All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Can You Dig It?
Sow righteousness, reap love. It's time to till the ready earth, it's time to dig in with God, until he arrives with righteousness ripe for harvest. Hosea 10:12 (The Message)
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When I was working on my graduate degree, my Shakespeare teacher told the class a story. He suspected that the students in one class were not "digging in" either to his instruction or to the texts. He experimented. On the final, he offered a bonus question. He gave two quotes and asked which one was actually from Shakespeare. One quote was an obscure, but powerful passage from the Bard; the other was the instructor's own concoction, merely a string of Shakespearean-sounding phrases in Elizabethan language. He said that over 90% chose the fake Shakespearean passage because it "sounded" better.
This has spiritual applications. We can talk Christianese language, attend all the meetings, worship with expected gestures and sounds and songs and superficial excitement....and still miss genuine worship (Isaiah 29:13). We can hear "fine-sounding" sermons, doctrines, and Bible teaching given by charismatic speakers....and be deceived because we don't "dig in" ourselves (Colossians 2:4). (Remember the Bereans: Acts 17:11). We can be using many spiritual gifts, but miss the boat because we do not have the greatest and foremost of spiritual fruit (1 Corinthians 13:1-3,13; Galatians 5:22).
The authentic Christian life doesn't just happen: we "dig in" to show God that we mean business with is offered grace (Philippians 2:12).
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When I was working on my graduate degree, my Shakespeare teacher told the class a story. He suspected that the students in one class were not "digging in" either to his instruction or to the texts. He experimented. On the final, he offered a bonus question. He gave two quotes and asked which one was actually from Shakespeare. One quote was an obscure, but powerful passage from the Bard; the other was the instructor's own concoction, merely a string of Shakespearean-sounding phrases in Elizabethan language. He said that over 90% chose the fake Shakespearean passage because it "sounded" better.
This has spiritual applications. We can talk Christianese language, attend all the meetings, worship with expected gestures and sounds and songs and superficial excitement....and still miss genuine worship (Isaiah 29:13). We can hear "fine-sounding" sermons, doctrines, and Bible teaching given by charismatic speakers....and be deceived because we don't "dig in" ourselves (Colossians 2:4). (Remember the Bereans: Acts 17:11). We can be using many spiritual gifts, but miss the boat because we do not have the greatest and foremost of spiritual fruit (1 Corinthians 13:1-3,13; Galatians 5:22).
The authentic Christian life doesn't just happen: we "dig in" to show God that we mean business with is offered grace (Philippians 2:12).
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