Now that I have your attention, let me share a very real possibility of something that could lead you away from Jesus. It is the Bible!! Now before you throw a fit and have me arrested, just consider what I have to say.
More than anything else, Jesus wants us to have an intimate love relationship with Him. One hazard that we face is to substitute things in place of that love relationship. For example, the action I see in churches over and over again is that people act as though they love their church more than they love Jesus. (That is, people like the way they do church and insist on a lifestyle of church that ignores scriptural mandates to join God in His mission to reach the world for Christ. Their heart-focus has moved from Jesus to the church). In that case, people may substitute what they do in church for their love relationship with Jesus. People have chosen many things to substitute for the personal relationship that we were created for. If we are not careful, the Bible can be one of those substitutions that works against our relationship with God.
The Bible communicates one thing very well—it is a witness to us about Jesus, God’s Son. It points to the Savior. The theme that runs throughout the Bible is Jesus. But, the Bible and the knowledge of the Bible, doesn’t save you. Jesus does.
It appears to me that some (maybe many) have substituted their knowledge of the Bible in place of a love relationship with Jesus. Those that do are treading on dangerous ground. Look what Jesus says in John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life: and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life.” Eternal life is found through reading and studying the scriptures, eternal life is not found by knowing what the scriptures say. Many people know what is said in the Bible, but they do not have a personal, intimate relationship with the Lord. They have substituted knowledge for a personal love relationship with God.
Let me put my point another way. Knowledge of the Bible is a means to an end, it is not the end itself. We must know the scriptures and be able to understand what they say to us as followers of Jesus. We must know the scripture to know and have a relationship with Jesus because scripture reveals Jesus in a very perfect way. But, unless we act out the scriptures through a personal relationship with the Lord resulting in obedience to the commands of Christ, we are missing the focus of our spiritual walk with God.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Consulting God
One of the greatest sins that we Christians commit is a failure to consult God. We have gotten so very self-sufficient, so very wise in our own eyes, that we think only we know best. So, in church, we gather our committees and share our “great ideas”, argue who has the greatest idea, and finally decide what we will do. And we never consult God. We don’t even think about consulting God.
We set our goals and develop our plans. They are our plans, we boast. As we execute our plans, if they succeed, we get the results that we can get in our own power, results that man can do in man’s strength. We join forces with those we think will help us on our journey of self-reliance and self-direction. Other church leaders, sometimes another organization is sought for help. We never think to join with God. Maybe a little has been accomplished—but usually very little.
Isaiah 30:1-2 speaks to our problem, the same problem that the nation of Israel had over and over again as they experienced their sin cycle of life. “’Woe to the rebellious children’, declares the Lord, ‘Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin; who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.’”
It is interesting what we see Jesus saying in John 5:19—that He never takes initiative on His own, but first consults the Father to see what He is doing, and then He does what the Father is doing. We simply need to look to Jesus to see what He is up to.
Our own plan of action requires no faith, except faith in ourselves, for we generally figure out how we will assemble the needed resources to get our job done. Our activity in our churches is not spiritual, but driven by our own fleshly ideas and skills. God is altogether left out. The height of folly occurs when we decide what we want to do and then expect God to bring it into fulfillment. We are on our own agenda and expect God to intervene. When it doesn’t happen, we scratch our heads and wonder why God doesn’t deliver.
We need to learn from Jesus—look to see what the Father is doing. Inquire of Him. Consult Him. Then when we see what He is up to, we launch out to do the same. When we watch Jesus, we see the Father and we understand what He is doing. When we do this, we are beginning to get off our own agenda; we are moving to God’s agenda, and wonderful things can occur when we get on God’s agenda. Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” That is what can happen when we work under His power and direction.
We set our goals and develop our plans. They are our plans, we boast. As we execute our plans, if they succeed, we get the results that we can get in our own power, results that man can do in man’s strength. We join forces with those we think will help us on our journey of self-reliance and self-direction. Other church leaders, sometimes another organization is sought for help. We never think to join with God. Maybe a little has been accomplished—but usually very little.
Isaiah 30:1-2 speaks to our problem, the same problem that the nation of Israel had over and over again as they experienced their sin cycle of life. “’Woe to the rebellious children’, declares the Lord, ‘Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin; who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.’”
It is interesting what we see Jesus saying in John 5:19—that He never takes initiative on His own, but first consults the Father to see what He is doing, and then He does what the Father is doing. We simply need to look to Jesus to see what He is up to.
Our own plan of action requires no faith, except faith in ourselves, for we generally figure out how we will assemble the needed resources to get our job done. Our activity in our churches is not spiritual, but driven by our own fleshly ideas and skills. God is altogether left out. The height of folly occurs when we decide what we want to do and then expect God to bring it into fulfillment. We are on our own agenda and expect God to intervene. When it doesn’t happen, we scratch our heads and wonder why God doesn’t deliver.
We need to learn from Jesus—look to see what the Father is doing. Inquire of Him. Consult Him. Then when we see what He is up to, we launch out to do the same. When we watch Jesus, we see the Father and we understand what He is doing. When we do this, we are beginning to get off our own agenda; we are moving to God’s agenda, and wonderful things can occur when we get on God’s agenda. Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” That is what can happen when we work under His power and direction.
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