It's Friday morning, it's grey and rainy, there's not a gas station within a few miles of my house that has gas, another bank has tanked, and the stock market is expected to take another dive. One would think that things are pretty bleak. And they are but, strangely, I don't feel bleak. A tad anxious, yes, but not bleak. I suppose that is in part because I realize that this isn't as bad as it may get and, secondly, I have a strange inner peace from God that encourages me to believe that, no matter how bad things may get, He will stay true to His word. In fact, what is unfolding around us is true to His word.
Here's what I mean. God is very aware of what is unfolding around me and what is unfolding is due in large part because of our selfishness, greed, and outright sin. His word tells us, directly and by example, that sin has consequences, it damages us and our world. I'm not so sure why we are so surprised at all these events when it seems to me that these events are the outcome of our choices.
I do believe that we will "fix" things - that's what we do - we pull our selves out of the messes we got ourselves into, only to turn around a little later and find ourselves in an equal mess. When all this financial stuff gets dealt with - and we're naive to believe that it will all come together in next week or two and we're naive to believe that this will be the fix that will "fix" it all, we'll probably find that we will wipe the sweat off our brow and say "that was a close one" and move on and not learn much from the experience. This crises has been brewing since the 90's and before because man is selfish, greedy, and sinful.
By the way, I did preach my message on greed last Sunday. I had no choice - to many things kept taking me in that direction, from a Bible study, discussions, world and US events, and even my devotional reading for the week. It was a hard message to preach because it really challenged me and where I was in my heart. People were responsive, appreciative, complimentary (is that a good thing?), and attentive. All I ask is that they be attentive, it's God that asks them, and me, to be responsive to His word.
Speaking of responsive, I think we live in a growing church culture that is uncomfortable with making a demonstrative response to challenges or invitations in a message. The altar seems to serve more as a decoration than a place of prayer and commitment. Why is that? For a while the altar served as a protective wall between the pastor and people but I removed that by coming down into the congregation when I preach. Which may cause some to ask, why doesn't the pastor use the pulpit to preach God's word? I have my theology and biases to why I don't but that's for another day.
Here's what I mean. God is very aware of what is unfolding around me and what is unfolding is due in large part because of our selfishness, greed, and outright sin. His word tells us, directly and by example, that sin has consequences, it damages us and our world. I'm not so sure why we are so surprised at all these events when it seems to me that these events are the outcome of our choices.
I do believe that we will "fix" things - that's what we do - we pull our selves out of the messes we got ourselves into, only to turn around a little later and find ourselves in an equal mess. When all this financial stuff gets dealt with - and we're naive to believe that it will all come together in next week or two and we're naive to believe that this will be the fix that will "fix" it all, we'll probably find that we will wipe the sweat off our brow and say "that was a close one" and move on and not learn much from the experience. This crises has been brewing since the 90's and before because man is selfish, greedy, and sinful.
By the way, I did preach my message on greed last Sunday. I had no choice - to many things kept taking me in that direction, from a Bible study, discussions, world and US events, and even my devotional reading for the week. It was a hard message to preach because it really challenged me and where I was in my heart. People were responsive, appreciative, complimentary (is that a good thing?), and attentive. All I ask is that they be attentive, it's God that asks them, and me, to be responsive to His word.
Speaking of responsive, I think we live in a growing church culture that is uncomfortable with making a demonstrative response to challenges or invitations in a message. The altar seems to serve more as a decoration than a place of prayer and commitment. Why is that? For a while the altar served as a protective wall between the pastor and people but I removed that by coming down into the congregation when I preach. Which may cause some to ask, why doesn't the pastor use the pulpit to preach God's word? I have my theology and biases to why I don't but that's for another day.
1 comment:
I believe we have been going through these cycles of crisis to crisis long before the 90's. I also have this inner peace about this situation, I believe the scripture says it is "peace that passes all understanding." How much longer will we go from crisis to crisis and not learning the lessons (we see what happened to Israel) before God says enough is enough? Maybe this is the "perfect storm" of 2008.
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