To My Friends in Distant Lands
I hope you recognized the satire in the four “Jesus Survey” posts. Satire is the use of humor or exaggeration to expose foolishness, arrogance, or pretense, and possibly your culture doesn’t use that form of speech.
We American Christians are intoxicated with the freedoms and opportunities that God entrusted to us for the purpose of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth, but which we use largely for selfish comforts and pleasures. We have come to believe that we deserve them. I do not escape being judged by what I have written.
Our identity as privileged Americans guides us more than our identity as bondservants of Christ. We think of “the church” as being the local religious and social institution that we are part of, with little sense of the global Body of Christ or the spiritual Kingdom of God.
We depend much on good works to earn God’s approval. We say that we love Jesus with all our heart, but we don’t love Him enough to obey Him in taking up our cross daily to follow Him or to fulfill the Great Commission.
SPOILED AMERICANS
We suffer little, yet we grumble when any comfort or luxury is threatened. We complain that the heat or air conditioning in church isn’t set exactly to our liking, while you thank God for a roof over your head – – if you have even that.
We refuse to admit that our failure to be salt and light has caused America to slide into the moral pit that is bringing judgment upon us. There is certainly much that applies to us in Jesus’ “Letters to the Seven Churches,” yet we can preach through them and remain untouched. Not one altar call! Surely, we are as those whom Jesus speaks of there.
Because of your humble, God-seeking hearts, many of you who have little education know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God better than we do with our university degrees. Jesus speaks of both you and us in Mt. 13:10-17.
I honor you and pray for your persevering faithfulness to Lord Jesus and to each other.
PLEASE PRAY FOR US
The shaking of America has begun. When you think of us, please pray for a spirit of humility and repentance among us, more than for anything else. I fear it will take more than satire to awaken us from our slumber. Maybe the sound of the Trumpet – – but then it’ll be too late!
Ken Stoltzfus
Kidron, OH USA
May 16, 2021
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