Are We Upside Down?

And if we aren't, then why not?

As a follower of Jesus—and I use that word "follower" intentionally . . . not just someone whose thrown out some profession of faith, but someone who is truly following Jesus, and allowing Jesus to lead—are we a people totally foreign to, and upside down from, the world? And if not, then why not? He was.

My last post talked about the messiness of ministry. How those comfortable with the world will be uncomfortable with ministry (either their doing it, or with us if we are doing it). This morning, as I am reading through Matthew, a few more things popped out. In Matthew 10:24–25 Jesus tells (warns!) His followers, "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household." He then goes on to tell them He didn't come to bring peace, but basically to even turn members of a household against one another.

Jesus came into this comfortable world and totally rocked it, ripped it up, and turned it upside down. He talked about turning families against each other, but then talked about the new family of believers and how their love for one another would be so strong it would be sacrificial, and a defining mark of our identity as ones who love Him. He tore apart the physical "laws" of our world—multiplying fish and bread, calming stormy seas. He tore down the biological barriers we believed "solid"—raising the dead, and reversing irreversible diseases. He shattered the hold of darkness over the world, casting out demons who had held men in bondage and agony, and causing them to beg Him for mercy. He tossed about the values and "wisdom" of the world—telling us it is better to give then receive, to love our enemies, that the blessed are the servants and least, that the last would be first, and to not store up treasures on earth but to store them up in Heaven. He offended the "righteous" and gave hope to the "scum"—calling religious leaders broods of vipers and whitewashed tombs, and telling a thief on a cross they'd be together in paradise that night.

When Jesus came He blew into pieces all expectations about Himself—leaving an earthly kingdom in captivity and a few decades away from destruction, but declaring a Kingdom of God that was eternal. He declared Himself a King, but said nothing in His defense and submitted Himself to whips and spit and jeers and a crown of thorns and death. He made an instrument of execution for criminals a sign of adoration for God. He was born from a no account town, laid as a babe in a feed trough for animals, and welcomed by shepherds. 

We could go on and on with examples, but it is safe to say that Jesus came into this world and blew apart everything about it that was normal, safe, and considered "solid." He turned it upside down . . . and He now lives in believers, desiring to live through believers. He has given us His name, He has given us His presence, He has given us His authority and His power. He turned this world upside down and that leaves me with a haunting question: Am I upside down from this world?

It is a legitimate question. If He is in me, living His life through me, then why am I so much like this world when I should be completely upside down from it? Why am I so comfortable with this world, and maybe even a better question, why is it so comfortable with me? There was nothing comfortable that the world had with Jesus. He made it very uncomfortable. He made it squirm. Those comfortable found themselves wanting to get rid of Him. And those least and broken and lost and rejected found in Him love and acceptance and hope.

Am I upside down? And if not, why not?

She Considered Him Faithful . . .

I know faith has been used, at times, like a club that beats someone up further who hasn't been healed or seen a prayer answered and heard the words, "You don't have enough faith." That is sad. Faith is a beautiful word when used in the context of our confidence and trust in God, His Word, His character, His goodness, His promises. And, yes, faith does, often, play a role in God moving—the Bible is filled with stories of people whose faith caused something to happen—and it also records God moving in other times when it seems no faith was involved.

I have been teaching recently on the amazing, divine invitation we have from God as Christians to surrender our will and "kingdom" to His will and "kingdom" and to let His will be done where we have a realm of influence. It is amazing and awe inspiring and exciting that God invites us to colabor with Him and to be a part of His will and work—that He dwells in us, leads us, and offers Himself to us to partner in plans eternal, and to be a part of His kingdom driving back darkness. How could we ever buy the lie that we can somehow, on our own, make decisions for our life that will give us more happiness, meaning, purpose, joy, security, etc. then partnering with our Creator in the very plans and works He created us for?! Yet, how often each day we decide we can better secure our happiness or security or meaning than He can. It is so foolish . . . and yet, a lie we fall for far too often.

These last few Sundays I've been talking about some of the reasons we don't surrender to His will. Sometimes we don't want to give up control—our lives are already so regulated and to give up even more control of them seems to diminish us. Or, maybe we don't trust God—I know we'd never admit that, but it is true at some level for most of us. Maybe we don't trust Him to make us happy, or to speak to us, or to take care of us. Maybe we are afraid that what we think we need isn't what He thinks we need when He promises to take care of our needs. Maybe we are offended or angry at God because of something that happened to us once, or a prayer that wasn't answered, and it makes it hard for us to trust Him. There are so many reasons we might resist His will and choose our own in any given moment of our life.

One of the most powerful and revealing verses in the Bible to me is Hebrews 11:11. It says, "By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised." Sarah, who mocked and didn't believe, had a promise from God for a child. At some point, after her mocking, it seems she stopped and took her unbelief captive to something and that gave her faith. Her faith brought out the life and power that was dormant in God's promise, waiting, and it came to pass. So, what did she take her unbelief captive to? To God Himself. To His character. Somewhere in there she stopped, recognized the lie and the error of her thinking, and realized just who it was that promised her. It was God! The God who created the Heavens! And, by taking her doubts and, maybe, fears, captive to the person of God Himself they melted away and were replaced by a faith that brought life to God's promise and she received the power to conceive. Her faith brought power, and life.

