IF YOU WANT TO WORSHIP GOD YOU WILL HAVE TO BE FRISKED!
Really? Is this on the level? YES, it seems that it is! Then truly the world has gone crazy! Well it is going that way, and it started way back. My 'headline' is that found in our Daily Nation for Tuesday of this week. The writer was revealing the increase in the need for Security across society, and especially cited Winners Chapel in Roysambu, where the Church has progressively installed more and more Security costing up to Ksh.60,000 a month. It seems nowhere is safe from some kind of invasion or terror. No Peaceful spot ensured to stay peaceful. So now we have to be protected, and must constantly look to our own peace of mind. Even the Pope has to ride around in a bullet proof car-mobile these days. Where IS God?
Indeed it is only the poor man in the street, or sitting in his village that is without protection, waiting for calamity to strike him. Indeed the whole world is a very 'jumpy' place these days, just as Jesus predicted in the Bible, in the Gospel of Luke 21v26, when He said
'Men, fainting away or expiring with fear and dread, and apprehension and expectation of the things that are coming on the world...(Amplified Translation).'
When I was child, and even a teenager in the '50s, no Church was locked. Every door was open to whoever felt a need to be alone with God. Today all churches are locked for fear of thieves and Vandals come to steal and destroy. But in my early years God was expected and believed to protect what was His, from the Believer to the Building he worshipped in, and the home he lived in.
But this is a different world isn't it. In 2012 fourteen people died in a terrorist attack on a Church Service in Garissa. The government of the day immediately 'beefed up security' - Police with guns guarded churches across the country where it was thought congregations might be at risk, and all those seeking to attend Services were 'frisked' in an effort to make sure nothing untoward was taken into the buildings that might put people in danger. Frightening? Yes, and also intimidating and fearsome. A certain Chick Jacobs writing from America this year states 'In the last 15 years more than 430 people have died in incidents involving deadly force, in churches, synagogues and mosques across America.' He adds 'If anyone thinks of a Church as an unlocked Sanctuary, he is living in a long gone past. This IS a different world. Yes, indeed, the world I grew up in, after the 2nd World War, trod carefully. It was a quieter, less violent, more respectful, and reverential world than ours today. We could even leave our own doors open without fear of theft.
I recently read this enquiry from a man. He asked ' Does your Church leave its door unlocked to the Sanctuary? There have been times during the 'trial' I am going through when I have felt a need to draw closer to God, alone, and to just 'let go' so to speak, but most churches seem closed up all day. Just wondering about it. I know some might want to do wrong, but still there are times when I'm look for help and guidance alone with God......it would be so good to be able to drop into his House sometimes; into His Peace, and just sit at His feet and hear from him.' I thought he had a point. I remember a time when in desperation my own Mother turned aside, in her trouble, and entered a Church one afternoon, and just poured our her need to God. He answered her prayer. It was a turning point in her life. I wonder how things would have gone if she had found the door SHUT?
The world can be a very unfriendly, unwelcoming place, with no place to flee to for refuge. Not like God, who freely and fearlessly tells everyone to 'Come to Me, just as you are; I will not send one of you away'. His door is always open. He fears no terrorist, or evil. He knows He has the power to overcome them all, and to prevent them from prevailing against Him.
AND SURELY, if that is true, and if He can be in US, then we also can be confident in His Power and Strength, and be filled with the Peace He alone possesses,
Every week I find myself at the door of Nakumatt. There are two guards there at the entrance, a uniformed man and woman. Both are ready to frisk all comers and would be customers with their electronic scanners. Not quite so physical as a real FRISK, but a frisk for all that. I understand why it is taking place. I realise the reality of the possible dangers and risks trying to be forestalled. But for all that, it spoils my sense of joy in entering the place. It forces me to examine those entering with me into the supermarket, and forces me to suspect each one as a possible enemy. It takes from me the freedom to trust, believe in, and be at peace with everyone. I feel robbed.
If I had to feel this on entering a Church or some other Gathering arranged by members of my faith, or even of another faith, I think I would enter it joylessly, and with resentment. I believe in God, that He is with me. If GOD is with me then who can be against me and succeed? The right answer has to be 'NO ONE.' The trouble with our world is that God Himself is under threat, and every effort is being made to syphon the knowledge and Realisation of Him out of human experience and reality. THUS fear, anxiety and a lack of real peace that generates confidence and hope, is being removed from world society. NOW we are being forced to doubt and suspect God Himself, on his very doorstep, so to speak. I run from such a situation. I will not be 'frisked' to enter a place of Worship. I will not worship where the Leaders believe God is unable to protect them or me. If God is SO puny and weak that He cannot protect me and those who put their trust in Him then He is of no use to me. No I will not worship where He is doubted. I will not bow down to that. I will not queue up to enter such a Meeting. I shall not fear if GOD is WITH me. Would that the World in which we live might have such Confidence in Him.
We should all watch carefully where we are going; where we are being propelled to. We have to realise that it is not us that sets the stage, or rigs the scene. There are forces at work around us; forces controlled by unseen and unrecognised powers, and their purpose is to obliterate GOD out of our minds, and finally, together with all that He has created, destroy Him forever. It is a foolhardy mission, and cannot ultimately succeed, for our God is ALL Mighty, and there is nothing at all that CAN succeed against HIM.
Come to HIM. Rely and Trust in HIM. Be very bold and courageous and demonstrate and prove in your own life and attitude where your faith really is - in men, their guns, and their boastful pride OR in the one and only GOD.
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