“Jesus’ Gospel reveals the primal, disruptive, inspiring, terrifying, shocking, hopeful worlds and ways of a revolutionary who seeks to overthrow the status quo in nearly every conceivable way.”

-Brian McLaren

So here’s the revolutionary [Jesus], but where’s the revolution gone? The one thing that is hardest to come to grips with is this: the gospel is here to mess up your life! Completely.Are we willing to do this? Some days I’ll say yes and step out. Other days, I bow down to the god of routine and enter his flow for my day. But if we really want revival [revolution] to happen, we must be willing to lay down all that we have to step forward into it. Whether or not Peter knew it, he left all he had behind as he joined Jesus on the open waters for a walk. He soon noticed that he didn’t have anything as he sunk. But we must come to that point of 1) seeing where we need to be {where is my Revolutionary at?} and 2) casting aside everything to join Him there {less of me and more of Him}.

These words:

primal, disruptive, inspiring,

terrifying, shocking, and hopeful…

Do they describe your life? Do they even describe your Savior? Do you want them to ?

“The greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyle. That’s what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Brennan Manning

This quote really hit me hard. We are all guilty of this. We are all hypocrites and Pharisees. We are so eager to throw rocks and judge. I know I’m guilty of this. I somehow forget that I’m in the same sin boat that all of us are in.

So what do we do to change this? The first step begins with realizing that we’ve walked fundamentally away from the mission that Christ began. We’ve built buildings to keep the good people in and the bad (undesirable) ones out. 

People in the world today see the lines we’ve drawn and realize that they’re on the other side of the fence. I remember how I used to feel when I was in Junior High. There was a cool crowd and the rest of us dregs. We were all looked down up and had our lower status constantly shoved in our faces. Sure there were kids that longed to be cool, but most of us just grew to resent the cool kids. That’s the message we’re giving the world today: “You’re not good enough.” And the world hates us for it (and I understand why).

Sure we preach Christ’s love but we don’t walk it out. We say one thing and do another. We can say “I love you” to someone but if we’re kicking him while we’re saying it - I don’t think he’ll get the point.  

So why do we act like this? Well, I think it’s because we all look for a place to be safe. Church looks safe and nice. The streets? Dirty and scary. We don’t live like God matters. Stay safe and pray he blesses us while we stay in our little boxes. But God doesn’t want us staying safe.

Sometimes I wonder, if Christ returned and dwelt among us, what the church’s reaction to Him?  What would his reaction be to the state of the church today? Would he produce fear and anger from the church leadership? Would they point out how he associates with the undesirablesand condemn him for it? Would they want nothing to do with Him? I believe that same treatment that Christ recieved from the church in the Gospels would mirror how he would be treated today (at least in North America). Am I wrong?

We live much like the Pharases. We do “good deeds” and follow the rules, but we live like God doesn’t exist. We don’t live lives like the men of Bible did. Following a wild God because we were compelled to. Becasue any existence otherwise couldn’t come close compete with it. We’ve become comfortable and decided that we’ll take the melancholy of the American Dream overshadows the call and mission of the Gospel (and Great Commission). Where is our passion for life? Do we believe Jesus when he said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Who’s living their lives to the full? Or at least who’s trying to?!?

Who believes that the power of Christ can change this word completely and without any of our help? If you believe that, then imagine that even though God doesn’t need us, he loves us and includes us in his Kindom and the advancement of it. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (Matt 11:12). I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of that last verse. It makes me feel alive. It makes me want to be one of those forceful men laying hold of the kingdom of heaven.

If you belive any of this? If anything from this stirrs within you? Then make a decision here and now to start living this out. 

If you haven’t given your life over to Christ and are interested in changing your life forever, follow this link. If you have any questions or would like to talk about anything, please feel free to email me: sdelony@yd.org

I’ve noticed a trend lately. There seems to be a shift in God’s people. I’ve ranted on how I’m tired of seeing sleepy Christians, but I’m beginning to see some people awaken. Revival needs to happen and all it takes is prayer, faith and a spark. It feels like there’s plenty of gas laying around, we just need a match. I’ve seen signs of life, just no one rousing it and shepherding it. There’s no one leading the charge.So where are you out there? Are you going to be one of the grumblers (like I am most of the time) or are you going to get on your knees to pray and then do something about it.

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I blogged a few days back about he gutter, well it’s partially influenced by the book I’m currently reading coincidentally titled “The Gutter” by Craig Gross.

The following exeprt got me thinking about how I see Jesus…

“I grew up in a Christian home and went to church my whole life, but that upbringing taught me about a Jesus who was with children and cute lambs. It was a Jesus who wore a long, spotless robe, gracefully walking around with a smile on his face, speaking of mysterious hope to the masses. This was the perception of Jesus I grew up with - a Jesus who stayed clean and vague and remote…”

For me this is the Jesus I was raised with. It was also a Jesus that didn’t beg me to follow him. It was one I knew, but didn’t feel compelled to be like. That changed for me. In my early twenties I began to see him more as the man he was, not the whitewashed icon from Sunday School. I began to see him a passionate man who was a force to be reckoned with. A man who scared the pants off the religious establishment. He was a dangerous man who knew me. He knew how I really retched still choose to love me. He still choose to die for me. I began to realize that is more was okay to be dangerous and godly -I was called to it.  I began to see Jesus as more of a William Wallace and less of a Mr. Rogers. Beginning to see Jesus for who he really was changed me. It gave me a savior to follow.

 So who is your Jesus? How do you see Him?

Over the weekend, in a talk Jerry Falwell insinuated that Hillary Clinton was the devil (Lucifer). Now, I’m not putting any validity into Faldie - he’s a joke into himself. But he does bring up an interesting question: is Hillary evil? Christian conservatives have long demonized her (and some times for good reason). She’s liberal and morally left… and she’s a Clinton!

But comparing her to the devil, in my opinion, actually underscores the capacity of Satan and falsely establishes our opinion of what evil actually is. As Christians we engage daily in spiritual warfare against an the enemy of the cross and our Lord. There is a formidable enemy. Hillary is not that enemy. As Christian we know that victory is already won, Christ has come, died on the cross and conquered death. So we know that evil doesn’t win. That’s something to put our hope in, but that doesn’t get us off the hook or pull us out of the battle that we find ourselves in.

To see Hillary (an anyone else on this earth) as the ultimate enemy is foolish and wrong. All it means to do is take our eyes off the calling, our Lord, and the one who opposes it. It forces us to focus on the wrong thing. That’s one thing that makes me sick with conservative Christians. The focus on the wrong thing. I’m not saying that abortion and the plethora of other causes that liberals push are good. What I am saying is that you can choose to fight the symptoms or the source. Fighting the symptoms leads to an endless race of putting out fires. It’s kind of like playing whack-a-mole. You squish one and then another pops up.

Now, to fight the source that’s another story. Once we focus on this, then our perspectives change. Then we find our true selves and calling and see that we are set into a battle that’s been raging on for centuries. Then we truly realize that this story isn’t all about us. Sure we’re apart of it, but it’s about our Lord. Once we have this perspective our outlook on life changes.

If we were to spend our time focused on our Lord and what he has for our lives and less on poloticizing our faith our country would be transformed. But, we would rather follow enlist a program or picket a clinic than spend time with Jesus. We would rather do things in on our own power, in our own strength, as opposed leaning on the strength and power of our Father and walking in faith. Do we even know what that is anymore?

Your thoughts?