God On Demand
- 06.09.09
- Christian Cheese, Church, Stupid Church Signs, Impartation
- 8 Comments
We Christians can really be goofy sometimes. Take this local church for example. My church is near this one, but for some reason, the Lord never told me that He was going to show up in the neighborhood to heal people and perform miracles between June 11 and June 14.
I really wish He would have told me because I could have planned for our own healing and miracles service on Sunday, June 21. He could have stayed at my house in the spare bedroom, and we could have hung out together. Instead, we’re just going to have a regular old worship service where I’ll be limited to just talking about Him rather than having Him show up in person.
I guess I just wasn’t aware that I can have God show up and do supernatural things on demand. I didn’t know that He was just one click away, much like my Movies on Demand feature on my TV. I suppose I should have realized this earlier, because I’ve known churches to be rather demanding of God all my life.
When I was a kid, my church scheduled God to show up and bring a revival to our town. We advertised it in the newspaper, made a huge banner and hung it outside the church, and even made bumper stickers for all the members to stick on the backs of their cars. We then brought in an evangelist who evidently has a direct line to God. I’m pretty sure we paid this guy fairly well to bring the entire town to its knees. He preached long sermons each night at the church, told stories I know were mostly lies, and then made us sing all 29 stanzas of Just As I Am because evidently there was someone who needed to come to the altar who was refusing.
I’m pretty sure revival didn’t come to my hometown that week, but the hype was good for my church. Offerings went up, and through the bumper sticker ministry, more people than ever became familiar with the name of the church. However, no one said anything after the fact about how there wasn’t a revival during our revival.
I suppose the same will be true of the church in my neighborhood. There will be a lot of hype among spiritually gullible people but no true healings and miracles will happen inside the walls of that church between June 11-14. God will not allow Himself to be “on demand” by His people.
Some reading this will call me a man of little faith and question whether I should even be a pastor, but I imagine that most will chuckle with me and feel a bit embarrassed for this poor church.
Hi my name is Chad Cline and I am the prayer and evangelism Patsor at Grove City Nazarene and a close friend of Terry Habbeger who is a copastor here on staff. he is actually the one that told me about this blog and I felt a strong need to respond to some insights I find either to be in absolute ignorance or maybe even blind anger but either way they are erronous.
It is not my style nor my desire to ever look at another brother in Christ or part of the body of Christ and make them the point of my jokes or try and undermine their credibility but in this one I believe you have crossed some boundaries in pure ignorance. I say this simply because the statements you make about this church down the street and your church growing up are at very least insulting and at most blasphemous. I think to choose an enemy that is a brother in Christ is to shout from the mountains that we know nothing of God at all since the world is to know us by the love we have for one another and not the criticism.
The only way you can accurately say that revival never came to your town is to individually interview every man woman and child that was there and see if any of their lives were dramatically impacted by Jesus that week. If ONE person was changed then revival came. Maybe it never came to you but that is not to say that it did not come. It is very simple to stand back and criticize our brothers but the truthis that at least they are trying to reach people and God.
Secondly, to hear the the tone of your blog implies that you must not believe that miracles are still happening today and that Jesus is not showing up at your church on Sunday. MAybe He is not showing up at your church but if He did there would be revival. I would be long gone from a church in which Christ was not at each and every Sunday. In fact, I am not sure if you are aware of this but we are given the assignment of raising the dead, heal the sick, cleanse lepers, and casting out demons. Jesus told the disciples to do that in Mattew 10:7-8 and then told the in Matthew 28 to go and teach the world to do EVERYTHING He taught them to do. Jesus did not tell the disciples to pray for the sick He told them to HEAL the sick. Big difference. In John 14:12 Jesus says that those who believe should do the things that Jesus did and greater things! What did Jesus do? Preached the gospel, opened bling eyes, deaf ears, raised the dead and healed the lame. Oh and do not let me forget that part of Matthew 10:8 is as freely as it was given to you give it away. Impartation. It sounds to me that tis church you are criticizeing is simply trying to be obedient to the scriptures. I would suggest in the future before trying so hard to discredit others that you look into the motivation of their heart instead of the assumption of your flesh. Please recognize their desire to see His Kingdom come on Earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. Gues what, their are no blind eyes in heaven, no deaf ears, no depression, no lame… you get my point. That is our assignment by Christ Himself. Please be more considerate of those who are your brothers in Christ and look and the intent instead of the letter of their words. Your brother in Christ, Chad Cline ccline@gccn.org
Hi Chad. Thanks for your spirited response. First off, I DO believe that miracles are still happening today and that Jesus IS showing up at my church on Sundays. Every Sunday, the Word of God is faithfully preached at my church, and His Spirit moves in the hearts of those in attendance. As a matter of fact, I believe that the Lord is at work in the hearts and minds of His people every minute of every day.
