Entering the Hall of Faith

I would like to reflect briefly this morning upon Hebrews 11, a passage that is often known as the hall of faith.  A sweeping testimony of characters in the Old Testament, it outlines what the children of our God have looked like over the years.  It makes sense to me logically, though I don’t know that most Christians would take me seriously in saying this, that we, as their heirs, and as heirs of an even greater promise through Christ Jesus, should diligently be living ourselves into this hall of faith.  I am not saying this should be done to seek recognition, but rather to please God.  In speaking of Enoch in verse 5 and 6 the writer of Hebrews says, “For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.  And without faith it is impossible to please God…”  So then if Enoch pleased God, and I would assume that any sort of authentic Christian would at the very least claim that they would like to do so.  These verses make it very clear that faith is some kind of secret ingredient to pleasing God.  Faith is essential, it is the central matter, and surely most in the church would not argue, but do we know what faith is?  Verse 1 of Hebrews tells us that Faith is being sure and certain.  Those words are not popular in a world of pluralism and wishy-washy living.  I do not even want to make this a matter of doctrine.  There are far too many churches in this country and world who are certain and sure of their doctrine, but show little to no certainty of God in their every day lives.  James so wonderfully reminds us that, “faith without works is dead,” and here in Hebrews we once again see the same truth presenting itself.

Verse 2 of Hebrews 11 tells us that it was for assuredness and certainty, otherwise known as faith, that the ancients were commended.  The first two verses are reserved for telling us that it was their faith that brought God pleasure, and the remaining 38 verses show us the actions that make up the living, breathing body of that faith.  I would thus like to hone in on a couple of attributes of the lives of these great followers of God in order to get a better handle on what it is exactly that God means by faith.  What is it that pleases our father?

Let’s begin with verse 8 where it is described of Abraham that he, “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”  It was Abraham’s destination-lacking obedience that was commendable within him.  Throughout the history of the world the unknown was a daily reality that people had to face, however, in a modern world we have taken great steps to irradicate this lack of clarity and direction.  We build around ourselves a false sense of security, and illusion of control.  We cherish plans, and lift high the man with his life planned out fifty years in advance.  Christians do not escape this trend either, and the American church has stepped so fully into the worldly pattern of business scheming that one would often have trouble distinguishing the practices of the average church, and average business.  Our churches as institutions love to set goals, building goals, financial goals, membership goals, and then orchestrate a step-by-step plan for getting there.  We despise the uncertain, and though we claim to be living by the promises of God, the safety net we have built under the Lord must make one start to wonder.  Following Jesus has become something even in the most radical churches, that is done only after everything else is secured.  We may speak of our plans, our finances, and our false-securities as necessary evils, but we continue to build them up, and cling to them nonetheless.  Abraham though simply pressed on though he didn’t know where he was going. 

But wait, it appears in verse 10 that he may indeed have had a destination, and verse 16 commends a similar thing. Of Abraham 10 reads, “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” And verse 16, “Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one.”  Abraham and these other great examples of faith did in fact have a destination, but it was not of this world.  They had heard the promise of a better country, a city of God, and in faith they were moving that direction.  They understood that it was not their portfolio that needed to be built up to get there, they need not concern themselve’s with where they were headed on Earth, but in obedience they realized that God was using their days on the Earth to prepare their hearts for their true home.  In a church immobilized and disempowered by stagnancy this idea of living toward the Kingdom can often lose its power.  The language has become so familiar, and so linked with the orderly, Earthly scheming that so often constitutes church work, that the assumption can easily be made that one’s life is Kingdom oriented.  I believe planning is necessary, as it is directed toward self-discipline in becoming a Kingdom-bringer.  The moment planning goes awry is the moment it begins to set forth its own agenda for the future.  The Bible is very clear that God alone knows what the future moments will bring, and the wisdom of James is very clear in instructing us not to talk or think about what we will do tomorrow.  This is an incredibly difficult command to practice, but one that should not be dismissed too quickly as impossible.  Even the most faithful followers of Christ make plans ahead of time, and as we live in the world this is often necessary.  As we disciple others it is hard to fathom what we would do besides scheduling a time to meet with them.  As we go on missions it would be nearly impossible to not plan ahead with plane tickets etc.  However, the deeper reality is seen when we get down to thinking about individual moments, and we start making plans for our every breath.  If it is true that God alone knows at all what the future holds, and I present to you that it is, than the only moment we have for certain is the present.  It is in these moments that we Christian’s need to focus our energies.  With our eyes upon our eternal destination, we must seize each moment of the present, and give it eternal significance.  This is the great danger of plans, the folly of step-by-step planning.  Our churches may achieve one grand goal over the course of five years, but how many potential kingdom moments did they let slide through their fingers, as their attention was upon their plan, and not on the leading of the Holy Spirit?  Abraham did not know where he was going geographically, he knew not what each day would bring, but he knew who went with him, and the promise of the eternal city that had been made.  He knew these things in faith, and thus was freed to live each day, and each moment in the divine direction of his Father.