When we look at ourselves, we find, I believe, one of two things. If we are arrogant and proud we find a false confidence built on frail and temporal bodies and minds. If we are self-critical and even honest with ourselves we find little confidence because we realize how limited we are and how fragile we are. But, when we look at God we find something else, altogether! We find an all powerful God who loves us beyond measure and who never leaves us or forsakes us. We find a God who invites us to colabor with Him and to partake in the Kingdom's resources to bring His will and plans together. We find a Creator who created us for special works and leads us in fulfilling them, hence fulfilling the very purpose we were created for. We find a God who breathes out stars and yet says to us, "I want to spend eternity with you!" Suddenly, when we consider Him and not ourselves, His capability and not ours, His wisdom and not ours, His power and not ours, our faith is increased and the impossible becomes possible when it is Him leading us.

Sarah was bound by the world and her experience and her limitation. If formed the basis of her expectation, and in those boundaries she had no expectation of a child. But then she considered Him, and who He is, and His character and nature and power, and she realized that, while she is frail, He is faithful, and He has promised, and she was filled with faith and believed. And the power to conceive came upon her.

What has God invited you to colabor in? Are you considering yourself, or Him, in your assessing of it. When our own capability and resources form the outer boundary of our expectations the boundaries are small . . . but when He leads and we surrender and His capability and resources form the outer boundaries of our expectations, we find there are, in fact, no boundaries that exceed His capacity. He is faithful, even when we are not. Let us consider Him . . .

Light and Darkness, Part 2

Note: Please be praying strongly this week for this history-cookbook project I am wrapping up. We are very, very close and I am really struggling with the  "closer" (Gospel) page which shares how our region is not a slice of Heaven (it is a wonderful place!), but a shadow of Heaven. Then, last night, Mary Ann and I were up until 11:30 trying to fix a corruption in the file---the first time this has happened, and the night before we were to print proofs. I can't figure out what happened, and yet I know that God is bigger than it all, and that this book will be finished and bless our community, our youth, and glorify God!

Light and Darkness, Part 2: One of the starkest contrasts the Bible presents between the Kingdom (reign and rule) of God and the reign and rule of Satan is that of Light versus dark. The Bible makes it clear that the world is in darkness. Now, anyone that has ever been sunburned knows we have a very big light above us half the day, so something else is meant in the following passages:

Matt 4:12-17   Now when he [Jesus] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. . . . so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ". . . the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned." From that time Jesus began to preach, saying,  "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Acts 26:15-18   And I [Paul] said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. . . . for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, . . . to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

Clearly, darkness is the default condition of man and the world, and clearly He means a spiritual and mental darkness. This ties in to the theme of blindness, also in the Bible describing the lost:

2 Cor 4:3-6   And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. . . . For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So, just what does God mean by this darkness? It is a critical understanding to understand the Gospel, and it especially speaks to the heart of "good people" (of which I spent many years thinking I was, because I wasn't "as bad" as many around me). I believe the clue to God's meaning of "darkness" comes in John's encounter with Nicodemus in which Jesus (who calls Himself the Light of the World) says to him:

John 3:19-21   And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.

Those who refuse to come to the Light (Jesus) are those who love darkness because of their wicked deeds. But, we all know people who, compared to others, are really "good" people and don't do "wicked" deeds (as long as man, and not God, is the standard). And yet, the Bible is clear they are lost and, tragically, going to Hell. So what are their wicked deeds? Why is the darkness they so love? It is the absence of God. He is the Light. Apart from Him is darkness. So wicked deeds are not just things like murder and drugs and adultery, but any deeds done in the darkness, done from self-rule and not God's rule (hence Kingdom). They are us, loving ourselves more than Him and others, and being our own Lord of our life. That is the ultimate tragedy and trap of the enemy, to get us to think that there is any good apart from God. When we love to rule our own life more than loving God and others and His rule in our life we are separated from Him, not walking in faith, and separation from Him is darkness. A great lie of the enemy is that it has to be "really bad" things, when He is so good that anything apart from Him is bad, and tragic.

I'll write more about this in the next post (God willing), but I encourage you to reflect on it. It is changing the way I share the Gospel and the concept of sin and darkness, and I truly believe that if "good" people understand this they will understand the Gospel better—people who don't do murder and the such and struggle to understand what is so dark about their life. This understanding of darkness elevates our eyes from others around us, and their lives, to Him. Until then, God bless, and don't hesitate to send your feedback. I treasure hearing from you!

Light and Darkness, Part 1

Hello all. No, I haven’t “disappeared”—I have just been putting hours upon hours in to wrapping up the history-cookbook fundraiser we are doing for our youth group, and most of the rest of things have slipped to the side. But, it is close . . . and I am feeling things start returning to “normal” (whatever that is—someone said the other day that “normal” is a setting on a dryer and all the rest is life . . . )
    With that said, as a “sub” series in the running study I am teaching on the Kingdom of God (which is focusing on the present-day, “breaking in” aspect of His Kingdom—as opposed to the place Heaven, or the future Kingdom reality) I have been doing a shorter series on the stark contrast that exists (and should be evident) between the two kingdoms—God’s reign and rule versus Satan’s. The Kingdom of God, in the present day sense, is the reign or rule of God in a situation or person. Jesus said if He cast a demon out of someone the Kingdom of God had come upon them. He would heal a sick person and use it to talk about the Kingdom of God, and Colossians 1:13 says that when we are saved we are taken out of the rule/authority of Satan and into the Kingdom of Jesus.
    When God comes in to a person or situation the contrast should come to be stark because His rule has just replaced Satan’s, and their two hearts are very different. Jesus came in love that we might have life (eternal life begins at salvation), and have it abundantly, and He left us access to His joy and peace and indwelt by His Spirit which produces such things as love and kindness, etc. Satan, on the other hand, is by Jesus’ words a thief who comes naught except to steal, kill, and destroy. When God’s power comes against Satan’s, God’s is always superior—just ask Pharoah’s magicians, the demonized man in the tombs, or Simon or the woman with the spirit of divination in Acts.
    Unfortunately, in Western Christianity, the world seems to rarely see such a stark contrast between itself and God’s Kingdom, and I think that one of the reasons is that we try (and our culture permits us) to live at the same time with the security of Heaven, and the pleasures, values, and priorities of earth—and we often have little more respect for the authority and truth of His Word than the scientists do who mock it (hence our faith is weakened). Thus we are powerless, His voice is quieted, His Spirit is quenched, and all the world says is different about us is that they have Sunday morning off and we don’t. For the most part, Western Christianity is a far cry from those in Acts who “turned the world upside down.”
    I want to begin in the next few posts to talk about one of the stark contrasts between God’s Kingdom (reign and rule) versus Satan’s—the stark contrast between Light and darkness (and what God means by those two words). I think that it will really help us to better understand why a “good” person can go to Hell, and how we miss God as the mark of all that is good. I encourage you to follow this along, I think it will bless you. Until then, may God pour His favor upon you.

