Breathing in and Breathing out!

Acts of the Apostles reveals the passion of the early Christians for continuing what Jesus Christ had started in his earthly ministry (Acts 1.1). These early believers demonstrated a devotion that sparked radical transformation in their worldview during the days following Pentecost. A question arises: “What was the newly discovered passion that encouraged their change?” In the following pages, I seek to examine Acts 2.42 as supporting the presumption that the “devotion” of the early believers was the means by which radical transformation took place in their lives. There is tension in living the contemplative life in Christ and the active life in Christ. Tension between growing in Christ and living for Christ is experienced by followers of Christ and I suggest that there is a biblical solution for resolving this tension through a persistent devoted nature.

Mulholland suggests tension is natural and is like breathing in and breathing out. Humans are created to do both. “There are not three classes of humans: ‘breathers in,’ ‘breathers out,’ and ‘breathers in and out.’ Healthy physical life requires a synergy of breathing in and out.”[1] Healthy spiritual formation is only possible if there is direct connection between growing in Christ and serving the purpose of Christ. “Spiritual formation is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others.”[2] The first followers of Jesus devoted themselves to learning of righteousness, fellowship with others, remembering Jesus, and submitting themselves to God in prayer for the benefit of growing inward and sharing the message that Jesus outward.  

Seeking to breathe in and breathe out my devoted life to Jesus. You know I love ya, Don

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[1] M. Robert Mulholland. “Spiritual Formation in Christ and Mission with Christ” JSFSC 6 (2013), 11-17.

[2] M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1993), 12.

A Call to be Transformed by God

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 3:18

Abram’s journey may look like it’s a kind of quest, but very quickly he and we will discover quite the opposite to be true. This won’t be a call to take hold of anything other than God. Abram was clearing the road to the cross. Even though he did not know of the cross, he was willing to trust God to transform his life and to bless the entire world. Abram will spend the rest of his life learning to let go; let go of his doubts and fears, let go of all kinds of passions, to let go of his way of doing things

God’s goal is to bring Abram to a point where the only thing Abram has left – is God himself.

God is going to transform Abram in a magnificent way. The call of Abram will lead people for every generation to follow on a road to the cross.

Abram won’t get there by just being a better person; by making a few minor changes in his diet and in his health; he won’t become the person God has in mind by reading a few good books. Abram can’t answer this call with a sorta-kinda, luke-warm commitment and effort – This is going to require tremendous courage if he is going to follow where God is leading.

And the same is true for us. If God needs something from me, I need to try harder. I’ll try to read a few more books, read my bible more, say more prayers, pray stronger, pray louder…But the question isn’t about trying harder… Trying harder doesn’t deliver what it promises to deliver…Yes, you do everything you can to give yourself over the Holy Spirit. You commit yourselves to the spirit disciplines: You read, you study, you pray, you worship, you confess, you serve, you give… But none of that makes you holy. None of it gives you courage. None of it proves you to be God’s possession. Only God himself can make you worthy, make you capable, and bring you to transformation.

This isn’t about how good you are. God uses people like Abram, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Samson, Peter, Mary, Martha, and Paul…What do they have in common? In an uncommon way, they gave everything in their lives over to God – their needs, their passions, their agendas, their plans, their pride, their fears, their hearts, their minds and their souls. Abram teaches us to travel, trust, and be transformed by God by spending more time letting go and giving God more of your heart, more of your time, more of your strength, more of your dreams!!!

You know I love ya, Don 

A Call to Trust in God!

“We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” Proverbs 16:9

All throughout scripture Abram is a man credited with faith. He steps out in faith and trusts God.

A hostile culture and people occupy the Land to which they are traveling. Abram, Sarai and Lot are now homeless. Abram and Sarai have no child. This must blow Abram’s mind. How are all these things going to happen? He can’t make this happen; not taking the land, not finding a new home, not having a child. He’s been doing that for 75 years and God told him to leave it all behind.

This is the beginning of a call for Abram to trust in God; not himself, not his talents, not his ideas, not his work, not his friends – Trust in God.

Our problem is we tend to trust more in ourselves than we do in God to fulfill his promises:

We trust our skills and talents.

We trust our hard work and long hours.

We trust our wisdom and intelligence.

We trust in our technology and medicine.

We trust our religion, and our practices.

We trust our feelings and instincts.

Abram immediately discovers that if he is going to answer God’s call, he will have to find some courage to believe in someone greater than himself. The same is true for you and me. We have to trust in God’s power, not our own. Instead of believing in yourself, start putting your trust in God.



You know I love ya, Don

 

A Call to Travel with God!

“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he does for his people!” Psalm 66:5

 God invites everyone on a journey. Consider it a Biblical Road Trip. His journeys are often and difficult. Abram’s will be an uncomfortable journey. One that requires everything Abram can offer over the remainder of his life. You and I can learn stamina, faithfulness, and trust in this man’s journey that has changed all on history.

1.     Abram doesn’t speak in the story. No questions, No excuses, No tests, No complaints.

2.      Abram doesn’t see the whole story.

This will be a difficult, uncomfortable journey. He doesn’t know that. If he did, he might not go. He has glimpse of what is coming. “I will make you a Father of many nations…”

3.     Abram doesn’t search for the hidden story.

If Abram might be doing soul searching, “Why would God want me to do this? What greater purpose does he have…” we’re never told. God certainly does have a huge, amazing plan for Abram. But Abram doesn’t make it his problem to decipher and decode God’s agenda. He just jumps on the path and travels with God.

