You used to love me more

Just watched Francis Chan teaching at IHOP. What God has done in this moment is indescribable. Francis Chan has said yes to teach in the place that many call a cult. He has said yes to the thing that will cost him reputation. He has said yes to advancing the Kingdom at all costs. Many will say he has aligned himself with Mike Bikle but we know the truth. He has aligned himself with God.

He also struck me to the core with his message. The challenge is to hear the voice of God, to stay the course even when false messengers are being sent not just by the enemy but by the Lord Himself to send us the message that will steer us from the truth of the Gospel. Why would God deliberately send delusion? Well He says He does so that is good enough but it is clear that God wants to know that when we hear Him will we stay the course? Will we do what we said we would do? He wants to know that if we have heard from Him will we be sent off course by others who have heard something else from Him? Will we go with the numbers or will we stay steady? Are we moved by man or God? Pretty simple at the end of the day. For us to know we are hearing from Him it must match with what He says and does in the Word because the Word is His living voice. For us to sync up what we hear from the Lord and what He is consistently saying then we must be in His word. We must know what it says and then we must do what it says. We must not find its use in an excuse for our shortcoming and sin but we must be rooted in the whole of what it says. We cannot be followers of men and their teachings but we must be grounded in what God says and then we must do what He says.

This was the heart of his message tonight and then he dropped into Revelation 3:1
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

What? What just happened? Who is this guy? Who is this God that he says stay the course and know the word. Don't listen to teachers who will fool you and then says through a teacher from out of nowhere, "oh by the way you need to repent." The key here is the tenderness God has for us. In verse 2 He says, "Wake up and strengthen what remains." What a gem God sees that there is this thing alive on the inside and He yells, "wake up. That thing is still in you. It's still alive. Strengthen it." It's a hard word. What God is saying is you used to love me more. Hate to hear that. Know it's true. I don't want to spend forever having loved Him more in the past.

Apparently, I am not alone. It seems pretty much the entire message of God throughout all time. Even from the first. "You used to love me more." He says it alot.

"I'm coming back to the heart of worship. It's all about You."

The pearl of great price

So amazing the things that stick in my head, the things that I finally must say something about. I have been sitting on this thought for about six months, just going back and forth with God. This then falls into the why were we taught it that other  way category of my thinking.

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells several parables. Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares (also known as the parable of the sower.), the parable of hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great price and the parable of the net. For some reason these parables are looked at separate from each other and historically this seems to have led to an interesting way of looking at the pearl of great price. ( and the parable of the field for that matter). Matthew 13:45-46 says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

In Matthew 13:44 we have a similar parable about a man who realizes there is a field that has hidden treasure so he sells everything he owns to buy the field with the hidden treasure.

Historically then these two parables are taught in the context that Jesus is the hidden treasure and the pearl and that we give up everything to have the field or the pearl. These two parables then are taught in the context of salvation. And while there is an argument to be made that this is a correct way to look at these two parables it seems in context that Jesus could not have been telling these parables to lead us to this conclusion.

In fact, for me it is very clearly the opposite conclusion we were meant to arrive at. The truth of the two stories is that we are the hidden treasure and we are the pearl of great price and God is the merchant in both parables. So let me break down the thought process on this.

Jesus begins each of the stories with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like.” This is a clear indication that Jesus wants us to know about the ways of God and how His kingdom will be revealed to us. This phrase is set in place so that we will think about how God goes about His business, not about how we go about ours. We can further understand Jesus’ method in the parables by looking at the parable of the sower, which Jesus explains immediately prior to telling the two parables of the merchant. As Jesus explains the parable of the sower He makes clear that the one who does the sowing is the Son of Man. He is the sower. And then He makes clear that the field is the world. Ok so if Jesus is the sower (the one of action) and the field is the world then we should stick with this explanation as we move to the two merchant parables. Remember that Jesus has left the crowds and is explaining how to decipher His parables to the closest disciples. This then is the road map for the stories that come next. He wants them to understand the proper order of things.

From this perspective then the action is not played out by man, but rather the action is played out by God. So when we take this as truth we can see that God sees treasure in a field (the world) and He sells all that He has to buy that field. (Sacrifices His Son). We can also see that God sees a pearl of great price (us) and He sells all that He has to buy it. (sacrifices His Son.)

The truth is that we have nothing to offer and nothing to give up. We are already dead. We are in fact darkness. Darkness cannot give up being darkness to become light. Darkness makes no decisions at all. We know that darkness must be overcome by the light. The light subdues darkness. We know that darkness ceases when light begins. What we know is that we do not have a darkness switch in our house. We have a light switch. Darkness comes and goes only after light is either switched on or switched off. Jesus is not the pearl of great price. Oh He is amazing and in Him there is only good and His kindness knows no bounds and He is slow to anger and He is deeply in love with us. And we do not know love period without Him. He loved us first and I could go on and on about this truth. He costs us nothing. We have nothing without Him. In fact, we are the pearl of great price. We in truth cost Him everything. It seems pretty obvious now.

Things you can learn from Genesis: Part seven

The second after sin.

Genesis 3:7

It is amazing that immediately after Adam and Eve choose sin their eyes are opened. They do not die and at this moment they are filled with the knowledge of good and evil. It is imperative that we understand that in God’s economy there are only two kinds of knowledge. You understand them both at once. But to be sure there is no neutral knowledge. This is the way God lays it out. This is His hard word but we must get on board because He makes clear that everything we can know boils down to good or evil. If there were a third option God would have laid that out for us.

This is troubling for most of us because there is so much that feels neutral to us. It is this place where most of us reside. Most of us are not going about our day doing things that are inherently or intuitively evil. But be sure that if it is not something of, by or for God my guess is that it falls under the category of evil. And for me it is a struggle as I write this but I want to fully understand Him, to know His ways and not just be ok with His ways but desire them fully.

Adam and Eve have eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result they are changed in an instant and know things that God never intended for them to know. So there is this element of God that He protects us from things we should not know. I get that. I do that all the time with my daughters, especially my oldest who is on the verge of knowing all that the tree of knowledge reveals. So there is something to this knowledge that is not good for us. We were not designed to navigate the reality of the knowledge of good and evil apart from God. That is one really important truth to hold on to. This is why God sends His Son because He understands that the gap is unbridgeable by man and if the gap is not bridged then we hopelessly wander toward darkness and away from light.

From the moment of sin until we see murder is just two births. We don’t know how old Adam and Eve are when Cain and Abel are born. (Both those birth lines become unimportant. Which is really interesting when you think about it.) We do know that Eve gives birth to Seth when Adam is 130 years old. We know they have Seth to replace Abel. It is through the line of Seth that we move toward Noah. Noah is born 1056 years after Adam is created by God or roughly 126 years after Adam dies. From the moment of murder until “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”(Genesis 6:5) is roughly 1500 years. And since a lifetime at that point was nearly 1000 years that is not too far removed from creation. In truth, we are talking about six hundred years give or take after Adam dies. So the point here is that the knowledge of good and evil without a savior and without the Holy Spirit pretty much leads only to evil. At least according to God.

