Esau was Stuck

Have you ever found yourself on the floor pounding with your fist crying out to God?  Have you ever been weeping and sobbing, because you knew that something was wrong, but just didn't know how to get it fixed?  Have you ever found yourself inwardly screaming, "God, it's just not fair."?  If so, perhaps you, like me, can identify somewhat with Esau.  The Scriptures tell us that Esau could find no place in which he would repent even though he sought such a place with tears.  Why not?  Why could Esau not find a place of repentance?

Esau, you will recall, was the brother of Jacob.  When he came hungry into their camp, he smelled the food that Jacob was cooking.  Esau, of course, was a very talented man.  He was able to find food for himself.  He was able to prepare his own food.  Esau, however, chose not to do so.  He chose instead to accept the convenience of a meal already prepared by his brother.  So what was wrong with that?  Nothing! The terrible wrong for Esau was not that he accepted a convenient fast food meal.  If his brother had freely offered him the meal, there would have been no problem with God.  Esau, however, had no problem paying as the price for that meal the surrender of the birthright that had been given to him by God.  The crux of Esau's problem was not that he bought a meal.  The crux of the problem was that he despised the gift of God.  He treated that gift as being of no greater value than a fast food meal.  By devaluing the gift, Esau was also devaluing the giver.  The jealous God of the universe does not accept being treated as worth less than a Big Mac with Fries.

Esau's difficulty in finding a place of repentance was not because he failed to understand that he had lost something of value.  Rather, his difficulty was that he failed to recognize the value of God who gave him the birthright originally.  When I was in my 20s, I found myself in a very similar place with the Lord.  Jesus had told me he was going to make me a pastor and teacher in my own home.  He confirmed that word through a prophet who spoke to me.  I was sure that I had understood him clearly.  So, the evening after I had heard the prophetic word I went home to see my wife.  I told her what the Lord had said.  And I proceeded to work diligently to fulfill the word of the Lord.  For all the rest of the time that we were living in Florida, I continued to work diligently.  When it came time for us to move from Florida to Virginia, I found and rented a very large and spacious home.  I was going to use that house to fulfill the word of the Lord.  I tried.  I tried.  I tried some more.  It seemed like God was miraculously intervening to keep the very thing He said would happen from coming to pass.  What was wrong?  What was I doing wrong?  Had I been wrong about what God said?  No, the problem was simply this: I valued the word of the Lord more than I value the Lord of the word.  I heard "make me a pastor and teacher in my own home." But my pride kept me focused on me.  I chose to ignore that Jesus said He would do it.  He would make me.  He would transform me.  He would bring to pass his own work.  I struggled and struggled to put myself in the place of God.

After about two years of this continuing struggle, I finally gave up.  I remember my giving up vividly.  I was literally on my face on the floor in the den of our way too large house.  I was pounding on the floor and crying out to God.  I was saying to God I have done everything that I can do.  Finally, I made the important commitment: I said, "God, if You want this to happen, You will have to do it.  I give up." It was like all of heaven gave a great sigh of relief.  A great peace came over my soul.  I could let go of something that had never belonged to me.  I could come back to value the God of the universe, instead of the word of the Lord.  I could let God be God.  Like Esau, I had valued very highly the thing I wanted to happen.  But, I had despised the value of the God who said He would do it.

A similar dynamic is at work among many people who think of themselves as the church.  Every child of God is given a birthright.  It is the child's birthright to hear directly and personally from the Father God.  Jesus affirms that right when he declares that His sheep hear His voice.  Jesus declares the importance of that birthright in his conversation with Peter.  It was not Peter that Jesus was saying was the foundation upon which he would build his Church.  It was not the revelation that Jesus is the Christ.  Jesus was declaring that the foundation of his Church is that we do not get revelation from flesh and blood but from the Father who is in heaven.  The Scriptures make it clear from beginning to end that Father God desires sons who understand Him when He speaks to them.  If you are a follower of Jesus as Lord, it is your spiritual birthright to personally hear the voice of God regularly, in every circumstance, without any question about being confident in Whom you have heard.

Tragically, every Sunday morning, millions of people who believe they are following Jesus go to a meeting, where they substitute the convenience of hearing someone else preach a message for that which is their birthright, the ability to respond to hearing God personally.  The millions think they are being fed the Bread of Life.  And, for the convenience of a fast food meal, they have traded the value of the God of the universe speaking to them personally.  Esau sought a place of repentance, with tears.  Ironically, most of these millions are not even seeking a place of repentance.  They believe they are living in the very best that God has to offer.  I watched on television as one congregation, sitting in front of a famous preacher, heard him proclaim they do not need to hear God they can hear him.  To this day, I find it amazing that the people in the room did not rise as one and run out.  Millions of people have become so accustomed to devaluing the God of the universe that they are prepared to listen to such blasphemy.

