Case Study I – Theology III

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Revivals have always played an interesting part in the Church.  Ever since the days of Moses, the Judges, the various kings of both kingdoms and even the days of the prophets and others like Ezra and Nehemiah and even Pentecost revivals have been a key aspect to God’s heart for mankind.  Yet revivals did not stop with the closing of the cannon, we have seen revivals all the way up to today, and will continue to see them as history unfolds; one of the climaxes of history will be that of widespread revival (Revelation 11:13).  Yet before we move to deep into whether or not revivals happen today we should start by defining revival. From there we will look at some of the common characteristics of revival, and even at how revivals have effected and played a part on our lives today; even if we are unaware of them.

Revival is not solely a Christian term, the dictionary simply defines revival as a noun: “restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.”  In other words it is simply a ‘renewal.’  In the Christian context many have constrained it to be “an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion,” or “an evangelistic service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening: to hold a revival.”  These begin to paint a decent picture of revival, yet they still lack an aspect that is key to revival.  In the book of Acts Jesus declares that:

“… you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Yet what was Pentecost?  Was it really revival?  When we look at the ‘Church’ (Which at this time was Israel) we see that, to say the least, they had missed the mark.  God called Israel to be a light to the nations (Isa 51:4, 60:3) they were to be the ones who led the nations to God, yet they kept it to themselves.  To such an extent that they developed a spirit of religiosity and out came the Pharisees.  Israel had missed the mark, they were able to use God for their will instead of living out God’s will.  Revival was long over due; revolution was now needed.

         Revivals come and go.  They are ‘seasons,’ points in time where God came, showed up, and moved.  People caught the fire and they repented and turned back to God.  Yet they let it slip away over time; “Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had known the works of the LORD which He had done for Israel…. Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods. So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the LORD their God and they served the Baals and Asherahs.” (Joshua 24:31; Judges 3:5-7). “And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel….” (Judges 3:12) “But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer….” (Judges 3:15).  These were revivals; Israel became a revival addict.  They constantly fell away (Judges 4:1-2; 6:1; 8:33-35; 10:6; 13:1) eventually followed by times of revival (Judges 4:3; 6:7; 10:1; 10:11-16; 16:28-30).  We can take a few things away from the book of Judges in regards to revival.  The first and most obvious is that the Israelites repeatedly lost sight of Yahweh, they fell away, only to then return in a time of revival to their first love.  The second trend we see is a little more subtle:  Each season of revival was spread further and further apart; each time the Israelites fell into captivity it took them longer and longer to repent and cry out to God.  This became so bad that the last account of revival was contained to a single man Samson (10:11-16).  After this last break of oppression there were no judges to lead Israel in the way of the LORD (Samson’s act of redeeming Israel led to a martyred death for his peoples freedom) “In those days there was no king in Israel…” (Judges 18:1).  The people were so wrapped up in the culture of the Philistines that even though God had come to their rescue they didn’t really know where to go from there; revival had become mundane, they needed revolution.

Revolution: from Late Latin revolūtiō, revolūtiōn-, from Latin revolūtus, past participle of revolvere, to turn over;
{rev·o·lu·tion}
noun—

“a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, esp. one made suddenly;” “a sudden, complete or marked change in something;” “The overthrow of one government and its replacement with another;” “A fundamental change in political organization, or in a government or constitution; the overthrow or renunciation of one government, and the substitution of another, by the governed.”

         Revolution is, in its essence: a change of lifestyle, a new order of existence”.  Israel had fallen into a spirit of religiosity and had settled normality.  Kings came and went, the people turned back to God and then back to the days of Noah. The prophets cried out… yet to no avail.  In 722BC the Assyrians invaded the Northern kingdoms and led them off into exile.  The unfaithfulness of Israel eventually led to their exile… and yet the prophets continued to cry out.  Yet still Judah did not learn from the Northern Kingdoms, nor did they take heed of the prophets words, and followed the Northern Kingdom into exile in 586BC by the power of the Babylonian Empire.  And still the prophets cried out… and cried out… and eventually someone heard their cry and Nehemiah responded to the LORD’s will and returned to the LORD’s promises.  They rebuilt the wall, and eventually the Temple.  Nehemiah brought about revival and the people returned to Yahweh.  The years passed and scilence settled in, and with it so did the hearts of the Israelites.  They settled into their homes and into their culture.  They settled into religiosity, and revival was yet again due.  This time though it would come in a different way than ever before.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory….”
(John 1:10-14)

         God was to not only bring about revival, He was going to bring about revolution.  Nor was He going to raise up a judge, a king, or even a prophet to accomplish it.  Revival which was fulled by men had failed over and over, the time had come that revolution was the only path left, and for that He Himself  “…became flesh and dwelt among us and[/that] we [might] behold His glory, the glory of the only begotten  of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).  Revolution must be God’s doing.  God brought about a change of lifestyle for the Jews, a new order of existence: The Church.  The climatic birthday of this revolution was to then fall on the 50^th day after Easter Sunday, just ten days after Jesus ascended back to the Father “Whn the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” (Acts 2:1-2 emphasis mine).  Not only is revival a Biblical reality, it is in a sense the very foundation of what we (as the Church) stand on.  Pentecost was the fullest form of revival the Church had ever experienced, it was the beginning of a new order of existence for God’s people: Life with the Holy Spirit.

