A disappointment

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A disappointment

Even though the Church should be a community filled with love, it is possible that this is not the case because of the imperfection of people. Instead, we can be disappointed with others. We may be disappointed with them because we have not received sympathy for our own condition or opinions. We may be disappointed with the imperfection and faults of other people. Likewise, some may be disappointed with their parents who are law-minded and have not spent their time with them but in a congregation. It is also possible that in the congregation there are flashovers and misuses that have hurt people. Some have banged the doors shut because of such issues and sworn that they do not want to have anything to do with God anymore:

It truly cannot be denied that some of these groups, which believe and practise the gifts of the Holy Spirit, can be guilty of significant malpractices. I have seen in many meetings outbursts of feeling, exaggeration and flashovers, elitism and prophecies, which have been used for manipulation and control. I have also taken part in meetings and got acquainted with movements that have perfectly lacked any biblical base and ground. I don’t claim, however, that this would be true in the majority of groups and meetings that practise the gifts of the Spirit. I also know that those leaders who I know personally inside these movements quickly interfere with flashovers and malpractices. (17)

What do you have to do? If you have been in a similar situation in which you have left a congregation and perhaps later also God, you should not remain in this state. Instead, take into consideration the following points, at least:

Forgive! It is good to forgive because we are urged to do so. If people were perfect, there would never be any need for forgiveness but because this is not the case, it is needed. It is above a choice, and feelings can follow:

- (Matt 6:12) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

- (Matt 18:32-35) Then his lord, after that he had called him, said to him, O you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you desired me:

33 Should not you also have had compassion on your fellow servant, even as I had pity on you?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also to you if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

An account of ourselves. Note that we answer only for ourselves. This means that we are finally accountable to God only for our own lives, not for that of others. That is why it is futile to pay attention to the imperfections of others but only to your own life. We have to first cast out the beam from our own life:

- (Rom 14:12) So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

- (Matt 7:3-5) And why behold you the mote that is in your brother’s eye but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?

4 Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull out the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye?

5 You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother’s eye.

Only Christ is perfect. Understand that there is no such thing as a perfect congregation on Earth. It is impossible because people are always imperfect. A good example is the congregation of Corinth, which was raised by the preaching of Paul. Its imperfection appears in the quarrels, envy, sins and other faults. Paul wrote:

- (2 Cor 12:20,21) For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found to you such as you would not: lest there be debates, contentions, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, arrogance, tumults:

21 And lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall mourn many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

- (1 Cor 3:1-3) And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to carnal, even as to babes in Christ.

2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for till now you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able.

3 For you are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?

Understand that you are not searching for a perfect congregation because there is no such thing on Earth. Instead, focus on Jesus Christ because only He is perfect and was sinless on Earth (Hebr 4:15: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.). If this is forgotten, continuous disappointments will follow:

My trust in spiritual authorities got a hard blow in the sisterhood. I could have turned my back to all Christianity as a consequence of it. I have met many people in the course of the years who have been disappointed at a congregation and believers. In the family album of God, there are many sad faces. The question of how a cruelly treated can have once again the trust in the Christian congregation is connected to this.

   Why didn't I hide somewhere to lick my wounds but educated myself for the profession of a theologian? It was because of understanding this essential issue: Christ is not the same thing as the Christian people. In the monastery tradition, these two are usually considered the same.

   (...) It is good to keep in mind the difference between the source and vessel. Any community of faith or its leader is unable to satisfy our deepest needs. If I remember this, I shall avoid new disappointments. I understand that there is no such thing as a perfect congregation.

      The Psalm writer reminds us that it is wiser for man to base his hope on God than on people. When my trust rests in God, I can easier stand the incompleteness and faults of people who act in His name without hurting my feelings. (18)

Are you in faith?

- (2 Cor 13:5) Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates?

One reason why some do not feel at home in a congregation is that they have not been born again yet. They can have Christianity, its framework and religious behaviour, and have a relationship with a congregation – many of them have grown in Christian circles and come from Christian homes – but they have not yet experienced rebirth. They may be spiritually active, even pray, but they do not yet understand what real salvation is. They neither understand regeneration nor have they changed internally. As a consequence, their external life continues to be the same. Rodney M. Howard-Browne has written about this in his book Mitä tarkoittaa uudestisyntyminen ("What does it mean to be born again," free translation from the Finnish title, p. 4, 5):

The Lord told me, "Many people have not been born again. They have never experienced being born again. They have never come under the cross. They have stood in line and said, ‘Jesus, I confess that you are my Lord and my Savior’ but in their hearts they have not changed."

