Connecting The Events
Western Christianity it appears has become an event oriented commodity rather than a journey of relationship. We talk to God when we need something, when we're in trouble, or when we don't have anyone else to talk to...God forbid He doesn't answer, or answer in the way we think He should...We'll show Him and not talk with Him for awhile! I see this happening in church, if we don't have the right events people don't come, if we have too many events people don't come, and there is a constant changing of the rules...we pastors just aren't sure what the rules are. The thing about it is, it isn't just happening in church, it's happening inside of us.
If I feel good today I will talk with the Lord, or if I need Him to help me out, if my kid is sick, if I've received a bad report from the doctor...if. It's not that we don't love Him or that we're not thinking about Him...or is it? Or maybe, and this is where I think it is, we're not in love, so we don't have as much in common with the Lord as we do with the events that we compare the Lord to!
O God, this is my prayer today, help me to help myself, while I ask You to create new hunger in me, let me also recognize my responsibility, You can't pull out of me what isn't in me! You won't force me to love You, to pray and talk with You, to read Your love letters to me...Help me to initiate the effort, You've already initiated a relationship with us, help me to respond. I know that if I make an effort You will go beyond my ability to comprehend and do exceeding and abundantly above all that I ask or think...Let me not only love You when You answer my prayer or deliver me from evil, or send a check in the mail, or make me feel goosebumps. Help me to be in love with You when it's hard and dark, when nothing seems to be happening and even when hell is breaking loose...I want to simply love You for You....everything else is icing on the cake!
Amen!
2 comments:
Pastor Neil it sounds like you've joined the 'hungry for Jesus at any cost' crowd, and to that I say Amen. I've been re-evauluating everything in my life, including my new 50K job, telling the Lord I'd rather make less to be in church every Wednesday night and free on Saturdays to work with the kids in our sports program. Amazing how our priorities change when we choose to love Him more than we love life itself. What I find dificult is the process of removing all the clutter and junk in my life that has been collected, and that while I thought I was travelling on the road of 'Christianity'. I'm rediscovering how to love Him all over again, only this time on His terms. Thanks for your blog, good word!
You are so on the mark Neil. This is one of, if not THE biggest problems in the Body of Christ. We have tried creating a God on our own terms, that we can use when ever we want. And the love is lopsided. In today's church, it is mostly God who does the giving. Folks want more from God, can I say, "demand more from God" and they are not living up to their end of the relationship.
The great commision is "Go into the world and tell the Good News." (Garrett translation) but todays church is not interested in serving God, but rather is out for what they can get FROM God.
I said this Wednesday night: The church has got to get back to making the main thing the main thing. Jesus has to be at the head of our list of priorities. Until he is, our lives will be out of sinc. But when we put Him back in His rightful place, everything comes together.
Jesus said it this way, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
Post a Comment