buy generic Ivermectin Written by: Missions Pastor, Andy Thomaston
On Tuesday, January 11th a Facebook post hit the social media giant’s airwaves that caused hurricane-force reaction from people all over the religious community, including the church where I am a pastor. Scores of shares and hundreds of opinions flooded the comment sections of posts about Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline, IL which allowed a flyer to go home to parents of students regarding an after school Satan club sponsored by the Satanic Temple. Those comments ranged from outright disbelief and outrage from said religious community, all the way to encouragement and approval from its vocal supporters.
What is monumentally more shocking than this club being held up for consideration, is the strong and opinionated reaction from the church. Not that the church shouldn’t have righteous outcry against such blatant evil, it certainly should (Ephesians 5:11). But unfortunately that outcry is where most of the reaction will cease.
Abony "Don’t be deceived Christian, this is not peacetime. This is wartime. There is a war fought every moment for your soul, the souls of your family, and the souls of every person on earth."
What do we, as the church, expect from those who are not the church? In other words, what sort of behavior do we think we should be seeing from those who are not Christians or, as I said in a recent sermon, “those whose eyes are still veiled from seeing the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ”? The Bible is very clear that such people are dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), they love darkness and hate light (John 3:19), and they are of their father the devil (John 8:44). Yet we are shocked and outraged when the Satanic Temple seeks to charter an after school Satan club. The unregenerate are only doing what the unregenerate do; acting in accordance with their nature.
An Unseen Spiritual Battle
The inception of this club actually exposes the true state of the church’s heart in two ways. First, it says in great part that we are truly unaware of the spiritual war that is raging around us every moment of every day. Only when it manifests in such an obvious way, as a seemingly harmless, extra-curricular activity in a local elementary school, are we defibrillated back to the reality of the intense spiritual battle. Don’t be deceived Christian, this is not peacetime. This is wartime. There is a war fought every moment for your soul, the souls of your family, and the souls of every person on earth. Willful ignorance blinds us to that fact and a rude awakening makes us cranky.
Reacting Vs. Responding
Second, if outcry is the culmination of our collective response then we fail miserably. The Bible calls us to definitively react, but not with man’s anger or sense of judgment and justice. We are called to respond in three ways: exposing evil as I have already stated (Ephesians 5:11), resisting the devil (James 4:7), and overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21), all of which require action. The social media comments section provide a safe, warm, and comfortable environment to react. Some may phone the school board, the school itself, their congressman, or maybe even the offending organization as a further step of calling out evil. Then they are content, having seemingly absolved themselves of responsibility by fulfilling their duty.
Being On Mission in the Quad Cities
Ultimately though, how are we going to respond in action and not just words? Funny enough, before I became aware of the post on social media, I had a conversation earlier that morning with the local director of Child Evangelism Fellowship in the Quad Cities. He essentially pleaded for people to come and take part in their training classes to go into the public schools for after school Good News Clubs. His appeal exposes the lack of God-fearing people willing to stand up for AND deliver truth, while the Satanic club communicates the abundance of God-fearing people willing to rail against untruth but do nothing to resist, nor overcome it.
"The question is whether we as the church are going to mobilize because we recognize such a wartime reality and therefore make a mad dash for the recruitment office, or if we are just content to criticize from the comfort of our keyboards."
On the Iowa side of the Quad Cities, a fantastic organization called One-Eighty is carrying the truth of the gospel to kids in public schools through an after-school program called Quest for Christ. Child Evangelism Fellowship is doing the exact same through their Good News Clubs on the Illinois side. Both organizations are ready to receive volunteers in droves to be sent out armed with the truth of the gospel. The question is whether we as the church are going to mobilize because we recognize such a wartime reality and therefore make a mad dash for the recruitment office, or if we are just content to criticize from the comfort of our keyboards.
The finish line is fast approaching when Jesus will return and make all things right. May we be found graciously and mercifully engaging a lost and dying world with the truth of the gospel that has been so graciously and mercifully revealed to us.
