Genie [God] in a Bottle

People talk about putting God in a box, bag or backpack so that you can pull Him out when you need Him but have the option to stash Him away when you feel like doing something questionable or when you just don't want Him around. I grew up viewing God as a genie, stored away in a bottle until the time I would rub the bottle to make my wish. 

Please God I really want to win the lottery. God, could you make that girl like me. And sometimes when we are truly desperate we resort to bargaining with God. Dear God I know I haven't talked to you much but if you help me get this job I promise to give you more of my time or God if you do this for me I will start praying/tithing/reading you word more.

The specifics do not really matter, the general idea is the same throughout; God is being used as a genie, there to grant our wishes [prayers] but set or cast aside until there is something that we need or want. When did we start viewing the creator God; the maker of the heavens and the earth; the one who sacrificed His only Son to save us and restore our relationship with Him, when did we turn God into a magical being that we store in a bottle to be summoned when we wanted Him? 

It's not that God doesn't want to answer or prayers and meet or needs but He wants a relationship with us. His desire is that we consume Him and we let Him live through us. We bring nothing to God, we come empty handed and broken and it is His desire to give us life. There is no bargaining with God, He has already offered us everything, we have nothing to bargain with. From God, through God and to God is everything. Even if we think we have God confined to a bottle, box or compartment He is not. God is everywhere and it is an illusion if we believe we can confine Him. But God has given us the choice to allow Him into our life and to live through us. 

It is time we break the bottle that we have created in our minds and fully surrender to God. Once we do that God will work through us to fulfill His will and we will have the privilege of being used by almighty God. We may not win the lottery, be financially blessed or have our worldly desires fulfilled but we will have life and that life will be abundant and more amazing then we could ever imagine. So join with me and break God out of the compartments that we think we have put Him in and let Him have all of us. 

Weekend Christianity

Sunday morning comes and there is a good chance you will be going to a building to have
your “church”. According to www.religioustolerance.org and average of around 40% of
Americans reportedly attend a Church service regularly whereas only about 8% stated that they
rarely or never attend. Jesus Christ used 12 regular people to change the world, why is our
country in a downward spiral if 40% of the people are attending church? The problem, in my humble opinion, is that only a very small fraction of that 40% are fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, the rest just make an appearance on Sundays.

According to studies and surveys conducted by The National Sleep Foundation, A.C. Nielsen Co and various other phone surveys the average American spends 46 hours a week working, 56 hours sleeping, 28 hours watching T.V. and just over 10 hours each week in their vehicles. That leaves about 48 hours left out of the 168 hours that are in a week: start adding in playing on the internet; eating and preparing food; talking on the phone; spending time with your families and there just isn’t much time for God so you make your appearance on Sunday morning and think you are all good. How can you combat all that time spent in the world with 2 hours on a Sunday morning? How can you possibly expect to grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ if you only make an appearance once a week for an hour or two? How would your relationship with your family be if you gave them the time and energy you give God?

My church home offers something almost every night of the week to grow and connect and serve and yet out of more then 1,000 attendees only a small fraction of them attend the other events and often times it is many of the same faces that are seen at the different events. What are you doing, what am I doing, what are WE doing to encourage the Sunday morning Christians to venture out into the church community that exists on more then just Sunday? You cannot stoke a fire once a week and see it grow, it has to constantly be around a fuel source. Take an ember out of a burning fire and you see it burn out and die, true it may still be warm but the fire is gone but all that needs to be done to reignite it is for it to be place back within the fire. When you see dieing embers, your church family, go and bring the fire to them or bring them to the fire but don’t let them die out and become cold. The time is now for us to ignite our community, our state and our country. People need Jesus Christ and he has commissioned us, his fully devoted followers, to reach out to those around us so let’s roll.