Many pastors have a heartfelt desire for a takeover by the Spirit of God.  It is much needed and has been long in coming. This passionate desire for “freshness” within our fellowship is both an asset and a liability.  I don’t want to miss God, but neither do I want to settle for a facsimile.  Like you, I want the reality that is sourced in and flows from God!   I mean that!  I believe in and desire the power that is uniquely God’s and I refuse to settle for anything less!!  I am reminded that cessationists were not responsible for bringing an end to what was labeled the Charismatic Renewal.   No!  The demise of that revival was an inside job—the abuse of spiritual gifts, ridiculous teachings and other foolishness.   That is not meant as an offhanded way of calling those who disagree with me foolish!!!  Rather, it is an issue that I find personally sobering and one that demands everything be examined in the bright light of Scripture and accountable relationships!  Accountability is one of the reasons I’m expressing my ideas on this public forum and at tables with friends.   

I’m concerned that we unwittingly remove Martin Luther’s 95 Theses from the door of the castle church in Wittenberg when we reestablish a apostolic or prophetic hierarchy through whom God channels his blessings to us.  Entire organizations are being fabricated around an exaggerated and exalted view of prophets and apostles, with the promise that they will impart their anointing or spiritual gifts to followers.  All too often their impartations reek of nepotism and the love of money.     While I believe God imparts the gifts or healing to people as we obediently lay hands on them and pray for them, I do not believe we are the ones who impart the healing or the Spirit!!   If I remember my Pentecostal Church history correctly, Charles Fox Parham had not been baptized in the Spirit when he laid hands on Agnes Ozman.  Agnes was the first to receive the Baptism in the Spirit with the initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues.  If we make man the fountain, we deny the Fountainhead and Source of all blessings, power and giftings!  It is sad, but legitimate hunger for the manifestations of the Spirit when mixed with impatience causes us to become vulnerable to and accepting of facsimiles. 

This holds true for prophetic utterances.  Prophecy comes by the unction and revelation of the Spirit! (See Acts 2:4, 1Cor 14:29-32.)  To say “thus saith the Lord” when He didn’t is to take the name of the Lord in vain and that is no light thing.  The NT prophet gives voice to the revelation given by the Spirit, not something contrived, worked up or conjured up by his imagination or good intentions.  Suffice it to say that the valves on this spiritual-spigot are not controlled by the church or her servants/ministers, but by God himself (1Cor 12:11).  It is my concern that by settling for a pleasing facsimile we deny ourselves and our children the privilege of experiencing the fire that comes from heaven.

I think you’ll have to agree with me that those guys aren’t living life casually or with security in mind!  They have literally gone off the edge!

How close to the edge are you living? 

How close to the edge are you willing to get?  There is real danger here, so don’t answer flippantly or too quickly.

I remember our family trip to the Grand Canyon.  What a spectacular place!  From the top of a Canyon wall, my wife leaned against a guard rail, looked down at the Colorado River running through the floor of the Canyon and said, “I thought that River would be a lot bigger.”  Of course the river was “a lot bigger,” but from her place high on the Canyon wall the Colorado River looked very small.  

I can’t tell on her without telling you that I couldn’t see the Colorado River from where I was standing.  One has to get rather close to the edge to see what she saw.  So, while she may have had a blond moment, at least she can say she saw the Colorado River from the observation deck of the Grand Canyon. 

For Jesus living on the edge meant incarnation, becoming like those He came to save.  It meant identification, being with those He came to save.  He didn’t commute from heaven to earth. He didn’t isolate himself from sinners.  No, He ate with them, slept among them, worked next to them, loved them and died in their stead.  He bore the burdens his fellows carried.  He took upon himself the challenge of their economic system and the challenge of being oppressed by the Romans.  He connected with humanity in the tough, dark and sinful places, yet without being sinful.  

