From the Greatness of God Toward a Christlife

My girls and my brother's girls encountering the Cloud Gate,
the Chicago Bean, for the first time on their first trip to Chicago.

Kids being born.

An amazing sunset.

A majestic waterfall.

A towering mountain.

Each an opportunity to encounter God.

Sometimes people who live in the mountain become immune to the majesty right outside their window. Yet when those of us from the plains go and see the mountain, it's incredible. 

I remember taking Isaac to Detroit for the first time when he was younger, he was amazed with the city. He had seen it for the first time. But for someone who lives in Detroit, it is just another day in the city.  

When it comes to God, we live our ordinary lives with extraordinary God-things around us all the time.  And the extraordinary begins to be missed. And we forget the greatness of God because we are surrounded by it. God doesn't want to be confined to just the extraordinary things like sunsets, waterfall, and the birth of children. He wants to be part of your life in the ordinary things.

God wants to change the world. He grabs people's attention through wonderful, and sometimes tragic, things, but it is our responsibility to also live the countercultural Christlife that grabs people's attention. We love when others would hate. We live to serve others when others live for themselves. We bring selflessness into a world of selfishness. If those of us who claim to be Christians started living as Christians rather than just giving intellectual assent to the idea of Jesus, then we would start showing the world the equivalent of an amazing sunset rather than a dark, stormy sky. A beautiful waterfall rather than a raging, destructive flood.

This can't happen through our own efforts; it comes through tapping into the strength God provides. God wants to be glorified. God deserves to be glorified. It's not for His sake; it's for ours. When He is glorified and we see Him for who He really is, our lives will never be the same. We can overcome that addictive sin, love the unlovable person in our life, stop the destructive habits, and give sacrificially. These things will be easy to do if we encounter God, allow His Spirit to lead us, and continue in His strength.

None of these things will happen if we don't really encounter God. If we use church just for a place to raise up moral kids, we won't encounter God. If we go to church so we can feel like we have done our religious work for the week, we won't encounter God. If we do spiritual things to be seen by others, we won't encounter God.

We must seek God - passionately, desperately, wholeheartedly, and with every ounce of our being. When we seek, we will find. When we find, we will be changed.

Our change starts with God. Overcoming our struggles starts with God. Enduring hardship starts with God. We just have to get a glimpse of God, a real glimpse, and we will change. If you have something in your life that you feel that you can't change, which we all do if we are honest with our spiritual lives, then we should draw closer to God. He is wonderful. He is all-powerful. He is eternal. He is beautiful. His presence brings us to our knees and causes us to see our truly sinful state.

God is glorified through the beauty of His creation that He has called good. And He wants to be glorified in the greatest love of His creation, you. He loves you and wants others to see His glory through you.

The most important thing that can happen in our life is that we truly experience God. The real God. Not the imaginary God that we make up. It's not getting married, having a baby, or even being physical being born. It's encountering the life-changing God.

We are the biggest obstacle to the most important thing. We get in the way of us truly seeing God. We keep too busy to notice Him. We justify away His greatness. The fact is that we live in this modern world and can explain things. We can explain how the beauty of the colors in a sunset happen scientifically. We can explain the science behind a baby being conceived and born. We can explain how mountains were formed. But that doesn't mean that we still shouldn't be in awe of them. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be in awe of their Creator.

We look at the Sistine Chapel and can still say that Michelangelo was a great artist.

We can hear the Brandenburg Concerto and marvel at the talent of Bach.

Or let me put it in more modern terms.

We can watch an episode of Breaking Bad and really appreciate the fact that the writers, actors, and directors have mastered their craft.

We can play Minecraft and appreciate the talent and vision of Notch.

We can hear a song by our favorite artist - for me an Avett Brothers song - and appreciate their touching lyrics and creativity.

We can see an amazing car and know that there are great engineers that designed it.

We marvel at an amazingly designed building and appreciate the architects and craftsmen.

Most of us here can't duplicate these accomplishments. And that is why we appreciate them. We can explain how they are done, but that doesn't take away their marvel. Their beauty.

And when it comes to the creation of God, we may be able to explain how it is beautiful, how the rivers were shaped, and all that jazz. But that doesn't take away the Creator's beauty. His majesty. His glory.

God is indescriblable. I can't give you a definition that can encapsulate Him. I can't develop a theology that encloses Him. Too often, Christians contain God within the Bible. We turn the book that is supposed to unleash Him into this world into a cage. But God is greater than any man-made cage. He will not be contained. He's greater than any one song of praise we may sing. He is vast. He is majestic. And we can't completely describe Him. If we would really take time out of our day to worship God, to bask in His presence, to understand just a little bit of Who He is and what He wants from us, to silently bow in His presence, then we will experience a renewed sense of awe. We will be humbled, and we will be changed. Our lives will be changed. Our communities will be changed. Our families will be changed. Everything will be changed.

