Tag: church

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God rattles the religious?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

”When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men!“ ‭‭Acts‬ ‭5‬:‭33‬-‭35‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The high council, made up of smart, well-bred, wealthy, powerful, RELIGIOUS men were furious! And that anger pushed them to yet another evil, demonic decision – let’s kill these guys as well.

An Angel of the Lord, not only miraculously freed the imprisoned apostles, but told them to get back out there and tell the people the truth – the word (rhéma) of life. Under direct orders from God, they obey and this re-ruffles the feathers of the Sanhedrin (the senate of the Jewish political system). How could the religious get on the wrong side of God Himself? This council of men supposedly worked FOR God, representing His will and His ways.

The Jewish people had a long history of those who would lead them. First it was just Moses, speaking on behalf of God. The people grumbled and complained about him and God had holes swallow some of them up and diseases ravage their bodies until they said they were sorry. Then judges, Godly men AND women (Deborah) to lead and manage the massive 12 tribes of Israel. But Israel wanted a king. So God gave them Saul. There was hundreds of years of kings, some good, but many corrupt and evil. Then, after the last king, Zedekiah, it was the prophets, spokesmen for God. Almost all of them were murdered. Then nothing. No one leading. Silence from heaven, God just quit speaking and quit sending people to guide the nation. So where did this council, this Sanhedrin senate come from?

I believe this council, this “synedrion,”Greek for “sitting together,” came together out of Moses original plan to assemble a group 70 men to help hear the issues, complaints and problems of the people. So, along with Moses it equals 71 men. This group, now exclusively made up of rabbis, scribes and legal experts made up the New Testament’s senate over Israel. There were of course several disagreeing factions even within the Sanhedrin, some known as Pharisees and Sadducees – based on their deeply held theology and theories about God. It was rare for the whole group to agree on anything! Yet, when it came to power, control and upholding the law of God (as they interrupted that law) they were in unity.

Their interpretations of God’s law got so out of control, so filled with anger and judgment, showing no mercy, that they used their interpretation as the standard by which they killed their own promised Messiah. They killed the God they worked for! It makes sense then, if they were to protect their version of the law, they would have to eliminate all challenges and kill all rebels. They thought they put this “false messiah” rebellion, this coo to rest by killing its leader, Jesus. Gamaliel states this himself, there were others who tried and failed. Once the leader was killed, the followers faded. But not with this one, this Jesus, He was different. Gamaliel recognized, it could continued to grow, he said, “But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!” Oh, how true that is!

Reminds me a little bit of the current factions and disagreements in the big “C,” Church today. In this environment of heresy hunting, cancelling pastors right and left, and pursuing a social media trial and conviction to bury ministries, it feels like we’ve got our own self-righteous, self-declared Sanhedrin all over again. It’s a big black eye on the Church of Jesus, I can tell you that much. It’s embarrassing to watch or hear the juicy gossip, the viral podcasts of those who have fallen or been publicly flogged. Yet, in the midst of us behaving badly, chasing religious zealots or modern day Pharisees, Jesus’ Church keeps going.

The Church of Jesus beats the odds, comes through triumphant and miraculously emerges without spots or wrinkles! Why? Because Jesus said it would! And, despite our internal, self consuming drive for perfection or our interpretation of keeping the NEW COVENANT – God continues to bypass the religious denominations and pours out His Spirit on ALL flesh, rescuing and redeeming thousands of people we deemed irrelevant or disreputable. Men and women leaders of the Church, take care what you are planning to do to these Pastors or ministries! You may find yourselves fighting against God.

Prayer

Dad,
Oh, what a time to be alive! What a time to see you move and miraculously rescue us, despite our differences, our theological theories. How exciting to know that You are in control and You never fail! How humbling to know that we are still just broken humans slowly being mended by Your grace. Help us Oh Lord – Your Kingdom come, Your will be done! Amen.

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The simplicity of rhythm together.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭46‬-‭47‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Yes, the beginning of the Church started with a big event! The powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit and Peter finding his voice and the converging of his purpose brought thousands to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior. Then the Church got to work doing what? Running outreach events and evangelistic campaigns? No, the Church got down to creating simple rhythms of gathering together and doing life together. Of course there will always be opportunities for big events where hundreds, maybe thousands come to follow Jesus. But the Church’s most powerful witness is found in the members being like Jesus and living in unity.

