The Church in Camouflage
5/5/13
For those of us who have hunted, we understand that we need to blend in with our surroundings when we are trying to obtain food for our families. Animals have a keen sense of eyesight, hearing, and smell that dwarf our senses in which we need to figure out a way to fool them enough in order to complete our mission. The Church has taken on this type of attitude with their ideology of wanting to blend into the world settings yet at the same time try to make a stand against our enemy that operates in the world. It is not our job as Christians to blend in with the world, but to stand out and set an example of God’s restoration and love for His people.
I understand that the entire gun issue is considered to be a “hot” topic right at the moment but this article is not going to be about guns per say, instead, it is going to deal with the process of blending. These words will not be about the hunting or gun safety, for that is a human setting and is not what God desires for us to understand concerning this subject. However, God does want us to understand that there is a difference from man’s way of thinking and His way of thinking when it comes to the concept of standing out from the crowd.
Today the popular thing to do is to run with the crowd and while that belief is not a new concept it is one that has taken hold in our society with an equivalence of a death grip. Doing the right thing has been flashed across our eyes and argued over for quite some time and while the idea of people adhering to the laws of the land and doing what is right is a wonderfully imaginative and utopian way of thinking we have discerned it is not a method that humans like to follow on a recurring basis. It is our nature to test the borders of the unknown and to stretch the mind’s thought patterns while examining ideas that go contrary to what has been previously established that have been deemed off limits for further interpretation. The mind’s dexterity is a God given talent that we take for granted and then ignore this detail to further the humanistic agenda of the world instead of using it to complete what God has started within man.
Approximately fifteen years ago or so my dad and I took a trip to El Salvador. The trip was going to be taken around Christmas time and given this fact the weather in Colorado usually meant a cold environment; however, at this time, the weather had been not been too terribly cold and up till this time had pretty much followed the typical weather patterns for the change of seasons. There were no real weather concerns on the day that dad and I left for El Salvador so we really did not think too much about the clothes issues. Dad and I knew that it was going to be a short trip to the local airport and that there were no pressing weather alerts in the near future so we dressed accordingly to the weather conditions that would be presented to us upon our arrival in El Salvador.
For those of you that might not be aware of the location of El Salvador, it is a country that lies in Central America on the Pacific Ocean side of this region. The country has a tropical climate in which it follows a rainy season and a dry season and with being a Central American country warm weather abounds almost year round. These weather patterns are common and usually do not change. Dad had been to El Salvador many times before and knew exactly how to dress for our stay in the country. The manner in which we packed perfectly suited us for our stay in Central America but since the ten-day weather forecast was not a popular option at that time in the 1990s there was no way to ascertain what was coming from the Arctic region upon our arrival back to the States.
The trip was an interesting one for me since I had never been to Central America before but one with no major hiccups while we were there; however, no major accomplishments were made either. Dad did get to speak at a small community church and preached Kingdom to them, which they really did not grasp that concept but it was a door that was opened to their spirits; great local food was also consumed and I had the opportunity to witness some of the countryside living of the people. When the length of our trip was completed, dad and I said goodbye to the missionary that hosted us then boarded the plane for our trip back to the States.
We arrived in Houston after a decent ride from El Salvador and departed the plane to go through the routine steps of U S Customs. Customs is usually not a problem and our time in Houston Customs proved to be short lived and both of us were soon on our way down the terminal towards the gate of our connecting flight to Denver. We had a considerable amount of time before our flight to Denver so I decided to walk around a bit and see part of my old stomping grounds, we had lived in the Houston area back when I was in junior high and high school so parts of the terminal brought back a few distant memories of mine so I wanted to explore a bit. Even though I was confined to the terminal, September 11th had not occurred yet so I was a little bit freer to roam away from our gate.
After a while I returned to the gate and I realized that dad was staring at the TV that was in our area. I then turned my heads towards the same TV that dad was staring at and quickly recognized that the weather report was being broadcasted and that a large Arctic front was pushing down through the western portion of the United States. This included Colorado and from all indications it was bringing snow ahead of the front and then bitterly cold temperatures soon afterwards. It dawned on us that we had no coats for the arrival in Denver and with the weather conditions in Colorado no outbound flights to Grand Junction were going to precede either, but one step at a time we agreed.
