:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

I’m on my way to wrapping up some reflections on the Gospel that began with my response to a video about how universalism impacts discipleship and how the Christus Victor explanation for the atonement captures the full scope of the biblical story and its ramifications for disciples today. Today I’d like to ask, “What does fully committed discipleship look like?”

When we run into questions about how we are saved and what it means to commit ourselves to Christ, the natural question that follows is, “How do we follow him daily?” We aren’t saved just for a ticket out of here. We are saved from our sins in order to worship and love God, serving him as disciples.

I know that we all have to follow Jesus with integrity and respond to the ways God has spoken to us, but I think there are certain ways of perceiving Christianity that can drive us insane if we follow them to their logical conclusion. These perceptions are usually rooted in biblical concepts that are somehow misconstrued or lack balance from the full witness of scripture.

It’s maddening to think that everyone outside of the Christian fold could spend an eternity in hell.

If we really believe that, then I wonder why every Christian hasn’t sold his/her home in order to spend every waking hour preaching, traveling around the world, and warning everyone about this.

I’m serious. If the eternal destiny of everyone rests on affirming a simple creed and praying a salvation prayer, then we need to get moving.

We should be out on the streets with signs, bullhorns, and flyers. We should e-mail everyone we know, blanket the internet with warnings, and organize social media campaigns that sneak the Gospel message into funny little videos so that some may possibly be saved.

We need to be clear, concise, and efficient. There is no time to waste. Souls are perishing in the fires of hell.

Why aren’t we doing this?

Don’t we care?

These thoughts have kept me up at night, given me panic attacks, and plunged me into guilt and despair. I want to take the Bible seriously, and if this is what the Bible is all about, shouldn’t I act accordingly?

This approach to discipleship almost drove me insane.

If so much is really on the line, we need to match our actions with our theology.

The Mission of Jesus

I have one simple suggestion for the reason why we shouldn’t do this: Jesus didn’t advance the Kingdom of God like this.

The Kingdom wasn’t about passing along a simple and clear message all of the time—Jesus used parables.

The Kingdom advanced slowly, and it was sometimes hidden while in plain sight.

Jesus waited around for 30 years before starting his mission, traveled to a few neighboring territories, and then died on the cross at a relatively young age.

If saving thousands of souls throughout the world was so important, why didn’t he travel further and faster? Why did he speak in parables? What happened to the native peoples in North and South America? Did the gradual methods of Jesus inadvertently condemn thousands to hell?

I hope this rattles us a bit. We have made the driving force behind our discipleship this notion of eternal torment in hell for those who have not heard the Gospel, when in reality, that doesn’t seem to be what motivated the mission of Jesus or what he passed on to his disciples.

While we can’t deny the early church had a powerful sense of mission and a drive to see God’s Kingdom spread, were they motivated to save the masses from eternity in hell by passing along the basic information of salvation?

How the Kingdom Spreads

The Kingdom of God does not spread through guilt, obligation, or fear. Though God wants to extend his rule to all of creation and save people from their sins, his vision for restoration extends beyond saving souls from eternal torment. In fact, while Jesus makes it clear that some will be outside of the Kingdom and some even attack it, he doesn’t tell us all that much about those unreached by the Gospel.

In fact, Jesus seemed to care more about advancing the Kingdom effectively and thoroughly, letting it take root in his followers and empowering them to spread the holistic message of the Gospel throughout the world. There is urgency to preach and embody the Kingdom, but the details about those who haven’t heard it are limited.

The call to spread the Gospel did not come with a threat, “Preach or else the rest of the world gets it.” We don’t read about the Gospel being good news because it’s saving us from eternal torment in hell, but rather because God is coming to heal us, save us from our sins, and prepare us for an eternity with him.

It’s good because it tells us about God’s love and salvation. While it’s very possible to reject the Gospel, the driving force behind the mission of God isn’t a sense of impending doom.

We just don’t know what will become of those who haven’t heard the Gospel. However, if we can take any clues based on how God works in the Bible, he certainly doesn’t seem frantic about things. God didn’t send prophets to every nation throughout the Old Testament.

God chose to work through a tiny nation of former slaves that was bulldozed militarily by the neighboring nations on a regular basis.