Further, in verse 13 we see, “They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”  I love that word admitted, it does not say became, or strove to be, but admitted.  They had already been given the identity as such, and it was simply for them to admit, to acknowledge that reality.  The same truth still applies today.  We are not citizens of Earth and that is a reality.  The challenge is not becoming citizens of heaven, or working to be welcomed into heaven, but admitting and thus living like this Earth is indeed not our home.  It is appalling how often this idea comes up in conversation with Christians who don’t want to take care of the Earth, or worry about pollution.  “This isn’t even our real home” they might say.  This, however seems to be the extent of much of the churches understanding of being strangers here.  We use it as a pass when it’s convenient, but fail to see that all of our toys we enjoy so much are not the belongings of an earthly stranger.  Like a teenager who still clings to their childhood blanket, still plays little kid’s games, still wants to go trick-or-treating, that generally refuses to grow up, so too the church must accept its mature identity.  As CS Lewis might put it, we can no longer continue playing with mudpies when the real deal is to be had.  We must glimpse eternity so fully, hunger for it so greatly, that we can bring ourselves to admit that the things of Earth are indeed rubbish when compared with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.

All of this must naturally lead us to a discussion of comfort.  Perhaps the greatest desire of the American lifestyle, and perhaps the slowest but most faithful strangler of the Christian life, comfort often runs counter to a life of faith.  The problem so many have with Christ’s call to discipleship, to the call to die to self, to be aliens and strangers in this world is that it doesn’t sound like fun.  We don’t like things that don’t sound like fun, and my own instinct I’ve found when pressed on this point by people I am discipling is to assure them that life with Christ is indeed more fun than life without him.  I have made such comments upon the immense joy that I find in delighting in my Lord, in sharing him with others, in the intimacy of Christian brotherhood.  The reality is that as a disciple of Jesus Christ I find greater joy in many things, I find a deeper joy, and in times a deeper fun.  Some of the most “fun” memories I have are times of silly and free worship, dancing and skipping around my apartment or around the church I used to work at, by myself or even better with friends.  There is surely a greater joy in the walk with Christ, but I fear that my attempts to claim such a thing as fun in the past have often misled young disciples.  We are fun addicts, comfort addicts, and we have a very clear idea of what both of those things entail.  Unfortunately our preconceived notions of these things do not match the Biblical promises for a Christian life.  Now, I will promise, and hold out with confidence that the life of a disciple will provide true fun and true comfort, but these words have been degraded so fully in our culture that even this statement may be dangerous.  The reality is that true comfort and true fun/joy only come from a life nestled firmly in the loving and directing grasp our Lord and Father.  Jesus promises the Samaritan woman at the well, and subsequently to any who ask him for a drink, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The most beautiful think about this spring is that Jesus promises it will be within whoever he gives it to.  Jesus’ followers will be given an overflowing well, a living entity if you will, that will continue to well up as they walk along the way.  This well, the well of new identity, new life in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, overflows with every good thing, including security and comfort in the only solid foundation, and fun and happiness in the only bringer of joy and life, the only person or thing, as Augustine so wisely said that is truly to be enjoyed. 

So I could very easily get off on a multi-page tangent, and I am trying desperately to avoid such things.  The point I want to make comes most clearly from verse 25 of this 11^th Chapter of Hebrews, where we read, (in regards to Moses), “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”  It continuously amazes me how the Christian Church in America loves to separate the Old and New Testaments.  There seems to be an attitude that God suddenly gave in, or changed in some way in bringing Christ, that there is a shift in God between the Old and New Testaments.  Thus it is that we tend to cling to the New Testament texts, at the expense of the old.  However, it is very interesting and very saddening to recognize the subjects of which we choose to make our foundation from the Old Testament rather than the New Testament.  These include such things as tithing rather than selling all as Jesus might suggest, going to the very beginning of Genesis to see God’s support of our toiling labor, rather than acknowledging the call to discipleship in the New Testament.  Another such biased selection is our love of the Old Testament promises of wealth, prosperity, and Earthly comfort over Jesus’ promises that the world will hate us, and Paul’s promise to Timothy that anyone who wishes to live a godly life will be persecuted.  There are not too many sermons being preached in our churches about the necessity of persecution and suffering.  Instead we at best hear about the persecuted church and honor them with a special day of prayer.  We suddenly get very thankful for “the freedom we have in America,” whenever the topic of persecution comes up.  The reality is though that authentic Christianity is indeed persecuted in America, and rather than remain authentically Christian, rather than cling to the call of Christ, the bulk of the church has shrunk back so as to comform to expectations.  The narrow way of Christ has become a ten-lane interstate, that includes a car-pool lane for those who want to travel to heaven with even greater ease.  This is the way of our world, but the Christian must avoid such a way, for it is not the way of Christ and his faithful.  We must take seriously the reality of the life of the early church.  The majority of Christians, and the majority of denominations choose one aspect of this life, and make that their big selling point.  Some choose the style of communal living and care for the poor.  Some choose the evangelistic style of preaching.  Some choose to believe that God can actually work miracles as he did through his earlier followers.  Very few choose to suffer alongside Christ as his early followers did, and even fewer would dare to even entertain the possibility of living out all aspects of the Way. 

