We can learn much from our past. When used rightly, it can either become the stepping stone to a bright and glorious future or an inescapable prison void of any windows and doors. When the history of a people is rehearsed, it is not a matter of stirring up old wounds, but if the wound has not completely healed, it may lead to an infection. Infections have the tendency of affecting other parts of the body rather than remaining confined to the area that once experienced pain. To remember the past is not to relive the trauma that our ancestors had to endure, but to revisit it with an eye on the divine providence of God while working to bring us to His expected end.
The infectious sin of discrimination has led to an out of control pursuit of rights that crosses ethical lines established by God. When humanity is not respected, disrespect erupts towards God through the guise of a vigilant but misinformed Church not knowing what or how to defend, protect, destroy or eliminate. The presentation of a schizophrenic God who defends a select group of people at the expense of others who are considered less than human feeds the backlash that eventually leads to the construct of another god to replace the confused and obsolete God of the Bible. God has not changed or lost His effectiveness; rather it is the responsibility of this our generation to set the record straight. We are the generation that must call every misinterpretation and misrepresentation what it is; a travesty of truth leading to a travesty of justice.
How can a minister be honest with himself and not address the most pertinent issues of our day? What good is preaching a salvation message unless the message leads the way into embracing the promised wholeness clearly addressed in the Holy Scriptures? As a minister, I am fed up with the psychobabble of so many who either raise the message beyond the reach of the common people or lower the message to mere entertainment. God is not a comedian, nor is He aloof of the circumstances that the world is facing today. We need prophets who have an understanding of the times and can speak in regards to the future leading the people in the direction of God’s intentions.
Anything short of this does a disservice to the cause regardless of whatever good intentions may be on the part of the herald from which the wrong message emanates. As Martin Luther once said,
“If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”
The prophets of old addressed the issues at hand. There as a direct correlation between the Word of God and the conditions of the people. It was not reduced to a mere rehashing of information to impress others or appease the conscience.
There is the need for authenticity today that will lift the hearts of people above the old time religion of passivity to a new expression of active love. Yet the new is not really new at all. It is really a return to the original plan and not setting our tents and establishing residence in a place that was not intended to be our destination. True freedom is found in the quality of love that established truth as its basis. The movements of the past were leading us somewhere. The Church has to become the demonstration of the Kingdom of God. We will only experience freedom when the hearts of the children are restored to the Father. Then the people are in the right position to hear what He has to say and interpret His message rightly. Remember from whence we came, but do not lose sight on where we ought to be going.
