Can’t find an internship? Try a discipleship.

It has been quite some time since I’ve last written.  I could tell you that I’ve been busy, but I’m actually just a horrible blogger, so I haven’t dropped anything on here in awhile.  My life has been in a good upheaval lately.  I want to fill you in on what’s going on with me, but there’s a substantial amount to cover. This might happen over a few posts.

1.  Mentors/disciples are good.  The Jewish people had it right when they required disciples to follow Rabbis like it was their job.  It actually was their job for about a six month time period.  They kissed their wives good-bye and went off to study with a Rabbi in the desert for half a year.  But the payoff was immense; they learned so much in such a short period of time.  Everything the Rabbi did, you did.  It was considered a blessing to have the dust of a Rabbi’s footsteps on you.  There was so much involved with committing to a discipleship.  It was a major life shift.  Your knowledge of the scriptures had to be impeccable, meaning that you probably memorized the Torah and the majority of the prophets by the time you were 16.  When Jesus called his disciples (minus the qualifications of a traditional disciple), they understood the commitment they made; there were no part time jobs when you studied under a Rabbi, much less Jesus.  After only a few years with Jesus, a few of his disciples were recognized in Acts for “having been with Jesus”.  Before Jesus, these guys were either cheating people out of money or catching fish without much luck.  Yet even after such a short time, people could tell they had been with Jesus.  As humans, we may be pretty hardheaded sometimes, but these guys really got it.  They were lacking in faith many times, sure, but by the time Pentecost rolled around, you could tell some wonderful shift had happened to them.  They were being sent out on their own + Holy Spirit.  There was no more doubting.  No more doubleminded Peter.  In fact, Peter was the last to repent (for his denial of Christ) in the gospels, but the first to stand up and speak in Acts.  Something changed with them, and it happened quickly.

Needless to say, having someone disciple you is an experience every follower of Jesus needs.  My personal endeavor has been a really good one thus far.  Finding someone with some years on them is a good idea.  You can’t go wrong with someone who has been walking the walk and talking the talk for a long time.  Usually you can easily tell if someone is walking in maturity or not.  If their life isn’t a letter of the Spirit, you might want to find someone else.  Another key factor is their ability to converse with you in a real, open way.  If communication is lacking in a discipleship, it might just wear you down instead of build you up.  And finally, find someone who is going to support you when you step out in faith; find someone who pushes you to the edge of your grid and makes you take a look at both yourself and your belief system.

One last word about being discipled: be teachable.  You’d say “Of course, that’s what being discipled is about,” but I would tell you this: our pursuit of a discipler probably means we have some knowledge of God and some idea of what we believe, and while that’s wonderful, we need to check our pride at the door.  Remember, the idea is to learn.  You chose that person because you have seen them bear lasting fruit in their lives.  Besides, it’s a great experience to have your spiritual grid shaken up often.  It solidifies your faith by seeing the vastness of God’s kingdom and how he interacts with other people in a way that may be foreign to you.

May you find a mentor who challenges you to live life abundantly in Christ Jesus.

The Difference in David

David was a man who desired to see the face of God.  Because of that, the Lord allowed his kingship to be “the” kingship which was to be emulated by all subsequent kings.  Because of David, the standard was set for the character of a true worshipper.  I just want to share with you some differences in the pre-David era vs. the Davidic era.  Before David came to be the king, the temple of Moses (the 1st temple) was built and the regular sacrifices and all of the requirements written in Lev. and Deut. were followed.  This called for priests and Levites to minister in the temple-yet there was a veil between the most holy place and the temple courts.

What differentiates David’s reign from all of the other kings is the state of the temple when he came into power.  When David came into power, the ark of the Covenant had been lost during the reign of the previous king, Saul.  It had been recovered, but it was sitting on the property of Abinidab, near the border of Judah and the territory of the Philistines.  During the entire reign of Saul, there was no effort made to return the ark back to it’s rightful place.  So, when David became the ruler, he brought the ark back to Jerusalem and placed itin a tent in Jerusalem.  This is important. Because the previous place of the ark was in the 1st temple in Gibeon behind the veil, where only priests and levites could minister before it.  When David brought the ark to Jerusalem, he placed it in a tent and instituted worship before the ark of the Lord within the tent.  He provided for singers and musicians to play and sing before the ark of God 24/7, and it continued until the very end of his reign.

