The Jesus House

In our Western culture, we’ve done a great job studying certain topics without any practical application or hands on experience.  Generally speaking, we then move those who have been educated in a classroom to then go on and educate others in a classroom.  Then we send people out to actually do something and then wonder why they fail.

The bibilical model of discipleship is very different.  No one learned what it meant to be a Christian in a classroom.  They were given real world, powerful and evident examples of what it meant to be a Christian … first in the person of Jesus Himself, of  course, then on to the apostles and so on.  Then Christianity was explained to them, and it made perfect sense because there was a real live model staring them in the face.  This is the biblical model.

Somewhere along the way the Western church adopted the Western culture and missed biblical truth.  Not surprising that we have the problems in the church that we do.  We’re the best at exegesis but some of the worst at believing and doing what the Bible actually says.  However, it is the latter that truly changes lives and teaches anything.

We were reading through the Sermon on the Mount as men last week, and one statement really stuck with me.  Jesus warns those that teach people to sin, to not follow the commandments or to ignore them, that they will be least in the kingdom … but those that DO the commandments and TEACH others to observe them will be great in the Kingdom.

This is of course connected with the Great Commission as written down by Matthew in chapter 28, to make disciples by “teaching them to observe ALL that I have commanded you.”

Of course our modern theology has made us so gun shy of anything that even suggests “works” that our great biblical scholars just find a way to explain all this away.  Here’s a warning: any doctrine that causes you to explain away things clearly stated and taught in scripture is probably dangerous.

Ultimately, we should be “doers” and not “hearers” only.  I think that is written somewhere, too …  And it is the doers that become the greatest teachers because there is integrity in the whole message of testimony and spoken truth.

Peace.

My blog has changed over the last few years.  I used to put everything up on my blog.  My political views, my views on church, various teachings, personal updates, funny videos, and whatever else I kinda had on my mind that day.

With the advent of Facebook in my life, I eliminated the personal updates and funny videos.  At the same time, I wasn’t as motivated to keep up with the my political ramblings (but hey, I’m a social studies major … if I was a farmer, I’d periodically talk about soil and seeds and manure and stuff … so part of it is just gonna come out) and I also got rid of some other fluff.  For the last couple years I’ve tried to focus this blog on various teachings that I feel would apply and be appreciated by the larger Christian community that I have relationship with, everyone from Catholic to charismatic to Baptist to organic church folk.  That has been intentional; even though I still feel that this blog has been good and challenging, it has been on my heart to have a place where the principles of real church can be discussed and focused on in its own blog.

But I didn’t want to start another blog of my own, individually.  When discussing the Church, that is a collective thing and should be expressed, well, collectively.  One man’s revelation might be good, but the testimony of Christ in a people is meant to come from an assembled body of people.  So I shared this idea with – yep, you guessed it – the Body of believers I call my spiritual family and love me more than I deserve.  We discussed it and came up with a new blog, called Loving the Church.

Why “Loving the Church”?  Well, many who are involved in the organic church movement are understandably critical of the institutional models that still dominate our current American Christian landscape, but that criticism isn’t necessarily constructive, and our group specifically has learned that the best we can do is say: What we have is awesome.  This is church and it has life in it.  We hope you have a fellowship that you can truly call a family and you get life from the congregation of true disciples of Jesus, because it is amazing.

We believe and live what we do not because we hate the church, but because we love Her.  Just like the organic farmer doesn’t do what he does because he hates pesticides but because he loves and seeks the benefits and life from real food grown from real dirt.  We know the assembled, redeemed, restored, Holy Spirit-filled people of God and the beauty and life within Her.  We experience Her on a daily basis.  It is not easy and takes great sacrifice – Christian discipleship always will … anything of great worth will – but it has life that we want to share with any who are interested.

So make your way over there if it interests you and share with your friends.  It will challenge you and encourage you.  There will be testimonies and teachings, but we will try to share our successes and failures as we endeavor to BE the church.  We’ve stopped “going to church.”  There’s a better way.  We hope to be a resource and encouragement for those looking into what people call “organic” church and we just call our family.

Peace.

There is a story about Mother Theresa (could be more legend than truth, not sure), where this young man travels across the world to see her.  After trekking across continents to see this wonderful woman, she agrees to see him.

He gets to Mother Theresa and he asks her to pray for him.  “I don’t know what to do,” he says.  “There are so many directions to take, things I could do.  Will you pray for me that I would know what to do?”

Mother Theresa answered: “I will not pray for that.”

He was shocked.  He had come half way around the world to get this woman to pray for him, but she refused.

“What you need is peace,” Mother Theresa continued.  “I will pray for peace.”

I am more and more convinced that one of the greatest needs of a Christian is to learn how to apply the peace that the Lord gives by faith and just be content.

Our God is not an anxious or nervous God.  He is pictured for us seated on a throne.  Jesus sat down before He taught.  Jesus never rushed anywhere He went.  And the Spirit we are given from Him is not one of fear but “power, love, and a sound mind.”  We are told to be “anxious for NOTHING.”

What you need is peace.

Paul had to “learn” this.  If you’re waiting for God to just give you contentment, probably won’t just happen.  You have to learn it.  And that generally means you’ll be put in situations where you would normally not be content.

Paul says, “I’ve learned that whatever state I am in, to be content.  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.  Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:13.  First verse I ever memorized.  I was probably five years old or so.  I thought it meant that I could do these awesome things like fly or lift buildings or be some sort of superhero.  Made sense to me, I went few places in those days without wearing a cape.