A Christian Tension . . .

The more I study Christ and the early church's central message, or gospel, of the Kingdom, the more I realize how much of a "tension" we live in as Christians. By tension I mean a pull in two directions, or two separate ways.

The Bible makes it clear that when we are born again we are no longer of this world. It doesn't just say we aren't "like" this world, but that we aren't "of" this world, and the distinction is huge. In fact, when we are born again, or born from above, or made alive unto God, we are transferred into Christ's Kingdom and reign and rule. We, the body, become His holy nation, set apart for Him. No longer does He dwell in a temple in an earthly temple, but we, the body of Christ, become His dwelling place and residence. The reality is, as a born again Christian, we are more closely knit with, and have more tie with, a Christian in Iran than we do with a non-Christian in America.

This is the reality of the Kingdom. We are of a new Kingdom, with a higher authority and call. Yes, we are to obey the government of our land, and to give unto Caeser what is Caesar's, etc., but if our nation's laws or commands ever pulls us into conflict with God's laws or reign on our life we must choose God's Kingdom over any earthly nation.

This tension was made very evident to me this week in the reflections on the death of Usama bin Laden. I found the twin, and opposing, pulls very powerful. I have always been very patriotic, and the pain that man unrepentantly caused to our nation is too large for words. When I saw the cadets at West Point (my alma mater) cheering in the quad on TV I found myself drawn to the celebration and the joy and the relief. When I saw the American flag flying, I felt pride. While I am very concerned about the current direction of many trends and leaders in America, I still believe we are a great nation with a tremendous amount of generosity and willingness to sacrifice for others. There was, as an American, a sense of justice and pride in the elite team that pulled off that operation and helped America stand a little taller and be a little safer

But, pulling the other way, and causing a turbulence of emotions in me (and not all Christians agree with me on this), was the "other" Kingdom—God's—and I couldn't, in any way, envision Jesus dancing with joy at the news of a human being, created in His image, whom He died for on the cross, taking a bullet and dying amidst his family. I can only imagine grief . . . grief at how the world has become, grief at how people treat people, grief at the sin that continues in the face of the work His Son did on the cross to make a way for all men to come to Him, grief that it had to end that way when Usama could have chosen Jesus. This is not to say that what we did was wrong—as a nation God has ordained authorities and those authorities protect their nation and he was a man who chose evil against our nation. But, I had to ask myself, was the instinct to pump the fist in the air in victory justice, or revenge? Was the celebration for justice, or revenge? And do we, as Christians, realize that we all were deserving of death and it is only by God's grace that we have life?

We must not forget that justice—the true and final justice—did not happen when the trigger was pulled and the bullet struck, but would happen when he stood before God and found his name not in the Lamb's book of life and was sent from God's presence into eternity apart from God. That is the justice, and it is eternal. All of us deserve it, but some will escape it because we have trusted in Jesus' death on the cross as our substitute and only basis of righteousness before God. I think, in times like these, the temptation is to compare ourselves to someone like Usama bin Laden and start to, subtly, pump ourselves up a little as, "not so bad as him." We must never forget that there are none righteous the Bible says—not one. "There but for the grace of God go I," as the expression says.

Proverbs 24:17-20 says: Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. Usama bin Laden has met a far worse fate than simply death on this earth. Justice was done—eternal justice—because he chose to reject Jesus' work on the cross. We, as Christians, must be careful in the heart with which we receive such news.

So, therein lies the tension—at least for me. America did what America needed to do. I am proud of those who went in and pulled it off—their training and dedication every day and the countless jobs they do that we never hear about to keep us safe to worship Jesus, raise our children, vote, and walk our streets. But, as a citizen of God's Kingdom, I also find sadness. Sadness at what this world is, at why it even had to happen, at those who reject God's love. I find no joy in another person's death. Death, of a person separated from God, is only for me a place of grief. I have no place to lift myself above anyone. If God hadn't pursued me so diligently and relentlessly, and if others hadn't loved me through my cocky arrogance, and if . . . I, too, might face eternity apart from God and my loved ones who loved Him. He has done all the work. He has revealed Himself. He has paid the price. I have nothing to boast in.

I live in tension. There is a constant pull of the world in one direction and the pull of God in the other. May I always choose Him and His ways as my highest allegiance and love.

Union with Christ

Because of the fear of blasphemy, or making ourselves out to be something too great, I think that Christians often shy away from realizing, and declaring, the union we have with Christ, in Christ, because of Christ. Yet, the reality is, because of what Christ has done for us as His free gift to us, we have an amazing place with and in God.

