Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 22
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life
Ministries International
Littleton, Colorado
Notice: this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the
Wilderness. Why a blog? So that multitudes can receive the weekly
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Michael
turns our attention to one of the greatest problems our churches and
Christianity in general face today: who do we think God is?
Both our evangelism efforts and our discipleship of new Christians has
left us with many who are not truly Born Again and/or many who are unbelieving
believers. As Michael starts off: “One
of the greatest weaknesses in Christianity today…” Read these seven (7) pages of the book first
asking God to give you great insight into how this might be affecting you.
HINDERED BY YOUR CONCEPT
OF GOD
excerpt
from pages 57-64 of SIW (5th printing,
March 1998)
excerpt
from pages 53-59 of SIW (14th printing,
March 2012)
(used with permission from
ALMI):
One of the greatest weaknesses of
Christianity today is that we ask a person to accept Jesus Christ into his life
or we tell the defeated Christian to make Him Lord without taking the time to
find out who the unbeliever feels is coming into his life or who the believer feels
he is making Lord.
…It is a depressing thought, but
what you are at your worst moment is your true condition…
…there
was (is) a great difference between what he knew (we
know)
intellectually and what he felt (we feel) emotionally…
God, and God alone, can meet our deepest
needs;
we all recognize this in our minds, from
running to God to have these needs met, thus embarking us on an endless journey
trying to find that one person, that special thing, that incredible place, yes,
that adored idol that will meet our needs?...
…We do not take seriously that
many reject the Lord not on the basis of what is heard but what is being felt…
…I have found among the defeated
whom I disciple that more than 90% of the time their concepts of God really
describe their fathers (or, if not their mothers…). All we can know of authority is what we have
learned from those in control around us.
Does it not then make sense that when we are commanded to call God our
Father in heaven, this would stir in our emotions a concept of our father on
earth?
…If there is one word that
describes the condition of the recipients of the Book of Hebrews, it is unbelief. They are not able to trust, and the writer
battles with their false concept of God derived from interaction with their
earthly fathers. “For they disciplined
us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His
holiness” (12:10).
Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point Green
– IT, Incredible Truth
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches Pink
– PV, Priceless Victory
Here’s
a question for you: How many folks are received into fellowship as a member of
a church without any real questioning of their salvation testimony, and/or
their knowledge of several key “beliefs”?
Part of that interaction prior to the person becoming a member of a
church would be to ask the questions Michael presents in the first paragraph of
this section’s writing. And then on top
of that, we don’t “require” any discipleship to help the new member discover
things like “what you are at your worst moment is your true condition.” Yikes!
What does that tell us about the likely spiritual condition of most of
the members of most of our churches?!?
And add to that, what discipleship have we given them regarding the
basic beliefs of the church?
And
my goodness…if the condition of the recipients of the Book of Hebrews is “unbelief,” how do we expect the condition of many of
our fellow believers to be anything other than “unbelieving believers”?
Does
anyone know a fellow church member who might be “hindered by their concept of
God”???
Note: if you don’t
have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books, let me
encourage you to contact ALMI (www.abidinglife.com) and get one today!
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Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
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