Urban Reformation

“God in a Bottle ?”

Last night I was privileged to be able to lead a shepherding group in my home. There has been another brother within our congregation who has not been able to meet due to various other trials and I volunteered to host his group which I’ve been a part of the past few months as we prepare to begin our own shepherding or small group.

I was thankful for last night, it was simple. It was not complex, there were no great expectations only fellowship, around the Lord and the things of God with a focus on what was discussed in Sunday’s sermon. To say the very least it was a blessed time with testimony of our experiences in regards to the “Peace of Christ,” and a time of sharing and prayer.

I remember various other times when we have been involved in small groups, we’ve seen several books on the topic, but I can not help to think that at some point there must be a line to be drawn on the number of books to be written on a particular subject. We devise a plan, we write a book, and we discuss tidbits of the bible, inventing a formula in which we are able to conjure up results.

Somehow we believe God will pop out like the preverbal Genie in the bottle, to do our bidding.

In other words we need to take a look at:

2 Corinthians 11:3-7

3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
4For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
5 For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles.
6But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?

Two points to that here; there are some givens with people.

The first point would be:

We can only point people toward Christ; individuals will do as their heart’s desire.

If people do not see Christ as their treasure they will not be motivated to change their lives. Our meager attempts to change the behaviors will result in our own frustration. ( It has in my life.)

I see often men attempting to “be” the Holy Spirit for other people. I have been guilty of this myself, in attempting to rush them into their sanctification process, if they would follow these steps we can give them, their life would be easier. We forget that God brings the increase.

So as much as men try to control the destiny of others, the least likely they will be to succeed, the more they depend upon the simplicity of fully trusting Christ, the more they will be at rest, so that when increase does come, it will be God’s Glory and not man’s or man’s Genie.

The next point would point would be:

We attempt to take short cuts to God.

Satan’s devices are crafty and self trusting, therefore we begin to trust in us, and the authors who claim to know God and who have gone before us. We attempt to take short cuts to God. There is nothing like being with God and time, going through life with Him.

I have had a friend of mine telling me recently that nothing can take the place of a “relationship” with Jesus Christ. There is no author who’s written about Jesus or the things of God or “small groups” which can substitute for “Knowing God” personally, and there is no way to Shepherd or to encourage others in Christ without first that relationship being solid and sound. One of the chief attributes of this is not knowing about God but having walked with God, prayed with God, failed with God, and having had a continual growing trust in God.

I find this to be true and yet I find myself seemingly failing often to love God the way I am called to…., sometimes feeling like a distant teenager, distant from my glorious father and yet still attempting to understand my relationship with God in Christ. All of this while fighting the millions of distractions including a ‘million and one’ books to read from the best authors in History who have written about God to the latest and greatest reformed writer.

I’m not saying that books do not have their place yet it is behind God’s word and our relationship with Him.

If you haven’t figured out I’m preaching to myself this morning!

There is one thing that’s been shown to me, I believe we must get away from the pragmatic. I am not saying that things don’t need to function and be effective, but the ability to “WORK” should not be the goal we have in mind. This should be the byproduct or the “overflow” that will come out of prayer and seeking God’s will and wisdom, and turning away from the vanities of the world.

It is simply Christ and pure dedication to Him, not the Genie / God in a bottle syndrome.

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