For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. Jeremiah 32:15
“I’m not religious…but I’m spiritual.” It is the mantra of an entire young adult generation who has left the church. They would say they have not given up on God, but they have had quite enough of God’s people. To them, the church is seen as a failing institution, no longer worthy of our investment. There’s a story about that in the Bible.
Jeremiah’s cousin, Hanamel, was either such an amazing salesman he could have sold snow cones to Eskimoes, or he was literally filled with the Spirit of God so as to make his sales offer to Jeremiah miraculously irresistible. At a time when Jerusalem was about to finally fall to a Chaldean occupation and life as Israel knew it was about to end, Hanamel says to Jeremiah, “Hey, you wanna buy my field?” If it were not God’s doing, it would have been a laughable moment. Jeremiah made the investment.
Why in the world would anyone want to invest in Jerusalem at that point? It was ending…going down the toilet. Generations of wrong decisions had finally caught up to it and it was literally crumbling from the inside out. It had ample reason and opportunity to change in order to better fit God’s design, but it would not. The consequences of all those wrong choices were here…it was over. There was, quite literally, nothing left in which to invest.
In all these ways, it sounds remarkably like the church, doesn’t it? At least the church as it is perceived by an awful lot of people. They think of it as an irrelevant, rickety, out of date, embarrassingly stuffy institution whose time has come and gone. Invest in that? I don’t think so. The idea is almost laughable.
But Jeremiah has an important word about that investment, a bit of a game-changer. You see, Jeremiah would say this is not an investment in Jerusalem at all…and ours is not an investment in God’s people either. In both cases, it is an investment in God Himself. It is an investment in the very same God who, time and time again throughout His story, says He is going to do something and then does it. His Word is truth because His Word makes things happen. He literally spoke this world into existence. So, when God says He is going to do something, you can take that Word to the bank. In short, it’s as sure and as safe as an investment gets.
And here are some things God’s Word says about His church:
“I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” Matt. 16:18
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:19-20
So, if you are wondering about investing in the church, the news is good. You don’t have to be comfortable investing in people…you need only decide whether or not you believe God’s Word. Wanna know what I think? Write the check.
2 responses to “Investing in a Sure Thing”
God’s people are wonderful. My heart longs for and rejoices in true fellowship with other believers, and there is a hole in my heart that can only be filled by this fellowship. This is extremely hard to find today. The Lord has blessed me with recently with friends who truly love him, ten who attend six different churches. The more I love the Church, the more I despise the religious intuition called church, the political, business-like, pragmatic social club. It breaks my heart. I attend and support a local church, and have been a missionary in several staying long enough to see most if not all the children saved before being driven out by church politics. I wonder sometimes if true Christianity will driven underground, while the churches never miss a beat. Sorry, I don’t mean to be pessimistic. There is a remnant, and we serve a great God. Thank you for your ministry.
Thanks for this word, Jen! Yes, it is heartbreaking to see the politics of the church chase away so many dear people. Thanks for sticking in there and being an instrument of change from within!