Two Worlds

2 Timothy 2:3-5, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if one competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.”

So much of learning and walking with Christ feels like living in two polar opposite worlds. The physical world of everyday life, and the world of a spiritual soldier suffering hardship in some unseen competition or battle.  Just even trying to understand this can make one’s head swim.

But reality for the person is Christ is that this is completely true, and the longer we walk with Him the more defined and different these two worlds become, and the more pronounced the war between these two worlds become.

In Christ, in submission to His authority and command, life is not about relieving suffering or satisfying a need, but rather obedience under His command through, over, or around the suffering depending on His desires and will for our life. In Christ we do not suffer for suffering sake, but we learn to suffer when those hardships are shared with His experience, or in His design for our life to awaken us to some beautiful spiritual truth or to eternally refine our character. In Christ we are constantly required to ignore the everyday affairs of life in faith. We have to have faith that life is cared for by the Father, and that we must continue to allow Jesus to be revealed in us and through us.

Hear me on this. A minister is not a minister if his GOAL is to make you feel better, or help you overcome a circumstance. A minister is someone who helps you to see Christ in your sufferings or circumstance. And in seeing Christ then we spiritually have peace and joy in spite of circumstances. My friend and coach Jim Spivey helps me, but the help is vision to see what God is doing. And not just vision, but also to articulate what God is doing. Equally I have seen Christ in my physical/monetary needs being met through peoples gifts. Likewise a minister is likely failing if all he/she can do is point out our failings. Sin is not the rule that keeps us from the prize. Not accepting Christ and His mercy and grace keeps us from the prize.

The Rule is Christ. I challenge you to read the whole Chapter of 2 Timothy 2. For example verses 11-13 which says, “… For if we died with Him, we also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” If we will connect to Christ’s world, which is the Kingdom of God we will live, and even if we are faithless, even if we do fail in sin… He remains faithful. The war is not sin v. holiness. The prize is not won my being blameless. The war is to stay focused on Christ and Christ alone. The prize is won in not being entangled in everyday affairs, but in having faith for God to work it all out. In the end, even when we fail, even when we focus on life on earth over spiritual life with Christ… He and He alone is faithful and He will win the war freeing our soul from death and the wages of sin. 

The Next Evolution - Abiding

John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Call it what you may but there is a very real, tangible presence of God. Some experience it in worship. Some experience in other parts of a Christian service. There are songs and song leaders that “invite” the presence of God, and certainly scripture is true when it says, “when two or more are gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”(Matt 18:20)

Some never experience the presence of God outside some religious service. And yet others might experience it from time to time in prayer, or following an act of obedience to God. 

This blog talks about “practicing His presence.” This is the purposeful act of experiencing the presence of God at will. God's presence is there always, but we are not aware of it, so we focus and become aware of it anytime, anywhere. But there is even more. There is abiding in that presence. There is a place of constant connection.

I know this because I feel the Holy Spirit pulling me that direction. I know it because Jesus said so. “He who abides in Me and I in him.” When I read this, the scripture has the sound of ‘he who chooses to abide in Me, and who I choose to in turn abide in.' Jesus seems to be saying there is a constant connection available that I have yet to experience that is not moved by bad traffic, ugly bosses, or ignorant co-workers. There is an abiding presence that is not broken by the trials and tribulations of life. There is an abiding presence that is unbreakable by the euphoric swings of life’s goodness. Somehow, somewhere that abiding presence produces fruit out of what otherwise might be conflict.

It was Christ abiding in the Father and Him in Jesus that led Christ to say, “He who is without sin cast the first stone.” What an unexpected response to a religious mob. It was the abiding that allowed Christ to sleep in the storm, to walk on the water, and to wait 3 days before going to Lazarus. That’s where I want to be. Not for the fruit, but because that is where He is drawing me to. Where is He drawing you?

Grown Ass Man

1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”

I can often take responsibilities for others behavior, or make excuses for them. My tendency is to want to rescue or advise people in order to help them find peace and happiness. All very noble, but someone that loves me very much caught me the other day in this taking blame and said, “He is making his own decisions. He is a grown ass man, and it is not your fault or responsibility.”

I will add to that… I’m a grown ass man, and am choosing to no longer accept responsibility for someone else’s decisions short of my 8 year old. I will still accept responsibility for him for a few more years.

So to all the men out there above 18 years of age reading this blog… grow up… you’re a grown ass man, and it’s time you own the decisions you make. Your mommy and daddy are not responsible for what you do. The school bully did not make you this way. Circumstances of the past do not dictate the actions of today.

