Relationship with God

Two thoughts on this subject:

First: I have six children. My relationship with each of them is different - not because I am different, but because they are each different. In the same way, we should expect that each of our relationships with God will be different because we are all different. Similarly, as we grow and change, our relationship with the Lord will also grow and change. This growth is one reason why many people who have been believers for a while no longer feel like they fit in the Christian culture. The cookie cutter relationship presented by much of the Christian culture is designed for the young and less mature. It does not have room in it for the nuances, freedom and mutuality of a more mature relationship with God.

Second: God will often place people in positions to argue or disagree with Him. Moses, Ezekiel & Peter each had experiences like that. In some cases, He does it to teach us a lesson (Like Peter and the vision of unclean animals), but in others, it is to enhance our relationship with Him (like Ezekiel cooking food over human excrement). You see, real relationship requires communication and mutual decision making. When we require God to be the only decision maker, we prevent Him and us from having a deeper relationship.

So, God will ask us to do outlandish or very difficult things - not to see if we will measure up, but to engage us in dialogue and discussion with Him. These tough requests are not designed for us to see our shortcomings as much as they are designed for us to engage in a full relationship with the Lord.

In Ezekiel's case, God told him to cook his food in a way that would make it unclean. Ezekiel protested and God all lowed him to use cow manure instead of human excrement. The issue in the interchange really had nothing to do with the fuel used for cooking. It had everything to do with God wanting a depth of relationship where they could discuss and decide together what to do.

The State of the Church

At the risk of sounding whiny . . .

When I turn on the television and I do not get a picture on the screen, I know that something is wrong. It may be that the television is not plugged in; it may be that I forgot to pay the cable bill; or it may be that my television set has tanked. Regardless, I know that when I do not get the expected results, something is wrong.

In John 14:12, Jesus says that we, His followers, will do greater works than He did while on earth. In John 10:10, Jesus says that He has come to give us an abundant life. In the Book of Acts, we see this lived out as just a small number of followers turned the Roman world on its ear in just a few decades.

So, if the expected result of following Jesus is that miraculous events will occur, we will have a fulfilling life, and the world will be forced to take notice, then I think it is safe to say that something must be wrong. Where are all of these things that Jesus said would be a part of each of our lives? Well, like the television set, either Christianity is broken (and the Bible wrong- which I do not think is the case) or we are doing it wrong. What we conceive of as the Christian life is not Biblical because we are not seeing the Biblical results.

Sadly, much of the church justifies this failure instead of dealing with it. We explain away the lack of the power of God in our lives with theological arguments instead of pursuing Him for more of His power. We write books on how to have a fulfilling life based on our efforts rather than finding the fulfilling life He has for us. We do all that we can to proclaim that we are spiritually rich instead of confessing that we are poor, blind, miserable & naked.

Maybe that's where we should start.