Wednesday, May 28, 2008

THINGS NON-CHRISTIANS MIGHT THINK ABOUT

One of the things I try to do in parts of my communication at Memorial is to help our people think as seekers think. While God nearly didn’t find me, now I can say I’m so glad to have had the experience of looking for Him. Thousands of ideas cross our searching minds. I wonder if we church people forget or maybe didn’t experience “the search”.

  1. I didn’t know the Bible had a message. I thought it was a gift eighth-graders got at graduation.
  2. I didn’t expect to find new life. I anticipated simply additional stress on my already-full calendar.
  3. I had no idea of the body-concept of the church where we each become a fitting piece to the productive puzzle….where we actually belonged.
  4. I had no vision of church beyond a street address in a building.
  5. I had no consideration I would find encouragement there. It never occurred to me. I deemed it a boring ritual where we were all nice to have put in 45 to 60 minutes instead of being at the golf course.
  6. I did not know God actually worked in believer’s lives. I thought He bossed from heaven’s balcony by barking out orders and swatting the bad guys.
  7. I didn’t realize Jesus on the cross was more about blood and guts than a plastic figurine on a dashboard. It just never occurred to me.
  8. I didn’t know prayer was an important relationship with Him. I thought it was being extra-religiously good.
  9. I didn’t know I was really sinful. Comparatively, I always came out in the top tier. I required his death.

On the list continues. What I want you to take in is the fact that seekers want to know God. I’m convinced there are huge quantities of them. But they don’t even realize what it is they are trying to find. He’s the One holding the goodies while guys like me were just wondering how it is He might fit into our busy lifestyles. If we can just get them to the banquet table, He will fill them with Life of which they never dreamed!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Getting them to the banquet table???? That sounds like a daunting task. I think that it is a little easier to swallow if you consider that he has given us our meal "to go". We are able to bring this wonderful feast to our neighbor and sit with them at their table. What thinkest ye?

Shawn M