Part One: Christian Nationalism is Unbiblical

[ This is going to be a three part series. Part one will cover the unbiblical theology we'd best avoid. Part two will describe American exceptionalism and how it has created quite opposing political agendas, especially amongst Christians. Part three will update poor theology with a biblical framework of "exile," that Christians might better channel their faith.]  

Photo by Daniel Reche from Pexels

Part One: What Not to Believe

If you ask a “Patriotic Christian” the question, “Does the founding of our country on Christian ideals give Christians today privilege to dominate politics and law?” they would whole-heartedly agree.  Their expectation of political outcomes follows suit. Non-Christian citizens owe it to Christians to let them dominate the political agenda. Christians have a God-given right to have this society ordered by God’s Word.  Much quotation of the Founding Fathers is used as birthright, on par to scripture itself:

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting sun may His kingdom come."

- Sam Adams, Father of the American Revolution

But to quote mere men like this is to add to scripture. I’m not here to revive a debate on the history of whether America was founded as a Christian country.  But I will ask you to be honest: isn’t it an irrelevant question?  Whether it was or not doesn’t change the fact that our constitution grants religious liberties to all faiths.

“Yes, but my faith in Jesus guides me to be a politically-active American.  I want what God wants.  And God does not want these changes.”  I can hear the responses.  Christians are tired. Over the last 50 years they've been losing social prominence as witnessed by legalized abortion, changes to the institution of marriage and gender dysphoria, and the removal of God from our military, schools, holidays, etc. It’s time to ask some sobering questions about how God thinks about America.  Does America belong to God?  Is America special in God’s eyes?  What does God want Christian Americans to fight for?  If God wants us to fight, can that even mean violent force?

 

Unfortunately, Jesus’ has no plan for a Christian theocracy (co-mingling of God’s law and government) in America; not from its inception and not for its future.  How do I know?

Because of the scriptures.  Scripture makes it clear the American government will not be the conduit of Jesus’ kingdom-come on earth.  

The Future Kingdom of Jesus

Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

All of the earth’s governments will be restored to God through the second advent of Christ (Col. 1:20).  The most significant Gentile empires throughout all of history are represented in the statue of Nebuchadnezzer’s prophetic dream.  The feet of iron mixed with clay was hit by the rock not cut with human hands (Dan. 2:34-45).  This rock is the government of Jesus.  During the time this post-apocalyptic government reigns, all nations of the earth will offer their greatness to the kingdom of the Most High, whose is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey Him (Dan. 8:27).  On that day -- our desire for a theocracy will be satisfied.  

The Patriot would refute, “But -- America was founded on better things in God’s eyes!”  Scripture itself may have been the guiding light which frames the constitution - but it isn’t enough.  No mere man’s words, no matter how godly, brilliant and glorifying to God as they may be, are any guarantee.  No human has willfully indebted or obligated God.  America shares in common the condition of all governments on earth - corruption.  No amount of political reform can ultimately purge the corruption in any government; even a largely Christian one.  How do I know?  Scripture.  Satan is currently the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). 

Matt. 4:8-9.  “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’”

Satan offered America to Jesus as a temptation because Satan possesses America - and Jesus refused to take the governments.  

The Former Offer of the Kingdom  

Jesus’ government nearly arrived 2000 years ago.  Jesus offered a Christian kingdom, a God-ruled government (theocracy) to first-century Israel - but not to the nations.  In the beginning half of Jesus’ ministry He and John the Baptist preached “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand [or, near].”  It was at hand because their Messiah had arrived and if they repented they could have ushered in their Messianic kingdom.  

The people of Israel had three conditions to satisfy so that they might receive the kingdom of Christ: 1- they must accept their Messiah 2- they must be living in the promised land and 3- they had to have spiritual obedience to God’s commands.  When the people refused to repent and meet the conditions required, and when the Pharisees demonstrated unbelief at Christ’s miracles, that offer was put in abeyance (put on delay).  This turning point was in Matthew 12:24.  Jesus set aside the offer of a Christian kingdom away from Israel and began to teach them in parables.  From then on when Jesus teaches, the kingdom is not at hand and it will be postponed till after the church age.  That is why in Acts when the disciples asked a risen Jesus when the kingdom would be established, Jesus changed the topic:

Acts 1:6-8 “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’  And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” 

Are There Any Special Promises God Can Make with America?  

Seems straightforward to say, even Israel had conditional terms for possessing their inheritance!  But at least God had promised Israel to the Jews.  You might sum up the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants by saying the land was unconditionally owned and conditionally possessed. Christian Americans have no such arrangement in the scriptures for us and this North American nation.  Even Israel got kicked out of their own land when they didn’t keep in obedient step with our God.  How much more can we expect to have no rights over our land!

“Special Promise” Proof Text #1  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” Psalm 33:12

Response: Well, which nation is it who has God as their Lord?  Isn’t that Israel?  Put the verse into context and read it again….  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”  The rest of the sentence identifies that nation whose God is the Lord; it is the people of His inheritance which is Israel of course.  Didn’t God promise blessing to Israel in Deuteronomy 30?  Of course.  Deut. 32:8-9 says, "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance." America doesn’t have a covenant like Israel, concerning possessing the land or blessing in the land.  America doesn’t have any promises in scripture.  Yet Franklin Graham, a Christian nationalist, used this verse and this verse alone as justification for his most urgent call to political action.

“Special Promise” Proof Text #2  “... if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  2 Chronicles 7:14

Response:  This promise I am certain has truth in it that can be applicable to American believers.  Certainly we believe that if we humble ourselves God will lift us up for that is written in the epistle of James.  But once there is a promise toward a “land,” we have to ask ourselves is this part of the specific covenant God has with the land of Israel??  The answer is yes, this verse while in part relevant for all believers everywhere, has specific promise to the land of Israel alone, for it is only the nation of Israel who is given a promise from God.  Look at the context for more clues anyway - it is right after Solomon dedicates the temple.  God said to him one sentence above, “I have… chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice” vs. 12.  

The Patriot might ask, “I thought we could subvert American government to God’s blessings and authority?”  The logic goes that if there are enough Christians in a country who love God, God will give them what they want, which is control over the land.

