"Let it go Indiana..."

How many of you remember the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Jones was trying to retrieve the Holy Grail while his Father was desperately trying to save him? The scene had already played out with the female character. Indiana Jones was trying to save her but she would not stop reaching for the relic. Now faced with the same dilemma, it was Jones trying to save the artifact while his Dad was trying to keep him from perishing. 4 simple words would prove to have a powerful impact: "Let it go Indiana."

What a powerful scene. It's a beautiful depiction of the struggle we face when truth is encountered. Will we continue to reach out, trying to save the relic we have pursued for so long? Or will we let it go, and be pulled to safety? This is the tension we find in the Gospel records. Jesus came to bring life. Life that was free. Life that was abundant. Life that was built upon a true understanding of the nature of the Father. And yet, so many chose to reach out for the faith they pursued for so long. They would rather struggle to preserve an artifact than be pulled to safety. What will you choose?

I see so many people who would rather hold to an Old Testament view of God rather than receive the revelation of the Father in Jesus. The goal for them is to preserve a faulty understanding of God rather than reinterpret His nature through the Son. The goal of our faith is not finding Jesus in the Old Testament. The goal is to renew our thinking based upon what is revealed in Jesus. And what He revealed is the true nature of the Father.

This mentality astounds me. What is it about what is revealed in the Old Testament that is more life giving than what is revealed in Jesus? What is it that we are trying to preserve?

Is it the belief in a nationalistic deity? You do realize that much of these writings were based upon the premise that Jehovah was simply the God of Israel don't you? It's not like Jesus' coming meant that God was somehow converted. It wasn't like He suddenly changed because of what Jesus was willing to go through. It seems to me that many of the West believe that God is now the God of America. He blesses us. He is on our side. What we fail to consider is that Jesus displayed the Father's love for all nations and all people groups.

Is it a felt need within us that God simply be for us and against everyone else? This goes a little deeper than the national deity idea. It preserves the idea that God only loves a certain portion of His creation while He still holds animosity towards the "others." That somehow God likes separation. That there are those who have His favor and others who don't. Didn't Jesus go after this type of thinking? Didn't He say that His Father caused it to rain on the just and the unjust? Blowing the idea that the Father only blessed a certain portion of the Earth's population out of the water.

Come on people. We have go to let it go. Jesus was the EXACT REPRESENTATION of the Father. Everything that came before Him was types and shadows. Understandings of God based upon finite thinking. It wasn't that the Old Testament writers were "wrong" but they were seeing through a limited understanding. They did not see the Abba of Jesus through unconditional love. They didn't see the grace and mercy that was continually extended to them because of His great love. They viewed God through the lens of performance, ritual, tradition, and sacrifice. They failed to recognize that the coming of Jesus would signal the depths that the Father would go to in order to reach us. All of us.

"Let it Go Indiana." There is safety in what Jesus has revealed. There is life beyond the holy grail of our thinking. This is what repentance is all about. It's the ability, and the willingness, to change our minds. To move beyond many of the ideas about God limited to the Old Covenant (and Old Testament) and to step into the abundance of life that is found in Jesus.

Trust me. This is life changing. Your liberty awaits you. Everything you need is found in Jesus. Stop thinking you have to preserve this Old Covenant type of thinking. All the promises of God are found in Jesus, and they are "YES" and "AMEN." Come into the freedom of the sons of God. Discover the fullness that is experienced in knowing the Abba of Jesus. A God who is LOVE. A Father whose love is everlasting, whose mercy endures forever. "Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD." Always good. And ALWAYS has been good. Jesus didn't change the nature of the Father. He revealed it. He welcomes us into it. "Let it go Indiana." Let it go.

Flame On!

As I walked into the room, the environment was charged with anticipation. People were seated. Many of their faces asking the same question: "What will this look like?" As I sat down among them, a sense of insecurity began to come over me. A thought flashed through my mind. Maybe I will just sit back and take it all in. They don't need anything from me. This room is filled with some incredible people. What could I possibly give?
FLAME ON!

Flame on. It's the phrase that the Human Torch uses right before he is engulfed in flames. In one moment he can go from the average looking guy (or really good looking guy if you ask my teenage daughter) to a man that is literally on fire. It's a phrase that would take on a whole new meaning for me this past weekend. A mindset that I would adopt. Knowing what I possess, what's inside of me, means all that is within the Holy Spirit is readily available. Regardless of how I feel. FLAME ON! is a reminder to tap into everything that the Father has provided.