In the very next chapter, Luke shows us that Peter and the other Apostles began doing the same miraculous works that Jesus did. And, the Church continued to meet in simplicity.

The Church today finds itself in a disruptive, disunited state. Trust in all sectors of society has plummeted and the Church is no different. People have lost confidence in leaders because of too many lies, too many broken promises and too much social news-spin to make reality and themselves look to good to be true. And with that the Church has lost its foundational simplicity of gathering to worship, meeting in homes for communion and meals and being in the Word of God together.

God is still at work to bring about the same endgame that Peter spoke of verses 17-21. Today, we too must be at work to return to what is healthy for us as followers of Jesus. To be resilient in our faith, restorative in our reconciliation with one another and un-offendable to focus on Jesus and not our faults.

Prayer

Dad,
Wow! What a day that must have been. Amidst all the social and political chaos of those days, your Word went out in power and transformed people’s lives as you launched the Church. We have similar local and global problems today. And we need you to pour out your Spirit on all people once again. But we also need help, as your Church, to be who we were destined to be; your bride without spot or wrinkle. Help us come home, returning to the original plan of simple gatherings and doing life together.

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Blood much thicker than water.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.” ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Peter is a family man. He was married and possibly had kids. The Chosen series portrays Peter and his wife as having a tragic miscarriage, maybe so.

Here in his letter to the churches he writes about how family (wives and husbands) should behave, then naturally talks about how the Church should behave. Some churches, especially as they age, seem to gain a reputation of treating their own members worse than their own blood family. Peter doesn’t mention it, but it is a Biblical truth. The church, the body of Christ does share blood! They share the blood of Christ that washed and cleaned up each and every one of us who believe. So, as followers of Christ, His blood is way thicker than water!

Peter states the obvious that is often missed or purposely ignored in “the Church.” This was true then and it’s just as true today. The family of God should be of one mind, a word that speaks of harmony or frequency, no sharp dissonance in our words and behaviors towards each other. Then Peter uses one of the 23 “one another’s,” mentioned in the New Testament. He writes, sympathize with each other. Have a shared passionate suffering as though you were mourning together. Peter couples that word with the Greek word, “eusplagchnos,” which root word, “splagxnon,” is a medical term. Splagxnon are the visceral organs! Our “bowels” as they exercise positive gut-level empathy.

We must get away from treating each other so awful that it’s worse than what one faces in the culture of the world! He admonishes the Church to BE tender, BE humble. Then lays on the tough part, DO NOT RETALIATE! Don’t give evil for evil or insult for reviling, abuse.

But Peter, that’s exactly what we do! We were hurt badly, so we MUST hurt back! We were treated horribly, so we must return the favor! We don’t need to bless them, we need to teach them a lesson. They need a lesson, not a blessin’. People shouldn’t be mean and vicious in Church, but if they are, we will give it back to them a thousand times worse because it’s what they deserve!

This is why the Church can be such a difficult place to gather together because we’ve used the Bible as an excuse to judge and condemn each other. When we treat each other horribly, we are NOT behaving Biblically. Forgive, reconcile, keep no records of wrong! Peter begs us to employ God’s method of behavior towards us, “pay them back with a blessing,” and MEAN IT! Don’t fake a blessing, make it real. This word, “blessing” is the word Eulogy. You know, saying good words at someone’s funeral. Use the eulogy, speaking good words back, when someone is speaking vile about you. Find good in them. Find good in what God thinks of them. Then, speak it back and eulogize (bless) them. We’ve got to fix this about Church. We’ve got to start being Biblical instead of vomiting our supposed righteous indignation all over the family of God. It starts with us, let’s do it God’s way when we gather!

Prayer

Dad,
You know I hate the way we treat each other in Church, when we gather as the family of God, followers of Jesus. I am at blame as well. You know I’ve always hated it since I got deep into the culture of the church and saw what goes on behind the wizard’s curtain, otherwise known as “church leadership.” Sadly, I wanted to keep the young in age or in faith, far away from the inner workings of the church because it no longer looked like Jesus. We’ve got to do better, we’ve got to be better. We desperately need you to correct us, help us stay open and tender. Absolutely forgive us for misunderstanding the application of grace and truth by using power instead of humility. Wash our mouths out with your Spirit soap of mercy and make us clean. Amen.

