Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I Can't Help Myself
Mark Lauterbach looks at the old and new covenants and finds the old covenant somehow more appealing. He talks around it, but never quite gets to the essential point as to why such is the case. The old covenant leaves us in control, the new covenant requires that we give up control to God.
It's funny despite promises and evidence that if we let God take care of things, things will be better than we can possibly imagine, we cling to control with all our force of will. Lauterbach lays out this goody:
If you were an original Star Trek fan you will know one of the essential themes of the show - that man was built to strive - as much fun as that show was, it was wrong about that. Man is built to rest and leave the strife up to Him for whom it is no effort.
It's funny despite promises and evidence that if we let God take care of things, things will be better than we can possibly imagine, we cling to control with all our force of will. Lauterbach lays out this goody:
This is the error of church growth. It leads us to think that the key to the church is finding the right external form. Power is hindered by the wrong form, power is unleashed by the updating of the church to new forms. No -- power comes from the Gospel and its being applied. Tradition or "hip-ness" are not the issue. There is not a whit of power in going ancient (candles and dim lights, formal attire) and there is not any more power in going cool (graphics and urban decor, jeans in worship). Neither matters.The external evidences God's work on and in us, but God has to produce those externalities, we cannot, and if we do they are false, misleading and ultimately disappointing.
Ps 46:10 - "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (NAS)The key to finding God is not in the effort, but in the lack of effort, it is in putting down the strife and resting in the arms of the Almighty.
If you were an original Star Trek fan you will know one of the essential themes of the show - that man was built to strive - as much fun as that show was, it was wrong about that. Man is built to rest and leave the strife up to Him for whom it is no effort.