While we commend that as many Christians run for office as possible, while we commend believers who use their right to vote and their rights to peaceful protest and recall and reform, we cannot go so far to condone this Christian nationalist falsehood in the public square: that America’s ruling caste is Christianity. 

Does this mean we should just give in and give up in the face of government corruption?  That’s not right either.  We should participate.  Our grounds for involvement are NOT from knowing the framers’ Christian beliefs! Our reason for involvement is because we care about our society!  Our reason for involvement is because God has given us gifts and callings.  Our grounds for involvement is the constitution which extends the right to participate equally to all citizens.  

And Finally - And Most Sensitively - What About Violence?

How far should we go to advance Christ’s kingdom?  Should we fight for it?  Like, literally physically fight for the agenda of Christ?  Take up arms?  

To Pilate Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here.”  (John 18:36)

Though Jesus was a King, He was no threat to Rome or Pilate because His kingdom would not come through a worldly revolution.  His kingdom would be in heaven, for the individual citizens born from above during the church age; it would not come to dominion over a land until after tribulation.

In light of Jesus’s words, how should we understand January 6th and the storming of the U.S. Capitol?  How does God feel about the Christians who were there with Jesus banners, hitting police with their flagpoles?  

Jesus said, "My servants would fight" if His kingdom were here. Because the kingdom of God is not here, who were these violent Christians truly serving in the Capitol breach? Peter could have been a model citizen of the rioter's kingdom because he used a sword as they arrested Jesus.  He swung and sliced off a soldier's ear. But Jesus healed the soldier’s wound.  It is clear that Jesus did not condone revolutionary violence for spiritual matters, nor for any other such as Barrabus's.  Barabbas was jailed for murder with other insurrectionists of Roman rule.  

Matthew 26:52  “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back in its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword."

In conclusion: this certain expectation of providence upon the political aims of well meaning-brothers and sisters needs a refresh. Together we can examine the truth about the hope of Israel and the millennial kingdom of Christ. Until the day of the Lord, we might do well to find a more biblical stance for our sojourn.

That Golden Thread of Hope

Today marks one week since the spiral of societal closure began.  It's been a weird seven days and I am sure it'll keep getting more weird.  Strange thoughts run through my mind at odd hours of the early morning, such as "if society continues to break down, who will be the new bourgeoisie?" and "should I expect to stand in line at 6 a.m. outside Fred Meyer like it's Black Friday so I can put toilet paper under our tree - ha!"  I am curious to see how this will affect the attitudes of young adults; will they become savers like those in the Depression?  Coronavirus moves all of us into uncharted waters.  We have never had to put so much of our near future under strain; our democratic principles, our unity, our patience, our modes of educating, working, and experiencing community; our commitment to being healthy and preserving life. 

In the midst of this crisis, yes - I feel stress from a dozen angles.  We are all facing grave risks; some more than others.  But there is another feeling that is beginning to build: hope.  Hope really has no explanation for why it's making a home in the middle of a mess.  Yet there it is, having its way in my heart.  I can remember one of the first times I experienced an inexplicable sense of hope.  I was 16 and a sophomore in high school.  There was a boy I liked and I often hung out around him at lunch.  One day there was a new girl and she liked him too.  She told me she was going to beat me up, so I laughed and said "okay, Zena Warrior Princess."  Big mistake!  She claimed to know what bus I rode and how in two days she'd get off on my stop and beat the crap out of me.

For 48 hours I had an eerie sense of dread and stress.  I felt a lack of control and disturbing anticipation of trouble, in a very small way similar to what the world feels right now with Coronavirus.  It was hard to assess the real risk and what would really happen with this bully.  And it was terrible waiting to find out.  What should I think?  In the place of a thought instead was a feeling.  The feeling had its own message.  I somehow knew there was more to who I was and more to my ultimate destiny.  But I couldn't explain why I felt this way inside.  I just did!  So, while my mind replayed a graphic fantasy of being smacked across the face in just 24 hours (oomph!), this other feeling grew stronger.  I felt so amazing, so new, and so excited.  It made me want to talk to my destiny, to "ultimate reality."  I had watched a movie about Jesus recently but wasn't sure if there was an all-attentive Being guiding the unseen. 

In spite of not really believing much about God, I found myself talking to God.  Every time I opened my mouth and tried it, my heart swelled.  Not only did I have the feeling that somehow I would be alright with this bully, but I wanted more.  I wanted a relationship with what was unseen.  I asked questions and got audible silence, nevertheless I was more and more thrilled on the inside.  I was hungry for this connection and I couldn't get enough.  I was feeling God respond to my words by changing my heart.

Maybe you're reading this right now and believe the same way I did then - unsure there is anything dwelling in the unseen.  In the middle of this extremely difficult and upsetting situation with Coronavirus, do you also feel something unexpected and unexplainable...?  Is it hope?  Can you explain why you would feel hope in an impending crisis?  Do you feel a stirring in your soul when you look into the sky?  Do you feel this momentum in your heart that there is something bigger going on, and it wants to have a relationship with you too?

I will tell you what I was discovering about God in sophomore year.  There is something separating us from God and they call it sin.  That word means that we don't live up to God's standards, even our own self-imposed ideas of right and wrong - we fail ourselves.  God knows we have this problem and sent His Son.  Jesus did everything right through His relationship with God.  Then, Jesus went to the cross to die there for us.  If He had only gone for one of us, it would have been enough to Jesus.  He went there not just for me, but for every person ever.  There really is a punishment; God gets mad when someone vulnerable gets hurt.  Well, God put all His rights for justice over sin not on us, but on His own Son.  When Jesus was on the cross, His blood poured out, He died, and He was buried.  But three days later, God raised Jesus back to the living.  God did that because Jesus doesn't deserve to die; He was innocent.  Many hundreds of people saw Him alive after seeing Him dead, and this is the proof that this religion is valid in the unseen realm.  And so there is nothing left to expect, except peace with God.  He is longing to have a connection with us.  Anyone who believes this has received peace with God.   

It says in the Bible, "To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."  John 1:12.

I didn't yet have a developed idea of ultimate reality, but I'll tell you the rest of the story -- that bully girl did get on my bus.  She rallied the kids to watch us fight.  I calmly told her I wasn't going to fight her.  When I stood up to get off, she stammered an excuse how she can't get into any more trouble or else her parole officer would put her in juvie.  She sat down quiet and gave up.  I went home and I never saw that girl again.

