the Resistance

what i am saying here i am saying to me because i need to hear it right now.

when i was a kid i said a prayer after talking to my brother about bible stories in the old testament. i said this prayer because in my young mind at the time it sounded like a good deal, i get heaven forever and i don’t have to go to hell. many years later,when i was 18, i got tired of living for myself and feeling that life was pointless and told God that he could have it all if he would just give me Jesus and direction.

it has been 11 years (yikes!) since i said that and meant it. it has been an amazing adventure so far, one of joy and pain and peace and tension and love and struggle. i love Jesus today more than ever and am committed to his mission on this earth. i don’t say this so that you will be impressed because God isn’t, it was his plan from the beginning.

so what is it about? once a person has committed their life to Jesus what happens?

i can tell you this, the life we have been led to believe is successful by our cultures standard is not the life that Jesus calls us to. this is what i have discovered in the past 2 years and wish that i could have discovered sooner. Louie Giglio helped me a little by saying this:

“i’ve got such a small story of me and i’m living it in the middle of a massive story of You, and i’m faced with a choice. do i want to keep starring in a little bitty story of me or do i want to surrender my life and join the great big story of God?”

this is something that i have to ask every day, sometimes every hour or minute. there is a reason that God saved me and it wasn’t just so that i could go to heaven or sin less, although those are both involved. so i had to ask myself, do i really think that i am going to tell a greater story than the one that God has already been telling since before creation?

there is no easy formula, there is no 5 step book, emotional time of worship, sermon series, denominational affiliation, or church program that will align my life with Jesus’ plan. (although God’s church plays a central role in this, more on that later.)

i have found it is a life long, slow, difficult, enduring commitment to Jesus no matter what happens.

i have so much i want to say but i think God says it best in his own words:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”- 1 Peter 1:3-9

If only. these words pop up in my mind constantly and i hear them spoken frequently by those around me.

If only i had more time. If only i had more money. If only i was married. If only i was single. If only i could go to this thing, talk to this person, watch this movie, read this book

then ___ would happen and life would be better and more complete and i would be happy.

I start to long for these with only’s and i sense deep within me a desire for something that these are only symptoms of; a relationship with someone who will never leave me, who will tell me the truth, who will love me when i am unlovable, who has my ultimate good in mind.

I have this already and there is no ideal that i have dreamed up in my mind that could ever come close to it. Jesus is the ultimate reality and life in His kingdom is the life He died to bring. Since the fall of mankind in Genesis we have only been able to dream of the ideal because of the sin and darkness that separated us from God. Now that Jesus has come he is actively reconciling those who believe in him back to God. As we know Jesus more we become more real, we become alive, we become what God designed us to be.

Eternal life is not only life that doesn’t end but a quality of life that reflects the character and will of God. In the book of John, Jesus said:

“and this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”- John 17:3

As i learn to trust Jesus and understand that he desires my good and that he is the key to real living i find that all things in life are working to this end; that God might receive glory and that i might receive hope and joy and love and peace and purpose.

This process of being made real is not an easy one. so…where are you at?

am i allowed to say that? it really is true though. i don’t know whats best for me. i depend on God’s direction daily.

on his way back from talking with the woman at the well Jesus was hanging out with the disciples. they were urging him to eat and he told them “i have food to eat that you don’t know about.” i can just imagine some of them talking amongst themselves trying to figure out where he had stashed his food.

Jesus told them”my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”- John 4:32-34
now i know at this point most people start thinking “well this is Jesus we are talking about here i mean he was God and so thats why he says things like that.”

sure thats true, but he was a man, he breathed air, he worked a job, he got angry, he laughed. i truly believe that Jesus came not only to die and rise again so that we could live but also to set an example for how we are to live.

“God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”- Colossians 1:27-29

mature in Christ. is this attainable? most Christians believe that they will be glorified and made like him once they are caught up and leave this life. rightfully so if you read Philippians 3:20-21.

i think that Christ wants to start that process of making us like himself now. this is tough because everything we are surrounded by is opposed to what he lived for. some days are better than others but as Christians i believe that this is how God shows his glory.

Jesus was so focused on the work that God had for him “the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise.” - John 5:19

i have work to do that God prepared for me. may i be so connected to the father that i do what he does, that i love what he loves, that i think about what he does.

ok thats it. just wanted to confess that.

