Devotion

I just recently read a quote from a youth pastor I once knew who was lamenting his poor devotional life. What I mean by devotional life is that aspect of life as a Christian wherein we are expected to spend a certain amount of time (usually daily) reading the bible, praying and generally improving on our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Almighty God. The lament was about inconsistency and lack of structured time. Although he admitted he's memorized a goodly amount of the Bible, been to Bible College and read the bible all through at some point, it seemed to me he felt his relationship with God, in general, was suffering because of the inconsistency of his abilities to conform to a ritualized structure evangelical Christianity has advocated for a few hundred years.

Now ... before I continue, let me say I applaud this pastor's honesty and desire to know Christ through His Word. He is a devoted man who knows God. And I believe there is immense gain in understanding and knowing Jesus Christ and God's character through the Bible. I am not advocating for reading less of the Bible, but rather more of it in light of what His character truly is. Please be aware I'm about to rant a bit here.

At what point in our history did we transfer all the responsibility of our relations with our Creator on us??? How is it that if we aren't reading a book and praying by our bedside for 10 minutes a morning 7 days a week we're letting down God and ruining whatever chance we had at knowing (and I mean really KNOWING) Jesus? Is God limited to the Bible? Does He reside in the pages of the book? Is He only really listening and speaking to us in the darkness of a room in the early hours of dawn?

The guilty thoughts that often come of this failure to comply (which I have suffered from, and occasionally still do, I might add) smack largely of a pride of the most devious kind. Without degrading God's Word (which I value to the extreme) or the importance of applying what we know to our lives in understanding who God is through God's story, we have missed the mark greatly if we put all the onus on a particular act that is completely dependent on humans. In fact, I view it not far off a traditionalist way of thinking that unless you go to the church and perform the rites and rituals ordained through the priests, your relationship with God, suffers and eventually ends in disfavour.

I have a cousin who has read the Bible from cover to cover at least once. He does not believe Jesus Christ died to save Him or that there is a God who loves Him (at least, that was his belief last I talked to his family). What then? Is my cousin only slightly better than other people because he has at least taken the time to read the Bible?

Reading the bible is not a relation-o-meter by which I can deem myself a good and successful or a poor and failing Christian! What a horribly modern, humanisitc view of relating to the creator of the universe and all life. Since when did God create a hierarchy of goodness for us to compete with each other over? What an awfully humiliating and shameful view of the greatest story ever told! I have come to know the Almighty God through so many aspects of life that to boil my own friendship with Jesus to my ability to read words on a page would only bring insult to my Saviour and friend. In truth, I have rarely taken the initiative to be intimate with God ... that is the nature of all humans. God comes to meet with me: through the Bible as I read and seek to know Him, through my friends and family, through my circumstances, through all created things, through my history as I meditate on past experiences and so many other people and books and ... the list goes on. I have learned more of God and Jesus Christ, His character, through other people, than I ever have through reading the Bible. God is here and His character is to be found by those who earnestly seek Him. I would not consider myself an earnest seeker and yet I have met Christ in personally moving emotional ways that have nothing to do with human contrivance or manipulation. The Bible's words are made true in my life as I learn to trust the God of life and love. Then I come to understand these phrases: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Denominations often have in their doctrine a statement that mentions that the Bible is the final authority for all life conduct on earth. How we aught to live and treat each other. How we are to know the promises and truths of God and of Jesus Christ His son. The Bible is the Story of stories. A book that I believe to be inerrent in that it is God's revealed truth on pages for us to easily see and understand His love, will, purpose, desires and character. But God is NOT contained/confined in those pages. Those words are a glimpse of a God far greater and majestic than we are able to perceive. And yet there is an inexhaustable store of discovery in the Book of books. In the words of the apostle John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." John 1:1 This is the Word that I want to know, Jesus Christ.

Personally, I do not have 'devotions'. I have devotion to my Saviour and God which exhibits itself in a plethora of passions and actions. And they are excersized all day long when I choose to love my God. I do not have 'prayer time'. I pray. I am not saying I'm perfect or better. My attitude is different ... or changing, I suppose. Because I also believe that devotion must be accompanied by action to be made true and real. "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." John 21:25

Phew. Well, have I struck or broken any chords out there?