A friend of mine recently posted a link to an interview with Dallas Willard, former pastor, well known Christian author, and current professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California.  The article, titled The Gospel of the Kingdom, covers many topics but particularly the preaching and teaching of the gospel of the Kingdom versus the gospel of atonement and its affects upon Christians.  For me it was rather eye-opening, and I would presume even more so for those who have grown up only hearing the gospel of atonement.  Please take some time to read the article.  I hope you walk away with a fuller understanding of what Christ came to preach: The Gospel of the Kingdom (Mt. 4:23).

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5

The Power of Posture

Words tell people what we think, but our actions, our facial expressions, our touch, or our general “posture” tells people what we actually feel. And this is the power of Jesus to win the hearts of people. When the woman was caught in adultery, Jesus postured himself as an advocate for her, kneeling down beside her as she was stooped over under the condemnation of the pious. When Jesus quietly allowed Mary to pour valuable perfumed oil over His head while skeptics belittled her, He was communicating His compassion for this woman. When he turned tables over by the temple, the sound of crashing trinkets and the look on his face communicated far more powerfully than the words people heard him mutter. As He reclined at Levi’s table, laughing and enjoying dinner with the outcasts, people picked up on his inclusive love. Most starkly, the fact that Jesus lived in the neighborhood for 30 years without letting people know He was their Savior, their Messiah, their God, and instead just lived with them, celebrated with them, and mourned with them, is astounding. His voice and words would someday, in the right timing, cut their hearts to the core, but His ability to draw a crowd and win the crowd was based on His beautiful posture, his nonverbals. And we would do well to live the same way.

In the book of Philippians, Paul encourages us to be like Jesus, who—though being all-powerful—intentionally chose not to force the issue with us or force dogma down our throats. Instead He chose to live among us, love us, show us and teach us about how to live life in His new kingdom. It’s incredible that in the three years of His ministry recorded in Scripture, we don’t see Him aggressively trying to convert anyone. He just seemed to wait for them to come to him. This is the power of godly posture.

To me, this is all the proof I need that God doesn’t want us to stick up for him, confound the unchurched with our right doctrine, or belittle them with attempts to be morally superior. Jesus is teaching us to stop trying to convert people and begin wooing them to His kingdom way of life through the meekness of our way. Meekness will cause us to be dignified and in turn dignify the spiritual journeys of others. Meekness will compel us to respect others, listen to them, and acknowledge the things that turn them off about Christians, especially if they’ve had a few run-ins with fundies. Meekness by its very definition communicates to people an authentic belief that we aren’t any better than they are—really!—and that we only know what we know and have changed because God pursued us, saved us, helped us, and loved us.

Yes, Jesus did teach about the need to be born again spiritually. He did confront people with their need to repent of sin. And so will we . . . if we win their hearts through the power of meekness. With meekness, evangelism and our heartfelt desire to see our friends find Jesus become like one homeless person helping another homeless person find a warm bed for the night.

Exchanging Aggression for Meekness

So here’s a real switcheroo. Evangelicals need to learn that the earliest and most prolific communities of Jesus followers, who saw literally thousands of their friends come to faith in one day and who turned entire cities around for Jesus, were not, as a general rule, aggressive toward the culture. Instead they simply waited for people to come with their curiosity and questions. In 1 Peter 3:15-16, Peter said, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

We should ask ourselves, “Is anyone asking me about my life or my faith?” If not, I think Jesus would say, “Then you’re not living out the level of love I called you to in this life.” Often we think people’s lack of spiritual response is because they just don’t want to find God. More often, I have found, the real problem is that we just don’t live enough like Jesus yet. Think about this. In early New Testament times, the most religious people, the Pharisees, were highly evangelistic, sometimes sailing across far seas to win one convert. But here is what Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:15: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

