Sunday, December 7, 2008

differences/who am I?

I'm gonna start this out with a quote and a scripture...

Ephesians 4:4-13
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."
9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Quote: "I may sound kind of blasphemous, but I believe that in church today, there is too much God and not enough Jesus."
-Josh Bergstrom

This is a tough one to start.

Let me say that I think that the root of most of this is a heart thing, at least for me. I've heard some stuff that my heart wasn't ready for, and when it didn't transform my life completely or speak right to my circumstance, I've (unwillingly) written it off as irrelevant and my flesh wants to attack the very doctrines of the word of God.
What I mean by that is that, back in my "maybe-if-I-stuff-my-head-full-of-sermons-and-info-I'll-have-a-good-relationship-with-God" phase, I started listening to all kinds of teachings and reading books, a lot of them dealing with the loftier things of God, such as the end times (to me that's lofty knowledge, lofty as in big) the "Glory of God" (I still have no clue what that exactly is) spiritual gifts...etc.
And that's for later in your walk with Christ. I know that's not the extent of the walk with the Lord. You don't come to know Christ just so you can heal everyone, or so you can get caught up in these big Holy Spirit moments. You get to know Jesus so that He can transform your life into a life that can give Him honor and esteem in everything you do.
Simple, right?

Really simple, the more I look at it.
The question that lingers in my mind is this:

Lord, can I still enjoy the things I enjoy, have fun, still give You honor, and grow in my walk?

I guess I see so many "types" of Christians.
There are people who like, have so much fun with their lives and have a family and kids and stuff and totally love Jesus every second of it, and other people completely like, clean their lives out of everything but books about God and worship music and teachings and stuff and like, when you get them in a church, they're so wise and always have something good to say and stuff, and they like understand the Bible so well and stuff...
but to me, the latter sounds better.

I barely even care about understanding everything, I just want to love Jesus.
I just want to live my life to the fullest and give God all the honor for it. Does that mean I have to like, sacrifice the things I love to do, like watch movies and listen to music, and watch football, play video games? Or can I do those things?
Tim Lawson has given me the best advice about this that I've ever gotten. He said (roughly)
"I think there's an unspoken pressure on you to be this super-Christian. And you don't have to be. I think Jeff Poling would be a cool guy to hang out with, even if he weren't a Christian."

There are two thoughts that conflict on this matter:
1. When the Bible says, "You shall have no gods before Me." Make God number one. And honestly, my problem is that I do esteem things. There have been times when I've been convicted about watching a football game instead of spending just a little time with God. video games are huge when it comes to this. It's a big time issue, I need to organize my time to give God more of it.
2. The Bible also commissions us to fill the earth and subdue it. So I don't think that "stuff" is necessarily bad, and I really don't think that things like sports are bad.

I think I'm at the point where I need to take this to God.

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