God Can't Be Tamed

 

"Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he -- quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

-C.S. Lewis from The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe

A couple of weeks ago I was at a camp where all heaven literally broke lose.  God showed up in the place in such a tangible way that kids were on the ground sobbing, some were laughing, and some were shaking visibly as they encountered God and just a fraction of His love and power.  To anyone who walked into the room it looked like a bomb had gone off in the place.  My initial reaction was, Oh Crap have we just amped up a bunch of teens into an emotional frenzy, but our speaker was about as low key as they come and had simply invited God’s Spirit to come and touch the teens lives and had instructed a few of the teens to begin to pray for one another.  This is something I’ve done in my ministry tons of times, and there are usually some tears and peace and a real sense of God’s presence; this is what happens most of the time, but there are times when the Spirit shows up in a way that the only way to wrap your mind around it is to think of Pentecost in the book of Acts.  This is not the first time I had seen something like this, but when it happens it is always a little disconcerting.

As a matter of fact I remember my initial reaction to experiencing God’s love and power in a way that was beyond “normal”.  It was my freshman year of college and we liked to go to a church called Aldersgate United Methodist Church in College Station; Aldersgate was just a Vineyard in United Methodist clothing.  That Sunday morning I had come with my best friend Gary Rhom (Gary, you can chime in on this if it stuck in your memory as well) and another good friend named Harold Reeves.  The pastor preached that morning on the filling of the Spirit.  Then he invited us to stand and asked God to fill us a fresh with His Spirit.[1]  Gary, Harold, and I stood up looking around with our eyes as big as saucers.  All I can say is that it was like a physical power entered into the room, the worship band began singing in their prayer languages and this is the only time this has ever happened to me, but in my mind I knew what they were singing.  It was simple praise to Jesus.

After the service was over we almost ran out of the sanctuary to Harold’s truck.  I remember Harold looking over and saying, “What do you guys think?”  I said “I think it was God.” and they shook their heads in affirmation.  Gary asked, “Are you guys going to go back?” and without hesitation we said, “No way!”

So here’s the question, if that experience and the experience at Camp was God, and I believe it was, why would it be so disconcerting; dare I say even a little scary? 

In his book The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis draws an analogy about God’s character, that I find to be quite profound, with the story of a young girl named Jill. She's in the land of Narnia, and she's thirsty. At once she sees a magnificent stream . . . and a fearsome lion (Aslan, who represents the Lord Jesus):

"If I run away, it'll be after me in a moment," thought Jill. "And if I go on, I shall run straight into its mouth." Anyway, she couldn't have moved if she had tried, and she couldn't take her eyes off it. How long this lasted, she could not be sure; it seemed like hours. And the thirst became so bad that she almost felt she would not mind being eaten by the Lion if only she could be sure of getting a mouthful of water first. . . .

"Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.

"I'm dying of thirst," said Jill.

"Then drink," said the Lion.

"May I, would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

"Will you promise not to do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.

"I make no promise," said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. "Do you eat girls?" she said.

"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.

"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.

"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."

"There is no other stream," said the Lion. It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion & no one who had seen his stern face could do that and her mind suddenly made itself up.

It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went straight to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn't need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now, she realized that this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all.

So you’ve heard a little bit about my experience with God and some profound words from one of the great Christian minds of the last century, but does this ring true with scripture?  When people encounter the presence of the living God is it always quite, peaceful, and still?[2]  Let’s look at a few examples from the scripture.  This is not an exhaustive list in any fashion.

Genesis 28:16,17:  Jacob has a dream in which God speaks to him and upon awaking and realizing God just spoke to him he is afraid.

Exodus 3:6: Moses encounters God’s presence in the burning bush and he is afraid.

Exodus 19-20:19:  The presence of God descends on Mt. Sinai is a tangible way.  It scares the people so badly that they are struck trembling and beg Moses to not have God speak to them.

Exodus 34:29-39:  Moses’ face literally glowed after he had been in the presence of the Lord.  The lingering presence of the Lord upon Moses scared the Israelites so much Moses had to veil his face.

Judges 6:20-23: Gideon encounters God and is afraid.

2 Samuel 6:-11: David hears the report of what happens when one of his men touch the Ark of the Covenant and he is so afraid of God’s presence manifest in the ark he won’t let it be brought into Jerusalem.

Isaiah 6:  Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord and cries out in fear and despair.

Luke 1:30:  An Angel appears to Mary and she is afraid.

Luke 2:10: Angels appear to the Shepherds and they are afraid.

Luke 5:1-11:  After Peter’s miraculous catch of fish he falls to his knees and asks Jesus to leave him because he is afraid.

Mark 4:34-41:  Jesus rebukes the storm and the disciples are afraid.

Mark 5:1;17:  Jesus casts a legion of demons out of a man sending them into a herd of pigs[3] that then jump off a cliff.  The people of the town beg Jesus to leave because they are so afraid of him.

John 18:1-8:  When the Temple guards come to arrest Jesus.  Jesus just says who he is and the guards draw back and fall down.

Matthew 28:4-8:  Those guarding the tomb of Jesus see angels and are so afraid they shake and become like dead men.  The women see the angel and they are afraid and filled with joy at the same time; interesting combination.

Acts 2:  On Pentecost the church receives the Spirit.  The people who see this are bewildered and astonished.  The disciples are walking around in a way that those looking at them suspect they might be drunk.  Some mock them, some believe.

Revelation 1:17: John upon encountering the presence of Jesus falls at his feet as if dead.

Again this is just a highlight reel.  It is in no way exhaustive.  I tried to include something from every major section of scripture.[4]  Doesn’t it make sense that if we encounter the presence of God in a real and vital way that it would fry our circuits a bit?  We are talking about the God who spoke and all things came into existence.  Even a tiny bit of His power in a place is going to be overwhelming at best.  

