Thursday, 6th September 2007
How many of you have seen the familiar scene where a person is teaching another person to dance, and because the other person does not keep in step, the first person gets his foot stepped on.
In the same way, we also need to keep in step with the LORD, and not to go ahead of Him, or fall behind.
One of my cluster leader's favourite verse at the moment is Psalm 32:8, where the LORD says ......
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
The very next verse tells us how to we can be guided with His eye...
9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.
In order to be able to be guided by His eye, we need to keep in step with Him. We are only "eye to eye" if we keep pace with the LORD. We should not run ahead of him like the horse, or fall behind like the mule.
I tend to be like the horse, always eagerly wanting to get things done. And as a result, end up stepping on people's toes...
... or end up outside the will of God.
Like when I decided to attend NCC by myself on the morning of 5 August (which I blogged about here)
Which brings me to another excerpt of the DVD compilation called Humorous Bible Illustrations, which I blogged about back in January 2007. This one is entitled "The Unforced Rhythm of Grace".
2 comments:
Hi Bro.
Yes. As much as our God can use a donkey be it dead (as in Samson’s case) or alive (as in Jesus’ case), He certainly would not want to lead us and guide us like one, as you’ve rightly pointed out.
I felt compelled to share this little thought with you as I’ve been quietly observing how the ‘Aftermaths’ unfolding in your lives for the past months as I read your blog. Maybe the choice is no longer just about to go to the right ie. to leave or to the left ie. not to leave your church but instead to just keep in step with Him to consider the other 3rd and 4th options? And all too often God has more ‘doors’ than you can open fast enough. You just need to stay rested in His love and tango in step with Him and you will see door ‘c’to ‘z’ open up to you. Bro. you are on the right track.
A little background, I am from NCC. Have a similar experience like yours with my previous church albeit with lesser fireworks than yours! : ) Pastor Prince’s calling has always been to preach Grace unpromisingly and sometime even to the extreme. Very good and effective to help some of us like myself and yourself to be shaken out from our deep-seated mindset in our mixture gospel-that is Jesus’ finished work + a little of our sincere effort. And often the end result is exhilarating and liberating for us and we always ended up like the Samaritan women being so Jesus conscious and start to preach the good news on the roof top – thus upsetting the establishment and ruffling some feathers in the process. Again, you are the most radical case that I’ve seen so far. As such, I can’t help but to feel that the detractors in your current church may see you hero-worshipping my pastor rather than just preaching the good news of Grace. I truly believe you are doing the latter.
Maybe one possible solution to persist in sharing this new perspective of the age-old gospel truth of grace with your folks is to be able to use an ‘unoffending’ medium. A medium that goes beyond their prejudices and that the Lord can touch them with. One such preacher that I know who’s thrust and emphasis is very much like my pastor is Andrew Wommack which incidentally does sound like your typical regular Methodist preacher. Hmmm I mean he is a very methodical and systematic preacher with a very clear expository teaching style and yet nothing short of radical, passionate and anointed preaching of the finished work of the cross just like Pastor Prince!
Hopefully Andrew’s sermons will be a middle of the road kind of link to bridge the chasm of understanding of your folks especially the leadership, before their can dare to approach Pastor Prince’s messages without any reservation. Also this will also prove that the gospel revolution is truly universal and is not proprietary to NCC or Joseph Prince (as my pastor has often mentioned to us). You can follow the below link to Andrew’s collection of sermons and the best thing is they are all free! The latest recommendation will be a good intro to his ministries, very powerful on the unconditional love of God:
http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/1054
Last but not least, “Be obedient to those leading you, and be subject, for these do watch for your souls, as about to give account, that with joy they may do this, and not sighing, for this is unprofitable to you. “ (Hebrews 13:17)
His abundance of grace will enable you to do so brother and one day I believe all of us will come to the unity of understanding of the ‘length, the depth, the width and the height of His love for us in Christ Jesus!” Amen!
Shalom
Dougtheman
Thanks Doug.
Will definitely check out Andrew Wommack's sermons.
I firmly believe that God has no favourites, so what He has done in your church, He can definitely do in mine too.
I suppose the time is not right yet for 2 of the pastors (not so much the leadership, because my take is that the response is mixed) to embrace grace teachings, but it will definitely come to pass.
Take myself for example. I was a traditionalist for more than 30 years who was against tongues and lifting of hands. If God can change a stubborn old goat like me, I am sure He can change anyone, as nothing is impossible with Him. Amen?
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