To the women over 18… you’re a grown ass woman, and no one but yourself and your choices are causing you to behave that way. Sorry your childhood was not perfect, but it time to stop allowing the past to hold you hostage today. That boy did not ruin your life. Those girls did not make you insecure. Your choices today shape today, and they are yours and yours alone.

All of which is an epic spiritual journey because in the end those “wrong” choices we make are because we are spiritual children, reasoning with childish reason. But when we become men and women we do away with those childish things. God knew what you were, are, and will go through; and in it all has a plan for your redemption and conformity to Christ. Find that acceptance and move on with Him. 

To the grown ass men and women in my life... I will always love you, but don’t expect me to come running when you want to play in traffic, or jump off buildings, or party like a rock star, or waste your life doing nothing. You are a grown ass man or woman and should know better. I am a grown ass man, and not responsible for your choices. Those are between you and God. Work it out with Him… that’s really what He wants anyway. And trust me... Him and I are working out a lot of bad decisions, and choices I have made, and it is a painful yet wonderful experience. 

Finally I wonder how many of us look spiritually to God like the guy in the photo. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it. 

Irrelevant

James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Jim Spivey summed up our Iwo Jima meeting yesterday with a synopsis of our interaction. He said we were “honoring the power of our irrelevance.”

Here we are a nation with ½ of us powerless to elect “our” man. As husbands… powerless to bring true happiness to our wives. As fathers… powerless to bring true protection and provision to our children. As healers… powerless against all manner of physical pain. As ministers… powerless to relief so much emotional pain. As intelligent beings… powerless to convince even a single individual of our perceived truth. And if you dwell on this, on just how powerless you really are, of how much of a vapor you really are; then you can come to a dark place of not only feelings powerless, but insignificant as well.

Some strive against the irrelevance and fight to create their own significance. Building ego and a false sense of security doomed to be a house of glass waiting on one little pebble to shatter it all. Or you can choose an alternative. You can honor the power or your irrelevance. This power of irrelevance is what Paul spoke of in Galatians 2:20. He said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…” Paul came face to face with his powerlessness. He realized his efforts, his plans, his theology, his rules had no power, and promoting his ideas he was irrelevant. Yet in that coming face to face with his own irrelevance he was able to embrace the death of his powerless self, and allow Christ to come alive in him. This is what John the Baptist also experienced when he said, “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:20)

Our weaknesses become the very things that make us more dependent upon God. Our thorns in the flesh, though very uncomfortable, are there so that we can give credit where credit is due, and allow and observe the power of God moving, in, around, and through us. Our mistakes become a beautiful reminder of Christ perfection. These same mistakes close doors that our ego would have gladly opened leaving Christ behind.

Do you see?

There is no significance in being significant. There is nothing special about you if God answers all your prayers, and likewise there is nothing un-special about you if He answers none of them. Paul would argue that you can have the power to raise the dead, but if you don’t have love then you have nothing anyway. (1 Cor. 13:1) And so honoring the power of our irrelevance becomes love. In this understanding we do not seek our own; we do not become jealous because we know we are a vapor. We can be kind when no kindness is due because we do not have to have relevance. We can be patient and forgiving when we are irrelevant, and that is the power of it. To honor the power of our own irrelevance is really nothing more than to love. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” (Matt 5:3) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8) Blessed are the irrelevant, and those who know they are irrelevant.

Finally the awareness of our irrelevance also leads to a place of designed obedience. With irrelevance comes openness to His plans, and comes a desperate hope that His instructions actually contain His power because we know our own efforts are powerless. It is in this place of true humility, or irrelevance awareness that God can use us, and where we are unconcerned whether He does or does not. Our only relevance is in Christ. And our only significance is Christ in us. 

Cats and Dogs

2 Peter 2:18, “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”

When I went to ministry school years ago are first assignment was to prove the doctrine of once saved – always saved. Our second assignment was to prove the doctrine of salvation can be lost. The point was that the bible can be used to “prove” a lot of things. But are we open to the truth, or are we enslaved by our own corruptions?

This will post 1 day before the 2012 Presidential elections in the US, and this is a year of the 47%. There is 47% of the US population that will absolutely without equivocation vote for Barack Obama. What is not said in on the other side of the coin there is another 47% that will absolutely vote for Mitt Romney. My question is that in a country that is eighty plus percentage Christian how can the vote be divided like that?

The reason is we as a nation our slaves to corruption.

