Morning Everyone,
It’s a rainy Thursday here. Thunder is rolling past and shaking the windows of my office from time to time. The hard rain that came last night and is expected to get even harder later on in the day, can’t help but remind me of the flood that devastated Nashville just a little less than a year ago. I still drive by empty houses that will never be rebuilt. Lives changed forever with just 14 inches of water over two days.
My wife and I are finally getting back on financial track after she was out of a job for 5 months. I am reminded over and over again that things can change in the blink of an eye. I have a grandson who is just starting to get his first tooth, another one who has three, a third who has all of his teeth and will graduate from high school this year and a father who hasn’t had any of his teeth since I can remember. One of my daughters had a bone marrow biopsy done this week and part of me is scared to death.
Life is going on all around me and if I stop and think about all that is going on it is – overwhelming to say the least. What an awesome God we serve who has planned this glorious mess and is so in control that he has every hair on our heads numbered and knows when a sparrow falls dead to the ground.
In the midst of the activity of life I am aware that there has been a shift toward the positive in my life. It seems as if something good, something different is happening at Immanuel. I’m not making it up in my head either. I’m hearing it from the mouths of the congregation. Plus, I wasn’t there last week and they didn’t replace me so that’s a good sign.
There seems to be forward momentum building all around my life that I can’t quite explain; much the way I couldn’t really explain the previous 50 years of one step forward 20 steps backward momentum that has filled my life so far. Something’s happening and you don’t know what it is. Do you Mr. Jones?
The answer would be: that is correct. I don’t. But I have learned enough from life to catch the wave and ride it wherever it takes me.
What I am loving about all that is going on is watching the body of Christ grow. Yeah we’ve got a few new people in the last few weeks but it’s the growth of the one’s that have been there longer than I have that encourages me the most. People are anticipating God moving in their midst. They are looking forward to God actually doing something. I am too. That is scarily exciting.
I see the change in my own life in that I am being drawn, pulled toward prayer like never before in my 50 years of existence. Since last month there is not a day that goes by that I don’t feel the need to walk and pray. I’m not a kneeler when it comes to praying. I’m a mover. If I sit still for very long I will be snoring in the presence of God. So I pace when I pray. I scare the animals in my house to death walking back and forth from one room to the other. They used to try to follow me but now they’ve learned to just get out of my way.
As crazy as it sounds, I’ve started to listen to music less so that I can pray more. That is God at work.
Last night at Immanuel we started reading EM Bounds’ The Weapon of Prayer. It was written sometime in the late 19th century and in reading the first chapter and hearing him lament over the condition of the church in his day I can understand more clearly the sorry condition of the church in our day. But the truth is the same in both eras: if the church will not pray God will not work. Big buildings, large congregation and lots of activity are not a sign that God is at work. What will the lives of the people that are going there be like in 50 years? That’s where the rubber hits the road. Short term success may actually be long term devastation.
EM Bounds make an excellent point when he reminds us that the Apostles delegated the necessary activities of the church to others so that they could devote themselves to prayer and the word. I think of all the activities that I am involved in, facilities managing during the day, pastoring before and after that plus Sundays, working to get a publishing company up and running and all that that entails and well, is it any wonder that the most important thing that I could be doing I am be drawn to? I don’t think so. All of the activity that I do is in vain if God doesn’t show up.
If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Perhaps, in the midst of the chaos that is the year 2011 the land is starting to be healed a bit on the Tennessee/Kentucky boarder. Maybe, just maybe, God is keeping his word.
More often than not these days I find my self uttering groans too deep for words because I don’t have the words. I don’t know how to say the right things because I don’t have any idea what God wants to do. I don’t know what God actually doing something in the church and world looks like because for too long it has been men doing the work of the church, and of the holy spirit, and even of Jesus. We have replaced the trinity with people power or perhaps a better word would be democracy. But the church is supposed to be a monarchy. Jesus sits on the throne ruling and reigning.
I want nothing more that to actually get a glimpse of that reign being manifested on earth in my life time. I long to see the supposedly big bad nations come tumbling down because God gives the word. Maria Muldaur sings a song called Just as an eagle. Some of the words are as follows:
So often when men are blessed with prosperity the goodness and mercy of God they no longer see. They seem to say within my soul take thine ease. They turn away from God to just as they please.
But as an eagle stirs her nest so that her young ones would have no rest God in his own mysterious ways stirs up his people to watch, fight and pray.
We have been slumbering for to long. It is time to pick up the weapon of prayer so that God will destroy his enemies and bring peace to the earth. The King will sit on the throne ruling and reigning until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Master of everyone.
Long live the King,
Brad
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Next Girl
Hey Everybody,
It seems like one of those milestone weeks for me this week. In my opinion some big deals have been going down and I am excitedly afraid. It’s funny how reality never quite matches up to what I think it will be. In the end there is a lot less hoopla and a lot more drudge work to the final outcome. And of course that is coupled with a lot more anxiety over what the outcome will be. But I guess I would call myself pessimistically hopeful. I think I’ve learned that from all the times I’ve skinned my knees (and face) in the past when I thought everything would be smooth sailing.
I think that the reason for anxiety is that progress, moving forward, not staying where you’re comfortable takes risk. You have to try something new to see if it works and being finite you have no assurances that it will. Sure you can claim scriptures for your endeavor; you can push forward in unrealistic optimism saying God is for us we can’t lose – just like the Israelites did on the way to their defeat at Ai. Or you can move ahead knowing that God is in control whether you succeed or fail.
That perspective in and of itself is a milestone for me because for most of my life I chose to stay somewhere in between success and failure: in the quitter zone or even in the no try zone where everything is safe and there are no risks and no rewards or losers or winners either.
But after fifty years of growing up I am finally understanding that God doesn’t call us to be safe he calls us to be good and do good and pursue excellence in all that we put our hands to for his glory not ours.
So here I am at 50 doing things that I wanted to do at twenty; that I trained to do at twenty but never put into application in the real world. Yes, 30 years after the fact I decided to use that degree in theatre. So with the help of some professionals, friends and a good chunk of change I spent the day Tuesday making three short films. It was hard work and a long day but there was a satisfaction at the end of the day that can only be tasted as the fruit of productivity.
It will be another week before I see the end results and I will probably have to spend another full day fine tuning the audio but I was pleased with my performances and it was good to watch the rust fall off my acting chops. It felt a bit like raising the dead actually. I mean I had buried that part of my life a long time ago with a headstone that said ‘pipe dream’ and now well things have started to resurrect that I thought were gone for good.
How did I make the jump to film from writing? Well, the films are actually extended commercials for the books. I needed some marketing tools and ordinary marketing tools just leave me feeling blah so I wrote three episodes of the late night talk show “the final word” which appears in a couple of my books. And they will begin to be ‘aired’ on my Amazon Author page and other places as soon as they are ready.