         To many this appears to be the greatest thing that the Church ever underwent as a body (Jesus was the best thing that ever happened), it was definitely what made the Pentecostal unique.  Yet even from the beginning of the Church’s days we see that revival has never been fully accepted, “So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘whatever cold this mean?’ Others mocking said ‘They are full of wine’” (Acts 2:12-13 emphasis added).  Since the first day the Spirit fell it has been rejected by others all around.  These men speaking in tongues and working healings were thought to not only be odd but drunk and many people rejected what they had.

         So was this it?  Was Pentecost the last revival?  It was, as much as their generation was the last generation.  One only has to look at our modern American cultural context to realize that we too are in desperate need of not only revival but revolution.  When we look at the Church over time it is marked with seasons of revival and milestones of revolution (Just because revolution is a complete turn of events does not mean we have come to the completion of God’s desired will or plan for humanity).  We see that the Church under went many revivals as the gospel continued to spread to new areas, but following all of these revivals the Church continued to fall back asleep (back into the religiosity from which Christ had saved it through the living of His life and the outpouring of His Spirit).  So naturally revolutions sprang up: Luther and his 95 thesis’ in 1517.  Here is one of the clearest depictions of revolution in the Post-Pentecost days of the Church.  The Church had fallen so asleep and wondered so off track under the leadership of people such as Constantine and other various leaders of ‘The Church’ that eventually revival was no longer a solution, the only solution was revolution, and revolution Luther brought.  Many still did not wish to embrace this revolution either as is clear from his excommunication at the Diet of Worms after a little quarrel with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  Throughout time revivals have never been quite warmly accepted.

         Revolutions happened, but what about revivals?  Where revolutions seem to only come every so ever long apart, revivals seem to pop up in pockets much more frequently.  With globalization we have even come to the point where it appears revival is almost continuous even if it is still not consistent.  The first effect of globalization that has caused this is population explosion.  So many more people are alive today that naturally more are crying out and seeking God.  The second is the technological revolution.  Due to this revolution we not only hear more about revival no than ever before, but people are actually able to gather together all over the globe to cry out to God.  Revivals have always seemed to come to pass after seasons of desporation.  Culture declines to such a point that people eventually come to the point of ‘enough.’  Jesus compares the end times to the days of Noah, where there is drinking and adultery and all other trends of the world.  Revivals thus seem to occur once the people remember and return to God’s love.  The book of Hosea becomes a perfect illustration of revival.  Not only do we, God’s people begin to cry out to God, but God too returns to His people and lavishes His love on them.  There are many things that begin to happen when people begin to contend for revival; for the apostles a few signs of revival were boldness and power.  Yet the most common sign that revival produces is compassion.  This theme is especially common in Pentecostal revivals.  Pentecostal revivals tend to be unique from many other denominational revivals because of their desperate compassion.  Pentecostal revivals focus more around others than themselves, they are brought to a place of revival due to their desire to share their love with others.  Over and over again Jesus was moved by compassion for the multitudes; Peter was moved with compassion for those in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. 

Over time the spreading of Christianity began to slow down, especially as the Roman Catholic Church became more and more inner focused, almost to the point of zero growth in the aspect of world evangelism.  When the Pentecostal movement stepped onto the stage this is one area that changed.   Pentecostals quickly began to pick up a heart for the nations.  They believed that Jesus’ words were to be taken literally, that they really were to go into all Jerusalem and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth.’  The Pentecostals had compassion for the lost, for the nations.  They had had enough of focusing on themselves, on the papacy and were ready to go out into all the earth. 

         Jesus commanded His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit….” (Matthew 2819) and again in Acts: “He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which you have heard from Me’ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4-5).  Not only does Jesus believe in the need of the Holy Spirit, but He believed that it was essential.  It remains in his closing comments (and throughout His teachings) as an essential aspect to the life of a follower. So essential that in John 16:7 Jesus says that it is to our advantage that He leave so the Holy Spirit might abide with us. In a sense Jesus knew that He was bound by His human body and could not therefore touch as many people as the Church could through the Holy Spirit.  Jesus embodied God and modeled a life that we are called to follow, one of boldness, authority, purity, power ect. Yet with the Holy Spirit’s indwelling the Church becomes the physical vessel God has decided to use to reach the world.  Yet even with Jesus’ commands we see still that many people were not welcoming of the Holy Spirit (as mentioned earlier, or see Acts 2:13).

         Many welcomed Jesus and His teachings on the Holy Spirit, yet still many quarreled over the implications then of what all this meant to be baptized and saved and much else, but lets just stay here with these two.  The word Baptized literally means to be submerged, or covered from all sides and angles. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is thus to be covered or completely submerged in the Spirit of God (Acts 2:4), and for the disciples it came on with power and boldness, tongues of fire (Acts 2:14 3 respectively).  If you have ever been present when people receive God as their Savior you probably have witnessed (or not witnessed) that fire didn’t fall upon all.  In Acts 2:41 Luke states that around 3,000 people joined the Church that day and were baptized (by water or the Spirit it does not say).  Yet the exact following verses state that “… fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.” (Acts 2:43 emphasis mine).  Simply because these 3,000 did not start moving in the obvious activation of the Holy Spirit did not mean that He did not tabernacle within them.  Remember the word baptism means to be submerged within, these 3,000 were baptized; they were submerged.

