... the only involvement we need
All this stuff about getting myself involved in a good church someplace...? That whole thing is one of the ways that God's enemy gets us distracted from the only involvement we will ever need... our involvement with God Himself. That is not an oversimplification...
Every new experience I have had with the Lord during this past 42 years has been to keep me seeking a deeper and deeper relationship with the One who is giving me all these experiences. Religious Systems develop doctrines to prove that their new revelation is the total revelation.... there will be no new revelation... they ostracize any one who claims to have seen something more... so the people who see the new thing leave the old thing and develop their new doctrines about their revelation.... of course they now have the total revelation of God... so they throw out the guy that sees something else and history repeats itself... over and over and over.... and we never see what God is actually after...
This is not rocket science... it is very simple... He is after us... He is not looking for the perfect doctrine... there is none... He is not after the perfect system... structure... model... pattern... there are none... He just wants us... you and me...
The systems are the distractions that keep us from having Him. The systems are all about me... what I get out of it... how it impacts my life...I could rant for hours with illustrations of what that looks like... there is nothing that can compare with simply walking with Him every day... letting Him do whatever He wants to do.. as He connects me with the people He wants to connect me to... as I learn to love all of them with His love ... learning to love every person that He brings into my life..
The next Church I got involved with was a Methodist Church. I met the Pastor when he came to my Christian Bookstore. We became friends. He invited me to Church. After a couple Sundays he asked me to preach. I did. I explained to them how I had met Jesus and He actually lived in side of me...that I fell in love with Him... that He talks to me... tells me what He would like me to do... He is my friend... He wants to be yiour friend too.... things like that.
The Pastor was then confronted by the leading families of that particular Church and was told in no uncertain terms that I was never again to be allowed to speak to the Church... why, the poor fellow spoke like he actually knew God and that God was His best friend or something.
So I tried a Pentecostal Church.... ah yes... more stories...
:)
Every new experience I have had with the Lord during this past 42 years has been to keep me seeking a deeper and deeper relationship with the One who is giving me all these experiences. Religious Systems develop doctrines to prove that their new revelation is the total revelation.... there will be no new revelation... they ostracize any one who claims to have seen something more... so the people who see the new thing leave the old thing and develop their new doctrines about their revelation.... of course they now have the total revelation of God... so they throw out the guy that sees something else and history repeats itself... over and over and over.... and we never see what God is actually after...
This is not rocket science... it is very simple... He is after us... He is not looking for the perfect doctrine... there is none... He is not after the perfect system... structure... model... pattern... there are none... He just wants us... you and me...
The systems are the distractions that keep us from having Him. The systems are all about me... what I get out of it... how it impacts my life...I could rant for hours with illustrations of what that looks like... there is nothing that can compare with simply walking with Him every day... letting Him do whatever He wants to do.. as He connects me with the people He wants to connect me to... as I learn to love all of them with His love ... learning to love every person that He brings into my life..
The next Church I got involved with was a Methodist Church. I met the Pastor when he came to my Christian Bookstore. We became friends. He invited me to Church. After a couple Sundays he asked me to preach. I did. I explained to them how I had met Jesus and He actually lived in side of me...that I fell in love with Him... that He talks to me... tells me what He would like me to do... He is my friend... He wants to be yiour friend too.... things like that.
The Pastor was then confronted by the leading families of that particular Church and was told in no uncertain terms that I was never again to be allowed to speak to the Church... why, the poor fellow spoke like he actually knew God and that God was His best friend or something.
So I tried a Pentecostal Church.... ah yes... more stories...
:)
