Lausanne Open Forum
On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to attend on of the 12 open forums across the country hosted by the Lausanne Movement. If you don’t know about Lausanne you can read more about how it was formed on their about page. These “12 conversations, 12 cities” were set up to generate awareness of the upcoming CapeTown 2010 Congress. This is the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelicalization.
Headlining the panel included singers Derek Web and Sara Groves, author Os Guinness, and the co-founder of Bloodwater Mission Jenna Lee
Some times you feel disconnected from reality in your desires. Amongst some close friends and in a Bible study I attend there is talk of getting out within our communities, about going through this world “to heavy” and on needing drastic social change. But at least for me there is this overwhelming sense that we’re traveling this road alone. From a distance it certainly appears that other issues are taking precidence such as wars, immigration, and laws. To hear Christian panelists from around the country speak on the very desires our small groups have been talking about was confirmation and a new connection that we aren’t alone.
There were a couple of great points I’d like to mention:
- Materialism and the gifts of God
- The younger generation
- Community
“America has confused what God’s gifts are.” -Jena Lee Jena went on to say that the people she would speak to in Africa feel pity for us because when it rains, they know it’s from God, and when they harvest crops they know they are from God. Meanwhile, we sit here in America and complain when it rains and take it for granted that we can go to a store and by all the food we want.
The subtler things are doing us in, it’s not the larger issues Os Guinness added. And Sara Groves mentioned how we’ve perfected the comforting of ourselves in America. It’s true that we as Christians really focus on this really big topics but fail to address smaller things that are slowly eating away at our foundation. We’ve become comfortable and complacent in our lives, happy where we are and content to just “go to heaven”.
Don’t get caught up in generationalism.” -Os Guinness I think this was one of my favorite points of the night. This idea that young people aren’t ready or intelligent enough to lead the way. He went on to say that we aren’t listening to the younger generation on innovative ways to create change and advance the Kingdom. I couldn’t agree more. It’s time to pass the torch and face the fire. Enable this younger people and empower them. Their ideas matter and each of them can change the world but we tend to discourage them by not listening in our ignorance rather than building them up and challenging them to make a difference.
Grab hold of how others see Jesus so you can grow and understand Him more. -Sara Groves This point struck me in that if you read between the lines, what she is really saying is “embrace each other, you need each other”. I took this away as the main point driven home throughout the night. It was mentioned over and over again. We desperately need to start working together, but also trusting each other, sharing with each other, and confiding in one another. We have no chance of growing individually if we cut ourselves off from everyone.
A great point made by Os Guinness as things wrapped up was this: “In modern society there is nothing harder than genuine community”. I would take it even further and say that Satan has so individualized us and saturated us with ipods, and tv shows and me first mentalities that community is almost impossible to harness. I believe in our hearts we want it but when we get close and things get tough we severe the tie and we have to start all over. We aren’t willing to risk much but want to reward.
All in all I had a great time, and learned a lot from hearing their different view points. If you can get out to one of the other open forums I highly suggest you do. It was well worth it.
What drives you?
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ~Matthew 19:21
I had to take a bit of a break this past week or so after dislocated and breaking my finger in 3 places in a football game. As I got up after the play I lined up for the next play feeling a little pain in my hand. It was cold and rainy and a brisk breeze was blowing across the field. My initial thought was that my hand was just numb from the cold and wet along with hitting the hard dirt ground.
Upon looking down at my hand my ring finger from the top knuckle to the tip was bent up. It looked real bad. Not enjoying the look of my finger I pushed it down and in, relocating it. I began bending it to make sure I had function. I leveled my hand to my eye line and checked it again, it was still twisted up.
I called in another player and ran off to the sideline. This is the part where you say, phew he’s going to get help. Nope, I was going to find tape… A friend buddy-taped two fingers together and I was anticipating going back in.
What drives you? What motivates you every day? Why do you wake up in the morning?
The question seems simplistic but really think about it for a minute. I have a hard time with it. Why am I getting up and doing the same thing over and over? What’s motivating me to get up, go to work, come home, sleep, repeat
I feel tired and worn out. I feel bored with life and the mundane tasks of daily living. My motivation is in the wrong place. When “life” is your motivation you lose your desire, your hunger, your determination.
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Matthew 4:19). Jesus gives a decree and follows it with a job. Follow me and take the job of saving souls. The majority of us take to following Jesus and brush off that second piece. We continue with our daily rituals and we get bored. We lose our motivation and fall in to this funk.
