After the SCOTUS decision regarding gay marriage.

What an atrocity. I was heartbroken and severely disturbed reading the decision of the Supreme Court regarding gay marriage. Alarm bells went off that this really indeed was the time that we're living in and how far America has strayed from God's standards as a nation. When people refuse the knowledge of God He leaves them to their own devices to pursue what they believe is right. Without God without HIs absolute moral standard, our world quickly becomes chaotic. In such a time as this I cannot help but wonder what is the church's role in being salt and light of the world, to bring societal transformation, and being a prophetic voice to a sinful dying world.

There is evil that reigns in this world and in the last hour evil will have its day. All that opposes God will exalt itself and lift itself up above God. This is the hour that we're living in where evil is called good and good evil. This happens when God is no longer the center of our beings, of our morality. Yet even in such an hour as this the church must never lose its prophetic voice to proclaim the reign of God to the world. Not just to its own members but to unbelieving kings and queens and emperors of the Roman world the apostles preached. The church must have enough influence and power and authority to proclaim the reign of God to the world and for the world to be able to listen. This was the role of the prophets in the Old Testament. We must not be shy to proclaim God's standard of holiness and righteousness to the unbelieving world and let it influence our policies, laws, education, businesses etc. The church cannot just focus on saving souls, but must build the kingdom of God on a wider level to transform society. These must be equally emphasized from the pulpit.

How can the church maintain its prophetic voice to the world? The church must be about loving its neighbor if the church is to maintain its special influence in the world. In other words the church must be about its mission. They cannot remain in their four walls and merely serve themselves. Part of the reason the church is losing influence is because they segregate themselves from the world. They must live in the world. They must be part of and know the neighborhood that they reside in. They must be involved in the lives of their neighbors. They must live and breathe among the people like Jesus did. They must care for the suffering of the people and provide a real tangible solution to their needs, not just a spiritual one. As they say, "People will not care about what you have to say until they know that you care." In this way mission is essential. Mission to the world in all aspects is absolutely essential for the church to maintain its saltiness, in other words for the church to be alive. It can never be a closed off community for believers to work on their own personal holiness. We must each ask ourselves, "Is our church making an impact in our community? Is our church helping our neighborhoods and fulfilling its need? Are we busy loving our neighbors and our community?"

The second way to maintain our prophetic voice is in-house housekeeping. Are we living out the standards of God within ourselves? A pure holy blameless life? Do we have the standards of God in terms of our morality, sexuality, love, integrity or do we stoop lower than the world? The reason why the world doesn't listen to us is because they see that we're a bunch of hypocrites. There is no substance to our message because the divorce rate is just as high in the church as outside. There are many Christians who think premarital sex is ok and even condone gay marriage. We do not emphasize or fully understand the holiness that is demanded by God in our lives. We cannot compromise the moral standards of God which is absolute perfection, something we ourselves cannot attain by our own strength but only by the power of God. We must speak about Christ's standards and we must live it. We must deny ourselves and teach others to do the same. There is no compromise or dilution of the message of the cross and the way of discipleship. We must teach others to walk the straight and narrow path not as a burden to them but as the standard that Jesus put forth to us which can only be achieved by the grace of God and being yoked with Christ.

Third we must not be afraid to face opposition, misunderstanding, hatred, even death in being faithful to our prophetic role. Not everyone is going to understand what you're trying to do. You will not be loved for preaching a message about holiness to the world or for anyone for that matter. You will not be loved for upholding the standards of marriage and sexuality, even in the church. The world may want to hear the message of love and forgiveness but they will not tolerate to hear about the perfect standards of God regarding sin and His judgment for our sins. Just because you prophesy doesn't mean that the world is going to listen or even that they will change their ways. Look at the example of the Prophets. It is in our natural tendency to seek to do only that the world or others applaud and approve of. Few will choose the way that is unpopular, that is marked by mockery, misunderstanding, and even death, the way of the cross. The church must speak its prophetic message regardless of the consequences and regardless of the hatred and opposition of the world. Even if we are martyred for our faith we must not compromise God's message. How we do so in love and sensitivity to the recipients is a different matter altogether, but the church must still be able to uphold the standards of God regardless of the cost. It must be ready to lose its life for this task. We cannot be about winning the approval of men to please men; we must win the approval of God.

Lastly, the church must seek the transformation of society and go beyond reaching individual people. We must actively seek to influence the culture at large with the power of the gospel. This means not only that we must be busy with evangelism but activism, social action, and political movements. Like Martin Luther King Jr. or William Wilburforce we must seek to stand up in the face of injustice and seek to die to ourselves to establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth. There are societal evils and injustices that cannot be transformed by seeking to merely target individuals. We must go after systems of injustice in governments, laws and policies to reform them if we are to truly bring about the kingdom of God on earth. Take a problem like human trafficking for example. The first priority is to change the systems that is causing such injustice and work on a governmental level to change the policies and laws so that human trafficking is strictly forbidden and that law enforcement does everything it can to prevent it. The second is to deliver individual woman out of trafficking, and the last is to bring these woman into healing and restoration through the gospel. In other words, the church must take social, political action to reform the laws of the land and to elect officials who will make fighting human trafficking a priority. I think too many Christians are too passive about bringing about societal change with the gospel because we believe so much that our faith is restricted to our personal sphere.

