I spent a wild weekend in a place where the soil is good, should be good, yet yields little from new seed. Its' hardness comes from wild fire even though there is something like a layer of magma hiding just below the surface, building quietly for a release that they will be ready for when they finally allow it to rise, but the won't be ready for the force of it as it has been squeezed down for so long, and the release point will quite likely be squeezed down like a bent garden hose.
There is a level of desire that hasn't quite overcome their need for "decent and in order"...
That's really the rub. "Decent and in order"...
I have a story and I have a scripture.
Scritpure first-
I heard this preached by Mike Pilavachi one time on my way to a worship weekend on the Colville Nations land in Eastern Washington. The following scriptural text
Solomon Anointed King
21On
the next day they made sacrifices to the LORD and offered burnt
offerings to the LORD, 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams and 1,000 lambs, with
their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. 22So
they ate and drank that day before the LORD with great gladness. And
they made Solomon the son of David king a second time, and they anointed
him as ruler for the LORD and Zadok as priest.…
was used to illustrate this concept we have of "decent and in order" is much more strict than God's.
Imagine the cacophony of 1000 bulls, Rams and male Lambs as they were being led to slaughter- each aware of what was happening to the animal in front of it, the blood, the smell of entrails and excrement, that's 3,000 animals slain in the space of a day.
Add to that the "drinking with gladness" which you likely can't convince yourself didn't have at leaast an element of "buzz" to it. For these actions to be taken within what we consider the parameters of decent and in order to be the nation would have had to be sedated.
Now my story-
It was my first time at one of those drunk churches where people were laughing and I had no understanding of what was going on except that it was a "move of God".
The man in the front was taking an offering (a forty five minute offering, but I won't address that here) and every time he said the words "contrary winds" the place exploded with laughter.
He was preaching on Jesus in the boat and stilling the tempest.
Things would quiet down and then again he would mention contrary winds, and by quiet down I mean had just gotten quiet enough that I began to hear the speaker, I said "GOD!! What EVER happened to DECENT and in ORDER!??!"
And He calmly replied, "Do you remember when you were a child and you wondered what it would be like to sit in my throne room where thousands of prayers arose before me in a hundred languages all the time? Welcome to the throne room."
"You see, your view of decent and in order looks nothing like mine."
And so I have remembered that every time I wanted to judge someone else's expression, He reminds me. Decent and in order doesn't rule out dancing naked before Him... or mooing in worship.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
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