WHEN PEOPLE DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE AT HAND, THEY CANNOT RECOGNIZE JESUS - Gordon Dalbey
How many times have I witnessed Christians attacking N. T. Wright rather than his ideas? Is not N. T. Wright a friend of the church and not a foe? I heard one Christian say this week that he was against the movie "Soul Surfer," (a movie he has not even seen) because it promoted lust and women in bathing suits? I could not help wonder if this did not say more about the man protesting the movie than the movie which I saw which was a powerful movie about having an overcoming faith over one's difficulties and seemingly impossible circumstances of life.
When Christians misfocus on each other as the enemy rather than the spiritual principalities and powers, they have missed Jesus. When the larger church is so shamefully divided and often blind to the true nature of spiritual warfare, they have missed Jesus.
I am reminded of Gordon Dalbey's powerful words from his book No Small Snakes:
"The people of Israel did not recognize Jesus, therefore, not because they had wrongly expected the Messiah to be a warrior king, but because they did not recognize the war He had come to win" (emphasis his, p.57).
How many times have I witnessed Christians attacking N. T. Wright rather than his ideas? Is not N. T. Wright a friend of the church and not a foe? I heard one Christian say this week that he was against the movie "Soul Surfer," (a movie he has not even seen) because it promoted lust and women in bathing suits? I could not help wonder if this did not say more about the man protesting the movie than the movie which I saw which was a powerful movie about having an overcoming faith over one's difficulties and seemingly impossible circumstances of life.
When Christians misfocus on each other as the enemy rather than the spiritual principalities and powers, they have missed Jesus. When the larger church is so shamefully divided and often blind to the true nature of spiritual warfare, they have missed Jesus.
I am reminded of Gordon Dalbey's powerful words from his book No Small Snakes:
"The people of Israel did not recognize Jesus, therefore, not because they had wrongly expected the Messiah to be a warrior king, but because they did not recognize the war He had come to win" (emphasis his, p.57).
No comments:
Post a Comment