Death Sucks, Resurrection Rocks

For those of you who might not know, Amy's father, Todd Leggett, died last Sunday (Nov. 21, 2010) playing golf. He was only 47.

Everything in me wants to say, "That is too young! He should have had more time." And truly, in our culture and others, we all try to justify death. We come up with silly rules like "Parents should never have to bury their children." Or we try to say "Death is just a natural part of life."

NO ITS NOT!

Death was never intended for humanity - did you know that? The Bible makes it very clear in Genesis chapters 1-3. God created a good world and we were part of that good creation. He placed us in a garden and intended us to keep it. Within this garden were two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We were instructed to not eat from the latter tree, but we could eat freely from the first. We were created to live in a perfect world, free from sin, sickness, disease and death. We were meant to live eternally with God in unbroken fellowship. Now, we (through Adam and Eve) screwed that up, but God hasn't changed His original plan. All of history since that point has borne witness to this. God immediately started forming a people for Himself so that He could send His Son, Jesus.

Jesus was Plan A from the beginning. God wasn't scrounging for ideas after Adam and Eve ate from the tree, He knew what would happen and built redemption into the plan. That is not to say that God made Adam and Eve eat from the tree. God has always protected and respected human free-will, but He also knows all things - what a crazy tension in the heart and mind of God! I can't really get my head around that even a little bit.

Jesus came for a number of reasons, but redemption is one of the most important. Through Jesus, the second and last Adam, God corrected the twisted nature inside of us. Through Jesus, God killed our sinful selves and enabled us to live righteously by His Spirit. Galatians 2:20 "It is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

When we give our lives to Christ, we are baptized. And what are we baptized into? His death. Humans can only bring death, but God brings life. We were baptized into His death so that, by sharing in a death like His, we might also attain a resurrection like His! Jesus' resurrection is the foundation of our faith. If Christ was not raised, our faith is worthless. But Christ was raised and He is now seated at the right hand of the Father and He is coming back to judge the living and the dead and to raise the righteous to eternal life with Him. Eden will be restored to us - even better than Eden is promised to us.

And that is what we cling to as Christians. That is what gives us hope. That is what allows us to shrug off the grief and despair that comes upon us whenever something shitty like this happens. Now, this hope doesn't mean that we don't grieve - far from it. But we don't grieve like those who have no hope. We grieve for our loss, but we know that we will be reunited in perfect fellowship with God and one another. That is what we labor for, that is also why the Christian message is so so important.

For their is another resurrection, one to darkness and gnashing of teeth. I know it isn't culturally acceptable to talk about people going to hell, but it is too important to sugarcoat. And just because our culture doesn't like it doesn't mean it wont still happen. The Bible is exceedingly clear, many people will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but will be thrown into the lake of fire because they never knew God.

If the thought of temporal death is so painful, how much moreso the thought of eternal pain and punishment! That is what motivates me to share the Gospel! I want those I care about to live with me in the new heavens and new earth. The most calloused and hateful thing I can do is not share the message of salvation with those I love most.

Enough of that. Todd was a Christian, he loved God and his relationship with Jesus was important to him. I started this post by saying he died golfing. That is true, but Todd made sure he always went to Church first. He never let his hobbies interfere with his faith. And that is what gives me confidence that he is resting joyfully in the Lord until it is time to come back to earth in the resurrection. This sure belief is what helps me to carry on. We will only be separated from those we love for a short time; then joy forever.

For those that are grieving Todd's death, I pray this message gives you peace. For those that will grieve in the future, remember the joy of God's salvation. He has given us beauty for our ashes. Amen, how Glorious He is!

3 Streams

I have been reflecting this morning on the three streams that make up the church. They are the Sacramental, Charismatic and Evangelical streams. Now, in those categories I don't mean to imply the Christian groups that have taken those names, but I am appealing to the original meaning. I will hopefully clarify things as I go on.

What got me thinking about this was a discussion I had with a friend a couple days back. We were talking about wanting to expand IHOPE House of Prayer to also be a Missions Base. For us that meant a shift, or at least and addition, of focus. I have my thoughts formatted in a diagram, but I can't include that here, so I will do my best to explain.

