Otto von Habsburg, 98, the eldest son and last survivor of the Habsburg Austrian dynasty died on July 4th. His life had been spent as a stalwart of western civilization, a giant of the Christian faith, an opponent of Nazism and Communism.
The irrevocable, irrefutable, truth of Christianity: God is no respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34) Faith in God is the greatest wealth a human life can possess. Whether the apostle Paul in a prison cell in Rome or Dietrich Bonhoeffer approaching the hanging gallows in Poland, faith is either worth everything or worth nothing. Faith is a verb; action based on belief, sustained by confidence. We do what we do because we believe what we believe. Most of our actions, whether physical, mental, financial, or political, are based on confidence.
The mystery of the ages, the beautiful, priceless cathedrals all throughout Europe; beautiful priceless temples and churches throughout America, great stained glass windows, the most expensive musical instruments, all built supposedly as places of worship for the Creator God in Whom we have trust and confidence. Do we really believe in what we are doing, at a place of worship or anywhere else, when we show so little confidence? Are many “believers” wasting their time, in holy hypocrisy or milky meandering?
Someone looked at a picture of this writer from when I was a small boy, they noticed that there was a Christian cross on the lapel of my coat. I said, “we were real, believing, happy Christians.” I have been searching for years for another Christian cross to proudly wear on my lapel. You no longer find believers wearing crosses, seldom find a cross displayed in a church building. Happy, proud, and unmistaken in their commitment, in Catholic schools, crosses are displayed in every classroom.
The church that I attended as a youngster, because of my continued giving to the church, includes me in their telephone message service. The phone rang, and the pastor announced that because of the heavy rains, the Wednesday night prayer service has been canceled. My cousins, who still live in that area of the state, where the large farms on which me and my ancestors were reared are located, had told me of this summer's drought, the crops drying up in the fields. There was a time in the history of the church, a time when the attendants at prayer meetings would have been greater than ever because of thankfulness for the coming of rain.
How well I remember as a young child, the long dry spells, crops drying-up in the fields, thirsty farm and forest animals. My father would go around the community and tell everyone that they were gathering at the church to pray for rain. Even cousin Bob Scott, the family “land hog” (men who purchased every farm they could in a community), who never went to church at any other time, would show up at the church when they were praying for rain.
I well remember one of my aunts carrying her umbrella, so great was her faithfulness. She like the others, knew that their prayers would be answered, and with a complete change in outward countenance, smiles on their faces, a new sprite in their walking, they returned to the church to thank God for the outpouring of water. I have written about it many times, how when the rains came, even the farm animals (chickens, hogs, mules, cows) showed a new attitude in their living. The frogs in the pastor croaked louder, the birds in all the fruit trees sang louder, and most of all, the saints in God's house sang louder as they proclaimed His faithfulness.
If Christians really believed what they should believe, what they profess to believe, the world would not be in the condition it is in today. The unbelievers would want a taste of this all-satisfying nectar which we call Christianity. The truth is that most are just playing games with God, wanting to believe, attempting to believe, but because they have never been willing to throw their hearts into the consuming zeal, have never gotten there. Much like Peter in the jail at Philippi, the Christians were at John Mark's mother's house praying for Peter's release; God shook the prison, the shackles came off and God's angel escorted Peter out of the open prison gates. Peter was knocking at the door where the prayer meeting was going on, a girl named Roda came to answer the knocking at the door, but like most young, untrusting Christians, she turned around and went back in the house, not believing what her eyes had seen.
When I walked down the streets of Jerusalem, the streets of Bethlehem, Damascus, Rome, and many of the other beautiful holy spots of the world, the thought kept occurring to me, “with all the history of Christianity, with the beauty of God's world, with the revelation of sin's ruin and Christ's redemption, why is it so difficult for an unbelieving world to believe?” Perhaps there is a greater challenge in play acting, puppeteering, masquerading than in living and believing the real truth.
From 1952 until 1960, a very popular television game show entitled Masquerade Party, a character dressed in costume and make-up, would try to fool a panel of judges by answering yes-or-no questions. The challenge was to ascertain the true identity of the impostor-pretender. It is long past time for God's children to stop pretending, masquerading.
On those same farms, in that same community, where that same church is located and where generations of families have sought guidance, when plowing in the field, you kept your hands on the plow, looked straight ahead at the target/goal. One did not have to look backwards to see where you had been, the farrow would have been straight because you were going in a straight direction.
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