THE UPRISING

‎"Success for the church is measured on the streets, not in the seats."

The Comma of Grace

One Easter I got into a bit of a yelling match with a guy in a visor at an Easter egg hunt. The whole thing was exactly how Jesus imagined us honoring that day.
 We were at my in-laws country club, which always makes me feel a little weird. We’re certainly rich in a global way, but I kind of think that they can all tell that I’m just a visitor. I feel like the real members can smell middle class on me. (Which kind of smells like sun ripened raspberry and feet by the way.)
 So after I pointed to where a golden egg was hidden to my 5 year old daughter, he yelled at me for cheating. I told him that his white visor made him look like a financial planner who was wearing his “casual uniform.” Whole thing got very out of hand. (I didn’t say that, but I thought it later when we were driving home, which is where most of my comebacks occur.)
 The entire incident was gross. My daughter, who lost a golden egg last year has actually asked not to participate in the Easter egg hunt this year. That’s how messed up and tangled we’ve made this season of our lives.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that one of the things Easter is all about is actually pretty simple. I’ve written about it before and I hope to write about it again.

 I’m talking about the “comma of grace.”
 I found it in Luke 22. In that chapter, Jesus is being led away. He is headed to the cross. A million prophecies are coming true and chaos is breaking out a little amongst disciples that up to this point have sworn to serve until death. In the midst of that, he pulls Simon aside because he knows that Simon will soon betray him.

He says to Simon in Luke 22:31-32:
 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”
 And then, he drops the 9 words that I can’t write about enough. The 9 words that I often turn to when I’ve failed and messed up again and feel hopelessly undeserving of hope.

Jesus tells Simon:

“And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
 Do you see what Jesus is saying in that first half of the sentence, And when you have turned back? He’s saying:
 You are going to fail.
 You are going to fall.
 You are going to lose it.
 You are going to make commitments and break them.
You are not going to always be the man your family needs.
You are going to sin.
But, but, but, you will turn back.
You will come back. You will know redemption. You will know return. You will know a God that not only allows the “comeback” but actually celebrates it.

When I read the phrase “And when you have turned back,” I read a loud, wild picture of what grace really looks like.
 And then, if you go too fast, you’ll miss the comma. You’ll miss the gap that sits quietly between the next thought. You’ll miss it because like me, you might misread the second half of that sentence.

Here’s what it says:
 “And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
 But here’s how we write it sometimes:
 “And when you have turned back, repent for a long time and stay a long way from me until you are clean enough to return to my presence.”
 “And when you have turned back, please stay far away from any ministry opportunities. You are too broken to help other people. How can you minister to others when your own life is so messed up?
 “And when you have turned back, here are the 57 things you need to do in order to earn back my good favor.”
 But Christ doesn’t do that! He drops a comma like a grenade.
 He gives us the gift of the comma and then asks us to strengthen our brothers. Not beat ourselves with emotional whips. Or lay in a hole of shame. Or stay to the shadows of church afraid to be seen.
 He wants you. In his arms. By his side. Surrendered and free in his presence.
 Not because you deserve it or have earned it or are perfect.
 Because of Easter.
 That’s it.

We all get the comma of grace.
-John Taggard.

So much talk about growing churches...

So little talk about growing people.

The two are not automatically one in the same. 

If we were more discipleship-centric than church-centric

the difference & results would be stunning.

Congregations would no longer be content to be filled with those

who've been baby christians all their lives,

those never growing into the full statute & measure of Christ-likeness.

And instead of spending tons of money on the house,

tons would be invested in practically & effectively growing the people.

What if, with greater priority than & beyond sunday morning service, churches invested tons of money & time & prayer & effort in turning you into a disciple of Christ & helping you fulfill your call.

What if...

 

The things I feel when I come near You are ecstatic & extrodinary in the sheer raw pleasure they raise. But pardon me as I grope past these strong sensations to lay hold of the substance of You.  How could anyone who has seen You even once ever be satisfied with a feeling & a cloud & a light show. 

Satan lived in God's presence & still fell away. The presence of God is not the true anchor, God Himself is the true anchor. If we are not anchored in God Himself, experiencing His presence can easily lead to presumption or pride. The counsel of the Lord is not "abide in his presence" but to "abide in Him..."  Many are they who are addicted to God's presence, but have not yet come to abide in God Himself.  Drawing near to God is not the same as surrendering to God. And seeking the pleasure of his presence is not the same as submission to His person. In His presence is fulness of joy. But in His person is fullness of Life... & the resource of full obedience...& the fruit of Christlikeness in both power a-n-d character. To anchor in God means to not only to draw near, but to absolutely  surrender,  & seek to know, walk with, & obey Him as life's 1st priority & greatest gift.  God has many worshippers, but few worshippers of God alone. Know the difference. Live the difference.