If it weren't for hope, I don't think I'd continue seeking a connection with an unseen Being.  I could feel it - so I followed it.  It is a golden thread that has woven through the most unpleasant fabric of my life.  I am trying my best to follow it today - day 7 - and there are worse days to come.  Yet, I am convinced surprising things will continue to happen!  

What are you facing because of Coronavirus - unemployment?  Cabin fever?  Physical fever?  Worries about retirement?  I'm sure the list is long!  Who knows when hand sanitizer will ever be restocked.  Yet I believe there's a purpose for the hope in your heart.  It's leading to something that for now is possibly unclear.  It's between you and God.  I hope you find peace in your connection with the unseen!

"Captain of the Sons," a Poem

Word in a weary
season
I'm a stranger on the
earth
He stoops low to see
me
So high He makes my
worth

Angels minister
here
For partakers in the
light
The world is in
subjection
Marvel at His
might

Jesus, crowned with glory
Captain of the sons
Firstborn of the brothers
Pure through suffering

For the earth's
sojourners
He keeps the desolate
lands
Granted apostleship
His descendants are like
sand

Give your back to those who
harm
Like flint, set your
face
Our youths on the
horizon
You will not be ashamed

Jesus, crowned with glory
Captain of the sons
Firstborn of the brothers
Pure through suffering

I'm not yet done
confessing
And you've already
restored
I do not know the
way
To your highway for the
LORD

Righteousness as
waves
Descendants as
sand
Wax your Spirit
here
Your kingdom at
hand

Jesus, crowned with glory
Captain of the sons
Firstborn of the brothers
Pure through suffering


Isaiah 48:11, 18-19; 49:22-23; 50:6-7 
Hebrews 2:5, 2:16, 5:8
Colossians 1:12 

Keeping up with the Kingdom

"Then He said, 'What is the kingdom of God like?  And to what shall I compare it?  It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.'

And again He said, 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.'"
Luke 13:18-21

Exponential Multiplication

That's what the Kingdom of God is like.  It is reaching everywhere, it is penetrating everywhere.  Not because we are credited as having taken it, but because that is the nature of God's love.  God's love as expressed in the gospel of Christ and in His miracles and transformations and authoritative power is infectious.  It is a reaction that changes people, just like yeast creates a reaction that makes dough rise.  It spreads quickly from one group to the next, along lines of community belonging.  Once we have seen our closest friends or family in our lives be changed by Jesus, the stark change, the hunger for more of God cannot be contained.

So the question isn't how quick or successful the yeast or mustard seed is, by its nature.  We know it works.  We know it wins.  We know it incarnates to reach every nook and cranny of this city.  We have heard stories of how the gospel spreads like wildfire in every part of the earth.  The question is, do we unintentionally create obstacles?  Do we keep in step with God's speed?  Is what we do like a mustard seed or like yeast in bread dough?  Or do we look a little differently arranged than that?

If Jesus is "that fast" to lend authority, do we reflect that in how quickly we lend authority?

If Jesus is "that fast" to save groups of people and incorporate them in the life of God, do we ever bottleneck that flow?

I know I do, especially the second above.  Ask me what kinds of stuff I'm finding in myself as obstacles..

Kingdom Yeast in Salem and Keizer

Jesus is the "woman" in the parable of the yeast.  He is kneading the Kingdom into Salem and Keizer.  The yeast will permeate because no one will stop it.  If we don't keep up, it doesn't mean the yeast will fail to permeate.  It does reflect on us however as not being in synch with its pace and direction.  Therefore, there are real rewards and judgments that are coming our way when we do or do not facilitate the Kingdom in our city.

"And the Lord said, 'Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.  Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.  ...  [Yet] that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes."
Luke 12:42-47

This parable recalls Joseph.  What was Joseph doing while imprisoned in Genesis 39?  He dispensed daily ration of grain to the prisoners.  He knew how much grain it took to survive on.  He knew how much each person needed and he made sure everyone prospered.  This was absolutely critical training needed to later rule over all of Egypt during the famine.

A man who practices faithfulness to their neighbor in the small ways will find rulership over much more in the Kingdom.

Lent Authority is Multiplied Authority

When Christian authority is leaned upon from one Christian to another, the effect is the number of those in Christian authority increase, and the church grows indefinitely in this pattern.

Joseph's "grain" may be metaphorically equivalent to Kingdom authority.  Without authority, the Kingdom doesn't spread.  Without authority, Christians don't fully embrace their responsibility and privilege to represent God.  To be sure, every believer in Christ has authority, just as the Kingdom by nature is a tiny seed with tremendous reactionary capability.  Only when a Christian does not understand, experience or believe in his own power, does the Kingdom get stop-gapped.

How much Christian authority does it really take to successfully accomplish the Great Commission?  Does it take a lot?  Or is it more ration-sized?  If some have too much authority stock-piled in barns, does that impose a paradigm to others that they do not have enough authority?

Can we see how stockpiling authority is out of synch with God's speed of Kingdom saturation?

"But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, 'There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.'"
Luke 13:14

This is just one of a thousand gospel examples of not keeping up with the Kingdom.  This ruler got in trouble with Jesus because he imagined he might restrict growth to 6 days instead of observing that it moved contiguously on the seventh.  Whether it is in regard to days and time or any other way of life, our preconceptions of the Kingdom can stockpile authority and not see it spread to where it is truly needed most.  What about missionary power?  Can missionary potential be stockpiled?

"Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: 'The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.  And he thought within himself, saying, "What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?"  So he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.'"  But God said to him, "Fool!  This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?"  So is he who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God.'"
Luke 12:16-21

Be it Joseph's positive example from Genesis or the parable rich man's antithetical example, it is clear that God wants to save all people, and He has the means to do it very quickly and very powerfully. I've been honest enough to admit that I don't facilitate the Kingdom as I might, and I assume I'm not alone in this.

