Freedom

Freedom

Chesterton writes, “According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free” [Orthodoxy, Doubleday, 1959, p. 78]

The right to freedom

The right to freedom inspires breadth of vision. However, if not bedded in a strong Christian ethic, the right to dispute, and to question, unravels at worse to revolution, and at best, to various forms of relational deconstruction. In contrasting the French with the British in the 19^th century, Burke described the Christian ethic that gave rise to human rights. Speaking of the British mind constrained by Christianity, he wrote, “They despise experience as the wisdom of unlettered men… They have the ‘rights of men’“ [Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1955, p. 66]. A Christian ethic, in the words of Holland-Rose, tends towards “tentative methods and to rejecting wholesale schemes” [J. Holland Rose, William Pitt and National Revival, George Bell & Sons, 1911, p. 7]. At the heart of British thinking in the 18^th century was openness toward the ideal of justice, and a mistrust of untested moral values [MQ, p. 47]. This ethic opened the way for radical groups in mid-seventeenth century England, such as the Levellers, to emphasize democratic reform. They opposed various forms of oppression. The existing sociological conditions at the time seeded the modern values of freedom and human right. Barry Reay, in his book, “The Quakers and the English Revolution”, describes that a broad based church existed, that “permitted a wide range of opinions”, and that religious tolerance was “de facto rather than de jure”, in other words, already happening in reality, rather than by law [Reay, The Quakers and the English Revolution, Temple Smith, 1985, p. 15]. He stated also that with the increasing presence of wholesale challenges, expressions of faith and thought at the time were exploded into hundreds of emerging independent and semi-independent congregations. We ask: is there a price to pay for this freedom?

The price for freedom

The price for freedom instills the depth of values that sustains growth! Freedom of expression and the ‘right to know’ in North America did not come cheap! We have mainly British believers to thank. Mid-seventeenth century persecution of the Quakers, Anabaptists, and other radicals, and after them, the British press, saw many pilloried, and imprisoned. Supporters of freedom in 17^th century America did not fare much better. Again, many were punished by imprisonment, whippings, branding, boring through the tongue, banishment, or even death. In effect, the Quakers in England had led the way with their rejection of religious rituals, and governmentally imposed tithing. Reay stated, “Quakers proclaimed their message in churches and churchyards, and pinned pamphlets to market crosses… It seems that several had been in conflict with landlords in the 1640s, over their opposition to excessive rents and manorial services. Others had been refusing to pay tithes. From the start, the Quaker movement was a movement of political and social as well as religious protest” [Reay, 1985, pp. 8-9]. At the root of the claim for individual freedom lies the Christian ethic. The Christian ethic provoked the collective request for freedom from rule, and for individual ownership in 1215 that resulted in the Magna Charta. In the words of Rodney Stark, it was a moment where “did cross and sword combine”. He explains how this particular Christian act of legitimating private property began “taming the state and to give the English individual freedoms and secure property rights far beyond anything known on the continent of Europe at that time” [Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason, Random House Inc., 2005, p. 80]. English capitalism’s unprecedented development was the result of the “unparalleled levels of freedom” they enjoyed [Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason, Random House Inc., 2005, p. 158]. The Christian ethic in some ways makes it safer for the nonconformist to flirt with, but not to fall into anarchy! It reconciles opposites. It administers to diversity. It teaches circumspection. To a Christian nonconformist, social and religious interaction is intertwined. He learns to administer to conflict from early on in family life, such as that of the conflict between the need to gratify his own desires, and the need to respect the limited resources within a family. From the first day of his existence, he is constrained within a set of relationships that teaches him responsibility. Moreover, concepts of government [leadership], justice [fairness], policing [discipline], and of social order [administration] are birthed in a Christian household long before they ever bear fruit in the pubic arenas.

The challenge in freedom

The challenge in freedom teaches restraint from temptation. Temptation is the negative edge of inquisitiveness and freedom. Eve’s newly acquired freedom was a material, and not a formal freedom – i.e. the freedom to choose God. God was not the author of her suspicions, or of her rebellion. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” [Genesis 2:15-17]. Formal freedom is the freedom to choose between good and evil, and God, in making man in his image, had ruled out that option. Adam and Eve effectively died spiritually when they yielded to temptation. They had used their freedom to turn their inquisitiveness from God’s Word to their own way.

