No Ordinary Thaw

Why do we not speak with that same simplicity, that same urgency and that same absoluteness [as Paul and the early Christians]? I believe it is because we do not believe it as absolutely as Paul did, nor do we live as if we believe it. We are simply not occupied with the things that are eternal, and therefore we are unable to persuade men.¹ We need to press mankind to come to terms with eternity even though they will accuse us of being dogmatic, narrow-minded and intolerant, and yet that will be enough to intimidate many of us to silence. There is nothing more embarrassing and intimidating to the modern Christian than to be considered narrow and dogmatic.² It did not, however, intimidate Paul. Eternity is not a narrow concept. The world needs to be disturbed by people who cannot contain themselves, who are beyond the issue of taste, politeness and good manners, who burn with the reality of eternity and who take every opportunity to express the things that are Divine.

Our absoluteness is the very height of offense to a world that is relativistic and pluralistic. They do not want to be told that there is anything that is absolute, that there are only two alternatives, but they need to be told, not by people who bring (only) the correct doctrine but by those who come with a burning conviction. Do we really believe that God has fixed a day when He will judge the world in righteousness? Our apostolic task is to bring an unwanted and unwelcome message to an indifferent world, and it is a message we can only bring in the same proportion that we can demonstrate it. It is not enough to be “correct.” We have to come to them, as it were, from the eternal place.

Art Katz – The Challenge of Living an Authentic Christian Life

(all emphasis mine)

1 We’re not even persuading our own children in most instances. I include myself in this.

2 This is why the threat of slander is often satan’s final “trump card” whenever his “kingdom” is finally and actually being threatened.

I’m currently reading an absolutely fantastic book which I’ll disclose and review here soon. What incredible word poetry the author is using to correctly (re)paint and recalibrate my view of the Kingdom amidst a world and society that has had lost to it — through a methodical “dumbing down” — of the Reality of the Kingdom of God from Heaven. But more on that later.

Here is a quote from the book, something that the author said after reading the New Testament scriptures for the very first time that has just mesmerized me since reading it:

I was struck by the Apostolic Grandeur of the scriptures…

I was struck by that quote. It’s like he stated something I have only all-too-rarely sensed and should have continued to feel every time I read them, but again, because of the “religiousness” of our “modern society,” the invention of the printing press (and now the “ePrinting Press” — the internet), we loose the sense of rarity and awe this person felt due to the (perceived) commonality and (very perceived) “familiarity” in our society (though actually the OPPOSITE is true…) and the ease with which the scriptures can be accessed.

But do we really realize just how rare the scriptures actually are? Are we struck by the enormity of them? Not just what they teach, but… I can find no better words than the ones I just quoted… Are we struck by the Apostolic Grandeur of them??!!

For those who may be unfamiliar with how the Bible was “formed”… how it was “put together”… how it was “decided” which books were “from God” and which were not… I can find no better description. That sense of Apostolic Grandeur is exactly what the “early church fathers” used in determining what was “from God” and what was not. There was a sense of rightness, a sense of awe, a sense of “other-worldliness,” a sense in which “these words, though spoken by men and one man in particular” were not just any other “religious words” — like from Confusious or something — but that they really were wrought from another Realm.
Continue Reading »

Been listening to Francis Chan lately. I really like this guy’s heart. He’s a real person without a doubt. Here are some quotes from his Crazy Love book we’re reading with some others right now. Something to think about:

It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity.

In the United States, “numbers” impress us. We gauge the success of an event by how many people “attend” or “come forward.” We measure “churches” by how many “members” they boast. We are “wowed” by big crowds. Jesus questioned the authenticity of this kind of record keeping. According to the account in Luke 8, when a crowd started following Him, Jesus began speaking in parables so that those who WEREN’T genuinely listening, WOULDN’T “get it.” When crowds gather today, speakers are extra conscious of communicating in a way that is accessible to everyone. Speakers [today] don’t use Jesus’ [truth and righteousness and wisdom] to eliminate people who are not sincere seekers.

The fact is… He just wasn’t interested in those who fake it.

The American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a “nice marriage,” children who “don’t swear,” and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is RARELY considered. That’s for the “radicals” who are “unbalanced” and who “go overboard.” Most of us want a balanced life that WE control, that is “safe,” and does not involve suffering.

(all emphasis mine)

That approach and Wisdom is not something we see exhibited around us, is it? How is it that Jesus is the most loving person who ever lived, and we think we have a “better way” than Him? That we actually “love people” more than Him by our accommodation and compromise of the true gospel — and therefore our MISrepresentation of who He really is, and also therefore, in effect, our altering of the gospel? Jesus purposefully told people, “Shhh! Don’t tell anyone I told you this!” He purposefully spoke in parables to keep the pretenders and the people who wanted Jesus only for His perceived “benefits” (to themselves) from truly understanding Him. Can you imagine? He purposefully told people when He did miracles on a number of occasions, “Don’t tell anyone I did this,” “Don’t tell anyone what you just saw here.” Can you imagine?
Continue Reading »

I normally don’t post twice in one day (or even in one week), but this was so totally jaw-droppingly real — when I read it, was like “YYYYEEEESSS!!!” — I had to post this today. Just terrific:

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough… It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daises alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

–G.K. Chesterton

Man, if that doesn’t just tickle you to the bone, if that doesn’t just resonate with you as “Yeeessss!!” I don’t know what will.

