Dear Jack,
You want to know about my religious belief? (*Smiles*) Okay! I suspect you’re asking because of the timing of my Sunday tweets. You wonder if I go to church but I do, every Sunday!
The reason I don’t broadcast where I worship (except I’m invited to speak) is to afford me veneration privacy. There are scheduling tools for such Sunday postings by the way, but since you asked I’ll share my faith with you:
I believe in God and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. My faith is the pericardium of my soul, the hypocenter of my joy, my parapet of ascent, the paragenesis of my values. I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking relationship. A real, genu-wyne relationship dating back to my university days.
God is someone I conversate with everyday, someone I cherish, and whose personage I stupendously enjoy. There’s nothing we don’t discuss. There’s nothing I can’t discuss. I can totally be myself with him, say it as it is. No point pretending anyway. He knows what you’re thinking. We’re kinda open source aren’t we? Hypocrisy doesn’t wash with God. He can’t stand pretentiousness.
Jesus had a running battle with the religio-political establishment of his day. You’ll call them smellos today. The Pharisees were pompously insincere, arrantly hypocritical. They were rigidly doctrinaire. They were so pious and “holy” they forgot what true religion is: they forgot mercy. These guys financed the crucifixion of their own Saviour. Hypocrisy can be amazing!
What I find admirable about God is the grace of power. All that power and he can still tolerate human insults and defiance! Even our foolishnesses. Perhaps the ultimate power of God is restraint. You can’t be that way unless you’re fundamentally kind. It’s his default. He’s a disciplinarian though. He applies tough love sometimes. Says his correction is proof of his love.
He’s awesomely intelligent. My! I spent 2 years studying cosmology and quantum mechanics just to figure out Genesis 1. And so God is a visceral titillation for me. To think he conceptualised all that original science in Genesis. His literary standards are literally out of this world. There are some expressions in the Bible…you’ve got to take a bow!
The Bible for me is not a religious tome. It’s some sort of encyclopaedic existential manual. Don’t know how to describe it. You don’t need to be a pastor to have a sound knowledge of the Bible. Just study.
During worship in church it’s just me and God. I don’t bother wondering or worrying about what people think. I don’t bother about my composure either. Only a fool poses in the presence of God. No matter how expensive what I’m wearing, I will kneel before my maker, prostrate before him. Oh, and I dance! You SHOULD boogie before God. You’re young! Stop dancing like your grandpa’s generation.
Praise God with Red Bull energy. That’s one of David’s secrets. (No, not Red Bull). There’s nothing like “holy dance”. You won’t find it in the Bible. God doesn’t mind the latest dance steps. Again ref David. In the presence of the Lord there is liberty. In the presence of the Lord there’s fullness of joy! Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed by God I just sit on the floor in church, wondering about such awesomeness. He blows my mind! Oh there are stories I can tell you about adventures in God.
Sometimes I’m trying to solve a difficult client problem and the answer comes right during worship……the full stuff…with charts and graphs. Don’t limit God. God does speak to us. And I’m not talking about “Thus saith the Lord”. God understands modern English. He’s not anachronistic. If God speaks to you in 17th century English it’s because YOU are caught in a time warp! Most times God speaks to us in impressions, a “knowing” on the inside of us. The Spirit of God is gentlemanly.
If you give him multiple choice options you’ll feel a gentle kick in the gut on the correct answer. When things are tough (and trust me I’ve experienced my own fair share of life’s difficulties) I ask him to help me. I pray.
The best way to get along with God is through sincerity of heart. Not just honesty. Sincerity. Tell him everything. Nothing shocks him. He’s seen it all. Funny that our conception of God is that of a remote stentorian individual who can’t stand our stercoraceous nature. Nothing could be farther from the truth. (Stercoraceous means full of feces). He cleans up messes. God is still cleaning up messes. Take the mess of your life to him.
Institute a program of relentless pursuit of divinity. Every time you fall stand up and run after God. God is not condemnatory. We are! And that’s because we’re trying to compensate for our shortcomings. All that holier than thou reality show is Pharisaic hypocrisy. God is not looking for perfect people. He’s looking for perfect hearts- sincere hearts. He said so.
David, Solomon’s mum, Mary the Magdalene, Solomon, Peter, Abraham, Moses…all these were very imperfect people. Solomon went crazy over money. His mum committed adultery with David, who murdered her husband to marry her. Peter was disloyal, denied Jesus three times; Abraham resorted to self help and created the Arab-Israeli conflict. Moses had anger management issues…I’m just saying all the people we glorify today were patently human. But they walked with God. Relentless pursuit of divinity.
And God is not against you becoming successful. He wants you to succeed. Abraham’s lineage was successful. Falling in love is not carnal either; neither is romance. Have you read The Lyrics aka Song of Solomon? And God has nothing against hip hop, rock music or rap music. He distributed talents. You CAN be a star and still serve God! He has no problems with Twitter or Facebook either. Technology facilitates his vision.
Neither does he have something against good looking women, or looking beautiful or dressing well. Jacob’s mum was a knockout. As was Jacob’s grandma. Who you date is your personal preference. And God invented sex, including the biology of erogenous facilitators. He’s just particular about context. What more can I say to you? Perhaps you should tell me: What do YOU believe?
Your mentor, LA.
© Leke Alder 2014