There's a school of thought among Christians that what God wants is a bunch of stuff and if you do the stuff He wants you get stuff in return. Blessings, miracles, answered prayers you know what I mean.
Sit in almost any church and, given time, you will hear a sermon or two or ten saying this exact thing. A leads to B, so for a specific B figure out the A, do it and you'll get the B you are looking for.
Name the blessing, good kids, good job, good wife/husband, money, what ever you like. There's the B, figure out the A, do it and the B is yours.
If it doesn't work out you must be doing it wrong, not enough of the right sort of A.
It's an awfully attractive system. You can be as 'holy' as you like for the B too. Lots of converts at the next evangelism event, good worship at the next church service, deliverance ministry, counselling, healings! That's a very popular one, loads of people choose that for the B.
Of course God has an escape clause, if it doesn't work out you were doing it wrong, or you were sinful and 'spoiled' it that way. Either way, if you didn't get the B you were looking for it's your fault. If you do happen to get the B the Praise the Lord! He delivers when you get it right!
Now, I want to go on record as saying the above paragraphs are, unequivocally, purest uncut baloney. "A crock" I believe is a blunt way of putting it.
The "A leads to B" mentality is a fatal, futile, fleshly load of rubbish. It reduces God to a sort of supernatural mall where everything is available for the right price. It's blasphemy of the most insidious and subtle kind. The antichrist couldn't produce anything more calculated to alienate God from His people than this little mental deathtrap. It's appalling. What's worse it's everywhere.
The appeal is that it appears to put you back in the driver's seat. You review what the Christian life is all about, you select the benefit you feel you need for now, you do the work and if it doesn't work out you take the blame. You, you, you, all the way. If anyone is bold or stupid enough to point this out to you you can accuse them of not wanting the best for you like God does and therefore they are being uncharitable or, worse, envious of the blessings God is pouring out upon you as a reward for all the hard work you've done for Him. See? Can you spot the lies?
It can be dressed up in all the theological, Scriptural, pastoral jargon you like, it's still wrong.
God doesn't make deals. NO ONE gets to tell God "Hey, I did all this stuff for you, now You Owe Me". God is God, He's in charge and you, well you are to do what you're told, period. You are clay.
There is no B. It's an illusion that some unscrupulous enemy sold you to distract you from the truth. The blessings, the miracles, the good wife/kids/car/career/salary, all of it is just stuff, spin off, froth. It's not the point, none of it is the point, anyone who thinks it is is either lying or incapable of seeing beyond the trough his snout is deep in to.
The point is much much straight forward. The point is God, period. Nothing else.
God created you to be friends with Him, well friends to begin with, then good friends, then lovers, married ones at that. It's simplistically put, I admit, but when you boil it all down it really is that simple. It's Love, huge, epic, passionate, personal, love. God LOVES you; and me.
All He's ever wanted is you, He even gave his own Son as a sacrifice in your place so that you and He could be together forever instead of apart for ever.
People dress it up for all sorts of reasons. Most of them misguided, some of them thoughtless, and some of them downright malignant; but it doesn't need dressing up really because it is obvious when you think about it.
It is scary though. Especially if you compare it romantically. A nice guy will give you flowers sometimes, the more extravagant will fill your place with roses or something, God on the other hand, well, have you ever visited Kew Gardens? Ask anyone there, they'll all tell you the same thing, no one knows how many species of flowers there are but it's a lot. A nice guy might take you to the movies, the extravagant one might book the entire cineplex, but God, well, how many breathtaking sunsets do you see every year? Thought so. A nice guy will buy you a ring, the extravangant one will certainly make sure the diamond is big enough to see, and if you are really lucky, too large to be swallowed whole by any animal smaller than say a guinea pig (that's a really big diamond actually, trust me on this). God on the other hand, spreads more diamonds than anyone can count out on a black velvet expanse that the whole world can see and no one can steal. Do you get the picture?
To paraphrase the Beatles: He loves you, yeah! yeah! yeah! And with a love like that, you know you should be glad.
Instead, we distrust it, we test it, we disbelieve it, and worse we are unfaithful to it. Loving and adoring all manner of things above and beyond the Love that manifests itself in every glorious hilltop and shines from every diamond drop of dew.
Yet, still He loves us. God doesn't give up on us, He chooses still to draw you to Himself, wipe away the tears, the grime, the shame and set you right there next to Him.
You can rebuff Him, turn Him down, ignore the gifts, the flowers, go your own way. While you live, God will try every day to win you back. But once you die, then you lose the option to choose to stay away from Him. You pass out of this world and in to eternity, where He lives. He will respect the last choice you make though, He won't keep you where you say you don't want to be. The problem is, there are only two places you can be in eternity; with God or, well it's called Hell you understand? It wasn't devised for humans, but there's only the two places you can go in Eternity and you get to choose which one you want to go to here in the real world.
Don't take too long making up your mind, you only have 70 years or so.
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