Drunken Mystic

Was meditating last night after a great conversation with a brother, and in the midst of it I said something and later had to ponder the truth behind it.

We were discussing the ability by grace to live a righteous life and the seemingly contradictory experience of not being able to.  While I won’t tackle all of this here, I did want to hit upon an important aspect of “overcoming” that is very important.

My comment late last night after having caffeine was, “Sometimes the problem is we are too concerned about the ‘no’ and we should instead be about the ‘yes’.”

As I meditated about this later, I realized how godly this idea is.  Most of us know the label “Christian” means “little Christ.”  So to be a Christian is to live a life so in line with the Spirit of Jesus that our testimony reminds others of Christ, the Anointed One.

So if we are to “be holy as I am holy”, as Peter quotes for us, what does that mean?  Does it mean being so focused on what I can’t do that the “do not” aspect of holiness consumes me?  It seems to me that God does not sit around thinking about all the evil stuff that He’s not supposed to do.  Rather, I would say His thoughts are about the good He is able to do.

Therefore, to “be holy as I am holy” entails a different type of focus, at least in part.  To be focused on the evil you’re not allowed to do, or not supposed to do, is spiritually counter-intuitive.  It doesn’t work.  But being about the things of the Kingdom will, by extension, help us to overcome in other areas of our lives.

This doesn’t mean you deny the wrong you’ve done or are capable of doing.  When conviction comes, you acknowledge it, repent and move on.  But “moving on” should be about what God has called us TO and not what He’s called us away from.

Romans states: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse … repay no one evil for evil … if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head … do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”

Now in context, Paul is speaking of the evil of others and our reaction to it.  But what about the sin in our own lives?  Can the same principle apply?

I believe it can.  Part of overcoming the evil or sin in our own lives is to focus on the good that we have been called to do.  To obey in the “yes” instead of wallowing in the “no”.  Because if you can overcome in the “yes”, your spiritual enemy will be thwarted because the Devil’s ultimate goal is to steal, kill and destroy, and in so doing usurp God’s will and plan.

You cannot overcome evil by focusing on the evil.  You can only overcome evil with GOOD.

In other words, don’t allow your periodic struggles with sin distract you or discourage you from doing what God has called you to do.  I do not mean to excuse sin in any way (there is no excuse for it anymore), but don’t let your enemy have a double victory by also making you so focused on yourself and your own weakness that God’s desire to minister through you doesn’t happen.

What you will find is that when you are “about your Father’s business” and focused there as much as you are able, that obedience to God’s plan of spreading the Kingdom will by extension give you more grace and power and true perspective to overcome when struggling with sin.  “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” is as absolute and practical a principle as you will find.

I kinda rambled this out, so any additional comments or questions are always welcome.

Peace.

The Apostle John records for us a key exchange between a member of the educated religious elite and authority … and some poor carpenter from the armpit of the world who had never gone to one of their schools.

Realizing that Jesus was indeed someone of spiritual authority, Nicodemus came to him in the middle of the night.  Jesus’ message was one of source and end.

Jesus realized, because of where he actually came from (not Nazareth), that source was important.  Source determines end.

So he begins to teach Nicodemus this by basically saying, “In order see the Kingdom of God, you must change your source.”

Of course the recorded words are: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus reacts with an understandable amazement.  What do you mean?  So Jesus further explains.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Jesus is clearly stating, and not even implying: there was something eternally inadequate in the first birth.  So what must change is the source of things, not just to adjust the things themselves.

Nicodemus’ lack of understanding, despite his immense education and social position, serves to be an example of Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus points this out.

“Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”

Many Christians and Christian teaching proves how much we misunderstand this, as well.  We use the term “born again” and the resulting testimony in the lives of those who claim it is so far from a “born again” life that the term is a byword and a mockery.

Let’s first understand exactly what Jesus is saying.  Because without this understanding, we can’t really have revelation about the Kingdom of God at all.  We are blind men who claim to see, which is a dangerous thing.  Everything else rests in this one concept:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This understanding will change how you read the whole of the New Testament, and then in that reality, help you to properly appreciate the Old Testament as well.

Jesus is essentially telling Nicodemus that all that he is about is worthless.  It is all by the flesh.  He is, by flesh and blood, a Jew, but that does not enable someone to see the Kingdom of God.  Nicodemus is highly educated in the scriptures and theology.  But that won’t help him see the Kingdom.  Nicodemus is a person of some authority and position, and assuming he is also a person of wealth and stature, but these things don’t give you a better position to see the Kingdom.

The only solution is to count all such things as what they are, rubbish, and plead with God to be born a second time, to be given a life that so transcends such things as to make them worth nothing.  Because without the ability to see the Kingdom of God, they have no worth in and of themselves.

The solution is to change the source from one of flesh to one of spirit.  Then one can see spiritual things.

In the next chapter Jesus makes it clear that “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.”  That the place of worship will not matter, this mountain or another one, but the source of the worship matters.

Why?  Because of its end.  Paul tells us that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.”  The things of the flesh, the things that are by nature temporary, will not inherit the Kingdom of God: nationality, personality, talents, personal achievements, all things that are temporary will end.  The end of the flesh is destruction.

Paul further exemplifies this in Philippians by listing how many things could give him confidence “in the flesh”: his Jewish heritage, his circumcision, his religious education, his legalistic following of the Law.  Paul of all people realized that those things meant nothing.  He had them and was violently opposed to the Kingdom.

So he counted all those things as rubbish, as crap, as nothing, so that he could have Christ and Him alone and a life of true righteous living by faith in God.

The promise given to us is the Spirit.  God did the necessary thing, the promised thing in a New Covenant, where he made available not just repentance and forgiveness, but an opportunity to be born from a different source, a spiritual one.

Jesus’ good confession before Pilate?  “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  It is made of different stuff.

Without understanding the difference between spiritual and fleshly foundations, there can be no revelation or participation in the Kingdom of God.  A life of the Spirit will look drastically different and beyond the understanding of the world.  “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

That’s an absolutely all-inclusive statement.  A truly “born again” life will be led and motivated and empowered by the One unseen.  That will be the testimony of a truly “born again” person.

This is the foundation of the revelation of the Kingdom of God.  No wonder so many misunderstand and misrepresent it.

Peace.

I’ve been reading through Psalms lately.  Just feeling like I need to concentrate there for a while …

Of course, being the Bible, there’s a ton of good stuff.  But I thought I would share just a bit from Psalm 125.

Particularly, the verse “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”

This verse has many implications, but I’ll just share a few.

First of all, Jerusalem in the Old Testament is the Holy City of God, where David set up the capital and Solomon the Temple.  In the New Testament, Jerusalem has become a type and a symbol for the true City of God, His people not by the flesh but by the Spirit, those who are born of (and led by) the Spirit of God.

The writer of this psalm uses the mountains around Jerusalem, a natural boundary against enemies, as a simile for the Lord’s protection of His people.  Actually, the psalm contends that the Lord Himself is the protection and the barrier.

First of all, let’s look at the barrier concept.  This teaches us that Jesus is the only way in.  This way is difficult and natural.  Notice the writer didn’t use man made walls, he used a natural boundary.  Or we could use the buzz-word organic.  Essentially, the way is difficult because we must deny ourselves, seek to lose our lives for His sake before we find true life.

We don’t like to think of Jesus as a difficult person, but in order to truly help us, He must be.  It is his “kindness that leads us to repentance.”  His kindness draws us to see we are wrong and need change at the very core of our being, not just a little adjustment here and there because we’re basically okay.  Even though multitudes flocked to Him at times, He was ultimately very offensive to most people, to the point where Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are not offended by me.”  Which means it is highly likely we will be.

