Sunday, August 9, 2009

I heard a preacher

I heard a preacher this morning and was reminded why I don't listen to very many of them any more. Hmmmm I don't think I listen to any of them anymore. No I'm sure I don't.

Arrogant! Rebellious! Unwilling to submit to authority!


No, I'm not. But I am unwilling to submit to someone's idea of what God might be doing in my life as though they had all the answers.

The man was Charles Stanley - a good man, no doubt. A "successful" preacher and church leader, no doubt. And, it would seem, an accomplished photographer. He ended his sermon with an illustration with one of his pictures of a shipwrecked boat. (Looked like a Julie shot : ) but in color). He then began to talk about how that boat - which represents the children of God - once moved along with the current which he likened to God's will. Then the boat somehow got out of the current/God's will and there was shipwreck because of whatever went wrong.

As one who has walked and does still walk in some "shipwreck" experiences, I'm just saying that the times of shipwreck we experience can be the most effective and amazing times of growth and revelation and blessing that we can experience in our walk with God. It's true that sometimes people don't recover and the damage becomes permanent. It doesn't look good on the outside. But we cannot judge from outward appearances. And we cannot say that because a person appears and acts shipwrecked that there is no blessing of God in their life.


And "shipwreck" is not necessarily a permanent condition. That boat may have been and may still be salvageable if someone is willing to pay the price for it as Christ paid the price for us.

Every thing he said sounded like this: If you stay in the will of God your life will be blessed, if you don't you won't. I find that to be way too narrow. Paul, in the will of God, was literally shipwrecked and suffered so many things and did not seem, as near as I can tell, to have those things that constitute a "blessed" life. His life looked nothing like Charles Stanley and many of the "successful preachers we see here in America. But he was greatly blessed and we are the recipients of that blessing that he walked in.

But then you must have someway to control the masses and if you can get them convinced that there is a certain behavior or habit or lifestyle that is more conducive to "being blessed" and that you are the person that can help/instruct/cover them in that lifestyle - well it really works for you then doesn't it. And the people never learn that they can go up on that mountain for themselves and hear God's voice and life the way HE leads you.

Any way - I didn't like what I heard and that's why I don't listen to them nor do I consider such men and women good for the body. Hmmm maybe they are good for that man-made institution we call the church. They keep us believing that the success that they have can be ours too. Or something. But they have very little to offer those who will go up the mountain and will live lives that appear in so many ways to be "not blessed".

So if you are one who feels like you are in a shipwreck experience, please don't listen to the fatalism in that message. Listen to the voice of your Shepherd in your heart and walk that lonely path and embrace the pain of it and experience those places in God that you would never get to otherwise. He will transform you and form his own nature within you and you don't need someone telling you that the place you're in is a "wrong" place.


You are where you are and God is with you.

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