Follower or Consumer?

To be a follower of Jesus is to forsake...material things, time restraints and religion/religious activities for relationships. It is putting aside judgmental attitudes for the gift of grace and mercy to hurting people around me. It is not just investing my finances but sending "me" and actually investing my time and energy in another person. Through my actions am I creating a desire for those around me to follow Jesus or the religion of the world?




Let me assure you I have not "arrived" but must daily make the choice not to look to the past and to previous comforts, but to the present and future trusting "God is working in you (me) giving you (me) the desire and power to do what pleases him." Philippians 2:13

A work in progress,
Kay

Breastfeeding - Part 2

The Sunday Morning Worship Service

-or-
How to Breastfeeding at the Teat of the Double-breasted Suit
Part 2

The Fancy Sunday Morning Spectacular.  Light show.  Fog machines.  Pretty singers in matching outfits, except that one guy who never quite gets the memo.  Or maybe it's simpler.  Choir and a song leader.  Then you sit down for 30-45 minutes while someone looks out at you from a pulpit and tells you what the Bible is saying to you.  Because clearly you can't figure it out on your own.  And maybe in the early days you can't.

Now imagine you've been going to church your whole life, or that you've been going for at least several years.  Does this story change?  Sure.  A little.  Maybe you are reading your Bible a few times a week, or even every day.  Perhaps you're even doing one of those nifty reading plans to read the whole Bible in a year.

You arrive at your pew/seat/whatever Sunday morning and wait to "get fed."  The pastor gets up, opens up his suit coat and begins to nurse you.  Usually in clever repetitive letters or phrases.  On average at least 3 points.  There are well timed and placed jokes.  Well, sometimes well placed.  And you sit there and lap it up.  You've become the four year old running up to mommy asking for some milk.

It's weird.

It's immature.  My friends, if you know who Jesus is, I mean really know who he is, not just the stories about him.  You're ready for solid food.  And it's available to you.  Pastors are wonderful people, at least most of the ones I have known are.  They are genuine God loving folk who want to serve God with all their heart.  The word pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd.  Jesus told  Peter to feed his sheep.  He told him to be a "pastor."  Something tells me this is not what he had in mind.  Imagine with me one last time today...

You see a shepherd.  For me it's one of those Bible picture ones.  White guy with a blondish beard, in some sort of blue dress with stripes on it.  He gets down on his knees amongst his sheep and picks up grass.  He starts to chew it.  Then he spits it into the mouth of the first sheep on his left.  Again and again he picks up the grass and chews it for his sheep.

Again...it's weird.


So why do we do it?

Yes I strongly believe Christians should have teaching and instruction.  I do not believe the only way is by coming back to the trough every week and getting your fill. 

The Word the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

(Hebrews 4:12)

When was the last time your soul and spirit were divided by the Word of God?  When was the last time your thoughts and attitudes were judged by the Word?

It's time we grow up church.  We can not keep waiting for pastors and church leaders to tell us how we are to live for Jesus.  Jesus had plenty to say on it himself.  It's right there in the last third of your Bible.  The books titled Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Jesus has a lot to say for himself.  If you don't get it, ask someone.  Maybe they will know, maybe not.  So read it again together.  Keep reading and seeking God.  He'll tell you what it means.  That is how you eat the "meat" and give up the "milk."  Get up, work for your food.  Don't wait for the breastfeeding!


grace, peace + hope
-Bear

Breastfeeding - Part 1

The Sunday Morning Worship Service

-or-
How to Stop Breastfeeding at the Teat of the Double-breasted Suit
Part 1

Alright people.  I've been writing my posts with a mixed audience in mind.  Not anymore.  Hey you, Johnny and Susie Pew-Warmer, I'm talking to you.  (And myself.)

The gloves are off.

For the better part of the last 2,000 years Christianity has enjoyed a type of celebrity.  A few hundred years after Jesus set our forerunners (the disciples) out to make more disciples, baptize, and obey his commands...the faith of Christianity is made legal and embraced throughout the Roman world.  Before this it was tolerated at best in some places and culled in others.  Suddenly those who were spreading the Good News of the Kingdom in secret are allowed to speak openly.  Jesus is now safe.

