The Hidden Battle

Within the church, there's a hidden battle that few people really address or talk about but is still there in full force. I like to basically call it the Battle of the Truth, the funny thing is that you wouldn't think it would be something that was happening in the church but more with opposing world views and different religions. But if you were take a handful of Christians and poll them on certain issues and what their relationship with God was centered upon, I think you would be rather surprise at what you would find. Flipping through the channels of "Christian" TV these days you can find some awesome solid teachers, but sadly more often then not, those type of teachers are few and far between and what fills up the majority of the airwaves is what dictates most people's perception of Christianity; sadly enough it many times couldn't be further from the truth as to what Christianity really is supposed to be. These people emphasize that God's sole purpose is for you to be healthy and wealthy and it's honestly nauseating what they take out of context with Scripture. They talk of sewing "seeds" and fire ceremonies and miracle services, and it's just so sad because so many times I just want to ask them point blank, "Show me where in the Bible it teaches to do this thing". Did Peter ever hit someone on the head to heal them? Did Paul ever ask for a $100 faith seed that would guarantee the people a year's worth of prosperity? Did Jesus die on the cross so you could have a financial breakthrough? I guess the thing that gets me the most is that it's making it all about us, when it really should all be about HIM. It's not about what He's going to do for us, our relationship with Him shouldn't be dependent on emotion, our walk with God should be about HIS holiness, HIS goodness, HIS faithfulness, HIS justice, and as Ecclesiastes 5:7 says, standing in awe of God.

Now, you may be wondering what triggered this little soap box, well... Today I had the awesome opportunity to teach at the YMCA which is a vocational school here and during their morning devotion there are about 200 students in the room. I've taught there a couple of times before and every time it's just really cool to get to be a part of God working in that school. Well, today, I taught my passage that they give me ahead of time (which is a bit of challenge sometimes) and after I sat down, they said they had other visitors. So this lady gets up, and introduces herself and says that she's from the ministry of a very popular pastor in Uganda who was going to have a crusade in Jinja this week. As she kept talking, I seriously felt like I was in the middle of one of those teachings you see on TV, and she in turn was praising this man and the miracles he had done instead of praising God. After she finished, another guy got up and started yelling and saying a bunch of stuff and he concluded with having everyone raising their hands and him praying blessings for them especially that of financial breakthrough. It was so hard to be there because to much of what they said, I really just had to be careful not to show the reaction on my face. I sat there quietly and just tried to subtly make it clear that I was not in agreement with what he was saying. It's definitely a situation I had never been in before, but it was eye opening as to just how many people are living a life of self-serving Christianity and these "Pastors" are not looking to lead people in a deeper walk with Christ but to basically line their pockets and boost their egos. In 2 Timothy 4:3 says, "For a time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires they will gather around what their itching ears want to hear." That's definitely what I see more and more of as time goes on. But praise God for how HIS Word is sufficient and that it's not about us, that God's not someone we can command to do something, and that He's more than our finite little minds could ever begin to comprehend.