I love surfing, but I’m not very good at it.  I’ve only done it in really cold water, maybe that’s why.  If you’ve never surfed, let me give you the most amateur possible synopsis.

You pull your board out till the water’s getting kind of high.  You climb onto it, lay down, and paddle out further, till you reach the swell, where you want to catch the wave, kind of as it’s breaking.  You wait for a good wave, the whole time having to fight and paddle to maintain your position.  Good surfers don’t look like they are fighting anything.  I don’t know how they do that.  By this time, my arms are usually pretty tired.  When you see a wave coming, you start to paddle before it reaches you, so it can catch you.

Note:  everything up till this point has been basically miserable, unless you’re one of those “good surfers.”

Then it catches you, and it’s AWESOME.  Even if the wave’s dwippy and cold, which is really the only kind I’ve ever ridden.  And even if, like me, your arms are too tired  from fighting the water to push you up onto your feet, and you just look like a dork on your knees with a big smile on your beet-red face.  Still, AWESOME.

I have a point to make, which I may have ruined by distracting you through the mental images of my awkwardness, but pretend that the above was a really beautiful description of the glory of the sport, written by a “good surfer.”  The essence of the task is still the same, except that you actually can do all sorts of cool things once you’re, you know, surfing.

Here’s my point:  faith is like surfing.  You know something’s coming, so you do a whole lot of work to be ready when it comes, and when it does, you just ride.  All the power’s come from something outside of you, and you just positioned yourself to catch it.

Most people live in unbelief most of the time, and then, when a wave hits them and they’re tumbling around under it, try to rise up in faith and overcome.  When the devastating illness hits, the divorce is under discussion, the child is diagnosed.  At that moment, they work really hard to manifest “faith,” praying desperately for the desired outcome.  And then, the crushing disappointment.  The healing didn’t happen, the deliverance didn’t come, the request was not granted.  Disillusionment.  Why didn’t God answer the prayer of faith?

But here’s a secret about faith:  it’s in the paddling, not the wave.  When we face a moment of trial that requires great faith, the Biblical plan doesn’t say that’s the time to strain and groan and produce powerful prayers that move heaven.  We live at all times believing or we don’t.  If somebody tells you you’re going to win an Olympic medal, if you believe them, you don’t start practicing your platform mount, you start practicing your sport.  Over and over and over, until you ARE a champion.

If you believe the Lord Jesus, you live obeying Him.  ”If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  JN 14:23  So, if my faith level is such that I live a life that would essentially look the same whether or not God exists (self-sufficient and natural), there’s a whole lot of unbelief.  If I am not concerned enough to hunt scripture to find out what these all-important commands of Jesus are, the ones for which I’ll be held accountable before His throne, I don’t really believe all that much.  If I live in bitterness, unforgiveness, and anger, when Jesus said to love my enemies, I just don’t believe.  If I live storing up treasure for a comfy life here on earth mostly unconcerned about what fruit I’ll present from it, I have very, very little faith.  I’m not paddling.

So when the wave comes, and it’s a time of perceived need, the Christian tries to rise up with faith for the miracle.  They’re desperately trying to plant the mustard seed faith in the ground, water it, and make it grow into a giant tree that can harbor the birds…ALL IN A DAY.  Mat 13:31-32

The Lord loves us so much, He works in those times, hears those prayers, and even often answers them!  He is not seeking to disqualify us.  No, He is seeking to qualify us the way a coach would qualify His Olympic athlete…through steady training day in and day out, challenges fit to the level of development, and strategic building up of weak areas.

So when the huge decision arises and the believer tries to “hear the Lord” for direction, the question is, “Did you believe that you needed to ‘live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ and live desperate for the voice of the Lord from day to day?”  Because if so, you’ve paddled, and when that moment brings a big wave, you find yourself lifted up and exhilarated, riding His power, hearing His voice, seeing Him come through.  If not, it feels like a crap-shoot instead of standing on a Rock…am I hearing God?  Which voice is His?  Will He come through?  That’s not the FAther’s will for His kids!

His character is not such that He hides Himself in the desperate, painful hour, snickering at us in our bewilderment.  He is a good Father.  He has made Himself clear in His word, offering everything we need.  He does respond to faith.  But when we do not live obeying, we can be sure that we do not fully believe.  And when a big moment comes and we try to believe even though we don’t, it just doesn’t carry alot of authority.

So…the Father’s plan is this:  Paddle, paddle, paddle.  If we really believe, we’ll do the hard work of learning His commands, and doing them.  We’ll exercise our muscles not in great exploits, but in the hours of training, through submissive obedience to His Word and His Spirit.  Then, when the exploit moment comes, we catch that wave and just ride, knowing all the power is His.

Here’s a scripture:

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.  Heb 5:14

What’s the class for?  What’s it all about?

