I have been working on renovating my future son-in-law’s
house for the last couple weeks. On the
way, to and from the house, I pass by the Fox Creek Christian Church. They, in their infinite wisdom, bought one of
those signs that lights up their catch phrase of the week. To say that it is prominent is an
understatement, domineering to totally obnoxious would be getting closer (especially
at night). I have had four eye surgeries
in the last 18 days or so because my retinas have been burned out by the overly
bright and blinding bulbs that make up the individual parts of each letter (I
now have to wear special “sun” glasses to shield my eyes during the night hours
as I drive by that thing). The brightness
and coloration of the sign makes you want to stop and… beat the hell out of
whoever is responsible (because no one in heaven would have had anything to do with making it therefore you would beat the hell out). Anyway……..
Past signs have been “Been to church lately”, like I said to
do what? kick some #$@? (for the overly
bright sign) and “God answers knee mail” isn’t that cute? Their sign for this
week has been, “Are you ready to meet God?”.
Now, I know that they mean “If you were to die today…” . What is in most “Christians” thinking is that
when they die they will be meeting God, but they don’t realize the joy and
experience that they can have with Him now.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will
keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him.
Please note, in this verse Jesus is not even bringing up
the Holy Spirit, He is talking of the Father and Himself making a home in you! Yes, we have the Holy Spirit and He resides in
us, but don’t realize the potential of relationship or, as the sign says, “meet
God” time that is available. So often we
limit the “relationship” to church time, prayer and reading time and the
comfort it can provide, but we can have a continual communion with all three
members of the Trinity. We see such
phrasing in the Bible such as “Abraham was a friend of God” or “Job walked with
God” or “Moses talked with God face to face” and skim over it or put them in a “special
men of God” category. Look again at the
part where He says “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” this is
talking of you and me and seems not something that is an automatic, this comes
to someone that “loves me and keeps My words”, it speaks of a growth in
relationship first then comes the live in relationship, almost like a marriage.
You thought you knew them before… just
wait when you live with someone... you will find things out… (you discover things that
you did not know or even conceive about them) the good news is God has no down or weird sides,
only goodness! Our relationship with God is often so restricted to our
upbringing that we often limit it to that prior experience. It is not until we hear of or see someone
else’s relationship (and are challenged by it) or see a verse like John 14:23 that
we can conceive what we have been missing and are awakened to a potential. We must be careful and not get defensive
because we have “missed out” or dismissive because of our traditions, but realize
that “iron does sharpen iron” (others will
challenge the status quo in our life so that we can experience more of God).
It really all starts with seeking Him. It is not all that hard, but will involve time. Look at it the same as someone you are or were dating… there is a lot of
just hold hands and walk time, without a lot of talking going on. It will happen.
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