It is interesting what the first moment after sin reveals.  Genesis 3:7 tells us, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked.” Isn’t that interesting? The horror that they experienced, the knowledge that was revealed, was that they were naked. There is something more to this than the symbolic revelation of their gender difference.

Here is my take. At the heart of our disconnect from God is an immediate revelation that the flesh has a desire for intimacy.(Lack of a better term) Once there is a disconnect from the creator (loss of intimacy with the Father) this desire is played out in the perversion of what was once pure in the eyes of God. So while all sin in God’s eyes is equally dark the ramifications of sexual impurity has a deeper impact on our hearts. This disconnect is at the heart of our lust. Because we have become separated from God we cannot quench our desire. (Our desire is for intimacy) We are told that in Him is the fullness of Joy. Apart from Him is only darkness so we cannot find the joy we would experience in God, So for whatever reason this unquenchable desire has shown itself throughout history as sexual dysfunction. To be sure we see our sin played out in many areas but we cannot forget that Adam and Eve notice nakedness not idolatry or murder, jealousy or any of the other many possibilities. 

We have seen that our selfishness is usually played out through a sexual dysfunction. It may be something as simple as obsession with personal beauty or something more devastating like fornication, adultery or same sex attraction. These things lead to countless other sin issues. The point here is that this aspect of our sin nature is revealed in the second after the fall.The truth is that the immediate effect of their sin is a devastating loss of the fullness of joy. And that is played out in the revelation of nakedness and shame. At least that's my take.

So Adam and Eve see that they are naked and they desire to be clothed. They want to run and hide, they long to be apart from God not with Him. This is also a critical component of our choosing sin. We have a deep shame that leads us farther from the creator. We literally head in the other direction leading to dark. This is the catch 22 that Jesus came to fix. He came to take our sin and give us His righteousness. Apart from Him there is only dark. And in the dark there is not a path to light. Contrary to what most believe there is only one way out of the dark and His name is Jesus. Without Him you are trapped in the dark forever. In the dark we create an entire system to make dark feel like light. In the beginning we put on some fig leaves and hope God won’t notice. After long enough in the dark we forget that God can even see us. Pretty soon we don’t care that we are naked. In the dark we can’t tell the difference anymore.

IHOP KC once again

It is our last night at IHOP KC. We don't want to come home. We have settled and this place feels like home to us. We even saw a neighborhood today that was called Newcastle (could it be a sign?) We come home, like we always do, because God is so good and His way is perfect. We come back to Brea because for now He says Brea. It is quite a thing to listen to God. His leadership is good. He is the good Father. These are not words that are casual for me. These are words I believe, fully.

IHOP is just the most amazing place. I have sat in this room day after day and just continue to have revelation of who He is.  It has now been six years. I learn more about myself with each visit. I watch my daughters blossom in Him. To be sure this can happen anywhere. But for us it happens here. That is also very real.

This week I had a very real battle. On Wednesday night I broke my own rules and let an outsider pray for me. The encounter was so mind blowing that I cannot put it into words. To be sure it took all my energy to not pass out, to stay focused. I can only tell you that I became so hot I felt sick. My ears began to ring and my vision was gone. I was either encountering the very real Holy Spirit in His glory or I was in a battle against a very real demon. I had no grid for this moment and because it came through an outsider I became frightened quite quickly.  The man frightened me more as he became arrogant with the power he felt the Lord had given him. I began to have nightmares that night. They continued for the next three days.

Today we had a trusted friend over and she prayed for me and just cast off anything that may not be from God. I had a very powerful encounter while she was praying over me. It was the same experience that I had on Wednesday, minus the fear.

I don't know about breaking my rules. She was of the opinion that the man was a brother but he was broken. She felt the presence of the Spirit on me and in me. Here is what I do know. Once she prayed over me I knew the presence of the Lord was with me and I felt way different after the encounter than I did Wednesday. There was no boasting in what we were doing. Just a deep love for who this God is. Oh how He loves us. Here is free info on that. What I have taken this visit is that I will never love myself or others until I fully know how He loves me. This is not knowledge gained. This is very real experience in Him and in His love.

IHOP KC where anything can and does happen.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 6

Did God actually Say?

Genesis 3:4-6

We are confused about the fall. We think somehow we are all punished for someone else’s mistake. Let’s be clear that well before age two every single one of us chooses sin. And lets be clear that if Adam and Eve had not sinned someone was going to at some point. So there is that. Now do we still have consequences because of the fall? Well there does seem to be truth in that. But that is next, not first. First we have to arrive at what went wrong. There are so many theories about this moment. There are so many ways to look at the moment where Eve and Adam chose death over life. Or more accurately choose to do what they want to do. Here is the deal though. While there are many theories there is only one truth. There is only one answer, only one way to understand what happened. The word of God makes clear what happened. Eve was not overwhelmed with desire for the forbidden fruit. She was not tempted at all. We have assigned temptation to sin. For some reason we are convinced that these two things go together. As if we just don’t naturally choose sin over righteousness. And let's just be clear the default is we choose sin. That is why we must be reset. The truth is that we fill our desire for fulfillment with things that are other than God. Pretty simple at the end of the day. And in this original sin moment it should be clear that there is no temptation. There is just not wanting what God wants. The eating from the tree is just the acting out of what was already occurring internally. This is the heart of sin. We so often think sin is an external action. And while sin is played out in an action it is always born internally. It always comes from our own disconnect from God and it results in our acting out in unrighteousness. So the sin action is eating from the tree but the sin itself is born out long before the moment of eating, long before the conversation with the crafty serpent.

In Genesis two God has a little sit down with Adam. He tells Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the Garden but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (2:16-17). Now here we have to ask ourselves why Adam didn’t press God for some specifics. Did Adam just get it; no worries. Or was he like all embarrassed that the obvious seemed confusing so he lets it go. He makes a mental note. “Just avoid that tree,” he tells himself. I mean we have no indication that Adam even gets the concept of life, let alone death. Also, God does not just bust out and say, “don’t eat of that tree over there. Avoid the one with the red fruit” (waxing poetic there) He literally tells Adam. “Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The tree has a pretty ominous name. Now here I’m thinking Adam might just be wondering what good and evil is. (I think most people on earth still debate this topic) So we can go two ways here. Way number one Adam knows this stuff already so no further explanation is required.  Adam just knows evil is not good so it’s not desired. Way two:  Adam checks out at a critical moment. He misses an entire sentence. He has no clue what God is saying. He’s thinking about what he will name next. I have no clue here. But I do know that this is a massive miss because later we see Eve telling the serpent what God has told Adam. Remember, she does not exist when God and Adam have this talk so it must be Adam’s job to lead Eve, to let her know the rules of the place. So when Eve is having a little chat with the serpent he asks her, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Whoa. This is where sin begins. (I literally mean stop and just feel that moment) The fall of man is moments away but it has already happened. (Side note: Adam is hanging out with Eve, doing nothing. Just kinda standing around. I can just see him all cool, head nod to the serpent. “What’s up?” Don't forget Adam and the serpent already know each other. Adam gave him the cool name.) It’s the same question that gets everyone of us. It is the same question that keeps my oldest daughter awake. It is the same question that makes her afraid that everything I tell her about Jesus might just not be true. “DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY?” And it is over right there because most of us just can’t live with the things God actually says or does. Which is why we gravitate to metaphor. It is why the whole world sits in darkness but a few. He is so other than, that we literally bog down because when we go to say what God says it is embarrassing because it does not sound like something some really smart guy would say. When we go to say what God says it just sounds so lame, so unlike what we can see around us. I just want to say what He says and be steady in it. I don’t care that it makes no sense or that it sounds all made up and counter intuitive. I want to say what God says the same way I say what John Maynard Keynes says. (Oh Economics) I want to say it like it is truth and all other ideas are a lie.  I want to say it the same way I say Keynesian school is the only proper school of Economic thought and Chicago school is just wrong.

