What if...between chapters devotional

Today is a between the chapters of Proverbs devotional.

I like and record good illustrations.  They bring color to a sermon and stick a word picture in your head that makes you think and sometimes makes you squirm.  They bring a reality to life in a way to visualize it and usually are memorable to repeat to another.  I want to share a couple of them with you this morning that I came across last week.  This is the time of the year when there are a lot of Christian conferences and so I have been multi-tasking and listening in via online.

Illustration number one is putting God in a box.  I know that we are not suppose to put God in a box or put Him in a place to limit the unlimited but if we were able to put God in a box along with all of His attributes and then we proceeded to take out one of His attributes to throw away, what would our response be?

So let's take out of the box love.  I think there would be a great uproar because God is love.  It is what we admire most about Him and use to describe Him to others.  We would have to put that back in the box.

Let's try to take out of the box grace.  Another uproar would happen because God's grace is manifested in the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ.  God's grace is our salvation and the message that we share called the gospel.  We wouldn't have anything to say if grace was not in there.

How about holiness?  Well God is holy and one scripture says He is "holy, holy, holy."  We need God to be above all in this area and so we describe Him as holy upon holy upon holy.  He is pure and He is to be worshipped because of His righteousness of nature.

What about justice?  This one is the one that we take out of the box and it doesn't seem to get as much squawk from the society or even the church.  We seem to be able to take this attribute out and maybe leave this truth about God off of our gospel presentations.  God is just and He has a wrath against what is unjust.  We want a God we just don't want One who points a finger at us and says "This is right and that is wrong."  We would rather go with what we feel rather than what is fact.  But what we take out of the box regularly, away from God, is what is important for our salvation and our sanctification leading to an eternal glorification with Him forever.  What God says is who God is.

Illustration number two is similar in style about eliminating something but this is focused on the church.  What if we eliminated preaching?  How long could you do that before the church would get upset?  Probably just a week.  The minister was sick or some aspect of the service took the meeting in a different direction and took up the time.  If it stretched into another week, the congregation would get uncomfortable that something is not right if someone is not preaching.  A search committee would be formed to look for a new minister who actually did minister in this area of preaching.

What if we eliminated singing?  How long would the church stand for that?  Probably just a week again before you would hear about it?  Maybe all those who lead in this area were sick or there was some massive audio problem.  I think there would be a rectifying of the problem and we would be back to singing praise to God the next Sunday.

How about eliminating teaching like Sunday School?  Well at times this has happened because of weather but we would not see this as the normal for the life of a church.  We need those times in smaller groups to interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the Bible.  I am sure I would hear about it very soon if we didn't have a system of spiritual formation.

But what if we eliminated evangelism?  This was asked of a group of pastors in the illustration.  How many weeks could you go without talking about evangelism and the training to reach out with the gospel?  One pastor spoke up and said, "Ten years and counting."  Many churches are really thankful when you don't talk about this because it means work but it is some of the greatest work you would ever be a part of.  It starts with the giving of the message of the gospel and when the message is received it goes on to discipleship of a new believer in Christ.  We can sometimes eliminate in the church what is so crucial because of our comfort instead of looking to obey God's command.  

Two pebbles for our shoes this morning.  One in one shoe of our just God who gives us what is right and wrong and one in the other shoe of our active commission of reaching out with the gospel message from our church to the community.  Let's stop and take the pebbles out of the shoes so we can truly walk in the comfort of the Lord.  Let's pray.

"Lord thank You for the illustrations and word pictures You gave us in the Bible.  Thank You also for new illustrations presented to us at just the right time to make us stop and think to later act in a way that is true worship of You.  May we continue to give You Your position as God not just in love, grace and holiness but in justice.  May we not leave off of our lives and the life of the church an active voice of evangelism to those you put in our path and the community around us.  Amen."

Pastor Adam