For The Love Of God

It’s interesting to me how often I find myself focused on the “rules” rather than my relationship with Jesus. I have become increasingly convinced that we tend to fall into this very bad and destructive habit far too often in our journeys of faith.

It’s not like we start out that way and decide to kick Jesus to the curb. In fact, I would say initially we are only reacting out of our complete love and adoration for Him (at least I think I do). But over time, we can begin to get so focused on the “do’s and don’ts” that we miss the true core of it all… Jesus.

Looking back on recent years of following Jesus, I see sidetracks. I noticed how in times passed I have approached my faith simply from the “sin management” perspective. And to keep things on the up and up I focused on behavior modification. But it occurred to me how upside-down and backwards that approach is.

You see if I focus simply on behavior modification, I am missing the actual problem. The problem is not the behavior itself. The problem lies deeper within and is actually WHY I am behaving the way I am. If we attack the behavior only, we are doing no good, simply picking fruit off of the fruit tree. Our behaviors are nothing more than the fruit of the core of who we are. Just like and apple tree always grows apples or an orange tree always grows oranges. If I sat around all day picking apples off of the tree waiting for oranges to grow, it would be futile.

I think we spend too much time picking fruit off of our lives, rather than attacking the issues deep inside. An apple tree will never grow oranges because deep inside its DNA it is an apple tree. Likewise, we will never be transformed by simply trying to modify our behavior (aka manage sin) and hope we bear different fruit in the future. We need to be changed, transformed from the inside out so that the core of who we are no longer bears the old fruit we are trying to pick off.

So it all comes back to this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. Many of us hear that and go straight to trying to keep His commandments. But we must FIRST LOVE HIM. If we fall deeply and madly in love with Him, we will be radically transformed and begin bearing the fruit of “keeping His commandments.”

In(ter)dependence

Interdependence - adj. mutually dependent; depending on each other. n. a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups) [syn: mutuality]

Isn’t it amazing when you read how the church in Acts took care of each other? I love reading about the church in Acts. These people were amazing. Their faith was one that affected every area of their lives. Their faith shaped their culture vs. their culture shaping their faith. It was truly amazing what was going on. One of the hallmarks of this early church was their radical interdependence.

It’s crazy to consider, but imagine what it would be like living in that type of context. You don’t have more than you need, but you don’t have lack either. Everybody chips in and makes sure everyone’s needs are being met. To me it’s the epitome of what it means to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

My personal belief is that the church in Acts saw all those amazing and miraculous moves of the Holy Spirit in their midst because they were willing to put it all on the line. They were willing to put their entire lives into to this thing called church and rely solely upon God for His provision. Their willingness to expunge self-sufficiency was the perfect ingredient in the hearts of the people allowing God to be able to work and move according to HIS will and still receive all of the glory.

So what stops us now? That was then, but this is now? I don’t think so. If you notice, I put part of the word in parentheses. If you take “ter” out of the word interdependence, you end up with “independence.” It’s that thing that makes us feel like we’re in control. It gives us a false sense of accomplishment. It tells us that we have achieved a level of superiority. But is it really all it’s cracked up to be? I don’t think so. I think we’ve been duped. I believe when that God’s heart would be that we would all work together (see 1Cor. 12) functioning like a living organism that represent the hands, feet and heart of Jesus Christ, all depending on each other as the Holy Spirit works in and through us to meet each others needs, both physical and spiritual.

Jesus’ heart was for people. He healed and touched every person that came to Him, he fed the hungry and encouraged the marginalized. Over and again in His teachings He tells people that taking care of and serving one another is to be of great priority. “Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor… Love your neighbor as yourself… In as much as you did it to least of these, my brothers, you did it to me… The greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all…” And it goes on and on.

The people in Acts took such good care of each other it really caught the attention of those on the outside looking in (See Acts 4 & 5). In Acts 4 it says, “There was not a needy person among them.” And in Acts 5 it says “the people held them in high esteem.” As we were reflecting on all of this at Community Group the other night, we started asking, “why don’t we live like this? Wouldn’t it be cool to actually be a part of something like this rather than just reading about it?” To hear people talk like that got me so excited! Let me ask you the same thing? Aren’t you tired of just reading about all of the amazing privileges the early church enjoyed? Are you willing to give it all to see God move like that? I think we’ve got to be willing in order for it to happen. Isn’t it worth it? I think God is up to something amazing and I’m praying I get to be a part of it.

Goodbye SMP!

As some of you know (or don’t know) I have had the amazing privilege of posting and participating on a blog called Simplemindedpreacher. I discovered this blog while feeling utterly disconnected and alone in ministry and in my movement, Calvary Chapel. I was 6 months or so into pastoring our church and it was a rude awakening on may levels. I began to see things that I had never seen while in the movement for 10+ years. I started worrying and looking for answers or others who may feel similar to me… Alone, confused, concerned and very disconnected from anyone else. Enter the SMP…

Journey Journal

Have you ever thought you were heading one direction only to find out miles down that road that you were going a totally different direction?

When I take a road trip, I’m always adventurous enough to try the back roads along the way. Sometimes it works out great, other times I’ve added enormous amounts of time to my travel. Sometimes I feel that way in life. Can anyone else relate?

But recently the unforeseen detour has been a huge blessing. It was as if I thought I was going one way (spiritually speaking) to find out miles down life’s road that I was actually heading in a totally different direction. BUT… The cool part is, I like this new direction and I have this strange feeling (wink, wink) that this was God’s plan all along.

I recently read a book called Blue Like Jazz. I know, some of you are thinking, “didn’t that come out like 3 years ago?” Yeah, so I’m a little slow. But it was a good thing that I just now read it, not three years ago because the message was exactly what I needed to hear. It was that unfamiliar landmark that makes you finally realize that you’re not where you thought you were. But in my case that was a good thing.