The image here is unmistakable.  The ark of God was not behind a veil anymore.  For the duration of David’s reign, people danced and worshipped in the very presence of God.  David worshipped in the very throne room of God.  God’s presence filled the tent and there was no “most holy place” in the time of David.  When he entered the tent, he was there. 2 Samuel 6:17 says, “They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in it’s place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offeringsbefore the Lord.”  The job only to be done by the high priest was being done by David, before the Lord.

Right after this, David speaks to Michal, the daughter of Saul, and proclaims to her his joy and his need to be undignified before the Lord.  No other king before or after (until Jesus) experienced the Lord like David did.  During Solomon’s reign, he built a house for the Lord and so the ark went back into the 2nd temple.  So for 33 years, the house of David had an incredible experience with worshipping God, in his presence.

So what do we make of this?  The Lord is painting a picture of what it should look like for us today.  We have been given kingly authority and we have been made into a nation of high priests, and we have access to the very throne of God.  Sound familiar?

May we move into the most holy place of God and stay there, and may our desire to see the glory of God never diminish as we seek the face of the one who made David run nearly butt-naked through the streets of Jerusalem.

I want that Joy. With a capital J.

The Beauty

The incomprehensible beauty of God is not far from you and I.  And I think that’s a very good sign for all of us.  Moses himself was a man chasing the desires and passions of God’s heart for his people-so much so that he boldly approached God in a way no other man had up until that point, and asked God to reveal His Glory to him.

Wait.  Moses asked God to show him His glory.  What exactly are the implications here?  God’s Glory is a very special theme and reality that appears so much in the O.T.  There was such a reverence and fear of the Glory of God.  From early on, the Glory of the Most High God was revered because at the sight of it, a man of flesh and bones would die-immediately.  This was well known, even by pagans and outsiders.  You don’t go around messing with the Glory of God of Israel.  Kings were struck dead in their place because they received praise from man and did not give glory to God.  So, Moses, even in his position with the Lord, asked-no, dared to ask God to show Him his glory.  Why?  Why would the man who had seen more of God in his life than the vast majority of people on earth risk his life to ask God to show him the very thing that could kill Him?

Because love has no boundaries.  Love has no stopping point.  Moses’ love for God extended beyond his concern for his own life. There’s something very important to be grasped.  Moses was willing to give up his life if only He could see God’s glory.  And God’s response was not dismissive , but he showed Him a part of his glory.  Moses was able to watch a side of God’s glory pass before him!  The glory that once brought death to a man now brought life!

The fact of the matter is the heart of a man in love so captivated God that He set aside the boundaries and allowed Moses to see the true beauty of Himself.

And Moses didn’t die.

In fact, I believe his life was changed and restructured after that.  Nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing God.  He wanted to know God intimately; he wasn’t satisfied with seeing God work among the people and do great things-he wanted to “know his ways” rather than “know his works”.  How often is our heart set on the things of God rather than the way of God-not “what is he doing?”, but rather “why is he doing it?”, should be our question.

Moses wanted to know what compelled the heart of God to do the things he did; he wanted friendship and communion with the Lord, and nothing else would suffice.  Thankfullly, we have the same opportunity open to us.

May the God of Moses, who was shown your Glory, and the God of Jacob, whom you wrestled with, give you a heart of love and zeal for Himself; that you may see and know the Lord your God, and truly fellowship with His son through the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 89

I have been sitting on this verse I am about to share with you for about 2 or 3 months, and it continually begs the question, “What if I lived my life like that?” The particular passage is verses 15 and 16, but that cannot be absorbed properly without first reading verse 14.  It says,

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.  They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness.“

Verse 14 sets the stage for verses 15 and 16 for the level of living which we are called to.  This is important, because without a foundation of the Father going before us in his character of righteousness and justice, we are so apt to forget the level of grace God gives us to live like Jesus did.  The character of God that we are called to live in, he gives it to us; it goes before himself.  Is it not striking to see that the traits which go before him are love (for the Father) and faithfulness (which is a fruit of love and entails obedience), and those two character traits of God are essential to our character for living like Jesus did?  

