Luke 18:1-8
“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought
always to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1 ESV) “The Church is very alive in England, but it is also very
small, it’s just not the promotional Church you have in the U.S.A.” That quote was made to me by Major Ian Thomas
after I ask what was wrong with the Church in England and he went on to explain
that the church in the U.S.A. showed up on Sunday, but look for it during the
week, it seems to go underground.
I believe the philosophy of distrust has invaded the church,
in that we live in a society where trust has been destroyed in the home, where
dads and mothers have not kept the covenant of marriage, where children have no
dad in the home to show love and guidance, where our children are taught that
prayer is not proper in the market place or a school, and that tolerance is key
to all kinds of evil, but it is ok to not be tolerating of closed minded people
of the Christian faith. We have seen
one after another denomination go the way of the culture and away from the
teaching of Scripture, and this is also a trust issue for many. What can we say about a government that few
have any trust in it and now the courts have also lost the trust of many in and
out of the Church?
This is a quote by Marshall Bruce Mather’s III, stage name
Eminem, “Trust
is hard to come by. That is why my circle is small and tight, I’m kind of funny
about making new friends.” Church,
have you bought into a mindset of leaving God out of your circle of close
friends? Maybe a rapper is not the best
quote for such an audience, how about William Shakespeare, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
Church, that is worthy of
pondering on, but make sure God is part of the few, in fact He demands to be
above all others.
This persistent widow in Jesus’ story had the deck
stacked against her, she needed help from an unjust judge who had no fear of
man or God, sounds like our Supreme Court whose actions have brought about the
death of millions of babies, and the removing of prayer from our schools. But she did not stop coming to him asking for
help against her adversary. This is how
God answered her prayers: “For a while he
refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect
man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so
that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” (Luke
18:4-5 ESV)
Listen to Jesus reply to His audience; “And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will
he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke
18:6-8 ESV)
I’ve come to this conclusion, the Church is not who
shows up on Sunday, it is much smaller, but at the center is a deep trust in a
Mighty, All powerful, Holy and Righteous loving God. And if you have lost your way, or if you are
just seeking; “Seek the
LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his
way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And
He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
(Isaiah 55:6-7)
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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