Waiting on the World to Change

Good Morning everyone,

Sorry, but I didn’t find the time to write last week. I did post the sermon I spoke at the Fellowship of Mere Christianity last week on the blog page so if you’re interested you can check it out http://withgodonhisside.blogspot.com/

Since I got back home from Brownsville I have found myself getting better acquainted with the passage from John 2 which says: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

I have to remind myself not to get overly optimistic at the things I think I see in the midst of ministry. I mean if Jesus didn’t trust everyone who made a profession of faith because of his own ministry why are we so quick to jump on the bandwagon?

Perhaps on my part it is desperation. I want to see God work in lives, to change lives so badly that when I see any sign of potential activity of the Spirit of God I get all excited. But I’m finding that in most people’s lives it’s more like one step forward one hundred steps backwards.
I’m too quick to forget what is in man. For that matter what is in me. I’m still watching sludge being removed from my own heart at the age of 50, ok 49 and 11\12’s; why should I expect people who seem to be in the labor pains of being born again to be any different? I find myself wanting to fall back into the easy believism of my younger days and just get people to say the words and get dunked and then never have to worry about their salvation again but the longer I struggle with the depth of sin and the depth of salvation in my own life the more I am confident that salvation is anything but easy, any thing but quick.

We had our quarterly Circus night at church last night. That happens when our in house wiccan wanna be and his sister show up for our Sunday night bible study. Not too long ago I told you all that Mr. Wick was baptized at a church not too far down the road from us. Last time they were at our bible study I had prayed for him and asked God to send the Spirit to minister. This week, however, he was back to his old belligerent self. I heard him quip to my wife that his baptism didn’t take. He was back to spouting his doubts and almost at the point of railing against the gospel.

His rather tender hearted sister was asking questions about who was going to hell, was there really a hell, did you really have to believe in Jesus to get saved or could you just believe in god. I have no reason to doubt that she is sincere. But I will hedge my bets nonetheless. I answered her questions with scripture and the ladies would answer the same questions with love and compassion. Not that I wasn’t being loving and compassionate but the scriptures do have a rather sharp edge to them and the ladies wanted to make sure the goodness of God was doing the drawing.

I don’t mind it when the circus comes to our church, it can be very refreshing but I’m learning not to trust the words I hear when it comes to people changing. I am learning to start dragging my feet a bit and wait for God to do what God is going to do, to the fullest. More often than not what I am prone to do is interrupt His surgery in the middle and say ‘well I'm glad that's done, let’s get moving’.

The last thing Sister said to me last night was I'd like to get Baptized in this church’. The cynical, hardhearted, Christ like man that I am becoming said something like ‘that could happen’ without making any promises or jumping to any conclusions. I’m learning to wait on the Lord, even though it drives me crazy.

The radio stations were so pitiful in Brownsville that I bought a John Mayer Cd – continuum. It’s old but it was on sale and I’m cheap. The first song hit me and it seems to fit. The lyrics to the last verse and chorus go like this:

Now if we had the power To bring our neighbors home from war They would have never missed a Christmas No more ribbons on their door And when you trust your television What you get is what you got Cause when they own the information, oh They can bend it all they want That's why we're waiting, Waiting, on the world to change We keep on waiting, Waiting, on the world to change. It's not that we don't care, We just know that the fight ain't fair So we keep on waiting, Waiting, on the world to change. One day our generation is gonna rule the population. So we keep on waiting, Waiting, on the world to change.

If I could keep that in my head I would have a lot less anxiety in my life. I must remember that I can’t save anybody. I can’t bring anybody home from their war against God. I do not have the power. I have to wait for the world in them to surrender to the call. I have to wait for them to switch sides. Only God can bring that change. The fight isn’t fair, it isn’t easy but I know in my heart that one day a generation of the kingdom of God is going to rule the population and what I must do is keep on waiting, waiting for the world to change.

For too long I have believed that the wicked were too powerful for God to do anything about. God was too small to save the world so he was just going to destroy it. I have had to repent of believing that lie repeatedly. The one true, triune God of Scripture is in the process of changing the world one person at a time, in his own, very slow, time frame. Over and over again the scriptures call us to Wait on the Lord.

I don’t like it, but as I see glimpses of the depth of rebellion in people’s lives I find myself resigned to simply wait on God while I press on to the higher calling of my Lord.

Grace and Peace,
Brad