Sometimes all a person has is questions and very few answers.
Hey, I figure if Chicago could do it once here and once here then I figure it is okay for me as well. 🙂
Anyway, I recently read this quote that really (and I mean really) got me thinking:
God wants to do the inconceivable, the uncommon, the unexpected, the remarkable, the incomprehensible, so that He— God—is the only explanation for what occurs in our lives. Don Cousins as quoted in Vertical Church by James McDonald- p.69
That took my mind immediately to Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Then came the questions-questions I can’t answer-least not for you.
Have we substituted the mundane for the miraculous?
Have we substituted self-effort for God’s strength?
Have we substituted the expected for the experience?
Have we substituted the show (let’s get on with it) for the show (God’s glory)?
Have we substituted the normal for the unexpected?
Have we substituted good feeling for God’s pleasure?
Have we substituted comfort for God’s presence?
Have we substituted manufacturing God’s presence for manifesting God’s presence?
Those questions are rattling around in my brain. Do I have answers? For some I do. Sadly. But I know it doesn’t have to be that way. I know what I want my answers to be.
How would you answer them? Pastor? Follower of Christ? For you? For your church community? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
I ask myself questions like that all of the time. I don’t like the answers I get back from myself.
Glad I am not alone.
Maybe we have “re-created” God in our own image…
We would have to if we carry these ideas.
I like Larry ask myself those sorts of questions all the time and most of the time I do not like the answers. I am thinking of picking up the book by MacDonald – looking forward to some more of your thoughts on it,
Be glad to let you know how it is. I will probably be posting thoughts along the way. So far so good.
My guess is that a person is completely honest, we all fail at those questions at times. The flesh is weak! The spirit yearns, but the senses betray us.
Only by keeping mindful of those type of questions can we lean fully on Him and fail less often, which in this flesh is a huge success I think.
Good point Floyd. Keep mindful.
I know the lure of self-effort is one that I seem to be struggling with the most lately. I’m sure that will be a continual battle in my life.
Join the club Loren. we often think we know and can do better.
I will answer for myself with a blanket yes. I am not being flip or trying to be funny. Sometimes I am a pretty sorry measure of a Christ follower. However, every now and then I seem to get it. Man I celebrate those moments. Obviously, I am still a work in progress.
We are all a work in progress Daniel and I, too, celebrate those times.
Hi Bill,
My thoughts from your post today. I think we need to be careful about testing God. We don’t put God in the place where he has to do a miracle for us or we are going to fail. What I mean is, we don’t deliberately put ourselves into situations and expect God to rescue and deliver us.
In some ways I think, North America is making up church and putting the blame for failure of results on the believers. Any blame to be made rests on the leadership. This is what leaders take on their shoulders in this position. (as they are defined in the church today)
We have a pyramid shaped church in North America. Masses at the bottom, leadership at the top. This system depends on more and more people being added to the pyamid in order for it to succeed.
We have the same situation and pyramid in the financial area of the world. This is why when investors fail to put their money into the ‘system’ it collapses and fails.
This is why, I think, that there is such emphasis on adding people to the church by leadership. The church ‘system’ is dependant on its’ existence by adding more and more people. This is what churches are depending on and they are not depending on God. (generally speaking) Today’s churches are a worldly system.
They are pyramid schemes as it were.
As an example of being careful with making movements that require God to perform miracles, we have the devil testing Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. ‘Throw yourself down’ he says to Jesus, ‘For it is written that He will give charge to his angels and they will lift you up lest you dash your foot against a stone’.
In English I believe this is translated ‘Jump off the top of the temple, God will protect you and keep you safe, you’re not going to get hurt’
Ahhh…pardon me?
Not suggesting at all that we test God. I am suggesting that we stop trying to limit Him though and “dumb Him down” with man-made ideas.
Hi Bill,
This is my prophecy for the church in the coming years. I may be wrong, I have been wrong before 🙂
The church is going to try and use the crisis occuring in the world to bring in more people into its ‘system’. This is going to be done by encouraging people to believe that God will preserve their lifestyle, and their prosperity, or at the least He will be a source presented to the masses for the hope of their old ways to somehow miraculously be returned to them.
These old ways? Excess, materialism, greed, hoarding, consumerism, delicacies, mass sin, debachery, etc.
This is hope in a false god. A misrepresentation of Jesus Christ. Why would the churches do this? Because the leaders in the ‘system’ are trying to keep the ‘system’ going. There is great fear of what the outcome will be if the pyramid shape of the church changes. There are multitudes of buildings that may not be used if things change. These are earthly kingdoms that men do not want to part with. Lifetimes of work, etc.
The church of North America is protecting its’ own interests and not those of God’s. This is the bottom line.
I think it has been this way for eons.
Hi Bill,
I’m on a roll today, sorry 🙁 Jesus came ‘down’ to the masses. Leaders in today’s church need to come off their pedestals that they have created for themselves and come ‘down’ into the masses so to speak.
Church leaders in North America have in large part served themselves. Of course there are exceptions, I know this. It’s time for them to now serve the people. Be one of the people.
This is what Jesus did. He didn’t set himself up in a high political office or religious office when he walked upon the earth. He didn’t move the Pharisee’s out of the temple so he could take it over for his purposes. It was Him and his few chosen disciples walking the earth without even a place to lay down his head at night sometimes.
The earth is being shaken like never before. There is crisis after crisis coming to the forefront and demanding to be dealt with. Things are happening exponentially every year. Maybe every month or day in our earth and world.
The scriptures say that everything will be continuing on as normal. People will be going about their daily lives, getting married, building wealth, etc. just like it was occuring up to the day and hour when Noah entered the ark of God.
Noah’s name means ‘a new beginning’.
God destroyed the earth and man in Noah’s day as he knew it and lived in it.
Some thoughts again from me Bill.
Jesus laid down the example of service. Any leader must do exactly that.
Those questions hint at a faith that has a small view of God. Freedom in Christ enables us to see who God really is and enpowers our faith to believe He is who He says He is. I admit that my faith is waaaaaay too small sometimes…that I see my circumstances as being way bigger.
That I need to change…that I want to change…thankfully our Father is in the changing buisness!
It is true Jay. They do hint at a small faith. We have a big God. That is why we ought to be taking stock of our lives and influence and expectations. I’m with you on the change.
As a Diest, freethinking, polemic, respectful individual I submit that the answer to most of those questions is not what God will do but what YOU will do. If you think God is going to intercede….good luck. What are you douing is the question.
Miracles don’t happen….not to me.
God’s pleasure? What is tha?
Expected for the Experience? Jibberish
Show for the Show?
Jibberish.
It is about one thing. Love
And Love means giving.
Are you wanting something? Sorry. It’s not about what you want.
It’s about what you give.
What did you give today?
i respectfully submit Jeff that it is about love but it also more. The church comes together to worship God not ourselves. Unless one is a Christ-follower he/she cannot truly understand that. Shoot, many Christ-followers don’t even understand that. The questions I asked are in the context of corporate worship and they are not gibberish. They are honest questions that every pastor, every church leader, ever worship leader, every church must ask itself: why did we come together today? Frankly, I do come on Sunday, or to any gathering for that matter, fully expecting God to “show up.” It can be with or without a full band. It can be with or without hype. If I come to meet without that expectation the church meeting is nothing different than the local Masonic meeting or social gathering. I want God to work in my life and in the life of those who show up. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I never have those questions, Bill. Ever. Everything God wants me to know is laid out in black and white and I never ever have to question it.
I also use a lot of sarcasm in my blog comments.
You gave me a chuckle this morning jason. 🙂