© Copyright 2013, Rising River Media

One of the seminal literary figures of the 20th century was T. S. Eliot. Born in 1888 he studied at Harvard and Oxford and eventually won the Nobel Prize for Literature early in his career. But he was an unfulfilled soul who saw the vanity of contemporary life. His search for meaning led him through Hinduism and Buddhism, and finally to Christianity. In 1927 he converted to Christianity. In the same year he penned a poem entitled “The Journey of the Magi” which came to be regarded as autobiographical of Eliot himself. In it he described the search of the Magi for the Christ child as seen and narrated through the eyes of one of the Magi.

Eliot has used the story of the Magi to make a point – how difficult and painful it is to be confronted with a radical change of paradigms. A change of paradigm often, if not usually, feels like death – our death, because we hold to the old paradigm so tenaciously.  Dying to self and our traditional ways of doing things (what I am referring to here as “paradigms”) is a painful process, which most people spend their lives trying to avoid.

Reflecting on Eliot’s poem this Christmas season, I found myself thinking about how the various groups of people involved in the Christmas story responded to the radical change of paradigm which confronted them in the birth of Christ. I hope my thoughts and reflections will stimulate you to think about how we in the house church (or simple church, or whatever moniker you are operating under) movement are understanding and responding to the dramatic shift in spiritual paradigms which is taking place today. The nativity stories are found in Matthew 2:1-12 (the Magi), and Luke 2:1-20 (the shepherds & angels). For the sake of space I’ll let you read them on your own. I want to talk briefly about those five groups of people who were involved

The Magi - Often referred to as “wise men” or “kings” in Christmas tradition, the Magi were, in fact, an hereditary Zoroastrian priesthood, often wielding great religious and political power in the Median, Babylonian, Persian and Parthian empires (right up to the time of Christ). During Israel’s Babylonian captivity Daniel, as a reward for services rendered and in recognition of his profound spiritual gifts, was promoted by the King to the position of Chief of the Magi. As such, Daniel was in a unique position to impart to the magi the prophecies of a coming Messiah (which they remembered, passed on and studied for the next 500 years). But as D.W. Jayne points out, the visit of the magi wasn’t simply a courtesy call from old friends. In the world of the first century the Magi functioned in both a priestly and a governmental role. The early church father Tertullian’s description of them as “well-nigh kings” (fere reges) is close to the truth. They were, in the words of Jayne, “a group of Persian-Parthian king makers.”  Jayne goes on to describe how their visit might have been perceived: “In Jerusalem the sudden appearance of the Magi, probably traveling in force with all imaginable oriental pomp, and accompanied by adequate cavalry escort to insure their safe penetration of Roman territory, certainly alarmed Herod and the populace of Jerusalem, as is recorded by Matthew. It would seem as if these Magi were attempting to perpetrate a border incident which could bring swift reprisal from Parthian armies. Their request of Herod regarding him who “has been born king of the Jews” was a calculated insult to him who had contrived and bribed his way into that office.” These Magi, strangers to the Kingdom of God yet spiritually perceptive, saw the signs better than anyone else and somehow understood that a profound change of paradigms was underway. Although their understanding was somewhat flawed due to reasons unique to their own situations, they took the time and the considerable risk of traveling great distances to confirm what they already suspected – that a sign in the heavens signaled the fulfillment of great prophecies and  portended profound changes here on earth. The paradigms of this world were about to change. The magi understood. Do we?

The Political Establishment - The story of the Magi leads to the story of the existing political/power structure as embodied in Caesar Augustus and Herod the Great. We can safely say that Caesar Augustus (real name Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar) had no idea that a simple decree to enumerate his empire (i.e., probably to prepare accurate tax rolls) would set the stage for the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. The heathen rage and the princes of men devise a vain thing, but God uses the wrath of men to praise Him, simply because He so seldom gets their active cooperation. Caesar was clueless as to God’s dealings (in other words, situation unchanged in 2000 years), although Augustus probably eventually received reports of the Magi and their visit to Jerusalem. What Augustus Caesar could not know (although the Magi probably suspected) was that among the many prophecies being fulfilled that Christmas night was one which declared that the kingdoms of this world would one day become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ (see Daniel 2:31-45).

The paradigms of this world had profoundly changed due not to events in the halls of power but due to events in a stable, and Caesar Augustus was clueless, reminding us once again that profound change seldom originates in the seats of political power. When the powers-that-be  finally do become aware of a profound change of paradigms they resist it, even violently, just as Herod the Great did. Herod the Great was many things, but a naive political fool was not one of them. His 35+ year rule over the Jews of Judea was coming to an end. He would be dead in a few short years. His hold on power was slipping and the visit of the Magi confirmed what he already feared – that his paradigm of power was being challenged. The paradigm was indeed changing, beyond Herod’s ability to resist or stop it, but he was still willing to extract a terrible price from those around him in a vain attempt to maintain what could not be maintained. In that respect, was Herod all that much different from us? He fought and resisted what God was doing because it threatened everything he had spent his life to build and achieve. Don’t we do the same?

The Religious Establishment - Like the Magi, for some 500 years the religious establishment of Israel had known and studied the prophecies of a coming Messiah. But during those same intervening years they had also become experts in answering obscure religious questions and turning the 613 requirements of the Law into more than 5,000 religious requirements which held the people of God in practical bondage. They had all the right answers to all the wrong questions. In addition, the Pharisees who controlled the synagogues and the Sadducees who controlled the temple & the governing Sanhedrin, along with the scribes who served both, had made their accommodation with the prevailing power of Rome. The prevailing religious establishment was in no mood for anything that might upset their carefully crafted status quo. The result was spiritual stagnation, religious legalism and blindness even to new stars in the sky announcing the messiah’s birth. When the Magi arrived looking for a king, Herod gathered together the religious establishment and “began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born.”  They had an immediate answer: “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet.” They, too, had probably seen the new star in the sky. They, too, like all Jerusalem, had probably learned of the visit of the Magi searching for a new-born king. But despite knowing all the correct religious answers, they lacked the passion, the curiosity or the spiritual integrity to make the short 5-mile journey to nearby Bethlehem to discover if “The Desire of Ages” had indeed finally arrived. Is our religious establishment (ourselves included) much different today? Profound, God-breathed changes in our spiritual paradigms are underway. And yet, isn’t much, if not most, of the church today bogged down in giving warmed over answers to questions which few in our post-Christian post Modern culture are even asking? And are we in the house church movement doing anything substantially different than the religious establishment around us, other than changing our meeting place and taking over the local Starbucks?

