Influence

It is not the pastor who has the greatest impact on people. A large portion of the population will never enter a church.

It is not the televangelists who have the greatest impact on people. Christian TV is not meant to reach the world. It is aimed at Christians. I don't watch Christian TV. And if I don't, what makes anyone think those not following Jesus will watch.

(I don't want to the impression that I think Christian TV is worthless. Still, I don't think it is effective in influencing those who don't follow Jesus.)

Those with the greatest impact on people not following Jesus are everyday, normal Christians. Those who will never preach a sermon, never play in a worship band, or never have a title with the word "pastor" in it.

If someone follows Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives in his heart. So, the Holy Spirit goes wherever he goes -- work, school, the mall, a New York Yankees game, little league, golf, sailing, Mcdonalds, jogging, camping, recycling, I95.

The Possibility of Radical Transformation

The family of God is full of individuals where the Spirit of God dwells. where the Spirit of God is, there exists the possibility of radical transformation.

Most people reading this will think in terms of ther personal life. And this is a true application. But there is a bigger application. Radical transformation is possible wherever the people of God are.

When I order Hunan Chicken from Happy Garden, and I go to pick up my order, the Holy Spirit is now at Happy Garden. There exist the possibility of radical transformation at Happy Garden.

Imitate God

We are encouraged to imitate God. It seems to be a reference to a child’s tendency to imitate its parents’ actions. So, what does the Father do? What is He like? He is infinite. He is holy. He is personal.

The infinite qualities of God are things like being all-powerful, all-knowing, present everywhere and transcendent. These things are physically impossible for us. We cannot hope to imitate them. We cannot hope to understand them.

The holy qualities of God are things like being sinless, moral perfection and righteousness. Human being were designed to follow these patterns. However, sin corrupted the image of God in humans. Until mankind is glorified, people cannot maintain this standard of perfection. But we can strive and move toward it. Commitment to make right choices after failure honors God. Making right choices in the midst of temptation really honors God. Choosing right continually so it become instinctive honors God.

Personal qualities seem to form the largest group. These include things like love, mercy, compassion. And they include the need for community, beauty and creativity. And inner qualities like will, aspirations and hopes. People are designed to move in these areas. We struggle with some, especially those that intersect with the lives of other people. But we can choose to grow in those areas, and choose to sacrifice.

Living Like Jesus

Reading through one of the biographies of Jesus, I asked myself the question, “what did Jesus do?” What a person does and says demonstrates their values and priorities. So, I tallied up his activitiy.

“One healing. One teaching. Another teaching. One exorcism. Another healing.”

Jesus’ life ― outside of the cross ― seems to involve:

He takes people’s circumstances, and makes them better.

A person should not be ill or deformed in body. So he healed. A person should be controlled by evil forces. So he liberated. A person should not be in need. So he fed.

He takes people’s misconceptions and wrong perspectives, and turns them right side up. (Or upside down.)

He shared about getting right with God, the fatherhood of God, acceptance, right living, grace, legalism, money, family and responsibility.

He demonstrated what a right heart and attitude was.

He touched lepers, tax collectors, and the immoral. He uncovered silly rule, rules that did not accomplish what God intended. He made decisions with one ear tuned to God, the other to the ground, one hand to the plow, the other held out in welcome, one eye on the road and the other one the prize.

He lived his journey in an efficient, effortless and assured manner that we cannot hope to match, but which we are urged to imitate.

Learning

True learning or discipleship cannot be accomplished in a "pew" or a classroom setting; related activity must accompany lecture or true learning does not happen.

God of Surprises

Life is not easy, because there does not seem to be any rules.

When Israel arrived at the Jordan River to go into Canaan, the river was flooding. God commanded the priests to carry the ark into the river, ahead of the people. When all the priests were standing in the river, God pushed the river back so the people could walk across on dry land.

Sometimes God’s guidance is just like the opening of the river. We have to get our feet wet before the way to go opens up before us.

Sometimes God does reveal the end from the beginning. Abraham knew that he should travel to Canaan, have a son, and bring blessing to the world. Moses knew he would lead Israel to Canaan. Jesus knew he would go to the cross. Paul knew he would take the gospel to the gentiles.

God does not lead everyone one way. He is the god of surprises. If God laid out his rules, and always followed them, then He would become predictable. To follow Him would not be a matter of faith. We could follow Him by sight.

“OK … God just applied rule #1, so He is going to apply rule #2 pretty quick. That means I better to A and B, not C and D.”

Even though He showed Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Paul what the end would be, that does not mean they knew every step of the way. (With the possible exception of Jesus. Jesus breaks the mold in a lot of ways. He lived in complete dependence on God, but He was God.) They needed to trust God for the next step. And the next step. And the one after that. So, they could be sure to reach the end.

Survival?

What is the sustaining force of any church? It is God's Spirit which sustains, directs, empowers and gives gifts and brings growth.