         Yet some would claim that this is simply because that Holy Spirit only came in particular times of power; Acts 4:8 states that “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them….” yet in the English literary practices this connotates more of a passive description rather than an overtaking action.  We might not always feel the Spirit within us, but He is still there.  Jesus said “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth…. and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). We have the authority of Jesus within us. This is only so because we have the Holy Spirit within us.  Just because we do not feel Him does not mean He is not there, “… I am with you always….” (Matthew 28:20).  Oddly the word always means forever, without leaving.  We might operate in the Spirit more obviously from time, but even when we don’t feel Him, He is still there, and we still stand in that authority.

East vs West

All people saw the religious activity as an escape from this world… a refuge of sorts if you may… Christianity is not this.  Christianity is diving into the suffering of this world and dragging people out of it…  We don’t live to obtain the world, but to share with it what we know to be true.  In eastern religion the priests became the sole holders of power, they were the educated ones and they kept those who were not educated in their darkness, for a people in chaos will look for a savior to lead them…  This is the role the priest played, we first see it in the documentation of the Egyptians, and then in India as the priests there began to experience it in Buddhism.  Sadly it did not stop there.  We see that throughout our own history as a Church we have felt the same effects, Jesus came to correct the Pharisees.  They had gotten to a play where they held the power and dictated it out as warranted in order to keep the power in their hands among the masses.  Yes Rome ruled, but even Pilate paid his share of respect to this religious elect.  No wonder it was such a ridicule for Jesus to teach that the leaders should be suffering servants, in the context of the other Pharisees Jesus was pretty much turning them in for all their dark political power-hoarding secrets…  Paul later was to be liberated from this imaginative slavery and released into the ways of Christ; drawn out from the very inner sect of these politically empowered power whoreders.  Even more sad day this idea of priests continued to hold power not only in the Jewish Church, but then into the Body of Christ.  Much went right in the Church, but after the fall of the Roman empire, through the conquest of Church (by the way of men such as Constantine) and the onset of the Dark Ages, much of the intellect that the populous held was lost, and the Church already having achieved political dominance sadly again seized this gap in reason and kept the laity at bay… Until yet another rebel was able to use his imagination to break through; Luther did so and led the populous back to being able to feed themselves, and with that power of the priestly elect was broken again.  Still it raises up every now and then in certain sects, and I am not claiming that Luther’s radical breakthrough was the last, yet due to the printing press and Luther’s diligence the populous has always been able to stay in touch.. No wonder people consider the printing press the greatest invention of all time… I radically played a part in dismantling, practically permanently the gap between the elite and the populous… The playing field was level, the door to unrestricted self-feeding of both the Word and knowledge was open, no longer were there any barriers that aloud for an elite to mask truth, there was always a back door… Yet we have gone to far, we must back up and return to Christ.  The reason that we went so long (up to the press) was to demonstrate that this mentality has always been (as long as it was aloud), except for the brief moment of Christ and the untainted seasons of the Church.  The Church is the exception to the rule of political power.  The Bible I heavily political, it is true though that most would rather not acknowledge that, but it still remains that it is.  You could claim though that it is more in address to power and the effects of politics if that makes you feel better, I don’t mind.  Anyhow, Jesus’ first shall be last and vise versa really was pretty blunt to the eyes of the religious elect of the day, he told them to care and share and not whored all the power for themselves.  He told them to serve those who they were, in a sense, ‘ruling’ over.  No wonder He wasn’t liked…  We are called to close the gap, not establish it.  This is why we stand out as a light, because, just like Daniel 6:4, we need to foster lives that people can search (when they expect us to be hypocritical gap lovers, who want all the power) and yet find no charge or fault…  People expect the elect of religion to be corrupt gap hungry power savages who keep their congregations out in the dark… and who hold all the power, but were not, at our root were not, why do you think the masses were drawn to this new way, it was community, it was a level playing field, it was truth, and “truth needs no defender, it speaks for itself” (From someone I read, I forgot who, but I don’t claim it as my quote).

What about Grace?

Where is it in this world that does not love its enemies?  Who bestows it on who?  Are we not all guilty of withholding it from those it is due?  I am so troubled at this moment.. we are called to love our enemies, we are called to impart grace?  But who is doing it?  There are no exceptions to it… If anything it appears as if the worse they are the more grace they are due!  The worse they are the more we are called to love them!  Oh Beloved have we gotten it wrong?  I believe so,,, why does it have to be so easy to withhold such a precious gift?  ”Freely you have received, now freely give…”  I do not know what way is up at the moment,,, but maybe that is a good sign… I do live in an upside down, backwards kingdom… Maybe not knowing up is a good thing…  Wish it said the upside-down stand right-side up, but it doesn’t… Grace… The thought of it just simply bewilders me… Oh that my land and my people would learn the implications that it entails!

