Horse and the Cart

"The popular notion that the first obligation of the church is to spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. Her first obligation is to be spiritually worthy of it." AW Tozer

Sometimes, in my own life, I feel like I am trying too hard to put the cart before the horse as it were. Many opportunities to "spread the gospel" arise each and everyday, and when I am posed with those chances, I either take the chance to speak or feel a sense of guilt for not doing it later.

In the Acts if the Apostles, Jesus tells his apostles:
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

And we read this, and the first notion is--do it, spread the Word and get it out there in whatever package that looks like and however we can. That sometimes is productive and worthwhile and positive in growing people in their realization of their walk with God, but sometimes...sometimes it's a bullhorn or a judgment with condemnation or a harsh tongue or a clanging cymbal.

But what does it look like to put the spreading of the Gospel in front of the actual implication and understanding of it in our own lives? Tozer touches on this, in that as Christians, we get to the latter-the spreading of the Word and message of God sometimes well before we are truly worthy of it. Our lives become more of a check mark-based system of do this, do that and "get them in the doors", with little regard to our own self-reflection of growth and deemed worthiness of the gospel message of love. When we try this, we are literally trying to get the cart to lead the horse-it isn't going to go where you point it and ultimately leads way off path or sits there and does nothing because it wasn't constructed to work that way....all of which leads to danger or idleness. Which is worse?



photo © Elizabeth Alcinoe
for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomain