So I was reading today in 2 Cor. 9 where it talks about generosity. I don't suppose it would be too far a stretch to say that the generosity of which Paul speaks could refer also to spiritual gifts. According to my understanding, shaped by 1 Cor. 12-14, our gifts are not there to benefit us. Rather they are there to give us something to express our love through, that God may be glorified through the edification of the church. And let us not forget that these gifts are given individually for specific reasons by the one who has the lives of us all laid out before Him. Now we get to our passage in 2 Cor. 9. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times ,you may abound in every good work" (v. 8). In other words, in order to complete His good work, God, who has every moment and every area of our lives laid out before Him at all times, has given us all everything we need to do what He wants us to do. There is not a time in our life when we are deprived of any source needed to use our gifts as God would have us use them, for His purposes. Verse 11 states, "You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God." "In every way" is an interesting statement. What is included in that? Is it only physical enrichment for physical generosity? money, housing, stuff, physical labor, etc? Or would that include those areas that are inside ourselves? To the bible communicator, would God deprive you of those things necessary to appropriately address a situation? Isn't such a conversation or sermon a tool He provides to bring Himself glory through the edification of the church and teh evangelization of the lost? Would He deprive Himself of glory? So doesn't it make sense that He would provide the understanding and the means of communication that are necessary to do so? Will He not work in the listener that they might understand also? So why do we worry? Shouldn't we rather seek the mind and heart of the One who knows what He is doing? He has promised to provide what is necessary for us to bring Him glory. So, where we seem to lack, we don't really lack, cuz God doesn't, for some reason, mean to glorify Himself in that area, but rather another. He gives us gifts. Why is the provision for the physical always pounded, while not giving thought to the spiritual? He provides the means to glorify Himself within us more, cuz without the inside, how will we be what we should be outside? To the communicator, God promises to give what is necessary to communicate effectively. Will we neglect His provision by not acknowledging it? It's His work. Don't think it's your own. Otherwise, you provide for yourself from your empty storehouse, and ignore God's abundance.

So what's the deal with church? Why are yawns more common than Amens? Why is easy believeism practically becoming its own denomination? Why are the churches with the biggest bands and most up beat music and entertaining programs the churches with the greatest attendance? Is it the fault of the pastors? the people? the culture? I believe, yes, in different degrees in different circumstances. Here is a commonly overlooked initiator (common because I've never heard it as a reason before, so common to me): Noise. Noise is a business term that describes anything that interferes with effective communication. In many fundamental churches, the truth is preached(properly is a different issue), but the people are not phased. One aspect of this noise is daily information overload. Most people in our congregations are involved with business on a daily basis in one form or another. Information is thrown at us from every direction constantly. No longer is work highly physical labor, but rather mental. We get information in every internet page we visit. We get it in every meeting, email, letter, business document, conversation, newspaper article, and radio broadcast. Also, on the way home information is given through music, signs, dashboards, construction zone. At home it is given through answering machines, grocery lists, children, husband/wife, etc. The world is busy. The world is full of easily accessible and forced information. So it's no wonder our minds turn off when we go to church. The church also throws information at us constantly, even before the sermon. By the time the service gets to something that matters, noone cares anymore. The pleasant church surroundings and cushioned pews provide a nice atmosphere in which to zone out. The church member hears enough information to parrot when the time comes to act spiritual, but the rest of the week is spent in the "real world," as it has been made to be known. Little of the reality of Christ is known. The constant intake of information that doesn't need to be taken to heart trains a person to hear the Word and accept it only mentally. The heart is not trained to respond. Therefore, the people cannot understand a vibrant relationship with Christ. Therefore, they die, or remain in their death. So when will the church decide to cut out the unecessary noise and get to what matters? 3 services on Sunday, and one midweek, all complete with announcements the people already read in the bulletin, 400 verses from the hymnal that noone cares to understand, special music that rarely raises an eyebrow, 4 prayers that noone really means, a sermon that the people are too tired to listen to by then, an invitation that is more honestly a nap time, another clincher hymn, and then dismissal, which the people actually look forward to. Why do we tire the people out for the sermon? They're already tired of receiving information by the time they get there. "Prepare their hearts" - how do you prepare a dormant heart? Do we get bigger upbeat music? No, that just covers and excuses the problem at hand. So do most contemporary tactics. I say, according to the character of the church, start with cutting down the unneccessary noise. Who cares if that's how we've always done it. The sermon has just becomes another addition to the service. It is not longer the desire of the people. It is a "have to, cuz that's what we do." More later concerning church.