For Damien, a Belgian missionary who went to Hawaii about 150 years ago, living on the edge also meant being with those he sought to reach.  He began by planting churches on the island of Molokai.  After planting several churches on the main part of the island, he was informed of a part of the island no one ever went to, willingly.  It was a small peninsula that jutted out north from the island and was departed from the rest of Molokai by 2,500 foot cliff.  The only ways to get to the peninsula were to jump off the cliff or go by boat in the open ocean; one being about as dangerous as the other.  That peninsula was where the Hawaiians abandoned all their lepers.  If you got leprosy in Hawaii, you were taken to and left on this peninsula.  Damien felt a call to the people that inhabited that peninsula, so he went there and worked there just as he had done on the rest of the island.  With his own hands he built a church there and helped the lepers build houses for themselves and a community.  He didn’t visit them, he lived among them and served them in any way he could.  One day, after he had been there for some 15 years, he was cooking a meal and boiling some water when he spilled the water on his foot, but there was no pain.  So he tried again.  He purposely poured the boiling water on his foot, but again there was no pain.  This could mean only one thing.  He now had leprosy.  The next Sunday in church as he began to lead the people in worship, he didn’t give his usual greeting.  Instead of saying, “My fellow believers,” he declared, “My fellow lepers.”  He had in every way become one of them.

Damien lived on the edge and some may even say he went over the edge.  I wonder what those loved and served by Damien would say?

How close to the edge are you living?

How close to the edge are you willing to get? 

Living on the edge can be costly, which is why I caution you not to answer those questions too quickly.

I’m not suggesting base jumping or living with lepers.  What I am suggesting is a life that abandons casual Christianity in favor of off the edge obedience to the will of God. 

And your answer is…

The Kingdom and the Powers

(Mark 1:21-39; Luke 4:31-44 )
Sunday Thoughts for Monday Saints

Jesus came announcing the Kingdom (Mk. 1:14-15), but in a different form than expected.  The king Israel expected would lead them in a holy war that would deliver them from Roman oppression and restore her to a place of National supremacy.  The disciples expressed this hope as late as Acts 1:6, when they asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” 

 

Instead of dealing with Rome, Jesus challenges the warped, darkened, corrupt form of Judaism that existed.  He sends the healed into the temple carrying his mat on the Sabbath.  Did the temple leaders rejoice?  No, they persecuted Jesus because He gave rest to a cripple on the Sabbath.  The light offered by Jesus only served to show how dark their darkness really was.  They were blind to the light offered by John the Baptist, Moses and their prophets, poets and laws.  When the Christ went about delivering the oppressed, the scribes proved to be more oppressive than demons.  Jesus set people free, while the Jews did their best to oppose Him. 

 

Instead of an austere hidden god, Jesus made God public!  He showed Him to be a God of mercy and compassion, and the nation that should have joined and applauded Him instead rejected, persecuted and crucified Him.  He was a threat to their system, as well as to ours.  For Him to have His place, they must give up theirs!   Selah!

 

The deliverance of the demoniac was evidence that the Kingdom was among them (Mt. 12:28). It was followed by the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and then the healing of those who were brought to Him (Luke 4:38-41).  When the people pressed Him to stay He replied, “I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Lu. 4:43).  Apparently, the purpose is about declaring the message, not about building a shrine or accumulating people in one place.

 

The problem was bigger than Rome and it is deeper than oppressive ungodly governments!  It is darker than laws that protect the murder of unborn babies and institutions which promote and perpetuate economic slavery.  It is a spiritual struggle that can only be won by the inbreaking of the Kingdom through the lives of those who are a part of that Kingdom.  I am not suggesting a verbal assault against politicians or government “in the name of Jesus.”  That is much to easy.  I’m not suggesting that you send me an offering so I can go to Washington and lobby against the evils that plague our society. To the contrary, I offer the method Jesus declared.  His Kingdom overcomes evil with good.  It triumphs over evil by winning, not the battle with our enemies, but by winning our enemies!  Instead of striking back, we turn the other cheek.  Instead of isolating ourselves from one another, we work to resolve our differences and develop healthy relationships.