Our Freedom class can best be understood in this context:  OJ and I are a couple of church kids hunting backwards for the fire of conversion.  Consider this with us:

• Most believers produce more new converts in the first year after conversion than in the rest of their Christian life combined
• Most believers experience their greatest period of Joy, Faith, and Zeal in the period just after a true conversion
• I remember testimonies of true salvation better than say, all the sermons I heard while in college, because of their power and impact

As church kids, we never experienced a profound conversion moment of transference from darkness to light, dramatic new birth, etc.  But the more we searched scriptures, it became clear that Christian life as described in the New Testament looks WAY MORE like the experience of a new convert than like typical church life.  What happens to the fire of the new convert, we wondered?  And where in the Bible does it say we regular church attenders don’t get a piece of that fire?

We turned to our old friend, the Apostle Paul.  He’d been to the third heaven.  He should know the answer.  Should we do like some friends and attend more conferences to try to find the fire?  Should we fast and pray for a visitation?  What if the right person laid hands on us?  Maybe if we evangelized more unreached peoples?  (All these are great things to do, by the way!)  Paul mentions all these things in passing, but there was one thing he harped on so many times, everything else seemed secondary to him.  Over and over and over again, he used the same word:  Gospel.

Wait a minute.  Isn’t that what you preach to unbelievers?  Why would Paul keep talking about the Gospel if he was writing to believers?  Was he just such a crazed evangelist that he couldn’t think of anything else?  Because, you know, some people are just built like that, right?  It’s their “spiritual gift.”  As church kids, we thought of the Gospel as something that you brushed up on with the help of the four spiritual laws so that you could share it with unsaved folks as opportunity arose.

It became obvious that Paul didn’t share our view.  Searching his writings, we found ourselves in a personal REVOLUTION.   We got to the end of our backwards hunt, and found that the end (telos) of it all, is really right at the beginning.  It’s the GOSPEL.  We found that it contained every answer and every promise, and yet had been relegated to the place of entry…kindergarten in the school of Christianity, if you will.  We began to peer into this mystery that intrigues the angels, and realize that every human need was provided for there.  It was so simple, so complete and perfect.  Our discovery had the same effect on us as it did on the newly saved. We had found the source of that new-convert fire, and it consumed us.  It dawned on us that we never had to live another day without it, if we would, like Paul, not leave that simple gate.

We began to groan inwardly, (and sometimes outwardly).  How could it be?  How can the church be living so broken, so bound, so hungry, so inadequate, when through the Gospel, everything had been provided for?  The years of training in repentance and freedom in Tacoma came into clear focus for what they were.  It was the Gospel, applied to the Christian life.  It was opening up the treasure box that the enemy has kept under lock and key that we might not fully realize what was bought for us at the Cross.

If the Gospel could be likened to a promise of full health, our freedom training had provided us the ability to accurately diagnose the sicknesses that were blocking that health.  It’s a practice in which the remedy is always the same, and always works, but the sicknesses can differ.  In the class we begin to dissect and diagnose not a human body, but a human heart.

So freedom class is central to The Mission because like Paul we are “…eager to preach the gospel to you also…”  In freedom class, we’re pursuing firstly revelation of the Gospel, returning to the zeal of our first love.  From that revelation, application naturally flows the as the Lord faithfully highlights the areas in which we are bound.  We’ll share more about freedom class, as it is something we expect to be doing regularly here, and elsewhere.

You can hear some of the teaching on our website at ojandsuz.com/teaching.

If you are interested in attending a freedom class, shoot us an email!

I have good news for you, brothers and sisters in Christ.  You are incredibly rich.

This struck me as I was contemplating this post, and how to frame what the Lord’s been showing me about the love of money.  I had an epiphany, in which I realized that the problem is not that we live too well, but that we live far too poorly.  We live sometimes yearning for gold and silver, which at home, is the stuff the streets are made of.  We fork over the cash for more space, but at home there are “many mansions.”  We seek comfort and respite in every possible conceivable way (speaking to Americans, particularly, here), but at home, every tear is wiped away and we have fullness of joy.

When I was growing up in the middle of Chicago, there was something that my mom and dad would try to gently communicate from time to time:  “You’re not from here.”  They’d say it sometimes when we were passing the liquor stores and laundromats that made up the landscape, or when we spoke like our bilingual friends without the excuse of actually speaking another language, or when our bikes were stolen…again.

So they’d try to tell us about where they had grown up, and that we were born by the ocean.  About spending leisure time in mountains instead of on video games, and about the fog rolling off the bay.  About how there are places in the world that aren’t ugly.

They would sigh and say, “We never meant to raise you kids in the city.  You aren’t from here, you know.”  Once I was old enough to catch on, I got a little angry.  So, where “we’re from,” people are well-off, well-educated, and live in beautiful natural surroundings?  What the heck are we doing here?  Our cousins go to tennis camps…for MONTHS!  We kick around half-deflated dodgeballs a couple times a week in “gym.”  HELLLOOOOOO????  Who derailed our lives?  Why aren’t we AT where we’re FROM?