The Kingdom of God that grew like a mustard seed with Jesus  spread gradually with Israel as well. I don’t think we need to go insane with preaching to everyone everywhere as fast as we can because that wasn’t God’s way either. He infects are daily lives and works through us where we are, moving us closer to his plan for us where we are, sometimes calling us to change things.

We are compelled by the love of God to give ourselves fully to him, to model his Kingdom, and to love everyone so that the greatest number of people can know God too.

The uncertain fate of those who don’t know the Gospel does not excuse us from sharing the Gospel in word and deed. In fact, I would hope that our experiences of God and his love would motivate us to preach the Gospel even more. However, I’d just rather we dropped the, “Hell is coming to all of you!” aspect of the message.

We don’t know. What we do know is that we don’t want to be separated from God. We should certainly mention that we can reject God’s love, but it’s not fear that drives us. Fear and guilt wrecks a Gospel message that is characterized by God’s love.

When I think about God as a protector, I want someone who will shield me from the hardships of life. I want him to protect me from flat tires, heartbreak, cancer, persecution, and, just being painfully honest here, the Tea Party.

It’s tempting to read the verses in the Bible of God as a protector with a kind of absolute interpretation—applying these verses to myself directly as true for all times and places. If I read about God as a shield, I want him to be a shield in all situations.

Such a line of interpretation is tough to sort out. In one sense, we’ll never know how many times God actually protected us. However, in a world with free will to one degree or another, we can’t get around the fact that hardships await us—Jesus promised us as much.

If we want to preserve our relationships with God and avoid the crushing disappointment of misplaced expectations, it will help to examine some ways that God’s protection may work. I understand that my experiences may not be normative for everyone, nor could this post be exhaustive, so I welcome your feedback and stories in the comments.

God Guides Us

God speaks to his people who are willing to listen—Jesus said my sheep hear my voice. That doesn’t mean he reveals everything to us—not even Jesus knew when God’s Kingdom would be fully restored to earth. Nevertheless, we can benefit by the guidance and wisdom of God in certain situations. That may result in our protection and will certainly help us accomplish God’s work on earth.

God Wants Us to Ask

Jesus makes it clear that we should persistently ask God for what we need, but that doesn’t mean we’ll always ask God for what is good for us, what is realistic, or what is God’s best for us. In fact, I’ve sometimes asked God for things that weren’t good for me—things that would have only continued my dependence on idols. It is good to ask for God’s protection sometimes, but only after we have listened for God’s direction and have said, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done.”

God Does Not Follow Formulas and Incantations

Tim mentioned yesterday in a comment that there is no magic formula or prayer that binds God to act in a certain way. In addition, God’s deliverance in one situation does not mean it will be replicated. There were prophets who were both delivered from their enemies and prophets who were attacked.

God Can Protect Us

All of this points to the fact that God can protect us, but his first goal is to shape us into his chosen people who know him intimately and who can bring his Kingdom’s loving rule to earth. That means our protection is more of a by-product of God’s Kingdom coming than a perk we get in return for our allegiance. The more we embrace the Kingdom, the more we can enjoy the healing and restoration it brings, even if we may face trials and hardships at the same time. 

God Can Use Hardships

This sounds like a terrible Christian cliché, but I’m pretty sure I can say that each hardship in my life has been used by God in one way or another to help someone else or to draw myself and others closer to himself. Perhaps this is because pain shocks us out of our routines and forces us to encounter God in fresh ways, breaking the hold of bad habits or false perceptions.

God’s Perspective on Tragedy is Different from Our Own

As much as I like the idea of the world having an Ed Cyzewski around, the reality I’ve had to confront is that God has work for me to accomplish, I need to seek him and his Kingdom first (asking God what I can do for him), and then God will call me to himself when my time is up. Paul writes about being absent from the body and present with God, which certainly makes death seem more like a transition into something better than the end of something good.

In fact, I’ve had to accept that God’s perception of pain and tragedy is a bit different from my own. While the Bible consistently reveals God as compassionate and mourning with us, he also sees the many good things that we cannot. I want God to give me a long life, but then again, I’m here to love God first and foremost. If my purpose in life is to love God, then it’s not exactly a tragedy if I leave this world to be with him.

