M.C. Wright

A Jesus Manifesto Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

 I have always appreciated Leonard Sweet's thoughts, writings, and now his Tweets :-) The following article, or manifesto, was written by Leonard and Frank Viola and comes from the thoughts of their respective books "So Beautiful & From Eternity To Here."

As I read their manifesto I kept hearing myself say , "Yeah...uh-huh...that's right!" very often. People are hungry for an authentic God-invasion in their lives. Not another religious experience, or set of moral expectations. When we reduce Christianity, or following Jesus to those types of things we are dishonoring God and the men and women that He so desperately loves.

The key to all things is simply "Jesus." As you read, I hope you have some "uh-huhs" of your own...post your thoughts after you read...what think ye?

Dei Gratia,

Monty

A Jesus Manifesto

for the 21^st Century Church

 

By Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

Christians have made the gospel about so many things … things other than Christ.

 

Jesus Christ is the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives them significance, reality, and meaning. Without him, all things lose their value. Without him, all things are but detached pieces floating around in space.

 

It is possible to emphasize a spiritual truth, value, virtue, or gift, yet miss Christ . . . who is the embodiment and incarnation of all spiritual truth, values, virtues, and gifts.

 

Seek a truth, a value, a virtue, or a spiritual gift, and you have obtained something dead.

 

Seek Christ, embrace Christ, know Christ, and you have touched him who is Life. And in him resides all Truth, Values, Virtues and Gifts in living color. Beauty has its meaning in the beauty of Christ, in whom is found all that makes us lovely and loveable.

 

What is Christianity? It is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less. Christianity is not an ideology. Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity is the “good news” that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are found in a person. Biblical community is founded and found on the connection to that person. Conversion is more than a change in direction; it’s a change in connection. Jesus’ use of the ancient Hebrew word shubh, or its Aramaic equivalent, to call for “repentance” implies not viewing God from a distance, but entering into a relationship where God is command central of the human connection.

 

In that regard, we feel a massive disconnection in the church today. Thus this manifesto.

 

We believe that the major disease of the church today is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder. The person of Jesus is increasingly politically incorrect, and is being replaced by the language of “justice,” “the kingdom of God,” “values,” and “leadership principles.”

 

In this hour, the testimony that we feel God has called us to bear centers on the primacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically . . .

 

1.                  The center and circumference of the Christian life is none other than the person of Christ. All other things, including things related to him and about him, are eclipsed by the sight of his peerless worth. Knowing Christ is Eternal Life. And knowing him profoundly, deeply, and in reality, as well as experiencing his unsearchable riches, is the chief pursuit of our lives, as it was for the first Christians. God is not so much about fixing things that have gone wrong in our lives as finding us in our brokenness and giving us Christ.

 

2.                  Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his teachings. Aristotle says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Socrates says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Buddha says to his disciples, “Follow my meditations.” Confucius says to his disciples, “Follow my sayings.” Muhammad says to his disciples, “Follow my noble pillars.” Jesus says to his disciples, “Follow me.” In all other religions, a follower can follow the teachings of its founder without having a relationship with that founder. Not so with Jesus Christ. The teachings of Jesus cannot be separated from Jesus himself. Jesus Christ is still alive and he embodies his teachings. It is a profound mistake, therefore, to treat Christ as simply the founder of a set of moral, ethical, or social teaching. The Lord Jesus and his teaching are one. The Medium and the Message are One. Christ is the incarnation of the Kingdom of God and the Sermon on the Mount.

 

3.                  God’s grand mission and eternal purpose in the earth and in heaven centers in Christ . . . both the individual Christ (the Head) and the corporate Christ (the Body). This universe is moving towards one final goal – the fullness of Christ where He shall fill all things with himself. To be truly missional, then, means constructing one’s life and ministry on Christ. He is both the heart and bloodstream of God’s plan. To miss this is to miss the plot; indeed, it is to miss everything.