But the reason was because Jesus Christ had rescued my parents from eternal death, and slavery to sin.  They had not found salvation in being comfortably mid to upper class, or in education, or in nature.  They found it in Him.  So they didn’t make their life choices based on “what would be best for the kids.”  They obeyed the Lord, and let Him give us what would be best.  How He’s rewarded that would take a million blogs to describe…how lavishly the Lord has blessed us.  But that’s for another time.

The love of money in Christians shows up like it did in me in my youth:  having no revelation that WE’RE NOT FROM HERE and assimilating, deciding that these few minutes on the earth should feel more like home.  But it’s not home.  Our home is in heaven.  The description is not merely granite countertops and crown moulding.  The description is MAJESTY AND GLORY.  The whole earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.  We are so stinking rich!!!  All the wealth of the universe belongs to our Father!

Well, you ask, why aren’t we AT where we’re FROM?  Why don’t I have my wealth?

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul…

You’re a stranger here; it’s not like home.  The lowly, measly wealth that this world, under its current administration (Satan–2 Cor. 4:4), has to offer is…money.  Not even real.  For Americans, not even pretending to be real by being held to any standard (e.g. the gold standard).  A number printed on a paper, that acquires us more stuff.  It’s not real.  We’re supposed to see through it, to despise it.  To be wholly UN-mastered by it.  But to master it.

I think of that scene from Schindler’s List towards the end, when Schindler realizes that his ring might have bought him another life.  When he finally understands what was valuable.

From my vantage point, it is obvious that many American Christians will give their energy and focus to the love of money, decorating their prison cell (that is life under the oppression of the god of this age, when sin is rampant and the devil prowls about like a roaring lion), unable to even hear the instructions to let the other prisoners know about the escape plan.

We have a few quick minutes on the earth before eternity with the One we love.  There’s an aspect of misery, dragging around this body of death, and not seeing Him face to face.  The temptation is to comfort, comfort, comfort ourselves…encourage each other to take a load off…buy some more…bigger, better…  But for these few tiny minutes out of eternity that we have to endure being far from our Lord and lover, we are here to rescue as many as we can from eternity totally separated from Him.

Let’s just not love money.  Let’s spend our few minutes on souls, spend our money on souls, spend our energy on souls.  There will be AGES, AEONS, and EPOCHS to enjoy our wealth.  Won’t we laugh at the little funny-faced bills then, with all the congregation that followed us through the gates into eternal life?

Let’s hear Him saying, “You’re not from here, you know.”

The other day I was in a grocerty store and found myself singing a little ditty I haven’t heard in years…you probably know it.  It goes:

“The best things in life are free…

But you can give it the birds and bees…

I need money… (that’s what I want).

That’s what I want…  (that’s what I want).

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum…”

Are you singing it yet?  Has there ever been a catchier tune?  Anyway, why was I singing it?  I don’t know, maybe it was the song playing, or maybe similar words were in my peripheral vision on a magazine cover, or maybe it was because I was at the checkout…and you know how thrifty people (especially when they can see that there is not sufficient intake to replace the output) HATE to spend money…which means you hate money…right?  Right?  I mean, isn’t it basically holy to hate to spend money?  Because then you… have…more…money…oh.

Do you see it?  No, hating to spend money, especially for something I need, doesn’t mean I hate money.  It means I love money.  It masters me, it makes me feel safe, and I want it.

Here are two verses.  You will probably know both of them, but did you ever notice that one follows directly after the other?  I didn’t.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Mat. 6:24-25  (emphasis mine)

Note the key word “therefore.”  When we worry about money, we’re mastered by it.  We are enslaved.  It’s a sign:  on some level, we love it.  But Jesus said we CANNOT serve both.  He said we CANNOT serve Him, and be enslaved to money.  He made it very clear.

Worry over money has been a dark cloud that has stolen so many of our sweetest moments of victory and vision.  In some ways, it felt like we launched our fishing boat into the sea of harvest, singing at the top of our lungs, only to be washed over by a tidal wave of WORRY.  We were tempted to blame others.  We could only hear so many times, “How will you…?  What about…?  Is it wise…?”  before we sat down to take stock.  Maybe we aren’t wise.  Maybe the Lord won’t take care of us.  Maybe He’s setting us up for a really big learning lesson.

But it turns out we can’t blame others.  We are the ones who are not free, who are tempted to hear another Master, who are in danger of disobedience, who are enslaved.  No use protesting innocence and pretending to be free, as I approach the grocery checkout singing, “I want money…” cringing as I buy my family food.  Jesus has plenty of funds for me to joyfully buy my family food!  It is taking some serious repentance to extract myself from this attitude where I trust more in a certain income than in Jesus Christ.  Oh, God, that I would despise the other master and be entirely YOURS.

Interesting to note:  this passage is in the Beattitudes.  Jesus wasn’t even speaking to the 70 or the 12.  This provision He speaks of isn’t even spoken of to the “sent ones,” but to EVERYONE.  It’s not conditional even on doing ministry or doing the right ministry.  Obedient children of God need not (must not) worry about provision.

