Too often, in our quest to spread the gospel, the church has missed our calling of being built into a dwelling place for God. I do wonder what percentage of the church even knows that this is one of our primary goals. When you ask people how church is going many times they will point to how many people are in the seats or how full the parking lot is. Although they do have a point and numbers matter because people matter, too often numbers are seen to compensate for a lack of depth. Church leaders easily become tempted to dumb down their message, because the more dumbed-down things are, the more acceptable they are to a larger group of people. Church growth means more revenue, more acclaim and more power; the combination becomes too much to resist. As I said before numbers are good, but not if we can only get them by ignoring our calling.

Plus, quality is hard. That means you have to deal with character issues, relationship issues, and the gifts of the Spirit. That’s too difficult by half. It’s tempting to take the default of preaching that Jesus will make your life better and have good lighting in the sanctuary. But then you have the old problem of accountability. James says that teachers will be judged more harshly than the rest of us. That’s a tough combination. The people who are the most tempted to compromise are the ones who will be most harshly judged for doing so.

When thinking about church quality versus church size we need to think both and not either/or. How can we become a church firing on all cylinders, period?

That is until today. Now I realize that I had simply lowered my standard. Over the last few years I have slowly started to listen to some of the stuff I used to listen to provided that the lyrics aren’t an issue. Until now I could make allowances saying that the secular musician was either a rare genius (Bjork, Thom Yorke, DJ Shadow) or a genius on drugs (Tricky, Kevin Shields, Miles Davis). Tonight my wife asked me the name of a particular Fiona Apple song. I used to be a big Fiona Apple fan so I went to YouTube and started listening to some of the songs off her first album that I used to love. I was totally blown away. Go to YouTube and listen to her “Sullen Girl.” Keep in mind that she was 18 when this came out. I had forgotten how good she was. Whether or not the style is to your taste, the depth of her lyrics, how her voice conveys the emotion of the lyrics like she feels the lyrics instead of performing a singing exercise, and the beautiful background music are very powerful. Part of the reason this affected me is I don’t believe she is a genius, her subsequent stuff hasn’t been as good, and I don’t believe she was doing drugs. She just wrote powerful lyrics and sang them like they should be sung.

One of the issues I have with Christian music is that Christian musicians have the Holy Spirit in them and so should be way more creative and excellent than musicians who are just making music because they love music or because they want to be rich and famous. One theory I have is that it is the Christian music industry itself. The audience is smaller than the secular audience and so artists can’t afford to make too strong of a statement for fear of alienating fans. I once knew a Christian musician who has since made it in the music industry. At the time I knew him he was listening to the same stuff as me, DJ Shadow and Radiohead. But he wrote poppy worship music. Music I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have listened to if he had a choice. Why is that? I can’t say what his heart was, but I would guess it was because he wanted to get signed (which he did). There is nothing really wrong with that, but it does lower the standard. If people are making music they think will sell instead of music they love the quality will always be less.

We need Christian artists who will make honest music. Who will write lyrics that they mean. And will not limit their music to what is accepted by the Christian mainstream, but will write music that is beautiful and moving. We need Christian musicians to stop pumping out so much music. Yes, there is something about getting your message out, but if nobody listens to cd more than 3 or 4 times is anything being accomplished? Wouldn’t it be better to write music compelling enough it would bear listening to over and over. The great musicians only make an album every 3 or 4 years. That means they are working on perfecting 10 songs for years. That is why the songs can be so good. They’ve put more time into them.

Of course the solution to all this is the gospel, but the church doesn’t know what the gospel is. Most evangelicals (people of the gospel) don’t know nor care what the gospel is. Even when you find people who get the gospel they don’t bother applying it. They get that there is more to the gospel than welcoming Jesus into our hearts. They get that Jesus in now Lord of the world and is restoring all of creation to peace and harmony with Jesus as the head. They even get God has begun that process through Spirit empowered believers. Unfortunately it doesn’t actually seem to happen in their world, nor do they expect it to. It’s like they hear Jesus say “go preach the gospel saying, ‘the kingdom of God has come near.’” But then stop listening when Jesus says “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead” at the end of that sentence. It’s like the gospel is some nice theory.

