God Is Not a Doctrine
“Where is the God of Elijah: Overcoming Spiritual Drought in Our Lives and Churches.” That’s the title of the series of messages I will begin sharing with Embrace Church on March 12.
I taught this series in our church in Seoul a few years back. Even published a book (in Korea) that we used for personal spiritual growth in our weekly group meetings. Later this year, I hope to release that book internationally.
Here’s the lowdown on the book and the series.
The title comes from the question (or was it a statement of faith?) made by the prophet Elisha after receiving Elijah’s mantle as it falls from the prophet’s shoulders while being carried into the heavens in God’s fiery chariot.
Elisha is standing before the Jordan river, just as he and his mentor had stood moments before. As Elisha watched, Elijah struck the Jordan with his mantle, and the two men walked across the now dried-up riverbed.
But this time, Elisha stands at the riverside alone. Well, not exactly alone. But without Elijah by his side. And so, he strikes the waters of the Jordan as his mentor had done. “Where is the God of Elijah?” Immediately the Jordan parts, and Elisha crosses the Jordan on dry ground just as he had with Elijah.
I see two kinds of churches and two kinds of Christians in our day.
There are those whose God is a doctrine, and they can tell you all about Him. His sovereignty, holiness, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, righteousness, mercy, justice, judgment, and so forth and so on.
But the problem is all these things are just words, descriptions, definitions. God in the laboratory. God under the microscope. Or is it a telescope?
Knowing about God without experiencing His presence and power in our lives and churches is what is meant by these words in the New Testament - “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”1
God is not a doctrine. God is the creator and sustainer of all that is and all that will be. He is the ground of all being, the eternal one. But mostly, God is a person, a living spirit, who seeks to enter into a life-giving, life-changing, intimate, wonderful, filled-with-joy kind of relationship with you and me and everyone else!!
And this God - the one who defies microscopes, telescopes, and sermons, books, and doctrinal boxes that seek to package him for consumer Christians and churches - is not the God I’ve come to know. That I continue to experience with an awe and wonder that, frankly, blows my mind.
And there are others, many others.
Growing in number but hidden from sight,
off the radar of the institutional church, the denominational camp, and the cultural Christianity so prevalent in our day.
A remnant.
That’s the Bible word.
Mustard seeds.
For whom God is more than a doctrine to be studied. He is the beginning and end of all they are and all they hope to be. He is their friend. He is their life. He is their all.
And His presence flows from them unmistakably. To be around them is to be around Christ. His love. His joy. His acceptance. His magnetic presence.
And so, back to “Where is the God of Elijah: Overcoming Spiritual Drought in Our Lives and Churches.”
I hope you’ll take time to listen to these messages. I’m actually considering basing my “Church on the Edge,” Season 6 podcasts on them. As always, the links are provided at the end of this post.
For all who want more than to know “about” God . . .
In Christ,
Dan
Check out my podcasts from Church on the Edge and my books on Kindle.
You can listen to my weekly messages at Embrace Church, High Point.
2 Timothy 3:5.