Doing God's Thing
By Raymond A. Bock
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Many people who are not with it have never heard the expression "doing your thing," or if they have they do not dig its connotation. Doing your thing signifies to do whatever makes you happy regardless of the hurt it brings to others. If smoking grass, popping speed, or dropping acid brings individual exhilaration to yourself do not be bugged by what anyone else says. The fallacy with such thinking is that God does not look at things this way. Those people who are supposedly steering clear of hangups create others by their attitude. Jesus said, "Not my will, but thine be done." Therefore, what brings happiness to God is of supreme importance. It will outlast all others. Here is what doing God's thing entails.
1. Tuning Him in!
Switch to His frequency; find His channel.
In the modern vernacular, to tune in refers to heeding what is
going on. For instance, teenagers are tuned in to pop artists such
as The Beatles, Steppenwolfe, The Ventures, etc., because they
have something going which stirs them, the emotional rock
music. They are tuned in to anyone who speaks on parents in
respect to the generation gap, or the modern expressions as
found on psychedelic posters, or on buttons containing such
slogans as "Your mother wears combat boots to church." Tune in
to God. He digs you. "Faith comes from tuning in, and tuning in
by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17, my paraphrase).
2. Turning Him on!
Whenever young people become turned on
to a particular thing they emerge from their solid and complacent
mould. They become vibrant, alive, ecstatic. Their entire
emotional outlet is centered on that one item. Where does this
leave Christian young people? Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth will draw all men unto me." Let's make this a little
more contemporary. "If I split the scene from this orb through
the big Roman wipeout, I'll turn on and make people come to
me." Talk about belonging!
Let Him stimulate you. Don't allow the "top forty" to take precedence over the Word of God. Dig into it. Get something into your gourds besides the John 3:16 pablum bit. The early Christians dug into the Word. They did something about it. They went where the people were. Where are we today? The longhaired dropout from society and the angry young switchblade carrier have a soul. They will respond to a genuine message. Give Jesus a chance to energize you. His Holy Spirit can send spiritual ions pulsating through your heart.
3. Telling it like it is!
Don't mince words. The kids want it. They
are tired of theological haranguing. That is why they are not
present in institutional churches. Sock it to 'em. Hit
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Unconcern is the real gap. These young people want someone who is himself, a person who really cares about them, who is hep to their manner of thinking and will give them some answers rather than sloughing them off. They are tired of being put down or ignored. It is not only the young who are affected, but alienation is the cancer eating away at our country.
How much do you love Jesus? It is time that we of the restoration movement turn our thinking from the internal feuds to what is really happening and what needs to be done. Our Lord may come at any time. Millions are groping in darkness. Are we helping kids to kick drugs so they can go on the eternal trip? What about the teenage girl who becomes pregnant in high school? Do you know her? What are you doing about her guilt complex and sin? Have you spoken to someone after he has been arguing Vietnam to show him that peace comes from within? When someone tells me why kids tie tin cans to a dog's tail, or dip a cat in turpentine, or bash $700 worth of birds on the skull with rocks at the Como Park Zoo in Saint Paul, Minnesota, you will know why there are wars.
I don't know about you, but I spend all of my extra minutes in bluejeans wherever the teenage and college age people spend their time. I listen to them intently and invariably they ask, "What do you do?" This is my opportunity to rap to them, to let them know how real Jesus should be.
This fall some committed people here are going to open a Youth Fellowship Center. If it is successful we then intend to begin a telephone service. Business cards will be passed out which read: "Something bugging you? Call....24 hours a day and we'll hash it out!" The third step will be a home for teenage runaways, unwed mothers, addicts and gang members.
The youth hold the future of the church and the nation. Let's not be satisfied with the clean-cut ones from balanced families, but think also of those with the aching lonely hearts crying out for help and love.
(Editor's Note. Raymond A. Bock can be addressed at 214 South Columbus Avenue, Albert Lea, Minnesota 56007).