So with a preface of God’s character going before him to prepare the way for us, he calls us into this: to acclaim Him, to walk in the light of His presence, to rejoice in His name all day long, and to exult in his righteousness.  I would like to propose this is the way to live a life full of the presence of God.  

To acclaim is “to praise publicly and enthusiastically,” which must become the cry of our hearts through our relationship with Jesus.  This is important because the way of the Kingdom is true fellowship with others through acclaiming what God is doing and how he is teaching us.  By not acclaiming the Lord daily to our friends and ourselves, we are predisposed to fall into the human condition of not remembering God’s faithfulness.  This is what happens with many of us, and the enemy can take us into more unbelief, much like the seed planted on the path, which Satan snaps up with just one lie.  The importance of learning to acclaim God daily (at least) is the essence of a relationship with the Father.  If you’re in a great relationship with your wife or girlfriend, you brag on her and talk about her with everyone you know!  The very substance of relationship with God is bragging on Him.  I feel that much of the time, God’s love for us goes unrequited- but He longs for the impassioned worshipper who will catch every moment that God blesses and return it as praise.  When we enthrone God on our praises relentlessly, he delights in us. When we reach heaven we should want to have said of us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have spent your life enthroning me; and now I will enthrone you.”  This is the life of someone who acclaims God.

To walk in the light of his presence is to rest in the fact that we have Christ in us, the hope of glory.  His presence is always with us.  Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor abandon you”- and that promise extends to his Holy Spirit inside us every moment of every day. Many people can believe this in their mind, but never let their heart digest it. If we can clasp onto this promise and bring it before God in the secret place, much of our unbelief will break off like new skin shedding scabs.  Also, walking in the light of his presence requires completely yielding yourself to God’s plans.  The nature of His light illuminates all lies and agendas that we might bring with us when we want to walk in the presence of God.  If we desire to walk with Him, his light will illuminate what must be left behind to pursue Him, because walking in the light of His presence allows us to fully commune with God.

Rejoicing in his name all day long constitutes unceasing praise.  You may have felt a day or a season where almost every moment you brought praise to God for his goodness and love.  David was a man who lived in unceasing praise.  His example before the city in 2 Samuel 6 alarmed people, because they had never seen what it meant to life a life of unceasing praise.  He danced before the whole city in his boxers in full defiance of the lifeless worship which was performed for God in his temple.  To life a live of unabating worship is the only thing Jesus ever asked for. 

To exult in His righteousness means to show elation and joy at God’s character, which is righteousness.  Isn’t it incredible that we partner with a God whose character does not allow for evil to be in his presence?  He cannot partner with evil, for that would nullify his righteousness.  For light expels all darkness, and the two cannot exist together.  God’s righteousness is the basis for our praise, because from His righteousness comes His love, peace, and joy inexpressible.  Exulting in God’s righteousness allows us to partner with God in submission, which is the place of rest.  When we know God is fully for our good, even if the immediate work causes trials, we can sit on his righteousness and yell adamantly that our God is our dwelling place, our everlasting to everlasting, and that he will never leave us.

May you acclaim God, walk in the light of God’s presence in your life, rejoice in his name incessantly, and exult in our God who never fails or forsakes us.

Rest and…Stop. Just Rest.

Are you ever so euphoric in the Lord that you just want to sit in His presence a little longer?  I must tell you, if this is your current disposition, be glad, because that is what you were made for.  You were made for happiness and joy.  Although our lives are filled with anxiety, nervousness, and tension; the Lord’s heart for you is that you would reside in His rest.  The Word of God says, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).  Striving never brought anyone closer to the Lord, it only amplified the need for us to rest.

Jesus said himself that the goal of our lives was to enter his rest (Heb. 4:5), and by entering now, we allow our anxiety and nervousness to fall away.  This is the key to living a life full of focus on the Father.  The endeavor of knowing the Lord doesn’t begin or progress by human effort.  To grasp the reality that our strivings cannot bring us any closer to Jesus is true wisdom. When we learn to quiet our hearts before the Lord, that is, all our doubts and disbelief, we can learn to seek the Lord’s heart and his character without striving.  The Kingdom of Jesus is founded upon grace, and we must let Him give it to us.

