Everything is this world, distracts us from the love and the presence of God. Yet he is always there and always wanting for us to fellowship with him.
And …. God has a secret ‘love language’ for each of us. A way in which he calls us out – and brings us into an awareness of his presence and his greatness!
For me, it is getting out into the mountains – this is where I almost instantly feel his presence – where I freely walk and talk with him.
I go with an expectant heart. The Lord doesn’t just invade my life and boom out his presence. No … when I’m in nature, my heart makes music and the Lord sings along. It’s like a perfect duet.
It may be the mountains or the outdoors or nature for many of you, or it may be while you are painting or driving or showering or sipping your coffee or any or all of the above, but the way in which He speaks to each of us will be very individual and very unique.
Because the Lord delights in our differences.
That is why we need to be gracious and understanding towards other believers who may understand God differently to us or even interpret scriptures differently to us. We are all coming off a different base. We are all relating to God in our own unique way.
And I think that this is great. It is part of the mystery of who God is. He is too BIG for our simple minds to grasp so we try and put him into a box….Our box of understanding…..And our box of understanding may differ from another believer or another churches box of understanding and that’s ok. God can handle it because He is a beautifully mysterious God.
As long as we agree on the fundamental basics,
God is sovereign
He is the creator God – He created the whole universe and he created each one of us.
He sent his son Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
He desires for each and every one of us to be saved and to be in a relationship with Him.
The main thing, is that we know who God is!
That we know the God that we believe in.
That we know the God of the bible.
That we know the God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
That we know the God who is LOVE.
If we can embrace the attitude that outside of the fundamentals, nothing is really worth arguing about, then the world would be a much more happy place.
Here is an astounding statistic. There are over 31 000 different denominations world-wide, each one creating it’s own constitution and each embracing its own traditions, ethos and biblical interpretations.
The thing is that these ‘points of difference’ are a result of the interpretation of man, the character of man and the interests of man.
God is still the same even if the vibe of the church is different.
This is all ok too. God looks at the heart of man and God is the ultimate and only judge.
What we are called to do is love each other, pray for each other and let God do the rest.
Here is a little glimpse into my life ….. I have been playing with the idea of studying Theology properly, for the sake of the blog. This is a me-thing. To make me feel ‘valid’ about my inspirational writing. To make me feel like I know it and can therefore tell it!
But the truth is that I only write about things that I feel God has shown me and inspired me to write. He has inspired me to read the bible from start to finish (my mandate for the year) and, quite miraculously, when I get to bible study group or a church meeting, the message almost always ties in with my faith journey. That is how God is in my life and it also explains the life and direction of this blog.
But it still doesn’t take away my insecurity and my need to validate myself. So I thought that I would put it out there in prayer and see if the Lord opened any doors to the realm of studying.
Then I met with a friend for coffee. We have a very similar understanding of God and His grace and His desire for the church. This makes our conversations energized and electric. We get each other fired up in a really positive way. We see the Greatness and Grace of God beyond the denominations and beyond the inherent imperfections of man.
During our catch-up, I mentioned that I was thinking of doing a course in Theology – to give me more credibility. His was less than encouraging – which is very unusual for an encourager like himself. ‘Theologians just seem to love to argue about theology or push their theology on anyone who will listen.’ He said. ‘And what good is that to anybody.’
Then he used this beautiful metaphor to explain how he sees the church (all denominations and all believers).
‘The church is like his precious jewel. Each of us make up a different facet. Each carved by the creator. Each incomparable. Each reflecting a different facet of who God is. Together as a whole, a beautiful sight to behold.’
Suddenly it all made sense. This was what I needed to hear. The Lord had sent him to help me understand. It is not about the theology, the facts or the education.
It is about my relationship with the true and living God and my relationship towards others.
We will only FULLY know and understand the theology when we meet the Lord face to face.
For now, we need to trust in Gods wisdom and guidance: –
when we read the word
when we listen to a message
and when we relate to one another.
In the New Testament, Jesus gave the disciples a new command. He said ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ He did not say that this command replaces the 10 commandments but he said that it is a NEW command, one that magnifies the 10.
This means that we are not just supposed to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves’. (We probably don’t love ourselves enough.)
We are to love like Christ loves.
We are to love the church as Christ loves the church – all of the church.
And we can only do this with God in our heart and the Holy Spirit as our prompt.
When I was reflecting on my friend’s explanation for the church, I did a little research about diamonds and I found this amazing statement.
‘The cut of a diamond greatly affects a diamond’s brilliance; this means if it is cut poorly, it will be less luminous.’
So if we make up the facets of the diamond and we are all God’s creation, why are we not shining brilliantly.
Because we are greatly influenced by the world around us, the people that we hang out with and the places where we fellowship. We are not poorly made, but we are marred or broken by these external things.
But even still, we need to keep the main thing the main thing.
We need to reflect God and his love.
If we argue, fight, judge and dismiss (because we think we are better than), we will hardly be a great reflection of God’s love. We will not create a great shimmer at all.
That’s why we need Gods special ‘love language’ to speak to our hearts and top us up with love.
So that we can be magnificently luminous. All in our beautiful, individual way. All because of Gods great love for us!
Let’s celebrate God and enjoy our differences.
Let us love as Christ has loved.
That is a whole lot of love!!!