Ok, the past couple of months have been sort of tough. Everything has turned out well, despite me, but still a rough couple of months. When that happens, I emerse myself in Christian radio, ministry devotionals, Scripture reading, practice more spiritual disciplines. Seems like I have stretched out this bout of sudden devotion longer than any other time. But it has been a weird couple of months. I won't get into it, but covet prayers for myself and particularly my family.
Anyway, while driving back and forth in the Great State of Oklahoma, I listen to BOT radio and even listen to alot of programs that I would have never listened to before last March. However, I am soaking it all in. It's good stuff, for the most part. I don't care if Charles Stanley isn't as expositional in his preaching as some wish he would be, he's still great to me. Chuck Swindoll has some good stuff. Even though I am not sure I would accept a dinner invitation from MacArthur, I listened to him off and on and he has had some good stuff too. So all in all, Christian radio (at least the station I have been listening to) has been a benefit to my walk and growth in Christ.
But I am a hopeless skeptic.
I guess when the station replays the same programs several times during the day....and guys like me are on the road several hours a day to hear them repeat, you notice things you didn't pay attention to the first time. That plus I am a hopeless skeptic.
I was listening to Focus on the Family. Not a huge fan, but not a naysayer either. They had Kirk Cameron on interviewing him and others for a new Christian movie coming out this fall. After all the talk, I began to wonder something.
Honestly.....
If everyone salvaged the marriage, kicked the habits, cleaned up the entertainment and became reverent to parents, would James Dobson care if they had a personal relationship with Christ?
I know his anwer....but I am not asking for the pat answer but a deeper question based on what I hear. Everything is about well adjusted families....well behaved children and faithful parents. But Jesus is sort of peppered into the conversation here and there.
I don't get it. Not that I am against well adjusted families or in favor of elicit porn on the family PC.....but what about the Gospel? I haven't gotten any better from someone else telling me the right way to behave. In fact, when I am told that, I tend to find loopholes or fake it, in order to appease and still get what I want. Sorry. It's facts. But I am better.....but not in a measurable way based on my efforts. I am better SOLELY because I know Jesus and He is working miracles in my life (I call them miracles because I am a case for the files), I focus on Him, our relationship and everything else I am not conscious of....compassion, faithfulness, good habits, kicking bad ones....seems to happen without my notice until I look back and usually as a prompting from Him when I mess up bad, so I don't become too despondent.
That's a whole different enchilada than what I hear on Christian radio. I hear about the Gospel and I hear Jesus peppered here and there....but the message is essentially how to live a good life. Buddhists teach that too and most are probably better than I am.
Is that the point? Could it be likened to a health show where the focus was on low blood pressure but only occasionally pepper the discussion with diet, excersize and relaxation? How can anyone truly be good, essentially good, unless they are changed from the inside out? How can that be done without a radical relationship with a Power able to effect the change in cooperation with my will? How can it be done without some (or alot) of humility?
My relationship with the Man who lived, died and rose again....created heaven and earth and everthing in it....just for me....that is my Gospel. That is the good news. And it is the only thing that has the power to change me. Believe me, no one else can and I won't otherwise....period. Ask anyone.
And I am not ashamed to say that you can have the same thing I have. I don't care how far fetched you think it sounds. You aren't that smart anyway :-) And you do need Him. You aren't good. You just play that on TV. You are messed up and need a mircale too. In fact, 'success' could be the only thing standing in the way of much needed spiritual chemotherapy. We all need Him. If we can't see that, hell makes tons of sense.
You may say Christians are all hypcrites. True. Probably not as big of one as you have been, but very true....that explains our need for Him.....and it explains your need for Him too, rather than proof against His existence.
He loves me and if He loves me, He loves you too....but you have to accept His free gift of that relationship, with empty hands. There is nothing you can do. You can patch up all the scars and scratches in your life and still destruct and gain nothing. Dobson puts the cart before the horse. First, call on the name of Jesus. Call Him LORD and Savior. Accept His gift of new life, entering into this wonderful relationship He offers.....THEN Focus on the Family and never without Focusing on Jesus first. Otherwise, you are just pissing in a fan.
Sorry about the language. I could have changed it, but then I'd rather just work on straightening that out without editing, if that makes sense. Call it a unorthodox spiritual discipline. My tendency to pretend to be somone I'm not is about as strong as yours :-)
