“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him”
This was Jesus’ message to Simon and Andrew—follow Me, learn of Me, pass through My refining fires, experience firsthand My nature and My message. Only then will you be able to be fishers of men.
And yet many of us were never taught to follow Jesus. We were instead taught “Fishing for Men 101”. It goes like this:
As a believer of Jesus, it’s your duty to get out there and fish. Pull in those converts. You don’t need to know God to do it, only this simple formula: Build rapport with your target fish. Be interested in him. Gain his trust. Wait…
Some religious people make all kinds of claims about God and what He endorses: a certain cultural value or political view, a specific theology, and, increasingly frequently, a dismissive conclusion about people who don’t comply with those views. But who among those “so-sure-of-themselves-people” even stops to ask God what He has to say?
I’ve asked that question of a few individuals before — people who are so entrenched in their “correct”, hateful stances that they don’t even see they are nothing like the Christ they claim to represent. Their answers were all some form of the same “We’re done here” rebuke:
“I don’t have to ask God. He clearly already commanded it in His Word.” The intimation is, ” If you were in right standing with God, you would know this, too”, said non-verbally with a parting prolonged stare, the equivalent of a gavel pummeling their bench of judgment.
I have come to hate that word, clearly. Clearly — enough said. I am right and you are wrong. End of discussion. Guilty as I charged. It is used by those who are embedded in self-righteousness, safety-in-numbers, corporate self-exaltation, and “outsider” judgement, dismissal and relegation.
They are so proud, that they no longer have eyes to see that many of those “outsiders” are actually “insiders” with God.
Many are meeting God all by themselves (“What, they can’t do that!”), and responding to Him, loving Him, even obeying Him. (“But we didn’t get to take credit for their conversions, or assign them to ourselves as their mentors!”) Many are sacrificing for Him, enduring the refiner’s fires for Him. Many, many, many people actually KNOW Him all on their own. (“Without interventionists?! Not possible! Clearly!”)
Yes, possible, and they actually LISTEN TO God. And HONOR God. And have given their lives to do with as He pleases. They are forging ahead in admirable and honorable relationships with the Holy Spirit of God, and are grateful for the poignant, humbling, sometimes-difficult, occasionally-painful, always-sublime PRIVILEGE of knowing Him.
So, to the Pharisees of present day, you “clearly correct”, self-assigned and self-promoted “ambassadors of Christ” …
Many of those who you disqualified actually ARE ambassadors of Christ. Because they DO think about God. They DO listen to God. They DO care about what He thinks, what He wants, what He says, what He endorses, and where He leads. They actually connect directly with Him as a branch to the vine.
You say they can’t do that? — They must connect to the humans that claim His name, they can’t bypass the religious institution?
Oh, but they can. And they are.
I ask those who already think they know everything of God …
“Do you ever think about God?” Oh, not what your religion says about God, not even what you have read in the Bible — Do you KNOW Him? If you can’t tell me what He has “spoken” to your heart and mind about a myriad of present-day questions and issues, that’s fine, that’s honest — just don’t claim that you already clearly know exactly what God thinks and feels about those issues.
If you haven’t cared enough about God to even ask Him, to wait as long as it takes to hear it from Him, and Him alone, then …
It’s time you stop demanding others comply with your views.
It’s time for you to push the “PAUSE” button of your religiosity …
It’s time for you to “STOP” …
It’s time for you to “LISTEN”.
I have thought about God and my own life’s existence
And it’s not like I’ve not been on my knees in repentance
Bigger than life and out on my own
I’ve come to these conclusions about God
I have thought about God when searching for solutions
Disappointment and cost birthing such confusion
Surrendered my trust to the truth, not a system
And to God
How can we walk underneath an open sky?
How can we say we have eyes and yet we can be so blind?
You have your race and religion and I guess I have mine
What about God?
I had thought about God when my own father was dying
I thought the idea of death and its timing
I turned the other cheek only because I was crying
Out to God
How can we walk underneath an open sky?
How can we say we have eyes and yet we can be so blind?
You have your race and religion and I guess I have mine
What about God? What about God?
How can we walk underneath an open sky?
How can we say we have eyes and yet we can be so blind?
You have your race and religion and I guess I have mine
What about God? Do you think about God?
You can look through the windows of a stained-glass cathedral
You can speak in tongues in a church with a steeple
Who holds the keys to your own heart’s temple
I wonder if it’s God, I wonder if it’s God
Do you ever think about God?