I’m tired of Christians blaming God for how broken things are. I’m tired of safe thinking where we are open to God healing the people and fixing relationships but don’t believe it will actually happen. The Bible says the prayer of faith will heal the sick. Do you know what faith is? Faith is not being able to imagine that something is not true. So if I have faith for healing that means when I pray for someone I can’t imagine them not being healed. If our belief is that most of the time God does not want to heal the people we pray for, I’m sorry, but it is impossible for us to have faith. That is not God’s fault. That is our fault.

Yes, God did allow the world to become broken, but only so if could be fixed through Jesus. The Church must allow God to fix the world through his chosen instrument – Us. And, yes, we can block God (remember Paul saying “don’t quench the Spirit”) so don’t automatically blame God when God doesn’t appear to be doing things he said he would do.

From reading this article you should have an understanding of where your battle with sin actually lies and what the cross has actually done for you. This will help us in our struggles with sin, because if we feel the situation is hopeless than we won’t fight very hard to resist.

Romans 6-8 (see also Col 2:10-15)

There are various places in Paul’s writings where he talks about these issues but he lays it out so neatly in Romans that I’ll focus there. It’s hard to summarize Romans 6 and 8 without quoting the entire chapters, but I will do my best. Chapter 6 starts in baptism. We are baptized into Christ’s death. This is where we are united with his work on the cross. Here our old man is crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might no longer be slaves to sin (also Gal 5:24). Whoever has died, which is Christ and those baptized into him, is set free from sin. And having been united with Christ in his death we are certain to be united with his resurrection. Therefore, we are to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. We are no longer IN sin or IN the flesh but IN Christ.

This being the case we are not to let sin exercise rule in our mortal bodies. Wait a minute. I thought we were dead to sin? I thought our old man had been crucified with Christ? So here is the kicker. Our bodies are still subject to decay. Although other parts of our being have been redeemed our bodies have not yet. Therefore, sin can still exercise dominion in us if we give into our body’s passions. We are to present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness (I like that phrase) instead of to sin for evil. For sin will no longer have dominion over us, since we are not under law but under grace (see Gal 5:13).

We have died to the law through the body of Christ so that we could belong to God. Before we were in Christ our sinful desires, which were stirred up by the law, worked in our bodies to bear fruit for death. But now we have been set free from the law and become slaves to God.

Umpteen Reasons why Romans 7 is Not Talking about Christians
Probably the biggest reason for confusion about the power sin has over Christians is because of a bad reading of Romans 7. Not to be to forward here, but there is just no flipping way Romans 7 is describing the proper Christian experience. Here’s why I feel I can say that so boldly.

1. The person in Rom 7 was not fallen at one point, but died when the commandment was given. This wasn’t true of Paul or any other Christians in history.
2. The person in Rom 7 was alive when the law was given. Same comment as above.
3. The person in Rom 7 is of the flesh and IN sin, clearly not a possibility for Christians.
4. The person in Rom 7 isn’t able to do good. Christ came so we could do good.
5. The person in Rom 7 is a captive to the law of sin. Again clearly not true of Christians.

There are more reasons but that’s enough to prove my point. The trick is to not stop reading at the chapter break. What Paul is doing in Romans 7:14 – 8:11 is giving a history of the relationship between man and sin from Adam to the present to defend the law, on one hand, and to show that we are no longer dominated by those same struggles on the other. The law of the Spirit has set you from the law of sin and death. Since God has condemned sin in the flesh we are now able to fulfill the intention of the law, if we walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh.

Romans 8:10 says “but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” So we see that our body is still dead. Verse 11 says that God will give life to our mortal bodies through his indwelling Spirit. That hasn’t happened yet.

