Revolt Towards

Satan does not mind family values and social justice as long as...

Here’s a helpful quote from Russell Moore reflecting on Satan’s third temptation of Jesus:

Satan ultimately has a power that is not found most importantly in moral decay or in cultural chaos. His power is in the authority to accuse. The power of accusation. The power of holding humanity captive through the fear of death and the certainty of judgment...

Satan is not fearful of external conformity to rule. Not even to the external conformity of the rule of Christ – provided there is no cross. Satan does not mind family values – as long as what you ultimately value is the family. Satan does not mind social justice – as long as you see justice as most importantly social. Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world...

He will let you get what it is that you want, no matter what it is – sanctity of marriage, environmental protection, orphan care, all of these good and wonderful things – he will allow you to gain those things provided you do not preach and proclaim and live through the power of a cross that cancels his power of condemnation.

24-7 Prayer

I wanted to take this blog to highlight 24-7 Prayer. I've talked about them before. The heart of 24-7 Prayer movement is near and dear to my heart. The have Boiler Rooms around the world that live from these six rhythms of prayer, creativity, hospitality, learning, mission, and justice. Stay tuned for more to come from me in regards to this group in the weeks and months to come.

Starting the New Year with Jesus

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

So call me late, tardy, belated. I just happened to finish Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz for the first time yesterday and it was a great way finish the first of January and start the next 365 days. The last five chapters of the book happened to be appropriately and respectively on money, worship, love of others, love of self and concluding with Jesus. 

A few years ago, I began listening to Bill Johnson out of the Bethel Church in Redding, California. I would follow the podcasts and have even seen him speak a few times. But one thing that has always stuck with me about Bill is when he speaks of Jesus. It's not the kind of thing where he just reads stories about Jesus in the Bible, but when Bill speaks of Jesus, tears come to his eyes, he chokes up and he reaches the point where he pauses and can't speak like his Adam's apple has gotten stuck in his throat. All because of Jesus. 

I remember thinking to myself, I want that. It has happened every now and then. But in the last few months, I have been secretly on this journey with Jesus to reach that place. Because He is that loving, that good, and that in love with me and all of us.

Don Miller writes in Blue Like Jazz, "I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus". He goes on to say that Christian spirituality is like jazz music—it's about feeling and loving Jesus is something you feel, "difficult to get on paper...but no less real, no less meaningful, no less beautiful". Good for me because I love jazz and to watch and hear the spontaneity of the melodies, rhythms and musicians all coming together to create something different every time.

The thing is, Jesus is alive, not dead. God even chided me recently for reflecting too much of this image I had in my head of him on a cross. In that moment, He wanted me to realize He was alive and engaging my life, right now. And He's doing the same with all of us. It's a present-tense journey we have with Him. At the risk of sounding like a heretic, the Bible is a history book of our faith, full of past-tense stories of our faith, but we aren't to rest there and leave it there because Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit are meeting us today in the hear and now.

I hope I can encourage us all to fall in love with Jesus. Maybe we have to fall in love again or maybe we are about to do it for the first time. Just remember, while I want what I see in Bill Johnson, this kind of love is not about shedding tears, tearing our clothes and doing whatever it is we do to feel religious. Real love of Jesus come from the realization that He loves you, me and the annoying neighbor, the rude co-worker, the lesbian couple that can't keep their hands off each other, the meth addicts who always asks for money outside the post office and the modern-day pharisees ready to crucify Him all over again. 

I want us all to know Jesus this year. If you haven't done it in awhile, pray and talk to Jesus. Ask Him to become real to you. Ask Him to forgive you of self-addiction. Ask Him to put a song in your heart. Much love and blessing to us all on this journey into 2010.

"All great characters in stories are the ones who give their lives to something bigger than themselves. And in all of the stories I don't find anyone more noble than Jesus. He gave His life for me, in obedience to His Father. I truly love Him for it. I feel that, and so does Laura and Penny and Rick and Tony the Beat Poet. I think the difference in my life came when I realized, after reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn't just love me out principle; He didn't just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that cause Him to love me."
(Blue Like Jazz)

Thanksgiving and Prayer

   

To all my friends and family, I want to let you know I'm thankful for you guys. I'm thankful that your friendships and relationships add value to my life. I'm thankful that for many of you, your words and stories push me to become a better lover of love and Love Himself.

