Party Time!

Chastening.  It never exists in the vacuum where we often meet its counterfeit.  If it is of Godly origins, it is to prepare its "victim" for something fabulous, something that would destroy if the chastening hadn't done its surgical work.  I was ready for that "next thing" after the hard lessons...

July 20
Where are you sending me out on my next campaign, God?
I'm reading a book about someone who had a very successful campaign in evangelizing the hippies in the 70's.  They were the "lepers" of their day's society.  But who are today's lepers?
Thirty years ago, the lepers were the lost thinkers.  But today, lost warriors seem to be the ones to call.  The thinkers were weary and disillusioned and needed rest.  Folk music and beach baptisms were their point of access.
But today's lost are more dead inside, I fear.  Their lost-ness is not just of the mind, but of the heart, the very life-blood's flow.
I'm reading about the parable in which Jesus invites the distinguished, but they are too busy to attend his party; so he invites beggars.  And they might very well come merely out of desperation or curiosity--and this is good enough for the arriving.  Once there, they'd better be dressed for a wedding, or the consequences are severe.  But the initial open door is pretty forgiving. 
And I wonder.  Are we still inviting the desperate ones today?  Is their desperation alone sufficient cause for us to be glad to invite them into the celebration?
Or, are we still trying to track down the last few of yesterday's desperate because after all, their sort are familiar to us, and we know we've hit a level of acceptance from their type in the past?  Are we missing anyone?  A lot of ones?

As for me, I feel drawn to the group I'd call the "divided hearts" out there.  The ones who serve both God and Baal, who still need to learn that Baal and mammon have no ultimate power to satisfy a thirsty soul.  I fear prosperity-preaching, in many of its facets, is like wrapping wool around a wolf.  The idea of "counting the cost" winds up a foundation-less structure in that world of preaching.  Like sand that's been wet, it seems firm and well-shaped until the storm comes--but then it breaks down, making the house collapse anyway.  I think of Luke 15.  The parable for the lost sheep--the one who HAD been in the fold, for the finding of the lost coin that HAD been the woman's and then the great apex: the prodigal who HAD a home and considers returning to it. 

Indeed, if you merely lay out your blessings as your testimony to others, as opposed to laying Jesus Christ before them, then even if you give God the credit, you're still inviting them into a room cramped with piles of covetousness. Can you blame them when they grow bitter at your message?  When they don't see the forest of blessings surrounding them because you're continually directing them to look at your historic blessing tree, one that you've planted right in front of them?  Help them see their OWN trees!  Become less, that He may be more.  Why is this such a hard concept?

It has taken some years for God to groom me in this ministry, and some suffering, too.  I still find He chisels away at my pipes in order to pour Himself through me to  better bless others.  Divided hearts--if you would minister to them at all--require rugged, authentic, vulnerable availability.  Not surprisingly, they require that you be the model of your message--that you not have your own personal, barely-hidden agenda or ulterior motives attached to their being "found" again.  And so you spend a while standing as if naked in a strong, cold wind, saying, "This is great!" while they eye you like you're missing something.  And at best, sometimes all you accomplish is to make them curious. 
But you walk in splendor, nonetheless.  Even if they never really understand what you're doing.