I started pondering these things this morning.  I was thinking about this blog.  And I was asking myself the question: "Are the readers of my blog substituting what I write for their own hearing of the Father?" When I heard myself ask the question, my immediate reaction was that I must stop writing the blog.  But the Lord said to me quite clearly that I am to continue following Him to write the blog.  How then, I asked the Lord, am I to prevent these who read it from substituting my blog for hearing you.  The Father chuckled and said to me, "That's not your problem son that's mine." Once again, I had been nosing around that subtle trap.  The dangerous trap is believing that I must deal with every problem.  Some problems are simply not ours to solve.  They belong to the Father and/or to other people.  But, they don't belong to us.  We must all learn to value god.  And, we must learn not to try to take over His position.

The more we deal with the God of the universe, the more we discover real humility.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart

My Joy -- A Treasure in an Earthen Vessel

I am at the moment sitting at my computer listening to something in the other room that fills my heart with delight.  There, Joy is sitting in her wheelchair with the speakerphone by her side.  On the phone are two of her friends who have called to chat with her.  That in itself would be a great delight to me.

It would delight me because her friends know that Joy is incapable of carrying her end of the conversation.  Nevertheless, they continue to chat with each other including her in the conversation and speaking directly to her from time to time.  Such self-sacrificing love always inspires and delights me.

But this conversation delights me on a much deeper level.  The two friends with whom she is chatting have been her friends for more than 30 years.  The three of them raised their small children together in the same neighborhood.  Over the years two of the three have moved away from the neighborhood.  One moved only a few miles.  Joy has moved to the opposite end of the country.  Nevertheless, week after week, month after month, year after year, at 10 o'clock each Wednesday morning, the three get together again for a chat on the telephone.  Sometimes, they discuss the current affairs in the news of the day.  Often, they discuss some aspect of the Kingdom of God.  But, always, they talk about the little things that are going on in each of their lives.  Here are three sisters in the Lord who have faithfully maintained a close friendship for more than 30 years.

It has not mattered to the other two that Joy's ability to participate in the conversations started to produce more distractions and interruptions than responses.  Nor has it changed their decisions when Joy has become incapable of actually contributing to the conversation.  She can only listen.  Nor has it slowed them down as they've come to realize that even in her listening she does not have full comprehension of what they are saying.  Still, week after week: they call; they chat; they pour out love.

Neither of her friends would describe what they are doing as "self-sacrificing."  They simply think of themselves as continuing to love a good friend.  They love her like she is.  Of course, they would rejoice if she was empowered to participate in the conversations like she once did.  But they love her like she is not like they wish her to be.  They love her without criticism or judgment.  They love her without demands that it be convenient.  They simply love her as the friend she has always been.  (My soul gets a little mushy and emotional when I think about such love.)

In our society we have found great emphasis on being people of action.  We have also learned to be people who keep up appearances.  But we have found very little emphasis on being steadfast.  A steadiness of character which once was honored and admired has now become passé.  But consider for a moment, what a treasure it is to have friends who have known you for more than 30 years.  These are friends whom you do not need to explain yourself to; you do not need to give a history and background; you can simply talk and know they will understand.  Pause for a moment.  And consider further, how much greater the treasure friends who are also brothers/sisters in the Lord able to bring you revelation and wisdom and insight.

Perhaps we all should think again about how valuable it is to be steadfast friends.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart

Purposes of a New Generation

We have talked a couple of previous times about God's purposes.  We have discussed his overarching purposes, the ones that describe the grand scheme of God.  We've also discussed that his purposes change from generation to generation.  From time to time, we have alluded to the individual sons of God finding their personal purposes.

We have also noted from time to time, that some purposes of God have clearly been ignored by the organized church system.  One obvious example in the United States is that the organized church shifted the burden and responsibility for care of the poor from the church to the government.  The Scriptures, however, teach us that true religion and undefiled involves care for orphans and widows and the strangers in our cities.  Therefore, it can only be a government that is our religion, which has the responsibility to care for the poor.

There is an interesting Scripture which points out that “in the fullness of time" God sent his Son.  Have you ever considered what that means?  What was unique about the time when Jesus arrived on the Earth?  Why was the time then full any more than any other time?  Alexander the Great, the Macedonian who extended his empire from Europe to Africa and India, built libraries and insisted that the Greek language be taught throughout his empire.  When his empire was supplanted by the Roman Empire, the Romans built roads throughout the entire empire making travel simple and convenient.  When Jesus arrived on the Earth a very large part of the Earth's population could understand the common language (Greek) and could be reached by convenient means of travel.  The world had been prepared for the spread of the Gospel.

In a similar manner, we can see the events of the 20th century.  The airline industry, educational institutions, and world commerce made English a language readily understood throughout most of the Earth.  Later in the 20th century, the Internet penetrated most of the Earth.  We can see, therefore, a virtual parallel to the results of Alexander and the Romans.  We have a condition in which rapid communication throughout the world is much more readily accomplished than was possible prior to the end of the 20th century.  Have you asked yourself the question, why has God brought about this parallel condition?  What is his purpose?  Is it a similar purpose to that which was intended to occur in the first century?