Let me finish with telling a few of the stories of what happened during that “Pentecost” experience at camp. 

The first person that evening who encountered God’s power fell on the floor and began laughing uncontrollably.  It was disconcerting to anyone in the auditorium.  The next day I sat down and talked with them about what happened.  They related to me that their parents had gone through a nasty divorce and how that had made them very angry, bitter, and even filled with rage.  As our speaker invited the Spirit to come the individual just asked God to help them.  They said a wave of joy that was so powerful just rushed into them.  Something they were unable to control, but after the evening God had given them a peace about their life and that things were going to be O.K.

There was another person who was there who had accepted Jesus as their savior the first night.  The next night they fell out on the floor sobbing from the depth of their being for the better part of an hour.  This persons father had been beheaded by a drug cartel when they were young.  The family had fled the country for the safety of the U.S.  They had allowed their heart to close off to the grief that event had brought.  God ripped the scab off the infected wound and began to clean it out.  He said feel, grieve, come back to life and they did.  For the rest of the week this teenager couldn’t stop testifying to the goodness and greatness of Jesus at work in their life.

I could tell story after story.  What I want you to know is that God can’t be tamed.  His ways are not our ways.  He is more powerful than we can possibly understand and comprehend and when He decides to touch us with His power and love it is not uncommon for us to come completely undone, for us to be struck by awe, fear, or even denial. 

Have you been trying to tame a God who can’t be tamed?

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[1] All believers are filled with the Spirit when they decide to make Jesus their King, but God likes to empower our lives through the Spirit so we will be more excited about sharing about the life giving love that is available to us through Jesus.

[2] There is no doubt that God’s presence does come to us in a comforting and quiet way in scripture.  The thing I want to explore has to do with whether this is the only way God’s presence is manifest in our lives according to scripture.

[3] Jewish people weren’t to eat pork, so keeping a herd of pigs shows these people weren’t keeping the law as they should.

[4] The Law, The Histories, The Prophets, The New Testament

My Story

A Pastor friend asked me to write out my testimony so he could use it as an illustration in his sermon.  Since I've never written it out I thought I'd use it as this weeks blog post.  This is my story.

I grew up in a family where not a single person was a follower of Jesus when I was little.  Not my parents, not my step-parents, none of my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins; no one in my family was a follower of Jesus.

When I was in the seventh grade my grandfather on my mother’s side died.  There was a little Baptist church down the road from my Granny and her neighbors recommended that the pastor from that church do the funeral.  He was a professor at a local seminary who loved to preach and he loved his people.  He began to visit my Granny shortly after the funeral and within a few months had led her to Christ. 

My Granny began to pray for her family.

Now my mother would feel guilty for not having her children in church from time to time; usually after I had done something she deemed particularly bad, or after something like my sister’s first words being “Damn Flies”.  After one of the events had occurred we would attend the local United Methodist Church for maybe three weeks in a row, until the urgency of our trespasses had wore off and then we’d slip back into our routine, only showing up for services on Christmas and Easter.  I can remember my Dad on one Easter morning looking out at some men playing golf and commenting with disdain, “Who doesn’t go to church on Easter?”  The answer to that question would be my biological dad and stepmom.  All that to say, we had very little in the way of a formal Christian upbringing.

When I became a senior in High School my best friend Gary Rhom, who loved to party and chase after the girls with me, had an encounter with Jesus at a YoungLife retreat.  Out of nowhere it seemed he went on the straight and narrow.  After this had gone on for several weeks and Gary’s weekly twisting of my arm to go to YoungLife club I finally decided to go up to our schools YoungLife leader, a guy named Kitt Sublett who had the thickest coke bottle glasses you’ve ever seen, and ask him what he had done to freak my  friend out about God.

Kitt looked at me and said,  “Do you really want to know?” and I was like, “yes” and then he said call me up tomorrow and we’ll catch a sandwich at Schlotzsky’s. 

The next day I went and strong armed another of my good friends Frankie Sanford to go along with me.  We asked Kitt every question that our unbelieving hearts found so critical (what about the pygmies in Africa? What about the dinosaurs? What about evolution?) and Kitt gave us honest answers that I could tell he genuinely believed.  This was enough to get my curiosity up so when he said, “Where do we go from here?” I was open to continuing the dialogue. 

Kitt started a small Bible Study for Gary, me, and Frankie.  We called it the Coke-a-cola club because Kitt bought the cokes that came in the little glass bottles.  For nine weeks we studied the Bible.  Kit taught us about God’s good creation, about the Fall and the problem of sin, then we looked at Jesus his life, teachings, and miracles, then he showed us prophecies about Jesus in Old Testament and how they were fulfilled in the New Testament.  When he showed me Isaiah 53 I freaked out.  That passage was written hundreds of years before Jesus walked the planet and yet was so clearly about him.  It seemed like overwhelming proof to me that Jesus was who he claimed to be.  During that study my mind came to believe that Jesus was Lord but God wanted all of me not just my mind.

Now during these nine weeks God was at work in my life.  You see I had sort of a Diest’s view of God.  I believed there was a God, I just believed he wasn’t personal and he did not care about me.  That he had got everything going and he was kindda watching the show.  Well as we began studying the Bible I began reading the New Testament on my own and Jesus was anything but impersonal.  In Jesus I was confronted with a God who loved each person individually, who’d entered humanity to redeem and fix what was broken about it. 