In Ecclesiastes 2:22, Solomon writes that all his striving was unfounded and “a chasing after the wind.”  In our time of living with God, we can’t accelerate in this Kingdom any faster than God wants us to.  The purpose of life is to be with the Lord and find his grace in new ways.  Trying to move to the next “season” with God before you have acquired what He wants you to is valueless. That mentality will always leave you wanting.  Embrace what God is teaching you.  Many times it will be painful, but if the roots of attachment to this world aren’t removed, there can’t be a foundation for growth.

An overarching principle of the Kingdom is rest-through everything.  The rest doesn’t always physically feel “restful,” but it can.  It is where your heart’s state is joyful in the Lord, even in the midst of tribulation and depravity.  Rest does not equate with laziness or flippancy, but a calculated positioning of the heart to receive what God has to offer.  In this sense, rest is the ultimate focus.  In this rest, you will find what your heart longs for. 

Come, all you weary and heavy-burdened; He longs to give you rest.

Longings of the Heart

We are used to being told that our longings result in sin, but if that is so, why would the Lord give us desires so innate to our being that the very pursuit of them takes up most of our life?  Our heart desires love, enjoyment, greatness, intimacy, and so much more; all of these were placed in our hearts by the Lord so we would not stray from Him.  The reason sin exists is because of people trying to satisfy their longings through the world.  Once we come to the conclusion that our longings are only to be satisfied by He who made us, then we can fully seek the One who longs to fully satisfy them.  Luke 6:21 says, ” Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.”  

Psalm 16:11 says, “You will make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  God’s purpose in creating beings with desire is so He can be their fullness, he can satiate them.  He made us to live with desires and to pursue the desires of our hearts as we turn our hearts to Him.  Many billions of people have tried to clot God-given desires with worldly band-aids, but the longing cannot be stopped by turning to creation.  The longing can only be satisfied by turning to the Creator.  It was made that way intentionally.  The Lord “formed my inner parts,” (Ps. 139) and allowed all our our desires to occur naturally.

The Father’s heart is that we would bring our longings and our desires to Him to be satisfied.  In his presence, there is fullness of joy, peace, righteousness-everything our soul burns for.  For so long we have either run to the numbz-it solution of the world or we try to quell the desire altogether.  Much of the mindset of the Church today is that desire = sin.  That is half-truth if it is a truth at all.  It should be better expounded as “desire = sin, when quenched temporarily by the things of this world.”

So, we come out with this: God created us with desire.  He did not mess up.  He did not do it as a test.  Our desires will never be met by anything of this world.  We may find temporary pleasure through the world, but never lasting peace.  He wants us to know Him intimately so that he may touch us, because when he does, our desires will be fulfilled.  But it doesn’t end here.  When he touches us and we feel that the ceiling is rising, it only deepens and embroils the desire more.  So be ready for one heck of a paradoxical life.  

What we can be sure of is this, our ultimate fulfillment of our desires and longings will not be fulfilled on this earth.  They will be satisfied when we enter God’s kingdom, where our longings will continue to be satisfied and renewed in the Kingdom of Heaven.

May the God who created you to shine in His righteousness give you fulfillment that will spur you to seek His face until the day of the bridegroom reunion.  Amen.

Now or Later?

We say we long for an intense life filled with the fruits of the Spirit, but our time frame never fits that type of schedule.  We think a life surrendered to Jesus means dropping everything and going to live a monastic life preaching and teaching, and the thought scares us.  But the truth of the matter is that we haven’t been called to leave the life we’re living.  The Lord said that he would give us both favor with God and with men, and through having that dual favor, we would be in his will.  So this aspect of Christianity that scares us is actually not true-even in the slightest.  The Lord takes us where we are, and begins to do a work in us that transforms our hearts to His own, and through this transformation, his love begins a work in the people around us.  God does call people to go all over the world, but Jesus never walked more than 30 miles from his hometown his entire life (and what kind of impact did he have?).  So we shouldn’t be afraid of surrender.  Our lives will not revert to a monastic nun-existence, and God will not change us into something that will hurt us.  

