I met Bob & Linda Brown over 22 years ago, and I feel so blessed that even though time has passed and we no longer live near each other...Facebook has allowed us to keep in touch.
I enjoy reading his posts and love it when I am able to have him on my blog to share some of his insight!
Allow your hearts and minds to be open to hear what he has to say. Please enjoy the read!
Jeremiah 30I have to say a word this morning to those who are church folks because they have always been church folks, and that’s just what decent people do. I have to say a word to those of us who have hung around religion all of our lives, but we have a dirty little secret. And that is that we’ve never let God get close to us. We’ve never permitted God to penetrate through the thicket of our defenses and get up close and personal with us. We are hiding from God. We are hiding behind the walls of respectability and conventional goodness, we are even hiding in the church.
It is possible to put on a good front, but not be in fellowship with God. You don’t pray. You just depend on looking good. You don’t read God’s word and ask what it says to your life. You just depend on your camouflage. You don’t witness in a positive way to others. You just hide in the church and think you have them fooled them all. But there was one you have not fooled. And He will pursue you, chase you, and if you will let him finally He will catch you. And when he does it will be an indescribable love.
Do you know that you can keep all the rules and still be out of fellowship with God? Do you know that you can be on the rolls of the church and sitting in the pews, and still be hiding from the living God? Are you aware that we can put on the mask of looking good, that we can pose as pious and proper, and still be out of touch with the heart of God? We try to avoid that intense, personal, real, face-to-face encounter with the living God. And that’s hiding. That’s hiding. That’s camouflage.
You see, if we don’t pray, we’re not in touch with God. We’re just putting on a mask. If we don’t study His word, we’re not putting ourselves in His path. We’re just holding Him at arm’s length. And, most of all, if we’re not putting ourselves on the line in some kind of ministry, if we’re not willing to risk ourselves out on the front lines, then I suggest that we’re trying to look good rather than to be good. And it’s camouflage. It’s just blowing smoke.
But I have good news. God is pursuing us, too. God is pursuing not only the blatantly sinful and the rebellious, God is also pursuing those with hidden sins and secret faults. God pursues a love relationship, even with those who would hide from Him under the cloak of respectability. God does not want mere names on church rolls. God wants fellowship with us. That is what He pursues, and He does not give up.
It’s time to quit running, and it’s time to come out of hiding. It’s time to quit running from God and it’s time to set aside the camouflage. We don’t have to run any more. He is going to pursue us. Wouldn’t it be easier and so much more satisfying just to let Him catch us? We cannot hide any longer. Just maintaining self-control is not going to get us anywhere. He is going to find us, wherever we go. Wouldn’t it be easier and so much more satisfying just to open up to His love?
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I hope you enjoyed the article.
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