I began to look at my friendships and see that all centered around getting drunk and partying.  I knew that in a few short months I’d be leaving home and going to college and was wondering is this all there is?  Am I going to be spending the rest of my life trying to get the beautiful sexy wife, accumulate the most stuff, so that I can make my life the biggest party that I can?  Is this really the meaning of life?  Or is there something that I’m seeing in Jesus, something about his self-giving, self-sacrificing love that points to the fact that real life, the good life is found somewhere in a completely different direction?

All these questions came to head on the evening of April 16^th, 1987.   One of my good friends Gregg Gambel and I had gone to a party together.  I had ridden with him and I put my keys in his glove compartment (these were the days of skin tight levi’s and your keys looked pretty stupid sticking out of your pocket).  At the party there were a bunch of kids from another school and my girlfriend was there too.  I was a pretty horrible boyfriend during those day’s, it was hard to find space for anyone other than my ego, so we were constantly fighting. 

We had a talk the day before about how we felt our relationship was to physical and we were going to try to figure out how to be friends on top of being boyfriend and girlfriend.  Anyway we arrive at this party and I come up to her to say hi and she did not give me the greeting that I felt like I deserved (you know fawning, gushing, pseudo-worship) and so I start churning up the party so all the attention can center around me.  I get together a group of people and we start playing the drinking game quarters and before long I’m fairly drunk.  I look over at my girlfriend and she is talking with this guy I can’t stand.  I start thinking how much I’d like to punch him; I decide to take a walk instead.   Frankie, my good buddy, lives a few streets over so I decide to walk to his house.  It takes me about an hour to find my way two streets over.  When I get to Frankie’s I ask if he will take me home.  He tells me he can’t because he’s sick, so I start trying to find my way back to the party. 

During this walk I begin to talk with God.  I’m telling him how empty I am.  I tell him what a mess I’ve made out of my life.  I finally make it back to the house where the party was, but when I get there everyone is gone.  The party has moved locations and my buddy that I had come to the party with is gone as well, with my keys.  The next morning is Easter Sunday, and I’m thinking great, the one Sunday we are going to be in church and I’m going to be coming home way late, drunk off my butt.   I decide I’m going to have to walk home and I head towards the exit of the neighborhood.  All this time I’m talking with God asking him if there is a better way to do life.  Finally I just sit down on the sidewalk and I make a bargain with God.  I say, “God if you will get me out of this mess, I will give my life to you hook line and sinker.” 

No sooner does this prayer come out of my mouth than a friend of mine who is home from college for Easter weekend drives by and sees me sitting on the side walk.  He stops and says, “Jeff, what are you doing sitting on that sidewalk?”  I say, “I’m drunk and lost, will you take me home?”  He says sure. 

I get in his car and we begin to drive to my home.  He has to stop and get gas, and while he is getting gas I see my buddy that I came to the party with in the turn lane that is next to the gas station.  I hang out the window and wave my arms and yell.  Gregg sees me, drives over, I hop in his car, get my keys, arrive home and go to my room no questions asked. 

The next morning we are sitting in church.  Our pastor is preaching on the power of the resurrection and God’s Spirit begins to speak to me.  He says, “I upheld my end of the bargain; Jeff, are you going to uphold yours?”  I begin to think, that is going to mean some dramatic changes.  I will have to change my lifestyle, it might mean my friendships will have to change, what will this mean for me and my girlfriend?  Then I start to think it all could have just been a series of coincidences.  I need to be reasonable.  Then I hear God speak again, he says this is your opportunity Jeff, if you don’t move now it won’t come around again for a long time.  At that moment I came to realize that the God I had always thought was impersonal and distant was as close as some drunk kids prayer in the back of a neighborhood.

So right there in that moment, I surrender my heart to Jesus.

Many thought that was just a phase; that in a few months I’d grow out of this Jesus thing.  But 25 years later I know it was the best decision I’ve ever made.  Now, I understand that any choice I’ve made to be faithful to Jesus has been a good one and any choice I’ve made to do life my own way has been a bad one.

I guess Granny’s prayers were packing some power.    

Value 2: Ministry to the Marginalized IV - The Age to Come

The Age to Come

The book of Revelation describes the cosmic battle between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness. In the midst of this battle we realize that God is holding back on our enemy so that the nations of this world might have the opportunity to become the nations of our God and King by giving their allegiance to Jesus, creation’s true Lord. The book of revelation uses the pallet of metaphors from the prophets of Israel’s past to describe this new thing God is doing. At the end of this beautiful and mysterious book we read this passage.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;

Each line is filled with meaning. We see the language of the “new” heaven and earth being used. The old heaven and earth had been broken by man’s rebellion and sin and by the enemy’s deceits. But the enemy and his lies are being dealt with once and for all and the sins of mankind are being judged. Now we have a new heaven and a new earth, joined together as they were intended to be. This new creation will not know the touch of evil. It’s described as having no sea. In the Old Testament the sea symbolized chaos and disorder; this has been done away with, overcome by Jesus.

The apostle John sees the heavenly Jerusalem, the true royal city of God, descending from Heaven and coming to rest on earth. Heaven and earth are joined together in relationship as they were always intended, and God says that He has made His home among humanity. When this happens there is no more need for faith, because God dwells with us. We are able to see Him and experience Him face to face.

And what does that mean for us? What happens when Heaven and Earth unite under the rule of our loving God? It means everything is set to right!

REV 21:4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
REV 21:5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new."

The power of these words is incredible. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. As a pastor I have been with people during some of their worst moments. I’ve had to tell children that one of their parents has died. I’ve had to sit with parents after the death of their children. I’ve had to help people work through the pain of a murdered loved one. I’ve consoled women who have been raped, women who are dealing with the pain of an abortion, or who have felt their heart ripped out as they’ve given their child away for adoption. I’ve counseled many soldiers dealing with the pain of what they witnessed and participated in on the field of battle. I’ve watched marriages dissolve, people ruin their lives, fortunes come and go. I’ve watched people live pay check to pay check; maxed out in debt, lose their jobs and be cast out onto the streets; the list of pain that I’ve seen has been staggering. When people find themselves in the midst these situations, they are the marginalized. They are the least, the last, the lost, and lonely.

