Tag: Jesus

Do You Know Jack?

I’ve recently been discussing the idea of truth with an acquaintance. Is it possible to know the truth? Where is truth to be found? We can discover truths by observations in nature or Scripture, but the challenge becomes assembling truths into a coherent model of reality or the truth. Of course, nobody knows how many truths there are to be discovered, so any claim to academic knowledge of the truth must be qualified.

But Jesus promises that those who persist in following him not only can but WILL know the truth. Look at what he says in this familiar passage:

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32

What could he mean? Was he wrong or naive? The answer lies in the definition of the Greek word for “to know” which is used here. Like many other languages, ancient Greek had two words for “to know.” The one used here refers to personal, experiential knowledge as in, “Do you know Jack?” So Jesus promises that those who follow him will know the truth like someone knows a good friend or their spouse.

Finding the truth then becomes a practical pursuit rather than an academic one. Truth becomes the property of the humble rather than the intellectual. Best of all, those who know the truth in this way have just begun an eternity of joyful discovery of limitless truths.

King of Pain

Remember the song, “Doctor My Eyes” by Jackson Browne? For you younger folks, here is a link to his performance of it:

http://youtu.be/pCTYxIsLThA

I believe this song accurately describes life in a fallen kingdom.

I’ve been thinking today about our amazing capacity for denial. Somehow we’re able to hurt, be hurt, or see hurt and just go on with life. Maybe we do this because grieving takes too much time. Or perhaps we fear that should be begin to mourn we will never stop. So, we “pinch it off.” We justify harmful actions, minimize them, or just ignore them. We do this but not without cost. When we bury hurt or regret, a part us gets suffocated. The shell which protects our vulnerability also imprisons our sympathy. We find that when we want to cry or at least should cry, we can’t.

Sadly, the one negative emotion which continues to seep out is anger. Because we’ve buried the hurt itself, the anger which seeps out manifests itself in ways which are disassociated from the original event. Subtle digs on others, quiet disdain, and outright abuse all perpetuate pain as anger widens its influence through others who will then deny their hurt. Can we really believe that the prevalence and predictability of this dynamic is attributable solely to psychological factors? I would like to suggest an alternate theory.

I believe that a malevolent spiritual entity insinuated pain into the stream of human society and that through denial he continues to proliferate it. Why? Because he exerts control through extortion and blackmail. To borrow now from an eighties’ song, Satan is the “King of Pain.” Every repressed hurt becomes a handle by which the devil and his agents can lead people around. By participating in denial, people unwittingly submit to Satan’s control in their lives.

For support of this idea, consider Jesus’ words from John 14:30 regarding Satan’s influence, “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me (literally, he has nothing in me).” Jesus never sinned therefore he had no secret shame or repressed guilt. When wronged, Jesus readily confronted and/or forgave therefore he carried no repressed offense. The life of Jesus was the “in-breaking” of the kingdom of God.

So how do we check out of the kingdom of pain and into the kingdom of the Son once we’ve yielded to our enemy? In the second sentence of his great sermon on the nature of his kingdom, Jesus spoke these words, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” With all of the pain in our fallen world, there is a danger that mourning could consume us. We don’t have to be afraid. Jesus promises comfort. We can talk with him and each other about the ways we’ve been hurt and caused hurt. In this way, will we overcome the King of Pain.

Stop Going to Worship

Why do Christians “go to church?”  Many people would respond, “to worship God.”  I don’t want to nix that notion entirely because I believe that we worship wherever we are, but I can’t find anything in the New Testament which suggests that our corporate meetings are or ought to be any more worshipful than the rest of our lives. 

So, why did the first century Christians meet?

1 Cor. 14:26 says, “What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”

They met together so that the whole group could be built up.  At their gatherings the body of Christ was conditioned to accomplish the task it had been given.  Think of church like a football team which spends time together in the gym and scrimmaging to improve its chances of winning the game.

Sadly, when we view our meetings as “going to worship” we confuse training with the game.  Our collective time, money, and attention flow to bigger gyms and more exciting workouts.  Sooner or later, we start high-fiving after a rigorous scrimmage and feel little tension to actually play the game.

Training is important but it only makes sense when we actually leave the gym and hit the field.  God has called us to make disciples and to express his love.  That’s the game.  When we play the game, we’ll know our need for the training.  No one will have to convince us to value our meetings.  We won’t need to be enticed through high quality performances or programs.  We won’t nit pick the details.

So, are there times and occasions when we especially worship?  As a matter of fact, there are:

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.  And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:15-16

Swept Away

I saw The Great Commission with fresh eyes again today.  Here it is:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV 2010)

As I read it, the words, “baptizing them” jumped off of the page at me.  The words seemed so forceful, almost violent.  Our Lord commands us to grab people and push them under the water.  It’s kind of scary.  Perhaps you’ve not seen it that way before.  Perhaps, baptism has become a safe religious ritual or a “symbol.”  Maybe its become these things because theologians over the centuries have succumbed to the temptation to soften the blow by redefining what’s really happening at baptism.

Even the word “baptism” was invented by theologians who were afraid to directly translate the Greek, baptizo, as “immerse.”  Baptism is immersion; immersion is baptism.  Immersion requires a 100% commitment. Look at definitions 3 and 4 for immersion from Dictionary.com:

3.  state of being deeply engaged or involved; absorption.