An Abandoned Lifestyle

So the idea of wasting away my life for God continues to press on me everyday… I have decided that I am growing slowly in the discipline of self control and patience, but that I still fail miserably in the long run… It reminds me daily of how much this culture still lays hold of my habits and overall being… “I want what I want, and I want it now!” The mindset cry of our culture… I don’t think God really likes it… So I’m trying to grow, I am continually reminding myself.. ‘It took Jesus 30 years to prepare for three years of ministry… and He had the whole God thing going for Him…”  I know I say it a lot, but it is so true… He was God and it still took Him 30 years,,, who am I to complain about my what? 2, 4, even 8 years of prep?  I was thinking the other day… haha… Okay, so you know all the stories of like the little kids in the old testament becoming king at like age 2?  Okay like age 14 but still.. It’s like humorous how young that sounds… Well I was thinking, they had been at the whole: ‘learning how to run a kingdom’ thing since probably their kindergarden years (K4K: Kindergarden for Kings).  So ever since their K4K years they were learning the protocol of the palace… If they step in at 14 – “Tada! Hello World!” – they had a good seven or eight years of preparation under their belt… How long have you been after your King’s protocol?  How much have you devoted to learning all there is to be a king, or in better termonology, for our case, a Son of the King?  Are you ready for Him to show you off on the royal parade around the city, are you ready to represent your King?  How long have you been at it.. I mean like really been at it?  Have you even started?  They had say seven or eight years of like… nothing but being taught.. no playing video games, or even sports (well maybe sports)  or all the other leisure things we do to waste life (TV, myspace…)  

They were to be king, and it was coming,,,, and when it got here, tomorrow or in 30 years, they were to be ready.  They were to be able to step in and say ‘lets do this’… So what did that mean? A few things stand out to me… first they had to know the protocol of the palace, they had to know how to carry themselves, how to live as royalty.  It is much different to life as royalty than as just a layperson… In God’s Kingdom we are all royalty, we are the sons and daughters of the King, we need to live as royalty, we need to learn the protocol of His Kingdom…

Secondly, they had to know what was going on… They had to stay up to date on the affairs of what was happening in the kingdom… If they had to take over, they would have to jump right in, which means they would have to know what was going on… There was no time to only then be like,,, ‘okay I know how to do it all, but what are we working on currently?’  It is one thing to know how to do something, but in order to do it you need to know what the something is… That is you have to know what your working on in order to work on it.  If God moves us into a season of commission, we better know what is going on around us or were gunna miss our opportunity to do the work were called to do. I think that makes since… We need to know what is happening in the Kingdom… If a king was in the middle of a war, the upcoming heir probably would want to be following the strategies, watching the troop deployments, researching his opponent, knowing their strategies… The entire purpose for a season of preparation is to prepare!  We don’t wait to be in the hot seat before we start preparing for it!  We need to be on the cutting edge of what our King is doing incase He is to call on us…

The third thing that comes to mind is that O bother i forgot it.. There was a third, I heard it, but I have forgotten it.. If I remember it Ill tack in on in place of this ramble….

Royalty isn’t the funnest lifestyle, I’m reminded of Cinderella… The peasant girl dreams of royalty, and the prince hates the boundaries that are placed on because of it… My point is to highlight the prince… He doesn’t like the restrictions of being royalty, EVERYONE is watching you, so you must hold yourself in integrity (not that this is a bad thing).  Everyone is expecting you to preform as royalty… hey your the one who is devoting your life to learning it.. heck you better do a  good job!  

With standing comes isolation.  

We are not called to be the King, but we are called to be royalty, and since our King is not here (Speaking in a tangible since)  He has left us to be representatives of Him.  We are called to be the vessels… You can get all but the Holy Spirit is here!  on me, but Im reminded of the verse where Paul says, (paraphrasing quite a bit) ‘there are so many people out there… and how will they know about God unless someone tells them, and how will someone tell them if no one decides to preach, and no one will preach unless someone decides to go, and no one will go if they don’t ever move…’ You know the verse and know what I’m talking about,,, God has left it up to us whether or not the Great Commission will ever get fulfilled… We have the free choice to do it, or not to do it… You have the choice to live as royalty or not… (But sidenote, if your not living as royalty don’t be angry if God decides not to move through you in a way that clearly labels you as His, Im not saying He wont use you, but Im brought back to the imagery of a king showing off his son by putting him on a horse and having someone take him through the streets declaring that he is the king’s son, that he is royalty… God moving through us is kinda like that,, He is declaring that this is his son or daughter.)  Not that you aren’t worthy and or aren’t good enough, God loves all the same, but if you read the Bible it is quite clear He plays favorites… If you don’t think so, you can start with explaining the story of Moses relationship with God, and how Moses was in no means more favored by God than any of the Israelites,.. God loves all equally, but He does play favorites,,, and you can learn to be His favorite!  It is very possible, and anyone can obtain it!  Press in, don’t let any bitterness arise in you if this is the first time you have put that together

Anyhow… what was I saying?  Oh yes, the abandoned lifestyle,,, I really would like it,, more of that divine dissatisfaction… yah… Sorry bout the tangent, idk where all that royalty stuff came from,,, but it’s on my mind a lot too, so I guess it was meant to be said..  Well beloved with this I leave you. Press in to be royalty, learn the protocol of our King,,, learn to clothe yourself in His favorite colors. Not what other people think looks good on you, but on what He likes… press in and figure out what He is doing among our generation, prepare yourself for the assignments He has for you to do, be ready so that when the day comes you are not overcome with fear by the size of your calling… He will give you everything you need, to be everything He has asked of you…

A Justice Revolution

Currently Reading/Read:

Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw

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Well last night I went to a Night of Worship over at the Norco Foursquare church.  It was an amazing time, and God just broke out.  I wont lie, it was amazing seeing people I know fairly well come together and just cry out to see God shake our nation, but the most impacting time of the evening was listening to my kids cry out against sexual immorality, abortion, pornography, homosexuality, profanity and all the rest… Yah weird hu?  Well that’s me, and if you don’t know that you probably don’t know me, but thanks for reading my blogs anyways, and I love you!  So we spent the night in worship, and prayer, we broke up and cried out for freedom for our generation against all the grotesque nets the enemy has laid out for our generation to become tangled in.  We began to shake heaven, and I honestly believe that this was an amazing start to The Call DC, which is actually taking place in DC as I type, but I’ll get to that… If you’ve never hung out around people who want revival and are willing to actually pay the price required to see it I would encourage you too, especially if reading the word revival makes your heart skip…

So then this morning.. Bob made us breakfast, and we were pleasantly enjoying the meal when he brought up that today was the Call in DC… I had thought it wasn’t until the following Saturday, and since it was around 8.10 when I found out, I had already missed the first two hours… Sad day… So I got myself together, fairly quickly, and headed out the door.  We spent the morning crying out for the same things we had been crying for the night before,,, with an emphasis on the plague of abortion on our nation.  It was powerful, and God is truly going to hear the cries of those 10,000 people out in the wilderness of Washington DC… If you don’t know much about abortion here is simply one fact that will help you with some perspective:  In the last 35ish years over 50 million… that’s 50,000,000… children have been aborted… That’s our generation people,,, they say that its roughly 1/4 of our generation, gone, never were given a chance… And as Dr. Seuss’ Horton echoes: “A person is a person no matter how small.”  We need to start doing something friends… I know I’m not the only one who feels a burning passion, and I also know I’m not the only one who feels like their running in jello when it comes to justice,,, like you have this huge burning passion, but you cant even seem to take one step in the direction of justice, or in any direction for that matter.

Did you know that the Greek word for Justice and Righteousness is the same word?  They mean the same thing!  We need to begin working towards justice, because that is righteousness… and we are called by God to be righteous.

 

I have no solutions today folks, but I prompt you to get down on your knees and start crying out for against these plagues, prayer moves nations,,, prayer not politics… God is our King, petition to Him, start there! Mourn as the prophets did, and encourage your friends and families to too… There is a world out there waiting to be changed, step up and be a world changer!

Conformality Syndrome (warning tag… aka I might offend you if you read)

Currently Reading/Read:

The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus

Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw

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I just finished The Barbarian Way today, and I just wanted to capture a few of my thoughts, or maybe it is highlight some of his… Either way it makes me excited.  The book overall I would say is a great and essential read.  It is a bit drawn out at some parts,,, the fact that there are only 4 chapters of 40 pages each makes it a bit tiresome if you like to finish at checkpoints like I do, but the pages are small so they fly by fast enough.. kinda.  It is a bit simpler of a read than say Bill Johnson, but kinda captures a lot of the same things I feel.

Anyhow, the whole premise is that Christianity has fallen siege to normality (okay this isn’t the language you will find in the book but this is my interpretation).. anyways, so Christianity is plagued by normality.. who would have ever thought… Erwin highlights on how this is not the way Christianity was meant to be, we were meant to be Barbarians, we were meant to be radicals,, untamed by this world… Many lizards have the potential to grow really big, feets and feets long, but when put in smaller restraining cages they will only grow to that size (Goldfish do the same thing).  

Ironically the Spirit is the same as well.  When we limit the Spirit, we will never see Him in His full potential.  The more we let God in and take control, the more of Him we will see moving through us.  But so, what I want to hit on… In one section Erwin is talking about, I believe, the way we ‘do church‘  if you’ve hung out with me for very long you know what I mean…  and here is where he goes with it (Ill start a bit earlier too to give you some context, but discipleship is what were highlighting): “Thoreau talked about individuals who march to the beat of a different drummer.  Barbarians have never met the drummer.  In the civilized view of discipleship, everything and everyone moves toward the center.  Discipleship is translated into standardizing everyone into the same pattern.  We have equated the promise that we would be conformed into the image of Christ with a belief that all of us will be the same.  Discipleship has become the mechanism for uniformity rather than uniqueness.”  

AHHHH Sad day… The saddest part:  I’ve done/do this!!  Okay, before we get to hugely discouraged lets pause.  Breath, okay,,, this is so beyond true, that is the sad part.  But we have to ask why, or maybe the better question will become to what extent.  I’m reminded of this one passage: “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of toungues….” (1 Cor. 12:28).  Now Im not going into spiritual gifts or even the context of the passage (ill let you do all that yourself), but I highlight this for a reason.  We are all given various talents and giftings, and in this passage both are mixed into the same list, kinda.. ahh but what I want to just say already is this: People are obviously not the same.  

How can you truly disciple everyone with the same programs and curriculum if each one is completely unique?  However, without going a step further, I would like to suggest that standardized discipleship can and should be applied to certain areas of the Christian life, especially to those areas of theology and doctrine.  To a certain point people could probably all fit into a lumped core, a ‘Welcome to Jesus,’ or ‘Christianity 101,’ you know what I mean?  But the key lies after that.  What Erwin is hitting on isn’t this ‘Welcome to the Real World’ section of our lives.  That section lasts for a brief moment compared to our entire walk (some wouldnt even consider this part of our life as discipleship).  He is highlighting on the development of our walk.  The molding of the clay (Which in all honesty is God’s to do).

