Plumb line, Satan and the Church

Three weeks ago we had a week of teaching called the Divine Plumb Line. The name of the teaching (which is a fairly classical Youth With A Mission-teaching) comes from the Old Testament book Amos chapter 7, where God tells that he’ll put a plumb line against Israel to see if they are measuring up to his holy standards.

The week was about the lies we as Christians still believe. It was about the different building blocks in the walls all of us build which separate us from true freedom and intimacy with God. And it was about ministry, healing and restoration of truth. It was a powerful week. The lecturers did a very good job explaining the different lies we believe and where these come from. And that’s what made me mad that week. I got really angry. At Satan. And at the Church.

I’m angry at Satan for being so good at doing his job. I’m angry that he’s so excellent at stealing, killing and destroying (John 10, 10). I’m so angry at how good he is at deceiving and paralyzing God’s children so that even though they’re saved and born-again-Christians they are also more or less completely useless to the Kingdom of God, because they are held back by fear and lies about God and about how God sees them.

Passive parents, sin and abuse

The students were openheartedly sharing stories about how passive parents, bad father figures, mockery in school, insecurities about being too fat or too beautiful (!), legalistic theology at church, sexual sins and all kinds of other things have happened to them that have made them A: hate themselves, B: not trust God, C: not trust other people completely (“they’ll end up hurting me”)

We live in a fallen world. Life on this side of the new earth is not going to be perfect for any of us. But still. We make life too easy for Satan. We either don’t take him seriously enough (naivety) or take him way too seriously (paranoia). But far too many Christians are not aware of the fact that the “fight” between God and Satan is not a fight between two equal opponents. God is far stronger than Satan, and he does not want his beloved children to live in captivity. We were bought at a huge price when Jesus died for us. And he bought complete freedom from us. We do not have to live in captivity here in the world. But Satan has a couple of different strategies when it comes to human beings. He prefers to keep people away from God so they will eternally be lost (this week’s speaker, Pastor Bob Forseth from the United States stated that approximately 150.000 people die and are eternally lost every single day!! The greatest of all tragedies, but one that is never reported on...!)

What do we spend time on in the Church?

I’m really angry at the Church for not doing enough. Or not doing a good enough job. I’m angry at us (myself included!) for spending so much time debating little issues such as baptism and other minor theological soap box-issues, this or that strategy for this or that project, budgets, types of music, etc. instead of focusing on helping people to see freedom in Christ. It doesn’t help you at all to have all the head knowledge in the world about God as your loving father. It doesn’t help you at all to sing beautiful worship songs about God’s love. It doesn’t help you at all to witness right and left about how much God loves everybody. It doesn’t help.....if that’s not what you truly believe! I have a very simple definition: “You truly believe what you believe when the door is closed and you are all alone with yourself and your thoughts”. What you believe in that situation is what forms your life. It’s not what you profess in public or what you repeat somebody else has said. That won’t help you. You can’t live in somebody else’s understanding of love. You can’t live in somebody else’s freedom. And this is what we as churches should focus on. Jesus announced at the beginning of his public ministry that he had come to “ (...)preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4, 18-19). Preach good news....Proclaim freedom....Freedom should be our message. Jesus put it this way in John 8, 31-32: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.

Freedom!

Freedom is more than freedom from eternal death. Freedom is freedom in life. Freedom is not about freedom to do stupidities and be free to stay as far as way from God as possible. Freedom is not a license to sin. But true freedom in Christ is freedom to live in victory over sin. Freedom in Christ is freedom to work through the things that have hurt us and will hurt us and choose to walk in the freedom that Christ has won for us. Freedom is a way of living. Freedom is choosing every day to say: I know who I am. I am God’s beloved son (/daughter) and today I’m going to walk in that freedom with him!

That’s what our churches should be known as. Houses of freedom. People should come to our churches, and we should help them to a life in freedom through pointing to Christ as the giver of all true freedom. Life here on Planet Earth hurts, but we don’t have to be held down by the different blows we all receive. We don’t have to believe lies about who God is, about who we are and how God sees us. We can know God’s love and freedom in the deepest hurts of our lives. There is no relationship or hurt that is beyond God’s repair, if we surrender to him, and let his healing power work in us and among us.

I could go on for many pages about this subject, since it’s very close to my heart. I hope and pray that if I meet these dear DTS-students in five years from now they’re living in their freedom and helping others to live in freedom. If that’s the case then discipleship training is worth all the effort. I don’t want the students to have a notebook with cool-sounding notes and a bunch of spiritual stories to impress their friends with. I want to see changed hearts. Hearts that are being set more and more free to live for Christ wherever they are and whatever they do.

I want my life, and the lives of the students, to measure up as closely as possible to God’s sovereign and holy plumb line. Not because of our great efforts, but because we live in the freedom that Christ has won for us, and because we believe who God says he is, who he says we are and how he says he views us.