Visible Community: A Praying Community

For several weeks, my heart has been broken because of what happened at NIU (Northern Illinois University). It almost seems like we are growing callous to these horrendous acts of violence, because so many occurences are being reported. At some point, we have to wonder why: why must the most powerful nation in the world suffer from another such erratic and meaningless tragedy, while Virginia Tech still lingers afresh on our minds? Experts try to make some kind of sense during these tragedies, playing the blame game without much success. I'm no expert, but I wonder if the fact that people in America feel lonlier than ever and feeling disconnected from their communities have something to do with it. We can look closely at all the perpetrators and we have to come to a realization that to some degree, they all felt disconnected, disillusioned, indignant and lonely. As a church, I believe that we must become a community that seeks to bring healing to such people and how will they ever see the church as a solution if we never become the visible community that God calls us to be?
The question that I want to address is how do we become this visible community that brings hope and healing to the hurt and the hopeless? I believe there's at least one passage that addresses this issue. In the Gospel of Matthew 21:12-17 it reads, "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " `My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a `den of robbers.' " The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " `From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise' ?" According to Matthew, after Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly, which began his final week facing the cross, he first visited the temple. Upon arriving, Matthew tells us that Jesus first "drove out" all who were buying and selling and secondly, he "overturned the tables" of the money changers. These descriptions indicate that the temple became a place of business. Why did God's temple become a place of business? In Luke 16, it is recorded that Pharisees loved money. The reason why the temple became a place of business is because the temple leaders, religious leaders loved money. Whether it's God's temple or God's Church we're dealing with, I have come to realize that our church becomes whatever our hearts desire. Temple leaders in their hearts loved money, so their temple became a place of business. In the same way, if we love money, our church will inevitably become a business. If we love fellowship, our church will become a place of fellowship. If we love numbers, our church will most likely grow in numbers. As people of God we have to constantly evaluate whether our church is becoming what our hearts desire, what we love and treasure.
So, if our church is not to become a place of whatever we love, desire and treasure, what is it to become? Jesus spells it out for us in Matthew 21:13, "My house will be called a 'house of prayer.'" When we stop and surrender all our self-reliant dreams and aspirations, to replace all that we love with an undying love for God, our church will become a house of prayer. In other words, the church becoming a house of prayer is a clear indication that we are loving God and putting our trust in him. This is counter-intuitive because when we come to love God, shouldn't our church become a place of action and words that indicates our love for God, rather than a house of prayer? Actually, we can be good in our actions and words, but that is not always a sign that we truly love God. There are plenty of individuals and organizations that perform "good" deeds; they are the model Good Samaritan. However, they don't necessarily represent God's goodness. So, our love for God and our trust in God is demonstrated by our willingness to come to God on our knees; not some humanitarian & noble deeds. Unless, we are willing to become a house of prayer, we'll never become a visible community that can bring hope and healing to the hurt and the hopeless. When Jesus corrected his temple, bringing change in their identity, what happened? According to the story, the blind came, the lame, the homeless, the hurt and the hopeless came. Their needs were met; they were healed. That's the beauty of God's community; his visible community.
It is my prayer and hope that we would become this kind of community. Community where we first get on our knees to seek God's will, because of our undying love for Christ, knowing that we can do nothing apart from God. Then we'll understand what being a visible community means because God will bring the lame, the blind and the sick so that they may come and find healing, hope and ultimately find our Lord Jesus Christ.

Visible Community and the Secret

I've been reading a book called "The Secret." What is the "Secret?" Secret is the law of attraction. The premise is that we are all connected and interlinked to the universe in such a way that our positive/good feelings attract positive/good results as well as negative/bad feelings attract negative/bad results. Although I haven't finished the book yet, this book resonates with Joel Osteen's book "Your Best Life Now." What I mean by that is this: both of these books have something in common, that is, they both are self-centered approach to a world full of self-centered people. The result is, it's a very marketable book. "The Secret" comes from a universalist's point of view where it really doesn't matter what religion you believe, because "The Secret" is transcendent of all religions.
At the heart of the matter, both of these books and the Bible are completely different. Bible comes from a God-centered point of view where as these books come from a self-centered and self-reliant point of view. As long as we miss that mark of our need to be God-centered & God-reliant in our lives, I would suspect any books or thoughts who claim to know the "Secret."