What are we missing today?

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. At the core of his dispute with the Catholic Church was Luther's contention that salvation was by faith alone, not works of any kind. The declarations made by Luther caused such an uproar that they resulted in the Protestant Reformation.

There are two things I find troubling by this story:

1. From a few centuries after the apostles until the Reformation, one of the key foundations of Christianity, salvation by faith, was lost to much of the Church and not understood.

2. Many of the average church-goers in Luther's day sided vehemently with the Catholic Church. They had been taught that the truth was one thing for so long that it was difficult (if not impossible) for them to consider another alternative.

Why do these things trouble me?

I am troubled because I wonder how many of the things I believe so strongly will be later revealed as untrue. I am afraid that it will probably be quite a few.

Why do I say that?

Because there are too many Bible verses that don't fit in my life yet. For example:

- I still don't get everything I ask the Father for (John 16:23)
- I'm not doing greater works than Jesus did (John 14:12)
- My life is not yet littered with the evidence of the power of God (Mark 16:20; 1 Corinthians 4:19-20)

This lack in my life is a clear message that things are not right. I (and most of the Church) am not walking in the fullness of what it means to be a Christian.

Now, we can come up with all kinds of theologies that can explain away verses such as this. But I am left wondering if, like salvation by faith, we are missing the truth and developing false theologies to justify our shortcoming. Then, our lack of faith validates the false theology we are clinging to.

Maybe it is time to stop coming up with ways to justify our lack and to begin to seek after everything we are promised. I'm willing. Are you?

Walking with God Honestly

Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

One of the implications of this verse is that, because He is truth, we will experience the presence of God on a consistent basis only as we live in truth. In this case, truth means far more than simple honesty. It speaks to being genuine and truly yourself. This is difficult to do in a world that expects each of us to be and to behave certain ways. In addition, we live in a church culture that places its own burdens of performance on us.

In response to these pressures, and out of a desire to be a good Christian, we learn early on how to behave properly - often at the cost of being ourselves. We no longer feel safe in church being ourselves, so we hide ourselves and put on a show of acceptability to those around us.

I have decided that one of the most precious gifts I have in my life are the people who are safe enough that I am able to be myself with them. They help reconcile me to myself and draw me closer to God. I wonder what would happen if we decided to leave behind the dysfunctional rules of how we ought to behave and decided to be genuine, to walk in truth.

Maybe we would find that sense of community and belonging that we long for.

Maybe we would come to terms with our struggles instead of hiding from them.

Maybe we would find God in a deeper way.

Christianity with Power

In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples that they would be given power for ministry. It reads:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Here are a few thoughts on this verse:

1. The verse is not referring to merely receiving the Holy Spirit. That happened to the disciples earlier (John 20:21-22).

2. This empowering was so important that Jesus told the disciples to do nothing until they received it (Acts 1:4).

3. This verse was fulfilled in Acts 2 at Pentecost and it involved much more than speaking in tongues. After Pentecost, we see in the disciples a new boldness, unity, and spiritual power. There is also a remarkable lack of selfish ambition.

It seems to me that we in America lack spiritual power. Only a small percentage of what is accomplished by most churches is the unmistakable work of God. Much of what we do is based on human efforts and abilities instead. What will it take for us to finally enter into power? Here are a few ideas:

- We need to admit that the way we function now is powerless. It is time to quit pretending that our candles are bonfires and confess our poverty before God.

- Like the disciples, we must wait on God, seek after Him, and receive power from Him.

- I do not think that receiving God’s power is done merely “by faith” as we often think of that phrase. Receiving things by faith is often an excuse for being lazy. Instead, there has to be an intentional pressing in that costs us something – an ongoing asking, seeking and knocking. That is faith at work in a way that allows us to receive.

The American Church is losing ground with each passing year. And sadly, rather than humbling ourselves and seeking God, we are caught up in all kinds of human efforts to make things better. The only solution that will work, however, is a genuine move of God in power.

I think that when this happens, God will be seeking out people who are willing to abandon themselves and their reputations and their security to follow Him. God will not be looking for the talented or the leaders to further His purposes. He will be looking for people like Mary in Nazareth – people who have no other qualification except that they are willing.

Am I willing? Are you?

