What if, that mind is idle, in the ways of God?

1 Thessalonians 5:14

I assume you have heard the statement, “An idle mind, is the devils workshop?”  What if, that mind is idle, in the ways of God?  What if the person with the idle mind is very busy, at both home, job, and at church, but is idle in the ways of God; my friend Bill Gilliam calls that performance flesh.   Often this person is a high achiever and may be well thought of in both the church and in the community, but is a zero in the kingdom of God.  So what do we do in the church to encourage such a performer, often we make them deacons, or put them in some other roll that they are not equipped to handle, but because of their performance flesh, and their standing in the community they will want to be involved, but with no understanding of letting God do it all for them, in His timing and His way.  This person looks so good to us that often we are blinded to their lack of spiritual understanding.  In fact this person will be involved in Bible studies and all the activity at the local church, because looking good and doing good is who they are.

Now if you’re a pastor, you may say fill my church up with those Christians with the performance flesh, that is what we need is more workers, but they are idle in the ways of God.  If your in charge of the Lions club, they are great, but if you hope to be a kingdom minded church led by the Spirit, they are and will be a source of discontent and disruption.  The flesh, all flesh, cannot please God.  I believe this type of Christian does more harm to the local church than any other kind of flesh because they perform so well, and are often put in roles where they will bring all their resources and talents to the project, but are void of the Holy Spirit.  They remind me of my friend Pete Peterson who had performance flesh, and gave this account of his actions; “I was like a man with a vacuum cleaner, I was very busy pushing it all over the church, but I had never plugged into the power supply.”  I witnessed Pete’s life after he plugged into the power supply, and He was greatly used by God.

This is what verse 14 states; “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all.”  And this is why the performance type of flesh looks so good, they see the problem as how do we get the idle pew sitters, the Sunday only Christian to go to work, that lazy, idle group that is the majority of the membership of most churches.  They do not get the part about being an encourager to the fainthearted, helping the weak, and being patient, you have got to be kidding me.   Their attitude is; we need workers so we can do great things for God that is the mind-set of the Christian with the mind idle to the ways of God.  But what we need are Joshua’s who understand that only God can move the hearts of His people just as God only could take a ragged-band of jug carriers to bring down the walls of Jericho.  Yes, we need to encourage these men and women to look to, to learn, and to obey the God of Joshua, the only God, and the one who does the impossible.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice