Those who really do know Christ in the modern world do so by seeking and entering the kingdom of God. To know Christ in the modern world is to know him in your world now. To know him in your world now is to live interactively with him right where you are in your daily activities. This is the spiritual life of Christ. He is, in fact, your contemporary, and he is now about his business of moving humanity along toward its destiny in this amazing universe.
Eternity is now in process. Silently it moves along. But it will not run over you. You have to really want it—deep down—or you will miss it. That is why Jesus said to seek it more than anything else. Today, given the prevailing intellectual and cultural atmosphere, you are likely to pick up from your surroundings, with no special thought on your part, the conviction that there is no knowledge to be had of good and evil, no knowledge of God, and no divine presence in our world that enables us to transcend its merciless regularities. If that conviction settles in on you, you will live in terms of it and never enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 8:13).
Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today, excerpts from p. 139-140
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
From Level 1&2 to Level 3&4 - Part 1
For the last several Sunday’s I have sought to expand on a quote I heard a month or two ago from a missionary in France. She shared that people who were coming to faith there were having to make two decisions. The first was whether to believe in Jesus. The second was whether they wanted to follow Him. I have shared with New Journey that I felt that “belief” in Jesus focuses primarily on what might be considered level one and two Christianity. While “following him” focuses primarily on level three and four.
Last Sunday, following the service, I had someone come up to me and say, “Ron, I think I’m a level two Christian. Can you tell me how to move to level three and four?” It was beautiful. Translated, my friend was saying – I want to know how to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
We met for coffee the next day and as we began our conversation I realized that although I had used level 1-2-3-4 in my speaking, I have never defined them. So I asked my friend, “You said that you felt you were at level 2. Can you explain to me what you think that is?” He shared that he thought level one was a belief in Jesus Christ and that level two was an attempt to live life in obedience to the commandments (i.e. the 10 commandments).
Although I had never tried to put words to each of the levels I thought his words were dead on. And as he was talking a thought emerged in my head (a thought that I give the Holy Spirit of God full credit for). “The chasm that lies between level two and three can only be bridged by moving faith from a focus on rules/command to a focus on relationship.”
Many approach faith with a consumeristic mind. We enter into a deal with God in an effort to make our life better. The agreement goes something like this. I say that I believe in Jesus and will do my best to obey the rules and be a good person. As a result, God/Jesus will bring into my life “abundance” (i.e. all the things/resources/ relationships/notoriety/power that will bring me success). If at anytime God ceases to bring what I consider to be abundance then I will in no way feel obligated to continue being good. Why should I – after all, we had a deal.
Level three and four faith demands a new thought process. Simply put, it runs on the premise that the spiritual barter system no longer exists. We relinquish all rights to deal making with God. Our faith wraps itself around the idea that God is a loving Father and like all loving fathers He has an agenda to grow His children into mature and healthy beings. It affirms that God knows better than us what it means to live in “abundance” and as a result, we give up all rights to pigeon hole God into delivering based on our expectations.
Expectations – I want to talk about that word for just a second. Our expectations create a clear delineation between level two and three. Bottom line, level three and four have much fewer expectations of God than level one and two. Why? Because level three and four position themselves to let God be God on God’s terms – not our terms. Anytime our terms come in to play the expectations rise. We make the situation (whatever that situation may be) about us. As it relates to faith, this is simply pride and idolatry. We merely want to use God in order to get Him to use His influence on our behalf. Level three says “God, even though I have my preference for this situation, I relinquish my will to be right. I want you to do whatever you want. And I’m trusting you to do just that.” At level three expectations move from thinking that we know what is best to trusting the Heavenly Father to do what He already knows is best in this (and every) situation – no matter what the outcome. That is biblical abundance.
Level three says,
- “God, if you ask me to give $10, I will give it with no expectation of return.”
- “If you ask me to give $100, I will give it with no expectation of return.”
- “If you ask me to sell all I have, (even though I might cry at the thought of it) I will do it with no expectation of return.”
People stuck at a level one or two can tend to become professional excuse makers. “God would never ask me to…” or “The Bible says that I am free (Galatians 5:1a), therefore I can do what I like.” The problem is that the freedom of any relationship is never founded in the value of ME…it’s founded in the value of the one we are in relationship with. Imagine a new groom saying to his bride, “Now we are married, I can have sex with you anytime I want.” Aside from the fact that this person has obviously not been married very long, with that statement he has reduced his wife to an object of his own pleasure. An OBJECT.