The Shepherds - Throughout Scripture God has a fascinating love for shepherds. Many notable biblical saints were shepherds. The children of Israel were shepherds in the land of Goshen. Moses was a shepherd in the land of Midian. David was a shepherd, as was the prophet Amos. And it is the image of the good shepherd which Jesus used to describe himself in John 10:11 & 14. God seems to be partial toward shepherds. But as well as being a biblical and honorable occupation, it is also a dirty one. It was, for the most part, rugged outdoors work. Shepherds lived with their sheep 24/7. And before long they began to smell like their sheep. For reasons both practical and snobbish, this made them “social outcasts” to be numbered among “the least of these”. There are many aspects of God’s economy and dealings which I don’t understand (that’s an understatement). For example, why didn’t the angels appear to Caesar or Herod? Why didn’t they appear to the religious leaders? That would have been interesting since the Pharisees believed in angels but the Sadducees did not (would such a visitation have ended their intra-mural theological rivalry or have simply fed the fire of controversy? Hmmm). Why shepherds? Perhaps it was because God wanted to ignite a spiritual fire in the minds of ordinary men – the least of these – and ignite a revolution, a spiritual wildfire. He didn’t particularly want to bless either religious or political institutions, which often pride themselves in their ability to put out wildfires, lest they “get out of control” and threaten existing structures & paradigms. Religious leaders (and their secular counterparts) often walk in a sense of “entitlement” which says “God owes us an epiphany, after all, we’re leaders”. Yet for some reason God seems to have a heart for the least among us who walk in no such sense of entitlement. Interesting that the Shepherds did not disappoint. They can be counted among the few who had the personal curiosity and spiritual integrity to leave their comfort zones and make the trip into Bethlehem to actually see what God was doing. And for their efforts they received the blessing: “And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”

Joseph & Mary - It’s difficult to think or write any new ideas concerning these two ordinary people (essentially a carpenter and a peasant girl) called upon by the God of their fathers through angelic messengers to play a role in this divine drama that the most learned religious leader would have found impossible. Nothing in their religious background could have prepared them for what God now called upon them to do. Could the Pharisaical Judaism of the Synagogues prepare Mary to willingly and joyously accept the role of an unwed-mother-to-be in a culture where such behaviour was punishable by the religious establishment with death by stoning? Or could it prepare Joseph for his divine call to obedience in marrying Mary and embracing a lifetime of questions, rumors and enuendos regarding Mary’s faithfulness or Jesus’ legitimacy? It is safe to say that the comfortable religious paradigm in which they, their friends and their families had spent their lives thus far was now being shaken to its very foundation as they were now visited by angels and commanded by God to take steps of faith and obedience outside of any religious “box” they had ever known. The shaking of our religious paradigms today is in small what theirs must have been in large. God is once again calling His people out of their comfortable religious boxes. Are you prepared to respond in faith and obedience, knowing that if you do so your world will profoundly change and that you will probably never be able to go back to what you knew before. Changing paradigms have a way of doing that to us.

The Inn Keeper - One of my first jobs after seminary when Gale & I moved to Spokane was at a local airport hotel. Yep, I was an “inn keeper.” Well, actually, I was a desk clerk on the 3-to-11 pm shift. Late one November evening an elderly gentleman came to the desk looking somewhat disheveled and asking for a room. He explained to me that he had no money or credit cards, but did have a “Money Market Account” draft book and asked if we could accept that in payment (our general policy was no, because such accounts at that time were unreliable). He told me that he had just had eye surgery (one of his eyes was bandaged) and was to catch flight to go and be with his family for the holidays the following day. The rest of the staff urged me to say no – bad risk. But, as the manager on duty at the time, I decided in favor of taking a risk and giving him a room. It was just the right thing to do, I felt. I got him settled in his room, my shift ended and I went home. The next morning I received an early morning phone call from the hotel staff announcing (even celebrating) that the bookkeeper had called the bank and the check was good. Word of my risky good deed had spread. When I went to work later that day I was gently chided by the general manager (a good fellow) for placing the hotel at risk, but the tone of his voice and the expression on his face told me we had done the right thing. I have occasionally thought of that elderly gentleman over the years, even musing as to whether he was an angel unaware (with a bank account?!) who had paid us a visit and tested all of our hearts. In the Gospel account, Luke simply tells us that Mary “gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” We should neither vilify nor idolize the inn keeper (or inn keepers) who turned Joseph and Mary away. They weren’t heartless or cruel people. They were probably just a family business run by ordinary people trying to earn a living, and they were full to capacity (even overflowing) for the evening. How could they know that God Himself was homeless that night at their door, that Angels stood ready to proclaim a birth, that Magi from the east would soon be arriving in search of a King and that political and religious paradigms would be forever changed by events that would now take place in a cattle stall within earshot of a baby’s cry. What a night to be an inn keeper and to have no room!  Allow me to use this story to stretch the boundaries of your paradigm. The message of the house church movement is similar and profound. God wants to visit your house. Are you prepared to have your paradigm radically changed? Are you ready to invite Him in?

Conclusion & Personal Application

Where are you in this season of significant paradigm shift in God’s dealings in and through His church today? Do you see a reflection of yourself in the mirror of the five groups of people who participated in the Christmas drama?  I would dare to say that, in the midst of this present shaking of existing religious paradigms, there are many believers who feel somewhat like the Magi of T.S. Eliot’s poem:

If you are one of those who are “no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation” then allow me to make a suggestion during this Christmas season. Take some time to get alone and stand as an involved observer at the manger of Christ. Consider the participants in this divine drama as it unfolds around you. And ask yourself some simple questions. If I had been at the stable that Christmas night, what would my response have been to the paradigm change unfolding before me? How is my paradigm being shaken, challenged and changed today by God’s unfolding plan for the Ages. And how is my response different from (and hopefully better than) the responses of those around me?

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:10-14)

Joyeux Noël
Maurice Smith
Christmastide, 2012

© Copyright Rising River Media 2012

Plymouth Plantation, the first Pilgrim settlement in America, was founded in 1620. After surviving a brutal winter and reaping a successful harvest they celebrated a feast of thanksgiving in the autumn of 1621.  It was  this thanksgiving feast that forms the historical basis for our national observance of “Thanksgiving Day.” But few historians or Christians are familiar with the subsequent trials experienced by the Pilgrims which culminated in the summer of 1623.

