by RobertCummins | Sep 25, 2014 | 39. Spaciousness
When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:5-6
An impression I regularly get when reading the New Testament is that its writers are always working to motivate us to live our short lives on earth in preparation for our long lives in eternity. This seems especially true in this passage.
Jesus points to giving and praying as anticipated activities of this brief preparatory phase of our existence. Yet, as always, He is not just concerned about the outward expression, He is concerned about the inward motivation which connects us to His heart and eternity. I believe, among many things, the Holy Spirit’s role as Counselor & Teacher is to help us see the why behind the what of our activity. He knows well what the calamity of the Fall did and how disabled our hearts are in our old nature in their ability and willingness to do the right thing for the right reason.
Since the Fall, along with raw pride, there has been a deep sense of rejection and insecurity embedded into our persona such that we are readily willing to sell our souls for affirmation and approval. Fairly recently, I believe the Holy Spirit went to some trouble in making me aware that a great deal of my activities throughout my life had been spent garnering the approval of men and avoiding the pain of rejection. This motivation set me up for trouble in the church where gold stickers, presentation bibles and titles await the faithful, yet insecure, doer.
I believe what Jesus is teaching us in this passage is that if our outward deeds are done, consciously or unconsciously, to gain the approval of men, which is a flip side of avoiding rejection, then that approval will be the extent of our reward. Jesus is saying that you can do this if you like, but if you do, your reward for these good works will terminate when the earthly applause fades. I believe the Holy Spirit, in His sovereign way, is always working beneath the surface of our lives, in the arena of our why’s, trying to teach us His way, inviting us to choose a path for our hearts that will lead to an eternal payment stream of reward.
In the past, I have spoken of an exodus from church, in the conventional sense of that term. George Barna and Wayne Jacobsen and many others have been writing about this for some time. I find this a painful subject because I have dear friends who have been part of this exodus. And, as one who has burnt out in the context of conventional church, and have been very tempted to join the exodus, I have, for the time being, just stayed put and tried to monitor what is going on inside me and around me.
As one who has gained most of the accolades church has to offer and slowly but thoroughly went spiritually bankrupt in the exchange of my works for approval, I can imagine a corporate scenario playing out where a collection of folks like myself, working out of the inferior and short term motivations for approval, could be providing the church with the money and man power that keeps it running. If this were true, it would create a kind of co-op of codependency where both parties, the buyer (church-worker) and the seller (the church) are being harmed in the transaction. If this were true, a large number of people would be doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons, forfeiting the reward our Father in heaven aspires to give us and in the process, presenting something to the world that is far beneath the glory God intended for His Bride – The Church.
So; I am confronted with the question, “Should I remain a part of conventional church and contribute, by default, to a culture of codependency or should I walk away in protest of the local church’s many and well documented faults? As I said, in my burning out, I was trying to find out what God might be trying to say to me; to find out what was going on in me and then maybe I could better assess what was going on around me. This was my take away;
There was a phase I went through in my burning out that I was exceedingly frustrated and angry with the local church and its leaders (and I was even one of them). It would have been easy to walk away then. I had a list of reasons that matched those who had already walked away as well as those who were considering it. However, had I done that, I may have either squandered or delayed God’s work in my heart. I would have left having not dealt with my anger. I would have left postured as a victim who was not willing to take responsibility for his own heart. I could have blamed my burn out on the many weaknesses of the local church and its leadership. And, perhaps most damaging, I would have left with the judgements I had formed in my heart toward others. The cost of that choice (or transaction) would have been immense.
May your Spirit of Truth succeed in liberating us from every unworthy temporal motivation. Expose us Father where we are spending our currency on that which is not bread. Persist until our motives are refined and we are resting from our works in the security of Your great love. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Sep 25, 2014 | 39. Spaciousness
John 8:31-38
Mankind lives under the strain of mystery. Unanswered questions plague him at every level. Where did we come from? Who am I? What is my purpose? As he comes up with the wrong answers to these questions, he makes and executes plans on his wrong answers perpetuating misery through time.
