It's a great prayer for the pagan AA oraganization but it ain't Christian--
in fact it is anti-christian. We are called to do the impossible in our
strength but the possible in God's strength.
In the world's eyes the early Jewish Apostles and disciples all died
as measurable failures. They boldly attacked all the pagan strongholds,
including the Synagogue of Satan, with the truth of the Gospel. In the end,
their efforts were almost imperceptible by the pagan world. Pagan
hitorians hardly took notice of their lives, their work or their deaths.
They sacrificed everything to spread the good news that God had visited
man in the form of a Man. At the end of their lives there were only a few
thousand converts and the forces of evil were still in solid control
of the minds of humanity. They were often burried in common graves if
there was anything left of their martyred bodies. The world yawned as
the noble giants passed from this world.
In the eyes of the world 'they had failed to changed the things the world
said they could not change'. They water
the seeds of truth with their blood while the heathen and the religious
people raged.
The eyes of the spirit see a different scene. They see the precious
seed of salvation being watered with the blood of the martyers. Within
300 years, Christianity became the dominant faith of the Roman Empire.
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The Gospel--the Word of God--is meant to be preached in the context of
a dynamic interchange. This is the way Jesus and the Apostles preached
Remember Paul in the Aereopagas in Acts.
" For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."
Paul had the peace of God living in his heart. But I can assure you this
moment was a tense and worldly-speaking, non-peaceful time.
The words of Christ demonstrate this when he said " I bring you not peace but
the sword. The peace that we have is a supernatural peace in the soul and spirit.
Preching the Gospel to the non-christians is a tense business. He who pretends
other wise has very little experience.
Neverthless, Paul preached in context. He was forceful and straightforward but always dynamica
and in context--no dumping of endless Scriptures out of context.
We are to make the Word of God relevant to the
everyday experiences of people. The new brand of "cut and paste" preachers
that were spawned by the internet is not really preaching to the pagans.
It is edifying to the believers but like tongues it does nothing for the pagan
unles--like Philip did to the Eunuch- it is expplained. You never see disciples
in the Scriptures take massive "word studies"
and dump them out of context upon the heathen. It is nothing but a
showoff exercise. All true Christians love the Scriptures and are delighted
and edified when they read the Scriptures. But the heathen are confused
when Scriptures are dumped out of context.
It is far more fruitful to having a meaningful, Scriptural, in context, converstion with a cursing, swearing
abusive pagan than dumping out of context Scriptures on him his head.
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