Come gather
’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
I grew up hearing Bob Dylan on the radio, a folk
singer and eclectic songwriter whose insightful words and influential music in
many ways defined a generation. The generation he spoke to experienced a dramatic and historical shift in the status quo.
The ‘60’s was a time of religious, political, and social turmoil. The
culture-altering events that transformed America--and the world--during that
decade produced long-lasting repercussions that are being felt even today, much
like the ongoing aftershocks of a major earthquake.
In many ways the Church is in the process of
undergoing an equally radical transformation, one that will impact every aspect
of our lives in the years and decades to come, should Christ tarry. The words from Dylan’s song The Times They are A-Changin’ are as
prophetic today for the Body of Christ as they were for the secular culture of
the ‘60’s.
We are living in the most profound time since
Jesus walked among men and proclaimed that He is the Son of God. Even though Scripture
tells us that no man knows the day or the hour of Christ’s return, we are
expected to be aware of the season, and we’ve been given signposts to alert us
to its imminence. Those of us who comprise the Body of Christ are also being drawn
closer to our Heavenly Father than we have ever been. Because of His passionate desire for intimacy
with us, He is making Himself available to us in extraordinary and unique ways,
just as He did when His Son first came and walked among us. Yet, many in the Body resist the current move
of Holy Spirit, because it doesn’t fit into their religious concept of who God
is and how He demonstrates Himself among the people.
The result
is that much of the Church, especially in the West, is asleep. The challenge that
faces us is whether or not we’re going to wake up from our slumber and “start
swimmin’” or “sink like a stone” in the River of Life He is pouring out through
and upon us.
What do I mean by that?
A wise mentor once remarked that “Many
in the Body of Christ today continually seek God’s hand. Few truly seek His face.” Many pastors have become so “seeker-friendly”
they now preach “another gospel,” one in which sin has no place, where the fear
of the Lord is absent, and where it’s more important to be socially and politically
correct than to be salt and light to a dying world.
Those who sit by and embrace a watered-down
gospel risk much.
We know from Scripture that the pathway of
righteousness is a narrow road, one that can only be walked upon by daily taking
up our own personal cross and allowing Holy Spirit to increase in us so that we
might decrease. We are called to “die
daily” to those things which distract us from an intimate relationship with
Christ, and to encourage one another in the Faith. We are also called to
spiritually separate ourselves from the world. This is sanctification. The
process of being set apart spiritually from the world, first by salvation, then
by “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”, and finally being fully
transformed into His likeness and glory, separated from sin for all eternity. Yet, sadly, many resist this process,
choosing instead to pick and choose those aspects of Christianity that appeal
to their soul, rejecting anything their soul does not delight in, as if their
Faith was a buffet.
It’s
never easy choosing the road less traveled, especially when that choice brings you
into continual conflict with most everyone around you. Thankfully, we not only
have someone to look to who successfully walked that road, but also someone who,
because of His success, gained the legal right to be our advocate on a daily
basis.
Come mothers
and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
There
is a generation arising who are not satisfied with the status quo. They look at the
hypocrisy they see within the Body and want no part of it. They look at the lack of power and true
spiritual authority and dare to ask “Why is it absent when it’s promised to us?”
They hunger for Truth and Righteousness and will pay any price to have it. These are the spiritual “rabble rousers” of
our day. They are the ones, like Jan
Huss, John Wycliff, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others, who will bring about
a Reformation in the Church. They are
the ones willing to take on the religious spirit that has deafened, and
blinded, and caused much of the Church to fall into a deep slumber. They are not afraid to call it for what it is
and do whatever Holy Spirit guides them to do to defeat it, regardless of the
consequences.
Look around you this coming Sunday in
church. Can you identify the “rabble
rousers?” Can you identify those who want
more than the “same old same old” every Sunday?
Are you one of them? If not,
why? Are you content with the status quo, or do you long for something
more. I challenge you to take a realistic,
truthful look at yourself. Do you have
the kind of Faith that inspires others to greatness in Christ? Do you walk the kind of walk that causes the
lost to say, “I don’t know what you have, but I want it--”? Do you most often seek God’s hand, or His
face? Are you prepared to risk whatever
your soul finds desirable in order to follow Christ?