 

 

   We tend to pray for refining,

all the while avoiding the crucibles

where refining can best occur.

In the barren landscape of my journey,

 when I did thirst...

the rocks bled wine.

And when I hungered,

nature, 

though wounded from the fall,

yeilded up its tithe

to keep this priesthood alive.

"A true leader or shepherd will not primarily be seeking to establish their own authority over the flock, but to establish Christ's authority over the flock". For the flock we lead/shepherd is not "our" flock, but the flock of God... for which we are in essence mere undershepherds. But certainly not mere hirelings. For this flock we gladly lay down our lives in nurturing & nourishing, in training & discipline, in warfare & persecution from within & without, & in God-dependant servant-leadership, to the end that from simplicity of devotion to Christ they'd know God's heart, bear His likeness, & carry out His life's work in the context of their own unique callings.  Leading & shepherding in this way & to this end is our own unique calling. And depsite the many trials, we do it with much joy.

Note that it is not the Lord of Host, 

but the God of Peace 

that crushes Satan under your feet.

 

The impregnable irresistible force of inward peace 

is stronger than any weapon of conflict, strife, or division.

Peace is your greatest defense in battle. 

Do not engage in outward battles without 

inward union with the Prince of Peace 

firmly seated on the throne of your soul.

If you can win the skirmish inside, 

the one outside will be no match for you. 

 

" May the peace of God be with you"

 

Some things are worth fighting with because they are worth fighting for. Some things are not. Wisdom knows when to stay and fight and when to quietly back away & move on. I have been in two fights this year. One bloody and outwardly messy. The other quiet & inwardly messy. Saw neither coming. Both a complete surprise. Shed many tears. Suffered some losses. Learned many lessons. Grew from both. Came out of both different than who I was going in. One fight made me weaker. One, stronger. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

 

~ In hard times she had learned 3 things---She was stronger than she ever imagined. Jesus was closer than she ever realized. And She was loved more than she ever knew. ~

Encountering God as He really is is made much easier if we can 1st endure seeing ourselves as was really are & not as we think we are. Seeing God's heart is made easier if we can 1st endure Him showing us our our hearts. Often, the fearful & terrible thing about a true encounter with God is not that we see fearful & terrible things in Him, but that He shows us fearful & terrible things about ourselves.

In the coming days it will be evident that God is not primarily looking for people to preach about Christ, but instead is looking for those through whom Christ Himself may preach. The difference will be stunning.

If you do not daily deny yourself, you will in a hundred different ways daily deny your Savior. If you will not take up your cross daily to crucify your inordinate affections & lusts, you will in thoughts, words, & actions crucify others daily for theirs.

Got Life?

I think Jesus' goal was never to 'fix up' or repair my old life, but to replace it with His new life. Jesus did not simply come to give us truths - He came to make us true. More than simply giving us truths to live by, I think He came to live out those truths in us.

I think the rigorous commands He issued & all those wonderful & absurd high standards & second-mile edicts were not something He expected us to go out & attempt to fulfill. Rather, it was specifically for us to see that we could not - but to also go one step further & acknowledge that God could - and thereby consent to a lifelong partnership of us letting Him do in & through us what we could not do by ourselves.      "With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible"'

In entering such a partnership with God as the source of our life & goodness, & us as cooperative vessels of that expression, we thus step into the great life-surrendering, soul-transforming, power-displaying, love-immersing,  mercy-receiving, gap-standing, schedule shuffling, wild, painful, messy, wonderful adventure called Life in Christ.

Those rigorously high standards Jesus both represented & presented for us to walk in were more than mere commands, they were descriptions - descriptions of God's own life & nature, & what our lives would look like if He was allowed to express His through we weak & glorious earthen vessels.  This is why I believe the greatest thing God will ever ask of us is...... to yield.   Hence our  great grace deal begins not with us working, but with us entering into this rest.  Not working to attain righteousness , but yielding to obtain a righteousness that is not earned, but freely given.

Who's got time to be the kind of Christian Christ said he wanted to make us all?  In an attempt to try, we search our hearts & schedules for holes big enough to insert all we 'ought to be doing' & the less likely we see it possible to do all that seems to be required of followers of Christ. We tend to either ignore or expend great energy on "try to make space in our life for holiness, mission, morality & standard reaching", without first surrendering our lives up for the great exchange of old life' striving to embrace His 'new life' method - not of striving to attain, but of yielding to obtain.

Better to opt for absolute surrender, cease striving - enter into His Rest & let Him be the Life of this Christianity we signed up for. Agree to yield.

Scripture states that we are called to "walk in the power of an endless life."   Pause & think about that.

