You See Dry Bones

We often treat God like He isn’t even there.

When planting a church, everyone has an opinion. Some of these opinions are very useful. I read an email this morning from the guy working on our website which was loaded with good insight and ideas. Other opinions are not so good.

Sometimes, I fear the opinion.

I have gotten too far behind in my duties as a church planter and pastor because I have been afraid of what others will think of what I do. What is funny is, I always thought I was rebellious and cared little of the opinions others might have of me. Instead, I have actually been a people  pleaser. Think golden retriever. Beautiful dog who will do anything to please his master. You through the ball, the golden retriever will fetch it. You tell him to sit, stay, roll over, or play dead, he will. Sad how many of us are destine to roll over when told to.

It’s like the old saying you hear among sports coaches, “Do what the fans say, and you will be sitting with them.”

The great Apostle Paul (not the guy from The Beatles) once said;

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Oh boy.

Here is my modern day interpretation of that verse (Gal 1:10 ESV as it were):

It is not inherently bad to seek out wise counsel and get great ideas from others. However, if we know we have been given a calling by God, confirmed by the Spirit, and we ignore it, than we are living to appease men. We are living to gain their approval. If you look at my above “old saying” we could add to it,

…you will be sitting with them, in hell 

It sounds harsh, but I fear it might be true. When God has called you to something, the adversary (hardly worth mentioning here) will do all he can to derail you from that calling. He will throw all distractions and obstacles in your path. He will try and stroke your ego so the approval of men is attractive. 

Church planters need to be like race horses, without the broken legs.

We need to set our sights toward the prize, Jesus Christ. At that point, we need to put blinders on and run with reckless abandoned toward that prize. God may be invisible to us, but for all who have chosen to follow what He has called us to do, we must stop ignoring Him just because we cannot see Him. Otherwise, we have no use to follow Him at all, much less call ourselves “Christians.”

-Don-