Enriching The Color of Your Faith

Go beyond the basic color scheme of faith.

² My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.(Colossians 2:1-3, NIV 2011 Edition)

When I was a kid, I used to draw sketches with my friends and find great pleasure in coloring different shapes and figures. We only had the small 8 count Crayola (or Rose Art - lol!) Colored Pencil kit but we made do with what we had. Of course you'd have your basic black, white, red, purple, brown, blue, green, yellow, and orange, the color scheme that let you color at least distinguish between people of different races but the complexity of the pieces were always limited because brown was brown and not mahogany... red was always red and not crimson... and purple was always purple, never lilac. We were pretty smart kids back then, and so it wasn't so much that we didn't know what we wanted to communicate, we just didn't have the complex tools to sketch and color what was in our minds and communicate it directly onto paper.

As I grew older, I stopped sketching as much but when I went back to the art back in college, I went for the large 50 count box of Crayolas. The greater selection of colors helped to create a picture that was very intentional and showed that I understood the message that I wanted to get across.

Studying God's word works the same way.

8-Count Christianity. When we're fresh in Christ or before we really dig into our word faithfully, we know a few key scriptures here and there to minister to ourselves and to others. We recite the same go-to scriptures that we've heard in church all along because we believe that it's a one sized fits all approach to any situation someone might face. These can get us by to some extent, and no doubt they are good scriptures to hold onto, but the Bible can relate to us - and we to it- in so many more ways.

50-Count Christianity. For the sake of illustration, some of the basic emotions in life are fear (black), anger (purple), peace (blue) and love (red) - among others. When you read the scriptures and read about the different men and women of the Bible, you see that they all experienced different levels of these emotions and communicated it to God and His people in different ways. Love as expressed by Solomon was very different than love as expressed by Jesus Christ. Peace for David looked different compared to the peace that Paul found in troubled times.

The beautiful thing about God's Word is that it is a living word and it was created to relate to YOU! The more you search, you'll find an answer to any problem that you might have. The scriptures go beyond the usual Sunday School verses that you've heard all along and reveal hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Are you living in a 50-count world with an 8-count pencil set?

God's Will, God's Way

 ^3-7 They placed the Chest of God on a brand-new oxcart and removed it from Abinadab's house on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab's sons, were driving the new cart loaded with the Chest of God, Ahio in the lead and Uzzah alongside the Chest. David and the whole company of Israel were in the parade, singing at the top of their lungs and playing mandolins, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, so Uzzah reached out and grabbed the Chest of God. God blazed in anger against Uzzah and struck him hard because he had profaned the Chest. Uzzah died on the spot, right alongside the Chest. ^8-11 Then David got angry because of God's deadly outburst against Uzzah. That place is still called Perez Uzzah (The-Explosion-Against-Uzzah). David became fearful of God that day and said, "This Chest is too hot to handle. How can I ever get it back to the City of David?" He refused to take the Chest of God a step farther. Instead, David removed it off the road and to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The Chest of God stayed at the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months. And God prospered Obed-Edom and his entire household. (2 Samuel 6: 3-11)

In this passage, David has assembled a group of his strongest men to help return the Ark back to his kingdom. David has just assumed leadership over the twelve tribes and this was one of his first things on his agenda. His heart was after God so much that he wanted nothing more than to return the Ark (Chest of God) back to it's rightful place in the center of his kingdom. Not only did he seek to get the Ark right away but he made sure that the cart was of the finest quality. But David, while meaning well, acted in haste and forgot to follow instructions...

And then things went downhill.

While leading the cart back to David's kingdom, Uzzah reaches out to catch the Ark from falling and God strikes him dead. As the scripture states, God was angry because the Ark was profaned. Why was it profaned?

God's will. God's way.

While it was not a problem for the Ark to be moved to David's kingdom, the problem was that David didn't follow instructions for how the Ark was to be handled. In Moses' last words before he died, he charged only the Levites with carrying the Ark. David failed to follow these instructions by employing non-Levites to carry the Ark and as a result, faced the consequences.

God's will. God's way.

In our lives we can have the best intentions and the best ambitions for the things that God loves but still be far off from His will. It's not that our hearts are in the wrong place, but maybe our actions and order of procedure is wrong. Just like with the Ark, when we do things with the right intentions but the wrong direction, God can get angry and cause our plans to breakdown.

As you seek to accomplish things in your life and seek to even "follow your heart," always ask God to guide you in the way that you should go. Refer back to the Bible and the wisdom therein so that you can be sure you are making the right steps. Also, seek God's face through prayer and conversation so that you can be sure. If you don't, you might just find yourself back at square one.