PRODUCING THE FRUIT OF THE KINGDOM

In Matthew 21 after an amazing chapter of teaching, Jesus ends the discussion with these starting words to the religious elite:

The Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it. (verse 43)

It seems Jesus is pretty interested in the Fruit of the Kingdom.

As we will see in our study of Matthew 21...

The fruit of the Kingdom is the fine texture of a life in Christ, which lies between the lines, the substructure that pulls all the details together and from which every other part of our life reacts.    

The Fruit of the Kingdom displayed in the followers of Christ is the single most powerful force in obtaining the restoration of God’s creation and for good in our world today.

A life that produces the fruit of the Kingdom lies in stark contrast to the people we find in Matthew 21: Those in the temple dealing in the external requirements of worship; the son in the parable who had the right answers but the wrong kind of life; the unrepentant tenants and the unscrupulous guest.

As we move into 2013, we want to ask ourselves, what is it that is really important to God? 

What is our life to look like? What kind of content might the life have where the fruit of the Kingdom is being produced in us?

Where it is the substructure of our life pulling all the various details and events together and causing it all to reflect a life blessed by living in the Kingdom?

Paul grasped it and tells us in Colossians 3:17…

Whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

In someone’s name is to act for their purposes with their resources.

Have you ever had a Power of Attorney? A Power of Attorney authorizes the one granted the power to act on behalf of and from the resources of the one granting the power. This is what it means to act in the name of Jesus.

In a nutshell, that is the Fruit of the Kingdom.

One who has a life that reflects the power of acting on behalf of and from the resources of the King Himself.

This lies in stark contrast to where we put the emphasis.

If you’ve been around awhile you know that being a good Christian is associated with a lot of strange habits, rules, boxes and dogma.

It usually means getting things under human control (and others under your human control in all kinds of despicable ways). Like how you dress, external adornments, the phrasing of your words and the right answers. Mostly it means acting like the son in the parable in this chapter who said the right words but didn’t have the life to back it up. Sound familiar?

When we begin to see God for who He is and Jesus as the One who will teach us His ways, our lives will produce, without a conscious attempt, the Fruit of the Kingdom. It is a beautiful thing to see happen in the lives of His disciples who are brave enough to move beyond the external forms of a religion that is intent on the right answers without living on behalf of and from the resources of Jesus Himself. That's power. That is the Fruit of the Kingdom.

Planning for the Rest of Your Life

Well, the apocalypse never came. No shattering earthquakes rearranged geography. We weren’t hit by a civilization-ending asteroid. Nary a tsunami wrought despair and destruction on coastlines. No invasion of evil forces. No alien invasion. The Rapture didn’t happen.  No explosions of nuclear weapons devastated humanity. What that means is two things: the prophets of 2012 got it wrong, and you have to plan for the rest of your life.

While 2013 is an unwritten book, don’t just let the pages be written for you. Be active and intentional about your life in the coming year.

Here are 20 suggestions to help in making a plan as you enter 2013…

1. Decide to be a follower of Christ.

It is the most important decision we make every day before we get out of bed. Today, I am going to be a follower of Christ. Today, I choose in all my actions and thinking, in whatever I say and do to be a disciple of Christ.

2. Decide to be a joyful person. We talked about that during advent. Many people aren’t joyful about their life because they have just never decided to be a joyful person. Joy means that you have a settled assurance that all is well with your soul. Lamentations. Evaluate life’s events from the standpoint that the Lord is your portion. That means the Lord is enough.

When I start getting ‘worried’ or ‘anxious’ about life and all that it does and could bring, I will often say, ‘Today I have God and that is enough, tomorrow will be the same’. That is realizing the Lord is my Portion.

Is perfection possible?

No, but striving for perfection is. 

3. Decide that this year you will live as a forgiving person.

Make a list of people who have hurt you. Consciously forgive them. That means you aren’t going to build your life around their offense. 

May mean consciously overlooking the faults of others.

If you decide you can’t forgive.

Ask yourself if you could forgive would you want to? 
Forgiveness is keeping the pressure off of you.

4. Buy a journal.

A journal gives you access to a free, unlicensed (but effective) therapist.

You won’t believe what you can get for a number 2 pencil and a piece of writing paper..

When we’re drawn to fill a page, we’re often surprised at what is summoned. Oftentimes, we don’t truly know our thoughts until we put language to them.

Writing presents us with a slower, solitary mode for reflection.

You could start your journal with the reflections from the insert this week.

If you reflect this week on the goodness of God and you accept the proposition that His mercies are knew every morning, you could write some of them down. Consider the ways God is transforming your life into one of holiness. List one person, one circumstance, and one Bible passage that have been instrumental in transforming your life this year.

In what ways do you see God transforming your life in the coming year? In what ways would you like God to transform your life in the coming year?

5. Write a letter. Yes, write a letter. Not an email or a card.

Write a letter to someone you love, someone you respect.

We have lost the art of expression.

6. Get a library card or make a list of books you want to read this year.

It doesn’t have to be religious reading either.

Professionals who deal with people suffering from depression or other mood disorders call reading; Bibliotherapy.

The “emotional impact” of imaginative literature, they say, surpasses the rational examination elicited by most didactic self-help works.

In those solitary hours absorbed in the folds of printed pages, we envision a different life for ourselves and find inspiration that eludes us in the course of our daily lives.