The way is narrow not because it is difficult to understand, but because it requires so much of us.  Unfortunately, we have a Christianity better at marginalizing the extreme call of Jesus in His ministry than actually responding to it.

But there’s no other way in.  Anyone who gets in any other way than through the Person of Christ (and His call which cannot be separated from Him)  is a “thief and a robber”.

To those outside of the true City of God (His people), Jesus is a stumbling block of offense.  To those on the inside, God is a refuge and a source of endless protection.

Back in the day, smart people used to build cities situated where natural barriers protected them: bodies of water, mountains, deserts, etc.  Any attack would naturally be by land or sea, so therefore these things protected a city from invaders and enemies.

So secondly, Jesus is also our the protection against the three main enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.  So once you’ve begun to traverse the narrow way, as difficult as it may seem, you are actually safer in the long run … like, the way long run … you know, eternally.

But there’s also no other protection.  We try to manufacture other things that make us feel safe like programs, paradigms, structures, organizations, political ambitions, and sacraments, but ultimately it is only the Son of God who protects and acts as the boundary and defines the Body of Christ.

Our lives are “hidden in Christ” at the right hand of God.  Therefore Paul tells us in Colossians to look there, in the heavens, where our lives truly exist.

Another important scripture to note in relation to this is when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John.  To the world, the Holy Spirit will reveal, “sin, righteousness, and the judgment of God.”  To believers, the Spirit “will lead you into all truth.”  To the world, the Spirit leads to repentance.  But once you’ve repented, relinquished your right to live your own life, to instead dedicate everything you are to the furthering of His Kingdom, the Spirit takes a different role.  He then “leads you into all truth.”

There are many things I could discuss, but those were the two main points I thought needed sharing.

But one note as I close.  The picture we are given of the people of God is a city.  In Psalm 122 it’s “built as a city that is compact together.”  You are not alone in a city, and the more “compact” the city, the more you have to do to be alone and isolated.  In other words, you weren’t designed to do this alone.  You need a fellowship of people to walk this out with on a day to day basis, to live closely with, those who also do all they can to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”, who make the Kingdom the foremost thought in their brains.  It’s really not designed to work any other way, no matter how clever we think we are.

Peace.

I’m borrowing heavily here from a number of different sources, namely Plato’s cave analogy and some comments by Tozer, but I’ve been meditating on this a lot this week.  So I thought I’d share.

Let’s assume a man born blind, who had never seen color.  How would you describe the color red to him?  You would, by limitation of the subject, have to use other senses to attempt it.  You couldn’t give objects that are red, by the same limitation.  You would have to relate it somehow to sound or smell or touch.  To say the least, it would be difficult.

There is the great old t parable about the blind men who all come upon an elephant.  One touches the hide, one a leg, another the trunk and another a tail and so on.  Bound by their experience and limited by their perception, they each give a different definition of an elephant, which is not an elephant at all.

But what is needed to truly understand the color red or the elephant, is a completely different sense altogether.  The blind men in these analogies need to SEE.

God is the only uncreated being that exists.  And since our only experience is with other created things, we by nature have a faulty definition of God.  We are material and “fleshly”, while God is Spirit, not immaterial necessarily, but made of a different material altogether.  And the only way to have a true understanding of God is to have relationship and experience with Him by that different material … the Spirit.

This is why many people of all theological and political camps serve a very worldly God.  They can only relate to Him through worldly things and therefore can only define and see Him as such.  This ultimately becomes a “work of their own hands” and idolatry since the God they are worshiping is not really God at all.

Even Jesus came up against this limitation.  How often He said, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like …”  But the Kingdom of Heaven is not a pearl or a field or a servant or whatever.  While some teach that Jesus taught in parables to help people understand, the scripture tells a very different story … He told parables as a type of obstacle to see who truly wanted to know God.  Because while the parables related some truth, they were still by nature worldly and must be gotten past to get to the root of truth, a spiritual truth.

