Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I want the glory back!

I've become tired of people-pleasing "churchiness" where God is just the excuse (of our own ways). The Glory of God has left and we don't even notice because we're so busy "playing church." I want the Glory back!
Look at 1st & 2nd Samuel and notice throughout how God's people today, The Church, is sooo similar to God's people in the Old Testament, the Israelites, in all of this!

Beginning with 1 Samuel 4: The Israelites are about to battle the Philistines and decide that the guaranteed way to win is to take the Ark of the Covenant (out of it's God-ordained location) to the battle field with them. They use God for their own desires. To their huge dismay and confusion, God let the Israelites be defeated that day and the Philistines capture the Ark.

When the Ark finally gets returned to Israel (not because they asked for it back or were even missing it), they just place it, to their convenience, in some random guy's house. God is put "on the shelf." (I Samuel 7)

The Israelites just keep doing their thing. Sure, they're following God's laws and doing life God's way...but they've left God out of the picture. They got the rules and boundaries down so they no longer need God. They become religious instead of God-led. Until they reach a problem, of course, then they go to God's prophet...but just for help in that one area, then they forget God again and just follow the laws and boundaries they know oh so well by heart.

God raises up a man after his own heart, David. But it even takes David years before he notices that the Ark isn't in its rightful place. When he finally does notice, he doesn't go to God and follow God's ways on how to get the Ark back to where it needs to be...instead David just uses "common sense." They got God's vision but then left God out of the "how to execute" plan because they ran ahead with their own "practical" ideas. Well..."common sense" kills a man (2 Samuel 6:1-10) so they again leave the Ark in some random guy's house, and go on with their lives again, dismayed and confused. They didn't ever stop to think that God's way of doing His will might be different to their own ideas. And when their ideas and common sense didn't work, they just gave up and walked away.

Months later when they hear that the guy housing the Ark is getting extremely blessed they decide to try, one more time, to put the Ark in its rightful place. This time around they finally think to find out God's way and do it accordingly. And they finally get the right perspective about all this - this time they want to truly honor God in how they transport the Ark. This time their approach is right - after 6 steps of moving the Ark they stop in gladness and thankfulness to honor God through sacrifice and dancing before Him. They honor God with every step as they take the Ark to Jerusalem...it's on this trip where David is soo happy that He dances naked in the streets! (2 Samuel 6) This time they didn't just want to use God and try to have Him back simply "because it's just the right thing to do," but they honestly desired Him, and felt honor and joy to be in His presence. And finally, the Glory of God is returned to Israel!

Doesn't this just sound like what we do these days at church? We take the time to find God's will and ways, and work to make sure we do them. But once they become routine we forget God and keep doing churchy stuff without ever consulting God or really putting Him in the picture. We sell out, even, by completely dishonoring God - and without ever realizing it too. God is on the shelf even in the middle of all that we're doing to "abide by His ways." When we know what's right in God's eyes, we do it but we use our own "common sense" to execute God's will. We haven't really taken the time to know God or hear from him in months or even years and yet we assume our "common sense" will get the job done right. Then when we fail, we get sooo confused and question everything. We question ourselves. We question God. We question life. But even in all this, we never take the time out to really hear God or know Him.
And this is where I think we find ourselves at large today.

Enough relying on our religious routines! Enough churchiness! It's time we "know Him" again and bring His Glory back into our churches!!



*This was brought to light by Louie Giglio's sermon at Passion City Church's 2nd gathering on March 22 in Atlanta, GA, where Louie Giglio talked about God's Glory.

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