A Call To The Remnant

A new moral power will flow back into the Church when we stop preaching social adjustment and begin to preach social repudiation and cross carrying. Modern Christians hope to save the world by being like it, but it will never work. The Church’s power over the world springs out of her unlikeness to it, never from her integration into it.

SARAH PALIN ?

 

I was born and bred in Scotland. I was raised in an industrial town, a shipbuilding town called Greenock. My father was a plumber in the shipyards, and, like a lot of fathers in the shipyards, an alcoholic. Five of us lived in a one bedroomed apartment up a “Tenement.” This was a tall sandstone building, built in the Victorian era. The brown sandstone had long turned black by tens of thousands of chimneys belching out its smoke from the small coal fires. These buildings were over-run by mice and any time we would leave water in the sink, there would inevitably be a dead mouse there in the morning. My mother lived on “tick,” credit from the grocery store which she would pay back when she got her “Family allowance,” a payment that all families in Britain get if they have children, even the Royal family get this “allowance.” 🙂

 

My neighborhood was like most others. It was pretty tough, but far from the toughest. I came from the “Broomy,” therefore I was a Broomy boy by accident of birth. Each area had its own gang. If you were a young boy, say under 10, you could pretty much go anywhere you liked unmolested. Once you got to be around eleven and older, it was a much more dangerous proposition to go outside of your area. The “Strone,” was by far the toughest, a place I would move into when I was 17 and live there for seven years. This was one of the most run-down housing schemes in all of Europe and was a no-go area at one time for the police. The Strone gang would never bother with a gang like the Broomy boys. We were not in their league.

 

As young as five, I collected bottles for the gang when they knew another gang was coming to fight. They would use these bottles to toss at the other gang. Sometimes these fights were pre-arranged, other times they would just show up. No matter if it were planned or not, the fights always went the same way. The pattern never changed. Even the school I went to, Notre Dame high school(when people ask about my education I  truthfully tell them I  went to Notre Dame, I just miss out the high school part 🙂 ) there would be gang fights most days. There was a “Protestant,” school at the bottom of the street and groups of up to 100 would fight each other. So, whether it was at school or on the streets, they would always go down the same way. The “leaders,” would be at the front. And they would throw jibes at the opposition. They would taunt each other. There was a nervous tension, but both side held their ground. The taunts would continue and the “heat,” would begin to build.

The leaders would get closer and closer and the taunts would get more personal. Maybe talk about someone’s mother or sister. The tension continued to build. This was now a tinderbox situation and just one spark and an explosion of violence would erupt. That one spark would be the leader running forward and throwing the first punch. Just one punch and all hell broke loose. The exact same dynamic would happen at Soccer games only there would be tens of thousands involved and many times the violence would lead to death. Once you’ve been involved in that, once you have participated in that, you will never forget it, mainly because of the “power,’ that is unleashed in the “mob,” mentality. Its primeval.

 

Listen to what A.W. Tozer says about becoming worldly to save the world ……………….

 

We who call ourselves Christians are supposed to be a people apart. We claim to have repudiated the wisdom of this world and adopted the wisdom of the cross as the guide of our lives. We have thrown in our lot with that One who while He lived on earth was the most unadjusted of the sons of men. He would not be integrated into society. He stood above it and condemned it by withdrawing from it even while dying for it. Die for it He would, but surrender to it He would not.

The wisdom of the cross is repudiation of the world’s “norm.” Christ, not society, becomes the pattern of the Christian life. The believer seeks adjustment, not to the world, but to the will of God, and just to the degree that he is integrated into the heart of Christ is he out of adjustment with fallen human society. The Christian sees the world as a sinking ship from which he escapes not by integration but by abandonment.

A new moral power will flow back into the Church when we stop preaching social adjustment and begin to preach social repudiation and cross carrying. Modern Christians hope to save the world by being like it, but it will never work. The Church’s power over the world springs out of her unlikeness to it, never from her integration into it.

—Radical Cross, The

 

In recent days I have heard political jibes. Taunts and personal attacks, thrown by the leaders and their surrogates. The crowds are getting angrier and angrier. There is a tension building. The leaders of the two groups are getting “closer,” to each other and the taunts are becoming more personal. A tinderbox situation is developing, exacerbated by a financial crisis the like of which we have not seen since the great depression. Just yesterday there were riots outside the banks in London. It is extremely sad to me to see Sarah Palin lead in these jibes and taunts. Even John McCain, a man who has lived most of his life with honor and integrity, tried to calm the baying crowd down by telling them that his opponent was a decent human being, but they simply booed him. Below is an ad that ran in a Dallas Newspaper, the day before JFK was assassinated . How would the Lord have us behave ?

 

Are you a peacemaker? Can you support any candidate that uses the tactics of the world to supposedly change the world? Do you want Gods mercy upon your country? Then stop supporting people who are just like the world. If you cannot find a candidate to vote for, who holds to Jesus and nothing else, then do not vote for incendiary people who gladly drive wedges between people and create divisiveness. John McCain is less to blame in this department, he tried to rein the mob in. Yet his surrogate, a woman who claims Jesus as her Savior, is down and dirty, just like all the other politicians. It will never work. Like A.W.Tozer says The Church’s power over the world springs out of her unlikeness to it, never from her integration into it.