You Finish (oops) This One
Have you ever stopped to think about the number of times God displayed His mystical side in the bible? I have read story after story in the bible where God did something miraculous and they never seem to connect. I mean, the stories are in the bible, I believe they are true, but some how there is a disconnect. I cannot imagine some kind of mystical display happening when I am there to see it. Think about the stories; Peter walking on water, water turning into wine, jail cells opening on their own, dead people becoming undead. All that happens in the bible. But what if it happened tomorrow? It would knock us over.
We have this idea in the church that God has given up on mystical type things in the past 1800 or so years. The mystical happened when Jesus and the apostles walked the earth, but God has traded the mystical in for nice new modern traditional ways of doing things. He uses the denominational literature to show His people His renown, He uses the right kind of praise music, a preacher that preaches the gospel every week, youth workers that train our young people in the way, a benevolence offering, and good deacons to have encounters with His creation? You say, "Dang man you’re cutting on everything we do at the church." Well, to respond to your statement all I can say is "Yes, sort of kind of I am." We do things with good intentions and also good outcomes. Who can argue with a benevolence offering to help feed people in need? Good music is great; I myself truly enjoy singing to God in a group. Denominational literature saves a lot of people a lot of time and helps them do a better job teaching. So, the things in the list are good practical church things.
Here is the point I hope to make. Those tools are merely tools. A hammer has no heart, only a head and a handle. God works in the heart. While He also works in the head, but never there alone. The things in the list tend to lead us to a misplaced dependency. This is by no means a new concept. Those that follow Christ have had to deal with that since about an hour after Christ ascended.
See, we can depend on the things in the list to respond to our command on an instant. Denominational literature is there, it is organized, and it is put on the calendar, ordered a month before we need it. It is in your hand, it is opened when you need it, you read it when you have time, and you use it to teach your class at your church to your students. Now, you probably noticed an inordinate number of one particular pronoun and its respective possessive form in that preceding discourse. We control the literature to the fullest extent. I feel I probably need to say this before I forget, denominational literature is getting picked on, but that is just because I do not want to list the things in the list over again. Even then, the things in the list are getting picked on because I don't really want to list all the things we use that we have complete control over. Now, having said that, what's the point?
When it comes to God, we are not in control. The things in the list, the tools, can easily turn into a crutch. We depend on them and then say God does not use the mystical anymore, He traded it in for tradition and liturgy. It is sad that it is so easy to miss what that really means. God traded in mystical expressions of Himself, which He controls, for tradition and liturgy, which we create and control. Of course, it is for God that we do these things so that makes them ok, right?
The apostles knew the God of miraculous displays. It was nothing to them. In fact, many of God’s miraculous displays were typically not big public spectacles. There where some of those, but many times they where God doing things that only He could in the life of one, are a few followers as the followers followed.
Now, I could go on, but this is a blog. I will let you carry on the thoughts in this post. It is getting long anyway.
Say what you think.
Have you ever stopped to think about the number of times God displayed His mystical side in the bible? I have read story after story in the bible where God did something miraculous and they never seem to connect. I mean, the stories are in the bible, I believe they are true, but some how there is a disconnect. I cannot imagine some kind of mystical display happening when I am there to see it. Think about the stories; Peter walking on water, water turning into wine, jail cells opening on their own, dead people becoming undead. All that happens in the bible. But what if it happened tomorrow? It would knock us over.
We have this idea in the church that God has given up on mystical type things in the past 1800 or so years. The mystical happened when Jesus and the apostles walked the earth, but God has traded the mystical in for nice new modern traditional ways of doing things. He uses the denominational literature to show His people His renown, He uses the right kind of praise music, a preacher that preaches the gospel every week, youth workers that train our young people in the way, a benevolence offering, and good deacons to have encounters with His creation? You say, "Dang man you’re cutting on everything we do at the church." Well, to respond to your statement all I can say is "Yes, sort of kind of I am." We do things with good intentions and also good outcomes. Who can argue with a benevolence offering to help feed people in need? Good music is great; I myself truly enjoy singing to God in a group. Denominational literature saves a lot of people a lot of time and helps them do a better job teaching. So, the things in the list are good practical church things.
Here is the point I hope to make. Those tools are merely tools. A hammer has no heart, only a head and a handle. God works in the heart. While He also works in the head, but never there alone. The things in the list tend to lead us to a misplaced dependency. This is by no means a new concept. Those that follow Christ have had to deal with that since about an hour after Christ ascended.
See, we can depend on the things in the list to respond to our command on an instant. Denominational literature is there, it is organized, and it is put on the calendar, ordered a month before we need it. It is in your hand, it is opened when you need it, you read it when you have time, and you use it to teach your class at your church to your students. Now, you probably noticed an inordinate number of one particular pronoun and its respective possessive form in that preceding discourse. We control the literature to the fullest extent. I feel I probably need to say this before I forget, denominational literature is getting picked on, but that is just because I do not want to list the things in the list over again. Even then, the things in the list are getting picked on because I don't really want to list all the things we use that we have complete control over. Now, having said that, what's the point?