 

We must realize that we cannot conqueror the world until we have surrendered to Him; until He has captured our hearts, minds and wills!  Our agenda should be the King’s agenda.  We should seek first the Kingdom and that includes doing what is right in the eyes of the King.  It is not that we seek to be righteous by doing right, but that we do right because we have been called to turn this upside down world right side up.  It begins with us, not Rome!  It begins with the Church, not the mean old world!

 

Although the Kingdom will not come in its fullness until the Christ comes, it is present and observable in the lives of Christ’s followers.  The Kingdom, as it is, is here to enforce Christ’s victory over the powers (Col. 2:15), not through physical conflict with flesh and blood, but by living the truth, standing in faith righteousness, walking in peace, praying in the Spirit and so on. 

 

We are not only partakers of His life, but we choose to live the life He has given us His way.  It is the coupling of His life and His way of life that will enforce the victory of the Son and thereby bring the powers down!  Yes, it would be easier if we could effectively assault the kingdom of darkness with verbose shouts of “in Jesus name,” but the power is not in saying but in living; in living in submission to His name!

 

So we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”  We seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33), so that the world may, like us, taste the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come (Heb. 6:5).  This demands that we do more than attend Church!  We must BE the Church!  We must BE that instrument that causes the powers to tremble and cry out for fear that we will enforce the finished work of the cross and the power of the empty tomb upon them and thereby free their captives.  We must love His way more than our own, so that our enemy cannot use our personal security and comfort and pleasure and self-interest as a weapon against us.  We must be more interested in His glory than church growth or personal success.  We must be honest in our dealings!  We must show mercy to the prodigals and fellow believers who fall into the enemies traps, but we must vehemently denounce the charlatan that offers miracles to those who will sow a financial seed into their ministry!  We must be done with chicanery and the foolishness that cheapens and makes a mockery of the redemptive work of Calvary, the workings of the Spirit and the blood bought Church of Jesus Christ.  We should come nearer to using a four letter obscenity than to declaring “Thus saith God,” when God hasn’t said anything! 

 

This Kingdom triumphs when the partakers of His life live life His way!  Wash the feet of, or in contemporary terms, serve those who oppose you and don’t be surprised when the powers shriek in fear and opposition.  Love the life you have in Him more than your own!  Live with confidence in His finished work and live to enforce the victory of that finished work via sacrificial obedience.  Live to bring wholeness to the broken and brokenness to those warped darkened corrupt expressions of so called Christianity. Give testimony with your life that He is the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, the Savior of the world and Israel’s long waited for Messiah.  Jesus!  The Christ!  The King!

Recently, a young friend died in an auto-accident and some indicated their reluctantance to express their emotions publicly.   A sensitive observer noted, ”I’ve heard a lot of people say such things as ‘I don’t like to cry,’ or ‘I don’t like crying in front of people,’ and ’I don’t cry.”  They then asked: “So what makes us get to that point? Why do we make crying such a private thing?” 

There must be a place for tears, as the Bible says, “Jesus wept!” (See Jn. 11:35.) Yes, weeping is as much a part of the human experience as laughing. (See Romans 12:15.)

The writer of Ecclesiastes says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. (Ecc. 3:4.) I would add that there are things that should move us to tears and there are issues that should cause us to laugh. When we get the two confused, it indicates that something in is us broken. For instance, your pain should never cause me to laugh. Conversely, your joy should never cause me to cry. I should be able to rejoice with you when you rejoice and weep with you when you weep.

I’m sure that some are just very private with their emotions, but I also agree with Jeannie when she suggests that a refusal to cry can be a pride issue. It may also suggest a hardness of heart.

As Christians we are not above crying. In fact there are a lot of things happening in our world that should cause our sensitive hearts to weep. I wept and weep for those who sat through Colby’s funeral and hardened their hearts against God. I weep for a world that thinks our greatest problem is the current economic crisis. I weep for a community that continously puts God on the sidelines while they pursue selfish interests.