These words from Paul are my prayer for you all on this Thanksgiving Day...

Ephesians 1:15-23
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Closing the Door On the Notion We Need Something More Than Him

   

So last week, I was praying for a job I had bid on. The job estimate was for a decent amount of money and my prayer was this: "God, I pray that this contract comes through because you know I need it because I need the money." 

Immediately I stopped myself and stopped my prayer.

"What?!" I asked myself. What was I praying? Did I even realize the words I was saying? Well, actually, I did. It hit me very quickly that I was praying for the wrong thing and from the wrong place. The reality is this:
All I need is Jesus.

And immediately, I got this revelation:
Only when we close the door to the notion that we need something more than Him, will we position ourselves to receive all He knows we DO need.

This goes for anything we place ahead of him, be it money, love, relationships, family, career, position, titles or as hard as it may be to hear, even justice on the earth.

So I challenge each of us, like I challenged myself, to reorient my life to remember that all I need is Him. Once I have Him, all I need will come. And sometimes, we will get to some of the things we desire, but that can't be our focus. We must fix our eyes on Him, seeking His kingdom, and all we need will be given to us. 

Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...

...Except You Ravish Me.

Ever since meeting John Donne in high school, I have always been in love with his poetry and particular, his poetic reflections on God. Below is his Holy Sonnet XIV:

HOLY SONNETS. by John Donne XIV.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

I was sharing with my friend Maggie on Saturday how sometimes, we get so in love with Jesus because we know he is right there, interacting me us and it's easy! But other times, those feelings need to be chased after, sought after and fought for. Like any relationship, there are ebbs and flows. Sometimes you feel close; intimate. Other times, disconnected and far away.

The Song of Songs gives us a glimpse of this. The beloved waits for the Lover to come, only to find that He was gone...But a pursuit ensues.

I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock.

I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.

O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you— if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love.

What we see here is that it is the beloved that must also take action and go after the Lover. I looked but did not find him. If you find my lover...Tell him I am faint with love. We have to be active in our pursuit because He wants to be chased too. Maybe some of you are like myself, where you know you love God and will never stop that belief, but you also know that isn't enough. You need something more. You need more than biblical theologies. You need more than a good who lives in a book. You need more than philosophies and fairy tales. You need Someone real.

So invite Him in. If He feels absent from your life and you feel absent from Him, invite Him into whatever you have going on in your life. I have invited Him into my times of song writing and simply said, "God, I don't know how all this works, but I want you here with me as I try to write these lyrics." Maybe your a mother or father—invite Him into your parenting. Maybe you are at work and have a problem to solve—invite Him in. Tell Him He's welcome into your circumstances! Just like anyone boy or girl being wooed, He too gets excited and giddy when we include Him into our lives.

Thing is—He will never force Himself on us. That is not love. Just invite Him in. Just say today "Would you come?" Because as Donne wrote so long ago with the same cry:

Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I, 
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Dive!

Check out the trailer for the new film, Dive! It's all about dumpster diving for wasted food! 
(I think someone I know is in the trailer. Weird).

Justice Isn't About Me

So yesterday I was driving home and I got off the 101 when I saw this woman holding a sign that said "Pregnant. Please help!" While I've come across signs like this before, this one was different. This woman was holding her face with her free hand as tears came streaming down her face. Through my thin car windows, I could hear the groan of her sadness and the reality of her situation made me reach for my wallet. Only I was too slow and the light was green and I'm praying, "Jesus, should I go back!? What should I do?" 

All I heard was, "Joel, this one isn't yours."

Out of all the times I've helped people and given my change, here was a woman whose tearful moaning still had my ears ringing and I was ready to do whatever it took, and all I hear, or what I think I hear is, "This one isn't yours, Joel." 

I was pissed! As I continued driving, I wanted to cry and was completely frustrated inside. 

That was when He spoke.

"Joel, my justice isn't about you."

But I was ready to sacrifice anything! Go anywhere! Do whatever it took to help this woman!

"It's not about you, Joel. It never was or will be..."

"My justice on the earth has nothing to do with you feeling good about yourself, but justice in her life is as much about you as it is about her. Justice, the kind of justice I'm looking for, is ultimately an issue of worship, Joel. My justice for you right now is to be obedient to me because your obedience—your worship by listening to me—is better than your sacrifice. This one isn't yours to tackle. This is where you trust me—an act of worship—that I'm big enough to take care of her and let justice come."

