“A conviction unguided by love will make the possessor obnoxious and the dogma he possesses repulsive”. Ravi Zacharias
Our world today is generally thinking of great things to be done, greater accomplishments, bigger projects that reflect our toping ability, sites and sizes that prove we are on those ivory towers, we can make it up there too, you know. We can also reach the moon, touch the sun, sit on the stars, and drink the ocean. We can crisscross the globe in split of seconds, wipe off the horizon, we can build and destroy to build again, we can and yes we can. In fact, we don’t need God, we need to become the god of God, build the structure and then squeeze Him into it.
“We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in wealth, number and power as no other nation had ever grown. But we have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthen us. And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our heart that all these blessings were produced by our superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated now with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us” (Abraham Lincoln in the 1800s).
We have become power drunk like the megalomaniacs, prosperity driven and shaken like one who is suffering a withdrawal symptom till we have no roots anymore – no roots for our soils have become shifting sand. And like the hedonist, we have lived for today and buried the glories of the future generation. Like the fibrous roots of the great trees, we have found our nutrition on the surface of conviction; we found no need for the taproot. “It was not for us” we vainly boast, though it may seem appealing but it’s not really for us. The only thing about the taproot that appeals to us is the aesthetics of the root. We have all we ever needed on the surface, no stress to get our roots down, the Maker has been so beneficent to us that He has given us all we will ever need on the surface. We become guilty of mocking the tree with the taproot. The resultant effect had always been that we became disadvantaged at the pride and fury of every wind.
Our churches have become places where godless men seek to represent a godly God. ‘It’s great treason to do the right thing for the wrong reason,’ said S. T. Elliot. This I think is
one of the challenges of our well decorated pulpits. We wonder how men who are devoid of God seek to get men under them to be subject, not just to God but to them for representing a God they are not responsible to. This is a great deception in religious matters. When we are out of passion, then the church is really out. When the believers are out of passion the church will be out of fashion. It’s not the Christ of the church that is out of fashion but the acclaimed bearers of the Christ. The Christ never gets out of fashion but the Christ bearer has made him seem so old fashioned that He in His fullness and glory does not appeal to the world. The old African king would say “I love the Christ but dislike the Christians, for they are unlike their Christ”.
My grand question in this little article is WHERE ARE THE STONES? Jesus spoke about the stones rising up to praise Him if the organized bodies of religious people in His days were going to shut up the mouths of their adherents’, members and loyalists. While Jesus was moving triumphantly, seeking for a place in the hearts of all that beheld Him, seeking out a resting place in the conviction of the beholders, fulfilling that which was written concerning Him in the very scriptures they claim to interpret every Sabbath day, the religious leaders of His day thought He was coming to take the pulpit from them, the sheep from their flock, the members from their synagogues. Today, we find the same challenge, oh brother, as it pertains to reaching the world for Christ. Leaders claim their members as their property, no more Gods’ property destined to fulfill Gods overriding purpose; their flock, no more Gods flock; their children, and are happy to be called big titles and they forget that those children were given to them by God. What do you have that was not given to you? We are merely custodians of the heavenly resources and possessors of nothing. Jesus emphatically spoke to the religious bigots of His day, look if you shut your doors, the stones outside the temples will cry out. Friends watch out in these days, stones are about to cry out, stones, yes stones, even those outside the temples are waiting for those in the churches and flamboyant sanctuaries just to keep shut. Their keeping shut prompts the stones outside the synagogues to cry out.
The dilemma of stones crying out, outside the temple is not just that the stones will be crying out from unexpected places. The temples themselves will be at risk. He said about the temple that no building stone, no great stone, no confined stone, no colored and entitled stone, polished stone, no decorated stone or even a well coated stone will be left on each other. They will be scattered. And so it was that the temple they greatly defended, the structure they greatly prided in, the organization they gloried in, the system they fought for, crumbled before their very eyes. Friends, when it will start crumbling, we will not be able to help it, for if the foundation be destroyed, what shall even the righteous do? Richard Day in his book “filled with the spirit” states clearly that “there are no exclusive mass movement although it may appear that way, when the center of the column is cleared, we find a single man who knows God and who knows where God is going”.
