Sunday 19 February 2017

Nachos

There was a joke I heard in highschool:
What kind of cheese is not yours?
Nacho cheese!
Get it? Na-cho cheese?

So I've sat down at this computer to write posts over the last few weeks- I have the drafts to prove it- but I've been unable to publish anything and unable to really write freely as I have in the past.
Part of it is what I mentioned last time- the person I can't help but want to attack every time I write- which is a good indication I'm more in the flesh than in the spirit. The other part of it is wondering about what I am writing about on this blog. In other words- WHO am I writing about?

The obvious and immediate answer is that I write about myself- because I do. I started this blog and built it on the idea that I'd write about how God was working in my life- the things He teaches me and the way He brings me along and helps me grow. This purpose of this blog is to give God the glory in my life. Lately I've been wondering whether or not this blog is too much about me or rather, what is my motivation behind each post.

I started thinking about this months ago when I happened to come across a spat on Youtube between two bible teachers. One of them, I guess, has made hundreds of videos debunking the other. In the short clip I watched the one who has the videos made against him stand up in his church, behind the pulpit and say that the guy making the videos against him 'deserves a pulpit mention'- something about having 'worked' for it with all the videos he's made.
I was immediately struck by the fact that that pulpit that man is standing behind is not his pulpit.
It's God's.
Did God call this man to preach the Word or talk about Youtubers?

A month ago I was finishing up my son's bath after a long day and I just wanted him to go to bed. I thought maybe I'd skip brushing his teeth for that night. What difference would it make? Then it occurred to me that I am not brushing his teeth for me, I'm brushing them for him. They're his teeth! How terrible would it be for him to have bad teeth when he grows up all because his mom 'was too tired'. It's not up to me to choose not to brush his teeth- they're not my teeth, I'm taking care of them for him, and don't I want him to have good, healthy teeth?

Then I started thinking about the way I look at things in general. I usually look at things with the perspective of 'how can I learn from that?' or 'what can I learn from that person?' I don't think that's a bad thing but it may bring the focus on me a little too much.

These things- and others- has made me really realize that the voice the Lord gives you- whether you are a preacher, a teacher, blogger, someone who posts stuff on Facebook, or just a solid christian who witnesses everyday- is not yours. We are not given these things for ourselves even though they teach us, edify us, and bring us closer to God. We are given these things for others- for the things we can't see and can't know, for the unseen and unknown people brought along by God.
Recently I've been thinking about the ways God takes care of us and the impossible situations He brings us through by means we can't even comprehend. I realized that God doesn't just take care of you for that time, for that problem, for that situation, He takes care of you for the future. How many times have you wondered why something turned out this way or why that happened and you go anywhere from a day to a year down the road to see how God used that to protect and provide for you when the situation was more dire and you were more needful?
Think about all the people in the bible that Jesus healed- the woman with the issue of blood, the blind man at the pool, the lame man let down through the house, the devil possessed of the Gadarenes. I would bet you anything that those problems they dealt with- the issue of blood, blindness, lameness, etc- were not the only things Jesus healed. I bet any little problem, any little thing that bothered them besides those big things were taken away. I think that's what John meant at the end of his gospel:
And there are also many other things
which Jesus did, the which, if they should be
written every one, I suppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books that
should be written. Amen.
John 21:25
Can you imagine just being around Jesus and feeling better? All those little aches and things we deal with just gone from being a little closer to him? Not only that, the mind change, the heart change from hearing God's Words from God Himself. 
This isn't doctrine or anything and I can't prove this from the bible. Just my relationship with Jesus and my relationship with the bible leads me to believe these things.

I say all that to say that there are things we can't see and we can't know. My Sunday school teachers growing up still have an effect on me today, my preachers growing up still have an effect on me today, there are many small things done and said I can still remember and shape who I am and how I think.
So when we speak in a place God is using us- we can't use our own words. We can't take what is rightly His and use it for our own agenda. That's the quickest way to stunt someone's spiritual growth, harm someone's faith, or prevent someone from coming to know the Lord as Saviour.
The more we insert ourselves, our agendas, our motives, our message, the less room God has to work- even if we are using His words. God doesn't share His throne with anyone.

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