When God gets out of control

I’ve always loved the passage in 1 Kings 8 (and also in 2 Chronicles) where it says, ¹⁰ “And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, ¹¹ so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.”

Can you imagine? Can you imagine God’s glory coming down and showing up in such power that the priests couldn’t even minister?  They couldn’t even do their “religious work” because God showed up in such power that they were overwhelmed in every sense.

We are a very “in control” church. Things are done well. Organized.  Carried out with precision and excellence.  Transitions are carefully planned, words are carefully chosen.  And for the most part, that is great–it’s a strength. I love that the people who serve here take what they do very seriously and strive with every ounce of their being to do it as unto the Lord, with all their heart.

But sometime I long for God to show up and get out of control.  Sometimes I think of that 1 Kings passage and think, “Oh that You would do that here at our church!  Show up in such a way that we can’t even continue to carry on as usual.  Let Your glory fall!”  Along this same vein, Joy recently shared this quote from Tozer:

Current evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. They desire God above all.

This quote has virtully haunted my thoughts and fueled my prayers for several weeks now.  Oh Lord please don’t just let us busy ourselves like ants, counting the silly stones and rearranging the pieces on the altar but never noticing that YOU are not there, that Your fire has not fallen!  We want the fire!  The only reason we have the stone and pieces (ministry and church services) is because we want YOU.  YOU are what we want, God!  That has been my prayer.

And this past weekend, in a tiny measure I believe God gave us a taste of what that might look like.  Joel preached a sermon on baptism–informative, clear, de-mystifying the idea and addressing some common misconceptions.  Clear, to the point, no arm twisting, just teaching.  Then at the end, he invited anyone who wanted to to come forward and be baptized–right then, in their clothes.  There was no one ‘scheduled’ to be baptized. No one planning on it. And we knew there was a possibility that no one would come.  But we worshipped and waited.  As we sat there singing, this whole idea was bursting in my heart. “God let the fire come!” I prayed.  With everything in me I pleaded with Him, to come and mess up our lives a little, to let His glory fall, to do more than let us rearrange the sacrifices, but to really come and make His presence known.  And then, to our amazement and praise (tears streaming down my cheeks), TEN people went forward and got baptized.  Praise God!  I went home marveling at God’s power.  That night our Director of Operations, who was leaving on vacation early in the morning, text messaged Jeff and said: “Set out 20 towels for Sunday morning.  Hope that’s not enough.”  I agreed. First Sunday morning service, filled with mostly long-time church-goers, surprised us with another FOURTEEN people going forward, making bold declarations, full dressed and soaking wet, that they wanted to follow Christ for the rest of their days.  Second service, I didn’t know what to expect.  I continued to pray, as did everyone else. And as we began to wait (if you can even call it that), people began to stream forward.  I tried to count at first, but after a while I was crying watching person after person be baptized, and then I turned my head and my jaw dropped at the sight–people were lined up all the way across the front, along the wall, all the way to the back of the church, waiting to be baptized.  What was going on?  It looked like 1/2 the church was waiting in line!

Soon Joel, shaking his head in amazement, explained that people could go if they had to get their kids, but invited anyone who could to stay, since we would be there awhile!  The worship team finally quit playing and just joined in the clapping and cheering as each person made their stand or Christ. Then we soon realized–we were out of towels!  The floor was sopping wet, and line was still long, and we were out of towels. So next thing we knew people who lived nearby were running home and grabbing their bathtowels, happily giving them away to those choosing to follow Jesus that day.  It brings me to tears right now even, seeing the people coming in the front doors carrying towels.  Even the woman who was selling all her home-staging things (where I got to shop for things) went and brought a huge bag of her brand new towels. Soon we were mopping up the floor and continuing to happily embrace those who’d be immersed.

All in all 74 people were baptized this weekend.  God got out of control.  Church went late, I guess you could say.  People got wet. Outfits were ruined. Mascara ran.  And a few dozen people are probably short a few bath towels this week.  But you know what? That’s what made it that much more awesome.  The body rallied around those getting baptized, people freely gave, happily gave, joyfully gave.  Tears streamed down faces.  People stood and shook their heads in amazement.  God was glorified.

I know those experiences aren’t always going to happen. But can’t we pray? Can’t we pray that in whatever form or fashion, God would continue to be gracious to us by letting us have HIMSELF?  By letting His glory fall? By letting the fire come to consume the sacrifice? We don’t want to count the stones and rearrange the pieces. We want the fire.  And not just in radical baptism services, but in radically changed lives, marriages restored, addictions forsaken, people transformed from death to life.  I pray–will you pray?–that God would be gracious enough to give us Himself.  That He’d let His glory fall in such a way that business as usual cannot go on.  That He’d get a little out of control.  For His glory and for our good. Amen.