You may have noticed the similarity between what happened at the Garden of Eden/ the Tower of Babel and what happened at the initial spread of the Gospel.  In both cases, God instructed man to go out from his present location to accomplish a specific task.  Man chose not to go.  God permitted circumstances to compel him to go.  Although circumstances may compel us to leave the place where we become uncomfortable circumstances cannot force us to become obedient to the instructions of the Lord.  The confusion of languages at the tower of Babel caused man to go forth across the Earth.  Nonetheless, there were no circumstances that required us to take loving lordship over the creation that God had entrusted to our care.  In the same manner, persecution caused many believers to depart from Jerusalem toward Samaria and other parts of the World.  The persecution could not compel us to undertake the process of making disciples.  The Father's willingness to let liberty reign, wherever His Spirit is permitted to lead, is an awe-inspiring display of His humility.

For most of 2000 years the church has continued to ignore, denigrate, or misinterpret Jesus' simple instruction to go and make disciples.  We have instead elected to build great organizations, to enlist crowds of members, to make converts with no commitment, and/or to attempt to teach the world concepts which can only be grasped by people who have become alive in Christ.  Except that we recognize the pride of man, our continuing unwillingness to undertake the simple task of making disciples seems beyond comprehension.  But, God has not changed His plan for how the Church is intended to be built and grow.

We are being permitted to watch the development of a generation of people, who for the first time in many generations seem willing and able to apprehend the concepts of making disciples and being disciples.  We are faced with a generation of young men and women who crave and hunger for men and women they can look up to and emulate.  This new generation is different from past generations.  In that it now has access to information from all around the world.  This generation is not looking for more words of teaching.  This generation will only respond to demonstrations of the reality and the power of the Kingdom of God.  This generation accepts without reservation the apostle Paul's statement that the Kingdom of God does not consist of talk but of power.  Tragically, the large organizations that call themselves the church are totally devoid of real spiritual power.  They embody much talk with no power.  The vast majority of the organization's members are completely without relationship to the living God of the universe.  They have only a limited intellectual understanding of things about that God.  But they are totally devoid of intimate familial relationship with Him.  Because these masses of people are without familial relationship with God, they have raised biological children with whom they have very little familial relationship.  Therefore, the children are left with great spiritual and emotional needs.  The children seek all sorts of fulfillment for those needs.  Many choose drugs.  Many choose false religions.  But, among them are some who hunger and thirst after righteousness.  These are the ones who will be filled.

Many of us have chosen to believe that the christian church is a very large and widespread organization.  Unless one accepts that Jesus is a liar, however, this cannot be true.  Jesus said that the way is narrow and only a few will enter.  The Church of Christ is much smaller than we have been led to believe throughout its history.  This is not surprising in light of the pride of man.  Nor is it surprising that man who built organizations rather than people want those organizations to be as large and lucrative as possible.  To be sure, many of the people who have led to the building of these organizations have been men and women of good hearts with good intentions.  But, good hearts and good intentions are no better substitute for the plan of God than wood, hay and stubble are as a substitute for gold, silver and precious stones.  This is not to suggest that buildings made from wood and hay are not adequate temporary shelter.  Rather it is to make clear that such buildings simply will not pass the test of time.  They have no eternal significance.

Jesus told his disciples that the Kingdom of God is among us.  This was not to suggest that the kingdom is like a coffee table, sitting in the middle of a group.  Nor was it to suggest that the kingdom is like a box of chocolates being passed out among us.  Rather it was to suggest that the very fabric and nature of His Kingdom exist in the form of the relationships among us.  Primary, of course, is the relationship that each son of God has with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  But also, the relationships each son of God has with his brothers and sisters throughout the world are an integral part of the fabric and nature of His Kingdom.  Throughout the New Testament these connected relationships among the believers are emphasized over and over again.  We are talked about as the body of Christ.  We are talked about as a Temple made with living stones.  We are told that we are members of the body placed in it as it pleases Christ.  We are told that we are members of the body and belong to every other member.

Envisioning the close-knit nature of these relationships has been made extremely difficult in light of the teachings of modern churchianity.  As we look around the organizations that call themselves the church, we can gain no vision for what it means to be a disciple or a disciple maker.  For most of us, we would not know what a disciple looks like if we met one.  Throughout churchianity, there has been a substitution of better and better programs for any real personal relationships.  One local church pastor whom I know describes himself as being able to invent new programs faster than the old ones can fail.  As an imitation substitute for discipleship, many organizations have started mentoring programs.  Mentoring is the process of pouring good ideas from one man's mind into the mind of another.

Disciple making on the other hand, is the process of one man, pouring his spirit and life into another.  This process is one in which the two become engaged in a very close knit relationships.  And yet, contrary to much teaching that has been spread around, the relationship is not one of authority.  The disciple maker remains the brother of the disciple.  He is not in a superior position.  Indeed he is subservient to his disciple.  Jesus chose the most menial of tasks, the washing of His disciples’ feet, to demonstrate His understanding of their relationship.  In the act of washing those feet, Jesus demonstrated that his leadership in the kingdom of God is not based on his power and authority; rather, it is based on his love and servant hood.  This Man (at the time the only Son of God walking in the flesh on the Earth) had every right to exert His power, His authority, and His will over these men, whom He had created.  Instead, Jesus laid down his life for these men, as one who loves them and made himself a servant to them.

We are faced with a generation of young people who are looking for someone who will love them, set an example for them and serve them by leading them into the presence of the God of the universe.  Over and over again as we look about churchianity.  We see men who are modeling their style of leadership after the great captains of industry that they see around them.  This captain of industry leadership is a leadership that is based on position, power and authority.  But Jesus gave us a very different example of leadership.  The difficulty, of course, lies in this: Jesus’ style of leadership requires that we lay down our lives.  In it, there is no room for pride.  In it there is no room to judge the people whom we lead.  In it, there is no room for men, who will not go to the cross, laying down their lives for their friends.

The Holy Spirit has demonstrated and declared that He is choosing to operate differently among this upcoming generation than He has in past generations of the Church.  Among this new generation the Holy Spirit has been systematically turning away from those who would build groups and large organizations and turning toward those who would build the close-knit personal friendships and relationships.  We are being returned to the Great Commission.  We are being asked to stop building better and better clubs.  We are being asked to build disciples.  And it is those who have become our disciples, not the large crowds and the masses of people, whom we are instructed to baptize and teach.

It is time for all of us to change our focus and align ourselves with the purposes of God for this generation.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart

A New Season in the Church

I have just encountered a fascinating experience.  I was discussing with Father the question of whether He wants me to add to the Blog tonight.  He said He does.  So I asked, what would you like me to write?  He instructed me to go to the files in my computer.  When I got there He instructed me to open one that shows it was written in early 2008.  The file I opened is a document that I have only vague memories of having read before.  While I know that I could have typed what is in the file, I have no memory whatsoever that I did.  I simply do not know who wrote the document.  If someone knows who wrote it, please, let me know and I will gladly give attribution.  But, as I read the document it is clear to me that the concepts in it originated with the Holy Spirit.  It is clear to me that Father wants me to share this document here on the Blog. As you read, I encourage you to contemplate how the things shared are affecting you and your friends in the Body of Christ.  Here is the document.   sbm

A New Season in the Church

A new season is upon us. Since 1990 the leaders have been saying that a change in the season of God was coming and that we were in a period of transition. In 1990, the season was still the Charismatic Season. The emphasis of that season was on the gifts of the spirit. The most asked question of that season was “what is your gift?”

With the approaching of the year 2000 or Y2K, as it was famously called, a near panic ensued. The predictions of a global catastrophe caused by computer glitches, exposed the weakness and immaturity of the Church. These facts were dramatically highlighted by the reactions of the church community following the events of September 11, 2001. In the United States, a Christian influenced government retreated to the supposed safety of strict laws and wars on two fronts. And the Church continued to speak about change while yet pursuing a continuing agenda of numerical growth, financial prosperity, and political influence.

During that time, there were some, mainly cosmetic, changes. Post-modernism made its appearance, primarily in the form of the “emergent church” movement. This movement attempted to remedy what it considers the exclusionary and socially reprehensible practices of the modern institutional religious system. Other cosmetic changes were assertions of purpose, defined by the requirements of the local institution; or user-friendly, market sensitive churches. As an example, the 100th anniversary of the Pentecostal movement that began at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, came and went, confirming the ministries of motivational speakers as its current manifestation.

Meanwhile, on the world stage, change has been the order of the day. The Soviet Union collapsed, releasing many nations to find their destinies. National policies of Apartheid ended in South Africa. Dictators died or were overthrown. Japan collapsed as an economic power, and both India and China rose in economic prominence. Nations were suddenly adrift and struggling to find their way.

In this environment of global change, a new season in God was ushered in. God has stirred the hearts of leaders in the Body of Christ to move away from the current preoccupations of the institutional systems, to the more serious consideration of representing the nature and character of God himself. This is a shift from the narcissism of management to the maturity of responsible sons of God.

The restoration of community, based in divinely ordained relationships, as opposed to membership in an institution, is the new reality. These relationships have replaced membership.

Discipleship is no longer for the purpose of consolidating church membership. In this new season, those in leadership serve for the benefit of those under their care. The goal of discipleship is to release the disciple into his or her divine purpose and to assist him or her to find and follow a God ordained unique destiny. Loving older brothers are replacing titular pastors, and spiritual children are being released to come to maturity.

Recognition is dawning that our purpose for being on the earth is not to work to leave the earth a better place than when we entered it, but to be conformed to the very image of Christ in our time here. Seeing all things through spiritual lenses is replacing a rationalistic view of reality.  A life of hearing and trusting God is replacing an intellect based decision making process.  Divine wisdom is replacing secularism. The realities of heaven and earth meet in the Body of Christ, and define earthly existence as being to show the glory of Christ in the way the community of the Body of Christ governs itself and demonstrates the compassionate love of the Father.

God’s character, not merely choice of style, has become the substance of the current season. The Holy Spirit has moved our focus from the administration of gifts of ministry to our seeing ourselves as sent sons of God empowered to come to maturity.  The evidence of the changed season is that there is a new level of enablement by the Holy Spirit to match the hunger in the hearts of believers, many of whom are not content with being spectators, but want to engage the reality of being an expression of the character and reality of God himself. They want to walk as mature sons of God, sons who do only what Father is doing and say only what Father is saying.