(Note:  obedience will ALWAYS involve hard work with a fraction of time spent on rest, especially in vocational ministry.  Proverbs is clear that someone who is not working hard will face God’s correction.)

This is an interesting phenomenon to observe among moms.  There’s something about a multiplication of little people in the household that brings out a talent for multiplying your funds.  This often brings out references to Proverbs 31, and competition to see how much you can get for your buck.  This value system was pretty deeply ingrained in me when I married OJ, who helped me to see that I was somewhat crazy.  I had so idolized the saving of money, that I was almost completely oblivious to the much more valuable commodity of time, which you can never replace.

I would waste hours of research, driving time, who knows what, to save ten bucks.  But, folks, I seriously thought there was something intrinsically godly about saving money!  Ha!  I really thought it was a kingdom value!  I finally came to see that there was no backing for this whatsoever in scripture.  It was a hidden love of money.

Watching people who are particularly enamored with saving money, especially those who, like myself, think it’s a kingdom value, I’ve been struck by the deception.  I’ve seen people bargain others down or rejoice over a triumph of acquisition in which it’s clear that they have completely forgotten that there is any other person involved in the transaction.  They do not see the  merchant working to care for his family or a waiter who has been on his or her feet, or even that it’s just fair to pay for goods and services.  They think they are pleasing the God of Justice and Generosity by their craftiness.  In their marriages, families, and relationships, they will sacrifice harmony, generosity, and unity for saving money.  It’s love of money.

How many thrifty people did it take to build the Walmart empire?  How much evil do we not know about…how much child labor, destruction of small business, exploitation of resources, especially in poorer nations?  This is the sort of systemic evil structure that is built by love of money, and too deeply imbedded in our lives to extract by the time we learn what it really is.  This is what I was speaking of in the last post.

We are deceived if we don’t realize that Mammon’s temple has as much of its foundation laid in worry as in greed.

(Note:  I’m not saying it’s evil to shop at Walmart, but just using it as an example.  Paul helps us keep our consciences clean in regards to merchandise in 1 Cor 8.)

So…there’s the worry side.  It’s not the only side, though.

Nobody admits this.  Last of all, me.  But the other day, I came across an article discussing the translation of 1 Tim. 6:10.  It’s that funny verse that in the King James, tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil.  But nobody could make any sense of that, because what does the love of money have to do with somebody yelling at their neighbor or committing adultery?  So newer translations say “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

But somebody turned on the light for me.  He gave the literal translation from the Greek:  ”For [a] root of all the evils is the money-love.”  He talked about the difference between sin and evil.  He defined evil in broader terms, as in systems of widespread corruption that leads to destruction.  Then he pointed out that systemic evil is almost always rooted in the love of money, for example:  prostitution, drug-trade, corrupt politics, even oppressive taxation, and economies based on usury (like ours).

So, for example, love of money is probably not the sin that causes a woman to walk into an abortion clinic, but it is without a doubt the chief reason the evil clinic exists for her to walk into.  And it may not be that love of money is the sin that drove the addict to pawn his wife’s earrings, but it is the reason the pawn shop is conveniently located in the addict’s neighborhood.

Okay, so why am I struck by this fine theological point, other than our general McDowell nerdiness? Here’s why:

One of the principles of breakthrough the Lord taught us during during our years of training was men’s need for God to bring external pressure on our souls to break us through into revelation.  In other words, people don’t naturally want to change or be conformed to the image of Christ.  We are “right in [our] own eyes.” (Prov. 21:2) So in His grace, God would bring pressure in the natural that would parallel the revelation in the spiritual, so we would be willing to change.

Note:  This sounds complicated.  It’s not.  It’s called correction.  All believers’ lives are full of it, as God is a good father, but many of us do not realize it as such, and waste our golden trials on complaining and arguing like rebellious children.

So speak of pressure:  here we have the need for funds to pursue the harvest, starting just with our family’s needs.  There are a bunch of people jumping off this cliff at the same time as we are, and it is a certain kind of pressure that if you’ve never experienced…well, let’s just say it’s a gold mine for revelation!

And I feel the Lord’s been showing me, gently, “You love money.  You are from a people that loves money (perhaps more than any people that’s existed in history on the earth).  You are so steeped in this, you can’t imagine life, ministry, or perspective apart from it.  And you’re blind to the extent of EVIL that’s grown up solidly around your love of money in America.  Most will stay blind until the evil devours them.”  Pretty heavy stuff.

So here we sit…having sold our house (btw, if you didn’t know, when a Gen Y-er says they sold their house, ask them how much that cost ‘em.  We had a to bring a check for 9K.), our cars, much of our earthly goods several times, having given up or sold several profitable businesses, having exchanged the capital of our abilities and educations for nothing on the market but believing for eternal fruit…all of this ON PURPOSE for ministry and the kingdom…how is it that we could be said to love money?  Where have we been blinded?