Who is the head of the any church? Jesus followers everywhere proclaim that Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus is the head of the church and they are a family of priests. All believers minister.

So, what would happen to the average church if the building blew up and the pastor and staff went with it? The church should still exist. The family of God still exists. The head of the church is still alive. The one who sustains it still exists and still is working. Life may be different because important members -- even strategic members -- are gone.

So how would the average church react?

Maturity

Steve Covey wrote that we all create thing twice. First, we create them in our inner life. Then, we create them in the world. So, the shape of our inner life determines what flows out of our lives. Our character,  temperament, perspectives, worldview and experiences give birth to our actions.

James seeks to demonstrate that a proper walk with God produces proper actions. So, he encourages:

• Right response to trial/temptation
• “doing” the word
• Fair treatment of people
• Faith and works
• Right speech
• Wisdom and its deeds
• Being friends with God
• Being content
• Right use of wealth
• Being patient
• Being honest
• Being devoted to prayer
• Encouragement to follow the Truth

The life of a Jesus-follower oscillates back and forth between flection, listening and absorbing to doing, loving and obeying. Doing allows the grace, love and spirit of God to flow from us.

The filling of the Holy Spirit alone does not produce fruit or promote spiritual maturity. The flow of the Holy spirit produces fruit and promotes spiritual maturity.

Guidance II

Just because there are surprises, it does not mean that God is arbitrary. He does not follow whims. He is not capricious. He does want us to know Him, understand Him, so we will trust Him.

We learn to trust people, when they tell us what they intend to do, how they intend to do it, and they do what they say. So, God reveals Himself to us, and He acts according to what He says. He always does what He says. So, we can always trust Him.

He promises He will guide us. He promises that He will not contradict what He has told us about Himself, what He values, or the way He told us to live. He did NOT promise to give us the precise method of guidance. 

He could have promised to mail us detailed instructions, complete with diagrams and a MapQuest map. But He didn’t. He sometimes tells us  where the end is. He promises to show us the right road. But fairly often, we won’t know which turn to make until we are right at the intersection.

Guidance

One thing that most Jesus-followers hold is that God is active in the lives of people. This includes providing guidance. Guidance should make life easier. God knows a lot more than we do. But there seems to be a surprising lack of rules.

When Israel arrived at the Jordan River to go into Canaan, the river was at flooding. God commanded the priests to carry the Ark, and walk ahead of the people, right into the river. When all of the priests were standing in the river, God pushed the water back into a heap, so the people could walk across on dry land.

Sometimes, God’s guidance is just like opening up the river. You need to get your feet wet before the way opens up.

But sometimes God reveals the end from the beginning. Abraham knew he should go to Canaan. There he would have a son that would bring blessing to the whole world. Moses knew he would lead Israel from Egypt to Canaan. Jesus knew he would go to the cross. Paul knew he would take the gospel to the gentiles.

 God does not lead everyone only one way. He is the God of surprises. If God followed one method, he would become predictable. And we would follow him by what knew, and not by faith. This element of surprise leaves God in control. Following requires a bit of courage and a bit of risk taking.

Even though he does show us where the end will be, that does not mean there will not be unexpected turns or landslides blocking the road. We have never been on this road before. We will always need to be actively engaged with the road and with our Guide.

Easter Thoughts

Some of us got together Friday night before Easter to watch “The Passion of The Christ”. I had seen it before. Two things stood out to me this time. First, a faction of the Jewish religious leaders committed legalized murder. The trial was at night. Only a part of the religious leaders were called. Jesus was struck at the trial. The high priest directly questioned Jesus. All illegal according to Jewish jurisprudence. And the Jewish leaders worked to incite a riot to convince the Roman authorities to crucify Jesus.

Second, Jesus was scourged and nailed to a cross. When he dies, the universe changes. A cosmic spiritual shockwave created a tsunami that engulfed all creation. Like creation or Noah’s flood, when everything was new. The rules had changed. Even the playing field is different.

Easter Thoughts

Some of us got together Friday night before Easter to watch “The Passion of The Christ”. I had seen it before. Two things stood out to me this time. First, a faction of the Jewish religious leaders committed legalized murder. The trial was at night. Only a part of the religious leaders were called. Jesus was struck at the trial. The high priest directly questioned Jesus. All illegal according to Jewish jurisprudence. And the Jewish leaders worked to incite a riot to convince the Roman authorities to crucify Jesus.

Second, Jesus was scourged and nailed to a cross. When he dies, the universe changes. A cosmic spiritual shockwave created a tsunami that engulfed all creation. Like creation or Noah’s flood, when everything was new. The rules had changed. Even the playing field is different.

The Present and The Future

Does anyone remember seeing a bike in a store and going “Wow! I want that bike!” ? (It could have been – and probably was – something else.) You wanted that “whatever it was” (WIW) really bad. It embodied the best that could ever be. If the WIW grabbed ahold of you imagination, maybe you would starting planning and preparing to buy it. You volunteered for extra work to earn extra money. You sacrificed purchasing something else. And you began saving until you had enough to get the WIW.