7. Spend a day or two or three in nature recharging your batteries.

Mountains are good for thinking. Not with ear buds shoved in but listening. Listening to the sounds of nature. Waiting for the voice of God.

Scary thing is that it may force you to face the truth about yourself. But all of us have weaknesses and needed areas of improvement.

Lost the art and desire for self-reflection.

8. Exercise.

We aren’t exercising because we worship our body,

we are taking care of the body He has given us. It is a precious thing.

We are wonderfully made creatures. The height of His creative power.

We have surrendered our bodies, its care and upkeep to the dictates of our feelings and taste buds. Shameful the way we abuse our bodies.

9. EAT HEALTHY. (greatly benefit from cutting out all sugar)

Rather than make another resolution to lose weight. Make a conscious decision to eat what is healthy.  Intend to be a healthy person.

Our mindless indulgences of food often carry over into indulgence and laziness in our spiritual life.

10. Clean out your refrigerator and cupboards.

You could go along way in accomplishing #8 if you’d just clean out everything with ingredients you can’t pronounce.

11. Be Affluent. We have determined in our culture that being affluent means having lots of money and living at a certain standard. I think being affluent is learning to live with what you have. Reducing your wants and desires. Living within your means. If you don’t have enough money to do what you want then change what you want.

12. Formally join DBC.

It doesn’t make you more spiritual. It doesn’t make me think you are more important. It won’t make God like you more.

It goes along with the living a disciplined life thing.

13. Make time on a regular basis to read the bible.

But don’t just read, reflect. Meditate. Memorize a Psalm.

Psalm 23, Psalm 100, Psalm 1, Psalm 92.

You can keep your thoughts in that journal you bought.

14. Turn off the TV earlier.

It is generally accepted that watching TV before bed destroys your sleep. That is probably the least of the consequences you’ll have.

15. Consciously everyday reflect on the new mercies of God given for that day. “His mercies are new every morning.” What might those be?

Another use for that journal.

16. Take time to play.

We take ourselves too seriously. Life is from God and it is to be enjoyed.

Maybe you might even smile or laugh.

17. Do Something for someone who can’t give you anything in return.

18. Get involved in a home group.

19. Learn to do something new.

Write a poem or knit or a language.

20. Pray.

CHRISTMAS EVE MESSAGE

I was requested to post a summary of my Christmas Eve message at our service as it was not taped. In the event you are interested, here it is:

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE

12-24-12

Immanuel. God with Us. Redeemer. Messiah.

He is all that and more. By all means have your baby in the manger but He is more than a baby in a manger. He is more than a miracle of life.

He is the miracle of the Ages. He is the Answer to every question-

the solution to every problem. Explanation to every enigma.

He is the first and final word. He is the doxology.

If we are to believe what His earliest followers thought of Him, He is the One in whom are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

He is the One that is holding it all together.

The beauty of Christmas is not to be found in the humble setting of His birth or the cradle; the glory of Christmas is to be found in the heart and plan of an infinite God who made man, not so that we could love Him but so that He could love us. The GLORY of Christmas is Christ Himself. Jesus.

The One whose beginning never was---grants to us a life that never ends.

Christmas is not just about a setting in a little town to romanticize.

But the inventor of life. The One who caused you to come into being, The One who came to invest His life into you, The One who likes you.

John 1:4-In Him was life-and that life was the light of men.

A LIFE THAT MAKES SENSE OUT OF HUMAN EXISTENCE.

This is what John means when He says, this life was the light of men.

Christmas is about the offer to you of a life that never ends.

John 10:10-I have come that you might have life in overflowing abundance.

Jesus did not come merely to give life.

He came WITH life to make sense out of our life.

Just life alone is not sufficient.

Don’t you desire something that will make sense of it all?

THE WORD. JESUS. He came with life in His grasp for us.

And He is the only one who has it, and He has all we need.

Christmas is about the One who invaded human history and established a beachhead of Divine Life. To Dwell In you and to overcome evil with the good of His people.

This is the grand conspiracy of which we are called to be a part.

A race of people who have indwelling them the very life of the Creator!

This is Jesus beyond the cradle:

Coming to see this Indwelling Word as the light of men.    All that we need.

He is called over 250 names in the Bible-He is simply everything we need-He doesn’t give us all we need-He IS all we need.

This is Jesus beyond the cradle.

Hungry-He is the Bread of Life

Thirsty-fountain of living water

Ignorant-He is the truth

Sick-Balm of Gilead

Death Bed-He is the Resurrection and the life

Lost-He is the Way

Geologist-rock of ages

Botanist-sweetest rose of Sharon, the lily of the Valley

Astronomer-Bright and morning star

Zoologist-Lion out of the tribe of Judah

Outcast and lonely-He is the friend of sinners

Soldier-Prince of Peace

Author-alpha and omega

We believe in HIM, this child of Christmas.

But living beyond the cradle means that we take Him for ALL HE is, and all HE IS, is sufficient for all you need.

This is the very thing that saves a man from the futility of self-effort.

This is the gospel.

As I learn dependence I am freed by His grace to be independent of my own fleshly wants and desires.      Emancipated.          Released.

This raises us above being a victim of our own self-pity.

It gives us purpose and reason and meaning.

