When I was a kid my friends mom made the best peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. I haven't tried them all (and I still have hopes of recreating the experience).
Anyway, we would be hanging out in the basement and I would get a hanker (That's right... sometimes I hanker) for a couple of cookies.
The jar was a ceramic horned owl. I still remember stealthily climbing the stairs, sliding my fingers stealthily between the horns and wrapping my two outside fingers around them, lifting the lid soundlessly only to hear Florence yell "You boys get out of that cookie jar!"
I was caught. EVERY TIME. Caught.But Florence never said that she didn't want me coming over any more. Would still call us up for dinner.
If this widowed mom of three could put up with my thievery (only place thievery ever happened)
And then fro the pulpit I hear that God can't look upon sin.
One of two things has to be true, now. This thieving isn't sin, OR I have lost my salvation.
The only rational conclusion that you can come to, if God can't look upon sin, if that is what makes Him holy then when He comes into my heart to live He must keep a bag packed by the door so that He can get out before the stench of sin permeates my body when I reach for those cookies, reacting like some form of gama radiation and causing Him to hulk out and kill me right there.
Or maybe Habbakuk was being all poetical and saying that he was amazed that someone from such a vast reality could take notice on him.
The love of the Father for His creation is IMMENSE. It is elegant and vast and neither to be hoarded nor dismissed. Love Him with all that is in you and you can't imagine the results- give it a try, I dare you
Friday, October 23, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
be a voice not an echo
As I have grown older, I have suffered some loss of hearing due to headphone use, extraneous noise at work, being in a band...
And my job working with older folks who have loss of hearing has taught me that using hearing aids can cause sounds to be confused and imaginary.
You hear stories and on TV see stories where someone is lost in a canyon and can't be found because the echoes are coming from many directions, muffled and decaying over time.
Muffled and decaying over time... They shorten and little or no meaning but just being noise after a while.
The church is like that. Jesus said, "You believe the scripture says (this), but I'm telling you it means (this)." What He was saying is, "You heard the words and you believe that you have heard them correctly, but you are only hearing echoes of what was meant when they were said."
"The words you are following once had life but they have bounced around the walls of history and their meaning is now distorted beyond recognition" Consider that each denomination is a canyon and the echo has moved up and down that canyon and suffered decay, and each generation repeats it but leaves out the who or the why and the words begin to be powerless...
I did not say that they are powerless- they have the power of conviction because people still heed them despite not being sure how or why to fulfill the directive.
Get the revelation. Who was being instructed and what was their circumstance.
One of my favorite stories didn't happen in my family, but it happened in a family during preparation for a holiday feast.
Marilyn (we'll call her) was getting ready to bake the ham for the family's Easter feast and she had a daughter about to be wed so she was teaching her to cook the feast and the daughter (called Emma, today) was paying close attention and asking questions-
"Momma, why did you cut the end of the ham off before you put it in the pan?"
"I don't know, exactly, it's what my Momma always did, it's how I learned to do it. I'll call your Grandma and ask her."
So Marylin called her mother and asked, "Momma, I'm teaching Emma how to cook the Easter feast and we have begun to wonder why did we always cut the end off of the ham before we cooked it?" Grandma said, "Because my pan was too small"
This is an illustration of how mindless traditions get started. It could have been an illustration of hearing a noise made by the wind in the canyon and following it because one ascribed hope and meaning to it and began following it blindly into who knows what.
My point is be the voice. Get the revelation of the thing. Don't follow because you hear from someone in authority because if you aren't in relationship with the author there is no checking back with them about the purpose.
Be in relationship with the man who had the revelation and you can ask for clarification or BE the man who had the revelation and you own it because it was a gift to you and your
Father gives good gifts
The church is like that. Jesus said, "You believe the scripture says (this), but I'm telling you it means (this)." What He was saying is, "You heard the words and you believe that you have heard them correctly, but you are only hearing echoes of what was meant when they were said."
"The words you are following once had life but they have bounced around the walls of history and their meaning is now distorted beyond recognition" Consider that each denomination is a canyon and the echo has moved up and down that canyon and suffered decay, and each generation repeats it but leaves out the who or the why and the words begin to be powerless...
I did not say that they are powerless- they have the power of conviction because people still heed them despite not being sure how or why to fulfill the directive.
Get the revelation. Who was being instructed and what was their circumstance.
One of my favorite stories didn't happen in my family, but it happened in a family during preparation for a holiday feast.
Marilyn (we'll call her) was getting ready to bake the ham for the family's Easter feast and she had a daughter about to be wed so she was teaching her to cook the feast and the daughter (called Emma, today) was paying close attention and asking questions-
"Momma, why did you cut the end of the ham off before you put it in the pan?"
"I don't know, exactly, it's what my Momma always did, it's how I learned to do it. I'll call your Grandma and ask her."
So Marylin called her mother and asked, "Momma, I'm teaching Emma how to cook the Easter feast and we have begun to wonder why did we always cut the end off of the ham before we cooked it?" Grandma said, "Because my pan was too small"
This is an illustration of how mindless traditions get started. It could have been an illustration of hearing a noise made by the wind in the canyon and following it because one ascribed hope and meaning to it and began following it blindly into who knows what.
My point is be the voice. Get the revelation of the thing. Don't follow because you hear from someone in authority because if you aren't in relationship with the author there is no checking back with them about the purpose.
Be in relationship with the man who had the revelation and you can ask for clarification or BE the man who had the revelation and you own it because it was a gift to you and your
Father gives good gifts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
