I just finished reading the book of Deuteronomy. This particular reading I am coming away with a 'saturation theology'. The book is instructing the Hebrews on how God wants them to live. It's not just the ten commandments. God tells them what it means to worship God. Establishes places of refuge, tells them how to conquer idolatrous nations, how to handle debts, remembering God through obedience, what to do with false prophets, a list of forbidden practices, how to take care of the Levites and so on. It seems like every area of their lives is touched as God gives them guidelines and instructions. Over and over God says it will go well with the Israelites if they will follow all His commands, and it will not go well for them if they don't. Several times God tells them to talk of these commands often day in and day out so they will not forget.
The saturation is not only in every situation of life, but in their conversation. The Israelites were to remember, remember, remember. Through feasts, discussion, sacrifices, how they handled crimes..... The Israelites were to be saturated with God and His ways.
What do you say about our culture today? Are we as Christians saturated with God? Does God not only touch every area of our life, but does He infiltrate every area? Yes, we can pray before we do certain events, but does God saturate it?
Of course, my world involves family so I think in those realms. Can we really raise godly children by just tokens of faith? Maybe church on Sunday and regular prayer before meals? I believe God still calls for saturation and remembering, remembering, remembering. As Don and I sought the Lord to raise a godly seed, He led us into more and more saturation. It infiltrated our schooling option. Through home schooling we could teach and teach about God's ways and the benefits of those. It affected our talk around the house. Discussions of what we had read in the Bible happened. Discussions about how to handle social situations in a Christ honoring way. Discussions on how to better live out what the Holy Spirit was teaching us. Entertainment that encouraged romance, frivolousness, violence and materialism became appalling to our spirits.
Saturation affected our entertainments. We began to spend time preparing to enhance our corporate worship times with music; we did visitation; we started an outreach to children in a needy area; we worked to raise money for mission trips. Saturation affected our relationships as far as if people did not want to talk about God....then the friendships were strained. Those that had hunger for more truth thrived. It no longer worked so well to have shallow relationships. Saturation affected our dress. It became more gender distinctive and careful in the area of modesty and discretion. Our goals in life were reformed. Not what career will make the most money....but what does God want me to do and how can I best invest my time for Him?
Saturation of God. Not possible to do when most of your talk around the table focuses on Hollywood, sports, secular pursuits, etc. Not possible when the main goal in life is to have 'fun' while being a 'good' person, or if the main goal is worldly success. Too often we see a mixture of worldliness and godliness...not a saturation. Perhaps our culture is missing out on the saturation aspect in the midst of our prosperity. The Israelites struggled with the same thing. When life went smoothly and well, how easy it is to not emphasize God. Because....God demands to be emphasized. He knows our frame and in order to thrive spiritually, we need a saturation theology. He must be everything.
The saturation is not only in every situation of life, but in their conversation. The Israelites were to remember, remember, remember. Through feasts, discussion, sacrifices, how they handled crimes..... The Israelites were to be saturated with God and His ways.
What do you say about our culture today? Are we as Christians saturated with God? Does God not only touch every area of our life, but does He infiltrate every area? Yes, we can pray before we do certain events, but does God saturate it?
Of course, my world involves family so I think in those realms. Can we really raise godly children by just tokens of faith? Maybe church on Sunday and regular prayer before meals? I believe God still calls for saturation and remembering, remembering, remembering. As Don and I sought the Lord to raise a godly seed, He led us into more and more saturation. It infiltrated our schooling option. Through home schooling we could teach and teach about God's ways and the benefits of those. It affected our talk around the house. Discussions of what we had read in the Bible happened. Discussions about how to handle social situations in a Christ honoring way. Discussions on how to better live out what the Holy Spirit was teaching us. Entertainment that encouraged romance, frivolousness, violence and materialism became appalling to our spirits.
Saturation affected our entertainments. We began to spend time preparing to enhance our corporate worship times with music; we did visitation; we started an outreach to children in a needy area; we worked to raise money for mission trips. Saturation affected our relationships as far as if people did not want to talk about God....then the friendships were strained. Those that had hunger for more truth thrived. It no longer worked so well to have shallow relationships. Saturation affected our dress. It became more gender distinctive and careful in the area of modesty and discretion. Our goals in life were reformed. Not what career will make the most money....but what does God want me to do and how can I best invest my time for Him?
Saturation of God. Not possible to do when most of your talk around the table focuses on Hollywood, sports, secular pursuits, etc. Not possible when the main goal in life is to have 'fun' while being a 'good' person, or if the main goal is worldly success. Too often we see a mixture of worldliness and godliness...not a saturation. Perhaps our culture is missing out on the saturation aspect in the midst of our prosperity. The Israelites struggled with the same thing. When life went smoothly and well, how easy it is to not emphasize God. Because....God demands to be emphasized. He knows our frame and in order to thrive spiritually, we need a saturation theology. He must be everything.
