Fresh Moves from God

Chocolate Chip Cookie Diet??????

Hey, before you read this one, you might want to look up 2 Samuel 6:12-23…..it comes up later in the blog.  So, I keep bumping into the ongoing church hassles over what kind of music the service is going to have.  Mainly because God tends to have me involved with long standing churches rather than the new starts, and so the churches I have been involved with have had to deal with facing the possibility of making changes or dying.  And they hate making changes.  All too often, some people in those churches seem to be clinging to the past as if that is where their salvation and security rests, when in fact, their salvation and security rests in Christ alone, and Christ moves fresh in each generation and each period of our lives.  Why is it so hard to let go of the past and embrace something fresh God might be doing?

Well, the context of this time the topic came up arises from a conversation with an out of town friend who has observed such a dispute in relation to music in something she was involved with.  As we discussed it, I suggested that the real issue isn’t about music, it’s about “me,” about whether I am truly open to God doing whatever God wants and my willingness to get on board with his moving, or whether I am the one in charge and what God can and cannot do in my church and life is limited by whether or not it fits in with what I want or what I like or what I think is best.  God’s choice of calling us His children is sometimes very apt.  But I know very few parents who will feed their children only what they want and like, or few teachers who will only teach children what the children think is best.  If they realize it isn’t best to let children always have their own way, why do we think God should do that in our lives?

In the Bible, that story in Samuel about David and his dance when bringing up the ark……or perhaps some of the Acts stories about the early church…. make the best parallels to this modern dilemma.  David was lost in worship, dancing his heart out, not paying close enough attention perhaps, but so enamoured and excited with God and what God was doing, that he just didn’t notice or even care!  Michal sat in judgment on it.  If it was today, she might have said, “You know, we just don’t worship that way.  It isn’t very respectful of God, it seems to me.  We have to set an example, you know.”  And she was rebuked and punished for daring to berate the exuberance of David’s love for God.  Not a good choice on her part.  And probably not a good choice by many Christians, today, either.

Just saying.  When Paul makes a big thing about the diverse gifts and roles in the body of Christ, I don’t understand why so many Christians think every other Christian should think and act just like they do!  The saddest thing in all of this is that when we put these limits on God’s work in our midst, it is US who get shortchanged.  We miss out on all God COULD accomplish through us, all the “beyond imagination” sorts of things God wants to do in our lives and in our world.  I guess, though, if all we want is peanut butter and cookies………   Just sayin’……..

                                                                        

TL:dr  It is critical to be open to fresh moves of God.