Of course, I was floored. Mad, but at the same time, taken aback at this revelation.

It's not about me. I wanted to help, but my help and action can't supersede listening to the King. If I were to have acted on my own in this situation and enacted my own sense of justice and my own sense of Joel's righteousness in the situation, then who knows what ramifications that would of had. Am I worried about the ramifications of me not helping her when I had the means to do so? Well, while something like this had never happened before, it doesn't change that Jesus quickly was teaching me to trust Him. To trust Him that me not acting doesn't mean I was inactive. I prayed for her the rest of the way home (and even wrestled with my own believes that we need to become the prayers we pray). But frankly, I would rather be pissed off at God for being obedient (because He can handle it), than to have missed this lesson all together because I just blindly acted on my compassion.

Hebrews 1:8
But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

If I enact my own sense of what I think justice is, then I play God. I put myself as the one holding the scepter of justice. But I don't hold the scepter—only the King does and we are all subject to him. I do believe this only applies to us who call Jesus our King. The Red Cross, Oxfam, FEMA, UNICEF—they will all call their own shots. But as people who "proclaim another King", I want to make sure I also never go to the frontlines on the battlefields of justice without knowing what my King is doing. 

It's about His justice, not mine. It's about His righteousness on the earth, not mine. And both those things mean that bringing His righteousness and justice ultimately comes down to worship of Jesus and not our own ideas, plans and the best-laid intentions. 

If the pursuit of justice ever becomes about our own glory, we might as well be making a golden calf from the gold found in our lofty, compassionate pursuits. True justice on the earth from the One who sees and knows all things and all scenarios, is never about me and never will be—it will always be about Him as long as I (we) let Him have His way.

Follow Up

 
 

So when I was in New York, or rather, Brooklyn, I wrote a blog (I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For) after an afternoon spent at Prospect Park. I wish I would have wrote this followup a few weeks ago, but it never happened. But something awesome did happen on my day there in the city.

I was Sunday, September 27 and my last day on the east coast so I wanted to make the most of my day. I really wanted to go to Central Park at some point, but my prayer was that my time in NYC wouldn't be in vain (ie: just to see U2) and that something would happen that day to conclude my time there.

A few different things happened that day (encountering a drugged-out woman on Broadway and Spring; spending time at Grace Church while the girl's choir practiced singing Isaac Watts' "When I Survey the Wonderous Cross"; and being able to walk through Central Park after the rain), but it was in the evening at my friends' church, Trinity Grace, that everything made sense.

I walked into the church that night with Nathaniel while their time of worship was going on. While they sang songs I didn't know, it wasn't hard to sense that they knew why they were there and wanted to encounter God. After worship, this woman came up to give the teaching for the night. What would you know, but it was all on the dunamis power of God.

She talked of us being a people who live for the renewal of all things by being people who pursue the power of God. She talked about how embarking on this means we have to repent for not pursuing it actively before. She talked about how this is what the world needs, what New York City needs and what the church needs. 

She spoke from Act 17 where Paul and Silas are preaching in the city and they get accused of "turning everything upside down" and for "proclaiming another king" other than Caesar. 

Acts 17:6-7
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.

They turned everything upside down! They proclaimed another king! 

If we are honest, when was the last time those who follow Jesus were blamed for turning everything upside down? Maybe during the Jesus People movement of years past. But not lately. Not even our justice movements within the Church have gotten blamed for such a thing. 

I think a key to understanding the power that can transform families, homes, cities and nations is that we have to proclaim another King. And if we aren't proclaiming another King, in whatever we do (work, play, social justice, church, ministry) then we truly do need to repent. 

...Because God is waiting for us to join Him in the renewal of all things.

Van Gogh on Fear...

"I tell you, if one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm – but that's a lie, and you yourself used to call it that. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity. Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, You can't do a thing. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can't' once and for all. 

Life itself, too, is forever turning an infinitely vacant, dispiriting blank side towards man on which nothing appears, any more than it does on a blank canvas. But no matter how vacant and vain, how dead life may appear to be,the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, who knows something, will not be put off so easily. He wades in and does something and stays with it, in short, he violates, "defiles" – they say. Let them talk, those cold theologians." 