When it comes to God, we are not in control. The things in the list, the tools, can easily turn into a crutch. We depend on them and then say God does not use the mystical anymore, He traded it in for tradition and liturgy. It is sad that it is so easy to miss what that really means. God traded in mystical expressions of Himself, which He controls, for tradition and liturgy, which we create and control. Of course, it is for God that we do these things so that makes them ok, right?
The apostles knew the God of miraculous displays. It was nothing to them. In fact, many of God’s miraculous displays were typically not big public spectacles. There where some of those, but many times they where God doing things that only He could in the life of one, are a few followers as the followers followed.
Now, I could go on, but this is a blog. I will let you carry on the thoughts in this post. It is getting long anyway.
Say what you think.
posted by Kevin at
10:19 PM
6 Comments:
I believe in the miraculous and that God does truly work in out lives, but I think that as far as the physical miracles not occuring (as far as wel know) it would not truly persuade people to live better (except those who already want to live better) nor brings others (who already don't want to see) to Christ. For example,
(I got this from the New Living Translation since everyone is mutinous to the King James Version :P ) Matthew 13:10
10 His disciples came and asked him, "Why do you always tell stories when you talk to the people?"
11 Then he explained to them, "You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not. 12 To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them. 13 That is why I tell these stories, because people see what I do, but they don't really see. They hear what I say, but they don't really hear, and they don't understand. 14 This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, which says:
`You will hear my words,
but you will not understand;
you will see what I do,
but you will not perceive its meaning.
15
For the hearts of these people are hardened,
and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes-
so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
and let me heal them.'*
16 "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 I assure you, many prophets and godly people have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard, but they could not.
The truth is that in the present we still reflect the past. Brother Don is correct in his (we are the present day Pharisees) those who do not want to progress, would not progress even if your or my touch could cure cancer (like Chuck Norris's tears.....too bad he doesn't cry) Booya!
Drewsifer
Drewsifer, you caught what I was trying to say in a few less words. Physical miracles do occur. However, there is a subtle difference between a miracle and what might be considered "signs and wonders". I believe you are correct; a miraculous sign will not necessarily make some believe that would not believe otherwise. They would simply pass it off in some manner.
However, for those that follow it seems the closer you get to Christ the more God type things you see. We see it from time to time, but even then it tends to be subtle or at least personal. We see something, notice it is a little different and see God's personality in the event. I think about the times Jesus did things for people and then told them not to tell. Or other times when the early followers would have jail doors open (Acts 5:19) or be "suddenly" taken away as with Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8).
The Pharisee thing explains a lot too. Seems if we simply sit in the pew we can tend to get away from Christ. As a result we don't see Him as much and we begin to make excuses for His absence.
Thanks Drew, good thoughts.
If you ask the right people, they'll tell you stories of biblical type miracles happening everywhere. For instance, one of my roommates has tons of miraculous stories from his high school mission trips... stories of exorcisms and healings and the like. However, those stories are all from trips outside the United States. It's not that they couldn't happen here, or that we don't want them to (people pray earnestly for miracles every day). And I've even had ministers tell me stories of miracles happening inside the US. However, I think a common mistake we all make is not seeing the miracles around us each day.
For instance, there's this little girl at my home church who was born with cancer. The doctors told her parents she'd have maybe 2 years at most to live. That day our church started a 24-hour a day prayer chain for her that continues to this day. That was 10 years ago. She still has cancer, and she is bald from all the chemotherapy, but other than that she is a normal beautiful 10 year-old girl. Alot of people would attribute that to the "miracles" pf modern science and chemotherapy, but I like to think of it as a miracle from the God who created science and chemotherapy.
I mean, if you want a miracle just look at the fact that I'm able to sit here at my computer drinking a tropical smoothie being totally comfortable while the earth is booking it thru space at 66,780 miles per hour (yes I looked it up). That's 18.55 miles per second! Look at the fact that of the 45,000 asteroids in our galaxy (again, I looked it up) not one has hit us while human beings have inhabited earth. How about that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away and yet if I walk outside right now I feel its warmth? Everything about this planet - its speed, its course thru space, its distance from the sun - have been carefully measured out and planned by God before Creation to perfectly suit our needs. That's miraculous. When looked at it that way, turning water into wine and healing a leper are cool tricks that Jesus used to prove He was who He said He was.