For years I shrugged it off as attacks of Satan pushing me down. “I’m going to church, I’m reading, I’m praying”, I thought. I’m certainly not saying some or perhaps all of them weren’t attacks, what I am saying is we’ve become so indoctrinated with how we ought to act and what we should and shouldn’t do from the “church” that we’ve lost the ultimate goal of Christ’s message: follow me and become a fisher. We dare not step outside the box for fear of being to radical.
It’s time to step out of the box. It’s time to give everything for the sake of the Cross.(2 Timothy 2:10) It’s time to start making waves.
I find the story of the rich young man to be a fascinating one(Matthew 19:16-28). This man has everything and yet he’s thirsting for more. When Jesus tells him he needs to give up his possessions he walks away dejected. In a world which feasts on fast paced, I wonder if it’s possible to give up all your possessions. Could I even give up my cell phone, or my computer, or tv?
Desiring to fight on in the face of injury for my own selfish reasons in my football game, over the last few weeks, in reflection, I’ve decided that what motivates me is “things”. Maybe it’s 80% of the time, maybe it’s only 20% of the time, but it’s to much. God has really been pressing it upon me to change my motivation. When your motivation is Christ, your desire and determination return and not only that but they’re steering you in the right direction.
Paycheck to Paycheck
Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. ~Mark 10:21
“I’m living paycheck to paycheck.” You’ve probably heard this phrase used before. But is it such a bad thing, when done for the right reason?
I’ve been wrestling lately with the idea of tithes and giving gifts to the Lord. Whether or not to actually do it, isn’t the question, but the faith behind it is what has been stirring up inside of me.
The world tells us to store up and prepare. That’s why we have saving accounts and 401k’s so that we can “retire happy”. Maybe my argument here is radical and over the top but I suggest that the less money you have the happier you will be. There are some conditions to this but here me out:
1. Know Christ.
2. Trust Christ.
When we know Christ as our Lord and Savior our lives are drastically changed. Matthew 4:19 Jesus says “Come, follow me”. Immediately they drop their nets and follow Him. They didn’t ask, but how will we eat? They simply obeyed. Read Mark 12:41-44. This poor widow comes and puts everything she has to live on in this basket for the Lord. She didn’t ask, but how will I eat? She simply obeyed.
My argument is this: if you are living paycheck to paycheck because you are buying “things” and “stuff” you are going to be miserable. Things will not fill the void in your soul. But if you are living paycheck to paycheck because you are giving out of an abundance of joy to the Lord He will bless you over and over and your life with be filled with happiness. Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow and not to worry about the clothes we will wear or how we will put food on our plate, but that the God of heaven is faithful to his servants.
It takes a lot of faith to go against the grain. To forgo safety and security in this life is contrary to everything this world teaches. I feel that if this “experiment” were to take place in ones life, even other Christians would mock the “insanity” of it.
What would happen if we lived paycheck to paycheck for the Lord? What would happen if every extra dime we had went to the Lord? What if I saw someone who needed a coat and gave them mine? What if I saw a need and fulfilled it? I believe life altering, world shattering events would happen.
The other day I talked about the authority Christ has given us. This is part of it. If we grabbed hold of these concepts as Christians and truly united on one front we really could turn this world upside down.
Do you want it? I know I do. I want to be known as “insane”.
We’re all searching
For in the image of God has God made man. – Genesis 9:6
Our DNA is hard coded to worship Jesus. For any of us who follow Christ daily this fact is undeniable. When we worship it stirs up emotions we don’t feel at any other time. At points it drives us to tears of repentance, sometimes tears of joy, and other times tears of shear awe.
For those who don’t serve this God, who have doubt, who have questions, this seems perplexing. How can worshiping something no one can see help me? How can it possible change my life? How do I know it’s even real?
John 16:13 says “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.” When Jesus died, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven God sent His Spirit as our guide.(John 16:5-11) In worshiping God and surrendering your all to him you allow His Spirit to come and guide you.
A young boy and his father were hiding in a church during the Revolutionary War as British troops marched on their town. The march of footsteps drew them to the window. As they peered out the window the young boy exclaimed “Dad! minutemen! We’re saved!” No son, those are redcoats. The dad explained. “No, look dad! They’re wearing white coats.” The dad, perplexed, and a bit concerned looked down at his son and realized what had happened. Being so small, his son was looking through a piece of red stained glass at the bottom of the window. You see, if you look through red glass at red all you see is white.
We are gross and grimy; covered in sin. Yet Jesus shed his blood for us. When we accept Him we are covered by the blood of the Lamb. God takes one look at us and all He sees is His son, as white as snow. You are gonna make mistakes, even through His Spirit guides you but God’s grace will always be greater than any sin.