How is it that we can think of Christ apart from emotion? Can we think of a lover apart from it? What is "first love" love? I like how John Piper put it: it is the love that is known between a wedded couple on their honeymoon, when they can't bare to be apart from each other for even a moment. If they're not wrapped up in arms, then they are lost in their eyes. Are we told in Scripture that we are supposed to lose this love for Christ? Then how can we think about Him without emotion? Is it because our considerations of Him are purely scholastic? Is it because we have given our love to another, and left little for Him? Is it becuase for one reason or another we have obstained from the full relationship that He wants to have with us? When Christ spoke with the woman at the well, He mentioned that He would give her "living water." Contrary to popular exegesis, "living" refers not to eternal life, but to vibrant, rushing waters. He compares the life He wishes to give to His own to the raging, bubbling, turning and tossing waters of a rushing river. But why is it that fundamental Baptists especially have traded this promised life for stagnant, bitter cisterns? Why have we left our first love? In order to leave one thing, one must go to something else. What have we sought in the place of Christ? To whom have we given our deepest love? I think, ourselves. This makes sense in context with this thought. Eternal life grants us not only length of life, but quality of life as well, which quality begins revealing itself in the mortal flesh. To love Christ, to abound in such a relationship with the one who calls His chosen the "dearly beloved of [His] soul," to be overwhelmed with His living water, is to enter into the quality aspect of eternal life. To love self is to retain the length of eternal life, but to deny the quality of it. Therefore, pride equals misery when one considers the life Christ gives. Not that we love Christ to gain abundant life, for to do that would be to miss the boat completely, living in the world of stagnant self-aggrandizement. To love Christ is to at the same time be "for Him" in every way shape and form, to show His splendor. To think otherwise is to lack love all together.

Let's discuss love again. Why is it so hard to love people that we really don't get along with? And yes, "not getting along with" and "love" are two seperate, sort of unrelated ideas. Personalities clash. It's a known fact. There's not much one can do about that. But, we can set our pride aside and love them anyway. We see love as though it is something that needs to have handles to hold on to. Like, there has to be some substance to which it can hang on. We can see something of the nature of love by the classic and undermined example of God loving us. Did we provide God's love with a handle (I am NOT talking about "love handles." On that note. . .)? Rather our nature does everything possive to push his love away from getting ahold of us, that He might love us, let alone depriving Him of a handle. Therefore, we ought love as God loves. "Uncoditional" is the term used, but what the stink does that mean? It's in our head. It's in our heart. It has nothing to do with those we strive to love. To have Christ's mind and heart is to with all our feeling, emotion, drive, desire, compulsion, longing, be for the sakes of others. Love is not a feeling that comes up at situation altering (greatening and quenching) moments. It is a state of existence that comes only to those who find it with God in their life in His immediate, yet, invisible presence. If one does not find that their above inward state characteristics are for God, then it will never be for man no matter how hard he tries. The unsaved have no real understanding of love. They can't find it, for to find it, one must gain it from a relationship with God. Let me clarify something - a relationship with God is not there so one can love. One loves so he might inflame the fire of God's popularity and image of beauty and majesty (aka glorify). So the question is - why do you want to love? Why do you want to better yourself? Why do you want to be successful in ministry? Why should you care about any of this? If the reason ends with anything other than God's glory (that's not just a textbook answer; it's never known by a 2 second soul searcihng) then your throne is occupied by vanity. WHY is a wonderful question to ask yourself throughout life. The answers come short of His glory all the time. But it's a needed thought.

I admit, it's been a while. I also admit, a part of me misses writing on this stupid thing. Only a small part though, which, to be honest, is shameful. The whole reason I started doing this was to lay out my thoughts on various subjects that I stumbled across, and, while doing so, provide a means of edification whether it be through the mind of a reader, or through personal spiritual and rational developement put to use in every day situations. But, here I go anyway. But I warn the reader: I do not wish that this motive should change. In fact, I would purge the more-or-less statement of -or-less in reference to wanting to do it for personal enrichment, whatever that means. This is a warning because my unfiltered thoughts can sometimes lack tact to a great degree, so read at your own risk and take the statements merely as unfiltered thoughts containing no desire to offend negatively. Only positive offenses allowed, that is, those offences that draw us nearer to our Lord. But, acknowledging the presence of an audience, I will do my best to limit those offences cloaked with negativity. That's all for today. This post is a good example of my ability to say so little in so many words.