I’ll get into that in the next post.  How does this break down?  Where is it in our life, and could it be in yours?  In the meantime, look for a recording of OJ teaching on what a disciple of Christ is.  SHAZAM!  All I can say is, wow.  I’m so glad he’s mine.  :)

All God’s best to you!

Suzanna and I recently put together a short teaching on the fear of man for my men’s discipleship group.  The primary goal in this was to produce breakthrough in the reader to A) be set free from fear of man and B) be empowered to produce transformation in discipleship and evangelism.

Breakthrough Teaching on Coming out of the FEAR OF MAN

Scriptural truths

Fear of man is at its worst when tied to a religious spirit.

Mark 11:27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28″By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

29Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!”

31They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32But if we say, ‘From men’….” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)

33So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Principles at work:

1. The Pharisees did not operate under fear of the Lord or conviction.  There questions were completely self-centered.
2. Jesus uncovered their lack of authority by his question.  If they had any real authority, they could answer straight about John, but they were unable to.
3. Fear of man will always lead to speaking and moving in a way that is conformed to the opinions of men.  It carries no transformational power.
4. When our convictions are based out of receiving the honor and praise of men, we are easily blinded to truth.  The Pharisees missed Jesus because they did not love the truth more than they loved what men thought of them.

Fear of man steals our testimony.

John 12:42Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

Luke 12:1Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

4″I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies^[a^]? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

8″I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. 9But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.

Principles at work:

1. Fear of man affects our relationship with God.  There can be no intimate closeness with someone you will not confess freely.
2. It is hypocrisy to confess that you are living for God but live consumed by the opinions of men.
3. Unbelief about the care of God and His complete control over our lives will lead to hedging out bets in the company of men.  If you are not sure that He counts the hairs on your head, you will not trust your reputation, friendships, and comfort into his care.

God brings justice ultimately.  Our pride causes us to seek justice in the eyes of men and miss the praise that comes from God in the day of judgement.

1 Corinthians 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

23 A man’s pride brings him low,
but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.

24 The accomplice of a thief is his own enemy;
he is put under oath and dare not testify.

25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

26 Many seek an audience with a ruler,
but it is from the LORD that man gets justice.

27 The righteous detest the dishonest;
the wicked detest the upright.

Four categories or types of people who walk in the fear of man.

1. “Self-protection:  the hard shell”  -
   1. literally afraid of other men.  what they can do to hurt him or can steal from him.
   2. A man’s heart is mishandled from birth, he forms a hard exterior to protect himself from pain.
   3. He prefers to live numb so as to be able to freely exchange in the relational economy of sinful men.
   4. His life is marked by:
      1. religious duty w/o emotional connection
      2. shallow relationships with other men
      3. (for married men) his wife has increasing levels of sorrow and/or distraction from her husband, her heart needs are unperceived, unmet
      4. confusion and inability to hear God’s voice personally
      5. a lack of passion for fathering and discipling, unmoved by plight of the vulnerable and needy
      6. spiritual and emotional boredom

1. “Pleasant” -
   1. doesn’t want to cross anyone’s will.
   2. afraid of other’s reaction to him and perception of him
   3. wants to impact for the kingdom but lives in insecurity and is personally disconnected from God’s holiness.
   4. has not fed himself the fear of the Lord, and so cannot perceive the Scripture’s meaning with depth.
   5. his access to heaven’s resources are limited, so he mainly gives of himself, with limited authority.
   6. marked by:
      1. compassion w/o wisdom
      2. produces little or no breakthrough in the people who follow him
      3. driven by people’s perceived needs rather than their real needs
      4. overly drawn to routine
      5. fears confrontation
      6. wants to lead, but not really (avoid taking responsibility for others’ breakthrough…club mentality “let’s all do this together!”)

1. “Carnal”
   1. wants to enjoy fellowship with other men at any cost.  wants to fit into the systems of men
   2. has conviction that God and Jesus are real, but has not made Jesus Lord.  Wants to win with God and with men.
   3. unwilling to give up the world and men’s opinion of him.  makes an effort not to be perceived as “different” or “religious.”
   4. Marked by:
      1. Spiritual satisfaction and dullness, lack of hunger for God
      2. Self-hatred
      3. Anger and sorrow over life’s direction
      4. defensive over his lifestyle and resistance to anything “overboard;”
      5. fundamentally does not believe in the scriptural principle of cost
      6. thoughts  of serving God are disconnected from personal obedience; more a matter of personal preference

1. “The Fan”
   1. satisfied by men and what men are doing.
   2. easily excited about happenings and activities and schools of thought.
   3. inclination towards spectatorship, but talks excitedly about what others are doing in his “camp.”
   4. He is marked by:
      1. his loyalties, doctrines, and beliefs v. his personal fruit.
      2. devotion to choosing the right doctrines, being grouped with the right folks
      3. head knowledge v. spiritual authority and transformation
      4. escapism, avoidance of areas of defeat, esp in the home
      5. insignificance (stronghold)
      6. preference for talking v. doing
      7. disparity between what he says he believes and the power of faith to produce tangible fruit in his life
      8. team colors (I’m with so and so…extreme personal loyalty to people, even to the point of taking pride in association)
      9. “head in the sand”; this man can ignore God’s dealings with him over personal obedience by absorbing himself in ways God is moving in the body at large

Common thread is FATHERLESSNESS– a disconnect from the fear of the Lord and His personal interest in a man’s life and obedience.  A man who is fatherless is both unloved and undisciplined.