There actually is a progression of Spiritual Life that John alludes to in 1 John 2 that depicts our lives spiritually as progressing from children, then fathers, THEN Young Men. He wrote it twice to make sure we wouldn’t miss it. The spiritual progression of men and women is from childhood to fathers/mothers (taking responsibility in God’s house) THEN to Young Men and Women — warrior/priests who are absolutely taking it to satan and busting him in the chops (1 John 2:12-14).

The progression is toward who God is. And God is Young.

Related

• Children, Fathers, Young Men

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us… The most pretentious fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

–A.W. Tozer

Or put another way, the closer one’s conception to the Reality of God, the closer one is to the highest purity, perfection, satisfaction, holiness, and Christ-likeness. Who God “is” is already set. God is Who He Is. God said that: I AM WHO I AM It is not within our prerogative to decide who God will be. But only to align our thoughts and perceptions to Who He Actually Is. Nothing else matters.

And when we’ve seen Jesus for who He is, then we have also seen God for who He is as well (John 14:1-6).

I was absolutely floored to find out today that buried in some of Martin Luther’s writings, as far back as 1526, he was of the opinion and thought that the only real church was that which was not publicly celebrated where any pagan off the street could come in and “participate” and “go through the motions” and no one would ever know.

But instead, Martin Luther advocated the same kind of life for those living in his 14th century as what was practiced in the 1st century. That is, as in Acts 2… “Daily in public and from house to house” where everyone was bound together by sacred oaths and who had no need of pomp or fluff or traditions of men where a “religious show” was put on. But rather that men would gather together spontaneously, on their own (because they truly were born a second time and weren’t merely responding to en event on the calendar where anyone can “show up” for a few hours and “look good” — but an actual kind of life that not only would allow those truly born from above to recognize the merely religious and the pretenders, but that they should do something about them.) A place here men were taught to “obey all that [Jesus has] commanded” and not just passed along “information” about God.

He said that the only reason he didn’t follow through on living that way was (1) he didn’t see the kind of leadership (ie. Ephesians 4 giftedness) to pull it off, and (2) because, like in today’s world… he didn’t see anyone around who really wanted to live that way.

Check this out. Some comments are in order since the translation into English is a little archaic and the idioms don’t quite carry over:
Continue Reading »

Recently revealed, personal thoughts of a once super rich and famous person, “adored” the world over:

I know there are a million people worse off than me [and] that I should do all that I can for them, but at the end of the day I have to live with myself [and] emotionally at the moment I am upside down [and] confused (so boring for those around me) [and] putting on this act is desperate, but if it keeps people off my back then surely it must be worth it. (emphasis mine)

Just an interesting perspective when the enemy uses all the electronic media at his disposal to “convince” us that the grass in greener if we were just rich or famous or a movie star or… This person had everything at his/her disposal, practically, and anything he or she could have ever wanted. This person’s desperate death in a desperate search for love while running from way more than the people who were chasing him/her at the time proves otherwise.

Always good for me personally to hear, so I thought I’d pass it along.

The “Letting Go” or “Let Go” theme has been a major emphasis in my personal life for the last year and God has worked in huge and “hard” ((to the flesh) ways all year long on this. I got this in my inbasket just as I was about to pull out the book Let Go and read a little bit more from it this afternoon before some chores. I don’t know if God could highlight something any better even if He came down and spoke audibly to me. Just slapped by it:

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. (Genesis 9:13)

It is the Will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. Why does not God save me? He has saved me, but I have not entered into relationship with Him. Why does not God do this and that? He has done it, the point is — Will I step into covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.

Waiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that. God will not do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man has to go out of himself in his covenant with God as God goes out of Himself in His covenant with man. It is a question of faith in God – the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings. I do not believe God unless He will give me something in my hand whereby I may know I have it, then I say — “Now I believe.” There is no faith there. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”

When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.

-Oswald Chambers (emphasis mine)

The whole history of the Church is one long story of this tendency to settle down on this earth and to become conformed to this world, to find acceptance and popularity here and to eliminate the element of conflict and of pilgrimage. That is the trend and the tendency of everything. Therefore outwardly, as well as inwardly, pioneering is a costly thing.

-T. Austin-Sparks

Here’s a very small excerpt of something I read 22 years ago while in college that literally changed my entire life.  And therefore the lives of our entire family.  It totally changed how we viewed “church,” God, Jesus, His Will and Purpose for our lives and the lives around us…  We’d never really considered that the pattern of “the early church ‘did this’ so we need to ‘do this’” or “monkey see, monkey do” was not anywhere CLOSE to what God wanted.

Here’s something to think about: You can study what other people have done for years, but that doesn’t make you who they are. Painting the picture of some city or country far away from here doesn’t put us in that country. To be able to paint a portrait in the minutest detail of what the city of Jerusalem or the landscape of Galilee or any other place looks like doesn’t mean that we’re there.

This is the dilemma we face as we pursue the nature of the Church. To study in great detail all that they were, to know what they knew, even to believe in what they believed in, does not make us the people that they were. The people of God’s Church have substance, integrity, and a pure attitude of the heart. They are characterized by a unique perspective and priority system. Our lives are either hidden in Christ — or we just “know about” being hidden in Christ. We are either full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, or we simply study people who were.
Continue Reading »