Consulting the Creator (CIC1)

**I am taking a bit of what I shared yesterday and opening it up for a “blogging series” if you will. The basis of this series is to address what I call a “Christian Identity Crisis” I hope you enjoy, this is part 1.**

I am sure many of us have heard the “experience is the best teacher” quote, but I often wonder if we really believe that. I have worked many different types of jobs in my life. Usually after I work at a job for a while, certain things become second nature and I can move in the operations rather quickly. I once had a job that was titled being a “Lumper” and the job of a lumper was to unload the back of a semi and put the product on pallets so they could be stored in a warehouse. When I started, I was a hard worker, but definitely not one of the fastest. As I gained experience, my speed picked up, and I became one of the fastest in the groups I worked with.

When I started that job, I had several of the guys trying to help me to understand how different products stacked differently and the quicker I picked this up, the faster I would move. They could tell me this all day, I could have studied how to stack the different products, but when it came time for me to stack I had to figure it all out on my own. That is how my mind works. After I had had this job for a couple of weeks I could tell by seeing the boxes in front of me, how they would stack best. By my experience I became faster…and faster …and faster, did I mention this was a commission job, so the faster I worked the more money I received? This was something I wanted.

As I read through the Scriptures, I see that mankind loves to operate in some sort of system. We love to rationalize things, understand how they work, come up with an explanation, and then we like to pass it along. We like to pass it along either because it is our nature to want to pass it along or we have a bit of pride that we like to get out there to say, “Look what I figured out.” It may not be spoken that way, but we love the recognition. So we go and set up systems to understanding various things and explaining how they work, and for most things it is astounding to see what man can figure out. What we can now explain through various sciences. Man is brilliant.

However, there is one problem.

We are not the original Creator.

Nor can we explain Him in a way that we can manufacture a “plan” for those who are being “trained” in how to follow Him in the fullest sense.

I know this is the place where your skeptic sonar may be going off, but hang with me.

We have the Bible, church services, books, radio, television, and many other resources…how much do we rely on those things to understand God? We have colleges, universities, seminaries, and doctorate programs to further understand God but I wonder how much do these things lead us to rely on man’s second hand revelation and not rely on an actual experience of the living God through His Spirit connecting with our as He has designed for it to be?

There is nothing wrong with any of the things listed above, especially the Bible. I mention the Bible, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it (As I believe it to be God’s words to us), but I ask you… how much of what God’s is saying in His words to us can we understand without His revelation? God reveals Himself to us through His Spirit (2 Corinthians 2:10-16). How many of us read our designated Scripture for the day and then check it off our list and are “done” with God for the day?

Are we trained to know God but never really experience Him?

I wonder how limiting that is?

Are we beginning to look a lot like the Pharisee’s of old, that knew what was said in the Scriptures but deny the power of it because we are all about the training and not much about the experiencing?

I don’t know, and I cannot judge your personal situation…nor do I want to. I can tell you that I have been guilty of relying on other people’s perspective far too much and not seek God for His revelation for me in my journey with Him as I am on this earth. I am not saying there isn’t a place for the radio, televisions, books, and so forth; I am saying that this should not be our only source for experiencing God. We can feel the presence of His Spirit during messages, but that should not be the only time we experience Him.

He wants you…never forget that.

He is not interested in how much you knowledge you accumulate, He is interested in how much of you-you give Him.

Peace to you all. I pray that you experience God in a greater way today, may He reveal Himself to you in a new way today.

We will continue tomorrow…

For further thoughts... Mark 8:27-29, Romans 8:1-17, 2 Corinthians 2:10-16