THE ARROGANCE OF DOGMATISM

Recently, a stenographer for the U.S. House of Representatives, Diane Reidy, left her assigned seat and went to the microphone to warn the members of the House that they were mocking God by their vote.  Her actions have been described as "bizarre," "a nervous breakdown," "a political rant," etc., but few have been willing to agree with her husband that she was prophesying for God.  And that is understandable; few political and religious leaders accepted the prophecies of the Old and New Testament prophets, and the majority even rejected the prophecies of the Son of God:  they crucified Him!

Someone told me that God does not use the ranting of His children to warn the religious leaders, the politicians, or the population, of God's pending judgment.  I recall that God used a murderer (Moses), an adulterer (David), a harlot (Rahab), a sex-addict (Solomon), a liar (Abraham), a burning bush, and a donkey, to proclaim His truth!  I am sure those who saw Noah building a huge ship on dry land, thought he was "nuts" when he warned them of their pending doom.  Do we really want to limit God's choice on how He communicates with His creation? 

That same kind of thinking was, and still is, applied to whom the Lord can and will use to proclaim His Gospel.  The disciples cringed when Jesus chose Matthew, a hated tax-collector, to be one of His twelve.  And what do you suppose they thought of His ignoring their choice of Matthias as a replacement for Judas, and His choosing Saul of Tarsus instead?  Not only did Saul (the Apostle Paul) become an Apostle, he was used of God to write nearly half of the New Testament!  Matthias was never heard of again in God's Word.

Finally, I can testify that God uses the scum of the earth to proclaim His Word in ministries, and in individual situations.  In the middle 1980's, being unemployed, I decided to sit in on a huge Pastor's Conference at Graceland Baptist Church in New Albany, Indiana.  I wanted to hear the preaching.  After about fifteen minutes of listening to some guy mock those who did not believe as he did about the gifts of the Spirit, I began to pray for him to stop ridiculing my brothers and sisters.  Before I knew what happened, he had turned to me, and was asking if I had something to say.  I, the only one there not wearing a suit, and totally out of his line of vision, was standing!  I do not know what I said, but the speaker was brushed aside by the leader of the conference, and he said, "I accept what you have said as from the Lord, and I repent!"  The audience of over 500 went from laughing at his "jokes," to kneeling at the alter, audibly moaning and sobbing over their sin.  The He fell to the floor and wept.  If God can use me, a bush, or a donkey, what makes us think He wasn't using Diane Reily?