Just last week I happened to glance at the little battery clock to the side of my computer. It is a “Countdown to the Next Millennium” clock. Simply something I’ve had since working on the Y2K project while in Alaska.
It caught my attention and I begin to analyze what I was seeing. After the Countdown ended at the start of the next 1000 years, the clock changed modes from counting down. What now? It did the typical thing that clocks do – it tells time.
But something else caught my attention more on this particular day. The numbers on the screen were just about faded out and it was hard to read. I picked it up and realized that it was probably just the battery about to be extinguished. So, I pulled out the 12 year old battery and put in a new one. Do you know what the clock did? It went back to a time in late 1998, somewhere around December. Then, began counting down to the Y2K date all over again. I was reliving those project years of fixing computer programs to recognize correct dates into the future. Now, if I could simply make that good money all over again! Enjoying the challenge of the meeting the need!
What would we do?
Think with me. “What if we could just plug in a new battery into our Spiritual Clock? Could we become engaged with the race to get things done before the Lord Comes Back…”
Having already lived the future, could we get Desperate to accomplish more than we ever thought possible. We now know what the future holds. We saw the ending as that special clock ticks down to those last seconds. What we haphazardly live through today would take on new meanings! We could be engaged to the need of the hour! New priorities would spring up. New energy would avail itself to the moment.
What if this desperation is nothing more than we’ve been procrastinating for too long. Now it seems like we are fast approaching some yet unnamed event and rush to get things done we should have always been doing!
Here’s My Thought
So. Naturally. I think of the church. What do we need, today, more than anything we’ve sought for previously?
- More than money – we need a desperation to find God.
- Even more than more hours in the day, or days in the week. We need to use our time more effectively.
- More than social marketing – we need people who are hungry to see revival and work tirelessly for those who need connection to Jesus. And most of these we know!
- It’s more than advertising in the Yellow Pages – we need it noised abroad that “Jesus is in the House…”
- More than just a building – we need a gathering to take place where people’s spiritual and natural needs are being met.
- We should live beyond programs with catchy names and glitzy graphics – we need feet on the ground, hands in the dirt, and people doing so much more without than others do “with”.
If we are going to build a church, it is going to be because we let people know one simple fact.
Jesus is in the house.
When Jesus is in the house, desperate people show up. And desperate people do desperate things. In a world that is increasingly searching for answers since the attacks of September 11th we need to let them know the name of the answer, Jesus Christ.
We Need Desperate People
It is not time to play around.
Scripture tells of a man who was sick, and Jesus was in the town. Fiends took the man in his bed and could not get in the building for the crowd at the door.
“And not being able to draw near to Him, due to the crowd, they unroofed the roof where He was. And digging through, they lowered the cot on which the paralytic was lying. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, Child, your sins are forgiven to you.”
Mark 2:4-5 (LITV)
Notice what these men in scripture did when they couldn’t get to Jesus through the door. They climbed on top of the roof and began tearing a hole in it. They looked for extraordinary ways to get the infirm into the presence of Jesus!
Doesn’t this speak for us today?
We hear of super-human effort to turn over a car that has someone trapped. Or, a soldier going further than anyone thought possible to save a buddy. Even those first responders put their all on the line to save just one person!
- We must seek God like never before.
- When we come to church, we must Touch HIM.
- As the church, we should not allow distractions to keep us from touching Him.
- We cannot come to church just for ourselves, there are many in our circle who need Jesus! This should consider this a mandate!
Perhaps it’s time to stop making excuses and start acting desperate.
Where’s Your Faith?
Notice what it says, “And when Jesus saw their faith”. It’s not the faith of the infirm that Jesus was speaking about, but it was the desperate faith of the men who were willing to go to extraordinary lengths to bring the need to Jesus. In other words, not when he saw the faith of the sick man, but when he saw the faith of the bearers, he said unto the man sick of the palsy, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
We need to desperately to understand this. God isn’t waiting for the faith of a stranger to increase before he moves. He is waiting for the faith of His people to increase. He is waiting for the faith of this church to increase. And then He will move.
When Countdowns End – God isn’t waiting for the faith of a stranger to increase before he moves. He is waiting for the faith of His people to increase. He is waiting for the faith of this church to increase. And then He will move. Click To TweetI think the countdown clock is ticking and we are not aware of the times we live in.