Word for the Church: Pool Noodles and Mudslides

Short and (not so) sweet this morning. The Lord gave me a rather unfuzzy, uncomfortable word for the church this morning. 

I was spending some time praying for wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit so that I could better understand and reflect on the last passage in James, and while I was doing that, the Lord gave me a clear vision of a landslide in what seemed to be a third-world country. From my perspective where I was standing, I was at the top of a steep hill, and far below me was a dirt road. People were gathering on that road to squint up the hill in my direction.

But they weren't looking at me. The entire hill was a mass of thick, running mud. Seemingly, there had been several structures on the hill before the mudslide happened, but it was impossible to see what those structures had been, because the only parts of them that were still visible were were these brightly colored things sinking beneath the mud as it kept running.

As I surveyed the scene, John 12:24 came to mind: "Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." 

It seemed to be super important that I see what those structures were that were slowly disappearing beneath the running mud. I wasn't sure if this was going to be a word for me personally, for the church, or for national or global situations. So I asked the Lord to show me. 

He did. It was interesting: The structures were not what I expected (I was thinking huts or houses or something similar). They were -- to describe it as best I can -- brightly-colored pool noodles that had been strung together by ropes threaded through their central holes to form flimsy archways. They had been planted in the ground on that hill, so that the whole hill was covered with these odd doorways that were unstable but flamboyant, wind-buffeted but colorful, tottering and tilted but fun-looking. And then the mudslide came.

Here's the next word that came: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). And then, "I am the Gate for the sheep" (John 10:7).

This is what the Holy Spirit showed me. Parts of the Church have been guilty of offering flimsy doors that are bright-colored, fun, and shiftable with whichever way the wind blows. Unlike tumbleweeds, these portions of the church haven't yet completely died and been caught by the wind and tossed wherever the wind goes. Instead, these portions of the church were once rooted and stable, but as they began to die, they lost their stability. 

In their death-throes, they painted their messages in bright, attractive colors that could give and move with the shifting currents of public opinion. They used their flexibility to angle toward whatever came their way, proclaiming the message that they are doors, fun doors, pretty doors, doors that are flexible, doors that can be dismantled and reshaped into different doors if anyone is too uncomfortable passing through the current and latest style door.

And then the mudslide came.

The doors were buried. They died. Those doors were built on a seed of truth, but they did not continue their construction with Truth. When the doors died, the seeds were buried, and what comes from buried seeds is... first death... then new life.

That hill will be green again, but it won't happen until after the flimsy doors are removed.

As I said, unfuzzy and uncomfortable. I'll leave you with this: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree, planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers" (Psalm 1:1-3).

Are we rooted, thoroughly? With steady access to the living water?

I often focus on that first part and ignore the rest. I like the fuzzy feel-good happies that come with the words: "Blessed is the man" and "his delight is in the law of the Lord," and "He is like a tree planted by streams of water," and "fruit in season," etc.

The blowing chaff part isn't pleasant. But it's important. 

"Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

See, there are two doors: one Door is stable and immovable, offering life. The other is as collapsible as strung-together pool noodles, offering death.

I want to encourage us all to leave the pool noodles by the pool where they belong. They were not made to create doors for anyone. Our job as the Church, as followers of Jesus, is to the point the way to the immovable, life-giving door that offers love, grace, and forgiveness, not to create flimsy by-passes that skirt truth.

That hill will be green again, but first, the seed has to die.

Okay, I'm done. Tomorrow, if the Lord says go for it, we'll finish up James. :)