 

4.                  Being a follower of Jesus does not involve imitation so much as it does implantation and impartation. Incarnation–the notion that God connects to us in baby form and human touch—is the most shocking doctrine of the Christian religion. The incarnation is both once-and-for-all and ongoing, as the One “who was and is to come” now is and lives his resurrection life in and through us. Incarnation doesn’t just apply to Jesus; it applies to every one of us. Of course, not in the same sacramental way. But close. We have been given God’s “Spirit” which makes Christ “real” in our lives. We have been made, as Peter puts it, “partakers of the divine nature.” How, then, in the face of so great a truth can we ask for toys and trinkets? How can we lust after lesser gifts and itch for religious and spiritual thingys? We’ve been touched from on high by the fires of the Almighty and given divine life. A life that has passed through death – the very resurrection life of the Son of God himself. How can we not be fired up?

 

To put it in a question: What was the engine, or the accelerator, of the Lord’s amazing life? What was the taproot or the headwaters of his outward behavior? It was this: Jesus lived by an indwelling Father. After his resurrection, the passage has now moved. What God the Father was to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to you and to me. He’s our indwelling Presence, and we share in the life of Jesus’ own relationship with the Father. There is a vast ocean of difference between trying to compel Christians to imitate Jesus and learning how to impart an implanted Christ. The former only ends up in failure and frustration. The latter is the gateway to life and joy in our daying and our dying. We stand with Paul: “Christ lives in me.” Our life is Christ. In him do we live, breathe, and have our being. “What would Jesus do?” is not Christianity. Christianity asks: “What is Christ doing through me … through us? And how is Jesus doing it?” Following Jesus means “trust and obey” (respond), and living by his indwelling life through the power of the Spirit.

 

5.                  The “Jesus of history” cannot be disconnected from the “Christ of faith.” The Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee is the same person who indwells the church today. There is no disconnect between the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel and the incredible, all-inclusive, cosmic Christ of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The Christ who lived in the first century has a pre-existence before time. He also has a post-existence after time. He is Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, A and Z, all at the same time. He stands in the future and at the end of time at the same moment that He indwells every child of God. Failure to embrace these paradoxical truths has created monumental problems and has diminished the greatness of Christ in the eyes of God’s people.

 

6.                  It’s possible to confuse “the cause” of Christ with the person of Christ. When the early church said “Jesus is Lord,” they did not mean “Jesus is my core value.” Jesus isn’t a cause; he is a real and living person who can be known, loved, experienced, enthroned and embodied. Focusing on his cause or mission doesn’t equate focusing on or following him. It’s all too possible to serve “the god” of serving Jesus as opposed to serving him out of an enraptured heart that’s been captivated by his irresistible beauty and unfathomable love. Jesus led us to think of God differently, as relationship, as the God of all relationship.

 

7.                  Jesus Christ was not a social activist nor a moral philosopher. To pitch him that way is to drain his glory and dilute his excellence. Justice apart from Christ is a dead thing. The only battering ram that can storm the gates of hell is not the cry of Justice, but the name of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Justice, Peace, Holiness, Righteousness. He is the sum of all spiritual things, the “strange attractor” of the cosmos. When Jesus becomes an abstraction, faith loses its reproductive power. Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.

 

8.                  It is possible to confuse an academic knowledge or theology about Jesus with a personal knowledge of the living Christ himself. These two stand as far apart as do the hundred thousand million galaxies. The fullness of Christ can never be accessed through the frontal lobe alone. Christian faith claims to be rational, but also to reach out to touch ultimate mysteries. The cure for a big head is a big heart.

 

Jesus does not leave his disciples with CliffsNotes for a systematic theology. He leaves his disciples with breath and body.

 

Jesus does not leave his disciples with a coherent and clear belief system by which to love God and others. Jesus gives his disciples wounds to touch and hands to heal.

 

Jesus does not leave his disciples with intellectual belief or a “Christian worldview.” He leaves his disciples with a relational faith.

 

Christians don’t follow a book. Christians follow a person, and this library of divinely inspired books we call “The Holy Bible” best help us follow that person. The Written Word is a map that leads us to The Living Word. Or as Jesus himself put it, “All Scripture testifies of me.” The Bible is not the destination; it’s a compass that points to Christ, heaven’s North Star.

 

The Bible does not offer a plan or a blueprint for living. The “good news” was not a new set of laws, or a new set of ethical injunctions, or a new and better PLAN. The “good news” was the story of a person’s life, as reflected in The Apostle’s Creed. The Mystery of Faith proclaims this narrative: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” The meaning of Christianity does not come from allegiance to complex theological doctrines, but a passionate love for a way of living in the world that revolves around following Jesus, who taught that love is what makes life a success . . . not wealth or health or anything else: but love. And God is love.

