Frame #1: A man turns to his friend and says, "I'm going to get closer to God." His friend says, "How are you going to do that?"
Frame #2: The man grabs a ladder and stands it up.
Frame #3: The man climbs the ladder as someone else is holding the ladder. A crowd begins to assemble and asking, "What is this man doing?" His friend says, "He's trying to get closer to God!"
Frame #4: Someone from the crowd asks the man holding the ladder, "Who are you?" He answers simply, "God."
I know I have been guilty of this. There was this drive to "do something for God" when He is simply desiring to be in relationship with Him. He began showing me some of my heart.
"If you love me, you will obey what I command. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (John 14:15, 21 NIV)
I believe I've had a true relationship with the Father throughout what I believe to be my salvation. I muddied the waters a bit with striving, religion, and other junk, but there was true relationship. And throughout my walk, I have drawn conclusions from my experiences with Him and from the Word. I would call that "theology" or "doctrine." My doctrine was derived from relationship, not as a means to arriving at relationship. But for some reason, I found myself trying to teach that doctrine as if it would help people arrive at relationship, then getting frustrated when others weren't having the same results. It recently hit me (yeah, stupid me!), that maybe what Jesus was saying "your love for me is evident by you obeying what I command", not "if you obey me, you'll do these things and it proves you love me." I believed the former for myself, but applied the latter to others. Wow! What a pharisee I had become!!!
But as I pondered this, Father was showing me what was behind this. If I receive a revelation, derive doctrine from it and teach it to others, I could captivate an audience, probably build a following, and look pretty darn good, holy and righteous in the process. And in that process, I'd be putting my yoke of religious duty around His people...and it is better for me to have a millstone around my neck at that point. Ouch! That's building something...but I think He made it clear - He builds the house!
I was talking to someone recently who was talking about organizational structure and how Jesus had this sort of structure to His ministry. He had the 3 beloved disciples, then the other 9, then the 70 he sent out, then the multitudes that followed Him. First problem is, from the time of the miracles with the bread, to the day of pentecost, what happened to the multitudes? I'm thinking they were following Jesus the man because of 'the show', what was in it for them, or their comfort, and not true relationship. Could I be on to something? What was my motivation? Another problem in the same vain is, Jesus spent much of his time telling these people to engage the Father. John 14:7 says, "Had you known me, you would know my Father." He was pointing people to the Father and to have relationship with Him. How much am I doing that? Most of what I wanted was "Follow me as I follow Christ." Yuck!
And I arrive here at this place as a close friend deals with the emotions of being told "he's not walking with the Father because he's not part of 'this new thing' God is doing." Huh? I think I've been guilty of that a time, or two, too. The funny thing is, I think God has been trying to do 'this new thing' for 2000 years, but we keep getting in the way. It isn't anything new. If it were, and I'm a part of it, I must be somebody or something special. It isn't about homechurch/cell groups/home groups/organic growth/blah/blah/blah, how long we worship, or how long we pray, or who is prophesying, or any of that stuff - not that stuff is all bad in and of itself. God doesn't seem to be about form. He shows up where He wants to, we just need to yield to that. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you...I think I'm finally learning to rest in that!
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