Trading the Creator for the Created
I was thinking this morning about the current state of my life, where I've come from, where I've been, where I'm going, and came to a couple of conclusions. I realized that I have come a long, long way in many, many ways; while in many others I have regressed to a startling extent. That was rather frightening in a couple of respects, because I also caught a couple of those things as I worked towards prepping the series we're going towards, called "Retro" (and as a reminder here, God speaks all the time, the question is whether we listen or are looking for what He has to say!). It reminded me of a couple things which you get to share (oddly enough, I suppose that's why this is called a "journey of faith" because we drag each other along the road whether we want to or not!) today.
The first thing I realized in my evaluation was that I am a much better overall person, yet no better spiritually. Why? I read my Bible, I pray, I mean, I'm a *professional* Christian (aka, minister). How can I say I haven't grown spiritually? The simple truth is, I haven't been expecting God to speak (and when He does in spite of that, I seem rather amazed) and perhaps even ignoring Him when He does! That's a really scary thought for a pastoral type, because I might be questioning whether I have any place in ministry... However, I realized that growth has occurred, just intellectual growth, not anything that draws me closer to who God made me to be. C.S. Lewis said that the greatest distance in the world was 18" (between the head and heart), and I am rather reminded that he's right! The big thing here though, is the reading from Deuteronomy that follows:
You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail. Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
Deuteronomy 5.32-33 (NLT)
Notice God's promises: our lives will be long and prosperous. Sounds awesome right? I must have had a good moment this morning! Not really, because the promises are contingent: "you must be careful to obey ALL the commandments of the Lord your God, following His instructions in EVERY DETAIL." YOUCH! That is so far removed from me that its scary. I mean, I haven't thought about all the commands and instructions of God in a while, much less followed them. The Big 10, yeah, I try to keep in mind but don't want to be legalistic or anything. I mean, we're free in Christ, right? I can be free to do what I want to occasionally? Sin isn't my boss anymore, right? Those are some of the flimsy excuses that my mind threw up so quickly that I had trouble collating them all as I read the passage, but thinking about it I came to a couple of conclusions about those excuses. We all make excuses for our foibles/sins/screw ups because we don't want to feel guilty. We also don't want to be that Pharisee who Jesus is calling a white washed tomb or viper. So we decide a middle ground of almost forgetting God's commands in favor of something simple, like "Love God, Love People," is enough for us. Notice here, that should be enough because it is the essence of the most important part of following Christ, but it is so easily warped! I mean, the passage I noted above comes right after the Big 10 so you'd think we'd take more note of it, but we decide that a flimsy idea of love is enough to cover us from God's wrath for our sin.
Love is not flimsy, only our interpretation of what it means to "love God." Think about this for a bit: a girl is getting ready for a job interview and hastily prays, "God, help me make a good impression and land this job;" then after having a great interview is talking about it with her friends and says, "It's about time some good karma came my way!" That may not seem like much, but it is someone attributing something God did to another god. Notice how God describes Himself in the earlier verses of Deuteronomy 5: "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods..." He doesn't want to share space in your life! It'd be like my wife asking me for help, than thanking someone else for doing it. I'd get pissed and our relationship wouldn't be too sound. BUT, that is what we often do to someone WAY more important...
The most insidious way we do that is by allowing pleasure (from food, friends, fun, sex, drugs, etc.) to become our God. We replace God (whom we cannot force to do anything) with something we think we control. We are exchanging the Creator for something he created...
Are you wholeheartedly chasing God today or are you serving something He made? Are you lavishing your attention on the God who made you, loves you, and is passionately pursuing your heart or are you sharing it with another? To be honest, I think I've been in both boats recently which is why today was something of a wake up call. Will you join me in wholeheartedly, passionately pursuing the God who has pursued us for so long? I hope so...
The first thing I realized in my evaluation was that I am a much better overall person, yet no better spiritually. Why? I read my Bible, I pray, I mean, I'm a *professional* Christian (aka, minister). How can I say I haven't grown spiritually? The simple truth is, I haven't been expecting God to speak (and when He does in spite of that, I seem rather amazed) and perhaps even ignoring Him when He does! That's a really scary thought for a pastoral type, because I might be questioning whether I have any place in ministry... However, I realized that growth has occurred, just intellectual growth, not anything that draws me closer to who God made me to be. C.S. Lewis said that the greatest distance in the world was 18" (between the head and heart), and I am rather reminded that he's right! The big thing here though, is the reading from Deuteronomy that follows:
You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail. Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
Deuteronomy 5.32-33 (NLT)
Notice God's promises: our lives will be long and prosperous. Sounds awesome right? I must have had a good moment this morning! Not really, because the promises are contingent: "you must be careful to obey ALL the commandments of the Lord your God, following His instructions in EVERY DETAIL." YOUCH! That is so far removed from me that its scary. I mean, I haven't thought about all the commands and instructions of God in a while, much less followed them. The Big 10, yeah, I try to keep in mind but don't want to be legalistic or anything. I mean, we're free in Christ, right? I can be free to do what I want to occasionally? Sin isn't my boss anymore, right? Those are some of the flimsy excuses that my mind threw up so quickly that I had trouble collating them all as I read the passage, but thinking about it I came to a couple of conclusions about those excuses. We all make excuses for our foibles/sins/screw ups because we don't want to feel guilty. We also don't want to be that Pharisee who Jesus is calling a white washed tomb or viper. So we decide a middle ground of almost forgetting God's commands in favor of something simple, like "Love God, Love People," is enough for us. Notice here, that should be enough because it is the essence of the most important part of following Christ, but it is so easily warped! I mean, the passage I noted above comes right after the Big 10 so you'd think we'd take more note of it, but we decide that a flimsy idea of love is enough to cover us from God's wrath for our sin.
Love is not flimsy, only our interpretation of what it means to "love God." Think about this for a bit: a girl is getting ready for a job interview and hastily prays, "God, help me make a good impression and land this job;" then after having a great interview is talking about it with her friends and says, "It's about time some good karma came my way!" That may not seem like much, but it is someone attributing something God did to another god. Notice how God describes Himself in the earlier verses of Deuteronomy 5: "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods..." He doesn't want to share space in your life! It'd be like my wife asking me for help, than thanking someone else for doing it. I'd get pissed and our relationship wouldn't be too sound. BUT, that is what we often do to someone WAY more important...
The most insidious way we do that is by allowing pleasure (from food, friends, fun, sex, drugs, etc.) to become our God. We replace God (whom we cannot force to do anything) with something we think we control. We are exchanging the Creator for something he created...
Are you wholeheartedly chasing God today or are you serving something He made? Are you lavishing your attention on the God who made you, loves you, and is passionately pursuing your heart or are you sharing it with another? To be honest, I think I've been in both boats recently which is why today was something of a wake up call. Will you join me in wholeheartedly, passionately pursuing the God who has pursued us for so long? I hope so...
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