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Any
thoughts? ... Tell us what you think here |
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Like
it or not, the Church is called to represent
God in the world through the way she lives
and what she says. There are many issues in
today’s society that are becoming so
polarized that Christians are being called
upon to voice ‘God’s’ opinion
on them. ALOVE takes a look at ten of these
issue and what we might say.
1. Sex & Purity
- Colossians 3 v 1-11
Paul had clear instructions to the believers
at Colosse about maintaining sexual purity.
God is a holy God and we should strive with
all we have to be as pure as possible. Today’s
society is founded on ‘what can catches
the eye’. Magazine placement upon newsagents’
shelves, ubiquity of pornography on the web
and certain pop music videos and movies are
full of unhelpful or broken sexual representation.
As Christians, we have a responsibility to
guard ourselves from temptation and to remain
accountable to each other regarding our approach
to lust and sexual purity.
2. War - Isaiah
2 v 1-4
There is a day coming when warfare will cease
and the true King of Peace returns to reign
in the person of Jesus. This can seem a million
years away when we see the conflict in the
Middle East and the unseen forces of terrorism
in the West. What should Christians do? At
all costs, we should strive for peace. Where
possible, we should speak and lovingly reach
out into other faith communities or write
to our MPs, or seize the opportunity to march
against war and corporately pray for peace
to bring about God’s kingdom on earth
as it is in heaven.
3. Leisure and
Recreation - Ecclesiastes 7 v 1-5
In an increasingly materialistic society,
it’s hard to escape the pressure to
always be spending money, time and energy
organising one’s social time. Technology
is designed for it, promotes it and fashion
actively encourages one’s very own,
constantly changing ‘catwalk of life.’
Are holidays, shopping and socialising the
current gods of this age. We are created to
worship God and enjoy the world he has made
for us, yet true wisdom is to understand that
life is temporary and our days short. We should
balance the natural, wonderful and varied
opportunities to enjoy life with the wisdom
of seizing avenues to share the hope of eternal
life with those who don’t yet know God.
4. Trade Justice
- Amos 4 v 1-3
Trade Justice is not a trendy cause recently
promoted by the ‘Rock Star Conscience’
or the desire of many to consume a guilt-free
cup of coffee. God has always been passionate
about the fair treatment of all humanity.
He sent his crack team of prophets to repeatedly
warn society of the consequences of neglecting
the poor. Take Amos for example, who spoke
out into a culture of materialism, classism,
slavery and ignorance. The rich lounged around
like ‘fat cows’ concerned where
their next drink was coming from, whilst poorer
members of their society were struggling to
survive. Poor people were traded like cattle!
As the 200th bicentenary of the Abolition
of the Slave Trade approaches, why not use
2007 as an opportunity to speak out about
trade justice?
5. Money - Ecclesiastes
5 v 10 & Matthew 6 v 24
Both Old and New Testaments have very poignant
things to say about the love of money. The
writer of Ecclesiastes says: the rich will
always have people to help them spend their
money! Jesus says that we cannot serve both
God and Money. So what should we do? Sell
everything we have and give it to the poor?
No! Jesus spoke that instruction into the
life of a wealthy man who wanted to know the
key to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus’
response was specific to the young man’s
situation and the gods he had built up in
his own life. God blesses some Christians
with wealth in order to help the church and
the world. The key to handling money is to
place it back into the hands of God; to enjoy
it responsibly and use it wisely.
6. Church - 1
Peter 2 v 9
In response to what unbelievers behave like
in this world, Peter tells the believers that
they are a royal priesthood and are chosen
by God. There’s a lot of bad attitude
towards the Church from outside and inside
Christianity. From outside the church, many
see Christians as irrelevant, judgmental and
hypocritical. It is more important than ever,
in our age of confusion and uncertainty, for
the church to maintain its consistent voice
of Jesus’ love for all humanity.
From inside the Church, some Christians believe
you can ‘do church’ wherever;
on a train, down the pub or in your back garden.
To a degree, yes you can, yet meeting together
with people you don’t naturally choose
to be with, learning from those with leadership
and teaching skills, greeting strangers and
showing them God’s love, preserving
truth and right teaching, are all best done
when we can gather ‘en masse’
in a building together. Great things like
cell groups and discipleship come out of these
corporate times together.
7. Ethics - 1
Corinthians 12 v 12-16
Scripture says that we are to have the mind
of Christ about making ethical decisions.
How? Through the teaching and guidance of
the Holy Spirit. How far will genetic science
be allowed to go before Christians put up
a fight and lobby the Government on the sanctity
of human life? What about assisted suicide
and abortion? These are serious issues that
require a Christian voice present not only
in the corridors of power that forge the rules
of this land, but in our families, amongst
our friends and even our own Church family
who may face difficult ethical and religious
decisions at some point in their lives.
8. Tolerance -
2 Timothy 3 v 14-17
Tolerance is a funny word and an even stranger
concept. We all must tolerate things in our
lives because none of us have perfect lives
and things do go wrong. Our dreams fail to
transpire, certain people frustrate us, certain
groups seem to get treated better than others.
Yet what about the rules of society? What
happens when they slowly change so that the
very things Christians should speak out about
we - as ‘good citizens’ - are
told to simply tolerate: the ‘put up
or shut up’ mentality. Should we tolerate
that it’s ok for gay couples to adopt
kids? What should the church say about the
family unit and sexuality? Should we tolerate
that we are caught on camera an average of
300 times a day? What has the Church got to
say about civil liberties? The apostle Paul
knew all about this and encouraged his disciple
Timothy to hold to the authority of scripture
and not be held prisoner to ‘tolerance’.
9. Fear - Psalm
49 v 5-9
We live in a culture of fear. Increased violence
on the streets, the constant threat of terrorism,
financial insecurity, issues of fertility,
care in old age and safety for our children:
all these contribute to our general pool of
‘life fears’. The Church can’t
take away these fears, yet God can, and the
Church must always point the way to Him. The
Psalmist poses this rhetorical question in
verse 5 when he says: “Why should I
fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers
surround me?” He goes on to speak of
those who trust in the things of this world
rather than of God. The Church must hold out
the hope of the Gospel to the world, so that
others can declare with certainty in their
life the words of v 15 “But God will
redeem my life from the grave; he will surely
take me to himself.”
10. Climate Change
- Genesis 1 v 26-28
God made this world and we have not looked
after it properly. All of us are now painfully
aware of climate change and erratic weather
patterns. Environmental concern groups are
leading the way in lobbying parliament to
wake up and do something about CO2 emissions
and other issues. Where should the Church
stand in all of this? Christians must be at
the forefront of environmental concerns and
not adopt an “It’s alright we’re
going to heaven” attitude. God loves
this world and is coming back to renew the
face of it. We should be motivated by this
truth, through the way we handle our personal
approaches to environmental concerns, and
speak out as a united voice on the importance
of acting responsibly now!
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The Partnership ...
ALOVE,
Youthwork Magazine, Youth For Christ, Spring Harvest and
Oasis are working together to equip and resource the Church
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