 

9.                  Only Jesus can transfix and then transfigure the void at the heart of the church. Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his church. While Jesus is distinct from his Bride, he is not separate from her. She is in fact his very own Body in the earth. God has chosen to vest all of power, authority, and life in the living Christ. And God in Christ is only known fully in and through his church. (As Paul said, “The manifold wisdom of God – which is Christ – is known through the ekklesia.”)

 

The Christian life, therefore, is not an individual pursuit. It’s a corporate journey. Knowing Christ and making him known is not an individual prospect. Those who insist on flying life solo will be brought to earth, with a crash. Thus Christ and his church are intimately joined and connected. What God has joined together, let no person put asunder. We were made for life with God; our only happiness is found in life with God. And God’s own pleasure and delight is found therein as well.

 

10.              In a world which sings, “Oh, who is this Jesus?” and a church which sings, “Oh, let’s all be like Jesus,” who will sing with lungs of leather, “Oh, how we love Jesus!”

 

If Jesus could rise from the dead, we can at least rise from our bed, get off our couches and pews, and respond to the Lord’s resurrection life within us, joining Jesus in what he’s up to in the world. We call on others to join us—not in removing ourselves from planet Earth, but to plant our feet more firmly on the Earth while our spirits soar in the heavens of God’s pleasure and purpose. We are not of this world, but we live in this world for the Lord’s rights and interests. We, collectively, as the ekklesia of God, are Christ in and to this world.

 

May God have a people on this earth who are a people of Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. A people of the cross. A people who are consumed with God’s eternal passion, which is to make his Son preeminent, supreme, and the head over all things visible and invisible. A people who have discovered the touch of the Almighty in the face of his glorious Son. A people who wish to know only Christ and him crucified, and to let everything else fall by the wayside. A people who are laying hold of his depths, discovering his riches, touching his life, and receiving his love, and making HIM in all of his unfathomable glory known to others.

 

The two of us may disagree about many things—be they ecclesiology, eschatology, soteriology, not to mention economics, globalism and politics.

 

But in our two most recent book From Eternity to Here and So Beautiful—we have sounded forth a united trumpet. These books are the Manifests to this Manifesto. They each present the vision that has captured our hearts and that we wish to impart to the Body of Christ— “This ONE THING I know” (Jn.9:25) that is the ONE THING that unites us all:

 

Jesus the Christ.

 

    Christians don’t follow Christianity; Christians follow Christ.

    Christians don’t preach themselves; Christians proclaim Christ.

    Christians don’t point people to core values; Christians point people to the cross.

    Christians don’t preach about Christ: Christians preach Christ.

           

Over 300 years ago a German pastor wrote a hymn that built around the Name above all names:                                                                                                                          

            Ask ye what great thing I know,

that delights and stirs me so?
What the high reward I win?

Whose the name I glory in?
Jesus Christ, the crucified.

 

            This is that great thing I know;

this delights and stirs me so:
faith in him who died to save,

His who triumphed o’er the grave:
Jesus Christ, the crucified.

 

---

 

Jesus Christ – the crucified, resurrected, enthroned, triumphant, living Lord.

 

He is our Pursuit, our Passion, and our Life.

 

Amen.

 

*****

  

We also suggest listening to the YouTube song “Give Me Jesus” while reading this manifesto.

 

 

Buddha Reborn as a Teen?

On Nov. 12 In Nepal, a silent teenage boy exited the jungle and began to receive worship as the reincarnation of "The Buddha." That first caught my attention because when we discuss the Buddha, in the sense of the original Siddhārtha Gautama who became the enlightened Buddha, he had reached enlightenment and therefore even in their own philosophical/religious beliefs, he would not be reincarnated, but he set the example of attaining Nirvana.

So this teenager comes out of the Jungle, doesn't say a word, touches some people on the head, shows no signs of the supernatural, and people believe him to be "god." Here are a couple  reports you can check out:

 http://news.aol.com/article/devotees-say-teen-is-buddha-reborn/244051

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/12/buddha_boy_said.html


The only "proof" that the devotees are clinging to is that they "heard" he had been fasting for 6 months, some have said for 3 months. Some reports I read said that the boy had said he had been living off wild herbs. It wasn't proven just assumed. And I thought to myself..."HHmmm, it's amazing with all the historical evidence, Biblical evidence, Extra Biblical evidence, eyewitness accounts, and personal testimonies to the supernatural life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we have, and still people have a hard time believing." Perhaps if Jesus simply extended his 40 day fast in the desert to 6 months he could have bypassed the whole cross thingy :-)

So, what are your thoughts on the latest "god" sighting? One thing it tells me is that our world is hungry for a God-invasion, and the really cool thing is that it actually has happened, and Jesus longs to be discovered by those searching for a God-invasion.