I am greatly troubled by myself, and by my brothers and sisters in the church.  At this point, I am not even talking about the lukewarm majority.  I am thinking of authentic, passionate disciples of Christ in America and how hesitant we are to do what Moses did.  I would ask this question of all of us, “Are we willing to regard disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of America?”  I have purged myself in the last months of the majority of my attachment to material possessions, but it is amazing how much I still struggle with the desire to claim other rights of an American citizen.  I feel it my right to have a place to lay my head, my right to know where my next meal is coming, my right to have a reasonably safe place for myself, my wife, and my potential future children.  I could even say I considered it my right to have a wife and children.  The reality is that our Lord and Savior forsook the rights of heaven for me, and I am not willing to forsake the rights of America for him or for the rights of heaven.  Lord help me believe!  So often when we plan great missions, or what we are going to do as disciples before assenting to God’s call, we make considerations for all of our amenities.  We must make sure of our bodily security before we follow the call of Christ.  The problem is that this often makes us incapable of standing upon the whole of the gospel.  The gospel promises suffering.  Paul talks about taking upon himself what is still lacking in the sufferings of Jesus.  This is not the simple suffering of loving someone who hates you.  That should be of our nature as followers of Jesus Christ, and the reality is that that nature, that love your enemies kind of spirit should indeed bring suffering in a world that stands in stark opposition to it.  I guess this last Sunday was “pray for the persecuted church” Sunday.  I cannot help but wonder at the underlying reality of this kind of day, and wonder if it is not in reality the church of American comfort praying for the authentic church of Jesus Christ.  I fear that we are the hand of the church gone to get a nice pedicure while the rest of the body is beaten and battered elsewhere.  It is not enough to simply remember our brothers and sisters and fail to, “be mistreated along with them.”  Now I do not believe Christ is calling all authentic American believers to leave America and join churches in China, India, and the middle east.  I am positive that we would learn a thing or two about the way of Christ in such an undertaking, but we must choose to suffer for him nonetheless.  Throughout scriptures God preserves a remnant from within Israel that always fails to bend their knee to Baal.  I must believe that there too is a remnant within the American church, and this remnant must make itself known regardless of the cost.  The mainstream church has indeed bent its knee to Baal, and to refuse to do so will bring mistreatment and persecution.  Verses 36-38 read, “Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them.”  Are we willing as the descendants of these men and women to accept our identity as those the world is not worthy of, or will we instead bend our knee to the world.  Is the world unworthy of you as a disciple of Jesus Christ?  We must ask ourselves this question.  The idea of martyrdom has become mainly a nice topic for philosophical debate, something that most Christians at some point have had to talk about and acknowledge that they would not deny Christ if they were threatened to be killed if they did not.  However, are we not denying Christ by our lifestyles every single day.  Hebrews 13:12 reminds us that Jesus suffered outside the city gate, he was rejected from the world.  In the words of verses 13 and 14 of that chapter than I exhort us, “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.  For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”  For those who have ears to hear let us be faithful to the cause of Christ!

Gift of Giving

Gifts are just the greatest
I’m not necessarily speaking receiving,
Although special too,
But giving
Is there any joy greater?
Surprises, great feats, small mementos
Baking, making cards, surprise visits
Quick note, lengthy book
Heartfelt prayers, simple talks
Pricey gift, timely touch
Just to let someone know
They’ve been on your mind
They’ve been on your heart
Scheming to give
Imagining their reaction
But that is the best part
Oh to give, love, pour out all you have
And to receive an overjoyed, excited, grateful reaction
A genuine reaction
That is the best gift to receive
Only can it turn sour
When reactions to time, love and energy are
Fake
Under-grateful
Expecting more
Don’t they understand?
How vulnerable it makes me,
How much of myself I gave,
How much their joy means to me?
So then,
Would I hold back my gift
If I knew I may get a sour reaction?
No
I shan’t
For the love I give
Is not mine to withhold
The love I give has been given to me
In order to give
The love I was given
Gave despite reaction
It was His joy
And it was His life
Love gives to the ungrateful
Those who don’t know the vulnerability displayed
The life, time, sacrifice that was put into it
Love gives for its joy
Not merely for the joy of a reaction
Yet when there is a reaction
Whether immediately or years down the road,
Love knows its all worth it
Every miniscule detail
Every vulnerable step
And all the heart and life given for the gift

Gift giving is a hand-me-down
A joy that was born in us
A reflection of our Father
Oh the joy set before him
To give the greatest gift!
Some know of the sacrifice
Some know of the perfect timing
Few know the cost
Even fewer still know the inexpressible joy!
Oh, how the Father loves to give
How the Father loves our reaction
Genuine reaction
Grateful reaction
A reaction which recognizes the Giver
And all he went through to give
Just to surprise,
To delight
To woo
To lavish his love
In a desire for us to reciprocate
To those around us
With joy
With intentionality
And with all we are
Yes, it is a love language as some say
But it is more
It is love
May we give good gifts!
As our Father gives good gifts
And not confuse it for worldly gifts
Or resort to mindless gifts
Because we don’t have ourselves to give
Guard us from business, Lord
For Satan knows it is then
That we forsake giving good gifts
We forsake giving ourselves
We forsake true love

I love to give
It is what my heart yearns to do
For all
Praise the Lord,
The giver of all that is good
Life
Love
Joy
Hope
Peace
Jesus
Oh, that we don’t trust
Fully trust
The Giver of all good gifts
Lord, forgive us
May we be grateful
And filled with joy
In receiving your gifts
Joy to the world, you are Emmanuel!

