Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Losing and Living

"If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?" (Luke 9:23-25, New Living Translation).

When I read these words of Jesus and simply let them say what they say, I find myself once again repenting of "my christianity" and the christianity of pop culture and prosperity gospels. I find that I have settled for another gospel, one that cost me nothing in terms of giving up my life. In short, it is a cross-less christianity, which is really not Christianity at all. Much less, good news.

Jesus, give me your gospel, which really is good news; and give me the cross daily that I might really know true life.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Just Like That

Jesus said, "The first and greatest commandment is this: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:34-40, also Mark 12 and Luke 10).

Take a look at this: Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is the command to love God with all of your being. This is the greatest commandment - this one is the big one! You don't want to not do this one. Jesus is saying that loving God with all that you are - your entire self - is paramount. But, look at what he says next...

"The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus says that this commandment is the second greatest - in other words, this is the second commandment that you want to be sure and do; you don't want to miss this one either. Then, he makes this puzzling statement: the second greatest commandment is like the first one. The word "like" means the same as. Jesus is saying that loving my neighbor as myself is the same as loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So, the answer to "How does one love God?" is: Love your neighbor as yourself.

And the answer to "How do I love myself?" is: With all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Let's make it more practical: If I need a new shirt, do I go and buy myself a used one or a hand-me-down? No, I buy a new shirt. If I'm hungry, I feed myself as much as I want. If my heart desires to become a nurse, I seek out the fulfillment of that desire. If I desire to go somewhere I like, I find a way to get there and I go. Whatever I desire or need, I with-hold nothing from myself. Jesus says, "Love your neighbor in the same way, just like that."

In Isaiah 58:10, God says, "Give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed."
Love your neighbor, just like that.

But, let's not miss this: Jesus says that when we love our neighbors just like that, we are also loving God just like that.

Oh, may we so live and so love that, when others ask, "What does love look like?" Someone (maybe even God himself) will point at us and say, "Just like that."

I want to live and love...

Just like that.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

God's Revolution

I recently finished a book called "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. If you've never read it, I encourage you to do so. As for me, having read it, I can honestly say that I will never be the same. I know that's one of those phrases that gets misused and thrown around carelessly, but in all sincerity, I can't go back to Christianity as I have known it heretofore. I simply can not.

You see, God wrecked "my christianity" and is now beginning to replace it with His own. God has begun a revolution inside of me. The pale, sickly Christianity that I have known has been overthrown and my comfortable theories and ideas have been dethroned, making them and myself very uncomfortable. Yet, liberated. Now, instead of living out of my lofty-sounding, insecure explanations about why Jesus didn't mean what he was plainly saying, I simply live by what he said and is saying.
I'm just beginning this new adventure of living under a new government, but the revolution has begun. And I look forward to its fulfillment.

Monday, July 20, 2009

God's Economics (or Jesus Saves)

Jesus says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

If Jesus says to not do something, it's best to not do it. On the flip-side, if Jesus says to do something, it's best to do it. Right? In the scripture above, Jesus makes a double-edged statement: Don't lay up treasures on earth; Do lay up treasures in heaven. So, it's best to do both of these. But what exactly does he mean?

In the context, when he speaks of treasures on earth, he's speaking about placing our security and trust in what we have accumulated and stored away here for our daily and future provision (see Luke 12:13-34). But what about the other: treasures in heaven? Personally, I think he means the same thing except we're storing up in a much more secure place for our daily and future provision in this life and the next. Instead of storing up down here for life "down here", Jesus says store up "up there" for life "down here" and "up there". Whatever we store up "down here" can get corrupted or stolen real easily "down here"; but whatever we store up "up there" can't be rusted or stolen at all, and we can still access it from "down here" or even after we get "up there". The only question that's left then is, how do we get treasure "up there"?

I looked through a concordance and could only find three places where Jesus specifically answers the question.

In Matthew 19:21, Jesus tells the young rich man, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."

In Luke 12:33, Jesus says, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys."

In 1 Timothy 6:18-19, Paul (being inspired by the Holy Spirit) says, "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age...."

In Matthew 6:33/Luke 12:31, Jesus has one more word on it: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

So, we store up treasures in heaven by: 1) seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness; 2) selling our possessions and giving to the poor; 3) doing good; 4) being rich in good deeds; 5) being generous; and 6) being willing to share.

So, if the economy has you down and anxious, here's a better plan...actually, the better plan.
Do what Jesus said; invest in heaven. Go after only what can be stored "up there" and you'll live much more securely "down here"...and "up there".

In doing so, we will "take hold of the life that is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:19).




Friday, July 17, 2009

Turning Thirty

July 16 is my spiritual birthday. I'm thirty years old in Christ. Wow! It's been an awesome journey with an awesome Savior. Thirty years ago, I was baptized in a lake at approximately 10:30 p.m. at Park Springs Christian Camp, Elizabeth City, NC.. And from there, it's been an incredible ride. So, what have I seen in thirty years of following Jesus? What have I experienced in following him?

I've known (experientially) his incredible faithfulness. I have left him, doubted him, and ignored him at times, but he has always remained faithful. When I say "faithful", I don't mean that he's always been there submissively waiting for me, wringing his hands in concern. No, he's been faithful in actively pursuing my best, my welfare, my healing and maturity. He's never left me to my own stupid choices and my rebellion. He has, and still does, pursue me and my transformation into a real human being, fully alive, through and through, in my deepest and most true self.

I've seen miracles and healing by his hand. Once, after my dad left home, my mom would give me lunch money but I would put it in my gas tank (I was a teenager at the time and gas is more important than food to a teenager). One day, I was hungry, so I turned to Matthew 7 and read aloud to the Lord what he said about asking, seeking, and knocking. "So, I'm asking you for a lunch," I said, "'cause I don't have any money and I can't ask mom." I closed the bible and went on my way. When lunch time came, I went to the cafeteria and sat down by myself with a Pepsi (that's all the change I had in my pocket - enough to buy a drink). I had not been there two minutes when a friend at the end of the table said, "My mother has gone nuts! She put two of everything in my lunchbox today! Do you want a sandwich and some chips?" Needless to say, I said "Yes" and then quietly said "Thanks" to my Father. And that's just one story. (Ask me about my wedding and honeymoon trip sometime).

I have also been healed of curvature of the spine (and I don't mean a slight curve; I mean something looking like an elongated "S"). I've been healed of numerous, common sicknesses and discomforts like headaches, back injuries, etc.. I have been spared countless injuries (falling asleep while driving and waking up in time to go around a sharp curve with ravines on either side and then falling back to sleep, only to repeat the process on the next curve, and the next, and the next, until I got home; I cut an extension cord in two with a box knife only to find out it was still plugged in; intense motorcycle wrecks with never a broken bone or more serious injury). Like I say, it's been pretty wild.

Moreover, I have been rescued and set free from being enslaved to tyrannical sins and habits. Cruel masters that once dominated my life, Jesus has overthrown and disarmed them of strength. Bullies that I could never intimidate, who always sought to mar and to destroy the beautiful portrait of himself that he was painting over my life, he has put in their place and keeps them enslaved by his power and strength. And the dull, ugly splatters they had made on the canvas, he has transformed into the most attractive contrasts of color that one could ever hope for. After thirty years, he's still quite the artist, though the picture is far from complete.

But above all those awesome experiences and graces, the one thing that excels them all is this: that I am the object and recipient of undeserved and unreserved divine love. The love of Jesus is what wooed me and it's what still "wows" me. He is relentless in his love for me and the intensity of his passion toward me, his obsession with me, is measureless. I am his magnificent obsession. And I am the most unlikely and unlovely candidate for it. Nonetheless, he delights in me and dances with joy over our relationship together. I do not even begin to understand it, but it is more real and true than all of creation. He seeks me, desires me, calls me, sings over me, and is insanely jealous for me. He has never - and will never - give me up to another (or for another). His love is the only wealth I've ever had or that I'll ever need; it's always more than enough. Nothing outshines or overshadows his love for me.

So, I'm celebrating my "birthday" every day, because the journey has been incredible thus far. And honestly, there's nowhere else to be; anywhere else is famine compared to this "love-feast".
I'll always be thankful to Jesus for choosing a scared, insecure 15-year-old boy with nothing to offer in return to be his most prized friend and beloved lover; and somehow, to be his favorite.

Jesus, thank you for thirty beautiful years; I look forward to many more that outshine these, from one degree of glory to the next. Deepest thanks.


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What Kind of Love...?

Recently, I've been given the privilege of loving someone who is in desperate need of healing and healthy changes. This person is a beautiful and talented person with a kind heart, but has made choices over the years that have left them bankrupt spiritually and physically poor. Although this person knows of God's love, they choose to remain in their poverty and slavery. They are homeless...in every sense of the word.

I have prayed for this person for years, but recently had decided that since they didn't want to change, I would simply pray for them and leave it at that. I didn't know how to relate to someone who didn't want to change, much less see their need for change; so I decided to only pray for them and to care less whether I saw them or not. I didn't know what to do with them, so this was the most honest and loving thing I could do. And I was certain that Jesus understood and agreed with me.

Weeks later, the Lord led me to a scripture that clearly said the opposite. To be honest, I looked it up in other translations and read study notes from a variety of study bibles trying to find some excuse or explanation that would let me off the hook. I found none. So, I surrendered and said yes to what Jesus was clearly and simply saying. And I'm glad that I did.

When I told the Lord that I would obey, I expressed to him how frustrating it was to be with someone who so desperately needed to change for their own well-being but wouldn't. In response, I heard him ask this: "What if they never change? Will you love them anyway? If they never change, will they go to their grave knowing that they were loved by you? Or will you love them only if they show you the changes that you hope to see? I want you to love them in such a way that, if they died today, they would know that you not only loved them, you really liked them."