4.  baptism in which the whole body of the person is submerged in water

Coincidence? I don’t think so.  In telling his disciples to make disciples, Jesus built total commitment into the process.  Jesus never allowed people to audit discipleship.  “Follow me” meant leave all else, witholding nothing.  To be his disciple, a person must allow Jesus to literally and figuratively sweep them off their feet.  They must fall headlong into his agenda for them.  I’m not saying that the “sinner’s prayer” doesn’t work.  I’m just saying that besides the fact that it is no where precedented in Scripture, it is more likely to result in half-hearted professers rather than whole life disciples.

In fact, everything about the Great Commission implies that discipleship begins with full engagement, involvement, and absorption into Christ.  Look at it again:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20 NIV 2010, emphasis added)

To paraphrase, Jesus is saying,”I am the supreme ruler of the universe.  Invite people to accept my unconditional authority in their lives and then tell them what it is they signed up for.”

The Normal Christian Life

Watchman Nee, a twentieth century Chinese church planter and teacher, said:

“What is the normal Christian life?  We do well at the outset to ponder this question.  The object of these studies is to show that it is something very different from the life of the average Christian.  Indeed a consideration of the written Word of God — of the Sermon on the Mount for example — should lead us to ask whether such a life has ever in fact been lived upon the earth, save only by the Son of God Himself.  But in that last saving clause lies immediately the answer to our question.” – The Normal Christian Life

What comes to your mind when I say the word, “Christian”?  Do images of church services, moral prohibitions, or “family values” project themselves onto your consciousness?  According to a 2007 Barna study, here is what comes to mind when non-Christians who are age 16-29 hear that word:

  • 91% said antihomosexual
  • 87% said judgmental
  • 85% said hypocritical
  • 78% said old-fashioned
  • 75% said too involved in politics
  • 72% said out of touch with reality
  • 70% said insensitive to others

We might want to blame prejudice fostered in the media for these results, but 84% of the respondents said they had Christian friends.  To some degree, this distorted picture of Christianity on display in the minds of non-believers has been painted by the average Christian.

The American brand of Christianity repels those whom Christ came to save because it is abnormal.  Why would such a perversion exist?  Perhaps we could list many reasons but one stands at the root- consumerism.  Simply put, Christ calls people to “come and die;” the church calls people to come and sit.  Jesus confronted people and because of that, “many turned back and no longer followed him.”  We see no record of Jesus chasing them out the door to better explain what he meant.  He simply turned to the few who were left and invited them to leave if they wanted to.   The church on the other hand placates because the leaders fear that people will leave and take their money with them.  Should not a Christ-like church regularly experience defections of the disgruntled?

Those in church leadership must, by the power of the indwelling Spirit, hold up and aspire to the high bar of Christ-likeness.  That is the normal Christian life.  We must fearlessly confront average Christians and reject those who would pay us for a manufactured messiah.  We must invest in the few who are ready to give all and ignore the many who just want to give some.

It won’t be easy.  Few will choose this path of their own accord.  However, I believe there is coming a time when many will be forced to choose.  Lord, hasten the day!

The Parable of Fish


There once was a poor farming village.  The sandy ground bore little fruit despite the daily toil of the inhabitants.  They fought over the meager produce and the weak starved to death.  No one considered leaving the village because the leaders, out of desire to maintain control, had told everyone that they were surrounded for miles and miles by trackless desert.

One day, a stranger came to the village.  He was different.  He didn’t farm or fight for food.  Instead, he would regularly cross the berm which surrounded the village and come back with a mess of fish that he would share with those who were too weak to farm or fight.  It didn’t take long before he had inspired the admiration of the villagers and the disdain of the leaders.

Some followed him on his fishing trips and discovered that rather than being surrounded by desert, they were located by a vast ocean.  The Fisherman showed them how to cast a line into the dark depths and bring up a catch.  Every day the Fisherman would head out with his little troop of followers.  Some days they would bring in hundreds of fish.  Other days were more difficult.  The Fisherman explained that while this ocean would always yield plenty of fish, there would be days and weeks which would require more persistence to bring in the catch.

In time, the villagers lost interest in farming and fighting.  They got more interested in fishing.  The leaders, who sensed that they were losing control over the people, decided to have the Fisherman killed.  They gathered several of the best fighters and cornered the Fisherman.  They killed him in a back alley and threw his body in the ocean.

The damage had already been done, however.  The villagers had learned to fish and continued to do so.  As the Fisherman had predicted, however, some of their outings yielded little or no results.  When they would return empty-handed, the leaders and other villagers would laugh at them and offer them some of their produce.  The leaders would say, “You can’t expect to catch as much as that guy.  He was different from you.  You’re a farmer and you need to return to farming.”

The Fisherman’s followers thought this made sense but they didn’t want to dishonor the memory of their friend by giving up on what he had taught them.  They also had learned a unique and impressive skill which set them apart from the other villagers.  The leaders understood their reservations and made the fishermen an offer.  They would build a beautiful fountain in the middle of the village as a monument to the Fisherman where people could come and learn about how to fish from the followers.

At first, this plan worked beautifully.  Villagers regularly turned out to watch this sacred ritual and learn how to do it.  The fishermen were revered, respected, and sought after for their unique skills.  Villagers would pick their favorite fisherman based on his particular style or his elaborate equipment.  They would spend time arguing about who was best.

After a few years, though, the demands of farming and fighting began to pull interest away from this new curiosity.  Even the Fisherman’s followers struggled to find time to devote to fishing in the fountain.  So that the ritual wouldn’t die out altogether, they scheduled a weekly fishing session when the faithful would gather begrudgingly for an hour at the fountain to discuss fishing and watch the experts ply their trade.  Then everyone would go back to his fields for the rest of the week.

Lord, teach us again to pray.