One of the biggest wrong answers I believe mankind has ever entertaimed is in regard to his origin. The origin of our specie was not primordial matter. It was the mind of God. This wrong answer is toxic because it precludes the One who preceeded our beginning from our beginning. Removing the Answer to our problems from the dialogue about our problems was a masterfully sophisticated strategy that the enemy has used to enslave millions. Ultimately the only person who will be able to diagnose and address our problem is Jesus Christ. This is why;
“I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”
Because Jesus had been with the Father, he knows precisely what has gone wrong. The DNA of darkness entered into mankind at the Fall making him susceptible to lies that satan has masterfully woven into societies throughout history enslaving them to philosophies, religions and folly in general. It is the ideas that flow from these poisoned wells that Jesus is talking about. These are the things we have heard from our father (satan) that we then go out and do. In a sense our problems can be traced to our pedigree. Who is our father? Are we chidren of satan’s darkness (deception) or are we children of God’s Light (Truth)?
Since we have the Holy Spirit, the Couselor and Spirit of Truth, can we as Christians be deceived? Unfortunately, I believe we can. Keep in mind who Jesus is speaking to in our passage; “Jews who had believed in Him“. So, it is to believers Jesus delivers the hard word; that it is possible that….
My word has no place in you.
The only way I can make sense of this passage is to conclude that these young believers had lived their lives, as we have, being conditioned by the things the father of our fallen natures has fed us throughout our lives, enslaving us. Jesus gives them the remedy for their dilemma and ours.
and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
This was offensive. “What do you mean! We have great pedigrees. We are the offspring of Abraham. We have never been enslaved!” Jesus more or less said if you have practiced sin, you have demonstrated your enslavement. Then he makes a peculiar statement, one that I have struggled to understood but may have some new light on.
And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
I think the Lord may have been saying that ultimately if we “abide” in (honor and heed) His Word, the truth will unscramble and transform our minds, which will eventually convert us from our slave mentality to that of sons who will live forever in the Father’s presence. I think its possible that slaves will not remain in the house forever because over time, by way of our abiding in His word and walking in His Spirit, the Truth will liberate and convert us into sons – those who have been led out of the enslavement of darkness, thus remaining forever.
Just as these Jews were deceived into believing that their pedigree exempted them from deception, Christians too are deceived into believing they are exempted. These Jews were offended and so are we when someone implies we are not free. As one who has dealt with some post-conversion deception, I would encourage you to pay attention to the things that offend you. Remember these Jews reaction to the Truth; “What do you mean?!” We do the same thing and then we too present our pedigrees, “I am Christian. I am not deceived!” In my ongoing journey out of religious darkness, I am discovering that what offends me is a key to discovering the specific lies I am enslaved to. I would encourage you to keep in mind that if you are like me, one who has always found himself innocent on all counts, you are demonstrating the strongest evidence of your slavery.
You may be saying,”Well thank God I’m not offended with anyone. I guess I’m clean”. All I can say is, “Good luck with that.” I am not a professional counselor. I am a new creature who is being set free, who is offering an opinion. I believe that some lies are buried so deep into our identities that we have perfected patterns of thought, enabling us to live in denial (darkness and deception). For those of us in this camp the solution is the same;
The Truth (is the only thing that) shall set us free.
Father, glorify Your Name as You continue to lead us out of our slavery to corruption and into the freedoms You have purchased for us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Sep 25, 2014 | 39. Spaciousness
Deuteronomy 11:8-32
As we Oklahomans drive across our state we see ponds that are drying up. We see fields and even tree tops browned by drought. Most of us know that drought translates into massive losses. The farmer knows, perhaps better than anyone, the value of water. These conditions make the following verses all the more attractive.
For the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.
Oklahomans are praying, but when and in what form moisture comes is beyond our power to choose. But the Lord is saying to Israel, and I think us as well, that He has a space that exists right now that is well-watered and available and that we must choose it. Our passage goes on to say how Israel, and we, can choose to possess this land.
And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that I will give the rain in its season, the early and the late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied.
Regarding these commands, the Lord goes on to emphasize their importance;
You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.
