Finding the Starting Place

This is two letters I wrote some time ago to a friend as I was finding a new place in my relationship with Christ. I hope you find it helpful.

LETTER 1 Feb. 17 1990

I hate to write but for some reason God has pushed me to tell you the following. Many people act the way they feel good Christians act, in other words imitation over dedication to a relationship with Him. Works without dedication to the relationship is living by laws. This has found use replacing the relationship with laws. It seems that the only way to replace the law with a real thirst is through devastation of all things that are not spiritual. Then turn to God in desperation. He will then replace our self justification by works with desperation for a relationship so fulfilling that everything else is like dust on a fine oak table. It is all to be swept away to show the luster of Christ's relationship in our lives. I fell God has started this in your life.
Things of this world seem to push a wedge between Christ and use, even after we have allowed God to destroy everything for this relationship. We seem to find ourselves in the rut of acting out the relationship instead of enjoying it. I often force feed myself with God to meet my busy schedule.
But I find if I treat Him like a wife and give Him the time He deserves He will give me back the thirst. When I feel a separation I must take time off from friends and work to rebuild the relationship, so that my thirst for him comes back. Then I feel the things that caused friction in the relationship is wiped away like dust to show me the luster of the relationship.
The worse way to kill a relationship is by consistently doing the same thing. A relationship that is kept the same dries up and dies in the most painful way possible. God wants an exciting relationship marked by change, challenge, and adventure. But often we find the relationship marked by complacency in our willingness to strive for a relationship we can't understand. Anytime a relationship is consistently done the same way it becomes a ritual. We so often find ourselves locked into spending time with God the same way everyday. We find the desire has been replaced with will power, as we try to suck every last drop of life out of the relationship. I was told one time that if you are in real fellowship with God you will feel Him active in your life every day!


LETTER 2 Feb. 20 1990

I seem to have the need to write you once more. But I need to first tell you that while I have spent many years studying about the things of Christ and have found a wealth of worldly wisdom of Godly things. I've found that Godly wisdom comes only through experience. That even though many Godly men have told me of there Godly experience, I only thought I understood. I could not really understand until I began to share in there experience.
For example as much as I may read on the political system and how it feels to be part of it. I will never really understand until I have been part of it. You would not let someone who has never raised a child tell you how to be a good parent. But yet we do all these things with our Christian life.
I will no longer be guilty of sharing from what I have studied. I will strive to share only from His relationship and the riches of that experience. I also hope that you will not try to understand with just your mind but that you will be pushed to partake in the experience.

I was once told by a very wise man that the two biggest problems for Christians in Dallas are Materialism and Individualism.
When we take the bible and individualize it, we are taking it out of context. All but three of the letters in the New Testament were written to the Church and were even read as a group. We must go back to the fact that the Christian life outside of a commitment to a Relationship with Christ in you and Christ in others is not the Christian life.
Back in 300AD Christianity became the in thing, it was the popular thing to do. This meant that no longer was the Spirit of God the driving force to the Church. Society now became the driving force and the things of the world became a part of the Church. We know the price we paid for this was great. But we do not know how great the price or if we are steel paying. I believe that the price was greater then we will ever own up to and that the church will never recover. I fell that Christ's Church will only come back to life when it is born from the relationships of His children. Then Christ will be the driving force pulling the church to meet and they will meet as long as Christ is the driving force. This is how it should be!
I once read a story about an eagle that was raised by turkeys. The turkeys had trained the eagle on how to be a good turkey. Both the turkeys and the eagle were very happy with this because he had made big "improvements." The life of a turkey is a good life but the life of an eagle is much greater. Just like the eagle we have been trained by fellow Christians to be satisfied with something much less. We don't realize that the Lord's Prayer was answered by the coming of the Holy Spirit. I think Paul would have said the Lord's Prayer like this:

"Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom has come,
Your will is being done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Continue to give us our daily bread.
You've forgiven us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And you have lead us not into temptation,
But have delivered us from the evil one."

When the Spirit came down He started a colony from heaven. This colony was very much like the English colonies in the 1700's. When you walked down the streets of an English colony you would feel like you were in England. The way people dressed, talked, and acted was just like in England even the town was built to look like a town in England. So likewise walking into a group of believers should be like stepping into heaven. You should leave feeling like you have had a taste of heaven. This will be nothing more then a concept until a group of people are willing to pay the price for fellowship up front.
I pray you have been able to understand these letters and that Christ has used them in your life as He has for me. God has imparted some of His thoughts and desires in me, but not the words to express them to others. I have found that when I try to share wisdom with others over time it proves to be a disaster. The only thing I can do successful is share my relationship with the spirit of God to them. I hope this is what you have seen and not how wise God may have made me.