THE HEART, NOT THE TIMES

Currently, Julie and I are reading a very inspiring book titled 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from the Giants of the Faith, which is a collection of (50) short biographies. Some of the names are immediately recognisable, others not so. But each of them lived a life that counted greatly for God. In contrast, I have also been thinking over the first five verses of 2 Timothy. These verses give a list of what people will be like in ‘the last days’. This list very clearly tells the reader that unless we have a strong faith, a clear view of God and His call on our life and a matching personal determination to live for God, then we are, as John Maxwell would say, in deep weeds.

The lives I am reading about are of people from varying cultural backgrounds, status in society - and Christian legacy. The one thing they have in common is that, somewhere along their life journey, they had such an encounter with the living God that they laid everything aside – often at great personal cost – to serve God in fulfilling the call upon their lives.

I have heard it said by people of the 21st century that it was somehow easier for ‘those people’ because they didn’t have the distractions we have today. What arrogance; what ignorance. Whilst they may not have had TV, smart phones, iPads or Facebook, they had distractions enough in their day. And the truth is that the human heart has not changed. Jeremiah 17:9 (regarding the heart of humankind) is as relevant today as it was when first penned.

Recently I was speaking about attitudes to the call of God, church attendance etc. to a young family man who is quite involved in his local church. To my surprise, he openly stated that he believed that the trouble with ‘his generation’ was that they were too soft, self-absorbed and basically lazy when it came to serving God ‘full-on’. Whilst I’m sure that could be said of many in each generation, it does seem to apply more across the board at this point in history. (At this point I could be in real trouble). If this is so, why? Why are so many falling away from Church, from a warrior like attitude to serving God and to a more compromising attitude toward the world and its standards while seemingly making excuses for Christianity and its source book, the Bible?

Space does not permit deeper analysis here but I will venture to say that it is far less to do with all the ‘play things’ we have in our day and more to do with a spiritual battle that is raging for the hearts and minds of people. And, this is the battle we must win both personally and corporately if the world is going to be able to see the difference between real Christ followers and the ‘also-rans’. Ultimately though, as with the Spurgeon’s, Moody’s and McCheyne’s of years gone by, it comes down to an encounter with the living God and a choice to follow the Call, no matter the real or perceived cost.