Yes, we have to be careful that we never fall in to the trap of making our standing in Christ about anything we did, because we have done nothing to deserve or earn it. But, likewise, I believe that we need to be careful against belittling what He did, and who that now makes us as born again new creations, because we are trying to avoid anything sounding blasphemous. The reality is, because of what Christ did for us, we are forgiven, redeemed, born again, made new—and we are the body of Christ, the temple of Christ, the children of God, joint heirs with Christ, the bride of Christ, God’s own special people, His holy nation, His royal priesthood. We are forgiven, and we have the righteousness of Christ. This is all because of what He did, not because of anything we did, but it is true about us, as believers, just the same!

The danger is in going to far in trying to remember our fallen status, and actually degrading the work Christ did on our behalf by still identifying with it. We did not do the work, but the work has been done, none the less. He said, “It is finished.” The blood of Christ is enough. The work has been done, our sin paid for, and we have been transferred from the domain of Satan into God’s Kingdom. We are citizens of Heaven, serving our King here on Earth, and we are in union with Christ.

Reading in Acts this morning during Family Worship, Christ’s words to Saul on the road to Damascus jumped out. He didn’t say, “Saul, why are you persecuting my people?” He said, in Acts 9:4, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Elsewhere, in Luke 10:16, when He is sending them out, He says, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

We are His body. The body of believers is His body, and He is the head. It is, I believe, in a way not easy for us to understand, far more of a true picture than we realize. Through the eyes of the Father we are so united with Him that when one of us is persecuted or rejected, it is as if Christ Himself was persecuted and rejected.

I know that this is hard—and the minute that we start to let any personal work become involved in why we have our identity we have fallen in to error—but we can’t afford to, in the effort to be humble and to exalt God, lose sight of just who we are in Christ—because failing to declare all that He has done for us is actually failing to lift up the full message and failing to give Him the full glory. The danger in losing sight of who we are in Christ, and who He calls us to be with Him, here, is that we begin to miss the identity and authority and place we carry as God’s children, children of the King, citizens of another Kingdom, in the midst of this dark and fallen world which lies in Satan’s sway. The reality of our identity with Him goes both ways—when we are persecuted it is Christ who is persecuted . . . and when we go forth (surrendered, obedient, and Spirit-led) against darkness, it is Christ going forth in, through, with, and as us! I believe the demons tremble at this reality, and work to make sure Christians don’t realize it. No wonder the Bible doesn’t tell us to fear the devil, but rather that if we simply resist him he will flee! (I know that this opens a whole new set of questions about obedience, submission, quenching the Spirit, etc., and those are all worthy of talking about and seeing how they impact our walk, but I am focusing on the bigger point and picture here.)

I believe that the proper perspective and posture which develops from keeping this in balance is that:

1) with other people, we are tender and loving and humble because we recognize that Christ has done all the work for us and we, like them, were helpless to do any of it ourselves . . .

2) but against the forces of darkness that would seek to steal, kill, and destroy us and our loved ones, we stand in authority and boldness because we know who we are in Him—we are children of the King, and He goes with us, and nothing can separate us from it, and the devil better never forget it!

It is, I believe, good to remember who we were and what He did, because it awakens in us love, gratitude, and worship for God—and it keeps us humble and on guard. But, we have to be careful to not let remembering who we were cloud who we now are! It is not arrogant to embrace and rejoice in who we are, as long as we give glory to the One who made us this way (and as long, obviously, as it springs from God’s Word). It is, in fact, dangerous to not receive who we now are and our union with Christ, because we become in danger of saying that His work on the cross is not enough, that more is required—and that can lead to either works and arrogance; or to a dismal, hanging head attitude that is no threat to the devil whatsoever, and no glory to God (though we think we are glorifying Him to be that way).

Let us never forget, that as Saul set out to persecute believers, Jesus asked why he was persecuting Him . . . He loves us that much, and identifies with us that much, and it is an amazing truth to chew on and mull over.

Kingdom Teaching

I hope that this finds each of you having a wonderful end to a wonderful week filled with reminders of God's amazing love and power. Tomorrow morning at church, God willing, I will be giving the sixth teaching in a series on the Kingdom of God that began, in my heart, many, many months ago—if not a year ago or more. I can not describe to you how much this teaching is impacting me as I study this subject, this "gospel" of the Kingdom that Jesus and the early church declared. There is no way I can even begin to put a fraction of the insight and background and evidence in this blog, I can only offer the audios of it. I put them on the website of the church I pastor by the middle of the week following each teaching. They are in mp3 format, between 40–45 minutes each, usually about 20 MB each, and totally free! There is a link to our fellowship's audio resources page below, and you'll find them listed, in reverse order, under the "Current Series: Kingdom of Heaven" section. (Kingdom of Heaven Audio Teachings)

I know that we are all busy, and that God may be leading each of you to other topics or places of study, but I say with all humility that, if you are able, I believe you will be blessed by starting at the beginning and following this series through. I am finding that the "Kingdom" lens, or "glasses," has changed the way I read the epistles and understand the parables. It was the message John the Baptist declared, the message Jesus declared, the message He sent the disciples to declare, the message He taught them between His resurrection and ascension, and the message taught throughout Acts, including in the last verses of Acts with Paul in prison. The epistles were written to people who had been taught about the Kingdom of Heaven/God . . . and Jesus, the disciples, and Paul were very familiar with its immediate power implications in the here and now, as well as its simultaneous realities of being both a future event and also a place called Heaven now. The study I am giving is focusing mainly in the third aspect of the Kingdom—the part Jesus said was in our midst now, the part Paul walked in knowledge of and had confidence in . . . and Jesus said that it was the gospel of the Kingdom that would be preached to all the world before the end would come.

