I was going to go on a "rant" this week, but Papa had other plans. I was going to vent on how/why I have come to detest the term "missional" -- a term that for me still misses the point of what God is really saying to His people these days. Perhaps God will allow me to address this at a later time, but for now it's still percolating.
So...this week I have a couple of "guest bloggers" who both address a favorite topic of mine and God's: intimacy with Him.
Our first guest has been "absent from the body and present with the Lord" for hundreds of years. But like Abel he still speaks (see Hebrews 11:4). Brother Lawrence once wrote of the marvel of God's love to him in a way that continues to drill me to my very core. Listen to the wonder in Brother Lawrence's heart as he says the following (from one of his letters): "I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King; touched with a sensible regret I confess to Him all my wickedness, I ask His forgiveness, I abandon myself in His hands, that He may do what He pleases with me. This King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite. It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence."
Brother Lawrence got it! He knew by experience how to "live loved." And his writings (never intended by him to be published) continue to influence people towards intimacy with God hundreds of years after his death. Amazing what one life, lived loved, can do!
Our second guest is very much alive and well. Dee and her husband Dave are new friends of mine whom I have met only via email. They are true heroes of the faith in my book, really living by faith and following Jesus wherever He has led them. They currently serve as missionaries in Guaymas, Mexico. Dee recently wrote me her thoughts on intimacy, and I told her they were so good that I was going to post them on my blog. Here they are.
"Like you, our primary focus is encouraging intimacy in a relationship with the Lord. So many of us are religious, going through the motions, because we've never had a real, life-changing encounter with Him (or knew we could!). But if we aren't connected to the Source or eating from the Tree of Life (as opposed to the knowledge of good and evil), or whichever of the many ways we'd prefer to say it, then our lives are going to be lacking the abundant life that Jesus came to bring all across the board. We'll be living our lives according to what we think we're supposed to do, or according to tradition, rather than according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We'll live our lives depending on other people to guide and direct us and tell us how to think. Then we disciple and train up others the same way, and the whole scenario just perpetuates itself. And personally, I think that is one of our greatest problems in the Church today! Generally-speaking, we are well-meaning but lacking revelation, and have a form of godliness but lack the infusion of His power into our lives that He purposed for us, because WE DON'T KNOW HIM."
I could never say it better. Everything flows from intimacy folks--everything.
I welcome your thoughts (from the 4-5 of you who read this thing! :-))
Stay lost in His love,
Tom, the least of Abba's children
No comments:
Post a Comment