Morning Moments

This morning as I meditated in the Psalms, I read from The Message and Psalm 31:6-7a really caught my eye.  Of course, David was confronted by a conspiracy of evil doers and his friends had deserted him.  But the thing that really jumped out was this -


"I hate all this silly religion (speaking of idolatry)
but you, God, I trust.
I'm leaping and singing in the circle of your love;...


I love that!  Sometimes in life we walk alone, yet we are not alone at all, for He, whom we trust is with us, and because of that we can leap and sing "alone with Him" in the circle of His love.


All this "religious stuff" can lead one to despair - do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that - all conformity to man's view of how God is to be worshipped or ministry is to be managed or things are to be done or life is to be lived.  If we follow "religion" we become as the Pharisees, but if we simply and devotedly maintain a personal, loving, intimate fellowship with God through submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, there is complete freedom and perfect peace.


God is relational and made us to be also!  He is also personal and made us to be too!  It is why He calls us into a Personal Relationship with Himself.   There is an interesting verse in the New Testament that says of Jesus, that He, "...committed himself to no man for he knew what was in man."  I find that to be rather strange, but I do understand it within the context.


People tend to be "religious" by nature, even Christian people, because we life form and structure.  We want to know where the boundaries are and the restrictions and guidelines.  But sometimes our desire for those things is not for ourselves, but to use them for a measuring stick for others, so that when they don't measure up, we can call them out of line.


I don't know, but maybe it is why the "Christian Mystics" were loners for the most part.  Maybe it is why the Tozers, the Muellers, the Hydes, the Howells, and the like seem like such "untouchables".  Maybe they saw the danger of the religious nature of "Christianity" being substituted for that real and daily personal faith walk with Jesus Christ.  I'm not sure!


I just know that the test of our walk is not in the SHOW - not in how well we preach or how educated we are or how smooth we move, but it is in the GLOW in a dark world that needs light.  It is the tender touch for a troubled heart.  It is the time alone with God that moves us from the books to the bruised and broken, beaten and battered humanity that needs more than anything else, NOT an increase in knowledge about God, but an intimate, tender, loving, and devoted fellowship with HIM - moment by moment.


BLESSINGS!