MC

Three Blind Mice

I remember mumbling the words to the early nursery rhyme over and over. For a young skull full of mush, the rhythm can begin to numb and soon explode into a cosmic clash of wonderment in the imagination.

Three blind miceThree blind mice
See how they run
See how they run
They ran all over the farmers wife
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
As three blind mice

Ya know, when your little, you just don't tend to ask what the rhyme means, you just repeat it because you have a picture of three cute little furies beasts with dark glasses and a white cane, simply trying to make their way in the world.

Interestingly enough, the rhyme is a religious/political propaganda piece. It seems the farmers wife was really Queen Mary I who had the nickname of "Bloody Mary"  because of her persecution of Protestants. Under her regime, Protestants were not welcomed or tolerated, only being Catholic would do...so the Three Blind Mice represented three nobles who were not Catholic, (some have suggested the three men were Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer. These three Anglican nobles were convicted of plotting against the queen who had them burned at the stake.

Now isn't that a sweet little nursery rhyme! As I have really been praying about, and looking at the relgio-political world scene over the last weeks, I wonder what kind of rhyme will be sung by babes about the killing in Israel and Palestine. I watch the news, read the articles, and soon my mind becomes as numb as it did when I was little mumbling rhymes without comprehension.

As I look at Arab and Jew, with the strike-counterstrike-counterstrike-strike happening, I begin to think about another story I learned when I was young about blindness. Jesus is telling the story, and while the Hebrew humor is lost in translation, Jesus talks about a man who is mad at another man for some fault, or screwup. Jesus doesn't tell us what the screwup was, probably because He knew we would focus on the sin and miss the point, but he says that this one guy is angry and pointing his finger at the mistake of the other...In Jesus' terms, he makes a metaphor of the mistake calling it a speck in his brothers eye...the part that is so funny though is Jesus' sarcasm. He says the guy who is pointing out the speck, or flaw, in his brother has a massive log protruding out of his own eye socket!

Can you see it? Quick translation: A Man with a boat-load of sin is judging another man with a little bit of sin. Jesus teaching is that we should take care of our own sin before thinking ourselves sin surgeons for others. In that picture I see the offspring of Isaac and Ishmael pummeling each other for logs and specks. To be sure, some of the logs and specks are hideous and evil, but as I look at the world scene it appears that the blind are in a full scale war without the aid of sight.

Can you imagine being God and seeing your creation pummeling each other day after day? Wouldn't you want to end the playground fights and ignorant ravings done in your name? But God, in His wisdom has a plan I don't see, because I have this nasty log in my eye! It's when I think the log has dislodged itself that I am really the most blind.

The heart of every religio-political struggle is the exaltation of self and the love of power. One of the most powerful traits of Jesus is that while He was God, He didn't have to shout others down to prove His pedigree...When you have truth, it is the truth that has the capacity to change things, not our proving of it.

The world fights, kills, and maims for scraps of dirt, and electronic credits that measure global wealth. No one ever has enough, so the power struggle to fulfill the desires of the self grow until it is taken from someone else. To justify the self-power domination, we must make enemies so that we can sleep at night in light of the things we do stay happy.

The amazing thing is that Jesus had the answer with his lesson on logs and specks...look in and be honest. Remove masks, get naked before God...Look out with love towards those with specks and logs in their visionary path. If we live the light, trusting that the Light is the change agent, many logs and specks will dislodge, and the Kingdom of Heaven will have arrived for another masterpiece of God.

In the end, we are all blind mice to someone, but to God, we are valuable enough to allow men and women more days on earth before He returns. Today, let us allow the Light of Christ to illuminate of journey.

