Stuck in an Ideological Time Machine…

Have you ever come across someone who was stuck in the past? Or so preoccupied with the future that they missed the present? Or so focused on the present that they forgot the past and ignored the future? Lately it seems I have been running into people who are stuck in an ideological time machine. Whether they are too focused on being “cutting-edge” (whatever that means to them), or they are like Brendan Fraser in Blast from the Past who just walked out of a bomb shelter from 35 years ago, they seem to be crossing my path and raising my blood pressure.

James 4:13-17 still says…

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don’t do it, you sin. (TNIV)

So here is what I ask of all of those who are stuck in their ideological time machine…

(1) Understand that you CAN Contend AND Contextualize.
(2) Stop harassing those who are trying to be Biblically faithful and culturally relevant (and contrary to what you might think you can do both…just look at Paul in Athens)
(3) Be open to methods and concepts that are not your own. Test it, but make sure you check it out before you reject it as “selling out” or “compromise” or “heresy” or “wordliness.”

Basically I’m asking you to think like a missionary…to be Missional (some of you just got goose bumps (or got angry) from me even using that word.

Can we please make the church a non-time machine zone?

The Xapis Project Resource Network…

This is the project that I have been working on that I am SO excited about. Check out the video and then you can go to the preview blog www.theprojectonline.wordpress.com to learn more about this as we build the website which will hopefully be up and running by late August or early September.

What Christianity is Really All About (Part 4…

So far, I have stated that Christianity is about the Man, the Message, the Mission, and now finally it is about the Makeover. When we begin to understand that Christianity is about Christ, the Gospel, and the Reconciliation and Sanctification of people through Christ, everything changes. We are “being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, TNIV)

Without a proper understanding of Christ, the Gospel, and the Missio Dei it is impossible to be conformed to His likeness. A failure to grow while living “under the name” of Christian is to be just as guilty as the Athenians in Acts 17 who had an idol set up “to an unknown God”.

Christianity has always been about the change. Christ came to make us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5), and therefore a failure to do so is a failure to be Christian. It is a failure to be CHRISTian.

It’s time that we return to the source. We must passionately get into God’s Word and seek out the Man, the Message, the Mission, and then in the midst of all of this experience the Makeover.

Take this sham that the world calls Christianity and give me You. Help me to know the Good News that You bring and help me to be about my Father’s business. Change me Lord Jesus and make me Yours. Amen.

What Christianity is Really All About (Part 3)

What is Christianity really all about? Thirdly, (after the Man and the Message) comes the Mission. First we have to understand how the first two elements build the foundation for the desire and the ability to live as someone who is striving to fulfill God’s mission. Without a knowledge of and a relationship with Christ there is no hope to understand the Message. The opposite is also true. A failure to understand the Gospel (or the “Good News”) indicates an overall failure of getting to know the Man, Jesus Christ.

However, for someone who does (and continues to) be in relationship with the Man and understand the Message then they place themselves in a position that they become part of the Mission (the Missio Dei). There are two parts of this Mission that cannot be taken out of balance without a negative impact on the mission and those who are a part of it.

Part number one, the reconciliation of all creation through the saving work of Jesus Christ. Secondly (and equally as important), is the sanctification of those who have been reconciled. This balance is reflected in the words of Jesus in what we commonly refer to as The Great Commission:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, TNIV)

Christianity is all about the Man, the Message, and helping others to be reconciled while you yourself are being continually sanctified. Anything else is a pale imitation of the faith that bears the name of Christ.

What Christianity is Really All About (Part 2)

What is Christianity really all about? Second of all, it is about the Message. Before Christianity can move anywhere in a person’s life they must come to know the Man, Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God. Secondly however, they must understand the Message.

The Message is the Gospel, the “Good News.”

The following is my contention about people’s understanding (generally speaking) of the Message:

(1) Some believe that the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a partially true understanding in that there is more to the “good news” that just that someone died. Such a view of the Gospel allows some to keep other characteristics of Christ out of their lives. Too often, a myopic understanding of the Gospel centered only on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, allows people to stop after they have “died to themselves” in baptism.

(2) Some believe that the Gospel (remember that is the “good news”) is the life and teachings of Jesus. This leads some believers (and that term has varying degrees of legitimacy to it) to become people that are more worried about social justice and ethics than sanctification and the ministry of reconciliation that God has given us.

Here is what I believe the Gospel (the “Good News”) is:

THE ENTIRE STORY OF SCRIPTURE AND ULTIMATELY OF HUMAN HISTORY.

 

Think about it. What is the first part of the Good News? “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1). The first part of the Good News is that there has always been and always will be a God. Although He was perfect and complete in and of Himself (in the Trinity) He chose to create everything that exists. He created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27) and walked with Adam and Eve in perfect relationship in the cool of the evening (see Genesis 3:8). The fact is, we messed it up.

The next part of the Good News is that God had been working on the plan of reconciliation before the creation of the world. God worked in the first part of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) to reveal himself more to His people. He lays out a law and a system by which people (the Israelites and those who converted) could know more of Him. The same continues with the building (and rebuilding) of the Temple.

God continues to improve the Good News by making himself known more fully in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He has exegeted the Father (John 1:18). Jesus lives and teaches, is crucified, buried, raised, and ascends into Heaven. God again reveals himself more fully by leaving the Tabernacle and Temple and coming in the form of Jesus but now he dwells within those who submit themselves to Him. Still however, God has still only been partially revealed to us.

The Good News culminates in the final, eschatological judgment in which, after receiving a welcome into the eternal Kingdom of God (see 2 Peter 1:101-11), we will be both fully known and we will fully know and dwell eternally in the presence of God.