When I first moved to Charleston to pastor our church, I thought I had everything figured out… How we would do things, why we would do them that way and so on. I had strong feelings about certain people and issues. Quite honestly, I was a bit on the harsh side, a little judgmental, without realizing it. Fortunately God is faithful and has really been working on me in this area of my life. The cool thing is that once He dealt with that, I’ve found that I have so much more compassion and care and concern for people. I thought I did before but it wasn’t like this.

I’m truly grateful for the heart God has given me. It hurt to get here but it was well worth it and I look forward to going even further down this road as I follow my Savior who has gone down it before me. Peace!

Not Too Bad

OK, it’s not the scholarly label that would have made my head swell, but then again, that’s not what I’m really trying to convey. Here’s to being simple and gut level!

Read, understand and enjoy!

As We Forgive Others

Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ~ Matt.18:32-33 (ESV)

As we are continuing on our journey through personal revival, we have to address this issue of forgiveness. First, we had to find forgiveness by confessing all of our sins. Next we need to then extend that same forgiveness to others. Besides not accepting Christ’s forgiveness nothing else could bring more spiritual death and damage than unforgiveness; the refusal to offer that same forgiveness that Jesus offers to us.

It is chokingly deadly. And more than anything else it highly offends the One we love so much. Jesus tells the parable in Matthew 18 to help see it from His perspective. This is important to do. If we try to move forward without understanding it from His perspective, we’ll probably fail. So we need to see it through His eyes. Then we have to do something about it. This gets hard…

It’s probably one of the hardest things to do, but we have to relinquish our desire for justification and vindication in the areas of in our lives where we feel it’s due. It cuts against our human nature. As the oldest sibling I can assure that your human nature tells you that revenge is sweet. But Jesus tells us otherwise.

So I’d challenge each of us to go through and inspect… Is there anyone I need to forgive? Then correct… Give them a call and make it right!

A Friend of…

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” ~ Matt.11:18-19 (ESV)

This is a verse that has really come to mean more to me as of late than in times past. And by the way, don’t you love that about the Bible? How you can read something so many times and then in just the right timing and context have a verse mean so much more than before, I love it! I digress…

As I thought about this “Claim to Jesus’ Fame” I wondered, “what about me? Would I be accused of being the same? Would my heart to go out and love on and share with those who are lost pull me into so many taboo places and circumstances that as we are storming the gates of hell the self-righteous onlookers would call us the same names they called Jesus? I feel that I would not. But that’s OK, because I will not stay that way!

As I consider all of this, I am really praying about how to go out into the culture and meet people where they are at, loving them there, but hopefully not leaving them there. I’ve heard some get slammed for having Bible studies at bars. However, it seems to me that might be a pretty Christ-like thing to do, no? Same with those guys at xxxchurch.com, not always popular among the super religious. The list could go on.

Somehow, I feel that the church at large, without meaning to, became very internally focused. We became a separate segment of society, rather than an integrated part of it. We were called to be IN the world, just not OF it. I’ve been totally guilty of creating my own super-spiritual bubble. But God’s Spirit isn’t interested in letting me stay there. For that I’m thankful. I can’t express how excited I am as I consider and pray about ways to get out in my community and start be a part OF rather than apart FROM it.

My heart is to really, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame,’ and to ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that [His] house may be filled,’ (Luke 14:12-24).

Thanks Jesus for continuing to patiently bring along your amazing journey through life!

Search Me, Oh God…

Building off of the last post, I’d like to spend some time looking at the first of Evan Robert’s 4 Points: Confess All Known Sin.

This is the first and foremost step to spiritual revival. Sin brings death; death to us spiritually, relationally (against those we’ve sinned and with God), even physically. Remember, to “revive” means to bring back to life. So it would make perfect sense that the first step would be to recognize and deal with those things that are bringing death.

James 5:16 seems to tie this practice of confessing our sins to receiving healing. Again, what is healing? Bringing new life to something that was dying! It makes us righteous which in turn makes our prayers effective, which leads to healing. A beautiful illustration of this practice can be found in Hosea 10:12-13 in which Hosea encourages the people to “break up your fallow ground” to receive a rain shower of righteousness from God in comparison to the desert of sin they have been living in. Rain, of course, brings in this idea of life and freshness.

Let The Journey Begin…

OK… So like, a few MONTHS ago, I announced a transition in the format of this blog. However, since then, I’ve done nothing about it. But as God has been working in my heart, one thing He has really impressed upon me is personal revival. It’s a desperate need within our churches, communities, families and lives. We NEED revival, refreshment, a true zeal for our relationship with Jesus.

As I have been going through this myself, I’d like to share it with everyone else and invite you all (whoever you are) to join me in this journey through personal revival. I will initially be drawing from a workbook study I have found personally worthwhile and encouraging called, “Seeking Him… Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival.”

Transition Announcecment…

Hi Everyone… To all those masses that read this blog (OK, no need for sarcasm). I have been thinking about the direction of this blog and feel that it’s time for a change. I am thinking that it is just too close to what Chad is doing over at SMP (www.simplemindedpreacher.com) and considering that I participate a lot over there I just don’t see why I would want to duplicate the effort. So…

This will be transitioning into a place for community to take place surrounding the different topics we cover each week at the church I pastor. I will also post different “news and reviews” on things that I come across like articles or books and various other items of conversation.

The hope is that it acts as a place to really get to provide feedback and discussion around these things, as well as offering information that may (or may not) be appreciated. All in all, I hope it’s place that encourages making connections.