Are You Poisoning People?
Been talking this week how the Bible gives us the “What” we must do, but not the “How.” You can catch up Here…and  Here.
We can never fall in love with “How” we do things! The moment we fall in love with the “How” we become a Pharisee. I know that sounds a little harsh, but Jesus’ main contention with the Pharisee’s were there insistance of taking a command of God, and then telling everyone “how” to do it. What they could and could not do!
Jesus said they were like “broods of Vipers.” In other words, they injected venom and poison to those they came into contact with. Mostly because they held people to a standard that was man authored and not God authored. We do the same thing when we measure someone else’s “how” agains our own, and measure them against our “how.” Like…
- This is “how” you do small groups
- This is “how” you do Sunday morning
- This is “how” you serve your community
- This is “how” you structure _________.
You get the point…
We can ONLY love the “What”….Go make Followers of Me Everywhere!
We must love, seeing others come into the Kingdom, others moving with God and investing and loving others into the Kingdom as well. We must love seeing husbands love their wives. But…
We can NEVER love the “How” The moment we love the “how” we become a Pharisee and judge of others.  We inject poison into their lives and kill many freedoms and empowerment. Not to mention, we stop all forward motion.
The purposes of God are always moving forward. They move with people, culture, age and world events. If we fall in love with a “how”, we drop anchor right there! We move no further. People, culture and context continue to move, but our “how” is stuck in the mud! So… we become irrelevant to the those around us! No power, no impact, no Kingdom growth.
Challenge: Feel the “weight of the What.” Let what God says you must do, and what must happen, drive you to your knees, asking Him “how” you can do those things. Then be ready to run!
But! Don’t fall in love with it, and tell others that is “how” they should do it! Don’t poison people!
Categories: Following God, Leadership
Absolutely!! This is why I have a passion for proper exegesis and apologetics. In this age of extreme reason and science, the gap of explanation seems to be broadening. You either have the blind faith crowd who need no explanation other than it feels right or the “there are too many translations to be sure and science repudiates (or refudiate if you a Palin) it anyway” crowd. God explained EVERYTHING to us to either explain or understand the TRUTH by any means necessary. BUT we MUST understand and believe without doubt, i.e. faith.
Good exegesis for understanding the “what” but we get before our faces and hear God give the “how.” We can’t exegete the “how”…that is God’s voice.
The gage of the Now How: Is it still a now how if lives are being changed into the likeness of Christ? The measure of the likeness of Christ being lives being lived like He lived, expanding the kingodm like He did, in relationship with His Father has he did, doing as the Father was doing as He did, having our lives transofrmed into His likeness, the fullness of His character as He imitated His Father?
I would say yes. But… God must give the now how. And it is constantly changing. Not changing totally in process, but it moves and evolves as those around us change.
Thank you for a very insightful post. God is infinitely creative. Why would there only be one way to do anything? God is unfailing and unchanging, but he uses all kinds of people to advance His kingdom, so I would expect he would have all kinds of HOW in mind to accomplish His WHAT.
Very interesting insight, Artie. I agree with how poisonous the “how” can get. As a systems-type of person, I would add that as leaders, when changing the “how”, it’s important to take extra care in moving the systems-types so you don’t lose them. All the “what” in the world can’t sustain without some sort of “how” framework. And it takes systems-types to run the “how”.
So true Scott! Great addition.
I enjoyed your article and the discussion thread, thanks. An interesting consideration, I have been meditating on Jesus words- ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’ along with ‘ take my yoke upon you and learn of me’ , as I was keen to bring others into the Kingdom- these two verses give us insight into both the how and what- We follow what Jesus did and how- easy! Well, that’s another discussion. I blogged about it in, ‘It’s easy and it’s simple’ on my site. Bless you. Petrina
Thanks so much. I can’t find your blog…Address?
Falling in love with the how results in rigid, traditionalist religion that binds. At this point, we work more to protect the how than to accomplish the what. Just focus on the what and allow Jesus to reveal the how for our unique micro-cultures of live. Good stuff.
Thanks Martin, very honored sir.