The Ultimate Story that Fires the Imagination

I have been considering the postmodern reaction toward metanarratives that are used to impose cultural biases. When Jesus began preaching the gospel of the kingdom he faced many competing understandings of life even within Israel. People had so many hurdles to overcome, if they were to understand the kingdom of heaven he preached. The Essennes were so negative about the temple and life under Rome that they "headed for the hills" and a more serious faith. The Pharisees looked for a more tenacious response that was to be lived out in th.e face of the occupying Roman forces. The Hasmoneans blended their Jewish understanding with Greco-Roman Culture like a modern New Ager swimming in the winds of change. We could go on to list even more people groups within the Jewish nation; all of them with a bit different story of what God is at work doing. Each world-view had its own prejudices and misconceptions. Jesus didn't appeal to the Maccabeans, or to one of the prophets or even to Moses as other people did. I believe that Jesus took his hearers way back to the vision of the Garden of Eden and the new man. He subverted the cultural understanding and laid a foundation in his person (the rock) which is eternal and universal. Jesus was there at the beginning. after all, with the Father and the Spirit. He quoted from the Torah but spoke authoritatively from his vision of creation about what it really means to be human as he considered the gosple of the kingdom. Adam and Eve and Jesus walk together to show what our world would look like if we lived in God.

Rather than settle for "the way it is" he fanned the flames of the imagination so that people might begin to envision the kingdom and actually live the words of Jesus. Matt. 5:22-48 get us thinking "what if" we actually began to live as we are meant to live and as the kingdom of God promises? When Jesus talks about anger, lust, sex, marriage and divorce as well as oaths, retaliation and loving our enemies he has in mind the power of the blessing of his beatitudes. When we are at the evangelistic end of our rope (poor in Spirit) then we are on the verge of a spiritual awakening. The blessing of being "poor in Spirit" is the blessing of being restored to a God-conscious, God-initiative and God-compassion.

Jesus offers to walk alongside you if you will work out this stuff as you prayerfull become more aware of the holiness of his presence with us in the Holy Spirit. What if God really came to live in you by his Spirit so that you really began to live in the power of Jesus?

Getting Rid of the Crust

Mark Labberton said something last spring that reflects on all denominations and the stuff that grows around our commitment to Jesus Christ. Mark spoke of Jesus in the Sermon On the Mount, removing the crust around what it means to be really all about God. Crust, you know the way Baptists, Pentecostals, Bible Church folk and especially Presbyterians do church.
We want to be all about Jesus but end up being about denominational distinctives, orders of worship or disorders, pastoral dress or the lack thereof, music traditional or non and all the other stuff that build up around Jesus but are really culturally conditioned not scripturally or theologically.
I just met with a Lutheran pastor friend that I have know since the mid 80's and we discussed what it looks like to set aside the crust and preach the gospel in ways that actually leads into doing what Jesus says. What a novel idea! Not really. But if only it were all about Jesus and not about the crust.
I have a dream that all the pressures of this crazy post modern time will strip us of our crust and leave something that is truly transdenominational: the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is what I want to be all about.

Back from Some Sabbath Time

Kerry and I spent last week travel down the Smith River, up the Oregon Coast and visiting with our youngest son Micah and his new wife Stephanie. We walked the beach, swam in rivers, talked, prayed and read God's Word. It is good to be reminded that God is the one who does the work.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what it would look like to have God as the constant center of my life. That is the life of one who has repented and entered the kingdom. It is all about giving up the illusion of our control and focusing on entering into God's initiative, providence and living in faithful obedience.

God I pray my friends and family find that You are their center through Jesus Christ. Without Jesus serving as our center we are runaway planets drifting away for God and in constant conflict with all those around us.

