Finding the Right Tense

Church is a great place to find friends and fellowship with fellow believers. It is a great place to study the history and doctrines of the Christian faith. It is a great place to find a way to serve others. And can become almost a family to us.

But the church is not the best place to discover and develop a real, close and individualized relationship with Christ. That happens inside the human heart.

The scripture speaks about our having the mind of Christ and declares that Christ in us is the hope of glory. Jesus said in John 10 “My sheep hear MY voice and I know them and they follow Me.” All of these picture a very personal involvement within the human heart.

Historically the church has downplayed individual inspiration and promoted the idea that the faith can only be understood by scholars and specially called individuals (men) who study and pray in order to get the message God wants for His people. There has always been a fear among the church leaders that left to listen to God for themselves the laity might come up with wrong or crazy ideas. Seems to me the called have come up with a few as well.

So, we have a faith that can only be understood by a select few and the rest of us get it second hand by hearsay instead of individual experience.

We then are left hearing about what Jesus said or did to someone else, not what He is saying or doing in us. I am tired of worshiping a dead Jesus. I am tired of trying to be thrilled that He touched the woman at the well, I want Him to touch me in the now. It is heart breaking to realize how many Christians have never felt the presence of God inside of their beings nor have they ever heard His still small voice giving comfort, guidance, and peace to their lonely hearts.

Communion is certainly a picture and remembrance of Christ’s death, but it also is a picture of Him entering and living in our individual lives. We eat His body and drink His blood. To me communion tells me where He is. He is not on the cross. Nor is He living in buildings with stained glass. He lives inside of each of us, and His presence can come alive in us if we learn how to be still and listen to His still small voice. He does not yell, nor does He barge into our minds and hearts. He waits for us to seek a connection.

That turns prayer from being a wish list of things we want from Him to a simple conversation about what we need and hope He will do to us.

We can talk to Him inside of our hearts like we would talk to a dearest friend. We can share our fears, our doubts, our failures and our joys.

Years ago, I heard an English Bible teacher named Ean Thomas speak about what the disciples did when they heard that Jesus was resurrected. He said “They ran to the tomb looking for Him. They were looking in the wrong tense, so they looked in the wrong place. They were looking for the Christ who Was instead of the Christ who Is.”

It is little wonder that folks are leaving the churches in droves. We have gone as far as listening to sermons and lectures can take us.

I think the church of the future will be small groups of people who seek to build personal relationships through prayer and meditation and then gather to share their revelations and epiphanies as they happen.

Christianity will only come alive again when we rediscover the magnificent truth that each of us has an inner light that becomes alive when we accept His presence in our lives. That light means He is alive inside of us and ready to love and lead each one of us from that inner light. That is the Christ who IS.

            And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share was we tarry there, none other has ever known.