One more thought:
Is it weird that we give gifts
To everyone at Christmas
And forget to gift the child?
Is it weird that we are so eager
And encouraged
To gift people
Rather than our Lord?
Maybe we ask,
What gift is there to bring
To the giver?
What gift can we give
When he is not present?
And yet is it not we who say he is alive?
He is risen?
Would it not be fitting
To ask what Jesus wanted
For his own birthday…
One who needs no birthday
But was, is and is to come
Yet chose birth to enter
To enter a world of ungrateful
Disobedient humans
What do you want for Christmas
From me?
Is it scary to ask?
For he might answer
Instead we assume he desires to gift others
To show our love
But is it weird we gift those
We should be gifting regularly
In every interaction,
And every day?
Who might he be asking us to love
For his birthday?
For our entire life-
For our life too is a gift
Given by the Giver
Not our own
Do we not ask him what he wants
Ever?
From us
With love
Christmas means nothing
Nothing at all
If we do not live the meaning of Christmas
Gifting love by gifting our life
To Christ
Even on the holidays
Oh, that we would be guided by the Giver
Then we would too give Life
For we would be gifting
The Giver
And what a good gift that is!
May we feast on his love
This holiday to come
And share the banquet
With those who are hungry.
May we be givers
Of good gifts.
Gift through us, Good Giver.

Swimming with Power

The Lord is bringing great conviction upon me in regards to my shame of Him.  I am ashamed of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that makes me sick to my stomach.  Not only does Jesus say that he will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of him, but I myself am simply sickened by the depth of my cowardice, and the depth of my desire to stay comfortable and to resist ruffling too many feathers.  Now I have been greatly emboldened by the Holy Spirit over the last year, and surely have the ability and have had my moments of boldness in the power of God, but how far will I go, how far am I going.  Jesus says in Acts 1:8 just before his ascension, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  My question here for myself is two-fold: where is your power coming from and are you really witnessing to the ends of the Earth.  Clearly I have not been a witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.  Thus, what seems to be left for me, and where I certainly feel called is to the ends of the Earth.  However, in that regard I do not even seem to have reached the end her in Missoula, MT.  It’s not that exotic, I grew up less than five hours away from here.  And yet, some how, I know there is an ends of Missoula that I do not know if I am willing to go to.  In fact, it may even be a greater portion than just the ends.  There is a number that gets thrown around in the churches of Missoula that 90% of people here are unchurched.  In what I have gathered from talking to pastors that number has been thrown around for the past 20-30 years, all the time remaining unchanged.  There seems to be a great trap in the church, and in myself about talking about the lost, and somehow being tricked into thinking that by talking about them something is going to change.  Where is my boldness?  Now I have been blessed over my years to have some very powerful and blessed conversations with strangers, co-workers etc. about my Lord, but I have been greatly convicted about how quickly I have an identity crisis when talking with other people about myself.

What I mean by this is that my identity is in reality completely wrapped up in the Holy Trinity.  I spend all of my time with the Lord, he is the love of my life, and the director of my steps, and yet, somehow, he is the lover that I am embarrassed and uncomfortable to own.  There is this sickening weakness I have recognized in myself that likes to search for the most comfortable, most opportune time to expose my real identity in Jesus to people.  The world claims titles such as fireman, teacher.  I have experienced firsthand how without a job you fail to fit into people’s schemas for the world.  Even when I have a job now though, I am not a Christmas light installer.  My identity is still a disciple of Jesus Christ, and why do I hesitate to claim such an identity from the initiation of every contact I have.  Be bold Andrew.  Empower me Holy Spirit.

This morning I was reading from Ezekiel 47, one of the more popular verses from the book, where Ezekiel is taken out into the river that flows from the Temple of God.  As he is led farther and farther down the river it gets deeper and deeper.  He reports that at the beginning it was ankle deep, and then at the next stage knee deep, than waist deep, and then finally it was so deep that it was an uncrossable torrent that made him swim.  Often this passage is used as a way to talk about the presence of God, and how fully immersed we are allowing ourselves to be in it.  I am convinced though, that we can be easily deceived by this kind of measuring tool.  It is very easy to immerse one’s self in prayer, scripture, teaching, discipling, talking about God, and yet lack the intimate and powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in your daily life.  That is why this morning the Lord gave me new eyes to read this passage, and asked of my how far I am willing to go into the river of this world to do his work.  As he asked me the question, I quickly crossed off the ankle deep stage; I am very capable and find great joy in sharing and growing in the Lord with my wife, my solid brothers and sisters in Christ.  These are the ones at ankle deep stage of the river, and I am very adept at maneuvering that section of the world.  The next section I too crossed off.  At the knee deep level I see believers who are in need of encouragement.  I have grown pretty adept at hearing people’s faith stories and entering into them to help build them up.  Next I found myself waist deep and from my experience in rivers I know how hard it can be to stand in a river that is flowing fast at waist level.  At this point I too think I have had some experience and success, though I am surely still often lacking power at this point.  I have talked to pastors, to church-goers, to friends who are in a position of opposition to the full message of freedom in Jesus Christ.  These situations can often get very difficult on my comfort-meter, but the Lord is strengthening me here.  Than there are those people and those places in the raging torrent of the river, that 90% of Missoula.  Here are those where an easy means for talking about Jesus is not available.  The topic is most likely not going to just come up out of the blue.  This is the area of the river that only the most bold will go.  It is the metaphorical ends of the Earth.  It is where whether we like it or not all Christians are called to go, and it is of utmost importance that I, and that the church as a whole wake up and let God teach us how to swim.  The thing about rivers is that as they get deeper, the volume of them must also get exponentially larger.  Thus, there are very few people in the shallower portions of water.  Yet, the majority of Jesus’ followers, particularly in the mainstream church, spend most of their time splashing in puddles. 