Questions to confront:

• Is the Lord committed to my personal development?
• Is my level of breakthrough reflective of His commitment, or am I blocking His development through fear of man?
• Do I regard immediate, personal obedience as the Lord’s constant requirement, or do I  make the issue of obedience confusing by thinking of obedience in broad strokes? Is my life simple?  (Faith like a child means hear and obey)
• Do I believe that He has greatness for me?
• Do I love correction, or does it make me feel like a failure?

It’s official.  Florida has won us over.  OJ was already a big fan, with great memories from his childhood.  I, on the other hand, had one frigid spring break experience during college, in which the white beaches felt more arctic than exotic, and I was generally cold, tired, and appalled that the houses had been painted with nail polish.  (In Chicago, we generally don’t mix purples and pinks into our Benjamin Moore, unless you live in the ghetto, where, if you can afford paint, you let everybody know it.)

Anyway, the record book has been rewritten:  beautiful.  Wow,  We were far enough south to enjoy sunny beaches, but still northen enough to enjoy sweet southern accents and spanish moss hanging off old oak trees.

Anyway, we highly recommend Palm Coast, a coastal town about 40 min. south of St. Augustine, America’s oldest city.  It was odd to visit that city and see a fortress and walled city gate, right out of Old Europe.  I wonder how long it took for the explorers to figure out that old world methods would fail them in the New World.  Kind of funny to imagine this tiny little embattlement built on the edge of the enormity of what they’d discovered, trying to hold it, like trying to hold a sleeping bear by its toenail.  I imagine the British telling the Spaniards, “Hey, you guys keep that fortress.  We’ll take the rest!”

Transition periods:  the time it takes to figure out the Old World methods aren’t working, and looking for the New.  Having eyes to see the enormity of what’s in front of you.  Being able to balance the advancing and the subduing, conquest and dominion.  Hmmm…I hope we never get caught guarding the little fort when there’s a whole continent to explore.

OJ and I are sure that we’ve only just begun to grasp the enormity of what’s been given to us in the New Covanent, accessed through believing the Gospel.  We can afford to give everything away, move quickly at the Word of the Lord, speak boldly about our children’s futures, preach HOPE recklessly, and walk weak as we are with complete confidence.  The Prince of Peace is ruling.

(Letter to the Lost)

You matter.

You matter because there is a case pending against you that all of history hinges on.  You, God’s masterpiece, knit together out of a secret DNA code that only He could write and science is still beginning to try to decipher.  Too much beauty is contained in that code to describe.  A thousand pictures could not capture how it makes those who love you feel when you laugh.  Too much wisdom is written in those helices for our most brilliant minds to comprehend.  Like the wisdom that teaches the feet of the illiterate to balance their weight perfectly on symmetrical legs.  Too much joy is written into those strands to be expressed; even your parents didn’t come close on the day of your birth.  The only appropriate celebration for your grandeur is of heavenly proportions…but that does hang in the balance.

Because your DNA was hijacked and your beauty marred and the wisdom despised and the joy stifled.  Because you and I have participated in the greatest treachery of all time.  The One who designed, crafted, and rejoiced over you for Love has been denied His heart’s desire:  full fellowship with you.  Your soul’s DNA no longer reads, “Lover of God with all heart, soul, mind and strength.”  It’s been changed to read, “Seeker of self for pleasure, glorification, identity, and source.”  The design is so grossly perverted that you have to be told…TO BE TOLD IN WORDS…to love the most beautiful, perfect Lover conceivable.  To love Love Himself.  You and I, we must be commanded to love Love (for which we were made).  To see Light (for which our eyes were formed).  To do Justice (which is HIs only possible course).  To cherish Mercy, by which we continue to breathe from moment to moment.

So because He must, He commands it.  And still, after the command, written long form in 66 books over hundreds of years, shouted by prophets who were thrown in jail and sawn in half, and then embodied in His own Son made flesh, still after all…still the Word is neglected and disbelieved, the prophets despised, and the Love, Light, the Son of God, made into a pendant.  Crucified by religion daily, His righteousness undesired.  And here you are in the now of history, with thousands of years of defiance of men before you and the return of the King to come, and everything is hinging on how you will respond.

