I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
Too many Christians have been shrink wrapped by religion. To shrink wrap is to shut things up in bags and suck the air out. It entombs things and keeps them locked in place so they can be stored away with minimal inconvenience. That’s not a good thing for churches to do to with their members.
Religious things that shrink wrap Christians: 1) The clergy/laity myth, 2) Sermon dependency, 3) Pastor control, 4) Rigid programming, 5) Acting like Jesus is dead.
Let’s lose the shrink wrap! We can step beyond the shrink wrap of human-led religion into the spontaneity of being daily led by the living Jesus.
People want something to cheer. They even brag on their beer. But my boast is the Most High Who causes my heart to fly. Jesus makes my spirit soar!
I go for a walk almost every day, but I don’t count my steps. I just enjoy them because they carry me along as my heart savors beauty. From a blade of grass to a flower, to a bird overhead or a squirrel on the run, to a car driving by with a person waving “Hi,” I marvel at the wonder of it all.
I haven’t always walked this way. Sometimes I still rush by and miss the glory. But when I notice the symmetry of my surroundings and the marvels all around me, it brings life to my heart, and I start to feel great gratitude.
How fortunate I am to have the gift of eyes that can daily see sights that amaze and inspire me as I walk by. My favorite book tells me to “keep in step with the Spirit.” I discovered that when I let the risen Jesus lead my steps and thoughts and feelings and desires, my ongoing walk through life is accompanied by inner peace and joy.
A shift from self-focus to a Spirit-led focus is life-changing. Amazing things happen when we step beyond the shrink wrap of self-obsession into the spontaneity of the ever-expanding glory of being daily led by “Christ in you.”
If your heart is like
A dry river bed
And inside you feel
You're almost dead,
Let fresh wind blow,
Let joy grow.
You just need to know
That Jesus will flow
When you open your heart
To Him.
Let Jesus flow.
I need to follow a perfect leader. Too often who and/or what I have followed has led me in ways that were unhelpful and harmful. When I’ve followed my feelings and desires, they have deceived me. When I’ve followed my mind, I’ve swollen with pride. When I’ve followed happiness, it has eluded me.
Then one day I began to follow something that was happening inside of me that I couldn’t explain. It was a sense of spiritual awareness that the Creator wanted me to become conscious of His presence and to follow Him. Suddenly, I had a strange desire to read the Bible. I picked it up and was captivated by words that were burning in my heart and introducing me to the reality and presence of the risen Jesus Christ — the Perfect Leader. The Bible puts it this way: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
For more than five decades I’ve followed the living Jesus who speaks within me and confirms the objectivity of His words by amazingly describing the realities that I daily encounter within and around me. The Bible calls that being “led by the Spirit.”
I see myself as someone who continually seeks to set aside my own desires and feelings, and instead follow the living Jesus. I believe that as I daily seek to follow and obey Jesus that I set an example that encourages other people to also follow and obey the Perfect Leader. In that way, I see myself as a leader.
Even after being tortured and threatened with death, the first Christian “apostles” (which means “sent ones” in Greek) “never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” Yet today we too easily let almost anything (from distractions to fear of being laughed at) stop us from talking about the risen Jesus and convince us that we haven’t also been sent to never stop testifying about Christ in us.
The Bible “Barney” was such an encouragement to people that the early Christians gave him the nickname, “Son of Encouragement.” His secret was full surrender to “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (“Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means ‘son of encouragement,’ sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostle’s feet.” –Acts 4:36–37.)
Yielding to the presence of “Christ in you” empowers Christians to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” It enables Christians to sincerely “weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice,” so that they can experience ekklesia, the Spirit-led town hall meeting that Jesus is building.
Positional power, however, seeks to maintain institutional interests. Its focus is on organizational control and protocol, not on encouraging individuals to live their “Christ in you” life now — in the present moments of today.
Where are the sons of encouragement who will bring hope to a culture that is wallowing in meaninglessness and despair? The more a society spins the truth the faster it spirals down the axis of confusion. Who will reach beyond the hopelessness and point us to the light of truth?
We need to learn from the tale of two trees. People who build their life on “the tree of the knowledge of good evil” begin to doubt, deny, and defy God. People who build their life on “the tree of life” actually rely on and depend on the risen Jesus and His word throughout the day and are supernaturally encouraged and empowered to embrace and spread hope, no matter what happens. They become the “sons of encouragement” — the Bible Barney.
Don’t worry be . . . Surrendered to “Christ in you, The hope of glory.”
Although I don’t speak Greek, my favorite book was written in Greek, so I have learned several Greek words that help me understand it better. One of those words is ekklesia. It’s definitely one of my favorite words.
Although ekklesia literally means called out ones. it was also the proper name of the town hall meeting in ancient Greek cities. Any citizen could speak up in the ekklesia and share what was on his heart. From time to time, it was called to assemble together by a herald.
It’s interesting to note that when Jesus Christ proclaimed what He was going to build on earth he is quoted as saying: “I will build My ekklesia.” I call that word “the lost word of the Bible” because in almost all English Bibles it was replaced (instead of translated) by the word church.
