We love the simple and the obvious. Testimonies about winning the lottery and stories that start and end with they lived happily ever after are favorites. The problem is the Bible while the story ends happily ever after it seldom starts there. The story of the Bible is full of slaves, crosses, widows, wilderness and caves. In the Old Testament it’s pretty common to have the false prophet saying things are great and the real prophet despised because he says tough times are coming. How can Jesus be the hero and die? The greats in the Bible play bit parts in History whether it’s Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, or Paul and Roman prisons. There greatness isn’t their platform but faithfulness and testimony. Even the kings rule second rate kingdoms that hardly matter in the events of the world.
God loves the unseen and unexpected. Boys with sling shots killing giants and spokesmen like John the Baptist heralding a coming Kingdom. God loves nobodies that trust him when it seems crazy. He reveals himself to poor shepherds not to rich and noble rulers. We look back from two thousand years of God bringing his plan to fruition and say that’s powerful, but even today at the apex of Christian power and strength it’s hard to say were having that much effect on a world out of control. To those living out the Bible stories there was a need for lots of faith. Prophets, judges and patriarchs played on small stages that were often in the wilderness. God’s plan can be undercover for hundreds of years as Israel goes into obscurity in Egypt as slaves or God leaves them without a word from Him for three hundred years before Jesus comes. Israel is and always will be at the center of Gods will but it becomes a footnote in history for almost two thousand years as the church comes to the front, only to leap into the headlines at its impossible rebirth at the center of history in 1948; Once again small, surrounded and hated.
The story of the church is little different. For the first three hundred years there is almost no history of any Christian that lived and yet God was moving and the church would go from no one to millions. Yet this was seldom in groups of more than a couple dozen. Even as Rome converts to Christianity it’s not a simple story as much of what fills temples and places of power is corrupt and horrible. God continually reveals himself in small waves of renewal not in the obvious or public.
Over the last five hundred years God has accelerated the impact of the church. There is something about power money and influence that corrupts, and while the older religions have some life it’s often weak and tainted. Revival isn’t something that lasts a long time. It breaks out and then tends to lose its freshness and impact and so another revival starts. Sometimes it renews the old but more often it begins with the weak and outcasts that seldom have buildings, money, education or influence.
Christianity sets at a crossroads. I hear more about big churches, ministries, and programs than ever. We all love the big it’s just not the key to God. The big is always based on the small if it’s healthy and alive. Do I think here in the last days Gods going to do what he never has before? God’s blessing will always prosper and enlarge, but it’s just a test, our strength has to be God. God dwells in the average and the small people he calls daily to follow Him.
