Revival - Part 2

In Revival - Part 1, it was noted that this past weekend's revival was for the church, not the lost. Many people did comment that the Spirit of the Lord was present. But now we find out if revival has begun.

At first glance, that may sound wrong. The "revival" was last weekend. Technically, the revival services were last weekend, but whether or not revival happens is up to each person. And in a very real sense, revival began the Sunday before as God showed up in a way which was quite unexpected, and completely altered the service.

So a revival started, but will it last? Again, that is up to each individual. No Other Name wrote a song a couple of years ago entitled, "Let It Start With Me". That is what we must do. I cannot worry if others sensed God moving in their lives (again, the comments suggest He did). Rather I need to focus on how God moved in my life. As a pastor, of course, I am interested in how God moved in the lives of others in the congregation, but it does start with me. And what I know without a doubt is that I was convicted. I was challenged. I was exhorted. And now I must choose to respond. If I don't respond, then the revival really had no effect on me at all.

It is as James said, we are to be hearers, and not just doers of the Word. Being moved by a message is good. But obedience is better. And our obedience is a testimony of our love for Jesus (John 14.15). More on this on Friday in Part 3 (and final post) of this short series on the revival.

Our Blessed Hope

People put their hope in a lot of things. Unfortunately, the understanding of the word "hope" in our culture today represents the idea of a wish. "I hope I get to __________." "I hope __________ wins the game." "I hope...I hope...I hope."

But biblically, the idea of hope is something that is certain. It is not a verb, it is a noun. And in Titus, chapter 2, it is more than just any hope, it is our blessed hope. This hope is something for which we are to wait. This hope is something which should impact our lives. This hope is the return of Jesus - "the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (v. 13).

The hope of this passage is truly found in Jesus and His future appearance. But v. 11 says that God's grace has appeared. It has appeared for all people (v. 11), for all lawlessness (v. 14). What does this mean? Jesus work on the cross was for all people covering all sin for all time. It was not cheap (costing Jesus His life). Thus the cost was paid in full. He redeemed us that we might serve Him zealously (v. 14).

Paul says that this grace trains us to lead our lives for Him. It is not automatic, it requires diligence. It teaches us to live self-controlled (with discipline) and enable us to live godly lives as we wait. And indeed, we are to wait. But we are not to be idle while we wait. We are to be in training while we wait. We are to become more godly while we wait.

And it is all possible by the grace of God.

And it is all for the glory of God.

Our hope is from a grace that has appeared (v. 11), and for a glory that will appear (v. 13). It is the true hope of all who truly believe. This grace, and the hope that comes with it, is available to all. Yet, not everyone has it. Why? Perhaps it is because they have not truly experienced His grace.

Each of us must ask where our hope lies. Is it in Jesus? Or do we place our hope in something less?

Do we place our hope in something certain? Or do we have "wishes" in the questionable?

Paul called the hope of Christ's return "our blessed hope". I am still learning to keep my hope purely in Christ. But by His grace, I am getting closer. By His grace, you can too.

U - Unite (Part 1), Dogma, Doctrine, Belief

The next function necessary for Kingdom living is fellowship. In the model of JOURNEY, this represents the U - unity. As disciples (obedient - O), we are to be united in Christ and united for Christ. Many believers will agree with this statement, but how we live it out is another matter. Of course, not everyone has the same understanding of biblical teachings. This goes back to the idea of dogma, doctrine, and belief.

Very briefly, dogma represents the essentials of understanding, in this case, for Christianity. Jesus being born of a virgin, dying physically, and being physically raised from the dead are a few essentials of what it means to be a Christian. Apart from these, and others one cannot truly claim to be Christian.

Doctrine, on the other hand, represents an understanding of Scripture that separates many believers into certain classifications that are deemed very important by most (e.g.  denominations), yet do not diminish the authenticity of someone's faith in, and through, Christ. Examples might include baptism, Spiritual gifts, etc.

Belief, is also important, just not as important, from a Kingdom perspective. While dogma separates Christian thought from non-Christian thought, and doctrine often separates believers by denomination, varying beliefs are commonly held by many in a single congregation, let alone denomination. Understanding the event, or the timing of, the rapture and Second Coming would be an example of this definition of belief.

Beliefs are important, and the idea that we use the word "believe" to express our thoughts on dogmatic issues, doctrinal issues, and issues of understanding of select topics (e.g. Second Coming) confuse the issues. But it should not keep us from being united in the realm of the Kingdom. Christians are not (should not be) enemies of other Christians. Unfortunately, this happens all too often.