Notice what happens here. We see something, and it creates a wonderful view of the future. And it changes the way we behave.

The present creates the future; and the future creates the present.

 

Effect on the World

God called Israel (and through them the church) to receive God’s blessing so they could be a blessing to the world. God’s people are God’s gift to the world. Each one of God’s people should turn their niche in the world upside-down. The world should see the life and conduct of God’s people, and be blown away.

Which has several implications:

• God never intended his children to do this by themselves. So, the children need to gather in families, which are also armies. We cannot think of a horde. We need to think of squadrons or platoons. We can only be effective at that level.
• Worship meetings are not the be-all and end-all of following Jesus. Some people consider a worship meeting the primary method of demonstrating Jesus to the world. And it can be a part of that demonstration. Even if a meeting has a revolutionary effect on those who do attend, not everyone will attend. Baggage from past experiences, or expectations based on wrong information or incorrect perspectives, will convince many people to avoid any type of church meeting. So, those in Jesus’ family need to conceive of a way to engage the world outside of the meeting. (This at a time when the church seems to fear the corrupting influence of the world more than believe in the positive influence of the Holy Spirit and God’s family. As a result, they avoid engaging the world.)
• The government and society are becoming increasingly secularized and anti-religious. The church continues to expectthat it can get the government to do its work for it. In many ways, the church acts like we are still in medieval times. It believes the world revolves around it and it stands in the center of society and holds all the strings. The universe does revolve around God. But the church began on the fringes of society. It did move to the center. But there was no guarantee that it would stay there. Indeed, it is moving back to the fringes.

Habits

God mad Man to be a creature of habit. When faced with a complex process, humans will always internalize the process until the can perform it on auto-pilot. It works this way with religious processes too. People develop habits of spirituality. Except we tend to call them tradiitons or rituals. These habits have a strong possiblity of taking over, so people need to be in continuual renewal so their relationship with God does not deteriorate into ritual motions.

Living Sacrifice (pt. 2)

Since, our life is intended to be worship ― demonstrated by words, actions and thoughts that agree with God’s purposes ― then our lives must conform to God’s purposes. Life flows from the inside out. So, our hearts must change. Our thinking must be transformed so our word and deed are transformed. We take new pattern that agrees with God’s purposes. It is like we have transformed DNA. We belong to a pattern that God approves. We can know, agree and duplicate God’s pattern. God’s DNA expresses God’s purposes in life and the world.

Living Sacrifice

Paul urged us to give consideration to God’s mercies. And as a result of that consideration, give our bodies as a “living sacrifice.” When I think about sacrifices, what occurs to me is that sacrifices give themselves totally. It has no rights, no conditions. There is only surrender. Paul points out that this surrender that is holy and pleasing to God. This surrender is worship.

This surrender affects a person’s heart. It impels a person from the core of his being to act, speak and think in ways that please God and conform to His purpose.

Worship is not longer just going to a meeting and singing praises, rehearsing in our mind God’s works and character. Worship becomes living out God’s purposes in our everyday living.

Evangelism - Storing

We do not harvest crops for exercise. Does it make sense to pick a bushel of beans, but leave them sitting in the garden? This whole process of preparing, sowing, cultivating and reaping is people could enjoy the fruit. This whole process of spiritual horticulture is so God can enjoy the fruit.

We store the fruit, so it doesn’t spoil. And there are several methods to do this: drying, canning, and freezing. And people could partially prepare food – like make spaghetti sauce – before storing it. Storage is probably the most important step.

We do not have food to rot in the garden. We do not leave babies to fend for themselves. Why do we think new followers of Jesus are fully ready to go it alone? And we don’t send babies to school. Having formal classes are not bad. But parenting is not simply making sure children get to school. There is modeling, relating, and fostering values. These cannot be done in a classroom setting.

Evangelism - Reaping

This is the part of the process that everyone in the current church seems to focus on. A person makes a commitment to follow Jesus. He is born again. He is reconciled to God.

There are many tools that people can use for this. All of them seem to do a good job of explaining the process of commitment. Everyone needs to know how to complete this step.

It is an important step. Just like the birth of a child is an important step. But any parent will tell you, birth is just the start. And God says that every one of His children was reborn to have a relationship with Him. The process does not stop at the decision. The process has just begun.

Evangelism - Cultivation

I am using the word to include all those things involved in producing positive growth, like water, fertilizer, and weeding. These are controllable factors (if you turn the sprinkler on) that can be wisely applied. Love, compassion and service can show God's heart for people. As can, inviting people to participate in situations that enable them to connect with God's family, to interact with them and observe them, and observe them interact with one another. And defending truth steadfastly, persistently, faithfully, but with patience, kindness and gentleness.