One Simple Aim

Life becomes much more manageable for me when I simplify my priorities.  Over the past few months, I have been finding my way toward one simple aim (really two in one):  To please Him and to find pleasure in Him.  To simplify all of my efforts and pursuits to this is to truly walk a way of peace.  Two of the most basic human motives  are to find pleasure and to please others.  But when I try to please myself with anything that is not eternal, I am disappointed.  When I seek after those things which have the power to destroy life or those things that cannot continually sustain life, I eventually find myself needing repair or wanting more.  It isn't fair to me or to the things (or people) I seek to expect from them something that only God can provide.  The same can be said for that desire to please others.  Surely, I can make people feel good or satisfied on some ultimately superficial level, but I can never give them that which will quench their deepest human thirsts.  The kinds of troubles that result from seeking satisfaction from and for anything but God are manifold.  In short, they will always leave us hallow, wanting, and frustrated.  But when we become single minded in our goal to find pleasure in the reality of our Creator, and when we endeavor to please our maker in every effort, we begin to taste the fruit that was made to satisfy.  To be pleased by God is to find His mercies in all things, but to never forget that they originate in Him.  The beauty of my wife and child are His beauty.  The fill of a feast at mealtime come from His grace and creativity.  The belly laugh among friends comes from His creation in us alone.  We can find all of our pleasure in God.  Likewise we can please Him in all things.  When we serve our neighbor we do it to serve the one God.  When we order and maintain our lives in the most mundane activities, we do so for the love of Christ.  By the very living of life, we choose to honor the giver of every good gift.  There truly is wholeness in simplicity.  To find our pleasure in the Lord and to please Him with every step, is to know the fullness of life.  Indeed, heaven itself will consist of nothing less than finding our ultimate satisfaction in God and giving ourselves back in return.
 

God Is Jealous For You

"I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God" Exodus 20:5

Jealousy is perhaps the most intimate of emotions.  One cannot be jealous for something or someone they do not feel personally belongs to them in some way.  For God to say that He is Jealous for you implies that He feels that you belong to Him.  This belonging is personal.  Jealousy is not something we can theologize or turn into doctrine, it is a raw feeling of zeal and pursuit between the lover and the beloved.  Don't forget the connotation that jealousy has in our minds today.  There is no doubt that it is as corruptible as anger or desire.  But in almost every case I can think of where jealousy is bad, it has begun to overrun the reality of a situation.  Like when a man or woman becomes so possessive of another person that they become blinded to the truth of their love.  But what if, in a relationship of deep love and commitment, true infidelity were a chronic and frequent behavior?  What if the lover watched with their own eyes the beloved turn to rival lovers time and time again.  Wouldn't jealousy be the only natural response to such blatant disregard for a promise of love and faithfulness?  This, I believe is where God's comment about His own character is immortally burned on the world famous 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20.  God is jealous because he holds out the hope and expectation that vows are to be kept.  Like when someone says in prayer "Oh God, thank you for saving me, I give my whole life to you.  You are my Lord"  and then turns around and allows ANYTHING else to dictate their behavior and attitudes.  God should be jealous!  God's love, affection, and personal desire for us would be either shallow or cold if he were not jealous when we found our hope, life, and salvation in things other than himself.  I, for one, often make the mistake of assuming such a ridiculous possibility about our God: That God's love for me is like the love an assembly line worker has for yet another product rather than the love a lover has for the beloved.  The truth is this: God is so personally attached to me being in an ongoing, faithful relationship with Him that when I disregard that relationship or make it play second fiddle to anything else, He becomes fiercely jealous.  God is jealous for you.  Are you taking your relationship with Him seriously enough?