Soon the religion of Christianity comes to power.  Homes, catacombs and other hiding places are abandoned for the public forums and official buildings.  Leaders emerge.  Learned men who studied and knew more than the rest.  A gap began to form between the brothers and sisters and those who led the way to Jesus.  We know this as clergy and laity.  (I'm really simplifying the history here, look this stuff up it's out there.  I recommend Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna.  But there is a lot out there, go find it.  After this blog if you don't mind.)

Laity below, clergy above.  Sometimes literally.  Think about the last Sunday morning worship service you went to.  I know there is a lot of variety out there, but the average "church" in the United States has some form of platform or stage for the leadership to lead from.  Okay, maybe I'm being harsh on the format of public speaking arenas, I mean "sanctuaries."  Think about it though.  There is a psychology in speaking to people above their level.  Look at old Gothic style churches too.  The lines in those buildings were designed to draw your eye upward.

"Hey, didn't I say something about breastfeeding?"

Okay, so there is a gap between clergy and laity.  Somehow this led to the idea that the clergy had a closer walk with God.  After all they are the ones teaching the congregations week after week right?  They are the ones feeding the sheep. Surely they are special in God's eyes.

Really? 

What does this have to do with my ridiculous title?  I'll tell you what.  It's time for us to grow up.  It's natural for babies to breastfeed right?  But there comes a time when they stop.  If they get too old it just gets weird.  Why is it any different for us as followers of Jesus?

Look what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3

"Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it."

As a baby you get fed milk directly by mom.  Then you are spoon fed somewhat more solid food until you can feed yourself.  You grow up and you get a job and earn money to buy, cook, and feed yourself.  Depending on your tastes, more complicated meals than milk or pureed carrots.  Simple concept right?


Think about that progression of eating with how you learn about Jesus at a "church."

As a baby you are fed directly nourishing food.  Whether you start in "Kids Church," or a "Beginners, class.  You're told the basic ideas of the Bible.  Generally you get a simplified version of the story with a digestible memory verse that sums up the story.

As you grow you get into more complex foods.  The stories you learned earlier take on a broader focus, or deeper meaning.  David isn't just the kid who killed the giant, he's the guy who coveted someone's wife, but is still a man after God's own heart.  It's a bit harder to chew but you get there.  As you grow more you might make a snack of a devotion time on your own, but the real Biblical meal is what happens on Sunday morning.

to be concluded tomorrow...

grace, peace + hope
-Bear

A Year of Living Dangerously

The title is not an intentional reference to the Mel Gibson movie of the same name.  It's just the inspirational thought that is behind today's post.  This reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite sci-fi movies, Avatar.  The reluctant hero has been banished by the people he is trying to protect.  But he has to warn them about a worse disaster about to take place.  So he says,  

"Sometimes your life boils down to one insane move."  

 He then proceeds to do something that hasn't been done in generations, and it works.  He knew what he had to do and he took whatever risk he needed to make it happen.

As followers of Jesus we know what we have to do.  Don't buy into the hokum that you need to spend years and years trying to figure out who you are, what you do, and how that fits into what Jesus has for you.  There is no secret method or three point strategy.  We know what he expects of us.  What he commanded us to do.

Let us do it.

Let your life boil down to one insane move for Jesus.  Step out of your comfort zone and do something.

I'm going to use an example from my life.  This is in no way meant to be a pat on my own back.  Because this example is not about me.  It's about Jesus.

Near the beginning of December (2011) I was asked if I would consider moving into a Recovery House.  In short it's a house that is a step out from a half-way house.  It's a house for men who are recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.  My involvement would be as house manager.  Facilitating the drug tests, reconciling disagreements in the house, scheduling chore lists, enforcing the house rules, finding candidates to live there and helping the guys in ways that I can.  Also to be a Christian influence on the house and to be available for discipleship if desired.

My first thought was, "Yes!"  Then I thought about my stuff.  Would it be safe?  Would it get stolen?  What about my safety?  What if?  What about?  But I felt God letting me know this was what he wanted.  You see I had been offered a chance to live in the house a few months earlier, not as the manager, but the Christian influence etc.  I just couldn't afford rent at the time.  This time God removed the only obstacle that I had.  Rent not being an issue I had no excuses good or bad for turning this down.  It was too God of a thing to ignore.