It took fifty years but it finally became clear that it was time to begin to take some risks and leave the safety net of the illusion of security behind and press on. It is certainly true that I could fall flat on my face. But I am at the point in life where I don’t really care anymore. When it comes down to it if I lose everything I will actually end up ahead because I’m so far below ground now that only a miracle will cause me to break even before I die. So I might as well push as hard as I can and see what unfolds.
The same is true in church. The safety net is gone. If God doesn’t show up and be who he says he is then my neck is on the line. I’m tired of playing games in every area of my life. Either this stuff is real or it isn’t. I don’t want to end up like Saul or like the Pharisees. I don’t want to be a part of the EX-bride of Christ. I want to be the next bride. I want to hear “well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master. Happiness means nothing now if you don’t hear those words when you cross the finish line. The reality is you suffer now for the Joy set before you (at the finish line).
I’ve been listening to the new album ‘Brothers’ by the black keys this week. And their song Next Girl struck a chord with me (obviously):
The look of the cake It ain't always the taste My ex girl she had Such a beautiful faceI wanted love But not for myself But for the girl So she could love herself
A beautiful face and a wicked way And I'm paying for her beautiful face every dayAll that work over so much time If I think too hard I might lose my mind
My next girl Will be nothing like my ex girl I made mistakes back then I'll never do it again With my next girl She'll be nothing like my ex girl That was a painful dance Now I got a second chance
My heart yearns to be well received at the end of the race but bad running won’t get me there. Happy feelings won’t get me there only hungering and thirsting after righteousness by the grace of God will make it so. The call is not to be safe. The call is to take the talents that God has given and risk them for the opportunity of saying you gave me 5 I’m giving you back 10. I’ve got to press on with all my might cause right now I think I may be at negative five.
With toes hanging over the edge of the cliff,
Brad
It seems like one of those milestone weeks for me this week. In my opinion some big deals have been going down and I am excitedly afraid. It’s funny how reality never quite matches up to what I think it will be. In the end there is a lot less hoopla and a lot more drudge work to the final outcome. And of course that is coupled with a lot more anxiety over what the outcome will be. But I guess I would call myself pessimistically hopeful. I think I’ve learned that from all the times I’ve skinned my knees (and face) in the past when I thought everything would be smooth sailing.
I think that the reason for anxiety is that progress, moving forward, not staying where you’re comfortable takes risk. You have to try something new to see if it works and being finite you have no assurances that it will. Sure you can claim scriptures for your endeavor; you can push forward in unrealistic optimism saying God is for us we can’t lose – just like the Israelites did on the way to their defeat at Ai. Or you can move ahead knowing that God is in control whether you succeed or fail.
That perspective in and of itself is a milestone for me because for most of my life I chose to stay somewhere in between success and failure: in the quitter zone or even in the no try zone where everything is safe and there are no risks and no rewards or losers or winners either.
But after fifty years of growing up I am finally understanding that God doesn’t call us to be safe he calls us to be good and do good and pursue excellence in all that we put our hands to for his glory not ours.
So here I am at 50 doing things that I wanted to do at twenty; that I trained to do at twenty but never put into application in the real world. Yes, 30 years after the fact I decided to use that degree in theatre. So with the help of some professionals, friends and a good chunk of change I spent the day Tuesday making three short films. It was hard work and a long day but there was a satisfaction at the end of the day that can only be tasted as the fruit of productivity.
It will be another week before I see the end results and I will probably have to spend another full day fine tuning the audio but I was pleased with my performances and it was good to watch the rust fall off my acting chops. It felt a bit like raising the dead actually. I mean I had buried that part of my life a long time ago with a headstone that said ‘pipe dream’ and now well things have started to resurrect that I thought were gone for good.
How did I make the jump to film from writing? Well, the films are actually extended commercials for the books. I needed some marketing tools and ordinary marketing tools just leave me feeling blah so I wrote three episodes of the late night talk show “the final word” which appears in a couple of my books. And they will begin to be ‘aired’ on my Amazon Author page and other places as soon as they are ready.
It took fifty years but it finally became clear that it was time to begin to take some risks and leave the safety net of the illusion of security behind and press on. It is certainly true that I could fall flat on my face. But I am at the point in life where I don’t really care anymore. When it comes down to it if I lose everything I will actually end up ahead because I’m so far below ground now that only a miracle will cause me to break even before I die. So I might as well push as hard as I can and see what unfolds.
The same is true in church. The safety net is gone. If God doesn’t show up and be who he says he is then my neck is on the line. I’m tired of playing games in every area of my life. Either this stuff is real or it isn’t. I don’t want to end up like Saul or like the Pharisees. I don’t want to be a part of the EX-bride of Christ. I want to be the next bride. I want to hear “well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master. Happiness means nothing now if you don’t hear those words when you cross the finish line. The reality is you suffer now for the Joy set before you (at the finish line).
I’ve been listening to the new album ‘Brothers’ by the black keys this week. And their song Next Girl struck a chord with me (obviously):
The look of the cake It ain't always the taste My ex girl she had Such a beautiful faceI wanted love But not for myself But for the girl So she could love herself
A beautiful face and a wicked way And I'm paying for her beautiful face every dayAll that work over so much time If I think too hard I might lose my mind
My next girl Will be nothing like my ex girl I made mistakes back then I'll never do it again With my next girl She'll be nothing like my ex girl That was a painful dance Now I got a second chance
My heart yearns to be well received at the end of the race but bad running won’t get me there. Happy feelings won’t get me there only hungering and thirsting after righteousness by the grace of God will make it so. The call is not to be safe. The call is to take the talents that God has given and risk them for the opportunity of saying you gave me 5 I’m giving you back 10. I’ve got to press on with all my might cause right now I think I may be at negative five.
With toes hanging over the edge of the cliff,
Brad
Friday, February 11, 2011
foundations 26
We are in chapter three of Nehemiah this week. This is one of those chapters that we love to practice speed reading on. But if you can get past the repetition of basically the same thing being said 32 times and get to the heart of the matter then it begins to come alive somewhat, at least for me.
I believe that this passage is an Old Testament picture of Ephesians chapter 4 and the building up of the body of Christ. Listen to Ephesians 4: 11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
That is a picture of us. You and I are all parts of the body of Christ don’t think that because you don’t have one of the gifts listed that you don’t have to worry about building the body of Christ. We have all been placed into the body for a specific reason. We are all gifted specifically to build the body of Christ. You see the whole body is fit and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part. You are a vital part of the body of Christ because the thing that you provide causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Without you being who you are supposed to be, without you fleshing out your calling to the Lord the body will not grow as it should. That is how important you are to the body of Christ. That is how important you are to Immanuel. God has called you here to help grow us up to what we are meant to be. That is a high and glorious calling that each and every one of us shares.