Shortly after the thanksgiving feast of 1621 other colonists arrived on the ship “Fortune” which brought colonists, but no supplies. By the spring of 1622 their supply-stores of food were exhausted. Supplies promised by their investor-sponsors in England failed to arrive. In the summer of 1622 another company of settlers arrived aboard the ships “Charity” and “Swan.” Their crops were depleted and damaged by the new colonists, and Indian threats prevented the colonists from expanding their fields. They suspended their autumn thanksgiving festival due to lack of provisions. By the spring of 1623 their situation bordered on desperation. William Bradford observed that “They had need to pray that God would give them their dayly brade, above all people in the world.” [i]

As the spring of 1623 turned to summer, the situation went from desperate to impossible. The colonists planted corn in April, but by the third week of May a drought had set in. For six excruciating weeks there was excessive heat and no rain. Crops withered and died. Then, when they thought that the situation could get no worse they received word that a fishing boat carrying several colonists had gone down in a storm and all had perished. The news (which would later prove to have been wrong) was a devastating final blow. “The most courageous were now discouraged, because God, which hitherto had been our only shield and supporter, now seemed in his anger to arm himself against us.” [ii]

But these Christians were made of sterner stuff than most believers today. They understood the need of the hour. Their response to this crisis of faith and soul, and God’s gracious answer, is best told in their own words:

“These and the like considerations moved not only every good man privately to enter into examination with his own estate between God and his conscience, and so to humiliation before him, but also more solemnly to humble ourselves together before the Lord by fasting and prayer. To that end a day was appointed by public authority, and set apart from all other employments; hoping that the same God, which had stirred us up hereunto, would be moved hereby in mercy to look down upon us and grant the request of our dejected souls, if our continuance there might any way stand with his glory and our good. But O the mercy of our God! Who was as ready to hear as we to ask: for though in the morning, when we assembled together, the heavens were as clear, and the drought as like to continue as ever it was, yet (our exercise continuing some eight or nine hours) before our departure, the weather was overcast, the clouds gathered together on all sides, and on the next morning distilled such soft, sweet, and moderate showers of rain, continuing some fourteen days and mixed with such seasonable weather, as it was hard to say whether our withered corn, or drooping affections, were most quickened or revived; such was the bounty and goodness of our God.” [iii]

It is difficult, even today, to read this account without tears. God answered the prayers and fastings of His little flock. The rains began the day following their fast-day and lasted for two weeks. In a few days Captain Miles Standish, who had been on a voyage to find fresh supplies, returned not only with supplies, but with the good news that the ship and crew that they thought lost was actually safe and would return soon. The turn of events even had a profound effect upon the local Indian friends who had observed the entire affair. Their leader, an Indian named Hobomok, confessed afterwards to a colonist friend, “Now I see that the Englishman’s God is a good God.”[iv]

The story of this great deliverance through prayer and fasting ends with the Plymouth Colony setting aside a day for the giving of thanks to God for His great mercy:

“Having these many signs of God’s favor and acceptation, we thought it would be great ingratitude, if secretly we should smother up the same, or content ourselves with private thanksgiving for that which by private prayer could not be obtained. And therefore another solemn day was set apart and appointed for that end; wherein we returned glory, honor, and praise, with all thankfulness, to our good God, which dealt so graciously with us; whose name for these and all other mercies towards his church and chosen ones, by them be blessed and praised, now and evermore. Amen.”

As we today prepare to celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving, may we as Christians remember the spiritual metal from which we have been forged. In the midst of great plenty and celebration, may we find an opportunity to set aside a time for personal fasting and repentance for our personal sins as well as those of our nation, imploring The Throne of Grace for fresh mercy for ourselves and our nation. And may we, like our forebearers, mindful of all of God’s mercies and blessings toward us, remember to return “glory, honor, and praise, with all thankfulness, to our good God, which dealt so graciously with us; whose name for these and all other mercies towards his church and chosen ones, by them be blessed and praised, now and evermore. Amen.”

[i] Love, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England, p. 80.
[ii] Ibid., p. 81.
[iii] Ibid., p. 81-82.
[iv] Nathaniel Morton’s New England’s Memorial, quoted in Love, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England, p. 82, ft. nt.

© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

When Nations Fall

On August 24th of the year A.D. 410 the city of Rome was besieged and sacked by Alaric I, King of the Visigoths. Disgruntled slaves opened the gate of the ancient city, the Goths poured in, and  for the first time in 800 years the great city was taken by an enemy. Rome’s fall had a devastating effect upon Roman Christians and non-believers alike. Why, they asked, should the city whose beauty and power men had built and admired through the many centuries, and which was now the center of Christendom (i.e., the “kingdom of Christ”) be ravaged by the barbarians? Many Christians were shaken in their faith. They had come to equate the stability of Christianity with the stability of Rome. The pagans attributed the disaster to the Christians (hmm, nothing really changes does it), claiming that the ancient gods had withdrawn their ancient, thousand-year protection from Rome.

When the news of Alaric’s sack of Rome reached North Africa, Carthage to be precise, followed by thousands of despairing  refugees,  St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo was moved to respond. Augustine labored for 13 years to produce an explanation, which he titled Civitas Dei, The City of God. Rome had been punished, argued Augustine, not for abandoning her traditional gods in favor of her new religion (Christianity) but for her continued sins. Augustine went on to argue that, rather than looking for and pursuing an earthly city (civitas terrena, for you Latin buffs), Christians should be pursuing the city of God:

“Mankind is divided into two sorts: such as live according to man, and such as live according to God. These we mystically call the ‘two cities’ or societies, the one predestined to reign eternally with God, the other condemned to perpetual torment with the Devil.”

Augustine was not a pessimist. He was a Christian pastor, theologian and philosopher forced to deal with the historic reality of his day. Augustine understood that empires and nations rise and fall. Even Rome. But Christians are seeking a city unshakeable, whose founder and builder is God. We could learn a lot from Augustine as we seek to understand the “sea change” of our own times.

Consternation Over The Recent Election

I’m not here to endorse (or critique) Augustine. I’m writing to challenge you to think more about the Kingdom of God and less about the Kingdom of men. I’m writing to encourage you to view the recent election differently than do the “political acolytes” of our time. Please don’t take this the wrong way (although many will), but I don’t really care who you voted for in the last election. Seriously. Unless “Jesus of Nazareth” was on the ballot – and you voted for Him -  whatever you and I voted for wasn’t the Kingdom of God. And whatever we may (or may not) have gotten for our vote isn’t the Kingdom of God, either. The Kingdom of God isn’t about increased government benefits. Nor is it about increased business profits. According to the Apostle Paul, “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) By Paul’s measure alone, the recent elections had little or nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about reality. And I want to begin by pointing out a few of the more worthwhile responses by prominent Christians to what recently transpired.

1. The day after the election our German friend and organic house church advocate Wolfgang Simson (“Houses That Change The World”) wrote an open letter to the Christian community giving his analysis of the election and its meaning. Our friend Guy Muse – an organic house church planter and missionary to Ecuador – reformatted the PDF file of Wolf’s letter and posted it on his blog, which you can (and should) read here.

2. Author and Mid-East commentator Joel Rosenberg has published some eye-opening statistics concerning how the vote totals broke down, statistics which confirm what I am going to say below.

3. Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research has written some painful truth about opinion polls leading up to the election and how many of us look for polls which agree with what we already believe to be the fact. In a separate post, the day after the election, Ed gave his own “take away” on what the election meant, and it is a worthwhile read.

