Prophetic Voice

this week Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, has caused quite a stir in our culture. 

THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT OF WRIGHT'S THOUGHTS OR OPINIONS!!!

i have listened and watched as the outrage overflowed as many find his words beyond comprehension. wrong! evil!

my fear is less about what he said. i don't agree with it. 

my fear is about how we as a culture look more and more like the nation of israel in the bible. the last half of the old testament reveals a list of prophets, people sent by God, to condemn the nation of israel. their reaction seems to be the same as our reaction today.

they were outraged, the prophets words were beyond comprehension. wrong! evil!

i personally don't agree with the reverend wright, but i do worry that we have to many christians who are not speaking about the failures and wrongs of our culture. christianity has lost its prophetic voice. 

a prophetic voice is not to be taken lightly. a great amount of wisdom and discernment is required to speak out on behalf of God. people are called to do it. not just pastors, God calls each of us to have a prophetic voice. 

i would worry less about a man like, Jeremiah Wright, speaking to a group of people who can truly understand his message. my worry is for the millions of us who never speak with a prophetic voice. who never try to discern God's voice and speak on its behalf. 

it takes courage to live this way. if the bible teaches us anything you'll often be called to speak out against the religious, social and cultural norms. people might not like you. however, we are called to speak with a prophetic voice.

side note: God understands this, He sent His own son to become a man and speak with a prophetic voice. Jesus was rejected and killed for His troubles. I believe God understands the fear we all feel.  a fear which often silences our prophetic voices.

Guilt Free Christianity

Based on Mark 10:17-31 (The Rich Young Ruler) 17As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 18And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.19"You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"20And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." 21Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. 23And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!" 24The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved?" 27Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." 28Peter began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You." 29Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, 30but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. 31"But many who are first will be last, and the last, first."

A friend of mine recently said to me, "There is enough guilt to go around in Christianity." Meaning: to many times we as Christians attempt to guilt people into following God. 

I agree with that. Completely!

I also believe Mark 10:21, "On thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me." Maybe in a future blog we'll speculate on the whether or not this should be taken literally.

I do believe it is safe to assume Mark 10:21 can be read to mean, "God is calling us to sacrifice on His behalf." 

My question: How do we share the call of God to sacrifice without participating in the "guilt circle" Christianity is often associated with in our culture?

Oh, yea. I forgot the first part of Mark 10:21, "Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him..." 

I need some help cyberspace, because I admit openly...

I struggle with the idea of how to share that I believe God calls us to sacrifice and to share this in a way which communicates love and not guilt. I have no desire to participate in making others feel guilty.

I sense I communicate guilt when I share the idea of following God means sacrifice.

Things I believe God might think: 

• If we give 10% of our money to our church but people starve in our city streets we aren't sacrificing enough
  
• If we have a college education, grad school, etc...but children in our school systems read below their own grade level we aren't sacrificing enough
• etc...

No Guilt, Just Love! How? How do we find a way to share like Jesus shared? How do we look into the world and feel love and say give more? No Guilt, Just Love!

3 years w/ Jesus Christ

I just finished 3 years with Jesus Christ. :) 

in March of 2005, i sat at a student leadership conference listening to a Jewish man tell us about Jesus. during his message he suggested every christian should find time to spend 3 years reading and rereading the gospels. in doing so we would catch a small glimpse of what it was like to be a disciple of Jesus walking the earth with Him for the 3 years of His ministry. i.e. we are all supposed to be disciples of Jesus.

more importantly if you did this you would have the opportunity to salt your life with the words, actions and experiences of Jesus.

despite personally offering several similar preaching challenges as a speaker, i rarely act on these challenges when i hear them.

for whatever reason i responded. i came up with the strategy of reading one gospel a month, each month for 3 years. basically i would break each gospel down and roughly read a chapter or two a day. honestly, i don't believe the discipline of embarking on such an exercise is that important. the time spent seeking to know God is extremely important.

knowing increase our ability to love. this is a basic premise of relationships. i don't love my wife, courtney, more today because i have found a way to love more. each day i know her more deeply, more intimately, more completely. as my knowledge of her grows the love i have for her simply expands. i recently heard it described this way. love is like skin for knowledge, as far as relationships go. as knowledge increases the skin of "love" stretches to make room.

with this thought the need to know God better is important. because our ability to love will increase as our knowledge of God increases.

so i read. it wasn't always easy. in fact, many times i became bored with the stories i was reading and rereading. 2 or 3 months over the course of the 3 years i didn't even finish the entire gospel. 

despite this, my knowledge of Jesus did increase, i began to see the parables He shared and His experiences with people and miracles in a different light. 

truth is this is to fresh in my mind to attempt to sum anything up neatly with 3 points, but i do want to share some basics themes which i noticed over these years.

1. my life is more salted with Jesus. not in a "what would Jesus do" way, hoping to have the answer to all life situations at my finger tips. more like, i know Jesus more intimately now and the strength of our relationship allows me to be more humble, more caring, more daring, more courageous, MORE SUBMISSIVE TO GOD.

2. as i read and reread the story of Jesus being crucified, i am now more keenly aware of how Jesus, who I also believe is God, submitted himself fully to God and God in turn submitted fully to Jesus. perfect relationship! the relationship God wants with us. 

God's submission for us=send God's son to die on a cross 

our submission to God=give up control of our lives, the way God, Jesus, gave up control and died on the cross

3. i want to follow the teachings of Jesus. i don't care if i am a good christian. i just want to follow what Jesus taught.

i would suggest to anyone, spend 3 years with Jesus. find your own system, but read the gospels over and over for 3 years. 

Caution: Knowing God may cause you to act in a manner contrary to our culture!

(It may be possible that many of us who believe in God do not know God. What do you think?)

In March of 2005, the speaker actually said every christian should read the gospels over and over for 3 years. 

Have you ever read the gospels? If so, how did they affect you? If not, why haven't you read the gospels?

Do you believe every christian should spend 3 years with Jesus? Why or why not?