Urgency

It is 1877, you are a minister speaking in Boston and suddenly the Holy Spirit opens the heart of the people to respond to the call.  Such is what happened to William Wilberforce Newton.  Imagine the scene: men rushing out to the street, hanging on to light poles and screaming at how they knew the gates of Hell where opening to suck them in.  The fear was real, the conversions were real.  It was an event that one sorely wishes would happen today.

So why doesn’t it?

I think it has to do with a lack in the sense of urgency.  We have no urgent viewpoint. 

Maybe it is because Jesus has not returned since his departure around 33 AD.  If he has not come in 2,000 years – why should he be showing up in the next 2,000 years or 200 or 20 or this year, much less this month or tomorrow?  It is almost as if the Church has become one of the scoffers mentioned in 2 Peter 3:3 -

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

There is NO sense of urgency.  Is it because we have read too many books claiming to know when He is coming again?  Or the black eyes the cultish whack-o’s have delivered to the sincere believer whom has been waiting and watching?

Perhaps the parable of the sower of the seed in Luke 8:14 has the answer:

"And as for that which fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature."

                                               

Whatever the cause, why have you lost your sense of urgency?  Is your life so busy or overcome with situations that you can no longer anticipate His return?  Is it that tomorrow always comes, that you see no reason to be urgent?  Have you been wooed away by the world and its promises to the extent that His promises are only dim memories?

I think you get the point here.  We are easily distracted from what our pursuit as believers is to be.  We do not need to be more financially solvent to be effective for Him to use.  We do not need to be so busy in our lives that there is no time to live as we ought.  Nor do we need to continually be entertaining ourselves, literally to death, so there is no interest in study, or prayer, or helping others, or witnessing – even with our life.

Turning off the TV and getting involved in the lives of those around you is what all of us have to do.  Time is short.  Urgency is our byword.  Now, get off the computer and get out there!