Maurice’s Election Observations

1.  Welcome to Post Christian, Postmodern, Post Evangelical and Post Conservative America. How’s that for a philosophical mouthful. We don’t have the time or space here to fully unpack this statement, so let me briefly summarize. This wasn’t simply an election, it was a confirmation of a sea-change which began to manifest itself in the decades following World War 2. Dr. Gabriel Vahanian, in his book The Death of God: The Culture of our Post-Christian Era, summarized the thinking of many Post-WW2 philosophers and theologians when he wrote,  “The fundamentals of modern culture are neither non-Christian nor anti-Christian; they are post-Christian. They are derived from Christianity, yet in them Christianity suffers ‘not a torture death but a quiet euthanasia.’ It may be that our age still is religious. But it is certainly post-Christian.”  In the last thirty years, or so, the Post Christian culture described by Dr. Vahanian and critiqued by theologians like Dr. Francis Schaeffer, has given way to Postmodernism where there is no grand, universal truth – moral or otherwise – but only personal truth on issues ranging from abortion to gay marriage. This election was also “Post Evangelical” in that more self-identified Evangelicals voted for only one candidate (Romney) than have done so in thirty years, but to no effect. The age of Evangelical voters impacting elections is over. I’ll say more about this under point #3. Finally, in addition to being Post Christian, Postmodern and Post Evangelical, America is now Post Conservative. The idea of “Conservatism” rests upon an assumption that there are identifiable “values” which are constant and worth preserving. In Post Christian, Postmodern America there are no such values. It’s tough to be a “conservative” when there’s nothing left to conserve.

2. I have never seen Christian political activism more ineffective than it is today. I say this as one who was politically active during the birth of the conservative Christian “right” (or “religious right” – it peaked during the Reagan years).  In his post which I have linked above, Ed Stetzer states, “We must face the reality that we may be on the losing side of the culture war . . . . we should begin thinking about what it looks like to be the church in a ‘post-culture war’ era.” While I believe Ed is essentially correct, his conclusion comes 14 years too late. The political effectiveness of evangelical Christianity ended in 1998 when Paul Weyrich, the intellectual father of the Moral Majority, and an acknowledged “founding father” of the “conservative religious right” sent an open letter to his constituents announcing that, in his opinion, cultural conservatives (including Evangelical Christians) had lost their “cultural war of attrition” which he had helped launch some twenty years earlier:

“In looking at the long history of conservative politics, from the defeat of Robert Taft in 1952, to the nomination of Barry Goldwater, to the takeover of the Republican Party in 1994, I think it is fair to say that conservatives have learned to succeed in politics. That is, we got our people elected. But that did not result in the adoption of our agenda. The reason, I think, is that politics itself has failed. And politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture. The culture we are living in becomes an ever-wider sewer. In truth, I think we are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great that it simply overwhelms politics.” (See the September 6, 1999 issue of Christianity Today magazine for a full discussion of Weyrich’s letter).

Think of it this way. The cruise ship S.S. American Culture has set sail leaving a large contingent of passengers (Evangelical Christian types) on the dock in spite of the passengers’ loud protests. With a hard turn to Port (the left side of the ship when facing forward) the ship is steaming full speed into unchartered waters. But no one at the midnight buffet is really paying attention. The further the ship moves away from the dock, the further off to starboard (the right side of the ship) those poor Christians look. “They’ve really moved to the far right,” someone aboard the ship observes. Not really. The dock hasn’t moved and neither have they. Indeed, in many waysthe people on the dock are less conservative than their fathers and grandfathers. But from the perspective of the passengers on the cruise ship, those “neanderthal dock dwellers” are moving hard to starboard and will soon be “so far gone” as to be irrelevant. “Shame,” someone else observes. “Look at all they’re missing”. Here’s the question you must answer: Where do you want to be. On the cruise ship or on the dock?

The age of Evangelical political activism to effectively influence elections is over, if it was ever more than a mirage. The ship of politics has left the dock with a hard turn to Port. Do you really think electing a different captain would have made a difference?

3. I have never heard as much talk about choosing “the lesser of two evils” as I have heard recently.  Unfortunately, in the Kingdom of God, justice and righteousness never include choosing the “lesser of two evils”. While such a choice may sound plausible in the heat of a political election season, history and Scripture make fools of all such arguments and choices. People who choose “evil”, even in its “lesser” forms, eventually become evil. History is unkind to such naïveté and nonsense. Germans of the early 1930s chose the National Socialists over the Communists because the National Socialists (i.e., German: Nationalsozialismus; English long form: National Socialism; abbreviated “Nazis”) represented the “lesser of two evils”. Yep. That worked well (NO! I am not calling ANY party or person a “Nazi”!). There is no biblical mandate to vote for “evil”, whether lesser or greater. Voting for evil in ANY form is to sow the wind. If that’s your plan you had best prepare to reap the whirlwind. You would think we would have learned this by now, at least from history, if not from experience.

4. Western Christians, particularly in America, have chosen political revolution over spiritual revelation. I have dedicated a chapter to this topic (“A Fire In The Minds of Men”) in my book, The Inextinguishable Blaze: God’s Call To Holiness, Repentance, Intimacy and Spiritual Awakening. Needless to say, I can’t reproduce that entire Chapter here. But because I regard it as so important, I have posted that Chapter as a private PDF file on the Safe Houses of Hope And Prayer website which you can access here. It’s time for believers and “disciples of the Kingdom” to decide who owns the future, God or your favorite party or politician.

Back To Augustine And The Kingdom

So, where is all of this going? I wish I was wise enough to give definitive answers. I’m still wrestling with much of it myself. Old political opinions and habits die hard. What follows are my personal “conclusions-in-process”. Could my opinions change moving forward? Certainly. I want to be open minded and teachable. But here’s where my thinking stands a few days after this election.

1. Augustine may have been right: Choose your city. To use the words of Augustine, it’s time to decide which City holds your heart. One is going to perish in judgment, regardless of your best efforts to improve or save it; the other will live on eternally. Which one holds your loyalty? Which one receives the investment of your time, energy and resources? Which one holds your “citizenship”? “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20) To put this in terms of the political debate concerning illegal immigration, are you a resident alien and a pilgrim in this kingdom of men, or are you applying for citizenship here (1 Peter 2:11)? It’s time to choose.

2. “It’s the Kingdom, stupid!”. Throughout the recent election we were subjected to such catch phrases as “It’s the economy, stupid!” or “It’s about jobs, stupid!”. Such catch phrases are designed and intended to summarize a big picture issue by reducing it to a few memorable words. Politicians thrive on this stuff, and elections have been determined by them at times. Here’s the catch phrase that needs to captivate believers at this moment in time: “It’s The Kingdom, Stupid!”  I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but I think it’s time for some shock treatment in the Church. In the lives of far too many professing Christians, the kingdoms of this world (and their political parties) have taken precedence and priority over the Kingdom of God. As a result, we have raised up “political acolytes” rather than “disciples of the Kingdom”. Too many professing believers have come to love the world and the things of the world more than they love the Kingdom, and we are living with the results (1 John 2:15). It’s time for the Church to come to the realization that God doesn’t need America for His Kingdom purposes any more than He needed Rome. If you need a better understanding of the Kingdom and your role in it, may I suggest George Eldon Ladd, “The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies In The Kingdom of God”.

