The Church and Show Business

The temptation of the Church is to go into the “show business.” 

    When God is working the miracle of His grace in us 

    it is always manifested in a chastened life, utterly restrained. 

Have I spurned the “long trail” and taken the “short cut” of self-realization?—

    Why should I not satisfy myself now? 

    Why should I not do this or that? 

    Why should I not devote myself to the cause I see?

I have no right to identify myself with a cause 

    unless it represents that for which Jesus Christ died. 

    

If I allow Jesus Christ to realize Himself in me, 

    

I shall not find that I am delivered from temptation, 

    but that I am loosened into it, 

    introduced into what God calls temptation. 

Am I prepared for God to stamp my personal ambitions right out, 

    prepared for Him to destroy by transfiguration my individual determinations, 

    and bring me into fellowship with the sufferings of His Son?

 

God’s purpose is not seen on the surface; 

    it looks as if He is permitting the breaking up of things; 

    but Jesus Christ’s hope is that the human race will be as He is Himself,

    perfectly at one with God. 

“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?”

Adapted Excerpt From

The Place of Help

Oswald Chambers