After hearing this, I saw how conditional my "Christian love" had become. I saw that the only kind of love that I was offering people was not the love that God has for them; instead, it was the very same kind of love that has screwed them up (screwed me up!) to begin with - only it was dressed up in my own self-righteousness and smugly called "Christian". How sick.

In all of my life, when I was at my worst and sunk in my own sin, in the multitude of my selfish refusals of his love and the gift of change, Jesus has always shown me that he loved me deeply; and, most beautiful of all, that he really liked me and wanted to be with me. His love never left me in my mess, but it also never said I had to change; it made me want to change; no, love itself changed me.

And that's the only reason I've ever changed at all...unconditional love.


Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Source And The Secret

Matthew 6:1-18

After saying earlier, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16), Jesus nows says what appears to be the opposite: "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them" (v. 1). Why? How can he say such contradictory statements? The answer has to do with the source and the motives.

In Matthew 5:16, he says, "Let your light shine...". Jesus wants us to let our light shine. This is clear. Where you and I miss it so often is in recognizing the source of what we do. Who is the light of the believer? Jesus himself. "The Lord is my light," says Psalm 27:1. In John 9:5, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." Jesus IS the light that wants to shine through our good works. When they see our good works, they really see our good Lord. We can't fake shining. Shining is a fact, not an act. So, when we shine, it's always because we've let Another shine through us.

In Matthew 6, Jesus contrasts "your 'acts of righteousness'" with the "good works" mentioned above. The "good works" are done so that the light - Jesus - can be seen. The so-called "acts of righteousness" are done so that I can be seen. Therefore, the audience is different. "Good works" are done to be seen by God first and then man; "acts of righteousness" are done to be seen by man first, then God. And God does see them, but he doesn't reward them. The only reward is what little you get from man. But those that let Jesus shine and those that take place in secret get rewarded beyond measure.

The Source and the Secret - there's where the true value of our faith lies, being willing to let Another shine and to let Another see us; to seek him for an audience and applause, instead of man. There's our true reward.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Being Right or Being A Friend?

One night, several years ago, a friend called me and needed to talk. She was broken-hearted and distressed, so I told her to come on by. As she sat on my couch, she poured out her heart through tears and sobs. She told me all that had been going on inside of her for a long time, the good and the bad. As she shared her heart with me, scriptures would come into my mind that spoke specifically to things and situations that she would mention. Due to the intensity and the insights that came from these "scripture flashes", not to mention their accuracy, I knew this was the Lord giving me what to say. After she finished and had calmed down, I began to tell her the scriptures and insights that God had given me, one by one. She listened with more tears welling up in her eyes, which let me know that God was "ministering" to her through me. So I kept going.

When I finished, she looked me straight in the eyes and said, "I don't want to hear scripture right now; and I didn't come here to hear your thoughts and insights! I don't want that right now!" I was shocked and mad as hell. "Okay, fine," I shot back. "What do you want?" The anger had dimmed but her eyes were still full of hurt and tears. "I want you to just listen to me."

After she had left, some time later, I was still mad. So, I told the Lord about it. I told him all about it - how I felt about her, what I thought about her response,...the works. I even reminded Him of the scriptures He gave me. "You were wrong," He said. "I did give you those scriptures to show you specific things, but I never said, 'Say this...'. She was right; what she needed was for you to listen."

I realized something that day: being right isn't the issue. Ministry isn't the issue. Being a friend is. By that I mean listening - without any expectation of saying anything. "Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19). People don't care what you know until they know that you care. And the best way to let them know that you care is to listen, really deeply listen. After all, isn't this what Jesus does with us? Listens first, then speaks?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Sermon and The Salt

The Sermon on the Mount is pretty radical! I encourage everyone who follows this simple blog to read it again and again. For me, it cuts through much of the self-righteous disguise I've made of Christianity and shreds it into practical truth that must be lived to be authentic. Did you ever think about that? That truth must be lived in order for it to be authentic. Anything less is "faith without works". "It's not what you believe that counts; it's what you believe enough to do."

"You are the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13). I've heard a lot of explanations for salt - "it's a preservative, and Christians help to preserve godliness and righteousness in the world"; or, "it's a seasoning, and Christians 'season' the world with the gospel". Today, as I thought about this verse, the Lord gave me a much simpler explanation: whatever salt touches, it changes. And although that's a simpler idea, the radical conviction it brought to me was a lot stronger and condemning (not in a bad way) than the other explanations. I couldn't side-step it as easily as I could the others. The "lighter" explanations don't require as much of me as this simple truth does.

Does my "saltiness" change what it encounters? Salt makes other things taste saltier (never the other way around; if I put salt on french fries, the salt doesn't taste more like potatoes). Is my life so saturated with Jesus that everything I touch is more like Him? Am I so salted with Jesus that others "taste and see that the Lord is good"? Lord, increase my saltiness.