I Want God!

So, why do you pray?  What motivates you to get up before the sun rises or stay up long after the family is off to bed?  Is it a comfortable life, free from distractions and worries?  Or is it simply to spend time with the One who loves you more than you know?

For much of my Christian experience, I would approach God when I needed something; my kids were sick, I was experiencing a family crisis, the car needed fixed, or I lapsed back into the same old pattern of sin.  God was kind of like a lucky charm, a fuzzy rabbits foot; when things got tough or beyond my control, I would wear out my jeans.  Perhaps this is a better picture of my prayer life; putting a quarter into a vending machine and out comes my desired answer.  I never once thought about how God viewed the whole exchange.  I knew how I felt when people befriended me for what I can bring them.  

When I was new to pastoral ministry a good friend taught me a valuable lesson.  For a whole year our relationship was based on contact and conversation revolving around my need.  If I needed help with a computer problem, I would call my friend.  If I needed some help around the house or a tool, I would call my friend.  On a particular day, I must have called him 20 times.  I was getting very frustrated.  Late into the evening I finally got ahold of him.  After telling him why I had been calling him, he very firmly told me, "Don't call me anymore if you want something from me.  Don't be my friend because of what I can do for you, be my friend simply because you like me and like being with me."  Honestly, I was hurt for a few days.  But, he was right!

I hardly think that God feels this way, then again, maybe he does.  What will it take for us to finally understand that God wants us to love Him not for what He can do for us but for who He is; and He isn't our spiritual sugar daddy.

I think true prayer begins when we approach God simply because He's God and has demonstrated His love for us rather than to get something from Him.  God told Abraham, after making incredible promises to him that he would be the father of many nations, that God himself would be His very great reward.  That's what Abraham put His faith in - a relationship.

I want God!  I don't want Him for the things He can give me, (although His mercy are new every morning)I want Him simply for who He is.  That's when we truly begin to pray - when we come to God because He's God and not for the things He can give us or for the jams He can bail us out of.

Enjoy lingering in His presence - in fact, I dare you to linger without words, it's Biblical, "Be still and know that I am God..."

The coming evangelical collapse | csmonitor.com

Pulled this article off of www.drudge.com.  Contains some things to think about.  

The coming evangelical collapse | csmonitor.com

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He Is There and He Is Not Silent

Francis Schaeffer makes my brain hurt.  Just finished reading He Is There and He Is Not Silent, the third book in what Schaeffer calls his trilogy, the other books being The God Who Is There and End of Reason.  I probably should have read them in sequence, maybe the gaps would have been filled.

So appropriate to the cultural milieu we find ourselves in today.  In a nutshell - remove God from the equation and there is absolutely no basis for reality, no basis for morals, no basis for knowledge, no basis for existence.

Without God, how does one account for a sense of right and wrong?  How does one account for personality if we have "evolved" from an impersonal force or matter?

It is my conclusion, and Schaeffer's too, that Christianity provides the only plausible, non-contradictory answer for knowing, for morality, for existence.

A Man and His God

Here is a statement to ponder and dialogue about:  

Who, how and when a man worships determines everything about his life!

As I look into the lives of biblical characters and read the Scriptures associated with them: Adam (Gen. 3:15), Abraham (Gen. 12:1-8), Moses (Ex. 12:1-28), Isaiah (Is. 6:1-5), and the early Church (Acts 2), what can men learn about commitment to worship that will provide a foundation for our family and roots for our relationships?

Scripture couldn't be more clear in Romans 12:1-2 - "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."  - that worship is about a man's entire being.  

The result is transformation from worldy-mindedness and proof of God's will which is demonstrated in our lives.

So what do you think?