Sycretism Jesus and Moses

I have been increasingly aware of the "new spirituality" that is so prevalent around us. That is the mixture of Jungian psychology and Joseph Campbell religion that appeal to a universalism which is alien to the One God of the creation as revealed in Jesus Christ. Responding to this postmodern rotten religion is crucial.
The one element that is immediately clear is that those who claim that all religions are rooted in a universal myth is that they are making intellectuals claims that are neither sensitive to the historical nature of Judaism and Christianity nor personally familiar with real faith in Yahweh and the Father revealed by Jesus who is the Christ through the personal work of the Holy Spirit.
The common thought today is that there is a universal myth that is born witness to by different religious traditions. But Judeo-Christian understanding is rooted in the reality of the One God who is not creation but the Creator as believed in the Shama: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV) and reflected in the baptismal words commanded by Jesus Christ himself:

"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”" (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV)

C. S. Lewis was thoroughly Christian in his writting when he suggested that there is some correspondence between Christianity and other religions. This is to be expected. But Christians believe that the problem with humanity is that we would rather worship a projection of our own making than the real and Living God. Jesus came to reveal the face of God to us in his human-divine nature. Jesus is the same Word that God spoke to create the universe. He came among us in human flesh but we killed him. This is not a myth this is a historical reality.

To believe less is to buy into the religion of Jezebel and the spirituality of Babylon which the bible teaches us is the anti-christ.

Thankful for Friends and Crazy about Jesus

Kerry and I just traveled again to Scott Valley and Etna for dinner out. It is always a walk down memory lane. We only lived there two years but I still dream of those years and the adventures in ministry with Bill and Sue Birch and on the ranch. Creation shouting everywhere you turn of God's glory. Ministry here in Weed and McCloud is similar. We have old friends and new friends. Kerry's best friend from high school lives in Yreka. She married Tim Nielsen and her name is Debbie. They attend Covenant Chapel and assist the pastor as self supporting servants in the kingdom. The ministerial in Weed is really pretty incredible. With all the denominational differences our Lord Jesus binds us together. My new friend Bernie Van E is an awesome pastor in the Christian Reformed church who understands our reformed theology and appreciates historic orthodoxy. He rocks. My pentecostal brother Keith has a keen heart for God and there is of course Rev. Henry Gaines an African American Baptist and Bill Hoefer with the dispensational fundamentalist Bereans. The later are both old friends.
I just finished writting friends in Waldport and frankly I am in awe at how the fabric of life is dripping with such love and tenderness. God you rock because your faithfulness is everlasting. I pray for the renewal and revival of all these little churches and communities. Lift up the name of Jesus and glorify your name.
Tear down the denomination barrier and root us in JEsus Christ the center of life.

Dead In the Crosshairs

Last night I was driving home from McCloud after an Alpha meeting. I was thankful for the conversation that really had opened up. We have a unique dynamic in that we have three Catholic ladies attending and we are beginning to think about what it would look like to worship together one Sunday not only with other Protestant congregations but also with our Catholic brothers and sisters. That really would blow the minds of people. Jesus prayed that we would be one that the whole world would know that he is alive. God rock our world. We talked about the risk of ministry that really trusts Jesus, does kingdom work and prays strategically (ala Ed Stetzer). We may be small but God who is in us is mighty.
On the way home from the meeting thinking of this work I hit a four point buck on Hwy 89 driving at 65 mph. Feeling sorry for myself I thought of people who are risking so much more and suffering for their witness. Feeling sorry for myself doesn't accomplish anything but getting on with the ministry does. A little part of me died so that I can share the love of Jesus.

God is Doing a New Thing

When I think and pray for the congregations I serve and the communities they minister to I am reminded constantly of how surprising new life really is. The scriptures turn our focus back constantly to God's wildness in our midst. I cannot make the kingdom grow only Jesus can do that and my job is to trust him to work. That trust must be put into practice as I pray, study and meeting with people. Faith works if it is real faith. Strategy is then rooted in prayer as I pray not only for my own personal revival but for the revival of the people so that we trust and enter into the work of the kingdom by the power of the Spirit. It is simple: Trust Jesus, live that faith and pray strategically about what God calls you to do.