c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When I attended the “The Hand of God in U.S. Politics” seminar recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the attendees seemed alarmed about the power of “the religious right.” As the panelists and attendees voiced their concern, I sat quietly wondering, “How is it that when the world thinks of American evangelicals, it thinks primarily of political issues instead of our love for others or our loyalty to Jesus?”

It occurred to me that the misconception may be our own fault. Could it be that we have gone “off message”?

It seems that the only message many people associate with the church is a message of condemnation. After 9-11, some church leaders began pointing their fingers in blame at national social sins as the reason for what they seemed to believe was God’s judgment. Again, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we heard some Christians suggesting it was God’s judgment.

But could it be that God is less concerned about the sin of the world than he is about the sin within the church?

In the Old Testament, God said, “If My people, who are called by My name, would humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I would hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.” We love to sing “God Bless America,” but it’s interesting to note that God’s blessing _ his healing of our land _ is directly related, not to politics or to public policy or to government programs or to social justice or to racial equality or to welfare reform or to taxation or education or health care or affordable housing, but to the humble repentance and prayerful devotion of his own people!

I believe it’s time for Christians to repent of sin and refocus on Jesus. We need the same kind of personal revival that was experienced by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.

In the first few years of Isaiah’s ministry, he was filled with righteous indignation at what he believed to be the sins of the nation of Judah. Hurling his words of blame at the world around him, he pointed out their many sins and thundered, “Woe to you … Woe to you … Woe to you … ”

Isaiah’s no-holds-barred indictment seems to echo through the centuries, and I find myself wanting to join him. Often when I hear or see the news, I, too, have an overwhelming desire to point my finger and thunder, “Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you!” Like Isaiah, my focus can be entirely on someone else’s sin!

But in the midst of his finger-pointing, Isaiah had an incredible experience. The Bible says he “saw the Lord.” And it changed him. No longer did he point his finger at others. Instead, he was overwhelmed with his own sinful condition and sobbed, “Woe to me!”

He made a startling discovery, blurting out, “I’m a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” In other words, he was struck by the knowledge that he was no better than the people at whom he’d been pointing his finger.

Like Isaiah, the evidence of sin in my own life has wrenched from my lips an echo of Isaiah’s outburst, “Woe to me!”

Woe to me for my ingratitude in my abundance.

Woe to me for my hypocrisy, pretending to be anything that I am not.

Woe to me for my materialism in the midst of desperate poverty.

Woe to me for my timidness that silences my testimony of the truth.

Woe to me for my unkindness … prayerlessness … pridefulnessâÂ?¦

I am ashamed for ever thinking that those of us within the church are somehow better than those outside the church. We’re all sinners.

Perhaps it’s time we in the evangelical church in America stop our “Woe to you,” and instead, open our eyes, humble our hearts, lift up our voices in a collective cry of “Woe to me” and experience a fresh outpouring of God’s power through forgiveness.

MO/JL END RNS

(Anne Graham Lotz, second daughter of Ruth and Billy Graham, is an international Bible teacher and author, and founder of AnGeL Ministries, based in Raleigh, N.C. Her newest book is, “I Saw the Lord: A Wake-Up Call for Your Heart”.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Anne Graham Lotz go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject (Lotz).