thanks mark wilson for the quotes

Over many a Christian leader’s record could be stamped these words: LACKS POWER. Why do so many ministers and lay leaders have a vague restless awareness that something is lacking in their leadership?
– Wesley Duewel, Ablaze for God, p. 78

perhaps the greatest lack in most Christian leadership and ministry is this divine bestowal, the Spirit’s empowerment. . . . Perhaps the greatest, and most revolutionary change that could happen to your leadership would be for you to receive and continually experience the divine dimension. Once you receive it and experience the difference it makes, you will not want to minister without it.
– Duewel, Ablaze, p. 79

this could get you fired

Sometimes I wonder if we worship a false God.

It seems that much of contemporary Christianity is aimed at keeping us safe. We should live in our vanilla worlds of peace, prosperity and shelter from the world. God will protect us from all evil and never expose us or our family to danger. We pull quotes from the Bible regardless of context to make us feel better.

Take one of the most famous embroidered, monogrammed and cheesy arted verses, Jeremiah 29:11-13. You know it. People quote it when going through a hard time or as a passage of reassurance and prosperity.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

Most people have no clue that the next verses roll this way:

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat. Yes, I will pursue them with war, famine, and disease, and I will scatter them around the world. In every nation where I send them, I will make them an object of damnation, horror, contempt, and mockery. For they refuse to listen to me, though I have spoken to them repeatedly through the prophets I sent. And you who are in exile have not listened either,” says the Lord.

Print that on your daughter’s graduation card….

Now, I’m not trying to be mean, but I am trying to make a point. Jeremiah was writing to God’s exiled people and his message was complex. God was going to bless them, but he was also punishing them and their relatives, and they weren’t listening well. Are we just pulling sound bites to make us sleep better at night?

What that sets up for most of us is false expectations – we believe everything’s gonna roll beautifully with God and we’ll never have coffee stains on our veneered teeth. Then, when plans don’t work out as well as we hoped, we blame God…claiming he didn’t come through for us.

I want to talk more about this, but I’d love to hear what passages you get stuck on. What bothers you about God’s character as revealed in the Bible? What specific passages make you think you might be dealing with a different God than you originally thought?