God’s Ways are Hard to Understand

We’ll never really know how free will and God’s sovereignty work. The Bible offers us glimpses of both at work. I don’t know why certain prayers are answered and others are not. I don’t know how God’s protection works. One friend of mine asked whether God even protects us in the first place. Perhaps that’s a matter of perspective. I don’t know. Any time we try to say, “I know God is just like this…” I get nervous.

At best we have approximations and informed opinions based on scripture, tradition, and experience.

We know that God wants us to pray, to ask for things, and to trust him as our shield. It sure seems like he wants us to trust him for his protection, but not before we’ve sought him out and made his Kingdom our primary concern.

I think that’s why folks with Stephen, Paul, Aquilla, and Priscilla were able to face mobs and executioners. They saw God as their mighty deliverer and protector, but they also understood that they needed to lay their lives on the line for his Kingdom and not count their lives as anything worth protecting. The Kingdom came first, God’s protection either followed or didn’t follow.

However, in a more eternal sense, God does protect and deliver his people from sin and the power of death. That is the ultimate victory.

Shane Claiborn writes that the beauty of Christianity is that even if we are killed, God will resurrect us. In a sense, God’s people are unstoppable. Even in the seeming loss of death, we’ve actually taken another step toward our victory.

What This Means for Us

There is a lot at stake when we pray. We have very good reason to listen, to wait on God. If we want to ask for God’s protection, we’d better make sure we’re on the same page as God, moving in step with his Kingdom.

We can misunderstand and misrepresent God if we always expect him to deliver us from pain or hardship or if we always expect him to answer our prayers precisely. It’s far more important to seek his Kingdom and his Spirit’s leading voice. That will lead us to safety and security in him, even if our life circumstances seem anything but safe.

For those seeking first God’s Kingdom, Jesus promises trials and hardships, but he also promises healing, protection, restoration, and provision. Until we wrap our minds around what God’s Kingdom means for us, we’ll probably never quite understand what that healing, protection, restoration, or provision will look like.

When I’ve felt most distant from God, God has eventually drawn me near again. The time I’ve spent feeling far away from God and unable to hear his voice has been difficult and uncomfortable. I have no idea why it happened sometimes.

On several occasions God overcame my doubts and fears by sending someone to pray over me. Something spiritual snapped, and I reached a new place in my spiritual walk.

Within a few months I had plenty of new problems. Thankfully God is able to draw us near to himself in several ways, the ones I know from personal experience are included below:

Confess Sins

We could say a lot about the theology behind sin and obedience, but I find it most helpful to think of sin as a matter of direction. That’s how Jesus often spoke of the Kingdom—either we’re entering it or we’re not. Are we moving toward God or away from him?

If we are sinning, we are moving away from God and will be unable to draw near to God. The laws of the Old Testament are among our many clues that God desires to have fellowship with us, but we must be holy and obedient. We show our love through obedience, and our obedience is sparked by our love.

Receive Prayer

Sometimes we need a friend to help us break through to the place where God wants us to be. I have found this to be particularly true in my own experience since it can be hard to get somewhere I’ve never been. When a fellow believer who knows where I’m coming from and where I need to go prayed for me, God moved me to a new place of freedom.

Whenever the Gospel spread, there is a clear precedent in the New Testament for believers to pray for one another, especially those who are new to the faith. I’ve found that the same principle sometimes applies when we need God to lead us out of a rut or into a deeper aspect of the spiritual life.

Wait in Faith

Yesterday we talked about letting go of our expectations, but there’s a balance to aim for here. While we don’t define how God will act, we should certainly expect to meet with him in some way.

I’ve often found that when I sit down and ask God to guide me, he’ll direct me to worship him.  I may not find the exact answer I’m looking for that day, but the important thing is to remain in Christ, our life-giving vine. We may have to wait a while before we experience God in the ways we’re looking for, but God desires to meet with his people. He will not abandon us.

How do you hear from God?

What’s your experience in breaking through a tough time when you couldn’t hear God?

When I first read that Jesus said we shouldn’t worry about our basic needs, but that we should make our requests known to God (Luke 11), I was a little confused. Aren’t we supposed to stop worrying and stop bugging God about our needs?

