Submitting To A Divine Audit
Randall Caselman
2/12/97
Submitting To A Divine Audit
Its tax time again! The IRS conducts audits, students receive grades, and employees submit to evaluations. But who assesses the church? Jesus is the auditor. An official audit is found in the book of Revelation. The final report gives us the impression that the auditor knew the seven churches better than any accountant knows his books. The fact was, He did. Divine audits miss nothing.
In this Divine audit, high marks were given for faith, perseverance under stress, doctrinal purity and hard work. Deficits were note for doctrinal imperfections, luke-warmness, immorality and a loss of love for others.
If Jesus should conduct a surprise Divine audit of our lives and of our church today, what would He find?
An exchange of kingdom values for cultural values. We have allowed relativism, subjectivism and worldviews to distract us from God and His word. Paul warned us of this possibility. Do not allow the world to force you into its mold, but rather be transformed, changed people, by the renewing of your minds. When was the last time you submitted your Christian life to an examination by the standard of the Scriptures rather than a comparison to those around you? God calls us to be distinctively different, peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood.
We have forsaken the basics. Jesus gave us the basics, Love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Today, we argue about issues that are really not issues at all, and never were. The issue is do we love God? Jesus said, if so, you will keep My commandments. Lets get back to basics. The church at Ephesus came up short in their audit because they had lost their first love.... Left the basics
John Stott says, We must wrestle with the balance between fidelity to Scripture and sensitivity to culture (even as Jesus modeled) without compromising our identity as followers of Christ. Chuck Tompkins says, We must be all that God has called us to be with inner Christ likeness and outward effectiveness.
We fail to understand the critical transaction. Students in the college of business are familiar with the term critical transaction. For instance in the airline business, the critical transaction, is not when the plane takes off, but when someone buys a ticket. In radio, the critical transaction, is not when and what records are played, but when advertising is purchased. If people do not buy, nothing else can happen.
Jesus did not come to build His church to meet the felt needs of the community. Jesus died on the cross to change our status; from sinner to saint, from lost to saved, from hell to heaven. Yes, we have many important needs in our culture, but the critical issue is that we become changed men and women.
Grades, audits, evaluations can be painful, embarrassing and revealing. However, if accepted properly, they can become the pivot point for repentance and renewal. Perhaps we have become so intent on auditing others that we have inadvertently failed to audit ourselves.
Randall Caselman