3. “Its About Making Disciples of the Kingdom”.  The first and foremost responsibility of the believer in Jesus is to teach the Kingdom, to proclaim the Kingdom, to manifest the Kingdom and to make disciples of the Kingdom. If you aren’t doing that, what are you doing? Are you making political converts to your party or candidate, or Kingdom converts to King Jesus. If you aren’t making disciples of the Kingdom, then it’s time to re-evaluate what you’re doing.

I need to make a comment about a growing and troubling trend in the Church which focuses upon Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). An increasing number of Christians are espousing a “Kingdom Now” theology which turns the prayer of Jesus into a declaration. The difference between a prayer and a declaration is the difference between a promise for the future versus a statement for immediate fulfillment. This view holds that the Church through its activities will bring in the Kingdom now, “so let’s get busy doing good. The Kingdom is now!“ I’m sorry, but that simply isn’t true or biblical (although the eschatological school of “Post-Millennialism” has historically taught this. See Loraine Boettner,”The Millennium”). I believe Jesus’ prayer will one day be fulfilled. The Kingdom will come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But NOT in this present age. Not until Jesus returns at the end of the Age (Matthew 13:38-43) and brings this present evil age to an end (Galatians 1:4). Until that day, our calling is to preach the Kingdom, teach the Kingdom, manifest the Kingdom and to make disciples of the Kingdom.

4. Desperation frequently precedes Spiritual Awakening. In this respect, Wolfgang Simson may be right concerning the outcome of the recent election. It may have the result of forcing Christians to devote themselves to fasting and prayer for spiritual awakening. God’s will for His Church isn’t political success (which tends to breed arrogance and pride – as if we didn’t have enough of that already). Success can be a great blessing, but it is usually a poor teacher. God’s will for His Church is holiness and fear, genuine repentance and greater intimacy (as I explain in detail in my book, “The Inextinguishable Blaze”).  And if it requires an unmitigated defeat in the cultural arena to incite that desperation, then that is what God will do. His goal for your life is your holiness, not your success.

“The new rationalism – like evangelicalism – claimed to be vitally interested in the welfare of man, equally ready to grant him liberty, equality and fraternity. Its greatest lack lay in its inability to satisfy him in the things of the spirit. It offered bread, but forgot that man could not live by bread alone. Its appeals were heeded, and the multitudes turned away from the things of the spirit. Evangelical Christians knew that they faced defeat. They began to pray the prayers of desperate men.” J. Edwin Orr commenting upon the years leading up to the 2nd Great Awakening in “The Light of the Nations”

Welcome to Chapter 11 of our upcoming book, “Radical Faith: Reflections on Biblical Discipleship And Living By Faith In The Kingdom of God”
© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

Chapter 11 – Do Angels Attend Yard Sales?

“Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.  And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!”  (Genesis 28:10-12)

There’s no “nice” way to say it. Jacob was a scoundrel. His name in Hebrew literally means “holder of the heel” or “usurper” or “supplanter”. He was an opportunist who supplanted his brother Esau as the first born by “purchasing” his birthright for a bowl of stew. Jacob had the “gift” of alienating nearly everyone he met. And yet God loved this man. Genesis 28 finds Esau on a two-fold mission. He was traveling to the city of his father’s relatives in order to find a suitable wife from among them, rather than from among the surrounding Canaanites. But he was also fleeing from the wrath of his brother, Esau, who was more than a little upset over having been “usurped” and denied his birthright. And it was while Jacob was on his way, fleeing his past and seeking a future, that God spoke to him in a dream. In this dream Jacob saw a ladder or stairway descending from heaven to earth. On that stairway he saw angels coming and going between heaven and earth to do God’s bidding (see Genesis 28:12).

There in the wilderness of Luz, God pulled  back the curtain between heaven and earth and revealed to this dreaming usurper the reality of on-going angelic activity, myriads of angels moving back and forth between heaven and earth, ministering to God’s people and accomplishing His Kingdom purposes.

Now, here is the question we should be asking about this passage: “Why?”  Why did God choose this particular occasion to reveal the angelic realm to Jacob? And what was it about this revelation that God considered so important that he had the biblical writer include it here? What does God want us to learn? I’m going to go out on a theological limb here and venture an answer. I think God wanted Jacob to know that in the darkest moments of his life – whatever those might be – he would never be alone. He would never be beyond the reach of God’s ministering servants.

And that leads me to a story

Who Was That Nice Young Man?

I suppose you could describe it as one of the darker moments of our lives, up to that point. The foreclosure of our home, which we had fought for nearly a year to avoid, was now a reality and it was time for us to move from what our daughter once described as her “dream home”. Yep, that left a mark. In the process of packing and preparing most of our belongings for storage we decided to use the moment as an opportunity to simplify our lifestyle by holding a yard sale. We could shed some unneeded “things” and raise some much needed cash in the process. So, throughout the week of our packing and moving, we held a yard sale.

One afternoon as Gale was overseeing the yard sale, our friend Lucy dropped by to see how things were going. Gale and Lucy visited as a slow but steady stream of people filed through the yard looking for treasures among our discarded possessions. And it was sometime during their visit that he showed up. Gale recalled that she didn’t see him arrive (or leave) in a car. He just kind of “showed up”. He was a young man dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt who quietly made his way around the tables we had set up to display our wares. He would pick up items and pretend to examine them while paying more attention to the discussion Gale and Lucy were having about what God was doing in our lives through this whole process. At one point he purchased a heart-shaped pillow for twenty-five cents and shyly smiled as he handed Gale the quarter. Then, after lingering for a while, he was gone as quietly as he had arrived. When I returned home Gale described the incident to me and said, “I had the funniest feeling about him. I couldn’t help but feel like he was an angel who had been sent here to check on us.”

Are You A Sadducee?

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)

“Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14)

No, I’m not “losing it” and I haven’t “gone over the edge” (although we could probably have a spirited debate on that point. But we’ll save it for another time!). I share the story to make a point. Several points, actually. Most evangelical Christians are “practicing Sadducees” when it comes to angels and angelic activity. The Sadducees were a powerful Jewish religious sect which dominated the Temple and related matters in Jerusalem at the time of the New Testament (a different sect, the Pharisees, dominated the Synagogues. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee). The Sadducees accepted only the “Pentateuch” (the first five books of the Old Testament) as Scripture and denied the miraculous, the existence of angels and the idea of a bodily resurrection.

When it comes to angels, there are two dangers that contemporary believers tend toward. Over the years I have witnessed both extremes. The first is to ignore or minimize the role of angels in the life of the believer and in the dealings of God with His people. The second is to over-emphasize angelic ministry to the point that it becomes an unhealthy (and unbiblical) focus and distraction (see Colossians 2:18).