God himself has prepared this answer for the times that have come upon the Earth. In this season of global uncertainty and growing distress among nations, the sons of God will govern themselves so righteously that the nations of mankind will seek the wisdom and counsel of the Body of Christ. 

 We are being privileged in this generation to experience new depths to the revelation written by the Apostle Peter nearly 2000 years ago: 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. {1 Peter 2:9-10 NASB}

Is the Revelation being Diluted?

I have a good friend.  He is a wonderful man of God.  He hears God clearly most of the time and about most things.  I always look forward to our times visiting each other. 

My friend is an older man who has been privileged to pass most of the work of his business on to his sons.  Those sons are also men of God.  They are competent and diligent.  As a result there is not very much day to day work that my friend is required to do in the business.  He is free to do what elders should do – to go and sit in the gates of the city.

But, my friend has a computer.  He reads with interest from many sources around the world wide web.  Moreover, he is a sensitive and compassionate man.  As a result, he comes across countless stories, pictures, messages, etc. that are interesting to him because of the way they have touched him.  Some are pictures of exquisite beauty.  Some are stories that teach a timeless truth.  Some are messages of real truth that should be seen in the society of today.  All of them are as individual pieces poignant, amusing, or instructive.

Alas, my friend loves to attach these gems to emails and send them out to his email mailing list.  He sends many such emails, often as many as six or seven in a single day.  He is at least kind enough that he usually cleans up all those extraneous headers form the prior senders.  He occasionally also types an introduction that expresses his feelings about the piece he is forwarding to us all.

I have also another good friend.  This one a brother I am committed to watch over.  This man sends me copies of all sorts of letters and emails that he sends or receives.  Virtually all of them are in one way or another, to his mind, related to some success or failure or problem in his life.  When he sends them to me, he almost never writes anything to me about why he is sending them or why they are significant to him.  He, I presume, expects me to understand or expects God to reveal the mystery to me.  He also sends several such emails each day.

If you were in my situation, how would you react to this onslaught of electronic missives?  One option, of course, is to enjoy reading and thinking about each one.  But, that would consume significant chunks of very limited time.  Another is to dismiss both friends from my life.  But, that would cut me off from men that God has made very precious to me.  A third would be to try to get my friends to change their emailing practices.  But, after discussions with each about the problems involved, I cannot detect either desire or intention to change in either of them.  Alas, what to do?

While there are many things he says with which I disagree, television personality, Jon Stewart, at his recent rally said something very poignant.  He pointed out the truth.  If we amplify everything we will be unable to hear anything.  We see this truth at work in many settings.  It is well known to people who obtain “cheap” hearing aids.  If the aid does not distinguish among the kinds of sounds it amplifies it not only does not help the wearer, it actually makes it harder for him to hear.  If you go to hear a speech, but the microphone picks up the background noises and amplifies them too, it is almost impossible to understand the speech.

We see the same basic dynamic in raising our children.  What happens when every night Dad comes home and yells about something or another that he sees as wrong at home?  Soon, his children simply tune out the shout.  They simply do not really hear him anymore.  We see this again with our President.  Because he has given speech after speech after speech, we as a nation no longer believe that what he is talking about is really important.  In contrast, a generation ago, when for the President to speak on television was a rare event, virtually every adult American wanted to listen and hear what the President thought was important.

Think about your friends for a moment.  There are some who rarely speak, but when they do you listen.  In a regular Sunday night gathering we attended for a while years ago, the leader said that my wife, Joy, was like E.F.Hutton of advertising fame.  She rarely spoke, but when she spoke everybody listened.  There are other friends who remind you of the proverb, “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”  They may talk a bit more often, but the things they say have real value to you.

So, what do other people experience from your words (spoken or emailed)?

Are they wishing they could put your email address into their spam filter list?  Or, are they opening your emails with a burst of faith that they are about to hear something from God?  Do they turn and look at their text messages as you talk with them?  Or do they turn and look you intently in the eye as you speak?

One of Satan’s schemes does not require that the revelation of God be denied.  Rather, the revelation simply becomes so diluted that it is no longer recognized.  Jesus set the example for us.  He never spoke a word except he first heard it from the Father.

Let's Re-examine What We Know

Back in the days when I was practicing law, the firm I worked with represented many different "christian" or religious broadcasters who were getting licenses for television and radio stations to use for broadcasting the "gospel". Ironically, in our home we did not own a TV at all. Moreover, most of the music we listened to was not from the radio. We played tapes of recorded music. During those days people would ask me if I would like to have a TV so my children could watch "christian TV". I told them honestly, I would rather my children watched the playboy channel. You see they could see and know that the Playboy folks were sponsoring sin. But, the "christians" looked like maybe they were sponsored by God. Tragically, in fact they were for the most part motivated by the same desires for money, power, and influence as the ones on the Playboy channel.

My heart goes out to those of you who did not grow up in a nice criminal gang where you could know that what was going on around you was evil. Now, you are faced with the much more difficult task of sorting out: how much of what you learned in churchianity was in fact from God; how much was from the traditions of man; and, how much was from the flesh of the organizations leaders. One of the most painful discoveries is when we see that what we have been following was not Jesus even though we had the very best of intentions.