The Bible says that at the end of the age, when Jesus sets all things to right, that He will wipe every tear from our eyes. He will comfort us in our pain, and our pain will be no more. He goes on to say death will be no more. No longer will we have to contend with the loss of loved ones. Mourning, crying, pain will all be things that were part of the old creation. In the new creation no one will be marginalized. There will be no least, last, lost, or lonely because these things will have passed away. There will be no more poverty, murder, death, war, sin, or sickness because these things will have passed away. God will have made all things new.

This is the trajectory of the Kingdom. One day through Jesus there will be no under performing schools. Children who want to learn will all have the opportunity to learn. There will be no need for ministries to the homeless, there will be no need to speak up for the enslaved or the oppressed. These people will be free.

As the church, we are the community of this coming age. We are already residents of this time. When we hear Paul use language that we are foreigners or aliens to this world, or when he says we are in the world but not of it, he is describing the fact that we are the people of the coming Kingdom. So wherever we are, there should be visible signs of the old order of things being set to right; poverty, sickness, slavery, and the marginalization of people disappearing as the world and its systems encounter the people of the Kingdom; the people of the future age.

What we have to understand is that the conditions of poverty, marginalization, sickness, slavery, and violence are all reminders of the brokenness of the world. Followers of Jesus are to serve notice to the world that these conditions will come to an end completely one day by working for their eradication now. Every time we feed the hungry, comfort the mourning, befriend the lonely, heal or care for the sick, or bring peace to areas of violence we pointing towards the future God is bringing. We are demonstrating the life of the “age to come”. This is the life that will be normal when Jesus sets all things to right; it’s the life we give our broken world a glimpse of every time we act to bring the Kingdom’s order to the broken chaos of this age.

This is our duty. This is our message. This is our privilege! Paul in Roman’s 8 says that all creation literally stands on tip toe waiting for the revealing of the children of God. Every time we love the marginalized we are giving creation a sneak peak of what it’s longing for!

Value 2: Ministry to the Marginalized Part III - The New Testament

The New Testament

Like the Old Testament before it, the New Testament is not silent on the issue of the poor. The New Testament continues to affirm God’s love for the marginalized as being foundational and that His people are to incorporate caring for them into their lifestyle. In the ministry of Jesus we see his care for the marginalized as a sign of the in breaking of His Kingdom.

Let’s read the words of Jesus as he is getting ready to set out on his public ministry.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

LK 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captive
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
LK 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

LK 4:20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus said that the Spirit of God was empowering him to proclaim the message of the Kingdom through both word and deed to those who had been marginalized. He is to preach the good news that God has remembered the plight of the poor. He is to heal those who have been crippled, restoring them to the worshiping community of Israel. He is to release those who have been enslaved, and proclaim to the debtors that their debts have been canceled, and that is exactly what He did.

Jesus came to an impoverished world in poverty through his birth. Think about it, he was born the child of a teenage peasant in ancient Israel. He was born in a barn! He grew up like any other average child in Israel going to synagogue school and learning the trade of his earthly father. He did not grow up in the metropolitan hustle and bustle of Jerusalem. He grew up in the sticks. He was probably considered a country preacher with a rural accent. They made the same jokes about where he was from that we do about north Georgia or Kentucky here in Tennessee.

Yet these experiences gave him an ability to identify with the common people of Israel. They gave him the background he needed to communicate deep truths to them in a way they could grasp and understand. Just think about how many of his parables pertain to farming, fishing, family, and weddings, topics the ordinary people of his day would be familiar with. Jesus was one of the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely. Yet he was full of the Kingdom of God, and wherever he went he brought hope and life with him.

In his public ministry he healed the sick, related to prostitutes, tax collectors, and lepers. These were outcasts; people who were outside the worshipping community of Israel. Every time Jesus touched one of these people lives it was an object lesson in how his Kingdom operates. The good news is proclaimed to the poor, the sick and diseased are healed, the captives are set free, and debts are forgiven. Those who were outside were invited in, because Jesus’ kingdom is accessible to all.

I bet as you read this you are saying to yourself, “Yes and amen!”, after all this is what Jesus does and as His followers we should be doing the same. Not so quick. Do you understand what this looks like? I remember when we first started feeding the homeless in Miller Park. One of our members began to really invest in the people that they were feeding. He attended our small group and began to bring some of the people to whom he was ministering. These folks might not have had a shower for several days and they smelled really bad. They were hungry and would absolutely devour all the snacks, and they didn’t really know how to appropriately interact with people. This was an uncomfortable experience and I really wrestled with it. What are you going to do if the outcasts are invited to the party? Do you think you could handle it? I really struggled and honestly I still would.

We’ve been reaching out to a middle school where many of the children have been raised with a different set of values than a bunch of suburban white kids. What if all of a sudden fifty of those kids decided to start coming to our youth ministry? What would you do? Would you pull your kids from the youth ministry? Would you think the Vineyard is just not what it used to be, and quietly slip out to the church down the street where you don’t have to wrestle through the same uncomfortable feelings? Does Jesus really desire for us to be an invitational people and love the poor?

Being an incarnational presence in the schools is just the first step. If you think the wooden seats in the auditorium are uncomfortable, just wait until we start making serious head-way into our mission. I’m not saying this to scare you, but I’m asking are you really willing to follow Jesus wherever he might lead?

Jesus loves the poor. He loves the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely. He has commissioned his church to do the same.