We must take care to be united in our faith (dogma), while reflecting on our differences. We may not all agree on this side of eternity. But I would guess on the other side, we will find out some things we thought were especially important, were not very important at all in God's eyes.

Remember, United, we DO stand. Divided, we will fall.

The Kingdom

In the previous post ("JOURNEY") I briefly listed the word associated with each letter of the acrostic. In my next post, I will begin discussing the individual component beginning with the letter "J". The "J" is for Jesus. As a Christian, a disciple, a follower, or however else you want to be designated, the JOURNEY must begin, and end, with Jesus. But we must come back to the destination of the Kingdom one more time before entering our JOURNEY.

Again, our journey is destined for the Kingdom. Yes, we find can find Jesus in church, but when the church ceases to exist, Jesus, and His Kingdom, will remain. In fact, as Jesus begins His ministry (as recorded by Matthew and Mark), he mentions the Kingdom is at hand. Throughout the gospels, Jesus mentions the church three times (once in Matthew 16, twice in Matthew 18). However, the term the Kingdom is mentioned over 120 times, mostly by Jesus. In the book of Matthew alone, the phrase Kingdom of Heaven is used more than 30 times.* Jesus wanted to ensure the people focused on Him, and His Kingdom. When we place our trust in a person, a church, or any other man made institution (even if created/ordained by God), we will be disappointed. But Jesus and His Kingdom are true and last forever.

*Matthew was interested in showing his readers (the Jews) that the Kingdom they desired was one which was spiritual, not physical. In addition, while Mark or others could have used Kingdom of God, the Jews would not write God's name (YHWH, Yeshua, etc) and thus, Matthew spoke to them in terms of Heaven, not G-d.).

So, it begins with Jesus, as the Son of God. If we seek first His Kingdom (Matthew 6.33), then we will not be disappointed. If we seek His Kingdom, we begin to experience it on earth, and will serve in it for eternity. Jesus' Kingdom is not of this world (John 18.36), but we are to serve Him now by faith with love and obedience (John 14 and 15).

Does this mean the church is irrelevant? No. The church DOES matter. The church (you and I as believers) is the agent for God in His Kingdom. Truly, we should not think of church as a place to attend, but rather something to be. Of course, in being the church, we should gather with others to worship, serve, and disciple others. However, inviting someone to church is selling God's ultimate destination short. The church is a part of the Kingdom, not the final destination.

As we begin to shift our mindset towards a Kingdom mindset, we must engage AS the church to not only live our lives in, not of, but help others to do so as well. We do that by remembering Jesus!

JOURNEY

The idea of living in, not of, requires a change of perspective. That perspective is to focus on God's Kingdom. "Thy Kingdom come". What do we mean by that?

Earlier this year I read Mims' book, The Kingdom Focused Church, in which he provides strong insights for a church to consider the larger picture. Our church had just developed a Vision Team at the time of my reading this book, and we discussed how to integrate the five functions into our overall objectives, with the ultimate idea of fulfilling God's vision for us. Though some will use nine functions, our team agreed to settle on the five functions (as described in Acts 2). The five functions are discipleship, fellowship, worship, ministry, and evangelism.

The reason the items are listed in this particular order is that we have built an acrostic out of these functions. The acrostic is JOURNEY. The area of northwest Missouri (where I serve) has had a tremendous population decline over the past few decades.* As such people in the area are on a journey, largely away from this area. Are they prepared? If not, how can we do a better job of preparing them?

*Atchison County, Mo has had 25% decline since 1990, and more than 35% drop since 1980 (source google.com/publicdata)

And, of course, life is a journey, itself. This is one of the popular phrases people will use to describe it. Not to mention the Christian-lingo of "the Christian walk", "following Jesus", etc. Jesus' own words of "Come to me" and "Follow me" speak to a journey as well. Much more can be said about this, and likely will in this blog, over time, but for now, let me briefly outline the acrostic JOURNEY.

J - Jesus
O - Observe (discipleship)
U - Unite (fellowship)
R - Revere (worship)
N - Nurture (minister/ministry)
E - Evoke (evangelize)
Y - You

So the JOURNEY that links YOU to JESUS includes the five functions as described in Acts 2 and yet fit nicely into this acrostic. If these five functions are a part of our individual goals, I believe we will truly be empowered to live in, not of (fotonni).* More importantly, it will keep our focus on the true destination, the Kingdom.

*Most future references to "in, not of" will simply be stated as fotonni.

