I marvel at how worshipers of God so-called can become and are so much more important to themselves than the One they profess to worship. I marvel at how they worship themselves for worshiping God and how they do worship the worshiping itself. I marvel at how they insist and demand of God how that He should be worshiped. In essence, they are demanding that men worship them for their dedication and wisdom in the way they worship God. In essence, they demand of the One they profess to worship that He worship them! I marvel at the reversals of men, their utter contradictions and their blindness to it all.
Tell me, all you religious,
And answer me if you can,
About the One you call your Master,
Even the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you follow His example
And do as He asks you to do?
Or have you taken another way
To serve Him as you choose?
Did He wear religious garb?
Did He call Himself good?
Did He wear a gold-plaited electric chair
Around His waist or neck,
And over His head, a hood?
Did He ask others to worship His mother?
Did He call Himself “Father” or “Reverend” or “His Holiness”
Or any other such thing?
Did He ask that they pay His way?
Did He ask that they kiss His ring?
Did He gather a congregation
And form a membership
Over which He would hold sway?
Did He sit down on a throne
And put on a fancy hat?
Did He ride a fancy horse,
Protected by a sword?
Did He baptize babies?
Or ask for celibacy?
Did He lord it over others with pomp
And show and great array?
Did He ask for money
To finance His goodly work
Or was His mission less important
Than yours?
Did He form an association
And register it in Rome?
Did He command a building project
With colored glass and fancy dome?
Tell me, you people who claim to serve God,
Answer me if you can,
About the One you call your Master,
Even the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you follow His example
And do as He asks you to do?
Or have you taken another way
To serve Him as you choose?
Did He ask you to wear black
And did He wear black Himself?
Did He ask you to gather in communes
And marry your own family?
The One Who created colors
And has them all over His throne
And spreads them in the sky
And over all His lowly creatures,
Did He ask you to deny them?
Would He have men bow before you
Even as Peter did not permit,
Who was taught of Him?
Did He live in isolation
And require others to do the same?
Are you greater than your Master
That you should determine how
To worship and to serve Him?
Why do you say repetitious prayers?
Are you heathen as He said?
Can you by your much speaking
Gain anything from Him?
These are questions I must ask you.
There seems to be a difference
Between what I know of Him
And what I know of you.
Do you follow His example
And do as He asks you to do?
Or have you taken another way
To serve Him as you choose?
Lethbridge, Oct. 1, 1984
Related posts:
English - Spanish If youth were so important, would we not have been given the wherewith to embrace and enjoy it? But trials and tribulations come as a flood to deliver us, to teach us, to age us. Aged wine, how good! Green fruit, how unsatisfactory! Yet this green fruit doesn't know. It covets its youth, its strength, its firmness, its expectation of longevity and does not care to be consumed. Yes, it much prefers rather to do the consuming. Youth must be told it is there to be consumed and not to consume, that it must wait for that which to it would seem so repulsive as if waiting for something so desirable. Resisting reality, the young one is consumed and loses himself. Embracing reality, time unveils the beauty of maturity and the once young finds new youth imperishable. Immaturity says: My will, not Thine, be done. I want it, I want it my way, I want it all, I want it now. Immaturity says: I'm old enough, I can do it, I deserve it, It's coming to me. Immaturity is indignant at correction, at instruction and discipline. Immaturity harbors resentment, seeks revenge, a settling of scores much in its favor. It takes only the good, despising the bad, not discerning the difference between the two. Immaturity presumes to know, to know better, to know all, despising knowledge and the paths thereto leading. Wisdom is an alien despised, abhorred; folly is embraced as one's dear life. Yet immaturity ends, whether by maturity or destruct...
Spanish – English So very much of our conversation belies our true nature and convictions. We say we love God, we speak of thanking and praising Him when we “are in church” or in a religious setting trying to impress others but let the guard down and listen to the words of our mouths and our hearts. Now these hearts are supposed to be the new ones we received in our “new birth.” With one set of words we proclaim we are new creatures, thankful to God in all things. With another set, we let others know where we really stand. Often, the arm raised in praise has a clenched fist and the lips of thanksgiving conceal gnashing teeth. Because conditions are never perfect, the spirit of complaint can never be stilled or appeased. Our ceasing to complain cannot hinge therefore on a change in conditions but must come solely by change in spirit and attitude. The source or cause of complaint is never the circumstances but always the subject in same. At any given time our lives can view from either of two perspectives, positive or negative, like two sides to a coin. Each side truly exists and we are right either way but we become what we behold. Therefore must we decide what to behold. Isn’t it awful? Isn’t it hot out? It’s enough to fry one’s brains! It’s so dry and dusty…. If only we had a little rain. You want rain? Plan a picnic! Where did all these terrible flies come from? Sure it’s raining…just washed my car! If it doesn’t rain, it pours! Is it ever muggy out! ...
Who is going to do it – I or God? Who will initiate – the one led or the One leading? Do we help Him? Does He need our help? Were we around to help Him start it all? Do we think we must at least be around to help Him finish it? Do we have any understanding as to what the finish should be? Either I reign or God reigns. Either I call the shots or He does. And every soul is in damnation until it learns to put its trust entirely in Him. As one has already put it, “Let go and let God.” Grab a hold! Grab with all you’ve got! Grab? Grab what? I have grabbed and grabbed and grabbed. I now find nothing to grab, and if I did, I would be too exhausted to grab. I once sat and waited. I waited. I waited to see. I waited to hear and to understand. Nothing came for me to grab. But then nothing grabbed me and I could wait no more. I went out to grab, finding something to grab. Now I grab instead of wait. And I hurt for grabbing. I grab again and the pain grows intense, intolerable. Then I remember………….no more grabbing! So I wait until I am grabbed again by the One Who already holds me and Who teaches me not to grab But to rest and to be grabbed. Lethbridge, July 20, 1984