Reasons to Become Born Again Rzim

Missing the Almost Of import One

By Dr. Chuck Hetzler

The revelations of Ravi Zacharias' failures have invited a host of questions to discern how such destructive  sins could have occurred. Seeking answers, Christians have primarily probed RZIM from an organizational perspective.

• What was incorrect with the civilisation of the ministry?
• Why were RZIM associates reprimanded for voicing concerns over Ravi's suspicious activity?
• Why weren't independent investigations undertaken when allegations began in 2008?
• Why is their board of directors anonymous?
• Why would a non-disclosure agreement be signed, in the instance of the Canadian couple?

These questions should be asked during the healing process, learning from RZIM's mistakes, and bringing justice to bear. Just the near of import question has not been asked. Moreover, our failure to ask the about of import questions of this debacle points to and perpetuates our greatest problem inside American Christianity.

The kind of questions that should be asked first of all should be:

• What was Ravi'due south personal spiritual life like?
• What were Ravi's devotional practices?
• What were the system's commitments to prayer, fasting, repentance, and holiness?
• Did RZIM have annual gatherings for biblical messages of repentance, confession of sin, calls to godly living, dedicated corporate prayer times, and so on?

Closeness with God is our greatest defence force against sin and temptation. So why are we leading with questions virtually organizational policies, notwithstanding silent over the single most of import subject on this matter: ane'southward daily life with God? Organizational lessons tin and should be learned in due fourth dimension, merely secondary questions should non replace  the primary ones.

Concentrating on organizational misdeeds or ineffective internal processes affirms that every bit mod American Christians we have lost our appreciation for a robust spiritual life, personally and corporately, congenital on devotion to prayer, taking in God's word, fasting to humble ourselves, and regular repentance. The predominant questions that have been posed reveal a serious problem in American Christianity – a secular mindset and a spiritually weak church, vulnerable to the enemy's attacks.

For the first several hundred years of the Church building, all Christians were taught to pray the Lord's Prayer three times every day (Didache8). Early Christian leaders knew that but God could "lead the states not into temptation but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13). They were convinced that the only fashion to escape temptation and sin was through much earnest prayer, simply as the Lord Himself had modelled and taught them in Gethsemane, among other places.

When temptation was at its height, Jesus' recourse was to pray. "Then Jesus went with them to a place chosen Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, 'Sit here, while I go over at that place and pray.'" (Matthew 26:36). The Son of God, in His incarnation, depended upon the Father and the Holy Spirit to resist sin and sustain an obedient life. Our Lord knew that prayer was His only defense against the attraction of fleshly desire.

Every bit it was true for the Lord in His incarnation, then it is true for us. Jesus turned to Peter, James, and John, commanding them, "Sentry and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the mankind is weak" (Matthew 26:41). The antidote to temptation is fervent prayer, every bit testified by the subsequent Gethsemane events. Jesus prayed and He escaped temptation; the disciples did non pray and they walked straight into the devil's trap. Jesus put His finger on prayerlessness as the crux of temptation.

When the Lord came back to the three disciples, He questioned Peter, "And then, could yous not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40). Shouldn't this question exist the same kind that nosotros enquire: Was Ravi a man of much prayer? Did he spend hours in prayer each twenty-four hour period, morning and evening seeking God's continual help? Did he atomic number 82 his arrangement to prioritize hours of prayer as a regular practice and days of prayer for special purposes?

This level of spirituality is the kind of lifestyle that Christians, peculiarly Christian leaders, must have, simply every bit the Lord proficient and preached and just as the start several hundred years of Christians knew from theDidache.And the fact that we aren't asking these questions of Ravi Zacharias' life and RZIM exposes the weakness of the American Church. We have unwittingly adopted a secular mindset because we either don't see the principal importance or efficacy of personal spirituality.

We must ask ourselves: in what means am I cultivating hours of prayer in my daily life? If you are a leader of other Christians, you must search yourself further: in what ways am I calling others to the level of spirituality needed to walk equally Christ did and fulfill God's hard purposes for our lives?

This call for manifest devotion to prayer is not legalism any more than establishing good organizational structures are legalism; it's what the Lord taught and wants, and what our souls need for abundant life. He is the one who modeled such a lifestyle of prayer (Luke 5:16) and told His disciples that they should spend an 60 minutes in prayer (Matthew 26:twoscore) and that they should pray day and dark every day (Luke 18:7) and that the Holy Spirit is given when we ask the Male parent for Him in prayer (Luke 11:13).

If we as American Christians don't shift our thinking towards the highest value of extraordinary personal and corporate spirituality, then we will go along to encounter more pass up, defeat, and discouragement. More national Christian leaders will fall, more than "Christians" will walk away from Christ, fewer conversions will take identify, the civilization will go on to degrade morally, and the Lord'south proper noun will languish in disrepute in our land.

The good news is that the Lord is in the business organisation of turning united states around! He loves to restore the repentant. He loves to forgive sins. He loves to lift upward the soul that is bowed down. He has revived His people on small-scale and large scales an untold number of times in the Scriptures, throughout church history, and around the globe today. Our nation has one of the richest histories of God working revival and awakening.

Let's gather our families every day and open up upward the Scriptures. Let's turn on worship music and depict near to Him every morn and evening. Permit'southward cry out to God in prayer three times a day similar Daniel and theDidache. Let's take entire days off just to seek God. Let'southward deny our actual appetites and humble ourselves through fasting on a regular footing. We have and then many resources today that get in easy to seek God through the internet, smart phone apps, calculator programs, movies, books, various copies of the Bible, Christian friends, local churches, and national laws that allow us religious freedom.

Yeah, better managerial processes are skilful, merely more prayerfulness and spiritual depth should be the topic of the commencement questions asked, non the second, 3rd, or not discussed at all. Every Christian can say of Ravi's downfall, "In that location only by the grace of God become I." Each of us knows our own weaknesses and inability to resist Satan autonomously from God's power at work within us. And no amount of Christian organizational policy and board structure – as important as they are – tin can curb sin in the human middle or counteract Satan's schemes. Merely the power of the Holy Spirit in our soul can alter our hearts and strengthen us to walk through His narrow gate.

Dr. Chuck Hetzler is the executive director of Christian Union Day and Dark, a ministry that promotes spiritual strengthening in Christians across America, helping them thrive in gild to make an bear on in an increasingly secular civilization by covenanting together for successive spiritual initiatives.

To join Christian Union Twenty-four hours and Nighttime'southward move, click here.

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Source: https://www.christianunion.org/the-magazine/2942-asking-the-wrong-questions-about-ravi-zacharias%E2%80%A6

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