The days of easy and popular Christianity have passed us. Not that they have ever really existed for some throughout the world. This is definitely not the case; persecution and tribulation for saints throughout the world is a very real and very weighty thing that must be considered on the front side of their coming to Christ. This is more of a statement that is directed at believers in the United States of America. Believers in America have not really known intense persecution for their faith. We haven’t been really familiar with the extreme “cost” that is to be counted with totally forsaking the love of ourselves and the dream for our own lives and pledging our wholehearted devotion to Jesus as King. This concept is something that has been intact theologically and conversationally for congregants as they have gathered in churches of all sizes. But practically this is something that creates a crossroad where the message of the Gospel and the allegiance that it demands to Jesus as King becomes very problematic to our American culture and its desires.
What we are seeing in this moment in history, again, for us as Americans, is that the rubber is hitting the road. The cards are being called. The chips that so easily get settled on our end of the table and leveraged towards all of our American-Dream ambitions and self-centered desires are being pressured to either get pushed all into the center of the table as the anti is being raised to finally normalize our lives, according to the scriptures and not just our American Christian Culture or hold them back and realize that we might not have ever truly entered the game at all.
Being a believer in this moment in history is not a simple gesture that because of our well-lived lives Christianity is just the best option on the list of all the religious expressions. Christianity is not because I don’t want to identify as an atheist. Christianity isn’t because I align with a certain political parties’ ideology or affiliation. Christianity is none of these things. Neither is Christianity found in the simple attendance of a church on a regular basis. Not one of these things is what makes you a Christian, a believer. You are a Christian because you have come to Christ. Jesus as King has been made real in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit and you have been brought to the place where you have subjected your life to that beautiful and powerful revelation. And from there, the rest of life flows. Everything else about you finds its placement and purpose out of the “main thing.” Or at least this is the way that it is supposed to be.
We are seeing the wrestling in the Church in our nation to rediscover its power source. David wrote, “I lift my eyes towards the hills, from where my help comes from. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2) David understood where real help comes from. David was intimately familiar with the power source, and the source of all things for that matter. But are we?
For far too long the Church in America has enjoyed the American Dream. Power. Fame. Influence. Luxury. Prosperity. Entitlement. And as if these things weren’t enough, you can add to the mix a Political persuasion, a hope in military might, and more. The tension of being in the midst of these things and not actually over time becoming these things is great. The challenge for some has been a test that has proven to be insurmountable.
The Church’s help is not politics. The Church’s help is not the military. The Church’s help has never been founded on its superstar pastors or iconic traveling influential ministers. Jesus as King is where the hope and power of the Church is found. David knew where to place his eyes, but, again, do we? Or are we having difficulty seeing the Lord in these days because we are primarily trying to see Him through the lens of what we are fighting to protect and preserve?
These things are not wrong in and of themselves. But they are definitely wrong when they substitute our allegiance to Jesus. They are wrong when we are constantly fixing our eyes on them in order to find our help. They are wrong when they have eclipsed the foundational gaze of looking to Jesus and then seeing all of these other things correctly through Him. We start with Him. We see everything else through Him. We don’t start with what we want most and then try to fit Him into our category or conversation. This proves to be futile over time. Or worse, we succeed in our attempt and it becomes a distortion of who Jesus really is. The latter has far weightier consequences. We are dealing with some of those at this time—the unraveling of our Americanized version of Jesus and the unveiling of Jesus as He actually is. May our hearts find grace by God’s Spirit in order to bear this process.
We are in the birthing moments of a cost associated with following Jesus in America. I am not just talking about people feeling offended because you invited someone to church and they said no. No, no, not at all. I mean the beginning days of there being a very real cost associated with pledging your allegiance to Jesus and living in light of the reality that He is King here and now. A price where Christianity will not be the popular or the cool religious conservative choice. A cost that will potentially have to bear dire consequences of our freedoms, finances, and more. The question of the day is not will these things actually happen or fall upon us as believers living in this nation, but rather do you know Him well enough for yourself in order to honor Him in these days when they come?
I am not at all hoping for these things, not whatsoever. And I am not finding some weird joy in attempting to be a doomsday poet. Nope, not that either. But if you are discerning then you realize the severity of the things that I am writing, and you also sense the reality of the things that are being communicated.
Jesus is worthy of a people that bear His image. He is worthy of a people that will love Him, for Him, and will love Him well. Jesus is worthy of a people that have found the pearl of great price and are willing to abandon all of the lesser lovers of this world.
May we be this people. May the Lord give us abundant grace to be faithful to Him in the days ahead. May we, as a people, find our greatest joy in knowing Him and loving Him with the excellent yes that He asks for from each of us.
He is worthy of the yes that He asks for…