Level three and four says that God is no longer an object. God is God – and we are not. The good news is that God is a loving Father. So, as we submit our entire selves to Him in relationship, He will bring not only the fruit of His Kingdom in us but abundance. Abundance on His terms. And that’s what Jesus was talking about in John 10:10. Welcome to level three and four.
More soon…
Last Sunday, following the service, I had someone come up to me and say, “Ron, I think I’m a level two Christian. Can you tell me how to move to level three and four?” It was beautiful. Translated, my friend was saying – I want to know how to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
We met for coffee the next day and as we began our conversation I realized that although I had used level 1-2-3-4 in my speaking, I have never defined them. So I asked my friend, “You said that you felt you were at level 2. Can you explain to me what you think that is?” He shared that he thought level one was a belief in Jesus Christ and that level two was an attempt to live life in obedience to the commandments (i.e. the 10 commandments).
Although I had never tried to put words to each of the levels I thought his words were dead on. And as he was talking a thought emerged in my head (a thought that I give the Holy Spirit of God full credit for). “The chasm that lies between level two and three can only be bridged by moving faith from a focus on rules/command to a focus on relationship.”
Many approach faith with a consumeristic mind. We enter into a deal with God in an effort to make our life better. The agreement goes something like this. I say that I believe in Jesus and will do my best to obey the rules and be a good person. As a result, God/Jesus will bring into my life “abundance” (i.e. all the things/resources/ relationships/notoriety/power that will bring me success). If at anytime God ceases to bring what I consider to be abundance then I will in no way feel obligated to continue being good. Why should I – after all, we had a deal.
Level three and four faith demands a new thought process. Simply put, it runs on the premise that the spiritual barter system no longer exists. We relinquish all rights to deal making with God. Our faith wraps itself around the idea that God is a loving Father and like all loving fathers He has an agenda to grow His children into mature and healthy beings. It affirms that God knows better than us what it means to live in “abundance” and as a result, we give up all rights to pigeon hole God into delivering based on our expectations.
Expectations – I want to talk about that word for just a second. Our expectations create a clear delineation between level two and three. Bottom line, level three and four have much fewer expectations of God than level one and two. Why? Because level three and four position themselves to let God be God on God’s terms – not our terms. Anytime our terms come in to play the expectations rise. We make the situation (whatever that situation may be) about us. As it relates to faith, this is simply pride and idolatry. We merely want to use God in order to get Him to use His influence on our behalf. Level three says “God, even though I have my preference for this situation, I relinquish my will to be right. I want you to do whatever you want. And I’m trusting you to do just that.” At level three expectations move from thinking that we know what is best to trusting the Heavenly Father to do what He already knows is best in this (and every) situation – no matter what the outcome. That is biblical abundance.
Level three says,
- “God, if you ask me to give $10, I will give it with no expectation of return.”
- “If you ask me to give $100, I will give it with no expectation of return.”
- “If you ask me to sell all I have, (even though I might cry at the thought of it) I will do it with no expectation of return.”
People stuck at a level one or two can tend to become professional excuse makers. “God would never ask me to…” or “The Bible says that I am free (Galatians 5:1a), therefore I can do what I like.” The problem is that the freedom of any relationship is never founded in the value of ME…it’s founded in the value of the one we are in relationship with. Imagine a new groom saying to his bride, “Now we are married, I can have sex with you anytime I want.” Aside from the fact that this person has obviously not been married very long, with that statement he has reduced his wife to an object of his own pleasure. An OBJECT.
Level three and four says that God is no longer an object. God is God – and we are not. The good news is that God is a loving Father. So, as we submit our entire selves to Him in relationship, He will bring not only the fruit of His Kingdom in us but abundance. Abundance on His terms. And that’s what Jesus was talking about in John 10:10. Welcome to level three and four.
More soon…
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Spatial (and Spiritual) Disorientation
The following story entitled: New Instrument Pilot Succumbs to Spatial Disorientation, was taken from a post dated Thursday, February 15, 2007 11:03:43 AM at the following link: http://www.aopa.org/asf/epilot_acc/atl02fa043.html
We are VFR creatures by nature. The senses we need to maintain balance are unreliable without visual reference. So when pilots fly without visual references, they can succumb to spatial disorientation.