Church refers to a building, an organization, or a religious meeting controlled from the front by one man. Ekklesia, however, refers to an open, participatory town hall meeting. Jesus’ ekklesia isn’t led or controlled by one man, but by the risen Jesus, Himself, who is the literal and active Head and Director of the gathering. He calls it together and He personally leads it.
I love the word ekklesia because it describes what Jesus wants to do with His people. He wants to gather us together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But we are seldom willing to be assembled, led, and directed by the living Jesus. We prefer a human hierarchy and a rigidly controlled religious organization instead.
I was fortunate to experience ekklesia (a Christ-led town hall meeting) on my college campus. There I saw Jesus, Himself (Christ in you, the hope of glory) actively working in and directing a gathering of college students. Through the years I have gone beyond church to seek out and cultivate Christ-led town hall meetings. Every time I participate in one, I experience Jesus as present, alive, active, and working in and through the people gathered together in His name.
If you would like to know more about ekklesia ckick here. It will take you to information about a book I wrote that will give you pratical ways you can cultivate ekklesia in your life.
Christ followers are invited to live in the awe of God. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we are able to daily partake of the tree of life and be in awe of God’s mercy toward us.
Open, humble hearts experience overwhelming awe as they become “partakes of the divine nature” by ever tasting and feasting on the tree of life. But trusting in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil produces human pride. “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”
Twenty-first century Christianity trains people to be knowledge dependent — “always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” First century Christianity trained people to live in awe of God by continually keeping their heart open to and their will surrendered to the presence of the living, resurrected Jesus. Let’s return to the awe of early Christianity. (Open your heart and search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity.)
Christianity accurately diagnoses the condition of humanity as having fallen from the likeness of God into the corruption of self-focused desires, feelings and thoughts. It has the answer for the meaninglessness that millions feel. Meaninglessness is monotonous but millions have found magnificent meaning thru meeting the Messiah — the risen Jesus!
Christians, you don’t need to remember things about God with your mind. You need to surrender to the remembrance of God’s Spirit Preaching shouldn’t train people to be preacher-dependent. It should train them to be Spirit-led.
Human pride is a red flag. It’s a warning of danger. Beware of pride. A wise person said: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” The more our ego goes up, the more our safety and security goes down.
Pride is a facade. It’s an attempt to cover up our fear and insecurity. It causes us to pretend to be what we are not — to fake it and falsely hope that by make-believe we will one day make it.
The red flag of pride warns us we have abandoned humility and honesty about our inner pain and struggles and are instead trusting in and justifying our own desires, feelings, thoughts, and opinions. When walking in pride we are torpedoing truth and rushing full speed ahead into deception.
As human beings, we’re all tempted to hide what’s really going on in our heart behind the screen of pride. It’s frightening to step beyond that ego-screen and into the light of honesty and humility where we can see who we really are and, in our brokenness, and disfunction, discover that there is hope for healing for us all. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
My ideal week is to be Spirit-led. It is to go where Jesus prompts me to go and to do what He prompts me to do. I’ve never achieved such a perfect week but that’s always my goal.
I have discovered that the closer I get to that goal, the more I am filled with peace, joy, hope, and awe. When I pay attention to Christ’s inner promptings and obey them in my daily life, I’m always amazed at the marvelous things He does inside me and through me.
When I ignore His prompting (“quench the Spirit”), my life reverts back to human disfunction. So, I’ve trained myself to quickly ask for Christ’s forgiveness in order that I can obey the next inner nudging. I’ve found that the more attentive and obedient I am to His promptings, the more I become aware of them.
Following the leadings of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” is such an incredible way to live. I want to spend the rest of my life getting better at it!
God sees through the lies of your disguise. Lies, regardless of their size, are deceptive. Deception deploys darkness and destroys our ability to discern and walk in truth.
As Christ-followers we need to be careful that we don’t deny the truth about ourselves and our behaviors, but rather embrace it and humbly cry out like Paul, “O wretched man that I am.” Attempting to spin the truth about ourselves in order to appear meritorious kills our ability to humbly surrender to and live in God’s grace. (Instead of my spin, my one plea should be that Christ’s blood was shed for me.)
Peter lied and denied Jesus three times. Then he wept. He didn’t deceive and manipulate to cover up the truth of his sin of lying. He didn’t try to justify or minimize his lying. The humiliating truth about Peter denying Jesus was part of his reputation and is still known to the entire body of Christ.
Because Peter repented and walked in the light of humility, brokenness, and honesty, the gift of the word of knowledge was able to work in him and reveal to him the lie of Ananias and Sapphira. When confronted with the truth they didn’t weep and admit their joint lie. Instead, they held on to it and it took them to their graves.
Even the smallest lie is a Spirit-quencher that causes a breech between us and God’s life-giving light. Dare to ask God to remind you of your lies (big and small) and when He brings them to your mind, quickly admit them, weep with sorrow, and receive God’s undeserved forgiveness, healing, and restoration. If you’ve lied to another person (or spined the truth in your favor) be courageous and humbly approach them. Tell them the whole truth and ask for their forgiveness. Then the death-grip of your guilty lies will be washed away by the rejuvenating Spirit of God.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 