Now I’m going to read at least part of Chapter three but I am going to make some changes in it so that it will be more meaningful to us. “Then Jesus Christ the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. 2Next to him the men of Portland and Franklin built; and next to them the Butler’s built. 3Now the Burysek’s built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. 4Next to them the Jeff Johns family made repairs. And next to him the Jimmy Johns family made repairs. And next to him the Flick’s also made repairs. 5Moreover, next to him the Barnes’ made repairs. The Neff’s repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. 7Next to them Hammonds also made repairs for the official seat of the governor of the province beyond the River. 8Next to him the McGee’s made repairs and next to them the Whiteheads made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9Next to them the Stephens made repairs. 10Next to them the Sercy’s made repairs opposite their house. And next to them the Spoons made repairs. The Nettles repaired another section and the Tower of Furnaces. 12Next to him the Bigbees, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughter.
I could go on but I think you get the idea. Each one of us has been called to rebuild a section of the body of Christ, right where we are. I believe this may be one of the most neglected aspects of the Christian life in our day and age. We’ve turned our focus away from nurturing the church to full maturity toward turning it into a giant day care that we can fill with spiritual infants. But a house run by newborns will not last long.
Our calling as members of the body of Christ is to use what God has given us to grow the body up to full maturity. When the body is wounded God causes various smaller parts to come and repair the damage. That is our calling. We are to be ministering to the body of Christ repairing the damage by building each other up in Love which is keeping the commandments and staying on the path of life. You don’t have to have special skills to build up the body of Christ, you have to be humble before God, willing to do all that he asks, and walk on the path of life with your brothers and sisters. As you walk the path of life in your area, where you live then God will bring healing. God will begin to, in the words of the prophet Joel restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. The destruction that is in our lives comes from not being humble before God. God sent that destruction like an army to either destroy us or drive us to repentance.
If we humble ourselves, pray, seek the face of God and turn from our wickedness then God promises to restore to us the years that the locust has eaten. We build the body of Christ by humbling ourselves before God and letting him do the restoration. You see the Psalmist says: 1Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain that build it: unless the LORD keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.
While we are created to build up the body of Christ we must remember that while we labor it is God who does the real work. Unless he builds the house we labor in vain. This is why I called us last week to begin to ask God how to rebuild one small section of the body of Christ. He does the building. He knows how that part of the body is going to look like in the end. We don’t have a clue. It is my heart’s desire that God pour out his grace and mercy on this one section of the house so that we may all witness what restoration at the hands of God looks like. Our call is to build where we are at while at the same time making sure that we know that it is God who is doing the building.
Now what should we expect as we try to walk on the path of life and rebuild the wall? Trouble and discouragement. Look at chapter 4 of Nehemiah. 1Now it came about that when the enemy heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the church. 2He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, "What are these feeble Christians doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?" 3Now another one of the enemy was near him and he said, "Even what they are building--if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!"
I want you to understand that the enemy doesn’t have to be outside of you. The enemy can be right in your own head. How many of you when you’re doing something and you screw up just beat your selves up? Do you ever say things like Idiot! To yourself in the midst of doing something. How about stupid or even worse things that I won’t say here today?
How about when you’re trying to walk on the path of life? Do you hear things like “I can’t believe you’re trying to be good. You can’t do this. There’s no way. You’re too messed up to do this right. You’re only going to bring everybody else down with you. What ever you do isn’t going to be good enough. You’re feeble attempts are just going to come crashing down all around you.” Sometimes, maybe most of the time, the old us is the worst enemy we have.
That is a part of the struggle of the Christian life in this age. There are two of us living in the same body the old man who is dying and the new man who is just starting to grow. The old man is not going to go without a fight. He is going to do everything he can to slow the growth of the new man. He is going to fight you every step of the way. But it is important that you understand that it is God who has called you to this task. It is God who says that you are holy and righteous in Christ Jesus. It is God who says that your sins are forgiven and that you are white as snow. If you are humbled before God then he holds you in his hand and no one can pluck you out. You were called before the foundation of the world to walk the path you are on and God will do everything to make sure you get to the destination and hear: Well done good and faithful servant.
You are his even when you screw things up. He will not let go of you. You cannot mess things up so bad that he will stop loving you. Now if he does love you, if you are his child you can expect a loving father to discipline you when you leave the path of life. He does that because he cares about you; because he wants what’s best for you. But the enemy cannot touch you unless the Lord gives him permission and even that is for your own good to humble you before God when you get out of line.
That criticism you hear in your head is nothing but lies. The construction that you do, the building up of the body of Christ that you do is good because in reality it is God doing the work- he just happens to be using your hands to get the job done.
One of the biggest and hardest parts of building the body of Christ is learning to hear the voice of the father and stop listening to the voice of the enemy.
We must remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. If we keep that in mind then it should be easier for us to pray the prayer of Nehemiah in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4: 4Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. 5Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.
It’s important to understand that because our enemies are spiritual beings who have rebelled against God it is ok for us to pray that they not be forgiven. It is ok for us to pray that they be sent to hell because that is their destiny. There is no redemption possible for Satan and his followers. So pray against those voices that try to beat you down: that God would destroy them at the source.
For too long we have believed in a God that does nothing. A God that spoke once; long ago. A God that did miracles; long ago. A God that has given us a book and left us on our own with no hope of anything except a last minute rescue out of a wicked world. The church over the last 100 years has really become more deist than Christian. Even our conservative theology tells us that God doesn’t do anything any more. We won’t allow him to.
Oh sure we pray but we don’t expect much when we do. When our prayers are answered we say it was God’s will and when our prayers are not answered we say it was God’s will. We don’t expect God to actually intervene in our lives. At least not when it comes to causing us to stop sinning or changing our lives in any meaningful way. We have resigned ourselves to serving an impotent God. Sure we talk a good talk but look around at our culture: Does it reflect the fact that the church believes in a big and powerful God? No. It reflects that fact that we believe in evil being overpowering, wickedness being cool, godlessness being the way to get ahead. It reflects the fact that we believe lies instead of the truth.
I have ears; I heard and saw someone gasp last week when I said we needed to pray until something happens. Are we so used to nothing happening when we pray that we think the mess we’re in is all God wants for us?
The writer of Hebrews tells us that: All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 12Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
I am praying that God would pour out his grace and mercy upon us that our hands would be strengthened that we might be able to build the body of Christ. I am praying that our knees would be strengthened so that we may be able to walk on the straight and narrow path of life. I am praying that lame limbs will be healed.
Theology is not our hope. The bible is not our hope. Truth without the Spirit is dead. Faith without works is dead. Unless God takes us out of our heads and into life in the real world, the real messy, dysfunctional world and begins to heal it then we are only playing games. Until God starts to get personal and invade your space and convict you of your sin HE’s NOT YOUR GOD. The real God of scripture changes people. He doesn’t let them make friends with their dysfunction. He doesn’t let them pal around with the demons that have become their best friends. He saves to the uttermost. The Real God of scripture is not safe for the whole family. God is not safe but he is Good. And that is what we need. We need God to be good to us and do whatever it takes to stop us from playing around with our pet sins. The majority of people are not serious about putting an end to the sin in their life they prefer to micro manage it. As long as it doesn’t get out of line everything’s ok.
