March 30, 2017

~ NOT AN ADD-ON GOD ~



The online retailer Amazon has become giant.  A few years ago, it report that during a day known as Cyber Monday it sold a total 27 million items.  To put that in perspective, that is about 306 per second.  Recently, Amazon has offered free shipping on certain items to anyone who is making a purchase of $25 or more.  Those products are labeled as “add-on” items.  The idea is that one purchases what he or she wants and then add on other things. 

For many, this is the way they approach God.  They have their life… their dreams… and they add-on God.  Yet, this is not the God of Scripture.  In the Psalms, David declares, “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours… for you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. (Psalm 86:8,10)” The God the Bible describes is an all-consuming, powerful God who is able to do so much more than we realize. 

During the Spiritual Emphasis Retreat this past month, the youth spent a weekend in Scripture looking at people who lived life serving the God described in this Psalm.  The youth were challenged, through the examples from Scripture, to make more God.  They were encouraged to not have an “add-on” faith but to allow Christ to guide them in all they do.

This is truly a call to all… to encounter and know this God… to seek the God of wonders and to see His face.  To realize that when we encounter Him everything changes… we are no longer our own but we are His life.  Let each of us live as if God is not just an “add-on.”