Saturday, May 06, 2006

Pushing out the sides of the box


Wednesday, my friend & worship leader Dan had lunch together (Thanks Dan). During lunch, one of the topics of conversation was "some of the outrageous things God has asked his people to do" and how our society would look at them.

In the evening, our other worship leader, Dave, talked about personal worship, the rules that the Apostle Paul (Saul) grew up under and how, with those rules & expectations, it is so easy to put God in a box. Then he asked us was are we living expectantly or with expectation, looking for God to show himself to us.

First, lets look at a couple of the what we may think of as "outrageous" moments in the Bible.
  • In Gen 22:1-14, Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac. Not a "Focus On The Family" moment by any means. In fact, if someone told us they were going to do this because "GOD TOLD ME TO", you'd call the police, have them arrested and their child put into foster care.
  • In Isaiah 20:2-3, we see God telling Isaiah to walk around naked and barefoot for 3 years as a sign against Egypt and Cush (Northern Africa). Just to give you our view of that, I was downtown on the Mall shuttle a few years ago on the way to work and saw a guy stripping off his clothes and throwing them on the awning of the store he was in front of. My assumption was that it was not a command from God and "wasn't quite normal".
Does God ask us to do "outrageous" things these days? I think he does. I don't, however, think we listen well. I recently heard a podcast where the speaker was telling about meeting a guy who's mission was to become homeless to minister to the homeless in that city.

So, if you are asked (or prompted) by God to take a risk, how can you tell if it is from God or not. One of the best ways I know is to check it out against what God says in the Bible. Not to see if it has ever been done but to see if it is against what he says. Then, check it out with your family or church or a friend.

I decided I want to live on the edge of my seat... Take the box off my head. LIVE EXPECTANTLY!

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