WHO Koinonia became the incubator for this kind of thinking.
I recognized that our worship was not about having to bring God into our reality. It's quite the opposite. It is to bring us into His. As our hearts were turned to Him fully, I heard the words FLAME ON! I didn't have to work it up, but I did have to stir it up. Huge difference. Paul encouraged Timothy to "Stir Up the gift that is in you..." That's the classic way that we have read the text. Many of our newer translations read "Fan Into Flame..." Could Paul have been telling his young disciple to FLAME ON!?

This is what Koinonia is all about. It's where we fan into flame what the Father has placed within each of us. As we determine within our hearts to see the Lord among us, in us, and within one another, we are calling to remembrance what is already inside. We are moving past all of the negative thinking. We are not regarding the mistaken identities. We refuse to become mired in a person's shallow thinking of themselves. We look them in the eye. We speak life to the real identity. And we watch them burn.

I watched this process time and time again over the course of 4 days. Men and women alike, seeing themselves through the faulty lenses of performance. Focused on what they are not rather than who they are. Some were frustrated. A few were disconnected. Others were content to hide. Their minds had become consumed with the wrong things. I watched them fight. I watched others fight for them. I saw them determined to "take the land of their own heart." All of it coming to a beautiful climax: Hundreds of people burning with Him. Engulfed in His love. White hot with His passion.

This is the mindset that I want to carry every day. To be instant. In season and out. To FLAME ON! at any moment. I want it for myself and every other son and daughter of God. I want us delivered from the religious thinking that tries to douse the flame. I want us set free from the rituals that do nothing but try to cover the light. I want to see men and women, young and old, absolutely consumed with His love for them. I want that fiery love to spread beyond the walls of the church buildings and into the communities. I want the world set on fire.

FLAME ON!

How Do You Hear The Gospel?

Daniel 9:24, "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place."

When Jesus stood to read in the synagogue, He chose to read from the portion of Isaiah's prophecy. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." When He finished, He sat down, and told the crowd that this Scripture had been fulfilled in their reading. What does this have to do with Daniel 9:24? Because the "seventy 'sevens'" were upon them!

The Father has spoken to us through His Son. What has He said? Or maybe the question is: How do you hear it?

New Testament Scholar, Author, and retired Anglican Bishop N.T. "Tom" Wright talks about our hearing in the Gospel this way:
He says to imagine you are in a room with four speakers. The volume level of the speakers are not what they ought to be. Some are too loud and some are too quiet. Wright would tell each of us to keep these speakers in balance.
(1) The Gospels are an organic fulfillment of the story of Israel (The Old Testament), and not simply Genesis 1–3
(2) The story of Jesus is the story of Yahweh visiting his people, and this means that his deity is assumed
(3) Jesus comes to launch God’s renewed people into the kingdom or into kingdom life. This is what eternal life is all about
(4) The kingdom of God conflicts with the kingdom of this world, because it subverts the expectations of worldly kingdoms. In many ways, this
means the Christians are called to live out this new life that Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension inaugurated.

Depending upon where you are seated, and which speaker is the loudest in your life, you may be focused upon one or the other. However, I wonder if you have even heard the Gospel through any of these speakers? Western Christianity has often focused upon Jesus' coming through a totally different lens. We have failed to view the message of the Gospel through the lens of Israel. We have also forgotten the implications of the answer to Daniel's prayer that I quoted earlier. These lenses (or lack thereof) have created a dialogue that falls short of this glorious Gospel. Missing out on the heart of the Father for Israel and the rest of the world.

To be fair to my brothers and sisters, I believe that we all believe Jesus "finished" something.
To be fair, I believe that we all believe that what Jesus did was accepted by His Father.
To be fair, I believe that we all believe that Jesus has granted forgiveness and opened up a new way of life for humanity.
But what I don't see among my brothers and sisters is an agreement on how all of this plays out for us. Which probably has a lot to do with the "speakers."

I've wrestled with this idea myself. I have thought about the speakers. I've even considered the way in which we interpret the Gospels. It seems as though a lot of people hear the words of Jesus and elevate them to a sense of heightened spirituality. Almost a Nirvana type of existence. That...maybe...someday...we will come into. But I often wonder if Jesus wasn't demonstrating, and teaching, the glory in which humanity was always meant to live. Self giving love, compassion, and forgiveness. Peace rather than discord. Mercy over judgement. This reality all wrapped up in the restoration and reconciliation of humanity. All of it, a possibility, through the finished work of Christ.

