Prologue: Please Begin at The Beginning
Congratulations! So, you have finally made the choice! On Sunday you stepped out on faith and proclaimed to GOD that, “you want to live for Him!” You want to be sold out. You want to change the way you live. You have even told the kids, “Things are going to change around here.” You’ve also told your dog, gold fish, the love seat, the daffodils, the mailman, and old man pushing the cart down the street that, “I’m living life in a new way! I discovered how horrible I was and how awesome GOD made me and I want to live for Him!” You took a leap of faith. You are deleting numbers of friends who bring negative energy around. You are waking up at 5:30 am to walk the dog, cook breakfast, read the paper, and then head to work at your cubicle from 9 to 5. You greet every coworker with a warm smile, including the boss you know hates your guts. Then, around 3:30 pm it begins to happen like it always does. You stub your toe while carrying hot coffee and spill it on your nice white shirt that you just bought to impress the people at work of your new life change. Your co-workers giggle and a grim smirk runs across the face of the boss who hates your guts. You forget to turn in some key documents before closing so now you have to plan to work at home after you pick the kids up from school, sit through their soccer practice, and prepare dinner. As you begin to prepare dinner you realize you need a trip to the grocery store but you have no money. Your kid brings you their report card full of c’s and f’s and a disciplinary report saying that they can’t return to school for 3 days. You know what that means…yep, a babysitter!!! Just as you go to call you remember that you don’t have the money to pay a sitter. It is now 10:30 and you have put the kids to bed and you are calculating income and expenses. As you do, you realize you forgot to pay the Entergy bill and you were already at the final “we are going to hunt you down if you don’t pay this bill” notice. You head back for the liquor cabinet to buzz yourself enough to feel numb of the pains of life. As you pour, you remember Pastor Comfort and his sermon about stepping out on faith. You remember running down the isle and falling at the altar yielding up all your desires before GOD. You have a choice to make. Do I go for the kill shot with the liquor buzz that I know will at least numb me? Do I try this Jesus stuff out and “trust in the Lord”
You choose the first and quite honestly I don’t blame you. You did everything the preacher said to do and there still wasn’t any extra wave of money pouring through and the kids are worst. The bills are still unpaid and shut off is inevitable. When this happened in the past they preacher said, “hold on and keep the faith.” You are still trying to figure out what he means by that. Once again, you take the shot of whiskey. I don’t blame you. Someone has just sent you on a magical rabbit hole chase in the middle of improbability land. With the liquor, you at least know that you are chasing it with mountain dew or sprite. That shot is not going to harm you bad as taking lofty advice that is unbiblical, impractical, ungodly, worldly, and irrelevant. I do, however, have to be honest. I do not encourage you to drown yourself in drunkenness under any circumstances. The scenario we saw in the beginning works for anyone trying to begin healthy habits, promote family time, and create a dynamic work ethic. You need certainty in life. You need understanding. You need a blue print! And probably unlike the rabbit hole teaching preacher would tell you, there is a definite blueprint. GOD’s intelligent and fascinating blue print for life is the only way, truth, and life. It’s not trying to live your life as the model perfect citizen in this world, but in understanding you were made by a divinely intelligent GOD, why he made you in the first place. That’s where you really need to begin, the foundations of existence as we know it. “So, where do you begin?” one ask. You always begin with the beginning!
For me, it is easier to learn a new process and function when I understand why the said event or object was established or made. Here is an example. In learning what it takes to make a delicious cake, I need to know the ingredients, right? Yes! True, I need to know the ingredients, but knowing ingredients only can be dangerous. I may decide to be liberal with the number of eggs I use, or the amount a vanilla that goes in the cake, or the amount of shortening I use. So, how do we keep a person from making an imbalanced cake? I propose that we explain not only the ingredients but what the function of each ingredient is. Once the explanation of function, make it practical and put it in perspective by telling them why too much or to little can sabotage your cake.
I want to help you stop living an imbalanced life? Sometimes “pie in the sky” spiritual teaching can make one super spiritual but no earthly good. Major danger facing this crew are things like emotionalism, legalism, traditionalism, that ultimately feeds into vain superstitions, and emotional manipulation. Paul teaches us to become all things to all people. Jesus told us in the great commission that our ultimate end is to learn of Him so we can go and make disciples and teach others of Him. I can tell you what was not in the great commission. He did not say go and build a multi-million dollar facility where a select group of people come and indulge themselves in overly ritualistic mysticism. He tells us “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20 (NLT) Those who lock into “pie in the sky” are living imbalanced lives because the get so focused on prayer meetings, revivals, 30 hour praise services, that don’t share the burden of baring the gospel to those who are lost. In other words, the go directly against the command Jesus gives for all true disciples.
On the other end of the spectrum, teaching so earthly focused that one may idol worship in carnality and never grasp anything of GOD’s heavenly design. The major pot holes for the view is materialism, quid pro quo religion, selfishness, ungodly social caste systems…cliques, santa claus worship, false sense of salvation, and riotous living. The battle cry for this mindset is, “I’m only in it for what I can get out of it!” Somehow, the enemy of GOD (satan) has plagued this view as though their ultimate achievement in GOD is by living a blessed life…a.k.a. fancy house, stylish clothing, the most lavish vehicle, a crystal stair, and a Jacuzzi with a bowl of strawberries. Jesus tells a story about an instance as such as sums it up with this sentence. “Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.” Matt 13:7 (NLT) This is the explanation Jesus gave about this saying. “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds:19 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts.20 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy.21 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.23 The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Matt 13:18-23 (NLT) In other words, they are living imbalanced lives and are to consumed with nice hair, money, planes, trains, and automobiles to live out faith in GOD for lack of nutrition that we draw from His Word.
Good stuff Chris.
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