Illuminate Deo,
Monty

The Morph of Grace

Matthias had never really liked his father. It seemed that whenever he needed his dad just to -be there, or to listen, he was never around. He didn’t really blame him though, times were hard, and money was scarce. Matthias knew his dad had finally resorted to stealing in order to get his family food, but that left him confused, not sure whether he should be happy that his dad was at least trying to keep them all fed, or angry that he broke the Torah to do it.

He saw the pain in his mother’s eyes every evening as she sat alone wondering where her husband was. But today, for the first time Matthias saw his dad through very different eyes. Today, a tear journeyed down his cheek collecting into a pool at his dusty feet. He heard and saw in his dad the man and father he had always wanted: compassionate, interested, forgiving, and humble. But why did something like this have to happen?

Matthias sat in the dust at the foot of the pole which held his dad. There were two other men up on poles as well. One of them Matthias knew. He had seen him in back alleys and in places where no good would come, but the other man he had only heard about. It was this man that had a life changing effect upon his dad, this Jesus.

Matthias knew that Jesus had done nothing wrong. His dad had been caught stealing, and so too the other man, but Jesus was innocent. While Matthias’ dad looked alternately between his son and Jesus, the years of hurt and anger began to dissolve. The hard, cold look of a criminal was replaced with the tender gaze of a person who had just received the most lavish of gifts. The other man on the cross began mocking and spewing out words of hatred toward Jesus, but Matthias’ dad cried out,“Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom."  (Luke 23:40-42)

Matthias had never heard his dad speak out for someone else. There was such passion in his voice, such surety. He admitted that what he had done was wrong, and extended compassion to Jesus.
“Oh, Dad,” Matthias said, as his heart raced between pleasure and pain. Pleasure that his dad had encountered Jesus, and pain that he would soon breathe his last.

But then Matthias heard Jesus speak. It wasn’t very loud at first, but it was clear and definite. He said, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43). The smile that broke out across the face of Matthias’ dad could have filled the temple courts! And Matthias found the meaning to a new word, hope!

********
I have been creatively thinking about the thieves upon the cross lately. What might it have been like for them to be there with Jesus, what was happening in their families. You see one of the men upon the cross began taking the steps to work through life’s hurts, habits, and hang-ups. First he admitted that he wasn’t God, and as he hung there with a sentence of death upon his cross, that knew he was powerless to change things. But as he looked at Jesus, he took the second step which was to believe that God exists, and that He had the power to change his reality.

God has a name, His name is Jesus, and the thief upon the cross placed his faith in Jesus as the only one who could change his fate.  The man then took the third step by  consciously choosing to trust Jesus with his life and his future. He openly confessed his sins before God and those who were minglingabout... he came clean. No more blaming, no more deceiving. He finally came clean and Jesus spoke those powerful words to him, words of hope. “Today you will be with me in paradise!”
It didn’t matter what he had done, no sin is so big that God cannot forgive it. He also didn’t earn these grace filled words, they were a gift from the giver of life who was about to breathe His last so that we could breathe eternally!

When we come clean before God, we receive God’s gift of grace and forgiveness. I don’t know what sins or mistakes you might have in your closet today. Perhaps it’s fresh, or perhaps it years old, it really doesn’t matter. Jesus says 'look to me, trust me, come clean and I will remove from you this load that feels like the world’s weight.' This is the process of having a clean heart and clean hands.

Matthew 5:8 says, “Happy are the pure in heart, they will see God.” If you want to experience the gaze of Jesus that fills you with forgiveness and hope, you need to start coming clean. Confess to God the areas that aren’t going right, the attitudes and habits that need changing. His promise is to forgive you instantly!!   1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Wow, what a promise! This promise is based upon God’s character and promises, not about your performance!

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? 
Who may stand in his holy place?
Only those whose hands and hearts are pure,
who do not worship idols and never tell lies.
They will receive the Lord's blessing
and have right standing with God their savior.
They alone may enter God's presence
and worship the God of Israel.
Psalm 24:3-6

Grace. A beautiful gift to us when we don’t deserve it, but it is the gift that transforms the coldest of hearts into flames of passion!

Illuminate Deo,
Monty

The Elijah Chronicles

Tired and worn out he collapsed by the tree. His eyes gazed at the desert sand as it slowly breathed, but his body was too tired to obey his thoughts. He lay there imagining what cool water would taste like. So much had happened, so many things had gone well. Not only well, but powerfully impressive. Laying on the dust he felt the rhythm of his labored breathing, deep, painful. His chest rose up and down with each dry intake of air like a bottle being tossed about on the sea.

