WWWW.Jesus

Our culture is fascinated with Jesus but doesn't want to get too close to Jesus. We don't live like Jesus but we will wear t-shirts or bracelets that say "WWJD" ("What Would Jesus Do?"). When people don't live their daily lives like Jesus, how in the world can someone do what is right on the spur of the moment by simply trying to follow "WWJD?" I want to challenge people to WWWW.Jesus (Who Will Walk With Jesus?" Now some people will be thrilled to walk with the Sunday school Jesus who was like Mr. Rogers and a very really nice sort of guy. But is that the Jesus of the Gospels? Some people may even like the fire-breathing Hell talking Jesus the preacher as long as they have their own safe asbestos suits on to keep from getting burned themselves.

Can we get real? The Jesus of the Bible is very dangerous person to be around. His disciples disputed among themselves about Jesus and were repeatedly rebuked by him. If the truth be known, the Jesus of the gospels is quite scandalous. He was a lawbreaker, hung out with the rift raft, and was known on different occasions to get into knock-down drag out verbal fights with the established religious leaders of his day. People sought to kill Jesus, stone him to death, push him off a cliff, throw the crazy false leader into prison. Is this the guy you really want to hang around for too long?

A little over a decade ago, I got to spend a weekend at a conference that Clark Pinnock was the lead speaker. Clark and I hit if off and I loved being with the guy.  His humility and boldness for the gospel was contagious. But Clark would say the most extreme things and never back down. Even when the whole crowd was against him and all you want to do is disappear into the crowd and wonder how you got mixed up with this guy in the first place left me very bewildered and upset by the whole ordeal.

It took me several days to realize that being around Clark Pinnock for a weekend was both thrilling and exhausting, fascinating and scary. It took me several days to reflect on the whole encounter and suddenly realize that this is how it must of felt to be like one of his disciples or followers of Jesus. Why does Jesus have to be so radical and disruptive?  Why does Jesus demand everything and won't leave some things that should be better left alone and won't let it go?

So forget WWJD and think more about the meaning and implications of WWWW.Jesus. Maybe then we better think twice before we say we would really like to just hangout with Jesus because Jesus often does the unexpected and puts us in positions we might later think we would rather really not be in if we had thought about it more in-depth at the beginning.

Medieval World

I remember the old classic movie Westworld where robots functioned like slaves at the whims and entertainment pleasures of humans.  There were three worlds created for man's entertainment.  Westworld, medieval world, and future world.  This movie ended with the robots killing the humans because of a computer virus.  I loved this old classic sci-fi movie with Yul Brynner but I have always been enchanted by medieval world.

This vacation, Sandy and I went to 'Medieval Times' where we witnessed beautiful displays of horses, knights, jousts, and hand to hand sword combat.  People cheered and chanted for their heroes of old that had come to life on the realistic stage in front on us. 

Every vacation, I read a new book and this one happened to be Chris Armstrong new book "Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians."  An excellent book calling Christians back to the virtues, wisdom, and spiritual disciplines and medieval sacramental worldview that shaped many a friar, monk, mystic, and dessert fathers.  Learning from both C. S. Lewis and reading books by Christians who lived during medieval times, can we once again recover a robust strong discipleship faith that changes everything rather than the shallow consumerist religion of our modern age?

Another Brick in the Wall

We all wish life could be easier and following Jesus could be made simple.  Discipleship with great benefits and little cost but discipleship simply does not work that way.  I wish it could be as easy as the day I could not find twenty dollars looking through a mountain of clothes.  I said a quick prayer, opened up the dryer and the a twenty dollar bill and a five dollar bill was sticking out and neatly folded like two towels resting on top of each other.  I laughed and thought about how God cares for us in the tiny things and not just in the big things.

When heaven invaded earth that first Christmas, this was not a sanitized Christmas story with cheerful angels and clean mangers.  The Christmas story is filled with scandal like an unwed mother about to have a baby and a young couple on the run from a tyrant King.  The Christmas story is not just a sweet and tender story but a bitter-sweet one filled with fear and violence.  The Christmas story is both messy and difficult to posses just like following Jesus is not an easy task.