When Jesus says we shouldn’t worry, I imagine Zen-like Christians who sit cross-legged with their palms up, exuding faith and peace as little angels swirl around their heads. Nothing can shake them. They don’t have to ask God for anything.

They’re chill.

In Luke 11 we have a helpful corrective to my conception of what it means to not worry in the midst of seeking God’s Kingdom first. Seeking God’s Kingdom first instead of worrying about our basic needs does not mean we should never ask God for anything. In fact, Jesus wants us to ask him for what we need.

Here’s the thing: if we are seeking what we want, who knows what kinds of selfish things we’ll ask God to do. Our prayers will be filled with words such as “I,” “me,” and “my.”

When we are seeking God’s Kingdom first, we’ll be able to pray with the proper confidence, perspective, and requests. We may be looking for a job or watching the balance of a checking account dwindle, but when we pray we can seek God first and make his Kingdom our top priority before letting him know what’s going down.

We can ask God for things, but we just shouldn’t make those things our God.

It’s not rocket science.

However, when we take these ideas into our everyday lives, we often find that it’s hard to keep God our number one priority when so many things are going wrong. That’s the tension we struggle with here on earth.

Jesus knows we’ll have worries and needs. He can give us what we need. He’s willing to hear our requests and to even grant them. Our challenge will be to keep our priorities straight, making God and his Kingdom our primary concern. Whether we sit with our legs crossed and palms up is up to us.

I’m taking a break from my series on how we can love one another (look for it to restart in 2011) in order to share a little about the past year and the coming year.

I was driving to a café this morning reflecting on the past year. I began to add up all of the things that didn’t turn out according to my plans, and I thought, “Dang, 2010 really sucked.”

True, some things went my way. On my shoulder sat an imaginary chipper Christian spouting the “party line” for good Christians, “Don’t lose sight of the blessings!” and “Praise God for all things!”

I pulled the car over, tossed the imaginary Christian onto the road, and then ran him over a few times. Well, no, I didn’t, but I did the mental equivalent of that. I needed to just sulk a little about some things that didn’t pan out. Perhaps they were my fault for not planning properly or making the right decision at certain points, but regardless, I needed to mourn and lament.

If you’re not comfortable lamenting, then you really need to read more Psalms. They help… a lot.

By the time I had my cup of tea and my computer open, I knew that I couldn’t write the post I’d planned for today. Some days I can push through and write what’s on my mind, but today I had too much to sort out. By the time I began to type, I realized something else.

Who am I to demand that life work out as expected? I believe that I’m actively seeking God at this point in my life, and therefore it’s  difficult to understand why this past year has been so tough and confusing. However, I still have no reason to demand particular outcomes.

Following Jesus doesn’t mean life will always make sense. In addition, following Jesus doesn’t mean that my plans will work out as expected. Lately I’ve had to just begin every day praying that I can seek God’s Kingdom and his righteousness.

That’s all I’m seeing right now for sure. So many other things are clouded in uncertainty. But you know what, struggling to seek God’s Kingdom first is enough.

I have moments when I’m frustrated, despairing, and angry. I needed to be honest about those emotions this morning and deal with them. I don’t think God was all that surprised either.

However, being able to return to that simple concept of seeking God and his Kingdom first brought a measure of comfort to me. I don’t deserve any particular outcome in my life. I’m not guaranteed that everything will fall into place. That’s my American idealism kicking in, not the message of the Kingdom.

I’ve been tempted to pray about my circumstances in this coming year, but in all honesty, I know I shouldn’t. As I look ahead to 2011, I can only pray for more of God and his Kingdom. Even if the details of life can be crushing sometimes, they’re all really just details. Only God, with his advancing Kingdom, remains as the one immovable thing in our past, present, or future.

For more thoughts on living by faith during the holiday season, visit Bonnie Gray’s blog today and be sure to check out her post about the shepherds in the field. It’s a good one!

Prayer is one of those things where my views change from day to day. Some days it’s a wonderful joy. It’s simple and encouraging. Other days it feels like I may as well be talking to my rabbits.

