The Abundance of the Inwardly

I have held on to this blog for a long, long time. To be honest, I was a little fearful of posting it until I had lunch with a close friend who began to share some of the same feelings and thoughts. I always want to be mindful of what I post and I have certainly thought a lot about this post alot. I have to constantly remind myself-I don't blog for the approval of man but for my thoughts to roam free inside of other's. If you don't agree, we can always agree to disagree.

There seems to be some sort of craze going on in the hearts and minds of Christians. To be honest it's a little bothersome to me. It seems I can't go anywhere, do anything, participate in any activity with fellow Christians without realizing the danger of what's swelling up inside of them.

Have you noticed everyone is crazy about blogs and books, music and lyrics, church plants and buildings, seminars and conferences, speakers and sermons? It seems (especially in young adults) everyone is dying to attend conferences, relishing about the newest books, commenting on fresh blogs and certainly there is nothing wrong with these things until it all stays inward. We have shelved the Bible for The Shack, tuned out the Holy Spirit for "great" speakers, and forsaken our home churches to attend Passion City Church (no, I am not against this church or what is happening there, just an example) or the latest church plant. We claim we are moved by these things but it seems the only place these things are moving is in the inward parts of our "spirit".

The truth is, if your inward spirit is moved there will no denying the outwardly revelation it brings. It's tiresome to hear of the great writings and preachings concerning discipleship, outreach, worship and family yet never see it reaping anything but another conversation with friends and peers. If you are truly moved by deep revelations a speaker has communicated wouldn't it only make sense for your life to show forth these same things? We are in awe that churches can grow rapidly and why we stand awestruck, our "small" ministries lay by the waste side withering. We promote conferences and speakers while we neglect our own weekly services with sloppy thrown together messages when in all reality we have access to the greatest gospel communicator of all times, Jesus Christ.

Understand this: I love Beth Moore, read Francine Rivers, blog to feel free, worship to David and Nicole Binion, hate to miss Mark Williams when he is speaking in my area but I would hope that I would never thrive off of the work God is doing in someone else's life without allowing him to do something greater in mine. I live in a small town, minister to young adults, I attended a Christian University and what I see is nothing more than a fad circulating our generation-nowhere.

The only way to stop this circulation is to quit thriving off the church and start being the church. It is then and only then will these fads become history and grace will produce new works in our midst. I'm wrong, so very wrong when I see young ministers dressed nice with clean hands and bright eyes I wonder how much ministry they are actually doing. Spiritually, how can your hands be clean when you have truly been about your father's business? And how can your eyes not be heavy with the burdens of the hungry, hopeless and helpless? We must take the things of the inward and allow them to reflect outwardly.

I pray this for myself. For my husband and children. I never want to be doing ministry because that's when you don't allow God to minister to you. I want ministry to be my natural state of everyday living and trust me I have a long way to go. I have found when God ministers to me I begin to naturally desire him and and the things he intended for me to do become my passion. I am through with the fads of sounding spiritual, acting holy, reading good reads and attending cool events just for the sake of doing it. While I certainly don't see anything wrong with doing these I do see something very wrong with these things just being the next cool things on our agenda. If these things are going to be a part of our lives I think we should reflect them.