nobrokenreed

The Mechanics Challenge

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So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? – Hebrews 2

A good mate of mine runs a mobile mechanic business. I’ve watched him grow it over the years, such that it is now has a few dozen mobile mechanics, driving hither and thither around the country each day. Like all good businesses, there is people and process, systems and method that each day make the wheels turn. It’s got to be reasonably harmonious to work.

But, here’s the rub. His mechanics have to achieve a certain workload each week, for them to be able to stay on. The business provides them all the tools, systems and leads for them to achieve their weekly targets, but they have to do the work. If they don’t, well there’s a waiting list. You see, there are quite a few people now in the business who have families and mortgages, and everyone has to keep on track to make sure the business can feed everyone.

It’s simple really isn’t it. Around the world today, millions upon millions will wake up and get out of bed, go to work, to meet certain requirements in our lives. For some, such as sports people who play at peak levels, the requirements can be very arduous indeed. All of us have expectations, demands on our lives.

Which brings us rather nicely to a Holy God.

It is the Holiness side of God’s character that demands from us, and very few people in the world want to face that prospect, believers included. Yet it is there, and will not go away. But in the book of Hebrews, it says also that Jesus is God, both God and man, and that means he too, has certain demands on us, especially as believers. Salvation is not the end of the story, it is the beginning.

I don’t want to get into a big works debate here, but to say simply this as believers we are not saved by works, but for good works. James would take that a step further, and say if there was no evidence of good works, then perhaps we should be looking hard at our faith in Christ. So, why then do most believers think that once they are saved, nothing further is required. Maybe nothing further is from the truth.

So, another very good friend of mine sent me an email a few weeks ago, that I have been thinking about ever since, and I wanted to share it with you. There’s a mission organisation in a large developing nation that runs a programme for church planters. This mission has only locals doing the work, and it is a tough gig, comparable to any peak sports performance requirement. Each missionary is trained for a year, at a cost of several times the national average salary (which though, is peanuts to most of us) and then they are cut free.

They also, like the mechanics, have a mandate and it is this. Every year, they must commit to planting two churches, consisting of 10 new converts each, and then train those converts to repeat the business. To do that, they are likely going to have to talk to 600 non-believers about their faith. As you might expect, the cost of doing that is high indeed. There will be persecution and hardship.

If they don’t? Well, believe it or not, there is queue of others a mile long waiting to do the same. All they lack is funds.

They have the entire resources of heaven behind them, because friends, this is the work that is top of God’s mind every single day. We get to co-partner with him, if we choose to do so.

So, as a small gathering here, we are looking at setting ourselves a similar challenge. A new church of 10 new converts just from our village. We will do the work, but we expect Jesus to turn up. He has given us the method, the systems and most of all himself through the Holy Spirit to make sure we achieve that goal. Surely the odds are in our favour.

You see friends, Jesus has made certain demands on our time and life, and he has given us clear commands. There is an expectation. Years of soft-peddling the Gospel in the West has led most to believe that they can accept Jesus into their hearts and then carry on living as they always have, but nowhere in the Gospel does it say that. It just about says the contrary.

So, after Easter, let each of us ask the question, what are we going to do to obey him? In your local community, wherever you are, commit prayerfully to such a goal of going out and finding ten new converts and bringing them together, teaching them to do the same.

In doing so, it would seem you will be right at the very heart of what Jesus wants to do in this world before he comes again. How good is that?

 

PS for anyone who is interested, the mission organisation are also interested in a small team who will give, pray and even consider visiting those church planters; if they had the funding right now, they could double at least, the current number of church planters in that country. Email me if this moves you, and we can perhaps do something.

The Fullness of Christ – part 3

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Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. – 1 John 2:15

Earlier this week, I skipped onto the David Bowie site. For those who don’t know, though I doubt there are many, Bowie was a music icon who died more than a year ago. I grew up with Bowie and was a big fan for much of my young adult life, who knows, perhaps he was even an idol. I thought it strange that, after just 12 months, so few are talking about him. What does his website look like now?

If you log onto his website, you will see as I did, that his final single release is called ‘No Plan.’ I watched the video and I was intrigued, because in it Bowie describes how, for the first time in his life, he has no need of a plan. He knows he is going to die, therefore, who needs a plan? I’m sure vast epistles have been preached on this subject, but I did spend some time wondering about how I spend so much of my time planning my life in this world, with so little attention devoted to the next. Alas, even the care of my teeth, which are not in great shape I have to report, take careful planning. Should I even bother? Does God shake his head in disbelief at the fact that humans plan every aspect of their lives down to the minutiae, without so much as a cursory consideration as to what might happen when we die? I don’t think so, as he really does know what we are like.

