So I was talking to a friend the other day who is very new to faith. She had just bought a Bible for the first time and I asked if she had read it yet.I was so excited for her to dig in and to begin exploring and learning. Her reply was one that took me a little off guard. She said "Not yet. It's a bit intimidating." This was not what I was expecting to hear.
Usually when I get something new, I want to unwrap it and use it right away. The excitement usually gets the best of me. However, as I thought about her statement it hit me and my response was this, "The Word of God should intimidate everyone. if it doesn't there is something wrong with you."
The more I thought about that conversation, the more truth rang in my heart about it and convicted me. If I look at the Bible as more than one of the books on my shelf or the thing I read in the morning each day and instead truly look at it as the inspired word of the God of the universe - man that rocks me a bit.
I have so easily looked past the first word that appears on the front of many that I own: "Holy". I have read the words inside it many times and let it touch my heart and change my life, but can I honestly say that when I pick it up I think of it as something more than familiar? I think for me, and probably many of you, it has become to familiar. An old friend of sorts that we go to take comfort in and learn from, both honorable and desirable things. But it should intimidate us as well.
The words in it are the words that God himself chose to share with us to mold and shape us in to who He created us to be. The words have the power to literally change lives.
God spoke.
To me.
To you.
GOD SPOKE!
And we have those words at our finger tips. Amazing? Yes. Intimidating? Heck YES! And it took a simple phrase from someone who is at this point exploring what it means to have a relationship with Jesus to remind me of that.
I am thankful for the reminder and the glimpse of God's words through the eyes of one seeking. It changed me.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Warning: "Soap-box" issue at play.
Bubbles. When you are a kid they are one of the most mesmerizing things you can play with. When you are a parent they are cheap and hours of fun for your kiddos. Winning! (not in the Charlie Sheen sense of course) My favorite was to watch the really talented people who could blow a bubble within a bubble. Even if you popped it - there was still a bubble. Cool!
At one point in my life, many many years ago (yes - I am old), I remember watching a movie called The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. He had a disease that caused him to risk death if he came in contact with germs and therefore was place in a sterile "bubble room" to live. He even had to be in his bubble if he went outside for fear he would contract something that could end his life. To live secluded from other human touch and contact with the outside world was what he needed to survive.
Some of you may have heard people talk about the "Christian bubble". This phenomenon takes places when Believers (those who have decided to make Jesus Lord of their lives and accept His free gift of salvation) decide that in order to survive in this dirty, sickness filled world - they must seclude themselves from all things that could contaminate their Christian walk. Christian books, Christian music, Christian clothing, Christian friends, and the list could go on. Nothing that is not "of Christ" is allowed in if we can at all help it. It is to dangerous. In fact, I loved the bubble. It took time and effort on my part to create this safe haven and it was amazing.
I took part in the purging of all my Cd's that were not "Christian". I surrounded myself with the "bubble" and it was good. All my friends were believers, all my music spoke of the One that I worship with my whole life, I had plaques and reminders everywhere I looked of the One who is most important to me. Great! Awesome! Good for me! Except I slowly began to realize that the story I was telling with my life only had listeners who had the same story. I was preaching to the choir, so to speak.
Now, I do believe with all of my being that one of the things I am called to is to disciple and spur on other believers in their walk with Christ. But I began to see the walls of my bubble and started to feel very claustrophobic. I began to realize that I couldn't think of the last time I had a spiritual conversation with someone who didn't share my love for Jesus, the last time I had had personal contact with someone diseased and dying. I began to see that although my life was sterile and as uncontaminated as a life on this earth can be - it was not the life that Jesus led and therefore calls me to as one who desires nothing more than to be like him.
In fact, I slowly realized that Jesus had great disdain for people like me in His day. Those that wanted nothing more than to immerse themselves in their religion and not let any of the "sinners" in to the bubble they so carefully created for themselves. I began to wonder at what point "Christian" became and adjective to describe the "things" I surrounded myself with and ceased to be the noun that told others who I am and the verb that described how I live my life. I began to hate my bubble and want desperately to escape it.
I remember one particular day, driving down the road listening to my favorite Worship band on the radio and heard the Lord ask me how I could possibly relate to the lost and dying in this world who have the same passion for music that I do if I didn't speak their language. I couldn't name secular bands. I didn't know secular songs. It was that day that I turned my car radio to a non-christian station and there it has remained for the most part for the last several years. I decided to learn a new language for the sake of being able to open doors with other music people and hopefully share Jesus with them at some point. I had popped the bubble.
At the end of the movie I describe above, the boy decides it is worth losing his life to be in contact with the world. And so he does. He leaves the protective confines of his sterile sanctuary and braves the germ filled outside world. And his reward was more than he could ever have imagined. (you should really watch the movie some time)
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 says this: For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
How about you? Are you in the bubble? Do you need to get out? Ask God where to poke - I promise He will show you.
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