"Church" in the vernacular of most Christians is someplace you go rather than what they are. I recall in years past many times when I sat on a hard pew (even the padded ones seem hard to me) trying to stay awake while I was chided, derided and generally made to feel like a worthless worm even while I was supposedly celebrating my freedom in Christ. I remember the one time that I actually lost the battle and fell asleep.
The point, at least from my perspective, is that when I finally grew in Christ that worship started to excite me - except for those diatribes delivered against the brethren because of their miserable failures as Christians. Finally I realized this was a well choreographed plan to keep the sheep in line because in the minds of church leaders were it not for these healthy doses of guilt that people would stop assembling, consequently contributions would drop off and the preacher would lose his "Job." I say this from experience because I once stood in those same pulpits and delivered those same red-faced, screaming monologues even while watching members peacefully sleep through my "lesson."
I submit, again from more recent experience, that when we energize the flock with messages of hope, forgiveness, and the providential protection of our heavenly father that members are alert and more attentive. Why? I believe it is because we each have a deep and abiding hunger for deliverance from the miserable state of humanity in which we're all trapped. I decided, several years ago, that I would do all I could to help people leave feeling better than they did when they arrived. That is unlike the feelings I used to have because I almost always left feeling worse than when I got there, having healed from the beating I received at the last session of "going to church."
Strangely, as an edifier and exhorter, I myself always feel better. I have witnessed a group of engaged people being fed. One of my most thrilling moments comes when I see someone in the flock suddenly "get it" and the light comes on. Another one for Jesus!
Oddly, attendance is not a problem. People come to be uplifted, filled with wonder and expectation because of the power of the Word and the moving of the Spirit. They feel good about service rendered because it is voluntary not coerced. Most amazing of all, there are no sounds of discord or undercurrents of unhappiness rippling through the family.
Yes, I probably would still fight to stay awake in "church," but have no problem participating in worship!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Ask-Seek-Knock
Jesus, according to Matthew, said the following: ask - you will receive; seek - you will find; knock - and the door will be opened for you. This passage has intrigued me for years: there are so many lessons and applications contained therein. Let's take a closer look.
This passage deals with three actions initiated by followers and the results of those actions. It also addresses a spectrum of potentialities that believers face in their daily walk. Asking and receiving deals with our needs. I am in need of providential help so I ask and the Lord assures that I will receive. Over and over we're told about supplications that are to be included in our prayers: a request for something we need to have supplied by the Lord.
Seeking addresses the position we often find ourselves in of requiring more knowledge about the Lord's will. Thus, Jesus says look for what you need and it will be shown to you. When Peter writes that we have been given everything that pertains to life and Godliness, I'm persuaded he may have had this promise in mind. It is for this reason that when I find myself questioning some truth or trying to make a Godly decision that my first response is to seek the guidance of the Lord in expanding my knowledge and understanding as I search the scripture.
But it is the final promise in this triad that I find most interesting: knocking and having the door opened. Jesus suggests that after receiving, finding that some action follows: knocking on the door. When the door is knocked upon, it will be opened. What is the natural thing to do? Go through the door! Enter into the place of blessing to which the portal has just swung open. I have observed in my life, which I readily admit has been far from perfect in its execution and understanding, that I often ask, seek but am often reluctant to go through the door and accept the position of being blessed by what is on the other side. Going through that door is an experience that no doubt will bring untold blessings into our life but we have to lose our reticence at going through. Asking is good! Seeking is wonderful, but passing through that door must be an experience of unimaginable faith and reward!
When faced with any of life's enigmatic choices, the Lord has given us the necessary steps to take that enable us to do the right thing: Ask, Seek, Knock and then pass through the door and accept the provision of the Lord. I submit that we can never really know the richness and power in prayer and faith until we determine to pass through the door the Lord has opened for us.
Ask, seek, knock and above all, when the door opens don't just stand and peer inside . . . go through and experience what God can do through your faith!
This passage deals with three actions initiated by followers and the results of those actions. It also addresses a spectrum of potentialities that believers face in their daily walk. Asking and receiving deals with our needs. I am in need of providential help so I ask and the Lord assures that I will receive. Over and over we're told about supplications that are to be included in our prayers: a request for something we need to have supplied by the Lord.
Seeking addresses the position we often find ourselves in of requiring more knowledge about the Lord's will. Thus, Jesus says look for what you need and it will be shown to you. When Peter writes that we have been given everything that pertains to life and Godliness, I'm persuaded he may have had this promise in mind. It is for this reason that when I find myself questioning some truth or trying to make a Godly decision that my first response is to seek the guidance of the Lord in expanding my knowledge and understanding as I search the scripture.
But it is the final promise in this triad that I find most interesting: knocking and having the door opened. Jesus suggests that after receiving, finding that some action follows: knocking on the door. When the door is knocked upon, it will be opened. What is the natural thing to do? Go through the door! Enter into the place of blessing to which the portal has just swung open. I have observed in my life, which I readily admit has been far from perfect in its execution and understanding, that I often ask, seek but am often reluctant to go through the door and accept the position of being blessed by what is on the other side. Going through that door is an experience that no doubt will bring untold blessings into our life but we have to lose our reticence at going through. Asking is good! Seeking is wonderful, but passing through that door must be an experience of unimaginable faith and reward!
When faced with any of life's enigmatic choices, the Lord has given us the necessary steps to take that enable us to do the right thing: Ask, Seek, Knock and then pass through the door and accept the provision of the Lord. I submit that we can never really know the richness and power in prayer and faith until we determine to pass through the door the Lord has opened for us.
Ask, seek, knock and above all, when the door opens don't just stand and peer inside . . . go through and experience what God can do through your faith!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wednesdays are always great!
I always look forward to Wednesday. Though our family meets several times through the week, Wednesday is the day the most of us get together. We fellowship, worship, study and edify one another. I often wonder how people can make it through the week without some kind spiritual recharge. Well, today is the day and I get to be with a bunch of my brothers and sisters in the Lord! My hope and prayer for each of you reading this is that you have a similar experience planned for today, or some other day of the week! It sure helps you fight the fight!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Looking for good
Woke up this morning and pretty soon after I awoke I recalled that I needed to look for what God had in store for us to do today that would lessen me and increase Him. I considered this a breakthrough because I usually have to be up a while before these kinds of thoughts start coming to my mind. All I can say is "it is working!" As I ask God to take more and more control in my life I find myself seeing more opportunities. I am finding it easier to smile and speak pleasantly to people I see and to do things without being prompted. I went to see my doctor this morning. I knew he had a birthday coming up and so I fixed him up a gift. I walked in his back door and into his personal office. As soon as I went in I started singing Happy Birthday and gave him the gifts. Wow! That felt good! He was overwhelmed and said that no patient had ever remembered his birthday. He turned around and took two collectible knives from his credenza and ask me how I liked them. Of course I said I did - I could tell he was happy with them. Suddenly, without any preamble he just said "I want you to have them!" I was flabbergasted! I was trying to do something good and already I was being repaid!
I know this was a small thing and I wasn't doing it to get something in return. I was just excited about doing something good for my doctor and here he was doing something for me! Yes, God can outgive me! Thank you Lord!
I know this was a small thing and I wasn't doing it to get something in return. I was just excited about doing something good for my doctor and here he was doing something for me! Yes, God can outgive me! Thank you Lord!
Monday, October 18, 2010
What can God and I do today?
With faith, by faith, I am convinced something great can and will happen today. It isn't because I am a super Christian, it is because I am trying to look at my surroundings through eyes of faith and not eyes of flesh. My flesh eyes see trouble: the country appears to be on the skids; people are woefully lacking in moral fortitude; children have no respect for their elders, let alone their parents. All these things are poised to bring anxiety and turmoil into my life crowding out room for anything of righteous value.
I decided to try looking at the world around me through faith eyes. Eyes that see wonder in everything. It is not easy because Satan keeps putting things in my path that run me off the rails: but I insist on persisting. I am determined to see good in my daily circumstance. My determination springs from my decision to accept the gift of faith that God has graciously offered me. Now, again, I do not have this perfected - after all I am fighting a pretty formidable opponent, the fleshly me. But Paul promised, at the behest of the Spirit, that if I would come to God in prayer, thankfully, that God would guard my heart with a fortress of peace.
Each day, now, I arise thinking about what I can do that is good that will in turn enhance my faith vision. It matters not to me that people know that I am doing good for this is an exercise in building up my spiritual self and making me more in tune with God and His way of thinking. The result I have noticed in my life is a greater anticipation of doing good and ultimately being in heaven and a decreased reliance upon what passes for happiness among the worldly masses.
Give it a try. Rather than getting up thinking about the bad that the day may hold, start off by thinking about what God and you can do together!
I decided to try looking at the world around me through faith eyes. Eyes that see wonder in everything. It is not easy because Satan keeps putting things in my path that run me off the rails: but I insist on persisting. I am determined to see good in my daily circumstance. My determination springs from my decision to accept the gift of faith that God has graciously offered me. Now, again, I do not have this perfected - after all I am fighting a pretty formidable opponent, the fleshly me. But Paul promised, at the behest of the Spirit, that if I would come to God in prayer, thankfully, that God would guard my heart with a fortress of peace.
Each day, now, I arise thinking about what I can do that is good that will in turn enhance my faith vision. It matters not to me that people know that I am doing good for this is an exercise in building up my spiritual self and making me more in tune with God and His way of thinking. The result I have noticed in my life is a greater anticipation of doing good and ultimately being in heaven and a decreased reliance upon what passes for happiness among the worldly masses.
Give it a try. Rather than getting up thinking about the bad that the day may hold, start off by thinking about what God and you can do together!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Separation of church & state becoming separation of God & Country
In my life, which spans a little more than one half century, God and Country have always been virtually inseparable. There has also been the ongoing discussion about the separation of church and state which has run a course as passionately divergent as the convergence of God and Country have been promoted. America has always considered itself a Godly nation. We frequently invoke God's name in our national symbolism, our founding documents and as architectural elements in government buildings. Even our money proclaims our national reliance on God.
Of late, however, it seems the separation of church & state (institutions) and God & Country (entities) has been becoming increasingly cumbersome and troublesome. There is no doubt that the founders were men who not only believed in, but relied upon, divine providence in the formation of the United States. Separation was never an issue nor an intention on the part of these pioneering Americans. The institution of churches, regulated by the states was an aberration of their ideas for a new nation. The U.S. was not to be a theocracy nor was it to impinge upon religion. The two were expected to co-exist in harmony.
Somewhere in the last century, though, reliance upon a divine God has fallen from favor - not in theocratic terms, but in social terms. Though we still claim to be a Christian nation, we work feverishly to banish God from anything that is construed as being related to the apparatus of government despite the fact that God's role was viewed as central in the formation of our country. The end result has been that in addition to the division of state and church, we are now witness to a division of God from our country. How long will God favor us while we persist in banning Him from the public, American arena?
I suppose, although it was never envisioned by the founders, that a separation of the institutions of church and government may be beneficial, how can we ever assume that the forced departure of God from our country can be without detrimental consequences?
Of late, however, it seems the separation of church & state (institutions) and God & Country (entities) has been becoming increasingly cumbersome and troublesome. There is no doubt that the founders were men who not only believed in, but relied upon, divine providence in the formation of the United States. Separation was never an issue nor an intention on the part of these pioneering Americans. The institution of churches, regulated by the states was an aberration of their ideas for a new nation. The U.S. was not to be a theocracy nor was it to impinge upon religion. The two were expected to co-exist in harmony.
Somewhere in the last century, though, reliance upon a divine God has fallen from favor - not in theocratic terms, but in social terms. Though we still claim to be a Christian nation, we work feverishly to banish God from anything that is construed as being related to the apparatus of government despite the fact that God's role was viewed as central in the formation of our country. The end result has been that in addition to the division of state and church, we are now witness to a division of God from our country. How long will God favor us while we persist in banning Him from the public, American arena?
I suppose, although it was never envisioned by the founders, that a separation of the institutions of church and government may be beneficial, how can we ever assume that the forced departure of God from our country can be without detrimental consequences?
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