   Being born again is not something that happens externally. Being saved is not done through reasoning. It takes place in the heart when one accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. That is when he will change. He will become a new creation. This very thing is so exiting in being born again. (…)

   Do not come to tell me that you have been born again while you still live your life as before. I will not believe you. I do not care about the congregation you attend to. I do not care even if your father were a deacon. I do not care even if you were the leader of the elders. I do not care even if you belonged to all possible committees. When you are born again, you will change. You will become a new creation.

   People who think they can be born again and yet carry on with their lives as usual deceive themselves. Their relationship with God is not right and they cover it so well that even they themselves do not see it. They have never repented.

   In fact, there are people who think that they are a good deal to God. They think that God somehow owes them salvation.

From disappointment to true conversion. Since there can be disappointed people who have not yet been saved in a congregation, the question is: How does real conversion occur and what issues are connected with it? Is there something these people have not experienced?

The answer is simple: These people have never come to understand their real condition before God. They have not recognized their own sinfulness, abjection (Rom 7), how they are under condemnation and far from God. In the language of the Bible, the law has not gotten to stop their mouths, make them guilty and sinful before God and that is why all is incomplete and shallow (Rom 3:19,20: Now we know that what things soever the law said, it said to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.) Just when we understand our real condition, when we do not find solace in our actions or ability to change, only then do we understand that we must look to Christ. Only then do we recognize that Christ has done everything for us, and He alone can save us from our shipwrecked lives. This is always how it goes. Some people do not comprehend the whole thing. Charles H. Spurgeon has described it:

Truly we get nowadays to hear people speak about people who are healed before their wounds and who get assurance of their justification even though they have never wept for their damned condition. We, however, doubt the value of that kind of healing and justification because this is not the correct order of things. God never dresses a man before he has first undressed him. Neither does he refresh a man with the Gospel before he first has hit him with the law. So, when you meet persons in whom you cannot see even a sign of realizing their sins, you can be quite sure that the Holy Spirit has not affected them, for ”when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”.

   (...) You cannot have given your soul to Jesus before you have stopped to trust in yourself and your own merits and have come to Jesus. (19)

You can be saved! When you understand that you are far away from God, damned and that you need salvation in Jesus Christ, learn that you do not need to remain in such condition. You can turn to Jesus, tell Him that you are a sinner and that you want to be saved. Say this prayer:

The prayer of salvation: Lord, Jesus, I turn to You. I confess that I have sinned against You and have not lived according to Your will. However, I want to turn from my sins and follow You with all my heart. I also believe that my sins have been forgiven by Your atonement and I have received eternal life through You. I thank You for the salvation that You have given me. Amen.

According to the Bible, if you turn to Jesus, give your life to Him, and ask Him to come in to your life, then you are adopted by God and enter into eternal life. Trust the following words and not your own changing feelings:

- (John 1:12,13) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God.

- (1 John 5:11-13) And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

12 He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.

13 These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

REFERENCES:

1. Charles G. Finney: Ihmeellisiä herätyksiä, p. 9-11, 75, 381,382

2. Charles G. Finney: Kun herätys tulee (How to Promote a Revival), p. 61

3. Charles H. Spurgeon: Sielujenvoittaja (The Soul-Winner), p. 15,16

4. Richard Bushman: The Great Awakening: Documents on the Revival of religion, 1740-1745. New York: Atheneum, 1970. Cit. from: Guy Chevreau: Sateet tulevat, p. 142

5. Gene Lilly: Anteeksiantamisen voima (God is calling his people to forgiveness), s. 35,36

6. Charles H. Spurgeon: Sielujenvoittaja (The Soul-Winner), p. 16,17

7. Kalevi Lehtinen: Löytöretkellä, p. 27

8. Veikko Pekki: Päästäkää hänet siteistä, p. 21

9. Martin Ski: T.B. Barratt – helluntaiapostoli (T.B. Barratt – Dopt i Ånd og ild), p. 128

10. Charles S. Prize: Ihmeitätekevä usko, p. 68,78,82,108

11. Rainer Friman: Pakkolasku armoon, p. 92

12. Charles R. Swindoll: Armoherätys (”The Grace Awakening”), p. 147

13. Rick Joyner: Petos, taistelu, voitto (Final Quest), p. 95-97

14. Veikko Pekki: Täynnä iloa ja Pyhää Henkeä, p. 21

15. Charles H. Spurgeon: Sielujenvoittaja (The Soul-Winner), p. 12,13,27-29

16. Reinhard Bonnke: Evankelionti tulella käynnistää herätyksen (Evangelism by Fire: An initiative for revival), p. 68,69

17. Jack Deere: Jumala puhuu ja parantaa (Surprised by the Power of God), p. 88, 89

18. Marianne Jansson / Riitta Lemmetyinen: Uskolla alistetut, p. 197,199

19. Charles H. Spurgeon: Sielujenvoittaja (The Soul-Winner), p. 20,21

                      Jari Iivanainen