Just a few moments ago i began re-reading some of my prayers that I had written down a few months ago and I was struck with this curious wonderment about how God must hear our prayers. For example, just a few months ago i was praising God for the way he works in my life and how he takes care of me, and for what he is doing through our church. Then a few months later i am righting about how confused I am and trying to discern where to lead the people and all my doubts and frustrations. Sure enough, the prayer I wrote today was about how I know he supplies every need and holds me in his hands.
I can't help but wonder, as my schizophrenic, bipolar prayers reach God's ears if he isn't just ready to say, "ENOUGH ALREADY!" Yet even as I wonder at this, Exodus 14:14 pops into my head that shows us Moses standing between the Israelites and the Red Sea, speaking for God saying "God will fight for you, you need only to be still." God knows that when the people cross the red sea they will be praising him for his goodness, and at the same time he also knows that in just a few short weeks, or even days they will be giving a golden calf the credit for their deliverance from Egypt. Yet he still tells them that he will fight for them.
Once again, God's goodness is overwhelming; I'll have to remember that next month!
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
The idea behind relevance
As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, the idea of relevance has been on my mind a lot lately, or more importantly are we relevant? Don't get me wrong, we are extremely busy, busy to the point that our days are full to the brim and we continuously wonder why there aren't more hours in the day. What I wonder though is how often are the things we are filling our days with actually relevant to what we are here for?
Each of us, if we claim to be a follower of Christ have been given a commission to go into the world and make disciples. Christ has bestowed on us the responsibility to be ambassadors for him, to basically be Him to a world that is lost and dying. Jesus describes His followers as being salt and light, yet how well are we flavoring the world around us, or shining light in the darkened places? If you look at the cultural trends having to do with our society and the generation at hand, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that we are missing something somewhere, and I can't help but think that it's because Christians have portrayed the message that Christ is no longer relevant. We love to preach loudly to anyone who will listen the evils of abortion and gay marriage, but then we don't love those around us. Maybe our message has become irrelevant because we are yelling too loudly, and loving to sparingly. Now don't get me wrong, sin is still sin and we should stand up for what we believe, however Jesus was relevant to those he spoke to because He offered the down and outs something that no one else would, He loved them.
I wonder if we should stop trying to play the part of the Holy Spirit, stop trying to guilt people into repentance of their sins, and just start loving them because Christ loved them. I think that it's when we strive to do this that we will find our relevance once again, and people will actually begin to see Jesus.
Each of us, if we claim to be a follower of Christ have been given a commission to go into the world and make disciples. Christ has bestowed on us the responsibility to be ambassadors for him, to basically be Him to a world that is lost and dying. Jesus describes His followers as being salt and light, yet how well are we flavoring the world around us, or shining light in the darkened places? If you look at the cultural trends having to do with our society and the generation at hand, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that we are missing something somewhere, and I can't help but think that it's because Christians have portrayed the message that Christ is no longer relevant. We love to preach loudly to anyone who will listen the evils of abortion and gay marriage, but then we don't love those around us. Maybe our message has become irrelevant because we are yelling too loudly, and loving to sparingly. Now don't get me wrong, sin is still sin and we should stand up for what we believe, however Jesus was relevant to those he spoke to because He offered the down and outs something that no one else would, He loved them.
I wonder if we should stop trying to play the part of the Holy Spirit, stop trying to guilt people into repentance of their sins, and just start loving them because Christ loved them. I think that it's when we strive to do this that we will find our relevance once again, and people will actually begin to see Jesus.
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