Volume 19 Issue 2
The small piece of silly putty lying on the table was in the shape of an egg. One could see small fingerprints marring the smoothness of the construct, but the actual shape remained distinct. Someone or something had shaped the putty and left it in the form of an egg.
The lure of the childs putty was overwhelming; I reached for it and at once began to reshape it. At first I was just moving it around but after a moment I began to think about what I desired to create. I started stretching it, dividing it into separate parts, piecing it back together, pushing on it, smoothing out the bumps until at last I set it back on the desk to admire my sculpture. The memory of what it had been was of no importance to me; only what I had re-shaped it to be was significant.
Staring at my rather juvenile little sculpture, I pondered the nanosecond of time when my hand reached for the putty, remembering that before my hands touched it, my mind was already shaping it. Every force I had put on the putty was pre-conceived. However mindless the shape of the tiny sculpture may have appeared, it was nevertheless the product of thought. The hands that formed it were motivated by an idea.
Every building has an architect. Each piece of furniture in the room I presently occupy is the product of a designer and a builder. A mind conceived it, machines and hands built it. I brought it into this room and I live with the design both in terms of its style and function.
Every world view has an architect. And those ideas and beliefs shape the world by providing the framework or becoming the guide by which we move into the future and accomplish our objectives.
This present world is experiencing an astounding reshaping of its beliefs and principles in nearly every category, including religion, politics, science, business and education. And we all live with the consequences.
One can see the imprint of ideas, worldviews, concepts and beliefs on the lives of each generation. The Apostle Paul looked at the church, for instance, one that he had fathered and to whom he had espoused a non-worldly world-view that For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). Yet he could see influences of a counter-view reshaping his converts, pulling them from the truth. Not just the Corinthians but also the Galatians. He cried out, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? (Gal. 3:1). In the same way today, godly men and lovers of the truth can see the finger marks of false architects on the minds and hearts of our beloved congregations. And the question is the same: Who is doing the shaping, or the bewitching, as Paul said?
Allow me to ask some similar questions. Who or what is influencing the Pentecostal preaching of today to be shaped more by philosophy and pop psychology than the word of God? Who or what is leading the kind of worship that is influenced more by hip-hop, theater and television than the creative impulse of the Holy Spirit? Who surrenders the churchs pulpits to false prophets who, both subtly in their public oratory and openly in their private conversations, portray the Pentecostal message as nonrelevant and pass? Generations do not just lie on the table like lumps of silly putty. Something, a spirit or a worldview, picks up the clay and begins to shape the thoughts of men. The tragedy is that unlike the Apostle Paul and others, too many good men today fail to cry out against the false influences. Listen to Jude as he speaks up: Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 3,4).
The Apostolic Paul cites his own powerful worldview, which true Christians must embrace as the standard by which the church, from the beginning, has been sculptured: Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ (Philippians 3:8).
There should be no doubt that the more steeped we are in the world, the more we hold to secular worldviews, the more unprepared we are to continue the quest of building a spiritual house or of sustaining the world-wide spiritual awakening that was launched by Jesus and His apostles on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Standing on this ground is vital because there were no secondary options delivered (Romans 6:17).
So, Apostolic preacher, preacher of righteousness, proclaimer of the new birth, son of thunder, advocate of the absolute revelation of the mighty God in Christ, let go of all other things.
Preach the word, seize the moment, grasp the hearts and minds of our youth through the power of God that is in you, demonstrate to them the real, help them feel after the Holy Spirit. Conquer the darkness with the light. Because if you dont, someone else will take the clay out of your hand and reshape it and reinvent it.