Hard Hearts?

One word warning of another earthquake for Christchurch uses these words to give the reason.

The impression I received was that the people’s hearts are so hardened that it would become necessary yet again to bring judgment before change would happen.

This assessment sounds like it was made by someone living outside Christchurch. It does not match with what I see here. In the eastern suburbs of Christchurch, where the effects of the earthquake are worst, hearts are not hard. People are worried, frightened, confused, angry, hurt and scared. You can see it on their faces, and when they speak, the stuff in their hearts comes out of their mouths. These are not hard hearts.

People have not turned back to God, but I would not expect that, because most do not know him. They do not know much about the church, other than what they hear in the news. A few have heard the gospel, but they have not seen it being lived in their midst.

When we got together with some Christian to pray for Christchurch, one person got the following picture.

A group of Christians were gathered in a park for worship. It looked like an outdoor church service. These people worshipping were surrounded by a fence with vertical iron A great crowd of people were outside the fence looking in. They wanted to get in. Some were hanging onto the bars and peering through at the people worshipping. Although they were on the outside they looked like they were in prison. The people worshipping had not seen them, and did not realise they were there. Then over one side, I saw Jesus moving around among the people outside the fence.

This suggests that the obstacle is not with the people of the world, but with the church. It is so preoccupied with good activities that it is not aware of the all broken people in the city longing for peace and hope. God does not need to send judgment to bring change in Christchurch. He needs to wake up the church to live out the gospel among the people of the city.