Of God and Groundhogs

"Do you ever think about the church and want to cry?" I said quietly into the phone.

She said nothing. People who know your heart know when to just hear it.

"Today, I want to cry." I relayed the story about the groundhog. "It wasn't really about the groundhog. It's about the church. We are watching the world go to hell in a handbasket, and we are looking to groundhogs to predict the weather, reading horoscopes to predict our days, looking to crystals to heal our bodies, and asking people to tell us the future based on lines on our hands. We wish people luck and write off answered prayers as coincidence. None of that is in the Bible, but what can it hurt? I mean, we created Christmas so we were more in line with the pagans of the day, and we throw eggs and a bunny into Easter, and then there is a jolly old guy who doesn't really care if your good or bad as long as you aren't THAT bad, and if he that good, surely God is, too, and we get so caught up in asking him for what we want that we forget Christmas is about the gift of Christ, not the gifts that feed our selfishness. But really, it's not that big a deal, right? I mean, what do those things really hurt?"

And that is how it happens. That is how truth gets watered down until we cross our fingers or knock on wood (which is a pagan thing, btw) or hope for good luck, and we look to some unidentified "fate" instead of humbling ourselves and seeking God Almighty.

In my last post, my issue wasn't with the woman who said those things. I don't know her, but I will say she called to apologize for offending me. I wasn't offended by her. I'm offended by the church. I'm offended by the superstitions we let run amuck and write off as "harmless".

Anything that takes focus off God is not harmless.

Anything we ascribe any kind of power to that is not God is not harmless.

Anything we put hope in other than God is not harmless.

Anything we put the tiniest bit of trust in that is not God is not harmless.

Do you know what the Bible calls the horoscopes, crystals, diving rods, reading your palm, and all that other stuff? Divination. It's witchcraft.

In Galatians 5 is says:
¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Maybe I'm a bit overly dramatic, but consulting horoscopes and psychics and crystals and so forth can keep someone out of heaven, it sounds pretty harmful in my world.

No. That woman today didn't offend me. What offends me is the church's yelling, "Grace! Grace!" while refusing to yell, "Holy! Holy!" because it might isolate people. Interestingly, I never saw where Jesus compromised truth to connect with the lost. I have never read where He said, "Zaccheus! It's your lucky day, man. I'm going home with you." I don't recall His looking at the Samaritan woman at the well and saying, "What a coincidence seeing you here." Instead, He said, "I came here...on purpose...to find...you." Get the difference?

God is a God of purpose, not luck.
He is a God of sovereignly, not coincidence.
He alone is past, present, and future.
He is the only rock where you'll find healing.
And the only power in the universe that matters is in Him.

I serve the Almighty God who created the universe with the power of His words in six days and rested on the seventh. He sent His Son with full power to heal, restore, redeem, raise from the dead, and to save souls for eternity. The Holy Spirit is the power of God for every believer to do even more than Christ did. Everything I need or want is found in Him.

When is the body of Christ going to quit giving that glory to other things and calling it harmless?

And how can giving the glory of God to anything but Him be considered anything less than offensive? And I don't mean offensive to me...but to Him?