When something bad happens to you how do you feel? As a Christian I’ll tell you how I feel. I feel upset, disappointed, angry. But shortly thereafter I remember how big my God is and remember that He has a plan for my life. He also promised to protect me. I’ve seen non-Christians experience bad things. Cancer, death, and even small things have caused people to ‘give up’. They have no hope. When someone asks me, I point to 1 Peter 3:15 which says always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. People think I’m crazy for being upbeat when something bad happens. If I told you that whenever something bad happened to you you would be happy and that it would turn out okay every time wouldn’t you take it? That is what Jesus is offering you! This is your life changing moment.
Finally, how do you know it’s real? Before you were even in your mom’s womb, He knew you(Jeremiah 1:5). So what you say. You’re just quoting from the Bible and I don’t believe that. Ok, listen to the lyrics of some of the music you listen to. Listen to famous actors and athletes. They all have everything this world has to offer and are still searching for something. Searching in this world drives them crazy, leads them to drugs and to do crazy things.
Listen to these lyrics: “Check your pulse it’s proof that you’re not listening to The call your life’s been issuing you“. Sounds like something in a Christian song right? It’s John Mayer.
Each one of us has a hole in our heart and it’s deadly. We search high and low trying to fill it with anything we can think of but nothing in this world can fill it. The only thing that fills this hole is Jesus and He’ll fill it perfectly, satisfying all your needs.
We are hard coded to worship the Lord, our maker. And when we choose to reject Him we search endlessly for an answer that isn’t attainable, leading to death. “Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”(Matthew 7:7) People who choose to follow the world may get all the material blessings they search out. People who choose to follow God get eternal life with all the blessings thrown in.
It smells so good!
Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. -Romans 6:11
A couple of months ago I was walking to my car after work and recognized an unmistakable smell; The smell of autumn. It was 45-50 degrees, the sun was beginning to set, and it just smelled like fall. I love that smell for some reason. Maybe it’s memories, maybe it’s the changing landscape but something about that smell seems calming.
I started thinking about what the smell actually was and it dawned on me that it was leaves. And I started thinking about why leaves die and regrow, why they change color, and why do they smell so good in the fall.
God gives us a perfect example of His word in a real world visual. See, leaves bud, the sun gives them light and they grow. They mature and turn in to a vibrant color of green. As the sun moves farther away from the earth and the days become darker the leaves begin to lose their vibrant green. For a few weeks they explode into beautiful yellows, reds, and oranges, cascading through the neighborhoods and forests, indulging our eyes. We actually plan vacations around this! But those bright colors are short lived. Without the sun the leaves lose their food. They begin withering and fall off the tree and within days are brown and brittle.
In those few weeks of colorful explosions and in the days preceding when the leaves have fallen and are brown and brittle they give off this smell I call “fall”. It smells so good, and personally, I love basking in a perfect fall day.
You probably already see the example, we are the leaves, Jesus is the sun, the son of God. When we turn our lives over to Him he changes us. We grow and become vibrant leaves.(Romans 6:4)
We are all sinners(Romans 3:23) and eventually that sin rears it’s ugly head even when we have committed are lives to Christ. Sometimes it’s brief, sometimes we backslide for a while. And during that time sin seems good. We feel good, we change color, we feel as though life is going fine. And for that brief time we look good to the world. We’re the bright reds and yellows, and oranges that attract other non-believers. We have more friends, we can do more things.(Matthew 7:13)
Eventually sin consumes you, you lose your connection with God and He becomes far away. Without food you wither and die.(1 Corinthians 10:3-4) You become brown and britle. Sin smells so good. Those reds, oranges, and yellows are so pretty to look at and on a nice fall day the smells can consume you. However, just like fire with it’s reds, yellows, and oranges, sin will consume you and devour everything turning it to dust.
Here’s the beauty of Christ: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9) You know what that means? That means, like a leaf in spring time we can rebud. We grow again! No task required, no 15 hail mary’s, no physical death. Just dead to sin, alive in Christ. Glorious, wondrous grace from the cross. That’s it! If you don’t get goosebumps reading that!
Don’t let sin consume you, don’t let Satan take hold and drag you down. It may feel good right now but in a few days, weeks, months, years, you are going to be hurting. Renew yourself now. Confess your sins, submit to His will for your life and let Him make you whole. You need food to survive and so does your soul. Pick up the Bible read a chapter, and pray to your Father in heaven. He’ll turn you a vibrant shade of green!
