"The Next Big Thing"

     Sitting and sipping my coffee this morning, I could not help but reflect on the old coffee mug which once belonged to our oldest son Aaron.  It has a large representation of the Tasmanian Devil (cartoon character) on the front of it.  I have probably used it since the day our son moved out.  It feels comfortable to me.  We have plenty of other coffee cups, but there is nothing like my "Taz" cup to start the day.  There is something to be said for tradition.
     Growing up, my family attended a Presbyterian Church in our community where we weekly recited the Lord's Prayer, said the Apostle's Creed and sang the doxology and the Gloria Patri.  After hearing it for years, I learned it by heart so it became a part of meaningful worship to me.  Now that I

am older, I find a security and stability as I recite these same things that the saints of the early church also said.  Yet there was a time when I thought tradition was boring and went searching for "the next big thing".
     My husband and I joined with a group of believers who were going to "throw off" tradition and hear from God afresh in worship.  It sounded good, and so a new church was born.  A praise band replaced traditional hymnody, and we rarely, if ever, recited the "Lord's Prayer" or the "Apostle's Creed".  Instead, we stood and sang until the Spirit of God moved upon us and someone would utter a prophetic word in tongues with an interpretation.  Needless to say, it had elements of excitement because it was new and different.  However, I believe much of it relied upon feelings and emotion rather than a move of the Spirit.
     Cracks in the foundation of this new body of believers began to show when doctrine came up in preaching.  Most of us had come out of traditional churches and were well acquainted with the Bible. Yet one week, we were told "once saved, always saved."  The next week, we heard that we could lose our salvation.  Nothing seemed to be settled.  After a number of such incidents, we prayerfully decided to leave this body.  We had made many wonderful friends and thankfully, we are still friends today, but we realized we could not stay where doctrine was fluid.  The whole experience was very painful for us as a family, and for a time, we had no church to call home.
     When we finally settled in to the ARP Presbyterian Church in our community, I cannot begin to describe the comfort that came over me as we sang the "Doxology" and recited the "Lord's Prayer".
I was home...felt secure again as I heard the Doctrines of Grace expounded from the pulpit.  "The next big thing" was not at all what I thought it would be.  Lesson learned.
     Solomon learned this over the course of his life too.  He started out well by asking God for wisdom ( 2 Chronicles 1 and I Kings 3).  God was pleased at his request and granted him this as well as riches and peace.  From there, however, things went downhill.  Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter and formed an alliance with Egypt.  God had told the Children of Israel not to marry foreign women, so while Solomon may have been wise in his decisions among his people, he was not wise in his own life.  He was always seeking "the next big thing".  He gathered 700 concubines to make his life happy, and he began to engage in pagan rituals along with them.  He certainly had a fabulous palace, he built the Temple for God, and he had peace on all sides with the nations around him.  However, in all his quest for "the next big thing" to titillate his senses, he lost sight of true worship of the only God.  His regrets are recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes where he writes, "Vanity of vanities says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity."  His quest for excitement led him to the realization that "new things" were not always the best things.    He concludes his writing (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14) by saying, "The end of the matter; all has been heard.  Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil."  Indeed, Solomon learned the hard way and after him, the kingdom was torn in two as a result of his wayward leadership.
     As we look at our culture today, we see the pursuit of the same thing Solomon wanted:  "The next big thing."  Whether it is the newest smartphone, electronic gadget or toy, man's heart has not changed...it is still tinged with that old sin nature.  Unfortunately, some of that desire for the next big thing has also crept into the church.  Even though our experience happened many years ago, the same scenario can be seen today where congregations want to throw off the "old" traditions in favor of new ways of attracting a crowd.  Yet Scripture teaches us "...no one understands; no one seeks for God" (Romans 3:11).  What is it we are missing here?
     The church is to be a bastion of teaching and discipleship.  A place to be equipped to go into the world and share the Gospel.  We are to be the salt and light.  As a peculiar people, we are to influence the world and not allow the world and its methods to influence us.  Why is it that  in many cases we see bodies of believers compromising with the world's standards and becoming places of entertainment rather than centers of teaching?  God does not change and neither does His Word.  Therefore, do we think we can improve on what He has told us?  My prayer for the church at large is that we seek to return to reformation principles:  Sola fide (faith alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone),
Sola Cristos (Christ alone), Sola scriptura (Scripture alone) and Sola Deo gloria (to God be the glory alone).  All else is window dressing.  We must not get caught up in "the next big thing" if we are to be faithful to the one who calls us.  Tradition may seem stuffy to some, but in the context of the Christian faith, it ties us to the generations that have gone before us saying "The Lord's Prayer", the Apostle's Creed and singing the doxology.  It is what sets us apart from this world with its trinkets and baubles.  Selah!