I came to the end of my rope this week with my grown daughter and grandkids living with me. It has been eleven very long, exhausting months. People rooted me on to ‘hang in there’ and ‘keep holding on!’ I decided I would rather let go of the rope and if I was lucky, I might fall in front of a Mac truck on the autobahn or into shark infested ocean waters. Now that sounded like fun!My daughter’s lifestyle and mine clashed. Not because I am a Christ follower and she is not but because I directly oppose liars, cheaters, manipulating, dirty, lazy people that like to take advantage of everyone.
The religious term is fervent prayer. I was not fervently praying for her to get accepted into her own apartment… I was desperately crying, inwardly screaming and anxiously freaking out!! How religious was that? Wow!
I would find myself at all hours of the day and night saying, ‘Lord, she has to get accepted into that apartment!’ Then I would add, ‘please?’ Please? Well, while I am at it why don’t I say, ‘pretty please?’ or ‘with chocolate syrup and honey nuts?’
Does God really care if we say please? Are there any recorded ‘pleases’ in the Bible? Did God, Jesus, Paul, Jeremiah, Job or any others ever say please for something? Can you imagine as the people go to the temple with their offering they hand the animal to the priest and say, ‘Can you please sacrifice this on behalf of my family?’
I am not trying to rude or obstinate. Do the kids in the African village say ‘please’ when they ask for their food or bedding? It is the voice of the privileged people in the dignified countries that teach their children from birth to say please and thank you.
If God is no respecter of people then he doesn’t NOT hear my prayers if I forgot to be polite and add please at the beginning or end of the prayer. God see’s my heart. That is all God see’s. That’s all he wants to see. Our hearts. Our words, the order they are spoken and the inflections used have no bearing on how he hears. He only hears the heart.
My daughter did get the apartment. (Longer story but that was a miracle!!) I ran around telling everyone, ‘There is a God!!!’ I wasn’t necessarily being facetious. I was starting to wonder.
After all, I no longer attend the religious function most Christians call ‘church’. I am also not bound to the bible as my rulebook. I no longer honor the traditional tithe or ‘guilt offerings’. I am learning to see and be viewed by my savior through the eyes and heart of pure grace. (NOT as a license to sin!) I am jumping out of the religious box that Christians have built as a memorial to their God. I am continually searching for ways to let my God out of any contraptions I have placed him in while I was dutifully following all the instructions of my past pastors and teacher of faith.
For some of you reading this you might think God forbid! He shouldn’t answer any of her prayers even if she does add ‘please’ one hundred times! She must have secret sin in her life! She is doing all the things my pastor said I would die a spiritual death if I tried! Doesn’t she know she is opposing God? Doesn’t she know what the bible says about that stuff??
Yes. I know exactly what it says. Do you my friend know what it really says about performing all these religious, ritualistic, obligatory functions? He just wants your heart. Not your performance. Get to know his heart alone. And let him know yours.
(See my other post on this picture at http://controversialatbest.blogspot.com/2007/05/grace.html)
4 comments:
You are absolutely right! "It's all about the love, baby." He doesn't want slaves, he doesn't want beggars,he doesn't want grovelers; he comes to dwell in our hearts.
So why is it we often refuse Him? Are we afraid he will make us change? Give up something we weren't supposed to have in the first place? Are we afraid of him? He won't, you know. Make us change. He wants us to WANT to change. That takes love, baby! We should love him so much that we would want to change. Wouldn't we do that for a human love? How much more for the Lover of our souls? Don't we want to get close to his heart? It's there that we find perfect peace and happiness.
I just heard someone on the radio speaking, I think it was Billy Graham and he said ‘Jesus wants to come into your life to give you a love, peace and joy in your life’.
I agree… but why is it when we present Jesus to the heathen do we always have to show all the great things he wants to give us. That is why people come to the altar and commit an act of 'soft salvation'. They are not looking at the commitment as being the beginning of a relationship that will if they allow God to transform them and will grow in them a born again spirit that desires the spiritual things and not all the pleasures of this world.
Being born again is not an altar decision. It is a day-by-day lifelong commitment to deeply giving of all of yourself to the one who wants to give you HIS best. That may not be financial prosperity. More than likely it will be a glorious life walking in his presence every waking moment… that we allow him there.
I did not refuse his call 27 years ago but I am now seeing that I didn’t even touch the hem of his garments compared to what I am seeing now. I am NOW being born again spiritually for the first time.
I think one question you didn’t present would be that the tactics used by the churches that throw folks into a severe confusion cloaked as spirituality. I think it goes to the authority thing where folks think they are suppose to bow to pastors and organizations as if they were... as a Catholic priestis viewed… the true mediator between us and God. And they are not really, as you and I know, ever told the truth.
No, he will not make us change. I have seen that personally in too many folks. If he did zippity-zap, change us then the ‘church’ wouldn’t be in such a sad state that it is and more folks would be following the true Jesus.
Yes, I agree with you - we do present Jesus as the One who makes everything better...but you know, he never said that. He said he would be with us in our trials; he didn't say he'd give us a free ride. Big difference!
Like you, I am seeing that I didn't know anything compared to what he is showing me now. I think the concept of being "born again" has been as distorted as anything else. Joel Olsteen, in his "salvation call" each Sunday on television, calls to the masses to pray with him a really generic prayer that has absolutely no commitment in it. This is the great deception. These poor folks understand that God forgives them and lets them go. Nothing could be farther from the truth! It is a lifetime commitment and doesn't mean he will give you "Nirvana."
It means you can be transformed into his likeness if you are willing. It also means you can be filled with great joy.
The institutional church is indeed into forcing the "body" into supporting their ideas, their building, their agenda, paying their bills. I once was chided by a "pastor" because my wife and I left his church; what he said was,"Well, there you go; they are under God's throne now!" and he didn't even have the nerve to say it to us, but said it to the entire congregation after we left! Of course, he was indicating that while I attended "his" church I was under his (the pastor's) throne! What absolute arrogance! It showed me how far the "church" has degraded into a pit of human waste. The sad part is, there are individuals who actually believe what they say! This is the heart of the matter. And there are many deceived souls that cater to their every whim;
I believe that Jezebel is alive and well today, living in the hearts of those who welcome her (her spirit of control); and of course, Ahab, her husband, is alive and willing to let her run rampant. Only when the spirit of Jehu is come will Jezebel be cast down and obliterated as she once was, thrown down from her position and trampled and eaten by dogs as is fitting her kind(2Ki9:33).
Politically correct? Does that offend? Listen, saints, that's God's way! He will have his true church! It appears that most do not often understand the mind of God; but if we are true followers of Christ, if we are truly born again, we have the mind of Christ; is it not written? 1Cor2:16.
If God did "zippity-zap," he would have robots. When people ask, "Why would God allow this to happen?" they don't understand that he doesn't want robots; he wants a people that will love him beyond understanding; follow him beyond reason; and choose to become the people that will become who he wants them to be. He is gathering a habitation for the Father and the bride for the Son. And he will have it. Regardless of what anyone says to the contrary. Isn't that wonderful? Don't you want to be a part of that?
Isaiah 52:15 So shall he sprinkle (in the Greek, this means startle) many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Thank God for freedom from the "box" of the "institutionalized church".
Purer light is coming fast. We have freedom in Christ and it is wonderful!
Becky
Post a Comment