 

Lets Be Real

Some of the most amazing moments of musical worship that I have ever experienced take place while I'm driving in my car.  I can sing with abandon, tears streaming down my cheeks as I reflect upon the abiding goodness of God.  But almost without fail, when another vehicle approaches my drivers side window, I quickly gather myself and act as if I'm not having a powerfully authentic meeting with the maker of the universe in my vehicle.  Apparently, it is more important for me to appear "normal" to strangers than to exhibit any real vulnerability and uniqueness.  This is just one of countless examples of how my social inhibitions relegate the Spirit of Christ that is within me.  Another example occurs in my daily interactions with acquaintances and casual friends.  I have often longed to share with someone, anyone, what is going on within my soul during times of intense inner-stirrings only to respond to the question "how are you?" with "fine...small talk, small talk, small talk".  Its gotten to the point that I'm sick of trying to whitewash my raw humanity.  I realize that I am not the only one who lives my life with such bland, surface dwelling interactions with the world outside my closest friends and relatives.  This is how I was trained to act around people.  But what if the Christian's most ripe opportunities to proclaim the Good News with their lives came at these moments?  What if by our attempts to appear radically un-extraordinary, we were denying others insight into our human struggles and revelations that often unveil the incarnate presence of God?  I would invite you to try with me the bold exercise of being who you truly are.  Not to annoy or inconvenience others but to stand out as a witness to them of your need for, and insights about deeper realities.  For the truth is that God is moving in the hearts and lives of His people far more powerfully than most of us have the guts to reveal to the world.  Perhaps the very way you or someone else will experience hope, humanity, grace, or mercy is by watching you be courageously real.  Give it a shot and pay attention to what happens. 

Downsizing the Church

If the mainstream church in the United States is going to actually thrive in the next generation it will need to drastically downsize.  Most of the Christians that I know want the church to grow.  They are willing to reach new people and try new ministries.  They may even be willing to spend more energy, time, and money to experience the gospel among new people.  What I haven't seen a readiness to downsize their church experience.  There is a blind expectation that we (the institutionalized mainline church) can both reach the "unchurched" AND remain who we are: A cruise ship designed to provide the very best religious and social experience possible: A great staff that runs great programs and professional quality worship on a great campus.  If the mainstream (middle class) church actually reaches people unlike them, there will be no sustainable way to maintain that kind of lifestyle.  Granted, some churches will be called by God to reach out to other persons who have similar tastes and abilities to finance such an experience.  But most of us, if we're honest with ourselves, will hear the commission to go to "all people" which will include not only those who are unable to afford capital campaigns but also those who are socially intimidated by walking into a building nicer than the nicest homes in their town.
 Let me take the example of how my denomination likes to start new churches.  We like to spend a few hundred thousand dollars up front to help a church pay a few staff members, rent a space to worship, and provide programs/supplies for its ministries.  Over five years the hope is that the church will develop a giving base that can sustain the purchase of a property, the building of a church, and the expansion of a staff.  The goal is to make more churches that look like the ones we all want to become: coffee bars, digital signs, and beautiful spaces for worship and classes.  Most of the time it just ain't gonna happen.  Can we learn to downsize our church experience and be okay with just God and our sisters and brothers in Christ?  Would you still go to church if there were no organ, rockin praise band, or air conditioned rooms with padded seats?  Could you be a part of a growing church that didn't have a huge VBS set and ski trips for the youth?  The future of your church may depend on your answer.  

The Kingdom Virus

From Wikipedia: A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Most viruses are too small to be seen directly.

"Virus" has become an almost entirely negative term.  Viruses kill, destroy, and steal life.  But what if a virus could enhance life?  Imagine for a moment that there was a virus we wanted to catch.  A disease that would heal, transform, and strengthen.  This virus would be something that could only be passed if you came into contact with an infected individual or colony.  The more aggressive the infection was in the individual you encountered, the more likely you would be to catch it yourself.  Now imagine the possibility of an outbreak: everywhere you went, there was the chance of transmitting the virus.  Aggressively infected individuals were in public places displaying symptoms of their condition.  Over time, entire communities would have the virus within them, affecting them, transforming them one cell at a time.  Such a scenario may be too hard for you to enjoy picturing, but in many ways, it's what I believe the church is called to be: a colony of those aggressively infected by the person of Jesus Christ who go out into the world to infect others.  Over the years, we in the north american church have done a tremendous job of safely containing something that is meant to be wildly contagious.  We keep it to ourselves, we allow symptoms to arise only at certain times and locals, and we do little to allow it to deepen its impact on our lives.  God's intention is for the church to be a movement of faith, hope, and love that spreads across the earth.  And while there is a frantic search for such things among the masses, Christians can't seem to allow the infection they've caught by grace to do what it does best: Multiply and transform.  The key I believe is first creating an environment where the person of Jesus Christ is able to thrive within it's hosts, our lives.  We then become so overwhelmingly inundated and overcome throughout our being by Jesus Christ that wherever we go, He cannot be withheld.  This happens through authentic practice of His presence and sharing life with others who carry Him in themselves.  If Christ's Spirit is in its very essence contagious, what is keeping your communities from being infected and changed for the Kingdom of God?  Are you managing the power of the Almighty in your life through religion, self-will, or sin?  

