I had this thought on Christmas as I listened to my squad leaders read the Christmas story from Luke:
The words that paint the scene of the Nativity, words that feel familiar and warm, words that seem like a fairytale…those words are in the Bible.
I know, you’re sitting there staring at that statement thinking, “yes, Kace. Good job catching up…” but there’s a point.
The angel appeared and brought tidings of great joy and good news…that’s scripture. That’s honest-to-goodness, rock solid, no way around it, scripture. Right there in the same book as the creation of the world, the prophets, the wars over Israel, the cross, every instruction we have on Discipleship, community, spiritual warfare, and evangelism; there’s the obedience of the virgin, the faithfulness of the carpenter, the prophetic words of the angels, and the birth of God in the flesh.
That reality struck me in a strange way. We don’t doubt the census, we don’t doubt the trek Mary and Joseph made, we don’t doubt the star or the angels… do we? Because we celebrate them annually, faithfully retelling the story as fact, singing hymns that say things like “Jesus, Lord at thy birth,” and “chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, His law is love and His gospel is peace,” and such…but we tell the story like folklore.
We talk about joy and sing about brotherhood, but don’t walk in joy and don’t treat each other like we’re brothers and sisters…so where’s the disconnect?
God made it really clear to me this year in India that it isn’t folklore. I know it isn’t, I know if you who are sitting there reading this are Christian that you know it isn’t; but somehow in my upbringing, it’s felt like just a story.
And then I realized that a lot of things in the Bible feel like just stories. I’m not talking about parables about weeds and vines, or silver coins, or the pride battle between the prodigal and elder sons.
I’m talking about the exorcisms, the healings, the men falling prostrate on the ground at glimpsing a fraction of the glory of God, Paul being struck blind, David dancing in his underwear being so overcome with the joy of the Lord, Lazarus walking out of his tomb, the guard’s ear being reattached after Peter cut it off, and Jesus promising US that He would send His Spirit so that WE might accomplish GREATER works than He did on earth.
That’s sort of seemed like folklore, too. Until I started seeing it.
The trouble I’ve had lately is that I wouldn’t have believed this if I’d read it in America. I would’ve read about some girl singing in tongues, and in my innocent ignorance, completely overlooked it and put it in that same box with the Christmas story and Jesus saying we’d accomplish greater things than He.
I had this box that I put God in, not consciously to limit Him, just to categorize things away that I didn’t understand so that I didn’t have to face trying to understand them – or worse – experience them. It’s scary to try to experience things you don’t understand.
I would’ve watched video after video showing people being healed, and put those in that box, too. I may have read about prophecies being fulfilled, and filed them neatly into my box…my box was quite full, honestly.
But the thing about God is that if you try to put Him in a box, of COURSE your box is going to get full, NOTHING can comprehend Him, and nothing can limit Him – all I was doing was limiting my ability to experience God, all while preaching the necessity to have a relationship with God.
Jesus died willingly and was resurrected to offer us the opportunity to have that relationship, and I had an earnest desire for it, but didn’t have the courage to experience it.
The way I grew up thinking about Christianity, those are things that we call “charismatic” or “crazy” or “too much.” In my ignorance, I ignored it, and I judged – harshly – “charismatics.” Why would I own up to having driven past specific churches and categorized entire congregations as “lost” because their worship looked crazy to me – because they were MOVED by God – because they heard from God and expected Him to be with them – because they were brought to tears by grace – because they explored the weird, uneasy things that I put safely in my box.
All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness – but knowing that doesn’t give you a relationship with the Lord.
Acts 11:25 talks about the witness of the Apostles to the Hellenists and says that “the Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”
Believing and turning to the Lord (experiencing the Lord, having a relationship with the Lord) aren‘t synonymous. You can, in fact, believe without turning to the Lord. It says so in Scripture right next to the creation; the prophets; and the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The disconnect is in the experience – pursuing tangible encounters with God, even when you don’t understand, even when you don’t know what to expect and are afraid of the reality that you have no control over how God’s going to show up.
Throw out your box, you’re only limiting your own relationship with God,
and He has greater things for you.
