Word of Beard

The new year is an interesting life-marker isn't it. It's this invisible line drawn in time that very strangely affects our worldview. It's an excuse for a do-over, or a second, third or fourth start at something.

It's very freeing to think that come January 1st we can actually start afresh. But it's also confining too isn't it? At the same time that we hope for a new start to our diet, we're limiting ourselves to that timeline, as if starting today would be futile.

I was reading about discipleship again and this time in relation to the new church campus plant I'm involved in. I was thinking about our Vision and Values and how they ought to connect us with Jesus on a molecular level. I was thinking about this in relation to a new year on the horizon and how I want to live and lead with clarity, at least as much as the Spirit allows in this crazy season.

In order to map out the coming year I've been convicted to view my life's Vision and Values in direct relation to the Gospel holistically. For instance, let me share my definition of each (Breen and Cockram sent me in this direction):

Vision: Gods kingdom at work in this culture through the Gospel.
Values: Gods grace at work in this body through the Gospel.

This Vision forces me to view all of ministry (personally and corporately) as the expansion of Gods kingdom here in Medina. And this expansion, penetrating the heart of this community and culture, coming solely through a practical understanding and outworking of the Gospel (to the unbeliever in Romans 1:16, and maturing believer in Colossians 1:6).

This definition of Values stirs within me a greater desire to enter into a Gospel lifestyle that applies divine grace to every relationship, situation and context in real time both within this local body and within the greater community.

Can you imagine what life would hold in the new year if I/we resolved to unite our individual and communal Vision to actual Gospel centrality on any and every front?! Our worldviews would be rocked and we might usher in the kingdom in this town with miracle and wonder.

What if our Values shifted dramatically as well. That in the new year we'd resolve not only to eat healthy or live at peace with the universe but to give grossly abundant amounts of grace to others as the Gospel demonstrates for us and demands of us. That our value system would be defined by a Gospel of grace and not unconvincing and discouraging law.

That our Vision for our lives and the Values we function within would be Gospel centered is quite simply the only way a new year resolution will come to fruition. I want to challenge us all to keep this in mind as we begin to ponder what the new year might hold.

Enjoy the journey in 2013 - in fact, why not begin now...

Read 'Building a Discipling Culture' by Breen and Cockram

Noah, James, Grace...and Me

I recently started reading through the Bible again - in fact I'm only in Genesis 9 but a few things have caught my attention, 6:8 in particular.

'But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.'
Short. Sweet. But what the...? Corruption so intense (:11-12) that even the acts of the animals had became a disappointment! How far creation had wandered from perfect design only several chapters and several hundred years earlier. This is the socio-spiritual climate Noah enters into - and yet he remained 'just', 'perfect' and even 'walked with God' (:9).

God dispensed grace on Noah. Noah's life fostered a grace-filled response from the Lord. And this when all of culture and creation were fostering judgement from the same God.

Sp now, where does a Christ follower go to dig into the application of such a thing as abundant grace here and now?

In just four verses James manages to squeeze in 10 imperatives for the Christian seeking to experience 'more grace.' Though we're imperfect, only through a deepening relationship with Christ and away from dependence on anything or anyone else (people, self, work, money, governments, desires), can we hope to experience this divine sanctifying grace of God.

Isn't it interesting as well that in order to experience God's abundant grace - something so fluid and forgiving, grace so freeing and comforting, a divine gift - that we MUST do certain things. These imperatives go against all our cultural instincts (to be free to live however we choose and still be accepted to receive this beautiful thing called grace from God). I'm not speaking of Gods grace for salvation which is free to all who repent from sin and have faith in Christ - but grace in sanctification, that which transforms us into Christ-likeness as a believer.

Now if we take into account that God is Holy and we aren't - that He created everything and is behind the perfect design of life - if we can comprehend that He alone defines truth and love and justice and mercy and grace...then we can begin to understand that we must interact with Him, through Christ, in specific ways in order for Him to interact with us. And He decides what these ways are.

What are these imperatives James lays out?

Submit: to whom? God. Great starting point.
Resist: whom? Satan and all that is evil, corrupt, anti-righteousness.
Draw near: to God - and this only after submission - a true longing for God.
Cleanse: your hands. Temple priests would ceremonially wash themselves for service as externally/physically holy (set apart for Gods work).
Purify: your hearts. This is an internal reconciliation with Gods truth and love. Thoughts, desires, motives, attitude...these are transformed in Christ-likeness.
Lament: experiencing misery at the realization of your sinful state and depravity away from God.
Mourn: an inner cry to the Lord with a broken heart for your sin.
Weep: an external display of lamenting and mourning. The overflow of a heart desiring reconciliation with God.
Let: all laughter and joy turn to gloom and sorrow. Those things that bring you pleasure, replace with mourning and weeping, know they aren't the source of or expression of this abundant grace. Only Christ is.

These 9 imperatives, these actions and positions of the heart - these are summed up in the 10th. Humility. Noah's life, to an incredibly high degree at this point (remember he was called 'just' and 'perfect') resembled this list in James. Of course Christ hadn't come in the flesh in Noah's time, but the same holy character that is expected in the Christian was expected in the saints of old.

Humility: the act of bringing oneself low in relation to Christ. Acknowledging his supremacy over all things as noted in Colossians 1:15-20. Professing his Lordship over not just the world...but you and I personally (Romans 10:9-10). Confessing the work of the cross in the face of your demons (read Romans 8).

Noah received a special grace in a difficult season. He didn't demand it, he simply lived a life that fostered that response/blessing from the Lord (though let's not idolize Noah...a year or so after the flood he too abuses this grace).

All of us experience a taste of Gods divine grace, life itself displays this. Disciples of Christ experience and understand the spiritual aspects of this grace through Christ. Maturing believers experience this all the more.

I'm processing these imperatives of a grace-filled life...and it's intense. I receive more than I will ever understand from Christ. Though I also tend to offer to others immeasurably less than I ought.