Our flight to Denver was delayed a little due to the backed up air traffic flow in and around the Denver area and also it allowed the ground crews in Denver to improve the conditions of the runways but for the most part all went according to plan on this leg of the trip. The landing in Denver went without a hitch and our plane landed into a solid white landscape and within a few minutes we would unknowingly realize just how cold it was outside. After de-boarding the plane dad and I made our way towards the gate of the final leg of our trip which was to Grand Junction and sure enough as soon as we arrived at the gate it was posted that all flights to Grand Junction had been cancelled until the morning. This meant spending a night in Denver and enduring the cold in our tropical clothing. The airlines made us arrangements with a hotel and we then were instructed to take our bags and go wait for the hotel shuttle outside. This was when reality hit both of us about the cold weather and the current lack of jackets, there is nothing like a frigid blast of cold air in light clothing when the doors to the outside open.
Those of you who know that if you have to wait for a hotel shuttle the wait can be quite some time and if the weather conditions are horrid then the wait can be even more special. Such was the case for dad and I while we are standing in about five degree weather with approximately a foot of snow on the ground and both of us are dressed in pants and Hawaiian short sleeved shirts and light weighted plants. Yes, many people who were headed for the same hotel destination witnessed our dressing behavior and had a good chuckle at our expense. Dad and I stood out like a sore thumb and it was obvious that whoever saw us would immediately know that we had not been prepared for this part of our journey.
The mark that dad and I made on the current weather conditions proved to be funny to some and rightly so, dad and I both laughed at us as well. This was obvious the next morning when some of the people on the shuttle admitted that they were the ones laughing because we stood out so much. Once they heard the true story they understood our clothing conditions and some even said we were brave to stand out on the curb for so long. The flight to Grand Junction was uneventful yet cold. We were picked up at the airport and promptly driven home to our house without any further excitement.
Switching gears here a bit for the remaining moments, in the south it is a common method to have what is called a deer lease. This is where a person or group of people gather in a certain area of the woods for a certain period of time and then try their best to fill their tags for food for the coming year. Thousands of people hunt this way in the south and it also provides a way for families to spend time with each other as well. The same laws and concepts are in place when people are using a deer lease and the customs of camouflage also play an important role in the determination of a successful hunt. Some of the hunters would place themselves into a camouflaged tree stand and wait for the animal to approach their immediate area, others would have seats in tall trees along with the majority of those sitting on the ground under a tree or in a group of bushes waiting for the opportunity to surprise the animals when they came into range.
If you have ever been hunting in a different part of the country other than where you normally reside, one will notice that the camouflage patterns of hunting clothes are different. The majority of the patterns might be close but the colors could be switched or vice versa. Different parts of the country have different layouts and the camouflage must adhere to nature’s patterns in order not to be noticed. We the Church have followed the popularity of the camouflage views of pattern fitting and have we have adopted and perfected this hiding plight to attract people all the while smiling at them as we approach them with the mission of Christ.
It is preposterous to believe that the Church has resorted to using this type of philosophy while presenting ourselves as an alternative to the world. Yes, I am going to talk about the Church and how she is seen by the world again for it is a presentation that we are ignoring and it is a spiritual and authoritative condition that we have been fooled into believing as the truth. It is also time for us to be aware of this state of existence and shed this type of reputation that we have embraced. The Church cannot afford to camouflage herself in worldly disguises and then expect to be an effect and truthful light to the world.
There is an abundant amount of evidence to support the claim that the Church has purchased this type of spiritual camouflage with the intentions of using this type of disguised look and in turn using the benefits of worldly standards then have the notion that she can perform her spiritual duties while all along using the world’s covering tactics to attract converts. This is a perfect example of being divided and trying to serve two masters, it cannot be done and the concept of blending in with the world or to agree with the overall worldly trends represents this fact of idolatry that will soon wipe the spiritual life of the Church helpless. This camouflaged method of presentation and acting showing cowardly motives towards the true and ultimate mission of the Church needs to be recognized and called out to those who have adopted this approach.
