Just Like Television and Computers

9/6/2002

Friday Evening, September 6, 2002

Ever wonder why so many folks SO jealously cling to rituals, traditions, and programs in their christian worlds? Is it perplexing to you how comfortable some can be with form, liturgy, and pastors/priests/clergy positions in their christian attendance-based homes and religious facilities? Ever wonder WHY things so NOT in the Bible have such an appeal to so many, and they can’t even IMAGINE what life would be like without these things?

Many have just never questioned the lack of fruit and the unBiblical nature of what they’ve always done. And besides, “everybody’s doing it.” Some follow after sensual stimulation (they LOVE the adrenaline rush of the music or the “sermon”), some after the social stimulation (lots of friends and family to have picnics with and meetings, and maybe to find someone to marry). Some follow after a salve for guilt (rather than falling in love with, and obeying Jesus), and some are there, as in the Rotary Club and other social organizations, to make business contacts. Some hang around to please their spouses, or grandma, though they have not died to themselves or even considered doing so. Okay, we all know these things are the reason Jesus said that the “road to destruction is broad” even amongst those who say, “Lord! Lord!”

But, apart from all of that. WHY do even some HONEST disciples of Jesus slump into the programs, pre-determined clergy and clergy control? How could it be so easy to allow that, and even defend the practice? Clearly, only in ignoring multitudes of Scriptures, and totally overlooking the Life and practice of Jesus and the Apostles He Trained, could we ever consider clergyism, ritual, liturgy, programs, and traditions of men. How do we fall into all of that so easily? How did we plummet to the ritual christian form of pre-determined day and time of meeting, and even pre-determined “odor of service,” when Life with JESUS was nothing like that, and IS nothing like that?! How do we give in so easily to the dress-up attendance game?

It’s exactly the same reason the vast majority of parents in the western world LOVE the television (and more recently the Internet)! Most parents, if they were totally honest, can’t even imagine what life would be like without the television and computer and their associated videos, movies, sports, and children’s programs and “surfing” the “Web” and hiding in “discussion lists” and “chat rooms” and “social media.”

How is this television and computer thing similar to why we so easily give up on True Christianity, as Father described it in Acts 2:42-47 and 1 Corinthians 12, and how Father described it in the Logos and THE Life—the Teachings and Life of Jesus?

YOU figure it out.

Here’s a hint: Consider what your life, and the lives of your children, would be like every day—if the television and computers were totally GONE from your home. Picture your days. Picture honestly your evenings. What would daily life be like if we were to deal with the children as real people, and take total responsibility for their lives, education, time, character, and futures.... In this world, we find out who WE really are. We can’t hide behind the “baby sitters” of passive junk. If the job’s not getting done, WE are exposed! : )

Now consider what it would be like in the world of greatest Importance—the Purposes of God in His Bride, the Church: GONE with all of the clergy (automatic “leaders”—in a living room, or “building”), GONE with the programs, GONE with the “automatic meeting times” and predictable or pre-planned “sermons” and “worship.” Take away the props and gimmicks and mental and emotional pacifiers, and the illusions of creativity, relationship, and value created by the props and clever pre-planning... and live Life face to face, every day, in every way. BE like Jesus, in all of your time and decisions and relationships, rather than living in two, three, or four separate worlds (unChrist-like, when not interwoven with the Saints and His Purposes, every day) of occupation, phamily, recreation... and “church.” No props! Just every day—“WHO WE ARE”—with nothing to hide behind to make us feel like we are something, or know something, or are “Spiritual” simply because we’ve added a few “good” things to our “personal” lives we’ve never truly abandoned into Him. In this World, we find out who WE really are. We can’t hide behind the “baby sitters” of passive junk. If the job’s not getting done, WE are exposed! : )

Let GO!

That sounds, to most, inconceivably SCARY!

Just as with removing the television external and emotional simulation, and stimulation, when we are no longer in the iron lung of religious form and hierarchy and scheduled religion, we FIND OUT WHO WE ARE! Scary...BUT WONDERFUL!!!

If we TRIED...we might find that He meets us there on that Holy Ground, the place of trust and worship and taking responsibility for our minds and hearts, and for those around us. We just might find out that He is ALIVE and LOVABLE beyond words, and ready and ABLE to work His Wonders in your life and your surroundings, changing your life and “bringing many sons to GLORY!”

“...CHRIST in YOU, the hope of GLORY!” (Colossians 1:27).

“Rivers of alive water gushing from the inner man, for all who truly believe!”