John Thomas' Transforming Devo

John Thomas was visiting Focus yesterday. And he gave a killer devotion. I was a little late, admittedly, and he called me out. I slipped in after Steve's prayer and as I settled into my seat, John said: "Hi, Suzanne!" It was a little surprising considering we'd never met, and it might have freaked out some of my other coworkers.

Anyway, John's devo was about the difference between living a Christian life based on information about Jesus and living a Christian life that is transformed by a relationship with Jesus. Good stuff. He made a good observation about how we can get caught up in the Christian "industry" and look to manipulate the ways of Christianity to meet our own needs.

He used a marriage conference as an example. People go because they want to make their marriages better. While the end result may be God-glorifying, if you want a better marriage to make yourself feel better or happier, you're missing the deeper work God desires to do—and ultimately your efforts will fall flat.

John's words reminded me of this post I read on Stuff Christian's Like (HT: the Point). The author makes the point that the lines on the back of Christian books written for men and the blurbs on the front of secular men's magazines are virtually indistinguishable. He writes:

Am I that different from the world? I've got God, the very power of Christ inside of me, shouldn't my desires be different and not so interchangeable?

Do I ever go to God with a laundry list of better demands? Give me a better marriage, a better ministry, a better life, a better job, a better everything?

Do I chase the blessings of God sometimes more than the presence?

As John pointed out, these are very important questions. It's all too easy to simply "adapt" your belief in Christ to a lifestyle of wish fulfillment. Phew! Anyone else convicted?

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

1. Read said the following at 10:14 AM on Jan 8:

As I was reading Henri Nouwen's Prodigal Son last night I was struck by the point he was making. We have God's voice. It is like a still small voice in the wind and we can hear it. How often do we pray and ask for God to speak? Yet we constantly turn to everything else in the world to find an answer. We judge everything not by what God is telling us about ourselves but by what our friends, family, and world are telling us. I know I am definitely guilty of this. There just seems to be so many things competing for our attention. I honestly got a little envious of Nouwen. How nice to be a monk and focus solely on a life in pursuit of God. Yet even he laments the enormous amount of distracts in life. I think it also depends on where your focus lies. If you're looking at the temporal solely focused on what you can achieve in this life, then your view of God will be different. You'll view him more like a vending machine that you go to looking for blessing to be dispensed. If you have an eternal perspective then God is a father that we will live with in loving relationship for eternity. Our actions betray our true perspective. If you examine your life... what does it tell you about what you truly believe?

PS: Suzanne, a 5:30am blog post?! Early bird gets the worm!

2. NeedACatchyName said the following at 10:14 AM on Jan 8:

So am I the only one who read the title of this post and immediately thought that it would be about the 1980's new-wave band Devo? Though in all fairness, I imagine that more than one pastor has attempted to work the idea of "when a problem comes along, you must whip it" into a sermon.

:) :) :)

3. RJW said the following at 10:16 AM on Jan 8:

"Be still, and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10 (ESV).

4. Suzanne Hadley Gosselin said the following at 1:23 PM on Jan 8:

I have to confess that at 5:36 a.m. I was snug in my bed. :) Not so much an early bird. But thanks to timed blog posting....

5. Tami said the following at 1:23 PM on Jan 8:

Thanks to all of you, you just majorly encouraged, convicted, and blessed me. :)

And "Catchy," LOL at your sermon theme! I am now used to seeing and hearing the term "devos" in Christian circles, but I TOTALLY used to think of the band at first. :)

6. Tami said the following at 1:23 PM on Jan 8:

Oh yeah... Read, I LOVE that book. I first read the book at a point in my life where I felt majorly misunderstood by everyone around me. I felt like Nouwen "got" me when no one else did. I love me my Boice and Sproul :) but Nouwen speaks comfort to my heart when it aches.

7. Kirsty said the following at 1:27 PM on Jan 8:

Thanks for the post Suzanne, this has definitely given me something to think about for the day. Sometimes I can really get caught up in the stuff of life and treat the Lord like he is an accessory to my life rather than the LORD of my life!

8. Adam Sloope said the following at 1:28 PM on Jan 8:

This is an amazing devotion! This is the tension the new geenration of Christ followersis feeling when getitng involved in the culture of Christianity. Thsi is somethign I often struggle with understanding. I often am pointed out as the emotional or radical one in my community of "christian" friends because of my passion and conviction of being in the presence of God. It often seems like Jesus is soemthing epople add to their resume of cool things that make them feel safe in life. In all reality the presence of God and Jesus is the most exciting thing ever and demands passion and a lifestyle. All that fall flat of these requiremwents get lost in an event oriented religion that fails their expectations.

9. TINA said the following at 8:50 AM on Jan 9:

Suzane,Read #1,Catchy,and A AMEN to RJW...Thank you!!!!:}Catchy made me laugh much needed....Suzanne and #1 reality!! made me think and look at somethings thank you!!!!!RJW that be the answer..AMEN........

10. BDB said the following at 8:51 AM on Jan 9:

Yeah, at first I thought this post was about this week's musical guest for the podcast.

11. Ryan said the following at 8:52 AM on Jan 9:

Can John post his notes for that devotion, or write a post, for us on the Line?

Now I'm REALLY interested!!!!

12. Christina (was in white for a day) said the following at 3:09 PM on Jan 12:

That was interesting.

I tend to flip. When I've been absent in time with God, I get a bit more judgemental and more caught up in "appearing" Christian.

When I've been digging in the word, I get a completely different perspective on everything...including being more gracious...and somehow I see God more. Its kinda hard to explain...but my heart goes through a real transformation.

When I was younger, the difference to me was blatantly obvious. My peers went to youth group because it was, in their minds, the 'cool place' to be. They wore all the right stuff, listened to all the right stuff, said all the right stuff...and yet somehow there was an odd division between them and myself. Not that I think I was better than them, but I do have some kind of a belief that God was more real to me than he was to them. That phase where he was still their parents' God and not theirs.

There were a couple of people where I felt that comradeship with...and they became some of my closest friends.

13. Frank Martens said the following at 3:14 PM on Jan 12:

In line with that:

A man may converse on the subject of religion as though his lips were touched with a coal from off the altar, and yet be at heart ignorant of those things in which he is the instructor of others. Oh, it is a lamentable thought, but it is nevertheless true that "a man may preach like an apostle, pray like an angel, and yet have the heart of a fiend."

14. Rachael said the following at 9:56 AM on Jan 13:

#13 is interesting. It reminds me of a quote in the movie "Luther" which goes something like: "He preaches best what he needs most to hear". Of course, that type of person might be a perceived hypocrite, but at the same time I think sharing ideas can be a way of solidifying the mindset/thoughts which might help inform one's own practice. Sharing thoughts can be useful for solidifying/processing/synthesizing...I often share thoughts about the faith I don't fully embrace in practice, but I think in doing so it can help cement my ideology/hopes/thoughts of the way I should be even though the thoughts don't always reflect the way I am.