There is absolutely no way that the Church can honestly believe that we can blend in with the worldly standards and still remain spiritually viable in our responsibilities. The responsibilities of the Church are to separate people from the world and to shed light on the darkness that surrounds them and the only way that we can effectively approach this mission is to stand out from the world and not to look like it. How can something or someone be accepted to a new and different idea with open arms if those that are approaching them are covered in clothing that conceals their appearance and looks like current trends? Put yourself in their place for a moment, if someone approached you in this manner wouldn’t you feel a bit uneasy about listening to what these people had to say?
Not only do we present ourselves as a lie to those we are trying to reach but we also open spiritual doors up to infectious beliefs of the world that we may too one day ascertain to be the truth. Camouflaging the Church is a very dangerous game and many of us have allowed this process to take hold within our congregations and personal lives. And at some point in the person or people that we have led into the church, will recognize your activities and come to the conclusion that they have been duped into something that is in itself a lie.
See, our enemy will allow this type of action by the Church to occur simply because he understands that people will follow the example that the camouflaged Church is presenting to others all the while knowing that the hurting people will eventually recognize the truth of the situation and further distance themselves from the truth concerning their spiritual condition. Jesus never hid Himself to the world in any manner, He stuck out like a sore thumb and He would not have had it any other fashion. You will then be labeled as a hypocrite and thus the mission that you have been destined to completed will effectively be destroyed. Jesus’ mission was clear to Him and He made His mission clear to everyone around Him as well and so should the Church act in like manner.
For the Church to accomplish our mission we need to shed the camouflaged spiritual appearance and leave it for the physical hunters. We are not hunters and nor should we conceal ourselves as we walk into our surroundings either. We are people that stand out and proclaim the unwavering truth about life and to be separated and different from worldly practices. We cannot approach people who do not know God in these blending in conditions and here is the reason why.
A camouflaged person or group is just that hidden from the truth. When we approach people with our camouflage on and try to form a relationship with tem or to try and witness to them, the scene will result in total failure. This type of presentation has not been the example that we have been shown to present and if any church has presented the gospel in this manner they are producing a lie. Jesus had nothing to hide and neither should we. The Church represents an open book that is supposed to provide hurting people with the truth of the gospel and not take on a form that represents any type of hidden spiritual conditions.
Our mission is to turn on the light to the people and to shed this light to all mankind. It is time for us to shed our camouflage and to once again restore the concept of truth to others. It is our duty to stand out in our Hawaiian type shirts in the freezing snow and draw the attention to those who are hurting. The Church can no longer afford to hide herself in the world any longer and she will be ripe for destruction if she continues this course and nothing would be more pleasing to our enemy if we follow the same path as the world. In short, if the Church continues her path in a camouflaged state then the world shall continue its path towards destruction and if the Church sheds this camouflaged present state, God has promised to restore our land.
The Church must once again grasp and understand the concept that there are only two options to choose from. One option is the world and everything that it stands for and the second option is the ways of God. And because of the two separate and opposing spiritual kingdoms that are represented there will never be any distinguishing characteristics found of our enemy in God’s Kingdom. Man may present himself with the ways of the world within the church, but it will soon be exposed which will bring further pain in the Church and in the world. Their separation is eternal and spiritual and can never live in unity. The Church cannot live in both and must choose which to serve. Man’s ways shall never line up with God’s ways, even if they are considered to be good. God has His laws in place for an exact purpose and only through His laws can man find his way back to the heart of God. These laws and ways of God stand out against the backdrop of the world, do you?
The mission that Jesus gave us is to change the world into the likeness of Him. We cannot effectively do this by camouflaging our appearance in order to attract others. We must separate ourselves from the world completely so that when we encounter the worldly standards we can honestly represent what Christ has to offer. We are not to condemn the world for their actions but we are to embrace those who wish to know about Christ His ways and to turn from the self indulgences of the world. You never help hurting people with lies and you accept their conditions as they are presented and then you allow God to change their lives through the honest and acceptable Word of God. God does not hide His words, Christ did not hide through His life so why should we any different than our examples.
DLB
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