All this being the case I have to quote Romans 8:12-13 here which really sums up what I want to communicate in this article “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” On a positive note, by the Spirit we have the power to put to death the works of the body; ALL the time. On a negative note, we still can choose to live according to the flesh, since our bodies have not been redeemed, which leads to spiritual death.

Here are the other two passages where Paul talks about the old man:

Ephesians 4:22-24 put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

So we chuck our corrupt old man. He has been put off. Our new man has been put on. As Colossians 3:5 says we “put to death therefore the members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.” We spend our lives having the new man renewed according to God’s image (Rom 12:2). We sow to the Spirit and not the flesh and reap eternal life now and in the next age (Gal 6:8). We put on Christ and all his attributes (Rom 13:14, Col 3:12-17). We continue to live by the Spirit putting no trust in the flesh (Gal 3:3).

Even though we are no longer in sin’s power we will never walk perfectly in this life. 1 John 1:8 says “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We will always sin. I wish I could say that eventually we could get to the point where we don’t sin anymore but I can’t. BUT just because absolute sinless living isn’t possible lets not rule out walking in almost sinless living.

So saints, onward and upward. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Go and live victoriously by the power of the Spirit.

The trouble is how does one mesh what the Bible says about the pleasures of Christianity with the mundane lives and church services that are the typical experience. How does Christian life compare to the pleasures of sex, alcohol, and drugs? Of course, there is the cop out that if you do those things long enough it will mess up your life and that is probably true, but I still think that’s a cop out. The question for me is at any given moment what is the most pleasurable experience I can have? The reason this is important is that most of us naturally rebel against the mundane. If life is boring than we want to add some spice to it, particularly if you are a teenager. So how does a teenage boy consistently resist looking at a one in a million girl naked online or having sex or drinking? The answer is a superior pleasure, but where is that to be found.

Now we come back to the title of this post, I think I have the answer – ecstatic Christianity. By ecstatic I mean Christianity that is marked by intense encounters with the Holy Spirit that often lead to physical manifestations, trances, and the like. When the Holy Spirit comes on you in a tangible way you may feel intense joy, pleasure, weeping, or any number of emotions. The one emotion you will not feel is boredom. When you experience the Holy Spirit you feel not only pleasure but there is the added dimension of the eternal that adds a whole nother layer.

What I am not talking about here is an intellectual excitement in Christian doctrine. I’ve heard many people take these pleasure verses this way. I can only speak for myself, but I’ve never had an intellectual thought so euphoric that it can be compared to a heroin trip or even sex and I don’t think we should limit Christianity to the intellect.

If you are a Christian thinking all this stuff is weird than I would remind you that Christianity is weird from a human standpoint. Christians believe that God lives inside us. That’s pretty out there if you stop and think about it. We believe that Jonah lived inside a fish for a while, Elijah called fire down from heaven on people, God picked Ezekiel up by the hair and took him places. Freaky stuff. You wouldn’t put naked Isaiah in charge of your children’s Sunday school ministry. Why not just accept that Christianity can be a little freaky sometimes and have fun with it? Plus it turns out that when the Holy Spirit comes on you you become a better person and more fruitful.

I’ve read tons of Christian books since I became serious about Christianity ten years ago. Since not everyone has the time to read all the time I thought I would share the ones that I think are the most beneficial. This first post is my top ten (in no particular order).

1. The Final Quest by Rick Joyner – this is the one that really got me excited about Christianity. I’ve probably read it 10 times.
2. The Torch and the Sword by Rick Joyner – the follow up to the Final Quest; lots of important stuff.
3. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence – classic book on how to pray continually. takes about an hour to read and should be read every 6 months or so.
4. Praying the Bible by Wesley Campbell – excellent book on learning how to pray
5. Be a Hero by Wesley Campbell – now the you’ve learned how to pray this book will help you be the answer to your prayers.
6. Marketplace Christianity by Robert Fraser – for the 97% who work outside the church on how to be a blessing in your workplace.
7. Our Father Abraham by Marvin Wilson – important guide to understand the Jewish roots of our faith, which should be understood since they affect how we view everything.
8. When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson – good introductory book to doing the stuff Jesus did.
9. If Jesus were a Parent by Hal Perkins – I haven’t read all the parenting books out there but I doubt there is one as good as this one. If you are a parent or have grandkids buy this book!
10. The Ecstasy of Loving God by John Crowder – A new favorite. Wonderful introduction to happy living and deep prayer.

