It seems that mankind struggles with staying up. From forgetfulness, to lack of money, to discouraging conversation, to bad news, our minds and hearts are raped day in and day out by strong intimidations to our spirits. This is all the design of dark forces to keep us from attaining the wonder God displays and that our hearts long to encounter.
How is it that even we church people, with Bibles in hand, can consistently waver in this yo-yo society of up one minute and blue the next?
One place we might look is why we have Bibles. The Word of God is not just for giving us correct answers. It is consumed with answers which would lead us to know God. J. I. Packer wrote forty years ago, To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception.
Scriptures are provided from God to know Him (Jn. 5:39). He wants a relationship with us; not a winner on the Jeopardy show. Packer continued, What makes life worth while is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has, in a way that no other man has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?
Only reciting the books of the Bible in order, or believing in your church over another, or pointing to a ministry one supports may all be in place while the Christian lives dried up with no eyes for wide-eyed wonder. We possess a Life within us that won't quit; it is eternal.
Rote has had a hand in dulling the senses of once godly believers. We must reawaken day by day to the new, to the awesome, to the vast and unexplored regions of Holy Spirit glory found in Jesus the mind-blower and routine-wrecker.
We aren't in need new churches. We are need of lively members of the body. These will, in turn, resurrect withering churches to the original state of wide-eyed wonder.
Recall Acts chapter 2 where it is said that the new converts kept feeling a sense of awe?
I'm saying the true church still has that feeling.
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