Jesus

By PASTOR LARRY LILLY

7614 NORTH 37th STREET

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA 47805

E-Mail: Bravelml@aol.com

Psalm 85:6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

I heard a man pray, "Lord, please deliver us from the spirit of apathy." This is a good and appropriate prayer for most groups and ninety nine percent of individuals, especially those who profess to be Christians.

I know that each day I pray and use other tools to help me to overcome the spirit of apathy.

Apathy is described as an absence or lack of feeling, a freedom from passion, excitement, or emotion.

Passion, excitement and in- tense feeling makes the difference in any area of life, most assuredly in the field in which I labor and in all lesser endeavors. I stated the phrase exactly as intended for in the field to which I am called what could possibly be more important than to communicate the truth of God’s love, and that with feeling.

One commentator on the pass- ing scene noted the tragedy of our time by stating that actors pretend fiction is real and do it with passion, while the clergy take the grandest of all truth and speak of it as though it were mere fiction and do this without feeling.

The service rendered to the Lord by 90 percent of profess- ing Children of God is done so without thought or feeling, but simply a performance of duty. In my travels I talked to 21 men and women over the last year who told me the only reason they continue at the place of worship they now attend is due to the fact that they are ‘leaders.’

I have lost track of the multitudes of men and women who in time past were filled with the knowledge and zeal of Jesus, but who upon cooling off, simply withered up and died to the things of Jesus. Their seat is empty at the house of prayer.

Much of the effort put forth by the ‘saints’ is rendered in vain for it is given with little or no feeling. The targets of the effort sense this apathy and deeply resent such affront. We all have been to some sort of competition and became a little sickened when a member of the team simply goes through the motions, with no intensity, no feeling.

I have heard men read the twenty third Psalm in such an apathetic style that it put the listeners in a trance and other men have read a grocery list with passion and brought tears to the eyes of the hearers. You have no idea of the enormous sacrifice a head of lettuce has made for you.

One divine postulated that "We are in the Laodicean Age." I think ‘stage’ would be more on target, but the good man meant that the professing Christians at the present are lukewarm as this is what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea. Notice his exact rebuke:

Revelation 3:15 "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot."

I write on the quagmire bless- ings of apathy. I say blessings because so many insist on living in an ever increasing bog of apathy. Bogged down is a parochial term for this malady currently plaguing Christians all over the world, with a super strain in the Western Church.

In response to the article which my Mother said was the best she has ever read, a friend of many years, who serves as the, definite article here, the, Administrative Assistant to Counsel at Indiana University. Jan wrote this insightful piece:

Larry,

 I particularly appreciate your letter today. I've made the statement several times over the past couple of years -- both in adult Sunday School classes I have taught and in university classes in which I have been a student -- that the opposite of Love is not, in fact, hatred.

I am convinced that the opposite of Love is indifference (apathy), as with the Laodicean church you mention below. Though hatred is generally a destructive emotion and motivates one to destructive behavior, it is passionate, nonetheless, and often arouses one to determined action.

It can become a passionate power in motion that the love we Christians profess often does not. Sometimes even that kind of passion can be taught and redirected and transformed into a positive force for change.

But Indifference or Apathy?

Now that is a challenge of frightening proportions because it is born of an emptiness that has lost any desire to be filled. It's like a slow leak that allows life to drain away without notice until emptiness becomes comfortable or at least acceptable. If we Christians are to make new disciples in this wretched world, we will have to become new disciples ourselves in many ways.

Makes me think of the comment made by Jesus' disciples on the road to Emmaus after he had vanished from their sight and they realized who he was:  Was not our heart burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?

Jan’s husband has worked in prisons for years as a volunteer and is one of the best Bible teachers I have ever heard. They are a faithful couple and are worthy of your prayers.

As a pastor and traveling preacher for many years I am convinced that the biggest threat to Western Civilization is not the Fanatical Muslim Hordes, but rather the ‘at ease in Zion’ couch potato’s who will not commit to any sort of meaningful service to Jesus Christ.

Not so long ago a man and wife visited me in my office and filed a laundry list of complaints as to just what is wrong with the church I pastor. I listened and for the most part agreed with their assessment of our dereliction in said areas. I won them over for at least 4½ seconds and then lost them again when I asked what I thought and still think is a fair question: "What part of these many problems will you commit to solve?" Well, that ended that.

Tragically the above conversa- tion either has or should take place in most smaller churches. Many of our churches stay small and rather ineffective due to a lack of commitment, or to stay on point with the theme of the sermon, a spirit of APATHY.

An encouraging note concern- ing recovering zeal; just after the above conversation, several peo- ple spontaneously began coming forward and saying, "My husband and I want to do the mountain thing for the building fund drive, if it’s okay with you?"

Another man came and said, "Pastor, I don’t know just how I can help, but if you do please let me." Needless to say these souls and a few others are now as busy as the proverbial bees serving Jesus in ways that they can and their spirit of enthusiasm is driving away the spirit of apathy! God is good.

Apathetic attitudes in the Lord’s work are in reality a current lack of Biblical Love for Jesus. This malady is the curse of the age. How fervently we must pray for revival.

"The clock of life is wound but once,

And no one has the power

To tell just when the hands will stop,

At late or early hour.

To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed;

To lose one’s health is more;

To lose one’s soul is such a loss

As no man can restore.

The present only is our own;

Live, love, toil with a will

Place no faith in the future for

The clock may then be still.