No Ordinary Thaw

Follow me, as I follow Christ.

– Paul of Tarsus (1 Corinthians 11:1)

In contemplating things in my own life and things I have had pointed out to me by others, I’ve had to confront aspects of leadership that may be required of me as to spheres for which I will be held accountable (eg. leading household, children, etc.)

One aspect I’ve had to consider is the specific pathway into “leadership” and one thing I am discovering more and more, as a bedrock for leadership, is the simple basic aspect of being a fantastic follower. I’ve noticed that the people I know in my own life who I consider “excellent leaders,” if I had to boil away all the upfront perspectives and views on who they are and why they are what they are… I’ve noticed that at base, one important, simple aspect of their lives is… they simply fantastic, stable, loyal followers. Followers of Christ. Immovable. Unchangeable. You don’t always have to get after them and “remind” them of their commitments and what their life and direction should be. They lead by following. Following fantastically. Lighting the way. Paving the path. Taking the hits. Doing the upfront work, without complaint and without notice and without drawing attention to themselves. Always reflecting Christ in their simple, base life choices.

This way of all-out following has a direct correlation to why Jesus said “Call no man ‘master,’ ‘teacher,’ or ‘father’…” No “titles.” The “Gentiles do it that way,” Jesus said. But “not so with you.” Don’t do it that way. There’s a reason why. It interferes with following. God’s Way is following, surrender, emptying. More on this last point another time. It’s a whole topic unto itself. But what a concept of “leadership” is wrapped up in the simplicity of fantastic following.

I recently received this MP3 clip spoken by the late Art Katz. It’s got to be in the top three things I’ve ever heard because… the implications for what it means — if you have eyes to see and ears to hear!! — are so huge.

Here is a quick quote to ponder:

There are a couple of words that need to be restored… one is “fellowship”… “Fellowship” has become some kind of easy, soft, pappie, slap-on-the-back and chuck-under-the-chin “how ya doin’, brother?”…

Art then proceeds to properly redefine “fellowship.” It’s a whole lot more than what most of us have been brought up to think. If you can excuse me for saying so, most of what we call “fellowship” is a cheap, cotton-candy substitute for the real thing. And why shouldn’t satan invent and push such a definition on us? His “kingdom” is only threatened by the Real Thing. So, he does his “work” by changing definitions. And we are the losers for it.

This isn’t just about “fellowship.” This is about a missing Reality in the world today (by and large) of an intertwined, resurrection, “daily in public and from house to house,” “all things in common,” kind of unified Life that Jesus prayed about in John 17 that is absolutely necessary for turning the world upside down now as it once was as depicted in Acts. Missing “fellowship,” missing truth (which is way more than just “doctrine”), missing Reality and missing Expression of all of those things are what are discussed in 30 short minutes.

I hope you’ll listen to the clip, pray through it, and see if you can see the picture repainted in God’s Way. Only through the Reality of the Kingdom as God intended — and not a watered down version that suits our fancies and lifestyles — can His Glory really be manifest in the earth.

Related

• The Church Prepared for the Return of Christ

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?
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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).

An email passed on:

From: Don

Now, as always, God reveals Himself to “babes” and hides himself in thick darkness from the wise and prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood if we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.

When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than the life and love — of, in, through, and to God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-”and” effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the “and” lies our great woe. If we omit the “and”, we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.

We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the One.

–A.W. Tozer

Because the pursuit of only God is the pursuit of the One Thing — the One Person — who will require the most expansion our hearts. Everything and anything else will not require the same amount of space and our space polluted with other things leaves less than the optimal space for Him (John 8:37).

Recently we received two things that I believe are inexorably linked and related. A couple of days ago, we received in regular snail-mail an advertisement, an invitation to and an appeal for yet another new “church” in our area. There was a consistent message, it was very artfully and professionally done, and it’s location is on or close to a major university campus. And today I received a PDF teaching called The Astonishing Day of Christ. The relationship between the two was striking.

So as for the “church advertisement,” we’ve seen a number of these “new churches” spring up since we’ve lived here — and more are already on the way. Just on the east side of the TC alone probably no less than five or six of these have popped up and all of them have a very non-denominational feel and appeal. All of them are marketed very, very well. And I would definitely say that I can tangibly sense the earnest and sincere appeal behind them all. So I’m not questioning people’s motives at all. If anything, it’s continued evidence that people everywhere feel there is something wrong with “church” as we’ve classically known it for the last 2000 years. “Something’s missing!!” is one of the silent cries behind the artful invitations and color coordinated, thematic literature. And I understand and empathize with that.

But unfortunately what I also sense is a yoking with the world and the world’s methods to make that appeal. Good, honest, sincere people who mistakenly believe that a consistent marketing message and approach as well as “appealing to the current culture” is going to produce different results. Einstein stated once that “Doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting different results” was the very definition of insanity. And despite these types of renewed “efforts” at “church,” we see the insanity of pretty much the same fruit.
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I was shown this full page ad today that someone recently took out in a New Zealand newspaper:

Dear Christians: I am a Christian, and I am going to be real with you.

Brothers and sisters, “Christianity,” as our experience and history show, is a lie. [He simply means that what we commonly call "Christianity" today... isn't. Not that the Truth of Christianity itself is a lie, but simply how it's being expressed and represented as God's Heart and Mind... is a lie.] Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, and He prayed that all His followers would be One. God answered Jesus’ prayer… but since Acts something’s gone seriously amiss. Jesus said a divided kingdom would fall. Christianity’s history proves its nature: competing for members, money, power and prestige using worldly methods and systems and measuring success against worldly standards. This is not Jesus’ Kingdom any more than its 10,000 schisms equal One Faith. This is not “one love, one mind, one heart, one accord.” This kingdom is Babylon and her daughters. King Jesus isn’t schizophrenic.

The Old Testament foreshadowed our times. God raised up many saviours to Israel: Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Zerubbabel; but upon each of their deaths the people fell away. The apostles of Jesus guided their generation, but upon their deaths the people fell away. For those with ears that hear, the last eighteen centuries correspond to Israel’s Babylonian captivity, at the end which God called His people back home to Jerusalem. He is calling His people home again today. That stirring energy deep inside — if you feel it — what is it?
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From a recent email encouragement and book excerpt:

What was the “church life” like in AD 30-70? It was identical, really, to the “disciples’ life” during the last three years of Jesus’ physical existence. That experience of intimate fellowship had simply been transplanted geographically to the cities and villages of the Roman Empire.

According to Luke, the gospel that he wrote described what Jesus “began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). The book of Acts, then, was what Jesus continued to do and teach, after His ascension. This time He was “doing and teaching” through His people, the ekklesia.

First century believers, then, saw themselves as continuing the life that the earliest followers had enjoyed with Jesus on the hills and highways of Galilee and Judea. They were still His spiritual family, “seated in a circle around Him” (Mark 3:34). They still hung on His every word. They still built their lives on the foundation of putting those words into practice. Acts 2:42-49 is really only a description of several thousand people putting Matthew 5-7 into practice together.

The “religion” of Christianity is in truth only meant to be the “religion” of Jesus. It is nothing more — and certainly nothing less.
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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)

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.
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