The Republican Party panders to groups like big pharma and banks while it opposes other groups like lawyers and unions. The Democrats pander to unions and lawyers and oppose big pharma and banks. While reality is they are all addicted to power. Republicans claim to support small government, and yet even Reagan did not shrink the size of government. Democrats claim to have a monopoly on supporting civil rights for minorities, and yet spend millions supporting the killing of millions of black babies through abortion. They are all liars. And we with our own individual corruptions vote for what will benefit us the most. We vote for lower taxes, or we vote for more government handouts. All the while the super-rich support both sides, or better yet the winner so that the profit of their interest is not regulated out of existence.

Even worse and more offensive are the people who vote just because they are a cat or a dog. Cats vote for cats and dogs vote for dogs and the two shall never agree. Ridiculousness.

Preachers openly support different candidates. Why? Is it the corruption of a few more butts in their seats, which means a few more dollars in the offering? Just today I saw an article that said, "Jesus was a liberal." First of all, Jesus never "was." Jesus is. Secondly Jesus is neither Liberal, or Conservative. He is not in support of Republican or Democrat. He IS the Son of God and is far above political party. Christ is the King of Liberty. He came to set us free.

The government has not given us additional freedom in my lifetime, but they have promised it. Christ on the other hand has delivered the ultimate in freedom. Freedom from sin and death. This year I am voting for 
Christ. Beyond that, I pray He will show me who to vote from on November 6^th. Take a novel approach. Don’t assume who is best for the country from your own perspective. Ask God to show you who is best from His.

This political ad is paid for by no one and supports no one. I’m Jeff Yuna and I approve this message. 

Vertical and Horizontal

James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

I had an interesting phone conversation the other night with a gentleman by the name of Marcus. Seems that Marcus has become an avid follower of this blog thanks to my Dad introducing it to him. Not only that, he has met Dave Anderson and subsequently Jim Spivey as well because of information he read here. And in this conversation somehow Marcus made the statement to me that, ‘James’ saying “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26) is nothing more than what the cross symbolized in that we have to have the vertical faith in relationship to God, but also the horizontal faith in relationship to our fellow man.”

And how true a perspective that we should all keep our focus on. There is within faith a balance of natural and supernatural. There is a walking in faith as aliens in a strange land and connecting to the kingdom of heaven simultaneously. I don’t find this paradoxical at all, but rather we as simple minded often focus too much in one direction when faith is at the very least two dimensional.

Likewise I don’t believe there is room for judgment or advice for those that are temporarily focused in one direction or the other. Life does not seem to be a retreat where we spend 24/7 in prayer and meditation, and neither is it a 24/7 effort of feeding the poor, helping the widow and orphan, or praying for the sick. We should accept those that operate primarily in the realm of works just as we should accept those that operate primarily in the area of faith.

But as for us individually I think we need to seek that balance, and until we can operate in perfect obedience, constantly connected to the vertical like Christ was connected to the Father all the while loving those around Him perfectly, then we need to enjoy those times when our faith is all work, and enjoy those time when our faith is all retreat. At the very least we should allow the image of the cross to remind us faith is both horizontal and vertical. 

What Goes In Must Come Out

John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

This passage of scripture has unburdened my need to study and/or memorize scripture. In a large sense it has relieved me of any responsibility to be “prepared” with something in ministry, or even everyday interaction.  This is because Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit will remind us of what we have been taught. Add to this what He said in Matthew 10:19, “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say.”

The Helper is there in the moment, in every moment if we will allow Him. The only responsibility we have, if at all, is to put into us the word of God. In fact, for me this wanting God to be able to “remind” me of what He has taught led me to reading the bible cover to cover several times; starting at Genesis and going to Revelation. Today most of the Bible I read is from online versions, and instead of random selections I normally read to get the context of scriptures I am “reminded” of. Or I will read passages that some other person presents, even casually, into my life. But every day I read something. 

On my daily reading list is Jim Spivey. He is my friend, my mentor, and fellow compatriot of Christ. His blog is available at http://rcdailyjournal.blogspot.com/ and is usually updated daily.

I also read Oswald Chamber every day. I use Google Chrome, and have him in my today’s links as well. http://utmost.org/

I receive a daily e-mail from the Henry Nouwen Society. Henri was a catholic priest and given that background I am often confounded how his words smash the stereotype of a priest in my mind. http://www.henrinouwen.org/Resources/Meditations_and_Reflection_Emails/Meditations_and_Reflection_Emails.aspx

Finally I read daily something from T. Austin Sparks. All of his works are available on line, and he is my far my favorite Christian author from the past. His daily devotional is available here. http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/openwindows/003429.html

So now if you are a regular follower of the blog, you can see some of the source of what comes out of me. Regardless, what goes in must come out. I hope this helps others practice putting good stuff in.

‎"The longer we live, and the more we know, the more we shall be made aware of how little we do know, and how vast this Christ is." - T. Austin-Sparks