I usually come back to some basic objectives to get me on track.  Helpful tips I can share to keep up with the Kingdom:

1)  End discrimination.  Our ministry preferences have to end.  We will get stuck over and over again being out of touch with who God wants to save and where and when and how if we discriminate ministries or people to be involved in.  It's probably the hardest and most important daily decision I choose to make, so I feel it too.  We all get comfortable and begin to religiously identify who we are with what we do, as the parable of the good Samaritan teaches us.

2)  Get into a practice of observation.  Notice how passion for Jesus moves through relationships and communities.  Consider keeping track of this as the most important administrative priority.  Make phone calls.  Ask to go out to coffee.  How do routines and belonging to communities factor on the spread of the gospel?

3)  Ask God for wisdom.  God wants His people to believe in their own authority in Christ to execute the great commission to the full and to the best of their gifting and ability.  This goes for people who have known Christ all their life or are just coming around.  It may take some discipling-up or dusting off the founding documents and histories of your Christian tribe.

4)  Discard regularly.  We want to be good stewards who feed people well.  There are good things we do all the time that get us into a rut.  The rut I'm referring to is not Spiritually, inwardly, like a personal dry spell.  I'm talking about fruitfulness in illuminating the Kingdom to others.  Is anyone testifying of God's goodness through your ministry?  Are they making the choice to take up their cross because of your ministry?  Are they being loved without strings attached, if they are unbelievers or wary of God?

5)  While strategy and observation are essential, don't spend all your effort on this.  Have your own, deep, passionate, humble decimation before God.  It is the meek and those who are poor in Spirit who will inherit the Kingdom.  Remember how empty life was when you came to the gospel, and stay there.  Let the gospel dwell richly within you.  I can testify that when I have been the most decimated, God comes around in my confusion and pain to be awesome in His Kingdom.  Others will catch the yeast of the Kingdom best through your own relationship.

Still blogging?

I'm not done blogging.  Though I'm thinking of changing things up and making a brand new blog!!!

Daily Movement of God

Sanctification is still Free Grace.  Yes, I haven't fallen out or become disinterested.  I just needed to take care of a few things that required going on the DL.  Now that they're underway, I'm resurfacing.

Sanc is also still the number one fan of La Femme Nikita and all its derivatives.  Boring!

I still love the LDS, still go to the same church, still love the LORD - more than ever do I love HIM!

Go + Stay

Two posts ago I wrote an article proposing the gospel impacting the Patient Grower's Network.  That week I prayed for God to open a door, but the Holy Spirit did not open a way.  That is the way things go sometimes, and I trust God for an open door elsewhere.

If you have been reading here in the last year you may remember a post on the Juggalos in downtown Salem, and J.K.'s story.  J.K. and I are still friends and because of her I am getting to know her friends.  I love them.  I don't know how to spend more time downtown which is what it would take.  I could list the ways I'm failing.  The biggest one would be that I am not living in the rhythms of the lives of those God wants to reach.  I swoop in, spread a little love and gospel, and swoop back to Keizer.  What I am doing, stinks.

Missional does not equal just "go" ing.
Missional = GO + STAY

I love this video...



Have you ever heard of the "Person of Peace"?  God opens a door for the gospel with a Person of Peace.  It is based on Jesus' sending out of the apostles.  Jesus commanded them to preach the Kingdom only where they were welcome.  Jesus taught Go + Stay.  Mike Breen teaches in his book Building a Discipling Culture that a Person of Peace:

1.  Welcomes/receives you, listens to you
2.  Serves you

When I read that last year, it freed me up to see who it is that I need to be pouring the gospel into.

The people downtown are SO OPEN to me.  They are so friendly, so lovable.  They have shared their lives openly with me.  They are people of peace toward me.

I have good news.  After a couple weeks, the guys were talking about how everyone downtown has a nickname.  I said, "I don't have a nickname."  One of the young men named Jack looked at me and said, "I know what your name is."

"What?" I asked.

"Your name is Faith.  That's what you represent," he said.

I looked at him for some time, to read his face and his body language.  Was I the kind of faith that was overbearing?  Annoying?  Preachy?  Out of touch with reality?  I didn't see any of that in his body language.  He looked genuinely positive.  My heart swells thinking about it!

There's another older man downtown who was widowed recently.  He goes to the same spot every day for two hours in the afternoon.  He greets every person who walks by, wants to know them all.  He is a believer who wants to share the love of Jesus.  His own son was once addicted to drugs for years but today he is sober and taking care of his family because of the power of God.  He is a natural shepherd with favor of the people.  It is so encouraging to talk to him.  He is also very open to me, totally encouraged by me talking in various forms about God's apostolic impulse.

All the young men respond so positively to this older man.  He was getting out of his car across the street and they all exclaimed his name loudly as he made his way, they were so excited he had come.  He got a nickname too that day.   Jack said, "there is no one as unique as you," to him.  The older man wanted to know why he was unique.  Jack said, "because you are the only older person I know who cares to get to know people, who will actually spend time with them instead of just drive right past them."  Isn't God good?

Jack is an agnostic who thinks the bible was written by men, full of inconsistencies.  Would you pray for this young man?

Here's the rub.  I feel so inadequate.  Let me give you a list of reasons why.  I've got more than one!!  :)

1.   I am a woman.  Yes, so I'm smart-n-stuff but you never know.

2.   My faith is not as strong as I wish it was.

3.   I'm not the best discipler.  I'm more of an apostolic/prophetic than a teacher.  There are others who are gifted at teaching and I sure would like some of those to come alongside.

4.  People downtown are sometimes mentally ill, former criminals, or addicted to drugs.  How can I stay ahead of all Satan's strategies?

I guess this is something for this older man and I to figure out together.  He is struggling with trying to answer the same questions: how do we know when to trust?  I've reached out to the Union Gospel Mission to get a feel for the way things really are and the resources they have available, the real struggles they are already engaged with.

Yesterday evening I went to Sonrise Church, also known as "Stitches."  It is an interfaith discipling ministry across the street from the Salem Conference Center.  I met Bob, one of the associate pastors.  He knows some of the people at Salem First Baptist.  He showed me everything they are doing to reach the young street folk.  One girl got bored waiting for our conversation to end and she came up to Bob and just snuggled in for a hug.  This moved me.  I love this place.

They started off doing an open grill down at the bus depot several years ago.  This developed into a group doing devotions at various places on the street.  In an alley.  On the capitol steps.  Eventually they got themselves a building.