Within the Church, there are (in my opinion) three main facets that each have a question, an answer, a desired behavior and that fit in one particular stream or another. I see the breakdown like this:

Congregation - "What can God do for me?" - Sacramental (Means of Grace)

HOP - "What can I do for God?" - Charismatic (Spirit empowered living, Fruit of Spirit)

MB - "What does God want to do through me?" - Evangelical (Gifts of Spirit)

At the congregational level, we often ask "What can God do for me?" We are interested in why we should be Christians. We are interested in God's promises and offers. I place the congregation or "church" (small "c") in the sacramental stream because the Sacraments most clearly answer this question. We know God's heart for us and what He promises us when we take communion. We remember that we are part of a new covenant, that He has removed our sins, that we have died with Him so that we might also live with Him.

At the House of Prayer level, our question is "What can I do for God?" or, a better way of phrasing it would be "How can I minister to God's heart?" Where the congregation focuses on God's work for us, the HOP focuses on our work for God. In the HOP we are students of God's emotions. We engage in long periods of prayer and contemplation because that is how we communicate with God. We listen long and hard to what God is saying. If we celebrate God as "Bridegroom" in the congregation, we celebrate God as "King" in the HOP. And what a beautiful and amazing King Jesus is! He is a servant-king, one who goes lower than all, but is exalted above the heavens. One who is perfect in power, but also in humility. And how we long to be like Him - so we ask the Spirit to come and fill our lives, to empower us to grow in peace, patience, gentleness (etc.) so that we might be like Him when He returns.

The Missions Base asks still a different question, "What does God want to do through me?" Whereas the congregation and HOP are focused on the vertical relationship, the missions base focuses on the horizontal relationship, how we live out our faith in a community and in the world. This is a place where we partner with God, where we join in with what He is doing. There is a sense of urgency in the MB. Jesus is coming back and while He is coming back as Bridegroom and King, He is also coming back as Judge. He will judge the living and the dead. He will separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats. He will distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. Our goal in the MB stream is to expand God's Kingdom, to grow His family. This stream is primarily concerned with bringing God joy, as we know that He rejoices more over those who repent than over those who have no need of repentance. We are seeking to snatch people from hell, to prepare them for heaven. We are seeking to establish God's Kingdom here on earth and it is in heaven. That means restoring people and the planet, for God cares about both. We seek to establish Godly justice on the earth.

That is the breakdown as I see it. However, each particular section is going to have overflow from the other streams too. Nothing stands on its own. How those elements combine will determine the culture of any particular organization.

Alright, I have already written a book, so I will let you go. Thanks for reading.

Remembering the first, Anticipating the second

For those of you who are not part of a liturgical tradition (and who therefore probably don't follow the church calendar) yesterday was the start of Advent. Advent is a four week period leading up to Christmas. It is a time of great anticipation and excitement. It is the time of year especially set aside to reflect on the miracle of God coming to earth, in flesh, as a human baby.

Well, yesterday, Bill (our main teaching pastor at VCC) had a wonderful sermon talking about the second coming of Christ. Just as we spend this time remembering Jesus' first coming, we are also spending time looking forward to His second. There was one passage in particular that God highlighted to me. It is found in Matthew 24.

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. So it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Matthew 24:37-39.

Woof. "As in the days of Noah..." What were Noah's days like? Matthew describes them a little bit for us, but the bulk of the description is found in Genesis 6.

Noah's days were evil. Men were so corrupt that God was grieved that He even made man. But there was one, only one, who found favor in God's sight. This man was Noah (comfort - that is what his name means in Hebrew btw). God commissions Noah to build an ark because God is going to flood the earth and wipe out evil humanity. And so Noah, who is 500 years old, begins building an ark.

I can only imagine what his wife, children and neighbors thought. An old man who thinks he heard from God going out to chop down trees and make a big boat because it is going to rain? What the heck is rain? The old man must be nuts. You see, it had never rained before. The people had no grid for what Noah was talking about. Up to this point the earth was only watered by streams and rivers and water coming up from the ground. Rain, water falling from the sky like arrows, was completely foreign to them.