I agree with Drew hat even if God did these tricks now, people would still be unbelieving. People are, as a general rule, very skeptical about religion and the Church (and given our history, they have every right to be.) The Catholic Church comes up against this all the time. I've heard tons of stories about modern day Eucharistic miracles (miracles occurring when Catholics take communion). As you may or may not know, Catholics believe in transubstantiation, which is the doctrine that when we eat the bread and drink the wine that the bread literally becomes Christ's body in us and the wine literally becomes Christ's blood. Well, there are documented cases of the wine turning to actual blood. they've done blood tests on the wine and found it to be the same blood type (type "A" I think) as blood taken from those experiencing stigmata. These are all well documented and somewhat well known facts, but they get pushed either to the back of the news or not there at all. When it is in the news it is dismissed as a hoax.
Anyway, all that is to say that miracles are around us everywhere - miracles of every kind. But we must open our eyes and see them as miracles. I don't think liturgy and tradition are bad, and I think that if we let them they can open our eyes to some of those miracles. but people are lazy and selfish and fickle and want to be entertained. So, we try to keep the latest music in the worship service. We tell our preachers to be more charismatic and less academic. This is some of what we must do to reach this dying world, but as Christians ourselves we should not let what we must do distract us from what we are supposed to see.
I'll close with this (I know, finally). One time at Wesley (my home church) my pastor got up during our contemporary worship service and said, "If you attended the traditional service before we had a contemporary service raise your hand." We all raised our hands. Then he said, "If you prefer this contemporary service over the traditional service then raise your hand." Again, we all raised our hands. Finally, he said, "Don't raise your hands for this, but answer honestly to yourselves. Do you feel you cannot worship in the traditional service because of the liturgy and the songs? If so my brothers and sisters, you are not truly worshipping in this service either."
So this has absolutely nothing to do with the original blog post, but I was sharing this with Heather and she told me I might want to share it with you guys. So I am.
As I was listening to the Reggie conference (on my iPod) something really struck me. He said that in the future he suspects that church attendance will go down quite a bit, and most of the churches will be house churches. This, of course, was very discouraging to me since I'm going into the ministry. It was a couple of minutes before I realized what was going on. I was scared because I may not have a job in the future if churches aren't big organizations. However the whole point that Reggie was trying to make was that if we keep “doing church” then we'll never make a difference in the community. We have to get out in the community to make a difference.
When I realized that I was being selfish and scared of my future, and tried to realize that even if I do have to work full time at the state or whatever, but still pastor a church, then I may be doing even more good that I could if I was the pastor of a mega church. This actually made me very excited. I mean, am I going into the ministry for job security? No, I'm going to further the kingdom. Wow. It seems I'm finally starting to realize what it's all about huh? You know this whole working full-time, going to school, and leading the worship band thing may be preparing me for the future. If the future really is home churches. I guess we'll see when we get there. But that's not the point. The point is that I'm going into the ministry to bring glory to God.
So I'm excited about the future. I may never be able to become full-time staff at a church, but it doesn't matter. I'm going to have to adjust to the present culture, just like I would if I was on a mission trip. It's scary. Very scary. You know, it would be so much easier for me if people would just start coming to church so we wouldn't have to worry about reaching them. But that isn't going to happen.
So that’s it. Yeah, I know, nothing too special, but I thought I’d share. Hope everybody’s doing good and I’ll see you tonight as soon as big Tony lets me out of jail!
nic
--and he set me on fire, and i am burning alive--
Nic,
I love hearing how the Lord is working in each of our lives. So, don't sell yourself short, what you wrote is special! And awesome and encouraging! Keep the "non-special" stories coming...they're great!
JoAnn
Nicholas -
You know, it's funny. Not funny ha ha, but funny weird. Because I, too, am scared because of my call to ministry. Given that I am a female in the Baptist church, chances of my ordination are non-existent. And chances of me getting a full-time ministry position at a Southern Baptist church are also quite slim, even with a seminary degree... especially if I am not married. Having said all that, God has really been working on my fear and doubt lately. I'm all, "God, why did you call me to full-time ministry if there is little chance of that really happening (getting through school, finances for seminary, etc., etc.)?" And God's all, "I didn't necessarily call you to head up the student minstry at some mega church that is going to pay you fifty-trillion dollars a year." I, like you, Nic was kind of taken aback by what Reggie said at the conference about ministers in the future. For me, it was like God was telling me that He wasn't calling me to full-time ministry in the tradition sense of the call... almost like He was giving me an out. If seminary never happens, then that's God's plan. If I never work full-time on the ministry staff at a church, that's God's plan. I know God's called me to full-time ministry. And to work with youth. But maybe that means at a school or a community center or something. Maybe my full-time ministry to youth won't be in the church at all. Maybe not in the organization the CHURCH... but certainly in the Kingdom! For me, it's kind of a load off! God's got plans for me, even if the Church can't fit me in (I'm not saying it never happens, or that it won't... I'm just saying).
The funny weird part is that the day of the conference, I was talking to JoAnn about it. And one of the things that I emphasized was exactly what you're talking about. Heh... maybe God knows what He's doing after all!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home