Conversion isn’t just about helping someone find faith. Yes, it includes this, but when people focus all their efforts on getting people “saved,” they communicate only a small part of the Good News. All too often we are like egomaniacs wanting to turn converts into evangelists, like a giant pyramid scheme where the main goal of the corporation is to multiply and get more warm bodies in the door. But Jesus does not need any more arrogant soul-winners who go out to make more arrogant soul-winners. Jesus wants us to point people to who He really was—a man of humility and love—then allow that image to change them in whatever way God wants. It is not a cookie-cutter operation. The Good News is that every person has a story, and the way Jesus enters each story is highly unique and individual. The process may take years to complete, with fits of starts and stops and doubts along the way. God never meant for us to sign people up with a quick prayer, a contract, and a pat on the back. He intended for us to love and journey with others in their walk toward and with Jesus. This isn’t about a duty to be performed; it is about a relationship to be explored.

Jesus’ own apprentices at first didn’t get His lesson about approaching others with humility. In Luke 9, the disciples were in a fight over who was the greatest dude among them, which Jesus basically dismissed by saying, “It is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest” (v. 48), which probably didn’t sound like a lot of fun to them. Then Jesus sent word to the Samaritans that he was coming through town, but the Samaritans didn’t respond favorably. So what did these self-focused, power-hungry apprentices do? They asked Jesus, like the tough guys they wanted to be, a question I can only hear in my head as sounding like one of the Sopranos: “Yo, Jesus! You wanna we should call down fire on dose blasted pagan half-breeds?”

And they asked this right after Christ’s little lesson on humility.

You have to wonder if Jesus hit His forehead and thought, “Oy veh!” There’s no biblical record of that, but Luke does record that Jesus rebuked them for their attitude of assumed superiority (see Luke 9:51–56).

(What kind of posture do you present to those around you?)

Yet I find that many Christians tend to get out their needle and thread and sew the curtain back together.  Churches or denominations put barriers back between man and God that He never intended to be there.  “You can worship with us only if you worship our way.  You can join our church only if you leave your sin at home and never bring it up here.  You need to dress a certain way, act a certain way, look a certain way, and talk a certain way.  You can …” and the list goes on and on.  It’s amazing the meaningless and insignificant criteria we put on people in order to follow God.

Hugh Halter in his book Sacrilege paints an interesting story of Jesus doing away with religion and clearing the way to God .

“If I were a filmmaker I would create a scene where Jesus drives a huge bulldozer up the hill toward the   temple and rips down every wall while beeping his huge horn at all the priests and Levites, who would be angrily waving their hands at him.  Ignoring them, he’d keep on cutting a huge pathway all the way up to the front door of the holy place.  All the peasants would be squinting to look through the plume of dust and rubble as they winessed Jesus put the dozer into second gear, ram up the huge stairs, and blast through the massive wooden doors.  And as the high priest ran for his life, Jesus would haul it into the place the people had only dreamed of seeing–the presence of God.

Although the religious barriers would have been removed, the pure in heart, in my imaginary scene, would be standing motionless–mouths open, eyes as big as Frisbees, wondering what this now means for them.  Then Jesus, the new King and High Priest, would climb off the John Deere, take his goggles off, run back down the hill, and grab little kids by the hands.  He’d put his arm around the prostitutes; he’d pick the beggars up off the ground and summon every person he could find.  ‘Come on, you who have been trying to find the real God.  Follow me.’  Picture all those people sheepishly but gratefully walking with Jesus.  These people are the pure in heart.

Who’s not the pure in heart?  All the people who were ticked that Jesus just destroyed their religious constructs, who liked the status quo, who enjoyed creating and propping up their sanctimonious spiritual walls.

