WHO'S THE REAL ENEMY?

When I was a teenager we sometimes had missionaries come to our church with stories of Christians being persecuted in various places around the world. The greatest evil in those days seemed to be in communist countries, such as the (then) Soviet Union and China. We heard of Christians having to meet secretly in underground house churches because Christian gatherings were forbidden. We learned of brave missionaries smuggling Bibles into places where spiritually hungry believers had to circulate pages of scripture because no one had access to a whole Bible. There were many stories of people being dragged away to prison when their meetings were discovered, sometimes betrayed by government agents planted among the Christian communities. 

In those days Christianity in Canada was still relatively strong and healthy, though clearly beginning to show signs of apathy and compromise. 

As young people we looked at the persecution happening in far off places and wondered whether we would ever face that kind of trial as Christians here in Canada. I remember making this statement to my friends.  "Why would Satan want to bring persecution to North America? From what we've heard, when Christians are persecuted they become stronger, more serious, and more committed. If he wants to destroy the church in North America he's better to just let our apathy and laziness and compromise grow."

I wasn't speaking prophetically, just logically. And I think what lots of us foresaw back in the 60's has come to pass.

Yes we get annoyed that we can no longer pray in schools and public institutions. And we get in a huff and circulate emails when it seems our rights as Christians are being trampled on for the sake of giving more rights to people of other faiths. Things have changed for us, but we can still go to church without being fined or jailed. We can still proclaim Christ on radio and TV. We can still educate our children in the word of God. What we hold as truth isn't the popular opinion anymore, and it's not quite as "comfortable" being a Christian in Canada as it was forty years ago, but we are still a very long way from being persecuted as Christians experience even now

in many parts of the world. 

No, the greatest enemy of the Christian in North America is not a hostile government. It is our apathetic, "who cares" approach to our personal faith. There are individual exceptions obviously, but in general we are just not very serious about what should be the most important element of our lives, our relationship with our Creator.

I don't mean to get on a soapbox with finger pointing at anyone. I'm just trying to bring attention again to what is really quite obvious, that we Christians in Canada could stand to be a whole lot more serious about our faith in Jesus. 

Do we believe that God is our Creator? Do we believe that Jesus is our Saviour? Do we believe we are destined to spend eternity in a spectacular place called heaven where God Himself lives? Do we believe there are rewards in heaven that will last forever, and they are based on what we've done with the 70 or 80 years we spend here on earth? Do we believe people all around us who don't know Jesus are headed toward an eternity without God, in a place the Bible calls hell?

These are things most of us as Christians profess to believe, but somehow we continue to go about our lives as if they hardly matter. The most important thing in the whole world is our relationship with God, but we somehow lack the passion to know Him. We let so many other things distract us from praying, reading our Bible, growing in Jesus, and serving Him as He wants us to. 

Since first taking on the role of Director of Spiritual Formation, I have said often the biggest challenge is not providing programs or encouragements to help people in their spiritual growth. The biggest challenge is that not many of us want it enough to personally invest the time and effort. And sadly, on far too many days I have to include myself in that statement. 

I suppose we have lost some of our "Christian rights" in Canada. But I still say the greatest threat to Christianity in this country is not persecution. Most of our freedoms are in tact, and our leaders are not being jailed or tortured. Our numbers are diminishing and our impact is waning because apathy and other priorities have caused us to lose focus on what's really important; a growing relationship with the one who created us. God wanted that relationship so desperately that He suffered and died so it could happen. What about us? What are we willing to do to walk with God?