Sunday morning/Mothers day (pt1)

Good Sunday morning. 5/8
And its Mothers day even.
I got up late this morning.  Anyone ever do that?
Funny how, as I'm driving to "church" I'm thinking "am I ready to go to the house of the Lord.?
Then I remembered, " the Lord lives in me.?

There are several  things about that many believers will find hard to comprehend.
That's because people say things like "I am".. the church.
Kind of like when people say things like" I call Jesus my friend. "

The truth is,

Jesus lives in me & Jesus calls US His friend

Another thing that's  sad is, many Christians think there's no difference in how we say things  and they frown at those who might point something like that out.

All of life, and especially our Christian walk, is a matter of perspective.
I suppose this could fall under the light of "glass half empty, glass half full" kinda thing but that's not the best example.

Christians have "this way" of , even when we are talking or singing about Jesus, somehow it's "us" that becomes the focus.
I never could explain that but it occurs daily.
That's the stuff that messes us up.

Since there is no way to avoid this kind of thing, the next best thing to hope for is to be able to spot it when it occurs.
I myself find that going thru God's Word verse by verse does that.
It makes confusing language recognizable.

Personally, I'm weary of always being on my guard in the Christian world.
On one hand, I'm glad to recognize it but on the other hand, it's tiring.

It's like I almost said (to myself) this morning, "I am the church"  rather than "Jesus lives in me."

No difference you say?

I heard it put this way once, that makes sense.
Let's say I go running around telling everyone.. "I know the president of the United States."
Is that so great?
Would people believe it?
I suppose I could prove it but what's the point?

But suppose the president said  "I know Dave D"
Now we have something.

Christians say "oh ,your nit picking."
What they fail to see is, much of life gets run thru this grid they develop.
That grid being," me. "

It's no fun, being this way, when it comes to fellowship with emergent believers.
People tend to put the emphasis on" me " and how I interpret things rather than God and what He said.

Again, this is why i like contextual verse by verse thinking. It takes the spotlight off me and puts it on Jesus.
When that's done, things aimed at" me " are clearly seen.
I'm so not interested in me and my opinions.
Thinking that way is not popular. People rarely want to be reminded how easy it is to get wrapped up in yourself, in this culture.

People like thinking, "not me" when it comes to being self centered.

Now what's really tough to convey is when Jesus is the center of ones life, they are indeed given so much, by God.

The only analogy I came up with (on my own) on this is,
Let's say your standing out in a driving rainstorm.
Your getting wet.

You don't have to pull the rain in on yourself to get wet. You don't have to work hard or come up with some new way to get wet.
You just get wet.

Silly analogy but when loving God, trusting Him, things happen.
It's in how we interpret those "things" that can easily mess us up.
We call those "things" blessings.
It's God keeping His promises that create in us who we become.
Christians have this knack for saying over & over its all about God while at the same time, focusing on themselves.
If you need prove of that.. Consider how a very popular book can begin with "it's not about you"  and then proceed to write an entire book, about you, and get away with it.
Dust off ur copy of 'purpose driven life' and see for yourself.

We can't escape mentioning ourselves. That's not the point. How can a person witness if they can not talk about themselves.
But we have seem to perfected the technique of  , as we discuss Jesus, WE become the focus.
We are so good at this. We don't even know we are doing it.
That is why ,, another undesired effect of verse by verse is spotting inconsistent language when otherwise (for years) went missed.

But when we talk about rain, we talk about the rain storm. We mention getting wet but we don't dwell on it.
Christians dwell on their version of "blessings."
Notice, i said "their version."
The language we use makes no sense when we think about it.
Problem is, most believers never think about it.

Does reading God's Word in context clear that up? Sure does.
The confusing language will never ever go away. Best thing to do is recognize it and when seen, ask God to forgive us when we forget how self focused we all are.

That could be a good Segway into what we were reading this morning.
Again, I didn't say sermon or message.
God's Word IS the message.
We say "c'mon, do we really need to watch our words that close?"

Yes.. In this day and age, yes we do.

Why?

Because when one grows up in the church, with a sermon /messages mindset, as I did, it allows for preachers to stray from the main thing (salvation) and come up with some holiday themed "message , such as a mother's day message.
Yes, today's mothers day and I'm thankful our pastor did not preach a message about mothers.

(slight pause as modern believers reading this, regain their composure)

We finished chap 19 where we left off and it began with that man who was forgiven of a huge debt (it was noted, it would take 15 yrs to earn one talent and he owed 10,000)
That same man tossed into jail a guy who owed him $40.
I think we can see where this is going.

My thoughts are long on this so I'm gonna finish in another part 2 post.

as always...tryreadNit!