The Past Four Years

Lately I've been thinking about the past four years. Almost exactly four years ago I was about to get divorced. Almost four years ago I was hooked on drugs and cigarettes. Almost four years ago that changed when I answered God call to let go of the life I was living and live for him. A lot has happened since then (thank you Jesus) and I have learned so much about real life.
I have been inspired by so many people and have taken in a wealth of information, but sometimes I am in awe of how much I don't understand. Bill Johnson has taught me that being in the presence of God is simply living in the full awareness of God and His power He wants to release through us into others lives. Also, anything is possible if believe God's promises are true which I do!
Another person recently is Alan Hirsch. I have been transformed by this missional concept and way of life. He teaches that life isn't about Sunday but everyday; that we are called to live a life of mission and reach people where they are, not try to get them to church. We are the church! Where two or more are gathered, I am there! We have a responsibility to our community outside of the four church walls.
What if we lived with these two ways of living all the time? I'm trying....sometimes failing.....some times succeeding....always loved by God :-)

The Past Four Years

Refinding Mondays mission in a Sunday Sociey

So one week I'm driving out of the church parking lot and I go to engage my wife about the weeks message. I start speaking generally about the message only to realize I was going in circles because I had forgotten the main points. In reality, I only caught enough in my memory as I listened to barely even muster a cute platitude. Well I left good enough alone and proceeded to ask where we were eating lunch. After all that is next on the ritual list and something I will remember and tell others all about (even if they don't care).

Has this ever happened to you?

I guess if I wanted to I could have blamed the Pastor for not grabbing my attention, the worship team for not playing the kind of music that prepares me to receive, or even my kids that morning for fighting the whole way to church, but was that really it? Are these true reasons for my lack of Sunday absorption or was there something deeper?
I really had to think about it because it kind of made me sad to think I could come to "church" and leave with nothing more than a a good feeling that would dissipate as soon as I came into contact with Monday morning! What was I missing? Then Paul's words came into my mind,

"For He Who motivated and fitted Peter and worked effectively through him for the mission to the circumcised, motivated and fitted me and worked through me also for [the mission to] the Gentiles."

Galatians 2:8

These two men of God weren't sharing a common ritual or practice, but in fact were sharing the same commander/leader/Lord! Although they're missions were different, they were receiving marching orders from the same King. Am I missing something every Sunday? Is there more to that day than coffee, "fellowship", and some good music and speaking? Where is my mission? Where are my marching orders? I began to see this is what I missed on this particular Sunday and maybe every Sunday before that!

Paul talks many times about the faith and living it out as a soldier. He says of the life of a Disciple of Jesus,

"SO YOU, my son, be strong (strengthened inwardly) in the grace (spiritual blessing) that is [to be found only] in Christ Jesus. And the [instructions] which you have heard from me along with many witnesses, transmit and entrust [as a deposit] to reliable and faithful men who will be competent and qualified to teach others also. Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him."

2 Timothy 2:1-4

I thought it interesting to think about the life of a soldier and I began to realize something, If you ask someone you know about the life of a soldier, I bet you would find someone who has given over their life for a cause and a mission. They no longer belong to themselves, but to the branch of service they have joined.

I think if you watched a soldier in Afghanistan, you would see a person focused on the mission at hand. You would see a person who would walk into a mission briefing ready to absorb the information needed to accomplish the goals set before them. Even more so, I can see them at times checking in through out the mission to verify targets, directions, and any new information since departure.

Can we begin to look at Sunday as a briefing for the week? Can we begin to listen for the objectives for Monday to Saturday with an anticipation for God's mission? Can we be like Paul and Peter knowing our mission?

YES!!

Let's listen, learn, and begin this next week with a soldiers view of mission? What has the King given your General this week? Are you ready to stand in battle with him?

Are you in prayer and reading of God's word for daily field updates? We'll leave that for the next blog :-)

Be blessed!

So this is where I am.........

I have searched over the summer for clarity on what it means to live a life centered on Christ. I've heard from the mystics of Christian culture trying to introduce things of the spiritual past (sometimes sadly mixed with occult teachings), from the traditionalists in the middle just trying to hold on to church as they know it, and the almost gnostic new counter culture of the emergent church. Wow are there a lot of opinions of where the church is and where it's going.
So where have I made my line in the proverbial sand? That's complicated. I think they all have a piece of it. Each position, in my opinion, carries some truths but must face some misdirections in their current formation. What I have found most in my search this summer is the older generation and the traditional form are holding on to something comforting yet not fully relevant to how we communicate today so they throw out the new in the hopes of keeping the known. The younger generation in similar fashion finds the traditional (and for these folks contemporary is included here) to be obtuse, unengaging, and just does not speak to their current life situations. In the need to make a comfortable style, they begin to throw out the old to "make room for the new". The "super spiritual" new mystics are doing neither. The are attempting to strategically pick from scripture to produce a new Christianity entirely! They have deceptively amalgamated a mixture of true Holy Spirit gifting with occult concepts to produce a new spirituality.
This leaves me in a place to believe in spite of all the far reaching extremes, there is a primary conclusion I can come too. The main focus of this Christian life is this...........Christ. My response to an aging generation unsure of this next generations "way of doing things" is can you say it centers Christ as the fix point from where everything comes from? If yes, then add wisdom to their energy and creativity. We need a unique and current model of how to engaged a generation very different from the one Billy Graham faced.
For the younger generation so bent on fordging a way of their own, stop and take stock of the rich history of the church. not that it will all be something that will function in current culture, but you'd be amazed what still does. Realize that your church history didn't start when your Pastor started the church in your city, but 2000 years ago (roughly LOL) and that the discussions, councils, disagreements, and grand achievements are all valuable to us today!
For the Mystics, there is a great reality that we are gifted by the Holy Spirit and empowered to see the Glory of God impact lives. We can believe in the idea that we can see His kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven without taking dominion of a world by what every means necessary. We can study the Word of God and be filled with all it has without studying from a conference the color and type of Angelic armour. We do not have to make it bigger than it is..........God is big enough on His own merit and word :-)

So I have found we need to:

• Live a life of honouring the moves of God from our history without being held captive to yesterdays methods.

