Just Do It for Me, Please?

Ever come to the point where you go to God and say, “God! I don’t know how I can possibly make this work! What now!? Help!”

I have. And most of the time, I envision God rolling up His sleeves in eagerness and saying “Whew! I thought you’d never ask. I’ve been dying for you to ask me to get in there and do something for you. Now stand back and watch this!”

But wait. Is that really how God reacts? I’m not sure that’s how He works with us all the time, or even most of the time.

I prayed that prayer just the other night, and was wanting and waiting for God to react the way I envisioned He would. But instead He rolled up His sleeves (with just the same eagerness in His eyes), leaned over and said “Andrew, take another look at what you’ve got to work with. Don’t just give up and expect me to take it all out of your hands; I’ve given you a mind, a life, a motivation to work out what I want you to – I put it in your hands because I want to see YOU succeed at it – and when you do, it will be worth rejoicing over. I’m right here with you. Keep working at it. Give it another try.”

And it made me feel like a little kid learning to ride a bicycle, wanting my training wheels back, not wanting my Father to let go, terrified that I might fall over if He does; but at the same time knowing that if I do, He’ll be there to help me up again, to bandage my scraped knee, and give me another push. Knowing that if I learn how to ride my bike all by myself, I could ride to the playground with Him, or even the store, and then when I get bigger, I could go to the store to pick up groceries for Him!

Cancel Christmas???

Cancel christmas? Such a horrible idea, isn't it? Or is it? Let me share something I observed a while back...

I was walking across the parking lot into Costco. Also walking toward the store were a mother and her son. The mother was telling the little boy what they were going to get and what they were not going to get; the little boy was whining about not getting something or other.

"Do you want me to cancel Christmas!?" the mother snapped.

"No"

"Then you better behave yourself."


So I ask you again, cancel Christmas? If christmas was truly the celebration of Jesus' birth, and as such was a holy day of worship toward God, then it could never under any circumstances be cancelled. But yet, the mother's threat still could be made...

Some Thoughts (Seasonal?)

Have you ever noticed...

They start playing christmas music the day after Thanksgiving?

That Thanksgiving gets comparatively short shrift, as a holiday?

That Thanksgiving isn't a huge, overcommercialized holiday?

• Is it because we don't give presents?
• Is it because we don't feel compelled to put up decorations like christmas?
• Is it because it's actually a Christian holiday, rather than only nominally so?

---------

Why is it christmas that everyone (practically speaking) loves dearly, regardless of what they think of Jesus?

Christmas junk has been in stores since August.

Something possesses non-christians to have a "christmas spirit;" and when I look around, it's not the Holy Spirit.

Why is it that christmas with all its appurtenances is pretty much exactly what I would expect a worldly holiday to be, other than the fact that Christians love it? This smacks of a horrible deception to me, and it's not the non-Christians who are deceived. They know that christmas is all about the presents and the tree and the food.

The Battle

The battle is not won in ornate palaces with stained glass windows. The battle is not won by those who sit and imagine what it will be like when they taste the sweet fruits of victory. The battle is not won by enthusiastic planners of great campaigns. The battle is not won even by the mighty warrior who is the hero of every little boy.

The battle is won by the housewife, the battle is won by the man who provides for his family, the battle is won by the youth in school. The battle is won by those who live day by day uprightly, productively, thoughtfully, persistently, and above all, charitably.

The battle isn't won on sunday mornings. It's won on monday morning, and tuesday mornings, and wednesday mornings, and thursday mornings, and friday mornings, and saturday mornings.

Shouldn't we come on sunday morning, not to get the victory, but to declare the victory that we have won all through the rest of the week?

Something Wrong?

Is there something wrong when:

I witness with trepidation because I can't point to a group of people and say "You see those people? They're Christians. They have the same fantastic life and God-given power that I just told you about. On sunday, let me pick you up, and we'll go to their meeting and you can hear them tell about what God has done in their lives and see for yourself what Christians are like and what they believe."

Is there something wrong when:

Every sunday, like clockwork, I go to another meeting where everyone just sits in their pew and the pastor gets up in the pulpit and talks about who-knows-what for 45 minutes and then I wonder if I should have done more than just sit there and look slightly interested.

Is there something wrong when:

I even consider standing up and telling the next pastor that has the gall to say "Nobody can live a holy life until they get to heaven" that he has no right to stand up there and pass himself off as a man of God who is teaching what God wants to be taught, and that unless he is going to teach that we must be holy even as He is holy just as the holy men of God taught and wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired them to teach and write in the holy scriptures, then he should stop calling himself a preacher of God's word.

Is there something wrong when:

It makes me sick to think that all those people are just soaking up this teaching that sin is a necessary, though unwanted, component of a Christian life -- and hardly anybody knows enough to even realize that there's something wrong with that picture; or if they do, they either don't care enough to say something or they aren't brave enough to speak out against it.

Is there something wrong here?

Just Enter In/Praise Song (Medley)

[Announcement by worship leader (not harsh, but firm)]
All right, we’re gonna start worship soon

[Worship leader counts, as to start a song]
1...2...3…hey!

[Guitar strums, etc.]
[Worship leader says/sings]
Come on now, we’ll play a worship tune
‘verybody’s in the room

[Sings]
Spirit come, it’s you we need
We’re so hungry, feeling’s gone
Ooh-ooh we plead

Fee-eel it move
Wee-e’re in the groove

Won’t you come, just enter in
Lost in feeling, now we’re drawn
Loong-iing for Him

Emotions move
God’s in the groove

[Worship leader prays (music playing softly, worshipfully in the background)]
Oh God,
Fill us now as we come before you
Free our hearts as we adore you
We worship you, we do
Help us keep this feeling the whole week through
Oh, Lord.

[Sings next song…]
When we sing just so
Ooh you feel just right (BGV: "feel just right...")
When the lights are low
Ohh you close your eyes

C’mon we'll all stand
Ohh sing Adonai (BGV: "Aa-doh-nai...")
C’mon lift your hands
Ooh worship tonight

We sing our praise song
Ooh let your soul fly (BGV: "fly aw-ay...")
Lord of all reigns on
Eemotional high

What About Heaven...

I don't have a point, just a question:

Why is it that when we envision heaven, it is a place where we can, in God's presence of course, indulge in pleasurable and leisurely experiences constantly? It seems as though we picture heaven as the most perfect theme park, where it's always a perfect sunny 70 degrees, where we're hanging out with all our friends, and we can do whatever we want.

Why do we make heaven into our picture of what would satisfy the desires that we wouldn't consider very Christian to indulge while we are here on earth? Why don't we see heaven as a place where we only do what God wants us to do? Is it because that's not much fun?