Since Jesus came to a community of people and still does, the church needs to get a lot more messier as it turns from being a membership group to a discipleship group.  Things are not going to get easier for the church but a lot harder and many people just don't want to sign up for "hard!"  Just like the early Israelites looked foolish walking around the walls of Jericho, the church may need to get really low and look mighty rediculous to a world filled with walls.  Will the church walk through the walls and do the difficult and neccesary work of God's kingdom building or will it prefer the comfort and safety and retreat within its own man made walls?  God wants to break down the walls and its the church's divine moment to follow God by faith and start walking through walls which only God can bring down in the end.  The world may be placing another brick in the wall but God wants his people to walk through walls like his resurrected Son did among his disciples.  If Jesus walked through walls, isn't it time the church did?

Quest For the Historical Follower Of Jesus

"THE CHURCH HAS BECOME FOR MANY A CARTOON OF SELF-PRESERVATION, A PICTURE OF COSMIC CLUELESSNESS"  - Robin Meyers

"Going to church today" is safe, predicatable, and tame.  People do not think of the church today as risky, dangerous, or subversive.  The church more looks like the world and the status quo than the world becoming more like the church.  If we are really honest about the church, nobody expects anthing truly important to happen there.  People in the world are unimpressed with the church and the things that people argue and make decisions over in the context of the church often don't matter in the end.  We have spent decades studying "the search for the historical Jesus" but what about the historical community we call the church?  Scripture says we can only know Jesus by following him.  But maybe in the barreness of religion, people can find true faith?  Maybe in the death of the church, people will experience resurrection and new life.  The church has focused on the wrong questions for way too long!  The question for the church today is simply this: "What kind of community and what would it look like to bring us back from the dead?"

What would happen if the church was driven by the justice of God rather than the justice of some political system?  What would happen if Christians really came into contact with their ancient roots and the mystical faith that has empowered Christians through the centuries?  What if Christians radically considered nothing less than authentic community no matter where it is found?  Can we leave behind communities of comformity for communities animated by God's Spirit?  This is what much of the church looks like in the global Southern hemisphere of the world.  What about Europe and the American West?  Or here is another picture from Robin Meyers,

"Jesus was political.  He was a dangerous subversive, not because he wanted to help individuals escape a perishing world and make it "up" to heaven, but because he wanted to bring heaven's justice "down" to earth" (The Underground Church, p.56-57).

Whatever Happened to Marriage?

People want to discuss or debate the lagalities or "rights" of gay marriage but I want to ask a deeper question, why should the church being doing marraiges that are sanctioned by the empire or state?  Do our rights come from God or the state and does the state sanction the church today?  The family in the Scriptures are to be under God's rule and kingdom and resist the ways of the world.  Unless one is part of an Almish family, the family has taken its marching orders more from the world than it has from scripture or the church.  The family is not only in trouble but it has already been redefined way before people started bringing up the gay marriage issue.  If all marriage is about as a contract between two-consenting adults then why not a whole lot of alternative situations that our society has not even talked about yet (it may get there if society hasn't totally disintegrated before then).

Christian families for the most part do not disciple one another in the home.  People expect the church to disciple their children and the church expects the parents to do it so hardly anyone is doing it.  One would be hard-pressed to find families that have "alter-times" or moments of prayer, worship, and Bible study.  Parents for the most part do not have "faith-talks" with their children and in our American society or privacy and everyone owns their own home, Christian homes as places of hospitality and open to strangers is almost non-existent.  These were the defining marks of kingdom families in the early church that has been lost by modern families in our industrialized and materialistic age.

Marriage is not only entangled with the state but for many churches and ministers who perform weddings, it does not matter whether the people are believers or not or whether they havbe been married multiple times.  The church has been living with these compromises for so long that when it comes to the relationship between the church and state, it has been for better or for worse.

Christian marriage is not just a contract or covenant but it is a sacrament.  Marriage is not about individuals but its about families and their relationship to God's kingdom and church.  Marriage and eucharist were integrated historically but since they have been separated, so the direction of marriage has become secularized and has lost much of its meaning.  For marriage to be fully Christian, this divine mandate to discipleship must be regained or marriage will continue to lose itself to both the state and continue to lose its value in our modern world.