On February 6, 2002, the pilot of a Piper Cherokee Six and his three passengers were killed when the airplane crashed shortly after takeoff from Dekalb-Peachtree Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
At 1:41 p.m., the pilot contacted Dekalb-Peachtree ground control and received clearance for an instrument flight to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Georgia. At 1:52 p.m., the pilot was cleared for takeoff and told to fly a heading of 090 degrees. Two minutes later, the pilot contacted departure control and reported climbing through 1,500 feet. He was instructed to climb and maintain 4,000 feet. The pilot initially flew an eastbound heading, but at 1:55 p.m., the airplane began a right turn to the south.
At 1:56 p.m., the controller again instructed the pilot to fly a 090-degree heading, which the pilot acknowledged. Over the next few minutes, radar showed the airplane flying a wide right arc back over the airport. The controller asked the pilot his heading, and the pilot replied, "Two four zero." The controller told the pilot that he was assigned a heading of 090 degrees, and the pilot then asked if that was a right turn. The controller instructed the pilot to turn left to 090 degrees. The pilot initiated a left turn and leveled off at 4,000 feet.
At 2 p.m., the airplane began a right turn and descended 3,500 feet. The controller asked the pilot, "You want to inform me about what you're trying to do?" The pilot replied, "Trying to get out of a spin." The last recorded radar data showed the airplane in a right spiral pattern at an altitude of 2,200 feet.
The wreckage was found less than two miles east of the airport in a wooded, swampy area. Weather at the time of the accident had the winds at110 degrees at eight knots, two miles visibility, and the sky was overcast at 400 feet with light rain and mist.
The instrument-rated private pilot had 215 hours of experience with 8.6 hours in actual instrument conditions and 46 hours in simulated instrument conditions. The pilot had earned his instrument rating less than two months prior to the accident.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of this accident was spatial disorientation, which resulted in the loss of control.
Spatial disorientation can happen slowly, and a pilot may not realize how serious the situation is until it is too late. A good instrument scan combined with trusting the instruments can help to prevent one of general aviation's killers: spatial disorientation.
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I believe that many a Christian suffers from a similar type of disorientation in their spiritual life. Thinking they are flying along just fine they are actually on the brink of disaster. They need a healthy reference point -- an instrumental baseline (the scriptures, sound wisdom) but they don't have a framework for it in their lives. And as a result, feelings are leading them to make changes in their flight path that are leading them toward eminent danger.
---
For more on this, note the first few pages of Dallas Willards book "the Divine Conspiracy".
We are VFR creatures by nature. The senses we need to maintain balance are unreliable without visual reference. So when pilots fly without visual references, they can succumb to spatial disorientation.
On February 6, 2002, the pilot of a Piper Cherokee Six and his three passengers were killed when the airplane crashed shortly after takeoff from Dekalb-Peachtree Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
At 1:41 p.m., the pilot contacted Dekalb-Peachtree ground control and received clearance for an instrument flight to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Georgia. At 1:52 p.m., the pilot was cleared for takeoff and told to fly a heading of 090 degrees. Two minutes later, the pilot contacted departure control and reported climbing through 1,500 feet. He was instructed to climb and maintain 4,000 feet. The pilot initially flew an eastbound heading, but at 1:55 p.m., the airplane began a right turn to the south.
At 1:56 p.m., the controller again instructed the pilot to fly a 090-degree heading, which the pilot acknowledged. Over the next few minutes, radar showed the airplane flying a wide right arc back over the airport. The controller asked the pilot his heading, and the pilot replied, "Two four zero." The controller told the pilot that he was assigned a heading of 090 degrees, and the pilot then asked if that was a right turn. The controller instructed the pilot to turn left to 090 degrees. The pilot initiated a left turn and leveled off at 4,000 feet.
At 2 p.m., the airplane began a right turn and descended 3,500 feet. The controller asked the pilot, "You want to inform me about what you're trying to do?" The pilot replied, "Trying to get out of a spin." The last recorded radar data showed the airplane in a right spiral pattern at an altitude of 2,200 feet.
The wreckage was found less than two miles east of the airport in a wooded, swampy area. Weather at the time of the accident had the winds at110 degrees at eight knots, two miles visibility, and the sky was overcast at 400 feet with light rain and mist.
The instrument-rated private pilot had 215 hours of experience with 8.6 hours in actual instrument conditions and 46 hours in simulated instrument conditions. The pilot had earned his instrument rating less than two months prior to the accident.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of this accident was spatial disorientation, which resulted in the loss of control.
Spatial disorientation can happen slowly, and a pilot may not realize how serious the situation is until it is too late. A good instrument scan combined with trusting the instruments can help to prevent one of general aviation's killers: spatial disorientation.
