students of jesus

The other day I came across a statement from Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California. I posted it on Facebook because I thought it was a treasure and wanted to share this treasure with all seven of my friends. Then the trouble started: not everyone considered it such a treasure. Here's the treasure/trouble:

"It's hard to have the same fruit as the early church when we value a book they didn't have more than we do the Holy Spirit they did have."

It seems some people considered Bill’s comment a challenge to the importance of scripture. “What do you do with the scripture that says ‘faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God?’” asked one friend. Another posted: “How would we know which fruit is of the Holy Spirit and which fruit is from elsewhere without objective guidance?” It became a three-way discussion. The comments piled up, one after another, until no one else in their right mind would want read them all. But today, I would like to invite each of you into the conversation.

Without presuming to speak for Bill Johnson, here are three questions his statement provokes:

1. I think any reasonable comparison between the 1st century church in the Middle East and the 21st century church in North America points out that we are nowhere near as fruitful. Since we have the Bible in abundance (in fact, the greatest availability of the Bible in the history of the world) what must be lacking in our day?
2. Why are so many 21st century North American believers concerned about “subjectivity” when it comes to the dynamic of the Holy Spirit (who is God), but not at all concerned about the inherent “subjectivity” involved in interpreting scripture (which is not God). The wide-spread availability of the scripture does not eliminate the need for listening to the Spirit's leading. In fact, it should give us more confidence to risk obedience to his living, daily voice.
   
3. Why is the gospel flourishing in South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and most of Asia--where the dynamic of the Holy Spirit is celebrated, while Evangelicalism is increasingly considered irrelevant in the West--where the Holy Spirit is perhaps honored in name but rarely in practice?

Today’s Monday Memo is not the usual suggestion for mediation. It’s an invitation--no, it’s a plea--to explain why we North Americans have lost the vitality of the early church. Honest, I’m begging: tell me what you think.

Dallas Willard is the leading voice for discipleship in America today. I could tell you about him but it’s better to let him speak for himself. Here’s Tuesday’s devotional from his killer iPhone app (and 2004 book), “Hearing God:”

Between the Years
Our Lord and our God. We joy in Thee. Without Thy Help we could not face unafraid the year before us.

I stand between the years. The Light of My Presence is flung across the year to come - the radiance of the Sun of Righteousness. Backward, over the past year, is My Shadow thrown, hiding trouble and sorry and disappointment.

Dwell not on the past - only on the present. Only use the past as the trees use My Sunlight to absorb it, to make from it in after days the warming fire-rays. So store only the blessings from Me, the Light of the World. Encourage yourselves by the thought of these.

Bury every fear of the future, of poverty for those dear to you, of suffering, of loss. Bury all thought of unkindness and bitterness, all your dislikes, your resentments, your sense of failure, your disappointment in others and in yourselves, your gloom, your despondency, and let us leave them all, buried, and go forward to a new and risen life.

Remember that you must not see as the world sees.  I hold the year in My Hands - in trust for you. But I shall guide you one day at a time.

Leave the rest with Me. You must not anticipate the gift by fears or thoughts of the days ahead.
And for each day I shall supply the wisdom and the strength.

I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk
 in darkness, but shall have the light of life.  John 8:12

In my opinion you should get this App or read his stuff. 
Taken from Hearing God Through the Year by Dallas Willard. Copyright(c) 2004 by Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press PO Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.

Sometimes you just have to wonder if Jesus was serious. He said some pretty outrageous things, and I suspect when we see him face-to-face he’ll say, “Oh, that! I was just yanking your chain.” Or not. Maybe he meant what he said.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33)

These words are a crazy combination of challenge and promise. The promise is perhaps a negative: Jesus assures us each day comes with just enough trouble. It’s not the sort of promise you’ll find in a book of Bible promises or some promise-a-day software. The challenge comes when Jesus suggests that tomorrow isn’t worth the worry. Really? How, then, can I prepare?

 

I believe these words from Jesus are an invitation to exercise the discipline of the present moment.

Have you ever meditated upon the fact that all of us live one day at a time? Rich or poor, young or old, we all experience time in a sequence of days. We cannot jump ahead by a day or a year. We cannot recreate the past, as in the movie “Groundhog Day” where Bill Murray, a self-centered fool, is given the opportunity to live the same day over (and over and over) until he gets it right. No. The days march by in line, one after another.

Who came up with such an arrangement? Well, God did. Although he lives outside of time, he set the cosmos in motion, and in so doing, set us into a world of time. So what? (we are tempted to think--until we consider that God looked upon all of his creation and said, "It’s good. It’s very good.”) In other words, the daily march of our lives, the day-upon-day progression of life, was set up by a loving Father for our good. He created the daily, but we have added the grind.

The Father’s good intentions aside, many of us feel trapped in the present moment. Our past has hemmed us in, our foolish choices have brought us this far, and the present moment feels like a prison. Others look forward from this present day and conclude the path of our lives is set. Forces are in play, and the future has been determined by someone else--which means our own lives are beyond control.

We’re not alone in these thoughts. Some of the greatest men of faith had remarkably bad days. Days in which they felt captured by the past or faced an uncertain future. Moses must have been having a really bad day when he began to pray the prayer in Psalm 90. God lives forever, said Moses, and we are lucky to hit eighty. Everything dies. Who knows? Maybe we can learn something: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Moses must’ve been a real buzz kill at parties. That is, until the Spirit of God hinted at what Jesus would teach years later: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:14) Moses began to get the message. The final verses of the Psalm/prayer begin to look up. God’s mercies are not yesterday’s mercies, and they are not some pipe-dream for tomorrow. They're here now. In the present moment.

I like to imagine Jesus reciting Psalm 90 while he walked in the Galilean countryside. I can see him watching plants putting forth flowers, birds finding food, feeling the breeze on his cheek. Jesus smiled, and perhaps wondered what Moses was getting so worked up about. Jesus launched a message about today. Today, he said, the Kingdom of Heaven is breaking in. Maybe it didn’t yesterday, who knows what’s up tomorrow, but the Spirit is bringing the righteousness, joy and peace of the Kingdom right now to those who turn, hear, and rejoice.

I hear in Jesus’ words a call to practice the discipline of the present moment. He’s not against the past: I think he encourages us to remember the past, but only so we can have confidence that God is with us today: What he did in days gone by, for others, he will do for us. He’s not against the future. Dave Ramsey can relax: I’m sure Jesus had a 401K retirement account. But he wasn’t invested in the future, his investment was all in the now. It’s common sense to learn from the past; it’s dangerous to live there. It’s prudent to plan for the future; it will drive you crazy to try to control it.

So we’re left with the wisest, most radical, sanest advice ever given:

“Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

So for today, Peace!

 

"You know . . . how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is get a good night’s sleep. No, really. Sleep is part of God’s plan for us--he invented it.

There are plenty of reasons to lose sleep. Not many of them are very good. Single moms would love to get more sleep. Others work two jobs or strange hours that conspire to break up their sleep. But most of us rob ourselves of God’s good intention for us--to sleep before Him, to rest in his presence.

We think we have mastered the clock, the sun, and our bodies. In the not too distant past, all the world moved to the rhythm of earth--the earth set in motion by God, who designed the days and nights to march in step, the tides to rise and fall, and his creation to find rest as a natural part of their being. Urban life has stolen sleep. Electricity has become a thief. And media, those Frankensteinian works of man, have turned us into the living dead.

Have you ever noticed the role of dreams in the Biblical narrative? The Holy Spirit inhabits our rest as much as our praise. We should do our part and trust him to do his: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.” (Psalm 127:2) In my opinion we should embrace the spiritual discipline of sleep.