Saturday, March 9, 2013

When I am out of synch (part 26)


In Isaiah 35:1-10, there is the perfect example of what happens when things go wrong. What happens when I clutter my life with earthly things, with things I like that I don’t really care what everyone else likes nor do I want to share those things. What happens when I feel as though I can handle things, things that may in and of themselves not be bad but that take me away from God nonetheless. God wants to make that which would take me away from Him waste. For example, music in the Church. There is such a debate right now among Christians whether or not to use instruments that sometimes it gets heated and God is just not happy seeing Christians war among themselves. Why are instruments necessary? Are they truly necessary? Can not God’s people come before God without pomp and ceremony? Why can’t we have instruments? Why do people have to be so stubborn? And on and on the debate rages and God is not happy. The simplest way is to put all my talents and my self before Him and sometimes that means doing without instruments. Or anything for that matter. We forget that we are not coming to service for us, for our encouragement, although that certainly is a benefit. We come for others, to serve and encourage others. To commune with God, to blend in the heavenly host. To know a truth of God. To learn how to live as His child. To mature and grow as one of His. If I need an instrument to show me His way, that is nothing more than an idol. If I am relying on someone’s preaching to get me by, that too is an idol. How much do I jump in God’s word, how much do I long to hear His message? How much do I yearn for His advice? Am I giving myself to Him or doing what I think is giving myself to Him? Am I bare and lowly and humble before Him? Jesus spoke of going before God as meek people. How can one do that other than to break everything that could keep God from getting in, not an image of God that someone tells us about or plays on their instrument, or paints, but the true God? I, we, must come to know what it the true God.

No comments: