ranting

There is s a commercial on TV lately advertising for an area pastor who broadcasts his Sunday morning services.   The ad shows a clip from his sermon, screaming and flailing his arms around.  That's all fine, if that's what gets it for you, but it was the last statement that got me angry.  

 

"If God won't heal you right now, He'll never heal you." 

 

What the crap?  Where is that in scripture?  What picture does that paint of God?  

 

So if the person in need of help and healing doesn't get it instantaneously, does that mean it's their fault?   That God hasn't deemed them worthy of healing?  Is it because they are not "good enough" or jumped through enough hoops to get healed?

 

Again, what picture does that paint of God…of grace?

 

I keep coming back to these thoughts about how I've been taught about God.  I can't seem to shake it.   For so many years I've been taught by men and women of God that I have to do, be, give, walk, pray, think, confess, feel a certain way or God would not be on my side, not be available to me.  Essentially, God is watching and waiting for me to go through the obstacle course to get to him and get what I need from him, and if I screw it up, "back to the beginning…start all over!"  

 

I know I've written about this before, and you're probably getting sick of it, but I have to talk about it, I have to wrestle with this.   This is for my survival; this is for my detox from religion. 

 

The writer of Hebrews wrote that because of the sacrifice of Jesus, because of his resurrecting from the dead, we can now "come BOLDLY to the throne of grace."   This doesn't sound like jumping through hoops and clearing moralistic hurdles to prove my worthiness…my worthiness was settled in the cross. 

 

This doesn't mean I don't think we should be intentional about our walk with God and desire to grow through spiritual disciplines.   But our status with God, our relationship with God is not based upon what I offer or don't offer him.  I cannot accomplish what Jesus has already done for me.   No amount of performance can make me look better in his eyes. 

 

I remember a friend I had in Bible College my freshman year wrote in my yearbook, remember, God can't love you more today than he did yesterday and he will not love you any less or more tomorrow.   His love is constant toward you.  I can't influence his level of love for me.  He loves.   He is love.  I just have to dwell in it, rest in it, trust it, enjoy it.

 

Those who commit to this legalistic, performance view of following God must be most miserable, especially those who teach it and promote it, because this thought and ideology is never full, never enough.   Rob Bell used the altar to the angry gods idea to illustrate this.  (See my post on Rob's tour.)  There is always more that has to be given and sacrificed because we have to stay in good so that the blessing remains on our lives.   I think this is why some of have had some extravagant failures before the whole world.  The pressure to keep up the game, to work so hard to prove your good enough, worthy enough, in good with God enough, opens a door for exhaustion and temptation that belies a hypocrisy hidden in their heart:   it doesn't work this way!  It can't. 

 

I think this is one reason why those who pastor/preach this way continue to demand more and more of their followers, because they have to keep the machine going, otherwise they might find out who's "behind the curtain."   It becomes this vicious cycle that only continues until someone either jumps out or the curtain comes crashing down and everyone discovers that it doesn't work!

 

I believe there is a new day coming to the church.  It is a day of awakening that our spiritual duties we've put so much stock in, though good on it's own, face value sort of way, doesn't qualify as proof of our status with God or grant us special favor from him.   No, it is by grace that we're saved, and by grace that we live, and by grace we are kept.