The intent of this blog has been for means to create a discipline within me to write, until a dialogue among others begins. A dialogue that examines, even challenges Christianity as we know it in America. My hopes of certain, have to do with the possibilities that lie within a new generation, one that will settle for nothing less than a vibrant, in the marketplace, Christ – centered reality.
A generation, unwilling to simply tweak the institution that church has become, rejecting the career goals that only shape a better industry, refusing simply to sustain some contemporary comfort zone for ones own personal and familial needs, though all that is expected.
The church as an institution is now 2000 years old, how may we capitalize on the potential of such a massive investment; remaining astute enough so as not to throw out baby and wash, but in no way keeping “sacred” practices, that sustain only a false sense of religion, long void of power and bereft of benefit to the nation that it once sustained?
If the purpose of this tool was discipline and dialogue, then I question whether the goal has been achieved? Was this blog simply a false assumption and would continuing the practice be religious at best? Or, has this “silent work” afforded only benefit to my own personal walk with Christ? That, I believe is what has really happened over these last few months.
Each morning I feel compelled to search my heart for any message that might be present in my spirit and then resting, only after I have fulfilled the sense of need to articulate that message, through this tool. This morning’s early prayer (not trying to impress) was centered around my desperate desire to afford God my entire being, so that the work that He has begun in me and by His grace nurtured over time, might see its full fruition…The Lasting.
Since that evening on January 3, 1973 when I fully gave my heart to Jesus, I have prayed that he would own all of my moments and use my entire life’s breathe for His purposes. Now 37 years +3 days later, I still find myself agonizing over my own “bowl of pottage” that is the sin that so easily besets me; the subtle desire, which in a moment takes priority over my thoughts of Him. The ridiculous trade offs that my selfish being is prone to make, just when a Kingdom breakthrough seems most imminent!
Oh wretched man that I am! Yet I will trust His grace, I will see the completion of the work that He has begun, I will afford Him access to the life He has sustained against a day He has promised…a city!
That’s the work of discipline!
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