The Great Reversal

"ONE PEOPLE SHALL BE STRONGER THAN THER OTHER, AND THE OLDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER" - Genesis 25:23b

The Bible from cover to cover is full of reversals. The oldest son is to have the greatest blessings in the Jewish culture. Here we see twins, Esau and Jacob and the youngest gets the spriritual inheritance while the oldest sqaunders it for a pottage of stew. Can it be that we often look at things from the top down when God says his order is just the reverse of ours?

Does not scripture tell us that its the weak who are strong, that the foolish are wise, the poor are rich, and the meek shall inherit the earth. Do we really believe that? Scripture is about reversal after reversal. The great day of the Lord as a day of judgment is suddenly in Acts chapter two a day of salvation. "This is that" but it's not like anything we expected. Death looks like the end but then we have resurrection, the greatest game changer and biggest reversal of all.

When Jesus told parables and stories, the bad guys often become the good guys and the good guys don't look so good in the end. Can it be that when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we still have things backwards? Discipleship should come before evangelism and not the other way around? Should we not emphasize Jesus Lordship even before a person comes to term with Jesus as Savior? Can it be that the first really shall be last and least and forgotten become the greatest?

To Protect and To Serve

The new courageous movie has a little of everything. A great script, humor, action, and a great challenge to fathers who want to be the men that God has called them to be. The movie is not just about the challenges and courage of policemen but also the behind the scene challenges of life and family struggles. I saw grown men weep at this movie and I needed a few tissues myself. For a well done movie in every way, I highly recommend the new movie "Courageous." If there is something missing in many Christian homes and families, it is courage under fire!

There are also workbooks that men and women can work through called "Resolution." This ais another way discipleship can work within the context of families. I still remember the impact the movie 'fireproof" had on families, but even more the fireproof book was a tool I saw literally saved several marriages that were crumbling. If husband and wives are not doing some kind of discipleship study togetether, I would recommend this one to couples.

Decisionism versus Discipleship

MUCH OF WHAT CHRISTIANS AND THE CHURCH PROCLAIM IS NOT WHAT JESUS AND THE APOSTLES PREACHED - Scot McKnight

I had said recently that I have come to the conclusion that church membership diminishes discipleship. Why should people choose the difficult way of discipleship when the easy road of church membership already has them "in" the church. It's like handing a college graduation certificate to students and telling them "we hope you take the classes." How many college students would do the hard work if they were told they already have the completed degree in their hands?

Scot McKnight new book "The King Jesus Gospel" raises some hard questions that the church today needs to answer. Questions like:

1. Is the gospel we are preaching the same gospel of the Scriptures and how is it shaping you into a disciple of Jesus?

2. Is the focus on making disciples in our evangelism or is it simply on getting a decision?

3. Is the "sinners prayer" or "accepting Jesus into our hearts" really spiritually transforming people's lives? Is this the approach that the early Apostles took?

4. Is the gospel and salvation the same thing? If they are not interchangeable, then how are they different?

So McKnight asks the big question: What is the gospel?

How would you answer?

Transformers

"WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP, BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED" - I Corinthians 15:51

I spoke these words once to a group of people and told them this verse should be put on the nursury door! A few giggled and I thought after that they forgot about it. One person did not forget and they beautifully embroided these words on a piece for the church's nursury. Babies are not the only ones that need to be changed. Many grown-up followers of Jesus still act like children that still need spiritual milk rather than spiritual food which they still can not chew on yet.

I saw the new transformers movie which was the best one to date even though I thought it was too long of a movie. The movie is about these robot aliens that can transform themselves into cars and trucks and all kinds of electronical devices. These good transformers try to rescue and save the world from bad transformers. This reminds me of the need for tranformational discipleship in the church today. Will God's people be transformed by the Spirit of God into the likeness of God's Son or will we be transformed by the world into the likeness of the dark powers and spirits that rule this world? We all become what we worship and the question is what do we really worship?