My point with the blog is that we – His people – can not say when the Lord is going to move in “revival” proportions. A true revival is a time of mass spiritual awakening when the Spirit of the Lord moves in mighty power among His people. This is rare and is not something that we – God’s people – can manufacture (i.e. June 11-14). This is what many churches today are promoting, and this is what I am blogging about.
For far too long, many Christians and churches have made assumptions on what God will do and when He will do it. This is unbelievably damaging. Christians who place unfounded expectations on God are let down while non-Christians look on at our foolish behavior with disgust and cynicism.
My words were not written in “absolute ignorance” nor were they written in “blind anger.” They were written in order to identify (with some humor thrown in) some of the damaging and ignorant actions taken by my brothers and sisters in Christ. This does not mean that I do not love them, but I am very hesitant to sit back and be identified with everything a brother or sister does or declares in the name of Christ.
I am not declaring that these brothers and sisters are my enemies, nor am I being blasphemous. But, declaring that we can predict or demand a revival from the Lord or have the power to “impart” the Lord’s blessings from our soul to another man’s soul…now that IS blasphemous. Too many naive Christians buy this junk hook-line and sinker, and I – for one – am saddened and frustrated by this, and this is why I blog about it. As Christians, sometimes we need to call a spade a spade…even when that spade is one of our own.
There are many time that we try to cover our sin with words like, “would you pray for this person” or “I am only trying to keep our faith pure” but the truth is that we have motives that are not actually founded in the love of Christ or the reconciliation of the individual we are speaking of. I do not see in scripture that we are called to be the police of Christianity to declare what is God and what is not. Why do we not have the right to declare that God is coming? I truly believe that we do have that right. Not only do we have the right but our rights go far beyond that. Jesus said to His disciples in John 15 that I no longer call you servants but friends. In that promotion do you think that Jesus will share His heart with His friends? Do you think that maybe He has some friends in that church?Please understand that I am not trying to be critical or in any way but it disturbs me to see so many shot at by friendly fire and the only way you can truly know the intent of the persons heart is to ask and go to them privately instead of somehow making it a public mockery. Thats all!
To Chad (and those listening in),
When we become a friend, a true friend, that is to say, when we receive from another the privileged public declaration of “coveted friend,” we have NOT received the right to manipulate that friendship. Rather we now have entered a deeper and more complex relationship of brotherly love marked by the characteristics of responsibility, privilege, submission and accountability.
When Jesus our Lord and Savior made that declaration for His disciples, Jesus still remained Lord and Savior. Our intimacy with Him deepens, not by our choice but by His. We did not gain rights we gained intimacy. Yet His Lordship over all creation, including us, does not change. We follow, He leads. We can follow Him in that He gives us that privilege and opportunity. We have no innate right to it.
From where does that privilege result? It finds its birth in the ultimate miracle, the miracle of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. No miracle of convenience could take Jesus off the cross. Just as no temptation in the wilderness could lure Jesus from the road of the cross. Peter and the others did miracles. Yet they did not walk the road of miracles. They obeyed Jesus, and following His example, they took up their own cross. They walked the road of the cross, a sacrificial road through persecution and painful death in the name of their Lord Jesus Christ.
It saddens my heart when we give the impression that our faith in Jesus Christ centers on temporary miracles of convenience rather than the privilege of walking the road of the cross in deep intimacy and love with our Lord Jesus Christ, who secured resurrected eternity for us.
A Quote:
“Reality is not defined by sound bytes**. Reality is defined by heart rending unstoppable sobbing, enduring love through the storms, and the sounds of joyful laughter after painful birthing of new life.” – Anonymous
** Cp. “miracles of convenience”
before the past ten days, which i spent in england with a ministry team from a charismatic church in town, i would probably have agreed with the content, if not the tone, of this blog. perhaps you will call me weak-minded, or spiritually gullible, but my mind was really changed during this experience.