     

The Power of Small

"And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons." Mark 3:14-15

What would it mean to adopt a Christ-like method of faith community?  It would mean spending our lives completely enmeshed in the lives of others.  Sharing every meal, traveling every road, spending every night - together.  Christ choose the most relationally intensive method of community possible to spread the good news.  And while he taught workshops and offered free healing and feeding parties to thousands, the ones who carried the message were the ones who shared every moment with him for three years.  They knew one another in the raw.  They were familiar with one another's vices, problems, unique gifts, and idiosyncrasies.  They shared their pasts, their fears, and their hopes with full disclosure.  While this might not look like the best business model on paper, its really the only way to do discipleship.  The only biblical way to teach and equip people to become agents for the gospel is to draw them into meaningful, committed relationship of intentional faith development.  Disciples aren't accidents.  They are people who others have poured themselves into with love and faithfulness.  These kinds of relationships don't happen on Sunday mornings where hundreds or even dozens gather to listen to special musicians and speakers.  It doesn't even happen in bible studies that people attend every few weeks in smaller gatherings.   The model that Jesus set included twelve people who spent every waking moment with him for several years.  I often find people wanting to grow in their faith in a way that won't disrupt the rest of their lives.  They want to attend a class that will "introduce them to the bible" or they want to become involved in a ministry that will "give them a chance to serve".  There is nothing wrong with these endeavors, but they will rarely result in disciples.  Knowing other Christians won't make you a better Christian.  Worshiping next to other Christians won't in and of itself draw you into the depth of faith.  The best way to become all that Christ wants you to be is to learn and share consistently, vulnerably, and frequently with the "Body of Christ" through some kind of small fellowship.

"Oh Lord, your first disciples left everything to follow you.  If you are calling me to a deeper relationship with you, give me the strength to make the kind of commitment I need to make.  Put a desire in my heart to grow in you above all things.  In Christ's name.  Amen"

Knowing the Supernatural

My wife woke me early wednesday morning with an intense look on her face.  "Ray, come here. You have to come see this".  I followed her to the window in our bathroom and this is what we looked at together.  From where we stood, it looked like a 90 foot illumined cross standing in our neighbors front yard.  That night, before I went to bed, I had asked God for an increase in faith.  This was yet another powerful "sign" in a string of supernatural happenings in my life this month.  It turns out that we had a full moon that night and in that particular moment this is the way it shined through our bathroom window.  It was also God showing off.  Please keep in mind, I've been "demysticized" by the modern seminary experience.  I'm an educated theologian that has learned that every story of the supernatural can carry symbolic meaning for a deeper purpose.  I've often heard stories "less educated" Christians share about encounters with God that are supernatural and I think to myself "I'm sure that is true on some critical narrative level".  But I'm coming to believe that sometimes, God just chooses to do some crazy things in our everyday experience to encourage us and get our attention.  God's character is to be active through deeds of redemption, transformation, salvation, and liberation in people's lives.  That often happens in hidden, invisible, and subtle ways.  But sometimes, God wrecks shop.  Sometimes, God does things in our natural experience that are beyond our expectations and understanding so that we might know divine power and love.  This early morning sign of God's love through my bathroom window is an encouragement from God to me.  God is encouraging me to expect more from him, to stop limiting, boxing-in, and compartmentalizing him in my neat little sections of existence.  My God is too big, too creative, and too willing to be known to be limited by my concepts and religious knowledge.  I want to know the God who exists beyond my understanding and explorations.  I want to know the supernatural God.

"Lord, I love it when you blow me away.  I am so glad that you reveal yourself in ways that make me feel small.  In those moments, my faith increases, and I hope anew for your Spirit to do mighty things in my life, in the church, and in the world.  Keep showing off I pray through the name of the incarnate deity, Amen".