A co-conspirator of God in the fulfillment of His Divine plan for humanity.

We are the human vehicles of divine life.      What divine life?

The very life of Christ Himself.  This Word that co-existed with the Father before Time was even set in motion. A Divine life that is the light of men.

A life that makes sense out of human existence.

We find in Him our satisfaction. AND-He finds satisfaction in us.

We are never going to stop existing and there is nothing we can do about it except to join in the Creator’s Conspiracy to bring us into fullness of life.

So, He came, not to sacrifice for us and regret it.

Not primarily because we need it-which of course we do desperately.

But because in His Divine Sovereignty He has chosen to need us-

to revel in us-to enjoy us.          We are His unique creation.

And He has Life for US.  Life that makes sense out of our human existence.

A life beyond the cradle.           A life that never ends.

I lift up to you Jesus beyond the cradle.

He invites you into His life.

What a gift. Welcome to Christmas beyond the cradle.

Jesus Beyond the Cradle.

Joy To The World...?

“Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself”

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Recently in church a young girl showed up proudly with her violin upon which she had been taking lessons a mere 2 months. The night before she had practiced and was desirous of standing before the church and playing, ‘Joy to the World’. I’m a sucker for anything a child asks to do in church in order to participate in worship. Plus, I love her grandparents and to object would be in the category of the disciples telling Jesus to send the little children away. In light of the recent tragedy (even the word ‘tragedy’ is anemic compared to the horror we have all witnessed and felt) the child, of course, could play.

Parker stood on the stage and without accompaniment played ‘Joy To The World’. It was actually quite good considering the difficulty of that instrument, her lack of experience and the limited time she had to work on the piece. The tune was unmistakably there. So were the miss-notes, the scratching, the halting bow stokes and hesitations. But the tune was there nonetheless and I was proud of her.

As I sat and listened I realized how much her playing matched my mood, my life and my present condition before God. In the pressures of ministry, the clamor of so many with unmet needs, the trivial ‘hurts’ we react to which are inflicted by others, I can barely make out the Joy that is supposed to be mine. Stir it up with the tragedies and the gut wrenching grief I can barely make out even the presence of God, but when I listen, in spite of it all, yes I can hear Him clearly. He is still present in my pain.

Yes, I can hear ‘Joy To The World’, it’s clarion call undeniably there even in the midst of the missed notes of life. The presence of God and His purposes in my life may lie, at the moment, just beyond the grasp of my consciousness but there nonetheless. I can hear its tune carried through the scratchings of the inevitable (if unexplainable) troubles and tribulations of life. The missed notes, the uneven tempo and even the halting interlude does not drown it out. It is there, a joy that at times I grasp and at others seems beyond my greatest leap. But, the clarity of the notes, even if rare, provide a peace from God that says, ‘It is still, well with my soul’.

I know that I have at once attained and am still striving forth. I am His. I know God made me not to love Him (although the ability to love Him is a wonder) but rather He made me so that He could love me. This infinite love breaking through the terrible missteps of life gives meaning to this moment.

And in some strange way, Lewis is right. The inevitable suffering caused by the gift of free-will is a part of it all. As long as I can still make out the tune in the midst of its heartbreak, it is well with my soul.

“Joy to the World”. It is there. The evil has not been successful in masking the truth completely. The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot and has not extinguished it yet.

Today, I have God. Tomorrow will be the same. That is simply enough.

Advent. God With Us.

- Brian

PEACE

I am not too excited about talking tomorrow at church.  It is the 3rd Sunday of Advent and my talk was to be on PEACE as we lit the peace candle.  I feel much too lugubrious to speak peace in the midst of tragedy.  I had to discard my entire sermon I worked so hard on all week and rewrote something this morning to try and make sense out of senselessness.  20 little children dead...My God what have we done?

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's talk on 'GOD WITH US-PEACE':
We decry the tragedies but in the same breath we reject the One who came to lead us out of this miasma of the human dilemma.

What we must not say, and we must not surrender to is the idea that the terrible manifestation of evil breaking into our celebration gives the lie to the PEACE we celebrate in the person of Jesus.

To paraphrase Lewis in the Great Divorce, we must not let Hell blackmail Heaven.
That until there is the absence of pain, no one else should taste joy.
That theirs should be the final power;
That Hell should be able to veto Heaven.

We saw evil for what it is.  The characteristic of one consumed by evil is "their rejection of everything that is not simply themselves." (Lewis)

And another excerpt:
And you may object here if you so desire...but there is within each of us something growing which will itself, if allowed to grow unabated, unchecked, mature into Hell itself unless it is stopped immediately.  (I think I may be borrowing from Lewis or Milton or McDonald---but the idea came from outside me.)

We look out over the misery of the human situation and what we have done and how we have handled the beautiful chance at life and we realize this is serious business.
This is why HE CAME.
We must put ourselves in His hands this moment, this hour, this very day.

So He came to give HIS PEACE.  And there will be a day when you wake to find that you grasped it and held onto Him, OR that frightening realization that HE was right there for your choosing, within your reach, and you have lost Him forever.

-Brian

A CRY FOR JUSTICE, MAYBE...

I’ve often thought, rather than learning to bless those who curse me, perhaps it would be better if God just dispensed some of that Justice He is so good at. Really, don’t you cry out for justice? Isn’t that one of the reasons it is so difficult to bless someone who has done you harm? You’d rather there be justice. Quick, severe and absolute.

