Width, or Depth?

It had not been my intention to send out another post for January. However, an e-mail from Jeff King,  President of International Christian Concern, that arrived a little earlier, caused me to change my mind!

In the letter he writes: "I met with a group of pastors in China who had been imprisoned for a decade or longer during the peak of the Cultural Revolution. We sat together in a private room at the back of a restaurant, and I spent the following hours absorbing their thoughts. 

I was struck and convicted by what they said. They told me that “the Church would be a mile wide and an inch deep” without persecution. Their main concern wasn’t that the Church would experience more persecution: it was that the church would lack depth without it. 

Today, there are millions of believers in China. There is a connection between faith and suffering, between pain and growth. There is a lesson in there for you and me: to hold on tight to God through the storms of this life." 

It was that comment that, without persecution, "the Church would be a mile wide and an inch deep" that caught my eye. It was not a new thought to me. Indeed, about 35 years ago, my wife and I hosted a Nigerian church leader for a week. Thomas was what might be described as "larger than life"! He was in Scotland to attend a Christian International Conference, for which I had been the organiser, and we had many interesting conversations. In one of them, I commented that the southern part of his home country was a Christian area. His comment was to the effect that it might be considered to be such, but that, having no problems, it had no depth! Certainly, the early church knew the effect of persecution. It is the early Church Father, Tertullian, who is usually regarded as having made the statement that: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." - meaning that as people saw disciples of Jesus die for their faith, they realised that this faith must be very important, and decided to follow it, and the Saviour Whom it proclaimed.

However, as I read those words in Jeff King's letter, I found myself thinking, not as much about the persecuted church (which, of course, is something in which I have had a deep interest for some fifty years. Indeed, all royalties from the sale of my books - see the head of the blog - go directly to Release International, the first organisation that I discovered that supports persecuted disciples of Jesus. Please consider purchasing one, or more - and telling others about them!) as about my own Christian walk!

It is so easy to become involved in many different aspects of Christian service. There is no shortage of opportunities and, it often seems, so few willing to take them! Yet is "busy-ness" the sign of great faith? Or is it just a means of ensuring that we don't have to delve too deeply into the written Word of God; or spend too much time in prayer? Is it the case, for some of us, that we have "width", but no "depth"?

It's interesting, is it not, that while the Lord Jesus was constantly helping others, and teaching His disciples, and all who would listen to His words, He also took time to be with the Father, and in prayer. If He, the very Son of God, needed that depth in His earthly life, how much more do I?

I am not one for "New year resolutions" (and the end of January is probably a bit late, in any case!), but may each of us endeavour, in the coming eleven months, to deepen our Christian lives. And, if you are not yet a disciple of the Lord Jesus, perhaps this is the time for you to give serious consideration to what God, in the Lord Jesus, has done for you - and to respond with the love, and obedience, of your own heart. It will be for your eternal good, and His eternal glory.