Are You Oppressed, Depressed or Repressed?
God's call for radical transformation to occur on YOUR life.
While bouncing around this morning on some of my favorite Christian blog spots I heard God talking to me in a unique way. He spoke loud and clear when he said, "Carl, do you know that most of my people, my followers, are Oppressed, Depressed or Repressed?" God has a clear calling for his children to rise above the repression of totalitarian regimes, to follow the call of God and to quit living a life in conformity with the patterns of this world. A verse that is familiar to the church is Romans 12:2 which states "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect".
OPPRESSION
I am not going to shoot a lot of statistics here as to how much of the Christian church is being oppressed today. I find a lot of the statistics that are commonly available are usually politically motivated in nature. I am not writing this to discuss politics, I am writing this to provide insight and vision for the church today. I write as a person who has walked a mile in the shoes of young men in India who are persecuted for the faith they have received. I write as a person who has stood in the midst of the orphanages of Ukraine and seen the faces of children who are hopeless, who feel that they are abandoned by society, and ultimately by God. A child who grows up feeling hopeless, helpless and unable to do anything but be an orphan is yes indeed, oppressed.
Why is it that so much of God's children are oppressed? Why it that so much of todays “enlightened society” is is living in so much freedom, yet we have done so little to get the gospel to the world? I say it is because we have traded off, generation after generation, our knowledge of God for the knowledge of science, politics, and ultimately ourselves. We have taken man and made him nothing but a random cosmic incident in which a few primordial elements have come together and created life.
Today we do not celebrate the lives of the saints that we used to. I try to remind myself that on the day we are celebrating Halloween here in America, Martin Luther was nailing the 95 Thesis to the wall of the Church some 500 years ago challenging forevermore the development of the church. How many Christians truly know about the faith of Martin Luther and why without him the church today could be a completely different place? How many people have taken the time to dig into their family heritage to see how God has blessed their family? Society today owes a debt of gratitude to the Pilgrims who decided to flee oppression and come to the shores of a new life. A new life given by the one creator who can give new life. A God of new beginnings.
I am not writing this ignorant of the fact that many people are still taking up the cross and following Christ. Anyone who takes up the cross is saying no to the conformity of the world and yes to being conformed to God has not taken an easy task. I know many people who are changing the world one by one and getting the job done. Each one of them is discipling the world in a new and exiting way. God is utilizing them and they need us, the church, to pull beside them and give them our collective support and energy. And this also begs the question, "Why aren't we shaking the foundations of the church like these people?"
DEPRESSED
The average Christian today has a great experience with God, is transformed, is discipled and then left for the wolves. They may go to church; they may do some things that are life changing such as go on a mission’s trip, but then what? What is left is the shards of the old life, the old pot of clay if you will, and a very fragile person trying to put the shards of the pot back together in conformity with the new potters’ hand. It can not be done without the hand of God. Who is the hand of God? The Church of course. In Acts the apostle Paul has this to say to his beloved church in Ephesus "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert..." (Acts 20:28-31)
I have come home from missions trips so on high for God and ready to go and change the world. What I did not realize is that I have changed the world already. I have done something to move the spiritual bar up one notch. What I did not anticipate was the wave of questions that come when I get home. How do I impact the lives of the impoverished, the people who have no bibles, who do not know how to read and hear the joy of the Gospel of Christ? How do I use my limited resources in the cubicle jungle where I work and do the same thing day after day to make things a little bit better for these individuals? The spiral that follows is a downward dark and sometimes dangerous place. The answers can be confusing, the implications can be confounding, and the growth you get from asking these questions astounding.
The church as a whole today is paralyzed by fear. It is not hard to see why. We all hear the great commission and all we hear is Go, Go, Go, leave the world you know behind and disciple all the children of the world for Christ. What we do not take the time to do is to look at ourselves and the way we are discipling today. Who are we discipling in our cubicle jungle, who are we making the impact for, who are we standing next to machete in hand cutting away the confusion of life and helping to see the light of hope, of freedom, of justice and peace. We are so wrapped up in the paradigm that tells us that we have to be great in the eyes of man to be great in the eyes of God. That is so wrong and so unbiblical. We do not have to look far to see how God used Noah, a man of great faith, but not a ship builder, to save a few souls for the world to be reborn. The Bible is full of God's grace being poured out on the small, the meek and the timid. The apostle Paul himself had physical troubles, was small in stature and not a man of great "societal value" yet God used him has a mouthpiece to change the world. God says in the beatitudes "blessed are the meek... blessed are the humble...blessed are those who are persecuted on the account of righteousness..." God can change the average depressed Christian into a mountain moving, God fearing and life changing individual if they would just listen.
I am not advocating we all sit at home and wait upon the Lord to show us where we are doing life right and wrong. God does call people out to go into foreign lands and teach and to prosper. God is calling a generation to follow him, and some of that generation finds that following him means going into a new land and doing something they have never done before. For others it is as close as going to the local coffee shop, buying a friend a cup of coffee and listening to what they have to say. Not proselytizing, not laying a guilt trip, just listening. In the end do not be depressed my Christian friend, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Reach out and just lift the spiritual bar a millimeter. If millions of Christians would each do that we would raise the bar a long way.
REPRESSED
Perhaps the worst position to be in is as a repressed Christian. Repression has all to do with your inner battle. Oppression has to do with what others do to silence you, depression has to do with what others are doing or not doing to reach out to you, but repression is your own child. It is knowing that God is doing something; it is knowing that God is guiding you somewhere and you do not listen.
One example I will give is the one we all know best, Jonah. He knew the call of the Lord, He walked with the Lord, He listened to the Lord, yet he turned a blind eye to the destiny God had for him. He made all the excuses; he laid out all the logic for not going to Nineveh, but our God is not always a logical God. God has a plan, and to be outside of that plan for our life is a tragic thing. While most of us may not end up in the belly of a whale for not listening to God, we could be in a lot worse place. Our own dark path of spiritual confusion and pain.
Repressed Christians are the ones who are doing the most damage to the cause of Christ. Repressed Christians know and have sensed the presence of God, they have seen where God would have them to go, yet they did not go. They cling to the things of this world, the money, the fame, and the station in life they are in and for what? A pink slip and a thank you but your services are no longer needed here. Everything is so temporal that they cling to. Someone needs to wake them up and remind them that God is eternal, God is forever, and God keeps his promises. God says "I will never leave you nor forsake you" and in the end He will NOT leave you nor forsake you.
IN CONCLUSION
If you are still reading this, please do not think of it as the writings of a mad man. I hope that you will take it as a call upon yourself to follow Christ. To "Boldly go where no man has gone before" and to do that which Christ has called his church to do. Love one another as Christ loves us and to grow his kingdom one child at a time.
May God bless you and your family and may his countenance shine upon you today.