When I tire of being the punching bag and when the mayhem de-jour is served up in the nightly news-I cry out to God for justice. God where are you, send your justice. God are you uncaring-how could you let this go unpunished, you are just aren’t you? Then send justice.

And God says to me-alright, Brian---

where would you like me to start with this dispensing of justice?

Should I start with you?

Maybe I should start with your children?

Should I begin with your closest friends, perhaps their children?

Should I go all the way back to Adam?

Would that be a good place to start and put an end to all of this?

Suddenly my cry is no longer for justice-but for mercy. Mercy from an infinitely good and competent God who is nothing like the God described by the mean spirited, condemning Pharisees around us. The ones who know exactly which human beings will end up where at the end of the age. Yes, mercy, oh My Father.

It somehow makes it more appealing to learn how to bless those who curse you, let it go and shower on them forgiveness. After all forgiveness is the language of the Kingdom.

BLESSING THOSE WHO CURSE YOU

Of the things I am learning to put into practice, at the top of the list is learning from the Master: How to bless those who curse me.

I’ve had some experience being cursed and if you have spent anytime in the church (small ‘c’) you have as well.

What does it mean to bless those who curse you?

It means to will the good of another under the invocation of God.

Whew…that’s a mouthful! To will the good of another. Stop right there.

I have just uncovered my first problem. I’m not sure I want to do that.

God, they have hurt me so deeply. Friends who claim to be friends who turn on you, spread lies, speak half truths, stab you in the back and then blame you for bleeding all over their carpet. To will their good??

Would it be a good thing to will someone else’s good? Would it even be safe to do that? Yes, IF, I do so under the invocation of God. In other words, calling on God to do for me what I cannot do myself. This is invocation.

And because the Lord is my Shepherd, He will make sure I am cared for.

So, can I learn to do this as a disciple of Jesus? The good news is yes.

First-I have to be one who is not thrown off by being cursed.

This involves not a Pharisaic approach to obedience but an inner spiritual transformation. Where I become the kind of person who isn’t bothered by being cursed because I am becoming the kind of person who doesn’t have to get what they want. I am no longer into protecting me. To do this, I must engage in disciplines that lead to a calmness of soul. Perhaps blocking out some time in my day over a significant period of time to be quiet. To listen to God speak. To empty myself of this desire to defend, give slap for slap and discover that just because someone hurt me doesn’t mean I have to run out and hurt them back.

Second-It requires understanding their situation and condition. These people who curse others, especially when they can so seemingly easily curse a friend, are the kind of people who NEED a blessing. They certainly are not going to benefit from me cursing them back. They too are human beings whom God caused to come into existence. How we see other people is a major component as to how we treat other people.

Third-train yourself under God to ask Him to give them good things.

Am I willing to ASK God to give them good things. This is absolutely necessary because it allows me to turn loose of the agonizing pressure of controlling or being responsible for their lives.

I can do this when I realize it is much preferable to being the kind of person who curses others. I have to look no further than the kind of lives people live who routinely curse, criticize and gossip. Frankly, they really are miserable people that need a blessing. They don’t need more cursing.

Besides, it will be a revelation to them and confuse them-they won’t know what to do with that kind of response. You will be engaging in actions as a disciple of Jesus that completely changes the makeup of the relationships.

By our lives we actually switch things around and these, who are so in need of a blessing, will be drawn into a different kind of world…The Kingdom Among Us. And then the Kingdom of the Heavens they are so antagonistic towards, will be unleashed into their lives and God will change them too. If they don’t want to change, we learn to trust Him with that as well and say: Thank God you are changing me. Yes, Thank God for God.

AT THE GRAVESIDE OF MY MOM

I was asked by my father to conduct the graveside service of my mom along with my nephew Joshua. I have been asked to reduce what I said to writing. For those familiar with me, my teaching and understanding of our lives before God, this will sound familiar:

Graveside Service; Greenwood Cemetery; December 31, 2011

We often quote as professing Christians Romans 8:28. For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who know God, to those who are called according to His purposes.

This is a part of the ‘ALL THINGS’ and now we, mom’s family have the opportunity to find out if we believe this or just profess to believe it.

Will God make this work so that our lives are richer because this happened?

That is our big God. The danger is always not thinking big enough about His purposes and plans. This is indeed part of the all things He promises to cause to work for His good. For His purposes. So, of course we grieve, but we grieve not as others who have no hope.

This is not mom in this casket. It is her body. That does not mean it is insignificant. It is very significant because God will raise it up on the last day and glorify it. But it is not Mom. She was not her body and because she was not her body she did not pass out of existence.

She was more than her body and has but stepped in to her next phase of existence.

If that is true about mom then it is true about us. We are not our body.

We are more than our body.

If this is not mom, if she was not her body than who is she?

Mom is a spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s wonderfully created universe. Mom has but stepped in to her next phase of existence as this never ceasing spiritual being.

If that is true about mom, that it is also true about us.

Who are you? You are a spiritual being who will never stop existing with an eternal destiny in God’s created universe. That’s the glory of the human being God has created and made provisions for.

3 things I can tell you are true about mom.

God planned to bring her into existence. God invested His life in her. God likes her. Those three things.

