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Copyright license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Citation: Guérette, Cyril. “An Appeal to Zeal,” IN Letters to a Future Church: Words of Encouragement and Prophetic Appeals, edited by Chris Lewis, Pages 104-110 Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2012. ***** Begin Content ****** TYNDALE UNIVERSITY 3377 Bayview Avenue Toronto, ON M2M 3S4 TEL: 416.226.6620 www.tyndale.ca Note: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Guérette, Cyril. “An Appeal to Zeal,” IN Letters to a Future Church: Words of Encouragement and Prophetic Appeals, edited by Chris Lewis, Pages 104-110 Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2012. [ Citation Page ] [ Page 104 ] [ Chapter ] 14 This Is an Appeal to Zeal Cyril Guerette To the few ... To the few who are anew, the glue, the true church in North America. Let me be fair to ya ... Yours is a history of consistently spreading the Word of the Lord to the world constituency ... Yet I must insist that the unity of the community isn’t just what we were, or persist to be ... but what we wish to be... Return to Your First Love ... Burn with the First Love ... Concerned to desire that Holy Spirit Fire. And here we sit in North America, afraid ... fearful. The powers that be are not afraid of us ... they smell our fear. The average church in North America is dwindling ... filled with older people, as the younger generation seems to turn from God. And the younger generation who does hold on to their faith [ Page ] 105 ... they most often look no different than the world they live in. They are afraid to stand out. They live in spiritual sedation. They fall into the paralyzing sins of intoxication and sexual gluttony. We cry about our own state, why would anyone want to be like us? We are not on fire ... we are cold and lazy for the most part. The church in North America needs to reacquire the fire ... Even if it’s cheesy breezy. Even if it feels lame ... It’s time to pick up your zeal game! Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. (Romans 12:11) God’s calling to the ballers, to the slacker generation ... stop slacking ... you are lacking! Get back for regeneration. It’s not okey-dokey ... we’ve become so slow and poky. Why the reluctance, why a reticence to act? Struck by circumstance, we are hesitant in fact. Shrinking away from thinking ... Shirking from working ... a lazy lack of drive and ambition ... Is just surviving our mission? Instead of holding back let’s take the bold track. May our fear disappear, Our dread of going ahead. Today the Sloth doth let the moths eat up the folded cloth ... Slouching on the couch ... immobilized in entertainment. We know the lies about self-gain are meant to destroy our joy of Christ, the main event. [ Page ] 106 A culture of kids whose greatest amount of action is spent pushing buttons, watching other people move across a screen. Living their lives vicariously through characters in a fabricated world. Is it the goal of the church to surf the Internet idly, wildly for hours finding out tidbits of information about the most inane things instead of allowing the Word of God to penetrate and change their very minds? Our culture is purposefully making us passive. Let’s get off our asses! I don’t know if the fluoride provided Is meant to ensure we’re always on the down-side ... But I look in our vicinity, and I see a nation of zombies Whose only divinity is Comedy. A couch-ridden bunch lacking all ambition. This is an Appeal to Zeal. Do not be lazy toward Zeal. Do not lack Zeal. Do not shirk the work of Zeal.... Yet Zeal ... it’s kinda a done deal. Zeal has been so attacked that it is labeled lunatic and crazy. Being normal is being lazy. A zealous Christian is our culture’s most despised position. Because we’ve seen zeal go astray, and that’s instructive ... But if we have no zeal today ... then we’ll never be productive. Zeal for an evil thing will be doubly destructive ... Yet lack zeal for the will of Christ ... and we cease to be constructive. So what’s the deal with zeal? What is real zeal? I submit it ... Zeal is a quality of genuine commitment. [ Page ] 107 Zeal is an expression of active concern, devotion, care and goodwill. Zeal is being earnest like a furnace. Zeal is due diligence, in all its brilliance. Really it’s ... being eager for the good, true and beautiful. It’s a believer being useful. Zeal is all about effort and striving to accomplish. Being alive and astonished. Zeal is doing one’s best and not backing down no matter who is trying to stop you from doing the good you ought to. When Jesus cleared all the bankers and money-changers out of the temple of God.... “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Zeal made Jesus run the filthy profiteers out of true Religion. Jesus had zeal for his Father’s house ... Zeal for the holy temple. But now WE ARE the temple of God. Our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit ... and as a collective ... as the body of Christ ... WE ARE the temple of God. Zeal for God’s house consumed Jesus . . . and zeal for God’s house should consume we who follow in his footsteps. Continue Jesus’ mission of zeal ... our Zeal is for God himself ... his temple ... his body . . . his church! So when it comes to Zeal ... don’t be lazy. Feel the zeal. BUT KEEP YOUR SPIRITUAL FERVOR (Romans 12:11). “TO THE SPIRIT ... BURNING.” When it comes to the Holy Spirit ... we should have a fever of fervor! A bubbling ... a boiling up. SEETHING in the Spirit. Each believer a seether ... [ Page ] 108 The temperature of the waters of our Spirit is to be hot ... a lot. I wonder if the church of North America got over itself ... if it stopped wishing so badly to be cool ... what would happen. What would we look like if instead of being zealous to be cool ...we were trying with all effort to be hot? What if our faith-life were actually boiling? “Lukewarmers are gonna be puked outta the Lord’s mouth.” Does Jesus not deserve for you to burn in his Spirit at all times? Jesus is the Deserver of your fervor. But we get too self-focused: “I just don’t feel like God is around right now.” So what! Is he around? Yes! Of course he is, whether you feel him or not. All zeal ... All fervor ... comes from and is oriented to SERVING JESUS. If it’s not something you’re feeling ... in serving will come revealing. Here’s a sure cure to endure purer ... Be a server with fervor. Fervent servants ... actual actors, not play actors. People acting in love and service of Jesus with zeal and zest, fervor and candor. Do you want to have zeal? Serve God. Do you want to have the fire return? Serve God. But the rank file cry out that they’re not BEING FED. If you think that then you’re being MISLED! The church in North America has so much spiritual and biblical food that it finds itself sitting around complaining about the presentation and the lack of [ Page ] 109 variety while it sits getting fat and lazy on the couch! The problem is really that we have an abundance of spiritual nutrients coming our way and we aren’t really exercising them. We have pastors and Bible professors and podcasts and huge numbers of radio shows and amazing books. We complain there is nothing on the TV when we have hundreds of channels. We complain we have nothing to eat when our fridge is full. We complain we aren’t being fed when we get solid biblical teaching in many ways each week. The problem isn’t so much that we aren’t being fed; it’s that we’re not working off those calories! We’re not actually exercising our faith ... just running our mouths. May we in North America return to our first love. Let us get up off the couch and look for where we can put our hand to serve. May we make Jesus himself the center of our day and week instead of some glowing box whirling machine. Let us repent of our sloth ... Escaping the trap of couch-slouching, vouching for Christ again. Our Christian life isn’t about weekly attendance and institutional criticism ... we’re making every day about serving the Lord in love. The Spirit is here. He has filled this room. Now is the moment you can be rekindled. Don’t let it dwindle. The fire is burning. The Spirit yearning. No more spoiling, or soiling, let your blood get to boiling. As we step on in action ... we find satisfaction. [ Page ] 110 As to zeal ... not slothful (that would be awful). As to the Spirit ... on fire (our true desire). As to the Lord ... serving (for he alone is deserving). When the year of the Lord appears, we will see hate fettered. Now let those who have ears, hear the seers’ Eighth Letters. ***** This is the end of the e-text. This e-text was brought to you by Tyndale University, J. William Horsey Library - Tyndale Digital Collections *****