Often, in my conversations with other believers I sense an excitement about the well watered lands of spiritual possibility but when this condition about obeying His commands comes up, I often see countenances fall because they have not impressed God’s words onto their hearts. They feel this has somehow disqualified them as genuine followers. If you fall into this category, I just want to say; Be strong and take courage because not even that condition can separate us from the love of God. Mastery of bible knowledge is fine but its not what creates abundant life. The Pharisees were the tragic proof of this.
After placing our trust in Christ and becoming God’s children, we were not commanded to become bible scholars. We were called to walk in obedience to the light we have. There is no value in feeling inferior or guilty. The motivation of guilt and shame do not lead to God’s heart. They will not lead us to any kind of promised land at all. They will only lead us into religion instead of life. So then, if we are deficient in our understanding of scripture, why not simply set a new course.
First; let’s abandon the old coordinate that has locked us in as one who will just never know the scriptures well. “Will just never” is a fatalistic and irresponsible attitude that is incompatible with God’s Spirit within us. Second; let’s log a new coordinate onto the map of our heart that says the scriptures are important and I am able to grow in my knowledge and understanding of them. The rationale being; If that were not so God would not have commanded us to attend to them. Third; begin taking one step at a time (choosing life) through initiatives in better understanding God’s Word. Hint; Being obedient (acting on) a few key truths will take us much farther than intellectual mastery of many texts.
Regarding scripture; They are a priceless treasure. Our new hearts are formatted to understand the spirit of scripture. Few things contribute to transformation like regular reading of scripture. Find a translation that suits you and begin reading. All scripture is inspired, but for persons living under the new covenant, the gospels and the apostle’s letters are shining the most relavant light on our paths. The Old Testament reveals the nature and the heart of God as it was expressed to His original chosen ones through the The Law. But today, the new covenant is the access point to the land that, by way of God’s grace in Christ, is flowing with milk and honey.
Also, like a good farmer, place the appropriate value on Living Water. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit – the One who unlocks our hearts to understand God’s words and personalizes them. We are so blessed to have revelation via the scriptures! At the same time, I think it is worth remembering that God turned the world upside down without the bible (at least as we know it). My point is not to devalue the scriptures. I cherish them. But, I also highly esteem and honor the Holy Spirit’s ability to speak to us personally.
It is tragic that parts of Christ’s Body look to the Scriptures only as their sole source of revelation and that another part leans mostly on the Holy Spirit as their primary source of direction. It is sad that this area has become a schism within the Body of Christ. Even though my stance seems to win me only the limp right hand of fellowship, I am betting everything that the Word – Spirit-schism will end up a “both-and“ situation rather than an “either-or” one.
But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. (John 4:23)
The Lord is continually inviting us to come possess this land He has secured for us; this land that drinks water from the rain of heaven. Our hearts are dependent on the words that have been spoken from God’s heart. The bride of Christ will one day be presented to God having been washed by the words that He has spoken. Our hearts are destined to be confronted, adopted and healed by His Word. We must come personally to Him and learn to drink from His Spirit and His Word.
Regarding preaching and teaching; Just listening to the teachings and sermons of others is not much more than getting a droplet of His words. Just listening weekly or biweekly to someone else’s revelation is living the Christian life vicariously through a mediator, someone that we have allowed between us and God. Becoming conditioned to this tradition creates passivity. Toxic charity exists when we allow others to do for us what we need to do for ourselves. If we are just attending somewhere as a listener, we have become part of a spiritual welfare system where an inordinate dependency on knowledge and upon another to feed and water us has replaced the choosing of life that is ours alone to do. God wants us to personally taste and see that He is good.
The best preaching creates thirst. It demonstrates that His words are accessible and understandable to all, not just to the articulate or well-read. The best teachers model and instruct how we can and must personally develop a life style of turning to God’s Word and His Spirit. Numbers or membership alone are not the best measurements of good preaching and teaching. It is a flock of people who have learned to personally love God’s Word and His Spirit and are telling their own stories of God’s activity and transformation. I believe this is why the NT Church turned the world upside down and I suspect that is one reason why the traditional western church has not.