If that is true about mom then it is also true about us.

God has planned to bring us into existence as never ceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe. God has invested His life in us through Jesus Christ. And, He likes us. Not just loves us. He likes us.

But you get to choose whether this One who has invested in you is the real deal. Mom did.

PRAYER:

Father, God, Sovereign, Creator, Eternal One, He who is from everlasting to everlasting. We humble ourselves before you and know that you, with your abundant mercies, can assuage the grief that is very real. I pray for each here what mom had. A rich life of joy and power. Abundant in supernatural resources and a clear vision before each of us of the eternal significance of our life and work day by day. That each of us here would have a radiant life and a glorious death just as mom had.

Amen.

LIFE

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14

Paul’s prayer is what he profoundly longed to see in the lives of these he ministered to. This life of which he speaks, is nothing less than the result of inner transformation, spiritual transformation, a life of grace in the One who has been transferred into life in the ‘Kingdom of His Beloved Son’.

All of this is the result of life, in being risen with Christ beyond death.

1 Corinthians 15:17 “If Christ had not been risen you would still be dead in your sins.”What about the cross? The cross must never be presented without the resurrection. You don’t have a cross that means anything without a resurrection. Without resurrection you have a dead salvation that does not relate to the present spiritual life in Christ of the believer. For Jesus, life was the issue.

This is why we must get past a view of atonement in which all that matters is that Jesus has taken the punishment for our sins. The problem with such a reductionist view of the gospel is evident in the lives of many who limit it to such. What about discipleship? It is viewed as not required or even irrelevant to the status of our now ‘saved’ condition. Why? Because ‘saved’ has been reduced in meaning to my sins having been forgiven.

LET ME EMPHASIZE (because it is ever apparent that I now must say what I don’t mean by what I say!): It does indeed mean the glorious truth that my sins are forever forgiven, without which any hope of change, transformation, discipleship, eternal life, heaven would be an unreachable hope. Of course it is forgiveness, it is not just forgiveness.

The theme in the New Testament is life, regeneration, who we are becoming and becoming like Christ. From God’s perspective the basic truth of salvation is the impartation of life. Over and over this truth is proclaimed.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…

and 1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Without this truth, inner change (spiritual transformation) is seen as an oddity, irrelevant, perhaps a bit ‘monkish’ or even heretical. But if understood from the perspective of a new life received from above, then it can be seen as a transformation in this life. A progressive transformation because who we are becoming is of primary importance to God the King.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE KINGDOM

Mark 11:22-26
Jesus is giving instructions on asking in faith. Moving mountains and requests being granted. The disciples have been enamored with the death of a fig tree and are asking about this unique event. In this teaching moment Jesus is encouraging His young followers and telling them of the marvelous strength of prayer. He then adds a seemingly extraneous instruction: And when you stand praying, forgive.

Why? Because forgiveness is the language of the Kingdom. You can’t stand in the powerful resources of the Kingdom without practicing forgiveness.

How do I handle the unfair and spiteful attacks from those I neither know nor have contact with? I am aware there are some unmerited criticisms (both verbal and written) being disseminated in our community about me, even condemning me as a heretic and worse. (The authors may not know this but some of them clearly border on libel.)

I was asked today, why I do not defend myself?
The reason is because I forgive them.

I hold no animosity in my heart toward them and I will not build my life around their offense nor will I make them pay for what they have said and done to me. I don’t need to. As I trust Christ, I know what is going to happen to me, He is going to take care of me.

What makes forgiveness possible is His grace at work in our life to accomplish what we cannot do on our own. That is why grace is not just for guilt, it is for life. The sinner needs grace just to forgive sins, the disciple and follower of Christ depends on grace for every step, every action as they move more clearly into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

For those who mistreat you, you can ask, ‘who are you?’ as you hold them up next to the One who says, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (See: Romans 8:1) Besides, they try and condemn me but forget, “I am dead and my life is hidden with Christ in God…” (Colossians 3:1-4).

One of the more unpleasant statements of Jesus is found in Luke 10:3 in His great experiment of sending out the 70: Go, behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

Just examine the evidence yourself and look at the vituperative, unpleasant and mean-spirited language used in the attacks. The sniping and calling me out. The relentless barbs and references in blogs. The snide letters and language.

Who are the wolves?
By their fruits you shall know them.

BETTER THAN ABC's

I strongly suggest that all readers of this blog check out Casey’s recent blog of 5-23 (http://caseysliquidblog.blogspot.com/). Both of you will be enlightened...oh wait, Casey you are one them and Jess is the other!!
OK, I too, digress. Casey, once again you nail it.

In one way or the other-most of our presentations and definitions of the gospel deal solely with the question: what am I going to do about my sin? Is there then any connection to either the message of Jesus or His ‘Great Commission’ of Matthew 28:16-20?

If grace is but for guilt we are led to the inexorable conclusion that had we never sinned we wouldn’t need God, His way of life or His grace.

If grace if just for guilt, then what is to be an interactive, living relationship with God degenerates into a religion of Christianity which is more like a Clichéianity. This leaves us with the strange anomaly today of thinking that one can be a ‘Christian’ and not be a disciple of Christ.