Priest

My son saw the new movie "Priest." I was concerned because I could tell it had some kind of anti-Catholic mesage to it and I love and support Catholics. My son told me that it was not that big of deal and the movie was really about killing zombies! He did tell me that at the end of the movie, the big message was follow God and not the church. Hollywood has never been into either God or the church but now it seems that God is in even if the church is still out. Of course, some of the rhetoric I understand considering the bad press the church is getting these days. The church in North America is not just in decline, but so are it's morals and reputation. Discipleship has played such a low key role to almost being non-existent in the
American Church. The results of that have been horrific to say the least. What would happen if Jesus followers today really took up this role seriously of being a priest before God and one another? What would the church look like to the world then?

Naked Trust

Remember the story of "The emporer's New Clothes." The moral of the story, don't go naked anywhere, it doesn't look too good! So we are all expert dressers, hiders, and look for ways in which people will never know who we really are or what we are really going through. But in the beginning, it was not so. Adam and Eve were in the garden and they were naked and not ashamed. Can we get back to vulnerbility and sheer naked trust in God?

The answer to shame is grace and the answer to our filthy rags is an uncompromised faith and ruthless trust in God. Trust means we come to God on His terms and not on our terms. Ruthless trust means we willingly surrender everything and become absolutely empty before God Almighty. If Christian discipleship means anything, it means people exposing their weaknesses, telling the hard truth to one another, and becoming completely vulnerable so that God's light and love can truly shine through a life that is empty and transparent before God.

This Island Earth or No Man is an Island

THE WHOLE WORLD IS CHANGED WITH THE GLORY OF GOD AND I FEEL FIRE AND MUSIC UNDER MY FEET -
Thomas Merton

I have always been a big fan of the old 1950 sci-fi movies. This Island Earth which I would love to see a remake is about a scientist who by curiousity is chosen with other scientists to help aliens build technology that will save their dying world. Of course the aliens really don't care about the earth or destroying some of its inhabitants as long as they can save their own planet.


Much of the power plays, selfish-centered agendas, and the prolifuration of destroying this planet or using other people of other nations for cheap labor for financial gain to a business or personal wealth is a common story. Our propensity for isolation and rugged individualism run amok is destroying the very fabric of our social networks and relationships. Thomas Merton got it right when he said, "We are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God." This island earth is not all there is to life but God calls us to be good stewards of his good creation. No man is an island either because we all need one another.

Do you see a connection between dicipleship and community rather than just private personal disciplines? Is there a connection today of Christian discipleship and stewardship of the earth?

To Save A Life

I saw the movie "To Save a Life" and really liked how they dealt with some difficult teen issues. Even more thought provoking was the real way they presented the good and the bad of the church. Some people are living for God while others are just playing games and play acting when it comes to Christian faith. This brings me back to the great ommission again in the church and that is discipleship. I just celebrated 25 years of marriage as well of 25 years of being a minister. Where are the true disciples of Jesus in today's church? Most of us, if we are honest, would have to say that nobody mentored or discipled us and so it's business as usual for the church as the church continues on a downward spiral along with society. Does the church need saving? Who will save the church? What is God calling you to do to save a life?

What is the Gospel?

REPENTANCE IS A
COMMANDMENT,
NOT AN INVITATION

The gospel of the kingdom is a Christ-centered gospel. Somehow this is lost in all the appeals we hear to Jesus as My healer, My savior, and Jesus appeals to My interests. So the gospel has become today Me centered and for My benefit. If you want to read about the gospel of the kingdom of God, go back and read the verses that are not underlined in many Bibles. Take a long look at the 'hard sayings' and tough discipleship teachings of Jesus.

Lee Camp in his book Mere Discipleship speaks about the 'good news' of the gospel. God has come to reconcile all things to himself and as we enter into that heavenly kingdom on earth, we too become reconcilers, peace-makers, obedient servants who even love our enemies. And a central word throughout the whole Bible is the word repent. "Repentance means change, and without change, without deep, thorough going change, one could not enter and participate in the kingdom . . . The Gospel invites us to follow the way of Jesus, who embodies for us the way of the kingdom" (pp.72 & 74).

How do you define the gospel?

Are There Aliens Among Us?