Contemporary evangelical believers – for the most part -  fall into the first group. We are “practicing Sadducees”. We know better than to deny the existence of angels. The biblical evidence is simply overwhelming. In that way we are not “official” Sadducees by belief. We don’t deny they exist. We simply deny that their existence makes any genuine difference in our day-to-day lives. We make it a practice to ignore them. After all, what difference does it make. But biblically, it does make a difference. Throughout Scripture, at critical times when God needed a special task performed, He chose to use His most reliable servants. Angels. In the New Testament Angels announced the coming births of John the Baptist and Jesus (see Luke Chapter 1), announced Jesus’ birth to shepherds (Luke 2:8-15), announced the resurrection of Jesus (Luke 24:4-7), engineered jail breaks (seriously! See Acts 5:19 & 12:7), encouraged Paul in the midst of a shipwreck (Acts 27:23) and even comforted Jesus in His darkest moments in the Garden of Gethsemane, “And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43).

And this brings us to the “take away” point for this chapter. Scripture assures us that God in His love and concern sends His angelic servants out to minister to His people, usually “unaware” from our perspective. The message is simple and clear. In the darkest moments of our lives – whatever those might be – disciples of the Kingdom are never alone. Like Elisha and his servant trapped by enemy armies in the city of Dothan, living by faith is knowing that we are not alone on our journey into the Kingdom of God. We may be surrounded by “enemies” and beset with problems on every side. We find ourselves crying out to God, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”. But God’s answer to us today is the same as Elisha’s answer to his fearful servant, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:15-16). After all, if Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, needed angelic ministry and encouragement in His darkest moments upon earth, what makes us think our need is any less?

Elisha – along with countless saints throughout the ages – understood something we need to understand and embrace. God’s Providential workings in our lives and on our behalf must be viewed through the eyes of faith. “Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17) Our natural eyes see only armies, impossible odds and pending disaster. The eyes of Radical Faith see all of those things, but they also see Jehovah-Sabbaoth, the Lord of Host, myriads of angelic warriors, and a battle so one-sided that God says, “Trust me, have a seat in a shady spot and let me take care of this” (see the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:17).

Now, back to the unavoidable question. Was that young man in a flannel shirt at our yard sale that day an angel? I can’t prove it (you never can), but I believe he was. And even after several years have passed, Gale and I remember that day as the day when, in one of the darkest moments in our lives, our God cared enough to send one of His more faithful servants to check in on the Smiths, to see how we were doing and to remind us that through it all we would never be alone. Never.

Welcome to Chapter 10 of our upcoming book, “Radical Faith: Reflections on Biblical Discipleship And Living By Faith In The Kingdom of God”
© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

Chapter 10 – “Let Go Your Nets”

“While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-20)

The year-long battle to prevent the foreclosure of our home was coming to an end. It had been a challenging year. The business which had previously paid our bills had collapse. We had filed for bankruptcy, only to have it dismissed. As our attorney informed us, “You aren’t bankrupt, your just broke”. I thanked him for that insightful legal observation, but from our perspective it was a distinction without a difference. Over the preceding nine months we had received no less than nine foreclosure notices, only to have each one postponed for another month. Early during that same period we had put the house on the market for sale. At one point, while checking the mail, I was approached by an individual in a truck who asked, “How do you like your house? My wife and I have video of the inside of your home!”  It seemed that he and his wife and tried to purchase our home five years earlier (hence, the video), but our offer was accepted first. “We’re still interested, so if you ever decide to sell,” he declared, “let me know and we’ll buy it”. A couple of months later I called him and told him we were interested in selling if he was still interested in buying. “Done!” was his response. “I’ll be in town in two weeks. I’ll call you and we’ll work out the details.”

But two weeks came and went without any further contact. My phone calls went unanswered. We never heard from him again.  As we prayed over the situation the Lord seemed to be telling us, “Look, if I wanted to solve your problem by selling this house I could bring a complete stranger to your door to buy it. But that isn’t my plan.” Needless to say, we couldn’t help but wonder what God’s plan might be. The answer came on a Sunday morning.

On this particular Sunday our family attended Church where we had been involved for over five years (elder, deacon, teacher, youth groups, mission trips, etc). Our time at Church was our “respite” from the battle, and we always looked forward to the fellowship of friends and to the worship. On this Sunday Pastor Keith delivered a message from the above passage in the Gospel of Matthew. He titled his message, “Let Go Your Nets”.  I wish I could tell you everything Keith said in his message that morning, but I can’t. All I can tell you is that God spoke to both me and Gale through that message. God’s plan was now clear. It was, indeed, time to let go of our nets and to embrace the uncertainty of what might be coming.

What If . . . ?

“Sanctified speculation” is a time honored tradition in the Church, so let’s take a few minutes and speculate. Have you ever wondered what might have happened if Peter, James and John, along with and Andrew and Nathaniel, had decided NOT to let go of their nets in response to Jesus’ invitation to follow Him? After all, fishing was good honest work, and they appeared to be good at it (except when Jesus was around!). Imagine trying to explain to the wife and family why you are going to let go of a “sure thing” in order to follow an itinerant Jewish Rabbi. What if they had said, “Sorry, Jesus, but I just can’t afford to do that. But let me know when your book comes out. I’d like to get a signed copy!”. What if that had been the response of all those whom Jesus challenged to radical discipleship? Well, the Gospel of Matthew would never have been written. Neither would the Gospel of Mark (written by John Mark based upon recollections by Peter) nor the Gospel of John, along with the letters of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. Scratch out the letters of First and Second Peter, which Peter would not have written. And there’s more. Peter would never have preached a sermon at Pentecost and three thousand souls would not have been added to the Church that day. The lame man at the Gate Beautiful might never have been healed, because Peter and John would still be fishing instead of following Jesus in radical discipleship and obedience on that day in the Temple. Aeneas the paralytic would never have been healed (Acts9:33-35), and Tabitha  would never have been raised from dead in Joppa (Acts 9:36-42). The Roman Centurion, Cornelius, and his household would never have heard the gospel and the movement of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles might never have gotten off the ground. I could give more examples, but by now I think you get the point.

Simply stated, the success of Jesus’ mission on earth depended upon the willingness of a handful of Galilean fishermen to “let go their nets” and to step out in radical faith and obedience. It was true then. It is still true today.

Embracing Uncertainty

A friend of mine from the Netherlands once posted in the header of his blog that “The Kingdom of God is bordered only by uncertainty”. That statement sends flashes of sheer panic through the hearts of many professing believers. Most of us spend our Christian lives trying to minimize the uncertainty of the Kingdom of God. We work to avoid radical changes, and we fight to resist them when they are forced upon us. We want to be in control, and people who want to be in control of their own lives have a difficult time trusting anyone else . . . including God. The problem is that God cannot set us free from the fears which paralyze us into inaction until we are willing to “let go our nets” and embrace the divine uncertainty of life in the Kingdom of God. Radical faith is a faith which embraces the uncertainty of the Kingdom of God for what it really is:  A gift wrapped in a calling to embrace the unknown.

