Friday, November 30, 2012

Relate.

The ability to relate is one of the most vital keys to communication. I would say there are 3 keys to communicate well: clarity, the ability to relate, and vulnerability. If its not clear, it can be the best message in the world but the others just don't get it. If they can relate it, they have a hook to hang it on and can take in so much more of what you're saying rather than trying to grasp an idea. The first two are how you're saying the message, and the last is what you're saying with the message. We've all heard someone speak and they're very protected with their speech by talking in generalities so you're not really sure what's going on or they talk so heartlessly it seems like a sales pitch which no one really wants. 

But the idea of relate is what stuck out to me today. Paul's explaining how he's been working and how hard he's fought. We're probably familiar with the passage: to the Jews I became like the Jews to those under the law- me too, those not under the law- me too, those who were weak- me too so that I might save some. I began to wonder what this would look like in modern day conveying our message of love and grace and the cross of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Jews: the culturally religious people who grew up hearing the stories and know the right actions but don't know the point or the heart of it. They will say, "well i grew up in a Christian household, but..." For them, we'll do the right actions and come along side and explain the reality of God made near. That relationship is possible to hear from God and talk to Him and show how He interacts with us on a daily basis. Pray for them to encounter God and not the idea of God for later.

Under the law: these people love Jesus a lot and are trying their hardest to make Him happy. They read their Bible everyday and pray and often fast, yet feel guilty and burnt out because there's always a little more they could do for Him. We can encourage them with the fact that God can't love them any more or less. If they pray, read, fast, and lead 20 people to Christ or if they sit on their butt and play video games all day- God loves them the same. Grace is what they need. Radical ocean of grace. Pray that their greatest encounters with God would be while not doing religious things. Let it be while eating or using the bathroom. Tell them how much you appreciate them and love them in the middle of times you'd never think about it. The times when they are just being and not doing anything. It messes them up because they think, "why are you saying that? What did I do to provoke that thought?" They need to know Gods proud of them and satisfied with them not because of what they do but because of who Jesus is.

Apart from the law: these are the atheists (angry or ignorant), the people who say "yeah, I think there's something bigger or greater...maybe," the people who don't really have a radar up for spiritual stuff. They're made as spiritual people, they just don't know it so we can start by talking about the "basic heart condition" of humans. I'm not saying evil, I'm saying the longing for something bigger. The longing to love and be loved. The longing to have a close family/community/group of people who love them. The longing to be beautiful and accepted. A desire to get rid of their guilt and shame somehow. Explaining the inner yearnings of your heart (vulnerability requires) because they'll be able to relate to that. From there discuss if everyone felt this way, then there must be a reason. It makes sense to me that we were made this way to be fulfilled. Then discuss how Gods intimate relationship and design fulfills those. We can pray that those longings get stirred up then God meets and fulfills those right where they are before we try to plug something else in to temporarily satisfy.

Weak: we would probably call these people "broken" more today. Notice in the passage he never says strong, just week. This is basically everyone without Jesus or some with Jesus who are being restored. We can lower ourselves. Ask more questions than we give answers. Most broken people don't need fixed, they need someone to care, listen, and empower them to get out. We can pray for love to encounter their core, improve their confidence, and heal what's been hurt. They don't need to know their problem, they need to know a way out. Sharing stories from your life of similar circumstances (requires real vulnerability not cheap broad details) and then explaining how God has walked you through and healed these areas. You may need to help walk them through prayers of forgiveness to other people or situations. Vulnerability and sharing your own hurt and process is most key. We can pray Gods love would transform and He would give us the right words to empower and lift them up. Pray that we could go low and be real without getting caught in their funk or lies from our past.

Finally, the motivation. I don't want us to go trouncing off to save the world with our ideas, patterns, plans and formulas. First off, just pray for Gods heart to be given to you and you would understand it. I try to minister to people all the time, I pray for miracles, for headlines, for words from God directly to their core- but finding that its when I stop trying and just let my heart love them where they are in that situation, its when God then gives me the words, ideas, and I can pray genuinely for them. God prefers to love people than to show off of what He can do. Paul explains that the love of Christ compels us. (2 Corinthians 5:14) That's exactly what I desire and pray for you and I. That the love of Christ would compel us, consume us, and overwhelm us today, tomorrow, and every other day that ends in -y first for ourselves to be full, then for us to overflow onto others. Blessings and wisdom. Amen.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Separating

My fear is in the west or at least America we separate the spiritual from the normal. Just as we often try to remove our emotions from our thoughts and only allow one or the other to be used at a time- so do we with the Spiritual and natural/normal.