I want you to understand something if you are trying to put a leash on your sin then you are delusional because what has happened is that your sin has put a leash on you. It is controlling you while letting you believe that you’re in charge. Until you are solely on the leash of the God of scripture you are a slave to wickedness. God has called us to be slaves to righteousness. Slaves to life. How long will we play with death? How long will we keep pretending that everything is ok when our lives are falling apart on the inside.
These things are why I have called us first to humble ourselves before God and second to pray for Ian. We need a reference point of what God can do in the world. For most of us reading the miracles in the word of God has no more impact and is no more real that reading a novel. We have already convinced ourselves that those things don’t happen today. But the question is this has the mature come? Is the body of Christ mature? Because that is what the passage in Corinthians really says when the mature has come not the perfect. When the mature has come the gifts will cease. You take a look at the church today and tell me that it is mature with a straight face. If you do I will be glad to call you a liar. We need the gifts that each individual part of the body brings because we are anything but mature. The building up of the body of Christ is focused on one goal: maturity being the full stature of the man Jesus Christ. Until the church is the living, breathing image of Jesus Christ on the earth then we need all the help we can get.
We need the power of god because words alone are dead and meaningless. That is why I asked you to ask God for words – for something specific – because I believe that God will speak to us if we ask and listen. I expect God to give you words on how to pray. I expect God to be God: The same God that he was in the Old Testament: The same God that he was in the New Testament. He is the same now and forever. He is the one who said: I am the Lord I change not. If your God is not the same powerful God who does powerful things in the midst of a broken people then who has changed? Don’t let your theology get in the way of serving a living and active God. Don’t let your hard heartedness dictate what God can and cannot do.
I am asking you to continue to pray about what we should be praying for Ian. I’m going to ask you to do that for the rest of the month. There is no need to be in a hurry on this. It is better to hear what God has to say and act on it than it is to pretend we heard and be totally mistaken. I’m asking you to persevere in this asking. Like the woman before the wicked judge. That is where the ‘pray until something happen’s idea comes from. Get on God’s last nerve until he answers your request. If you feel like you need more then fast again. God honors men and women who humble themselves before him persistently.
Let me remind you of that Parable by reading it to you: Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2saying, "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3"There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.' 4"For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" 6And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8"I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
I want you to understand that the son of man has come to Immanuel Baptist church and he is looking for faith. Will he find it in your heart? I pray that it be so.
Let’s pray: Oh Father, teach us to pray, show us what to pray, give us the perseverance to pray without ceasing until you answer our prayer. You are a good God and not an evil judge. You long to give us good things. We ask father that you would speak to us throughout the rest of the month those things that you would have us to pray for Ian. Have mercy on us oh Lord. Jesus please intercede for us. Holy Spirit intercede for us for we don’t know how to pray as we should. It is in Jesus’ power and authority that we ask these things. So be it. Amen.
I believe that this passage is an Old Testament picture of Ephesians chapter 4 and the building up of the body of Christ. Listen to Ephesians 4: 11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
That is a picture of us. You and I are all parts of the body of Christ don’t think that because you don’t have one of the gifts listed that you don’t have to worry about building the body of Christ. We have all been placed into the body for a specific reason. We are all gifted specifically to build the body of Christ. You see the whole body is fit and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part. You are a vital part of the body of Christ because the thing that you provide causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Without you being who you are supposed to be, without you fleshing out your calling to the Lord the body will not grow as it should. That is how important you are to the body of Christ. That is how important you are to Immanuel. God has called you here to help grow us up to what we are meant to be. That is a high and glorious calling that each and every one of us shares.
Now I’m going to read at least part of Chapter three but I am going to make some changes in it so that it will be more meaningful to us. “Then Jesus Christ the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. 2Next to him the men of Portland and Franklin built; and next to them the Butler’s built. 3Now the Burysek’s built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. 4Next to them the Jeff Johns family made repairs. And next to him the Jimmy Johns family made repairs. And next to him the Flick’s also made repairs. 5Moreover, next to him the Barnes’ made repairs. The Neff’s repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. 7Next to them Hammonds also made repairs for the official seat of the governor of the province beyond the River. 8Next to him the McGee’s made repairs and next to them the Whiteheads made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9Next to them the Stephens made repairs. 10Next to them the Sercy’s made repairs opposite their house. And next to them the Spoons made repairs. The Nettles repaired another section and the Tower of Furnaces. 12Next to him the Bigbees, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughter.
I could go on but I think you get the idea. Each one of us has been called to rebuild a section of the body of Christ, right where we are. I believe this may be one of the most neglected aspects of the Christian life in our day and age. We’ve turned our focus away from nurturing the church to full maturity toward turning it into a giant day care that we can fill with spiritual infants. But a house run by newborns will not last long.
Our calling as members of the body of Christ is to use what God has given us to grow the body up to full maturity. When the body is wounded God causes various smaller parts to come and repair the damage. That is our calling. We are to be ministering to the body of Christ repairing the damage by building each other up in Love which is keeping the commandments and staying on the path of life. You don’t have to have special skills to build up the body of Christ, you have to be humble before God, willing to do all that he asks, and walk on the path of life with your brothers and sisters. As you walk the path of life in your area, where you live then God will bring healing. God will begin to, in the words of the prophet Joel restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. The destruction that is in our lives comes from not being humble before God. God sent that destruction like an army to either destroy us or drive us to repentance.
If we humble ourselves, pray, seek the face of God and turn from our wickedness then God promises to restore to us the years that the locust has eaten. We build the body of Christ by humbling ourselves before God and letting him do the restoration. You see the Psalmist says: 1Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain that build it: unless the LORD keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.
While we are created to build up the body of Christ we must remember that while we labor it is God who does the real work. Unless he builds the house we labor in vain. This is why I called us last week to begin to ask God how to rebuild one small section of the body of Christ. He does the building. He knows how that part of the body is going to look like in the end. We don’t have a clue. It is my heart’s desire that God pour out his grace and mercy on this one section of the house so that we may all witness what restoration at the hands of God looks like. Our call is to build where we are at while at the same time making sure that we know that it is God who is doing the building.
Now what should we expect as we try to walk on the path of life and rebuild the wall? Trouble and discouragement. Look at chapter 4 of Nehemiah. 1Now it came about that when the enemy heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the church. 2He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, "What are these feeble Christians doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?" 3Now another one of the enemy was near him and he said, "Even what they are building--if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!"
I want you to understand that the enemy doesn’t have to be outside of you. The enemy can be right in your own head. How many of you when you’re doing something and you screw up just beat your selves up? Do you ever say things like Idiot! To yourself in the midst of doing something. How about stupid or even worse things that I won’t say here today?