I believe that the presentation of the Kingdom good news changes the entire focus of the Christian life from simply an emphasis on getting saved and to "Heaven" in the future, to living a life submitted to a King now. It changes the way we see ourselves, and how we carry ourselves as Christian. As we understand the war our Kingdom is in against a kingdom of darkness, as we understand the power both kingdoms bear (and which is superior!), and as we understand the reality that receiving Jesus as Lord means submitting the entirety of our lives to His Lordship, I believe that we will find our Christian life rocked. I believe that lukewarm Christianity finds its antidote in the Kingdom understanding, and that it is the true understanding we must have. When Colossian 1:13 tells us that, through Jesus, God has, ". . . delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" it is telling us about much more than a future reality of Heaven, but also about a present reality of being born again as citizens, soldiers, and ambassadors of one Kingdom, now here in the midst of another kingdom with which we are at war.


I could go on for pages upon pages about why I feel this is important, and why I feel it is true, but I will just trust God to move you from here in the direction He has planned for you. I am excited about the study, and I covet your prayers and feedback on it. I have no interest in pursuing it for "gee whiz" knowledge, or simply for the sake of theology, but rather that I may grow in my walk with the Lord, and I would welcome any prayerful thoughts and insight you may have, as well as any questions. May we all grow together closer and closer in to His image, that He may more fully display Himself through us. May He bless you and keep you and pour His Spirit upon you.

Kingdom of Heaven Audio Teachings

The Kingdom Foundation

Yesterday I finished teaching through Part 1 of my series on the Kingdom of God/Heaven. Part 1 has been focused on laying a foundation for understanding how much the Kingdom dominated Jesus' teaching and is associated with the word "gospel" in the Bible.

It is fascinating, once you put on "Kingdom glasses," how "Kingdom" words explode out of the New Testament . . . words like kingdom, king, throne, scepter, crown, rule, authority, dominion, etc. Even in letters like 1 Corinthians where Paul says, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified,"  he goes on shortly thereafter to say he will see what the arrogant ones in Corinth are made of when he shows up because the Kingdom is not in word, but in power!

The Kingdom was the thing Jesus taught on during His forty days after the resurrection and before His ascension, and it was the last thing we have recorded in Acts that Paul taught on. In the middle of Acts Paul even told the elders in Ephesus that he was innocent of their blood because he had shared with them the Kingdom, the "whole counsel of God."

If you have never undertaken a study of this, I would really encourage you to listen to at least yesterday's teaching (you can get to the church's download page by clicking here, then you can select the 1/23/11 teaching from that page). I couldn't begin, in yesterday's teaching, to review all that I covered in the first two, but if you at all doubt that the Kingdom was a dominate—maybe even the dominate—part of Jesus' and the early church's teaching, then yesterday's teaching will give you a lot of food for thought.

Next week I hope to begin to peel apart just what this Kingdom is, and what the teaching was, and how that affects us in our day to day Christian living. The Kingdom has been seen in so many different ways—and that makes some sense considering some references to it by Jesus are a "now" and "present" reference, some are "near" reference, and some are a "later" reference. Some have said, incorrectly (I believe), that the Kingdom is all about Heaven and not about here and now. Others have said, also incorrectly, that we are supposed to turn this earth into the perfect Kingdom by social justice, etc. Some would seem to demean or water down the cross as not as important because the Kingdom was the true subject . . . but I believe that the cross is the crown of the Kingdom, and that the cross is what allows us to victoriously represent the Kingdom and walk in its authority. I will go in to detail on all of this in coming weeks and teachings, but for now I wanted to invite you to share yesterday's with me. May God bless you through it as He is blessing me.

Kingdom Views . . .

I will not be able to share on the Kingdom of Heaven/God in my blog in any way close to the depth I will be on Sundays, but I will endeavor to capture some of what God is showing me in posts over the coming weeks. It has been an eye-opening journey as I study and I hope it blesses you as much as it has me. Bear with me through these initial posts as, short of becoming book length, they will inevitably raise more questions than I can address or answer here.

It strikes me that the Kingdom message was one that we have lost in our sharing of the Gospel—and yet it was dominate in their sharing of it. John the Baptist declared it. Jesus declared it. The first verses of Acts tell us it is what Jesus taught on between His resurrection and ascension. The chapters of Acts tell us that it was dominate in what the Apostles taught. The last verses of Acts tell us that it is what Paul was teaching from his confinement in the last records of his life. Jesus even said that it was the gospel of the Kingdom that would be preached throughout the whole world, and then the end would come.

What is the Kingdom message or gospel? I'll address that in later posts, but it is, in a very short summary, the place where God reigns. A kingdom is a king's domain—where he has authority. Paul tells us, in Colossians 1:13, that God, ". . . has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son." Jesus made no bones about declaring Satan the ruler of this world, but He announced a ruler, or King, greater had come—a new and greater Kingdom was "invading" the world that was, and is, under the sway and authority (or domain) of darkness.

In some verses the Kingdom is declared to be here. In others it is still coming. And both are true. The invasion began with Jesus. Then, by His death, burial, and resurrection He "bound" the strongman—He removed Satan's basis of authority and power. What awaits is the plundering of the strongman's goods. (I am referencing His parable of the strongman which He told in multiple of the Gospels when accused of casting out demons by Satan's power.) We are in, as Peter declared in his first sermon when quoting Joel, the "last days"—plural. We are waiting for the last day—singular. It would seem that we are in that inbetween time when the Kingdom of God has broken in, where Jesus has bound the strongman, and when the strongman's goods are being plundered by those in God's Kingdom—where we are called to go out, in His name and authority, and share and demonstrate this Kingdom to a world in darkness.