Since God is not physically present among us, we need to keep in touch with him in order to stay on the same page. However, sometimes it feels like God is quite distant and hard to find.

When trying to pray, I have wondered more than once, “Is God playing games with me?”

God’s Great Joy

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus encourages his followers by saying, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32, NIV).

In the preceding verse Jesus told his disciples to seek first the Kingdom of God, and therefore, it is a comfort to read that it’s God’s great pleasure to give it to us. While this doesn’t guarantee an easy prayer life, it does change the nature of things.

God is not sitting up in heaven with his arms folded, sighing deeply because we can’t figure out his Kingdom. He isn’t dangling it in front of us, demanding that we jump just right for it.

That makes it easier to pray and encourages me to persevere when I’m tempted to try sharing my requests with my rabbits instead. God delights in showing us his will and giving us the blessings of his Kingdom.

We aren’t trying to convince him that it’s a good idea.

I’ve been trying to stop begging and pleading for things in my prayer time. Rather, I’m trying to let go of things, thank God for what I have, and open myself to whatever he wants to share with me. That doesn’t keep me from frustration at times, but it at least changes my attitude toward prayer enough that I’ll keep at it when things don’t make sense.

Tomorrow’s Post: What We Want

I’m filling out my application this week to volunteer in a local prison. I don’t blog often about volunteering in prisons.

I’ve done it off and on over the years, mostly helping with my in-law’s prison ministry. However, I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging about my ministry, and I never want to mention specifics from the meetings.

It’s just something that I do. My rabbits chew on our coffee table, and I volunteer in prisons on occasion. They both happen.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the tendency of churches to look out for their own survival. That is, trying to maintain high membership levels rather than focusing on serving others and helping fellow Christians grow. This week I’ve been feeling the tension of what that service to others looks like.

It’s taken me about seven years to drum into my head that Christian communities exist for more than their own benefit. They exist to obey God and to spread the Kingdom wherever he sends us. There is an other-centered call to go.

The thing is, I don’t think I’ve done a lot of Kingdom spreading over the years. I’ve done the writing thing, which is a ministry, but I’m not exactly “going” all that much. Know what I mean?

Am I lazy? Self-absorbed? Distracted? Intimidated? Uncertain? Confused?

Probably all of the above depending on the day.

So I’m trying to figure out what this “going” should look like for me. I’ve taken some stabs at it with a gardening ministry and with visiting prisoners, but it feels like a drop in the bucket. By signing on at this local prison, I hope that I can become more like a leaky faucet.

Drip. Drip. Drip. The Kingdom comes.

What frustrates me no end is how long it took me to figure out what I “shouldn’t”  do as a Christian—i.e. focus only on my own spiritual growth like a Jesus-consumer-junky. Now I have the rest of my life to figure out what I should do. I have a feeling that I’ll need every minute I can get.

You don’t need it.

This has become my new mantra when I enter any kind of store—from Home Depot to the convenience store where I buy our milk. I used to make frequent impulse buys and unnecessary purchases. With a small apartment and a smaller bank account, thanks to my freelance writing income, that has ended.

When I think of what to say to graduates who are just starting out, or perhaps to a friend in a time of transition, I’d offer my simple little mantra: “You don’t need it.”

Treasure in Heaven

Jesus told us to store up treasure in heaven, but most days I have a hard time applying that. Where do we draw the line with this? I trust that we all draw our lines in different places, though God is most likely challenging most of us move away from treasure on earth and toward accumulating treasure in heaven.

I hit on this last week in my post about discipleship as downward mobility. As we decrease in this world, we free ourselves to increase in God’s Kingdom.

In fact, our possessions can become liabilities that occupy us, soak up our time and resources, and distract us from the work of God’s Kingdom. Perhaps the best thing we can do during times of transition is to cut things out rather than adding to what we have.

No Regrets

We used to own a home with a large garage and a few spare bedrooms. Our yard was just shy of 2 acres. I’d spend hours landscaping it, mowing it, fixing up the house, and working to fill the rooms of our house with stuff.

Since we downsized to an apartment in Connecticut, I still miss the flowers I planted, but overall I don’t have many regrets. While I trust that home ownership is the right move for many folks, it had become a burden for us at that season in our lives—one that we didn’t recognize until we were free from it.

