COMMITMENT WITHOUT INTIMACY

I believe we are paying a hefty price for our five-steps theology---whatever the five steps happen to be. Our immediate programming has been the route of the proper "acts" we do which please God. If we add or subtract from these items, we are dubbed unfaithful.

I marvel at the low-grade lethargy among us when it comes to joining in praise of God. If God were physically present on the stage do we really believe we would have the monotonous and sparse-expressive efforts which come from 50% of our people?

No longer do we appear to have been weaned on dill pickles. Rather a large group appears to be drugged. Minds appear to be everywhere but intimately with Him.

I am highly encouraged at the sight of my elder to my left wiping his tears due to his love for God's handiwork among us. The smiles which stream throughout the auditorium are so engaging in family intimacy. However, the blank stares of teens or grandparents are as pins to balloons. Yet, all leave convinced we did church right?

Steve McVey wrote, In reality, when a person doesn't experience intimacy with God through Jesus Christ and he attempts to approach God through his religious acts, his deeds will be an affront to the perfectly righteous God who demands nothing less than perfection. Since none of us can possibly walk perfectly we might as well stay off the road altogether.

Yet many believers, who by divine sovereignty have been brought out of Egypt and miraculously placed on the King's Highway, have now filled their tank with the gasoline of religion and their engine with the oil of self-effort and think they are on their way to the land of victorious living. They are often making good speed, but what they don't know is that they are driving in circles. They are pleased with their performance, but don't know they are going nowhere fast.

I love variation in song tempo; the upbeat and the mellow. I am encouraged when the "one another" concepts are present in the assembly. But it does seem clear to me that we could take a cue from our African-American brothers and sisters and join in with our expressive hearts instead of our putting-in-the-time habits.

Commitment to the church without intimacy with God is just one more group wandering in self-effort circles in the wilderness of going nowhere.