fruit?

Bev and I received "A Band of Brothers" as a Christmas gift. We spent a number of evenings since Christmas watching each episode. I was deeply moved at the end of episode ten when the narrator told us what happened with some of the surviving soldiers after the war. What moved me most deeply was the account of George Luz.

After the war, George lived in Providence, RI. At first glance, he lived a rather ordinary life. He was a handyman, or as his family put it, a maintenance consultant. Yet there was a great deal of significance in his ordinary life. How do we know? At his funeral, over 1600 people showed up! He never had an important title or position. He was not famous (at least not before A Band of Brothers was produced). Yet his life quietly impacted a large number of people.

For those of us in the church, there is a lesson to be learned from George Luz. Far too frequently we measure fruit by the amount of people we can motivate to attend a meeting. We strive to be important, to be noticed. We like to highlight our ministry achievements. We may have our moment of glory but that is the extent of our reward.

True fruitfulness can never be measured by the amount of people in our meetings. My experience has been that many people who sit in our meetings are never transformed. They might be impressed with our teaching ability and they may praise us for it. We may have a semblance of fruitfulness but the lasting transformation never occurs. Because we focus on building something impressive (at least by human standards), we frequently fail to impact people with the practical example of our life.

For a lot of years, I tried to build an impressive church and ministry. In 2005 God showed me that while Bev and I had created an illusion of successful ministry, we never really discipled people. As I looked at the example of Jesus, I realized that His most lasting impact was not with the crowds but with individual people. We began to change our efforts from building ministry to building the lives of people through deep heart to heart interaction. (Interestingly as we refocused from building a ministry to practically impacting individual lives, we received criticism for not having fruit in our lives. Oh well - religious people never change!)

People like George Luz impress me deeply. They spend their life in relative obscurity, all the while impacting those with whom they come in contact. They care not for the trappings of success. They shun the spotlight, choosing the way of the yeast in the dough, of the mustard seed in the soil. Religious people ignore them because of what looks like insignificance. Yet the true significance of their life will be revealed long after the heartless efforts of the religious have faded away.

the word in flesh - hearts exposed

This Christmas season I have been thinking about the effect of "God with us", the "Word in Flesh". Jesus' birth immediately shook the culture into which he was born. As He grew older, He became an increased threat to the religion system of His culture. I find it interesting to note that the Jewish religious system of His day was actually birthed from God. In the midst of that system we do find a few people who recognized the hand God creating a new way of worship. Simeon, an elderly man who the scriptures say was just and devout, recognized Jesus as the Son of God immediately. Anna, a prophet recognized Him as well. Some thirty years after His birth, John the Baptist recognized Him.

Yet most of the leading religious leaders did not recognize Jesus. Not only did they not recognize Him, they actively resisted Him to the point of attacking Him. What differentiated Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist from the religious leaders? I think for Simeon and the like, their Jewish worship was an outworking of their devotion to God. For the religious leaders, their system of Jewish worship was their God. The system of worship birthed from the heart of God had become more important than God Himself. Perhaps more accurately, they were in love with themselves and God's plans for worship were hijacked by them to create an appearance of Godliness. In reality, their paradigms were anything but godly.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the amount of scripture that they broke in conspiring to kill Jesus. For people who claimed to love the law and the scriptures, they sure displayed a great deal of disregard for those scriptures when it was convenient to do so. Their actions toward God's unfolding plan exposed their hearts. They did not care about the scriptures, they did not care about the work of God. They were deeply in love with themselves. Their professed love of the law and the scriptures gave them a veneer of respectability. Not only did they reject "God with us" they rejected "the Word in Flesh" However, the entrance of Jesus, the example of the scriptures in real life (the Word in Flesh) caused their hypocrisy to be seen. Is it any wonder that they so violently opposed Him?

I have discovered that the entrance of Jesus into our lives today still exposes our hearts. Additionally, active practical application of the scriptures discerns our motives quickly. Jesus' presence in my own life and the interaction with the scripture (the word becoming flesh in my life) has forced me to recognize my self-centeredness. At the point of recognition, I have been forced to choose whether I will reject His revelation and continue to act in a self-centered manner or whether I will embrace the revelation, crying out to Him for help.

It amazes me how powerfully the self-god is rooted in us. An e-conversation with a man who would call himself a Christian illustrates the deceptiveness of this self-god. When I pointed out a contradiction between his words and the way he was living, he became somewhat indignant. He left me know that he was moving ahead with God and his walk with God had nothing to do with me. He wanted me to stay out of his life. There was no mistaking the animosity toward me.