We can read the Bible and go to theological schools or what have you, but all that is learning ABOUT him.  That’s like me reading all I could get my hands on to read about my wife, looking at nice portraits of her that others have done, all the while she sits in the room with me.  I could look her in the eye, touch her face, know her intimately.  And yet someone has made me believe that reading books and looking at pictures is actually having a relationship with a PERSON.

If I could trace the problem with Christianity back to one thing, it is this.  We’ve been convinced, and have passed this on to generations, that knowing about God is the same as KNOWING Him.  It’s not.  And yet we settle for something less, arguments about doctrine and theology, as if taking sides on predestination or the sinners prayer means you actually know God.

So how do you have this experience, this relationship with God?  it is reserved for the select few (it is difficult and therefore a narrow way) that will seek after Him with their whole heart.  It is simple, but some people want to live their own lives way too much to truly seek after Him with their WHOLE HEART.

And through the grace and faith available through Jesus, we are given the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This is completely necessary, because what we’ve been given at that point is a new nature, the scripture calls it the “new creation”, and it is a new creation because we have been given the ability to see on a whole new level.  With the Holy Spirit, we are given the uncreated nature to properly commune with the uncreated God.

Jesus told the woman at the well, “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.”  The Greek word there is actually “spirit-truth”, not spirit and truth, as if you could separate the two.  Seeing the whole elephant makes certain arguments unfruitful.  Experiencing God in Spirit gives the proper perspective.

One of the most mis-quoted scriptures is in 1 Corinthians where Paul says, “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has entered into the mind of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.”  And then we stop there, throwing up our hands and quit (usually as a license to live our own lives the way we want).  That isn’t the end of the thought, though.  It is only the setup.  The next thought is “but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit, and the Spirit searches ALL THINGS, even the deep things of God.”

This isn’t to completely throw all theology out the window.  You can call a monkey an elephant, but it isn’t actually an elephant.  God does have aspects of Himself that are true and unchangeable, no matter what our modern sensibilities might think archaic or progressive.

It might surprise you, but God doesn’t really care what we or celebrities or philosophers think of Him.  He is.  Take Him or leave Him (I would strongly suggest the taking part, as difficult as it is … way cooler in the long run), but He’s not changing, nor is he in need of enlightenment or a modern makeover to be relevant.

But we make the mistake of taking those theologies and doctrines, some of them very true and central, and using them as a substitute for actually knowing Him deeply and intimately.  And by such substitutes, we must rely upon modern day priests to mediate for the laity.  Doctrines are passed down but not what truly matters: do you hear God talk to you?  Do you obey when He speaks?  Communing with God gives life to truth, otherwise you’re parroting words.

You have to see God by the Spirit to truly follow Him.  Otherwise you’re just following another man’s walk, if you’re that lucky.  He might be only describing God’s butt, and then writing books and starting a whole denomination based on his experience with God’s butt.

As a leader, I have for some time focused my concern not on doctrine alone (yes, important), but more importantly on whether or not people know God.  Really know Him.  Why?  I completely trust the Spirit to do exactly what is necessary.  I believe that God wants people to follow Him more than I do, and He woos and calls.  I try to be very sensitive to whether people are following the call to Christ Himself or to me or my teaching.  There is a difference.

Unfortunately, many other leaders I talk to see this as leading to chaos.  I think God can be way more in control than we or our organizations can be, and it will look much cooler and be so much more genuine when we let Him be the Shepherd He wants to be.  And I also heartily believe that the world will see an expression of Christ through His people not seen since the first couple centuries.  Maybe even greater than that.

But I’m pretty weird sometimes.

So in conclusion, I encourage you (and myself … this journey isn’t done for any of us!) to get to the place where you hear from God and obey the Spirit when He speaks to you.  Let me warn you though.  This is not for the faint of heart.  You will probably say “woe is me” a few times and feel like you’re dying to what you want a lot of the way.  But you’re being built into a habitation for Him to dwell in and express Himself through, if you’re willing.  You’re basically trading your life for His life.  You can’t have both.  But in the end you don’t get to keep yours anyway, so it’s a pretty good deal.

