The Liberating God

In a short post I read the other day, entitled How Much God Loves Change, this paragraph caught my eye:

And so God, creative as God is, seems to thrive on change. To change landscapes, oceans, hearts, possibilities, and alternatives. This cannot help but clash with those in power. As the prophets can attest. And so, the creative God is also the liberating God.

For me, those words beautifully articulated my journey out of the institutional church.

I was deeply grieved that despite the clear indications of God's call to change - his invitation to walk into a new reality as his people - there was resistance and ultimately rejection of that way.

Those with power asserted their 'authority'. The prophetic voices were silenced. And business-as-usual was reinstated. 'Church' settled back into what was familiar, predictable, and most importantly, controllable.

Image courtesy of nakedpastor.com

God was put back in his box and all was well with the world again...

...except that God snuck out the back way and simply kept on being creative.

And liberating!

And thank God he did! I'm so grateful he set me free!

And the good news is that for those who have ears to hear, God continues the call to something fresh and new.

He's liberating his people from performance-based religion - from man-made traditions which nullify the word of God. He's setting captives free to be unashamedly themselves when they worship; to live in love, not judgement; and to recognise that the Kingdom of God is at hand no matter where they are, who they're with, or what day it is.