When talking to a person you are not simply addressing their body, but also their soul (mind, emotions, and desires/will) and spirit at the same time. We recognize this to an extent as you talk to someone: you use 1) your body language to express yourself and read how the other person is following, 2) your mind to express your thoughts in a way their mind can cognitively understand, 3) you consider their past and their emotions that are tied to it and their dreams as to know what they will find interesting and how to explain it. Whether of not we consciously do this, we all do it, some better than others, as we learn to communicate well. We consider there's more to the person than the body.

I propose there's more to the life that's going on than what we can see or explain. Examples: How is laughter contagious? How does a smile lighten your heart? How can you feel a "thickness" in the room as its awkward?

I thoroughly enjoy science, psychology, and biological psychology, but I think that sometimes these things are censors of what's going on rather than the cause of them. You can't read colors with a thermometer nor can you measure radio-waves with a camera. Although these are excellent censors, there are certain areas of life that can't be measured unless you have an instrument with that receptor in it. A few hundred years ago, they didn't have instruments to monitor global weather patterns. It's not that global weather patterns didn't exist or would be useful to know, it's that we had no way of monitoring that and being able to record it well. Very few people even considered the idea of how global weather patters affected their life. So it is with spiritual atmospheres. Like weather, they exist all over the world, few people take note of them because we don't have a way to record and dictate them. I believe there's more than what we can consciously or scientifically note.

In the west, we have a very intellectual view of life. It comes from our Greek and Roman backgrounds that devalued emotions and anything that could not be cognitively explained. We see this today with the idea "People are afraid of what they don't understand." We're always using our minds as the filter and final say for something. Especially in our male led culture where men are excellent in logic and reasoning, but don't display emotions and feelings as well as females. But we can all agree that there are ways to make decisions or live beyond your brain's leading. (Even in that statement, many people will tense up inside) Let me give you examples of what you already know works: a mothers intuition that she knows what's needed, where things are, or when something happens to her child when she's not around. It's not her intellectual mind that signifies these things that she doesn't know, it's her soul or spirit. Also, we describe things we know beyond our mind as a "gut feeling" when you don't know how or why you know something, but you just know it or can tell. A third example is when you dream at night, when your body is at rest and your soul and spirit are still working or dreaming. In the dream, you're in your house with two of your friends but the house isn't a place you've ever been except somehow you know, it's your house. In the next scene your friends become different people you haven't met before yet you know who they are and what they're doing. Cognitively, these dreams don't make sense. As you try to explain them intellectually (with logic and reasoning), you realize that it doesn't really make sense, but in your dream it makes perfect sense. That's because your mind is not leading the rest of you.

So that explains how we often snag on how it has to intellectually make sense, but how we are already moving beyond our brains. Now, well look more into beyond what's "normal."

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "You do not have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body." The Bible confirms this idea that before our body's had been made, we (Christians or those going to be Christians) were already saved (Ephesians 1:4)(God exists outside of what we know as linear time). It also explains that after our bodies die, we will live on (2 Corinthians 5:1). So we are more than our bodies and we are more than what is tangible.

Unfortunately, many times we, as Christians, live only by what's tangible. We address people as physical people rather than souls/spirits. It's ok, that's all we've ever really seen modeled or all we knew was possible. But now, I suggest that we can live more with our grounding as souls living in the spiritual realm with our feet on the ground than physical beings with our arms occasionally in the spiritual realm.

So what does any of this matter? I say this for a few reasons:

1) If we don’t realize we are more than physical bodies, we will not fully realize the life we have been given. (2 Cor 5:16-17) We have been reconciled to God through Christ. We’ve been given new desires, new dreams, new wants – these are no longer bad or wrong but now they’re good. Christ now lives in us and He wants to get out of us and onto other people. This means we'll do the things that Jesus did (John 14:12): we take care of the poor, we proclaim the kingdom, we heal the sick, we raise the dead, we cast out demons, etc.

2) We often get caught thinking "that’s not possible because we’re just humans, just bodies, just tangible things." But if we're souls/spirits first, then bodies more things are possible. God has taken our whole self (body, soul, spirit) changed it so it will affect the inside and outside. The word in the Greek for “saved” is “sozo.” It’s used in the new testament to describe eternal salvation to heaven from hell (Romans 10:9), physical healing (Matt 9:22), and deliverance (Luke 8:36). So as we see Jesus saving, healing, delivering, restoring, and doing everything it’s beyond what is just physically seen.