Peace.

Being involved in ministry, reading as much as I do, teaching in public and private education, and living among a missionary community, people talk a lot about paradigms.  And to some degree, it is fine.  The “how” and “why” of things are both important discussions to have.  I never want to completely divorce ourselves from such conversations, especially if we are truly seeking what God would have us do.

But there are some who become so enamored with a paradigm that it literally becomes idolatry.  That is harsh, I know, but it is that dangerous.  While Moses is on the mountain, we make a golden idol out of our own culture (the Israelites identified themselves as shepherds).  The golden serpent used by Moses to stop a plague was burned as an idol a couple hundred years later.

This is the way with God.  People should learn this, but we don’t.  We are very hard headed (or stiff-necked, if you like that term better).  We like our ways better.  They feel more safe and secure.  And sooner or later, people equate God’s working with the vessel He might have used.

As I’ve said time and again, God uses jackasses, but that doesn’t justify the jackass.  Just because God might have used something once, or even for a time, that doesn’t prove it has His seal of approval.  It just means He’s merciful, loving, and long suffering.

The danger comes when people become proselytes for formulas, paradigms, systems, organizations, or the teachings of men.  The gospel isn’t megachurch or house church, it is Christ.

I said something similar to a brother the other night while we were talking at a bar (gasp!).  As we were talking about the supremacy of Christ, I explained that “I am not here to preach house church.  I’m here to preach Christ.”  Most of you know we have a fellowship that meets in our home, and if you have to give that a name, then fine, you can use house church or organic church or whatever.  But even definitions of house church or organic church don’t fully express what the heart of the Body of Christ is to be (and what we are attempting to be).  They may be closer, but closer still isn’t a bullseye.

Funny enough, my young friend in the bar was surprised.  Why?  Most people end up becoming a proselyte for the traditions or teachings of men instead of Christ and His Church.

In reality, every paradigm has its pitfalls.  Paul warns churches about all kinds of things, all the time.  You’re never gonna find a formula or system or structure that diminishes problems or contentions.  In fact, the closer you are to real relationship and biblical church the more you’ll expose.  Any attempt to gloss over the pitfalls, to deny them, or to be uber defensive about your paradigm, the more you become a Pharisee.

So my counsel is … keep your mouth shut about your paradigm.  Do all you can to get people to see the supremacy of Christ and the need to love one another as Christ loved us.  If you produce a people who give all they have and go out and turn a world upside down, you’ve done something right, and it probably had very little to do with your model.

Peace.

I realize it makes people awkward when I am as adamant as I am about righeousness as a standard for those who truly believe.  But really, this is what our world is waiting for, whether we believe it or not.  All of creation groans and waits for the sons of God to be revealed.

I could go into more scriptures to talk about this, but the problem is that there are line by line doctrines out there to help you support whatever you want to believe.  So if you’re still reading what I say, then you’re either a glutton for punishment (like a die-hard Nancy Pelosi fan who listens to Sean Hannity) or you have enough of a heart for truth that you’ll endure my rambling to get something of value. 

What I call our “anemic” Christianity can be traced back, in many cases, to conversion.  I’m going to give a more natural example today to make my point … which I could support scripturally … I’m just going a different route.

Did you know that in much of the world, they potty train their children by the time they are a year old?  Well, it is true.  They begin training them at 6 months, usually as soon as they can sit, and most, if not all, are trained by the end of their first year.

Did you also know that a bulk of your foundational personality is formed during the same time frame?  These children are taught, early, that this is what it means to be a person: you poop and pee in the potty.  They don’t really know a different definition or expectation.

And this isn’t the “rage” or “new” in these places.  These are age old cultures.  It takes our extreme progress to retard children at least an extra year or two (or three) before they can learn to put their waste in a toilet.