God speaks and with ears of faith Abram listens. Abram figures out that his job is to join God on the journey. He’s got his wife and his nephew with him, but he will quickly and frequently discover God is his traveling companion. He’s 75 years old and for Abram the journey has just started.

He’s gone his entire life without children. 75 years, probably 55 of them married to Sarai, all those years of hoping God would bless them, all those years wondering why things were working out the way he had hoped. 75 years of feeling helpless, struggling with doubts and despair about his future.

At age 75 – God speaks and gives Abram a call. Sure there are the Jeremiahs out there who hear God’s call early in life. But there are also people like Abram, who don’t hear the call until much later in life. “Middlers” they’re called. People who live one life doing one thing, and a second life answering God’s call to travel with him.

So what does this mean to believers 4500 years later? It reminds us that God invites each of us on a journey with Him. We are called to travel with God. But sometimes, we’re a little too busy to hear it, aren’t we. Sometimes we’re a little too preoccupied to hear the invitation, a little too proud to consider the request, too busy doing too many things, or even just talking too much.

Abram reminds us to listen and respond in faith! You Know I love ya, Don

Center and Circumference

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for Me.”

Paul stated that the key to the Christian life is very clear in that Jesus is now our center and our circumference. When I committed my life to Jesus and was immersed, I was “in Christ,” but when I appropriate His life, then it is “Christ in me.” To be fully filled with Jesus is to examine the relationship between being filled with Jesus as the center of my life OR being filled with Jesus as the circumference of my life. For example:

Imagine you are standing on a warm beach and you can hear the ocean waves crashing. If I were to take a bottle water container and fill it with ocean water. It would be centered around the ocean water and I could say that I have the ocean in my hand. This is what it is like when we make Christ the center of our lives.

What would happen … beyond pollution… if I took the bottle and threw it into the ocean? It would fill up, but it would also be complete engulfed by the by the ocean. The bottle would have the ocean at the center of it, but it would also be swept away by the currents of the ocean. The ocean is no longer the center, but is also the circumference. The bottle no longer owns the ocean, but the ocean owns the bottle. The ocean takes the bottle and guides it through it’s currents.

I want to be driven by the currents of the Holy Spirit and have Jesus as the circumference of my life as well. 

You know I love ya, Don

Peace is in the new friendships that last an eternity.

Reconciliation is a big church word that means to “make friendly again.”

In some languages, however, reconciliation is often spoken of in idiomatic terms, for example, ‘to cause to become friends again,’ ‘to cause to snap fingers again’ (a symbol of friendly interpersonal relations in many parts of Africa), ‘to cause to be one again,’ or ‘to take away the separation.’ A particularly crucial element in terms for reconciliation is the assigning of responsibility for original guilt in causing the estrangement.

John 15:13-17 states;  

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

General McArthur said, "A truce just says you don't shoot for awhile. Peace comes when the truth is known, the issue is settled, and the parties embrace each other."
 

Peacemakers don't just try to stop conflict. They're doing something far more meaningful, something healing and restoring. They try to bring about reconciliation and relationship, even if it means going through the conflict.

The cross was the greatest act of violence and conflict possible. In fact, much of Jesus ministry involved conflict and confrontation. He wasn't afraid of it because he was committed in love to working through that if need be to bring reconciliation.

Peacemakers don't try to stop conflict, but they work for reconciliation. God knew that we are not able to bring friendship and a renewed relationship with our creator. Jesus stepped into history and made a change on our behalf.

Paul says in Romans that we are not only friends, but we can boast in our relationship with God. … “but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”We celebrate and boast in Jesus because Jesus is also in us. I know I can face tomorrow because Jesus lives and is working in every piece of my life.

We boast in that we have Jesus as a friend on our behalf. He is interceding for us everyday and supporting believers through the guidance of Holy Spirit.

God bless you... You know I love ya, Don 

Big and little of what Jesus can do.

Best of Friends…who would you label as your best friends?

Romans 5:8-11 is all about friendship:

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

Paul is using a “how much more” argument. It basically works like this: If the greater thing is true, then the lesser thing is of necessity also true. If God has done the harder thing, then surely He will do the easier task. Look closely at verse 9: “Since we have now…how much more shall we be…” And verse 10: “For if when we were…how much more…” Even verse 11 employs something similar: “Not only…we also.”

Since God did the more difficult task of justifying weak, wayward and wicked sinners, then to rescue us from wrath is relatively effortless. We could say it this way: If God has already done the difficult, can we not trust Him to do the comparatively simple thing of completing the task?

If Jesus can…____________ (Fill in the blank) than he can also… _____________ (Fill in the blank).

Paul is making some stunning statements in this section of Scripture to show HOW we are to live with the tension of what we have “already” and what is “still to come.” The best is really yet to be! In each of these three verses we’ll discover that Jesus has done the hard part of making friends with God a possibility thus…we can trust Him to make the future even greater.

The believer is blessed with friendship with God by reconciliation (to make friends again) and having Jesus living within.

You know I love ya, Don