OK, so this is my first e-mail/copy to blogger post. And I have to tell you something. It is strange. Like really weird.
Hard to explain. Not having my familiar blogger tools and dropdowns and fonts…I didn’t have to sign in to get started. My typing isn’t the familiar Trebuchet. Red. Normal. Occasionally interspersed with blue, green or black to try to make some point.
In a way, this is harder!
While I am not a professional typist/blogger/writer like many, I do have this sort of rhythm and flow that I follow when writing a post. If you are reading this, then odds are you know what I am talking about. The steps to get to where you start. Sign-in. Check for unmoderated replies. See what the people I follow have written. See if I have any new followers (to add to my AWESOME 7). Click Posting. Select font. Select color. Agonize over a Title for the Post, or decide to wait til later, because you really have no idea where this thing is going (like right now)….then type.
Today I just clicked Micro Word and here I am.
I wonder how many of us live our Christian walk like that? We have all these steps to go through to GET READY to Think about Living this thing out.
What if we missed worship service for some reason. Does that throw us off? I don’t mean you just miss it because you love it, but it causes you to feel like you haven’t met with God? Like if I don’t go to an organized service, I haven’t been with God this week.
That sounds strange, too. But I have heard those exact words.
Or how about this…We don’t get in our devotionals and Christian Living section books this week, so we are dry spiritually.
Now there is nothing wrong with desiring to go to “church” or reading godly, biblical writing. Those things ARE AWESOME!
BUT THEY SHOULD BE THE SIDE ORDERS!
If there is a Zoe’s Kitchen in your neck of the woods (sometimes the Alabama in me just flows out), then please stop in and try their Potato Salad. And their Slaw. Both are unique and are among my favorite foods. Ever. And they are Sides! When I go to Zoe’s, I stare at the menu trying to decide how to work my meal so I get two sides. I don’t really care for their entrée’s. Sorry, Zoe’, wherever you are.
I want the Sides!
Backwards!
YET, WE AS CHRISTIANS HAVE TOTALLY REPLACED THE MAIN ENTRÉE, THE MAIN EVENT, THE TOP PRIZE WITH THE SIDES.
OUR PERSONAL ONE-ON-ONE RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER IS THE MAIN THING!!!! Going to church should just be an extension of worship that we have experienced throughout the week. Reading those books should be IN ADDITION to time we have spent in Prayer and READING GOD’S WORD and developing a love relationship with HIM!
But we have made WORSHIP SERVICES the Entree, and we might Pray and Read during the week on our own as the Sides.
Backwards!
WOW, this post went nowhere near where I thought this was going, but brothers and sisters, was I just convicted. I can remember days where I was heading in to work and was reaching around for something in my car to read at lunch and shuffled past my Bible, looking for a book only to find none, and left my car thinking to myself “Man, I have nothing to read at lunch.” After pushing GOD’s Love Letter to me aside.
Also, lately I have found myself bemoaning the fact that I haven’t felt “connected” to God recently, because I had nursery one week and missed a worship service the next due to feeling ill.
Worship services, small group meetings, Christian CD’s, Christian Living books are all wonderful things if they are used in right line with the Main Thing---MY relationship with Father! When those secondaries become the primary, then there’s a problem.
Backwards!
This post may not be what I started it to be, but it has turned into what I needed it to be.
It’s time I recognize and prioritize the proper order of things in my Christian Walk.
Anyone ever felt like this? Or am I the only one missing this boat?
I totally agree! Organized worship experiences have become the spiritual crutch of many Americans. We wouldn't know how to conduct our Christian lives if our church buildings and programs disappeared. Personally, I think it would be good for America's overall spiritual condition if every organized religious gathering was outlawed starting tomorrow. It would force us to evaluate what really matters and it would force us to be the church instead of simply attending church. Study church history and you'll find that corrupt doctrine and hypocrisy thrive best when the church is at peace with its neighbors and when the church as an institution becomes financially secure. True spirituality in doctrine and practice thrive best under persecution and a warfare mentality. May we wake up off our padded pews and resume our God-given position in the trenches of spiritual warfare.
ReplyDeleteGreat post by the way. A bit rambly (sp?) at first, but you eventually got to the point and nailed it.
ReplyDeleteI found myself with no library books the other night, and had the same thought--and my Bible was sitting right there on the dining room table. I have to admit, I didn't read it then either.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the next morning I picked it up, started reading, and decided to skip the library this week. I have more important things to read than the latest novel or book on birds!
I love your analogy about the sides. I've been convicted about this in the past, and am hopefully doing better now. I guess I eventually learn!
Oh, and welcome back! 8-)