God starts with that single individual, that individual Man. It grows with him and it becomes a Movement, from being a Movement, things begin to change, expansion brings its compromise. The compromise in vision and mission, conviction and consecration makes the Movementa Machine. At this point it becomes people- driven, no more God- driven, the concept of humanism and hedonism takes over, the movement that was Theocentric becomes human-centric. At this point, we lose all, all is gone and all that is left is the Monument. Just a structure that once carried the glory, the smoke of the once burning flames. This is our extinction point. The men in the structure are dead and the structure becomes the grave for their dry bones, and a cage of future generations.
The Stones cannot be stopped because the leaders of the synagogues didn’t even believe such ever existed. They just saw them as materials that should be by the byways. Those were not qualified for temple worship. The stones which the builders have rejected will become the head of the corner. Since they are not bugged down by the rules of the organization, they could cry out, heralding the coming of the messiah. They are not freelancers but seem to understand what the Pharisees didn’t understand: the arrival of the messiah, the desire of heaven, the purpose of creation, the glorification of Christ, the greater than the temple is here, a wiser than Solomon has just entered, souls out there are wandering in the hills without the care of the shepherd. The demigods of his age seem to have known so much but didn’t have one knowledge extra which was the conclusion and summary of all their labours. Thou art cumbered about many things but Mary thy sister has chosen the right way. Or He will turn around and say, “you know what friend, thou art not far from the kingdom but one thing thou lackest”.
Where are the stones? Where are the stones Jesus spoke about? Where are the hearts that yearn for the hands and heart of God? Where are the life’s that He said before I formed you I knew you, I have also anointed you from the womb to be a prophet to the nations? Where are the sons and daughters of Abraham? Servants like Joshua who will take over from the Moses, the Elishas who will take over from the Elijahs, the John Marks, who will write the gospels even after being rejected by a great apostle like Paul. Where are the Stones? Where are the minds who will give and be given, spend till they are spent, invest till they invest themselves? Where are the sons and daughters who are for signs and wonders in the land? Where are those who will dare the lion’s den, pass through the fire and face the fierce flames fuming from the wild beast of Ephesus? We need the Stones in this age!!!
Friends, where are the Stones that said if I die I die? Where are the sisters that will dump the place of comfort, great marriages only to accompany a Barak to the battle field? Where are the Jaels who have mastered their use of tent nail to the disadvantage of their enemies, the enemies of the people of God? Where are the four daughters of Philip who will be prophesying and also virgins at the same time? Where are those who will leave the pleasures of home, the prosperity, the peace and the happiness of friendly company only to hear a single soul say “am not afraid to die since I know your name” Where are the Mary Slessors, the Kathyrin Khuhman, where are the Stones, the Stones who will cry out? “There has never been a man in history who gave his life to ease and pleasure, whose name was worth remembering”. D.K. Olukoya
Where are the Stones that will cry out in hinder lands, lands where He has not been once mentioned, places where the blood of saints wet their soil only to bring the gospel to a single life, places where they cannot read the bible in their own language, places where there is no hope of greatness, places where all dreams of flamboyances will flee? It’s been said about the theater of Rome, that as you pick up the sand, you will be picking up the blood of persecuted saints. Saints “who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith”.
The Stones were supposed to cry out and not lie idle, the Stones were supposed to shout out the power of their glorified king and not to be locked behind church doors, the Stone were supposed to be outside and inside the temple heralding the arrival of the great messiah, the Stones were to be the forerunners of the savior showing his light in every dark place for He was meant to be a burning and a shining light and we were to rejoice in the brightness and the glory of that light but for a season. He was to be a light to the Gentiles, and to declare His name before the kings and rulers of the land not to be locked up in Jerusalem. He was to be an Apostle to the Gentiles while Peter was to be an Apostle to the Jews. He was not called to reach the same people. Pulpiteers, release the stones to go as far as Antioch, for we stretch not ourselves Beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ.