When we read about the New Testament church, we read about a group of people who continued to love those no one else was willing to love. One of the first things the early church did was minister to the poor. They organized a feeding ministry for widows and orphans in Jerusalem. God blessed this ministry by empowering the followers of Jesus to do many signs and wonders as they blessed the poor and marginalized. In the letters of Paul, we read of him encouraging the church to remember the poor. Paul writes a whole letter in the Bible on behalf of a slave. The early church was marked by a love for the poor. This love for the marginalized permeates the New Testament scriptures and is always a sign pointing to what Jesus will one day do all in all.

One of the ways the early church grew was due to their care for the marginalized. The Roman culture had a practice called exposure. When parents or a person had a baby that they did not want they would take the child and place it on the city walls so that the child would die of exposure. This was a very common practice in the ancient world. Christians, however, believed that every life was sacred, even the lives that nobody else wanted. The Christians would go to the city walls at night and rescue the exposed infants and raise them as their own. Many of these children became the backbone of the church as they grew.

In the name of Jesus, the church has championed the cause of the marginalized for two millennia. The first hospitals were started by the church to take care of the sick. The church built orphanages to care for children without parents. The church started public education so all might have the opportunity for a better life and people could read the Bible for themselves. The church has faced down infanticide twice in its history. The church abolished the slave trade once, and as it raises its ugly head again, it is the entity on the frontlines of modern abolition. I cannot even begin to list the difference the church has made in the lives of the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely over the last two thousand years. Why has this been part of the church’s historic witness to the world? It is because God loves the poor, Jesus loves the poor, and his church has loved the poor. These are all signs of the future Jesus is bringing. The question for us is are we willing to follow Jesus and love the poor as well?

Value 2: Ministry to the Marginalized II - The Old Testament

The Old Testament


God's heart for the poor and the marginalized permeates the pages of the Old Testament.  In the Old Testament we see God's plan to fix a world broken by sin unfold, and one of the primary ways we see this plan in evidence is through the way He cares for the poor and calls his people to care for the poor.  We see it in the way He protects Cain even after he has murdered his brother Able. We see it in how He calls this nomadic tribesman, Abraham, and promises to make him a mighty nation that will bless all the nations of the earth. We see it in the way He cares for Abraham’s slave, Hagar, and the child, Ishmael, that she bore him after Abraham left them for dead in the desert. We see it in how He takes a spoiled child like Joseph and refines his character through horrible circumstances until he is made steward over all Egypt. We see it in His protection of Joseph’s brothers and their families even though they had meant him harm. We see it in how He hears the cries of Abraham’s enslaved descendants in Egypt. We see it in how He rescues an enslaved baby boy condemned to death by a fearful pharaoh. We see it in how this baby boy is found by a princess of Egypt in his basket of reeds where they have hidden him. We see it in how this baby boy grows up as a prince of Egypt. We see it in God’s calling him to deliver His people from slavery in spite of the fact that he has been so beaten down by the world that he can’t even speak without stammering. We see it in the way He frees a community of slaves and turns them into a nation of priests. We see it in His patience with the nation of Israel’s habitual sinning and running to idols. This list could go on and on. The Old Testament is filled with stories about God’s love for the marginalized; the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely, and about how he expects his people to care for them.

Read what He says through the prophet Isaiah:
Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.


ISA 58:2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments,
they delight to draw near to God.


ISA 58:3 "Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"

The Lord is coming to the nation of Israel with a word of judgment. He tells Isaiah to announce boldly to the nation that He is not pleased. Yes, from the outside they look religious. They put on a good show, but there is a reason He is not responding to their fasts. There is a reason He is not noticing them.

God’s words to the nation of Israel through the prophets always seem to hit me right between the eyes. He could speak these same words to the church, at least the church in the United States. Why, oh church, do I not seem to respond to your call? You make million dollar cathedrals dedicated to me, and put my name on t-shirts and in your popular music. You send your children to private schools that cost thousands of dollars a year that are run out of these same churches. You support entire industries based on the selling of books, videos, music, and movies that tell you how to better please me, but I’m not pleased. I’m not pleased with this.

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.


ISA 58:4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.


ISA 58:5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

 ISA 58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?


ISA 58:7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

God tells us exactly what he wants from us. He wants us to bring the light of His compassionate kingdom to the forgotten of society. The fast the God chooses for his people (a fast is the act of denying oneself to draw close to God) is that we do the work of the Kingdom by championing the cause of the marginalized; the cause of the least, last, lost, and lonely. God wants our acts of self denial to be acts that care for those who have been beaten down by the broken condition of the world. When we do this we are anticipating the day when poverty, loneliness, and abandonment will be undone.

I’m going to call some things out here, and I’m not doing it to be mean, but I feel that God has called me to speak with a prophetic voice on this issue, and I feel we (The Vineyard) have the right to be that prophetic voice because we’ve chosen to walk a different path. Every day I pass by a church that has a huge private school attached to it. This church and school is literally a quarter of a mile from the school our church meets in. They are just finishing up a multi-million dollar expansion to their sports and recreation fields; fields that could rival a college campus. Just a quarter of a mile down the road the three minority, public schools we meet in are playing on ball fields that are so desperately in need of renovation that it is just sad. Last fall the coach of the baseball team from this high school was literally begging the community to invest ten grand in the ball field so it would be playable. It floods every year. These kids can’t play home games because the condition of their field is so poor. Not only that (I know this is going to sound unbelievable but it’s true), these kids are wearing uniforms that were new in 1968! I wish our church had the financial resources some of these churches have because I would have written the check on the spot. Do we profane the name of our God when just a quarter of a mile down the road the wealthy, who can afford to invest the thousands of dollars a year, have college level ball fields, provided for them in the name of Jesus, when the poor are left behind? Is this where God wants His resources spent? Is this the fast God chooses for us?