Remember, however, one truth. If you seek the Truth who is Jesus, and you are willing to die to find Him, He will be revealed to you in all His glory. Then you will have received a treasure beyond price.  It is Father's desire to give you the real Kingdom not a religious imitation.

World Views

J-O-Y – Jesus  first; others second; yourself last.

Many of us attending Sunday school learned this simple mnemonic rubric for life.  It is so simple, and wonderful.  But, is it right?  Let’s examine four different world views.  Out the outset we need acknowledge that these are certainly not all the possibilities.  Moreover, it is a rare person indeed who would follow any of them with genuine purity.  Nonetheless, it will be helpful to look at a broad brushed picture of each.  Please note:  Throughout this we will use the male pronouns but readers may readily substitute the female pronouns.

Self-Centric

A self-centric person assesses life on the basis of the impact on himself.  Thus, in his job he views the ideal as the balance of the most comfortable job with the highest pay (or other rewards such as power, prestige, security or leverage for the future).  Every relationship is for benefit of his self.  Giving to others is a way to get more for himself.  If something goes wrong there is someone else or something upon which the blame may be fixed.  He causes success but is never responsible for failure.  Prayer is a process whereby God is persuaded to give what he, himself, wants.  If you receive from him, you may be sure that you are expected to perform for him in some way.  For such people, the marriage is for the benefits that it contains: economic, social, and physical.  His children are confronted when they do things that make him uncomfortable.  Discipline, if given at all, is sporadic and inconsistent because it depends upon his mood.  His most frequently used pronouns are I, me, and my.  Among the religious, one frequently encounters the personal flip side in which the self claims guilt and worthlessness to the point of self-pitying martyrdom.  Although at first blush this looks different, it is actually the same self-centric view asserting the self as the central figure in the person’s universe.

Task-Centric

A task-centric person is actually just a variation on the Self-Centric.  Instead of all values revolving directly around the self as described above, however, they are attributed to the importance of the tasks which the person has adopted as his identity.  Thus, this man becomes the workaholic; the burned out pastor; the laboratory researcher or the like who never has time for anything in life except the tasks in which he finds his identity.  Among the religious, these prideful self-centered people create the impression of being very concerned about the people for whom they are working but in fact it is not those people who are important but it is the tasks themselves.  Thus, these are the ones who cannot leave the ninety-nine to go after one because it is not the sheep that is important it is the task of building the flock.

Other-Centric

The other-centric person seems very concerned about the welfare of the people around him.  He looks to be much more noble than the ones above.  Sadly, he is actually no different.  His self-centered pride demands that he perform so that other people will like, accept, and be grateful to him.  He needs to focus on others so that they will feed his ego which is dependent on their responses (and/or the responses of the audience) for his own self-esteem.

Christ-Centric

The Christ-centric person is radically different from any of the above.  This man lives his life in the eternal realm.  Even though he is functioning in the world of time and space, it is entirely viewed and understood from an eternal perspective.  This man finds his identity in being an adopted child of God who is continually developing maturity in his relationship to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. He builds relationships because that is the nature of God.  He rejoices in being connected with other Christ-centric people in the exact relationships that Jesus ordains for them, because he understands that Jesus is in the process of building the Church who is destined to be the Bride of Christ.  Thus, he expects to be a disciple and to be making disciples of others.  He is never dependent on anyone to hear God for him.  Rather, this man depends on God to confirm or deny the things he hears from other people.  Because he knows the Father’s love and the absolute forgiveness that has by grace been bestowed on him, he no longer carries anxiety about either his life in time and space or his life throughout the eternal realm.  He never struggles to obtain the stuff around him because he knows that the Father has already given to him all that he needs for life and Godliness.  He is unconcerned about what others think of him because he knows what the Father thinks of him.  His activities are neither aimed to please himself nor others.  Indeed the actions are not even aimed at pleasing God because the man knows that he is already pleasing to God.  Rather, the Christ-centric person knows that everything that needs to be done is already complete in God. As such, the man simply watches what God is doing and joins God in doing it.  He hears what God is saying and joins God in saying it.  Whether these words or actions make the man more comfortable or less comfortable is irrelevant to the person’s choices to continue joining with God.  If they bring approval or criticism is equally irrelevant.  Thus, the Christ-centric person is free to love without demanding a response, because that is the way God loves.  He is free to give things because he knows the source.  He serves people with no need for recognition because God has so lovingly served him first.  

Our World View

In my view, the J-O-Y, Jesus, Others, You, perspective is often a good feeling but self-centric experience.  Clearly, it makes for a much better appearance than a Me, Me, Me, perspective.  But, the Christ-centric perspective keeps us right at the beginning of the rubric.  Christ-centric yields a Jesus, Jesus, Jesus approach.  In Jesus we come into God.  In Jesus we get direction as to how and when to be involved with others.  In Jesus we find our own identity and learn how to mature in Him.  From an external view the behavior may look the same.  But, from the eternal perspective it is entirely different. 

Let us then look to Him who is the author and finisher of our faith.

Why Won't He Talk to Me ?

