Implosion of the Church

A reading of the total of scripture would reveal a drawing of ourselves toward a relationship with God as more intimate than that of simply a servant. Jesus refered to the disciples as friends, God calls the Church His Bride, King David's relationship with his God was closer than that of those who merely saw God as the Law-giver. The law would indicate that David should have died because of his adultery, murder, and cover-up; and Joseph was called a righteous man for not exposing Mary to public shame and probable death when it appeared she had committed fornication; but each of these men were so close to God that they saw the deeper law of mercy in God's heart, and this before Jesus came; this is partly why John 15:5 is so dear to my heart. The other reason this verse is so precious is that I am not content with a distant relationship with God, I hunger for something closer to Him, to know Him so that I can talk to Him and hear Him answer in my heart, to sense His presence and follow His leading regardless of where He leads. This is why I can be relatively content with my life not being my own in my present circumstance. I see so many things I could have done with my life, but know this is where God put me and it is the best place for me.
God calls us to step outside of our own desires and do the best for those around us, natural human nature desires and demands self-fulfillment, but God requires us to deny that selfishness and demonstrate love as He did, and the definition of love as shown by Jesus is to do the best for another regardless of the personal cost!! Talk about high standards! That is how our ancestors lived, if they lived well!! The Buttolph's and those they closely associated with gave their all for family and community, they wore themselves out for the good of others! Reading Laura Ingalls Wilder(a very close contempory of Emma Buttolph) gives a good view of what it took to build a community from scratch, from nothing but their hands and what little material they could find, and how hard they worked for each other and others!
Our society, the media, lulls us into a stuper of self-consuming selfishness and it is really hard to shake off, and I guess this brings us right back to the Church and the desperate need to pray for Her before She dies of implosion!! Self-gratification results in implosion and explosion to others!