A great example is recognizing the sin battle/death/victory. We’re free from sin and all of it’s temptations (Romans 6:18). Many times we miss this because we only believe what is seen and that is all Christians will continue to suffer until they physically die. That’s a slight fallacy because that makes physical death the end of sin and not the blood of Jesus on the cross. When we can understand that things happen beyond what we can physical see, we can begin to walk in the unseen truth and reality. We also will be able to realize that unseen demons or angels can tempt or hurt us and it’s not ourselves. If you note the right enemy, you’re chances of victory are much higher.

3) In the same way, you can help people better by seeing what the true problem is.  They may say their struggling with having enough money, homosexuality, rage, or lonliness but rather than trying to help treat their spoken problem you realize they’ve been told or think they’re not worth much and need to be healed in that area and the rest will be taken care of.

4) The last issue is what I see in most American churches. Sunday Christians or Christians who feel guilty for not doing more due to time constraints.  I think both of these come from a core of not realizing that God is life andthat the spiritual and natural arne't seperate. People will come on Sundays and do the right thing so they’ve marked off that part of their life and they feel good about themselves or like they’ve fulfilled their spiritual part of their heart. The guilty Christians are the ones who feel like they should do more, help out more, pray more, read their Bible more yet they find themselves getting burnt out cause there just isn’t enough time in the day.  Both groups of people have separated their life into “religious/spiritual/Jesus stuff” and “my life.”

Here’s the way I realized this. By asking people who already come to church on Sunday morning and night, and Wednesday night if they want to have a small group/family group with people in their church/neighborhood just to help do life together on Tuesdays – they’ll hesitate and say yes. Then ask if they want to do a prayer group on Thursday evenings – “um… well maybe. Sometimes, when I can.” Inside, they think, “Oh man, I’m losing my life by doing all this church stuff. When am I going to be able to just live and do my own thing?” I know this because I’ve thought it and wrestled with this as people asked me to be more involved. My problem was I was separating the things I do for God and “the rest of my life.” There is no distinction though. When you become married to someone you do all things with and in relation to that person. You shop together, talk together, eat together, you let them know you’re plans and listen for theirs. You have things that are fun that you enjoy, and things that he/she enjoys. You have time with the guys/girls and vice-versa with your spouse. But everything’s now changed. Being married isn’t part of your life. It is your life. (I don't mean to imply that to do things with God means you have to do things with or at the Church every night. You do your whole life with Him in mind and with Him.)

One example of seperation is King Saul: Saul was a farmer’s son, anointed as the first king over the Israelites. He knew was explained to what a king should do and had Samuel to be his God reference and help keep him on track. Due to their enemies evil actions, God told Saul via Samuel to annihilate all of them: man, woman, child, infant, ox, cheep, camel and donkey. (1 Sam15:3) Saul went and killed most of them, but saved some sheep, calves, lambs and all that was good to give as a sacrifice. When Samuel confronted him about why he didn’t destroy everything, we see Saul’s heart revealed: Saul said, “they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” (15:15) Even though he had the Spirit of God on him (11:6) and served Him, he never made God his own. He was still living his life as it was by what he saw and was tangible, and doing the appropriate amount of spiritual stuff to satisfy that part of his life. He never made his life about God. He didn't submerge his life into the Spiritual, but kept it in the natural. God then removed His Spirit from Saul and anointed another who would be obsessed with God above anything in the kingdom. He chose a man who made his life to be God and His presence, will, heart and dreams. A man after his own heart – David. David wasn’t a shut off monk. He was one of the most successful kings, warriors, and worshipers of all time.

In conclusion, I propose that there is more to life than what is simply seen, that we are souls/spirits that we have a body. Our minds are great ways to carry out the things of our spirit, but they are not great leaders. God has designed us to be more than bodies and has more in store than our minds can comprehend. So let our souls be swept away, completely enamored with Him, and let our minds and bodies follow to the giver of life. From that place, let us continue to walk in the Spiritual world with our feet just enough in the physical world for others to grab onto. They are not separated, but united. So let us live united and in the complete united reality not a partial, seen one -for there is more to life than what meets the eye and it's our pleasure to display it.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Soaking

It's okay to sit and let God minister to you.

"Minister to" - when someone pays attention to what it is that you need, want, long for and gives that to you.
Pastors do this all the time, they look at a person and see what it is they need or how they can help and then work to get that to that person. Somehow we get locked into thinking that spending time with God is reading our Bible, praying, and talking to others about God. Lately, I've found that there's this thing called soaking. It's so revitalizing to the soul. This is the way I see it, there is a great difference between:


and 


The top is what we usually do. We get filled enough to go pour out to other people. The bottom is soaking. It's stopping, shutting up, and just spending time with God. Usually, you put on some music and you just soak in His presence. Think of it this way: sometimes in a conversation you talk a lot and the other person listens, and sometimes the other person talks a lot and you listen. Sometimes, with good friends, neither person says a thing but you walk away like it was the best conversation you've had in a long time.

They key to soaking is you shut up. You don't talk, sing, journal, consider what you can do for God, or what's needed to do the rest of the day, don't even come asking or seeking answers.  You simply sit down, put on some calm music, and let you be the attention of God's affection.

That's the whole point: come to be the desire of the Father. Come just be the object of His affection. 
If you don't have a lot of time. Set an alarm for 10 minutes, then close your eyes and sit back and relax.
An Invitation: Come Away - Jesus Culture This song is 7 min. You need no alarm, but can just sit and invite Him to come in and enjoy you.

Please try this sometime in the next day or two. See what happens and let me know.

Other Places You Can Soak:
Music (Instrumental or Songs): http://soaking.net/
24/7 Live Prayer & Worship - International House of Prayer (IHOP)

Monday, November 5, 2012

Believing Gravity

How was it that you believed in gravity?
Someone told you the concept and idea, you looked around at the evidence: things seem to be staying grounded on the bottom. They have some ability to be lifted off the ground or move, but ultimately fall or get pulled back down.  Yes, that makes sense. You agreed to it and therefore structured your life after the idea that gravity is real and you will live expecting it to always be real and that way.

How was it that you believed in Jesus?
Someone told you the person and idea, you looked around at the evidence: this world is very complicated. Some being smart and complex must have made it. They say Jesus was God's son, died, and came back to life so people could talk to these supreme being. Those who believe this seem to be guilt free, happier, and have some sort of extra-human ability to love and live. Yes, that makes sense. You agreed to it and therefore structured your life after the idea that Jesus is real and you will live expecting Him to always be real and that way.

Sometimes we forget that it was simply by hearing and believing that we were saved. Or maybe we believe that then think, now it's our job to read our Bibles, pray, seek God, and witness to others SO THAT we are made more and more perfect and make this supreme being happy. Those things are good, but that's not what makes you perfect or Him happy. It's by you believing what He says.

"Let me ask you only this: did you receive the Spirit (become a Christian) by works of the law (doing all of the right things) or by hearing with faith (hearing and believing it to be true.)? Are you foolish? Having begun by the Spirit (listening and believing God talking to you), are you now being perfected by the flesh (working your butt off to do the "right Christian" things)?... Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law (you doing all of the right things and making Him happy), or by hearing with faith (hearing and believing it to be true)?" Gal 3:2-3,5
I think sometimes we try too hard rather than just listen to God and believe He's good and God and what He says is right. Gravity - believe and walk in that reality. Jesus - believe and walk in that reality.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

In between...

As I've been learning more about the old covenant and the new and listening to and following the Spirit/voice of God a new passage stuck out to me that makes me have to ask where we are as a church? My answer seems to be in between. 

Before I share the well known verses - I share my thoughts so when you read it, you can see it from a different perspective.


Now that the law is fulfilled, we don't have to worry about keeping the law anymore. We don't have a list of things to do and not to do. Instead, we are now amazingly overwhelmed and get to hear the voice of God. We get to have His Spirit IN US and let Him work in us and through us and minister to us and teach us "all truth" (John 16:13).  This was a radical step for the disciples and the first century church because only a select few people got to have the Spirit in the OT. So the transitional point for most of where the NT is written is explaining to people that you don't have to worry about fulfilling the law anymore, actually if you try to do any of it, you have to do all of it (Gal. 5:3). The new teaching was, you now have the Spirit of God living in you, you can hear His voice, and you should just follow Him. 


Wow! That's 1) Awesome! and 2) so much simpler. Don't worry about doing all of these list of things to be a good "Christian" but instead just talk to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. When you listen to Him, He will lead you to all truth and into a righteous way of living.  Notice the focus is not on "away from sin" but "into righteousness." It's now you're new life, to  listen to and follow the Spirit daily and hourly. If you don't hear the Spirit of God, then you look at the Bible as still a list of things to do and not to do, and you pick and choose which ones you want to apply as best as you can. Basically, if you're not hearing from the Spirit, you're living life the way you want...as best as you can. (It sounds harsh, but hang on.) You'll find yourself kind of stressed out or uptight or proud of yourself when people say things like "the will of God" or "walking in righteousness." The point was never to do good things to be a good Christian: read your Bible, pray, go to church, witness to others about Jesus, go serve homeless people, etc. Those are all good things, but those are still a list of things to do so that you feel good about how good of  Christian or person you are. The whole point was that Jesus fulfilled all lists and now invites you into a relationship with Him where you talk to Him and He talks to you. You just do those things that He says. (Reading through the Gospel, you'll notice Jesus teaches and heals people in a numerous amount of ways - why? Because He hates formulas and likes relationships with people, where people know Him and not His pattern. They want to know His voice not His business plan to replicate His ministry.)