2 events blessed me beyond belief this week. The first was a recovering narcotic addict who told how he found he could have a personal relationship with his ‘Higher Power’ through one who was called Jesus Christ. The second was from a dear sister in Christ who worships God in the Catholic tradition. I had written a letter to her defending her against ones in our community who attacked her form of worship. She wrote me a beautiful note extolling the beauties of entering the Kingdom as a little child and finding the ‘healing love of Christ’.

Neither one of these used the catchwords of the ABC’s of salvation Casey so eloquently exposed in his blog. Neither used the catchy religious slang and by-words that become like secret passwords among the indoctrinated. Yet both spoke of life. Real life Jesus gives as we follow Him.

I’d stand with either one of those on the path of life as we learn together the ‘healing love of Christ’, finding a righteousness beyond that of the Pharisee and learning from the Master how to live life, over any of the other countless religious elite who hold to the party line and clichés of a dead religion.

God bless you Monte and God bless you Shauna for opening my eyes to the purity of following Jesus into real life. And God bless you Mikey and Patti for proving to me once again that life in Jesus is a life no one could genuinely experience and want anything else. And God bless you Casey for challenging my thinking.

MAKING ALL THINGS NEW

One of the embarrassing things about Jesus was His utter lack of concern in who He hung out with, touched or welcomed. Consider the leper in Mark 1:40. Lepers weren’t supposed to be approaching people but with the typical generosity of Jesus He welcomed him, spoke to him, challenged him and touched him. Not a touch like we would have given. The word there means to embrace or adhere to. I imagine Jesus helping the man off of his knees and bear hugging him as He welcomed him into his new life.

Jesus presents to us the opportunity to be joint heirs in nothing less than this new type of humanity-the Kingdom Community of the redeemed. All recovering sinners, all blessed of Him. Not seeing how exclusive we can be in drawing our circles but how inclusive we will be.

A community learning together the great transformation process that can happen through the new life received from above where we aren’t concentrating on doing religious things but learning to actually be loving people, from whom flow the living rivers of water.

This new type of humanity is the complete obliteration of social status-where we gather as Abraham’s seed. We have ‘put on Christ’ and now there are no distinctions, which are to be made (Galatians 3:26-29; Col. 3:10-11).

In this community made up of a new kind of humanity, we learn to discard everything that comes from other than the work and person of Christ in His crucifixion and beyond. (1 Cor. 2:2) Because He is ‘IT’. The Messiah who comes as the solution to the human problem. (2 Cor. 5:16-17)

There are not many who would be put on the world’s list of who’s who.
We are the list of the world’s last and least. But to us the Kingdom is available, forgiveness in abundance, grace without limit and the opportunity to become the kind of people He always intended us to be in spite of what we may have been in the past. This is the New Creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
And dare I say, ‘The making of all things new’ (Rev. 21:5).

THE FIRST STEP BACK

If one wished to make discipleship to Jesus the most important thing in their life, what should they do? If they wish to leave the constraints of religious performance and external conformance behind, how would one proceed?

I would encourage you to stay away. Really, I encourage you to stay away.
If you can, you probably should.
Genuine disciples simply can’t stay away.
They have nowhere else to go.

If you are comfortable in the garb of religious clichés, Christian morals and church doctrine determined by those with the most authority and influence, you should stay there, for discipleship will be for you a burden and an immense disappointment. See: Matthew 13:44-46 for example.

If you just can’t stay away, then you have made the first step toward genuine, inner transformation where the work must be done. But let’s be clear, you have to do something. Discipleship is not passive, it is active. But the active part is not in the area of trying to obey Him, being righteous or perfect. Leave all hope in that direction behind. We aren’t striving for obedience; we are putting effort into becoming a certain kind of person for whom obedience becomes spontaneous. We do that by doing the things within our power, which will enable Him to do what He has been waiting to do all along; change every aspect of our entire person into one fully functioning human being. While we have a part to play in this transformation process, we will never trust our part. Remember, we are learning to Trust Christ, the essence of the good news of the Kingdom.

If the idea that you have to actually DO something to enable God to do something else in your life appalls you, you have hit a major obstruction to further development. If you want transformation to simply strike you like lightening in the midst of a church service, then retreat silently into your Christianity and religious observances. If that is your idea of discipleship, you will never have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, necessary, as Jesus said to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens. You will have a righteousness that is defined by external performance of religious activities and nailing down the corners of your pristine doctrine.

If you are willing to embark, to move beyond this initial roadblock into making being with Jesus learning to be like Him the most important thing in your life, take a walk. Really, take a long walk. Leave the technology (all of it) behind and settle this issue for at least today. Will I make following Jesus the most important thing in life? It is the most important decision you will make every day of the rest of your existence, which will never end.
Will, I today, choose discipleship to Jesus as the single most crucial aspect of my life?
TO BE CONTINUED…
On your next walk: Learning the language of the Kingdom.

A CONFESSION

A confession. As I live in Christ, following Him, albeit in an imperfect way into discipleship to be the person God has always intended me to be, I become less and less interested in presenting Christianity to people. I don’t want to invest my life into trying to get people to align with or adhere to Christianity. I want people to find what I have found in the person of Christ.

The lovely, winsome, intelligent, intriguing and living person of Jesus Christ.

Since childhood I have always questioned the prevailing assumptions being presented in the church and was regularly thumped (both literally and figuratively). I went underground for years and built walls that almost destroyed my soul. God never gave up, even when Christianity did.

