TATTOO on the HEART

Fasting from books…

// May 11th, 2009 // OUT LOUD THOUGHTS

Some months back I decided I’d fast…from books.  For years I’ve read multiple books at a time, but I just came to the realization that I needed to put down all the extracurricular reading and focus simply on hearing the voice of God through His Word. 

It’s not that God can’t speak through books, but I think sometimes we’re guilty of pursuing knowledge or truth without pursuing God.  And there’s a real problem with that: truth is a Person.  Truth without encountering God Himself is religion.

That’s another reason I think that a great deal of “relevant, practical teaching” that focuses only on teaching the principles of God’s Word is bogus.  Truth without the Person is worthless. If all Jesus did was give us great “truths” then He simply wasted His time dying on the cross.  What makes Him different than all of the great teachers of all the world religions was the fact that He brought us into relationship with Him and access to His power to transform our lives. 

I just hope we can check ourselves if we’re prostituting God’s Word or at the very least cheapening it.  Encountering God, finding Him, knowing Him – my God, He’s just extraordinary.

At every turn I find Him.  I experience His love.  I have my identity reformed.  My mind renewed.  I can’t get this stupid smile off my face.  And there’s just something when you encounter the presence of God that Truth is revealed.  The air of his Spirit inflates your lungs.  There’s an ease and a peace that is not based on circumstances. 

And it’s infectious. People ask questions.  It’s much like when Mary went to see Elizabeth and at her very greeting, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and even the baby – John the Baptist – in her belly leaped.

You see, that’s what’s supposed to happen.  That is normal in this regular ongoing encounter and experience with God.  And I think that anything less is us somehow settling.