So anyway, Eve goes and says what Adam told her that God said. And here is what she says to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but God said, ‘you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Hold on just one second. Ok so what just happened? Eve does not refer to the tree by name but by location. How did location replace the name? Why is that critical? It must be critical. At least I’m thinking it is. So did she and Adam go and check it out, have a little look-see. When did she figure out the location?  Is that when she and Adam had a chit-chat about what God said? Adam’s like, “Hey Eve, look at that amazing cool tree. Don’t eat it or touch it.” Also, super critical. God never said touching it was any kind of a deal, only eating it. So Eve get’s God wrong and this is where we go off the rails. We add to God or we take away. Either way it leads to death, not life. We create something new from the original truth. We make a photocopy that is not quite the same. It seems innocent enough. How could you go wrong by adding in an extra safe guard? What could possibly be wrong with a fail safe. God said don’t eat so we add don’t touch. It helps to keep us a step away from the eating problem. But you see where that leads? Pretty soon God said a day is however many years it takes to match scientific years. Pretty soon creation in the bible is just a metaphor for millions of different beginnings. Pretty soon Jesus is one way not the only way. (These are but three ridiculous ideas I hear and read, not from secular man, but from people who claim to know Jesus. Heck, I listened to crazier ideas while I was at Seminary.) Pretty soon we start helping God so much that nothing He did or said in the bible is the truth we teach. So when Eve adds in don’t touch, it is the first step towards the corruption of who God is and we all make this same mis-step and we need to retrace our steps and get back on His exact word and leave it at that.

 How we get from what God says to what Eve says God says we will never know. But we know they are absolutely different things and when we get what God has said wrong we get it all wrong. It is not good enough to kind of get the gist of what God means. That is what we all start to live with and pretty soon we are following a completely different God other than the Great I am, The Ancient of Days. Pretty soon we are just following some god named (insert your name here). And that right there is my biggest fear. I don’t want to follow the (insert your name here) god. So I want to say what He says and call it truth.

Notice the technique of the crafty serpent. He says did God really say you could not eat of any tree? (hyperbole)He is going big. Like he is blown away. God said you couldn’t eat from any trees? What will he take away next? (Hyperbole is always a good way to start when you want to make someone doubt his or her stance. Unsaved me had this perfected.) And Eve is all no-no He said we couldn’t eat of that tree in the middle. Everything else is all good.(Super paraphrase) And the serpent is all “oh ok but heck that whole dead thing can’t be true.” He’s like, “that doesn’t sound like God to me.” (totally made up. The serpent did not say that line. But we have heard this countless times from people who say they are Christian.) And as it turns out the serpent isn’t even lying when he gets down to the details. He tells her that “you will surely not die. . . your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  And we know that they don’t die (right then. Adam lives 930 years. Way longer than anyone I know) And here is where people argue it is the death of innocence. What? Now God is all into figurative language? This is the death of perfection not real death? It is easier to believe God is metaphorical and not literal? Hmmmm?  We know that the only thing that happens is that they now know the difference between good and evil. We know this knowledge leads to embarrassment and shame. We also know that after they eat of the fruit they are still breathing and their hearts are still beating.  We know that the consequence of that knowledge is that for whatever reason we choose evil over good nearly every single time.

So when people ask me well then what did God mean when He said death? I am going to go with, “I don’t know. Maybe He means separated?” But probably He means death. Like they were never going to die but now they are going to die someday. It’s like when I tell Judah she is going to get a spanking. When I don’t deliver it that moment but 10 transgressions later she is confused.  But I am not a liar. I meant it would happen when I felt it should happen. I also make it go away with hugs and kisses and reminders of my love. So I think that is what God is doing here. So His warning is true. They will die. The problem is they imagined it must be something right then. That’s not God’s bad, that is their bad. They should have asked about death at some point. At any rate God feels tenderness for us so He fixes the death problem by sending his Son. He makes a way because that’s what God does. So now we live forever again, problem solved.

Adam is standing right there, doing nothing. Just waiting to see what happens next and He and Eve eat of the fruit and they don’t die and they gain knowledge and they know everything is ruined. Oh how I know that feeling. I know that one for sure. I usually feel sick. I usually want to hide. That, my guess is, is the consequence of sin.

So here is something hyper interesting that literally came to me last night.(which is now like two weeks ago) The entire fall of man is borne out of truth, not a lie. We get so caught up in this thing that Satan came and lied to Adam and Eve and caused the downfall of mankind. Now to be clear, Satan was not there so back to some truth. We all tend to believe that the crafty serpent lied to Adam and Eve and caused the entire downfall of humanity. But again this is not true. In fact, the talking serpent did not tell one single lie that day. He told Adam and Eve that they would not die and they didn’t.  I am going to be all crazy and guess the crafty serpent didn’t know what death was either. At any rate I’m going with the serpent was not all knowing. That would be crazy that God made the serpent all knowing and didn’t make man that way. Anyway, I just think they didn’t get death. And here is another epiphany: I am going with most of all the earth does not get death. That is why they live in darkness. Simple really.

The serpent told them they would be like God and know good and evil and that is what happened. God says as much, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:22) So cool when God talks to himself/themselves. It is so insane that this moment is so matter of fact for most of us, casually taught in Sunday school or not. I mean this whole moment is actually pretty well known by all people, including those who have never been to church. It is so over-learned that it is never learned at all; just filed away somewhere in the “I got this” file. We hear the story and move on. (Hint: trying to connect us to Adam’s mistake) This is why the whole world is swept up in sin. Sin is born out of a truth that leads us from God. We see a tree and figure out how God probably was not talking about this tree; probably some other tree. Or we figure God probably is over that tree thing. After all, our world is more complicated and God could not imagine all the trees we have to deal with. Everyday we make these choices that don’t involve destruction or mayhem, lust or greed. They just don’t involve God.  I think God would call that sin. “Did God actually say?” Yes, yes he did.