For a person, who would consider himself as a leader in church, that was a rather interesting statement. I had to think of the words of Paul - the eye cannot say of the hand, I have no need of you. This man's paradigm was completely opposed to the way of God. One cannot claim to follow God and then reject other believers. Furthermore, in John's first letter to the church, John made following observation - If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

While this man would profess to be following the scripture, his actions demonstrated that he rejected the scriptures. Like the religious leaders of Jesus' day, the scriptures are followed as long as they are convenient. The word has not become embodied in his life. The presence of or the lack of "word in flesh always reveals the condition of our heart.

There is a difference between an intellectual assent to the scriptures and the word becoming flesh in us. In an intellectual assent, we verbally agree with words of scripture. However, the verbal agreement does not necessarily translate in to actions. When the word becomes flesh in us, our actions reflect the words and the examples of scripture.

a tale of two churches

In the book of Revelation, we find Jesus addressing various churches. While He speaks to seven, two of them in particular stand out to me.

The church at Ephesus was quite a church. They were commendable for their work and effort. They were doctrinally sound. They recognized the error of false apostles. Their perseverance was admirable. I get the sense that today this church would be recognized for their dedication. Most likely they would be a case study for those in academia desiring to discover the secrets of growing a successful church.

Immediately following the description of the church at Ephesus we find another church. The church at Smyrna was certainly not nearly as successful. They were poor, experiencing tribulation and suffering. They faced persecution. If one reads between the lines, it would appear that they were a broken church; one that would never be held up as an example of a successful church.

Ironically, the church most reprimanded was the “successful” church. In all their activity they completely missed the point. The weak broken church elicited praise from Jesus once again pointing to the fact that the ways of God are drastically different from our paradigms of success.

For years, I attempted to build an Ephesus church. Over the years we succeeded in the endeavor. Pastors from other churches and communities began to ask me the secrets of our success. That’s heady stuff for a young man! Yet in the success something was lost. Like the church at Ephesus, I became focused on the activities and the dedication required to achieve the vision. As our labors began to bear fruit, we became even more focused on the vision. As vision becomes more focused it easily becomes the sole focus. No longer is it an outworking of our relationship with God, the vision becomes god.

It took God asking me to relinquish the position of leadership to begin the process of seeing the emptiness of our labors. Success according to God is frequently at odds with our humanistic ideals of success. We think big is better. Busy activity is esteemed highly. Yet God seems less impressed with our activity and our success than with our brokenness.

Today I interact closely with group of broken followers of Jesus. We are messy, and broken. Each of us clearly recognizes our weakness. When it comes to telling an impressive church success story, one would not point to our band of believers. Yet in the midst of our brokenness we have discovered the reality of God. No longer is He a simply an aloof figure in an intellectual theological framework. He is alive, interacting with us in our brokenness. His presence highlights our weakness; His healing grace highlights His goodness.

Is God in control?

This week I had a heart-wrenching conversation with a client. Earlier this year, his wife left him for a lesbian relationship. He spoke of the transformation of his wife into someone he barely recognizes. The woman she was has been traded for a new identity. At one point he asked a question that so many of us ask when our world disintegrates – Why did God allow this to happen?

I frequently hear people say, “Well…God is still in control.” That thought process leads us to question why God would allow terrible things to happen. In fact it deeply calls into question the goodness of God. If God is in control of the situation, then is it not His fault that children are abused, that women are raped, and that children destroy their body with drugs?

God never created people to be puppets on a string, involuntarily dancing to his beck and call. He created us in His image with the ability to control our own destiny. He gave us the ability to make decisions and the responsibility to suffer the consequences of those decisions. Unfortunately the impact of negative decisions extends far beyond the one making that decision.

Does God have the power to be in control? I am convinced that He possesses that power. However I am equally convinced that God has limited himself in the affairs of humanity. I believe that part of what it means to be created in the image of God is that we have the ability to create our own destiny. Most of the destructive events that occur in humanity are the result of people making destructive choices. Most of the blessings that occur in humanity are the results of people choosing to live life according to God’s pattern.

Is God in control of every situation here on earth? No. He is not in control when innocent people are killed. He is not in control of my client’s wife. She has chosen to reject God for a self-determined path. Is God in control when Christians act maliciously toward other Christians? No. The actions are a consequence of a self-centered heart.

It God is in control, then He is to blame for millions of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps. If God is in control, then He is at fault for the abortions of millions of babies. The very chaos of war and violence indicates that He is not in control.

Now do not hear me wrongly here. I believe that God could be in control. He has the power to do whatever He pleases. However, since creation, God has limited Himself in this world, allowing us to choose our own destiny. When we depart from His ways, He freely allows us to pursue our own ways. Conversely when we embrace His ways, we find blessings and peace.

following who?

At the height of the Roman Catholic Church's power and influence, the Church dominated every realm of life. In fact, in many ways, the Church was given equal to or even greater than status God. Whatever decisions were made by the hierarchy of the church rulers stood as law regardless whether the decisions harmonized with God's ways as revealed in scripture. For most people, the church became more important than God. It was their security, their place of trust.