Arise oh Stones and cry out for this is your time. Our world is deeply going down the hopeless line, meaning is lost, no moral law and eternity is a blick one. The hopelessness of eternity should spore us to move forth and cry out that some may be saved. Let’s wake up the sleeping giants, the voices that have become dumb, the lights that have become dim, awake oh sleeping giants! The earnest expectation of the creation is your manifestation. We need lives who will give in their all. The fields are white unto harvest oh, alas the labourers are so few. We need more men not just on pulpits but more men where men do perish. We need more men not just in the fold but in fields where sheep scatter with no shepherd to guide them along. We need more men whose heart the Lord has touched to move from the comfort of well decorated tabernacles to the places where Satan by his strong tentacles of sin had held men bound. We need sons and daughters to arise and move to the regions far beyond where Christ has not been once mentioned, we need more sons and daughters that will push back the army of the aliens. The battle is raging so high; comrades can God find the Stones? Sons who will cloth themselves with fire so as to face the sons of Belial who are clothed with thorns? We need sons and daughters to arise.
Men and women had risen in their days, they fought the good fight and left the baton behind them. Rabbi Marvin said “it’s not for us to finish the task neither is it for us to abandon it”. The warfare is not won yet. The battle is not over until it is over. It’s not ended until Christ reigns in every heart, until He is worshipped where ever the sun may shine. Each and every one of us has contributions in the fight, we all have a part in the evangelization of the world. We have places where God is expecting us to sow the word. Souls are praying for your arrival. Come now while they wait, come now while they are still alive, come now while the doors are still open, come now while their heart the Lord has opened, come now when your strength has not been spent for nought, come now when the world has not totally drained all you have, and like the old Preacher you would say “I have no pleasure in it”. Come now, now is the day of their salvation.
No matter how broken you may be the master has need of you, He needs you in the accomplishment of this grand project. You are the stonethat should cry out. The religious demigods may not want you to cry out but oh son and daughter of God, it’s time to cry out. Please cry out for there are countless souls to be won, cry out for more than two-third of our world is going down the drain, sinking to rise no more. Cry out because they are not just unsaved but lost, cry out and get others to cry alongside, let nothing stop your mouth, don’t let tradition cease your voice, don’t let dogma dim your light, don’t let the options of men shake off that heart that God has given you. For to do less is to do nothing and to do nothing is to go unrewarded. Arise oh stone and cry out. Cry out till all hear, cry out till men leap over your body to hell if at all they should go down that path. Cry out, sons, till you may drop down just for a life to be changed!
Don’t become pessimistic, for to be that is to be wound up in the tradition of the day and it will land you in the words of this poem, The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson
“All things betray thee, who betrayest me…
Naught shelters thee, who will not shelter me…
Lo naught content thee, who content’st not me…
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest me.
For though I knew his love who followed, yet was I sore adread. Lest having him, I must have naught beside…
Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest.
I am he whom thou sleekest.
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me”.
What you believe in your heart is ultimately embodied in your life, if you believe you are a creature of God and that your neighbor is same, then you will honor that life. But if you consider others as random collection of atoms, you will want to shove them off because they will still be shoved off some day.
Where are the Stones? God always in every generation seeks and cries out, I SOUGHT FOR A MAN!!! For this material getting into your hand is not just for you to critically analyze the content, it’s a proof that God wants to move you from where you are to where you ought to be. God wants to move your organization from where it is in the back line of missions to the front lines. God wants to rekindle that fire that was once burning in your mind, your heart, that fire that was not for recognition, not for popularity, not for prosperity but for the reaching of the lost.
Will you be willing, once again to say in the words of Ray Bolt: I pledge allegiance to the lamb, with all my strength with all I am, I will live to honor his command, I pledge allegiance to the lamb. Sons and daughters of God, remember that God’s work will be done with or without you, it’s only a privilege for you to be a part.
Udobang, Inemeno
Campus Momentum
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