In the coming posts, I will further break down the individual components of the acrostic.

Changing Perspective

The idea of living in, and not, of the world is challenging at its best. Personally, I fail continually as I have ideas that I want to pursue. Even idea that may be for spiritual reasons (such as a trip to Israel), they are still worldly in many ways. But it is largely a matter of perspective.

As I mentioned in my "Welcome" post, fotonni is simply the words in not of, turned around. Certainly, to live in this way, we need to turn our thinking around, and ultimately, work to turn the world around. But why? What is the purpose? Where does this all lead?

James wrote that to be friends with the world is to be against God. (James 1.4) So if we are indeed in the world but not to be friends with it, what should our mindset be? To me, it is about the Kingdom. Jesus said, the Kingdom of heaven is near. The model prayer has us pray for God's Kingdom to come and His reign to be on earth as He reigns in heaven. So how does translate to us?

Life is often compared to a game, but in reality it is more like a journey. Whether a game or a journey, there is an endpoint. Some games end quickly (Tic-Tac-Toe) whereas others are lengthy (Monopoly). The same is true with a journey. Some trips are short (to a local store), and others are lengthy and, perhaps, adventurous (a two week safari). A part of our challenge is that games, journeys, and life itself are full of unpredictable events. Yet, the objective is still to finish well. For the game, that likely includes winning. For a journey, that means reaching the destination, and  accomplishing the goal of the trip. For life, well, that can be more complicated.

For a Christian, the goal (or purpose) should be to become more like Christ. It is, after all, God's goal for us (Romans 8.29). The word Christian means a lot of things to a lot of people, but the earliest believers were asked to "Follow Me", and were called Followers of the Way. This is indeed "travel language", and why I will be looking at the idea of our JOURNEY in the coming posts. Ultimately, our objective is to be with God in His Kingdom, and thus we need to set our destination appropriately.

Welcome

Several years ago I began blogging. Blogging was not quite in its infancy, but it was young. However, I was not ready for the responsibility at the time. Frankly, I do not know if I am fully ready for it now, yet I have been wrestling against the idea of starting this for awhile now, and realize I must.

Must...an interesting word. Many people use the word to describe things they would like to happen. Others use it for ideas of preference. But must truly means obligated or necessary, as in we must eat, drink, and breathe to live. So, perhaps in that case, must may be a bit strong for me to say that I now realize I must blog.

However, I am being compelled to do so. Not by my wife, or family, or friends. But by God. Perhaps to some extent, as the apostle Paul wrote, that he was compelled to share the gospel (1 Corinthians 9.16). So, not a must, but a necessary.

Thus, this blog begins. But why must I? Perhaps over time that will become more evident to you, as the reader, and to me, as the writer. I do not suggest that I do not have ideas to share, but simultaneously many others have shared their thoughts and likely say it better. However, each Christian is called to make disciples. If my attempt at disciple-making is relegated to a blog only, then I have missed the calling God has place on me. Yet, perhaps, this exercise will make me a better steward of what God has given me, and help to encourage someone else along the way.

Thus, I must blog. It is necessary. I am compelled.

The intentions of this blog are to help us prepare to live in, not of, the world. The blog title, fotonni, is simply the words in not of turned around backwards. I first had the idea while reading Scripture back in 2004, and have done a little with it. Unfortunately, I have done little with it (just a camp, a few retreats, and some t-shirts.

I hope you find this blog helpful and will pass along the site. Our website is currently down as we seek to move it to a new host and revamp it a bit. While the blog will be updated a few times each week, I do plan to tweet some of these same principles as well. You can follow on twitter at @DisciplesJourny (twitter wouldn't allow for the “e”). I also have a personal twitter account @andybraams, where I will share more personal information, like in the moment happenings related to my activities, etc.

As I prepare to sign off from this welcome post, please understand I am not perfect. I understand that well. The ideas I share may be the ideal goal as espoused by Scripture, or they may discuss my shortcomings in relation to that ideal. Regardless, I want God's Word to speak through this site, any related tweets, etc. As such, my aim is to put forth the principles, and supplement with examples as necessary, not the other way around.

Finally, I do not intend for the posts to be much longer than this one (if even this long). I realize everyone is busy, myself included. As such, a few short posts each week are likely more welcome than a longer one. That is the intent of my approach.

As for discussion and feedback. The intention is to make that available as well. I do not suggest that everyone will agree with me, nor do I think you should. However, I do ask, that this being a blog about living in, not of, the world, that comments are respectful and civil towards everyone.