Sunday, December 29, 2013

WHY GENERATIONS STRUGGLE WITH PAST ONES

This is my opinion.  Not that my other posts weren't.  Regarding those, though, I did make a somewhat concerted effort to give some substantiation to the thought.

This one?  Nope.  Just an observation.

Why does every generation seem to struggle for and need to establish its own identity; church or otherwise?

I no longer believe new generations with their consistent stretch for the latest and greatest is the story.  I think God is the story.  I believe it is God who brings in the new ideas which bug the older of us so that we will quit making our established routines a lesser god.

My mom was telling me this week about how much things have changed from when she was a younger woman.  She said all of the women wore gloves and hats to church. That caused me recall the announcement at my church in the 70s forbidding women to wear pantsuits.  All trends, of course, are made up by social culture and not Bible revelation.

So why these generational adjustments that arise like clockwork from one to the next?

It seems that man has a habit--a very dangerous habit--of taking the trend of the moment and developing a new god from it.  It is not so strange that God would declare that we are new day by day.  Yet, man in his habit-forming nature, finds security in controlling the moment in order to avoid walking into the new and unknown.

One of the deadening factors in the early church was formation; holding to a form of godliness with no power. Form has always been a central issue of every church generation.  Those who refuse to adjust wither...every time.

Generations struggle with the past ones because fearful/controlling man tends to believe that whatever is working now will be what works later.  Not.  God will not be confined to man's best concepts.  He will break out the new in the next generation.  The good news is we are as young in the Spirit as we choose to allow...II Cor. 4:16-18.

We can always be a part of the current generation in Christ!

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