Why had he run? He played the scenario over and over in his mind. After all that God had done, why did fear grip him and replace the power with sheer panic. Sure Jezebel was wicked to the core, but didn’t God just defeat over 450 prophets of the god Baal, and 400 prophets of Asherah? It had been another dramatic intervention of God into the world. While the prophets of Baal and Asherah cried out, cut themselves, and pleaded with their false gods to show up, Elijah laughed and mocked them as nothing happened. But when Elijah had placed his sacrifice to God upon the altar, and even doused it with water, God showed up and consumed the offering in a bright flash of fire!

Again, God had proven that He alone was God, and the people of Israel were ignited again. But when Elijah heard that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were going to kill him, he fled.

Now, having recovered his breath, Elijah stared at the broom tree, and sleep overcame him.

 

---

We read about the exploits of Elijah in the book of 1 Kings. Elijah is a man who was used powerfully by God, yet, like us, also struggled with his faith. I like what James said about Isaiah in James 5:17, "Elijah was a man just like us." So often when we read the story of great men and women of God we think that they were super-human, other, better...but in reality, they are all men and women, just like us. That means that if we allow God room to work and move in our hearts, our lives can ignite the world even as did theirs!

So often we allow fear to rule our lives. We become it’s willing accomplice as we fret, worry, and tremble over the circumstances we find ourselves in. Even though we have seen and experienced God working and moving in our lives, all it takes is that one phone call from our doctor or lawyer that sets our life off in another direction, or one wound to our pride, and our journey diverts from a God-centric path to a me-centric path.

This is true with me, and this was true of Elijah, and more than likely, this is something that you can identify with as well.

After his great victory over the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, Elijah experienced fear on a massive scale. He feared Jezebel and began to run, even though God has just sent fire from heaven and won the day. Somewhere, in Elijah's mind, the enemy found a foothold and spoke, "Jezebel is going to kill you now, you can't humiliate her and even think about living!"

So Elijah ran...and ran...and ran until his energy was gone. He laid down by the brook and fell asleep. Later, Elijah was woken up and cared for by an angel. He was instructed to get back in balance, to rest, to eat. Then God sent him on his way again.

No matter what fear or circumstance we have run from, no matter what mountain is facing us, the truth is that Jesus is there with you. When fear and fatigue have wiped out your energy, He lovingly strokes your hair as you sleep. When your eyes begin to open and reality starts to invade your soul, He speaks about faith and trust. He knows your struggles, fears and pain, and He promises that you do not face them alone.

Faith happens when we place our lives, hopes, dreams, and fears in the hands of the Carpenter from Nazareth. He says, “Trust me, I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Elijah came back from his fall into faithlessness, and so can we. God desires to work in and through us continually. This happens as we activate our faith by tethering ourselves to the Truth. If we tether ourselves to anything else, it will leave us empty.

Elijah was a man just like us...amazing.

MC

 

The Problem With Religion

When you make a statement like "religion Sucks" there are hairs that stand at attention, hearts that race, anger that rises, and sometimes a smug smile that settles in.

I don't know about you, but as for me religion can get in the way of actually entering into an encounter with God. It amazes me that so may world religions, that try to offer hope on one hand, end up shackling people with a task list of behavioral modifications that are supposed to help them attain a higher spiritual state, or to attain acceptance by God.

Now what makes this banter of mine a bit more curios is that I am a pastor. "no way!' you say. "Yes way!' I say. You see as a pastor, I have seen so many people enter into a life of religion and completely miss what Jesus is truly all about.

Think about it for a moment. Jesus' entire ministry evolved around bashing the established religion, breaking it's taboos, and offering people an invitation to something far beyond religion, an encounter with divinity.

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The result of Jesus' life was an escape from religion where people were required to earn God's favor by becoming something God said they really could never become, holy, other, like Him. We need something outside of ourselves to become holy because of our nature which is focused on ourselves. Jesus is the contingency that we need. You see the only way we can become holy is by wrapping ourselves in the holiness of Christ.

The beauty of being a Christ-follower is that there is absolutely nothing that you can do to earn the acceptance of God...Nothing...nada...zip...zero! Rather,, Christ has already done everything for you. God's grace is given when you give yourself to His Son, becoming a part of His family, an heir of the King's beauty!