Now why do I, why do we not swim?  For the simple reason that we do not know how, we do not feel, equipped, or empowered to do so.  Most never even try swimming because it is so foreign, and for many of us who have tried, nerves and worry often characterize such time.  We have forgotten the precious truth of who lives inside of us.  I talk often of having the Holy Spirit inside of me, I have an increasingly intimate relationship with that Spirit, but I am not allowing his Power to fully invade me, and for that reason I am crippling my ability to swim, and my relationship with the Lord.  I mentioned in my last write-up on here Paul’s verse in Colossians where he says that we are raised to life by our faith in the POWER of God.  We have got to bolster our faith in that power.  I have got to bolster my faith in that power.  That is not a distant power.  It is not the power that once created the world, that once raised Jesus from the dead, that once worked miracles through a rag-tag bunch of apostles.  It is the power that lives in me now, that wants to teach me to swim, and to swim not like a small child with a life preserver, but Michael Phelps/synchronized swimmer swimming.  God wants me to be dazzlingly different in his Holy Spirit.  I think about the words of Jesus in regards to the Spirit and I get odd butterflies in my stomach.  He promises that it will be better for us to have the Spirit than to have Jesus in flesh.  This makes since, but do I live like I have the Living God within me.  Surely that should make me look a little different than average Joe in Missoula.  But yet part of the problem is that I don’t know how much I want to look different.  I delude myself into thinking that I am being loving by intentionally making sure no one else is made uncomfortable by my faith.  Phooey!  I am a coward, this is not love.  If I had love for Missoula, if I was driven by the Holy Spirit’s love for Missoula, if I would allow that to happen, (God let it happen even now) there would be no stopping my ministry.  That is not to say that I would necessarily see great success for myself, or even in some great kind of soul-count, but at least God would have what he wants from me.  Paul spent much of his ministry in jail for goodness sake.  Paul tells Timothy from jail that we have not been given a Spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.  I must believe in that power, I must look at God’s power and allow myself to be overwhelmed with a love for them that stretches beyond my love for my own comfort, reputation, even life.  Then, I must discipline myself, overcome my knocking knees, remind myself of God’s power, command my soul to trust in the Lord as David does so often, and start swimming. 

I ache to be a practiced swimmer.  My heart cries out to be used by God, but I like Timothy am too often timid.  Focus on the power of God I tell my soul.  This morning I let myself be embarrassed as I think about the Christians in the early church.  They had less education than me (for the most part), less means than me, and did infinitely more than I have yet done.  Why, because they walked in the Spirit.  I cannot believe reading through the book of Acts how many times these believers were worshipped by people.  Of course they never allowed such worship to progress, and insistently reminded people that they were just men, that Jesus was the one to be worshipped, but here’s my question for myself and others: why are we not being mistaken for people to be worshipped?  Has God simply changed and so he is unwilling to give us such power as he gave to the disciples?  Surely not!  The disciples amazed people because they taught with boldness and were unschooled, ordinary men.  They worked miracles of power, because they were not limiting their ministry to what their natural gifts could do.  This actually might be the greatest weakness of the church as a whole.  We limit ministry to our natural talents when God wants to give us supernatural ones.  If someone is a good singer than they serve in the choir, if someone else bakes, than they bring the treats Sunday morning, if someone else can teach, than they go to seminary and become a pastor, if someone else is good with numbers they do the church books.  The reality is that no one is naturally good at doing the things the early church did.  You can not be naturally good at raising someone from the dead, healing the lame, or the blind, or the deaf.  You cannot speak with such boldness about Jesus Christ even in the face of death because of natural ability.  You cannot ask God to forgive people as they stone you to death out of natural ability.  These are all supernatural gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.  I was healed this last Sunday by a man by the name of Terry Virgo.  He is a pastor and teacher and disciple from England who lives very much in the power of the Spirit.  He is not very impressive himself, but there is a power behind him that is evident.  I do not think him particularly gifted in nature, or any kind of super-Christian.  He is simply like the apostles an ordinary man who is letting God do extraordinary things through him.  Terry prayed over my leg, and many others and I felt, while others watched my leg grow almost two inches.  Apparently I have spent my whole life with a shorter right leg than left one, but that is no longer the case.  I am convinced that healing and teaching are not the greatest manifestations of the Holy Spirit though.  I think boldness is simply the greatest gift, and the greatest weapon of the Holy Spirit, and it is one that many who even heal lack.  It is one thing to pray for healing for someone in a Charismatic church, it is another thing to share Christ with boldness to audiences that would like nothing more than to kill you.  Now I am also not encouraging myself or others to intentionally make enemies of the cross of Christ.  Surely though, with love in our hearts, we cannot sit idle.

