I have started to read "Finding God" by Dr. Larry Crabb as part of my discipling class that I have been attending. Even the "Inside Out" book that Dr. Crabb wrote that this is a 'lost final chapter' of didn't prepare me for the connection between what he writes and the thirst of my soul. I would probably bring this all under the verse he uses to begin this personal journey of finding God.
Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
We forget too often that the Bible is not some tome of age old wisdom, stagnant in its revealing truths and mind numbing logic. We forget that the writers of the books contained within were real, and were touched by God's own spirit to write His words to the generations to follow. We look to theologians and seminary trained leaders to guide us in the wisdom that lies weeping upon its pages when all we need is to remember what it is to be Christ-followers. Seeking our Abba Father's face, that intimate knowledge to know Him and love Him. The 'traditional' church, expressed in the pages of the New Testament books, taught us that our purpose is to glorify God, to please Him, and to enjoy the blessings that are of Him forever. We have strayed into running the church according to our revelations and forgetting God's.
The modern church is attractive and powerful to the seekers and the developing faithful. We gaze upon our westernized Christianity as an thing to be dressed up and made attractive so that passersby on the street will stop to window shop and potentially come inside to buy into the gospel of love and acceptance of a turnstile God, who is standing still, turning us around as we allow. We don't hear in those 'hallowed' hallways of fine carpet and cushy seats that God is 'no respecter of persons." In the backdrop of hardships, suffering, and extreme distress we are taught to find the 'healing' power of God to make our world more comfortable and pleasant, a recreation of the Garden from whence we were bodily tossed righteously on our butts. We learn that God is there for us, not us for Him.
And, for too many within the Body of Christ, when those hardships and suffering does not pass like a bad dream, our faith lies crushed upon the floor of those same churches and God is grieved by the disservice done. Our church, created for Kingdom purpose, has become a house of our own self-serving gospels of limited passions.
In this intense struggle over the situation ruling my life's focus, I have slowly learned that the passions that are part of my humanity; the desire to be happy and the desire to influence my environment to that pursuit, are going to always be part of who I am as a broken, sinful human being. But there is hope; not a hope that will have to wait until the other side of heaven, but a hope for today. That my passion to know God deeper and more intimately can be realized step by step in the midst of hardship and pain. In fact, it is that pain that I can use to grow closer to the Abba Father.
And I have plenty of pain and hardship in my life that gives me a wellspring to wander into the desert seeking my God.
As I slowly unwrap the gaudy clothing that I have wound around myself in an effort to protect myself from the pain of a sinful world, I find myself not cutting myself off from God but Him drawing nearer as I realize that my comfortable world isn't meant to mean anything if I don't realize that it means nothing to God….He is no respecter of persons. But in that realization that I am nothing before God and He gives me meaning to Himself, I find the sound theology that Christ Himself told of.
I hope that this speaks something to someone. And I hope that you will go and get Crabb's book "Finding God." Although it is but a tool in which to realize the potential and truth of walking with God, it is a great read in which to reflect upon.
In Christ,
JIM
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