For us, the time had indeed come to “let go our nets” and to embrace the divine uncertainty of life in the Kingdom of God. Within thirty days of receiving that word on Sunday morning our home was foreclosed on and everyone in our family was launched upon new paths which would determine our journeys – both individually and as a family – for years to come.

Looking back with the added benefits of time and reflection we can now understand that sometimes the very things we are desperately holding on to are the very things we must let go of in order to receive what God in His grace wants to give us.

© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

Welcome to Chapter 7 from our upcoming book, “Radical Faith: Reflections on Discipleship and Living By Faith In The Kingdom of God”
© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

Chapter 7 – Why This Journey, Lord?

“Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven, and earth, and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty ~ all things, in fact ~ come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand. We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love. All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.” The Heidelburg Catechism (Questions 27 & 28 on “Providence”)

When Reality Overtakes Lunch

As a Reformed Christian I take great comfort and encouragement in the doctrine of God’s Sovereignty, what The Heidelberg Catechism refers to as His “Providence”.  The above quote from The Heidelburg Catechism of 1563 is perhaps the most eloquent summary of that doctrine and has been a frequent focus of spiritual reflection for me and Gale over the years. Reflecting on God’s “Providence” and on the journey of faith God has you on can catch up with you at the strangest times. This particular day started as just another day. I was out doing my food pickups and deliveries for Feed Spokane, the food rescue ministry I co-founded to feed those in need, when I stopped at a local sandwich shop for lunch. I had just started in on my favorite sub sandwich when I looked up and noticed someone familiar at a table not far from me. It was an individual who served on the pastoral staff of a local mega church. I almost didn’t recognize him because it had been a while since our last encounter and he was wearing a bandana on his head, a visible reminder of his journey. You see, my friend was fighting brain tumors which threatened his health and even his life.

That’s when it happened. Quickly and almost involuntarily I found myself reflecting God’s sovereignty in our lives and why in His Providence He  places each of us on the journeys which define our walks of faith. Why that particular journey for that person? Why the bankruptcy and financial issues for someone else? Why the chronic health problems for others? Why the family conflicts? Why the business failure? Why the . . . . At this point, feel free to fill in the blank for yourself. I remembered the observation of a Christian speaker I had recently heard,  that God and Satan both want the same thing. They both want to kill us, only for different reasons. Satan wants to kill our effectiveness for the Kingdom of God, while God wants to kill everything in us that He cannot use for His Kingdom purposes. These competing plans, guided by God’s Providential hand, intersect in the circumstances of our lives and help explain the journey each of us is on. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he told  the believers in Rome, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) The Scriptural doctrine of God’s Providence assures us that God knows what He is doing, even when the clouds roll in and we cannot see our way.

And Then There Was Joseph

As I tried to eat the lunch in front of me, I unexpectedly found myself reflecting on the life of Joseph (Genesis  37-50) and how his brothers had sold him into slavery. It was that betrayal which eventually brought Joseph to Egypt and the attention of Pharaoh. I remembered how Joseph told his brothers that it was not them but God who sent him to Egypt ahead of them to preserve life (Genesis 50:20). Really?! I could have sworn that it was his jealous brothers who wrongly kidnaped him and sold him into slavery to satisfy their own jealousy and hatred toward Joseph. Hadn’t they sent him to Egypt? Yes, they had. But Joseph saw it as God must have seen it, taking what they intended for evil and using it for good, and in the process killing in Joseph everything God could not use to rule Egypt and to preserve His people. Joseph had come to understand God’s Providence. Joseph had come to see God’s dealings through the eyes of “radical faith”.

Discipline, Radical Faith And The Journey

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-5)

The above passage from the book of Deuteronomy represents a summation of Israel’s forty year journey through the wilderness.  Embedded in these verses  is a basic spiritual truth which you and I need to grasp, because it apples to our individual journeys as well. God is less concerned with what you and I accomplish than He is with what you and I become. The God Who created the heavens and the earth by the mere word of His power is not going to be impressed by anything you and I accomplish or build, regardless of how large your church campus might be or however many people might be following your “tweets” and hanging on your every word. Conquering the land wasn’t the issue. God had promised to go before them and give them the land. There was nothing they could “accomplish” that God hadn’t already promised.  But the Israelites lacked the “radical faith” necessary to move forward. They simply did not trust God to do what He had promised, regardless of what obstacles might stand in the way. Radical faith fixes its gaze on the God Who is able and trusts Him for the impossible. Unbelief and lack of trust fix their twin gaze on the impossible and conclude that the obstacles are overwhelming and insurmountable. And in the Kingdom of God, unbelief and lack of trust represent serious character flaws.

The good news is that God is in the business of “character development”, and the tool He uses to accomplish His divine business is called “discipline”. We need to make a distinction at this point. There is a difference between “punishment” and “discipline”. Generally speaking, “punishment” is about sin and wrong-doing, whereas “discipline” is about education and character development. Yes, the people of Israel had been “punished” for their unbelief at Kadesh-Barnea and the incident of the 12 spies (See Numbers 14). As a result that generation (i.e., every adult age 20 and older) was forbidden from entering the promised land, forced to spend 40 years in the Wilderness. But what took place during those 40 years constituted “discipline” – the education and character development necessary for those leaders who would one day conquer what God had already promised. Radical faith needed time to grow and mature during their radical journey into radical obedience in the Wilderness.  God is more concerned with our character and our Christ-likeness than He is with our comfort, and that reality alone explains much of the journey He us you on.

Before I knew it, lunch was over and it was time for all of us to move on. A few months later I learned that my friend had lost his battle with cancer, but I have no doubt that He won the crown of “radical faith” and trust. But on this day, as I drove away from that lunch encounter I found myself weeping and praying, “Father, thank you for the journey you have me on, as well as for the other journeys you have spared me from. Forgive me for resisting your hand as I try to preserve the very thing in me you are seeking to kill. Forgive me for whining and complaining about the circumstances of my journey, rather than accepting them for what they are, the tools in the Potter’s hand which you are using to shape your rebellious clay.”

Radical Faith Is . . . ?

What journey of faith does God have you on today that requires you to trust in His Providential care?

What is it that God in His Providence knows about you which requires this particular journey (and not another) in order to accomplish in you what He desires to accomplish?

© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

Welcome to Chapter 6 from our upcoming book, “Radical Faith: Reflections on Discipleship and Living By Faith In The Kingdom of God”
© Copyright 2012, Rising River Media

“These things He said in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, ‘This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, ‘Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’” (John 6:59-69)

This was one of those days when the disciples probably asked themselves why they had ever given up fishing in the first place. After all, fishing was good honest work. It provided decent food fresh every day along with the added benefit of working with family in a family business. But, best of all, it didn’t involve any “hard doctrines” to stumble over. The only thing you might stumble over was a misplaced fishing net. But not today.

Today they were listening to their Teacher – Jesus, the Rabbi from Nazareth – describe Himself as the “bread of life” and challenge the religious leaders to “eat His flesh and drink His blood” in order to gain eternal life. For their part, the disciples were trying to figure out what He meant, why people who had followed Him were now leaving Him, and whether or not it was time for them to reconsider the whole fishing thing. Because today the whole “ministry thing” was looking questionable.

You and I can almost hear the frustration and exasperation in the voice of the disciples as they describe Jesus teaching as “a difficult statement” that no one would want (or be able) to listen to. The Greek reveals the truth where the word translated “difficult” is the word skleros. “It was applied to that which lacks moisture, and so is rough and disagreeable to the touch, and hence came to denote harsh, stern, hard”.  Jesus teaching at this point was so “hard”, so “disagreeable”, that it not only caused the disciples to grumble, it actually offended them and caused them to “stumble” (Greek: skandalidzo). That’s right. They were “scandalized” by Jesus’ teaching.

So, how did Jesus respond to the “scandal” generated by His hard teaching? His response was not what you and I might have expected. He didn’t attempt to better explain His teaching so as to blunt or minimize its harshness. Instead, Jesus challenged them.  “Does this cause you to stumble?”, He asked the disciples. “What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before?” In other words, Jesus looked the disciples in the eye and challenged them with something like, “If you stumbled over this, what will you do when I show you even harder things?”  I can imagine a collective “GULP!” among those twelve men.

You and I would expect Jesus to stop at this point in order to give those twelve somewhat bewildered disciples an opportunity to digest what He had just told them. But Jesus wasn’t done. Like a wise teacher who had His students’ attention but who hadn’t yet gotten to the heart of the issue, Jesus knew that He could not allow this “teachable moment” to pass. So he pressed in. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” Jesus declared. The point was simple. Regardless of how hard or difficult a word from Jesus might be, it represents spirit and life. Therefore, we cannot afford to neglect, ignore or minimize any word Jesus gives us – even ones which threaten to make us, or those around us, stumble. The disciples were still trying to absorb the full meaning of Jesus’ statement when He delivered His critical point. “But there are some of you who do not believe”. There it was in all of its awful truthfulness. The problem wasn’t Jesus. The problem wasn’t His hard teaching. The problem wasn’t even how outsiders and unbelievers (i.e., potential converts) might respond to this hard teaching. The problem was the disciples. To put it in simple terms, they didn’t trust Him.

Belief Versus Trust

“And He said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.’ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.” (John 6:65-71)

I want to offer an observation that will upset many professing Christians. There is a difference between “belief” and “trust”. Call it a difference in “depth” or “maturity”, but it is very real. I believe Scripture makes it clear that while it is one thing to “believe” in God; it is quite another to “trust” Him. Scripture tells us that even the demonic hordes “believe” in God (James 2:19), but their “belief” produces only fear and trembling; not trust. The disciples in John Chapter 6 “believed” in Jesus (and their “belief” was certainly different from that of the demons!). Their belief in Jesus had begun very early in their relationship with Him, whether in response to His call to discipleship, or to His miraculous signs (John 2:11). Their belief in Jesus had certainly grown over time. But Jesus was now bringing these twelve men to a point where simple belief was no longer enough. If they were to truly grow in their knowledge and understanding of Jesus, then these twelve men must learn to “trust” Him through the most difficult times and teachings which lay ahead. Otherwise, they would spend the rest of their lives stumbling over and being offended by the “hard” things He wanted to do and to teach them. Their journey of radical discipleship now required a radical faith that was more than mere “belief”. For the sake of everything they would ever do or be, they must now learn to trust Him in all things.

This was the critical juncture where “the disciples” found themselves in the above passage. It was a watershed moment for everyone involved. We need to note that in this passage we discover two groups of “disciples”. There was a larger group of people following Jesus who are referred to as “disciples”, and then there are “the twelve” which comprised the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. At this critical moment something profound occurred, “. . . many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him”. Simply put, there was a significant falling away among the larger group of “the disciples”. The moment was so profound and the falling away among this larger group of disciples was so significant that Jesus felt compelled to confronted His inner circle of “the twelve”. Did they want to follow the larger group of “disciples” and leave, too?

Simon Peter answered for the group, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”  And there it was. The answer of “the twelve” was  simple yet profound. In essence, Peter declared, “You’re God, and we trust you, even for the hard things we don’t fully understand”.  I am convinced that Peter’s response signaled a profound change among the disciples. These are the words of a “radical faith” that has moved from “belief” to “trust”.

But there was a problem. Not everyone among “the twelve” moved from “belief” to “trust”. Peter’s declaration drew a curious response from the Master, “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.’ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.”  There, among “the twelve” of Jesus closest disciples, was Judas.

Throughout the centuries theologians have wrestled and labored to explain the failure of Judas Iscariot. He had walked with Jesus and the twelve since the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at Cana. He had seen water turned to wine, had witnessed the manifestation of His glory in that event and was included among those who “believed in him” at that time (see John 2:11). But now at this critical juncture, where the “radical faith” of the disciples is moving from “belief” to “trust”, Jesus points out that in their midst stands a “radical failure of faith”. How could that be? How could someone who had been called by Jesus, had  walked with Jesus and had experienced His ministry up close and personal also experience such a radical failure of faith? The simple answer most often cited is, “Well, it was pre-ordained”. And, of course, there is  truth in that answer (see Acts 1:16ff).  But that’s the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. With the  exception of Jesus, that truth was not known to anyone at the time. As far as the rest of “the twelve” knew, Judas was just one of the guys.

So, on a human level, which is where you and I function on a daily basis, what happened? At the risk of irritating the theological types among us, I want to venture a possible explanation for Judas Iscariot. In spite of all that Judas had personally witnessed and experienced in the ministry of Jesus, and in spite of living the lifestyle of a “radical disciple”, Judas was never able to make the personal transition from “belief” to “trust”. Did Judas Iscariot “believe” in Jesus at some level? The Scriptures seem clear that he did. But when his “belief” was tested and he was called upon to “trust” Jesus for the really “hard” stuff, something happened. He stumbled. He was “scandalized” by what Jesus demanded. When put to the test, Judas simply couldn’t “trust” Jesus. And that failure of “belief” proved catastrophic.

So, what’s the difference between “belief” and “trust”? Radical faith manifesting in genuine trust is willing to sell everything in this life to obtain that “pearl of great value” (Matthew 13:46). Belief, on the other hand, is willing to sell the same pearl for thirty pieces of silver (roughly 3 months wages).

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