How about when you’re trying to walk on the path of life? Do you hear things like “I can’t believe you’re trying to be good. You can’t do this. There’s no way. You’re too messed up to do this right. You’re only going to bring everybody else down with you. What ever you do isn’t going to be good enough. You’re feeble attempts are just going to come crashing down all around you.” Sometimes, maybe most of the time, the old us is the worst enemy we have.
That is a part of the struggle of the Christian life in this age. There are two of us living in the same body the old man who is dying and the new man who is just starting to grow. The old man is not going to go without a fight. He is going to do everything he can to slow the growth of the new man. He is going to fight you every step of the way. But it is important that you understand that it is God who has called you to this task. It is God who says that you are holy and righteous in Christ Jesus. It is God who says that your sins are forgiven and that you are white as snow. If you are humbled before God then he holds you in his hand and no one can pluck you out. You were called before the foundation of the world to walk the path you are on and God will do everything to make sure you get to the destination and hear: Well done good and faithful servant.
You are his even when you screw things up. He will not let go of you. You cannot mess things up so bad that he will stop loving you. Now if he does love you, if you are his child you can expect a loving father to discipline you when you leave the path of life. He does that because he cares about you; because he wants what’s best for you. But the enemy cannot touch you unless the Lord gives him permission and even that is for your own good to humble you before God when you get out of line.
That criticism you hear in your head is nothing but lies. The construction that you do, the building up of the body of Christ that you do is good because in reality it is God doing the work- he just happens to be using your hands to get the job done.
One of the biggest and hardest parts of building the body of Christ is learning to hear the voice of the father and stop listening to the voice of the enemy.
We must remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. If we keep that in mind then it should be easier for us to pray the prayer of Nehemiah in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4: 4Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. 5Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.
It’s important to understand that because our enemies are spiritual beings who have rebelled against God it is ok for us to pray that they not be forgiven. It is ok for us to pray that they be sent to hell because that is their destiny. There is no redemption possible for Satan and his followers. So pray against those voices that try to beat you down: that God would destroy them at the source.
For too long we have believed in a God that does nothing. A God that spoke once; long ago. A God that did miracles; long ago. A God that has given us a book and left us on our own with no hope of anything except a last minute rescue out of a wicked world. The church over the last 100 years has really become more deist than Christian. Even our conservative theology tells us that God doesn’t do anything any more. We won’t allow him to.
Oh sure we pray but we don’t expect much when we do. When our prayers are answered we say it was God’s will and when our prayers are not answered we say it was God’s will. We don’t expect God to actually intervene in our lives. At least not when it comes to causing us to stop sinning or changing our lives in any meaningful way. We have resigned ourselves to serving an impotent God. Sure we talk a good talk but look around at our culture: Does it reflect the fact that the church believes in a big and powerful God? No. It reflects that fact that we believe in evil being overpowering, wickedness being cool, godlessness being the way to get ahead. It reflects the fact that we believe lies instead of the truth.
I have ears; I heard and saw someone gasp last week when I said we needed to pray until something happens. Are we so used to nothing happening when we pray that we think the mess we’re in is all God wants for us?
The writer of Hebrews tells us that: All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 12Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
I am praying that God would pour out his grace and mercy upon us that our hands would be strengthened that we might be able to build the body of Christ. I am praying that our knees would be strengthened so that we may be able to walk on the straight and narrow path of life. I am praying that lame limbs will be healed.
Theology is not our hope. The bible is not our hope. Truth without the Spirit is dead. Faith without works is dead. Unless God takes us out of our heads and into life in the real world, the real messy, dysfunctional world and begins to heal it then we are only playing games. Until God starts to get personal and invade your space and convict you of your sin HE’s NOT YOUR GOD. The real God of scripture changes people. He doesn’t let them make friends with their dysfunction. He doesn’t let them pal around with the demons that have become their best friends. He saves to the uttermost. The Real God of scripture is not safe for the whole family. God is not safe but he is Good. And that is what we need. We need God to be good to us and do whatever it takes to stop us from playing around with our pet sins. The majority of people are not serious about putting an end to the sin in their life they prefer to micro manage it. As long as it doesn’t get out of line everything’s ok.
I want you to understand something if you are trying to put a leash on your sin then you are delusional because what has happened is that your sin has put a leash on you. It is controlling you while letting you believe that you’re in charge. Until you are solely on the leash of the God of scripture you are a slave to wickedness. God has called us to be slaves to righteousness. Slaves to life. How long will we play with death? How long will we keep pretending that everything is ok when our lives are falling apart on the inside.
These things are why I have called us first to humble ourselves before God and second to pray for Ian. We need a reference point of what God can do in the world. For most of us reading the miracles in the word of God has no more impact and is no more real that reading a novel. We have already convinced ourselves that those things don’t happen today. But the question is this has the mature come? Is the body of Christ mature? Because that is what the passage in Corinthians really says when the mature has come not the perfect. When the mature has come the gifts will cease. You take a look at the church today and tell me that it is mature with a straight face. If you do I will be glad to call you a liar. We need the gifts that each individual part of the body brings because we are anything but mature. The building up of the body of Christ is focused on one goal: maturity being the full stature of the man Jesus Christ. Until the church is the living, breathing image of Jesus Christ on the earth then we need all the help we can get.
We need the power of god because words alone are dead and meaningless. That is why I asked you to ask God for words – for something specific – because I believe that God will speak to us if we ask and listen. I expect God to give you words on how to pray. I expect God to be God: The same God that he was in the Old Testament: The same God that he was in the New Testament. He is the same now and forever. He is the one who said: I am the Lord I change not. If your God is not the same powerful God who does powerful things in the midst of a broken people then who has changed? Don’t let your theology get in the way of serving a living and active God. Don’t let your hard heartedness dictate what God can and cannot do.
I am asking you to continue to pray about what we should be praying for Ian. I’m going to ask you to do that for the rest of the month. There is no need to be in a hurry on this. It is better to hear what God has to say and act on it than it is to pretend we heard and be totally mistaken. I’m asking you to persevere in this asking. Like the woman before the wicked judge. That is where the ‘pray until something happen’s idea comes from. Get on God’s last nerve until he answers your request. If you feel like you need more then fast again. God honors men and women who humble themselves before him persistently.
Let me remind you of that Parable by reading it to you: Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2saying, "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3"There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.' 4"For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" 6And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8"I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
I want you to understand that the son of man has come to Immanuel Baptist church and he is looking for faith. Will he find it in your heart? I pray that it be so.
Let’s pray: Oh Father, teach us to pray, show us what to pray, give us the perseverance to pray without ceasing until you answer our prayer. You are a good God and not an evil judge. You long to give us good things. We ask father that you would speak to us throughout the rest of the month those things that you would have us to pray for Ian. Have mercy on us oh Lord. Jesus please intercede for us. Holy Spirit intercede for us for we don’t know how to pray as we should. It is in Jesus’ power and authority that we ask these things. So be it. Amen.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Margaritaville
Spiritual warfare – probably not an all too popular topic these days mostly because we love to talk about religion and theology but we don’t want to see it applied in the real world. I’m mean let’s be honest that kind of stuff just doesn’t happen in our day and age. We love to believe in our unbelief when it boils down to it.