God gave me this word a few weeks, eh maybe even months by now, back and He said this: “Woe to you who minister… Pray that the words you speak out are more meaningful than the words God is ministering.”  Now first I need to give you some context; the word came during what the church would call “ministry time,”  you know where were all down on our knees and people are crying and soft music is playing (Sorry to steriotype, but this gets the picture across) and what else, people are going around praying for others.  This was a word to those people.. Am I the only one who finds it kinda ironic that as soon as the Spirit begins to minister to someone and we start to hear them cry or fall over, that we rush to their side to pray for them?  I’ll be the first to admit, I have done this countless times, but at the same time, after God spoke this word my desire to has really been put…. say.. more on alert…. (Alright, Im already on a tangent, so Ima go with it, even though this should be it’s own post… )  In honesty, it’s like taking cuts in line… Haha, it reminds me of like a a grocrey store… Everyone’s in loooooong lines, and everyone is asking “why are there only two lines open”  and then all of a sudden some store employee opens up a new lane, and EVERYONE rushes to get to the front of the new line.  Well here’s how that correlates to me,, Ill try to paint it for you… God begins to minister to someone, (it’s like a new lane opening up) and everyone and their cat’s new born kittens want to go minister to that person… what happens, well hopefully God spoke to them and told them to go, and already gave them a word… but based on my own previous experiences, this is not usually the case… sad day… We also know that God doesn’t seem to raise His voice…  I picture God kneeling down next to someone on their knees,, sweetly and softly He begins to minister to them in their fragile state, and then all a sudden, someone comes over cause they ‘see their friend crying and sad’ so they need to comfort them and they begin just praying (again steriotypng, but usually in a way where the friend can audibly hear them) and God is completely drowned out… Okay I think that covers my point… I put this hear for one reason.  The word came from God, and in here I am not speaking directly to anyone… I have been guilty of this sooo many times, and it made me stop and think, and like I said, it has made me be a little more cautious and seek God a little more before I go over to anyone… I hope it does for you too.. The last thing I would ever want is to know that I kept someone from hearing God simply because I love them so much and want to comfort them… It’s hard, but think about it…

So, discipleship, I believe everyone needs their own form, it should be as unique as every snowflake that falls (holding to the idea that each one is different), each one so small and fragile, yet so intricately put together by our Daddy in heaven.  It is a sad day when we put discipleship into a unfirom fishbowl and say: This is what you will look like little fishey! This is the way you become a Christian.  Welcome to normality.  If ever we (as the Church) get there, I hope I am not apart of it.. Everyone is intricutley different, each one of us needs our own special fix from God, and I mean our own ‘to be made better’ from God. The heros of Christianity never fit the molds that the majorites put on them… have you ever read the Old Testament, or do you have one of those Bibles that contains only the New?  (If so, I love you, but go buy one that has the entire thing, and read the first part of the story.)  Woah.. this post feels very rough.. I should put a warning sign on it before I’m done… I love you all, and I hope you find your mold of discipleship..

Two lasts points.. First:  Discipleship requires discipeling, the Bible puts a lot of emphasis on passing down wisdom, mantels, inheritances, all those things, so if you feel like your nich of discipleship is just you and God… I strongly urge you to pray about that, cause I think your wrong…. Second: My whole life I never really understood how to do discipleship (in the since of being the one receiving it)  I didn’t know where to start, where to look, how to begin that quest… And eventually God steered me in direction, but one of my early mentors told me this “If you want discipleship, it’s up to you.  People aren’t going to throw themselves at you and say ‘Hey! Let me be your mentor!’  It is going to start with you asking them, seeking them out.” (Dan Stewart)  And although God will hopefully still look after you, this principle stands very true… It isn’t that people don’t want to do it, they just don’t know that you want it.  I would then urge you to pray and step out and ask someone to begin pouring into your life… (Third side note Small groups are awesome, and group discipleship builds relationship which is essential, but find someone you can be one on one with, and someone of the same gender if it is one on one),, kay Ima end there… I love you guys, anyone out there.. i love you, yes you, kay luh you buh bye

Waiting for a ride…

Well, I’m taking my first load of too much stuff back over to the dorms today,,, Everytime I pack everything up it always makes me sad I own so much… Im stuck in the place where I feel like everything is an essential, but I really doubt I need that many essentials!  Idk what to do, o well, I have about 6 or 7 boxes of books… I heart books, someday I want to have a libruary, it’ll be at my church, or in my house idk… 

Im sitting here waiting for Chris to show up, but he is 10 mins late now, I hope he is at least already awake… sad day, okay I dont think i have time to go into any of my deep thoughts, but thought I’d share this dull moment in my life with the rest of you

Another Morning Round the Table

Currently Reading/Read:

Finding Favor with the King by Tommy Tenney

 Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw

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Some things in life never seem to match up to what we’d like.  Luckily though we always have a Father that we can fall back on.  It is astonishing how breathtakingly absolute His promises stand.  How ginuine His faithfulness.  How eternal His love.  If you could be spoiled by one gift from such love what would you want?  Wisdom such as Solomon’s?  Faith like Abram?  Passion like Joshua and Caleb?  A heart like Davids?  Or would it be a broken heart that miriorrs God’s?  Would you want to move in healing like Peter?  Have the boldness of Paul?  Speak face to face with God like Moses? Or wold you simply want to walk with the Lord the rest of your days like Enoch?  In honesty I dont know which I would choose either (Come on, I dont even know where this post is coming from or going) .  But what I do know is this:  God wants us to want Him.  He wants our worship.