 - Vincent Van Gogh (who did not pick up a paint brush until he was 30 years old)

Burial...

 
 

"He that loses his life for My sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:39)

On Sunday before heading down to Culver City to lead worship at Expression58, I was in prayer and while in meditation, I saw the word "Burial". I've been reflecting on a lot concerning where I am with my creative entrepreneurial firm Engage, after a client pulled out of a contract worth over $5k last week and wondering if there is more there than meets the natural eye. So to see the word "Burial" was as much about my spiritual life as it is (or could be) about the life of my business, my ideas and my future.

 Romans 6:3-5
"...Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection."
 

As I ponder and reflect on the burial of things, I also anticipate what might be resurrected from such a burial. Even a seed planted in the ground must die before it can sprout with the newness of life. Below is an excerpt that I recently read from the devotional book, "Springs in the Valley": 

In my early life I entered into a partnership with a friend in the wholesale ice business. For two seasons in succession our ice was swept away by winter freshets. In the winter of which I speak, things had come to a serious pass and it seemed very necessary that we should have ice. The weather became cold; the ice formed and grew thicker and thicker until it was fit to gather. Then there came an order for thousands of tons of ice which would lift us entirely from our financial stress. 

Not long before this, God has showed me that it was His will that I should commit my business to Him and trust Him with it absolutely. I never dreamed what testing was coming. At midnight there came an ominous sound - that of rain. By noon the storm was raging in all it's violence; by afternoon I had come into a great spiritual crisis in my life. 

By mid-afternoon of that day I had come face to face with the tremendous fact that down deep in my heart was a spirit of rebellion against God. And that rebelliousness seemed to develop in a suggestion to my heart like this: "You gave all to God. This is the way He repays you." Then another voice: "My child, did you mean it when you said you would trust me? Would I suffer anything to come into your life which will not work out good for you?" And then the other voice: "But it is hard! Why should He take your business when it is clean and honest?" 

At the end of two hours (during which waged one of the greatest spiritual battles of my life) by the grace of God I was able to cry out, "Take the business; take the ice; take everything; only give me the supreme blessing of a will absolutely submitted to Thee." And then came peace! 

By midnight there came another sound - that of wind. By morning the mercury had fallen to zero, and in a few days we were harvesting the finest ice we ever had. He gave back the ice; He blessed the business; and He led me on and out, until He guided me from it entirely into the place He had for me from the beginning - that of a teacher of His Word 
 
- James H. McConkey.

"Give your life to God, and God will give you back your life!"

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...

I went to see U2 last night and it was really amazing. They are amazing performers. They broke Pope John Paul's record for how many people ever came to the Giants Stadium (and he politely apologized to His Holiness). They sang many songs, including "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". If you don't know (and you'd be crazy for not knowing this song), the last stanza goes like this:

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

The way Bono paused when you sang "You know.....I believe it" let me know he still truly did believe it. It let me know he still knew what he's known for a long while, about a man named Jesus.

But the song also brings me to a place of diving discontent where I know I still haven't found what I'm looking for. "Maybe I never will?" I think. But it's not enough for me to know Jesus died for me if I can't still see Him moving in my life and in the world around me.

I was walking up Union just now back to the Tea Lounge wondering, "Is Jesus' enough for this city? Is Jesus is enough for that man walking his dog? Is he enough for that little latino baby being pushed in the stroller by his mom? Is He enough for the people sitting around me as I type this?"

Questions like this always come back to me (and you too, as you read this). Jesus has to be enough for me and I know he is. But if I contain that just to me, then like I said a few days ago on another blog, I'm missing something inherent to the Gospel of the Kingdom if it's just about me.

I know I believe, somewhere in my core, He is enough for this entire city. I was reading on the subway in the gospel of Matthew that records Jesus saying that the "publicans and the harlots" will be the first to enter the Kingdom (KJV) and God knows even I have felt like the whore at His feet and sometimes begging to have that proximity she did.

It comes down to me, but with the acknowledgement that I need something greater than me. I need His power. I want His power. The world doesn't know it, but it wants it too. I know I can't save this city or any city. But the Spirit of God moving on a humbled heart and life—now that's powerful. Unyielded. Unrestrained. Uncontainable. 

