Asleep in the Light
In the Biblical sense, a prophet is not someone who predicts the future, but rather someone who speaks God’s word to people. Often it is a word of judgment or warning with a prediction attached, but basically prophets are preachers. In this sense, contemporary “Christian” music as it has become today was founded in part by a true prophet.
When Keith Green sang, he was preaching. Whereas a lot of Christian artists today are “singing to the choir” (or even worse, hitting an easy target audience) Keith probably made a lot of the church crowd mad in his day. He preached a message of no compromise and selling out for what we claim to believe. All too often Christians today simply see Christianity as a message about the good life—how to live it and how to reap the benefits it provides.
But we aren’t really that callous to the lost and the Great Commission, are we? Look at all the people who are involved in missions today, so many more than ever before. True, but how sold out is it to give a week or two of your life to go have an “adventure” on a mission trip and then go back to your nice secure job with the house, two cars and picket fence?
What Keith Green tried to inspire young people to in his day was radical—perhaps too radical for American Christianity. Many a youth minister has entered the job ready to change young people only to find out that that is not what they have been hired to do. “Entertain the kids. Keep them out of trouble. But don’t you dare get them too enthusiastic about Christianity. They need to go to college and get a real job, not go into the ministry or even worse… career missions!”
Where is the next prophet called to try and wake us up?
Video Worth a Watch
When Keith Green sang, he was preaching. Whereas a lot of Christian artists today are “singing to the choir” (or even worse, hitting an easy target audience) Keith probably made a lot of the church crowd mad in his day. He preached a message of no compromise and selling out for what we claim to believe. All too often Christians today simply see Christianity as a message about the good life—how to live it and how to reap the benefits it provides.
But we aren’t really that callous to the lost and the Great Commission, are we? Look at all the people who are involved in missions today, so many more than ever before. True, but how sold out is it to give a week or two of your life to go have an “adventure” on a mission trip and then go back to your nice secure job with the house, two cars and picket fence?
What Keith Green tried to inspire young people to in his day was radical—perhaps too radical for American Christianity. Many a youth minister has entered the job ready to change young people only to find out that that is not what they have been hired to do. “Entertain the kids. Keep them out of trouble. But don’t you dare get them too enthusiastic about Christianity. They need to go to college and get a real job, not go into the ministry or even worse… career missions!”
Where is the next prophet called to try and wake us up?
Video Worth a Watch
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