Zecharias encountered God and his lips were sealed until the birth of his son. Bringing about a changed life that brought incredible things.

Isaiah encountered God and went forth. Another changed life that brought incredible things.

Moses encountered God at the burning bush. Another changed life that brought incredible things.

Paul on the road to Damascus. Another changed life that brought incredible things.

When we encounter God, we will be changed. And maybe incredible things will follow. But if they don't, who cares? We just encountered God. And that's enough. More than enough.

A Civilized Faith

"But then the worst thing happened that could happen to any fighter, you got civilized."

That's what Mickey told Rocky when he quit as Rocky's trainer. Rocky once had a passion, a thirst, and a desire. As he became successful and rich, that initial zeal disappeared.

Unfortunately, we do the same with our faith. We civilize our faith. "Civilize" means "bring (a place or people) to a stage of social, cultural, and moral development considered to be more advanced." Historically, it's how Westerners viewed their role when encountering native tribes in Africa or the Americas. They were to teach them society's ways, culture, and the right ways to behave.

One of the big problems that I see with civilizing our faith is that it goes completely against what we are intended to be as followers of Jesus.

Instead of assimilating with the social, cultural, and moral advancements, or regressions if you prefer, of society around us, we, the church, should be anti-civilized and strive to be like the early church in teaching and practice. It is true that we fail at times, but we want the Holy Spirit to move among us like it did in the early church. We want transformed lives like that which was common in the early church. We want to be radical followers of Jesus like those who were in the early church.

The church's truth should be unwavering through the ages. We should stand up for the truth of Scripture no matter which direction the winds of society and culture blows. Sometimes those winds blow like a tornado destroying everything in their path.

The methods of church change even when we are trying to be like the early church in teachings and in practice. We're not doing the Gregorian chants of times past. Videos are frequently used in teaching. We have designated buildings to meet in rather than homes. But it seems like all great revivals begin when a group of people get serious about going back to Scripture and living out the radical teachings contained within that sacred text despite the culture's teachings around them. The church should transform the culture, not the culture transforming the church.

Yet we have this tendency to civilize the radical demands of Scripture time and time and again. We have had great, amazing leaders pull us back to Jesus and His word only to then live lives devoid of that inspirational and world-changing passion. Martin Luther went  back to the Scriptures, and the world was changed. Then, in what seems to be typical, his movement created a new standard, non-radical status quo. Many of the people who came through his line of spirituality have now lost their radical passion for Jesus. John Wesley did the same. Like those from the strain of Luther, his movement followed suit and created a new standard, non-radical status quo. And my streams founders, Alexander and Thomas Campbell and Barton Stone did the same, and our movement - despite being one of the few Christian groups growing in the United States - wavers between establishing a standard, albeit  nondenominational, non-radical status quo instead of radically following this call of Jesus on our lives. As the time from experiencing the passion of the original founders of these great movement grows, the zeal begins to diminish. There is this constant tug to create an institution that can exist without the power of God. Yet we are called, not to an institution, but a movement that transforms our lives, our homes, our workplaces, and community. We aren't called to separate ourselves from the world; we're called to join in on God's transformation of this world.

This cycle of surrender and eventual corruption isn't just an institutional problem; it seems to also happen in our lives. We will draw close to Jesus and surrender all, but  then the world will creep in. Its social teachings. Its cultural teachings. Its moral teachings. If we aren't careful, we will find ourselves slowly conforming one small compromise at a time. Then we wake up and realize how far we have strayed. Usually, we pop back and start following Jesus radically once again. But sometimes people don't. And that's the danger. The fallen culture will gladly take us back in and rebreak us into what we once were, or even worse.

Others take a different approach. They isolate themselves from the storm of society. But instead of hiding in the cellar of pseudo-Christianity where we find safety from destructive winds of society, we are called to march out into the wind with Jesus guiding us, to clothe ourselves in His protection, and bring others to a point where they join in.

We need to get back to our roots. Most Christian movements that linger on today have incredible roots. We need to live out New Testament Christianity in a time greatly detached from those days. We need to avoid falling prey to becoming an institution rather than a mission station. We sometimes want to hole up in our cellars that we call churches and isolate from society. Some even think churches are too corrupted, and they just hole themselves up in their home. But we're called to something greater than that, a life together surrendered to Jesus.

