After that time in Hughes Hall, Dawn and I became very good friends and started dating. Well, actually after 3 years of dating (once I got up the nerve to ask her out) we got married. We just recently celebrated 30 years of marriage. The time in our life right now is finding ourselves as empty nesters. It is a different type of relationship. We’ve had the kids in the house most of those 30 years and now it is just the two of us, most of the time. We are finding out that passion for each other is still there and it has grown deeper through the years. We are also finding that our passion for each other grows deeper more each day and we long for the time that we spend together. We enjoy the evenings sitting in front of the fireplace with a fire roaring, watching TV, or working together out in the yard (well she enjoys working in the yard I just do it to be with her), or going for a ride in the car on a trip. We love being together and find that when we are a part even for the day we miss each other and long to be together.
As I read the Word of God I see that is the kind of relationship that the Lord wants to have with each of us. As I wrote in my last blog, I believe that His Church has lost that passion to be with Him. We are so caught up with ourselves that we have lost the passion to be His Church. We have lost the passion in worship. We have lost the passion of just loving God and loving others. The things of this world are taking priority in our lives.
If you remember I referred to John 17:14 last time where Jesus is praying asking the Father to NOT take us out of the world, that we wouldn’t create some sub-culture that is removed from the world. He sends us out into the world. We are to be in this world, but not of this world. Like I said last time we have reduced Christianity to the things that we don’t do anymore so that we aren’t worldly! We call worldliness external things, as if somehow Christianity is an external behavioral modification program. However, the last time I checked, it was far more than that. It was an internal heart transformation program. God transforms the human heart which then results in us probably stopping patterns of destructive behavior. But, it is not about what you wear. It is about the condition of your heart. But we have removed ourselves, and thought, oh, no this is a big, bad, evil world. But, if you read the Bible, which is a real novelty for Christians; if you do that, you will discover that what Jesus calls worldly. Let me just list a few here; gluttony, envy, greed, gossip, evil desires, slander, adultery, anger, rage, malice, chauvinism, sexism, racism, injustice, unforgiveness, bitterness; conditions of the heart. So, Jesus says, I want you to be in this, but do not lie, do not cheat, do not steal even if it is just someone else’s reputation, do not be sexist, do not be racist, do not just let injustice happen and stand by. He says, it wants you to be ‘in it’ but not ‘of it.’ You need to be formed according to a different pattern of the world. You think differently, you act differently. It is not about what you are wearing necessarily; it is about the condition of your heart. But we thought, “Oh no, the big, bad, evil world; I have got to come out from amongst themest and be ye separatist, overtherist, in King Jamest Englishist, of courseist! Because that is what Jesus spoketh.
So what we have done is we have built a defense fortress around us to protect us from the big, bad, evil monster of the world. We just do not want to be like those worldly people, so I have got my defense fortress around me and it is just us four and no more and we are just hanging on until Jesus comes again! If I could just not sin until you come, that is all I want to do! I have just got to try to be good until you come, because that is the extent of my whole Christian life. Where is the passion for the world? Where is the passion to see souls won for the Kingdom? Where is the passion for the Lord? Can you imagine what my marriage would be like if I did that? If I created a defense wall from Dawn because I didn’t want her influence in my life. I didn’t want her problems; I didn’t want her to have control over me. I didn’t want to influence her life with the love that the Lord has placed in my life. What kind of a marriage would we have? Where would the passion in our lives be? Especially at this point in our lives.
I think I’ll leave it here for now. There is still more to say about our passion for the Lord. I believe that we need to get the passion back in our lives. Let me encourage you to take a look at Matthew 5 where Jesus says that we are both “Salt and Light.” Both of these are agents of change. We can’t be agents of change if we are locked into our “artificial social constructs that we call church.” That isn’t why we were created. That isn’t why God put His love inside of us. We were created to be agents of change. More of that next time. Until then search the Word for His Passion. God loves you and longs for that relationship with Him. Find that passion for Him.
Pastor Rob
