What I think often prevents revival is.. too many Christians are surrounded by “yeses.” They need some “no’s” to pursue so they actually have a place to go. They have tons of open doors in their lives—all these doors. I mean.. LOTS of “open doors” (with closets behind them) and so they are glad because of all the “open doors,” even though those “open doors” lead nowhere. But, we don’t need a place to GO, right? All that matters is the “open door.” So, whatever is behind the open door must be for us, right?
Jesus never said, “I have put an open door in front of you that no one can shut because you persevere.” Nosir. Jesus never said that in Revelation 3:8. We should accept mediocrity. We should take the “path of least resistance.” We should do as many useless, “good” things in our lives as we can so we stay distracted from the stuff God commanded us to do. We should thank God for all the closet doors that Satan opens for us to fool us into thinking we have “success.” We should toss God’s Great Commission aside and realize that He allowed us to be wasteful with our lives, so it was therefore “meant to be” and is decisively “best.”
I’m to a point where I’ve got a new philosophy on life: I’m going for the closed door. When 100 doors are in front of me, and I can’t decide which one to take because so many of them are open, I’m going to acknowledge the fact that 99 of them are open and only ONE OF THEM IS CLOSED is what my father always called a “clue.” Gee.. I wonder which one has something valuable behind it. Gee, I wonder which one Satan doesn’t want me to take. Gee, I wonder which one I can only pass through with “perseverance.” Gee, I wonder where God wants me.
Man, life is so confusing. I think I’ll go write some blasted book on how God still loves us even though His upside-down Kingdom (even though I’m the one upside-down and His Kingdom is right-side-up) is confusing, but somehow, God can still be good. I think I’ll ignore the ONE thing that will actually require EFFORT on my part that just so happens to be the ONE thing that could actually lead to fulfilling the stuff God has commanded of us. Yeah, now I’m ready to send-out people for “American Christian Ministry”: Go ye into all the world and make sure your gospel offend no one!
Not everything offensive is true and truth isn’t alway offensive.. though many buy into one of those two lies. In cleansing the temple Jesus was angry without being offended—and THAT offended people. Jesus wasn’t “unoffensive,” He was “unoffendable.” If someone’s boldness about truth bothers you, you are offended. Had we been focused on “helping others”—not “trying to” offend them and not “trying not to” offend them—America might not be in so much need of re-evangelism.