Out of the Clay

So many times in my life as a believer I have heard the term ‘Godly’. Most of times that I have heard (or read) the term is is in the context of relationships. For example - …Godly men, Godly women, Godly families, etc. Further, I must admit that most of the situations that I have heard (or read) have inspired me to want to be ‘better’. But, in order for me or my relationships or my characteristics to be ‘better’ then that means that there is something inherently wrong with me and/or family and that the antidote to my situation is to try and become ‘Godly’ or ‘like God’.

So the question is: is trying to be Godly a good thing or a bad thing? Is trying to be a Godly man or have a Godly family really the answer or the goal in this thing called life? The short answer is no. Let me explain …

I believe that most of man’s problems (and I mean man in the creation form - not gender specific) have their root in the ‘Tree of knowledge of good and evil’. Most of you know, from your early Sunday School classes, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the one forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. Let’s think about the name of the tree - Knowledge of good and evil. Or put another way, knowing the difference between right and wrong. See, once a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ has been established then there lays the foundation for legalism. The enemy knew that this was the only way that he could disrupt our fellowship with God. Just read Genesis 3:5:

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

‘Be like God’ is the phrase that the enemy used. I believe that you could put that another way - Godly. See - our perception of God, most of the time, is based on projection. We come up with what we think the most perfect being on earth could be like and then multiply it’s perfection times 1,000 and then project it onto God. Following that assumption we then spend the rest of our lives miserably trying to measure up to a perfect standard because, after all, we KNOW the difference between good and evil. Right?

Sadly, most believers live out their entire life trying to measure up. Most even gauge how well the leadership at their church is doing by a combination of their level of perfection combined with their ability to inspire you to try and attain their level. This is legalism. This is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is trying to live the christian life in our own effort. This is trying to be good, trying to do the right things, trying to spend a specific amount of time each day praying, reading our Bible, serving, etc … Better yet, this is trying to give our way into God’s favor. This, my friend, is not God’s plan.

If you remember from your Sunday School class - there is another tree. This tree is called ‘The Tree of Life’. This tree is Christ. Remember, we have been grafted into this new tree (Romans 11:17, John 15). We are now partakers of His Life (John 14:6) and His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matt 11:30). Once we have accepted Christ then the curse from Eve’s deceptions and Adam’s choice has been lifted! Amen! We have been transferred from the headship of Adam to the headship of Christ. We no longer have to try to be good or Godly but simply to rest in the finished work of The Cross!

The reason that I have written this post is to reveal a piece of the mystery of God’s grace to you. All believers have experienced the first half of The Good News - Christ’s death for us. But only a few have experienced the second half - our death with Christ. In order to make our death with Christ an experiential reality in our lives we must first KNOW that it is Truth. After knowing, we must make it true in our lives by FAITH. When we simply rest in the completeness of The Gospel there is no more trying to be Godly because He who has come to fulfill the law now takes up a living residence inside of the new believer. He has become for us wisdom from God, both rightousness and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30).

With Christ as our wisdom we see the difference between the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the blessed Tree of Life. When we surrender and identify with who we REALLY are in Christ then we cease trying to live ‘like God’ and begin to live KNOWING that it is God who is living for us.

Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.

We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.

We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn’t seem to jive with yours.

Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes - or curse us if we didn’t. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common - you might be accused of being a socialist - and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God. Please further note: Malachi 3 is speaking to the priests of Israel. They weren’t the cheerful givers God speaks of loving.

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies - building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge the place of your tent” - it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.

We no longer buy your call to be “fastest growing” church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won’t be part of one.

Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but…Jesus is not our boyfriend - and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You offered us a myriad of programs to join - volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children’s ministry workers, media ministry drones - whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you’ve noticed, we aren’t there anymore.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid “the assembling of the saints.” We just don’t assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time - engaged in generative conversations - teaching and being taught.

We live amongst our neighbours, in their homes and they in ours. We laugh and cry and really live - without the need to have you teach us how - by reading your ridiculous books or listening to your supercilious CDs or podcasts.

We don’t deny Paul’s description of APEPT leadership - apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. We just see it in the light of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 and Matthew 20 - servant leadership. We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter’s words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power - yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.)