A very wise and precious friend asked an important question recently:

I'm glad for those of you who are receiving revelation. OK, I'm going to be brutally honest, and very vulnerable. My hope is if there is any response, it would not be condemning or "preachy".   Lately it's been very quiet. He has given so little revelation, which is better than none, to be sure. Things between God and I have been painful for several months actually. It's hard to go back to Him for fellowship when I feel He's let me down time and again.  What I have heard are the slightest whispers, which I cling to.  Yes, He takes us through different seasons in our relationship with Him, and I have seen a few unique styles of communication as He has matured me.  I'm sure that this is another maturing process even still.  But it's still so very painful...
How do you handle no response at all to your questions?

At the risk of being obnoxious, I gave my friend this answer.

I am so delighted that you know that you are loved enough that you can take the risk of being honest. What is especially nice is that it is clear that you seek not only to be honest with us but also honest with yourself. I know what you mean as you write. I have also been there. My term was "the silence is deafening." Meaning to me I could hear so little I sometimes thought I had lost my ability to hear. I would like very much to have a nice spiritual pill that I could give you to make it all feel better. But, I know as much as you would like to feel better, it is infinitely more important to you that you be restored to clear and steady communications with Papa God.

What I was forced to learn during those periods in my life cannot all be put into words. But, the one thing that helped me to endure the process is this. The desert is God's training, testing, and purifying arena. There are a couple of truths about the desert. First, no matter which way you look it all looks the same. So during the desert times one feels like there is no clear direction to go. The second, no matter how much stuff you brought out into the desert with you, you do not have enough to survive until you get to the other side. Thus, you must have grace just to survive.

One thing about God is also important to our desert tourism. God has never brought a person into the desert that He did not also carry him through to the other side.

I have talked with Papa about you. He is very clear that He will carry you through this time. And, He tells me the time will come when you will look back and give thanks for this season.

You have heard enough from Him in the past to know He is absolutely committed to you. He has plans for you. Plans for good. You have been called and anointed to some specific purposes as you serve the sons of God in the community.

I know it is tough. Hang in there. We will be asking Father to teach you gently.

I thought you also might like to hear this response.

What do you Impart?

Have you noticed that the most significant things the Holy Spirit recorded through the writers of the Gospels were not what Jesus taught?  Far more attention was devoted to the things He imparted than to His teachings.  We are told of His frequent impartation of healing.  He imparted to His disciples an anointing by the Holy Spirit.  He imparted peace not as the world gives peace but His personal peace that is never dependant on circumstances and no one has a right to take away.  He imparted revelation to His disciples.  Truly He is a teacher.  But even more He imparted things to His disciples that they could receive in no other way.

In other writings the Holy Spirit shows us the practice within the early Church of things being imparted from one believer to another.  We see examples of the laying on of hands not as a ritual or ceremony.  Rather this was a time when the life of the recipient was empowered with an imparted anointing of one sort or another.  This was viewed as an important component of Church life.  Paul writes to his disciple Timothy about the things imparted to Timothy that have equipped him to serve and do battle.

And yet, in modern institutional churchianity we observe that such impartations are extremely rare.  We see great emphasis on preaching and teaching.  This emphasis seems far greater than what appears in the operations of the early Church.  Today we see more use of spiritual gifts as tools to bring in people and contributions than as impartations of long term benefit to the children of God.

Why do we observe such change in the dynamics of ministry within the Church?

It appears to me that these changes may be directly related to a much more obvious and fundamental change that has taken place.  In modern churchianity there is great emphasis placed on getting more members for the congregation.  Ironically, this is so important that we are even justified to entice members of another congregation to leave that one and come to our congregation.  We try to build seeker friendly congregations that will entice even the most casual visitor to want to come back and join our congregation.  We give wide spread praise to the leaders who have built the largest congregations.  We push aside or ignore to death the persons who make waves that might make people in the congregation less comfortable in our group.  We work diligently to build our group even at the cost of other groups and non-conforming individuals.

In the larger view, we idolize making converts all around the world.  We stir up the enthusiasm of our group by soliciting money from the members to support missionaries around the world who send us back statistics about the amazing numbers of people who “come forward to receive the Lord” at their meetings.  We measure the success of groups in terms of the numbers of its members and converts.

Jesus, however, intentionally spoke to the world in parables so that they would not understand what He was saying.  He asked recipients of His impartations to not tell anybody.  He seemed to desire operating in ways that would avoid more attention and larger groups.  He intentionally said things that offended large numbers of people.  He was not recruiting the rich or famous to give Him support or publicity.  When given the opportunity to perform a stunt that would give him the whole world as His audience, He said “NO.”

Instead, Jesus became the leader of a ragtag group who were described as a group of ignorant uneducated fishermen.  He undertook not the building of a big organization but the building up of about a dozen disciples.  He did not seek to become noticed by everyone.  Rather, He undertook to become a very close friend to only a small group of men who came to see the anointing of God in Him.  When He got to the end of His ministry He made two particularly noteworthy statements which summarized His own view of what He had accomplished.

The first of these two was made to the Father in His prayer.  He reported to the Father that He had kept the ones whom the Father had entrusted to Him.  It was very clear that His focus was on the few names on Father’s list.  He had no apparent interest in expanding Father’s list of about a dozen.  Rather, He was committed to impart to this small group the things He received from Father.

