Veroni's Views

“We want to see Jesus!” was what the Greeks said to Phillip (John 12.21).  That was also my text message to a pastor who had just placed an advertisement in our local newspaper.

On a certain day, the advert said, that particular denomination would start regular meetings at such and such a venue.   There would be a band consisting of every type of musical instrument imaginable .  (He went beyond that, naming instruments that I had never heard of and I’m sure don’t really exist.)  A person who he described as the “best musician in the country” had relocated to our village with the express purpose of leading this band.  This new “church” would be meeting once a week.

It reminded me of another pastor who I once heard saying “I’m starting a band in my church, that will play the Holy Ghost into the church!”  And, different topic, but same theme:   “Just give your offering today, and God will heal you/make you prosperous.”  Or, sitting beside the bed of a lady who was desperately ill, and hearing her say:   “The evangelist said I am sick because I have not been giving my tithes regularly.” 

All of this while the crying need of every human being is Jesus Christ, God Himself, who became a human being, died for the sins of mankind to reconcile us with God, rose as victor over death and evil itself, and ascended into heaven to prepare a place for everyone who believes in Him.   He also gave the Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, truly God, to make sure we will know that we are not alone, but have Immanuel, “God with us” present with us, even more, in us. 

What’s with all the gimmicks?  A gimmick is a gimmick, whether it is any of the things I have pointed out above, or anything else we substitute for the “real thing.” 

I knew the denomination in whose name that pastor was advertising his band very well.   I grew up in it, and saw great miracles of transformation in people’s lives taking place before my eyes when a straightforward message of Jesus and his power was proclaimed.  Is it too much to ask of church leaders:   “We want to see Jesus?”

Maybe it is too much to ask, because it takes complete surrender to the will of God, relinquishing all denominational prejudice and arrogance, and really allowing the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to work transformation in one’s own life before you can become a channel through which Jesus can be seen.

John had the right idea when he said “I should become less, so that He can become more.”  

Statistics show that there are many Christians who are not going to church any more.  I’m sure some would say this blog describes exactly why they are avoiding church.  Be that as it may, but do you realize the request of the Greeks comes to you and me today even as insistently as it came to Phillip, as I sent to the pastor?  As part of a local congregation, or as individuals, if we are prepared to listen, we will hear the crying need of people around us, for Jesus.  Not for condemnation or a self-righteous holier-than-thou attitude.  “We want to see Jesus!”