Did we need Jesus to die for the sins of humanity? Yes!
Did we need to be reconciled to the Father? Yes!
Did we need someone to set humanity free from the fall of Adam, to release us from the captivity of the darkness, and to usher in a new creation? Yes...Yes...a thousand times, YES!
All accomplished. All finished. All of it, beautifully displayed in the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

What each of these speakers will tell communicate with you, what you will hear through each of them, is a need for you to come to terms with this reality in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the door. The abundant life we have been looking for is found in Him. Not a life filled with "rule keeping" but a life that is ruled by the reconciliation of the Father. A life where you can truly "become."

The degree to which we do not trust in the finished work of Christ is the degree to which we will try to fulfill some religious duty.
The degree to which we trust in the finished work of Christ is the degree to which we will rest in Him.
What's the difference? How does this play out?
It's the difference between "doing" and "being." As you rest in all that He has done, what you do will flow from who you are in Him. Not the other way around.

Do you hear what I hear?

Study + Revelation

John 14:26, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."

A couple of weeks ago I reached 1,000 blog posts. I held a mini celebration. Not really...the day sort of passed me actually. I just happened to look at the counter to realize that this milestone had come and gone. It's been an interesting journey. I started this blog as a way to stay connected with my Pioneer family, to hash out my own thoughts on spirituality, and as a means to bring encouragement into the lives of those seeking the Truth. I will be the first to say that I'm not pleased with every post. In fact, I've considered going back through them and deleting the ones that don't agree with where I am in my thinking. However, I've chosen to leave them alone. A memorial to the journey. A reminder that the Lord is continually teaching us.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things. Have you ever considered the implications of that statement? I grew up in a church environment that was very Bible heavy. The belief was that the Word of God, aka the Bible, was the complete revelation of God. We were told to study it, memorize it, and apply it. All that we believed was based upon this collection of writings. While I understand it, and honor the place the Bible holds in our faith, these statements in and of themselves fall way short in grasping what the Lord is wanting to teach us. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. He will use the Bible. But the complete revelation of God is found in a person. The person of Jesus.

I believe what Scripture says about itself. That it is good (profitable) for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. It's not the Scriptures that I question but our handling of them. Much like my journey with this blog, we must leave room for revelation, for enlightenment, room for the Holy Spirit to bring His understanding into the equation. Church history is filled with stories of men and women who lived in that tension. Men and women who were willing to be taught by the Spirit of God. While they honored the faith traditions set before them, they were willing to go deeper. To study. To listen to the Holy Spirit. To allow the Lord to reveal Himself.

What I have come to believe is that the Word of God is not a book. The Word of God is a person. Jesus, Himself, is the Word made flesh. The Bible reveals Him, but the Bible is not Him. Most people don't even realize that the Bible does not call itself the Word of God. Most people don't understand that a lot of the attributes we give to this collection of writings are not things that it has declared itself to be. The Bible is a collection of writings. A collection of the Hebrew Scriptures, Hymns, Poems, and History of Israel. A collection of the Gospels, early church history, and letters to the early church. All important. All necessary in understanding the origin and practices of our faith. All profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training. It's not the Word of God, but it contains the words of God.

So how do we proceed? How do we gain insight into the faith? How do we unravel the mysteries of life and the nature of the Father? It all happens within an encounter with the person of Jesus - the living Word. Allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us, reveal to us, and remind us of all that He has said about Himself. Giving Him the opportunity to define the Father for us, to understand the Scriptures that He inspired, and to come to a greater understanding of who we are in Him. This type of life allows for a growing revelation of the Lord. Study + Revelation. Taking us deeper into His heart. Recognizing that faith isn't just something that can be mapped out, charted, and simply explained. It is something experienced, caught rather than taught, and is real and abiding. We need the living Word, active and alive among us.

I believe 98% of our theological errors can be fixed by understanding the finished work of Christ. The other 2% could be fixed by a good word study. Wrapped up in the finished work of Christ is the true nature of the Father. The true nature of who we are in Him. The plan and purpose of God for all of creation. We desperately need this. To grasp the goodness and love of our Father. To be still and just know Him. The word study I suggest for the other 2% is just a way for us to understand the original language. There's a lot of error in our thinking because we haven't done the work. We have allowed our limited English understanding dominate certain words in the Bible. Because of that, we are creating doctrines based upon some flawed concepts. We have too many resources available to us to be stuck in someone else's misunderstandings.