during this trip, we met a young man whose passion was to see people healed physically and spiritually in supernatural ways. during a meeting, he boldly invited people in the congregation to raise their hands if they wanted prayer for healing. he said that the name of Jesus was powerful to heal any pain or disease, and that if they asked in faith, they would be healed. i felt very uncomfortable with this. i wondered if it was fair to promise these things to people when we do not know the mind of God. sure, He is powerful enough to heal anything, but what if He chooses not to? what will those people think of Him then? i talked to the pastor we were traveling with about this the next day. he said that it’s true that not everybody gets healed during times like that, but some people do — certainly more receive healing when we pray for than when we do not. he said that since the Lord’s prayer says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN,” he is permitted to pray to change anything on earth that does not look like heaven. which would include disease and pain of any kind. i think that at times we are so afraid of stepping on toes, offending God, or giving false hope to people, that we don’t ask God to do the things that He can do for His glory. i know it is important not to offend God, and that whatever the result of our prayers, we must glorify Him.
as far as God being “on demand,” i think i understand what you mean. He will not just “show up” to boost our church membership numbers or give us a good feeling or anything that is contrived for our glory instead of His. but does He not say that we do not have because we do not ask? i think that if we expected God to come and work in ways we have never seen, we would see it. He desires for His children to have good things. He desires for us to see His power. He will take any opportunity to bring glory to His name and to reveal Himself to people. i think that if june 11-14 were special days that the church was going to dedicate to prayer for the specific purpose of seeing people healed for God’s glory, than who’s to say He didn’t “show up” and heal people?
God is so much greater than we know, and than i think we want Him to be sometimes. we like the boxes we put Him in. but i believe that if we look for Him to do things, He will do them. if we ask, we will receive. He will not heal everything every time, but we will see more than we thought was possible.
Megan:
Welcome home…and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I do not think you’re “weak-minded or spiritually gullible” at all. I appreciate your honesty, and I do agree with you. God is great…greater than we can ever fathom or imagine, and God is always at work around us doing the work of His Kingdom. My tone in this blog is one of sarcasm, but my sarcasm is toward those who attempt to whip people up into a frenzy in order to manipulate them or manipulate God (which we can’t do by the way, but we sure do often try!). Historically, Christians (or people who call themselves Christians) have gone to great lengths – stopping at almost nothing – to whip people up into a spiritual frenzy using manipulative and ungodly words and actions that do so much more to damage people than help them.
I DO believe that God still heals and I DO believe that God still works miracles. I’ve been on the receiving end of those things and pray that I will continue to receive these blessings from the Lord. I just take issue with the “God on demand” culture that has emerged among Christians. God is God, and He will work according to His purposes – not ours. My point with the blog was that Christians must be careful not to promise that God will show up and/or work in a specific way (or on specific dates). We place a lot of expectations on God and then often become spiritually disillusioned when these expectations aren’t met. (i.e. I must not have had enough faith. God must be mad at me. God must not really care about me. Etc.) I’m very leery of promising that God will do certain things at certain times and have become very weary of Christians and churches that do.
Yes, i’m just catching up..i seem to always be two weeks behind. I enjoy your preaching, and this blog, and sadly I think this post was a victim of the English language, specifically the written kind. If I did not know what was in your heart, i think i might be offended/saddened as well, and I’ll definitely be working to forget the exact “words” of the post. I agree with Chad on the tone issue, and it is for this that I dislike email, and things like Blogs/FB/Twitter even more. One reason you excel as a pastor (and formerly as a radio dude) is because you are gifted with the spoken word. Your charisma and fervor follow you to the pen, and I admit I also frightfully enjoy your musings. The problem is that on this medium we can’t read your eyes, hear your tone, and KNOW your intentions are genuine, kind and passionate. Yes, the church sign is confusing and imo inappropriate (but what isn’t when you have 27 letters to work with). As Megan alluded to, I think it would have been a very different post had the church posted “Come seek God with us next week”…the church’s use of the word revival is what set this post off in the first place, and I’ll agree with you that I believe a revival is something that “happens”, not something that is scheduled in advance, which is one of the main points I think you were trying to make. I really don’t know why i felt compelled to post, but I guess I just ask that the detractors realize that blogging is about stream of thought and relax a little, but that you’d also remember that written words, especially when mangled a little, can be so easily misunderstood and hurtful; that you are becoming quite the popular internet mogul (and thus have a wide audience); and that you’ll be as careful with your written word selection and tone as you are with your spoken word. Was i just preaching??? i sure hope not…thank you for your tireless efforts, and your willingness to be REAL with the rest of us.
Josh:
Thanks for the kind words. They were well written and well received.
Mike