Every religion is the world is centered around doing certain things in "hopes" that you will maybe, if you're good enough, earn God favor and be welcomed into His eternity. In Hinduism, you keep coming back, lifetime after lifetime, each time perhaps a bit closer to being accepted and welcomed into Paradise than the lifetime before. You see the law of Karma says that if you screw up in this life...guess what...you get to come back again in another life to redeem your mistakes from this life! And not only that, but you come back as a lower life form each time you don't improve! Wow, by my estimations, I should be a piece of chewed tree bark by now!

Thankfully, being a Christ-follower stands in stark contrast to every other world religion. Real, genuine, authentic Christianity (not the religion that tries to sell you on a political party, a particular hairstyle, and a no dance clause) says that all of life and eternity is about Jesus not you! Life and relationship with God is about the pinnacle of all things, Jesus. He is the One who became for you what in your brokenness you could not become for yourself, and it is because of Jesus that you can enter into a dialog with divinity. o stop trying all your self improvement projects (that's religion) and start getting to know Jesus and become a follower of His truth. You too will find that religion is death, and a relationship is life!  MC

The Opium Den

Marx said that "religion is the opiate of the people." Marx had some issues, and somewhere deep inside his soul a religious system (or two) had obviously dealt him a serious blow. While historians may delve into the reasons why Marx felt the way he did, in many respects I think Marx had it right concerning religion. Now wait before you write me off as a Communist because I am far from it, but I agree that religion can have a numbing and opiate effect on the spirit of a person. In reality Marx thought it was a good numbing to ease the harsh realities of life, however, anything that is used to numb reality will affect your heart as well.

Dictionary.com gives us the following definition for opiate:

o·pi·ate

1. Any of various sedative narcotics containing opium or one or more of its natural or synthetic derivatives.
2. A drug, hormone, or other chemical substance having sedative or narcotic effects similar to those containing opium or its derivatives: a natural brain opiate. Also called opioid.
3. Something that dulls the senses and induces relaxation or torpor.

An opiate dulls the senses, induces a relaxed state, and is sedative in nature. In reality, you can walk into a vast number of churches today, scan the crowd, and pronounce a very similar definition! So many people who fill pew after pew and chair after chair has a numb, expressionless, passionless and purposeless gaze in their eyes. This is the gaze of religion.

Think about it for a minute with me. Religion is a system crafted by man to create a state of self acceptance for man, where we can measure our life in ways that give ease to a conscience that knows it has not lived as it should. So a system is created so that we can figure out where we are on the cosmic continuum of good and bad...eternal bliss, eternal torment, or eternal nothingness.

When it comes to systems that have their origin in the mind of humanity, there is a built in loophole somewhere giving relief to even the non enlightened. For the Mormon it is the loophole of three levels of heaven and the dismissal of Hell. So everyone who is in the system receives some type of reward...the better you are the better your eternal destination, and we won't talk about getting your own planet to populate when you become a god! If you are Hindu, you can rest in the religious system that says if you blow it in this life, you get to come back again in the next life, and the next life, and the next life, each time as a lower life form, until you get it right. Somewhere after the 800th reincarnation you get a free parking pass. Even in Christianity, behavioral task lists are created to keep the faithful in line and gage their devotion and their acceptance before God. This gives them a sense of guilt appeasement for a while...until they do the inevitable, make a mistake, then the gage goes haywire and every area of their life spins out of control because e they fear God is mad at them.

All these scenarios reflect people who eventually become numb in life, numb in their hearts, hopeless about the future, all because their religion has become an opiate to their soul. For centuries religion was used to control people, to build kingdoms (not God's but mans), so when Marx spoke those words he saw people who were not free. Marx's answers to the dilemma actually created an even bigger mechanism for enslaving the human soul, but his observation seems pretty accurate.

It seems that many modern day churches are really modern day opium dens, lulling people into a predictable pattern of passionless living, centered more on what God can give you rather than what God created me for. Churches should be hot beds of cosmic activity as the divine drama is played out in millions of one act human stories that radically affect the people they come in contact with along the journey.

I have found only one answer to the opiate inducing reality of religion...stay away, and instead enter God's story that is unfolding around you all the time. You have a part to play in the drama. You can choose to read your lines or not, but the story continues, in fact, in God's sovereignty He already knew you wouldn't read your lines so He knew where He needed to go next in the adventure!

