Holy flashback Bibleman!!!! It came out of nowhere and with no warning. There we were talking about a simple meeting of men over their bibles and suddenly I was thrust back in time to all of the bible studies I can remember from my days in a church that shall remain nameless. My buddy at work said that at this meeting the question was put forth "What is our primary call as Christians?". Even as he said it I felt a cold cringe in my belly. The response?? Evangelism, of course (wave your flag and say hurray at this point). I couldn't stifle the laugh the burst out. Though not a full blown belly laugh it was enough to arouse my work mate's curiosity.
The response was such a throwback to a gift based (try giftocentric if you like) theology that I could hardly believe it. How can we continue to base things on what we perceive to be the best gift? How can we continue to marginalise people based on what God has given them to do? How long will we base our worth on what we do?? AAAaarrrrrrgghhhh (sorry, couldn't help it) I thought that by this stage in the game we realised that our primary call as a Christian, or even just a human being for that matter, was to intimacy with God. I don't remember God saying to Adam when he was hiding," Hey, Adam, I noticed the garden is looking a little messy, what's with that??" God sought out Adam from a heart for fellowship not an employer/employee relationship. Stating that our number one call is to evangelism sets us back into a religious mindset that produces competition, pride and more disciples with no clue about their relationship to the Father through Christ.
All that we do will flow out of our relationship, not the other way around. Evangelism will spring from a heart that is intimate with the Father and a desire to introduce people to Him. This will also be true of teaching, prophecy, helps, giving, wisdom etc.
Besides, if we are going to be like Jesus then we are going to want to do what we see the Father doing just like He did. How are we to do this if we are not intimate with Him?????
I'll leave it there. There is just too much I could say on this one.
1 comment:
Brad, that's excellently said. How easy it is for us as humans to be task oriented as opposed to relationship oriented. Our calling is to relationship with God. Yes we are are then called to many other things after that, but only after.
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