Activism
Hi all,
Activism is too strong a word for some, I thought I would see if I could
soften it up a little. Then maybe we can move on. I looked up the word
in the dictionary and it suggests direct action to effect change. I
worked in community service for years and then with the homeless for
more years so the word activism rolls off my back but I understand that
to an ultra-conservative, change is anathema and so is the social
gospel, the activist spirit is certainly considered somewhat evil. The
words activist and action is of course coming from an action verb, to
act, not passive. The acts of the apostles did not end, except in the
inactivity of do-nothing Christians. The word go is also an action verb,
in the imperative. As it was mentioned already, Jesus said GO into the
world. When Jesus sent the seventy disciples out to preach, He also said
go and was giving us a formula for direct action. Too many Christians
are waiting for God to move them, Jesus already said go, He is waiting
for us to move. I believe that satan will try to counterfeit every
genuine move of God. It is shameful that the only Christian groups that
have effectively taken direct action house to house, two by two, like
Jesus taught us, are the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons. We know that
will change when the marriage supper is ignored by those that are
invited and the gospel will be taken into the highways and byways
(streets). But until then, I think that we should be flexible enough to
hear the Holy Spirit and not be among those that ignore the signs.
The best example of Christian activism in America is of course the civil
rights marches and Martin Luther King. Who opposed them? The
ultra-conservative churches and right-wing government leaders who
branded King a communist agitator and trouble maker. He is looked up to
now, but not then, except by those of action. Which of your fathers did
not stone the prophets? This is not the watered down gospel that is
preached to the poor and oppressed of the world, it is the gospel that
packs power and reminiscent of what the Jews were expecting from Jesus
the first time He came.
One responded to me the verse that Jesus will not lift His voice in the
streets in Matthew 12. The verse is from Isaiah 42 and in context, this
is a perfect example. Jesus was to show judgment to the Gentiles, He did
not start doing this until it was given us to do it after the ascension.
I believe that Jesus will deliver the judgment through us, correct me if
I am wrong. You can pray all you want that this will happen but unless
there are those that act in the power of the Holy Ghost it will not. Of
course it will but it will be done through those that have been led to
do so and go, not by those who are passive and ignore the call. Read
Isaiah 42 and see for yourself. The former things have come to pass and
He has declared new things, it is time to sing unto the Lord a new song
that we may GO down to the sea (of humanity) and all that is therein,
the isles (continents) and the inhabitants thereof. Read the entire
chapter, read of the blind and the deaf and then read chapter 43. This
is just what we have been talking about, going through the fire, the
conflict of the north and the south, we are His witnesses to bring down
Babylon, it is written like an outline. We are doing a new thing,
remember not the former things.
We need to agree that when we are called to go, that we have not already
set up a defense mechanism against action that would preclude us from
hearing the call. "For I was hungered and you gave me meat, I was
thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in.
Naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison
and you came unto me."
Jay.
December 14, 1999
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