The Blue Church

Today I received an e-mail. It was from God. He penned it Himself. He told
me what he wanted me to do and when. He told me how it wanted to happen. He
told me what He was going to do in response. Don’t believe me? Look, here is

an excerpt:

“My name is God. You hardly have time for Me. I love you and will always
bless you.

I am always with you. I need you to spend 60 seconds of your time with Me
today.

Don’t pray, just praise. Today, I want this message to go around the world
before midnight.

Will you help? Please do not delete it, and I’ll help you with something you
are in need; even if just quiet time.

Just dare Me! A blessing is coming your way. Please drop everything and pass
it on.”

Pretty sweet huh? God only wants me to spend sixty seconds with Him and to
forward this message to some other folks and in return he will give me
something I need. He is even daring me to do it! I just need to drop
everything (for those sixty seconds……) and do it and a blessing is
coming my way!

Now, I hope you are tracking that this e-mail was not from God but it was
sent to me, and I’m sure countless others, from someone who loves me and I’m
sure had all the best intentions when they sent it. Emails like this are
designed to encourage but the tenants of what they propose are noteworthy:

*       That God wrote it (someone who started the email chain decided they
would be God’s voice)
*       That a contract could be entered into with God (You give Him sixty
seconds and forward the e-mail before midnight and He gives you a blessing).
*       Those who live in disobedience to God (i.e. deleting the message)
will not be blessed by God.
*       It is good to dare God by telling Him what we need and then daring

Him to come through.

Sadly, many people will respond to this email from “God”, forward it along,
and wait for the blessing. Then, for some, something good will happen in
their day and they will close the loop on the whole idea of the
email….that when they forwarded the e-mail they did what God wanted and he
accepted their “dare” and blessed them.

I think the people who send these emails probably like the idea of
encouraging others by inviting people to consider “God” and to get to know
Him better. But what about those who do what the email asks and then have a
terrible thing happen to them? What about those who ask for something
because they have been obedient to God, and then don’t get it? What about
those who just walk away believing in a God who sends e-mails and is
“on-demand” for contractual arrangements?

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we do have a word from God. It is the bible.
It alone is God’s voice. It alone tells us what we should do and how we
should live. It alone teaches us who God is and what He will and will not
do. It alone gives us insight into God and his ways. There is a world out
there that is eating up emails like the one I referenced above and not only
missing who God really is, but far worse, believing in the God of someone
else’s imagination.

What shall we do?

We shall spread God’s word.

We shall tell people what is in The Bible.

We will introduce them to The God of the bible, not the God of babble.

You are not going to get an e-mail from God today and either am I. We do
have God’s word though. Let’s read it and spread it.

For Him,

Rob