Pastor Tony Jeffrey
In a recent essay, Our Greatest Threat Is Our Greatest Opportunity, Dr. Jim Denison, founder of Denison Ministries, discusses what many people consider to be the greatest threats facing America:
1. Artificial Intelligence—a potential extinction-level risk
2. Nuclear War—Escalating global tensions with China, Iran, and Russia
3. Genetic Engineering—Altering humanity’s future and ethics
4. Geopolitical Alliances—New axes of global conflict forming
Dr. Denison goes on to say, “Our greatest threat comes not from finite and frail humans but from an infinite and omnipotent God. If our nation faces His wrathful judgment, our future is over.” He goes on, “God’s people operating in the power of God’s Spirit can fulfill God’s purpose and advance God’s kingdom in the world.” This was evidenced in the early church, recorded in the Book of Acts. “God’s people were filled and empowered by God’s Spirit and became the catalysts for the greatest spiritual movement the world has ever seen … if we settle for the transactional religion of cultural Christianity rather than seeking a transformational relationship with the living Lord Jesus, we lose our capacity to be used by God to bring our sinful culture to repentance and divine favor, and our national future is in doubt. This is the greatest threat we face. But it is at the same time the greatest opportunity we can embrace.” These thought-provoking points led my wife Kathy and me to have a wonderful discussion about why the Church has lost its ability to positively affect culture. Why has it become so anemic? Kathy shared with me that in her Thursday morning Bible study at Robson Ranch, they had been discussing why aren’t Christian today more like the Apostle Paul.
In Philippians 1:20, Paul says of himself, in essence, I don’t care whether I live or die, as long as Christ is magnified in my body. The convicting question we must all ask ourselves is why, for those of us who call ourselves Christians, are we not more like Paul? The answer is found in Romans 12:1-2. Here the Apostle Paul instructs us to remember all that God has done for us in saving us and urges us to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God. The problem is, we refuse to do this! Under the Law of Moses, when an animal sacrifice was presented to the priest, how much will of its own did the animal have after being handed off to the priest? None! This is the same point Paul is making in this verse.
Next month we will further explore what Paul means by being a Spirit-filled Christian.