Then he hands them a key–the key to the tractor that bears the label ‘ministry of reconciliation.’  People of Jesus, peasants of reconciliation, are those who no longer look at a person’s gender, age, color, or attire.  They don’t care about their denominational affiliation, church background, or sinful behavior.  The ministry of reconciling requires that we stop looking at the cover of the book and see the painful storied pages of each person’s life as a whole, understanding that their behavior is only the symptom of a sin-ravaged world.  As we transcend judgment with understanding and trust in God’s ability to know a person’s heart, we will be living out our calling as God’s people. (Sacrilege 157-58)”

What are you doing to tear down the walls that man has built up so that people can find God?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those “anti-present” people who think that having material stuff is wrong.  God created things for us to enjoy.  My wife and I actually had most of our Christmas shopping completed before Thanksgiving this year.  We’ve learned that waiting until the last minute it not healthy for our pocketbook.  But buying gifts for one another is simply one small tradition that has been added to the true meaning of Christmas.  There would be no “Black Friday” for retailers to get their balance sheets out of the red and for us consumers to get excited about if it weren’t for that first gift that God sent to earth in the form of a baby.

Think of all the wonderful things that happen during this time of year: the excitement of buying gifts for people you love, the fun of seeing family members get together, children and adults singing Christmas carols, the stringing up of lights for others to enjoy, and on and on and on.  There are so many traditions and things we enjoy during the Christmas Season, but none of it would have ever came to be if it weren’t for Jesus and the gift that God offers through his son.

So many people never open God’s gift of Jesus and see the great value of what He offers.  And yet it’s totally and absolutely free.  All it requires is for you to accept by faith what jesus did for you on the cross.  So many times you’ll hear people say that “Jesus is the reason for the season” when actually they are only partially correct.  YOU are the reason for this holiday season.  Jesus came for YOU!  Christ was born in a manger and then died on a cross to take away YOUR sins.  “For God so loved the world, that He sent his one and only son, so that YOU would believe in him and not parish, but have eternal life.”  You are the reason that God gave this incredible gift of a baby boy.

For those who have already accepted this gift, don’t ever take it for granted.  Live every day as if you’ve just received it.  And for those who haven’t experienced it yet, all I can say to you is don’t leave it unopened.  Speaking from personal experience of being on both sides of the story, it’s the greatest gift you could ever receive.  Don’t leave it unopened.  As you get ready for December 25th pause and ask yourself “What is my reason for celebrating Christmas?”  So from myself and the rest of us at Cedar Point Church, we truly hope that you and your family experience the joy of God’s greatest gift this Christmas season!

At Cedar Point we’re getting close to finishing up the book of Romans.  A couple weeks ago we looked at Romans 14 which talks about Christians arguing over “disputable matters.”  I believe that as you grow in your faith you’ll discover that there are actually very few essentials of our faith, things that are worth dividing or separating over.  Yet so many things these days tend to separate us, not only Christians from the “world”, but those within the church.  Paul addresses some of these things in chapter 14 and it got me wondering, “Have I done anything in the past to divide the church?  What have I argued about with other believers that wasn’t worth arguing over?  Or, what disputable matter have I allowed to separate me from reaching others?”

Below is a poem entitled “A Builder or a Wrecker.”

A Builder or a Wrecker

As I watched them tear a building down
A gang of men in a busy town
With a ho-heave-ho, and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and the side wall fell

I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,
And the men you’d hire if you wanted to build?”
He gave a laugh and said, “No, indeed,
Just common labor is all I need.”

“I can easily wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken years to do.”
And I thought to myself, as I went my way
Which of these roles have I tried to play?

Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by rule and square?
Am I shaping my work to a well-made plan
Patiently doing the best I can?

Or am I a wrecker who walks to town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
“O Lord let my life and labors be
That which will build for eternity?”

-Author unknown

So, what role do you play?  Is your life spent as a builder or a wrecker?

I first came across the formula given by Alan Hirsch in his book The Forgotten Ways, which impacted me greatly, which goes as:  Christology →  Missiology →  Ecclesiology.  Our God/Christ is the one who determines the mission (God’s Mission) which then determines or shapes the church.  It is to say “the church doesn’t have a mission, but the mission has a church.”  Our God is a missionary God.  The Church is God’s tool in fulfilling His mission in the world “to seek and to save that which is lost” (Lk 19:10; 1 Tim 2:4).  Our churches need to be centered around God’s mission and the mission should shape everything we do.  At the same time we have been chosen as God’s ambassadors to the world to fulfill the mission.  Our lives should resemble our Christ.  As Christians the Living God resides within each of us through the Holy Spirit.  We reflect (or reflect poorly) the image and character of God to those around us.  If you are a follower of Christ, do people see Jesus when they look at you?