I have always loved the sci-fi genre and stories. Whether it be books or tv shows or movies, if there was an alien luking around in the background, I was hooked. I have especially been a fan of the old campy 1950's sci-fi classics. There usually was some telling truth or wisdom proverb whether it was War of the Worlds or the Time Machine. Christians have typically speculated not only is there intelligent life "out there" but can people really believe that humanity is really it?

Some people even go futher and suggest that Aliens have already been here and yes, they might be living next door to you unawares. I am sure angels have been to planet earth with most people unawares but I quess you can call me a skeptic even with my great love for a good sci-fi story or late night movie.

But what should be a Christians response if their were aliens? I will ask an even more practical discipleship question, what should be a Christian's response or the church's response to illegal aliens? I will have to say that as a middle-class white American law-abiding citizen, I am disappointed in either the lack of charity on one side and the lack of wisdom that appears at times on the other side. Whether we like it or not, the Hispanic community will one day probably be the largest majority in America. How the church responds now will have great impact for good or for ill when it comes to our attitudes and actions towards this mushrooming group of Americans and yes, illegal aliens.

Here are some questions that beg for answers:

1. What do we do with children who are illegal aliens? When they turn 18, are they instantly criminals?

2. It seems that the problems in our laws are legion. Either we don't follow the laws we currently have or we have bad laws or laws that do not make distinctions in tough and complicated situations. One thing many people agree on is radical reform is desperately needed!

3. How can we encourage people to work with getting citizenship rather than hiding from the authorities? Should people be illegal aliens indefinitely? If there are common law marriages without people doing the legal thing, should there be common law citizenship for people who have lived in this country for a long time?

4. Is there a way to reward people to apply for citizenship and discourage those who go around or against the law or must it be an either/or thing? Is there a better middle ground than what we have today?

5. Some Christians argue that there should be no borders at all? How should the church respond?

How shall we then live?

I Pledge Allegiance To . . . ?

CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT DISCIPLESHIP IS
ALWAYS CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT CHRIST
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

How is it that we live in "the most Christian country" in the world and see how things have gotten so corrupt morally and spiritually? Christianity in the West is in decline while Christianity in the global south is exploding. Yet the West holds all the cards, possesses all the resources, and still calls all the shots. What's wrong with this picture? In many ways, Christianity in today's environment seems to more inoculate people from the real thing, the gospel, and few seem to be getting real vacinnations that take us into the deeper life with Christ.

I remember in the early 1980's, one leading writer for Christianity Today wrote that the kind of Christianity we are winning people to will be to its own undoing in the end. And then there was Os Guiness who wrote a little later in his Gravedigger Files that the church was to change the culture but the culture was rather changing the church which made the church into its own gravedigger in the end.

An excellent book on dealing with discipleship issues in today's world is Lee Camp Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a rebellious world (Brazos Press, 2003). Lee is doing some creative discipleship over the radio in Nashiville Tennessee and he hits some key issues in his book. One of these issues is "Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God." The question is are we going to follow the empire of power building or the way of the cross which is the suffering Servant way of Jesus?

When Jesus cleaned out the temple, we can easily interpet this hard text of Scripture as a moment for righteous anger or not selling things in a church building or cleaning out your spiritual temple, your own body. But all these miss the deeper implications of the prophetic acting out that Jesus is doing. The temple represented the national allegiance of the people. Israel thought that as long as they had the temple, they would not come under judgment. But they put more stock in their national identity than their spiritual indentity with the Messiah. So the Messiah's temple is destroyed and resurrected whereas the temple in Jerusalem is destroyed later in 70 AD.

Do we get out allegiances confused today? Don't many American Christians think that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of America are almost the same thing? Haven't most Christians bought into the lie of the myth of redemptive violence and that evil resides in those outside of America whereas this country, rather than the church, has become the city on a hill?

Does not even the church in America think that it's job is to be in charge, to make the world right, to convert everyone to our way of thinking and living as Americans? In the end, when Jesus comes back, He is looking for faith in the world.

Where is your faith and what are you trusting in?

Monster Christianity

Christianity has become a big and scary thing for some people. Everything from the big bad Christians are trying to take over the government and dominate the world to some of the worse monsters I have ever run into were people who called themselves Christians.