In 2 Timothy 1 Paul invites Timothy to suffer for the Gospel with him by the Power of God.  That hit me very hard this morning.  The religious Christianity that has invaded our churches abhors the idea of conflict, but even more than that it abhors suffering.  The American Christian Church for the most part consists of the comfortable, religious elite, and I fear greatly for myself and all who have been led to believe such institutionalized use of empty words can be called Christianity.  When Paul describes the endtimes further on in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy he describes a people, “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”  Christianity has crippled itself with doctrine, and I too often fall victim to such lures of the devil.  I surely do not want to be mistaken as bashing doctrine.  If we have no ability to think about God, to talk about God, than we have nothing.  However, if our doctrine comes without divine power, we better get busy removing this idol from our life.  Any teaching, any religion without power is the religion of the false gods.  The Prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel knew all the proper steps to take to get their God to move, they surely spoke what they believed to be the right words, they cut themselves the correct places and in the correct ways, but none of it was accompanied with power. Elijah on the other hand also had his steps and measures, but his prayer brought with it power from the Living God.  This Living God was the difference maker, but the state of Elijah’s heart cannot be missed either.  Elijah did not live a life in the lap of luxury.  Being a follower of the Living God in a dead world brings suffering.  Paul also tells Timothy in 3:12, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 

Somehow Satan has convinced the church of our own entitlement to comforts, yet swindled us out of any notion of entitlement to power.  Through false humility he has convinced the church that their thoughts of power or strength through the Holy Spirit, that their aspirations for sanctification, perfection, to live a life worthy of Jesus Christ are all by-products of their pride.  I have already mentioned this, but the tragedy of it is overwhelming me as of late.  The greatest tragedy is not simply our lack of empowerment, but what that lack of empowerment betrays when combined with our sense of entitlement to comforts.  Somehow, I, as a Christian believe that I have the right to live an ordinary life just like everyone else.  That it is my privilege to enjoy nice quiet evenings with my wife, to have a roof over my head, to minister to people who are open and easy to talk to, to walk around always with a full belly.  I have grown to expect such things as my rights, and at the same time I have failed to expect God’s power.  One of my favorite passages of scripture of late comes in Philippians 1:20, when Paul says, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that nw as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death.”  Paul has neglected his Earthly privileges.  Paul was a Roman citizen, much the equivalent of American citizenship today, and though he called on the rights of that citizenship during his final imprisonment, he in no way saw himself or lived a life as a Roman citizen.  Paul was and is a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.  He had both feet planted firmly on this Earth, and those feet put many miles across this Earth spreading the Good News of the Gospel, but even with both feet planted on Earthly soil, they were not planted in Earthly kingdom, but rather in the Kingdom of God invading Earth.  His only expectation was to live a life of exaltation to Christ, whether by life or death.  It mattered not to him, though he acknowledges that death would be better for him.  The essence of Christianity is changing allegiance, of transferring our citizenship.  With that change we give up all rights of the Earthly realm, and inherit instead the gifts of Children of God.  And yet the church as a broad generality in America feels entitled to Earthly rights, but lacks the full benefits of the gifts of God.  I am convinced that the root of this cannot simply be blamed on Satan, on culture, on the church.  They all play a part, but the root of the issue is lack of faith in our mighty God.  Hear what Paul says after instructing Timothy to suffer through the Power of God, “And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.  That is why I am suffering as I am.  Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”  I fear that Jesus has become so much a cultural icon within the institution of the church that we have forgotten whom we have believed.  Just a verse before what I last quoted Paul expains how Jesus, “destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”  Our God is the destroyer of death, he is a mighty God before whom all forces of evil tremble, and yet the feet of those who claim this God, the feet of those that are to bring good news to the Earth largely spend more time on the floor connected to legs, connected to a butt on a couch before a TV than they do invading the kingdom of this Earth with the Kingdom of God.  This my friends is a tragedy of tragedies!  Are we convinced that Christ is able to guard what we have entrusted to him to the extent that we will give up our Earthly rights to comfort and embrace a life that exalts God even if it brings suffering?  Do we know the gift of God, the Spirit of power, love and self-discipline that dwells inside of us?  Are we ready to endure hardship like good soldiers of Christ Jesus (2 timothy 2:3)?  Hear the trustworthy saying of Paul in 2 Tim. 2:11-13, “If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.  If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”  We must use these words as a litmus test as we look at our lives and the life of the church.  God is faithful, do not forget that, his promises are true, and he has promised to us a position of reigning as co-heirs with Christ.  That is Good News!  However, if our lives disown this kind of promise, if they betray our trust in the Earthly over Christ, or we have not fully accepted our citizenship in the Kingdom of God than we must let conviction come.  It is the Holy Spirit that brings conviction, but He never leaves us simply convicted and ashamed.  We are washed as pure as snow, and given the gift of the Power of God that we might come to expect that we will have sufficient courage that in all things Christ will be exalted in our bodies, and in our church, as he was in Paul’s.

Sons and Daughters of the Most High King!

I have not written for some time not from a lack of God’s teaching, but from an overabundance that has refused to even consolidate itself to the ten page ramblings that have become my norm.  The Lord truly has been ridiculously faithful as is His Nature.  More appropriately than, God has been reaffirming his faithfulness over and over again to the point that I can no longer deny it even with my actions.  Even today I know not exactly what I will write, but I do know that the Lord is good, and that is what is the essence of his teaching.  Our understanding of him and of his goodness is his chief desire.  We have an abundant God, we have been abundantly pardoned, and thus we, as God’s children, are to live abundant lives.  That is not to say we will be abundantly rich in monetary value, but you can surely rest assured that we are to be abundantly rich.  We shall be rich in joy, rich in love, rich in wisdom, and power, and promise, and grace.  The life of a saint is one of immense richness.  The life in the Spirit can not be matched, and both of these are truths that the church has lost, they are truths that I have not fully lived into.  We have an identity crisis my friends.  There are too many professing Christians, real heart Christians, who are walking around enslaved by the sin that Christ has freed them from.  The person who walks with Christ is no longer a sinner.  We are saints, and we will occasionally fall back to sinful habits.  However, those moments of sin are no longer our nature.  In Christ our nature is transformed, it is renewed.  Our nature is to be Christ-like, because Christ-likeness is what humanity was created to be.  This is not to say that we are to become gods.  That is the thought of the Buddha, and never a greater lie has been told.  However, the ways of Christ on Earth were not the ways of God, they were the ways of man, in right relationship to His Father. 

