"Easy Life" As Oxymoron.

"Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have." (Jeremiah 29:8, italics mine)

During Moses's leadership tenure, there was a point when the people of Israel decided to choose their own captain and attempt to return to Egypt (see Numbers 14). The message behind their action was this: Moses, if you don't do what we want, we'll just appoint someone else to lead us. They were intent on living life counter to God's plan, and as a result died in the wilderness. While they lived they still wore the label that said "people of God", but they lacked His presence and power.

Pastor Sam once shared that the church is made weak from the inside out. It is "our own" people who tire of God's discipline, tire of spiritual formation through wilderness experiences, and devise their own definition of success (which tends towards avoidance of pain and enjoyment of excess). They say they are Christian. But the word of Christ is not heeded. They fail to work the works of the Lord.

Pain hurts, and it helps. When the church suffers, it grows stronger. When the church welcomes compromised teaching as a pathway to ease, it falls away and loses its spiritual covering. The book of Acts, the Pauline epistles, and the book of Revelation bear this out.

There are churches that have completely rewritten their by-laws and doctrinal statements in an effort to increase membership, ordinands, and revenue. Guess what? They're correct. The pews will be full. Remember Moses sending out the twelve spies? Ten spies said the task of entering Canaan was too hard to accomplish, and they should instead return to the "comforts" of Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of Israelites bought into the lie.

So here we are. A hymn, a perfunctory prayer, a chorus, make announcements, take up the offering, hear a nice solo, give the preacher a few minutes to comment on The Economist, say hi to a few people, and we're done. Easy life.

And the giants in Canaan continue, unhindered. For decades.

I am asking that you pray concerning your own role in this life-play. Are you a Jeremiah? A Moses? A Caleb or Joshua? Or have you settled in with the masses, conspiring to hire and extol those who were not sent by God but have promised you an easy road?

"Nobody told me that the road would be easy;
I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me." (Curtis Burrell)