Just a stone’s throw from our schools that were built in the late 1950’s, that have roofs that are leaking, where the air conditioning units don’t work properly, with more problems to their physical campuses than you could shake a stick at, goes up a multi- multi-million dollar church campus. This facility is built for the glory of God and hey, they are doing it debt-free. I promise you, people are being asked to take on financial fasts to see this thing built, but is this the fast that God wants when the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely who are literally sitting a stone’s throw from them are going severely without? Are these the acts of self denial that God is calling His people to? Are we seriously to believe that God wants us to invest millions and millions of dollars simply on ourselves? I don’t think so.

Now let me say, I think all of this happens through the best intentions. The leaders of these churches are good people who dearly love Jesus. They desperately want to see people come to know the Lord and live their lives for Him. My critique is in the American way of doing church. We have defined success in such terms that it takes mammoth facilities and budgets to be thought of as being relevant. This leads to a trap of catering to one particular group of people, the type of people who have the kind of resources that can fund this type of programming. I don’t think God has called us to compete with theme parks. I don’t think we are in the entertainment business. I think God has called us to partner with Him in seeing heaven touch earth.

I’m telling you right now, Chattanooga, arguably the most Christian city in the world, will not experience all that God has for it, until we, the churches, repent of this waste and turn our hearts to the true work of the Kingdom. It should be an affront to us that our school system is the worst performing in our state. Seriously, as Christians we should be embarrassed by what is happening to our city, because the presence of so many Jesus following people should be changing the very fabric of our society.
ISA 58:8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.


ISA 58:9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,


ISA 58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.


ISA 58:11 The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

This is but one of literally hundreds of passages where God talks about his heart for the poor. The prophets are all looking forward to the Day of the Lord, when the great reversal of fortunes takes place. When the tears of the marginalized; the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely, will be wiped away once and for all. Those who thought of themselves as having been forgotten will realize that they were always very close to the heart of God.

The Old Testament teaches us that God loves the poor and He expects His people to love them too!

Value 2: Ministry to the Marginalized - Part 1

A couple of Christmases ago I was inconvenienced. Our house is the first house in our subdivision and sits on a busy street. Literally thousands of cars drive by our house everyday.

We had some real estate signs that we had made for our church to help people know where we were located. Then we got this brand new sign that was much more effective, so I brought the real estate signs home to my house. Since I lived on such a busy street, I decided to put one of these signs in my yard because it had our web address displayed so predominately. I thought, free advertising, people pay major bucks to have advertising access like this, so the signs sat proudly displayed in my front yard.

Chattanooga is home to a thousand churches. I mean that in the most literal sense. Christian researcher and analyst, George Barna has remarked that Chattanooga is the most churched city in the United States, and seeing that the U.S. is the most churched nation in the world, that means we must be close to the most churched city in the world.

I figure that is true because from time to time people would remark on how they thought our church met in our home because of the sign. I didn’t think much of it; I just hoped they’d check out the website.

All that changed one Christmas afternoon.

Life for a pastor’s family is pretty busy. We are constantly around people; hosting things, leading things, and that is especially true during the Christmas season. For a pastor it doesn’t let up until after the Christmas Eve service which our church hosted two of that year; one in the early evening and one at 11pm. That year the service itself ended at 12am. I was lucky to be home by 1am and then there was the putting together of presents. My day that year ended about 3:30am on Christmas morning. My kids were up just a little after 6am, but it was all good, because it was just us this particular Christmas; just the six of us. No one else was coming over. There was no set time for anything. It was just enjoy the day, and we were, until…

Right as I was getting ready to start dinner there was a knock at my door. It was a homeless woman. I wish I could tell you my heart was filled with Christmas love and cheer, but all I could think was, “No Lord, not today, not on Christmas!”. I asked what she wanted and she said she saw the sign in my yard. She figured we were either a church or that a pastor lived here, she asked which it was, I said pastor. She asked if she could come in. I said yes. We made her a glass of hot wassail and asked what she wanted.

She gave me about three different stories which is pretty common among people who are begging. The truth was somewhere on the edge of those three stories. She was trying to tell me anything that would touch on my heart so that I would allow her to stay. You’ve got to understand that lying to a pastor is kind of like lying to a cop. We’ve heard it all before and we are pretty good at tracing the misdemeanor to the felony. What it boiled down to was she was homeless and didn’t want to spend Christmas in a shelter. She had been walking in this area trying to find someone who’d let her have Christmas with them. She didn’t say that, but I knew what she was after.

I got my associate pastor on the phone because he was the one who dealt with all of our benevolence issues. I told him the story and asked what I should do and he laughed. He told me he’d find out what shelter was open and he’d give me a call back. So I went in to her and said my associate pastor was making some phone calls and was finding a shelter that could take her for the night. I could tell that she was not very pleased with that idea and she began to ask what we were going to have for Christmas dinner. I was thinking to myself nothing, because dealing with you is taking up to much time.

I looked over at my family, and it was funny how quickly the atmosphere had changed. What half an hour before had just been light hearted and completely stress free was now tense and uncertain. They didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to do. The only one who seemed happy with the current state of affairs was the homeless lady. About 15 minutes later my associate pastor gave me a call back with a shelter’s name and directions. I was relieved. I was ready for this to be someone else’s problem. I went in and told her we had found a shelter for her and that it was better equipped to take care of her needs. I said that there would be food there, a warm bed, and a place to get cleaned up. So I told her to come and get in the car and I would drive her to the shelter. She said O.K.