Soon we shall come to Easter, a time of year I personally love, and I have been drawn back to the wonderful work of Isaiah. Nothing speaks more of God’s relationship to his creation through his Son, than that book. Sometimes a little theology is helpful in our understanding of a Heavenly Father. More on that in the coming weeks for those of you who might occasionally glance this way.

Other than that?

Well, last Sunday we met with 2 groups of people, both believers, both very different and both at interesting stages. In the morning, we met with a few believers who perhaps should have been more mature given the length of time in the faith, yet somewhere along the line their faith had grown cold. Why is that so common – is Jesus really that dull?

The answer is that, for whatever reason, Jesus had been replaced in their lives. As is so often the case, Jesus gets replaced by all sorts of things in our lives. Liturgy, doctrine, apathy, the world, all that is shiny, the list can be extensive.  Merely though, that we choose to follow other things than him. He becomes routine.

“I’ll follow you wherever you may go.”

“Do you realise that foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head?”

There’s no mistaking it; you’re not going to have an easy life if you follow the Son of Man. Each of us needs to have that squared away, comprehending who he is and deciding, “yes I want to follow him no matter what.” In the process of following him, there will certainly be a way of life that is like his. Surely that makes sense. John testifies, “anyone who claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”

We grow cold, when we say to ourselves, “I want to follow Jesus but I don’t intend to walk as he walked. I have another way to follow him.” As Paul prophesied would be the case, such events in Christendom are very popular. Most believers (and many non-believers who perhaps think they are believers) think like this.  It’s easy, so it goes, to follow Jesus when he’s going East and you’re going West. Can that truly be the case, that we can follow him without submission? Of course not, but it seems to me, much more practical than that as well.

We go where he goes, live like he lives, think like he does, speak like he does, pray as he does, love like he does. I cannot find any other way to follow Jesus.

As we do, like the Apostles before us, our lives become “testified with great power” and “great grace was upon them all.” There is evident a quality of life that seems to converge with the testimony of Jesus.  As a direct result, other lives became like his, believers walked it out as he walked it out, and understood what made the Father pleased, how relationships should work. As only he can.

It is very important – crucial in fact, that Jesus does not get replaced by some form of religion, or pomp, or formula, or idea or any externals. Else, we shall live impoverished, fabricated lives that are a show to others as to how pious we are, when deep down, the true riches of relationship with the Son of Man are missing. Eventually, tedious routine. It is about walking simply with the Master, and then linking arms with anybody who wants to walk that way too.

As we behold Him, we are transformed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another. We come to him, to each other, eyes-wide-open, all my heart, soul and mind and live it for him. His teaching, His way of life.

Nothing else needed.

The Fullness of Christ – part 2

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T’oma said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going; so how can we know the way?”  Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him — in fact, you have seen him.” – John 14: 5-7 (Complete Jewish Bible)

We’ve heard this so many times before. Do we believe it though? Like Thomas and Philip, who had been with Jesus for so long, do we not scratch our heads and wonder, ‘do I know God?’ One minute we didn’t, but apparently now we know God. How is it possible? It’s encouraging at least, that the work of ‘knowing God’ seems to be His responsibility.

This week on the streets, we met Fred. Slightly addled, extremely nervous, Fred surprisingly knew a lot about church, God, the Bible and other things. His thinking though wasn’t clear, instead it was very confused. We’ve met many other people, some devotees of church and God for years, and in all seriousness very devout, who still don’t ‘know God.’ What is wrong with us all?

God, it would seem, wants us to understand that the truth about Jesus is greater than our current introspection.

“Now you know me.”

We do? If Jesus says we know him, then the only question must surely be, do we believe him? It is the beginning of real faith, of having our lives filled with the Fullness of Christ, to have faith that what he says is true, is real. If we are to experience what he said, we have to believe it. Christ dwells in our hearts, only by faith.

Our wiring though, after centuries of being told by all and sundry that such things might not be true, demands a certain proof before we will believe. He came to re-wire us. Forget what you’ve heard or even experienced, what I say to you is truth. Our faith must be child-like. If we struggle to see it, then we must ask him. “Help me to see how I know you. I don’t think I do, but I’m obviously wrong, because you say I do.”

There are many other Scriptures that call for the exact same kind of response. “Reckon yourselves dead to sin.” What is our usual response? “I’m not dead to sin, why only this morning…” As long as we keep arguing with God, then not only will we be wrong, but we are never going to experience walking in the Fullness of Christ; instead, we walk in unbelief. We hear the words, but like the Hebrews before us, we simply will not believe them.

You are dead to sin. Why? Because God has said so. As believers, and especially as believers who want to tell others about Jesus, our ability to live out The Way, The Truth and The Life every day, depends on whether we are hiding in Him alone for our fulfilment. No matter how we feel, or even what we think, our rest, our life, our hope must be in him alone.

