I'm feeling a little blue since my husband is leaving for Uganda for 3.5 weeks and he won't have much internet access, and probably little or no opportunity to phone. :( I'm just thankful this is his final residency for his program, and the last time we'll have to be apart for a long stretch like this. We live together, commute together, work together and play together - we are pretty much joined at the hip, so it's always weird when we're apart. My daughter and I leave in the morning to head to Montana to visit my family, so I am looking forward to that!
Anyway, I've been thinking about these posts by Brant Hansen:
A Bucket List: Things You can do Before Hell, and Kicking the Bucket List.
They cut to the root of religion and remind us that God is primarily after our heart. I appreciate the point of these posts. But I wrestled with this: if we open our heart to God, and give Him an unrestricted pass to deal with our heart brutally and wholely, won't we want to do some of the things on Brant's bucket list? Not because we have to, or because we want to get glory from each other, or because we are trying to earn our way, or earn His love, but because we want to please His heart and we've discovered that some of these things really are pleasurable to God...
And in that context of relationship with Him, wouldn't we want to exhort others to love and good works too? I believe that religion (of self) is a counterfeit to something that is authentic (of God). And I've been on this crazy and exciting journey of repentance from religion for about 5 or 6 years now, and still going. I'm slow... what can I say. But there is an authentic expression of following Him that I want to see come forth both in my life and in the lives of the true Church (the Body of believers who are following Him and giving Him their hearts). Any thoughts from those who've read Brant's posts?
UPDATE: I appreciate this follow-up comment Brant made:
I think it's giving God all of our hearts when we say, "Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief." That's where we are.
I suck at religion, too. Everybody does. I could pride myself on being one of those who admits it, but then I'd be sucking at religion again.
I talked about this kind of thing this morning on the air. I said that if you follow Jesus, you'll get blasted by the types of people who blasted Jesus, and you will draw the same people to you who were drawn to Jesus.
A guy called and blasted me for saying that. Not everyone has antennae for irony...
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Random Thoughts
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9 comments:
Enjoy your post, have a great time with your family.
I have not read the posts, and I too am on the journey you are, and the clearer I see my place within the body and the purpose God has for me, the closer I feel I am drawing to Him - I am leaving Christianity behind and am discovering the joy of following Him.
I love this Sarah:
an authentic expression of following Him
Following Jesus isn't about a bunch of legalistic rules.. it is simply responding to the beautiful Holy Spirit in our lives.. it is living from the inside out and is as authentic as it gets.
Sarah,
I have read (er, skimmed) Brant's posts...to me, it seemed his intent was to rattle the cage a bit. But if you asked him, I don't think he'd say that's the end of the story.
Eph. 2:8-10 comes to mind, that though we were saved by grace through faith...not by works...yet we were *created* unto good works...meaning that our good works are an effect of salvation, not the cause of it. We just get the cart before the horse so often.
I totally relate to the joined-at-the-hip thing, from the husband perspective. My wife and I are the same way.
thoughtful blog, found it searching kevin prosch.
Thanks for the comments, everybody.
I think you're right, Jeff. Cage rattling is an important ministry to the church! :)
I agree with you about the expression of our love for God .
I don't think that Brant's posts were meant to bash all of the things on the list. I am pretty sure it was meant as literally what he said, things you can do before hell..
Remember, not every one who says Lord Lord is even in the church..
I think being part of the church (i.e. loving God ) is the first , most important thing..
I also think it is just human nature to try and qualify our faith by our works. There should be works. But as you well know we can do things that to the world look very spiritual and are in fact good, but with a wrong heart.. I think that is the point.
Sorry about your separation from your husband, I hope he comes back safe and secure..
God bless
Thanks, Shaun. I think you're right. It's actually interesting to point that out - that not everyone who calls Him Lord actually makes Him Lord. God knows the heart.
As always, there is a difference between knowing that doing something doesn't guarantee heaven and knowing that we should do many of those things if we want to go there. Many of those works are quite helpful in cultivating the grace and love of God/neighbor in our lives is essential to getting to heaven.
The demons demonstrated recognition of who Jesus was before the apostles did. If even the demons believe in the one true God and certainly aren't going to heaven, then it seems kind of silly to think that simply doing any one of those things Brant listed is going to guarantee heaven.
MB
Sarah, hope you don't mind but I have cut and pasted this Blog on to my site - what you have written here is very profound.
Blessings.
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