Father, may you awaken our thirst and relieve us of our drought. May we see the latter rains overtaking our parched and thirsty hearts. May we see the springs from within us erupting with new Life. May Your Holy Spirit nurture our hearts such that new wine can be contained there. May we drink and be satisfied. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Sep 24, 2014 | 39. Spaciousness
“At last the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.“ ( Genesis 26:22)
This statement was made by Isaac, a man we know who had become rich and had eventually became very wealthy. Isaac was materially set as we say, yet his words of relief, “At last” indicate that wealth had not necessarily insulated him from all longing. It is interesting that Isaac’s prosperity only insulated him from relationship. His neighbors deemed him too powerful and took measures to distance themselves from him.
Isaac’s relief came because he found an uncontested well of flowing water that he could claim. It didn’t matter how wealthy Isaac was, without water he would die. Down deep the water had been flowing all along. It was just that the Philistines had filled the wells up with earth. Isaac had to expend his own energies in reestablishing the access point to this water on which his life depended.
I had been aware, mostly because of songs we sang, that there was a well of living water that was supposed to be bubbling up from within me. I believe, if I am remembering the song correctly, I was to have; “Joy, joy joy – joy, joy, joy.” I was just mouthing the words because in my heart it was really more like, “I wish I had” joy, joy, joy.” For years it had felt as if someone had filled my well up with dirt. In case you have never been there, it is very disheartening to stand from week to week mouthing words that someone else had written from their place of jubilation or revelation. It feels like something in us is dead but we usually just turn the page and mouth the words to the next song. We then leave the assembly and do the same thing with our lives. We just go through the motions.
My “at last” moment and season of bearing more fruit began after I finally acknowledged that I was dying of thirst. Something in me, perhaps crying out from that deep well within, finally stood up and said, “I cannot just go through the motions of Christianity! I know this is not the life Jesus died to give me!”
I knew there was living water down there in my heart. I had seen the stream before but I had no clue who filled it up or what it had been filled with. Oh, I thought I knew who the Philistines were who were responsible but the Lord was not pleased with my finger pointing. It became clear that he was asking me to choose life and that meant that I must spend the necessary time and energy digging deep enough to uncover the well that God and I both knew was there.
The much abbreviated story is that it was religion that had been dumped into my well. And, as much as I hated to admit it, my hand was in on every self serving, guilt and shame-laden shovel full that was thrown in. God did not leave me without help in my excavation project. A few mentor-counselor types and friends were working along side me. I will never forget as we were getting near the bottom and I could once again begin to taste the living water and how perfectly delicious it was. My thoughts were “Oh Lord, You have been there all along!” It was almost worth the thirst just to have it quenched! My heart was saying, “Ah, at last!”.
As we are rehydrated with His Spirit our gifts will emerge which will make a place for us. Life of the abundant type that Jesus offers is very attractive! Thirsty people will be drawn to it. There will come a day in our lives, if we do our part in maintaining the wells, that Living Water will overflow from our lives into the lives of those around us. This, I am convinced, is normal Christianity.
The great danger is that in our hearts we would learn to think of that life we established of going through the motions, as normal. If you feel something deeply dissatisfied within you that you can’t quite identify, don’t ignore it! It is likely your thirst beginning to find expression. Give voice to it. In His presence, take responsibility for your heart. Grab your shovel and start digging! Pray it out. Cry it out. Journal it out. Speak it out. Find help. Don’t do as I did and point your finger at the church, or the Philistines around you, or your circumstances. They are not responsible for our spiritual condition. We are. Living water can make an oasis in the midst of any desert. It is up to us. We must choose life!