Worthless Christian Activities

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NIV)

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Yikes! This passage gives us a very strong warning that it is possible to do all kinds of Christian things and then discover that God considers all of our work to be pretty worthless. Can you imagine serving the Lord for years and discovering that He thought all that you did was a waste of time? Sadly, I think this is true for most Christians and Christian ministries. I know that is the case for me.

You see, although Paul warns us about worthless activities (wood, hay and straw), he does not tell us what God's standard is for evaluating our work. What makes what we do wood as opposed to gold? The answer is found in the book of John.

John 15:1-5 (NIV)

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Here at the end of these verses, Jesus says that if we are not abiding in Him, we can do nothing. What does that mean?

To start with, abiding in Christ is not simply being a Christian. It is living in a love relationship with the Lord in which we have an active, on-going communion with Him. We are able to sense what the Holy Spirit is saying and we respond in loving obedience to His leading.

Secondly, when Jesus says we can do nothing, what He is telling us is that apart from abiding in Him, nothing we do matters to Him. We can do plenty of things apart from Christ, good and bad, so the saying that we can do nothing must apply to the value of those works.

So, here in John, Jesus says that if the things we do are not birthed out of an on-going love relationship with Him, they are worthless in His eyes.

Sadly, I think much of my Christian life has been wood, hay and straw. I was taught how to be a performer for God, not a lover of God. It also seems to me that most American Christians fall into that same category - and most churches and ministries as well. We have programs and activities and we are very, very busy. But in the process, we, like the church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-5), have lost our first love. As a result, even if God uses our efforts, they amount to very little in His eyes. Our works, because they are not grounded in a genuine relationship with God, are wood, hay and straw, if even that.

So, if you have a very successful ministry, but do not have a deep love-walk with Jesus, do not deceive yourself that God is pleased. He is using your efforts, but they are wood, hay and straw. Likewise, if all you do is mop floors for a living, but your work springs out of a deep love for your Savior, then there is precious gold every time your mop slides across the floor.

What will is take for us to quit doing all kinds of stuff and learn instead how to be lovers? At what point will we finally lay aside our wood, hay and straw so that we can pick up the gold, silver and costly stones that are found in loving God?

The State of the Church

At the risk of sounding whiny . . .

When I turn on the television and I do not get a picture on the screen, I know that something is wrong. It may be that the television is not plugged in; it may be that I forgot to pay the cable bill; or it may be that my television set has tanked. Regardless, I know that when I do not get the expected results, something is wrong.

In John 14:12, Jesus says that we, His followers, will do greater works than He did while on earth. In John 10:10, Jesus says that He has come to give us an abundant life. In the Book of Acts, we see this lived out as just a small number of followers turned the Roman world on its ear in just a few decades.

So, if the expected result of following Jesus is that miraculous events will occur, we will have a fulfilling life, and the world will be forced to take notice, then I think it is safe to say that something must be wrong. Where are all of these things that Jesus said would be a part of each of our lives? Well, like the television set, either Christianity is broken (and the Bible wrong- which I do not think is the case) or we are doing it wrong. What we conceive of as the Christian life is not Biblical because we are not seeing the Biblical results.

Sadly, much of the church justifies this failure instead of dealing with it. We explain away the lack of the power of God in our lives with theological arguments instead of pursuing Him for more of His power. We write books on how to have a fulfilling life based on our efforts rather than finding the fulfilling life He has for us. We do all that we can to proclaim that we are spiritually rich instead of confessing that we are poor, blind, miserable & naked.

Maybe that's where we should start.

The Church Blahs

In the past year, I have had the opportunity to attend services at a number of churches. Some were charismatic. Some were evangelical. All of them would be considered great churches by those who attend them.

As I have looked at my experience, though, I have to say that most of these church experiences have left me dissatisfied. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what has caused me to feel that way. Finally, this week, I think I figured it out.

The problem is that all of these churches were nice. They were safe and predictable - very comfortable. The evangelical ones followed their usual formulas and preached on the usual subjects. The charismatic ones did the same.

What I am hungering for is a church service that is not wrapped up in a nice, safe package. I want a church service that is unsafe because there is a Lion loose in the house and no one knows quite what He's going to do next.

The good news is that I think that day is coming. Maybe not to every church, but for those who truly hunger for the presence of God, there will be a day when the Lion is loose in our midst. It will be a day of joy, terror, love and worship all mixed together in a way that only those who know His presence can understand.

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.