Things you can learn from Genesis. Part 5

The Serpent

Here is my disclaimer. Maybe. I don’t know. Why is it that we want so badly to give Satan credit for the actions of the serpent when the word of God clearly says that God made the serpent crafty?(Genesis 3:1)

Such an interesting few moments in the garden. Adam and Eve are cruising around, presumably taking care of stuff, doing what they are supposed to be doing and they encounter a serpent. This moment is a forever moment, beyond the forever we ever imagine. Clearly, every single moment that we are in is a forever moment with forever ramifications. However, this moment will change everything for everyone. But here is the deal. Before we can ever tackle sin we need to know what is up with this serpent? Because I am beyond convinced that this moment is taught to us completely wrong and that the way we come to understand this moment is critical to how we will follow Jesus. There, I’ve said it. I want to know what the word of God says about the serpent. I am not interested in things syncing up and making sense with science or explanations that eliminate talking serpents. I just want to know what it says and then move on with that as truth.

I have come to the conclusion that the serpent is not Satan. Most people won’t agree with my conclusion here but I’m pretty ok with that. It’s just too easy to declare a serpent to be Satan just because Satan is referred to as a serpent and a dragon in Revelation. I have also seen these elaborate arguments that show that Jesus is referring back to Satan, in the Garden of Eden in John 8. It’s just too big a stretch to connect the “He was a murderer in the beginning” line to refer to the temptation of Adam and Eve. (Hint, the beginning for Satan comes long before our beginning.) Beyond that, when Jesus is speaking of Satan is verse 44 He says, “he has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  Interestingly enough the serpent never does lie to Adam and Eve. He literally tells them the truth every step of the way.  Read Genesis 3 and see. (More fully addressed in my look at the sin moment coming next entry)

I think the truth is that God’s creation goes off the rails because we choose something other than abiding in Him. It’s that simple. We want for there to be a supernatural excuse for the fall and the reality is that serpents and people make bad choices. End of story.

So that still leaves us with who this serpent is. We are told, “The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.” Crazy talk. Stop right there and stay on that verse for as long as it takes for you to really hear that God made a crafty serpent. Crazier still: God made creatures and they fell on different scales of craftiness. Note: The serpent was the craftiest. Not the only crafty thing but the craftiest thing. (some people try to argue here that the serpent is not created by God, hence he is craftier than the things God made) We can all agree that God made all things (including Angels  and people who rebel) so arguments like that are for sure heresy or just plain naïve. Take your pick. So we can settle on the truth that the serpent was crafty compared to the other less crafty beast creations. Which is pretty crazy when you start to wonder what was God doing making things have different levels of craftiness. And when it comes to beasts (this excludes man in the debate) the serpent was super crafty. I think we can all agree Man takes the crafty prize. (except maybe in this initial serpent/man throw down)Now what we don’t know was whether or not there were a crew of crafty serpents or just one, but this particular serpent was crafty, that much is clear. Now even more interesting is that this crafty serpent, that God made, could talk. The talking serpent is why people argue that the serpent was Satan or possessed by Satan (good old fashioned demonic possession stuff). But since Satan was not in the serpent and since Satan is not omnipresent it seems pretty clear he had no clue what was unfolding on the day, in the garden. And while he can go where he wants, including the heavens, he cannot be everywhere at once. ( Way to complex and off track for my point here.) Anyway, my point is that this serpent could talk without the help of Satan. My point is that the serpent that Adam and Eve encounter is exactly as God made him, unaltered.

Here are two reasons why I am convinced that Satan was not in the serpent. Reason one is that the word of God indicates that the serpent is acting on his own. (See Genesis 3:1 he’s crafty). Reason two is the serpent gets punishment for what he did.  And in this case everyone who had a part in this moment gets punished but not Satan. It seems he was not part of the moment.

People seem to struggle with talking animals. I don’t really have a problem with Animals talking. It’s in the bible so I’m good there. This is the same struggle people have with talking dirt people. But here is the deal. The crazier it all seems the more it seems to me that God must be in the details. Of course, the serpent talked and of course he must have always talked because on this fine day there was not one second of freak out from Adam and Eve thank you very much.(Again I love the arguments that they were in some kind of trance vexed by a talking Satan serpent. This really would take away the whole free will sin decision of the moment) In fact, what we do see was a pretty seamless conversation between Adam, Eve and a serpent. And just a reminder, the word of God says the serpent was craftier than the other created things. (driving home the crafty aspect of the serpent)Not more mystical or strange on this day but crafty on a daily basis. So this implies thought process so hmmm. Weird but true. Who is this God?

So these theories that a presence entered the garden and took up residence in a hapless serpent to ruin all God’s plans seem to be just theories. (And while I could argue that Satan was in the garden using Revelation and John 8 I believe that argument is the incorrect argument based on the ramification of the fall and the necessity of the fall being a result of man’s sober choice to not choose God but rather to seek something apart from God.) In fact, verse one makes it clear that the serpent was crafty with no help at all from evil. God, for whatever reason, made the serpent crafty, end of story. I believe it is imperative that God’s creation on it’s own conspired with itself to abandon God’s plan and seek it’s own direction. I believe that this is a critical aspect of sin. We choose sin. We are not tricked into sin.

A crafty serpent is at the heart of the fall of man. Now the crafty serpent’s unrighteousness leads to the fall; not some supernatural demon possession. It is for real important that we understand that it is unrighteousness, not a supernatural glitch that leads to the destruction of man. Oh the serpent was serving Satan on this day. Just like the rest of us when we engage in unrighteous activity. (the stuff that separates us from God) And it led to some very big consequences. But the unrighteous are not possessed by Satan and they do not worship him. They just walk with him and do his bidding.  As I once told this super cool daughter-girl. The unrighteous are tools of Satan. Being a tool of Satan is not the same as being possessed by him.

It does not seem to matter whether or not they are people or serpents. It seems unrighteous is unrighteous in the eyes of God.  And this is super critical because the world and perhaps even many of us claiming to be set apart have this misconception that somehow someone who follows Satan does evil things to small animals and children. And while that may be true in some cases the real truth is that everyone who does not follow Jesus follows Satan. That is for sure truth. And that is the truth we better wrap our minds around and soon. Because if they are not redeemed they spend eternity separated from God. That’s going to be a shock for all of them; Even crafty, talking, serpents. Or not. Depending on the whole what happens to animals when they die thing. But I suppose a crafty serpent spends eternity in hell unless he is redeemed. This is me, still not freaking out.

So to my point as to why it matters how we view the serpent. If we believe that the fall is borne out of God’s creation (serpent, Adam, Eve) choosing to make a decision apart from God then we will walk closer to Him. We will hold more tightly His truth and seek to abide in Him, knowing one step away from Him is one step closer to destruction. If we see the fall as emanating from a supernatural deity tricking man then we will always be on the look out to not be fooled into sin by Satan. I believe the latter is the way most of the church functions, which is why we see a church, mired in compromise but convinced of its steadfast love because they are not looking evil. If we see the fall the first way then we are aware when we stray and we run back into His arms. If we see it the second way then we are all good as long as we don’t look evil. Not looking evil is not the same as walking with Jesus. Not looking evil is the same as eating from a tree we shouldn’t be eating from. We put on some clothes, go to church and call ourselves clean. We look pretty but our skin knows the truth. Even Adam and Eve understood that you can’t clean dirt. That’s what God does.

