Fluffy Christianity......

I previously wrote about hunting dogs.  I was reminded of these dogs again as I went for my walk on the beach today.  I ran across 5 “fluffy” dogs vs. hunting dogs as I walked today.  You have to know that fluffy dogs are depicted by a poodle as shown on the cover of a book by my good shepherd and friend’s brother Ben Hardister which is entitled Faith Without Honor and Dogs that can’t Hunt.  In his book he states “fluffy dogs cannot hunt” and that “some Christians resemble those fluffy dogs.”

We went to a new church this Sunday in which the emotional frenzy and hype were at an all time high and as I walked along the beach looking ahead at those “fluffy dogs”, some big and some small, I thought to myself as they were running amok that I did not want to walk close enough to encounter them. Then I thought that this is what some “fluffy” Christians behave like similar to the church we attended on Sunday.

Well meaning I am sure and to some extent they did have the goods but my goodness what a three-ring circus it was.

I began to think about the difference in hunting Christians and fluffy Christians of this sort and I realized that as the Master puts hunting dogs into strict training in order to be useful to the Master so hunting Christians are put into strict training by the Master of Heaven and Earth.  Hunting dog training begins with the dog on a short leash until they learn to respond to the voice of the Master. Then and only then when they are well trained and tuned to the Master are they let loose to go out and retrieve the “prize” so to speak and bring it back to the Master without wound.  “Hunting” Christians are much the same they go into strict training with the Master.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV)

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:8 NIV)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)

But “fluffy” Christians however, are a different breed.  I noticed some very keen similarities to the “fluffy” dogs I saw on the beach and the “fluffy” Christians I saw at church on Sunday.  They were running wild in exuberant enthusiasm jumping up and down creating quite a stir but not listening to the master and causing themselves to be annoying to all around them.

Interestingly World Challenge today sent out a devotional by Gary Wilkerson in which he writes about Paul addressing just such a church.  In his article he states

Even though the Corinthians had a great knowledge of the thing of God, they lacked the love that Jesus commands of us.   He goes on to quote 1Corinthians 13:1-3 which at the end states, “ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up by body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”  Gary Wilkerson goes on to add Paul ‘s operative word here is nothing.  That’s what the love of the Corinthian church was worth. Christ’s love –the lay down your life on a cross kind of love is a tall order and one that’s impossible except through the Spirit.

The Love that Paul speaks of here goes on to say love is patient, does not insist on it’s own way, rejoices with the truth. This Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Cor 13: 4-7 NIV).

As Christians if we are “fluffy dogs” running amok and not able to listen to the Master instead when in prayer insist on our own way claiming things that our Father never told us to ask for we become as those described in James 4:

           

When you ask, you do not receive; because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures... "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:3-10 NIV)

Don’t get me wrong we are to be full of the Joy of the Lord but emotional hype is just that-hype- and it cannot and will not be lasting and when those who are under this type of “love” crash and burn they burn out hard.

Listen, God wants us to be trained up as “hunting dogs” able to listen to the Master and go at His command, do at His command, speak and ask and pray at His command and then when He says “go get that one, bring them to me” we will be ready and able to bring them to the feet of Jesus without wound and God will be able to have His way with them and they will turn and be healed.

This is to love as Christ loved the church, it demands the Cross, and as Gary Wilkerson stated “a tall order but one that’s impossible except through the Spirit.

The “fluffy dog” church I am sure has the “goods” just as the Corinthian church did, may be well intentioned (interestingly they preached on I Cor 13) however, if we have the “goods” but not the training to listen and obey the commands of God then we do not love God for it is written:

"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17 NIV)

May our prayer be that of enlarging not our faith, we only need faith as small as a mustard seed to move mountains, but let our prayer be “O righteous Holy God enlarge our Love for you that we would be trained to listen and obey  your voice alone”.