I’ve been reading this book: Finding Favor with the King, and in it he tries to lay out some of the ‘protocal’ of our King’s Kingdom.  The rough outline falls as such:  In the Old Testament (OT) there was this thing called the tabernacle*, it was divided up into 3 parts:  The outercourts, the Holy place and the Holy of Holies (to keep it visually simple).  only certain people could go into certain parts of the Tabernacle. People could enter the courts;  only the priests could enter into the Holy place and only once a year could the high priest enter into the Holy of Holies, and only then under certain and strict protocal.  Psalms 100 seems to parallel for us a similar protacal for the King of Kings…

“Enter His gates with Thanksgiving; / Enter His courts with Praise”

Thanksgiving gets us in and praise gets us even deeper.  Giving thanks isnt always an easy thing, but I can assure you there is plenty to give thanks for.  People by nature focus on the darker, the sadder, the more hurt, the wrong. We highlight the ugly;  someone could do everything flawlessly and they would be appreciated, but most likely it was what everyone else expected… people expect excellence.  Yet when someone messes up?  When they fail once?  It can become a big deal, and remembered for a long time.  We focus on failure.  Yet even among failures, everyone has successes.  We are created in the image of God, each and everyone of us.  That means even the worst have good within them, they were not a waste, therefore we all have something to be thankful for.

Yet praise is even harder.  Thanksgiving is a response to something that we have, or something God has done, or anything else in w.e way it came to us, Thanksgiving is a response to something.  However, praise?  Praise doesn’t require a response, it just is.  Praise is something that we do, despite our circumstances.  Praise is something we just give to God because we love Him.  Yet, we read that praise only gets us into the courts… I don’t know about you, but I’m not satisfied with the courts… Are we going to be content when we get a few little healings in our church service?  I love what Bill Johnson says on ‘The Finger of God’ (a movie), he is talking in regards to this concept of contentment and says somthing along the lines of “are we going to be content with barely reaching Nazerath?  Many people our content with just reaching Nazerath, the city of unbelief.  It was only here that Jesus only performed some signs and wonders.  When we start to get healings happening we are just starting to reach Nazerath, we are just starting to reach the level of the city of unbelief.” Now I know that I slaughtered the quote, but I think I get his point across to very well (So Bill if you end up reading my blogs, I’m terribly sorry, can you forgive me?).  If not here it is plainly:  I believe someone said once upon a time that ‘only in his hometown is a prophet not accepted.’  Well Nazerath was His hometown, and He wasn’t very popular there, people were always reminising and trying to demystify Him, to them He was simply the son of a carpenter… However He still healed people!  Healing was what came forth when people rejected Jesus… So when will we settle for the courts, or will we push in, will we push in to the Holy of Holies and see the face of God just as Moses saw Him, or John, are we longing for that sort of encounter?

Well what if we are?  What takes us there?  Worship… Unashamed, untamed and oblivious worship.  God has this idea that worship is all about Him (Honestly, I tend to agree), and in so He asks us to focus on Him.  We know He is a jealous God, He wants us, and our undivided attention.  God wants unashamed worship.  He wants us to be bold, He wants us to love Him, and not be afraid to show that love to others.  He wants us to dance before Him in the grocery store, or get down before Him and humble ourselves when were at Starbucks… God wants untamed worship.  We’ve all heard and read the story of when David moves the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem. He dances all before it (Unashamed) but also untamed.  He even declares that he would become even more undignified.  He literally presented himself like a fool before God (and they say he was a man after God’s own heart… think about that next time you think someone looks silly dancing or waving a flag in worship).  God wants oblivious worship.  Not to Him, but to everything else.  He wants us to be so focused on Him that everything around us melts away into nothing-ness.  He longs to be the sole center of everything in our lives.  It is through this form of worship that we are able to enter even deeper in with God.

When Jesus died the curtin in the temple (setting apart the Holy of Holies) was ripped from top to bottom… Jesus ripped open the way into the Holy of Holies.  It was left open to everyone.  Jesus pretty much said ‘come on in, I’ve made you that clean.’  When the high priest went into the Holy of Holies he had to be blemish free, or he would be struck dead by God Himself.  Well now we can enter into the Holy of Holies, because our God has made us blemish free (that will mess you up)… But the way we get there is through worship.  Unashamed, untamed and oblivious worship, it’s what moves heaven.  God is longing for our worship, it is all He wants.  It is what we were created to do.  (Side note, worship isn’t always in the form of praise songs and musical sabbaticals)  Heidi Baker talks about to her, everything is holy. “Holding a kid is holy… sweeping the floor is holy… being in a staff meeting is holy” (FInger of God)  She talks on how we, as the western church compartamentalize church, and that we need to let God into everything we do.  Everything is to be holy, she unlocks that this is how we, as Paul instructed, ‘pray without ceasing.’  Everything we do just becomes holy, because God just wants to be with us.  When we do everything with the mindset of it being holy, it becomes an act of worship.

