No more chicken dances!
August 5th, 2008
There is this hunger in the belly of my spirit for more of God. I want Him, to be close to me, for Him and I to be more intimate with each other. I want to know him and the power of His resurrection as Paul put it. But I have this weird idea. I want all that without actually being weird. I want it to look natural, organic, real. Not like I forced it to happen with religious jargon and listening to cheesy christian music or taking 12 easy steps to stop kicking my dog and getting closer to Jesus. I want the real thing. Which, when I think about it, I don’t think the real thing can happen but by being real, honest and being extremely aware of the need for Christ’s help.I mean, around the church that I go to we talk a lot about the amazing things that God has promised to do with and through us as part of the body here in Tacoma. I am excited to see and do those things, but I want the real thing. I don’t want to get tired of waiting for it to happen and start to manufacture encounters or hype up a happening to get a happy feeling that God may really be moving. I want to see the real deal!!!! When people get healed, I want to us to get excited but I don’t want us to loose our minds and start running around like like chickens clucking at the sky in the name of Christ. Because those types of power encounters, by that I mean when we experience the power of God here and now, are suppose to be a normal part of our lives as Christians. I mean the healing, not the chicken dance.
Our pastor spoke last week about a topic really similar to this and he was fired up about seeing God move in out midst. He wants it bad! And so do I. I just want to see God bust out of the neat little boxes we have placed him in and really blow our circuits with the way he does things. They are going to be quite different than we expect them to be and much more challenging to our ideas of how things ought to go. I need a paradigm shift towards seeing things the way God sees them and away from the traditional neatly packaged christian faith that makes everyone happy and comfortable. I want to live a radical life for Christ and his kingdom, being Spirit led, and yet approachable to those that aren’t. I want to see the kingdom of darkness stripped of its power in people’s lives and set free from the bondage of sin, injustice and wickedness. I want to see people know that they are loved and cared for by a loving, gentle, powerful God. I want to see mental illness starved of its power and people restored to their right minds. I want to see those hidden in the shadows of guilt and shame rise to fly high on the wings of grace, peace and acceptance. I want to hear the praise of Jesus in the streets and supermarkets, homes and coffee shops, offices and hospitals, high schools and malls.
Anyway, you get my point. I want Jesus to make you and me the message of hope he designed us to be. And by His grace we will and are.
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August 6th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Again, classic title.
On a more serious note, I agree that a comfortable faith is not enough. I cannot imagine the impact on the world if every Christian (myself included) really lived the “radical life” we were created to live.
Also, I like how the last two sentences used “us” and “we,” not just “I” or “me.” I was drawn into the message that much more–feeling like I was personally a part of what you were saying.
Lastly, I would actually recommend the 12 easy steps to stop kicking your dog if you are finding this to be problem area for you because kicking your dog is really not healthy.