Do you ever think about God?
Written and performed by Rita Springer, “About God” from the album “Effortless”.
Someone I know has had an agonizing time trying to get a family member out of a foreign country. The specifics must be withheld, for good reason. Just know it has been a grueling, potentially life-and-death ordeal based on politics and power.
It’s a case of individuals imploring national government, the small guys rebuffed by powers that be, living conditions prime for contracting diseases, a divide of thousands of miles, travel restrictions, and complicated laws. Add to that finite personal resources of time and finances, and it’s been two long years of herculean efforts going nowhere.
Meanwhile, life must go on, including attending to other family and responsibilities, and when able, going to the same vocation-related meeting I do. Yesterday we were mid-discussion when someone rounded the basement stairway to join us. We looked up to see our friend had arrived.
Why is it that negative circumstances so often speak more loudly than positive ones? It’s as if they hoist megaphones to gleefully scream: TROUBLE! FAILURE! IMPOSSIBLE! LACK! RUIN! DISASTER! DEFEAT!
Their goal is to kill your hope, your faith, your expectations of good on this Earth we share, and thereby extinguish the life that could be yours.
On discouraging days, tune out the voices of cruel, mocking, arrogant circumstances — they are the words of an assassin — and refute deceptive rhetoric with truth:
God is a shepherd to the sheep. His ferocity is directed at marauding wolves, not his dependent charges.
To the vulnerable, he is gentle. He does not scream, he whispers. He does not accuse, he commends. He does not deprecate, he encourages. To the defenseless, he does not destroy, he builds. He does not take, he gives. He does not smother, he preserves. God does not kill, he creates…
Some days I can’t digest the day’s news; I know I’m at risk of giving up hope for something specific, or my belief in general that humanity is good. On those days I don’t partake in what damages my faith, and feed instead on words and stories of inspiration, beautiful music or art, nature, or memories of previous victories over fear.
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As for my confidence in a God of compassionate intervention, a God who can and will bring miracles to fruition in our lives, I oftentimes must “go it alone” to sustain my faith. When people (including some preachers and many, many Christians :) approach with metaphorical axes to hack at my belief in the mighty salvation of our God, I do whatever I must to protect what took so long to grow within.
Courage, faith, hope, love, and peace are precious. They are fine jewels. They are valuable gems. I must not let them be stolen, mocked, quenched, smothered, damaged or destroyed. They weren’t acquired in a day. They didn’t happen overnight. They cost me greatly. They were forged in the fires of affliction and injustice. They are gold.
I must do whatever is needed to sustain it, to persevere in faith.
Hebrews 10: 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.37 For,
“In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”
38 And,
“But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Across the world, Protestant and Catholic Christians are honoring the 500th anniversary of The Reformation, initiated by the Germany monk, Martin Luther. Luther also composed, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. His arguments challenged his time’s religious establishment, the status quo, the theology and hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the “middle man” who had positioned itself as gatekeeper to God. The Church required humanity to pass through its narrow gate, teaching they must earn access to Christ through good works as defined by the Church. Luther pointed out otherwise.
I’m not so sure that much of today’s Protestant Church, since its cleansing of human additives, hasn’t steadily morphed and currently harbors as much corruption as the Catholic institution Luther abhorred 500 years ago.
Is it not common to see increasing numbers of individuals, churches, and percentages of denominations present themselves as gatekeepers to God? Do they not require of humanity that they conform to their theologies, politics, and values in order to access God?
While all the while there has always been, and continues to be an unattended gate for any and all to pass through if they so desire …
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. Matthew 7:13
Words of Jesus: All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate, if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.… John 10:8-10
Luther’s rebellion against the Catholic Church of the time had a lasting impact — it altered the course of history. Time will tell what will become of the current Church.
Just because something is being done, even by a vast majority, doesn’t mean it should be done.
All you Martin Luthers out there who have the courage and wisdom to challenge corruption in The Church, bring it on. We need you.
Music credit: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God Words and Music by Martin Luther.Additional Words and Music by Matt Boswell. Performed by Matt Boswell On “Messenger Hymns, Vol. 2”
Throughout history men and women have tried to tame God. I liken it to damming a river to control the normal flow of the water. What’s possible with rivers is also possible in religion. A group of people can claim that a portion of the river is theirs. They construct dams to control the living water, pave a parking lot, pop up a building, and hoist a sign with a catchy company name. Let’s call ours Choppy River Church. The river is real, but already altered by the dam. Domesticated. Cultivated. Tamed.