Things you can learn from Genesis part 4

More from Genesis 2

God talks with Adam. What? From the first moment it becomes clear that God did not make man to see what he would do. This was not a crazy lab experiment out in the garden. This was God (the one without lack) choosing to hang out with Adam. So they sit down and have a little chat about the do’s and don’ts for garden living. So in verse 16 God clues Adam into some practical living tips. He wants to just give him one of those little consider yourself warned little talks. So He tells Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Pretty straightforward, sort of, maybe. I don’t know. Adam, formerly dirt, hanging out with God, having a chat about trees you can eat from and tree that you cannot eat from. It seems like a pretty easy sit through. Not like sitting with my dad as he would explain the nature of choice and how consequence for poor decision-making would result in something very unpleasant, something to not be experienced. The hint of it should be weighty enough to ensure that there would never be choices that could result in unpleasantries. You know how those talks turned out. Situation 1252: Me on the roof of the church, riding my skateboard, mid service. Made total sense at the time. He couldn’t mean skating on the church roof was a bad idea, was a poor decision worthy of very unpleasant consequence. I’m pretty sure Adam was feeling pretty committed to getting it right at that moment in time. I’m pretty sure he was picking up what God was putting down. How hard can it be? Just don’t eat from one tree. It’s a slam-dunk, a no brainer. Adam’s got this.

And then God drops this crazy bomb on Adam. To paraphrase: Dude, you look bored just hanging out with me all day I’m going to make someone for you to hang out with. Sweet, Let’s go name stuff. What?

Let me wrap my mind around this. God and Adam are chillin’, hanging out, looking at stuff, naming stuff, and God has this moment of clarity where He realizes Adam needs a girl version so He can go subdue and rule with her. Okay, makes total sense. But the thing is that the All-Consuming Fire, The Holy of Holy’s, The Ancient of Days, knows that while there is no lack in Him, there is certainly lack in Adam. Adam has lack because he does not have a trinity. He has him and God and God knows the magic number is not two. It is in fact always and forever three.

So there you go; Basic math at no extra charge. Nice talk God. Nice talk Adam. Let’s go name stuff. Adam’s probably all, “Let’s call that one a sheep.” God was probably like “good call. We’re going to use that one a lot.”

Things you can learn from Genesis part 3

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Genesis 2

How crazy is it that God started making stuff and that He created all these things and then He created man. There are some really wild things inside the second chapter of Genesis. One of those aha moments happens in verses 5 and 6. In these two very cool verses we learn that God did not use rain to water the earth. This is critical knowledge when we get to Noah and that whole mess. Here we learn that God had a watering system that was a mist that arose from the ground. Just super cool evidence that God made science without us getting overly worked up about the whole science vs creation thing. Let’s just be clear that God understood the nuances of evaporation and humidification. He was super into hydroponics. It’s pretty clear that He knew how to grow a thing or two.

That’s an interesting side note but nothing so shocking as the description of how He made Adam. Man was formed from dust and then God breathes life into the dust and then wait for it because this is more shocking than fish suddenly walking and alien DNA and monkeys starting to act all people like. The truth is so much more shocking and cool. The dirt stands up and starts being a person. That just freaks me out, makes me think crazy thoughts, makes me laugh and shout in joy. God does crazy stuff and that is how I know He is real. He breathes on dirt and it stands up and starts talking and walking and doing stuff. (Kinda ironic like that the dirt is getting ready to sin in the next chapter)

Crazy thing next: God brings all the stuff He made and shows all the stuff to Adam, the dirt guy. He brings the stuff, all the coolest first things that ever were. These are things that were not at one moment and then were. And He takes the cool stuff over to the dirt guy and actually lets the dirt guy name everything. What are you doing God? The dirt guy gets to name everything that you made. And that is intense because right there we know the absolute truth about our God. He does every single thing. He for real does it all and then lets the dirt guy give names as if the dirt guy had something to do with the creating of stuff.

This God actually looks at Adam, looks at us and says look at all our cool stuff. He is so crazy like that. He not only shares His toys he actually makes them our toys. He actually treats us as if we were involved in the whole toy making process. God says look at what we have done. And He just never stops saying it. “Look at what we did, dirt guy.” All the while knowing that dirt guy is about to get way off track in just one more chapter. I can just picture Him with His arm around the dirt guy. Just smiling as Adam is naming stuff. Just smiling knowing what happens next. God all outside of time, living in the moment, knowing He has a plan for the next moment where the dirt guy acts like a dirt guy. That’s to be expected from a dirt guy, even if God breathed on Him and let Him name all the stuff. Dirt just does what dirt does.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 2

Genesis 1:26-30

Here’s the thing about creation. It is an absolutely ridiculous idea. God was and is without lack. In Him there is no thing that He does not have, does not experience. Within the realm of His existence He is fully filled with the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. He is at all times worshiped by the seraphim and the elders. He is at all times stunning and radiant. He at all times sits on a throne that is surrounded by things of amazement. In Revelation 4 we are told:

And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶ and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

  

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

To say the least, this is a pretty cool place with plenty of things going on. So to be sure God was doing just fine without birds and trees and creepy things and stuff. So He certainly didn’t need the headache of man. And yet in Him there was such great love, such desire to birth us, all the while knowing the end of the story. Stunning thing A: God made all things according to their kinds. This is critical. All things were created to replicate the kind of thing they would be. So for instance God makes a maple tree and that tree will make seeds to make more maple trees. The maple tree is in and of itself unique. It is a kind of new thing. But there is a critical shift as God readies himself to make man. Stunning thing B: As God is making all the background stuff God is just calling things into existence but He gets to man and says, “Let us make man in our image.” Ok that is stunning thing C as well. Because God readies the other two for this one. He knows He is about to embark on what will be heartache, and rejection and the death of His son and He tells themselves, “Get ready. Here we go.” This is a moment of inhale-don’t breath-look around-silence and then it is started. Stunning thing C is simple and complex and impossible to even comprehend because everything else was made of a new kind, something from nothing. But God looks about and says let’s make man from our image, from our kind. We are His seed, the image of the mighty one, the ancient of days. We are not a new kind. We are made to be like Him. We will make more people just like maple seeds will make more maple trees. We are seeds that were intended to make more image of God people. There is an obvious sidetrack and a squiggly line and a few zig-zags thrown in. But it is clear than when Jesus shows up for project redeem the earth and when He says,  “follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” He knew exactly what He was talking about because He was there on that day when they all got together and made man in their image. He came to the earth and started creation anew. He intended that we would be reproducers of the image of God and now He came to walk the planet to show us how to do what was always intended.  Make more people in His image. It’s all pretty obvious, sort of.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 1

Genesis 1:1-2

Who is this God that from all the nothingness of an infinite space made something? He created from nothing all things and He declared them to be good because He is good and from Him comes all that is good. And He lacked nothing but in Him was a desire for something tangibly else from all things He already had. And so we are told in Genesis 1:1-2, “ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” And this is the God that already was and there was darkness over the face of the deep. And in an instant God is a darkness exterminator.