I am beginning to believe that most people who call themselves Christians today are no different than those who were in the Roman Catholic Church over 500 years ago. When the stability of the institutional church is rocked, people panic immediately. When people do not have the reassurance of regular Sunday meetings, paid professional clergy, and all the rest of the trappings of the institutional church, they become immobilized.

I am also convinced that the followers of Jesus today have much less dependence on the institutional church. Their focus is not on the church but on Jesus. However, they also instinctively know the power of deep heart connections with other believers. They gather together without needing to be chided to do so, without a sense of duty or obligation. Church is an outworking of their walk with God, not the focus of their walk. They may be part of the institutional church but their spiritual well-being does not depend on the welfare of the institution.

Just as the Reformation began to break people's dependence on the institutional church, so today God is shaking the structures in which people trust. People's response to that upheaval in the institutional church reveals much about whom they follow.

the gospel according to us

Last week Bev and I drove past a church building. A sign boldly proclaimed "Jesus came to earth so you can go to heaven". I wonder if anyone at the church took the time to place that scripture against the words of scripture. I am sure that most Christians will be surprised to discover that the Bible never makes this kind of statement. I am not saying that the statement is false, however, there is not Biblical basis for this statement.

I am convinced that much of our understanding of the gospel is shaped, not by the scripture but by our tradition. I find it amazing that people who insist that they adhere to the Bible hold to so many beliefs that are extra Biblical. (However, beware if you challenge the validity of their beliefs! You will be attacked and ridiculed)

Perhaps this is no more evident than in the Christmas carols we hold dear. Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plain. Where in scripture do we find the angels singing at Jesus birth? It came upon a midnight clear... How do we know that the night of Jesus birth was cloudless? ...no crying He makes... Why should we assume that the baby Jesus did not cry?

The most dangerous aspect of our extra-biblical beliefs occurs when we present them as foundational biblical beliefs. It points to a deeper issue - an issue of creating our own doctrines and then cloaking them as biblical. I realize that it is easier to create doctrinal paradigms that fit our desires than it is to wrestle with the difficulty of the scriptures. Yet if we persist in holding to doctrines based not the scripture but on our tradition or our own ideas, we are in danger of creating a false gospel that causes us to miss the point entirely.

simeon's blessing

This Christmas season, there is a scripture that will probably not be used much in the myriad of Christmas sermons that are preached. It will probably not make it on the front of any Christmas cards. Neither is it likely that it will be the subject of songs that are sung.

They are the words of Simeon, an old prophet in Jerusalem at the time that Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple for His dedication ceremony. I quote:

Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

What an interesting "blessing" - yes, a sword shall pierce your soul. What kind of blessing is that? A Child destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel - we are okay with a Child destined for the rising of many in Israel but we are less comfortable with the fact that a fall must precede the rising. A sign which will be spoken against - instead of unifying the nation, it sounds like the Child will be opposed and resisted. All this so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.

In all of this blessing we find only one "positive" word - that this Child will bring the "rising" of many in Israel. Yet even that rising is preceded by a fall. Because of the image of God which we bear, we instinctively know that the realm of God is one of righteousness, joy, and peace. We desire to rise above the mundane to a place of significance. However scripture is clear that the realm of God is accessed in proportion to the decrease of self.

The pattern of the Child Messiah opposes much of our humanistic image of entering the realm of God. I am convinced both from the words of scripture and experientially that the rise from the muck of this world into the realm of God only occurs after we fall to a place of helplessness. We inherently resist any kind of fall. I find it interesting how often the work of God causing people to fall is labeled as the work of the enemy. In our aspirations of glory and significance while opposing the "fall" work of God, we create an illusion of living in the realm of God. In a self-centered false paradigm, we violently oppose all that appears insignificant. We resist the hand of God that brings us to the place of nothing, stubbornly clinging to our self-created false realities.

Yet we must fall from our lofty self-inspired places of glory to a place of nothingness, to a place where we are completely helpless to help ourself. Our self-sufficiency runs very deeply in our psyche. We struggle with submission to the hand of God as He attacks what we have become, as He reveals the thoughts of our hearts.

The way we respond to His hand causing us to fall reveals a great deal about our inmost thoughts. If we resist Him, rebuking His work as that of the enemy, the depth of our ungodly selfishness is revealed. We are destined to a life of resisting Jesus (perhaps all the while deeply embracing religion) as long as we cling to self. On the other hand if we allow Him to bring us to the end of ourselves, we can also expect that He will also transform us into citizens of His kingdom. His promise is that as we trust Him through the valley of shadow of death, He will cause us to rise to new heights.