Crossroads

Posted by Tim Taylor on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Everywhere you look today you can see crisis.  An unnerving number of these crisis are divisions among groups. The NFL finds itself at a crossroads with owners pitted against players.  The same is true of the NBA.  Our nation stands at a fork in the road with Congress steering one direction and the President another concerning the debt ceiling.  Choices are going to be made that will effect all of us.  First of all, we need to pray.  We need to pray to the Father for His Kingdom to come and His Will to be done.  We need real help and men and women who will make the right choices. I am confident in our Father.  I am not so sure of our elected leaders.

Today, we stand at a crossroads in time.  We are less than seven years from the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel launching the Reformation.  Luther steered the ship of the Church at the crossroads of his day, restoring the teaching of the Priesthood of the Believer and ushering in the radical changes that we now call Protestantism.  Five hundred years later, we face choices as we approach the latest crossroad in Church history.

One thing we know about the Kingdom of God is that it is relational.  This is the same truth that moved Luther. God, the Father desires a personal relationship with His sons, through His Son by the Holy Spirit.  The God-head is the first and primary community.  Creation is an expression of Him.  God is our Father and He intends mankind to be His family. Every man, woman and child on earth has or will stand at their own crossroad to decide which path to take.  Will you follow Jesus or will you choose the way of Adam?  We all know the results of Adam's choice.  Your's will end no different if that is the way you choose.

The Church of Jesus Christ faces no less a decision.  Like in Luther's day, the Church has become big business.  I have been amazed as I traveled in Latin America to see the massive and magnificent edifices erected in the name of God among some of the worst poverty on earth.  I have also been disappointed to know that such enormous structures were built on the backs of the poor.  Such buildings have become monuments to man and not houses of God.

I can drive through the metroplex where I live and see some of the most attractive gathering places, most built in the name of God.  I know we need places to meet, but how much is too much?  I think I know how Luther must have felt.  I don't believe he had any intention of changing his world.  He just saw some things that disturb him and he made them known.  He loved the Roman Church and only separated from her to save his life.  The theology sprang out of the abuses he observed.  He saw where they could lead.  I am seeing where some things we do today can lead and I am disturb.  I do not know that I can tell you exactly why, but I am disturbed. I am not mad at anybody nor do I have all the solutions, but in the words of Bob Mumford, "There may be nothing wrong, but it is just not right!"

On July 12th in My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says, "The Church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is on the look-out for the development of its own organization."  This is what I fear most, that we are no longer doing the Will of the Father by invoking the Kingdom, but we are building our own little fiefdoms. Just because you can draw a big crowd does not mean it is a church.  The Church is the family of God, the Body of Christ, where every member plays a vital role in sustaining Herself and fulfilling Her mission.  My complaint is that if the Church in the US was being the Body of Christ, we would be facing our other crisis with confidence.  I am not trying to equate the US with the Church, but where is Her influence? Today's economic and political scene are vivid proof of the failures of man.  Man cannot rescue us from the pit we have dug for ourselves.  The President and Congress, whether you agree with them or not, will not solve our problems.  They cannot because they are not able!

So, do I have the answer?  All I know is that we stand at a crossroads as a nation and the Church stands at a similar fork in the road.  Who we will be and what we can do will be determined by which path we take.  The Way of the cross is sacrifice.  The model of Paul is death to self and personal abandonment.  The call of Christ is to seek first the Kingdom, and His righteousness, and everything else will fall in place.  We desperately need statesmen, naturally and spiritually, who will call us to self-sacrifice and lead us to invoke the Kingdom of heaven.  The challenge is will you and me be one of those statesmen.



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Tim Taylor


Tim Taylor Tim enjoys the privilege of having Jack Taylor as both his natural and spiritual father. Tim has pastored four churches in a 25 year span. He led a missions organization to Latin America for 10 years and has worked with his dad since 2010 to model the Father/Son Paradigm and to advance the Kingdom of heaven on earth. Tim also operates a publishing company and has re-published many of Jack's books and published many of his spiritual-sons' books (www.BurkhartBooks.com).