Things become clear. God, seated wherever He is sitting, decides that He will stop doing whatever He was up to before He decided to start making stuff and then He sees that everything is darkness. The Word is with Him and the Holy Spirit hovers and in an instant they commence the project, they begin the process that has been the plan all along. This is the removal of darkness plan that will not fail because “in Him there is no darkness” and in His light the darkness cannot survive. Even in that first instant of creation “God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” Can you just see the impact of the light when God releases it upon the dark?

Oh this God who sees darkness and subdues it, makes it His own. He sees darkness and He is so moved that He makes light. And so it is that in the very beginning God was in the business of making darkness into light. This is who He is. He is the ender of darkness. In John 1 we are told,  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Hebrew for the word we translate as overcome could actually be better stated as comprehend. We can really read this that the darkness cannot comprehend the light in any meaningful way. Darkness is so defeated and disoriented by the light that it cannot possibly come up with a plan for overcoming it. This is how amazing God’s light is. He looks down on the void that is dark and He makes light and to this day the dark cannot find a way to overcome this new reality is faces. To this day the dark flees the light, is utterly destroyed by it. There will be a day when there is no darkness. Oh that that day would come soon.

Trucker Drummer and a Sunday at Ihop Kc

Sunday at Ihop KC is unlike any other day of the week. Sunday is amateur day. And by amateur I mean all those on worship teams who rarely get a chance to lead. Now let’s be clear: An amateur at IHOP is probably more talented than most worship leaders around the country. At IHOP one could be sitting back row as the back up singer and still have led worship at their home church for several years. If you spend enough time here you will see a drummer who plays bass, then guitar, then piano and eventually they will be leading worship. This is just how it goes. The talent pool in this place is insane.

So Sunday is my favorite because anything can happen. And it usually does. I have a favorite drummer here. I first noticed him two years ago beating the drums, wearing a John Deere hat. I began to refer to him as “trucker drummer.” He honestly looks like Dave Grohl and just might be related. When I did sound at Southlands it was Trucker Drummer who taught me how to make a drum kit pop. I watched him and learned his set up and his sound settings. So if you liked my sound it was trucker drummer who gets the credit. And if you didn’t like it: still trucker drummer.

Last night trucker drummer got one hour, in front, on acoustic. Now this is not the first time he has done this. But last night, oh last night he played his acoustic with a twang and he sang old time hymns and I worshipped before my God who used to pursue me every Sunday morning as we sang these songs.

Church: three songs, announcements, sermon, alter call for the lost, exit song, shake the preacher’s hand on the way out the door.  I look back now and just smile, just think about how much He loved me, even then, when I was  young and stupid and didn’t know much about anything, including Him.

Oh but He is like this in that He is so kind to have trucker drummer sing, “To God be the Glory.” Hymn 33 for those of you with a 1970’s Baptist hymnal lying around. I sang it every Sunday for the better part of my young life. It was Levi Price Jr’s favorite song and we sang it every week before we went out to shake his hand. This God who loves me so much that He reminds me that He was faithful, even then, even when I was lost, in church, in the third row. Even then He knew. Even then He knew who I would be now so He taught me a song so that I could hear it one day at IHOP KC on a Sunday night. All that detail so I could look back and know He was always there, always wooing me, always after my heart.

“To God be the glory, great things he hath done! So loved he the world that he gave us his Son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done!” Amen.

Things you can learn on a Friday night. Part 2

Jesus does not turn into a conquerer while He is seated on the throne making intercession. He does not turn from lamb to Lion as He sits next to God. The truth is that He has been a conquerer from the first, from before the beginning. This is what He does, who He is. He conquers all things, the external and the internal. He can overcome what we do and what we think. He sets us free from the inside out.

The act of creation itself is the conquering of the what did not exist. He turns nothing into something. He creates people and gives them authority to subdue all things. He gives all authority to a nation and tells them to conquer all other people. This is at the heart of all He commands.

When jesus leaves heaven to come to earth He is not coming to be the lamb. He has always been the lamb. This is our Jesus. The truth is that He is not lion on some days and lamb on other days. He is in fact a lion-like-lamb on all days. He is always conquering, always sacrificing. He overcomes all things through his life and through his sacrifice. When Jesus walks the earth He is at all times lion-like-lambing. He is teaching with authority, healing with authority, casting out demons with authority. And all the while He is meek and humble and feeding others and forgiving sins.

This Jesus is broken hearted for the broken and He is strong with the strong willed. The same Jesus who feeds the masses is the same one who patiently forms a whip to clear out the temple. There is no difference, no two sides of a coin. This is who He is.

It is surely amazing that He lives a sinless life. But equally striking is that He never once puts Himself first. (perhaps the key to sinlessness) He never once thinks "what would Jesus do." He is so fully selfless that He only does what He sees the Father do or what would be best for men. This is critical. Make no mistake: He absolutely puts His desire to see us come into perfection before His own desires. Jesus is driven to see that we would have what would be best for us. Now that is crazy talk. He goes to the cross and cries out "not my will but Yours." He does it because He does what the Father says in all things and He wants to do what is best for man in that same instant. He conquers the cross. At any moment He could have come down, saved Himself and given us the hell we all deserve. He is not defeated by the cross to then conquer death. That is an absurd teaching. He conquers all things. That is what it means to be lion-lamb-like.

Things you can learn on a Friday night part 1

Beholding the Father is not in competition with making disciples. The entire purpose of disciple making is to free the unbeliever into the realm of beholding the Father. We so often want to sell a new and better life where what we are really offering is the sitting in His presence. What can be more transforming than an afternoon with God? What can be more shocking than sitting in the presence of the mighty God. Who is this God? He literally shows Himself to us. This God actually lets us sit in his presence. What?

This is shocking. The mighty God literally beckons us to sit in front of Him, to dwell in His presence. This needs to be our cry to the world. We need to cry out come sit before the mighty God of israel and behold His beauty. Solve the sitting in His presence problem and we won't have to worry about the what really is a sin problem. It is absolutely true that we are called to do, to go make disciples of all nations. My heart is an absolute yes for that but for most of us the sitting in His presence is a fully foreign concept, something one might do before he eats food or goes to bed, but not something one might do for 9 hours on a Friday. Without beholding Him we are not ready to sing about Him or to tell others about Him for that matter. How will we tell them of His beauty if we don't know it for real in our core?

Tonight was a call to return to our first love, to sit before Him and behold Him. Nothing staggering when you are at ihop kc. Alter calls are for everyone here. But this one, this one. . . May this God give you the grace to sit before Him for hours at a time.

Baptism part 2

Noah and seven others were seen as righteous, found worthy, when God looked down and decided He was going to cancel the project, end the experiment. It is interesting that instead of bringing the eight up to live with Him He decided to keep them alive. He keeps them and 14 of each animal and everything else must die. In Hebrew He is ending all existence. It sounds more extreme than destroying the earth.

In my bible this is page 6. It is just three chapters since the fall. Clearly the devastation caused by sin cannot be taken lightly. In genesis 6:5-6 we are told, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on earth and it grieved Him to His heart."

In 6:9 we are told, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in His generation. Noah walked with God." So Noah is righteous and the rest of the people on earth are evil. This is the situation. We have eight against everything else so God will save the eight and destroy the rest.