You matter.  The case against you is unchangeable, insurmountable, terrifying.  You were made for greatness, one way or the other.  And you have been pursued in the sea of humanity for rescue by the Son of Man and the Son of God.  One and the same, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  Have you heard His name?  Then you have been pursued eternally and offered the world’s only hope.  Have you seen His book?  Then He has cried out to you in a loud voice.  Have you been told of His death?  Then you have been confronted with the most astounding injustice the greatest imagination could ever conceive of, the greatest story ever told, and the greatest act of Love any man or spirit could attempt.  The immortal God dying slowly at the hands of the rebels, the underlings, the traitors.  The created killing Creator.  The Omnipotent nailed up by weaklings.  Voluntarily.

And YOU are the one at the center of the story.  The ONE for whom Christ died.  You matter.  You matter.  You could not matter more.  There is no more certain guarantee of your worth than this, Jesus Christ hanging on the cross outside the camp, bloody beyond recognition.  You matter.  If there is one question on which you dare not waste another moment it is the question of whether you are loved and important.  Do you see Him there on the Cross?  You matter.

No, the question is not whether you are loved, or whether you are significant.  You must disbelieve the Cross and reject history to remain asking what has been so resoundingly answered for all time.  No, the question is if you esteem Him.  Whether you see Him as worthwhile and significant.  Him, the King of Glory.  All Creation is groaning for His return, but He holds off, offering you another day and another breath to engage all the angels of heaven in celebration.  Will you repent?  Will you turn?  Will you bow and surrender to love, or defy not only the Righteous Judge, but your own Advocate and Redeemer, in the end standing only in agreement with your accuser and abuser, who calls you worthless and tutors you how to be so?  For a few moments the world will stand with you as you stand with them, but it is a vapor.  And so you will face the One before whose face all of heaven and earth flees away on your own.  And He will open the Lamb’s Book of Life, to see if your name is in it.

All the universities in the world, temples of idolatry, and drunken stupors of men will never change the eternal truth:  There’s a book.  He died to put your name in it.  You matter.  Will you believe, confess, and repent?  He will pay all debts, allowing you to die and be reborn.  To be a new creation, to have new life, eternal life in full fellowship with Him.  He will save you not only from the eternal penalty of sin, but from the life of slavery to sin you now live.  Sin will no longer be your master; if only you will submit to Him, the kindest and most preferred of all Masters, Lord of all!  Bowing to His Lordship will make you free!

When you do, friend and brother, finally the celebration of your worth is released in the heavenlies, all the angels rejoicing at the redemption of the Precious Prodigal.  What joy, on earth and in heaven, the Father’s will done.  Restored relationship with you.  You matter.

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”^[a](that is, the word of faith which we preach): ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Rom. 10:8-10

And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  Luke 15:9-10

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Cor. 5:18-21

The kids and I have been sick for the last week or so, presumably with swine flu.  It really hasn’t been that bad, in our case.  Pretty mild, considering all the hysteria.  But it does last awhile, and we are definitely getting stir crazy without our usual routine of activities…

Anyway, I needed a lot of help, and the Lord is faithful, of course.  Here are the things the Holy Spirit’s been reminding me of today:

1.  I’ve totally been forgotting to play worship and dance with the kids!  After all, how can I accurately teach them about God and not have celebratory dancing involved???  (This is why being a mom is way better than being a pastor). Granted, there’s not a lot of energy around here for dancing, but it was worth spending the little bit we had…sets us all a-right.  This reminded me that…

2.  I am sick and tired, and that’s all right.  I can still have joy.  That’s just life on the planet Earth.

3.  There are times when there is no chance the house will come within a mile of what you’d call “clean,” but if it’s alright with Jesus, it needs to be alright with me.

4.  I need breakthrough.  If I am fed up with myself when I don’t get it the first try, I will definitely never get it.  Jesus is not fed up with me, so here I go again, a-hunting after holiness!

5.  Do not try to correct a three year-old for being loud and repeating everything he says 5-10 times.  It does not matter that it drives me crazy.  Get a different car and drive somewhere else.  He’s three.

6.  Speaking of loud, there are three of them and we haven’t been out of the house substantially for days.  It’s going to be loud.  If it’s not loud, they’re asleep.

7.  Speaking of sleep, they need more than I think when they’re sick.

8.  Speaking of thinking, Nutella’s a good idea for getting sick kids to eat.

9.  Speaking of Nutella…mmm.  Now, you may ask if that was really something the Lord reminded me of.  I don’t know.

10.  If Ihave unbelief about mycalling, I’ll live angry.  This has two sub-reminders:

a. If Iforget my calling, others will not remember it for me.

b. If I have unbelief over my calling (or obedience to the Lord’s instructions), I will probably primarily concern myself with people who do not believe in my calling.  I will become angry with them, as well as being angry in general.  Unbelief is always wrong (both sinful and inaccurate).

If something’s pressing against you (fear, unbelief, anger, hopelessness…), mighty warrior of God, press back!!!  You’ll win.  Judges 6:12-14

I have seen the look on many women’s faces, the pain and emptiness of wanting children but not being able to have any.  Tonight, I can’t sleep, wanting to yell to the Lovely Lady, the Bride of Christ:  This is true barrnenness, to have not made disciples.  Just the other day, I heard another new mom say to me, “I never could have understood what it meant, until I actually had her (the new baby)…”  The power of that transformation is forever and undeniable, and nothing could ever take that new mommy and daddy back to childlessness without utterly wracking their souls.  They probably would rather die than be childless again.