So, January 2nd I moved in.  It has not been easy.  Tensions flared with certain people before I moved in making the weeks leading up to the move (Christmas too) miserable by some standards.  Living here is not a walk in the park either.  Out of respect for the men and their privacy I will obviously not go into details.  If you know an addict or former addict you can imagine some of it.

These are guys who know they made bad choices (I wonder if the average Christian can admit that?)  Not mistakes.  Mistakes are not repeated choices to do harmful things.  A mistake is taking a left when you should have gone right.  Dropping acid is not a mistake when you meant to drop off the mail.  How many of us who say we follow Christ will admit that our sins are not mistakes but choices we make?

These men are men who want to move on with their lives.  They want to go to college, get a GED, make an honest wage...have a healthy life.  They just have a different set of baggage than someone who isn't an addict.  Sometimes this baggage lands in my life.  Everyday something does.  Sometimes it's not a huge issue.  Other times it grinds my life to a halt.

I do not regret moving in though.  Cause for some reason I've yet to figure out, God led me here.  God can work through anyone.  But when you listen to him and let him use you, he will use the unique things that make you who you are.  There is something here for me to do.  More importantly, there is something God will do through me.

God has also given me a passion for drawing and storytelling.  I've been working on various things for years.  Never actually putting my stuff out there.  Oh, I'll share it with anyone who wants to see it, but I haven't taken that leap to try and publish it yet.  Well, until yesterday I had not.  I made my first contact with the Baltimore Comic-Con.  My hope is to get an artist table at the convention this September.  Some of my work will be just fun creative stuff.  Others will have Jesus in mind and message.  But it's time to stop sitting on this stuff and use it for God.

Ok enough about me.

Like Jake in Avatar there is a Bible story about a guy who made an insane move to move toward Jesus.  In the book of Mathew (14:22-34) Jesus walks on water.  Yeah.  He walks across a lake toward the disciples who were in a boat on rough waters.  Peter sees him (man I love Peter) and says, "Jesus, if it's you, tell me to come to you!"  So Jesus says, "Come!"  Peter jumps out of the boat.  Insane.  Dangerous.  And starts walking toward Jesus.  Then he sees the waves, and realizes, I can't walk on water!

Like me in this house.  I feel like I'm drowning.  But the story doesn't end here.

Peter cries out, "Lord save me!"  Jesus stretches out his hand and says, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"  He didn't let Peter drown.  He saved him.  And in that moment Peter was in the most secure place in all of creation.   The arms of Jesus.

So what is my point you ask?  After rambling on about my living situation and drawing at a comic book convention, what does that have to do with God, disciplship, or anything?  I'm glad you asked.

Because did not give us a spirit of fear or weakness.  We are to be as wise as serpents and gentle as lambs.  We are to go out among the wolves.  We are to be strong and courageous.  To keep the faith and finish the race.  We are to live dangerously.  Not recklessly.

There is a difference.  Driving a car is dangerous.  Anytime.  Driving a car drunk is reckless.  Too severe?  Texting and driving is reckless.  Flying is dangerous.  Flying with illegal cargo is reckless.  You get the picture?

Living a life following Christ is dangerous.  Look at Paul.  Peter.  Stephen.  They were all executed for their commitment to Jesus.  Are you willing to be cold?  Tired?  Hungry?  Vulnerable?

Step out of the boat and make one insane move.  I challenge you to do it day after day for a year.  And look back next February and see how God has changed you.  Step out of the comfort zone of your church, small group, home church, club or organization.  Peter and the disciples were in the boat together.  Fellow "believers."  Peter had to get out of the boat to go to Jesus.

Jesus is waiting for all of us.  It's one thing to believe he is God's son.  It's another thing entirely to run to him with all you have.  I'll be here to encourage you along.  Do the same for me.  Or the beliver beside you.  Or the one you meet down the street or at breakfast.  Let's spur each other on toward our Saviour and get others to run with us...to Jesus.

grace, peace + hope
-Bear