• We can press forward to what God is doing today without losing perspective and the wisdom that came from our yesterday.

• We can live a life of miracles, signs, and wonders empowered by the Holy Spirit without distorting or drawing from imagination without biblical foundation.

Most of all if one thing could be made most important, I would choose LIVE OUT THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN EVERY BREATH, EVERY STEP, AND EVERY THOUGHT. If we are to engage this world, they must see Christ first and then see a person honestly living that life out daily with integrity and compassion!

Be blessed,
This is still just the beginning :-)

I don't want to just know who you are anymore........ I want to share life.

 Acts 2:42-47

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

    For so long I went searching for the power of God, the miracles, signs and wonders, and saw many amazing things. After the search, I found myself unusually unsatisfied. I saw a man healed of cancer, legs grow, and many more things.......... but never a life grow and be healed. I never got to see the greatest miracle of all - The redemption of a life on a personal level.
    I've come to want more. I want to be interwoven into a community of believers that have a heart for God, each other, and the lost. In this picture of the 1st century church, we see a group of people doing just that. How are we when it comes to this concept of community? Are internally focused or do we ACTIVELY desire to see the lost won to Christ?
    My focus right now is first to know who I am in Christ and that starts with reading the word and seeking revelation for today. It says they, "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching". We can ask what does that mean for us? What is the apostles teaching? Well first we can accurately assume it is the Old Testament or the Tanakh.

"When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead."

    The only scripture the Jews recognized at that time would have been the Tanakh and the only place that would have had the prophetic statements of the suffering of Christ.
    We can also assume the four gospels were taught because the Apostles lived it. They had first hand testimony of who Christ is and so were , like any of would have, sharing the impact of Christ in their lives.
 Last, we can assume it was the letters of Paul, Peter, and John. We can see this because many historic figures site these letter for there spiritual arguments in later centuries such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian.
    So, We can reasonably assume that for us to devote ourselves to the apostles teaching is to study Genesis to Revelation. If we are to understand the first step to a interwoven community, we must make studying scripture our first daily priority. But never divorce it from fellowship with other believers. We are not made to be lone rangers..... but that's for the next blog :-)

Coming face to face with life long addictions and false ideas.

Man has this been interesting already. So I am weeks into no Facebook and I already find myself peeking at my wife as shes on almost like an addict looks at smokers near by. I can tell already I had to much of who I was and how I interacted tied into my hourly (sometimes by the minute) Facebook checking. But I feel a desire to GO and find out how my friends are which has been gone for a while :-) I went and played some music with two friends and had a great time. I think I want to do that more.
Now I have added no TV and for the first time in probably 18 years I went to sleep with no TV! A big deal for me because i have had a TV in my room since I was like 15 and it became a "I need it to sleep" thing that was a problem in my marriage. It gives me more time to think about God and what He is saying. I am enjoying no radio in the car, no TV in the house or bedroom, and recently God took my source of podcast listening and it was probably for the best because that was becoming my portable digital crutch because "I had my digital Bible on it" so it made it okay :-)

So other than this blog and some study online.......... I am media free.

This is a scripture recently prophesied about by a well known prophet:

"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD,
       "when I will send a famine through the land—
       not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
       but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.  Men will stagger from sea to sea
       and wander from north to east,
       searching for the word of the LORD,
       but they will not find it

Amos 8:11-12

My prayer is this:

"That we would not be found in famine, but instead in feast! That as we separate from all the distraction and confusion of this world, we would find ourselves ready vessels to hear the Lord!!!"

In YAHSHUAH's name!
Amen :-)

The Narrow and the Wide: Walking the path that is towards or away from God.

The next thing in Psalms is this idea, "Stand in the path of sinners ". I looked up the definition of the word Stand because of the image David is painting with the whole walk, stand, and sit wording. With "walk" it is an image of taking the advice and then it becoming a manner of lifestyle. When he talks about standing, he is referring to this idea of not just living it out but becoming a servant to something.
I thought back to when Jesus talks about the two paths: One narrow and one broad.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

We stand at a cross road. A choice when we come to the cross. We can continue what we have always done or make a change. The meaning of repent is to do an about-face. 180 degree turn. But even after we make the decision to follow Christ, at times, we can come face to face with choices of if we are going to jump lines or continue on.
To stand in the path or way of the sinner is so much more than a few bad choices. It's so much more than taking some bad advice. It's allowing yourself to become a servant of sin again. In this case, it's making a stand with sin and giving it control that you promised to Christ. Taking a vow and then denying it was ever there. I think it makes more sense now when Jesus said:
"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to."
To stay on the narrow path...to enter through the narrow door is a on going choice. A thought out desire and goal to listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in narrow times.
Can we watch closely at those moments...those choices when we are given an opportunity to declare our servant hood to Christ? The challenge is to look for those moments of advice that are growing weeds of sin into our lives and becoming enslavement's to the Law of sin and death all over again.
One advantage for all of us who claim Christ as Savior.......

"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Repent......Relinquish.....Be Renewed!!

We are not alone!