In 6:13 God says to Noah, "I have determined to make an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold I will destroy them with the earth." Now this can be read several ways but I think it reads best that God will use the earth to destroy all things. Time for a quick lesson in microeconomics: There are 4 factors of production, land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurs. Now the factor we will focus on is land. You see land is everything on the land and under the land. Land is also water. In Econ water is land. So when God is saying he will use earth He is going to use the water part of earth to destroy the non water part of earth. Econ 101 free of charge.

Verse 17 reads, "For behold I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven." That right there is kind of a big deal because God is referring back to how all life emanates from His breath. He is killing off little pieces of Him so the depth of pain that this must cause Him can only be imagined.

So God makes it rain and completely covers all the land and even the highest mountains. Nothing is left visible except for the water. Everything dies except the eight and their crew of animals. Everything is dead . . . And then the water subsides and then it begins again.

1 Peter 3:20 says, "because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Whoa with your crazy talk Peter. God baptized the earth, killed all the living things save the righteous Noah and crew, (the righteous don't need to die to their old man. He's already dead) and this was no one time event? God keeps doing it over and over again. God actually uses water still in this destructive way to kill off the old man inside of us so we can live in the resurrection of Christ. Baptism is a real event that God used to kill all existence not just a symbolic event in the the life of a Christian?

God kills us with the earth. He uses water to kill off everything that breathes in the days of Noah and He uses water to kill off everything inside of us that has been corrupted and then places in us Himself, again. He kills off all existence in us and then we start to live... Now that makes sense.

Baptism part 1

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Why I love baptism

Something has been lost in the modern church. Some time ago baptism became an optional extra, something symbolic and nice, but not really necessary. We have come to treat baptism as something one does to show the other folks at church that you are also now saved, that you have indeed become a Christian. Even more incredible is that some churches actually use baptism as a way to join the church. For these churches it seems that baptism is a sort of club initiation. And this was my view of it while growing up. In fact, while growing up, it became pretty clear that being Christian didn’t really mean much at all to most people I went to church with. So because we created a church that really was pretty vanilla, kind of non-confrontational and user friendly,it is no wonder then that baptism fell into the category of sideshow.

Baptism is not an optional extra. It is made clear throughout the Word of God that it is in fact the thing that we are supposed to do. Let me be clear. Baptism does not save you.  We know that the thief on the cross was promised eternitywith Christ and he was not baptized. We also know Jesus promised several others eternity for faith and other things and there is no mention that they were baptized.  However, what we also know is that there are many accounts that saying yes to following was associated with baptism. So while baptism is not a saving moment, neither are the other things that we often associate with salvation.  Clearly professions of faith do not save us. Sinner’s prayers also do not save us. Saying yes to an alter call also does not save us.In fact, most things that we associate with salvation are things of man, things that bring us comfort for death but not necessarily eternal life.

Paul was clear that there was a race to be won. John was clear that we must overcome and be faithful to the end. In fact the Word of God makes clear that while salvation is freely given and not earned, it is given upon completion of the journey, not upon beginning it. We must go on believing,not just start.

So why we are baptized is not symbolic at all. It is a very real transaction between us and God. It is a very real death. Those who will follow, will desire to be buried in that water, to dive in and stay under untilthe old man has died and the new man has risen. Oh how I long to scream and shout for all to hear that it is real, that the death we die in that water is not symbolic and that all who think it is have not died and therefore do not live.

Our Savior was baptized. He came to John and humbled himself and in some weird way that we cannot understand He had to die in that water so that He could then die on the cross. Jesus does not mess around and He certainly is not being symbolic on that day when He went under the water. God does not cry out from heaven with joy because His Son has given us a good example to follow. God is overjoyed because Jesus has chosen to die in the water and then walk the death out for three and a half years. In Matthew 3:16we are told, “And when Jesus was baptized,immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him,and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.”You are kidding me that this is just some tender trinity moment. This is a moment of great joy and as such when we see baptism we should shout from the mountaintops. If God is moved enough to open up heaven we can also be moved.Jesus rises from the water and begins to transform the world. He does this after He is baptized and not before. Who will we transform with our symbolism?We transform because we die and live in new life.

In Acts 2:38 Peter gives his first message  “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Repentance is the first step. It is the beginning of all things in Him. We cry out for mercy and repent of our old man and then we jump in the water and die. And when we come out we are so utterly changed that we are not who we were moments ago. We are transformed and ready to go on believing.

In Romans 6:1-4 Paul writes, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” What are you saying Paul? Why is it that we quote the first two verses but not the rest. Why do we say go and sin no more without saying jump in the water and die. Here Paul clearly puts the two together, clearly says stop sinning because you died in the water, you are new.

Why do I love baptism? Oh because I know what it is to die. I know what it is to be someone before the water and someone after the water and I am convinced that the water kills off all the old man when you go under it. I will never be the same again. The water did not save me. On the contrary, it killed me.

On Mission

The great commission: Laid out in the Gospels, played out in Acts, promised in Revelation

Back to this thing of Jesus wandering the earth and gathering some followers. Just what was the God Man up too anyway? He could have done so many different things. Heck, according to John He did so many crazy things that  “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Now that is crazy talk. Jesus did so many things that the entire world could not hold all the books that would be written. That is a lot of things. Three years of stuff that the world cannot contain. I am getting a headache just trying to think of that much stuff.

We do know one of the crazy things He was up to was gathering some followers and teaching them about the kingdom. He was resetting things and decided to train up some folks in His way. But here is the cool thing about God He is so into the details that He was not just showing/teaching He was making. Go figure, creator God and all. In Mark 1:17 He says, “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men.” Notice here that Jesus issues a call “follow.” He then issues a promise “I will make.” There is a transaction here that if we will do something, Jesus will then do something. There is an essence that the act of following will result in a transformation. He will make something (creator Jesus), not He will show how. That is super sweet. It is not left up to our skill set, our calling. We love to talk about our calling and skill sets as if God can’t do what He wants. He is the creator and He makes people into new people. Jesus emphasizes this by picking a bunch of mediocre types from different walks of life and makes them all do the same thing. You will all be fishers of men is what he tells them. Matthew was not Jesus’ accountant. He was his disciple. He was a fisher.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus gives a command to the crew who had been following Him around. They follow Him all over the place, but not too far away, and He teaches them the kingdom. When this kingdom teaching is done He gives them a task. He has made them fishers. Now He tells them to go fish. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The order of things here is amazing: Make disciples, baptize them, teach them what I taught. See how it works. He says get some people who will follow. Get them baptized and teach them the kingdom.  See Matthew 5-7. When the kingdom living portion is understood or at least attempted or at least desired send them out to make more fishers. Pretty weird how Jesus keeps forgetting to have people accept Him as their personal savior or ask Him into their heart. He just keeps discipleing, baptizing and teaching the kingdom.

