Mixed Emotions
The last several weeks at Bay Area Baptist have been spent in large part preparing for the beginning of a sermon series on spiritual growth from the book of Romans. We have invited our community by handing out over 10,000 personal invitations, made announcements at every church event for the last month, and done our best to invite friends and family that do not attend church. As the pastor, I have done my best to explain the purpose of this series as well as why I think the subject matter applies to every individual at every stage of spiritual development. I believe that both the Bible and simple observation would bear out that most people do not live the lives that God intends for them because they have either never entered into a relationship with Him or because they have not grown in that relationship beyond salvation.It has been of great interest to me to see the mixed response of those that have learned of this series and to understand the emotional difficulty that many have had with my premise. The title that I chose for this series was simply, “God is Dead.” I have been careful to explain that I do not believe or advocate the false teaching that God is physically dead and both believe and teach that He is alive, powerful, and relevant; that He loves us and wants to have a personal relationship with us. The premise of this series, though, and the purpose of the title is to say that even though God is alive; in the lives of most people, Christians and non-Christians, He has no more influence than if He were dead. And that even Christians go through life without the direction and power of the Holy Spirit because they choose to live without Him.
I have come to the conclusion over the last several weeks that no one, NO ONE, wants to believe that they live as though God is dead. We like to defend the reality of God and defend our relationship with Him, but none of us likes to admit that our relationship with Him is not all that it could or should be. Emotionally, it seems, we just cannot handle the truth that we may not treat the God of creation like a vital and necessary part of our lives.
And so, I am all the more thankful that in the Word of God we have the truth, however difficult it may be for us to handle, that we need to die to self and walk as alive unto God. I look forward to continuing to learn how we can grow in this relationship with our Savior and pray that we can get past the emotion and become the Christians we were saved to be.
I think the whole concept of what you are doing is brilliant. All the controversy seems to be doing exactly what you want it to do; cause people to think, or for some, show that they are unwilling to think.
I will keep you in prayer as you deliver this series.
Doug
Sometimes we need a wake up call. I pray your series will do just that.
As believers we would never state that “God is Dead”. In fact, we would probably vehemently protest anyone that would state that He was. And yet, how many times do our actions demonstrate that in our minds God is Dead?
If we could grasp, really grasp, that the Holy Living God of the universe is always standing at our side witnessing everything we say and do, I believe we would not so easily demonstrate an attitude that God is not truly alive. He REALLY is alive! He REALLY is always in our presence! I pray the Holy Spirit convicts believers through your series “God is Dead” that God REALLY is alive and that our lives should demonstrate that we REALLY believe that He is!
Miss you and praying for you Pastor…
Lloyd Smith