Jeremiah says that God has a plan to give us a hope and a future, regardless of circumstances.  This applies to our daily surrender to the will of Jesus.  So the question is, do I keep living on the tip of the iceberg?  Or do I take a breath and have faith that Jesus will give me a greater life here than I could have ever imagined?  Breathe in deeply, because his word will never return void.

Be blessed.

The Mystery of All the Ages

Our struggle these days is to find something real, something that satisfies, and the reality that it will last.  We try and find our security in relationships, social standings, self-righteousness, and in all realms of self-satisfaction.  But this very end that we seek is nowhere to be found.  There is nothing on this earth that quenches our yearning.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men, so as long as we aim to please that which is eternal with the temporal, our hearts will always be in a state of restlessness and frustration.  So our hearts long for something real; a God bigger than ourselves, yet tangible.

And this is what God says.  The mystery of all the ages is Christ in you, the hope of Glory (Col. 1:27).  Previously, God had resided in the most holy place in Solomon’s Temple.  His actual presence lived there and when the high priest would enter, he would with caution, because gazing upon the glory of the Lord would kill you.  Christ in you deviates from the past because when Jesus ascended and sent the Spirit of Truth, it invaded the bodies of every believer and continues to do so to this day.  We now have access to the eternally satisfying and tangible presence of God in our lives.  We are no longer controlled by the principalities of this world that say we must strive to be fulfilled.  The beauty of the Lord’s Spirit is in rest;  Romans says the Spirit of the Lord is our peace and rest.  There is no striving with the Father.  The more released and departed from the ways of this world, the more he can trust you with the things not of this world.  

This mystery, which is freely given and revealed, only asks that you surrender your life.  When you do, you’ll find that you truly have life to the full.

Be blessed.

Rejoicing in Living Simply

Life is so good, yet we as humans always try to complicate and turn a simplistic masterpiece into a multi-faceted and involved process.  This shouldn’t be.  The beauty of God’s presence is that it is always there; the Father resides with us through his Holy Spirit at all times, yet we are always so caught up in “experiencing the presence” that it strangles the very thing which we seek. Our zeal for whatever it is that we seek of the kingdom sometimes obstructs the very thing which we seek. 

One time, I saw a kid who really wanted this signed autograph of a baseball player.  He was so focused on getting his ball signed and getting his pen ready and getting his ball clean (by rubbing the surface fervently) that the shortstop walked right by him and he had no idea.  For a split second, the kid looks up and sees that his favorite ball player just passed by his eyes.

In the same way, we passionately seek the Lord with such zeal that we sometimes miss that the Lord is doing something right in front of us.  Our perception of what God does is not always his action.  Jesus said that the Father’s ways are not ours, and furthermore that they are higher than ours.  We must seek the Lord out of a zeal to see his heart, not what we want to see.  When we see his heart, and our hearts become renewed to an acute understanding of his Spirit, and only then can we recognize when God is teaching, blessing, and admonishing us.  

Simply, our pursuit should be simple.  There’s no reason to jump at the “cool new way” to seek Jesus.  For thousands of years, people have sought the Lord out of the most simple means possible; non-educated, illiterate, bratty children living in slums have had incredibly powerful and convicting experiences with the Lord.  Simplicity.  It’s beautiful.  It’s so hard for a technical, well-educated culture to understand.  The heart of the Father is for the blind, meek, and weary; those living in mentally dilapidated conditions and far from the understanding of ever-changing theologies.  

The truth of Jesus lies in a simple understanding of a need for something that fulfills.  There is no better time than when we are at rest with the Lord and our hearts aren’t working or striving for anything.  It frees us from working; we can experience true, unhindered worship of the Father in simplicity.  So there’s a trend developing here.

Faith like a child works.  It thwarts our “complex” understanding of things because we want to complicate things.  We want a formula.  We want this + this to = what we want.  But that in itself complicates things.  It begs the question, what components do I need for a satisfying relationship with Jesus?  But what did Jesus say?

Surrender.  Surrender your theologies of who you think I am and of what you think I can do.  Surrender your formulas for intimacy. 

Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”  If we would only believe that, we would stop trying so hard.  He is pleased, and has been pleased to give it to us all.  

Just seek his heart, because “we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”