But Noah was faithful because he was sure he had heard. God had spoken and Noah would be faithful to do as he was commanded. Noah was faithful in building the ark for 100 years! He served longer than most of us will live and he was scorned and ridiculed the whole time. No one would listen to his warning. No one took him seriously - until it started to rain. And then it was too late.

Noah's story isn't really all that different from our own. Do you remember me talking about Forerunners in an earlier post? Well, this is why I want to be one. I don't want millions (billions?) of people to be caught unaware. And the message is just as crazy as what Noah had.

There is this man, his name is Jesus. Jesus is also fully God, but there isn't more than one God, there is only one. Well, Jesus came to show us what life in His Kingdom is like. He came to redeem us as sinful people and he did that by dying on a cross in our place. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead and then He will remake the heavens and the earth and we will live, reign and rule with Him for eternity. And He is coming back soon, but if you don't repent and believe in Him, then His sacrifice wont protect you and you will be judged and found guilty. The punishment for that is eternal life in hell. But God promises that if we confess our sin, repent, trust in Jesus, are baptized into His name and confess Him as our Lord, we will be saved and forgiven.

To me that makes perfect sense. To an unbeliever that sounds like insanity. But God is softening people's hearts - they are beginning to respond. But there are many more who are going to continue on with life as usual, thinking Christians are doing nothing more than wasting their time. Until He comes back. Then things are different. Then our message becomes "relevant." Then they can't hear enough. And it is the grace of God that they can still repent and find a place in His Kingdom.

That is our God. He is generous with His wealth. We are all undeserving of His mercy. Sometimes we forget that as Christians. Sometimes we start to feel entitled because of all of our years of service. Bull. You don't serve by your own strength, nor do I; it is the grace of God. I hope to be as faithful as Noah. I hope that I can be a faithful messenger in a crooked and perverse generation. I hope that I can love people like Jesus did and hopefully save some. I wonder is you would join me? The road is narrow that leads to life, but it has got to be wide enough for us to walk side by side.

Two Extremes

Over the last few weeks, God has made something abundantly clear to me. There are two extremes in Christianity and they dramatically affect the way we live.

One extreme is the idea that I want to do as little for God as possible and still maintain my salvation and a clean conscience. The other, opposite, extreme is - I want to do as much for God and His Kingdom as I can and still fulfill my earthly obligations. Allow me to explain.

The first extreme is, in my opinion, the state of the majority of the Church in the Western world. These people want to do as little as they can for God because they want to do as much as they can for themselves. These are people who spend copious amounts of time shopping, watching t.v., eating out, etc. They spend much of their time and energy entertaining and pleasing themselves.

I want to state right now that I am not against pleasure in any sense. God has given us highly refined senses so that we can interact with and enjoy the world around us, but the people in this first group take things to the extreme. And I think this is why - they have no understanding that Jesus is coming back.

Our view of the end-times greatly influences how we live in this present day and age. I am not saying we need to be cultish and start predicting dates, but we need revelation that "they day of the Lord's return is nearer now than when we first believed." Jesus is coming back. The liturgical church confesses this every sunday in the Apostle's Creed - "He [Jesus] will come again to judge the living and the dead." The Bible readily attests to this fact; a mere skimming of the Book of Acts or Revelation leads to the conclusion that Jesus is coming back. This belief is what invigorated the Apostles, it (along with the Holy Spirit) is what turned them from cowardly fishermen into fiery evangelists who changed the entire world with their message. These men and women were living for something greater than their own entertainment or fulfillment. They had calling and purpose.

The belief of a pre-tribulation rapture has crippled the Church in the West. Not only is it a biblically unsupported idea, but it has only cropped up in the Church within the last 100 years or so. But because it was popularized in the Left Behind book series, many Christians believe this is what the Bible teaches. Historically, the Church has always taught that the Church will be around for the Tribulation. (The Great Tribulation, by the way, is the term used to describe the time leading up to Jesus' return. It is a time when the Church releases God's judgment on the regime of the Anti-Christ and the Anti-Christ then retaliates with widespread persecution of both Jews and Christians.) The Church needs to be around for the Tribulation so that it can continue to witness to this world, to call it to repentance and life in Jesus. But because many Christians think that they will not be around for the Tribulation (many don't even have hope that Jesus is coming back in their lifetime) they do nothing but eat, drink and be merry.

