It's pouring outside, we are hunkered down in the basement with constant warnings about a tornado in our area. It's a good time to reflect on power beyond our control, don't you think?
Yesterday I started reflecting on the message I shared on Sunday, you can catch it on you tube at Liberty Grove U.M.C. Pastor Jeff Jones sermons for 6/9/13 on Hungering for God. Yesterday I highlighted the first section on Longing in life and Longing for God, we should be longing for God and what God wants above all else. God does want what's best for us always, so it's not a waste of energy to pursue the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said on the sermon on the mount, God knows you need these things, so pursue and long for the Kingdom of God.
Today, I'm taking on the next section, Knowing about God or Knowing God. We do know about God, we get that from Sunday School, from previous messages, books we've read, and a lot of what we think we know about God comes from poor but popular and persuasive sources. I mentioned that national pollsters when surveying about attitudes ask the question of their interviewees, to quote their favorite verse from scripture. The number one answer, no matter who is polling the crowd is "God helps those who help themselves." It's not a good answer, it's not a quote from the Bible, it's a quote from Ben Franklin. It's quite different from what God would say, but we all think it's right. It tells us we think we know about God.
Knowing God is a relationship. Knowing in biblical languages is intimate, understanding, knowledge that is total and complete, inside and outside of you. A connection. That's one of the reasons that I keep emphasizing that we connect to God, it's a way of Knowing God. The absolute best way to know God is to have a significant and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus shows us God. Everything we need to know about God we can see in Jesus. To quote him, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." so we can be reassured that if we want to know what God is really like, we need to know Jesus as well as we can. That would mean reading all of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) very closely and probably on an ongoing process. We are being evaluated by how well we do what God has told us to do. We can know what the questions are going to be by studying Jesus, and knowing him.
Being a follower of Jesus, being what some spiritual formation people call being an Apprentice of Jesus is very difficult. But in the long run, it is the most important thing we can do. It is very different from what we sometimes think is what a Christian is. I am hoping that this summer series in Sunday messages and weekly blogs will help people see what God means by being a disciple. There will be some moments that will shake us up, for some of us feel like we have this discipleship thing down very well. I know I keep discovering how difficult it is to do all of it, but thanks to the Cross of Christ, forgiveness for all those missing the target God planned for me moments, are really the only thing that saves me.
An apprentice of Jesus should be in worship every week. The commandment for a Sabbath day is not here or there, or when you feel like it. You can be excused if you are sick, we don't want your germs. Otherwise come on down. If you are out of town, there are other churches spread out everywhere, find one and bring us the bulletin. I get good ideas from other churches.
An apprentice of Jesus knows that returning our financial resources to God out of gratitude for all that we have physically, spiritually, emotionally, eternally, is a sign of our thanksgiving. No giving means no thanking God. We aren't the first to skip this important part. The Old Testament has many stories of the calamity that falls upon the nation when they rob God of the tithe. Malachi tells us that, but shows God's forgiveness with a challenge, do so, the full tithe, and see how God will bless you, keep the bugs off your crops, will allow you to prosper, you will be amazed at how true this is. The storehouse of God is the church, specifically the general fund, not some where else. That would be an offering beyond the tithe.
An apprentice, who knows God, accepts the leaders who have been placed over them. It doesn't say you have to like them, but you do have to respect them. St. Paul in Romans 13 was very specific that the responsibility of an apprentice is to honor and respect the leader. That means we have to show respect to the leader of our companies, our communities, our country and the church.
An apprentice of Jesus wants what is best for the community of faith where they participate. Disagreeing with how some things are done, is okay, but when we take our own opinion over what is good for the whole community we act like we don't Know God, who has called and created the church to be the way the world is put back in good order.
Thanks for getting this far, I hope I've given you some things to think about in your spiritual journey. My next blog is about reaching perfection. Wouldn't that be nice if we could. Afraid not, but in John Wesley's ideas, it is perfect in love, and that sounds like more fun.
Blessings on your journey
Pastor Jeff
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