For too long we have focused on church growth and evangelism and not discipleship. Is it little wonder that we have a form of Christianity that more follows Paul's list in the Bible of the flesh rather than the Spirit? Discipleship can not be an option any more for those who say they are followers of Jesus. Discipleship requires great sacrifice and is essential to spiritual formation and faithful Christian living.

I grew up watching monster movies. When everyone was playing cowboys and Indians, I was playing Planet of the Apes. When kids were playing Batman and Superman, I was playing Vampires and Werewolves. Vampire Christianity is all around me. Just give me a little of your blood Jesus but not too much because I want to suck the life out of everything in this world. Vampires used to scare me. Now they don't for the walking dead are all around me.

But I will say werewolves still scare me. I see so much evil in the world today and I'm scared. I'm also scared of my own spiritual complacency, moral compromises, and cowardice as a disciple of Jesus. So when I go to bed at night, I am not afraid that I will be killed by a werewolf, I am afraid of becoming one.

Discipleship Brings Unity

"WE'VE GOT TO UNITE OURSELVES AS
ONE BODY. BECAUSE JESUS IS COMING
BACK FOR A BRIDE, NOT A HAREM"
-Tony Campollo


The future of the church is integrally connected to our unity in Christ's mission. Seeking the unity of Christ's body (the church) is a neccessary component to Christian discipleship. Our life in God is the basis for unity in our life with one another (John 17).

Unfortunately, the church needs to be the first to repent of religious pride, ecclesiastical arrogance, and its own self-sufficency. We live in a day where Christians are decieved into thinking they can live fine without the church or community. But the whole Bible and Christian faith is within the context of relationships and community. God hates schism and division but in some churches, these are almost virtues.

God calls us to repentance and for his whole bride (the church) to come together as one people. This is not a "sola" (only) invisible reality but one that is to be lived out and visibly seen by others. Its a decision for discipleship. Vatican 2 had it right when it said, "division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature." Oh, if all the major tribes of the church would radically live this out rather than give it mere lip service.

So we pray and wait, serve and hope for that day when the Messianic Banquet takes all of God's divided people and finally unites them (Matt.22:1-14; Rev.19:9).

Do you believe that unity is an important component of Christian discipleship? What should Christians or churches be doing to preserve better the unity of the faith?

Follower or Admirer Of Jesus?

The Great Dane, Soren Kierkegaard, lived in the middle of the 18th century wrote words which have infuriated and captivated Christians. Here is a sampling from his "Provocations:"

"It is well known that Christ consistently used the expression 'follower.' He never asks for admirers. No, he calls disciples. There is nothing to admire in Jesus, unless you want to admire poverty, misery, and contempt . . . Admirers keep themselves at a safe distnace. They are only all too willing to serve Christ as long as proper caution is exercised, lest one personally come in contact with danger. As such, they refuse to accept that Christ's life is a demand. In actual fact, they are offended by him" (p.85-86).

"When everything is favorable to our Christianity, it is all too easy to confuse an admirer with a follower. The admirer can be in the delusion that the position he takes is the true one, when all he is doing is playing it safe . . . The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices . . . He renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength, with all his will to be what he admires" (pp.86, 88).

Are you a follower or an admirer of Jesus?

Spiritual Laws of Discipleship

The church and its people need spiritual mentors and coaches. I was with an old friend of mine today who seems like an old harmless man but delivers powerful words for those who have ears to hear. He was talking to me about seven spiritual laws on giving from Second Corinthians chapter nine. I like the word "spiritual" because it's not based upon the material much less the legal. I like the word "laws" because these are not consumer designed or optional bur demand obedience to God's Word and his ways.

As I read the text, verse 14 jumped off the page for me. Generous giving is linked to the response of the person to glorify God by praying for the person who gave to you. I have been in the church my whole life and have never heard one message or lesson on this specific verse or text of Scripture. And there it was in all its simplicity and beauty. Our response to generous sharing or giving is to praise God and pray for the person who gives to us. How have we missed that? Should we not teach this to others?

Is there some other spiritual law of discipleship that you have learned or uncovered?

Let us know . . .