Eve, tempted by Satan to question God’s instruction, succumbed to carnality. It led her, and then Adam, into death! The question to be investigated is how God has, despite our death, formed a plan for eternal life. A moth that flies close to the fire may escape with its life… or with only a singeing of its wings, but how many times do zealous moths lie dead at the foot of a candle stand, their wings engulfed in a casket of melted wax with no hope for resurrection? It should overwhelm a man with joy to see, despite the consequences of human behavior, that God’s grace has constructed a path to eternity for the guilty-set-free. Yet, sinning men have wished that they might have been more like Jean-Henri Fabre’s Caterpillars. The caterpillars once set on their course head to tail at the rim of a bowl, made no adjustments when food was placed into the bowl, and so, they were oblivious of their restricted existences. We were created for much more than that, but with all of it, comes the risk! “Wishing” does not satiate the hunger that temptation creates. Looking a little too long can tumble us down a slippery slope. We were created with the brains to be aware of our surroundings, but not with the sense to resist sin. Only the Holy Spirit gives us the discernment to say “no”, and He is the only means for us to break free, and to stay free. Our freedom, inspired by God’s Spirit, initiates all the desire we need to make responsible choices. The full consequences of faulty living have already been buried by God’s grace in Christ, who readily forgives the repentant. Through Jesus Christ, faultiness is no longer a threat; it only emphasizes His awesome grace! He, who is Holy, has proclaimed us free in Himself. No fire, no matter how hot, can overcome the faith God fuels in us. No obstacles, however high, can stop a love-struck saint. God’s freedom comes with His power, but we will need to humble ourselves, and to invite input from outside of ourselves, first from God, who alone gives Life, and then through Him, from those who live an exampled life!

The longevity of freedom

The longevity of freedom teaches the value of opposition. Vatican’s Promotor Fidel has become known today as ‘the devil’s advocate’. The office was created in 1657, and charged with the task of playing the skeptic in cases considered for ‘sainthood’. Journalist Paul B. Carroll and strategy consultant Chunka Mui, in their book: Billion Dollar Lessons examine why 750 publicly traded US companies faltered between 1981 and 2006. They recommend including a strategy they call the ‘Devil’s advocate review’ in the corporate strategy process. They identity the problem as the absence of a formula to build ‘disagreement’ in the boardroom!

We may consider the progress of freedom from the Quaker, Thomas Maule’s, arrest, and imprisonment in 1695, for having criticized civil and ecclesiastical authorities in his book “Truth held Forth and Maintained”, to what we call ‘freedom’ today! What would the Promotor Fidel’s perspective be of a woman’s right to choose to abort a fetus? Or, of an individual’s right to end his own life; Or, of the right to view, own, and access pornography; Or, of the right to same sex marriage; Or, of a woman’s right to sell her body; Or, of the right to clone a human; Or, of the right to use a fetus for stem cell research?

Who can deny that the freedom given by God was never intended to disadvantage another, and that sadly, that is what it has become? Who would not benefit today by taking stock and inviting a fresh skeptic’s input into our choices, into our use of finances, time allocations, relationships, or into our habits? That said, it remains the safest route for our future as a species to trust a loving God to lead us, and then perhaps, in the words of F.F. Centore, the range of our swinging arm can be maximized without hitting someone else on the nose [MQ, p. 154].

Loys

The value of Ongoing Change…

The Value of Ongoing Change:

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A story told in a film by the son of an Italian man, relates how the father, whose profession was to sharpen knives, had come from Italy to NY with his family. He had a little bell that he would ring to tell the people that he was in their street. Then came the disposable generation. Disposable knives. Disposable scissors. He would leave before light and come back after dark, with nothing to show his wife and family for what he had done. That bell became the loneliest sound his son ever heard. As a nine-year-old boy, he once followed him for a whole summer, every day, day in, and day out, and after a while, it started to grind him down. Nobody needed him. When people feel that nobody needs them, they feel useless, and they die inside, they let themselves go. The family always said to everybody that “pop died of cancer”, but he actually died of a broken heart.

