Monthly Archive for March, 2010

‘Church’ is cultural

Published on 3/27/2010 in Bible Study, Bookstore, Short Quotes and Urbia. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I think there is so little detail about what CHURCH is in the Bible because how people worship God is as different as the cultures in which they live.

When a missionary goes into uncharted territory, they do not prop up their video screens and the powerpoint and start singing Tommy Walker songs. (That would be a great video. End with the Metrosexual worship leader falling on his face with a back full of poison darts and a child of the tribe coming across a Bible propping up the projector…)

I know of three people, specifically, that will not go to a church that has over 100 people in it because they have anxiety about large crowds. BUT they love to sit around with a few friends, play cards, and talk deep things about life. One of them, I know for certain, has a deep respect, love, and appreciation for Jesus. What if it were culturally acceptable for them to NOT “go” to church but were encouraged to draw near to God while they were playing poker?

I just started reading Organic Church, by Neil Cole (for the second time, never got through 1st time) and I’m intrigued at what church Jesus might build in Evansville from this sort of book. From what I gather so far, it’s a lot like what would happen if somebody took Perspectives and then applied it to their local neighborhood.

If you don’t know about Perspectives, you can check it out here¬†http://www.perspectives.org/site/pp.aspx?c=eqLLI0OFKrF&b=2806295

and you can check out Organic Church here http://bit.ly/biJXwq

or listen to them talk about this stuff here http://www.cmaresources.org/audio/missional-movements-2010-mfrost-1

more to come.

Jesus the Way

Published on 3/12/2010 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , .

- When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He is
  preaching the Gospel. He is covering every single thing that would be
  important to a 1st century Jew, and anyone else for that matter.
  God’s way was continually brought up in the OT‚Äìit was the entire way
  of life for the people. Sometimes the Law is also called the Way.
      ‚ÄúAnd now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to
      fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to
      serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
      soul, and to observe the LORD‚Äôs commands and decrees that I am
      giving you today for your own good?‚Äù
      (Deut 10:12-13 NIV)
    – He also covers the Jews and the Greeks in this statement. The
      highest pursuit for a Jew was God’s way, and the Greek’s were
      lovers of truth (or so they said and wanted as their reputation).
      Basically Jesus is addressing these guys, and can tell they are
      getting a little uneasy, and wants to reassure them that they
      know everything they need to know by knowing Jesus. There are no
      surprises or tricks ahead of them.
    – The Father really wants us to be connected to Jesus as the source
      of all hope and life. By sending us a MAN to take us into God’s
      presence, all kinds of vain deeds and religious duties are blown
      away. So many religions are full of activities and actions that
      breed people with disconnected hearts. Hearts that are along for
      the ride while the flesh does a bunch of spiritual things, while
      the spirit of a man covets, lusts, lies, gossips, and is full of
      ambition.
      When a person does something because of Jesus, it is easy to
      explain, “This is what Jesus wants me to do.” But when someone
      does something because their religion calls for it, you can find
      that it is very difficult to stand by. “We don’t eat meat on
      Friday because it’s a fast. Well, we eat fish, because fish isn’t
      meat.”
    – The Father knew from the beginning that we couldn’t follow rules,
      and that it would be impossible to work our way up into His
      presence, so He did it for us. That is why Jesus Himself crossed
      over from being a direction-giver to being the directions
      Himself. We can’t do it without Him, and to think anything
      otherwise is to veer from the Way, the Truth, and Life.

