Our dominant inability to believe...

Here is a picture of the beautiful church we attend when we visit my wife's parents on Lookout Mountain. They are members of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church where Pastor Joe Novenson serves as the Head Pastor. If you have never heard him preach, please make a point to take a trip to this church at least once to hear him preach... it will change your life.


On Easter Sunday, I was in attendance for his Sunday sermon, and it changed my life. Click HERE to go the website and listen to the Easter sermon... it will change you.


This past Sunday he spoke on the risen Lord, and he convicted me and will convict you, if you listen honestly, to the very real fact that we are all dominated by our inability to believe in our Lord. He referenced the passage in John 20:1-23 and Mary's three opportunities to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but instead, she assumed his body was stolen. He referenced the disciples who lived, ate and witnessed many miracles of Jesus; they knew well of what Jesus spoke of regarding His own resurrection, and still... they did not believe He had risen.

And, then Pastor Novenson spoke about something that shook me to my soul... the apostles are together... locked in a room relating stories and memories, and they are the typical American church. This is not Christianity he said. Christianity is the personal relationship when the resurrected Lord comes into your life and addresses you personally... when he connects with you and you connect with Him. Yet, how many of us have been in churches, schools and ministries were it ends up being about the entity and the promotion of it and not the living Lord.


I recognized, in my own heart, this dominance of disbelief and this pushing away of the personal and the intimate. Pushing away the personal and the intimate manifests itself in many different ways... in your marriage, in your friendships, in your vocational relationships, in your leadership and in your relationship with the Lord Jesus. He becomes secondary to the stories, memories, missions and visions of our desires. We then work extremely hard in making whatever is our passion into an idol that we promote over our Lord. And, do not be fooled, that idol can be a church, a school or a ministry.


This points to the very real truth that our desires can still be dominated by disbelief even in the midst of ministry. Many reading this still will not believe that they could be dominated by disbelief yet how many of us have betrayed friends and colleagues over ideas, mission or disagreements? How many have been in a church, a school or a ministry where relationships have ended in order to be right, in control or comfortable? What entity ended slavery across the British empire? It was not an entity but a person... William Wilberforce. Do not get me wrong... Christian entities are extremely important, but should never be our faith. Instead, they should be the ways we work out our faith with fear and trembling.


How does this apply to Christian education and the Christian school? Well, it means that we must have relationships with our churches, our parents, our faculty and especially our students. And, these relationships must be personal and intimate... and of the utmost importance to us because that is how we were claimed by our Savior, and that is what He still desires from us. Why are we not changing the world, or changing where we work and live? To quote Pastor Novenson, because we do not believe yet that "everything about us is a miracle." Only when we believe this will we be humble enough, relational enough, loving enough and Christ-centered enough to make a difference in our community, and then... we will change the world. Blessings!