Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Summary of September 2007 prayer day

This is an interesting time in our church and in my life. We have a great amount of change going on with the exit of our long time pastor, Dave Ridder. What does God want me to do during this time? It seems that I have so little control over the path that the church will take and over the direction of my own ministry.

After contemplating this question in prayer, I've discovered once again that God's plan for me isn't real complicated. No, in fact, it is just as simple as always. God wants me "to live justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly" (Micah 6:8) with Him.

I need to let God be in charge!

I can see through this that thee are 3 main mistakes that the religious make in their religiosity. First, they seek information instead of obedience (walk humbly).

Next, the religious substitute symbols for actions of faith (live justly). Often this is a substitution of my tradition in place of an action that someone else my require. It is law over grace.

Finally, the religious will seek routine instead of empathy (love mercy). Rather that taking the time and energy to feel and reveal true empathy the religious person will categorize situations a try to meet all needs will a ceremony rather than by actually reaching out to the hurting person. This is truly an act of laziness, as well as an response to our inability to meet all the needs before us. When the later is true we demonstrate a lack of either faith that God can work or a lack of humility that God is capable without me.