We cannot make Christianity into a personal religion that we practice only in our personal sphere for our own personal holiness. We must live it out in all aspects of society and establish His kingdom in all areas of life.

As I was sitting in church last night I was heartbroken by the news of what had happened in the U.S. and disturbed by what this would mean for the church and for America in the future. I thought about our religious freedom, will pastors be jailed for preaching about God's standards regarding homosexuality? Will the world hate us and persecute us as those who hate gays? What will this mean to the millions of children that grow up now and in the future? How will their understanding of sexuality be shaped by today's decision? The horizon surely looked dark. Yet as I was sitting there silently observing the congregants hugging each other, singing songs about our Savior's redemption on the cross, a glimmer of hope shone amidst the despair. As they sang about Jesus cross and the resurrection I was reminded of the victory He brought and promised us. And it hit me how precious it is that we've been given this truth of the gospel. It is like a pearl that needs to be guarded with our very own lives. The love that was shared, a handshake a hug, the unity in Christ in this sacred space was made all the more valuable because the outside world was so directly opposite. The light of the gospel shines even brighter in the midst of darkness.

As I observed the saints singing hand in hand in unison I realized that this was no joke, that God indeed called us out of darkness as a holy people unto Himself into the kingdom of light. The world at large is being run by the evil one and we are at war against his kingdom of darkness. No matter how threatening they can be we have the promise of final victory. And we are on the King's side. This reality was made all the more real in this dark hour. Then I was given the quiet assurance and peace that all these people in the room at the congregation, because they are marked by the love of God will willingly give up their lives for their faith. I realized that all of us, though we may be persecuted, put in jail, even forced to give up our lives will not give up our faith. We will stay faithful to Him with the Lord's grace. "For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:4-5).

The SCOTUS decision was a wakeup call that the real battle has begun, that we are in the last seconds of the last days. As I thought about how I would live when I went back home to the States it suddenly made the work of preaching the gospel, of teaching and building others up, evangelism, prayer for our nation and the world all the more imvaluable. Rather than discourage me, this event put into focus the reality that we're really fighting a spiritual battle with our lives at stake. During the worship, my spirit man rose up and proclaimed within me, "I will passionately proclaim the gospel till my dying breath. I will fight for His righteousness, His Kingdom, His truth no matter what may come my way in the future. I will continue to love others and lay my life down for others. I will continue to speak truth and point the way of salvation for those who are lost and who do not know, yet inherently know that there is something deeply wrong with the world. There will be those who will continue to hunger for the truth and for love and for the true reality of His kingdom. I will not be discouraged but I will be all the more inflamed with passion and clarity and the solemnity of our mission." As I sat there during worship, I realized something powerful and true. THE GOSPEL IS ENOUGH. What we've been given, the power of the gospel is enough to fight against these dark powers, principalities and systems. Look at Rome and the way things were back when the disciples were preaching. Rome was an immoral city with a lust for violence, sexual immorality, emperor worship, and putting Christians to death. But God still established His kingdom through the church. The gospel was not chained. God's kingdom flourished.

I thought about places like Iran and in the Middle East where they live under oppressive governments, where people have to risk their lives to preach the gospel. But God is still alive and working there. He is expanding His church and saving lives. God is still at work and the Kingdom of light is expanding at a greater speed than the kingdom of darkness. In other words we do not need something else than what we already have. We have been given everything we need to overcome this world and to build His kingdom and to live a victorious life in Him. There is nothing more that needs to be given to us. The apostles were just ordinary men equipped with the gospel of Christ, and they transformed the world.
This is the power of the gospel. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile" (Rom 1:16).

Then we ended our worship with a song that spoke the final word on all of the chaos that I was seeing in the world. In the groaning of everything that was happening we await the kingdom of righteousness that He will establish when He comes. Here is the song:

There is a day

There is a day
That all creation's waiting for,
A day of freedom and liberation for the earth.
And on that day
The Lord will come to meet His bride,
And when we see Him
In an instant we'll be changed

The trumpet sounds
And the dead will then be raised
By His power,
Never to perish again.
Once only flesh,
Now clothed with immortality,
Death has now been
Swallowed up in victory

We will meet Him in the air
And then we will be like Him
For we will see Him, as He is
Oh yeah!
Then all hurt and pain will cease
And we'lll be with Him forever
And in His glory we will live
Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

So lift your eyes
To the things as yet unseen,
That will remain now
For all eternity.
Though trouble's hard,
It's only momentary
And it's acheiving
Our future glory.

6.26.15.