Morning to you all,
I’ve been burning the grooves off the latest Sara Groves cd: Fireflies and Songs. It is a superb cd; if you like introspective music that focuses on recovering from the fall. One of the songs that really caught my attentions is called Eyes Wide Open. The first verse and chorus sum it up quite well:
I've got layers of lies that I don't even know about yet
bathroom doors turned billboards
no place left untouched without the mumblin
tell me what I need, tell me what I want
worship the things that we've made with our own hands
oh I'm gonna find the truth even if it kills me
oh I gotta get a new view the only way I know to
oh I gotta keep my eyes wide open keep my eyes wide open
Do I still want to find the truth that bad? Some days I’m not so sure. Do I still want to be set free or am I comfortable with partial bondage? These are questions I can’t say I want to answer truthfully. Probably because it makes me a little angry that I have to ask them and the majority of people on the planet don’t. Most people don’t dig past the surface. Or if they do they cover it over rather quickly.
But I am not blessed with the bliss of ignorance. Something drives me to keep digging, to keep sifting through the lies that fill my life and hope that truths will be uncovered in the process.
Too many people think that holding the truth in a little book is all that needs to be done. We know the truth to be self-evident and so everything is AOK but knowing the truth means diddly squat if it is not rightly applied. I can’t even begin to imagine the number of people that will be walking toward the furnace room the day after judgment knowing that Jesus died for their sins, knowing the bible is the word of God and being mad as hell because they wasted their time learning stuff that did them absolutely no good in the long run because they refused to apply it.
For a long, long time we have been trying to save ourselves and our loved ones through education. Know the facts and everything will be ok. Nothing could be further from the truth. When the Old Testament says “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” it is not talking about teaching intellectual facts. It is talking about training how to do, how to live.
We haven’t taught children how to live in this country since before I was born. We just teach facts and pray that facts are enough to save us. I mean, I didn’t even begin to learn how to apply the word of God to my own life in a truthful and impactful way until I was in my thirties. Before then I was a walking encyclopedia of biblical facts and trivia. The truth didn’t start bearing fruit in my life until I was in my 40’s. My children were long out of the house by then. How was I supposed to train them up in the way they should go if I didn’t even know what it was supposed to look or act like?
We like to over simplify things so much when it comes to the scripture that it’s a wonder anybody ever changes. Right now in our age we are so dumbed down with regard to applying the word to our lives that I must confess I am a little nervous about growing old as the next couple of generations come into power. I mean what is to stop them from turning me into Soylent Green (2022 is fast approaching). That’s not as far fetched as it sounds: Without the gospel applied EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED (eventually).
Concerning the Church and the people of God the Old Testament continually repeats the phrase: And a generation arose that did not know the Lord. They knew the facts about God but they didn’t know God. There is a huge difference. In fact, some of those generations that did not know the Lord were the most religious. They were so religious that God sent prophets to say: Stop sacrificing because the smell is making me sick. From our New Testament perspective one of these days God is going to send a prophet to say: Quit talking about Jesus you’re making me sick. Proverbs 15:8 says: the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. Are we at the place yet where our application of Jesus, our sacrifice, has become an abomination to God? We may be getting close.
Regardless of the culture, the question is: Am I still willing to dig for the truth even if it kills me? That’s the question I must continually ask. I must ask it because if I don’t die, Christ won’t live in me. If I ever become unwilling to repent even over the smallest thing then I am in serious danger of hearing: ‘Depart from me I never knew you,’ on the last day.
Oh Brad you’re so harsh. You’re so mean. My God wouldn’t…
Jesus on the other hand said: if you don’t do what I say watch out. (Paraphrased of course.) There is nothing more difficult or more demanding than the red letters in the bible (if you really read them all).
We must remember, It is not sin that keeps us out of heaven; it is the unwillingness to stop sinning.
It’s important that we understand that it is our heart’s condition on the last day of the race that determines whether we were even in the race to begin with. We might find out we’ve been worshiping the things that we’ve made with our own hands. It’s the end of the race that counts no matter how fast you run.
I am reminded of an old Jackson Browne song:
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too
Running on - running on empty
Running on - running blind
Running on - running into the sun
But I'm running behind
If we say that we are running into the sun will those flames purify the dross out of our lives or burn us to a crisp?
May God be merciful and save us from ourselves.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
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