I am going to post a series of these from the Whiteboard Sessions, it was a conference that me and some of the conVerge guys went to in Reston, VA. It was a great time and we were challenged.

The first post is on the talk that Mark Batterson gave. Mark is the pastor of National Community Church in D.C. One of the interesting things that this church has done is that it created a “third place” which is basically a place where those from the church community can interact with the regular community. This “third place” is a renovated building which they turned into Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse. Apparently, it is the second best coffee shop in the D.C. Metro area. What a cool idea.

Anyway, these are some short blurbs that i got from Mark’s talk. The text he started with was Isaiah 55:9. “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” Basically he was encouraging us to get alone with God, to follow what He would have. Too many of us are off pursuing our own ideas and plans. Mark said, “Your dreams are too small.” I don’t think he was meaning large numbers necessarily but just that there is so much more that God has for us.

Another verse that was used was 1 Cor. 8:2 ” If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.” We can possess knowledge but God gives direction and vision. Overall, i thought this was an encouraging word to start the day with.

How about you? Do you have anything to contribute to the conversation?

i started to read back some of the notes that i had written on Facebook before i had a blog. i came across a post from July 31st, 2007 entitled “if you breathe air you should read this”. i think this post is significant because #1. i need to hear it again and say it again. #2. i find it interesting as i read these notes that God has lead me to conVerge church which lines up amazingly with a lot of the questions and thoughts that were going through my head during that season (and still drive me today).

For those of you who are LU people and have been pounded with “Utmost” too much, don’t make fun of Oswald, he’s the man! ha ha:

This is one of the best Oswald Chambers “Utmost” that I have ever read.
I have had to learn this one a few times now. I don’t think he is saying to never trust human beings, he is just encouraging us to put things in their proper place.
Oh I pray that we get this as Christians, God help me get it.

“Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly severe in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they really are, and yet there is no cynicism, we have no stinging bitter things to say. Many of the cruel things in life spring from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.

The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. It works in this way- if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give.

There is only one Being who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship
not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man, was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone.”

For those who want a clearer definition of disillusionment i found this:
freeing from false belief or illusions
. to free from or deprive of illusion, belief, idealism, etc.; disenchant.
a freeing or a being freed from illusion or conviction; disenchantment.

I watch American Idol because I am a singer and it entertains me. Wednesday night AI did an event called Idol Gives Back, it is a little cheezy but hey, anytime someone wants to give back i think its a good thing. So towards the end of the show there is a familiar song that the contestants start singing and it is no other than “Shout to the Lord” the Hillsong worship tune. Now i don’t want to be excited about this because i’m not a “i’ll take what i can get” guy. This song was written to be sung by people who are committed to Jesus as their Savior and it was written so that they could worship him through song. On the other hand if a person wants to get excited about it, go ahead, just realize this was just a song performed on a TV show, thats it.

I actually found it very odd that they would do this song but it just shows how much christian music (and worship music) has become an industry in which they realize is very marketable. It was interesting that the first night they sang it the lyrics were changed to “my shepherd, my savior”, and then the next night they sang “my Jesus, my savior”.

Was Jesus worshiped through this? Are there believers on that stage? Was anyone drawn to God because of that? What do you think?

Watch 

Four or five years ago i heard a CD with this John Piper message on it called “Boasting Only in the Cross” it was from Passion’s One Day event in TN in early 2000.

I remember this message had a profound impact on my life and really sobered me up to the reality of the cross and how it changed the course of history forever. Somehow tonight i stumbled on this message again and its amazing how powerful it still is although it is hitting me at a different place in life now. I thought that tomorrow being Easter it would be fitting to put an excerpt here:

“for the Christian, all other boasting, should also be a boasting in the cross. All exultation in anything else should be exultation in the cross. If you exult in the hope of glory you should be exulting in the cross of Christ. If you exult in tribulation because tribulation works hope, you should be exulting in the cross of Christ. If you exult in your weaknesses, or in the people of God, you should be exulting in the cross of Christ.

Why is this the case? For this reason: for redeemed sinners, every good thing - indeed every bad thing that God turns for good - was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ - as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ - is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

One of the reasons we are not as Christ-centered and cross-saturated as we should be is that we have not realized that everything - everything good and every thing bad that God turns for the good of his redeemed children was purchased by the death of Christ for us. We simply take life and breath and health and friends and everything for granted. We think it is ours by right. But the fact is that it is not ours by right.”