Fast forward. Jesus has left earth and taken His seat on the throne. He talks to the Father about us quite a bit. The crew is left alone, told to hang out and wait for the Spirit. So they did and that is pretty amazing right there. I hate waiting for my check at a restaurant. They waited and waited and then stuff happened. They got all wild and went out into the streets and started gathering a new crew. In Acts 2 Peter comes out of the room and starts preaching. Peter tells the masses, “repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter is feeling it now that he just got this very cool gift. It is interesting here that Peter does not promise salvation, he promises the Spirit, which we are told in other places leads us to the wilderness, or truth in others but always to Jesus. Salvation does not seem to be a moment but a movement not from something but rather to something. (Later topic. Not for now. The Spirit leads us to Jesus, not salvation. How many of us are seeking the wrong thing? Too crazy controversial. Note to self. I should drop this idea. It makes people uncomfortable.) Discpleing brings them to baptizing which leads to the Spirit, which leads to teaching. In verse 42  we are told, "and they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So then we get back on topic and we are shown just what makes the disciples leave town, start going to the nations. In Acts 8:3-4 it says, “Saul was ravaging the church. Those who were scattered went about preaching the Word.” It seems the next phase of the commission is born out of escaping death and beginning the process of the commission wherever they ended up. This probably explains the slowing of the commission process because we found a place where we could stop running. In our desire to avoid all things uncomfortable we sought peace and safety. When we found peace and safety we sat still and forgot our job.

But here is the good news. This task of going to all nations and telling all tribes will be accomplished. We will once again go and that means the peace and safety net is going to wear out. It is made clear in Revelation 7:9 “And behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes.” Stunning, The great commission is a done deal. It is a promise. John saw it. At the end of the age the commission has absolutely been completed. (Another note to self. Revelation is actually in the bible. It might explain how this all turns out. Too controversial.) We know the job will get done and we also know it will only be done through us. So the only thing that is uncertain is when this will be finished.

We are told in 2 Peter 3:8-13 that we absolutely are going to make this thing happen and it is clear that we will determine if He returns in 5 years or 5000 years. In these verses there are references to time and how the Lord will bring about the conclusion of the age. Verse 9 speaks to God’s patience that all may hear and come to Him.  Verse 12 speaks to a hastening of the end of the age by not being sidetracked by things of the world. Specifically mentioned is that God demands lives of Godliness and Holiness.  Our pursuit of these two things will directly lead us away from safety and back to our job of fishing. Hastening is done through us accomplishing our assignment.  We are to make prayer and we are to fulfill the commission.

It seems clear that we will be made to be like Jesus. We will be baptized then we will be taught to do what He did. Wash rinse repeat. He shows us how it works and there seems to be a motivation in the going that has to do with escaping where you came from because we are tired of people trying to kill us So we move to a new place.. We are shown that this task is not just doable but it is promised, that it will be done. We are reminded that the faster we get it done the sooner He returns.  SWEET. This is simple stuff for a stiff-necked people. God’s people are always stubborn and forgetful. Going to the nations is nobody’s calling. It is a command. As my genius friend put it, our calling is to obedience. Most people are pretty unhappy with that calling, last time I checked.

Following

On that day when Jesus stepped out and began to choose disciples were Peter, Andrew, James and John the only ones fishing? It is a critical question. How we answer will probably go a long way to forming who we think this God is and How he goes about making decisions. We do know for absolute certainty that Jesus walked up and said for them to follow Him and they said yes. And off they went. We also know a few other things because they are not in scripture. We know that the four did not ask Jesus into their heart. We know Jesus did not ask them to pray a prayer. We know that they did not tell Jesus that they believe in Him and then go back to their jobs. And we for sure know that Jesus did not join them at their work. We know this because He asked them to come join Him at his work. And off they went. So we can conclude that either Jesus put the entire fishing economy of the region into a recession when the four followed Him or there were in fact other fisherman and Jesus never bothered to ask them to follow. In truth Jesus cruised the streets daily, going from town to town, and apparently He did not ask most of them to follow Him either.

There are all kinds of directions to take this. We could argue that not everyone is called to the apostle level. We could argue that some are just called to the disciple level or the spectator level. We could do that or we could ask what set these followers apart and how do we sign up for the set apart level because the set apart level at the very end were the only ones left walking with Him. The 11 and some other followers were still all in when everyone else had long gone back to doing something else, following someone else perhaps.

In John 15:16  Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." That's good news isn't it? He chose and they said yes and He did it so they can bear fruit and that fruit will abide. In verse 5 He says, "I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Here is what we for sure know. Peter, Andrew, James and John did nothing to be asked to follow. They were not special, they were not the best fisherman (fast forward to when they went back to fishing and caught nothing til Jesus showed up and told them which side of the boat fish hang out on.), they did not earn the call. They did say yes when they could very well have continued in their no. So it seems to work a little like this. Jesus says follow me and some of us say yes and some of us keep saying no. But long before we say yes or no we already know that He is God. The truth is that every single one of us, even those of us who say yes, used to say no. We all were rebels, we all were haters of God. We all made Him our enemy. We were all dead. And while we were all dead, while we all hated God we knew there was a God and we all said no. We know this is true because in Romans 1:18 and 19 we are told, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God had shown it to them."

Here is God's love: He has made himself known to every single person who has ever lived. He has revealed Himself to everyone who will ever live. He revealed Himself to the Jews and to the Gentiles alike. He showed Himself to Hindus who made gods to look like the things of god. He made Himself known to the Greeks who created a team of gods to explain all things. He revealed Himself to muslims and aztecs, to mayans and athiest. He has revealed Himself to everyone already. He has already called out to everyone and very few have said yes. But there are some, there are a few, who are wandering among us just waiting for someone to tell them what they already know.

We are like the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in the matrix. We are offering to unplug all the no's and yet there are only a few yes's. And this is what we are made for. God could have done it an infinite number of ways and yet this is His way. He has made Himself known and all have declared themselves to be hostiles. But there are a few of us that are awakened in the mystery that is how God moves and we say yes. We say yes to the unbelievable and we do the unthinkable. We start trying to set all the captives free and sometimes they too awaken.

It makes absolutely no sense that this is how it works. And when my God makes absolutely no sense then I know I am following something so other than that it must be real.  There is none like Him.

Did Jesus cruise up and down that beach that day asking all the fisherman to follow? He didn't need to. Every fisherman already knew who God was. Every fisherman had already declared Him as enemy. But there were four who were about to say yes. There were four who were never going to be the same again. Jesus didn't need to ask all the fisherman to follow, just the four who were going to say yes. There are those among us who are ready to say yes and He already knows who they are. God has revealed Himself to everyone and everyone has said no. There absolutely is not a single yes to the revealing of God. Our task is to go to the no's (that is everyone) and we are to offer to unplug them. Here is the rub. Only the ones who are prepared to say yes will say yes. We won't talk them into their yes. They have always longed to be a yes they have just always been held captive by their no. Each and everyone of us who has said yes absolutely knows that we were a no longing to be a yes. Each and everyone of us knew there must be more than this.

We always ask the wrong questions. We are always asking if God this and God that then why this or why that. All we really need to ask Him is who is ready to be unplugged and then go do it. The why matters not at all. The why of God only distracts us from our unplugging job.