I once listened to a talk by Mark Scandrette (of Reimagine) about downsizing his possessions by half, and the freedom that came from that. I’m not sure about percentages, but we certainly got rid of many things in our move. I can’t think of one thing that I wish we’d kept.

The best advice I can give is to prevent accumulating from starting in the first place. I’d suggest beginning with some essential items for your new apartment, but try going without cable or end tables or matching furniture or whatever it is that you think you need but can live without. You may find after six months that certain things are worth having and others are not.

If you’re like me, and you’re well on your way to becoming a pack rat, it’s never too late to learn the “You don’t need it” mantra. Living in the Kingdom demands a certain detachment from our possessions, and teaching myself to say, “You don’t need it!” is one way to challenge the tyranny of money and things in our lives. Whether giving some things away that you don’t use often or giving yourself a 30-day ban from impulse purchases, removing the grip of possessions and spending frees us to be used by God for Kingdom “transactions”.

If You Need to Buy It…

Tomorrow I’ll touch on the kind of purchases that I’d suggest making when it is time to buy something.

Another installment of my fictional series Sarcastic Saturday:

Earth–In a surprising development for Christians devoted to social justice and loving one another, the Kingdom of God appeared because enough Christians have taken a bold stand for the truth. Michael the Archangel appeared in the heavens and proclaimed the victory of truth over error and relativism.

People who love truth everywhere are rejoicing that they were right. “We knew that if we exposed enough error and took a bold enough stand for truth, sound doctrine, and watered down Christianity emphasizing service that God’s Kingdom would show up,” said one self-proclaimed truth activist. “I’m not surprised that we were right,” he added.

“Here I thought my worship was meaningless because of the injustices Christians have been ignoring,” shared one pastor who works among the homeless. “As it turns out, the only thing God has cared about all along is if we get our doctrines correct.” 

Christian social justice ministries have since shuttered their operations, opting to commit to further study in order to sort out their doctrines in light of the Messiah’s second coming.

“What a shocker,” shared one member of Christians for Social Action. “The next thing they’ll say is that sarcasm can be redemptive.”

After participating in a variety of church meetings over the years, I wanted to share a little theory I’ve been working on based on some experiences, some ongoing thoughts, and some conversations. I don’t want this to devolve into whining or castigating everyone who doesn’t meet whatever my standard may be.

I’d like to offer these thoughts as four goals for every church, not as judgments of what we are or are not doing. These are things that are worth pursuing. I’d like to know what you think of this and whether it may help us sharpen our focus as we gather together.

I think if a church can do these four things, then it’s on track with the Kingdom of God and the general trajectory of scripture:

Worship

Worship is the one thing that we know churches should do. Sometimes our worship veers a little too much toward our own experiences of God, but it is important for Christians gathered together to worship God first and foremost. Jesus is the head of the church, and therefore we enter his presence with the praise and thanks that he is due. Worship can take place in music, spoken word, prayer, or other acts in community.

Fellowship

Whether fellowship with God and fellowship with one another, churches should be drawing near to God and in the process of meeting God they will find their unity with one another. Not every church that worships God authentically moves into fellowship with God, but it is often the aim of most churches to both worship and to meet with God when they gather.

Transformation

While it’s wonderful to have fellowship with God and one another, meeting God should push us toward the next step of allowing God to transform our lives, to free us from sin, and to empower us to live holy lives. Fellow believers have the important role of building one another up and making sure that we leave our gatherings with greater freedom and in deeper commitment to God.

Service

When we meet our God who transforms and empowers us, the next logical step is to join him in his work among others. This could include serving fellow believers, but should not be limited to that. The church that meets God and experiences his healing power needs to be willing to share it with others. If that’s not happening, then we need to ask why.

Final Thoughts

I think most churches try to do at least two or three of these things well, but all four are necessary for our communities to become outposts for God’s Kingdom. When we talk about why we gather together as Christian communities, I think these are the four categories that should drive our prayers, thoughts, and plans.

Each piece flows from the other. If we’re missing one piece of this, we aren’t fully embodying the Kingdom of God in our churches.