I am OFFENDED!!!

The second word I want to touch on, in regard to my previous post from yesterday, comes from a pastor in my church (no, not the senior pastor, the young adult's pastor) whom I will simply call PT, since that is the nickname all the young adults have given him and because this is the internet. Anywho, this particular word of PT's was recomended to me by someone whom I'll refer to as dad since that's who he is. (btw, click the title of this post to hear PT's message)
And now that we've put all the preliminary repetative hoakieness behind us, bear with me as I forge ahead to reviel the contents of PT's said word. In his spoken word, PT basically started by talking about how some people leave the church, or at least a particular church, because they get offended by someone or by a word the pastor speaks or for any number of reasons. This also seems to be a somewhat common occurance here in America, probably due to the influences of both conservatives and liberals, not only in the political and pop culture realms, but within the church body as well. It's this kind of thing, PT explained, that has created so many denominations within the church body itself, why we have specific groups called Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Protestants, Calvinists, etc., etc. and so on. The progression seems to go like this; whenever a group of people feel they've got God figured out or the reach a place in their walk where they feel comfortable, they seem to dig in, settle down and get comfortable with where they are and stay there, refusing to move on any further into the inheritance God has for them. At that point, God moves on to the next group of followers that's willing to go a little further with his plan until the find a comfy spot to stop and say "okay, that's good enough", and the cycle continues. At least up 'til now... I think. Don't quote me on that, though, I have been known to be wrong. The point is, some of these denominations have missed out on some of their inheritance by staying put where they are in their walk with God. They became too content with a certain level of holiness or religiousity and basically said "nope, this is good enough for us, thanks, we don't need anymore." PT went on to say that God "...doesn't want to improve me, he wants to remove me so that he can live through me (and we all go owwee!)"
What does that mean exactly? What the Bible says, and I'm not quoting this exactly as it appears in the book, God didn't come hear to make us feel better and give us all our heart's desires and make everything all puppies and rainbows. God came hear to earth, to die and atone for our sins with his own blood, to bridge the gap between us and him and give us another shot at a new destiny. That means no longer living up to our eyebrows in sin, no longer conforming to this world, it means trusting fully in him and dying to ourselves, to lay down our wants and needs and allowing him to transform us from the inside out. Simply put, God came here to earth to perform a massive overhaul of the way we think and feel, spiritually, and to perform open heart surgery on our souls so that he can use us and mold us into tools to reach other lost children. He wants to bring us back to himself and give us new life and a true joy and comes only from him. For him to do that, we have to be open and honest with him, completely, as in being fully vulnerable before God and hiding nothing from him and allowing him to prune us, much like a tree, to remove all our defitiancies and impurities so we can grow stronger in him.
Another example of this, which can be found in the Bible, in the refining of gold. What does the refining of gold have to do with the pruning of trees you ask? Actually, more than you think. Pruning cutts away fruitless branches, things in life that just weigh us down, and forms the tree, us, any way the gardener, God, desires. Purifying brings impurities to the surface and burns them away, leaving only the pure gold substance that can then be easily molded into whatever shape the goldsmith, God, desires. So, while pruning deals with what's on the outside as apposed to what's inside like refining, they both help to remove from us our imperfections and shape us in the hands of the Father. We just need to allow God to come in the perform surgery on our hearts and make us his.

(Still to be continued...)