I said to Bob, "You guys are doing everything that I want to do, though I don't want to develop things toward a permanent building with permanent services.  But you've got so much resources.  You have a men's mentoring program.  You have solutions for drug addiction.  I don't have any of that."

He looked me in the eye and said, "You don't need that.  I can tell you having worked here for several years, even when it comes to something like drug addiction: it is the love that sets them free.  That's it.  And it is the only thing that will keep them free.  You've got everything you need, as long as you are filled with love from God."

Ahh!  That was a word from the LORD to me.  So I pass it on to you.  You also are adequate in Christ's love!  God IS love.  All of His Holy Spirit ministry is captured within that powerful love.

I have two women who are praying with me, we are praying for one another's opportunities to advance the gospel.  We've been doing this for a month with one woman, several months with another.  One of the ladies wants to come with me downtown!  So I am planning on picking her up with me as I go.  God is so good to answer my prayers for partnership!

I am also being mentored by the longtime ministry partner of George Patterson.  Ralph Winter, the international missions leader who coined the term "Unreached People Groups" and in so doing catalyzed a new wave of world missions, calls George Patterson one of the top three experts in the world on church growth.  I am so glad for God's favor.  I can't even tell you how special this is to me.

I don't want to do church services - I want to do what is called a people movement toward Christ.  Work within the circle of natural community that exists.  See a few come to Christ and naturally they will reach the rest of their circle.

I don't want church FOR the people.  I want church BY the people, on the street, in the places they carry out life.  Mike Breen says,

I've said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.

--  "Why The Missional Movement Will Fail" by Mike Breen

Praises:

For the young men and women who are open to me
For prayer partners who faithfully pray for the people downtown
For seasoned mentorship

Needs:

Prayer
Safety and Wisdom
Teacher(s)
Increased Faith

"Bring the Better Wine"

The Miracle of Water Turned to Wine

Yesterday I was shopping at Walmart for shirts. At the checkout I was cracking jokes with the clerk. She asked me if I wanted to keep the hangers. She said people use them for all sorts of things. I said, "and I suppose I could keep the price tags as... bookmarks."

There was a little old woman in her eighties who had finished putting her things in her basket ahead of me who came back to the clerk. She interrupted us and said, "I did all of that and forgot to pay you so I could take ice out of the ice chest on the way out the door. Can I still do that?"

The clerk said, "Yes," but did not explain how. So the little old lady stood there for a while waiting to figure out how to do that. She finally realized and asked, "Do I have to stand in line again then?" The clerk replied in the affirmative. She kindly began to wheel her basket around to about five patrons deep a line.

I said, "I'll buy the ice," but she didn't hear me as she headed around to the line. So the clerk told the lady, "she is going to buy you ice ma'am."

The little old lady said from the back of the line, "Oh; well, I was going to buy five bags of ice."

By now the 5 patrons-deep line of people knew what was going on and was listening.

The clerk had told me they were only $1.85 a bag so I said, "It's no problem I can do that."

So the clerk ran up the bill and I paid for it. The clerk said, "Ma'am you don't have to wait in line, you can go get your ice. It's paid for."

She wheeled back around and came up and said to the clerk and to me, "Thank you."

I replied saying, "Bless you."

She turned to leave and then turned back one more time to add, "The ice is for my grandson's wedding. He is getting married tomorrow."

"Wow," I said out loud. "Bless him too."

I heard several people in line exclaim their own version of wow.  The other people in line probably longed to rejoice with the little old lady.  I admitted to the clerk as she rolled away, "That -- was the Holy Spirit right there. I had no plans to be that awesome."

The clerk said, "It'll come back around to you."

I replied to her idea of Karma saying, "God is great."

****

I remember Jeff Vanderstelt teaching Christians "bring the better wine" to celebrations.  The miracle of turning water to wine was the first miracle Jesus did in John chapter 2.



Nice people help little old ladies. Perhaps they even do it with a belief in Karma; the hopes of some cosmic payout from an unknown god.  But only YHWH arranges care for a little old lady in such a memorable moment of her life.

The only true and living God, YHWH, used frozen ice to bless a wedding happening somewhere in Salem, today.

Luke 10:20 says,

Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

God lives even in me!  Celebration time!

How to Start a Movement

We can't just keep doing church for ourselves.

-Pastor Mark, 2008, Salem First Baptist Church

As an example, I believe that God wants to plant the gospel in the Patient Grower's Network in Keizer.  I have heard from one of my best friends, about the willing attitude toward the Kingdom of Christ, there.  What draws them together is the use of medical marijuana.  They are a new community of people who gather for education, access to doctors, friendship and fun.  It's located along Cherry Ave. and it's been incorporated for about two years now. My friend has been sharing God there and people are capable of following Jesus - however if they do, they will be keeping much of their culture.  Culture is not a bad thing - it was created by God for His glory.

SFB's Past

Perhaps you've heard that Salem First Baptist Church used to hold Russian services in their sanctuary in the 1980s? I believe their services were on Saturdays.

Perhaps you know that this same church once saw Salem's Chinese Immigrants who had come to the U.S. to build our railways, as an opportunity for church planting?  On the History of Salem First Baptist Church page you can read that the pastor's wife opened a school to teach the Chinese people English and to also teach them about God - and charged money to teach 40 pupils.  A few years ago I was part of the church's 150th celebration - how neat our church has been here for so many years!  I heard the story of what the church did incarnationally (evangelism without a program) for the Chinese.

They pushed the pews out along the walls

 and put tables in the sanctuary, 

so they could invite Chinese people in to eat dinner with them.

We've done it before.  Will we keep in step with our history of reaching out to our neighbors?  How can we push aside some of the ways we do church to make some space for outsiders?

Current Evangelism is Productive by Addition

You may say, "we keep reaching the lost.  We brought 47 adults and children to faith in Christ through Upward.  Perhaps 14 through the Easter services.  And three through the women's retreat.  That's evangelism too!"

It is evangelism, and I am immovably excited about it.  I pray all the time for Salem First Baptist to reach the lost, for souls to accept Jesus.  In preparation for the Easter services there was a list available with first names on a piece of paper during the prayer meetings.  I'd say there were 500-1000 people listed on that page.  I'm thankful for 14, but is there any way to see more come to faith than our usual annual total of about 100 individuals scattered across our various programs?

