Begittin' the Begotten

Psalm 40 "Blessed is he who has regard for the weak . . . .

If there's one thing I hear over and over from people who are Christians it's this: I want to experience God. They believe and live out His Word, but they want a deeper, fuller walk with Him, a walk that feels real.

You want to experience God? Get in where He’s at. Go to where He is working. If you wanted to follow Jesus around, you would have found yourself in the homes of sinners, in the places of the poor, in the corners where the lepers were. You would have lived on the fringe of acceptable society with the outcasts. You would be in the desert with a rock for a pillow.

We want to be drawn into Him, into His heart. But the more you read the entire Scripture, the more you see that this is where is heart is at: where the poor, the confused, the hurting and the lost are dwelling. Those who have been pushed down their entire lives.

I believe in quiet time – but if my quiet time doesn’t drive me out into the streets then it’s just a selfish seeking of a personal experience with God. If my mountain-top doesn't bring me into the valley, then I'm the worst kind of useless.

We are masters of helping the helped, seeking the found, giving to the given, engaging the engaged, teaching the taught. We spend a lot of our energy begittin’ the begotten. We would never leave the ninety-nine for that one lost, dirty sheep who's caught in the thickets. But that contradicts what we claim when we say, "I want to experience God!"

He's in the thickets with them.