 

The Good News (the Gospel or the Message) is this: God has always been in the business of making Himself more and more known to those who seek Him. We can know Him now more than ever before and there is still coming a day when we can know the Creator of the Universe completely. The truth is, THAT is Good News.

 

If you don’t know the Man (Jesus Christ), you cannot know the Message (The Gospel or the Good News). Next we will look at the necessity of understanding of knowing the Man and the Message so that we can understand and participate in the Mission.

What Christianity is Really All About (Part 1)

The classes I am teaching this week have gone really well. I wanted to share with you the foundations of what I have shared with the intention of developing all of this at a later time.

What is Christianity really all about? First of all, it is about the Man. Before Christianity can move anywhere in a person’s life they must come to know the Man, Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

The following is my contention about people’s understanding (generally speaking) of the Man:

(1) For many Jesus is a man who did nothing (or little) more than die on the cross. This is reflected in our art (where the cross is the symbol but the theology and discipleship that it demands are frighteningly absent), and what we tell others (Jesus died for me.) Please do not misunderstand me and think that I wish to in anyway minimize the theological importance of Jesus’ death on the cross. It is indescribably important. But for people to have a Christology that is myopically focused on the cross is to miss SO MUCH of who the Man is.

(2) The church has been guilty of an overemphasis on the book of Acts and the epistles which has created a generation (or generations) of people who have an ecclesiology that is completely disconnected from the head. They claim to be his body but cannot understand how the head acts or thinks or desires. Such is to the extreme spiritual detriment of the church. We need to be a people that is constantly immersed in the Gospels seeking to understand and imitate the Man.

These are just a few thoughts. Here is where I am headed with this. If you do not know the Man (Jesus), you cannot know the Message (the Gospel), which means that you will fail to be about the mission of God (the reconciliation of all creation through Christ and the sanctification of the reconciled), which places you into a position in which it is impossible for you to be changed because of a vibrant relationship with the Man (see 1 John 2:3-6).

It’s Not About WHY You Became a Christian…

In a class I taught today I asked the question, “Why did you become a Christian?” The answers covered the spectrum. But the point I wanted to make was this: that is a far less important question than what we must ask ourselves everyday.

Here’s the question: WHY DO YOU STILL WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN?

More about the Man. the Message, the Mission. and the Makeover later this week.

Mobile Reflections…

I am amazed at what technology has done to the world. ABC News said on their show last night that they have redone their website so that people can contribute to and report the news. Even they understand that technology has changed things. No reporter was able to capture the hanging of Sadaam Hussein, but a self phone camera caught it and within hours millions had seen that moment in history.

A year ago I would have to go to my computer to post on here. Now I am on my cell phone on my living room floor musing about the wonders of technology.

I have repeatedly read and now see more clearly than I did before that technology is not neutral. It is BOTH good and bad, a positive and a negative. The internet has made ministry take a new dimension because in many ways the possibilities are endless. But at the same time the internet has destroyed more lives and families through adultery, pornography, and other sexual misconduct than just about anything out there.

“Whatever the world may use, let it be propigated by the church.” — Augustine

This has become one of my life statements. God is in the business of redemption and reconciliation. It’s time that we use technology to further his mission.

But remember this one thing:
TECHNOLOGY IS NOT THE ANSWER. JESUS CHRIST, THE SINLESS SON OF GOD, ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE ANSWER.

I’ll be at church camp all this week and will hopefully be making some “mobile reflections” from Burnt Cabin. Here are the things I am teaching on (and will hopefully blog about) this week:

Why are you a Christian?
What is Christianity really all about?
— The Man (Jesus Christ)
— The Message (The Gospel)
— The Mission (The Missio Dei)
— The Makeover (Progressive and Intentional Sanctification)

The theme for this week is “Extreme Makeover: Spiritual Edition”. Please pray for everyone that will be there that Christ will have open doors to come in and make us more like Him.

Attitude Check…

One of my favorite songs as a little kid was “Attitude Check” by AVB. It is definitely old school but I love the message (and the song) still to this day.

Can I be honest? (Truth is, I’m going to be.) Sometimes I need an attitude check. Sometimes I wish I was in a better position to give someone else an attitude check. It is scary to me that the world’s perception of the church depends on the attitudes and actions (or lack thereof) of those that they come into contact with.

It seems like some will never realize the power of not caring, the power of being cold and uncommitted, the power of being an ambassador who doesn’t do a good job representing the Master. The truth is their actions DO make an eternal difference.

I’m guilty just like everyone else. Sometimes I wish I had the guts to confront myself. Sometimes I wish I had the guts to confront others. The consequences are too high. Maybe it’s time to stand up.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16, TNIV)

The Missional Manual Challenge…

Here is the challenge that was laid down to me by my brother:

How is it that so many servants of God, all over the world can be missional if they’ve never heard the word “missional”? It must be because we read the same Holy Scriptures and have the same desire: to be the church that God has called us to be (1 Peter 2:-10). I would like to see someone write an essay about a missional community without quoting any modern sources, only using the Bible! How ’bout it?!

My answer: I ACCEPT!!!

You can look at this post to see my reaction to this challenge. Also, because of scheduling the blog that I intend to create probably will not happen for another week as I am off to church camp this weekend. I will be a little busy until then. Especially since I just found out (don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining) that I am giving 2 devotionals (the first and the last) and am also teaching at least once a day all week. I love getting to talk about God and His Word and what it means to our lives.

GET IN ON THE MISSIONAL MANUAL CHALLENGE!!