How deep do we want to go?

10/06/2011


Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.

Bible verse of the Day: Psalm 38:39-40 " The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him."

How do we know when we are on the right track as Christians? How deep should we go in pursuit of our faith? Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 that the greatest commandment of all was to ''love the lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind." How do we know when we have arrived at that place? Do we ever arrive? These questions and many others have been bothering me lately as I seek an ever growing relationship with God. I want their to be intensity in my relationship with God. I want to fervently pursue Him and explore the mysteries of that relationship. I recently read an amazing book by Mark Batterson called " In a pit with a lion on a snowy day." At the end of this book, he talks about getting back to the primal aspects of what first attracted us to Christ and to being a Christian. That moment when we first realized that He truly was " the way, the truth and the life." Like the first kiss with our significant other, there was a magical and life altering moment when we first felt the present of Christ in our life and we realized that our lives would never be the same. Batterson explores the concept of simplicity on the near side of complexity vs. simplicity on the far side of complexity in exploring how deep our relationship is with the Lord. he states that simplicity on the near side of complexity is only mind deep; people know what they believe, but they don't know why they believe what they believe. Their faith is fragile. Simplicity on the far side of complexity on the other hand, takes into account an awareness of the unanswerable questions and unexplainable experiences of God that lead to a heightened appreciation for the mystery and majesty of who God is. God calls us to faith on the far side of doubt, joy on the far side of sorrow and love on the far side of anger. So how do we get there? That is the journey that we should all be pursuing as Christians! Batterson recognizes that we as Christians have a problem. While we are quick to point out what is wrong with our culture, we are slow to seek out what is wrong with us, meaning the church in the 21st Century. Instead of asking what is wrong with this generation who has all but abandoned the church, we should be asking what is wrong with the church? He believes that the answer lies in the fact that we are not great at the great commandment. We need more compassion, more wonder, more curiosity and more energy when it comes to fulfilling the great commandment. This requires a period of painful introspection about how intense is our pursuit of God. We may need to learn and unlearn some things that have kept us from being great, or even good, at fulfilling the great commandment. One question that Batterson poses is " Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God?" The answer to that question, I believe, reveals a lot to us about where we are in our walk with the Lord. We all have sin in our lives that surely breaks the heart of God. But how seriously do we take that sin? Are we truly repentant and striving to remove those things which breaks God's heart, or do we just casually wave it off as just a condition of our human nature. I for one know that I have lots of room for growth in being more intentional and having more intensity around correcting those things in my life that break God's heart. A partial list would include not always being all in with my trust of God's ability to run my life, a lustful heart, an ability to want to have a backup plan, a level of impatience that is unacceptable and a hard time living out the same amount of grace and forgiveness,, that He has shown me, to others in my life.Those things break God's heart and my heart must truly break for that until I am able to fix those things through a deeper understanding of who God is and what He is capable of achieving in my life. I pray that I would find the all consuming passion and energy to make that the highest priority of my life. Nothing else will truly matter in the end. As Batterson points out, Anything less is not enough. It is not just unfulfilling, it is also unfaithful.