The Bride.

Its been a decent amount of time since my last post, but i recently had a revelation and felt obligated to share. Its not a new revelation like when you learn something new and it blows your mind, but more of a "felt" realization, one that you already know but all of a sudden becomes reverent and real and meaningful to you. By now you've probably come to the conclusion that I am either talking about my future wife, or the church, and I don't plan on getting married anytime soon, so. Before I begin I need to confess of my terrible attitude towards the church, but God willing he'll give me a change of heart. So here we go...

I'm not sure what it is, but the easiest way to say it right now, is that myself and the church have conflicting personalities. Before I go on and share my surface-perspective of the church let me say that I know not all of this is true and some churches are awesome and totally get it, and even the church as a whole may not be this way, but thus far this has been the general perception. I see churches as very tame, bound to societies expectations. When I think of church or even the word "Christian" I think of sweaters, smiling faces with perfectly white teeth, kids sitting quietly in uncomfortable pews waiting to go home. I think of polite bible stories and felt boards, but mostly conservative, "good people". Now, like I said not of this is true, and for the most part it is a skewed exaggerated idea of the church today, but subconsciously I've noticed emotions linked to these stereotypes of church and they do not sit well with me. I don't like thinking about God as a felt character against a green background, it's too safe, or fluffy or fake for me. Growing up in the church somehow I've acquired these perceptions of God. But getting older and re-evaluating God for all the Bible says about him and all that the earth proclaims him as is nothing safe, predictable, or tame at all. God is crazy! There is no way of putting him into one of our boxes of understanding. He is simply beyond that. Beyond time, beyond mass, and space, he beyond colors and smell, he is beyond sin, or right and wrong. He is more secure than the largest mountain, and more agile than the fastest cheetah in the plains. He created creation, and even the idea of creation that we now hold as reality and scientific fact. He created all these things for us. For us to hold, to see, to imagine, he created our reality, but he is not bound by it like we are. I'm trying to say God is awesome beyond comprehension. But the most amazing thing is that the God of all that wants a relationship with us, and I feel like church misses that. For the most part it seems that the church is mostly invested in creating "good people," oblivious of the power surrounding it. Ok, Im done being down on the church, now for the ridiculously redemptive part!

Unlike myself, God has an amazing attitude on the present situation. Where I see an organization who is totally missing the point, God sees an opportunity for love. Which is a good thing, because if I compare the characteristics of the church to myself, we are actually pretty similar. We both are in ridiculous need of grace, and patients. Alot of times we both miss to see God and look to our own tools for salvation. But unlike me, God says, "yes I will associate myself with you, but not only that I am going to Marry You! You are the love of my life, I will never divorce you, and always peruse you! You are beautiful and despite your unfaithfulness I will never let you go!" That is Amazing! And Uber good news for me and the church. Realizing the contrast between God's attitude and my attitude reminded me of how big God love really is and made it real for me. Thank you God and please give me your heart.

just as a side note i woulden't recomend talking bad about God's woman. The person who talks bad about my woman better watch himself, and I'm pretty sure God's a LOT stronger than me.
scott