Experts in missions talk about the difference between addition, and multiplication.

George Patterson is a world-renown missionary who has written articles for the Perspectives Course being held Monday evenings in the Banquet room in Salem First Baptist.  He is also a speaker at missional community conferences such as "Verge" which I listen to.  This is because the missional movement here in the United States that has started in the last few years is built on the expertise of worldwide missions.  The things being taught in the Perspectives course are the same things contextualized for American local evangelism in the "missional movement."  How trendy is the missional community movement?  About as trendy as modern missions around the world.  If you take the course you will see how painstakingly mission theory changes through time, for the sake of winning the lost successfully.  Yes; they trend too.

In an interview here, I've duplicated what Patterson says for American evangelism at minute 35 of the video. In it the interviewer asks George what word he would have for American pastors and church members:

A word to pastors and church members in United States, to their role in the great commission.
It is a declining movement, and they need to make some drastic changes.

1. Step Number One. What I do is I talk to Pastors and say "the challenge is right from Jesus [the Great Commission]. Let's get together and discern. There are fields around us, that are ripe and ready for harvest. Now obviously Pastor, if your church hasn't been growing well, you're not working in that field. So let's look at some of the other fields around us. Can we do that? Will you obey Jesus and do that?" (The Pastors will all say, "yes.")    Yeah - let's do that. It's totally Biblical, it's what Christ told us to do, it's what the Spirit enabled them to do. Let's open our eyes a little wider; let's look around. Ok.... We want to look for the fields that are ready to harvest. Now let's find them. We probably don't have to drive more than ten miles. We're probably going to have to shift down to a lower class, less-affluent, less-educated level, too. Alright, let's do that. And that's step number one. 
2. Step Number Two, is to ask "What kind of church would be easily reproduced or multiplied in that environment?" Invariably they are much poorer, so our type of big church stuff can't be produced to the same level there. Give them a good pattern to follow.  Let's make an analysis, it's fun. Let's look at the New Testament and see how it was done there. We have good patterns to follow. 
3. Step Number Three, find the people in your congregation who are gifted. God has promised that within all congregations there are people who are gifted as the "sent ones" with the apostolic gifting. There there are your feet. Find them! Talk to them about these ripe fields. Talk to them about what the church would be like there. Turn 'em loose. Give them adequate preparation from a mentor who has experience in that type of church, and turn 'em loose. And so you'll have two tracks within your church. And then you keep doing the same thing with the same people who know church as it is as they've come to expect. But don't push those people out to do cross-cultural work. You let those who are satisfied with the status quo continue to be pastored beside still waters. Ask for their prayers, ask for their blessings, love them, and they maybe will help you financially. And, so what? Get the focus off a non-responsive segment of the population and onto the fields as Christ commanded.   Analyze what has to be done, and send out the workers to get it done.  It's very simple and often has to be done with non funded workers, out of their own pocket money who will go and just do it. Don't need expensive procedures, just follow the New Testament pattern.  

- George Patterson

But maybe you're thinking about Salem First Baptist starting various indigenous church plants all over Salem and you're thinking, "I'm not sure I'm totally on board with this."  Maybe you like getting individuals to come to church, only, and you believe this is what the local church should be doing.  It's a fair question.  One that missionaries have been grappling with and still are grappling with out on frontiers around the world. Here is another article explaining the difference in outreach, between seeking individuals to become attenders and seeking whole people communities to follow where they already are.  This also is from the readings for the Perspectives course.  You can read the full thing here.

American Christians worship in churches that are a collection of fragments of families and various ethnic backgrounds. So when they first got to the mission field they were unprepared to plant a culturally relevant church within a cohesive ethnic group. Instead they focused on individuals, largely ignoring the implications of the surrounding culture.
As a result, when missionaries first went out from the West, they most often began to get people saved one at a time by "extracting misfits and rebels" from their surrounding culture who then adapted to the missionary's culture. This resulted in the creation of a culturally "different" church which very few others from the surrounding people wanted to join. Dr. McGavran in his writings referred to this as the Mission Station Approach since the missionaries would live together in a common area.
Extracting individual converts is one thing we must not do if we want to see a whole people come to Christ. Donald McGavran quotes Bishop J. W. Picket, in his study Christ's Way to India's Heart, as saying,
"The process of extracting individuals from their setting in Hindu and Moslim communities does not build a Church. On the contrary it rouses antagonism against Christianity and builds barriers against the spread of the Gospel. Moreover, that process has produced many unfortunate, and not a few tragic results in the lives of those most deeply concerned... It has sacrificed much of the convert's evangelistic potentialities by separating him from his People. It has produced anemic Churches that know no true leadership and are held together chiefly by common dependence on the mission or the missionary."
Must We Join Another Race to Be Saved?
McGavran goes on to say that converts achieved through extraction "felt that they were joining not merely a new religion, but an entirely foreign way of living--proclaimed by foreigners, led by foreigners and ruled by foreigners...In many parts of the field it was as psychologically difficult for a person to become a Christian as it would be for a white man in South Africa to join a Negro Church knowing that his children would intermarry with the black children. The person not only became a Christian, but he was generally believed to have joined another race." Our job is to give people access to the Gospel without putting up unnecessary cultural barriers for them to cross over.
McGavran continues, "People Movements have five considerable advantages. First, they have provided the Christian movement with permanent churches rooted in the soil of hundreds of thousands of villages. For their continued economic life they are quite independent of Western missions. They are accustomed (unfortunately too accustomed) to a low degree of education. Yet their devotion has frequently been tested in the fires of persecution and found to be pure gold. They are here to stay. They are permanent comrades on the pilgrim way.
They have the advantage of being naturally indigenous. In the Mission Station Approach the convert is brought in as an individual to a pattern dominated by the foreigner. The foreigner has set the pace and the style, often to his own dismay. But such denationalization is a very minor affair in true People Movements. In them the new Christians seldom see the missionary. They are immersed in their own cultures. Their style of clothing, of eating and of speaking continues almost unchanged. Their churches are necessarily built like their houses--and are as indigenous as anyone could wish. They cannot sing or learn foreign tunes readily, so local tunes are often used. Thus an indigenous quality, highly sought and rarely found by leaders of the Mission Station Approach churches, is obtained without effort by People Movement churches.
People Movements have a third major advantage. With them 'the spontaneous expansion of the Church' is natural. Spontaneous expansion involves a full trust in the Holy Spirit and a recognition that the ecclesiastical traditions of the older churches are not necessarily useful to the younger churches arising out of the missions from the West. New groups of converts are expected to multiply themselves in the same way as did the new groups of converts who were the early churches. Advocates of spontaneous expansion point out that foreign-directed movements will in the end lead to sterility and antagonism to their sponsors, and that therefore the methods now being pursued, here called the Mission Station Approach, will never bring us within measurable distance of the evangelization of the world."

