My Performance

Sunday, April 27. 2008

I couldn't count on all my fingers and toes how many times I've heard the term "independent fundamental baptist" pounded on a podium. And I have to admit, I've never really cared for it. It always had an air of arrogance to it. But that's just my opinion.

Fundamentalism is rigid, uncompromising teaching and practice about the absolute necessity of being in the right place, at the right time, wearing the right clothing, singing the right songs, and saying the right prayers. Fundamentalism is the fanatical pursuit and exaltation of human performance, insisting that everyone else perform the same religious rituals and rules while arbitrarily and irrationally giving blind loyalty to religious authority... From a Christian perspective, it is necessary to understand that fundamentalism within Christendom is not one and the same as the fundamentals of our faith. [source]

I want from the very core of my being to bring pleasure to my God. I want to serve Him faithfully and I want to be about His business. I want to increase in favor before Him. But I have a problem. Not long ago, I was a member of an independent fundamental baptist church, and at that church I saw something I had rarely seen in other churches: there were other men who cared about their performance before God. Eventually, this spurred me on to desire to increase my performance. And I thought this was a good thing.

My problem is simple. I thought that by doing what pleased these men, I was ultimately pleasing God.

I firmly believe that God wants me to "perform." He wants me to learn to crawl, then to walk, and eventually to run the endurance race He has set before me. He wants me to convert my convictions into conduct. And by doing so, I will bring Him pleasure. But even doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still worthless.

Lord, please teach me to do the right thing and let me do it for the right reasons. Please let my lifestyle and conduct be pleasing to you. Please teach me to care about the things that You care about. Please give me the power to look past the outer person. Please prevent me from judging others. But above all, please show me that without You I could do nothing.

Posted by Ray in Lessons Learned at 21:45 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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