I haven't been posting regularly...but I'm sure the handful of you that read my blog have noticed that.  I am having issues with the things that are in my heart matching my blog description.  The issue being that they don't match...at all.  The blog description says its an uplifting blog about God's grace and how we can find Him in and amongst every day life (or something like that).  But the things that have been on my heart I wouldn't exactly categorize as "uplifting."  Maybe toe-crunching or thought provoking...but not uplifting.   

I want to be uplifting, I truly do!  I see God in so many things, in so many ways that He never ceases to take my breath away.  But those are not the things I feel pressing on my heart when I sit down to write.  Do you know the feeling?  It is the feeling that there is an important message to convey.  It's like writing your children a letter for them to read when they grow up.  I have thought and prayed and really, really want to have something upbeat and encouraging to say but when I heard this poem in yesterday's sermon I knew that this is the message given to me:

Three Dollars Worth of God

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

— Wilbur Rees

   
I sat stock still in my chair after those words were read.  They resonated in my soul and I knew them to be True.  But the real issue isn't when we recognize a truth such as this one.  Recognizing the problem is not the problem.  The problem is when we shrug our shoulders and say, "I'm okay with that."  It is when we choose to sit in our pew and ponder the lunch menu instead of how the message coming from the pastor applies to us.  It is when we come into God's house dragging our feet wondering what we're going to get instead of coming to pour out our thanks for what He has already given us.  It is a comfortable, complacent, apathetic Christianity that resides in the hearts of many of God's people these days.

We love verses like Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  We like getting what we want, and we totally skip over the first part of that verse that says to "Delight yourself in the Lord...."  We want to forget about the last words of our Lord and Savior before He ascended into heaven that commands us to spread to gospel to everyone because it's not comfortable for us.  We want God's blessings but we don't want to seek Him because, well, we don't have time, Sunday is our only day to sleep in or we find church is boring, full of hypocrites or just "not for me."  

We take only a small slice of what God is offering to us and then we wonder why we don't feel His presence.  We wonder why our faith seems small and we are accosted by doubts and fears.  We cry out for God to answer us in our times of trouble but do not utter His name during times of plenty.  

And yet, He remains faithful.  He answers us, He loves us, He comforts us and He never leaves us.  If God is so good in those times when we choose to take Him out of the box we tend to keep Him in, how much better could He be if we sought Him with our whole heart?  How much more of Him is there when we submit to His will for our lives instead of seeking our own?  

If your "religion" seems dull and lifeless, if you are still reading this blog and have a growing desire to want MORE of Jesus Christ in your life then I have successfully communicated the message.  When we desire more of Jesus, we can rest assured Jesus wants more of us!  Why not give Him more of you and find more of Him in the process?  This is the only way we will ever experience revival.  It must start with us - with bowed head, humble heart and total submission.  May it start with me!


"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  Jeremiah 29:13  (emphasis mine)