The church gets lost when it ceases to truly follow its Lord and His clear teachings. It sins when it becomes infatuated with lesser lords. The church and all believers need to repent of our pursuit of power and influence and get back to nitty-gritty ministry. N. T. Wright recently said, “The love of power must be replaced by the power of love”. Christ’s power is sacrificial love. Our throne of power is a cross. Our victory is in our dying. Our something is in our nothingness. We must renounce the proud ways of the world for the humble ways of the Kingdom of God. It is our mission. Wake up, oh Zion! The Suffering Servant is calling you back to humility, back to dying, back to the cross.
“We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:8b-10 NRSV)
You are reading from “Growing Toward Maturity”, by H. Lamar Smith