The value of ongoing change should press itself on a man who leads until he abandons protecting the past for the sake of what next needs to be built. A man who builds community must expect to be challenged in his faith. It is at those times that we ought to take Isaiah’s counsel to Ahaz. To Isaiah’s offer that he ask the Lord for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights, Ahaz had replied, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test”. Isaiah’s response is a reminder to all of us both of the grandness of God’s desires for us [even though we are each faulty], and to God’s desire that we trust Him for more. He said, ““Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also?” In addition, we are careful to remember that God only ascribes a righteousness that both springs from His faith, and thus leads to faith [i.e. disclosed by the way of faith, and thus arouses to more faith][Romans 1:17]. Hearing this makes a man more faithful in prayer by what he has received, than by what he needs to get from God. It makes “being sharp by our efforts” look like thievery! When we see God, we realize the power of God’s fore-ordination that exposes forever the futile promotion of our responsibilities. From the arms of God, we see that it is never too late to make adjustments, since God himself is the author, sustainer, and perfector of it!

God’s grace, and foreordained call, shouts out this message to us of ongoing hope, “each day is a new day in the Lord”. He says, “Begin your preparation today”! However, all that oppose Him shout a different message, “you cannot afford to lose what you have, it is too risky to change” – a tendency that can be illustrated by an example of a recent marketplace collapse. The new CEO for Kodak was hired to rescue the company from failure. It is commonly known that the middle managers refused to accommodate him. However, resistance to doing things the new way was not met by dismissal, and the company was doomed. In an article written by Peter Cohan, titled: “Kodak Keeps Collapsing”, he comments on the situation already prevailing in the 1980’s, “I spent over a year consulting to Kodak 20 years ago. Already then it was grappling with the same issues that continue to plague it. Kodak created and led the business of giving away cameras and reaping huge profits from its dominance of the silver halide film and chemicals business. But Fuji took away its market share and digital photography took huge chunks of its former customers. Its latest restructuring program is too little too late.”

[http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/01/29/kodak-keeps-collapsing/]. The restructuring to which he refers took place at the beginning of 2009. Kodak laid off 4500 employees due to a 23% drop in international revenue.

The degree to which we prop up a system, is sometimes justified by the things we do well within it. Leaders, who do not pay sufficient heed to the need for change, may have succumbed either to pride, or to fear. This is evident when the call for change is met by more justification. What accentuates the lesson is the strong indication that Eastman Kodak were aware of the threat posed by digital photography as early as 1982. Doubly revealing to their self-inflicted dilemma is that they had ignored the marvelous opportunity of having created the first digital camera in their own labs in the 70’s. Again, in the same labs in 1986, they had developed the first sensor technology at the centre of digital cameras today! The Kodak management’s response was, “That’s cute – but don’t tell anyone about it” [From an article by Jordan Timm at: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/after_hours/lifestyle_products/article.jsp?content=20091026_10027_10027].

One can hardly imagine the positive effect that would have been created in their situation if Kodak’s management team had opened itself to independent reviewers playing ‘advocate’ to its ideas! The value of ongoing accountable external input cannot be overestimated in matters of leadership. The concept of checks and balances is one of the strongest values in a Christian ethic. This applies equally to matters of personal development as it does to matters of governance. Referring to the influence of checks and balances on Winston Churchill’s leadership in WWII, MQ states, “Churchill submitted himself to a ponderous process of checks and balances that made the method of governance much more tedious. The English, it was affirmed, led through committees but ultimately their safety net was the Judeo/Christian underpinnings that compelled them to consider and reconsider the quality of their social action” [MQ, p. 52].

The danger of unipolarity [single ‘pole’ style of leadership deficient in check and balance] is evident in all the main three social contexts, the personal, the communal, and the societal. How many have wished for the voices of their dissenters to be silenced, and yet, all progress depends on those who persist in not conforming themselves to the status quos of their past. Children have wished their parents silent over their bad habits. Community leaders have wished those who disagree to be removed. Politicians have wished the voices of their opponents discredited. However, where mercy has failed, honesty cannot. Where excuses prevail, situations run amok! Neither is it good if an error has been detected that a man should immediately rush to resolve it! The wise wait to hear God’s voice. They know that He alone can direct them back out of a broken situation!