I found new life in Christ. A person. Not a religion, church or sect. And it has been Christ, not Christianity that has begun to heal my hurting soul. Redeemed by His blood and saved by His life.

Christianity was a tag hung on some by the world, then taken over by the church and now argued over as to who is and who isn’t really in. Count me out. In Lebanon it is the name of a political group, in America it is the description of our historical roots and in other places it is the side of bloody protests. Perhaps it is time to give the word back to the world that gave it to us. Like Cassandra in Greek Mythology where Apollo's cursed gift of prophecy became a source of endless pain and frustration, the moniker ‘Christian’ has been an untold source of sorrow and hurt, wars and blood.

Let’s be honest, ‘Christianity’ is now a ‘religion’ and the world isn’t buying what we are selling wrapped in the description they invented. For good reason the world has had a bellyful of our sermonizing and in-fighting. What we are selling is a merchandized, commercialized, consumer driven religion that requires adherents to bow at the shrine of the influential writers and speakers who apparently are the gatekeepers and protestant popes of this religious movement.

Often what we are selling is not consistent with the person of Jesus in whom we are finding a life of such transformative power we have had no trouble considering the cost as the best bargain ever presented in life.

I am too old to speak to a movement or start a trend. I have neither the energy, the patience, the intelligence nor probably the right. I pray for those God is rising up in the midst of our religious culture who will say by their life, no more. No more religion. No more consumerism. No more to ‘Christianity’. Just followers of Christ into the kind of life He intends, becoming all that He intended us to be and by our lives shut the mouths of kings. For it might be His intent that this new breed of Christ followers will be the way by which He will sprinkle many nations with Himself; where the kings shall shut their mouths at him; for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider (Is. 52:15)

IRS

OK, some thoughts as I exit the federal building in Boise. Ah, what to say!

I know what I would have said in days gone by. Very practiced and trained in the weapons of this flesh. I know what one living in this world would say. I used to live there. I know how one entrenched in the warfare of this world would act. It was my old battlefield. Frustrated? That's an understatement. Discouraged. Rarely have I felt more. An Imbroglio. Possibly appropriate. Galamatias. There's a word that comes to mind to describe what I may have wanted to express in response to some of the conclusions reached by the 'examiner'.

On the 2+ hour drive home I came to one conclusion. My hope, confidence and rest is in God alone. It is not in finances, it is not in physical events and health and, I wish to LOUDLY proclaim, it sure as heaven and hell is not in government, the IRS, bureaucracies, the UN or the lords of this world. None of those things put a hallelujah on my chorus.

So I recognize God, every so often in a timely fashion, has to challenge the foundations of my hope and confidence to make sure that my house is being built on a rock. On Him. I will always praise Him because He alone is my hope.

Is There Anything Worth Everything?

Some thoughts as I sit in the parking lot of the Federal Building in Boise awaiting my opportunity for God to show Himself strong on my behalf!!

Jesus constantly encouraged His followers with this challenge of discipleship: Is it the most important thing in your life? If it isn’t, you won’t be successful in the endeavor. Not because He won’t let us, but because it can’t be done any other way. But, how do we know what is important to us and what is not. What is most important to us and what is of little importance to us?

What would you give your life for? What would you give your life up to? Would you give your life for pleasure? Would you give your life up to fulfilling your desires? Would that be a noble endeavor?

Would you give your life for truth? Would you give your life for freedom?

Is there anything in your life that is worth giving your life for?

Would you give your life for the pursuit of happiness? Even the best moralists know that we need to find something in life more important to us than being happy.

Would I give my life to learning how to be a fully formed human being if it was the path by which my ultimate purpose is fulfilled: To glorify God and serve Him forever? Would that be a noble endeavor? Would I give the rest of this life (whatever is left) to this one task of learning how to be the fully formed human being my creator intended in order that He might trust me with His power in living a life that will never end?

What did He find worth giving His life for?

What would you give your life for?

The Veritas Forum

At the Veritas Forum at Columbia University in 2006, Alistair McGrath discussed with atheist David Helfand the issue of the meaning of life and the topic of Dawkin’s book: Is God a Delusion? Alistair McGrath, a writer whose must read book, ‘In the Beginning’ about the development of the King James Bible is positing the position that science points more arguably to the truth of God than to God as a delusion.

In the argument Mr. McGrath makes an interesting observation about the position of the reformation. “The reformation corresponds very well to what Thomas Kuhn would describe as a radical paradigm shift. And the key thing about Protestantism is it proposes not simply one such reforming event in the past, but an ongoing process of constant reevaluation and revision to try to ascertain that we have the best possible handle on our knowledge of God, and we want a sort of biblical anchor for that.” (emphasis mine)

If Mr. McGrath who is a brilliant intellectual follower of Christ is right in his characterization of the reformation movement then we must embrace and encourage those who challenge, question and present a new perspective that cause us to think, ponder, study and pray. I, for one, do want the best possible handle on my knowledge of God with a biblical anchor.

Let’s not be afraid to think new thoughts and challenge old ones, holding up everything to the ‘light of the knowledge of the Glory of God as seen in the face of Christ’.