It turns out that when individuals are won, and they start learning how to live life in a local assembly they often largely exit their culture and family and community where they used to live. This is what a "Stationary" mission subtly communicates as the proper way of life for believers, which is to draw them out.  To new converts of this method it is an advantage to live life in the church because they never really fit in society anyway. I don't know if I, personally, fit the "misfit of society" stereotype... now I wonder if I did! McGavran even points out that there are a few jobs on the Mission compound to give a means of self-support to the converts, but because the jobs are few, older converts actually discourage new converts so they won't have competition for their job in the missionary compound! What a conviction that is on life in the local assembly, where there are only a few positions of leadership and everybody wants to make an impact, not knowing where else they could find work for the LORD!

scattering our people for mission in Salem

But if a whole hobby club, or small community, or extended family out in Salem somewhere, together decides to follow Christ because one or two of its members in continuous relationship and good standing incarnate a changed life for Jesus, how powerful is that? Thus the goal is not to draw converts toward the mission station and pull them out of the vastly unevangelized frontier. The goal is to create an entire people-movement toward Jesus by keeping individuals who are newly saved in their normal places of community and family.

Does this make sense??  I'm doing my best to explain what it means to become a missional church.

Their impact is so natural because they will be in the relationships they have already been living with those people, all their lives. It is SO MUCH BETTER than a missionary who acts and speaks Christianese coming in and telling people how to be like them in absolutely everything (mixed in with the message to pursue Kingdom life).

I think about this when I think about the 14 response cards after the 500-1000 people out there our church prayed would become saved through the Easter services.  McGavran concludes,

"Desirable as spontaneous expansion is, it is a difficult ideal for the Mission Station Approach churches to achieve. They might be freed from all bonds to the Western Churches, they might be convinced that they had all the spiritual authority needed to multiply themselves, they might be filled with the Holy Spirit and abound in desire to win others to Christ, and yet--just because they form a separate people and have no organic linkages with any other neighboring people--they would find it extremely difficult to form new churches. In People Movement churches, on the contrary, spontaneous expansion is natural. Thus we come to the most marked advantage of these movements.

We don't often have to learn a new language or come to learn extreme cultural differences in order to win a few converts here in Salem, Oregon. The kind of differences we need to cross come from the fact that not everybody is comfortable with studying a bible. Or dressing up for church. Or they have a different avenue for medication which is use of marijuana. These are smaller differences and we can't confuse a call to enter the Kingdom with the call to superficial uniformity and Spirit-devoid morality. When it comes to winning souls, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You must choose between planting the gospel, or planting everything else.

So We Let Them Keep Their Own Communities.  
Does This Mean We Never See The Fruit?

Seeing the fruit.  That's one reason we want them inside Salem First.  What are some other important reasons we gather together at one time?  Gathering ourselves back to SFB is just as important as scattering ourselves into pockets of the city.

Salem First Baptist Church has a vision to start a third service. Are 100 new converts annually going to be sufficient to populate a third service?  Perhaps.  What if we shared the gospel in natural communities in the Salem area and the communities began to believe? They would need a place to congregate. What if the Islander immigrants began following Jesus and they needed a place to congregate? We CAN keep in line with our history. We can see whole congregations of the Chinese, Russian, or other varieties of peoples "come to church." If we went into their services, we might not understand the language of their sermons. Or their music. Or their ways of social interaction. And that would be ok, wouldn't it, as it once was?

Would you give up a little cultural comfort through insisting that everyone in Salem be comfortable growing in our kind of church... and trade that for filling our sanctuary with additional services?

Gathering is just as biblical as missional communities

Imagine if every few months, we held a super-service!  We gather to be encouraged by what God is doing on the universal scale. This would be a special service where all the cultures and communities were represented in worship and language in one combined, super gathering. I think we would all believe in God a little more than we do today. I think God would be a little more glorified than He was before, too. Yes, we should long to gather together into One Body, for that is what we are. But it needs to be ok to be separate out of cultural distance, as well.

We're Losing Salem Without Moving Preservationally 
Through Its Cultural Uniqueness

Salem First Baptist's vision is "A growing community of followers of Christ who are being transformed into His likeness and reshaping culture to reflect God's heart."

You may prefer to see salvations occur individual by individual.  Increasing by addition, instead of by multiplication.  You may say, "Other churches in may close their doors here locally, but as long as we keep reaching individuals like we have, we will survive the impending churchlessness in America."

That may be true.  Even if SFB stays open, other churches will still close.  We don't want other churches to close!  If they do, we also lose!  With a shrinking witness, I'm afraid the animosity and confusion toward Church in the surrounding culture will only intensify.  There is only one way to change the culture.  It is from within the culture.  It will not be by maintaining our "safe base" like in the game of tag that our children love to play.  It will have to be by finding indigenous representatives of all the pocket communities in this city and developing them to do and be the church where they are, so that all of them can know Jesus in a way that makes sense in the culture they have.




I'm looking for someone, just one person who feels this way about the PGN.  I don't know what the mission looks like, but I know God wants to plant the gospel there.   There is only one reason why I'm still blogging about missional opportunities...

"Adullam"

In the last couple years this passage has become dear.  It is my testimony. 1 Sam. 22:1-2,

David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.  And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.  So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

David was a fugitive.  He never could remain in Jerusalem long so he became a nomad.  For a long time he was alone except for one friend.  And then all of a sudden one day, people saw it for something more and they became a family.

