FALSE TEETH AND SIN

Steve was a homeless fellow at Myrtle Beach when one of the hurricanes came through a few years ago. Huddled in a corner alone and frightened he cried out to the Lord for mercy and said, "Oh God, if you will bring me through this thing safely, I will get rid of my cigarettes and my false teeth!” Then having made it safely through the storm, he got rid of his false teeth and went around toothless, but hung on to his more pleasurable sins such as profanity and whoremongering. When I asked him about his logic in the matter, he told me that it is a sin to wear false teeth because the Bible warns us about things that are false. He told one of his friends, “You don’t want to be wearing false teeth when Jesus comes back. But then again, you just as well go ahead and smile and look pretty cause it will be too late then.”

This story is true, and we smile at the crazy logic involved. However, the world often sees the church in this light. We often "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." I think this is what Jesus meant when he said the sons of this world are often wiser in their generation than the sons of light (Lu.16:8). When the church gets religious it ends up like the children playing games in the marketplace, irrelevant and not touching people in the realities of their lives (Matthew11:16-17). It also loses touch with the heart of God. This is what happens when we get rid or our "false teeth" but keep our lies.

I learned in a sociology course in college that one of the unspoken requisites for being an accepted part of a group is that everyone in it consciously and subconsciously ignores the inconsistencies of the group. I have been in ministry for many years, but I think I saw the church more clearly during a few years in a “secular" profession. Being on the outside gives a different perspective. “Not seeing the forest for the trees” is a true saying. It is also true that some people often “don’t see the tree for the forest.” Therefore, we should not quickly dismiss our detractors. While they may see us in a distorted light, yet very often they will see and point out faults that our friends cannot see, or faults they see but are afraid to point out.

That season of being on the outside caused me to cry out to see the real church. What will the church be like when the Holy Spirit is allowed to develop it without all of our impositions, when the church genuinely represents the fullness of Christ in the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit and actually manifests and makes known the love, grace, and wisdom of God to the world and to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, as the Apostle Paul foretold in his letter to the Ephesians.

God is going to work according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is going to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think, and He is going to do it in, with, and through the church. The church has its faults and peculiarities, but God in His glorious power and sovereignty will one day present her to himself a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle.     ---Billy Long