Not that God cannot and does not empower us to do great and miraculous things, but that’s not the point Paul is making.  Paul says, “I can be content in EVERY circumstance because of Christ who strengthens me.”  All things means all things … oh yeah, I just went over that with “God will make all things new.”

Both Paul and Jesus tell us to be content with food and clothing.  Didn’t they have shelter in those days?  Oh yeah, they did, and other luxuries.

So how do you get this contentment?  How do you learn it?  Well, it’s been my experience that you cannot just deny certain desires.

You have to replace them.

Jesus says to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”  Paul says that “godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Are you seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?  Do you have faith that in that seeking you will find your satisfaction and contentment?  Are you a godly person?

Jesus, when with the woman at the well, ministered to her.  After, His disciples came back to Him with some food.  He said, “I’ve already eaten.  My food is to do the will of My Father.”  His obedience to the Father satisfied even His physical hunger!  This just after telling the woman that He has water, that if she drinks it, she will never thirst again.  That is complete satisfaction.

In the wilderness during His temptation, Jesus says, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that continually proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Who is the Word that proceeds from God?  Jesus.  He also says that He Himself is the manna from heaven.  The manna from Moses’ time was miraculous, but still bread that if you ate it you would be hungry tomorrow and those men all died.  But if you eat of the Bread of Heaven, you will be satisfied and never die!

I often see believers unsettled and unsatisfied.  I call them “chasers”.  They chase the next thing, sometimes get it, but are always unsatisfied because of it.  Their actions are often geared towards finding the perfect situation that will satisfy them (the right mate, the right job, the right house, the right place to live, the right way to use their talents, the right church, the right prophet, the right meeting, the right blah blah blah).  None of these things are in and of themselves bad, but they will not satisfy you.  You were not born again of the incorruptible seed to be satisfied by the things of this world.  You were born again to be satisfied by Christ Himself, His Kingdom and His righteousness.

Anyone who knows me knows I am not advocating passivity or a lack of action.  But the root of that action must be a place of godliness with contentment, a place of peace with God and satisfaction with Him.  Then our actions will be placed in their proper context and not be idols we seek to gain more from than they were meant to give.

Peace.  (sorry so long!)

Yesterday I got up early.  Really early.  At least for me.

Met with my brother and friend, Adam, who is also a huge blessing and a part of our local church community here.  We met up at a local park and ride and went down to MARTA (they say it’s “smarta”, but I’ve been in cities with great subway systems, and was reminded how much we lack here in the ATL again … frowns).  Then we rode down to the Georgia capital building.

We went to a Presbyterian church right across the street from the capitol building.  There we met with hundreds of other people, most of whom (if not all) were Christians, gathered by a couple local parachurch ministries, notably Street Grace.

Street Grace is an organization that facilitates the cooperation of local churches and Christians with local services and ministries that surround the issue of sex trafficking of kids in Atlanta.  The local services and ministries aren’t all Christian or faith based.  Street Grace is attempting to mobilize the local churches to get involved in this issue.

Our church joined them last year after hearing about the horrific issue that Atlanta is one of the major hubs of the sex trafficking of children.  We prayed and talked about it for a while before hearing about Street Grace.  Then we prayed and talked about how and when we wanted to get involved.  Adam now does the social media for Street Grace (pro bono) and Eric now is their IT guy (also for free).

Last year was the first year that Street Grace organized a lobby day, where people have the opportunity to spread awareness and encourage the passing of laws and the provision of services that can help to stop this issue.  They had two hundred people last year.

This year 600 registered and more than 200 extras came yesterday before the press conference.  I would guess close to 900 people showed up yesterday (quite a few were late, so it is probably difficult to get a good number).

What kind of laws?  You might ask.  Well, one of the issues is that most of these kids are forced into prostitution by parents or other adults, but when caught, they are arrested for prostitution (at young age).  So some of these kids have a criminal record before they are out of middle school age.  That should be changed.  Also, of course, harsher punishments for the men participating in this crime.

What kind of services?  This covers a wide range of things like foster care, adoption, education, and other things that are more preventative.  Once these girls are victims, there are needed services of counseling, halfway houses, job training, etc.

Many of the ministries and other organizations Street Grace supports and links up with churches are more in the services area.  And that is appropriate.  The church isn’t designed to be the local police and mete out punishments, but we are meant to be redemptive and involved in compassionate prevention and restoration.

So after gathering in the Presbyterian church, we went to a press conference and then went to give little cards to our representatives.  We were all wearing black shirts with purple scarves.  We invaded the capital.  Adam and I had to figure out where to go, and then we helped a couple people there by themselves and let them hang with us for a time.

It was cool to really walk around and explore the capital building.  As a social studies major, I enjoyed meeting some representatives and being involved in the process to some degree.  Got to see the governors office and the Assembly was in session, so we could go up into the balcony and check that out.  There were a lot of purple scarves in the balcony!

But even more encouraging was when I could look around and see hundreds of Christians, people who believe in Jesus, united in doing something good, in fighting against the victimization of children.  We were there united.  I saw black, white, Asian, Hispanics.  There were people in three piece suits and others in jeans and T-shirts.  I saw the very old and the very young.  I didn’t ask, but I can safely assume there were different political persuasions, too.  Didn’t matter.  We were united in our love for Christ and the compassion that compels us to try to make a difference, give relief, and be an active part of the redemptive acts of God.

We didn’t hold up protest signs but politely invited our representatives to join us in this work as they have some realm of influence.  And we were able to meet many representatives who were already on the front lines of this issue in Georgia, both Democrat and Republican.

I was so glad I was there to stand with brothers and sisters and others to look at this growing problem in many of our cities and say: “Not in our town.”  There was Life in it.

Peace.