Hello Friends
Recently a
friend from the majority world asked me for help to make a trip to
Israel. He had sold his motor cycle and pawned his wife's wedding ring
but was still $1700 short of the $3,000 he needed for the trip. He was
going with a group that assured him that "walking where Jesus walked"
was an experience that would change his life forever. Really? My
response to his request was four fold:
Number
one, I will not help you or anyone else go to Israel for a "holy land
tour" since there is no holy land. The whole earth is the Lords by
right of creation and right of redemption.
Secondly,
much of the Western Church is based in a consumer mentality with its
leadership seeking to provide its members with "good experiences" for
them to consume. They package those experiences in spiritual terms
but the context is not the Kingdom of God. The context is the
consumer society which functions to provide pleasurable, entertaining
programs and events that consumers will pay to experience. Those events
may be "worship" in a contemporary style with advanced sound systems,
expert musicians and motivational speaking, "holy land" trips and even,
(might I say?), short term mission adventure tours.
Thirdly,
we are not Moslems with their Mecca, Catholics with St. Peters in Rome,
Mormons with their temple in Utah, Hindus with the Ganges River or Jews
with their wailing wall. We are followers of Jesus who celebrate that
the Triune God by the Holy Spirit indwells each one of us and makes us
His temple. It is a characteristic of all religions that the presence
of god is associated with a place where access to the presence can be
controlled for money by a professional priesthood. The first martyr of
the Kingdom of God was killed for declaring that "God no longer dwells
in temples made with hands|". With that declaration the temple priests
saw their positions of power and privilege made redundant and reacted
murderously. We do not go to any physical place to find God but declare
that He reveals Himself to all men by the Holy Spirit and thus access
to His presence cannot be purchased or controlled.
And
finally, if you wish to walk where Jesus walked, simply continue what
you are doing in serving the least and the last. Jesus walked among
the broken, the outcasts, the prostitutes and lepers. We serve this
same Jesus, who declared that whatever we have done unto the least, we
have done unto Him. This is not about you going to Israel and having a
life changing experience. Your life has already changed in the only
way that really matters- you have been taken from the Kingdom of
darkness to the Kingdom of His love. This is about you changing the
lives of the people around you. You are doing that. Keep walking with
Jesus where you are. The Kingdom context is simple and often costly
obedience for the benefit of others.
This
friend agreed with my counsel, bought back his motorcycle, redeemed his
wife's wedding band and continues to walk where Jesus walked.
It is a privilege to walk with such a brother.
Your friends
Steve & Marilyn
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