Hear as we begin this exploration Colossians 2:9-12, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.  In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”

There are many crucial truths in these few verses.  First of all, I want to point out the nature of a Christian.  Right here in these verses is the exact definition of what it means to be “Born Again” in Christ.  Many people have become very accustomed to throwing such language around, but I fear that the church has misplaced where resurrection with Christ truly happens.  The answer comes in verse 12, where Paul says we are raised “through faith in the power of God.”  This is different than saying that new life comes through faith in God.  There are many people that believe in God, but belief in God does not bring new life, because it does not bring power with it.  The power of the Spirit is essential to the new life of the Christian, and there are too many of us who call ourselves Christians, without believing in the power of the Spirit.  Now by saying that I am not saying that salvation only lies within the Pentecostal or Charismatic churches where healings, tongues and prophesy are considered normal.  Though these are important manifestations of God’s power, and any life truly being imaged after Jesus Christ should not be too quick to dismiss these realities, the power of the Spirit goes far beyond that.  Essentially, the power of the Spirit is to change our identity.  Without that power, we will remain enslaved to sin and Satan, even after we meet Jesus Christ.  We must ask ourselves as we evaluate the actions that make up our life whether or not we are living as if we believe with our entire being the mighty power of our loving God.  Do you live like a person who has received in abundance the power and life of the Living God?

You see, the problem of sin against our salvation lies not in God, but in our own minds.  God has been willing and eager to save his people from themselves long before Jesus Christ.  There is a popular understanding of atonement that basically looks like Christ saving the world from an angry God.  This is not the case.  The Son and the Father are one in will, and make no qualms about it.  God is not our enemy, and all too often that is the portrayal.  He is our only ally.  We are our own enemies, and our understanding of ourselves.  The gift of salvation is something that lies on the banquet table ready for anyone to eat.  Listen to Colossians 1:21-23A, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.”  Notice where the status of enemies lies according to scripture.  We are not enemies in God’s eyes, but rather in our own.  God is not trying to change his own mind about whether we’re worthy to be saved.  He is trying to change ours, to let us know that his love truly is great enough to call us back home.  Thus, even when we say we believe in Jesus, but look at ourselves as dirty rotten sinners, we have not actually attained the salvation that has been offered us. 

Let’s think about this briefly in terms of the story of the Prodigal Son as told in Luke.  The son leaves his father, thinking that he can do better on his own terms, that life will be more enjoyable his own way.  He makes himself an enemy of his father, and his father’s will.  We see in this story not a father who sits angrily the whole time his son is gone, but one who waits for his son’s return.  It seems in fact, as the son eventually returns that the father may have been waiting all these years just for his lost son to come home.  There is no anger, and no place for shame.  Think about the conditions that the son comes home in.  He finally gets to the point that he must admit his guilt.  He feels himself to be completely unworthy of his father, and his home.  He has chosen to leave home on his own terms, and he rightly recognizes that his is the blame.  Thus, he sets himself in his own mind as unable to be welcomed back into his home as a son, but simply as a servant.  He settles in his heart for a lower position, but when he gets home he has a big surprise awaiting him.  His father will not allow him to take the place of a servant.  He gets no option.  He is the son of the father, and he can only live in the father’s house a son.  This does not seem fair perhaps, but that is the abundant, exuberant pardon of the loving father.  The father does not need time to sulk, he does not need anything to reinstate the son as his son.  In fact, he is exceptionally eager to do just that.  The son is not an enemy in the eyes of his father, but only in his own eyes.  He has settled for a lesser identity than the identity of “son” that the father has for Him, and the father will have his way here.  This my friends is what Jesus says the Kingdom is like, yet somehow we do not live like this is our situation.  (Let me clarify that I am not trying to ignore judgment here, or deny that God has wrath.  This is not a message of Universalism, nor is it a picture of some mamsy-pamsy weak God.  Rather, this is the true reality of our Father whose love runs so deep and so wide and so long that he refuses to restore us to anything less than perfect son/daughter-ship.)

It seems to me that there are three kinds of people in this world.  There are those like the son before he hit rock bottom, who really are perfectly content without the father, and are convinced that life is fine without him.  Then there are those who have recognized their need for a father, and thus admitted to some degree or another that they need a god.  These people turn back to return to the father, but they are convinced that they will have to settle for a lesser position in the house.  This is the problem with all religions besides Christianity:  there is nothing to span the gap of guilt within the human mind.  It is here that the cross becomes essential.  The cross is basically God’s means of saying, just as the father did in the story of the prodigal son, “I am here, I have been waiting, YES! I really love you this much!  YES!  I am this abundant of a father.”  The Bible tells us that we are “co-heirs with Christ”, that we are “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”  Only through Christ and the freedom of the Holy Spirit are these promises available.  God has simply extended the free gift of having Him as a live-in.  He will reside in us, teaching us each day to, “Put on Jesus Christ.”  We are being transformed into the likeness of the Son, that is the perfect, sinless, blemish-free Lamb.  Christ will see that we become his brothers and sisters, and we too must see this as our goal. 