I’m beginning to understand though that spiritual warfare is all round us all the time. And when push comes to shove it comes to us in the midst of our ordinary circumstances and as a result it often times blindsides us. It takes us by surprise because we don’t know what we’re supposed to be looking for.
Maybe we have this goal, this thing that God has called us to, whatever it may be, and we start pushing for it; bathing the whole thing in prayer; calling out for God to move in a mighty way and somewhere along the way life kicks into high gear and before you know it things blow up in your face and you are focused on something besides the goal that you’ve been called to.
Now whatever it is that bombards you feels important. It feels like it is worth getting all bent out of shape over. So you go with it and you bitch and moan when you get home. Waste your time eating and watching tv because you’re so angry at the idiots in the world that you don’t really want to focus on anything else so you just zone out. It feels right. You’ve been done wrong. You’ve been hurt, offended, put off, inconvenienced and a hundred other things by the inconsiderate actions of others who seem to be more self absorbed than you are and you want to hang on to that for awhile. So you baste yourself in that hogwash until your goose is almost cooked.
But the truth is all of that mess that you find yourself in is nothing more than a distraction. It’s nothing more than something to take your eyes off the goal. That thing that you were not so long ago focused on praying about, working toward is long out of your mind and you’ve been defeated but you don’t even know it because you got caught up in the tyranny of the Urgent, or of the stupid, or of the self absorption of others. You got caught up in the snares that so easily entangle us. You stopped running the good race.
You didn’t mean to. You didn’t want to but your buttons got pushed and now here you are wasting away in Margaritaville. The question is once you figure it out: how long are you gonna spend looking for that lost shaker of salt? When are you going to realize that it’s your own damn fault and reset your eyes toward the prize?
Easier said than done, I know. I’m still kind of reeling myself from being blindsided the other day just when things were going so well. I mean I’ve always had a problem with everyday life anyway. I have to fight sometimes to do the mundane things because I have this lie stuck in my head that says I shouldn’t have to work a real job or pay real bills, or real taxes or any of that stuff. It was a lie that I picked up in my younger days when I thought that being spiritual was being other worldly and that government should just take care of everybody.
I’ve learned to pay less attention to that lie but some days when all my different lives gang up on me at once and fight for dominance ,well, I just want to runaway and find comfort in the lie of being other worldly. And for an instant I find myself longing to live under a bridge somewhere by myself with no responsibilities whatsoever, not ties, no people telling me what to do, no one to have to take care of. No bills, no job, no taxes. Just me and my shopping cart focused on nothing but looking for a place to get warm.
Contrary to popular opinion apart from Christ I have no ambition in life, no desire to be successful, no desire to be responsible because there is no kingdom to advance; no cause worth fighting for. I mean if there is no meaning why bother trying to save the planet?
For me, Christ is the reason I do the juggling act of life. It is the reason I get up and go to work when I’d rather play. It’s the reason I fill much of the rest of my time with trying to figure out ways to help other people fulfill their callings, it’s why I write, It’s why I think outside the box, it’s why I force myself to play nice with others. None of those things come naturally to me. I force myself to be something other than homeless every single day because it is the right thing to do: Because there is a plan that is bigger than meaninglessness and bigger than me.
I won’t lie to you and say that I am always happy about that. But I understand the nature of reality. I understand that this is God’s world and that I am to play it by his rules even if other people don’t seem to have to. The words of Jesus haunt me: For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
I have to remind myself that walking on the path of life is the most important thing because the wages of doing other wise are death both now, at the end of our life and for all eternity. So when I finally get around to realizing that I have been blindsided by something that doesn’t matter or that my feet are entangled; I have to remember to shake myself free and then press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. For the Joy that is set before me – at the finished line. The joy of hearing: "Well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful in what I have given you receive more and enter into the joy of your master." There are winners and losers in this thing called life. Not everybody get a medal. Some people’s esteem will be crushed.
So I put my hand to the plow once again and find myself like the RCA Dog, listening for my master’s voice.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
I’m beginning to understand though that spiritual warfare is all round us all the time. And when push comes to shove it comes to us in the midst of our ordinary circumstances and as a result it often times blindsides us. It takes us by surprise because we don’t know what we’re supposed to be looking for.
Maybe we have this goal, this thing that God has called us to, whatever it may be, and we start pushing for it; bathing the whole thing in prayer; calling out for God to move in a mighty way and somewhere along the way life kicks into high gear and before you know it things blow up in your face and you are focused on something besides the goal that you’ve been called to.
Now whatever it is that bombards you feels important. It feels like it is worth getting all bent out of shape over. So you go with it and you bitch and moan when you get home. Waste your time eating and watching tv because you’re so angry at the idiots in the world that you don’t really want to focus on anything else so you just zone out. It feels right. You’ve been done wrong. You’ve been hurt, offended, put off, inconvenienced and a hundred other things by the inconsiderate actions of others who seem to be more self absorbed than you are and you want to hang on to that for awhile. So you baste yourself in that hogwash until your goose is almost cooked.
But the truth is all of that mess that you find yourself in is nothing more than a distraction. It’s nothing more than something to take your eyes off the goal. That thing that you were not so long ago focused on praying about, working toward is long out of your mind and you’ve been defeated but you don’t even know it because you got caught up in the tyranny of the Urgent, or of the stupid, or of the self absorption of others. You got caught up in the snares that so easily entangle us. You stopped running the good race.
You didn’t mean to. You didn’t want to but your buttons got pushed and now here you are wasting away in Margaritaville. The question is once you figure it out: how long are you gonna spend looking for that lost shaker of salt? When are you going to realize that it’s your own damn fault and reset your eyes toward the prize?
Easier said than done, I know. I’m still kind of reeling myself from being blindsided the other day just when things were going so well. I mean I’ve always had a problem with everyday life anyway. I have to fight sometimes to do the mundane things because I have this lie stuck in my head that says I shouldn’t have to work a real job or pay real bills, or real taxes or any of that stuff. It was a lie that I picked up in my younger days when I thought that being spiritual was being other worldly and that government should just take care of everybody.
I’ve learned to pay less attention to that lie but some days when all my different lives gang up on me at once and fight for dominance ,well, I just want to runaway and find comfort in the lie of being other worldly. And for an instant I find myself longing to live under a bridge somewhere by myself with no responsibilities whatsoever, not ties, no people telling me what to do, no one to have to take care of. No bills, no job, no taxes. Just me and my shopping cart focused on nothing but looking for a place to get warm.
Contrary to popular opinion apart from Christ I have no ambition in life, no desire to be successful, no desire to be responsible because there is no kingdom to advance; no cause worth fighting for. I mean if there is no meaning why bother trying to save the planet?
