Friday, September 18, 2009

Talk to me


Everywhere we go people are telling us something. From trying to sell us things, to informing us – even transforming us. It seems everyone has a message that they want us to hear. I turn on the TV and see advertisements telling me how cool their product is (they normally seduce viewers with sex and lust and with a message totally unrelated to the product). I walk down the street and I’m told I need new windows and then listen about how great their windows are and how much I’m going to miss out. I go on the internet and see messages flying around everywhere. I listen to my ipod and am told hundreds of different messages and opinions by the writer. I read books and blogs and read opinions and different ideologies and theologies. And my head is spinning… The Bible is very clear when it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 ‘take captive every thought.’ I love that word ‘captive.’ For me it implies that I take hostage thoughts before letting them in. The dictionary definitions bring up words like prisoner, kept in confinement or restraint. So when a thought comes, we sort of, mentally put a gun to its head and assess it before we let it in to our lives. With the many messages and opinions flying around, it is so easy to see why there is a plethora of confused people out there. Take captive every thought. Technology changes, innovation is always sought after, there is always a new thing. People want things so that they can be in the know. A lot of churches are duplicating one another and all of a sudden they’re ‘trendy.’ I have recently been reading various blogs about contemporary Church leadership, innovation and strategists opinions – and now I have a head ache. Christians have this thing in complicating things. After reading some of these articles I found myself pondering about how we could apply some of their methods to our Church and took them for face value. I didn’t at all feel peaceful, so I got before God and told him my thoughts, insecurities and surrendered to him. We can be so concerned about the messages people want to tell us – and totally miss what God is saying. I realised this recently, so I cancelled an evenings plans, and I drove to a stretch of really secluded countryside, maybe 10 miles away from home. It was just me. No one else, no blackberry, no notepad, no pen, no watch. Just me and God. I walked across beautiful farmland with no other person in site, for miles and miles.

I poured out my heart to God and had time to just BE. No thinking, no innovating, nothing but spending time with God and receiving strength from the time I had with him in that moment. I felt so refreshed, so loved. When we read the gospels, we often read of Jesus going up the mountain, to pray, to spend time with the father. Recently I was thinking about this, he climbed this mountain, probably daily, to spend time with God. He was always with others, giving. But on the mountain, he received. A few points I’ve observed: 1) We cannot keep giving without receiving Jesus spent all of his time with people, he did amazing miracles, he spent time with the greatest sinners of the day, he preached in the synagogues and all over the place, he spent time with individuals and he endured temptation and constant persecution. In the natural, no one could do all of this GIVING and keep going. But Jesus could do all of this and keep going – because he received. We know that Jesus spent time on the mountain to pray to God & we can learn from this, that through spending time with him, alone, we can be strengthened and empowered to do the great things he has called us to do. 2) Climbing a mountain is hard work!! So, Jesus spent time on the mountain, a place secluded where he could be alone to spend time with God. I don’t think the mountain is particularly important, it is just a place Jesus went to be with God alone. The key here is ‘the spending time with God’ part. The bible says that we should go into a room and lock the door behind you when spending time with God. Again, I don’t that is the particularly important part, it is just emphasising the importance of having that time with God. Have you ever tried to climb a mountain? It is really hard work. Sometimes the last thing you feel like doing, is climbing a mountain, but we need to realise that when we reach the top of the mountain, we can see so much more, we can see things we didn’t see before; life’s challenges seem small because on the mountain you are higher. This morning, I got up early, I made a breakfast beverage, got my Bible and headed out to our backyard and spent time on the mountain and prepared myself for the challenges the day had to bring and the messages the world offered me. How can we know what God is saying to us, when we don’t spend time with him? Answers welcome, although it is a rhetorical question – we can’t. So many Christians run out of steam and make stupid decisions because they go in their own strength and not God’s. RECEIVE…… Go and find your ‘mountain,’ wherever it is.


I am looking forward to going on my annual camping trip for some mountain time.....you interested?

1 comment:

Meganne said...

I loved reading this. It is exactly how God has been stirring my heart lately. I'm starting to realize how incredibly crucial that time with God is, and I am so blessed and strengthened by it.
Thanks for posting about this, it's really encouraging and just reinforces what God has been teaching me.
:]