Microwave Christianity
By Pastor Jim May
We live in a fast-paced world. Less than 100 years ago, most people were still riding wagons, drawn by mules, ox or horses. Air travel was non-existent. TV’s did not exist. Radio was just beginning to make its presence known in the homes of private citizens. Telephones were in the cities but very few in the rural areas. Horseless carriages, that would become the sleek automobiles of today were not much more than a noisy buggy that belched smoke and created havoc in the streets wherever they went. Most laundry was still being done by hand with a rub-board and hand wringer. Cooking, by-in-large, was done on wooden stoves, and bathrooms were still out behind the house.
We’ve come a long ways since that day, and I, for one, thank God that we have. I love the modern conveniences. Life is so much easier today that it was just 100 years ago, at least for most of us in the industrialized nations of the world.
Of course, some of the modern conveniences are not quite as welcomed as others.
Mr. Alvin Verette of New Roads, Louisiana, owns and operates the nation’s first drive-in Funeral Home. For the convenience of time-pressed mourners, the deceased is displayed before a five-by-seven foot picture window. Friends and relatives can drive up to the window and pay their last respects without getting out. Mr. Verette says, "We wanted something for people who didn’t have time to dress for the occassion." If I pass from this life and wind up in that place, don’t even bother coming by. If you’re too pressed for time to even get dressed, you’re just too busy to worry about coming to see a shell of clay in a picture window.
Conveniences don’t always mean that things are better either. For instance, in one picture that I saw of the “modern” kitchen equipment of the 1950s there is a single pan on a gas stove, a spoon and a knife and a hand mixer. On the table was a typical Sunday dinner of roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, salad, two vegetables, homemade rolls and an apple pie. Another picture showed the standard equipment of a kitchen of today. There was a food processor, bread maker, pasta maker, juicer, rice steamer, Ginsu knife system and a 20-piece cookware set. But what was the typical Sunday dinner that was shown? Microwave pizza.
When I was a kid, too long ago almost to remember, there weren’t many other kids around so I had to learn to entertain myself. I had plastic soldiers that I fought the entire Civil War and World War II with, over and over. We had to build “forts” in the briar patches and trails through the weeds. We dug in the dirt, and probably ate a lot of it too, over time. I made toy guns and swords out of tree branches. There were some toys around but not a lot. But I never missed them and learned to have an imagination.
Today kids have more toys than they know what to do with but they don’t play with them. Most of them don’t have much of an imagination because they let computer game programmers control their imagination through the games that are created. I love computers myself, but I’m glad that I grew up in a time when they didn’t exist so I could learn to think for myself instead of what someone else told me to think.
Sometimes, we look back with nostalgia at the “good old days” don’t we, at least those of us who have lived long enough to remember some good old days.
How much of the good old days can you remember? Can you remember carrying buckets of water and heating them on the stove just to take a lukewarm bath, instead of just turning on the faucets in the bath? Can you remember splitting the wood with a dull, rusty axe, just to heat the stove to make coffee, instead of turning on the cappuccino machine? Can you remember the cars without air-conditioning, homes with no air-conditioning and church in the old brush arbor on wooden planks? Some things, folks, I would just as soon forget.
Christianity has changed somewhat too. We have tried to make it more convenient to “worship” God, ever making the church more worldly, in an effort to make the worldly more comfortable in the church.
Don’t preach against sin and bring condemnation upon them anymore, just make them feel good about themselves and make them feel at home and they will stay awhile. They might stay but they will still burn in hell if they don’t repent of their sin and get saved!
One church offers a “Higher Ground” service that is described like this. The Higher Ground gathering is an alternate style service. Seating is around tables – bring your coffee from our nearby Higher Ground Café. The music is very modern and there are often opportunities during the message for discussion. Additionally, there is a Question and Answer period at the end of the message. This is a great place for people who are new to Church or those who are looking for a less “traditional” service.
One of the most outlandish churches that I read about is the “Beer Church”? It is based on the philosophy that people are basically good and want to help make the world a better place. People like to drink beer, socialize and generally have a good time. In our human society, beer is a conduit, or catalyst, for making that happen. Find the people where they are. Have a party that benefits something worthy. As a unified association of beer drinkers our potential to affect positive social change is enormous. Be kind and giving, love one another, care about one another, and help one another. Use beer as a way to do those things. That’s what Beer Church wants to do.
Then there is another church. It’s one of the most famous churches in America and it hosts some really special guests, Hollywood stars such as Glen Campbell, Crystal Gayle, The Judds, Jim Nabors and Roger Williams, plus many celebrity speakers such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlton Heston, and Miss America (Heather Whitestone) appear behind its pulpit on a regular basis. Then there is the pipe organ with 16,000 pipes, the 100-plus voices of the choir, and the electric fountain that produces a stream of water that constantly that runs down the middle of the center aisle of the church.The real star of the show is the church building itself; each week its soaring heights are captured in glittering detail by the television cameras as the world, and the people in attendance, stare in awe.
The church seats almost 3,000 people for Sunday services. But giant, sliding glass doors on the side of the church allow even more people to watch the services from their cars in the parking lot. Where’s Jesus in all of this? The only mention of His name was that some of the glass panes seem to give a slight image of Jesus upon the cross. But where is the living Lord?
The entertainment value may be high, and the draw of the crowd because of the big names of those who speak is great, but where is the Holy Ghost in all of that? Is He even invited, or would He even accept the invitation if He was?
I believe that it will take the same thing to stay in the family of God that it took to get in God’s family in the first place. It’s going to take a commitment to serving the Lord, even when it’s inconvenient.