Jesus is coming back. This is the hope that we must cling to. And it is this belief that will change the way we live. If Jesus is coming back soon, then I need to live differently. I need to be a witness for Jesus to those around me for their time is short. I need to fast, pray and mourn for my nation for the godlessness that it has entered into. I need to be like Daniel and "repent for my sins and the sins of my nation." I need to let people know the severity of our times. But I also understand that Glory is on its way.

I read the Bible and I see Jesus' challenge. He seems to say, 'How much of me do you want? Give me your best shot!' He challenges us to fast and pray. He challenges us to obey His commands and teach others to do so. Why? Because we can greatly affect our standing in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Paul talks about some people entering the Kingdom as though passing through fire. They themselves are saved, but they have nothing to their name. Others spurned the persecution of their day to receive a better resurrection (Heb. 11:35). Jesus challenges us to store up treasure in heaven. Beloved, I want to be a rich man when I enter the Kingdom. I don't want to be a door keeper, I don't want to squeak by - I want to be a king. I want to be close to Jesus. Now, being a doorkeeper in Heaven is better than being in hell, but I don't want to settle for that.

And it is that heart that brings us to the other extreme. I want to do as much as I can on this earth to advance the Kingdom of God and better my resurrection while still maintaining my earthly obligations. I want to be sold out for the Kingdom. I want to put my hand to the plow and never, ever, look back. I want God to use my as fully as He possibly can. Yes, I still need to pay the bills and I still need to put food on the table (at least on non-fasting days), but those are not my life. And yes, I will still see Harry Potter in the movie theater, but I know that I am part of a greater story, one that will last for eternity.

Some may say I am extreme. Some may say that I need to take a break from this whole "God" thing. That is not how I see things. When God was forced to make a decision, He chose to save me and send His Son, Jesus, to the cross. ME! He chose me, in all of my sin, foolishness and rebellion and He sacrificed the only One who was perfect, Good and True. God did that because He loves me, because He wants to be with me forever. Beloved, in light of that, what I am doing is not extreme - it is the only appropriate response.

Prayer

I am preaching this coming Sunday on prayer. I am excited for it because I think it is a valuable part of our Christian life. It is how God's Kingdom is administered. I am not talking about weak, obligatory prayer. I am talking about powerful, vibrant communication with a God who loves us more than anything else in this world. I am talking about prayer that shifts nations, principalities and powers and that empowers believers to do the things that Jesus did.

We have a long way to go to reclaim the type of prayer that Jesus exemplified. But we need to get started. Our churches need it, our cities need it, our nation needs it. Prayer fills us with God's life and light and love. Prayer is what puts us into God's hands so that He can use us most fully. Prayer is a privilege for us as Christians, not an obligation. Prayer is what enables us to impact our world more fully. Prayer, communion with God, is inspiring, invigorating and most of all... fun!

Our Puritan roots run deep in this country - anything pleasurable has to be sinful, right? But we were made to pray, that is the essence of Genesis 1,2, and 3. We were made to rule with God through fellowship. That is exactly what prayer is - fellowship, communion. We give and take, speak and listen, share and receive. We spend time with one another, we find out and work towards having things in common. We are changed by prayer from glory to glory, not because prayer is anything special in and of itself, but because prayer is what brings us into God's presence and the more we see Him the more we become like Him. Praise God for that. I want to have a face that shines like Moses and I don't want to be ashamed of it like He was. I don't want that glory to fade, either. When Jesus comes back, I want to be like Him - that will only happen through prayer.

I wear suspenders

There are several clothing items that top my list as favorite things. Among them, in no particular order are: flannel, pearl-snap shirts, loggers pants from Duluth Trading Company, wool socks and last, but certainly not least, suspenders.

My choice to wear suspenders on a near-daily basis has caused no end of grief to me these last few weeks. People simply to not wear suspenders any more, so to see someone stepping outside of culturally accepted norms demands comment. For me, suspenders are more than a fashion statement, they are an act of defiance, of rebellion against what this world has become.