How dismally small the number of us who do. Such passages remain to most of us a myth rather than a present experience.  Paul stated that he counted all else dung compared to knowing Christ ...a-n-d walking in His resurrection life which was full of power.  He regularly referred to Christ as his life. He said that in some viable way he was dead, & that the life being expressed in him was largely not his own, but Christ's.  He repeatedly wrote that he was continuing to daily surrender up his own life so that Christ's own life could & would manifest through him. In several passages Paul called this consistently renewed surrender "dying daily".  He specifically referred to our need to die daily as the whole reason for the cross Jesus told each of his followers they would need to carry. Paul  clearly expressed that there was no "Resurrection Life" without there first being a death. Hence he repeated Jesus instruction that we carry our cross. This instrument of death becomes a doorway to Life.

Many of us know Jesus as the Way.  Some know Him as the Truth. Few know Him as the Life.  The entrance fee to knowing Jesus as the Life will cost us full surrender of our life, but the rewards are, well,  ...endless. 

By placing our expectation on His life not ours, we will still have to do stuff, even some of the same stuff we're doing now,  still have to do boring stuff, hard stuff, painful stuff,  smart stuff, we'll still have to engage spiritual disciplines, &  we'll still have to go into hard broken places within & without & do our part of the work to mend & be made whole. We'll still have to find our stride on the narrow road....  Still dishes to wash, diapers to change. Still people to serve & mission to fulfill... The high standard will still need to be aspired to... BUT the "from where" will be the distinction & also the explanation for the level of  grace, contentment, power & joy that will be ours because of this new way we chose to become His. 

Knowing Jesus as our Life is not strictly for spiritual giants, it is what makes spiritual giants.

More to come...

i know what it is to get the beat down

to be stabbed in the back by both friend & foe

to fail so badly that recovery takes years

to lay down in a battle & play dead

to ignore the help that's offered because i refuse to take off my shirt to show someone the wound

yeah, i'm acquainted with grief

the kind that makes you crawl into a bottle rather than face it

the kind that makes you deny taking new friends cause old ones done ya so wrong, or because you've done them wrong but they won't say how so ya just don't know.

the kind that takes the wind out of your sails, or shapes & skews the way you look at the world for a while.  the kind that comes with being asked to take leaps of faith so wide that though you eventually do make it to the other side you limp for a while...

yeah...I've know pain; the kind that makes you hide, makes you run, makes you tired even when you're standing still...smiling at passersby.  the kind that makes you recoil at taking risks. the kind that makes you calloused toward the people & places that remind you of it

and also the kind that keeps you, though you limp, dependent on God & humbly moving forward

yeah, my past has known that kind of pain & failure & loss & grief

intimately acquainted with a version of even on my current landscape

oh yeah, this specific season has its own grief & disappointments & pains

its betrayals & heartaches & disappearances & unsolved murders.

yeah, I know em all too well.

could run or rage against the machine in a postal manner

or rest in the curve of His peace & encourage myself in this Lord.

today I've chosen the latter. 

plan to tomorrow as well. 

no novice now, i've been choosing the latter for some time now.

and who is my biggest cheerleader? me.

i believe in me so much that & believe I'll always choose courage over chaos as a response to the brokenesses of mine & of others that seem to hunt me down for assassinations of every kind. 

and should i waiver...

i have a handful of trusted allies committed to keep me off the ledge

you see, i am not alone.

 

You cannot accomplish by "leadership", management, authority, & charisma, that which is only realizable by death & resurrection. -S.Crosby

For the thousands of songs & choruses & cadences that speak of victory & overcoming & faithfulness & perseverance against all odds, there must also be songs for the in between, the on the way, the not yet attained, but striving. Songs for when we, fresh from failure & flaw, somehow find the desire... & the courage to get up, to carry on, & to try again. Where are the songs that applaud not only the ones who keep flying straight, but also hail those who when grounded by some failure exert the enormous inward energy required to get onto the runway & attempt to take flight again. Real victory is more than about having achieved, but is also in continuing to strive. And those who do so in the face of great inward & outward adversity,& with a finish line that seems afar off... these too are the heroes of the faith. These too are my heroes.

The latest famine in Somolia has given way to renewed & great starvation, & has resulted in the establishing of refugee camps, which have become small cities falling pray to gangs & the mafia... and genuine entrepreneurs thriving in micro-businesses. These camps are where my morning intercession has been turned. Somolia. Indonesia. Haiti.

What

in

the

world

is going on inside my big fat normally small-minded head???

It's like my head has recently been informed that the world is not flat.

knock knock

"And they gave themselves to prayer..."