And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.

(quote from Bill Kinnon - blog)

What does it mean to take up the cross daily? It is very sad that the particular Scripture passages in Matt. 16:24, Mark 8:34, 10:21 and Luke 9:23 are so often misunderstood. Too often preachers use these verses as a threat to force people into works, self-consciousness and Christian performance, when in all reality it is one of the most beautiful experiences for a Christian to take up the cross daily. What cross you may ask? An understanding of pure Grace is necessary to realize that it is His cross and we glory in His cross, because He already went on the cross for us. Consider the following regarding this issue from a Grace-oriented and Christ-centered viewpoint:

Taking up the cross daily means that Christ wants us to focus on Him, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). As we look unto His Finished Work (John 19:30) on the cross of Calvary, which was the manifestation of His Love expressed through Mercy and Grace as He met the conditions of His perfect justice, He is able to work in and through us to manifest His Love with the mind of Christ active in us (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5) through acts of Mercy and Grace to the folks around us including to ourselves. It’s His cross that we want as a frame of reference.

The Holy Spirit continuously motivates each Christian to look unto Him and with our free volition we say “Yes” and then He can work in and through us. And letting Him work in and through us is what Jesus Christ means in His Word when He speaks about taking up the cross daily. It’s at His cross where we meet Him, our Lord and Savior, and where He finished the work. Now we have peace with God and we can rest and let Him perform His work in us to conform us to His image (Romans 8:29).

And it is very important to understand that to take up His cross is never an actual work performed by a Christian and it’s never a burden or a matter of distress, but instead the cross represents a place of victory and glory. Calvary’s cross is the only cross God will and can accept. There’s no sacrifice we as individuals can offer to God as God doesn’t want our sacrifices (Psalm 40:6, 51:16-17), but instead He wants our heart (Proverbs 23:26; a choice in our free will to let him take over our lives which is not a work by itself, but only a type of mental consent) and that’s not a sacrifice or work. When we give Him our heart it’s the most joyous thing an individual can do to experience the Resurrection Life of Christ in this lifetime. And then the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices in Romans 12:1 is no longer a work performed by the efforts of an individual, but instead it is the working of the Holy Spirit in us as our minds are renewed (Rom. 12:2).

Some confuse the taking up of the cross with some burden, distress, work, Christian performance and/or duty, discomfort or whatever, when in fact it is one of the greatest things a Christian can experience every day of his/her life as an individual yields to the kind and loving urging/pleading of the Holy Spirit to let Christ reign in them for that day, hour, minute and every single moment. It’s also true when we yield to the Holy Spirit that the things on earth will grow strangely dim as we will no longer yearn to fulfill our human-based (sin nature rooted) desires, but instead we’ll be delighted in His will as we have faith (trust) in Him that His way (plan) is perfect (Psalm 18:30). Yes, once again it’s all by Grace and the flesh profits nothing (John 6:63).

“Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant?” — Numbers 11:11

Our heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith. If our faith be worth anything, it will stand the test. Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not: the paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,” is heaven-born faith. The Lord afflicts His servants to glorify Himself, for He is greatly glorified in the graces of His people, which are His own handiwork. When “tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope,” the Lord is honoured by these growing virtues. We should never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched; nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress; nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten; nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed. The wisdom and power of the great Workman are discovered by the trials through which His vessels of mercy are permitted to pass. Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy. There must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights. Could we be so supremely blessed in heaven, if we had not known the curse of sin and the sorrow of earth? Will not peace be sweeter after conflict, and rest more welcome after toil? Will not the recollection of past sufferings enhance the bliss of the glorified? There are many other comfortable answers to the question with which we opened our brief meditation, let us muse upon it all day long.

(Charles Spurgeon)

I am a nobody
Faceless but fearless
what have I got to lose?

My life? It is gone.
buried and resurrected
Now He is me and I am Him.

Day by day
every moment;
not trusting in the work of my hands
for what could I ever bring?

I know you are scared
for the revolution is rising.
Our weapon is faith
and our strategy is love.

We are all nobodies
faceless and fearless.
For what have we to lose?