Father, awaken that militancy of spirit within us that has the courage to say “No!” to all that is beneath Your kingdom values of righteousness, peace and joy. Help us to see that You have purchased abundant life for us and that it is ours for the taking. Help us to say “yes” to our thirst. Help us to discover the well that is ours. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Sep 22, 2014 | 39. Spaciousness
Psalm 31:1-8
“And Thou hast not given me over into the hand of the enemy; Thou hast set my feet in a large place“. (verse 8)
Our local fellowship hosted a pair of counselors for a mini-conference they Called Healing Life’s Hurts. They were quite experienced and did a great job talking to many of us, for the first time, about our hearts – that space that was decimated by the fall, that space which for true believers was reclaimed when they were born again. It is my sincere prayer that the inner workings of the heart will not always be an alien topic within the local church. Since our hearts have become His temple and as such, the dwelling place of God on the earth, it is essential that He has His way in this holy space. Because…
…..from the heart flow the springs of life. (Pr 4:23)
Because of the way Christ moved in to the space of my own heart when I was 23 I assumed, by the rearrangements He initiated there, that this was His space exclusively and that His primary mission was to reside there, as living Truth, and do and say whatever He wanted. It was, and still is, my understanding that my life would be a journey, with Him as my shepherd, that would result, if I would cooperate, in a heart that would some day resemble His. Discovering, painfully, early on that I could limit my cooperation, it was only natural for me to latch on to the prayer expressed in Psalm 139:23-24;
Search me oh God and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Traditionally, from our pulpits, we present doctrines, biblical truths – and describe how they should effect our lives but the two presenters in our mini-conference were taking a different approach. They were just talking, not really preaching, about how life in a fallen world had shaped, or more accurately misshaped that space within us and fouled the spring from which life should flow. Their knowledge of scripture, and the testimonies of lives changed were creating a connection with their audience. Perhaps their biggest credibility builder was their own stories of how God had operated in the messy space of their own hearts. They were speaking to us on our level as fellow sojourners.
I love the scriptures. I respect those who study and preach from the bible. I appreciate the scriptural knowledge they have imparted to me over the past four decades. But, in recent years I have realized that my heart has languished in this preacher/parishioner exchange. On the other hand it had been growing thirsty. Along the way, as I have sought to quench my thirst, I have discovered that my heart has its own language. I hear that language when I listen to those with battle scars – saints who can talk about the skirmishes and the battles they have personally fought. My heart seems to say, “They have credibility. They have earned the authority to speak to my heart. If the voice seems theoretical or inexperienced I have noticed that I shy away.
If there is a language of the heart it is surely the first language of the Good Shepherd. Listen;
“To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice, and a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:3-5)
I maintain a dialogue with believers from many different camps. Some have just walked away from the main camp convinced no one was listening back there. They may have been addressed as brother or sister but all too frequently, the pastor didn’t even know or remember their names. Could it be that a reason our churches are shrinking is that the sheep do not hear a language their hearts intuitively understand and are thirsting for?
I think an interesting book would be called; Exit Interviews That Never Happened Subtitled; The High Cost of Not Listening. It would have the heart level testimonies of common folks. They would just say with honesty, without the fear of guilt trip-reprisals, what’s on their heart about the organization they just left or the one they remain a part of because they don’t know what else to do. If there is anything I have learned as a business manager and a church leader, it is that part of me that best express love is my ears. I have observed that the ears of some work and that the ears of others do not.
I would differentiate between “hearing”, which is the reception of sound waves on the inner machinery of our ears and “listening” which I will define as the translation of those sound waves into a language grasped by the heart, where there are emotions, like sorrow and joy, and where stories, both good and bad, are valued as highly as the information we often mistake as the point of our so-called listening.
Could it be that the migration that has been documented by George Barna, as well as by others, away from the main camp of traditional church into smaller units, can be explained by sheep being attracted to places, usually much smaller ones, where they hope to find others speaking their native tongue – this language of the heart. Perhaps they would like to find a place (like the bar in Cheers) where people just know their name?
Thou hast set my feet in a large place“. (verse 8)
I believe the “larger place” where the Lord has set my feet, as the Psalmist has spoken of, is the kingdom of God. My hearts is dramatically enlarged when I discover that this eternal kingdom overlaps my own heart and is in fact in my heart. I have discovered communities of people who are grappling with kingdom language. Even though their dialects are slightly different, I have cherished the opportunities I have had to hear their stories. For the record, I have observed that listening, is always apart of the Shepherd’s language. It is doubtful if we can love without listening. Along with “Open the eyes of our hearts Lord”, perhaps we should sing, “Open The ears of our souls Lord, open the ears of souls.”
