Word for the Church: The Stained Walls

It's no secret that the church in America has gone through a battering over the last two years. Sometimes I think about persecuted churches in other places, where they face death if they dare reveal their whereabouts or their true beliefs, and I think of their resilience and their vivid faith.

By contrast, the American church -- who has for a long, long time, been fairly comfortable in our prosperity and our lack of persecution -- has fractured beneath the pressures brought on us over the last few years. And we're falling apart beneath our inability to handle the stress. 

I was particularly disturbed yesterday when I read in a Facebook group the resolution of one devout church member who decided to visit the social media pages of various pastors in other denominations, and write "HERETIC" on their page... "so new Christians will know to avoid them."

Okay, so 1 Thessalonians 5:21 does tell us to "test everything." This is true. 1 Corinthians 12:24-26 also reminds us that the church is a body where "there should be no division, but that its parts should have equal concern for the other." What to do with both ends of this spectrum? 

"Watch your life and doctrine closely" (1 Timothy 4:16). Be "crucified with Christ, so that [we] no longer live, but Christ lives in [us]" (Galatians 2:20). "Take up [our] cross daily and follow [Jesus]" (Luke 9:23). 

Because ultimately, God, the Ancient of Days, will be the final ruling judge of our hearts. Do the things listed above, but let God have the final word.

Here's a word that the Lord gave me: 

Yesterday, overcome by a wave of Holy Spirit fire, I found myself on my face on the living room floor, pouring out worship to the Lord. While there, I saw a white-washed wall made of large, even stones, and it had been meticulously scrubbed, fleckless. Absolutely spotless, except...

Someone had poked a spile or a pen through the bricks in the wall, and deep blue ink was pouring out of it, spilling down the stainless wall and onto the ground, ruining the pristine whiteness. There were people around, and one person walked by, and ended up with some ink on his finger. He reached up and scratched his ear, and then rubbed his eyes, and the ink spread. He opened his mouth, and there was ink on his tongue. 

Other people in the crowd began to show ink, too. Fingerprints began appearing on things, along with footprints, and it was becoming a royal mess. Ink was getting everywhere.

I asked the Holy Spirit: "What is the ink? What does it mean?"

I heard Him say: It's the different kinds of media.

The media is known as having "the power of the press," and so the spreading ink makes sense in light of that. I didn't have an answer for what the pristinely scrubbed wall meant, though, until today.

As I was praying today, I began reading in John 8:12-30 about a conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees, where the Pharisees challenge His validity, the reason for saying anything He says. "Your testimony is not valid," they said, "because you are appearing as your own witness."

Jesus comes back with this: "Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going..." 

In context, this whole passage was about Jesus' testimony about Himself, and as soon as I realized this, the vision came back, and the word TESTIMONY sort of slammed into the picture with impact.

The white wall is the spotless testimony of the church -- or at least the testimony that we have tried, imperfectly, to maintain. The deep blue ink of the media, of stories, of the "power of the press," has pierced that testimony, and now stains it, spreading through sight, sound, words, actions, movement... staining more and more until there is a royal, ink-blotched mess.

The problem with media, social or otherwise, is that it has brought division in the church. There's a general anti-Christian bias in the media, yes, but it's also there in social media posts like the one I mentioned above: the "heretic witch-hunt" happening among denominations or even within denominations.

We are called to use discernment, church. But we also have to stop shaping our self-perceptions based on what others think of us, and then, far worse, acting like what they call us -- and start rediscovering in Scripture what the LORD says about us! His judgments, which Revelation 19:2 calls "true and just." 

Some things the Lord, in truth and justice, calls His church:

The church is the body of Christ, with eyes that aren't hands, and feet that aren't ears (1 Corinthians 12:12-31).
The church is the bride of Christ (Matthew 25:1-13).
The church is the flock, and Christ is our Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18).
The church are the branches, and Christ is the vine. We gain our sustenance from Him (John 15:1-17).
The church are conquerors, through Christ, who loves us (Romans 8:37-39).
The church are clay vessels, through whom the Holy Spirit pours His power (2 Corinthians 4:7).

The church is many more things, most of which we don't find in articles from CNN or FoxNews, y'all. We are His, and He is ours (Song of Solomon 6:3), and this doesn't apply to a few Mennonites or a few Presbyterians or a few Baptists or a few Assemblies of God or a few Methodists, or even those nondenominationals interspersing all the churches.

It applies to every person who confesses with his mouth and believes in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Because that person is church. That person is saved, redeemed, and sanctified, and The Hill or The Atlantic or The Daily Wire, or even (gasp) Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or TikTok is not going to confirm for us what a person's eternity looks like.

That office belongs to the Lord alone. 

So "wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded... Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:8, 10). Get that ink off your hands and out of your hearts. You are only what the Lord tells you you are, not one bit more, and not one bit less.