Let’s look at what we, as Americans do.  We wait until the basic aspects of their personality are set, until they have a firm grasp of themself as a person, and they are also in the most stubborn stage of their life so far.  NOW we try to teach them how to put that junk in the toilet.

Do you realize what we do?  Their waste management identity is in putting poop in a diaper.  And they are naturally beginning to assert their independence (walking, running, jumping, talking, exploring, etc.).  At this stage, we attempt to retrain their whole minds, against their will many times, to do something totally different.

But why would they want to?  We have to manipulate them with rewards, or “wait ’till they’re ready” to be a big boy or girl.  They were actually ready more than a year before, when they were completely caught up in mommy and daddy and not stubbornly trying to assert their independence.

Not to mention that we’ve made it comfortable to crap in a diaper.  Our plastic technology has allowed these children to exercise no self control, no inconvenience to them, all in complete comfort.  Ah, America.

So how do these other countries do it?  First of all, they believe that they can.  It is amazing what you can do with faith.  Second, it is out of necessity.  It takes time, deep relationship with the child (you have to know their “poop face”), and it is very inconvenient.  You must be intentional.  You use cloth diapers so it becomes immediately uncomfortable.  Which means you, the parent, has to wash poopy diapers instead of just throwing them away to take up space in our nice landfills.  And laundering diapers is motivation for the parents, too, to get this potty training on the road.

And we’re not even talking about the places where diapers aren’t much of an option, so potty training is even more of a natural necessity.

I don’t ultimately care when you potty train your kid, but this is an analogy for what we do with baby Christians.

Upon conversion, in usually the most formative time when Christians will believe ANYTHING because they are so wrapped up in the God that takes away the sin of the world (a sobering time when many things can go very right or very wrong), they aren’t taught to rely upon the Holy Spirit for everything and that living a righteous life will be the result.  Many aren’t given any real teaching at all, except come to a service and tithe ten percent (in other words, be a Christian consumer, not a participant).  And some of the teaching that is given actually tells them they will sin all the time and not to ever expect to live up to a righteous standard.

We, in effect, place spiritual pampers on these people and convince them this is what it means to be a Christian.  And while my son had the example of his father using a toilet, most of our professional ministers walk around wearing the same spiritual diaper, so the anemia is reinforced.

God forbid we tell them, at the very outset when their identity in Christ is being formed, that they have the power of creation within them now, the Christ that was there at the creation and died and rose again, and that with God “all things are possible.”  They might actually go out and turn the world upside down instead of attend our nicely organized programs.

Instead we wonder why we have a whole generation of immature Christians without any spiritual self control.  And since our experience in such matters (i.e., our common Christianity) doesn’t match up with the testimony of the New Testament, we have to re-interpret scripture to feel like we’re okay, coming up with doctrines like a “second work of grace” or “carnal Christians.”

Why would “carnal Christians” ever change?  We’ve made it completely comfortable and convenient for them to be so.  Just sit back and be entertained and moved.  It’s even online now.  You don’t have to leave your house to feel like you’re participating.  And leaders are not inconvenienced when maturity doesn’t materialize … unless people stop attending and giving.  Then they pay attention.

And the few Christians in the pew who try to live and spread the Kingdom of God either become dangerously frustrated or we make them missionaries or give them positions in our organizations.  God forbid such passion becomes “normal Christianity.”

The “paradigm shift” needed is so fundamental that it goes beyond models of organic church or megachurch.  It goes way deeper than that.

And lucky me, I get to be one of the men that people whine and pout about because I tell them it’s time to take off the diaper and wear Big Jesus pants.

Peace.

This time on the whole health care debate.  I’m not saying that I agree with everything this man is saying, but I like the different ideas of de-regulation that could have a positive effect on the health care system.  And it is sad that these options are not only completely off limits to the discussion, but that they are demonized as hateful or something.  This is from the CEO of Whole Foods.

Anyway, here is the article if you’re interested.

Peace.