In closing, the lesson taught by Kodak’s failure should not be underestimated. Jordan Timm writes, “Kodak rolled out failure after failure, trying unsuccessfully to graft digital technology onto their established business rather than adapt to an emerging marketplace. As late as 1995, when a Fortune reporter challenged Kodak CEO George M. C. Fisher with the impending collapse of the traditional photography industry, the executive sounded befuddled. “But Kodak has to grow,” he protested.” [Ibid]

For us, we hope to remember that what lies ahead, without losing what has been built, is always much grander! It will require that we be prepared to reexamine and take stock of how things have been done in the past, in order to prepare for the anthem that states, “we are on a way we have never been on before!”

Loys

When the Servant is our Lord…

When the Servant is our Lord…

In 2007, Dudley Daniel told the lead elders in Australia, “You have to come out of everything that is not under the lordship of Jesus Christ”!

When we heard that line also, “God is blurring the lines of leadership”, we should have known that we were at the end of an era… Consider a church leader whose church prayer meeting lasted more than 100 years and which is used to send over 2000 missionaries into the nations? Consider that he was a marketplace man who did not do the majority of the preaching in his church community! Does this challenge us, or does it tantalize us?

The Lord is not our servant, but the Servant is our Lord? That is why it is more true to say that serving Him releases leadership, rather than that leadership releases service. Servants are always leaders, but leaders are not always servants. Jesus said that those who are last will be first; those who are servants, will be great, and those who are slaves, will lead the way for others! Therefore, when looking for a leader, we ought to seek for those who do not want it; or for those who do not feel they qualify, and for those in whom God’s fore-ordination precedes duty and responsibility. These are most likely to facilitate than to dominate. Leaders, who take what belongs to others to make it theirs, seek to be Lord over the servants, rather than servants to the Lord! In a world of people predisposed to overestimate their part in the process, and to underestimate the part of others, the life of Jesus Christ is an offense, and despised, because he values the little above the “big”.

The extreme arrogance of overestimating our part in the process of helping others should not escape us. Flowers can only be opened, without damage, from the inside, and not from the outside. Our responsibility to instruct grows only from God who inspires it, lest our pride obstruct it. The Lord uses us in instruction, but only He can inspire a response from us or from anyone! A proper view of God and of our part in the process, does not deactivate God’s fore-ordination, and promote our responsibility! As born again believers we are lovely men, until we try to do things in our own strength. We instruct our children because we have been inspired, and not because we are ‘responsible’ to inspire. Understanding this will keep us, and our children from being exasperated, or separated!

Without humility, there can be no authority. Authority is thus only seen in the fruit of the Spirit, and not by the other things that define success. Authority is measured by the Holy Spirit, whose fruit is joy, peace, goodness, godliness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, love, self-control, and not by size of church, personality, leadership capacity, talents, and gifts, preaching invitations and engagements, books sold, and by money in the bank!

Loys

An Apostolic Adventure – part 2

An Apostolic Adventure – Part 2

What follows is a series of articles on our next steps in a developing theology and ecclesiology [complete article available on http://moralquotient.wordpress.com :

2.1 Some Initial Clarification - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-1.doc

2.2 Building an Apostolic Future - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-2.doc

2.3 The Question of Primary Relationships and other Practical Points - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-3.doc

2.4 Pruning for Sustainable Growth - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-4.doc

2.5 Building in Accountable Unity - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-5.doc

2.6 Defending an Accountable Unity - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-6.doc

2.7 Building by Christ's Inspiration – a cry for the future! - http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/loys-an-apostolic-adventure-e28093-part-2-7.doc

2.8 A Summary of Raw and Real things about the Apostolic! [not yet sent]

The Making of a Wise Man

The Making of a Wise Man

Moses had spent his early life doing things in his own strength… No one could tell him otherwise. To defend God’s people, he would take a man’s life, and expect to be appreciated. He thought, “At least the Israelites will understand what I did!” They did not, and thus began a 40-year wilderness journey designed to make a man of God out of him!