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God’s spiritual agenda.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever. He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The Lord frees the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the godly. The Lord protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭146‬:‭5‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Ezra writes about what people have when they trust in and depend on the God of Jacob. They have a helper. Ezra uses a unique form of the word “blessed” here. They are blessed (esher), but it’s the Hebrew root word that becomes interesting. They are “ashar” to go straight, go on, advance. People who have the same God that rescued Jacob from his own bad decisions, his own manipulative, self-serving, grab-what-you-can and can-all-you-grab lifestyle are given the blessing of a pass.

When our hope, our tested and examined look at our future, is placed in God we are shown a way through, even when we can’t quite see it at the time. Ezra pens this beautifully, restorative phrase. It is timeless and worth remembering and repeating – even if it’s just to ourselves. God “keeps every promise forever.” Then Ezra lists off the kind of work that God is constantly up to.

He gives justice to the oppressed and hungry. He frees prisoners. He opens blind eyes. He LIFTS those weighed down. He loves the godly and protects foreigners. God cares for orphans and widows. Lastly, God frustrates the plans of the wicked.

Do you ever hear about that God in social media, shows, movies or podcasts? No. God is depicted as old, disconnected and for sure hates people just having fun. What a bunch of Shhhhhaving Cream!

God has been seriously misrepresented. Look carefully at that list of what God cares about and how He makes a way, makes a pass for people. You should see what the Church, followers of Jesus should be about as well. It’s what we should stand up for, not against.

Our responsibility to be involved in the things God cares about are listed in this and many other Psalms. We too should be about justice, about food, about prisoners. We too should be opening the eyes of the blind, lifting those weighed down, protecting foreigners among us and caring for widows and orphans! We can be way makers, opening a pass, helping advance the underserved. When we do, we reflect God’s goodness and put hope into the hearts that need it the most. Ezra’s words still challenge me today.

Prayer

Dad,
In this inspiring and challenging Psalm, I see what we (The Church) can and should be about. I see how we should be tending to the same needs that you care about and constantly work on to bring joy through hope – a pass, a way out to those who struggle. Please help us, as your called ones, to figure out how to not only serve people in these situations, but to flip the narrative from being politically motivated to be spiritually motivated because this is what you are about. This is a big ask God! Help us get there together.

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What Jesus saw.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God! But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” Luke‬ ‭13:10-14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus is teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. He sees a woman walking, bent over, making her way through the people. She was there to listen to the word of God on the Sabbath as well. Doctor Luke, extraordinarily writes a diagnosis IN the storyline. The woman was crippled, not from a physical cause, nor from some genetic disposition, but from an evil spirit who had wormed their way in to torture her EVERYDAY for 18 years. She had not stood up straight because of a demon messing with her for all this time – who knew? Jesus did. Jesus sees this stuff. No one else saw it. Get this, this gal was most likely a regular at the synagogue! Wait, I thought demons couldn’t stand being in church, being around the reading of God’s word? Well this one did and he had been getting away with it for a very long time.

Think about something terrible that happened 18 years ago. A broken bone that never healed. An abuse or attack on your body that no one ever knew about. You’ve carried it, bent over in soul and spirit, You’ve got a noticeable, physical limp. Or, even deep emotional limp that people can’t see. You go about your life, secretly carrying this ailment, but no one even knows about it. Jesus does. Jesus sees stuff we don’t! Jesus notices a limp, a broken heart, a damaged soul. We look around and see a woman bent over, struggling and feel pity, maybe even nicknaming her, “there’s ol’ doubled-over-Donna,” or something similar.

Jesus saw her and called her over. He made her hobble over to himself. Jesus did not want this to be a quiet, don’t draw attention to her moment. She had to shuffle over to him! No one knew the cause of her problem, they didn’t need to. Jesus, gently speaks to her and tells her she is healed of her sickness. Jesus uses this word, apoluó, release (discharge). Like Jesus was setting her free. Interestingly enough, this word is normally used in a DIVORCE context! It’s like Jesus told her and the evil spirit, “I am pronouncing a divorce from this demon! Take a hike, split, un-cleave, leave and never return – demon! Then he touched her and immediately she stood up straight.

Would you show up to church if this was going on in the service? What if you’d been tormented by physical or spiritual harassment? I’d go for that.

The synagogue leader was furious and said the wildest thing ever, “I don’t want anyone coming in here on the Sabbath to “work” a healing. You can come any of the other six days, but this day is so holy, God doesn’t want to stoop down to take time on HIS day off!” This religious guy is WHACK! The synagogue is for the sick and the healthy. And, the gathering of God’s people, the Church, is the perfect and appropriate place for the broken and the well! We should not only see hurting people as Jesus sees them, we should call them over and speak DISCHARGE from spirits or physical ailments dragging them down and holding them hostage.

