My previous blog pointed out the need to address a bigger crisis
than Covid-19. Follow the link HERE in case you missed the blog. Death
is inevitable. The Bible says on Hebrew 9:27, “And as it is appointed
for men to die once...”. We don’t have control over the time of our
death. We may assume that our lives are extended because of our good health
practices, good diet and so on. But we are inevitably closer to our expiry
date. It can be Covid today or something else tomorrow as the reason for our
death. As much as each day new lives are born, there are equally a large number
of people who die every 24 hours. The big question remains, how are we going to
ensure that the people we influence find Christ in their lives before they die?
Psalmist writes in 19:1-2, “the heavens declare the glory of
God. and the expanse proclaims the work of the hands. Day after day they pour
out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.”. When
creation is explicit about the existence God and His sovereignty, aren't
catastrophes, raging pandemics, disasters causing turbulence in the universe
screaming something very important to the entire human race and most
importantly to the so-called Christians? The plan of redemption for the entire
human race was accomplished by Christ our Savior and then before His ascension
He entrusted His mandate to all of us. But are we still effective carriers of
the Gospel as Christ is expecting or are we just the recipients of the Gospel
satisfied and settled in our spirituality, confined to the four walls of the
Church? Many Christians are like Israel stated in Hosea 10:1 “Israel is
a lush vine; it yields fruit for itself...”. Pandemic can become just
another excuse to dismiss the importance of sharing the Gospel.
If we observe carefully, Christendom to a larger extent is
complacent within the four walls of the Church and never feels the need to go
out of their spiritual comfort zone and share Gospel in their sphere of
influence. By and large Christians are not sensitized on the urgency of the
Great Commission, which is the mandate of Christ. How is that Christ's
mandate has become dangerously irrelevant? Who is to be blamed? Is it the
Pastor or Church leadership or the congregation’s psychic ability to comprehend
Christ Mandate? Sadly, Churches have imprisoned their congregations for years
by keeping them satisfied with Church activities and confining to Sunday
service, stunting them to remain a student and never graduate at all. In
another scenario, congregation members have imprisoned themselves to the four
walls of the Church for too long. It is astonishing to note that majority of
Church members have not led even one person to Christ in their long years of
being a Christian. A disciple making church does not just exist without doing
any good for the community. The Church just can’t keep saying ‘Church is the
hope of the dying world’ and do nothing about it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put’s
it beautifully, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without
requiring repentance, baptism without Church confession, absolution without
personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without
the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”.
Today, we have come to a point where meeting in Church buildings
itself has become a threat. Churches are not what happens online for our
satisfaction. If Christians are not restless about sharing the claims of Christ
to Non-Christians, then we need to seriously examine ourselves. Every
individual is a Church, which means there is a space in every Christian where
he/she can present gospel and include people in his/her space. If the Bible
does not urge one to share Gospel, then probably, he/she is not attentive to
what it says. Dave Harvey remarks, "Everything in scripture is
either preparation for the Gospel, presentation of the Gospel or participation
of the Gospel.".
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