Who Is The Lord?
Read Exodus 5:1-21.
Moses has a problem, and it's the same problem God's people face in many if not most of our settings today. Moses, called out of the desert to rescue the Hebrews from slavery, comes to ask Pharaoh, ruler of one of the mightiest empires on the planet at the time, to give up his work force because God commands it. God is calling his people out to a time and place of worship. And Pharaoh's response is quick and simple: "Who is the Lord?" In other words, "I don't know this God you're talking about. Why should I bother to obey him?"
Honestly, it's the same reason so much of our evangelism attempts today don't work. We make a lot of assumptions, the first and most important of which is that the world uses and understands our language. A few days ago, I got a hand-addressed letter in the mail. I was kind of excited, because that happens so rarely, and I thought that even though I didn't recognize the return address it might have been from a family member related to a funeral I did recently. As I opened it, I expected words of appreciation—and instead what I got was a tract. You know the kind: "Jesus has saved me, are you saved or are you going to hell?" It was full of insider language (and an invitation to a local church), language that is precious and makes sense to Christians, but not to the world. As I read the pamphlet, which had no accompanying letter or note, I couldn't help but notice how unintelligible it would be to someone who had no experience with the church. Saved? Redeemed? Holy? Those words don't mean anything to many people around us.
They're saying, "Who is the Lord? And why should I bother to obey him? My life is just fine now."
The same thing happens in our legislative efforts. When we base our efforts on Biblical standards and then find that people don't understand those standards, we shouldn't be surprised. I'm not saying we shouldn't stand up for Biblical rights and wrongs, we absolutely should—but we need to learn new ways to do it. The phrase, "The Bible says," no longer means anything to most people today—frighteningly, even to those in the church! As the late Chuck Colson often said, we have to learn new ways to be winsome in our witness, helping people who don't know the Lord and don't feel the need to obey the Lord see their need of the Lord. We can and must stand for truth because, after all, all truth is God's truth. We just need to find better, clearer ways to do it. Ways that communicate. Ways that make sense to Pharaoh and his like in our world today.
Moses has a problem, and it's the same problem God's people face in many if not most of our settings today. Moses, called out of the desert to rescue the Hebrews from slavery, comes to ask Pharaoh, ruler of one of the mightiest empires on the planet at the time, to give up his work force because God commands it. God is calling his people out to a time and place of worship. And Pharaoh's response is quick and simple: "Who is the Lord?" In other words, "I don't know this God you're talking about. Why should I bother to obey him?"
Honestly, it's the same reason so much of our evangelism attempts today don't work. We make a lot of assumptions, the first and most important of which is that the world uses and understands our language. A few days ago, I got a hand-addressed letter in the mail. I was kind of excited, because that happens so rarely, and I thought that even though I didn't recognize the return address it might have been from a family member related to a funeral I did recently. As I opened it, I expected words of appreciation—and instead what I got was a tract. You know the kind: "Jesus has saved me, are you saved or are you going to hell?" It was full of insider language (and an invitation to a local church), language that is precious and makes sense to Christians, but not to the world. As I read the pamphlet, which had no accompanying letter or note, I couldn't help but notice how unintelligible it would be to someone who had no experience with the church. Saved? Redeemed? Holy? Those words don't mean anything to many people around us.
They're saying, "Who is the Lord? And why should I bother to obey him? My life is just fine now."
The same thing happens in our legislative efforts. When we base our efforts on Biblical standards and then find that people don't understand those standards, we shouldn't be surprised. I'm not saying we shouldn't stand up for Biblical rights and wrongs, we absolutely should—but we need to learn new ways to do it. The phrase, "The Bible says," no longer means anything to most people today—frighteningly, even to those in the church! As the late Chuck Colson often said, we have to learn new ways to be winsome in our witness, helping people who don't know the Lord and don't feel the need to obey the Lord see their need of the Lord. We can and must stand for truth because, after all, all truth is God's truth. We just need to find better, clearer ways to do it. Ways that communicate. Ways that make sense to Pharaoh and his like in our world today.
It's so true. We have become fluent in our Christianese, but to others, we are speaking a foreign language.
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