Living a life in God is diametrically opposed to religion. One thing I love about where I go to Encounter God with other travelers is that they all desire to be in His story... They are learning to give up the lists that tell them they are O.K, or doomed, and instead live a life of faith in Jesus, knowing that they are always O.K because of what He did for them. This ushers in a desire to live passionate, full lives that are for God.

No smoking the opium pipe for me. I'll take a dangerous ride with an untameable God through unknown territories any day before I'd settle for religion...In the end, just give me Jesus.  MC

Benifits of a commercial Christmas?

Can a commercial Christmas have any value? I have yet to hear a Christian ask this question. At this time each year, it seems that the church pulls on its cultural battle fatigues in preparation for a skirmish to take back Christmas from the hands of a pagan culture.

I have pondered lately though, if God promises that His Word will not return to Him without effect:

Isaiah 55:11 (NJB)
   so it is with the word
        that goes from my mouth:
    it will not return to me unfulfilled
    or before having carried out
        my good pleasure
    and having achieved
        what it was sent to do.

...then does not even a commercial Christmas take some people closer to the reality of God? Even though our entire nation is not on pilgrimage together towards the Holy City, does not the seasonal focus speak of Christ to pretty much everybody at some level?

Now, I know that there is the battle for the words "Happy Holiday" verses "Merry Christmas"...but that is not my question here. My question is that perhaps the commercialism of Christmas actually brings some men and women, who would never have been faced with the questions of life and God, into a place where they must at least wrestle a bit.

So what are your thoughts...does our culture's commercialization of Christmas have any merits at all? Click the post back link and let me know...

Monty

Worshipping an artificial Jesus

Reading Shakespeare’s words still stirs our hearts. Two young people madly in love yet unable to really connect because of the fighting between their families. Secret rendezvous’... meetings in veiled dark corners away from watchful eyes... this is where their love was born. Sadly, life had played this hormonally challenged couple a painful hand that would end in a faked suicide, causing a real suicide, which brought about another suicide. Two lives, so rich, so full, so much potential... over.

Reality time. There is a love -so- powerful that two kingdoms have been at war for millennia because of it. The devotion that Romeo showed Juliet pales in light of this love which has caused nations to rise and to fall. Think about the seeds of bitterness and hatred that existed between the Capelet’s and the Montague’s’. Now magnify that by infinity and you might begin to grasp the slightest fabric of how radically God loves you. And the love that God has for you, is the cause of the battle that was waged before Adam inhaled, drawing his first breath of life.

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The first major skirmish took place in Eden, God’s garden. Satan so wanted to wound God that he went after the one thing God loved with all of His being. Like a double agent, Satan slithered into the garden and deceived Adam and Eve into doing the one thing they knew they were not supposed to do. Yep, it was that apple. God said don’t... Satan said, are you sure?.. and Eve took a bite and gave it to Adam.

Satan was right, God was wounded deep where love first echoed through eternity. The One who fashioned our emotions and desires heaved with that gut wrenching pain that comes when we are hurt, betrayed, and wounded emotionally. You see, God created us for relationship, and in doing so, He took a huge risk. The risk was that we would choose against Him, and that is exactly what happened.

This earth had not yet experienced the pain of war. But after this, sin came and left in its wake a chasm between God and humanity that was impossible to bridge. The battle had begun, and it had left it’s first mark. The result of this choice was devastating. A choice against God brought sin; Sin required a judgment from God; justice brought about two eternal realities, heaven and hell, both very real, both eternal.

But none of this caught God by surprise. He was ready, and His plan to bridge this vast chasm was already in motion. His desire is that we would spend eternity with Him, but something had to be done about the sin problem that our free choice brought about.

God's plan was a person, and the battle I am talking about, is the battle that began when God promised the -One- who would remedy the sin problem. From that point on Satan tried with all his might to stop the entrance into this world of God’s promised deliverer. But the story begins and will ultimately end in a garden, and there is so much we need to know in order to fully comprehend how a great a love story the Bible truly is and why the battle still continues.

God's promise was a person, the person was real. His name is Jesus. When we shed all the baggage history has wrapped the Son of God in, and look at His heart, through His words, we enter a God-centric reality, one where there is hope.

Monty