God-confidence

Read this today in my through the NT with a singular focus reading. It's off my topic, but I just thought it was well put:

Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

1 Corinthians 10:12 The Message

In today's self-help culture it's a good reminder for believers to remember the source of our foundation.

What God sets in motion

I'm reading Plan A. And There's No Plan B. by Dwight Robertson of Kingdom Building Ministries. It is a great book so far and one that really nails much of where I find myself along the journey right now. A portion I read today touched on something that's been dominating much of my God-thoughts lately:

What could God set in motion through your daily acts of obedience? Are you missing the chance to set off a chain of events because you are not listening to His voice?

Do you ignore His leading because you can't see far enough down the road to what He ultimately wants to accomplish through your obedience?

Remember you may not understand why He's asked you to do something at the time you are doing it....

That's what God can do when His laborers commit themselves in obedience to follow His lead—in the moment and along the way.

A friend calls it being amphibious...

Paul said (emphasis mine):

19 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: 20 religious, nonreligious, 21 meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, 22 the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. 23 I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 The Message

God does not live in a building called the church!

SWERVE is the blog of LifeChurch.tv who has among their physical campus satellites an Internet Campus. One of the blog's contributors, Bobby Gruenewald, who is Pastor, Innovation Leader on their staff, recently posted "God does not live in a building called the church!" about his interview with a news reporter.

A reporter asked me recently, “Bobby, aren’t you concerned that having people go to church on the Internet would somehow take away or change the ‘God experience’ that people get at a church?”

My answer was “I hope so”.

In response to the post on SWERVE, a reader named Adrian commented... "I think another concern people might have with an Internet church is that if the Internet church was enabling a consumerism approach, meaning people just went to the church to get their God-fix and leave, then a person can totally avoid dealing with fellowship."

"...get their God-fix..." Isn't that really what we see now through the vast majority of "churches" across the US? (I can't speak to other countries because I don't have the first hand experience like I do with US ones) There are more churches, offering more, to more people than ever before in history. We hear a great deal about all the change that is happening in the lives of people who go to church. We have the greatest resources we've ever had in the history of the world being applied to the "Christian community" and yet other than more people coming to church and people coming to church more often there seems to be little life-change occurring in the lives of those coming. Show me the fruit. Why are there so many who have come for so long so consistently but live un-changed lives -- living useless and unfruitful lives (2 Peter 1:8)? When did the measurement for growth in the life of a believer become less about adding to their faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love instead of adding service to their attendance at religious meetings? When did the context for the faithful become more about what we do inside the walls of a building than how we live outside the building? I think I've read this story when I was a kid. When does someone stand up and scream that the Emperor has no clothes?!

So I'm wondering... when did the fork in the road occur where the Body of Christ (the Church) began to focus more on a kingdom of/for man rather than the worldwide family initiated by Jesus, united by one Spirit, gathering wherever and whenever they had opportunity?
I read the other morning from Romans 9:

"And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. 32How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road."

Have we become so involved in our own "God projects" that we don't notice God busy all around us all the time in the lives of everyone we encounter and miss those "church" moments that occur throughout every day, all day when two or more are gathered? Do we spend so much of our time feeding the organization of man that we can't be the body out among the unbelievers?

Wow! I guess I've said more than enough. I think most people who are concerned over an Internet church being "churchy" enough don't really understand what the body of Christ is. I am totally for believers gathering... on the Internet, across the fence in their backyards, or at the local Starbucks. I simply believe that true (growing) believers who spend some of their time with other believers together online will not hold to that online time as their only "church gathered experience. Any intentional as well as coincidental ("as you are going" Matt 28:19) gatherings seem to meet the non-forsaking principle to me!

Prosperity? Complete charge of your financial picture?!

Any fellow believers take issue with the premise of this advertisement? Or should I say the viewpoint that spawns it? Unfortunately, it's a viewpoint that has permeated the Body of Christ and is seldom questioned. We even teach courses through the institutional church to help believers become prosperous by taking control of their finances.

Oh, I know... there's purpose to being financially prosperous. It's usually enveloped within the potential to give more to the work of the Kingdom. But fundamentally, foundationally, at the core of a walk aligned spiritually is our trust centralized in our Father (a friend would say our Daddy) not only as owner of all the cattle on a thousand hills, but also as the loving provider for His children.

Is it God's will for us to be financially free? Is it God's will for us to build wealth for the future? Is it God's will for us to be wealthy? Could be, but not necessarily for every believer. Strike that... It IS His will for every believer to be financially free, just not the way we tend to think of it. Is it God's will for us to seek Him over stuff? Is it God's will for us to consistently spend time with Him thereby developing an enduring deep relationship with Him? Is it God's will for us to have a correct perspective of the things of this world and the reality of His Kingdom? Yes. Yes! YES!