The second statement was made to His disciples.  This was the small group of men who had seen Him intimately for years.  They saw it all.  They saw Him with the crowds.  They saw Him when He went off to squat by the side  of the path when hiking through the countryside.  They saw him match wits with the religious leaders.  They watch while He poured out love on prostitutes and commuted the correct sentence of an adulteress.  Having watched how He treated His family, His finances, His taxes, His relationship with the Father, these men knew Jesus intimately.  It was these men Jesus looked in the eye and told, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”

But, churchianity is lead by men who are continually seeking public acclaim and at the same time trying to avoid intense personal scrutiny.  These organization men are absolutely brilliant and extremely effective at building larger and larger organizations with more and more money and influence.  They are continually answering questions that no one is asking.  At the same time they perpetually refer to someone else people who have real questions about the difficulties they encounter in life.  They are good at organizing the delivery of Christmas turkeys.  But utterly inadequate to deliver us from our own evil that lies within us.

Why this disparity between conduct our greatest leaders and conduct of Jesus?

Much of the change lies in our change of the tasks we have accepted and undertaken.  Jesus, after giving us an example so that we would understand what He meant, commissioned us to “make disciples.”  It was these disciples that He asked us to teach and baptize.  Modern churchianity, however, has commissioned itself to make members.  It has undertaken to teach whoever it can get to listen.  Jesus, on the other hand, specifically did not ask us to build His Church.  Indeed, He gave to Himself the task of building His Church.  He chose to give the Church His personal touch by placing each member in the Church in just the spot that pleases Him.  Moreover, He gave rather stern warnings to men who would lead the Children of God astray, to move them out of the place in which He put them.

Why then in the system do we see a virtual complete absence of true personal disciples?  It is because members of a large club I lead require almost no personal sacrifice compared to what is required to disciple just one man.  The organization takes on a life of its own.  Disciples require me to continually die to myself and my own desires.  The leaders of the club system suffer burn out because they operate in their own strength.  Disciple makers are sustained by the Spirit of the Lord who is continually flow both through them to their disciples and through their disciples to the servant disciple maker.

So, what is required to be a disciple maker?  First and foremost it is important to realize, while one can teach what he has not experienced, he can never impart what he does not have.  The man who has not been a disciple can never effectively be a disciple maker.

So, if I want to be a disciple, how do I find a disciple maker?  Initially I must acknowledge that discipleship is a relationship.  So the search can only be among the people with whom I have some relationship.  Among such people, look for five specific things:

1.     Look for someone in whom you see the character and person of Jesus.

2.     Look among that group for someone you trust enough to reveal your inmost personal secrets and failures.

3.     Look among that smaller group for someone who has vision for what you personally may become in God’s plan for you.

4.     Of those, find the ones who are disciples and in effective relationships.

5.     Finally, choose one of these and ask if he/she will watch over and disciple you.

Let us return to the way of Jesus.  Let us go and make disciples and impart to them the Spirit and life of the Lord.

Leaders or Servants - How Do We View Ourselves ?

My good friend,  Chip Kingsbury posted the following on the Facebook Group, Kingdom Village.  I found it so compelling that I wanted to share it with you.

What does the world say a leader is?

 Jesus told us clearly in Matt 20:25-28. The leaders of the world:
1. “lord it over them” (See Acts 19:16)
2. “Exercise authority over them”
3. “Call themselves benefactors” Luke 22:25

The oppressor seeks to look like a benefactor, having a respectable image. He does this to prevent the oppressed from resisting. So long as the oppressor appears kind, reasonable, and of benefit to the people, the oppressed just accept this type of leadership as “good.” Some might even believe that the oppression is really good for them since the oppressor really means well.

But what does Jesus say?
• “It will not be so with you”
• “Not so with you”
• “But you are not to be like that”

So it seems (to me anyway) that we:
We are NOT to LORD IT OVER, but to be accountable to those whom we serve;
We are NOT TO EXERCISE AUTHORITY OVER, but to be one who serves;
We are NOT TO CALL OURSELVES BENEFACTORS, but to be humble vision setters.

Instead of holding followers accountable to themselves, biblical servants are to be accountable to the Lord and their followers.

Biblical leadership separates leadership from authority.
Leadership: Brings vision, Sets goals, rallies the people, pulls people together, brings unity
Authority: Choice, decision-making, accountability must rest with those whom we serve.

I challenge each of us who considers ourselves to be leaders, to "Make the road by walking." Choose to separate leadership from authority. Refuse to follow the well worn “ancient” paths of despotism, dictatorship and rulers.
• Instead, establish accountability structures where you and all others leaders will be accountable to those whom they serve.
• Provide vision, dreams, and ideas.
• Pull people together, bring unity to disarray,
• And then go to those for whom you have done all of that. Ask them:
How am I doing?
Where do I need to change?
What have I missed?
What needs to be done differently?
How must I change?

It is not easy to be a servant leader – it means giving up power and authority, and putting those things in the hands of God and those you serve.

Can we take up the challenge?