Much of evangelicalism in today’s America makes Christianity a kind of business transaction. I push the right buttons, and out comes a blessing or some positive outcome from God. It works kind of like a cosmic vending machine. This is not the gospel message. As the Apostles’ Creed concludes, you get the forgiveness of sins, the communion of the saints, and everlasting life, but not the absolute guarantee of immediate reward.

I am a Facebook user. Quite frequently I will see a post that says, “Type ‘Amen’ and in exactly two hours everything in your life that needs to be healed will be healed.” Under the comments section there will be a long string of amens. Or one will say, “Type ‘Amen’ and in one hour you will receive a miracle in your life.” My question is, a miracle from what or who? God? Zeus? The Flying Spaghetti Monster?
One day back in the eighties I was driving and had the car radio on the Christian contemporary music station. The DJ was chastising his listeners for not giving more money when they passed the bucket around at Christian music concerts. He promised us that whatever we put in, God will return fourfold. Really? What about the illustration told by Jesus about the poor widow who gave her last two mites? Did she get a fourfold return? Was she even expecting it? What was the point Jesus was making?
Back in 2000 Bruce Wilkinson published a little book, The Prayer of Jabez. This refers to a brief passage, 1 Chronicles 4:10. It reads:
“Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain! And God granted what he asked.” 
It became a bestseller. Evangelical Christians were repeating the Prayer of Jabez like chanting a mantra, expecting a new car to appear in the driveway or some similar blessing. I remember sitting in an airport gate waiting area and a man to my left was talking to two women. He was telling them in an animated tone about the multiple miracles suddenly occurring in his life since he started praying the Prayer of Jabez.
I teach church history at African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi. I use as the textbook Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley. Towards the end of the book he makes the observation about Americans in the 1980s and 90s: “Unlike the rich young ruler in the Gospels, church attenders seldom asked, ‘What must I do?’ They were far more likely to ask, ‘What do I get out of this?’”
One remembers in the Book of Daniel the three young men about to be pitched into the furnace for not worshipping Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. They said God was able to rescue them, BUT IF NOT they still would not bow down (Daniel 3:17-18).
There is the story of Esther who was called upon by Uncle Mordecai to risk her life by going to the king uninvited in order to save the Jews. She says, “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).
In the Book of Job we see a man losing everything, and it was by God’s permission. He makes the statement, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15).
The Book of Habakkuk ends with: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food…yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17).
Much of evangelicalism in today’s America makes Christianity a kind of business transaction. I push the right buttons, and out comes a blessing or some positive outcome from God. It works kind of like a cosmic vending machine. This is not the gospel message. As the Apostles’ Creed concludes, you get the forgiveness of sins, the communion of the saints, and everlasting life, but not the absolute guarantee of immediate reward. What is needed is for the church to forsake what I call voodoo evangelicalism and the attempt to manipulate God.
Larry Brown is a Minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and serves as Professor of church history, world history, hermeneutics and missions at the African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi.
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​The solution to a lack of peace in the church is a simple fix. What is the solution? The solution is: not to forget that which is primary in the Kingdom of Christ. What is primary in the Kingdom of Christ is not my personal proclivities, but what Christ says in his Word. It is not traditions that have been handed to us without scriptural warrant; it is not things that are good in themselves, but are not necessary for fulfilling the mission that Christ has given to his church. We are to be pursuing Christ in all that we do.

​In loving obedience, do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of this church, promising to seek the peace, purity, and prosperity of this congregation as long as you are a member of it? So asks the final vow of our membership vows in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP).  Submitting and pursuing — those are the two things (both with “subheadings”: submit a) to government, b) to discipline; pursue a) peace, b) purity, c) prosperity) required in this vow. It seems a simple task and yet is often broken. The purpose of this article is to think on the pursuit of peace in the church. I was recently reminded of this vow when preaching through Philippians 4:1-3. There, we read Paul’s exhortation, “Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” (NASB). 
​This exhortation to these two women serves as an important demonstration of brining peace to the church. Danger in the local body is not always doctrinal. That is a danger, of course, as we saw Paul deal with those who would come in and deceive the Philippians into false worship and self-righteousnessin Philippians 3:1-3. But here, we see the danger of disturbing the peace of the church often happens when people — usually unintentionally and ‘for the good of the church’ — begin to assert things which are merely preferential and not necessary as if they were essential. In other words, to make non-essential things to be of first order importance, or essential for Christian fellowship, is to disturb the peace of the church. There is an ever present danger to placing importance on matters which Christ has not placed importance.
​It would seem that these two women were in need of Paul’s earlier exhortation in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Peace is disturbed in the church when when we place our preferences (a form of idolatry) above the mission of Christ and make the church our own kingdom. We can see this in Philippians 4:1-3 by taking a look at the participants, the problem and the prescription for peace in the church.
The Participants
​What do we know about Euodia and Synteche? We don’t know much. We really don’t know anything more than their names, but we do know that in Paul’s estimation these women are not unbelievers, not “wolves” who are false teachers, and that they’re not ordinarily those who disturb the peace of the church.
​We know these women aren’t simply “fringe” people who have come to the church lately; they are known to Paul—friends of his in whom he has great confidence! Calls them those women who have shared my struggle and my fellow workers, whose names are in book of life. What’s he saying? That these are godly Christian women! These are women who have understood what “the main thing” is, and have labored alongside of Paul in order to see Christ exalted in the church at Philippi. He calls them his fellow workers! He says they shared hisstruggle in the cause of the gospel! 
​So Paul addresses them as Christian women who have been about the purity and prosperity of the church, who will respond to his exhortation (ie., submit to the discipline of the church) to stop seeking their own interests in order to seek the peace of the church That’s about all we know about these women, so what was the problem?
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You’re missing something that is obvious to everyone around you. That’s spiritual blindness. You and I can function in life, and because we can, we don’t notice our blindness to our true condition. We go through life ignorant of the depths and extent of our sin. We cannot see it. Sin is blinding. By nature it fools us, and when we’ve sinned for a long time in the same way, we become less and less able to see it in all its ugliness. 

Every pastor, every biblical counselor has talked to a counselee that really couldn’t see his sin very accurately. You’ve patiently showed him how he’s hurting his marriage, how he’s not fulfilling his biblical role, how he’s not loving his wife as Christ loves the church, and he’s not seen it. He refuses your counsel. He doesn’t own his sin. He rejects blame. It’s difficult to communicate the biblical concept of spiritual blindness—that we don’t see our sin very clearly. Sin deceives us to its existence (Heb 3:12-13), and we want to be deceived about it.
In this life we will never have 20/20 vision about our own sin. The Laodicean church shows us that.

Revelation 3:17 (ESV) For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Did the Laodicean church think that everything was okay while in fact, everything was radically wrong? Did they really believe that things were A-Ok when they were really wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked? Yes they did. So do you. And so do I (Cf. Mt 7:3-5).
So what illustration can a biblical counselor use to communicate our tendency to be spiritually blind? Most use physical blindness which works, but has limitations. One, a physically blind person knows they are physically blind; a spiritually blind person often does not know they are spiritually blind. Two, physical blindness as an illustration is all or nothing, but there can be degrees of spiritual blindness.
Protanopia or deuteranopia are types of color blindness. With protanopia you cannot see the color red (1% of men) and with deuteranopia you cannot see the color green (5% of men). Most commonly a colorblind person struggles to differentiate between reds and greens. What is life like for the colorblind?
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