A Bleeding Faith

One of the challenges each generation of the Church will encounter is the introduction of social grit into their expression of faith. Social grit is made up of the different perspectives offered by other people that affords us an opportunity to see the same issues of life and culture but from a different perspective.

 

Social grit is at first, abrasive and not welcomed. It feels rough as it grinds off the Hallmark card-like glossy exterior of our faith and makes it bleed. A bleeding faith is able to express its humanity in a raw and meaningful way. It also helps us recognize those who have suffered and bled in the times when our belief system failed to recognize their pain and sorrow. That revelation is the starting point of real change.

Opinions That Divide

Opinions have been shared that have tested the integrity of longtime relationships, so much that a distance now exists between friends. It would be a sad thing, if, in this season of social intensity, a differing opinion would be given permission to create division, resulting in separation, and eventual isolation. In the end, this division will have a more detrimental effect on the mission of the Church than the social disorder we see playing out on the stage of our culture. Our oneness as believers is not found in our politics or sociology, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

Surprises are Coming

Surprises are coming. When they arrive, they will adjust our interpretation of reality and bring correction to our misunderstanding of God's heart and His Kingdom. These surprises will be sourced from God’s throne, not from earthly logic, human reasoning, or our preferred religious history. 

Even the most brilliant thinkers and insightful prophetic voices will bow under the influence of this revelation. The surprises will come as an invasion of love - revelations of God’s heart and His merciful intent for humanity. 

We will all stand corrected under the waterfall of this revelation. As God’s revealed truth flows over our tired and defensive souls, a refreshment will come washing from our eyes the accumulated debris of frustration and angst that has blinded our eyes from seeing the intent and purposes of God.

Making a Righteous Sound

Speaking the truth in love requires sound. A silent church that hopes to get back to “normal” without addressing the elephants in the room will have missed an opportunity to express the sound of truth in this time of growing anarchy and censorship. Yes, we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but we are also to be His voice. An honorable protest is part of our rich cultural history. Violent riots are the work of a spirit of anarchy and never lead to righteous outcomes. Civic leaders who have abdicated their assignment to protect a community will have to answer to a higher authority for their compromise and complicity. Evil taking place even within the smallest part of a city is like leaven. A tiny bit of leaven left unchallenged will eventually corrupt the larger host. We need to find our voice as believers, or someday our descendants will ask why we were silent. The fear of man will not be an excuse that will stand the test of integrity.

Polls, Opinion and the Word of the Lord

Polls and opinions do not reliably reveal the future. It is a prophetic voice, empowered and informed by the Spirit that brings the most trusted revelation of what is to come. Resist the urge to follow polls and opinions. The unreliability of those sources has been proven time and time again that it is God, not our ability to evaluate the future, who will have the last word.

Your Future Faith-Self

In the Spirit, you have already made it through this difficult time, even though many challenges still surround your life. You cannot see or feel that completed transition yet, but your future faith-self has already made it through in the realm of the Spirit. 

All of the difficulty you face has been overcome by Jesus. Scripture tells us we are currently seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father. That is both a future and a present reality. Your assignment now to live out the implications of that victory in faith. The Lord is inviting you to move forward by exercising your faith when you encounter a lie that tells you, giving up is your best option. 

By faith, we can join ourselves to a future that seems beyond our ability to imagine and bring the vision of that future back into the moment we are currently living. That single decision has the potential to change the trajectory of our lives. Faith births hope and hope gives us the spiritual and emotional strength needed to keep moving forward and not give up. With God, all things are possible if faith is present.  

The Global City Gate

I shared the following paragraph with someone who is substantially gifted in the technology surrounding the use of the Internet, website design, and social media applications.

I wrote, “The city gate is where the business of a community took place in ancient times. The city gate of our time is the Internet and its various applications such as websites, apps, and in some cases, social media. People are no longer limited to a geographic location to conduct business. Our city gates are mobile and widespread. Look at the transition from Blockbuster to Netflix. Even now, new “city gates” are emerging and challenging Netflix.”

The world we live in, whether it be a small village in the heart of Africa or a metropolitan setting in Europe, is immediate, rapid, and connected. Because we all conduct business at a global gate, no longer limited by access to a local and culturally isolated city gate, what we share, read, or transmit is read immediately on a global scale. 

It is wise and compassionate to make sure we are vetting our sources and the condition of our hearts before we transmit information that supports our passionate position on a particular subject. Even the information we transmit in the confidence of its accuracy is not always a full picture of reality. The opinions of other people will help us develop a fuller and more accurate perspective than the perspective we initially brought to the city gate to sell. 

When the cultural pendulum is swinging in such wide arcs as it is doing at this moment, we need to give each other an extra measure of grace as we freely share our opinions. I have friends who hold perspectives that differ from mine, but they handle our differing points of view with honor and decency. We share a mutual respect for each other in our diversity of opinion. Those are the kind of people I enjoy doing business with at the global city gate.