Our church service began and one of our assistant pastors stood up and said "Don't you all get excited knowing that you're coming to the house of God." I felt guilty about it but I had to turn to my friend Rodney next to me and say that I really didn't get too excited. He looked at me and with a sad look agreed.

 

Now generally me and he and another one of our friends do something together after church. Today it would be going to my home for a DVD and video games. Before we go to my place on Sunday, we always go out to eat. I went to the McDonald's and he went to the Burger King and to make things easier, we both rode in my car and went through the drive-thru windows. (And sometimes wouldn't you just love to drive through the window?)

 

What we had discussed earlier about what was said came back as I asked Rodney why that was. We have both reached the conclusion that the last thing God and Christianity should be is boring but too often it is. Going to church wasn't really that exciting a thought. Now I do like church and our pastor is a great guy and he can go into the Greek very well but I honestly wasn't bristling with excitement to come to church.

 

I have considered and I told this to Rodney, that maybe we've just become too familiar with Christianity. We hear the stuff we all affirm in the creeds. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. We agree. Jesus died for you. Amen. Jesus is God. Correct. Jesus is the only way. Uh huh. The Bible is the infallable and inerrant Word of God. No problem there.

 

But we've heard it all before.

 

And we know this. We know it so well that it doesn't really faze us like it should. I'm not suggesting we all become charismatics now and for the record, I am not a charismatic. However, I am suggesting we restore some excitement. I told Rodney that maybe the problem is the church is way too light.

 

Sermons seem to come and go don't they? You get some good stuff out of several of them and our pastor does a good job but sometimes you just wonder how much of it is really new to you. Do you need to be told to do what the Bible tells you to do or do you need to be equipped to do what the Bible tells you to do? I'm thankful our church does have some programs to help train us but I do wish their were more.

 

I have thought that Americans don't know how to think anymore. In the words of the Matrix, we need to free our minds and become unplugged. Kids today aren't taught how to think but what to think. The church has had the same problem. Our minds have become simple and simple minds have simple pleasures.

 

Rodney reminded me that C.S. Lewis said that we are far too easily pleased. The Hebrews writer spoke of several discussions at the start of chapter 6 of his epistle that he said were elementary teachings but that sadly, most church parishioners don't have a clue about today. We could go swimming in the deep things of God but we hit the shallow end too often.

 

What's scary is that the cults aren't afraid to go deep. The Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons will go deep. It's deep in shark-infested waters but it is deep. It is deep heresy but it is deep. The deep swimmers can usually drag the shallow ones down to their level to explore the depths that have never been explored before.

 

The problem though is that our fellow Christians are unfamiliar with deep waters. I have yet to get over my fear of water and there are some parts in a pool that I will not go into yet and if someone dragged me into those parts, they would most likely have full power over me. The cults are the same way.

 

A man cannot stay in the shallow end of the pool without getting bored for some time. The same applies to dating relationships. Dating relationships are all about seeking to know the other individual more and more and this one day reaches a blessed honeymoon where the two go so deep that they intersect. After that great revelation it will be totally diving into the ocean of the one that they have married til death do them part.

 

We cannot stay in the shallow waters of Christianity without getting bored and thinking it's passe. We have too often pictured God as someone who's not really an exciting guy. My contention is that God is the most exciting being in the universe. We might think we're pleasure seekers but I think God is the greatest pleasure seeker of all. Not only that, he's seeking the best pleasure for us and will bring it altogether in Heaven.

 

So what do I say? I suggest we go deep. If someone can't keep up, they can't keep up but that's going to be their problem. The cults are going deeper and deeper and I think we could vanquish them if we were able to meet them head on. The early church squashed Arianism into the ground. The Watchtower has been with us for 130 years and we've got more great minds than ever to defend the truth. What's the problem? The average mind can't do it and that's who Watchtower is confronting.

 

Today, let us restore the excitement to God. Let us go deep into our living and active and dangerous God. He is alive and well and he is definitely not sitting around doing nothing.

 

In Christ,
Nick