The world needs His power. I, for Christ's sake, need His power. 

Sign. Wonder. Miracle. 

The tangible power of Jesus changed Jerusalem and the surrounding cities. And It can change this city and the cities back home.

First Day in NYC (and Hosting the Presence)

I'm in NYC. 

So far, so good. Catching up with Nate. Meeting his roommates. Being hot and sweaty as it's 80 degrees here and a chance of rain. I came here to see U2 tonight. But I know there is more that this short stint in the Big Apple has for me. I'm at a café right in Park Slope in Brooklyn right now called the Tea Lounge taking in all the people. People reading, eating, doing their online updates, email checks and Facebooking. Business types. Classy types. Straight types. Gay types. Busy types. Bored types. And then there is me in the midst of it all excited to be somewhere new and yet excited (even before I got to LAX) to be back home already because I know He's up to something with my time here.

So we'll see what that something is overtime while I'm here. I'm excited for worship on Tuesday and that excitement gets deeper as I walk down Union Street surround by the chilling presence of God while listening to a song that sings "I will hold nothing back from you". Its amazing where He can be found if we just pay attention to the wind and to the whisper.

I pray you, whoever you are reading this and wherever you are reading this, find yourself as a host of the Presence today. Maybe, as you read this, you don't even know what I mean by that, but all that means is encountering what the First Nations people called the Great Spirit that surrounds us all and the same Spirit who Genesis says was "hovering over the waters" since the beginning (Gen 1:2) and Jesus himself said we must be born of the Spirit (John 3), just like the wind comes and goes with no explanation so it is with God's Spirit.

Invite the Presence. Encounter the Presence. Host the Presence. In all your deeds. In all your comings and goings. He's waiting to be encountered!

Call It Going Green or Going Blue...It's Still Short of the Kingdom.

My good friend Joey Briglio over at TheBlessedNaturalist.com just posted a blog about the next push in the environmental movement to go BLUE. There are three objectives of the BLUE movement. "First, to measurably improve the quality of life of the people who join. Second, to engage as many people as possible in the effort. And third, to increase their effectiveness in making a difference in their community and the world."

The interesting this is that I was at the Earth Day Fest a year and a half ago in Ojai when the LEEDS guy brought up that "the next thing is BLUE". So what does it mean and how do we use it? I laughed when I read the BLUE article that said:

How do I use it in a sentence?

"I'm totally into the environment," she says as she updates her status on Facebook, "but I'm the type of person who's BLUE and not only green."
 

---

As I was laughing at this statement and commenting on Joey's blog the other day, it hit me—I wonder if the coming push to BLUE is humanity's take on the Gospel of the Kingdom. Because as some of you might know or have figured out, I've struggled with Green from the get-go, not as a bad idea, but an incomplete one. Blue is way closer to solving the frustration in my heart about Green. At least Blue has goals and a concentrated push of the three values behind it. 

But as I was saying—maybe, just maybe, the real answer we all need, even the Church (because God knows they don't get it at all) is the Gospel of the Kingdom that encompasses Green, Blue, and every other spectrum of the rainbow with the promise from God himself that He will not destroy the earth again. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean we ourselves are free from destroying it. For better or worse, He has entrusted it to us to care for it because "the earth is the Lord's and everything it"—man, woman, animal, plant, land, water, sky.

I truly love that our faith and our God is mindful of all these things. He's mindful to the concerns of the planet that is groaning and the sparrows and the blades of grass, as much as He is mindful to the my own yearnings, cries and desires in my own life. And then on top of it, the renovation He does in my heart to pursue His heart makes me love the things He loves which is the groaning planet, the sparrows and the blades of grass and my brothers and sisters around the world with their own yearnings, cries and desires. It's a cyclical faith that we live where the outflow of our relationship with Him spills out ONTO and INTO the world around us.

If the cyclical reality of our faith—our hearts to His heart and back to our heart for 'all creation'—is not happening in our lives, then we are missing some integral points to the whole Gospel itself.

Quote of the Week (9.8.09)

Resolve: Generously and with no half-hearted, timorous dread of the opinions of Church and men to manifest my mission ... You have no time to occupy your thoughts with that complacency or consideration of what others will think. Your business is simply, “What will my Father in heaven think?”
 - St. Katherine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament