Shrinking Comfort Zone
Shrinking Comfort Zone
In Auckland one Sunday morning recently, I stepped out of church and set off to walk through a graveyard to the street. I was confronted by debris from a considerable explosion which had blown open a two-storey building across the road a few hours earlier. What was especially disturbing were the dinner plate sized shards of broken glass which earlier had been a restaurant's front window. They were lying uncomfortably in this usually peaceful and beautiful place; aging stones, venerable trees, flowers and neatly clipped lawn ... wreckage!
" 'From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of My people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace', they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not know even how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,' says the Lord." (Jeremiah 6.13-15)
The traditional Christian graveyard is like a buffer-zone (comfort-zone?) which lies protectively between the Church and the world. This space is now under siege and shrinking...with God's immediate permission. The Church in these Last Days will not be allowed to "rest in peace", conveniently and traditionally cloistered from our sin-sick and perishing world.
"The Lord...is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3.9)
"God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved." (1 Timothy 2.4)
If we will not go out, then it will come in,
"From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven is forcibly entered, and violent men seize it for themselves." (Matthew 11.12)
"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it." (Luke 16.16)
"Say to the House of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate My sanctuary - the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection." (Ezekiel 24.21)
Towards the end of the 1st Christian Millennium, the Church in Europe came under violent and persistent siege. The armies of Islam attacked the Church's "heart", sacking Rome and pillaging St. Peter's Church. But, as the Lord Himself had prophesied, that was not the end, "On this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it." (Matthew 16.18)
In fact, this long-ago desecration of His sanctuary, signaled a new beginning. The early centuries of the 2nd Millennium witnessed a profound reformation of the Church's ministry of intercession by Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as an explosive rekindling of mission through Francis of Assisi. What new prayer and evangelistic initiatives ought we to be anticipating in these first moments of the 3rd Millennium, as the Lord guides His people (both Old and New Covenant) through this last Last Days' siege.
"Praise be to the Lord, for He showed His wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city." (Psalm 31.21)
"I will encamp against you all around; I will encircle you with towers and set up My siege works against you. Brought low ... out of the dust your speech will whisper. But your many enemies will become like fine dust ... Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord Almighty will come." (Isaiah 29.1-8)
"I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations." (Zechariah 12.1-3)
"I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it ... Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives." (Zechariah 14.1-5)