Perspective!

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths." That last part in some translations say He will make your way prosperous. If you are pursuing financial peace this year, please accept the challenge to pursue God at least as much as you pursue wealth. He doesn't need your financial help. You DO need the relationship He pursues with you.

Proverbs 3:5,6

The Secret To Life... Just One Thing

Little did I know how true this favorite scene would prove to be in my life. As a senior in high school at our baccalaureate service the speaker read and talked about Proverbs 3:5-6:

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding;
6 think about Him in all your ways,
and He will guide you on the right paths.

This is a just one thing passage. The secret to taking the right path is all about in whom trust is placed.

Then, there was Psalm 37:4:

4 Take delight in the Lord,
and He will give you your heart’s desires.

Another just one thing passage discovered in college which helped lay out the secret to life. The temptation in considering this passage is to place the emphasis on the latter part... the getting the desires of our heart. But if one begins with taking delight in the Lord the desire of our hearts will be aligned with what God wants for us. And what father doesn't long to give his children that which is the desire the child's heart?

Now, as I have been doing my just one thing approach to reading through the New Testament (with a singular focus for discovering specifically what is said or not said about a particular theme of God's work in and around you, reading through Matthew to Revelation with no particular pace in mind except reading a little every day) seeing what appears to be the central theme, or just one thing, of Jesus' teaching: there are two ways to look at life - the typical and the way God intends.

The secret to life? Just one thing! Look at the world the way the Father looks at the world as you watchfully follow Jesus' example of doing only what He saw His Father doing.

Friends Are Friends Forever... (ARGH!!!)

Okay, so that's a little strange for the title to a post... but perhaps it got your attention. If so, it accomplished one of its purposes. Perhaps you'll read on and it will accomplish another. And if you read to the end and find it descriptive of what the whole post is about it accomplishes its other purpose as well. Let's see.

Last week a kind friend shared his good fortune with Julie and I and one other couple and the six of us went to the annual Michael W. Smith Christmas concert in downtown Nashville. Other than a night of awesome company and good music, I had one of those thought provoking experiences which finds its way to here.

Other than a couple of songs from his new Stand release (Denver had that title first Michael!) the rest of the music has been around on Michael's Christmas works from previous years. Don't get me wrong... great music... just old and tired. And speaking of old and tired after the obligatory extended applause at the end of the concert Michael and band "returned" for an obligatory encore song. I have to tell you I was NOT expecting what happened next. Michael appeared to jokingly begin playing his Friends Are Friends Forever song and even tweaked the lyrics to indicate something like he might never have written it if he knew he was going to have to sing it at every concert from that point on. I was hoping this was the joke and we were going to get some other Christmas piece or maybe even something else new from the Stand release. Nope... after the humorous beginning to Friends, he tightened up and played it with all the vim and vigor possible for a song he's played 8,543,729,621 times. It was old and tired and you could kind of tell he was tired of doing that one.

But, the "fans" seem to always cry out for it at concerts. For some reason there is this little throng of concert goers that cry out for and listen to over and over those songs that prompt some emotional response over and over and over. Maybe they first heard the song at that youth retreat where everyone was feeling warm and fuzzy and spiritual and they just go back to that feeling everytime they hear those touchy feely songs. You know the ones... El Shadai, Awesome God, Thank You, even back as far as it only taking a spark.

The odd thing was I started trying to think of a counterpart for those songs in the "secular" music world. I could not think of any of those touchy feely songs that emote so many lighters (or cell phones in this case) and swaying while people cling to feelings of past spiritual, or emotional in the secular world sense, highs. I could not think of any. Row, row, row your boat and Hang down your head Tom Dooley, even the ever popular Ninety nine bottles of milk (or beer) on the wall don't hold the same experience.

So, what is it that keeps taking us back emotionally to all those tired songs that should be simply considered classics and put away rather than the musicians needing to pull them out during every live performance? Then it hit me — so much of our spiritual experience is based on feeling. We want to reproduce those feelings of being close to God that we had at some concert or spiritual event and those songs take us back there emotionally.

I don't need to feel like I'm in a right relationship to my God, I simply know it. Those feelings will go away, but what we know will stay because we know it no matter how we feel.

One of the classic passages describing the permanence of our relationship with our Father is 1 John 5:11-13:

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

I've bolded some of the words on purpose. Notice that no where in these passages does it talk about feeling a certain way. It's only what you know and believe. And what you know and believe should then define the feelings we experience. Another great verse is Romans 12:1-2:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. [The Message]

What is it that you cling to... a relationship or a feeling. Feelings come and go. Relationships are forever. Oh wow... so maybe Friends Are Friends Forever... (ARGH!!!) I'm back there again. (But I don't need to ever hear THAT song again. Please Michael... retire that one!)