It’s going to take living a holy lifestyle, in obedience to the Word of God. It’s going to take having a holy fear, or reverence, for our Holy God, just like we had the instant we came to an altar and repented before him with fear and trembling. I believe it’s going to take putting God first above our desire for the things of the world and above our love for conveniences.
The church of the modern world has lost it’s identity with the true Christ. We have our buildings, our programs, our classes, our seminars, but we don’t have Jesus anymore. He wrote “Ichabod” across the door, meaning that the Spirit of the Lord has departed, and went to seek and save those who will serve and worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.
God didn’t say that people would be saved by the ability of act and speak of the Hollywood Stars. He didn’t say that they would hear the gospel through “celebrities”.
1 Corinthians 1:21, "… it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
There is nothing in the world that will change a heart like the preaching of a true, and powerful gospel message, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost! But that kind of message, and that kind of anointing, won’t come because of who we are in the world’s eyes. It comes because we have learned to inconvenience ourselves and get alone with God in a secret place until the power of God flows through us.
No, I don’t want to go back to the brush arbor days, and the days of hard wooden benches. I enjoy the comfortable pews and nice buildings of today. But if it means that I have to give up the presence of God to have what makes church comfortable, then give me that old brush arbor once again.
I want God’s presence. I want God’s power. I don’t need to hear what the President of the USA has to say, I need to hear what God has to say. I don’t want to the hear the rousing speech of a politician or a TV star. I need to hear the message of the “Bright and the Morning Star”. I want to hear His voice and his alone.
The Apostle Paul seemed to almost have a window open to the church of today. I wonder if the same attitudes of the modern church had not already began to invade the early church. Listen to what he has to say.
Philippians 3:13-21, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:"
Paul said that he was pressing on. It was not a life with a microwave oven but a life of sacrificial living, giving all that he was and all that he had, for the cause of Christ and the preaching of the gospel.
Pressing on speaks of hard work. It speaks of fighting against the crowds and making people uneasy in their sin. It speaks of long hours of study, prayer and a constant struggle against the things of the world. It’s pressing on, in the face of all odds. It’s a fight to the finish line with no time for stopping.
The microwave Christianity world of today isn’t pressing toward the mark of the High calling in God. They are pressing for world recognition, for bigger crowds, for majestic buildings, for the praise of men and for acceptance by those who refuse to submit to the will of God.
They are pressing on, but in the wrong direction. Paul says that their end is destruction, no matter how much they claim to be Christian. Paul says that they care more for earthly things. They seek to satisfy the flesh instead of providing for the spirit. The glory that they claim rises before God as shame for their sin and He receives no glory from it at all. The glory is given to the preacher. The glory is given to the “star”. The glory is given to the celebrity. Glory is given to the architecture of the building, but God gets no glory at all.
Today I am concerned for the multitudes that worship God only when it’s convenient and in a manner that costs them nothing. I wonder if it will be convenient time when the Rapture comes? I wonder if there is ever a convenient time to pray or to study the Word of God?
What about each of us this morning? Have we begun to feel the influence of “Microwave Christianity”? Are we searching for the convenient path? Are we looking for the easy way out? Are we forsaking the proven ways of living for Jesus, for the modern philosophies of man? We need to check ourselves today to see if we are truly following the Lord.
In 2 Samuel 24:24, when King David wanted to buy the land for the construction of an altar for God, he was offered a convenient way out. Araunah, the owner, was willing to give it to David for that purpose, out of respect for David and for God. But David would not go the easy route. He loved and respected God too much for that.
"And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver."
The “Microwave Christianity” of today jumps at the offer for a “free altar”. Their “salvation” doesn’t cost them a thing. They don’t have to repent of sin, because sin isn’t mentioned. They don’t have to change their ways of living, because the whole church lives just like they do. They don’t have to study the Bible, because the wisest men and women of the world are their teachers. They don’t have to worry about hell, because the church is telling them that hell doesn’t even exist, and if it did, it wouldn’t be for them. It’s only there for the “bad people”, like murderers and thieves, but not for them. They are good, moral people and surely God has a place for them. To these dear folks, salvation is just a free ride and an easy life until they are given a glorious reward for just being what they want to be.
But friends, repentance isn’t easy and the altar isn’t free. Jesus paid for our place of repentance with his own blood. He gave His life, a terrible price in pain and suffering, so that you and I could have the privilege to serve Him and enjoy eternal life together with our Lord. How can we offer back to Him anything less than our best? How can we expect Him to honor the things that we give back to him that costs us nothing?
None of us like the struggle. We all would like to have an easier life. We all would want things to be convenient. But, when it’s not, and times are hard, and serving the Lord isn’t fun, and it costs us something to go to church, will we still pay the price. Are we willing to keep pressing toward the mark of God’s high calling in us?
Let us press on! Let us pay whatever price is necessary! Let’s not develop the “Microwave mentality” of the modern church. Let’s take hold of the those things that are tried and true and commit our ways unto the Lord.
Proverbs 14:12-15, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going."
The microwave Christianity of the modern church may seem right to many but it leads to eternal death. They may laugh at our traditions, but their heart will be sorrowful in the Day of Judgment. The end of their lives of comfort and convenience will be too heavy to bear. They are filled and satisfied with their own ways to God, but they are serving the wrong God. They are fooled into believing the simple-minded preachers who are led by the devil. But those who are wise will be very careful of the lives they live, of the things they hear, and of the way in which they walk.
Have you begun to be careless today? Have you begun to accept the ways of the Ichabod church? Have you tried to offer God a life that built upon convenience? Have you offered to God that which really doesn’t cost you anything?