Note: This quote by McGrath comes from a book entitled: A Place for Truth, Leading Thinkers Explore Life’s Hardest Questions, published by InterVarsity. It is a compilation of talks at the Veritas Forum. Since it’s founding at Harvard in 1992, this forum has provided a place for leading thinkers to explore life’s most challenging and deepest questions of truth and life. A place to consider a serious dialogue without fear of reproach. I have personally followed the discussions for years and recommend them to anyone who is up for a challenge.

RICHER THAN RIGHT

What rail did we take bringing us off track in discipleship? Our dialogue has become splitting hairs over issues of Christianity rather than a discussion and presentation of a person, Jesus Christ. Our ‘Christianity’ has become our doctrines and thus it is more important to swear allegiance to our doctrines than to our King. Jesus has become just another Buddha who said on his death bed to his disciples who were concerned on how best to remember him; don’t remember me, it is not my person but my teachings that matter.

What matters in Christianity today is apparently having the right answers to the right questions. Whether you even believe them isn’t the issue, you just have to profess to believe them or worse, commit to things you don’t even profess to believe.

Get enough of the right answers you are in, too many wrong answers you are off to the bad place. Which ones do you have to answer correctly? Do you have to even believe your answers are true or just have them? Can you just profess them, even if you don’t believe them? Can you just commit to them even if you don’t profess to believe them? How many wrong answers can you have? Which ones are worth more points? Will they be multiple choice, fill in the blank or T or F? To which did the ‘thief’ profess?

Ask yourself, what is the importance of believing that Jesus is Divine?
Is it to just to have the right answer? Is it to get points to add to the score to make the cut? Is it to have superior knowledge from which to manufacture bullets to hurt others badly in lively debates?

Surely you are thinking, no, it isn’t anything like that at all. It isn’t to have the right answer. If I believe Him to be Divine, to have come here and established a beachhead of divine life in this little far away place we call earth, then I am going to relate to my world differently. More importantly, I will relate to Him differently. I will make following Him into life the most important thing as I learn how to become the kind of person who lives the life He described.

I will evaluate the world in which I live and the situations I go through from a different perspective and will come to see this life I live as one lived in a completely different world than the one described by the lords of knowledge.

Maybe, in this world then, it is safe to tell the truth. A world where His advice not to worry can be taken seriously. Maybe I really do live in a world where He reigns and rules and will see to my care. Perhaps I can forgive those who mistreat and abuse me. A world where He can spread before me a table right in the presence of my enemies and I might even say to them, 'Why don't you sit down with me for a bite to eat'.

Isn’t that richer than being right?

THE PARADIGM SHIFT

One of the most important steps one can take into genuine, meaningful, life-changing discipleship to Jesus is to make the paradigm switch from Jesus being merely a nice religious figure to one who actually knew what He was talking about. The need is there to begin to view Jesus as an intelligent person who has the most important information on the most important subjects of life.

If we would view Him as encompassing truth outside the religious realm, like His first followers understood Him, we would see one in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If He does have that capacity for wisdom and knowledge, then you can begin to understand why He said if you learn to put into practice the things that I have taught, you will know the truth about life and the truth about life will set you free.

Who else can you turn to, realistically, in order to learn how to become a fully formed human being living in this world? To be free to be the kind of person we are meant to be? Who else would be your teacher? Really, the list is very, very, short.

Take any of them and ask if this would be true: If you put my teachings into practice, then you will be my students and I will be your teacher. You will come to know the truth about life and this world and in knowing that truth, you will never again be ruled by unsatisfied desires and will find fulfillment in becoming the fully formed human being you were designed to be.

That’s really the test isn’t it? Putting the things into practice. Who is it that offers life to the fullest extent? Jesus could say as an intelligent human being who knew a thing or two about life, ‘If you learn to put into practice the things that I teach you, your life will be like a house built upon solid rock. Even the most devastating of life’s challenges won’t be able to tear it down’.

LEARNING LOVE

My brief stay in the hospital for a rather minor surgical repair of failing body parts and my current recuperation at home has forced me to consider in silence much of where I have come since I last visited a hospital on an extended retreat some 11 years ago.

I have learned that I am not my body and as a primarily spiritual being who will never stop existing I have realized that inner transformation is paramount. This can only happen in discipleship to Jesus.
Matthew 7:17, the good tree cannot bear bad fruit.
Proverbs 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life.

I am redeemed in order to be continually transformed in the way of Christ. This transformation happens in the inner person where the Great Command of Luke 10:27 is realized (to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength and all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself). But, I am not to act as if I love God and my neighbor; I am to have a character totally saturated with His kind of love. If not, even loving God and by extension my neighbor will be an impossible burden leading to frustration and failure.

Trying to love without actually learning His kind of love produces angry, bitter and contemptuous Christians who find discipleship a hopelessly burdensome task.

However, being permeated with His kind of love will produce a life adequate for every occasion, a well of water spring up to eternal life that Jesus spoke of (John 4:14) and rivers of living water to those around us in desperate need. This is God’s conspiracy and one we are called to take part in as co-conspirators. This is why He is more interested in the character we are building than the doctrine we are amassing.

Knowledge of and intimacy with the doctrinal tenants of the church will not produce Christlike character. You can look around and see this for yourself. It is not that it is unimportant; it just will not create inner transformation.

The future He has planned for us will be based on the character being forged right now in the crucible of life by His grace. This happens in discipleship to Christ as we learn a life that will never become obsolete.