Closer to God

It is amazing to me that when we are closer to God life seems so much better. It is a simple thought, but so true and overlooked so much in my own life. God has given me abilities and talents and I sometimes get caught up in doing things in my own strength. The last few weeks I have strived to be in constant communion with Him and I am smiling more, I am able to get up out of bed in the mornings easier, I look forward to life everyday, I have a peace about circumstances, and I feel God there with me all the time.

I mentioned in service this past week that I have been listening to The Bible Experience which is an audio recording of the Bible. I have been spending most of my time in the Psalms (i am a worship leader ). I have it on my iPod and my iPod is usually set to shuffle all songs and so while i am driving or listening to music a verse will pop up every once in a while and encourage me. This morning as I drove into the church a psalm came up and immediately after that a worship song came on my iPod. It was so refreshing to hear scripture and immediately be worshiping God outside of a church setting.

I am not giving any big monumental life changing ideas in this entry. I just want to encourage you to get in the word (whether that is reading or listening) and get close to God and worship Him in whatever way suits you outside of a church setting. It is refreshing and you will be amazed at How God can use these times to renew the soul.

Emotions and Feelings are not what drives us.

I received an e mail from a church member this week and i just watched it today and i have to say i was pretty astounded at what i saw. before you watch it i would like to say i am not a fan of the way the movie is framed. It makes Christians out to be very condemning. Just please pay attention to the content that oprah has. It is startling.

If you have watched this you may feel the same way i did. My first reaction was, “How can people actually believe this?” Here is the answer, they see someone living out their beliefs (ironically the word we should not have in our religion according to Oprah) with a passion and doing something about it.

Kris has been preaching about Christ and Culture and i have been thinking about Christians in our culture. How do people look at us? Well lets consider how most people will respond to this new Oprah craze. There will inevitably be a boycott of all things Oprah from the Christians and some prominent speaker will most likely be on the news and say something outrageous on behalf of all other Christians that will make us out to be cruel. What if instead of doing something that wont change a thing (boycotting) we started living out our beliefs with such a passion that even Oprah would see that Christians do not live on feelings and emotions and that we are not life but rather Gods love living in us? Things would start to change.

I have said many times that worship is not a feeling. It’s not! It is an action from the heart. Oprah said in her video, we are not living life, we are life and that we should not believe we should just feel. I dont know about you but when i read the scriptures it says, “he who BELIEVES in me will not perish, but have eternal life”. When i see that scripture it does not say he who feels God is present will not perish, but will have the idea of life. But we also must remember that we are to love our enemies and to be in the world but not of it. So i want to challenge all who read this not to take a stance in a non loving way but rather to do as Jesus would do. Oprah did have on thing right in what she said…God is love…therefore, we ought to be love as well. Thanks for reading my rant and feel free to make your own comments.

*Discalaimer: These thoughts and ideas do not reflect FBC as a whole. These thoughts came solely from Jon Gerten