From the moment we got in the car she started telling me how horrible shelters were. She told me how she didn’t want to go, and by the time we are about three miles down the road she told me to let her out, she didn’t want to go to a shelter. I was tired of arguing with her so I said fine, and pulled over into a parking lot and let her out.

I began to drive back home thinking, “Well, I tried to do the right thing.” One of the things that can really stink about being a Pastor is you know the Bible really well, and the following passage of scripture popped right into my mind.

MT 25:31 The Judgment of the Nations

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' 37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 40 And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44 Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' 45 Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

God began to speak to me. He said, “I came to your house for Christmas dinner Jeff, and you turned me away.”

The condition of my heart was laid bare before me. I realized I talked a good talk but my action did not line up with what my heart professed to believe. I have come to believe that was one of my worst moments, one of those things that if I could step back and do differently I would. Can you imagine the teachable moment for my family if we had treated that lady like Jesus had come to visit us on Christmas? The impact and lesson that could have been driven into my kid’s hearts is unfathomable, instead they learned we shouldn’t be inconvenienced on Christmas.

When I got home I walked right over to that stinking sign in my front lawn, pulled it out of the ground, and threw it across my back yard. There was something wrong with my heart. My actions did not match up with my beliefs. I still feel sick to my stomach every time I think about it.

I think I’m not alone in this. My experience is that lots of people like to talk about how important it is for the church to have a heart for the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely, but very few people are willing to be inconvenienced to the point of actually doing something.

God has really done some work on me with this one. Compassionate ministry to the marginalized of society is not an option. It certainly is not an option according to scripture. If we are serious about following Jesus then developing a heart for the least, last, lost, and lonely that works itself out through practical consistent action is a must.

Over the next couple of days we are going to be looking at ministry to the marginalized. We will see how God has a heart for the forgotten in both the Old and New Testament. We are going to look at how serving the marginalized is a sign of the coming Kingdom, how the failure of our public systems is creating more and more marginalized people in Hamilton County, and what I believe God’s plan is to address these issues through the Vineyard Church. Those of us who faithfully commit to this will see God’s Kingdom come to earth in a very special way.

Apprenticing the Next Generation

Value 1: Apprenticing the Next Generation

I had a really cool moment the other day. I was watching my 17 year old son and some of his best friends lead worship at a Christian high school. Their band HighPoint had been mentored by a young man who had come to our church when he was eighteen. He was a fantastic keyboard player and also had a wonderful mind for finance. He later came on my staff as our business manager but still took the time to teach my son and his friends how to lead a praise and worship team. He taught them how to manage practice sessions, how to run a sound board, how to make a song theirs instead of a reproduction of a studio track, and how to put together a worship set. That morning he and I sat smiling as we watched our kids lead several hundred students in worship. They were great, not only were they musically great but they were sensitive to the Spirit. They listened for God, and ushered those kids into a time where Spirit came and ministered in a very powerful way. These were things that they had learned as they were apprenticed by the generations that had come before them. We were all blessed by this.

As I sat there and watched this I had the satisfaction of knowing another generation had really gotten the heart of the Kingdom. That these young men would take what they had learned from me and the men and women I had mentored and pass it on to the generation underneath them. When I think about that I want to get up and do back flips, because that’s what it’s all about and you know the Bible seems to back me up on that.

In the book of Acts we read about the birth of the church on Pentecost Sunday. The church is the community of the “age to come”, the time when Jesus returns and sets all things to right, as it exists in the midst of this present age. The church plays by a different set of rules than the world does (or at least it should). The church is ruled by the values and characteristics of what the world will be like when everything is set to right. In the church love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, gentleness, and kindness are the daily DNA of life because that is what life will be like in the “age to come”.

On the day the Church was established, the Spirit of God came and empowered each person who had placed his or her faith in Jesus. All heaven literally broke lose at that time. Manifestations of the life of the “age to come” began to break into this present age through God’s empowering presence at work in the followers of Jesus. The gift of tongues went forth reversing the curse of the confounded languages at Babel. The followers of Jesus began to proclaim Jesus as the true Lord of all, their fear of retribution overcome by the courage the Spirit brings. To explain all this Peter says to the crowd that had gathered:

AC 2:14 Peter Addresses the Crowd

…"Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

AC 2:17 'In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.

AC 2:18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.

God’s Kingdom was forcefully breaking into the world. What Jesus had set into motion through his death and resurrection was continuing through His people who were empowered by His Spirit. This is what had been promised by the prophets of the Old Testament, a reversal of the way things were, an end to the status quo. This Spirit-empowered people were bearing witness to the world of the complete reversal that Jesus would bring in all of it’s fullness in the “age to come.” Peter, quoting the Prophet Joel, says that one of the major signs of the in breaking of the Kingdom is young and old engaging in Spirit-empowered ministry side by side.

Listen to the language; sons and daughters, young and old, men and women! When the Kingdom comes young and old, male and female will be serving God side by side! Therefore, one of the signs of the “age to come” breaking forward into the present is young people being empowered by their spiritual mothers and fathers to engage in Spirit-led ministry.

This is a reoccurring theme with the Old Testament Prophets. Listen to the last sentence of the Hebrew Scriptures found in the book of Malachi.

MAL 3:16 The Reward of the Faithful

Then those who revered the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the LORD and thought on his name. 17 They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them. 18 Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

MAL 4:1 The Great Day of the LORD

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

MAL 4:4 Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

MAL 4:5 Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.

Just like the rest of the Old Testament prophets Malachi is looking forward to the Day of the Lord, the day when God will decisively act in setting the world to right. Malachi says part of what prepares our hearts for this event, part of what makes us ready to experience God’s Kingdom in all its fullness, is the hearts of the parents being turned towards their children and the hearts of the children being turned towards their parents. This is an incredible picture, a picture of seasoned adults not being focused on achieving for themselves but their desire is for their children to be all they can be. It’s the children not looking at the older generation with suspicion and rebellion but acknowledging the gift that is being given to them by their mentors. Out of that knowledge is born a love and respect for those who are sacrificially focusing on them.