When thinking about the major components of a Protestant assembly, singing, preaching and mingling afterwards seemed most prevalent. When thinking about the importance of these in my own life it occurred to me that I didn’t need the church for singing and preaching. All the preaching I could ever listen to is already available for free on the internet. For the singing I can either go to the multitude of city prayer meetings throughout the week, worship along with a church through the internet or listen to my favorite worship songs on YouTube. The mingling, however, cannot be done on the internet, at least not in any deep sense. This is the one thing that keeps the Sunday morning meeting useful. The trouble is that this is the part of the meeting that is…well, not part of the meeting.

Last summer I went on a float trip with about fifty guys from my church and had a great time. I had great conversations with guys I had seen before but never talked to. In the year since I haven’t had a conversation with any of the people I met besides the usual “How are you?”, etc. Why is this? Because there is no vehicle in the church for this to happen. You could try to talk in the church meeting, but this is about the most uncomfortable place in the world to have a conversation with anyone who isn’t already a close friend.

To solve this problem I propose that churches start planning activities where nothing is planned. For example, next Sunday tell everyone to bring a picnic lunch and find somewhere close to the church to hang out and talk to people. No committees needed. No special push. Just people being friendly getting to know one another, which is what they want to do anyway. Planning just makes things unnatural and unlikely to happen. In Acts the church hung out every day. That can only be sustained if it is natural.

I propose that we stop all the Bible studies and small groups that propose to be about growing spiritually, but that people only go to because they want to meet people. In the end, few learn much and most of the relationships are shallow. How about community times where we just hang out naturally? Then really teach people the Bible in a separate setting. When I hang out with my Pentecostal friends all they want to talk about is Jesus and the Kingdom. They don’t need a Bible study or small group to do this in. And because they don’t go meetings like this, they aren’t being trained to switch off their spirituality when the meeting is over (“Hey why are you talking about that? Bible study hasn’t started yet”).

If we get this right then the elusive thing called discipleship can start to happen.

1. Turn off your tv. Don’t go to movies that star women you can’t deal with.
2. Don’t do double takes when you see attractive women in public. If it was a fat hairy guy would you look twice. No!
3. If you are struggling tell a friend and if that doesn’t curb it tell your wife.
4. Remember, women are people not objects.
5. If you feel the desire WALK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER.
6. Ask God to help you.
7. Looking at women isn’t the same thing as looking at a beautiful painting.  Don’t trick yourself into believing it is.
8. Take Solomon’s advise and enjoy your wife. Proverbs 5:19.

Hope this helps!

Anyway, here is a great video from my current favorite minister John Crowder. It is about the difference between working hard for God and receiving God’s grace to work through you. This is what I’m dealing with in my life right now.  This is a lot different approach than my last post.

7 Commitments of a Forerunner

As part of the Sacred Charge you commit to:

* Pray Daily: Spending 2 hours in prayer and Word (Book of Revelation once a week for 3 years)
* Fast Weekly: Setting your heart to fast 2 days a week as a lifestyle *
* Speak Boldly: Standing as a faithful witness in allegiance to Jesus’ heart for the Church, Israel and the nations
* Do Justly: Doing works of justice focusing on the fatherless and oppressed
* Give Extravagantly: Giving to the prayer movement (beyond our tithe)
* Live Holy: Walking out the Sermon on the Mount and keeping the Purity Covenant
* Lead Diligently: Leading weekly prayer meetings and Bible studies (focused on training forerunners)

Let’s do it!  (Ok so I’m not planning on fasting 2 days a week quite yet.)
PS.  Ok so several months down the road I’m apparently not going to do many of these things.  Still a wonderful list if done out of love.