“Am I saved?”

“Is Jesus saved?”

I have been thinking about this a lot. After years of listening to people, many of whom seemed so desperate to find some meaning in their lives in the church, what has gone so terribly wrong? The conclusion must surely be, we simply do not believe what God has told us about His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no formula to living the “victorious Christian life” or finding the “perfect church”. The perfect Christian corporate life is a bunch of people who are totally sold out to the idea that Jesus is the answer to every question in life. Our willingness to love The Truth, to put our faith entirely in Him, is the beginning of our ability to walk in the Gospel and to “taste the powers of the coming age.”

This is the Gospel we must announce to the world, that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s every requirement of us, he is the Yes and the Amen to every promise and every hope of God. We must just settle that in our hearts. When we are frustrated, or tempted, when ‘stuff’ is happening to us, whether good or bad, we must never waiver: Jesus is the answer, the answer has been given, the Word has become flesh, God’s every dream and every hope for mankind is fulfilled in us, as we believe in the One he has sent.

“Do we know God? – Yes”

“How do we know that we know Him? – Because he has already said so.”

The Fullness of Christ – part 1

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When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Instantly the man could see, and followed him along the way. – Mark 10:47, 52

Around the world, millions of people claim Jesus as their Saviour, and are indeed saved according to Biblical definition. Yet, of those, only a few will ever experience in this life, what it means to have the fullness of Christ. That is, a relationship with Christ which is simply fully immersed into him. There is no ‘Jesus-and.’

Such a bond doesn’t involve a 5-step process, or adoption of Four Laws, signing a piece of paper or saying a prayer. Neither is it about my doctrine, the one that insists I must repent sufficiently, attend church, be baptized or pray regularly enough. Incidentally, if you settle for religion – no matter how high, or pure, or lofty the ideal, you will end up frustrated.

You can see and enter the Kingdom of God, only by being born of God, through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. The Father has left it to the Son to save us. It is his choice. But there is more, much more than just this.

Every spiritual blessing is in Christ as well. If you want to relate that to ‘a great prayer life’, or holiness, peace or something else, then just fill in the blanks with him, because Jesus is that blessing. He is Salvation in its entirety. We still think it has to do with some nugget, some teaching or activity of ours that we can do, and then we will have it. Jesus-and.

When blind Bartimaeus was along the roadside, he didn’t cry out to Jesus, “what must I do to receive sight?” he cried out, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Everyone pushed him back, in unison they told him “he doesn’t’ have time for you, just follow his teaching (you can collect your Braille book on the 20-greatest teachings of Jesus from over there). But he said, NO!, I just want Him. I want Jesus. So it is with salvation. A saved person should never be someone who has accepted just a set of ideas, or teachings and has therefore become a Christian. They are someone who says, “Jesus or nothing.” The set of ideas, the handout, the philosophy or theology, none of it is enough. Only he will suffice.

We, you and I, need to decide whether we really want to see or whether we are happy to pretend. It has been concerning me for so long. Jesus-and, doesn’t work.

If that is true of salvation my friends, then it is also true of becoming a man or woman of God. Or, perhaps of becoming a person of prayer, of being set free from whatever bondage in your life you need release from, or from becoming the person of sacrifice you always intend to be. Let us, all of us, just go after the person, not a self-help list of things to do, which gives us temporary success at best. Finally, we think we will have it, but we won’t. We are going to have to meet him to receive the blessings, because He is the only blessing.

For blind Bartimaeus, he needed to burst through the crowd of people who wanted to push him back into place, to approach Jesus despite the noise, the confusion and fear of men, to dispel all of the competing ideas; he needed to have the attitude that “Jesus is my answer and everything else will have to get out of the way. I am not ashamed, and everything else I will have to relinquish. I will not be quiet. Son of David, have mercy on me.”

Jesus, just Jesus is the Way. He is the Life. The Truth. He is prayer and righteousness, and love and self-sacrifice, self discipline and kindness and Holiness. It is all found in him. So what do we do? We adopt the attitude of Jacob. The greatest deceiver in the Bible became Israel, the founder of the nation of God, he wrestled and refused to let go. Show me you’re real. Son of David, have mercy on me.

I won’t ever let go of you Jesus, the Person, I will not let you go until I have received all of you. It is the only way to live. Live your life, me, you, full-faced toward Him in every area of our life. If he says, “you are forgiven” will we believe him? If he says to us, “arise, take up your mat and walk,” will we sit there and wonder whether you are healed, or will we take him at his Word?

When we turn full-faced to Jesus, then reality springs into life. Not just for us either, but for those who are all around us, especially the unbeliever.

Just Jesus, let us do all we can to find him, to face him, to follow him. There is no substitute, not now, not ever. Him alone.

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