Some have believed that we are to usher in the final Kingdom by social justice and working to make the world perfect. That won't happen. The Bible makes it clear the world is going to be in chaos and pain until Jesus comes back. The Kingdom is not a world Kingdom, it is God's rule in and over a person. We absolutely care for the downtrodden, and love the lost, and rebuke the demonic realm, and "plunder" that which Satan owns . . . but we do it person by person, one by one, loving them and sharing with them the good news of Jesus' death that bound Satan's hold and gave us a way to freedom and being brought back together again with God, who loves us so much.

The thing that a "Kingdom" understanding does for us is help us understand our full calling in Christ. So often we present the cross as the end or the gospel—"get saved" so you can go to heaven. We then "get saved" and then wait, or "hold on," until heaven. The "Kingdom" understanding awakens us to our tremendous calling to go, in Jesus' authority and name, letting Him live and rule in us, as our King, plundering that which He died to buy back, that which He dearly loves. Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a place—and the day will be here in a twinkle of the eye when He ushers us in to it!—but until then we are called to kneel before our King, to serve our King, to allow Him to be King in us, and to be His hands and feet in winning back that which He paid the dearest price for. I believe that it would be impossible for a Christian to ever truly understand this calling and Kingdom gospel and to ever be bored. I am convinced that word "bored" and the word "Christian" should never exist in the same sentence (yes, I know I just used them both in one).

The great news is that while we are warned through the New Testament to be aware of the devil as we live and serve, nowhere does it say we are to be afraid of the devil. To the contrary—to understand the Kingdom gospel is to understand that Jesus defeated him with the cross and that we are to go in Jesus' name and authority and be His Kingdom "knights"—plundering that which was the devil's, but which Jesus bought back. In fact, the New Testament encourages us and reminds us that when we resist the devil he will flee, and that greater is the One in us than the one who is in and of the world! Thanks be to God for His gift, His love, and the calling we have to be a part of His "invasion" from Heaven to earth! May His Kingdom come, and His will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven, in each area and place He has called me and you to live and walk in His name and authority, as His ambassador and soldier and bride!

Hello All, I've Missed You!

Carmel Christmas 12/2010

Carmel Christmas 12/2009

 Happy new year to all of you! I hope that it has been a wonderful start to the year for you so far. It seems like things are "settling in" a bit—for awhile starting in late November until recently I started joking that I wasn't going to plan more than an hour ahead because things were happening and changing so fast!

For those of you who have "followed" our family traditions, I post for your enjoyment the third year of our traditional Carmel Christmas picture with my folks. Of course, the only ones looking any older from year to year are the girls. The prior two years pictures are included. Won't Heaven be wonderful where all who have made Jesus the Lord of their life will be able to fellowship and share together, and we won't have to be bound by distance! (And, I'll bet the coffee in Heaven is going to be amazing!)

Carmel Christmas 12/2008

Speaking of coffee, I have begun brewing some "Cowboy Coffee." I read about it in a novel I was reading and it intrigued me, so I let it be know I wanted to try it and my folks got me an enamel coffee pot that can go right on a fire. It has been fun boiling water and just putting the grounds in it, but Mary Ann is still pulling towards the more traditional approaches. Any tips or suggestions out there on making the best cup of cowboy coffee?

The first Sunday in January marked my 11th year of pastoring, and I am beginning a couple of new things this year in my study. Last Sunday I started teaching on the Kingdom of God/Heaven—a topic that I am more and  more convinced was the framework and core of the message shared by Jesus and the disciples. I have been studying on this for 6-9 months and I am very excited to share about it. We have such an amazing calling as God's children, and I believe that the enemy has eroded that calling and good news so down that we just "get saved" and then try and hold on until Heaven. To the contrary, I believe that we are part of an "invasion" from Heaven to earth, part of God's work restoring a people to Him, of plundering that which the enemy has stolen. If anyone wants to follow the series I will be trying to put the mp3 files of each Sunday up on our church's web page by the Wednesday after each teaching (hopefully the first teaching in the series, which I gave yesterday, will be up by tomorrow night). You can get to our church's audio download page by clicking here, or by going to the "About Me" page of this blog and clicking on the link near the bottom of it.

Also new, our family has begun going through the book of Acts in our morning Family Worship time. I am enjoying the discussion back and forth and hearing the girls' thoughts. It is amazing to me how the Apostles were with Jesus three years, they had the most chance of anyone to understand the Father's heart as revealed in Jesus, they had the Holy Spirit from when He breathed on them, and they still needed to wait for the Holy Spirit to come over them at Pentecost before they could have power for ministry. Wow! If that doesn't remind us how important the Holy Spirit is to our work then nothing probably will. I wonder how much we do on our own strength that God is just waiting to help us with if we would simply ask and wait, and make sure our lives are fully surrendered and that we aren't grieving or quenching the Spirit by what we do/think (or fail to do/think).

God bless you all. I look forward to sharing so much more with you in the coming weeks. Until then, stay in touch!

Doing Wrong, and Not Doing Right . . .

Note: The following thoughts are observations and reflections from my life, my study, my talking to other pastors, my reading the Word, and my observing the church in America through conversation, reading, news, etc. They are not aimed at any one person. All, some, or none of it may apply to you. Take what, if any, does, and discard the rest—receive it as an invitation, not a condemnation . . .

I observed recently a person who was aware of someone near them that was frustrated and having a hard time emotionally. While the person who was aware of it was not actually doing anything unkind to the person having the hard time—they also weren’t seeking initiative to bless that someone else, or ways to show love to that someone else (and they were in a position to do so with a little cost and effort to themselves). In fact, they weren’t doing anything at all. That led me down the following road of thought . . .