This is why we were created.  To worship, what is the result, God…  There are a lot of results, but the one I feel led to highlight right now is this:  We begin to shine.  Jesus said that we are the light of the world, we all know that.  We, me you us, we are the light, but I guess if salt loses saltiness, then lights can grow dim.  Jesus never says that salt cant become salty again, He just asks ‘how does it?’  and then talks about salt that has lost it’s saltiness.  Maybe we can change the lightbulb, or become salty again.  Jesus doesn’t seem to ever come out and say we can’t, again, He just goes on to talk about someone who never even tried.  Worship brightens our light.  I know this because I read about a guy named Moses.  This Book said that He would go in and spend time with God and come out and He would glow…. they’d cover him… eventually it would fade… and then He’d go back in and hang out with God and start to glow all over again.  Worship causes us to shine brighter.  Well, intimacy causes us to shine brighter, but worship ushers in intimacy (Im just not going into that in this post, it’s already wicked long as it is… I wonder why I don’t post everyday… Oh yah, cause it takes me like an hour and a half to post).  Worship invites God to step down out of heaven and invade earth.  It brings His very presence down to us.  Worship takes us past the gates of thanksgiving and through the courts of praise into the Holy of Holies, the presence of God Himself…

 

 

 

*Tabernacle:  Big moble temple made out of tents.  The Israelites carried it around with them while they were in the desert for forty years.  God lived there and physically manifested His presence there.  Pretty epic.

Intimacy with a King

Currently Reading/Read:

Face to Face with God by Bill Johnson

Finding Favor with the King by Tommy Tenney

 

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         So I’ve been reading a lot lately… these are the books I’ve been reading the last week… I’m on a quest right now, and everything I am seeking has to do with trying to go deeper… the quest?… Intimacy within the presence of God.  It’s a quest that will take a lifetime, so I thought to myself, “Self, we should probably start now…” And so now, off I am going. Wow, what a quest… There is nothing more important than this quest, as you’ve heard it said: “The greatest work God will do through you is the work He is doing in you.” 

We were created for one thing:  To love the King and be loved by the King.  This is why we were created, we don’t have to do it, but that doesn’t take away the fact that we were created for it…  We don’t have to eat, but we were designed to take in nutrition through eating… We don’t have to worship God, but without it our lives will always be a faded replica of the dreams that we were born with…

God has been giving me some revelation to ponder through, but I’ll post that as a separate post, here I simply want to encourage you to begin this quest for intimacy if your not already on it.  God loves you, and desires to dwell with you in an intimate relationship… God loves everyone equally but His relationships with people vary in depth.  You can love someone, say a baseball player, know everything about him, adore him, but never have a relationship with Him.  Relationship takes both parties wanting relationship with each other.  As you begin to pour more into that relationship, you will begin to reap more from it… more relationship, and in turn: Intimacy.

However, this isn’t a ‘nice’ quest…  It is the best, but it isn’t the ‘nice’ one.  The cost is clear, intimacy costs.  The ultimate cost is everything!  The cost of a life in God’s presence is reckless abandonment… Bummer?  No, not at all… Not only is the cost told to us, but so is the outcome:  the reward for this lifestyle is joy.  Joy is our reward for giving our all to God.  There is nothing greater than joy.  It is the currency of which God decides that we are to be paid with in return for seeking out God with all we are…

God wants us to seek intimacy with Him… He doesn’t want us to get scared when we have to begin it, so He enlightens us that it costs us everything… But He doesn’t want us not to pursue it, or give up, so He also reveals the reward for it…

If you aren’t already start seeking an intimate relationship with God… It is the reason you exist, and you know it, you feel it… He wants you, and all of you with no reserves, no fallbacks, no ‘but ifs,’ This is the quest for which we were born for, I’m already on it,.. and I can tell you… it is so worth it…

VBS Days 1-3

Hmm.. Well as many know I am contending for child-like joy,,, I believe that it is through this consistency of the heart that we can begin to hear and experience God in fuller levels.  So I have taken a week of my life to o back to becoming a 4th grader.  So far it has been working out marvolous.  Last night I spent 20 mins running around a field with a blanket as a cape pretending that I was in a spaceship.. unfortunately some spectators didn’t catch on right away I think…. sad day… But, w.e I was able to make a secret landing on a base and rig it with some exlosives and then salvage the wreckage and bring it back to my own main ship… hmm… anyhow, VBS has been picking up.  THe first day was good, kids were still getting to know me, and me them, so it wasnt as like,, thrilling.  We had a decent craft, super lame game and discussed creation!  The second day got better, we began to all connect, and we talking about God providing for us.  The story of the night was based around the Israelites and their journey through the promised land!  The craft was some small key-chain, and the snack was crackers! woo-hoo….  The game was fun, it was some water pass over our head spounge thing, and it got the kids going…  However, it was still nothing compared to the third day! Last night was amazing, everything rocked.  We talked about healing and miracles,,, haha, if ever you want to get some joy, go pray for miracles with little kids!!!  We talked about Jesus healing the lame man, and then made these epic astroid toss balls and then raced around the field… i always won my races!  The night was really good, they are all to fast, so Im trying to figure out how we can tweak that a bit for tonight… I want to spend some time in prayer with the kids after the teaching, but we never really get time to, it is sad… but pray we get too, I really feel like it is really important…  Mmmm… well VBS has been absolutly amazing, i wont be there on the last day though and im really bummed… but im going off to summer camp so I cant be that bumed out… haha