Suspenders harken back to a time in our past when men were men. They worked hard, got dirty and still held open doors for a lady. They derived a sense of worth and satisfaction from how much they could do and provide themselves as opposed to how much they could buy in a supermarket. These men worked long hours out doors. They sweated, were tan from the sun and didn't think to count calories as they ate biscuits and gravy with sausage links and coffee.

We have lost much of that rugged past, but I think it is coming back. People want to do things for themselves again. They want to have dirt under their fingernails and know what a tomato fresh off the vine tastes like when it is still warm from the sun. These neo-Pioneers give me hope, hope that one day I will see more men in suspenders.

What, you may be thinking, does this have to do with advancing God's Kingdom on the earth? When is Ben wasting my time and his writing about suspenders and frontiersmen when this is supposed to be a blog about the Church and ministry? What does this mean for me life? Honestly, nothing. Honestly, everything.

You see, our churches are in decline. Our churches have gone the way of our culture rather than the Way of Jesus. Our churches have become soft, pious places where no one dares to say anything of any damned importance for fear of offending someone else. I am tired of it. I am sick from it. This isn't the Church that I read about in the book of Acts where people drop dead because they tried to deceive the leadership and advance their reputations. This isn't the Church where Godly instruction is given and is confirmed in power by the Holy Spirit. This isn't the Church that can say without hypocrisy "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ," Galatians 1:10c.

We need people who will "wear suspenders" to church. Men and women who will stand firm on our Christian heritage, who will defy the Doctrine of Tolerance in our Age. NO, all ways do NOT lead to heaven. There is only ONE Way, and that is Jesus. That is the offense of the Gospel. Jesus is both radically inclusive and radically exclusive. Absolutely anyone who comes to Him, confesses their sins, repents, is baptized and names Him Lord will be saved. Easy, right?

But so many will not.

So many are prideful, they think they can win God's favor with their own righteousness. So many think that Jesus is just a man who had a few good things to say, but is largely irrelevant to our world today. So many think that Jesus is just one of a multitude of great thinkers who wanted to push humanity towards enlightenment and fulfillment.

My question - Is anyone telling them differently?

Again, there is a growing movement of people who are. People who are fervently proclaiming "Jesus is LORD" to the exclusion of any other. People who are living radically different lives because they are sold out on the Gospel message. People who are reclaiming Biblical Christianity as a viable alternative to the impotent culture of this age that claims there are no absolute truths. We call these people Forerunners in the House of Prayer movement. Like John the Baptist, they choose to be a voice calling from the wilderness, "Prepare the way for the Lord!" It sounds foreign to our modern ears, but Jesus is coming back. The Early Church knew this, indeed, it was their only hope. That hope empowered them to live differently than the culture around them. It empowered them to seek God in every circumstance. It empowered them to shrug off temptation, persecution and punishment for the Glory that lies ahead.

I want to be one of those Forerunners and I want to live in a community that wants the same thing. So this is my encouragement to you who read this, you are not alone. Surround yourself with people who will love you and support you so that we can all cry out together. You are always welcome at our table.

It is November, wow! October was an awesome and very full month, I am looking forward to what November holds.

We have three weeks left in the IHOPE Internship and then we start making our own schedules. While I am excited to sync up my schedule with Amy a little better, I have really come to love the community we have and I am sorry to see it disband. Part of the reality of working for a House of Prayer - Missions Base is that we have people worshipping and praying around the clock, that means I wont see many of them except for on our Saturday night worship service. Bummer.

One a lighter note, I am going to learn Bass Guitar. A gentleman named Patrick has offered to give bass lessons to anyone who is interested and I signed up. I tried learning guitar several years ago, but I found that my hands are not well suited to it. I have rather small and meaty hands, which makes playing chords on a guitar rather difficult. But on the bass, I only play one note at a time and at a slower pace - JACKPOT! I will keep you posted on how all of this plays out.

In other exciting news, I have started work on the Adult Discipleship curriculum for the Vineyard. As that progresses more, I will let you know. I probably will not post it online, but if you are interested I can email it to you.

It looks to be another glorious day. Don't forget to vote!