Educated Beyond our level of Obedience
Over the years of growing up in the Church, I have often heard it prayed - "Lord, we want to know more about you". -- 'Lord, show us what to do' -- 'Lord I just want to obey you' -- and that list could go on. A number of years ago, I heard someone say .... '
Most Christians in the United States are educated beyond their level of obedience'.
Ouch ! I'm afraid they are right. We can even quote 1 Samuel 15:22 "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams", and yet still go right on walking past, or putting off what we know to do.
Why is it that we twenty-first century Christians have such a difficult time with obedience? We talk a good game. i believe we have good intentions. We make promises to change. But the difficulty continues.
It seems that we believe that once a person is converted, that everything from that point will 'take care of itself'. But it doesn't does it? Our churches are full of extremely well 'educated' Christians - who know the Bible - who are 'involved' in every ministry program the church has to offer, but are still living on spiritual milk. I heard someone say, our 'cradles are full' of baby Christians.
For some reason, we have never really learned OBEDIENCE. Psychologists tell us that we learn best by doing. So obedience is a DOING act not a KNOWING act. Could it be that we have never fully learned obedience because we have not learned it by DOING?
I recently read a short article by David Watson – Missionary and Disciple-Maker in India and around the world for many years. The following paragraph caught my attention.
“People ask, “Why don’t we see church planting movements in the United States? It is because we read God’s Word, but are not obedient. We amass knowledge about God, but we don’t do anything with our knowledge. We say we read God’s Word inductively but we usually stop before we get to the hard part: obedience. Until we read God’s Word and obey it, we will not see church planting movements in the United States.
Obedience and sharing must happen within the next 24 to 48 hours. If too much time passes between reading God’s Word and obeying it, we disobey God and establish a habit of negligent disobedience in our lives.”
So if we learn obedience by DOING, I guess I better start doing! But where do I start? Let's do this: God 'shoots you thoughts' all day long.... "Call Jerry", "Send an email to Alice", "Stop by and say hi to Betty", "Go read a passage of scripture", and so on. But how many of these do we 'obey'? Will you join me, by DOING these IMMEDIATELY when God brings them to your mind? It will be the start of learning obedience. I will have more to say on this in future blog postings.
For those who are already DOING, please help those of us who are still 'stuck'. You can walk with us, show us and 'teach' us . Help us each to be an obedient river.
I
Most Christians in the United States are educated beyond their level of obedience'.
Ouch ! I'm afraid they are right. We can even quote 1 Samuel 15:22 "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams", and yet still go right on walking past, or putting off what we know to do.
Why is it that we twenty-first century Christians have such a difficult time with obedience? We talk a good game. i believe we have good intentions. We make promises to change. But the difficulty continues.
It seems that we believe that once a person is converted, that everything from that point will 'take care of itself'. But it doesn't does it? Our churches are full of extremely well 'educated' Christians - who know the Bible - who are 'involved' in every ministry program the church has to offer, but are still living on spiritual milk. I heard someone say, our 'cradles are full' of baby Christians.
For some reason, we have never really learned OBEDIENCE. Psychologists tell us that we learn best by doing. So obedience is a DOING act not a KNOWING act. Could it be that we have never fully learned obedience because we have not learned it by DOING?
I recently read a short article by David Watson – Missionary and Disciple-Maker in India and around the world for many years. The following paragraph caught my attention.
“People ask, “Why don’t we see church planting movements in the United States? It is because we read God’s Word, but are not obedient. We amass knowledge about God, but we don’t do anything with our knowledge. We say we read God’s Word inductively but we usually stop before we get to the hard part: obedience. Until we read God’s Word and obey it, we will not see church planting movements in the United States.
Obedience and sharing must happen within the next 24 to 48 hours. If too much time passes between reading God’s Word and obeying it, we disobey God and establish a habit of negligent disobedience in our lives.”
So if we learn obedience by DOING, I guess I better start doing! But where do I start? Let's do this: God 'shoots you thoughts' all day long.... "Call Jerry", "Send an email to Alice", "Stop by and say hi to Betty", "Go read a passage of scripture", and so on. But how many of these do we 'obey'? Will you join me, by DOING these IMMEDIATELY when God brings them to your mind? It will be the start of learning obedience. I will have more to say on this in future blog postings.
For those who are already DOING, please help those of us who are still 'stuck'. You can walk with us, show us and 'teach' us . Help us each to be an obedient river.
I
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