Deeper and Wider part 1
My grandma likes to talk about Spiritual things with me. And I'm all about that. I say it all the time, I'm not going to try to convince anybody of anything. And I'm certainly not going to argue with anybody. But if you want to know what I think about the things of God... you know... love... then I'll tell you. In fact, I once had somebody ask me if Jesus and my son are the only things I actually take seriously. (Not COMPLETELY accurate, but pretty accurate.) So when my grandma wants to talk about Spirit things... like I said... I'm all about it. But we always seemed to find ourselves in the middle of the same "problem." Which is, the deeper you go... the deeper you find out you CAN go. The more questions you ask... the more questions you think of. And I know there are a lot of people out there who are NOT like that. There are people out there who know what they know and are perfectly happy with what they know. That's how most denominations start: Somebody has a revelation, and moves away from what came before. But most of the time they plant their flag in that revelation and stay right there. One of the most important "labels" if you want to call it that, that I've ever heard is when my pastor described himself as a "truth seeker." And since Jesus IS the Truth (and the Way, and the Life) I like that a lot. The trick is to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. To not lose what came before as we continue onward and upward. 2 Peter 1:12 says it like this, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth." And that's what my grandma is so good at. She's read the Bible more times than anyone I know. So she has what is, in my humble opinion, a STRONG foundation. When she listens to someone preaching and they mention an Old Testament story, she knows exactly what they're talking about. And then, because she has that foundation, she can go down the road with them into their new revelation of that old, familiar story. Now, listen. I'm NOT saying you need to read your Bible more. That's between you and your personal conviction. What I'm saying is... there's so much more available to us than we know. Exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask for or even think about. The way that leads to life is straight and narrow. But it is also deep and wide. The river of life is deep and wide. And we can stay on the surface if we want to. I'm not against people having something that works for them and being happy with it. There is no condemnation in Christ. But there's so much more. SO much more. Its like the principal of 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold. Thirty ain't bad. And if you're going from zero to thirty... man, thirty looks REAL good. But I don't want anybody to miss out on anything. I want us to have the FULNESS of God. The FULNESS of love that is available to us. This life is so much more than just eating, and drinking, and paying bills. Its relationship. Between Creator and creation... and between you and me. I have a lot to say about this pressing on into the fulness. It might be a book here at some point. But for now, for the next few days, I'm saying you don't have to settle for what you've got. Because you've got a lot more than you think you've got!