And All This Time I Thought I Worshiped God...
The Christian experience is just that, an experience with Christ, but don't be too quick to fall for just any old "Christian Experience." I have seen it all too often. Churches divert quantities of their offerings to build their buildings and set up their stages in order to produce the perfect "Christian Experience." These churches have done all their homework on the latest research. They have marked their demographics and have pitched their product to their market. You can usually tell who these churches are by how many times they use the word "experience" in their greetings, announcements, or advertisements. You may think this post will be a rant against contemporary Christianity, but you would be wrong...
Don't mix this up. The temptation is to throw out altogether the notion of an experience. Actually, entire denominations have been built on either extreme. Ironically, however, experience is what Christianity is all about! Churches that try to sell an experience aren't lying, they aren't trying to manipulate you out of your money, they aren't preying on the weak-minded, but they are trying to make a little too much of a good thing.
You see, part of the Christian experience is certainly felt during times of corporate worship. Unfortunately, the tendency is to base our entire experience on times of corporate worship. The true experience is the solitary one. It is the time spent, one on one, experiencing God Himself.
This is what makes Christianity unique. Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated that God is not afar off. He is indescribable, yet knowable. He is omnipotent, but personal. He is not a God satisfied being visited once a year, by one guy, namely a priest on the Day of Atonement. Not at all! In fact, He sent His Son to forever be our atonement that all of us sinners can have access to Him, regardless of how ceremonially clean we may or may not be. Each one of us, despite our sin, can call upon the name of the Lord for justification and purification, forgiveness, and healing. This is the beginning of the Christian Experience.
Personally, I was stunned to discover that, having experienced this, I no longer worshiped God! Somewhere along the way, I got distracted! I do all the "right" things... I go to church, lead a Bible study, attend a Bible College, go on mission trips, preach the gospel, sing the right songs, and pray the right prayers, but I see now that it was for the sake of these things I did these things, not for Christ's sake. You see, my joy was wrapped up in the execution of these good things. If I did all the right things, I was happy for the time being, but if I were to fall short and stumble into sin, the overarching demeanor of my character became apathetic, negative, and depressed.
What does this prove? It proves that even without lights, fog machines, and contemporary Christian music, my "Christian Experience" was dependent upon something other than God Himself! I had stopped worshiping Him and had constructed a graven image that represented his likeness! I was an idolater. This may set some of us free, because I know that my greatest desire was to experience more God, yet ironically, I was floating around miserably in a sea of self-condemnation and shame. I knew that the way I felt was not in keeping with my theology, but it became my experience.
The bottom line is this, as Christians we must endeavor not to be deceived into having our needs met by things that represent the "Christian Experience" rather than actually experiencing Christ. Whether it be the ultra modern arena of praise or the classroom in a conservative institution, the source of our lives must be God Himself. Every time I stumbled into sin, I would say a prayer of repentance, then immediately listen to a sermon from one of my favorite preachers that spoke to whatever doubt or shame I was experiencing. Anytime I needed peace from anxiety, I listened to more teaching or more songs. I always bypassed time spent with God Himself, for time spent listening to things about God.
A mirror can only reflect the representation of its subject. In essence, I was relying upon the representation of God to meet my needs. My joy came from my ability to keep the law. When my strength failed, shame caused me to run to the representation of God, rather than God Himself for comfort and assurance. I worshiped God's reflection and had forgotten about God. My life became the reflection of that emptiness.
The point of this post is not to condemn contemporary churches. It is to open the eyes of those who, like me, have been wandering around in a stupor wondering why they no longer feel anything, despite all the hype about experiences. Perhaps, in our well-meaning efforts, we have relied upon ourselves to live out the law and have forgotten about the joy we once reveled in at the foot of the Cross. That joy can take its shape to the electric tune of contemporary praise or it can come as the strike of a pen upon a notebook in reflection of the story of Church History. The question becomes, how good are we at being alone? Our contentment in the solitary presence of God will reveal the source of our joy and will ultimately reveal the object of our worship.
Don't mix this up. The temptation is to throw out altogether the notion of an experience. Actually, entire denominations have been built on either extreme. Ironically, however, experience is what Christianity is all about! Churches that try to sell an experience aren't lying, they aren't trying to manipulate you out of your money, they aren't preying on the weak-minded, but they are trying to make a little too much of a good thing.
You see, part of the Christian experience is certainly felt during times of corporate worship. Unfortunately, the tendency is to base our entire experience on times of corporate worship. The true experience is the solitary one. It is the time spent, one on one, experiencing God Himself.
This is what makes Christianity unique. Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated that God is not afar off. He is indescribable, yet knowable. He is omnipotent, but personal. He is not a God satisfied being visited once a year, by one guy, namely a priest on the Day of Atonement. Not at all! In fact, He sent His Son to forever be our atonement that all of us sinners can have access to Him, regardless of how ceremonially clean we may or may not be. Each one of us, despite our sin, can call upon the name of the Lord for justification and purification, forgiveness, and healing. This is the beginning of the Christian Experience.
Personally, I was stunned to discover that, having experienced this, I no longer worshiped God! Somewhere along the way, I got distracted! I do all the "right" things... I go to church, lead a Bible study, attend a Bible College, go on mission trips, preach the gospel, sing the right songs, and pray the right prayers, but I see now that it was for the sake of these things I did these things, not for Christ's sake. You see, my joy was wrapped up in the execution of these good things. If I did all the right things, I was happy for the time being, but if I were to fall short and stumble into sin, the overarching demeanor of my character became apathetic, negative, and depressed.
What does this prove? It proves that even without lights, fog machines, and contemporary Christian music, my "Christian Experience" was dependent upon something other than God Himself! I had stopped worshiping Him and had constructed a graven image that represented his likeness! I was an idolater. This may set some of us free, because I know that my greatest desire was to experience more God, yet ironically, I was floating around miserably in a sea of self-condemnation and shame. I knew that the way I felt was not in keeping with my theology, but it became my experience.
The bottom line is this, as Christians we must endeavor not to be deceived into having our needs met by things that represent the "Christian Experience" rather than actually experiencing Christ. Whether it be the ultra modern arena of praise or the classroom in a conservative institution, the source of our lives must be God Himself. Every time I stumbled into sin, I would say a prayer of repentance, then immediately listen to a sermon from one of my favorite preachers that spoke to whatever doubt or shame I was experiencing. Anytime I needed peace from anxiety, I listened to more teaching or more songs. I always bypassed time spent with God Himself, for time spent listening to things about God.
A mirror can only reflect the representation of its subject. In essence, I was relying upon the representation of God to meet my needs. My joy came from my ability to keep the law. When my strength failed, shame caused me to run to the representation of God, rather than God Himself for comfort and assurance. I worshiped God's reflection and had forgotten about God. My life became the reflection of that emptiness.
The point of this post is not to condemn contemporary churches. It is to open the eyes of those who, like me, have been wandering around in a stupor wondering why they no longer feel anything, despite all the hype about experiences. Perhaps, in our well-meaning efforts, we have relied upon ourselves to live out the law and have forgotten about the joy we once reveled in at the foot of the Cross. That joy can take its shape to the electric tune of contemporary praise or it can come as the strike of a pen upon a notebook in reflection of the story of Church History. The question becomes, how good are we at being alone? Our contentment in the solitary presence of God will reveal the source of our joy and will ultimately reveal the object of our worship.
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