Guest Blogger: Second Hand Experience
Yo, here's an email I received from one of our youth guys - man I love it when passion is poured out like this. Kudos to you man. - Ray out.
I've been thinking about what you wrote in your blog; when you implied Jesus was our best friend.
He is isn't he?
My best friend is the creator of the universe.
He's our best friend, father, teacher, counselor and God at the exact same time; something purely sensational. But he isn't in the way you view your peers as your best friend, he's more of a "best friend - celebrity". We have heard all about Him, the way he can raise the dead, cure the blind, and we've even been so far as to see him work in others. I've seen people healed, it's awesome. But when i say that people say; "yeah, I know people who know people who have seen legs grow longer in front of their eyes."
I know people who know people.
Now, I think it's fair to say that 90% of people at our church have devoted their life to God. I think it's fair to presume that of that 90%, 50% are completely immersed in their faith; they pray nightly and have no inhibitions in the way of their faith. But there's still that other 50%. The problem this 50% have, is that when they are worshipping, they feel his presence, but they don't feel it directed at them. They are merely in the room. Just witnesses. Bystanders. A friend of a friend of a great auntie's daughter will tell them that God has the ability to make people, in our day and age, with no medicine, drugs or hidden contraption be healed of cancer. We believe it, but we aren't 100% influenced by it.
God is great. 2 Corinthians 1:21 says "now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. he anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come."
He put his Spirit in our hearts.
Think about that for a moment.
His holy spirit can resurrect the dead, heal the blind, the sick and heck, make the universe. His spirit is in us. It doesn't take Stephen Hawking to realize that the spirit of God, through us, combined with our faith, our will and our love for one another gives us the power to move mountains.
This email doesn't really have a point, it just annoys me when people say ; "I can't." because they can.
When Jesus healed that blind woman (finding the verse will take 5 minutes and I'm lazy) he said "your faith has healed you."
Faith plus Holy spirit are both in everybody. With it we can move mountains, so we won't have to rely on "second hand experiences".
We spend to much time focusing on how much we have sinned. worrying, that our heart is bad. God is good, he is in our heart, therefore our heart is good. "I will give you a new heart and out a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone.." Ezek 36.26.
The heart is central. It matters - deeply. And our heart is good, as we have a new heart now, of God. There is a widespread belief among Christians today that the heart is desperately wicked - even after a person comes to Christ.
it is a crippling belief.
and it is untrue.
We have given our heart to God, we have a good heart. We now need to devote our life, our time and our praise to him, so we no longer have second hand experiences.
Cheers, Ben
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