If I were to say about someone, “that person is not doing what is right,” I think that many people would automatically assume the person I was talking about was actively doing something wrong. I don’t think, however, that this is the issue with many Christians. I think the issue is often that while we may not be doing “wrong” things, we are also not doing the right things. We are sort of existing, maybe even self-focused. Christian victory often seems to be seen as avoiding bad things and surviving through the day, week, year, and life instead of actively advancing the Kingdom and doing the works of Jesus (in love, service, witness, power, etc.).

James 4:17 says: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Avoiding bad things is not enough. We are to be doing good things. This is not legalistic earning of salvation or love—it is the fruit of a repentant, redeemed life born again of the Spirit, in surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, and committed to following Him in the truest, most simple sense of the word “follow” (to “follow” means to do what they are doing and to go where they are going—at least that’s what it seems to me).

For example—it is not enough to simply not be mean to someone. Jesus says we are to love them, and that is an active word. We are to be the ones to seek reconciliation. We are to be the ones to reach out. We are to be the ones to initiate love, and the first to forgive. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus—His fragrance in their life.

Jesus said in Matt 25:41-45, "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' “ There is nothing in there chastising and warning them about doing bad things . . . it is all about not doing the good things!

Jesus told us that we, as believers, would do greater works than He, and that the signs that would follow us as we fulfill His commission to us would include healing the sick and casting out demons. While I recognize that all of our situations are different, and that we can’t minister to every need around us, and that we need to follow the Spirit’s leading and work where God is at work—the reality is that the New Testament is as much, if not more, filled with what we ought to be doing as born again believers as it is about what we shouldn’t be doing.

I am in the middle of a personal study on the Kingdom of God that I believe will transition in the near future to possibly the most important series I have ever taught. I have to come realize that if we were to ask most western Christians what the Gospel is, a large number of them would probably reply with an answer limited to sin, the cross, repentance and forgiveness, ending in salvation and heaven. This, however, is not the Gospel that John the Baptist declared, Jesus taught, or the Apostles carried forth with. Their’s was the Gospel of the Kingdom—the cross and salvation was the entry point to it. They taught a message of the Kingdom of Heaven (or of God) coming down and forcibly advancing—of the King’s dominion/rule (kingdom) coming over those previously under Satan’s dominion (the prince of this world). Jesus would tell His disciples to heal the sick and cast out demons and to tell the people the Kingdom of Heaven was there. He would say that if He cast a demon out of a person by the Spirit (or finger in other translations) of God that the Kingdom of God had come upon that person.

I can’t even begin to capture the Kingdom message in this short post, but I will put up links to the audio teachings when I start it. Suffice to say that the Kingdom message is a message of a forcibly advancing Kingdom warring against a demonic kingdom that holds the world in its sway. That is what was taught, and what we are told to preach. The Kingdom is what Jesus declared and taught during His ministry, it is what He taught in the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension to start the book of Acts (1:3), and it is the last thing we find recorded Paul teaching on from under guard in Rome at the end of Acts (28:30–31).

I believe that the problem with the Gospel as we have watered it down to is that there is no concept for Lordship outside of Kingdom. We seem to have watered it down to saying the right prayer and getting saved so we can go to heaven. When that is the high mark of the message it leaves us “getting saved” (having achieved the high point) and then waiting around for the rapture or heaven, doing some Christian “stuff,” and hoping we don’t mess up too bad between now and then. But in the Kingdom message we find Lordship—submission to a King, and serving that King in a war with another kingdom. Christians should be the army of a forcibly advancing Kingdom in war, but too often we seem to be defensive, passively accepting demonic attacks with maybe a prayer thrown their way, or just trying to hold on to ground we have rather than seeking to expand the ground. We defend instead of taking the offensive, and the hosts of hell love it when we take up the castle mentality.

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Gates do not attack—they are attacked! This is not a verse about hell’s gates marching around and not being able to destroy or take the church—this is a verse about hell not being able to withstand the church’s attack! If we are to bear the image of Jesus in this world, and to this world, we need to be a people advancing—a people initiating—the people who are first and strongest in love, service, power, initiating, forgiving, looking for ways to bless others (including our enemies), etc.

The only way a person can sit still and truthfully say they are “following” someone is if the person they are following is also sitting still . . . and I can guarantee that Jesus is not sitting still in this time in history, with billions who don’t know the reality of hell and the awesome message of salvation, the Father’s love, and the advancing Kingdom of God. Jesus is on the offensive, and if we are following Him we will be to. Yes, of course we need quiet time—time to grow intimate with our Father and learn His voice—Jesus modeled that for us also. But, the bulk of His recorded ministry time is ministering and advancing from a place of intimacy with His Father—doing what He saw the Father doing, and saying what He heard the Father saying. These are all verbs . . . and, in His Words, if we are worthy of Him, we are to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves, and follow Him.

It's Been Awhile . . .

Hello, All. It has been awhile since my last post. Mary Ann and I were talking recently about how this season has been so busy it feels like our traditional November/December busy time, which we always think will end after December is over . . . what's that this new generation of people type, LOL (laugh out loud)?

I hope to blog a little more regularly in the future. I truly enjoy being able to share thoughts and things that God shows me. I miss the interaction with you readers, and I value what you have to say and share back.

We have had some really wonderful times in this last month. Mary Ann and I wrapped up coaching softball at the school Bethany used to attend. We will miss those kids. We started out with 52 signed up on the team (6th, 7th, and 8th-graders), and for most of the season the two of us worked with around 45 kids. It was really crazy, but fun, and a wonderful chance to shine some light and impact some lives. We went to the eighth-grade graduation at the school last night and we were blessed to realize that of the 22 (I think) kids who graduated, we had worked with probably 3/4 of them between Youth Group or softball or both.