For more than 25 years of my Christian life, I was utterly disconnected from this command of the Savior, to go and make disciples.  The crazy thing is, I had no idea that I was.  Strangely. it never occurred to me to ask myself if I had ever made a disciple.  It wasn’t that I meant to miss the fundamental purpose for my being on the earth.  Once again, STRANGELY, it just didn’t occur to me.  Even looking back I can’t explain it.  I don’t know that I ever thought about it, but if I did, I guess I thought that somehow that was the function of the church, to disciple people.  You know, like evangelism equals inviting people to an evangelistic event, discipleship must equal inviting people to attend church.  No, make that a small group.

Just as no parent in their right mind would think a school could substitute for his and her love and discipline, hoping the message on Sunday applies directly to Johnny Appleseed’s life and that he will somehow achieve sanctification and maturity without any intentional development is just plain bonkers.

This is a painful story to share, but it displays just how disconnected I was.  In college, while overseas, I led a roommate to the Lord.  Well, I invited her to church with me, and there she (I thought) received the Lord.  I cannot remember now how clearly I ever articulated the entirety of the gospel, giving her a chance to believe and repent.  I don’t remember if I explained how to be born again to her clearly enough that she could articulate it to someone else.  I shared much with her, in bits and pieces.  I shared scriptures with her, as things came up.  I was extremely attentive to her, and I loved her with all my heart.  I took her to church.  I was a devoted friend, and I did the best I knew how.

Fundamentally, I also abdicated the commands of the Lord to a body who was never supposed to carry them.  The little branch of a branch of a church plant with 20 or so excited young believers that represented “where I went to church.”  I think she did begin to follow the Lord, but I never took responsibility for the newborn baby who’d been placed in my care.  I was reactive to her, like a friend to an orphan, but I did not take her in.  I did not consider the foundation that needed to be laid, oversee her development, pray her through to the other side, or even know that I should consider doing any of those things.  I thought that the church did that.  She was utterly unprepared to return to her spiritually dead home after our year overseas together and no longer follows the Lord at all, as far as I know.  I still cry out for mercy on her behalf, that God would send someone to do what I did not.

As I said above, discipleship is like parenting, in many ways.  One, there is a joy in it that will change you forever, and an empty barrenness in a life devoid of it, whether that is recognized or not.  Secondly, it is the filling up of your spiritual home, the lines of your eternal generations, your inheritance forever and ever that will go on to bear fruit long after your body is dead.  It is fundamentally what we are made for, and life without it is a dull form of misery.  There is no thrill like discipling someone hungry for truth, nothing like speaking the faithful words of scripture and seeing confusion turn to clarity, despair to hope, brokenness to wholeness.  When you disciple a woman whose never known a loving family, you may have changed the future of her children from agony to health.  And her children’s children, and so on, and so on.  When you rescue a young person from secular social justice and teach them the gospel, you may have just opened a gateway for thousands to come to salvation for all eternity, rather than getting fed for a few years.  Discipleship is true ministry.  Every other form is a shadow or facet of it.

Discipleship is what Jesus did.  It cannot be done by a church or by a small group.  It is person to person, requiring sacrificial love and faithful truth pouring out from the discipler and some humility and hunger from the disciple.  It is utterly simple in concept, and utterly impossible in practice except by the empowerment of the Spirit.  It has a bad reputation for having been done so often in the flesh.  It cannot be done by a teacher from the podium.  That is nice, but it is not discipleship.  It is a shadow, because it requires little love from the teacher, and little humility from the student.

Just like that new mom who “didn’t know” until she did it herself, I didn’t know who I was until I began discipling.  Ladies who’ve run with me know that the joy it fills me with literally makes it impossible for me to sit down while I share the Word.  They may not know that I find it impossible to pray for their wounds without weeping, impossible to speak hard truths without shaking, impossible to watch them fall without aching, impossible to stop loving them.  Discipleship is hard, for sure, like parenting.  I have been resented, resisted, and at times, totally rejected.  AND I do not regret one minute of it.  Probably most of the occasion was given by my own (blundering) mistakes made along the way.  Either way, I could not stop wanting any one of those ladies to win, no matter what.

I’m telling you the truth, you don’t know who you (in a good way!) are until you are discipling. It’s what we are made for.  I’m so addicted that I have to get up in the middle of the night and try to disciple the cyberworld through a blog.  Maybe I’ll be able to sleep now that I’ve had a heart to heart with the Beautiful Bride here on ojandsuz.com.  :)  So go make some disciples, teaching them everything He commanded us (Mat. 28:19).  I guarantee your prayer life will go through the roof, your maturity and sanctification will accelerate, your humility will skyrocket, and your joy will be full.

Finally–I’m SO THANKFUL to those who have discipled me!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!