Father, may you call Your Body in all its fragmented pieces back together. Help us to learn this dialect of the heart that we may discover the love of God that we have in common. Teach us how “listening” promotes healing. Raise up true shepherds, fluid and eloquent in this language, who can serve as connecting tissues throughout the Church. Glory and honor and power to Your Name Lord forever more. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Sep 28, 2013 | 39. Spaciousness
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6
An impression I regularly get when reading the New Testament is that its writers are always working to motivate us to live our short lives on earth in preparation for our long lives in heaven. This seems especially true in this passage.
Jesus points to giving and praying as anticipated activities of this brief preparatory phase of our existence. Yet, as always, He is not just concerned about the outward expression, He is concerned about the inward motivation which connects us to His heart and eternity. I believe, among many things, the Holy Spirit’s role as Counselor & Teacher is to help us see the why behind the what of our activity. He knows well what the calamity of the Fall did and how disabled our hearts are in our old nature in their ability and willingness to do the right thing for the right reason.
Since the Fall, along with raw pride, there has been a deep sense of rejection and insecurity embedded into our persona such that we are readily willing to sell our souls for affirmation and approval. Fairly recently, I believe the Holy Spirit went to some trouble in making me aware that a great deal of my activities throughout my life had been spent garnering the approval of men and avoiding the pain of rejection. This motivation set me up for trouble in the church where gold stickers, presentation bibles and titles await the faithful, yet insecure, doer.
I believe what Jesus is teaching us in this passage is that if our outward deeds are done, consciously or unconsciously, to gain the approval of men, which is a flip side of avoiding rejection, then that approval will be the extent of our reward. Jesus is saying that you can do this if you like, but if you do, your reward for these good works will terminate when the applause dies out. I believe the Holy Spirit, in His sovereign way, is always working beneath the surface of our lives, in the arena of our why’s, trying to teach us His way, inviting us to choose a path for our hearts that will lead to an eternal payment stream of reward.
In the past, I have spoken of an exodus from church, in the conventional sense of that term. George Barna and Wayne Jacobsen and many others have been writing about this for some time. I find this a painful subject because I have dear friends who have been part of this exodus. And, as one who has burnt out in the context of conventional church, and have been very tempted to join the exodus, I have, for the time being, just stayed put and tried to monitor what is going on inside me and around me.
As one who has gained most of the accolades church has to offer and slowly but thoroughly went spiritually bankrupt in the exchange of my works for approval, I can imagine a corporate scenario playing out where a collection of folks like myself, working out of the inferior and short term motivations for approval, could be providing the church with the money and man power that keeps it running. If this were true, it would create a kind of co-op of codependency where both parties, the buyer (church-worker) and the seller (the church) are being harmed in the transaction. If this were true, a large number of people would be doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons, forfeiting the reward our Father in heaven aspires to give us and in the process, presenting something to the world that is far beneath the glory God intended for His Bride – The Church.
So; I am confronted with the question, “Should I remain a part of conventional church and contribute, by default, to a culture of codependency or should I walk away in protest of the local church’s many and well documented faults? As I said, in my burning out, I was trying to find out what God might be trying to say to me; to find out what was going on in me and then maybe I could better assess what was going on around me. This was my take away;
There was a phase I went through in my burning out that I was exceedingly frustrated and angry with the local church and its leaders (and I was even one of them). It would have been easy to walk away then. I had a list of reasons that matched those who had already walked away as well as those who were considering it. However, had I done that, I may have either squandered or delayed God’s work in my heart. I would have left having not dealt with my anger. I would have left postured as a victim who was not willing to take responsibility for his own heart. I could have blamed my burn out on the many weaknesses of the local church and its leadership. And, perhaps most damaging, I would have left with the judgements I had formed in my heart toward others. The cost of that choice (or transaction) would have been immense.
May your Spirit of Truth succeed in liberating us from every unworthy temporal motivation. Expose us Father where we are spending our currency on that which is not bread. Persist until our motives are refined and we are resting from our works in the security of Your great love. Amen.
