"Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him, so you will grow strong in faith, strong and vigorous in what you were taught.... For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body. and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe." Colossians 2:7, 9-10......"Can our hearts change from saying 'You're enough for me,' to, 'You're more than enough for me?' "......"If we're rooted in anything but Christ, what happens when we get uprooted?" Beth Moore....."Are we willing to surrender to God no matter what He says?" Francis Chan
Three questions. They pierce the heart. They pierce mine, and I'm sure they pierce yours. We can try to ignore them, reject them, or put them off, but they can not be gotten away from. They break through all of our profession and confession of Him and get to our reality in Him. Is He, to us, who we say He is? Beth Moore, speaking of the unbelieving Jews who rejected Christ said, "They didn't believe the God they said they believed in." To what degree is that so for you and me? The other evening, in our fellowship, we sang of how He was "more than enough" for us. His challenge to me, and through me, to us all was, is He really more than enough for us? Bevere's question arose from a deep dissatisfaction with the state of her marriage in its early years. She said she came to a place where she told the Father that if her husband and marriage never changed, she would believe that He was enough. The Spirit spoke a challenge to her heart. Could she enter into the place where He was not just enough, but where He was more than enough? To enter that place is to enter a whole new realm of wholeness in Him. She did. Can you? Can I?
Beth Moore's question probes as to where it is we really place out trust, our security, even our identity. Are they in Christ, or, in the many, almost unending "props" we have found to build our lives upon and hold them up? The King James renders Colossians 2:7 as being "rooted and grounded in Christ." We sing of Christ being the solid Rock upon which we stand, that all other ground is sinking sand. But what are we really building our lives, families, ministries and fellowships upon? How much do we talk of building upon the Rock of Christ, but choosing in the end to rely upon sinking sand? Where, in what and who do we really find our contentment, happiness, and well being? So many of us, especially in the Church, have placed our hopes in what has been called the "American Dream," the good life that this world offers. All our energy goes into securing it, and if we can get it, we hold onto it with all of our strength. Yet all of our efforts cannot keep our lives, families, ministries and fellowships from going through the hurricanes of life, the uprootings that are sure to come. When all that we have depended upon that is not Christ is uprooted, as it surely will be, what then will we do?
It may be that Chan's question hits our hearts more directly and powerfully than the other two. There is much in His Word that our human understanding struggles with. We are seeing this unfold before our very eyes today. Doctrine and beliefs that have been held since the days of the first century Church are being challenged and attacked. Hell. Human sexuality. Marriage. What constitutes holiness before Him, and much, much more. As Colossians 2 reads, He is a mystery, but He is a mystery that presents Himself to us in order to be known. He offers the treasures of wisdom and understanding to us, but it is wisdom and understanding that is consistent, and does not come from human reasoning, but divine revelation and leading. Chan asks how we can take the whole Word of God, not the parts we can agree with, or have no struggle about, but the whole Word, and come up with something different than what has come to called "orthodox" faith and belief? The Truth of His Word will challenge.....deeply. It will also offend at times, many times....deeply. He asks if, when it does, can we surrender to Him in it, trust Him in it? In those difficult, hard to accept places with Him, can we trust and believe in the goodness and greatness of God? No matter what He says?
Heavy questions. They can't be taken lightly, or gotten away from. How do we answer? Is He really more than enough? Are we really rooted and grounded in Him? Do we surrender no matter what He says, and where He leads? We can run from them. We can avoid them. But one way or another, we will answer. There may be a great deal of "rubble" to work through before we fully can, but I desire to do so. How about you?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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