Choppy River Church advertises, “Come whitewater rafting on God’s true river of life!” When you arrive, you’re handed a life jacket with the company logo, then shuffled to the formal boarding area where you step into a raft emblazoned with the brand name. Reps from the company man the rafts and guard the shorelines. If your raft catches an unexpected rapid and sends you off the man-made course, workers on the shore use long poles to push you back where they want you. The river is so controlled it no longer represents who God is.
When your ride on that short section of the river is over, you are expected to gratefully disembark and say complimentary things about the company. And its management. And the exciting river. Any honest reactions to the adulteration of the river are quickly met with disapproval from peers or company leadership. If you still don’t comply with the unspoken codes of behavior, you are summoned to a meeting for a stern rebuke. Those inclined to question or resist further find themselves evicted from Choppy River Church.
If that sounds familiar, you might think you were rejected from the river of God BY God. But that’s not the case. Not at all.
There is a river that extends far beyond the trifling range of Choppy River Church. There his river is unaltered by man. The water is unrestrained. Exhilarating. Powerful. Potent. Anyone is welcome at any time. People who gravitate to it are inclined to respect, love, and treasure the river. They bring rafts and ride the waters at will. Rafters come and go much like nature lovers come and go from the earth’s forests, deserts, and mountains—they leave it like they found it. Spotless. Pristine. Natural. Wild.
The river is available for all, but owned by none. Even those who work there full-time as whitewater rafting instructors don’t assert it’s theirs. Those who choose to frequent riverside buildings do so to exalt God together. And to support each other. Nobody aspires to subdue the river. They wouldn’t dream of exploiting it for profit or power.
They value it for what it is: Bigger than man. Mightier than man. Unpredictable and fearsome. But, paradoxically, also soothing. Calming. Restful. Healing.
Choppy River Church does not equate to God. They are not one and the same. A place that claims his name might be contrived, but he is not. He is infinitely more than a controlled, tamed, ineffectual river, and yours for the asking.
For two days a phrase has been on repeat in my mind:
“It’s hard for you to kick against the pricks.”
Finally, I remembered it in song form, leading me to listen to Johnny Cash’s familiar “When the Man Comes Around” with fresh awareness.
So, what does it mean, this phrase, “kick against the pricks”? An investigation yielded this explanation from “Got Questions Ministry”:
“It is hard for you to kick against the pricks” was a Greek proverb, but it was also familiar to the Jews and anyone who made a living in agriculture. An ox goad was a stick with a pointed piece of iron on its tip used to prod the oxen when plowing. The farmer would prick the animal to steer it in the right direction. Sometimes the animal would rebel by kicking out at the prick, and this would result in the prick being driven even further into its flesh. In essence, the more an ox rebelled, the more it suffered. Thus, Jesus’ words to Saul on the road to Damascus: “It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.”
Of the better-known Bible translations, the actual phrase “kick against the pricks” is found only in the King James Version. It is mentioned only twice, in Acts 9:5 and Acts 26:14. The apostle Paul (then known as Saul) was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians when he had a blinding encounter with Jesus. Luke records the event: “And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 26:14 KJV). Modern translations have changed the word pricks to goads. All translations except the KJV and NKJV, omit the phrase altogether from Acts 9:5.
The conversion of Saul is quite significant as it was the turning point in his life. Paul later wrote nearly half of the books of the New Testament.
Jesus took control of Paul and let him know his rebellion against God was a losing battle. Paul’s actions were as senseless as an ox kicking “against the goads.” Paul had passion and sincerity in his fight against Christianity, but he was not heading in the direction God wanted him to go. Jesus was going to goad (“direct” or “steer”) Paul in the right direction.
There is a powerful lesson in the ancient Greek proverb. We, too, find it hard to kick against the goads. Solomon wrote, “Stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path” (Proverbs 15:10). When we choose to disobey God, we become like the rebellious ox—driving the goad deeper and deeper. “The way of the unfaithful is hard” (Proverbs 13:15). How much better to heed God’s voice, to listen to the pangs of conscience! By resisting God’s authority we are only punishing ourselves.
Text credit belongs to “Got Questions Ministry”
“When the Man Comes Around” song credit belongs to Johnny Cash
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Cindi Gale 