Jesus is Preparing to Go – John 14

Published on 3/6/2010 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .
““Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.””
(John 14:1-7 NIV)
Just as Jesus is having a hard time knowing that He is about to leave the disciples, they are having a hard time grasping and understanding that He’s about to leave them. Their worst fear would be compounded if not only did He leave them, but also if He didn’t come back for them and if He didn’t fulfill everything He said He would. Jesus is here reassuring them. Don’t be afraid that I’m leaving. There is a place for you in the kingdom, and I’ll come back and take you there, but you can’t come now.
William Barclay said that if you ask someone for directions they can either tell you to go down the street, turn left at the first corner, go two blocks, then turn right, blah blah blah, and you forget how to get there OR they can say, “Let’s go” and they can take you there themselves. As soon as they say “follow me” THEY BECOME THE WAY to where you are going.
Jesus spent His whole life giving directions, knowing full well that our eyes glazed over as soon as He said “love your neighbor as yourself.” Since He wants us to find our way there more than we do, He also said, “Let’s go.”
THE FATHER wants us to be in the Kingdom. He is not predisposed to keep us out, like so many people believe Him to be. He is Unalterably and UNbelievably Holy; no unholiness can be with Him, so He took away our unholiness on the cross. That was the preparation Jesus talked about in John 14:3. We have no place with God as long as we are bearing our sin. “I go and prepare a place for you.” is that place of forgiveness and redemption where we will live for eternity with God.
‚ñº v.3 “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” Jesus is ALWAYS wanting us to be with Him! The only times He went to be ‘alone’ was to go be WITH the Father! And then even after His death, He still can’t stand to be alone, but comes back to take all of His with Him. It is the source and life and overflow of the Father to constantly share life with those He loves.
When you see the character of God as displayed by Jesus, how can any of these lifestyle choices that Jesus made reflect to a God that predestined people to destruction? 2 Peter 3:9 says that God wishes for no one to perish, but for all to come to repentance & eternal life. Jesus never treated anyone like they were preset to not listen or not be saved. Not just that, but He wanted to be WITH people as He spoke to them. Too often we only want to share life with people in our same social-economic-political-race demographic. THAT is not a picture of the 12. Let us be ready to continue to be WITH the people that we come in contact with, no matter their background. If they come into the Body of Christ, or are already in it, they are family-more than that, they are a part of our body!
The Father loves company. He loves company and Jesus really wants the disciples to trust Him and know that His leaving is all for them. It’s a lot like me leaving for work in the morning. My 2 year old cries when he sees me go, but I leave so that I can work and get paid and feed him Grippo’s. My 9 year old knows that, so he is only bummed that we can’t play, but he knows that I’ll be back in the evening and we’ll be able to chow down and play.

““Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.””

(John 14:1-7 NIV)

Just as Jesus is having a hard time knowing that He is about to leave the disciples, they are having a hard time grasping and understanding that He’s about to leave them. Their worst fear would be compounded if not only did He leave them, but also if He didn’t come back for them and if He didn’t fulfill everything He said He would. Jesus is here reassuring them. Don’t be afraid that I’m leaving. There is a place for you in the kingdom, and I’ll come back and take you there, but you can’t come now.

Grippos-BBQ

William Barclay said that if you ask someone for directions they can either tell you to go down the street, turn left at the first corner, go two blocks, then turn right, blah blah blah, and you forget how to get there OR they can say, “Let’s go” and they can take you there themselves. As soon as they say “follow me” THEY BECOME THE WAY to where you are going.

Jesus spent His whole life giving directions, knowing full well that our eyes glazed over as soon as He said “love your neighbor as yourself.” Since He wants us to find our way there more than we do, He also said, “Let’s go.”

THE FATHER wants us to be in the Kingdom. He is not predisposed to keep us out, like so many people believe Him to be. He is Unalterably and UNbelievably Holy; no unholiness can be with Him, so He took away our unholiness on the cross. That was the preparation Jesus talked about in John 14:3. We have no place with God as long as we are bearing our sin. “I go and prepare a place for you.” is that place of forgiveness and redemption where we will live for eternity with God.

v.3 “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” Jesus is ALWAYS wanting us to be with Him! The only times He went to be ‘alone’ was to go be WITH the Father! And then even after His death, He still can’t stand to be alone, but comes back to take all of His with Him. It is the source and life and overflow of the Father to constantly share life with those He loves.

When you see the character of God as displayed by Jesus, how can any of these lifestyle choices that Jesus made reflect to a God that predestined people to destruction? 2 Peter 3:9 says that God wishes for no one to perish, but for all to come to repentance & eternal life. Jesus never treated anyone like they were preset to not listen or not be saved. Not just that, but He wanted to be WITH people as He spoke to them. Too often we only want to share life with people in our same social-economic-political-race demographic. THAT is not a picture of the 12. Let us be ready to continue to be WITH the people that we come in contact with, no matter their background. If they come into the Body of Christ, or are already in it, they are family-more than that, they are a part of our body!

The Father loves company. He loves company and Jesus really wants the disciples to trust Him and know that His leaving is all for them. It’s a lot like me leaving for work in the morning. My 2 year old cries when he sees me go, but I leave so that I can work and get paid and feed him Grippo’s. My 9 year old knows that, so he is only bummed that we can’t play, but he knows that I’ll be back in the evening and we’ll be able to chow down and play.