We could go on, but the point is all about hearing from the Spirit and following what He says or in other words "walk by the Spirit." (Ever thought about what that really means? It's more than just doing what feels right and not doing what feels guilty. Those are bumper lanes of behavior not an active relationship.)


If your mind is like mine, then you automatically freak out a little bit. Wait. So we're not telling people how to be a good Christian anymore? About Church? The Bible? Witnessing? You're just going to turn them over to listen to "the voice of God" and they can do whatever? The answer is "Yes but no." That same fear hit people already in the NT. Yes, we are turning them over from our list of things that they need to do to be a good Christian and entrusting God to be more powerful than we are and more concerned about their life than we are. (We often think it's our job to be sanctified now that Jesus has saved us - He saved us, we work hard to flesh it out. WRONG! Jesus still cares more about it and will get you there than you ever could or would.) But there's this fear of just letting people go. That's why we have many of the New Testament scriptures that are "conduct scriptures" (the ones that tell you what to do or how to do it). 


Follow the Spirit. (People start getting worried or start dreaming of what they could do and blame it on the Spirit.) Then, they clarify. You can't be filled with the Spirit and do __________________. It's not possible. That's not the Spirit I introduced you to, the one you were filled with when you accepted Jesus. When you ARE listening to the Holy Spirit (the good Spirit) then you'll naturally do these things... You don't have to go chase after them, this is just a gauge that's a sign you are listening to the right Spirit. This helps guide people and prevents them from going off and killing someone, having sex all the time, getting jealous over what they have or not, dividing your church over "theological differences" and then blaming it on the Spirit of God, saying "He lead me to do this." Ehhh. Nope! It will actually look like this__________________.



But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:16-23

So this is how I find us in between. Most of us know to stay away from witchcraft, orgies, adulteries  and getting drunk. We water down and struggle some with rivalries/comparing ourselves, division in "cliques" or "viewpoints" in the global or local church, and some impurity. Yet, I don't see is fully being characterized by "radical joy and this crazy love flowing from us. I don't see patience overflowing from us and such continued faithfulness that people ask what's up?" Some people, I know have it and I see it. At large, I don't see this joy.  Francis Chan questioned this in His book "Forgotten God"

But look over those traits right now and ask yourself if you possess each to a supernatural degree.  Do you exhibit more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons you know?  Do you have more self-control than your Muslim friends?  More peace than Buddhists?  More joy than atheists?  If GOD truly lives in you, shouldn't you expect to be different from everyone else?
 So I find us in between, rejecting the bad stuff but not fully walking in the good stuff. My conclusion: I think we're still trying to be good Christians rather than stopping being "good Christians" and following God's Spirit. I love reading the Bible in the morning, but sometimes I find myself doing it so that I feel good about myself and like God's happy with me because I did it. God's happy with me because 1) He made me so He likes me, then 2) Jesus saved me and is in me so that I will fully be what He made me. At times, I find the Spirit leading me not to read my Bible in the morning but to stare out the window and just talk to Him, to draw, to write, to send an email, to lay in bed 20 more minutes and keep dreaming about possibilities. The point is not for me to have more of the Bible in my head, but for God to live in and through me. When that happens and comes out it looks like love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and faithfulness and self-control and kindness. It looks like these things because those are everything that God is. It's not me mustering them up, it's just God coming out. We can't make joy, but He can't help but be joy. We can't make love, but He can't help but be love. When He lives in me, He naturally flows out as Joy, Love, Goodness, Self-control, Peace, etc. 

So I encourage us to, let go of doing the right things (the law), and instead enjoy Jesus and listen to His Spirit. Just ask "Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do right now or what do you want to tell me?" and listen. It may be an audible voice, it may just be a random idea in your head, and it may be a yearning in your heart. Listen and go with that. Keep asking the question. If you're wrong, there's grace and He's happy you're trying. He'll let you know too. Don't doubt, but celebrate that you are literally hanging out with the creator of the universe. Seriously?! Yes! I pray today that you get to hear His voice more and get to really enjoy hanging out with Him!