God says this has to happen so that the land is not struck with a curse. Think about that for a second, when the older generation refuses to invest in the younger generation the land is cursed. I can think of many reasons why the land would be cursed when the older generation refuses to invest in the younger generation because of the things I’ve seen in my quarter century of experience in ministry.

Catch the Wave

AC 1:1 “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach” 

My family’s favorite type of vacation is a beach vacation. We love the sand and the sun, the sound of the surf and the waves, the beautiful water on Florida’s gulf coast. We love the beach, and my favorite beach activity is body surfing. I love getting out there and catching the waves. 

The best time to body surf is when there is a storm not to far off the coast that really kicks up the waves. There’s nothing like standing out in the ocean waiting for that perfect swell, feeling the waves pick you up off your feet, while all the time watching for the wave that will bring the best ride. Then you see the wave, an Everest of water barreling towards you. You feel the inflow of the current of the wave drawing you and everything else in towards its building power. You lift your feet off the ground and off you go, and if you catch the wave just right you are hurled towards the shore at a terrific velocity by it’s power. After your belly begins to hit the sand, you stand up, pull-up your shorts that are riding dangerously low on your hips, give a sly grin as you see the forty some odd yards you’ve traveled in a few seconds, and march right back into the water excited by the possibility of the next ride. 

Catching a wave is a thrilling exercise in relinquishing control to a power greater than yourself. 

I cannot make the wave. I cannot stop the wave. All I can do is either fight against the waves power or surrender myself to it and let it take me where it will. 

This is the same type of power we read about in the book of Acts in the Bible. In Acts we see God’s power breaking out all over the place, setting things to right. People are given access to the covenant promises of Israel not through the keeping of a religious system but through their allegiance to a new King. The measure of sin that had separated God’s people from their creator had been dealt with through their Kings confrontation of evil, death, and decay. 

We see that this wave of the King and His Kingdom is breaking to the shore of an age when all those who follow Jesus will be set free from death and decay and risen to a renewed life on a renewed earth where sickness, war, human trafficking, infanticide, genocide, racism, and everything that would have no place in God’s Kingdom will be done away with.  Heaven and Earth will be joined together knowing the rule of God on earth. This is the point of all the sermons in the Book of Acts in the Bible.  These sermons serve as markers helping us understand the narrative action of the book. 

In the first of these sermons occurs when Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and proclaims that God’s presence is no longer found in a nation, or a city, or a temple, but in the people who have given their allegiance to Jesus as King. 

He points them back to the Old Testament prophets and says this is what they have been anticipating. This was the wave they were longing to catch.  Peter says to thse who have assembled because of the outpouring of the Spirit that Israel has rejected their true king, Jesus of Naxareth.  He says repent and catch the wave.   He challenges those who have gathered to get caught up in the trajectory of a world that will one day be set completely to right by the dynamic action of this King. 

It’s what Peter says to the ruling council in Jerusalem as he testifies before the same court that convinced the Roman presence in Israel to crucify Christ. He tells them the wave of God that has been building, pointing to the eventual setting to right of all things.  Peter says this wave has crested in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He calls the gathered to not be left behind.  They need to let the wave take them to the place where all things are set to right.  

This hope is also seen in Stephen’s speech right before he is stoned to death. He calls Israel to remember its long history. He recounts to them how God has been actively moving in their history drawing them towards the moment when all things are redeemed and restored . 

He says the decisive moment has occurred in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He reminds them that there have always been people who have embraced what God is doing and those who have stood in opposition to it. There have been people who have ridden the wave and those who have tried to hold back the tide. Those who ride the wave get to go on one incredible ride and those who fight the tide find themselves battered by it. 

The world will be renewed. 

Evil has been defeated and will one day be destroyed. 

The Caesars and false kings of the world will find their knees bowing and tongues’ confessing Jesus Christ is Lord. To some this is the blessed hope to others it is the stone of offense, but this is the gospel. This is the wave that has broken and is now pushing history towards the shoreline of a renewed heaven and earth. 

Each of us has the opportunity to catch this wave or to try to hold it back. We catch the wave by becoming followers of Jesus and allowing his wave to take us where ever it will. 

For some of us it might look like fight against human trafficking, or laboring for racial equality, or being like Mother Teresa and caring for those no other will care for, praying for the sick or feeding the poor. 

The wave that draws us nearer to shore line of God’s renewed Kingdom can take us to so many different places, and the places will always look like the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Catching the wave looks like saying yes to God when he calls us to dare things that bring an intersection between the Kingdom of Heaven and earth. This year when we felt like God was calling our church to build a well in Uganda and it was going to cost 50,000 dollars. We knew there was no way we could raise that type of money, but it was what God wanted us to do, so we said yes and raised 51,000 dollars. 

When God asked our church to not build a building but to fight against the materialism and commercialism of an age that says the church’s mission should be to a consumer instead of transforming the world; it didn’t make sense, but we said yes and we are just starting to see what God might do through a church that will seek his Kingdom before it seeks it’s own. 

Even when a group of us prayed for a friend who came into the church having to use a walker and left under the strength of his own legs because of the healing God provided, none of the prayer team had the power to heal someone, but God did. He asked us to pray and we did and we saw a glimpse of what the shoreline is going to be like when the wave finally arrives. Have you caught the wave? If you haven’t you have no clue as to what you’re missing. Stop trying to hold back the tide and instead allow the wave to take you for a ride.