So here we are to explore what baggage we are carrying on this pilgrimage and why we carry it, whilst we know we will not need it.
The first part of this baggage is our Own Thoughts and Opinions, and they are indeed the heaviest kind and the most destructive, we can carry. In aviation parlance it is known as carrying dangerous goods - like explosives.Have you heard these remarks from yourself or other people?
· I thought that ....
· If I had known that ...
· But I was taught to ....
· Nobody told me .....
· I will never .....
· It does not make sense to me ....
· Beware of him .....
· This theory is not proven ....
· It can't be God talking to me ...
· That is clearly wrong ....
The other is our opinions :
· This team is the best ...
· I don't think it will work ...
· I like ....
· You cannot trust ....
· Beware - it has happened to a friend of mine ...
· These people are .......
· These churches are ....
· I have been through this, and let me tell you ....
· Take my advice ....
These are the basis of our thought processes and they control what we will believe and what not and what our attitude towards things is.
Most of these thoughts and opinions are based on our perspective of our previous experience, and you can bet, having seen only one side to this with our limited vision, we are mostly wrong.An easy example to demonstrate this is just listening to a person discussing why his team lost the last match. His team was the best yes, but ....
We get so wound up and intoxicated by the strength and exuberance of our own knowledge and wisdom that we cannot see the wood for the trees.
Let us look at some examples from the Bible.
God wants Moses to do this exciting, historical exodus, but rather than listening and doing he has this argument with God relating to his previous experience and his pre-conceived ideas :
Exo 4:10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
Exo 4:13 And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.(Get somebody else)
God's Angel spoke to Gideon :
Jdg 6:13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
Jdg 6:15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
The prophet ELisha tells Naaman to wash himself on the Jordan River to cleanse him from Leprosy - here are his opinions :
2Ki 5:11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
2Ki 5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
Jesus Christ tells Peter that he will deny Him and that He is about to die :
Mat 16:22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Mat 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Mat 26:35 Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.
You and I go around with the same types of opinions, thoughts and apologies, and we miss the blessing which is laid away for us.
If we wish to have an exciting walk with God, we need to forget what we have learned because God moves in mysterious ways.
This luggage withholds us from a free and exciting walk with God.
Next time before you utter that stereotyped excuses, first think and say - why not. Someone once said - People dream of impossible things and say - How can that be, but I dream of impossible things and say - Why can't it be.
Just a personal thought from my own experience :
I have been to many Churches in my life, and when joining each Church, I had to learn fast what the policies, rules, beliefs, do's and don'ts of that Church is, and why all the other Churches are wrong. Then I used to cling to that framework for life and death, believing it to be the do all and end all of my salvation, only to go to a next Church and find that that was all wrong, and here your next set of beliefs are .... and so it went on for almost 50 years, until I came to the realisation that these opinions only add to the luggage I carry. So these days I am travelling quite lightly with regard to these. There is nothing true in life and in the Church, as the truth is only in Jesus Christ - so much so that Pilate in desperation asked Jesus Christ - What is truth? Here is a learned man who thought he knew the truth, but in this crisis hour, he realises that there is no such thing in human affairs.
We need to know that these pre-concieved ideas is a built in mechanism to protect us from the dangers of this world - to not fall into a trap someone else fell into, but there are no danger in serving God - so let go and let God have His way !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment