Teenage children had to make their mother’s funeral arrangements. She overdosed…and I’m likely partially to blame.
How is that possible? Because I am part of the Church that Jesus said He would build, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. They just did. And I, as a carrier of Jesus, a person given God’s power and God’s authority, to be His ambassador and an able minister, I have to bear some of the responsibility.
But, you might say, everyone has free will. Is that not THE most convenient response, while also being true???
However, free will only goes so far as there is an informed consent. Do people in bondage know they are loved by their Creator? Have we ambassadors demonstrated that? Have we lived lives in front of people that tell them God is bigger than your situation? God is powerful enough to set you free? God is loving enough to change the mess and He has forgiven you and will make you new, and the mess will fall off like a bad scent in a rain storm?
Have we relegated the measure of God’s power to a goose bump or a community dinner, or a gathering of like minded people that prays for the “addict”?
Yet, God told us, there is a darkness….a gross darkness, on the people. And then He said His glory would be seen on us. People who know God, people who know they are loved, don’t have a “reaction” to a drug and then go buy more drugs. They go to someone and ask for help. People who know they are loved and valued are secure and can go say, “I messed up I screwed up so bad, I need you to help me fix it.” People who know their value don’t go for a fix.
We have failed to present Jesus as He is. So in this latest situation, three teens will likely hear about Him now….just enough to wonder why He “let this happen if He’s so powerful” when He didn’t let this happen at all.
We did. By our busyness, by our self obsession, by living our “regular lives”, by going our way and expecting a program to fix the “addict”.
Oh, why do I put “addict” in quotes? Because it’s a label. We put labels on things to identify them. We label things so when we “read” it, we know what to expect, and what to do with it, and before we “store” it to deal with later.. When their Creator said He is deliverer, He is healer, we don’t demonstrate that. We identify the “problem”, put a label on it, and we go on.
And unless we change, the gates of hell will continue to prevail…and it won’t be Jesus who let it happen.
For His Glory 