Today while visiting with a friend about walking with Christ the Lord dropped this nugget in my Spirit…a good thing becomes bad thing when it distracts from a greater thing.
As I pondered this thought I was reminded at how true and challenging this thought is. “Bad” things are easy to detect and clear to see that a greater thing is better. A wrong attitude, wrong action, wrong choice is often easy to recognize and a better choice or path is often clear. Following through on such an observation can be much more challenging but the ability to see that a greater thing is needed to replace the bad thing is seldom in dispute.
Is not the greater challenge when it is the good thing being questioned? Good by nature is exactly that…good. Yet a good attitude, good action, good choice can actually prevent us or keep us from a greater thing. How deceptive it can be to fill our lives with good things leaving no more room for greater things. Isn’t this Jesus' challenge to Martha in Luke 10:38-42? Martha was busy with many good things but was distracted from the greater thing. The good things became a bad thing when they kept her from the greater thing…spending time with Jesus.
For the sincere follower of Christ the question is not whether our life is filled with good things. That is a given. The question is will good things keep us from greater things. Is there any room in our lives for Christ to challenge us to something better? To leave good for great?
This is the challenge before us not only as individuals but as a church family. Not the forsaking of bad. Our church is good. Many good things, many good ministries, many good people. It is not a wrong we are trying to right but a greater we are seeking to discover.
Experiencing Christ ourselves is good, helping others experience Him is greater! Living life is good, opening our lives to live with others is greater! Enjoying God’s blessings is good, sharing it with our community is greater!
There are many good Christians and good churches in our community. I don’t want to be good. I don’t want to let the distraction of good to keep me from greater. I want to hear Christ speak over me the words He spoke to Mary, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
So I ask us...what good things in our life might God be trying to challenge and replace with greater things?
What an adventure we are on...Eph. 2:10!!!!
Blessings,
Darren
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I, like many people have spent a lifetime in Church and unlike some, several different denominations and been exposed to quite a variety of interpretations and doctrines.
ReplyDeleteI am not against church and certainly believe you should attend regularly and support your local church in the good things.
One thing seems glaringly clear to me after 40+ years of studying the bible, every church I have ever set foot in has some false teaching and almost every church has some that rise above that and seek truth from God through the Holy Spirit.
Every church that I have studied, would be completely humiliated by merely applying the words of Christ to the traditions, creed or tenets of their respective denomination.
How then can one become a follower of Christ??
The answer is the same now as it was 2000 years ago and that is by learning, believing and living the teaching of Christ. There will be conflicts between Churchian doctrine and the teaching of Christ but Jesus said that except these days would be cut short, even the very elect would be deceived.
We are living in the age of deception, our only hope is in knowing , believing and living the teaching of Christ and screening everything that we allow into our minds with the purifying fire of the discernment of the Holy Spirit.
Even the devil used the scripture to tempt Christ in Matthew 4 and used the words of God to tempt Eve in the Garden. If his tactics were such then, it is abundantly clear that he has learned to use the same tactics even more effectively today.
The Good things that Darren describes above often can become the tool of the devil to "drown out" or "quench" the Holy Spirit in our lives. Every deception of the devil will make perfect sense in the rationale of human wisdom but will invariably conflict with the teaching of Christ and the true wisdom of the Holy Ghost.
I have spent much of my life under the burden of discernment and at times even experience physical sickness when encountering false teaching and doctrine.
For those the may not be receptive to discernment, screen what you let into your life with the teaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. NEVER will the Holy Spirit disagree with the words of Christ.
What I do see are sincere Christians that are beginning to notice that the works of the false teachers do not match the teaching of Christ and finding themselves questioning the Churchian theology. There is an awakening that is occuring within the church but it is subtil and discreet.
For those that are awakening to the teaching of Christ and the Awakening that comes with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, don't let it become destructive or used by the Devil. Instead, it is time to endure, it is time to walk in the spirit and be a beacon to others that are sincere but walking according to the wisdom and teaching of men.
What you will learn is that awakening is freedom. That which the Son sets free is truly free. You will find that you are only truly free when a subject in the Kingdom of God. You may only enter the Kingdom of God when God is your King and not man or men's traditions.
God Bless.