Why do so many feel that God needs help. Lets give Him a hand. Some might even dare to arrive in heaven and say, "Look at what I did Lord (but beneath their breaths, "bet you never thought of that")". Others will compare their accomplishments with each other, but few will wait till heaven to show off such achievements - as though God really cares.
In 2 Samuel 6:6, a wagon drawn by a team of oxen, followed the unseen hand of God, to bring the ark back from the Phillistines. En route, the wagon wobbled and Uzzah reached out to steady the ark, but the great God who always sustained His own works and maintained the momentum of His kingdom, struck Uzzah down, where he died. It seems a harsh response to a seemingly well-meaning act (I thank God I wasn't there because I am sure I would have tried to help), but there is a deeper principle at stake.
Time and again I see leaders and individuals, sweating to reproduce what already has a life of its own. It has endured the comings and goings of individuals, nations and empires. In Finance we speak of the "Going Concern" principle, which describes how a business is accounted for as a perpetual thing, independent of the comings and goings of its owners or managers. The kingdom of God is also a "Going Concern".
Did you ever see an apple farmer make apples? Unknown to you and us, they get up early each morning and sweat away, with steam rising from their ears and great balls of fire spewing from their ... armpits, as they and their labourers toil like midwives to push out their apple quota before the season arrives. They water and till, weed and prune, laboring from dawn to dusk to make it all happen. The farmer's wife also names and claims it all, making bold confessions of faith as she wills those apples into existence. The chicadas and other insects, bemused by their fervency, simply stay away until everyone retires to bed and then go on with business as usual. Slowly, cumulative efforts pay off and the blossoms part as branches bend and the farmer pushes away to squeeze out those apples. Sorry, I did assume you had never seen it happen.
Of course it doesn't happen that way. The tree bears its fruit in response to a few basic variables - sufficient water, light and good soil. The tree might say, "do that and leave the rest to me". Similarly God is saying, just walk with me, stay faithful, don't give up, never turn back ... and the life in you will reproduce. You will bear fruit. To leaders who feel that they can only make church happen by virtue of their indespensable presence and their startling originality, know this, that if you just did the things contained in the book or revealed on the mount, it would still happen. Indeed it happened anyway. The church is still plodding on. Oh sure its had its leafless autumns and barren winters, but come the spring of this spiritual age He will clothe our nakedness in bridal blooms and then fill our branches with fruit, as the Spring turns to Summer. After all, as Paul said in Romans, you don't bear the tree, the root bears you.
We don't need to help God. Our ideals and great ideas mean squat to him. Besides anything else, what we deem to be so vital to success is fast becoming unaffordable and unsustainable, because God is taking the hand of man off the ark. He will bring back His glory from out of the world and reclaim it from the Philistines. Though the church may seem as unsophisticated and unfashionable as a wagon cart, God will guide His people anyway and they will bring the trophy home - He has destined it to be so.
(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
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