This is the knowledge and the full extent of the Good News: new identity.  We have been living as outsiders, peasants, rebels, slaves, and many of us have maintained those identities even after knowing Jesus.  God would have us know the greatness of his story though, and if we think ourselves humble by living for less than what God desires we are sadly mistaken.  One of Satan’s greatest weapons is convincing us of our pride.  I am a prideful person, and to pretend otherwise would be outrageous, but I am also a chosen and called Son of God whom God yearns to welcome back into his courts, and in whom God wants to show the world the riches of His power, and to pretend otherwise in this regard may be an even greater sin than not properly dealing with one’s pride.  You see, Satan loves to take our good attempts at humility and use them to restrain us into a life of less than the Father’s desire for life, and the reality is that anything less than what the Father calls life is actually death.  Thus, we are lulled into believing that we have gained life, and are humbly refusing to get carried away with our effort and role in the Kingdom, when in reality we are simply settling for another form of death.  Satan you sly dog!  He shall not have us that easy though, for we are sons and daughters of the Most High King, and your Royal Daddy will stop at nothing to remind you of who you are.  Praise God for his persistence in claiming us, in empowering us, and in setting us free to his will.

I will end this rather disjointed discussion with some thoughts from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, where Paul writes, “Though we are of this world we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not of this world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  The reason the weapons we fight with are not of this world is that the war we fight is also not of this world.  When Jesus was being arrested Peter thought his sword would have a part to play in the battle, but the fight Jesus was going to win was not a fight that could be entered into on Earthly terms.  In the same way, we must be aware of the cosmic battle that is going on for this world.  We are at war my friends, and the enemy wants nothing more than to slow up God’s soldiers with an identity crisis.  We live in a world that Satan has claimed as a Stronghold, any and every heart that has not been set free by the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is strongly claimed by the Enemy.  We, as Princes and Princesses of the Most High King are called and commanded to enter into battle to reclaim those lost Brothers and Sisters to the Royal Family.  The first difference between this fight and Earthly fights is that our enemy is not of this world, and we must not confuse these things.  It is our nature to make enemies of other people, but we must not be like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son who forgets to acknowledge and celebrate his brother’s identity as family.  Atheists are not the foes of Christians, Muslims are not the foes of Christians, Jesus-less Christians by name are not the foes of Christians.  They are simply our enemies and God’s enemies in their own minds, but we must see them too in the light of the Cross of Christ.  This is by no means me saying that we should be content with our siblings being lost, but rather that we must remember that the enemy is the one they are enslaved to, not their own soul.  Satan would like nothing more than to remain hidden in the background while we fight in the flesh against those whom God would have us claim as our brothers.  Secondly, and most importantly in this battle, we must demolish the arguments and pretenses within ourselves that Satan will set up against our Knowledge of God.  The Knowledge of God is our knowledge of our new identity of freedom and power in Christ.  As we have discussed before Satan has crippled many Christians by setting up in their minds arguments and pretenses against this knowledge.  It is for this reason that Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are given the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  We must do battle in our own minds!  This is the initial battle ground, and we must hold it for God.  It is easy to read Paul’s words about demolishing arguments and pretenses and start thinking about those people elsewhere who are arguing against the faith.  We must not forget those things either, but Paul is quick to remind us where the most detrimental arguments come from, from within.  We were formerly captive to our sinful ways of thinking, but now the roles have we reversed.  How beautiful this gift of God is!  Before our sinful patterns of thought were the jailer and we the imprisoned, but through the power of the Holy Spirit God now gives us the keys and tells us to take captive those very thoughts that once contained us.  Claim your identity in Christ as the jailer of your sinful ways, and the empowered prince or princess of our Holy God and King.

Then, with that identity firm and with the shield of faith firmly in place against any lies of the evil one march into this world reminding our Brothers and Sisters of their rightful identity.  Do not think that this battle is simply one that need be fought outside of the church either.  I believe that much of the American church is more enslaved to their fallen identity than even the most hardened Atheists.  Remember that Satan cannot create anything of his own, he can only manipulate that which already exists.  It is for this reason that pride is often though of as the most common and the worst sin.  It is because our nature as created by God wants the best for ourselves.  The reality is that God gave us the best, and we were to rightfully and hungrily desire that best in God.  However, Satan tricked us by convincing us that there was something better just beyond the best God had given us, some luscious treat he was holding back from us.  Sadly though there was and is a trapdoor that first step beyond the best of God, and it plummets us from royalty to pauperhood in an instant.  Thus, Satan trapped us in our longing for that best that God wishes for us to have, to a pattern of constantly striving and hitting the trapdoor again and again and again.  The danger is that many people have come to Christ, seen the best and then been taught the problem is with their longing for the best, their pride.  Thus they break the cycle of striving and hitting the trapdoor, but they rather than seizing and claiming the gift of best that God is holding out, settle for a humble, dreary existence in the pits of this world.  Claim your identity as an alien and stranger in this world.  Let us lead a revolution in which the whole church claims their full identity, and let us watch the Holy Spirit demolish every stronghold of the enemy and usher in the Kingdom of the Living God!