Recently I was visiting a neighboring church. We were all gathered together in worship, singing to the Lord. As I stood there singing, I got a vision mixed in together with a memory of a story I heard years ago. I saw us together singing inside of the church, singing loudly while ignoring the train that was passing simultaneously right behind the walls of the church building. The train was carrying babies and children, leading them to their abuse and/or their death. But we were singing in sort of a trance, ignoring the tragedy that was happening right behind us. We were ushered to be silent, to be still, to be indifferent. We were instructed to be nice, to be unprovocative, to be quiet. And as we sang, hoping that God would take care of everything, believing that He is in control, the train went by leading children to their demise.
How have we gotten to this place as believers? When did we become so scared of man that we can’t take people’s unapproving words and judgemental speech about our righteous actions? When did we trade in our ability to stand up for those that can’t stand up for themselves in order to keep butts in seats on Sunday mornings? How can we let babies and children get abused and murdered while we sit there singing on Sundays and vowing to be silent during the work week?
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Jesus is instructing all believers to go and make disciples. We all have a path and a specific area or measure of influence.
What is yours?
It is in that measure of influence that we must use our voice to disciple those around us. If we don’t use our measure of influence, we are in a sense allowing that train to pass by behind us.
There are babies being murdered every day under the name of abortion, and children being abused daily under the guise of sex-change operations. It is our duty as believers to defend those that can’t stand up for themselves. And we must do so in the area of influence that the Lord has given us. We can no longer be scared to speak and teach Biblical truths in our own churches. It must start there.
Years ago, in Germany, there was a church that was positioned right in front of the train tracks that lead the Jews to their death. An excerpt from the article titled “Sing a Little Louder” written by writtenlives.ca, speaks to disturbing actions of the church in those moments.
“The train continued to pass by the little country church every week on its way to Auschwitz. Every week the cries of men, women, and children interrupted the Sunday sermon. And every week the congregants did nothing about it. After a while it got to be so disturbing that people didn’t want to come to church. They all agreed that something must be done…We sang as loud as we could to drown out the cries. If per chance we still heard them, we just sang a little louder. Instead of fighting for those being led away to death, instead of pleading their cause, the church chose to ignore the problem. They became desensitized to the plight of those who needed them most.”
We have gotten to a place where Believers are scared to speak biblical truths. Pastors can’t be ashamed of what the bible speaks for fear of losing butts in seats in the pews. And Believers can’t leave the job to the pastors. We must all ask Holy Spirit what our area we have a measure of influence in. We are here to speak Truth, as it is Truth that will set us free. Love, is speaking the Truth.
Jacob's Ladder 