Of God and Groundhogs

"Do you ever think about the church and want to cry?" I said quietly into the phone.

She said nothing. People who know your heart know when to just hear it.

"Today, I want to cry." I relayed the story about the groundhog. "It wasn't really about the groundhog. It's about the church. We are watching the world go to hell in a handbasket, and we are looking to groundhogs to predict the weather, reading horoscopes to predict our days, looking to crystals to heal our bodies, and asking people to tell us the future based on lines on our hands. We wish people luck and write off answered prayers as coincidence. None of that is in the Bible, but what can it hurt? I mean, we created Christmas so we were more in line with the pagans of the day, and we throw eggs and a bunny into Easter, and then there is a jolly old guy who doesn't really care if your good or bad as long as you aren't THAT bad, and if he that good, surely God is, too, and we get so caught up in asking him for what we want that we forget Christmas is about the gift of Christ, not the gifts that feed our selfishness. But really, it's not that big a deal, right? I mean, what do those things really hurt?"

And that is how it happens. That is how truth gets watered down until we cross our fingers or knock on wood (which is a pagan thing, btw) or hope for good luck, and we look to some unidentified "fate" instead of humbling ourselves and seeking God Almighty.

In my last post, my issue wasn't with the woman who said those things. I don't know her, but I will say she called to apologize for offending me. I wasn't offended by her. I'm offended by the church. I'm offended by the superstitions we let run amuck and write off as "harmless".

Anything that takes focus off God is not harmless.

Anything we ascribe any kind of power to that is not God is not harmless.

Anything we put hope in other than God is not harmless.

Anything we put the tiniest bit of trust in that is not God is not harmless.

Do you know what the Bible calls the horoscopes, crystals, diving rods, reading your palm, and all that other stuff? Divination. It's witchcraft.

In Galatians 5 is says:
¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Maybe I'm a bit overly dramatic, but consulting horoscopes and psychics and crystals and so forth can keep someone out of heaven, it sounds pretty harmful in my world.

No. That woman today didn't offend me. What offends me is the church's yelling, "Grace! Grace!" while refusing to yell, "Holy! Holy!" because it might isolate people. Interestingly, I never saw where Jesus compromised truth to connect with the lost. I have never read where He said, "Zaccheus! It's your lucky day, man. I'm going home with you." I don't recall His looking at the Samaritan woman at the well and saying, "What a coincidence seeing you here." Instead, He said, "I came here...on purpose...to find...you." Get the difference?

God is a God of purpose, not luck.
He is a God of sovereignly, not coincidence.
He alone is past, present, and future.
He is the only rock where you'll find healing.
And the only power in the universe that matters is in Him.

I serve the Almighty God who created the universe with the power of His words in six days and rested on the seventh. He sent His Son with full power to heal, restore, redeem, raise from the dead, and to save souls for eternity. The Holy Spirit is the power of God for every believer to do even more than Christ did. Everything I need or want is found in Him.

When is the body of Christ going to quit giving that glory to other things and calling it harmless?

And how can giving the glory of God to anything but Him be considered anything less than offensive? And I don't mean offensive to me...but to Him?

Something to Hold Onto

Dear Lord,

This morning I come before you and ask that you would shake the false foundations. I ask you to tear down what we put our trust in that isn't you. I ask you to remove idols, wrong theology, superstitions, and anything else that we put our hope in that is not you. I pray for a stripping down of our minds. Lord, today we are going to gather in your name, in your house to worship you, but I know "your house" is really a building where we go to intentionally give our time and focus to you. It's our intentional God place. I pray that each of us would become crazy aware that WE are your house. I pray that each of us would become an intentional God place. I pray that our thoughts, our beliefs, how we invest our time, how we invest our gifts, how we live in the entirety of our lives would be an intentional God place. Show us where it isn't. Lead us into the fullness of you so that the presence of the Spirit would be as thick, dense, and obvious as the cloud that filled the Tabernacle. We are a people set apart for the purpose of bringing you glory and filling this earth with your will and your presence. I pray we would be an easy place for you to invade earth. Thank you for hearing the petitions of your daughter. In the All Mighty with nothing lacking name of Jesus I pray these things, Amen

 I prayed this prayer early this morning before I left for church. I prayed what I felt the Spirit speak to my heart.

 

At church I listened to the wife of one of our leaders ask the children, "Do you know what tomorrow is?"

 

"Monday?" was my thought.

 

"Groundhog Day. So we have to see if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow so we know if we have more winter or not."

 

I stared.

 

This is the teacher of the children at our church, and she is teaching the kids to believe a rodent has the power to predict the weather.

 

She then spoke with one of the adults and said, "I love Groundhog's Day. I think it is important for them to have something to hold onto."

 

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!

 

We take our children to a church that professes Christ as Savior, Healer, Redeemer, and King, and we think we need to give them a groundhog to hold onto?

 

I can already hear some people saying, "Well, that's not what she really meant."

 

Then what did she mean? She told these kids to put their trust in the ability of a rodent to predict the weather because she thinks they need something to hold onto....while we are at a church where we are supposed to be teaching our kids to put their trust in no one but Christ.

 

And I'm wondering, do these "harmless" superstitions and habits lead our kids to believe in something besides Christ? And if we really, honestly believe Christ is the answer to how to live, what to do, and who to trust, why do we even look at horoscopes, fortune cookie predictions, or groundhogs?

 

Why would we ever offer anything else to hold onto except Him?