Was thinking this morning about what a huge space prayer took up among early church leaders. It was no mere afterthought, nor was it comprised largely of what was said before & at the close of meetings. No. Prayer together & individually was given big spaces on each of their schedule books & calenders. So much so that one of their defining characteristic as well as that of their disciples was that they were people of prayer. Corporate prayer & personal prayer. How upside down things have become for our present day leaders & their disciples. Prayer, which once held the chief places in the lives of leaders & followers, has now been relegated to pre & post meetings, & perhaps a few quickly uttered times in the week. Hollowed out prayers uttered on the go, unattached from a vital & strong God-relational prayer life.  Prayer has been all but neutered in this present age. No wonder God has been raising up movements devoted to prayer, to do it, to model it, & to resurrect its doing among the ranks of followers of Christ & even among not yet followers of Christ. How strange it is that most church leaders pray an average of 15 minutes a week with the bulk of other time taken up with running the business of church, & a brief prayer time filled with the listed needs of the church, like some weekly business meeting or banking transaction; all while unknowingly personally estranged from the One to whom the church belongs.  Ceasing on ministry as an escape from having to come, stand, & wait before the Lord. It has always been easier to serve Him than to stand before Him. Like a spouse so focused on the house that she has forgotten the husband for whom the house is kept. Running on the strength from their gifting, loving ministry & people more than God, & bereft of the fruit & intimacy that comes with absolute surrender & time before the Lord. Here is where Bride's destinies are cut short & would be God-companions become mere somewhat happy worker bees. God once said to me "My people profess great love for Me, but they can't stand to be near Me. Call them to come near..."  Hey you, come near- learn to live near.  Abide. You who have mastered a business relationship with God, start a Tryst with the lonely living God. Court & woo Him, shedding the best of your affection on Him; Pouring your love out on Him like that gal with that alabaster box filled with precious perfumes. Be audacious, wholehearted & white-hot in that which many lived & died to make a way for you to have...relationship with the living God.  Give yourself to God-communication that's filled with God-communion. Once upon a time, men & woman in absolute surrender & reckless abandon, made God their One thing, their first thing, & it made all seconds radiate.

Once Upon A Time They Gave Themselves To Prayer

Indonesia is hosting the world's largest global prayer leadership gathering. Wish I could be there. John & Barb Briggs, members of the lead team of 24-7, will be heading over, casting vision for, & garnering support for 24-7Haiti during that historic event. Still... I soooooo wish I could be there.

Strange fear-mongering dreams.

Did not have the effect I'm sure my enemy was hoping for.

Something akin to poking a hornet's nest.

 

"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned"

The haunting has gone.

Yeah.... Nothing here but thankfulness now.

Good morning, Friday.

HERE says it best.

ˈdif(ə)rənt - Pastoral Leadership

I often find myself thinking about what the church is and what the church should be. I have been in numerous arguments (healthy arguments) about the relevancy of the church in today's culture. I firmly believe that the church has been and should continue to be a spiritual difference maker in our world.

via www.revchrisknight.com

 After a season of tough, rough, pushing up through it, by this morning's walk it had all been broken so wide open & spilled out like that alabaster's oil that there was nothing left but great thanks running wide into every small part of the recent past. And in every place that was once punch-drunk bruised there's now nothing but thankfulness... thankfulness & a war-torn but well-won peace. Now only the good & the gratitude remain. It's a fullbodied, uncomplicated, unwaivering gratitude. When I reflect back on it all, only "Thank You" comes to the surface begging to be whispered & then shouted. 

I'm puzzled by those who can't understand how I can in any way be connected to, much less recieve from, or give input into such a wide diversity of Christian ministries with practices, perpsectives, methodoolgy, & doctrine so seemingly opposite of each other. I simply tell em...

 It's what I see My Father doing

Unite Us: A Prayer for Unity

I wonder what barriers we are being called to break through in our own situations right now? Maybe it's our move ... another image, this time to express the tension of unity: two groups, peering at each other - perhaps wanting to be one, perhaps being afraid of joining together, perhaps even being hostile, but finding there are barriers to cross first.

 

Sometimes we peer across the divides
In mutual incomprehension:
Lord, forgive us, and unite us.

Sometimes we will not cross barriers,
But prefer to guard our territory:
Lord, forgive us, and unite us

Sometimes the comfort of the known place
Overcomes our desire to explore new ground:
Lord, forgive us, and unite us.

Lord, you prayed that your disciples would be one
As you and your Father are one:
Lord, let your Kingdom come.  -Crafty Curate

He is a lamb. He is also a lion. Wisdom knows not to present Him as a lion when He desires to show Himself as a lamb. Wisdom knows not to present Him as a lamb when He wants to show Himself as a lion. It is presumption to pick our favorite view of God & gravitate primarily toward presenting that one facet. This is why it is essential, especially for leaders, to walk with Him closely & know His voice in order to reflect Him rightly.

More than I want salvation,

I want the Savior.

 More than I want the answers

I want the Teacher.

I come,

Hands empty.

Nothing but my longing heart

To recommend me.

A longing so deep...

That it is an ache.