1658, Claude, Landscape with David at the Cave of Adullum

If Sundays and Wednesdays at church are Jerusalem, the remainder of the week is the cave of Adullam.

Life Beyond Jerusalem

I haven't been satisfied by inviting friends to church.  It isn't enough.  When a person responds, "yes I'll come," sometimes they have come and never heard the gospel.  Sometimes they may have heard it but they seemed not sure why they should think the gospel was significant to them.  I refused to just "let them go."  If they didn't want to come to church, I told them the gospel.  Sometimes while standing on the sidewalk outside our home, or wherever else was convenient.  I wanted them to understand this invitation He gives to see Him as real in our life.

Sometimes they would say, "Yes I believe that," but they didn't seem to respond at the level of their soul.  I could have just let them go, again, but my concern that they understand what Jesus has done, and it moved me to try to invite-in the wonder of God.

Finally, some started seeing Jesus for themselves.  Which was wonderful!  And yet I should not be surprised!  "So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."  But they would come to church and feel weirded out by one aspect or another.  They think that they can't be Christians unless they do everything we do.  Which is just not true.

So I have ended up showing people how to live for the Kingdom, or at least doing my best to testify about that, inviting them the way Jesus invites me daily.  To not worry about whether they understand worship music, and not worry about bible studies which are overwhelming like homework, or not worry about why their clothes are different than most everyone else.

If anyone's leading, they lead me.  I want to know as much as they do how to see a viable Jesus outside of Sundays and Wednesdays.  These unchurched Christians are largely available and interested to play around with what following Jesus looks like outside of those structured times.

I like them better than I like myself.  They know how to take care of people like a real family.  They know what freedom ought to smell and look like.  Most of all they are SERIOUS about lavishing grace on broken people even if they have to do it in an earthly manner till they meet the means of grace in the person of Jesus.

They aren't bogged down by years of thinking about church like I do and so they bring an awareness of life with the King that I would never have noticed otherwise.  In fact there has been such success in seeing the King outside of Sundays and Wednesdays that now several longtime churched Christians, and even the de-churched, are purposely joining the rest-of-the-week band.  The harvest is plentiful.  Where?   Perhaps for Americans, the question isn't where but WHEN.  The harvest is plentiful during the rest-of-the-week, when people are eager to see the King, come, in their very existence.

This is my testimony: It is possible to follow Jesus and not fit into the typical experiences of going to church as we know it.

Indeed: THERE ARE MANY MORE WHO CAN FOLLOW JESUS THAN THOSE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND OUR WAYS OF DOING CHURCH, than we could have dreamed.  They just need someone to help them seek the Kingdom with vitality, in their own way of living life!  All their sin issues can be and are being conquered by the same Holy Spirit.

The "unchurched" have a King, too.  This King is the same as everyone else's.  He leads them with the same vitality as He leads those who attend Sundays and Wednesdays.  My passion is still, that the unchurched would come to church.  Some may be able to bridge that gap to perceive their place in a regular church service, eventually, while some never will and that's ok.

Why do I suggest that there is some invisible wall forcing me to juggle life between the unchurched and the churched?  Only because of one reason: I invite people to come to church, and they don't see Jesus right away, for some strange reason.

This is a challenge to develop myself as missionary.  The problem isn't who I've invited, the problem isn't my church.  It's that they need someone who will be a gap-stander.

Perhaps that what the discontented saw in David: a true ruler over the City, yet one who had legitimacy in life as an outsider.

I myself love church on Sundays and Wednesdays, but I cannot get myself to forget those who do not.  As David one day finally rested, I pray too that I and the people who I share life with can come and experience the joy of being gathered together with other saints.  There is one body, one baptism, and Jesus has took the dividing wall and abolished it through His body.

I long for those reading here to meet some of these.


Note: 'Adullam' is the name of the church started by Matt Smay and Hugh Halter.  I became familiar with the story of their church.  Recently I attended their pre-conference track in Texas.  Then recently I revisited this passage and that name, 'Adullam,' popped right out in my attention.  "Yeah!" I thought with a twinge of jealousy - they are experiencing a similar movement for God, as they found their namesake in this passage.

Imbue & Infuse

Christians are not like computer processors.  Yet they come to church and get the latest download, of information, and go home.  It is like a mainstreamed variety of Gnosticism as my friend Tim pointed out.  It is the belief that having the right knowledge will save.

What we find is that history can repeat itself.  All knowledge and no structures in church life for integration produces a people who know a lot and have no lifestyle to reflect what's in their mind.  They called it pharisee.

infuse: to instill a quality

Do not be deceived.  There is only one exam of whether we know Christ.  It is the highest biblical depictions of a life well lived.  Remember that in all Israel, there was no man who was like a son.  There was no heir.  Christ came as the God and Man to be the image for all of us, by grace through faith.  This image is to be infused, imbued, into our being.

imbue: to inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality

We need life paired with life in order to attain this.  We need to give Christians permission and time to think of church life together outside of the inner track of a few who put together our activities of knowledge-dispensing.

I want to be a full-color Christian.  Everything counts.  I need God to color me, to permeate me, to give me what I need.  I need Christians outside of Sundays and Wednesdays to bring me to life in God.  It is time to let down the walls and let friends in.  Let them come in and make something true-colored in application.

when blue showed up, yellow was never the same

The Image of Jesus...

Imbued, Infused Together,

By Grace,

Through Faith.

THE COLOUR OF MY LOVE by Paul Ryan

Ill paint my mood in shades of blue
Paint my soul to be with you
Ill sketch your lips in shaded tones
Draw your mouth to my own

Ill draw your arms around my waist
Then all doubt I shall erase
Ill paint the rain that softly lands on your wind-blown hair

Ill trace a hand to wipe out your tears
A look to calm your fears
A silhouette of dark and light
While we hold each other oh so tight

Ill paint a sun to warm your heart
Swearing that well never part
That's the colour of my love

Ill paint the truth
Show how I feel
Try to make you completely real
Ill use a brush so light and fine
To draw you close and make you mine

Ill paint a sun to warm your heart
Swearing that well never part
That's the colour of my love

Ill draw the years all passing by
So much to learn so much to try

And with this ring our lives will start
Swearing that well never part
I offer what you cannot buy
Devoted love until we die