The Normal Christian Life

I have been encouraged over the years to read the writings of Watchman Nee, a Chinese Christian from the mid 20th century. He led a house church movement in China and was greatly persecuted and ended up dying in prison around 1970, but many of his words are powerful and have had a great impact on my life. Here is something that I was reading this morning that I felt was profound:

God makes it quite clear in his Word that he has only one answer to every human need - his Son, Jesus Christ. In all his dealings with us he works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place. The Son of God died instead of us for our forgiveness: he lives instead of us for our deliverence. So we can speak of two substitutions - a Substitute on the Cross who secures our forgiveness and a Substitute within who secures our victory. It will help us greatly, and save us from much confusion, if we keep constantly before us this fact, that God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only, namely, by showing us more of his Son.
The Normal Christian Life
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This is a powerful truth. In everything, it is all about Jesus and He is the One who holds my life together. How often I forget that fact! How often I run to other things or just try to be good or live a good life and forget that He is my strength, my power, my peace, and my life. The prevailing world view of this age is that life is all about me and all about what makes me happy. That God's greatest desire is that I be happy and that I do what makes me happy. This is a lie and it leads to much misery and ruin. If we are all doing what makes us happy, what if my "pursuit of happiness" starts to run into your "pursuit of happiness"? Then, one of us takes action against the other to get our own way and we end up hurting one another. God's way is for us to find our life in Him and allow Jesus to meet our needs. Then we will be free to serve and bless one another instead of trying to get our needs met from each other. We each serve one another and our life on this planet is enhanced by love and service instead of being destroyed through selfishness and competition. Only Jesus can provide what we need since He is our Creator and only He knows what we need, which is to be forgiven of our sins once and for all, and to be delivered from the power of sin that enslaves us. Then, we are free to love God and to love one another.

It sounds simple, but in reality it is pretty hard because we are sooooo selfish and because we feel like we are all alone and HAVE to get our own way. If we do not satisfy ourselves, we fear that we will never be satisfied. That is why the whole Christian life and all of the satisfaction that it brings is only accessed through faith in the unseen God who really can satisfy us with Himself. Faith is what pleases God because when we believe Him and His promises we are saying that He is enough - that He is all we need. This is a hard truth for us, because the world tells us that we need a million different things from a new car, to a new spouse, to a new pair of shoes. If we just had that thing, then we would be satisfied. If we would only turn to Jesus and let Him do in our life what only He can do, then we would cease striving and searching and finally be at rest.

New Trends for 21st Century Church

Enlightening article by Bill Easum on Eleven Trends of the 21st Century Church. Some of the trends are:

1. Worship: Experiencing God
2. Community: Creating a Safe Place
3. Outreach: Reaching the Unchurched

I don't normally put really over the top Christian articles or ministry news on this site because I am generally trying to chronicle how God is at work all around us outside of the way that most folks within the church think about. But, I thought that this article was really helpful, because it is showing that God seems to be bringing this mindset INTO the church and erasing some of the distinctions that caused people to miss God in the midst of religion.

Starbucks and Zeitgeist (the Spirit of Our Times)

Interesting article on why Starbucks is so successful. John D. Markman from MSN Money says that Starbucks success comes from getting us to pay $3.22 for a latte which is basically coffee and steamed milk (I like Caramel Macchiato's myself - yum!). It is basically financially irrational. So, how to they get us to do it? Well, they provide things like atmosphere, community, status, a sense of peace and routine, and a good product. With all of that, they are able to wring our dollars out of us. Even the compassion that Starbucks shows (go to their website) fits the image of a company that is making a difference in our lives and the world. Interesting concept. I wonder what the implications are for our daily lives? Maybe things like beauty, art, acceptance, community, peace, transendence are pretty important to humans, even if we have to find them in a cup of coffee. Maybe those things are important because they speak to the God who created us and wants us to live in relationship with Him so that He can provide us with those things. Maybe us Christians who claim to know Him should take note of what really speaks to people.

There's no "I" in Team

Just a few reflections on the nature of sports and success and how it relates to the rest of life. I enjoyed the Super Bowl this year, because once again, the best TEAM won. The New England Patriots proved, once again, that the teams that play together without the presence of superstars win more often than the roster's filled with superstars and super egos. Last year's Detroit Pistons, the Boston Red Sox (while having many great players they still played as a team), college football's LSU Tigers of 2003 (my favorite team) and the Auburn Tigers of this year all exemplified chemistry and teamwork as being the key to success. What does this tell us about life? What does it tell us about God's order of things? Perhaps that when you put others first, choose to serve others instead of exalt yourself, and play together within the system, the whole team or group advances together to heights that would be impossible alone. I am most satisfied and alive when I am in a community of people working together, helping one another out, fighting with a "Band of Brothers". Just some thoughts on how God's ways work even when He doesn't get credit - well, maybe I'll just give Him praise.

Long Time No Write

Wow. It's been a long time since I have blogged. I really do want to make this a habit because I feel that it will help me express a lot of things that I am thinking about. Unfortunately, the past month or so I've been pretty distracted. This has been a pretty tough time for me personally with a lot of family issues and some other things going on, so I have not felt very creative lately. I am praying that God will restoke the flame and help me to dream and to envision what He has for me in a powerful way.

Some neat lyrics from a David Crowder song called "Deliver Me" that I have been thinking about lately:

All of my life, I've been in hiding
Wishing there was someone just like you
Now that you're here, now that I've found you,
I know that You're the one to pull me through.

I wonder how many people are in hiding, hoping no one finds them out and sees what a loser they are down deep? I wonder how many of those people just wishes that someone, anyone would come along and heal them, tell them that they are loved, and help them to be o.k.? I think that probably is most of us at one time or another. The amazing thing is that is just what Jesus does in our life. Luke 4:18,19 says that Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. I think that we all need that. I think that we all want that. The problem is that we don't know where to find it and we are afraid that we are going to lose something if we allow Jesus to work in our lives. We are afraid that we will not be able to do what we want to do and religion just doesn't seem to be what we want or what we need. What if Jesus were a whole lot more than religion? What if He was exactly what you needed?