Responding in the Spirit

We can be confident in the Lord and trust Him to express His life and love through us as we yielded to Him. That's a theme we find in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4:
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.
6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So, as containers and reflectors of the light of Christ, we trust Him to shine through us.   He has given us His Spirit, we have the very nature of Jesus living in us, and that has enormous implications for the way that we respond to people and events that do not follow the principles of Scripture.  Following His direction, there will be a time to speak truth, but we have to be careful that we do not react in the flesh in a spirit of confrontation and retaliation; rather, we respond in the Spirit, with an attitude of love and devotion to Christ.  By so doing, we get ourselves out of the way and release the power of God into our situations.

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I believe that God is pleased as His people come together, with a common purpose of exalting Him and lifting up the name of Jesus. Romans 15 gives some encouragement:
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

The day was January 6, 1989.  Christian leaders in Montgomery wanted to respond to a film that was scheduled to be shown in a local theater, and so a "Stand Up for Jesus" rally was held at Lee High School.  I found a press clipping from The Tuscaloosa News from that day - it stated information about the rally and that it was not intended to be a protest of the movie, "The Last Temptation of Christ," but an opportunity to praise Jesus Christ in a positive way.  The brief article quoted then-senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Cortez Cooper, Jr.   The movie was set to premiere on January 20 and run for two weeks.

When I read about an event that took place in Memphis just under two weeks ago, it brought back memories of that Montgomery response.  You see, the city of Memphis was the site of a 4-day convention for the group American Atheists.  While the atheists were doing whatever one does at such a gathering, Christians assembled at the local baseball stadium,  AutoZone Park for a unique event called, "Memphis Exalts Jesus."  ChristianNews.net had a report on that event, and traced the history of it:

The idea for the event came about as two men who did not know each other began to pray and ask God what they should do in response to the atheist convention. Through mutual friends, both of them came to meet each other and realized that they had similar ideas. Others soon joined in to help organize the event, which became known as “Memphis Exalts Jesus.”

“We believe that though our nation’s foundations have eroded, the word of God is being recast, and the Lord is being rejected and replaced by paganism and evil doing—there still can be one last great awakening—one that restores the Lord to His rightful place and sweeps multitudes into the kingdom of God,” one organizer told reports.

The article says that organizer Jan Winterburn told Charisma News, “There has never been an event like it in the city,” adding, “It was incredible. We all entered into to worship and prayer—whether the choirs or speakers were African-American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian or born again Jews.”

It was reported that approximately 4,000 Christians gathered at the stadium.

The ChristianNews.net article says that a spokeswoman for American Atheists explained to reporters that the organization makes the city selection based on locations that the group considers to be under “religious suppression.” The piece reports that President David Silverman commented to MyFox Memphis: “The idea is that people assume that everybody in Memphis is a Christian. But, there are a lot of atheists here and these atheists feel oppressed by the Christian majority."

So, what was on the agenda for this atheist convention? Well, speakers at the event included Lucien Greaves of the New York-based Satanic Temple and Muslim critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and a showing of the film “God’s Not Dead” was presented with live mockery from comedians Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff.  Atheist “activist training” sessions were held as well, with a number of workshops for attendees.

The invitation letter to the "Memphis Exalts Jesus" event stated, "Our hope and deep desire is that there will be a great move of the Holy Spirit that utterly transforms the Church and our community and brings many souls to the Lord Jesus."

By the way, next week in Memphis, Bryan Loritts has organized another Kainos conference, which features a world-class lineup of speakers to discuss multi-ethnic ministry.   The website says that, "kainos is from the Greek word for new, a word Paul uses to describe the coming together of Jews and Gentiles to form the multi-ethnic church."  The site states that: "Our nation is trending towards diversity. The church has no option but to maintain the same trajectory, not so much forward, but backward to her first century roots where the normal was ethnic diversity. A failure to do so will put us perilously close to being irrelevant to the changing face of our society."

So, in Memphis, God is working.  We are privileged to have Bellevue Baptist Church and Pastor Steve Gaines in our programming lineup on Sunday mornings at 10, preceded by Bridge for Life with Bryan Loritts at 9:30.

And, thousands of believers showed their devotion to lifting up Jesus and making a spiritual statement for their community on the Saturday before Easter.

Three words to take with you today:

First of all, unity.  The "Memphis Exalts Jesus" event was a marvelous display of unity, with God's people, regardless of spiritual background gathered to pray and worship Jesus.  As those who do not claim to know God assembled at a local hotel, there was a counter-activity in the spirit realm, enhanced by the unity of God's people.  Next week in Memphis, the Kainos event will attempt to encourage people to overcome the barriers that separate members of the body of Christ and look for ways to bring believers together across ethnic lines.

Another word is response.  The believers who organized the Christian event, much like the event in Montgomery over 25 years ago, were dedicated to lifting up the name of the Lord, not in protest, but in praise.  So often, we want to respond in the flesh and resort to confrontation or retaliation, when God is calling us to use our spiritual resources and release His power in response to occurrences in our communities that are contrary to His Word and His ways.

Finally, there's acknowledgement.  It's important that when we see God work, that we call attention to what He has done, and seek Him for how He wants us to proceed.  When we are involved in a great move of the Lord or a significant spiritual event (such as the one on Easter weekend in Memphis), that can be a catalyst for activity in our own lives, whether it be spiritual growth, or to do more in our churches and communities.  In all things, we can seek to exalt Christ and make His name known.