We segregate our faith from our regular life because that is the civilized thing to do. Civilized people have a personal faith and keep it to themselves. In doing that, we miss out on Jesus because the Spirit is found in the wind. He's found out there among humanity. In the pain and in the suffering. In joy and the celebration. He is not contained in a book or a building; He is unleashed from that book and that building.

Jesus is not found in a religion that becomes an institution devoid of truth and love. He can be found in the every day, in every moment, in every emotion. Seek and you shall find.

Wake Up My Brothers. Wake Up My Sisters.

I know many of you are having trouble adjusting to what America has become. I see it in your Facebook posts, hear it in your letters to the editors, and in the passing snide comments you make when we have conversations about America. The disillusionment is palpable. I understand your frustration and cynicism.

As a whole, we, Americans, are generally good people and very charitable. Individually, we are the most generous people in the world.  We have had our shining moments in history and done many great things for those in our nation and the world around us.

But let's be honest, collectively, we also have a dark side. A side we get ticked off about when it is taught in history classes. A side that we try to ignore like Dr. Jekyll tried to hide his Mr. Hyde. We are flawed. We have committed great evils. We aren't God's nation, and we aren't always on God's side. The hard to acknowledge truth is that we have never completely been on God's side. We have good moments. We have evil moments.

Even before our founding, there were Christians who had to flee Massachusetts and establish Rhode Island because they spoke out against our treatment of the Indians. Throughout our history, people who have stood up for the rights of others have been persecuted like Roger Williams was by the Massachusetts authorities. This theme reoccurs time and time again throughout our history. Let's be honest and admit that this is definitely not a sign of a people following Jesus.

We're just another nation filled with people made in the image of God who fail to live up to our design. Flawed at times. Beautiful at times. Some of us are followers of Jesus. Many of us are not. Our ideals are generally good. We value the equality of all, democracy, liberty, and the ability to become whatever you have the skills and desire to become. But the devil isn't in our ideals, it's in the working out of those ideals. Those ideals seem to rarely manifest themselves.

This makes our situation all the more confusing. When we look at the flag, we envision those ideals. When we pledge allegiance, we commit to those ideals. We go to a memorial and are reminded of those great principles. All this while our nation is actually far from them. We like to imagine our place as the most exceptional nation this world has ever seen.

The parade beckons. The march begins. The trumpets sound. The alluring siren call pulls us in. America can do no wrong. We must follow our nation no matter what it asks me to do or how much it will cost. We must be brave. We must be free.

These ideals stir our spirit. In them, we find our identity. They build us up and spur us on toward greater things. We want that ideal America. And the puppeteers who would manipulate us know this. They pull the strings that move us. We find ourselves being used as puppets of the State in a performance we have no desire to be in rather than as servants of the Most High God who love our enemies, our neighbors, and everyone around us.

We must wake up from our misrepresented American dream and live the life that God has destined us to live. The Church has been asleep too long.  

We were once under a spell that hypnotized us into believing in the illusion that we were a Christian nation. I know that it should have been obvious to us that we weren't, but it wasn't. We are easily tricked because of our desire to believe. Our treatment of the Indians, our history of slavery, our struggle for equal and civil rights, our oppression of poor, less empowered, and disenfranchised people around the world, and all the other signs throughout our history that reveal something other than God is controlling our nation. Oh, how we wish it wasn't so, but lying to ourselves, pretending that our reality is not what it is, and refusing to leave our twilight state does us no good.

We want to be deceived. We long to believe in the illusion we have of America rather than the actuality of what our nation is. The magic disappears when we see that there is no wizard, just a person behind the curtain.

The truth that we fail to live up to our ideals is not popular. We want to believe that we're the new Israel, God's special nation, a city on a hill, and the light of the world. But that role has already been taken, and it was not given to America by God. Instead, that role was placed upon the Church. A Church that must stand up for the truths of God, like Pastor Roger Williams did in standing up for the Indians. We must stand up for His truth and His people whether or not those truths are popular with our nation or those who are our neighbors.

Fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus, we live in an amazing time. The alarm clock was set and is now sounding. We can wake up from our slumber and begin to live victoriously in the life and calling that Jesus has for us. Or we can hit snooze. We can love our enemies, whether or not they threaten our nation. Or we can just love our friends and family. We can love our neighbors, whether or not they share our political affiliation. Or we can just love those like us. We can love our brothers and sisters, whether or not they have a different earthly government. Our we can establish a special place for people born on the same soil as us. Jesus is saying, "Follow Me. Even if your nation won't follow. Follow Me into a better world."