Prayer

Dad,
Wow. We’ve really drifted off your ways. Our gatherings, our church services don’t even have time to really SEE people. We could have a doubled-over Donna in our church and just barely have pity, let alone have the faith to release them from their pain and tortured life. Help us God! Help us to get back to seeing things as you see them. And give us faith to make them look more like heaven than earth. The Kingdom of God is here, we should act like it.

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Seeing what cannot be seen.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​This crazy little thing called FAITH.

Seeing what cannot be seen.

Sure, that sounds ridiculous to the unbeliever of God and overly simple for followers of Jesus. It is neither ridiculous nor simple.

The author makes the case that dozens of men led a nation out of a “knowing” and a trust that God is real and knows what He’s doing. This theme of faith started with Abram on a substantial promise God made to him and all of his progeny. What is interesting is that this decision to believe was strong enough to be threaded throughout all the generational obstacles that would come.

God found an individual and that one person received the baton and kept running in spite of circumstances and zero prospect of hope. What if faith is just stubborn belief? “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own.”

In the beginning they all talked big of a “land of their own.” Hebrews admits this looks a lot like “toxic positivity.” When you’re a “wanderer,” of course you’ll speak of such crazy things as a land of your own. They even died still believing!

I like this note about Joseph, “It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.” All of these patriarchs had this phrase attached to their legacy, “it was by faith.”

What am I seeing that can’t be seen? I am seeing a massive amount of people turning to God when all the crummy cultural promises of identity, love and happiness have failed. I see a future where this generation realizes they’ve been fed huge lies and have been used in these horrible social experiments that spread faster than a virus ever could. There is coming a wave of people coming to Christ, returning to God. Will we be ready? Will the Church be ready to receive them? Our buildings will not be able to hold them all. The body of Christ MUST be bigger than our buildings. We need to be like the father that walks out to the edge of his property everyday to look for his returning son. And when he sees him in the distance, runs to him, embraced him and kissed him, welcomed him home.

What are you seeing that can’t be seen?

Prayer

Dad,
Wow, that list of men and women who saw what could not be seen is impressive. The thing I love the most is that their faith was accounted to them as righteousness! I can’t even wrap my brain around that. Their faith in your ultimate plans for all humans was somehow seen, believed and credited to them long before Jesus paid for their sins. I want to live a life faith that sees above and beyond the circumstances and struggles that surround me. And if I don’t see it in my lifetime, I want to die still believing!

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The Church responding in crisis

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.)” Acts‬ ‭11:27-28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Go Agabus! We’ve often talked about a prophetic word being an encouragement or an exhortation, keeping things uplifting or giving poignant reminders. I’ve heard it said that prophecy is more forth-telling than it is foretelling. Yet, Luke’s words attest to the fact that God still speaks to warn believers of what’s ahead. Luke also let’s us know the famine did indeed come while Claudius was in power.

What should believers do when given this kind of warning? This group started raising money to get it to Jerusalem BEFORE the need became a reality. This wasn’t some “whoa is us” kind of warning. This wasn’t a doom and gloom scenario. It was a now-that-we-know, let’s get busy response. This is a picture of how and what the modern Church should look like! A Church, led by the Spirit of God, getting future tips of what will happen and then making plans to meet the crisis head on. In their case, it was sending money.

It could have been a lot of things – sending money is great for buying, and storing ahead of time then distributing supplies afterwards.

However, the Church needs a few things for this kind of scenario to happen today: We’ve got to be people of the Spirit. We’ve got to listen to our gifted men and women whom God will speak to. We’ve got to tear down our denominational divides and be willing to come together for action. And, we’ve got to quit worrying about who gets the credit for best response and see ourselves as ONE! Basically, we must fulfill the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17 – we must be in unity!

Looking back at the Church’s response in a global pandemic, individual churches did some spectacular work and responded by collecting and distributing millions of pounds of food with a government program called farmers to families. The first round of purchases occurred from May 15 through June 30, 2020 and saw more than 35.5 million boxes delivered in the first 45 days. In total, USDA has distributed more than 167 million food boxes in support of American farmers and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and spent about $5 billion. Churches linked arms with nonprofits and had weekly distributions on their own property. The church I served on staff with, Mesa Church, had a weekly food distribution that went from May through to August in 2020. One nonprofit in Costa Mesa, called Trellis, headed up a massive, multi-nonprofit, multi-week distribution in an Ikea parking lot. It was a perfect picture of unity! We were also able to pray with families as their trunks were being filled with fresh groceries.

