Ok, ok, so you're saying to yourself, how is that he doesn't write for a week at a time and then three times in two days...
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Well, I've just had some down time and I think too much when I have free time, it's a curse of us people with hyperactivity personalities.
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Now, on with the ramblings...
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Dessert is about set and our sweet ending will be soon, until it is completely done, here is another one of our conversational thoughts whilst we wait...
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I want you to use your creativity and imagination to help you with this entry, otherwise you'll miss the imagery. The setting is a dry place full of dead bones. You may have seen this one someplace before. You are called to be the life in a dead place (now I must say, some of you may be in a dead place, others of you perceive death but are missing the true nature of God's timing, see the previous blog entry). There are some prevailing winds of thought that blow through the Body of Christ in our current day, I want to examine a few of them for our dining conversation pleasure.
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Did you hear the one about the turtle and the rattle snake? One day a turtle was about to cross a river and the rattle snake asked him for a ride. "No, you'll bite me and kill me." "No I won't" said the rattle snake. "Oh yes you will" protested the turtle. "No trust me" replied the snake. The turtle decided to do just that. Once to the other side the rattle snake bit the turtle. With his dying breath, the turtle said "I thought you promised me you wouldn't bite me?" The snake replied, "you knew I would, it's my nature, I just convinced you I wouldn't long enough to get what I wanted."
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Let's consider the snake, a character from pages past in a garden created by God is not the one I'm referring to here. Dead Church... Snake... Dead Church... Snake... Dead Church... Snake... Oh sorry, I was leaning too heavily on the key board and my repeat setting is quite touchy. What does a snake have to do with a dead church? Well, to understand this little mystery let us go to a passage of interest for our point. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. (Jude 1:11-13 NKJV).
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Now, notice some words in this passage, "way of Cain" - jealousy, "error of Balaam - remember the donkey?, Korah - stood against Moses and Aaron, "spots, without fear" - they hurt an assembly because they aren't afraid of their divisive ways, "clouds without water" - ever been dry and watch the clouds (people who could help) walk by without sharing life giving water, "carried about with winds" - popularity, current trends, no foundation, "twice dead" - no big explanations here, they are just dead.
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Let me paraphrase, people who come to church for their own reasons and take and take until they don't get what they want anymore and then cry the place is dead! These are who I will refer to as snakes. Moving from idea to idea, church gimmick to church gimmick and wherever they go they "bite and devour". But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (Galatians 5:15 NKJV) There have been many throughout history that have followed tradition until it killed them or their church, no room for fresh rain, no real foundation other than the roots of tradition they built (note, not scriptural foundation). By the same token there have been many who have belabored their church with every new fad that comes along and have run the Holy Spirit out the same way the traditionalists have but holler about how we're not "keeping up". Blaine Allen (Author of Before You Quit: When Ministry Is Not What You Thought) when talking about the Israelites crying for meat in the wilderness because they didn't want manna, says it this way, "The pressure is there... The intense pressure to produce to look like a... winner. The wise leader asks, 'Who determined the need.' The church down the street? The church growth movement? Pie chart graphs? Forbes magazine? Statistics on plateaued ministries? Who determined the need (of the church)? Remember God determined the need (manna) Remember there is only one Sovereign. He alone maintains the the right to define 'needs'."
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In our world of "meeting needs" mentality in church I want you to think about this statement made about a man you may be familiar with... "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he... And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed. Then many came to Him and said, "John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true." (speaking of Jesus here) (Matthew 11:11 NKJV), (John 10:40-41 NKJV) John the baptist, no big campaign, and by many peoples definition a loser because it cost him his head. By the way, there's something to be said for the man or woman who will stick it out until they have lost their life living for God's purpose. But Jesus said no greater man was born. Be careful, some of you are to eat, act and be some pretty strange people, but that does not mean without the "miracles" that they are dead.
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Some snakes jump from church to church, some stay forever it seems in the same place, either way, unless God changes them, they will always have the same nature. Watch out for their bite.
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We'll examine Rabbits and snails in our next conversation.
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Till next time
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