The Psalmist assures us that although weeping may endure for the night, it will not last forever. (See Psalm 30:5.) We are also promised that HE will wipe away all tears. (See Isa. 25:8; Revelation 7:17; 21:4.) I may not be able to wipe the tears from your heart, but it is my desire to never cause your heart to cry!

Tears may be a part of our present experience, but it won’t always be this way. Cry, but not without hope!

Somewhere I heard or read about a conversation two men were having.  One of them indicated he had a question for God.  He wanted to ask Him why He allowed poverty and war and suffering and misery to exist in the world.  His friend said, “Well, why don’t you ask Him?”  The reply was, “I’m scared to.”  When asked why, he said, “I’m scared God will ask me the same question.”

 

The question isn’t, “Will we grow weary in this battle,” but “will weariness cause us to quit?”

In The Lord of the Rings, when Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf is not dead as he thought, he cries, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?”  Christ’s answer is YES, everything sad is going to come untrue. What will you lose if you quit? Dostoevsky said: I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened. [The Brothers Karamazon, Chapter 34.]   C.S. Lewis wrote: “They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a Glory.” [The Great Divorce, Macmillian, 1946, p. 64.]       What will you gain if you press on?

In The Lord of the Rings, when Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf is not dead, he cries, “I thought you were dead!  But then I thought I was dead myself!  Is everything sad going to come untrue?”  Christ’s answer is “YES, evertying sad is going to come untrue.”  [For more see Timothy Keller's, The Reason for God, page 33.]

I have some serious reservations about Mr. Obama’s background, his stance on abortion, and his view on the homosexual agenda.  There isn’t much I agree with Mr. Obama on, but is God using Him to accomplish something that lies beyond our field of vision?  I know this, God does things outside of our political tastes, preferences, and agendas. HE is bigger than democracy, bipartisanship, and our ideologies. Our freewill, our political slants, and wants and desires get in our way, not His.  Maybe God is trying to turn us from our reliance upon a political party and back to HIM.  Remember, the early church, by the power of the Holy Spirit and in a hostile environment turned the world upside down thru prayer and evangelization.

 

I don’t know the whole of it, but I have my suspicions concerning some of it.  We invoke, “If my people…,” but I’m not sure we are ready for the way in which God “will hear from heaven and heal our land.”  There is a wound in America that is bigger and more serious than our economic and foreign policy problems.  It is larger than Washington’s combined resources, yet God may be offering us an opportunity to experience the healing of our land…if we are willing to humble ourselves. 

 

Being black in America in the 1800′s–1930s, 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s had to be more than difficult.  I say “had to be,” because White America has no idea what it was like to not be white during those times.  Blacks couldn’t vote, were terrorized by hood wearing hate mongers, forced to ride on the back seats of buses, denied entry into a world dominated by whites and so on.  Sure, Amendment XV gave black people the right to vote in 1870, but Jim Crow quickly snatched away that right.  President Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1965 finally embraced black Americans as full citizens with equal rights.   

 

I graduated from high school in 1965 and while it may seem ancient history to some, it was a mere forty-three years ago.  Let me try and put this in terms we can understand.  Men who fought in WWII still carry the emotional scars from what they experienced in the 40′s and understandably so.  Many Vietnam vets still haven’t recovered from what they went through in the 60s and understandably so.  Is it unreasonable to believe that the wounds inflicted on the black community for more than 150 years and within our lifetime still need healing?    … 

 

The election of Mr. Obama touched that wound and the healing affect of that touch was evidenced in the tears shed upon realizing that Mr. Obama had been elected.  What if God is calling us to humble ourselves, so that we might experience the healing of our land?  What if this is only the beginning of the healing He wishes to bring?  What if He wants to deliver us from our pride, our self-reliance, our materialism, our insatiable appetite for pleasure…?  What if He wants to restore value to our currency…not its monetary value but the value of the message inscribed on it–IN GOD WE TRUST?  What if He desires to unite our nation from sea to shining sea?  What if God is turning again to bless America?  What if He has once again chosen a Cyrus?  What if we have a part to play in the outcome?  …

“For God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son”