If you would like to hear or watch the whole thing, you can, here: “Boasting Only in the Cross”

Because i’m convinced that the church is the means God has chosen to change the world i will be devoting a short series of posts dedicated to discussing what the Church is, how it should function biblically, and why it matters. I don’t claim to be an expert but only a learner. I hope that this will encourage discussion and discovery.

One thing i think that is significant to note is that church has been going on for quite awhile and there is not much that we are going to come up with today that is going to change the basic foundation. In fact, i would say there has been much that we have come up with since then that has caused us to stray from the original format and intent.

In reading this some of us have no context other than a building, logo, program, pastor personality or worship music to compare this church to and for that i don’t necessarily think that you are to blame. It has been a challenge from the beginning for man to listen to God and do things the way that He intends. Many churches today are being lead by men who want to “change the world for Christ”. Christ is already changing the world, it is our privilege to join Him in this. I believe that God is calling us not to make choices and then ask Him to bless them but to choose Him daily and watch how He changes us and our choices and things around us.

At this point many may be thinking “but you need buildings, programs and music to accomplish this”. I agree, but we have been short sighted in thinking that is enough to reach the unchurched. I am getting off topic here. Back to origins. I’m in a seminary class that discusses where the church is at and where its going. We took some blurbs from a book called The Revolution by George Barna. In it he discusses the early church in Acts and calls the 21st century church back to that model. Here are 7 core passions of the early church:

1. Intimate Worship- this was natural, no service was needed to awaken this, they were in awe of God.

2. Faith Based Conversations- it is normal to talk about the things we love.

3. Intentional Spiritual Growth- they knew that it took conscious persevering effort. they were self-feeders.

4. Servanthood- loving others is more than a feeling, this is the best means of demonstrating the love of Jesus.

5. Resource Investment- it all belongs to God, we are simply managers.

6. Spiritual Friendships- vertical and horizontal relationships. this is true discipleship.

7. Family Faith- they taught the ways of God in their homes.

The main point behind all of this was Spiritual Transformation: any significant and lasting transition in your life wherein you switch from one substantial perspective or practice to something wholly different that genuinely alters you at a very basic level. It is seizing a new perspective or practice related to the 7 passions of the Acts 2 church and never being the same again. Transformation defines who you are at fundamental spiritual level, and your lifestyle is realigned according to that part of your being that was finally awakened to the things of God.

Have you experienced this personally? Is this how the church should look? Are you experiencing church this way currently?

This past Christmas/New Years I flew out to California to visit my family. Before every plane takes off the flight attendant always goes through the emergency plan in case something happens. Normally I don’t pay attention because I have heard it a ton already. For some reason this time I was listening. While explaining the oxygen masks and how to use them she said this, “Please secure your own mask before assisting others.”. Most people would hear those words and think, “How selfish”. If you think about it, its a wise statement, how are you going to help anyone if you can’t breathe yourself? This of course got me thinking that I need to apply this in other areas of my life as well.

I have nothing to offer anyone if do not first take time away. This is not selfish, it is preparation and if you are a Christian you are always thinking of ways that you can prepare yourself to be used by God in the lives of others. I have found personally that if I don’t spend time in the presence of God away from people that I do not have a way of building others up and pointing them towards God’s purposes. I must be saturated with His word, filled with His Spirit and confident of the mission that He has set before me.

Do I always succeed? No. Do I continually keep pursuing? Always.

One thing that I have been learning is how to listen to God, through His word, through circumstances, through silence. So when I say time away, I’m not just talking about “devotional” time or “bible study” as valuable as those are. I’m talking about quality time with Jesus, just sitting and listening to him and talking to him as we must do in any quality relationship. I don’t know about you but I don’t recall ever going out to lunch with a friend and then sitting and reading the book that they wrote while they are sitting there waiting to talk to me. I know that is a drastic comparison and I am not diminishing the effect that Scripture has on our lives, but I want to remember that it is my goal to know God more and more and to share my life with Him.

I believe that by knowing God we come to know ourselves and we also come to know others and see them as God sees them. So don’t forget to guard that time that you spend with God, you really are helping others when you help yourself to God.