For me, Christ is the reason I do the juggling act of life. It is the reason I get up and go to work when I’d rather play. It’s the reason I fill much of the rest of my time with trying to figure out ways to help other people fulfill their callings, it’s why I write, It’s why I think outside the box, it’s why I force myself to play nice with others. None of those things come naturally to me. I force myself to be something other than homeless every single day because it is the right thing to do: Because there is a plan that is bigger than meaninglessness and bigger than me.
I won’t lie to you and say that I am always happy about that. But I understand the nature of reality. I understand that this is God’s world and that I am to play it by his rules even if other people don’t seem to have to. The words of Jesus haunt me: For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
I have to remind myself that walking on the path of life is the most important thing because the wages of doing other wise are death both now, at the end of our life and for all eternity. So when I finally get around to realizing that I have been blindsided by something that doesn’t matter or that my feet are entangled; I have to remember to shake myself free and then press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. For the Joy that is set before me – at the finished line. The joy of hearing: "Well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful in what I have given you receive more and enter into the joy of your master." There are winners and losers in this thing called life. Not everybody get a medal. Some people’s esteem will be crushed.
So I put my hand to the plow once again and find myself like the RCA Dog, listening for my master’s voice.
Grace and Peace,
Brad
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Worry Too Much
Hey Everyone,
I wonder what the Israelites felt like the day before they started marching around Jericho. I wonder how many of them dreaded getting out of bed knowing what they had to do but more importantly what God had to do for everything to work out ok.
I think we have eliminated that problem by not expecting God to do anything. We have relegated him to the impotent and replaced his true presence with something that looks very similar to the fates or maybe Doris Day singing que sara sara. We do that because it gets us off the hook. If the culture gets worse we say it’s God’s will. If the church goes to hell we say it’s God’s will. We have in essence made the fall God. We have normalized bondage and called it freedom. And as long as nothing ruffles our feathers we trudge a long through the suburbs of hell with a smile on our face and no expectations for God to do anything out of the ordinary.
Our theology has relegated God actually doing something on this planet to 2000 years ago and only through physical Jesus and his twelve goons who were obviously more than human because well God actually did things through them. But here, now in the 21st century we’re just folks, plain ordinary humans with words on a page and a marketing plan and God is not going to intervene and disrupt the everyday workings of the evolutionary process. We do church the way we do business only if we do it right we don’t have to actually produce anything except comfortable surroundings and we end up with more profit and perks cause we don’t have to pay taxes.
I write all of this because I’m sick of doing life this way and I’m scared to death to change. That’s why I started off talking about Israel. They are our example. It would be nice to have a copy of the diary of the biggest loser in Israel during the days before and after Jericho. I don’t want to read anything from the super heroes of faith. I can’t relate to them. I need a word from the losers of faith – people that had faith enough to go on the walk but were looking over their shoulder every other minute to see if they were going to get killed or not. Such a document might not be all that helpful but it would be comforting.
What would it mean, what would the consequences be if we stopped doing the business of church and started expecting God to actually do something in our midst? What would it mean if we were to walk around Jericho? Would it end up like we were fighting AI instead?
You see I’m caught between the horns of a dilemma. Last week I was unbelievably blessed by the outcome of our Solemn Assembly. God blessed us with a unity and a building up that really blew me away. But getting there was filled with anxiety. Would God show up? Would this whole thing blow up in my face? Would it be reveled that I don’t have a clue what God is doing? (or myself for that matter).
Well, thankfully he did show up. And unthankfully, now I have found myself being hyper vigilant about making sure that it continues. (Like I can do anything about that) I wrote my sermon for next week on Monday. It is a powerful sermon. It is a risky sermon because it calls the people to act and calls God to do something. It expects God to be the God of the church and the church to be the functioning body of Christ. It expects visible results that would be known by everyone that attends our church and by a large number of people in Jericho. It expects walls to come down.
Two days later I’m starting to hedge my bets. I’m wanting to play it safe. But playing it safe won’t help the people who cannot make it with regular 21st century ‘don’t get better just pretend’ church. You have to be a good liar to make it in that kind of a church. Some people’s lives force them to be honest about the condition of their hearts. I was hugged by one of those big burly manly hearts on Sunday night til I thought my ribs would break and my lungs collapse. I was thanked by a young woman who has spent her life being a door mat for men with really muddy shoes. I heard a man in his sixties talk about a unity that he had never experienced before.
I can’t play it safe anymore. But I am scared to death not to. It’s one thing to say that the bible is true. It is another thing to say arise and walk. I’m tired of giving cripples bibles and orthopedic shoes while saying read this as you limp your way to heaven. I’m tired of pretending to hand out good news when it’s not really all that good because the benefits don’t kick in until after your life insurance policy pays off. I’m tired of people knowing the scriptures but living their lives in bondage and making excuses for God not doing anything to set them free. “Oh it’s alright Grace is sufficient.” Sufficient for what? Keeping you in bondage to sin and its curse for your whole life? The thing that is called grace these days is nothing more than the true opiate of the masses. The modern day church, not Christianity, is the real opiate of the masses. We have everybody so doped up over words of truth that they don’t even feel the pain of bondage.
Truth is not enough. Truth alone will land you in hell. It is Truth applied to your life that matters. It is the truth and the spirit combined that saves. That is where real worship is to be found. The God of Scripture is only the one true God when he acts like the God of scripture. If your God can’t or won’t act to deliver you from bondage then he is not the God of creation.
The true God, the real God keeps his promises. The ONE TRUE God of Scripture ACTS in the midst of History. If we will humble ourselves then He promises to act. He promises to heal our land.
I want you to understand something: I have given up on our country ever changing in my life time. I have given up on my state changing in my life time. I’m not so sure about the cities I associate with changing either. I have finally begun to understand that if God is going to heal anything it has to begin with my congregation. If God Can’t or Won’t bring healing to my congregation then there is no hope for anything else.
Unless God allows the Nation of Immanuel Baptist church (populations 35 on a real good Sunday) to be discipled and healed then nothing else really matters; at least in the world I occupy. There is no hope. But if the walls of bondage do come down, if the broken hearted do get healed, if the promises of God do begin to manifest themselves then the rest of the communities that we are a part of had better watch out because real good news travels at the speed of light.
I have really big dreams: I want to see ONE life transformed. To be honest, that would be all that it would take to get the ball rolling. I want to see one life completely and radically transformed by the hand of God, without any outside help – no drugs, no rehab, no counseling, no home makeover, no jenny craig, or Oprah. I want to see one life changed and stay changed. And then I want to sit back and watch that change ripple its way through the community, the state, and the nation.
I want that but I am scared to death to head in that direction because it means God has to be all those things that the book says about him. If somebody would just prove to me that the book isn’t true I’d be off the hook. I could give up being good. I could hide in a bottle. I could revel in the pursuit of meaningless until the cops put a bullet in me but they can’t and they won’t and so I am left with the horns of dilemma on either side of me.
I will probably take the leap on Sunday. I may regret it on Monday or I may be pleasantly surprised and God may show up, again. I will leave you with the words of the best poet you have never heard of: Mark Heard.
It's these sandpaper eyes It's the way they rub the luster from what is seenIt's the way we tell ourselves that all these things are normalTill we can't remember what we meanIt's the flicker of our flames It's the friction born of livingIt's the way we beat a hot retreat And heave our smoking guns into the river
Sometimes it feels like bars of steel I cannot bend with my hands
Oh - I worry too much
Somebody told me that I worry too much
I pray that’s true.
May you taste, the taste of real grace today and not the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” substitute.
Brad
I wonder what the Israelites felt like the day before they started marching around Jericho. I wonder how many of them dreaded getting out of bed knowing what they had to do but more importantly what God had to do for everything to work out ok.
I think we have eliminated that problem by not expecting God to do anything. We have relegated him to the impotent and replaced his true presence with something that looks very similar to the fates or maybe Doris Day singing que sara sara. We do that because it gets us off the hook. If the culture gets worse we say it’s God’s will. If the church goes to hell we say it’s God’s will. We have in essence made the fall God. We have normalized bondage and called it freedom. And as long as nothing ruffles our feathers we trudge a long through the suburbs of hell with a smile on our face and no expectations for God to do anything out of the ordinary.
Our theology has relegated God actually doing something on this planet to 2000 years ago and only through physical Jesus and his twelve goons who were obviously more than human because well God actually did things through them. But here, now in the 21st century we’re just folks, plain ordinary humans with words on a page and a marketing plan and God is not going to intervene and disrupt the everyday workings of the evolutionary process. We do church the way we do business only if we do it right we don’t have to actually produce anything except comfortable surroundings and we end up with more profit and perks cause we don’t have to pay taxes.
I write all of this because I’m sick of doing life this way and I’m scared to death to change. That’s why I started off talking about Israel. They are our example. It would be nice to have a copy of the diary of the biggest loser in Israel during the days before and after Jericho. I don’t want to read anything from the super heroes of faith. I can’t relate to them. I need a word from the losers of faith – people that had faith enough to go on the walk but were looking over their shoulder every other minute to see if they were going to get killed or not. Such a document might not be all that helpful but it would be comforting.
What would it mean, what would the consequences be if we stopped doing the business of church and started expecting God to actually do something in our midst? What would it mean if we were to walk around Jericho? Would it end up like we were fighting AI instead?
You see I’m caught between the horns of a dilemma. Last week I was unbelievably blessed by the outcome of our Solemn Assembly. God blessed us with a unity and a building up that really blew me away. But getting there was filled with anxiety. Would God show up? Would this whole thing blow up in my face? Would it be reveled that I don’t have a clue what God is doing? (or myself for that matter).
Well, thankfully he did show up. And unthankfully, now I have found myself being hyper vigilant about making sure that it continues. (Like I can do anything about that) I wrote my sermon for next week on Monday. It is a powerful sermon. It is a risky sermon because it calls the people to act and calls God to do something. It expects God to be the God of the church and the church to be the functioning body of Christ. It expects visible results that would be known by everyone that attends our church and by a large number of people in Jericho. It expects walls to come down.
Two days later I’m starting to hedge my bets. I’m wanting to play it safe. But playing it safe won’t help the people who cannot make it with regular 21st century ‘don’t get better just pretend’ church. You have to be a good liar to make it in that kind of a church. Some people’s lives force them to be honest about the condition of their hearts. I was hugged by one of those big burly manly hearts on Sunday night til I thought my ribs would break and my lungs collapse. I was thanked by a young woman who has spent her life being a door mat for men with really muddy shoes. I heard a man in his sixties talk about a unity that he had never experienced before.
I can’t play it safe anymore. But I am scared to death not to. It’s one thing to say that the bible is true. It is another thing to say arise and walk. I’m tired of giving cripples bibles and orthopedic shoes while saying read this as you limp your way to heaven. I’m tired of pretending to hand out good news when it’s not really all that good because the benefits don’t kick in until after your life insurance policy pays off. I’m tired of people knowing the scriptures but living their lives in bondage and making excuses for God not doing anything to set them free. “Oh it’s alright Grace is sufficient.” Sufficient for what? Keeping you in bondage to sin and its curse for your whole life? The thing that is called grace these days is nothing more than the true opiate of the masses. The modern day church, not Christianity, is the real opiate of the masses. We have everybody so doped up over words of truth that they don’t even feel the pain of bondage.
Truth is not enough. Truth alone will land you in hell. It is Truth applied to your life that matters. It is the truth and the spirit combined that saves. That is where real worship is to be found. The God of Scripture is only the one true God when he acts like the God of scripture. If your God can’t or won’t act to deliver you from bondage then he is not the God of creation.
The true God, the real God keeps his promises. The ONE TRUE God of Scripture ACTS in the midst of History. If we will humble ourselves then He promises to act. He promises to heal our land.
I want you to understand something: I have given up on our country ever changing in my life time. I have given up on my state changing in my life time. I’m not so sure about the cities I associate with changing either. I have finally begun to understand that if God is going to heal anything it has to begin with my congregation. If God Can’t or Won’t bring healing to my congregation then there is no hope for anything else.
Unless God allows the Nation of Immanuel Baptist church (populations 35 on a real good Sunday) to be discipled and healed then nothing else really matters; at least in the world I occupy. There is no hope. But if the walls of bondage do come down, if the broken hearted do get healed, if the promises of God do begin to manifest themselves then the rest of the communities that we are a part of had better watch out because real good news travels at the speed of light.
I have really big dreams: I want to see ONE life transformed. To be honest, that would be all that it would take to get the ball rolling. I want to see one life completely and radically transformed by the hand of God, without any outside help – no drugs, no rehab, no counseling, no home makeover, no jenny craig, or Oprah. I want to see one life changed and stay changed. And then I want to sit back and watch that change ripple its way through the community, the state, and the nation.
I want that but I am scared to death to head in that direction because it means God has to be all those things that the book says about him. If somebody would just prove to me that the book isn’t true I’d be off the hook. I could give up being good. I could hide in a bottle. I could revel in the pursuit of meaningless until the cops put a bullet in me but they can’t and they won’t and so I am left with the horns of dilemma on either side of me.
I will probably take the leap on Sunday. I may regret it on Monday or I may be pleasantly surprised and God may show up, again. I will leave you with the words of the best poet you have never heard of: Mark Heard.
It's these sandpaper eyes It's the way they rub the luster from what is seenIt's the way we tell ourselves that all these things are normalTill we can't remember what we meanIt's the flicker of our flames It's the friction born of livingIt's the way we beat a hot retreat And heave our smoking guns into the river
Sometimes it feels like bars of steel I cannot bend with my hands
Oh - I worry too much
Somebody told me that I worry too much
I pray that’s true.
May you taste, the taste of real grace today and not the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” substitute.
Brad
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)