The Blessing of Jesus.

[Mike Vande]

My blessing today is Jesus Himself.

When I was first saved, I was exposed to the teachings of certain ministries that were oriented around prosperity and physical healing. I read everything I could get my hands on by these guys. Being a new believer, I was kinda hoping things would work out for me the way they said they would. I wanted to be the head and not the tail, for sure. I wanted miracles and spiritual experiences to populate my life. I wanted to see God heal people and change lives under my prayers. And, oh yes, I wanted to live comfortably... shucks, opulently, while I waited for Jesus to come back and rapture me to Heaven, which I figured would be happening pretty quickly.

Well, as everyone who knows me is well aware, it didn't work out quite that way.

I figured out pretty quick that the whole prosperity thing was a sham. That wasn't hard, really. I had given my life to Jesus, but the faith thing says you need to take control of your world with your faith, and make it whatever you want it to be, which is taking your life back. And, the more I thought about it, the more flaws I saw in the whole scheme.

So, I stopped listening to those teachers, and started looking back to the Bible itself and spending time in prayer. My pastor was teaching the scriptures quite well every Sunday, and I learned a lot from him. I picked up a lot of scripture from the worship songs and choruses we sang back then, a lot of which were direct quotes from the Bible. But I give credit to the Holy Spirit for what I learned. He was showing me things in all that I read and was taught, guiding me, as scripture says He will, into all Truth.

Now unfortunately, at that time in my life, I wasn't very good at accepting people for what they are and letting Jesus have His way with them in His Time. That was especially true if they were, umm, annoying. My definition of "annoying" was, among other things, being disagreed with. And, the teachings of that genre being what they are, folks who believed that stuff had to correct anyone who disagreed with them or they were undermining their faith and the confession of it.

I got into several heated exchanges with faith/word people over their doctrines. These exchanges were enervating for me, all the more so because the things they did with scripture seemed so obviously wrong that I couldn't understand why they didn't see it.

These weren't the only folks I had tangled with over scripture. After seeing a film presentation about witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses, I had a session with two JWs on a street. It turned into a mutual head bashing with scripture. The encounter changed no one's mind, and I don't know about them, but I walked away from it wondering "why not?"

I started to think maybe I just didn't know how to debate these people who were so obviously wrong. Eventually I ran across different teachers who focused on apologetics, and I learned about what was wrong with the different Gospels folks were out there preaching. But the discussions I had with people about that stuff bore no more fruit than they had before.

Now, I don't want to question the motives or expertise of people who have become learned enough about scripture, the history of it's exegesis, and the doctrinal foundations of the church to become apologists. I also don't want to question if they are following God in what they do.

But I have come to believe that approach doesn't work for me, or a lot of other folks I see trying it. The apologists may be right about a lot of what they say, but I have come to suspect the debate approach encourages people to be more concerned about being "right" than "Christian", and leaves a lot of room for those discussions to be more about bending people to one's will than converting them to orthodoxy.

And, while it's true that the average Jehovah's Witness can turn the average Christian into a doctrinal pretzel in a few minutes, I think the ministerial approach to prepare Christians for such encounters should be similar to how bank tellers learn to recognize counterfeit money. When you've handled enough real money, a counterfeit bill becomes easy to detect.

After going members of several different cultic groups on several occasions, laying out all the reasons why they were wrong about what they believed, and seeing it change nothing about they what the believe, I have come to believe that teaching people scripture to beat cultists & heretics over the head with accomplishes little for either party, at least not in my experience.

Some apologists have said the church needs a reformation. I believe that. But the reformation I see a need for has less to do with scripture citations and theology than it does with reclaiming the reality of what it really means to form a relationship with God, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, through the Blood of Jesus. The scriptures are the foundation and walls of our relationship with God, but God Himself is the roof.

I believe it's the same concept that the Willow Creek people have said they are now realizing they've missed. You have to deeply disciple people in the Truth, and make them self-feeders of not only the scriptures, but of Jesus Himself. It's more than teaching people enough of the Bible so they can quote it. There is is a serious need for scriptural knowledge, but it's not the primary need.

A Rumanian pastor named Richard Wurmbrand was once asked which scriptures he used to sustain and strengthen himself through the 14 years he spent under torture and isolation in prison. He answered "None of them. The soul in extremity doesn't feed on scripture, but on Jesus Himself." I think that may be the essence of what is missing in modern discipleship.

It may sound overly weird and mystical to some, but the biggest need new Christians have is to learn to focus on Jesus so deeply that they are eating and drinking Him, in the way symbolized by taking bread and wine in a communion celebration. They need to fall in love with Jesus and get to know Him. Then they will recognize a fake without having to be told. That's the bottom line. If one don't become serious about their relationship with God, they will never know the difference between what's real and what's fake.

It's about knowing and loving Jesus, and His availability makes it possible. I thank God for that.

[Martha]

Thank you Mike. I got up this morning feeling really down both physically and spiritually. You've lifted me up with your message. I truly enjoy reading your blessing each day. So many of them have spoken directly to me.

I too, have problems with the faith movement and TV preachers. When people ask if I heard a particular TV preacher and I tell them I don't watch them they act like there's something terribly wrong with me. Now I know beyond a doubt that my relationship with Jesus is good and I just don't feel a need to listen to someone way off in another state (except Pastor Gary )

I don't know why we have to make something so simple as salvation so complicated. I shared with my son recently about when I was a child I had a rope swing in a tree in the back yard. I remember swinging and singing songs to Jesus and thinking if I could swing high enough I might see God. I believe that was the beginning of my relationship with Him. Very simple, child like faith, that I have gone back to at this point in my life. It really is quite simple. As you stated, personal relationship is what is needed and then build on that. I believe that my God is still just as close to me now as he was when I was a child swinging in the back yard. I also believe he accepts my songs of praise today just as he did then. It's really a matter of the heart.

Again, thanks for your daily blessings.

Martha