---
I believe that many a Christian suffers from a similar type of disorientation in their spiritual life. Thinking they are flying along just fine they are actually on the brink of disaster. They need a healthy reference point -- an instrumental baseline (the scriptures, sound wisdom) but they don't have a framework for it in their lives. And as a result, feelings are leading them to make changes in their flight path that are leading them toward eminent danger.
---
For more on this, note the first few pages of Dallas Willards book "the Divine Conspiracy".
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Can We Not Have Both?
Does Jesus only enable me to “make the cut” when I die? Or to know what to protest, or how to vote or agitate and organize? It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for life? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than good insurance on one that doesn’t. Can I not have both? (page 12)
I think we finally have to say that Jesus' enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.
He comes where we are, and he brings us the life we hunger for. An early report reads, "Life was in him, life that made sense of human existence" (John 1:4). To be the light of life, and to deliver God's life to women and men where they are and as they are, is the secret to the enduring relevance of Jesus. (page 13)
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
I think we finally have to say that Jesus' enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.
He comes where we are, and he brings us the life we hunger for. An early report reads, "Life was in him, life that made sense of human existence" (John 1:4). To be the light of life, and to deliver God's life to women and men where they are and as they are, is the secret to the enduring relevance of Jesus. (page 13)
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
Two Questions
Today I sat through a missionary presentation. Friends of mine are preparing to be missionaries in France. They came by the office to talk and show a video unpacking their mission. There were several interviews with missionary types during the video but in the last two minutes of it one of the interviewees said something that slapped me right upside the cognitive head. She said, “We are finding here in France that there are really two decisions that people need to make regarding Christ. The first is whether or not to believe in him. The next is whether or not they actually want to follow him.”*
Dude, dude, dude…that’s not just France. That’s Olathe, Kansas. In my opinion that phrase is dead on regarding the hearts and minds of just about everyone who is situated anywhere near Christianity. As a matter of fact I am convinced that a larger part of the Christian population has a good understanding of the first question but not much regarding the second. You can call me judgmental if you want to…but, wow, that second question really matters and it is a heck of a big question if we are going to take seriously what it means to be Kingdom people.
*The quote was my best attempt at remembering the video.
Dude, dude, dude…that’s not just France. That’s Olathe, Kansas. In my opinion that phrase is dead on regarding the hearts and minds of just about everyone who is situated anywhere near Christianity. As a matter of fact I am convinced that a larger part of the Christian population has a good understanding of the first question but not much regarding the second. You can call me judgmental if you want to…but, wow, that second question really matters and it is a heck of a big question if we are going to take seriously what it means to be Kingdom people.
*The quote was my best attempt at remembering the video.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Functional Atheism
After two thousand years the Body of Christ is still dreadfully divided by doctrine, history, and day-to-day living. Scabrous stories about Christian disunity pepper the pages of periodicals and newspapers. The Body of Truth is bleeding from a thousand wounds. Small wonder that many Christians today are bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. The bleak landscape of the global village has introduced discouragement, disillusionment, and what Parker Palmer calls “Functional atheism” –the belief that nothing is happening unless we are making it happen. Though our Christian language pays lip service to God; our way of functioning assumes that God is dead or in a coma. (Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning, p. 198-199)
I thought about commentating on this...but I feel like it was so well said that I...well...yep.
I thought about commentating on this...but I feel like it was so well said that I...well...yep.
Monday, April 27, 2009
In Agreement With Frederick Buechner
For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about himself in the stars but in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world. It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want but the experience of God's presence. That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think, the miracle that we really get. (Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, p.47)
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Maundy Thursday
Today is Maundy Thursday – also called Holy Thursday. The term Maundy is from the Latin meaning “command.” It harkens back the act of Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples at the last supper and his command that they love one another as He has loved them. It is on this night that Jesus eats the Passover meal with his disciples and offers the visual of his broken body (the bread) and his poured out blood (the wine) given for them (and all of us). From the upper room Jesus and His disciples travel to an olive grove, known as the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus will pray with such intensity that the scriptures say he will “sweat drops of blood.” They go on to record that it is here Jesus prays “if it be thy will let this cup pass from me. But not my will – but thine be done.” Before this night is over Judas Iscariot will betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver into the hands of the religious rulers and the Apostle Peter will find himself denying the one he once said he would die for three different times.
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"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5
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PERSONAL NOTE: Last night I met with one of the NJ small groups. For their group time they showed the movie "the Passion of the Christ" and then took communion together. It was a very powerful evening for me.
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