the meaning of the life of the Church to an 'intimate little corner' of piety locked away with seven locks from the life of the world?[2]

This is a picture of the ultra-sophisticated, twentieth-century shrine. It is Sunday—the feast day of the fellowship. All across the land we gather to spend our time and count our blessings. Huddled together in our insulated environments we take great care to avoid letting the heat out, or the cold in.

We only want warm bodies, it's much too difficult to warm a cold one. How vividly I recall an incident shared by Floyd McClung, so indicative of our demise. A pastor delivered the following account:

A couple days ago on my way to the Church I noticed a pathetic-looking young girl. She was standing forlornly in front of a halfway house which had evidently been closed. It was a bitterly cold day and she was shivering in her scanty clothes. Probably she wasn't much over 16 years old and yet, there she was cradling a dirty, little baby in her arms-obviously looking for help. My heart was touched as I drove by.

We simply don't want to bring a draft into our warm fellowships… but our hearts are touched.

We have gotten used to 'owning' our Christianity and keeping it to ourselves, to not sharing it, as if it were an accidental inheritance.[3]

Thus we have the Fraternal Christian Club, a place to be among one's own. Fellowship becomes the excuse we use to keep God to ourselves. The Bible tells us, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Romans 8:9). That spirit was 'to seek and to save that which was lost'. Where do we get the idea that we call close the sheepfold to all but the warm, attractive sheep? What was Jesus really saying to Peter (and to us) when He closed the book of John with the words "Feed my sheep"? (John 21:15-17). The popular interpretation is that Jesus' sheep represent only Christians. Perhaps we ought to look again.

"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." —Matthew 9:36

"The world might rather take offense at the Church for keeping the secret of salvation to itself and being unable or unwilling to speak about it in accessible language."[4] This possessive, self-indulgent mentality that so subtly, yet so powerfully grips the Church today, will one day be judged.

A Bride's Discretion

Overfed
and underbred
the Church has gone astray
a harlot's bed
the prophets said
would hasten her decay
what does she care
about an empty chair
at a wedding feast he's planned
values rotted
garments spotted
the bride has spoiled his day

She revels in her merrymaking
doesn't care his heart is breaking
won't someone speak to her?

She fraternized
rationalized
her children do the same
clutching lies
they roll their eyes
disdaining thought of blame
they spend their worth
in pursuit of mirth
mortgaging empty souls
all that's left
from Satan's theft
are orphans with their shame

Who would've dreamed she'd give him up
to taste the wine from Satan's cup
is there nothing we can do?

Destitute
the prostitute
has left her brood alone
her body's fruit
will follow suit
in bolting heaven's home
but she cannot conceal
what time will reveal
they're illegitimate posterity
in willing him part
they sealed their hearts
forgetting his home is a throne

Abdication
through resignation
morality has no creed
the congregation
of the nation
relinquishes her lead
a careless choice
to lose one's voice
while hell is growing bold
but all that mattered
drowned in chatter
as ecumenicals agreed

She revels in her merrymaking
doesn't Care his heart is breaking
won't someone speak to her?

Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. —Jeremiah 2:32-33

The Church is in her Babylonian captivity, and as Israel could not sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, so Christians in bondage have no authoritative message to declare. —A.W. Tozer