So to help those at Cedar Point engage in the mission of God and reflect Christ more fully I suggested we adopt the BELLS missional rhythm and accountability.  BELLS is an acronym from Michael Frost’s book EXILES and gives practical steps in becoming salt & light to our communities while aligning our lives to be more like Jesus.

The B.E.L.L.S. : Missional Rhythm / Accountability (adapted from Michael Frost’s book EXILES)

BLESSING—The Hebrew for “blessing” (barak) means “to empower to strength”.  We seek God’s blessing and pass that blessing on to others.  *Bless 1 person this week (preferably a non-Christ follower)

EATING—Sharing food has always been central to a life of community.  We want to place worship and communion back where it began, as a provider’s delight in the middle of the shared table.  *Eat with 1 person this week (preferably a non-Christ follower)

LISTENING—We believe that God is capable of speaking to us.  We do not confine Him to any particular medium, but we try to be attentive to His voice, wherever and whenever it speaks.  *Take time to listen to God for 1 hour/week (listening, not talking)

LEARN—We desire to take on the image of God and to participate in His plan.  We seek out knowledge about God to help us to do this.  *Study Jesus’ life a little bit each week from the Gospels.  How did he live?  With whom did he interact?  What were his commands?  Then “go” live like Jesus did.

SENT—We are ambassadors who bear God’s image in the world.  Remind yourselves regularly that we are “sent” to participate in God’s activity and mission in the world.  *Take time each day to reflect on the question: “How have I worked with or resisted Jesus today?”

Living a missional life is not a new add-on, but a way of life focused on others and the mission of God.  Try the BELLS for a month and see how your life and others are changed.

The Apostle Paul says we are either slaves to our sin, the things that keep us separated from God, or we are slaves to Christ and all the wonderful things he wants for us.  Which are you?  What conditions have you put on following Christ?

I’m not much of a poet, but this poem by Adrian Plass really hit home.  I shared it last Sunday during my sermon and wanted to share it with you.  Have you said “Amen”?

When I Became a Christian: By Adrian Plass

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen – I think.

But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I’m not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen – a bit.

Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen – tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need to joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen – tomorrow.

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen – I quit.
I’m very sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.

Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen

I was just working on this week’s lesson for our POINT 180 youth group which talks about “colliding” with other people who are not like us and the things we could possibly learn from them.  So for an illustration I put together a PowerPoint slideshow with various ways the Christian world has taken everyday items and Christianized them.  In some sort of an attempt to… (I don’t know, make money?) we’ve created an “us vs. them” mentality that only turns people against true Christ followers and Jesus.  Are we really supposed to be marketing and capitalizing off of Christ and those who follow him?  I won’t name names, but some denominations have tried that before.

There are three areas we’ll focus on in helping students in their journey with God: wonder, discovery, & passion.  We want all students to find “wonder” in the power and mystery of an amazing God who created everything, and who loves them and desires to be in a relationship with them.  We want students to “discover” the life changing forgiveness that God offers in a relationship with Him as well as who He has created them to be in light of His truth.  And finally, we want all students to unleash a “passion” for serving others, even around the world, in a way that God wants them to revealing Christ to those around them.  Wonder, discovery, & passion.

Our leaders are looking forward to what God has in store.  It all starts with a fall kickoff this Wednesday night, 6:30-8pm at the ISU Borlaug Learning Center and will meet every Wednesday after that.  There will be lots of fun special events along the way too.  So grab your friends and come check it out!

For more info you can go to the Point 180 FB page or email the office at cedarpointchurch@gmail.com