“Too
much of the work of the church today is like a squirrel in a cage – a lot of
activity but no progress” Billy Sunday
Billy
Sunday was a baseball player in the 1880’s who became the most celebrated
and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. He, and his older brother, were put in an
orphanage at age 10 by his widowed mother because she could not afford to raise
them. He was on his own by age 14. He played professional baseball, his final
contract was with the Philadelphia Philly’s. He was converted at age 24 on the streets of
Chicago when he and a group of baseball players, attracted by the singing of
hymns, stopped to hear the preaching at the Pacific Garden Mission. He turned down a $3500/year salary with the
Philly’s to work at the YMCA for $83/month.
It is estimated that he preached to over 100 million people over his
lifetime and 1.25 million people came forward for rededication and/or to accept
Jesus as Savior. He preached an
estimated 20,000 sermons, averaging 42 sermons/month over his 39-40 year
career.
Billy Sunday gave his best years
to the Lord. The “cream”, off the top; not
the “dregs” from the bottom of the barrel.
How often do we turn to God as a last resort? How many times have we heard it said: “It’s
in the Lord’s hands now, the doctors have done everything they could”; or, “all
we can do now is pray”? In whose hands
was it when the doctors were doing their thing?
It seems like we turn our face to the Lord more for solace than
help. True, He offers solace; but there
is much more. Who do we go to first? Who do we call first? When do we get peace? After we get the drugs from the doctors or
when we finish praying?
Maybe, because we spend so much
time in church like the squirrel, that we neglect getting to know God? Getting to know His Character? His will?
His Word?
Jesus tells us”
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and
the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or
reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single
hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of
the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes
the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the
fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry,
saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that
you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
I like how “The
Message” version translates these words:
"If you decide for God, living a life of
God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at
mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far
more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer
appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and
unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.
And you count far more to him than birds. "Has anyone by fussing in front
of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money
wasted on fashion - do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of
looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers.
They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like
it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside
them. "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most
of which are never even seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride
in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax,
to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People
who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know
both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative,
God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday
human concerns will be met. "Give your entire attention to what God is
doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen
tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the
time comes.
If you read
these verses in context of what we do in church, think about all the running
around to church, “playing church” eating spiritual hors d'oeuvres, drinking
milk and cookies, literally and spiritually.
The writer
of Hebrews puts it this way:
Though a Son, He learned obedience through what He
suffered. After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation to
all who obey Him… We have a great deal to say about this, and it's difficult to
explain, since you have become slow to understand. For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles
of God's revelation. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced
with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food
is for the mature-for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish
between good and evil. Therefore,
leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, teaching
about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgment. And we will do this if
God permits.
In today’s language:
Though he was God's Son, he learned trusting-obedience
by what he suffered, just as we do. 9 Then, having arrived at the full
stature of his maturity… he became the source of eternal salvation to all who
believingly obey him. I have a lot more
to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked
up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers
yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over
the basics on God again, starting from square one - baby's milk, when you
should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced
in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling
right from wrong. So come on, let's
leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the
grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in
place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in
trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of
the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But
there's so much more. Let's get on with it!
The Message
Look at what the writer of
Hebrews, the Holy Spirit, considers milk.
In today’s churches, we consider that to be “steak”. No wonder we turn to God as a last resort,
when all else fails. Even when we do
missionary work, how much is “squirrel in a cage” activity. Paul in Acts did not spend time building “church
buildings”. He built “CHURCHES”. Saved people are the church! How much money do we spend on brick and mortar
verses on reaching the lost and equipping the the body for the work of the ministry.
He preached the “Gospel”, the politically incorrect gospel, in the synagogues,
no less. On Mars Hill and Lystra, the
seat of paganism and liberalism! It was
no politically correct “feel good”, “I’m OK, you’re OK message.” They pulled Paul’s “tax exempt, 501(c)(3)
non-profit” status, right there. They
stoned him, dragged him out of the city, left him for dead.
Did Paul sit down and
have a pity party? Nope! The disciples picked him up and “WENT BACK
INTO THE CITY”. The next day they
left.
When we give the cream of
our lives to God, it can get dangerous!
“We are so utterly
ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth
Century does not reckon with. But we are “harmless,” and therefore unharmed. We
are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this
battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness
must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to
take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are “sideliners” — coaching and
criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of
God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh
that God would make us dangerous!” Jim
Elliot
Lord, Make us
dangerous!
