Skip to main content

are we in the way ?

Have we put 'God in a box' saying He will only do this or that?  Often we as God followers lose sight of what God can do when our faith can't be stretched.  One of the ways this happens is through our connection with God or maybe best understand as our disconnection from God.  When we say we love God, but we don't time with Him.

Jesus address religious leaders a lot while he was on earth.  He pushed them to get honest.  We need to get honest.

Hold off, now.  What I am sharing with you today in this devotion is not that I am pushing God away or that I am or you are far away from Him.  What I am saying is that maybe our small or short connection with God is keeping us from seeing and experience all that God has for us.  Read this passage and then I will go on: 

Mark 7:6-8 (NLT) --- Jesus replied, "You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.' For you ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition."


I am reading Mark Batterson's book PRIMAL, and it is doing a number on me.  I close today by giving you some quotes from the book that led me in this direction:

Creativity is dimension of spiritual maturity. page 110

In broadest sense, creativity is any use of the imagination.  And it becomes an act of obedience, an act of faith, and an act of love when we use it for God's glory ... When we forget where we come from, we forget where we are going. page 111

Lack of faith is the inability or unwillingness to entertain thoughts of a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. page 112

It's about challenging the perceived limits of our God-given potential by asking the why not questions ... The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet ... I wonder if our lack of creativity stems from a false definition of faithfulness.  page 113

Faithfulness is the courage to incarnate the gospel in creative ways ... there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.  If we keep trying to meet new challenges with tired old ideas, I'm afraid we will fade into irrelevant oblivion ... We need to dream God-sized dreams and take God-sized risks. page 114

Are we in the way?  Is our lack of being creative in the way of people coming to know Jesus?  It seems plain to me.  The more we let God work, the more we will see God do, and I am all for that.  How about you? I want to be as creative as possible so more people will know God.

Are we in the way?  God, am I in your way?  If so, change me.  Please us to more creative than we ever have been before ... all for your glory!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Francis Chan's "Forgotten God" (brand new book)

One of the most powerful preachers, writers and leaders of our time, in my opinion, is Francis Chan.  His first book, Crazy Love , revolutionized my thoughts about God's love as well as my interacting with God.  Now it is time for a brand new book from Chan being released tomorrow, September 1st.  The book is Forgotten God .   This is a phenomenal book about the power that Christians and the church can and must tap into.  All of it is within the Holy Spirit.  Francis talks about the power that was seen in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit began to move among people.  It is true that many have avoided or maybe forgotten what the Holy Spirit is all about.   And like the Savior who poured out His life and blood so we have reason to rejoice, we were made to lay down our lives and give until it hurts.  We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things.  It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and ac...
Post a Comment
Read more

inspiration from C.S. Lewis

There are many people, past and present, who get our attention by what they write or say or share.  For me C.S. Lewis is one of those.  He was a prolific writer who continues to grab the attention of thinkers from many different points of view. Lewis first grabbed my attention when I was in 5 th grader, and our teacher, Mrs. Foy, shared The Chronicles of Narnia with our class.  It was a powerful time that this dreamer opened doors to thinking like I had never lived before.  He wrote of faith, of far off places and of strong figures who found their character rooted deep in God. C.S. Lewis was born in 1898 and died in 1963, 7 years before I was born.  It wasn’t until his 30’s that under the influence of his friend Tolkien that he came to be a Christian.  He was raised in a traditional church going home, turned away from God as an Atheist in his teen years and through trying to stay away from God and faith returned to God with...
Post a Comment
Read more

Catalyst ticket arrived

My ticket to the Catalyst Conference, in Atlanta Oct 8-10, just arrived. I'm excited!
10 comments
Read more