One of the highlights of the last couple of weeks for our girls has been our acquisition of five chickens which we hope to starting getting fresh eggs from this fall. Within an hour of getting them I think that the girls had almost all of them named and held! It is fun to watch them running around, and today Mary Ann and the girls have begun the process of letting them out of their large pen and in to a part of the yard during the day. Maybe we'll finally see victory over the earwigs that torment our garden!

We had a really nice end of year party with our homeschool group on Monday, and next week they hold their promotion ceremony. It is hard to believe that we have finished our first year of homeschooling, but we are so glad that we did it and we intend to continue it next year. It was, at times, very hard for Mary Ann, but she did an amazing job and we are seeing such fruit from it! I can't explain the joy of teaching Bethany history, beginning with Creation, and knowing that she is getting a solid, truthful world view from the start! To be able to have lunch with your girls, and to read stories of missionaries with them during school, is a tremendous privilege. We are very blessed with the ability to do what we do, and to have still remained active with the school and kids in our area as well. This Friday is our "official" last day of school for Bethany and Abigail, and Bethany got a new bike and Abigail a new swim float to celebrate it and begin summer!

I am very excited about a study of the Kingdom of God (Heaven) that I believe God is leading me in for my personal study time. I believe that it will be shared one day in the near future with our fellowship, and that it has the potential to radically change how some of us see the world and our purpose and God's message. The Kingdom of God is really the message John the Baptist, and Jesus, and later Paul preached. Salvation was the entrance, but it was the Kingdom they preached. There is a sense that the Kingdom is already here, and a sense in which it is still coming, and that dynamic in-between place we live in makes for a very exciting place for us to be in. I believe that it is only in a Kingdom context that we can truly understand Lordship and purpose and the fact that we have a tremendous calling beyond just getting saved and then waiting for the rapture. We are representatives of a Kingdom at war with another kingdom, and whether or not we recognize it we are in the thick of it. I will keep you posted on how this develops, but I would truly treasure your prayers for me as I go through my study.Until the next post, God bless all of you, and please stay in touch. I value you and hearing from you. It is a wonderful encouragement to me.

Intellectual, or Childlike?

The other day Mary Ann and I are out enjoying a little sun, sitting on our deck having a cup of coffee and visiting together. Mary Ann sets up the easel for Abigail to paint while we are having our cup. She puts a smock on her, lays out the paints, and lets Abigail go to town. A short while later we are admiring her picture and she matter of factly tells us it is of flames of fire swooping down to lift her up to heaven!

Wow! It is so awesome to hear kids talk about, and see them draw or paint, things of the Spirit and of the Kingdom of God. What is so natural to them in their simple faith and acceptance of the things of God is so beautiful. They haven’t been “taught” that God doesn’t do miracles, or send His Spirit on tongues of fire, or heal people, or talk to us. Instead, they have dreams from God, they see angels, they hear God’s voice, they pray with expectancy, and they believe His deeds. It is pure, innocent, trusting—and it is huge—it is the faith of a child and I can’t wait until I “undo” all the teaching I’ve heard about everything He doesn’t do anymore, and live in the Biblical expectancy of all the great things He does and will do!

Throughout the Bible “Heaven” interjects itself in to earth for those who will see it. Jacob’s vision of the ladder from heaven, Joseph’s dreams, Daniel’s interpretations of dreams and his visions and his encounter with an angel, the horses and chariots of fire that surrounded Elisha and his servant, the angel encounters, the coming of Jesus, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter’s vision, John’s revelation . . . I could fill page upon page of “invasions” of our earth from heaven and spiritual beings. The veil between our physical earth and the working of the spiritual realm is very thin, and I wonder what would happen if we spent more time looking for, and expecting, that veil to tear and the spiritual to break in to the physical.

Our God is huge and awesome and mighty, and He so loves us and desires interactive relationship and communication with us that He sent His own Son to die to purchase us back from the devil himself. It makes sense that He would then be active in our life, and that the spiritual realm would frequently interact with ours. I wonder what we miss—or what we dismiss—simply because we aren’t looking or listening for it, or expecting it. In many countries and cultures the supernatural is “normal” and accepted, but in our intellectual culture where science is “god”, we have, I believe, relegated much of what the Bible says our life should look like to, at best, intellectual acknowledgment only, or, at worst, total rejection. It is no wonder to me that the Holy Spirit stays back when we fear His coming, or tell Him what He can and can’t do in our services, or restrict His movement to a “Believer’s Night,” or even mock or disbelieve His actions all together.

I know that we need to be wise as serpents, and to be discerning, and to be on our guard—but I also know that Mark 16:14 tells me: Afterward He [Jesus] appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. Is it possible that our hearts are hardened and our unbelief stronger than we would care to admit, or that we are more comfortable with religious ritual than we are with God actually “showing up”?

I wonder if there is a lesson in expectancy for us in Acts 12 which says: (1–3) About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also . . . (5) So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. (7–8) And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.

Verses 8–11 recount the angel leading him out to freedom and his recognition of what the angel had done. It then continues: (12–16) When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary . . . where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.

There they were, praying away for Peter’s freedom—but when they were told he was actually free, they didn’t believe it and tried to explain it away as something else. I wonder what that says about their true expectancy in prayer. I wonder what expectancy there is in my prayer . . . maybe I need to become that child that paints things of the Spirit and earth interacting, and who believes in Daddy and His goodness and His capability with all of his heart . . . I wonder—would God rebuke me for believing in Him too much?