This type of growth is not embraced by everyone. Some people see the faith as something that has been passed on perfectly. Therefore, we just carry on what has been passed down to us. Good or bad. We have somehow forgotten that the church, and the faith that we carry, has gone through a lot of changes over the centuries. From Orthodoxy to Catholicism to Protestantism. From 500 years before there was a completed Bible translation to where we are today with more translations than we know what to do with. Lots of changes. While much of what the early church carried has endured, we have also embraced the greater revelations the Holy Spirit has provided.

Pay attention to this quote from St. Augustine:
"Accordingly, when anyone claims, 'Moses meant what I say,' and another retorts, 'No, rather what I find there,' I think that I will be answering in a more religious spirit if I say, 'Why not both, if both are true?' And if there is a third possibility, and a fourth, and if someone else sees an entirely different meaning in these words, why should we not think that he was aware of all of them?"
Augustine, Confessions 12.31.42

Something to consider in the midst of our dogmatic thinking.
Imagine a living faith. A growing faith. A faith that brings with it a revelation of the Living Word. A greater understanding of the who the Father is, and who we are in Him. Study + Revelation = just that.

Enjoy the journey!

His Own Received Him Not

John 1:11 tells us that "He [Jesus] came unto His own, but His own did not receive Him." What was it about Jesus that brought about this rejection?

I have always loved the "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Brazil. Christ the Redeemer, with open arms, was created as a symbol of peace. What a magnificent statue. What an incredible gesture. As one of the seven wonders of the world, it is a wonderful visual reminder of the Lord. I often wonder, especially considering that I'm living in 20125, what was it about Jesus that caused the Jewish world of His day to reject Him. Think about it. AND PLEASE don't just settle for the "Christian" answer. What was it about a man who preached love, peace, and reconciliation that stirred up so much anger? What was it about a man who healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead, and caused the lame to walk that made them want to have him crucified?

There's a line in John's Gospel where he says "men loved the darkness rather than the Light." There's not too many details in that statement, but it's probably more accurate than we understand.

The "Logo" of God (what we have termed as the "Word") is more than just a word. Wrapped up in the logos is the wisdom of God - the structure of God's order. In Jesus, the logos was made flesh and dwelt among us. The question I asked earlier has more to do with the rejection of the logos rather than the rejection of a person. Was it really Jesus they were rejecting, or was it the wisdom of God that they despised?

Jesus talked about G-O-D in a relational way: ABBA.
That one really stirred them up.

Jesus talked about loving your neighbor, but the neighbor in the story was a Samaritan.
OUCH!

Jesus often reinterpreted certain Scriptures about the nature of Abba. "You've heard it said...but I say to you..."
That didn't sit to well either.

Jesus taught the people how to live in peace with one another. Particularly the Romans.
But the Jews of that day really wanted to rebel. And they eventually tried. History tells us that much.

The more I recognize some of the issues He created, the more I realize that the logos of God is so different from us. His Wisdom, His Love, is peaceful, genuine, compassionate, and truly relational. He sees beyond our petty disagreements. He goes deeper than religion ever could. Even His take on the Law was very, very, different.

Was their motive political? Were they afraid that His teachings would lead to a peace loving society that would make it very difficult to raise up a rebellion.
Was it purely spiritual? Did they believe Jesus was so off base that He would lead people away from the One True God?
Was their anger motivated by their societal standing? He seemed to really put everyone on an even playing field.

Maybe John was right in his estimation. They truly loved the darkness rather than the Light. They really loved their concept of God, their ideas on religion, their hatred of other nations, and their Law. Even though it was darkness...they loved it. They held on to it with all of their might. They refused the logos of God, tried to extinguish the Light, and crucified the Lord of glory.

When I begin to think of Jesus' rejection in this way, it causes me to stop and think about myself. What would I have done in that day? What am I doing now? Is there an area of my life where I am rejecting the logos of God? Are there people that I am unwilling to call neighbor? Is there some kind of authority that I'm not willing to live under? Are my ideas of GOD more important to me than the Abba of Jesus? I ask these questions because I realize how easy it is to embrace the darkness of our own thinking rather than the Light of His glory.

The Good News:
Jesus took their rejection.
Jesus took their shame.
Jesus embraced the crucifixion.
Why? Because He knew that it was only way into the darkness.
"He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we could become the righteousness of God in Him."
Christ the Redeemer. Arms opened wide. Hallelujah! What a Savior!