What is the difference between “I have been crucified with Christ” (standing on Romans 6:11) and putting some newly discovered sin to the cross (making to die the doings of the body)?

Colossians 3:3-10 is the experiential side of Romans 6:6-11 in regard to sin. By faith you “reckon” that you have died with Christ, and as you “reckon,” the Holy Spirit applies that death to you as you obey the ever-increasing light He throws on your life and actions. The “objective” and “subjective” must be kept in balance. If you take Romans 6 as absolute in experience as well as in judicial position, without other Scriptures to interpret and supplement it, you will be in danger of not calling sin SIN; and you wil close the door of your mind to the Holy Spirit’s light upon deeper knowledge of yourself and God. You will be shut up to the simple maintaining of a “position,” with no open vista of deeper experiential knowledge of Calvary and what Galatians 2:20 means.

You “have been crucified with Christ” – yes – but every part of your whole being must be made “conformable to His death” – this includes the “self-life” as well as “sin.” This will take the whole of one’s lifetime, and the work will not be completed subjectively until even the body of our humiliation is “conformed to the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21). In other words, the object fact of “died with Christ” is complete, but the subjective application from center to circumference ends only with the final redemption of they body, when He shall come to be admired in all them that believe (2 Thessalonians 1:10).

Gatlatians 2:20 is the outcome of the faith position of Romans 6. We “reckon” God’s fact, and then declare “I have been crucified,” while in detail we are day by day made conformable in experience and obey Romans 6:13 in practice.

(Jesse Penn-Lewis – ‘The Cross: The Touchstone of Faith’)

I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

I hoped that in some favoured hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with his own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,
‘Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?’
‘Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.

‘These inward trials I employ
‘From self and pride to set thee free;
‘And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
‘That thou may’st seek thy all in me.’

Being brought up in ”Christian” Germany with churches everywhere, I have always felt that there must be something exciting about the Church which Jesus started and about which I read in the New Testament - but somehow I have yet to discover what it is. I dreamed - together with many friends and colleagues, of a church, that is as simple as One-Two-Three, yet is dynamic; an explosive thing, able to turn the world and a neighborhood upside down. The church as a supernatural invention; endowed with God’s gift of immortality; the way to disciple each other, and to transfer the life of Jesus to each other. An experience of grace and grapes, love and laughter, joy and jellybeans, forgiveness and fun, power and - yes, why not, paper. A church, which does not need much finances, rhetoric, control and manipulation, which can do without powerful and charismatic heroes, which is non-religious at heart, which can thrill people to the core, make them loose their head for joy, and simply teach us The Way to live. The church which not only has a message, but is the message; which spreads like an unstoppable virus, infects whatever it touches, and ultimately covers the Earth with the glory and knowledge of God. It’s power stems from it’s inventor, who has equipped it with the most genius spiritual genetical code - a sort of heavenly DNA, which allows it to transfer and reproduce Kingdom values from Heaven to Earth, and transform not only water into wine, but atheists into fascinated apostles, policewomen into prophetesses, terrorists into teachers, plumbers into pastors, and dignified village elders into beaming evangelists in the process. It is like a spiritual family - organic, not organized, relational, not formal; it has a persecution-proof structure, matures under tears, multiplies under pressure, grows under the carpet, flourishes in the desert, sees in the dark, and thrives on chaos. A church that can multiply like two fish and five breads in the Hands of Jesus, were the fathers turn their hearts to the sons and the sons their hearts to the fathers, were it’s people are it’s resources, and which has only one name to brag about, the Lamb of God.

I posted this for one reason.  To get you to think.  How many times do we see or hear of a vision that is dominated by the outward appearance of an organization?  I come across it everyday of my life.  In this fallen world so many are driven by the thought of what others are thinking about them.

 One of the subtleties of the flesh is it’s ability to slowly turn our focus from inward to the outward.   When we take our eyes of of Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith (yeah, think about that one for a while), then we have placed our eyes on something else.  Jesus is the only way and any way that is not Jesus is not the way.  Everytime I read that vision or mission statement quoted above from Wolfgang Simsons book ‘Houses that Change the World’ I am reminded of Jesus words:

 “…upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades will not overpower it.”