Yet, even in the midst of great opportunities to serve, we (the Church) still struggled with being horribly distracted by politics, conspiracy theories, and internal infighting over race, masks, vaccines and meeting indoors. Churches NEVER did shut down, never closed! Yet we squabbled over indoor services, creating unnecessary tension between being a super-spreader event and our “religious” rights to gather in a building.

This was ridiculously embarrassing on the Church! Many rallied behind churches that proudly never stopped meeting inside the building. Others stayed home and participated in church online. Still others just took the church out to meet in parks and parking lots. I thought parking lot church was the most exciting thing I’ve seen happen since the 70’s! Bottom line – we divided when we should of and could of been united! And even worse, we took our griefs and gripes to the public forum of social media and made ourselves look like fools!

As Pastors, we were not prepared to mitigate between two vocal, almost militant groups of Christians. Next time I hope, I pray that we get our love-act together and behave and serve as one.

PRAYER

Dad,
I don’t know what grieves your heart more, our sin or our inability to be united? We have done so much better in the past. We need to be better in the future. I believe the last time we had a global pandemic, the church did a better job both in serving and in coming together in agreement on what we should be doing in crisis. I think that may be some of the reasons folks aren’t returning to gather together. It may take awhile to forgive us for acting so poorly.

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Maybe you never belonged? Ouch!

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.” 1 John‬ ‭2:19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Pastor John…Apostle John, writes some pretty brutal truth in his three short letters to the Church. He’s no longer that sweet, innocent guy that leaned on Jesus’ chest at the last supper.

He’s older, wiser and has experienced the explosive growth of the early church as thousands of people believed in Christ and began gathering together for common good. He now wields truth like a well trained swordsman, and he’s deadly accurate with it. Who are these people who left? They are those who are falling away in the end times, those lured by worldly cravings or have settled to believe the lies of many antichrists. He also mentions a way that you can KNOW that things just aren’t right with you and God – it’s a compelling pull from the Holy Spirit. “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.”

John ties in a hard truth about our faith, belief and certainly our behavior. If we are not in fellowship with Christ, it will undoubtedly show up that we are not in fellowship with His Church.

There are statistics flooding in about the serious decline in church attendance. And there could be a good but not great argument that church attendance alone is a horrible indication or mark of a disciple. In other words, it’s very clear that you can sit in a pew or padded chair and win all the church attendance awards possible and not grow, develop or mature as a follower of Jesus at all!

However, I can tell you this NOT being in fellowship with other believers is a sure way to fall away from Christ. I hear story after story of those who had great excuses at first but then they turned into habits, which then turned into the awkward Christmas & Easter christian. The excuses were work (i’ve gotta make a living), sports (my kids must be on a team for their social development) and just tired all the time (Sunday is my only day to…. whatever fish, camp, sleep, game, bike, run, rest).

However, when I hear the truth of what happens in their life and definitely their family is this cool-to-cold passion for Jesus. There must be some correlation between ZERO fellowship with believers and little passion for the love of their life – Jesus! Folks aren’t becoming monks to drive out to the desert to pray and fast on Sundays, they’re just dropping out of the body of Christ.

John’s warning was an “end of days” sign then and it’s certainly true today. So, even though church attendance is a bad way to gauge maturity, it’s also a great way to watch a “falling away” in progress. I would be the first one to acknowledge there have been missteps, mistakes and hurtfulness from within the church. However by now you realize that’s because we’re human – not because the gathering of God’s people is bad! Our relationship with Jesus is primary. The church is THE way for our growth and gospel witness to form us into the image of Christ. It’s where we practice our faith, learning to love, pray, worship and be challenged by hearing God’s word TOGETHER.

Christianity is a cooperative community not a solo lifestyle. I would say you shouldn’t do the believer’s walk alone. John would say you CANNOT do it alone.

PRAYER:

Dad,
My heart aches for the sins of the church in our past. The way we judged, bickered, fought and abused our authority. But I’m also broken for those who would use those hurts as an excuse to walk away from you! I pray for unity. I pray for reconciliation among the family of God. I pray for a restored fellowship of believers. I pray that we would be one, just as you are one.