As Chesterton writes, “Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness!” When Moses began, he thought he saw what was right and wrong. He felt he had the right to judge a situation involving God’s people. He also thought he was the one to do something about it. He had the power. He had the wisdom. He had the talent. He had the connections. He had the credentials. He was ‘God’s man’ for the hour. However, after God had prepared Him, he was a stutterer unwilling to speak. He was disqualified as a spokesperson in his own eyes. He had nothing. He also had almost no one with him in his desert abode, except those he needed most – his family! In this way, God often shapes a man for his future. He takes him aside from his circumstances, and makes him a family man – a man, who learns to provide, to live simply, and to raise his kids, so that he can better understand the heart of His heavenly Father. The new Moses saw God [in the burning bush], then heard Him, then saw himself as honestly as he ever had – as a man incapable of doing God’s bidding, and finally he saw what he had to do. God had initiated all four of Moses’ responses! God revealed to Moses that only what comes from God could endure. When a man has been thus prepared he does not try to resolve, or to control, or to pressure, or to organize his situation. Rather, he is tender, humble, attentive to God, gentle in action, and devoted to God in service. The old Moses did not need God. The new Moses said, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh…?” We hear, in his words, the heart of every spiritual giant. Isaiah said, “Woe to me. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips”. Paul said, “I am the worst of sinners”. David said, “I have sinned!”

Moses, in the end, did all that the Lord required because he knew it was the Lord doing it. What the Lord initiates, the Lord completes! We are told that Moses was the humblest man on the face of the earth! It is only a revelation of, and encounter with God that makes a man humble. Secular Humanists, such as Carlyle, and others, would have us believe that the man who must lead is the one who thinks he can. Our response is to point them to such men as Moses, so that they might see also, that he who is emptied of his own way, and thinks himself incapable, is the one most qualified to lead. Solomon, filled with wisdom wrote that when the righteous thrive, the people rejoice, when the wicked rule, the people groan. Again, that a wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son!

A South American Parable

A South American Parable:

I heard this parable spoken by a Surinamese man last night that God would keep a man poor and on his bicycle, if by keeping him from riches it will keep him in heaven. My thought was: Not always so – on two counts.

On the first count, Job was blessed even as a self-righteous man – it did not stop God teaching him a better way. The same might be applied to the poor man on his bicycle. Would his tendency to selfishness be too great an effort for God? Is God’s hand too short that it cannot save? In the principle of sowing and reaping what a man sows, that he shall reap! In this way, an unprincipled man who exercises strong fiscal discipline may make abundant riches, even though he has not gained eternal life through it! It is also true that what he has gathered may have been reserved for someone else. Solomon writes that what one man gathers another enjoys. However, God alone can reach such a man, and we must trust His judgment should that man not be freed from his unbelief! There is also benefit to the life of a man whose cause is for Christ. Such a religious man might place his Christian culture ahead of his Christ, or, his threshold alongside God’s. He should have instead yielded himself to Christ, who IS his life. God who is merciful, is not willing that anyone would die in their sin, or miss the reward of their obedience! He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, and is pleased when they turn from their ways. He gives them a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 18:23-32). He does not ignore the plight of the poor, or fail to teach His children His way! If God has reached a man, it is because he has sovereignly decided to do so, and not because the man deserved it! Once God has reached a man, such as the poor man on his bicycle, He does not leave him in his state, but changes him from glory to glory into His image!

On the second count, one cannot judge any man because of his so-called ‘poverty’. God alone knows the journey that a man will take. He is extraordinarily patient! For example, a man who rides his bicycle happily serving God may be more blessed than he whose possessions have choked compassion for the poor from his heart. God may also suddenly promote him from his prison to a palace! Nonetheless, it could be the man’s wish to remain where he is for good reason, since it might be his ‘palace! I know a Guyanese man, a humble tailor, who rides a bicycle. He visits the poor and the addicts in his city many times a week to bring them a word of encouragement from God. When he talks of blessing, he tells of various ones who have been lifted out of their respective gutters by Jesus Christ, and not of the dollars in his bank account [for there are none]! Dean Jones, in his brilliant ‘soliloquy’ of St. john in Exile, [1] said of the disciples at the last supper, “it was as if He was saying to us ‘you are no longer disciples, you are now ministers. You must stand! If you love one another, the world will know you are mine” [Click on this link to hear Dean Jones in a 12 minute  sound bite of how Jesus died on the Cross – I was moved to tears by the sheer anointing of his delivery: http://defleuriot.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/jesus-at-the-cross-dean-jones.mp3 ]. We are all experiencing change in one way or another. Those disciples were for many years comfortable as brothers, and happy to continue undisturbed. However, God had plans to ‘disturb’ them into selfless acts of love, and here we are today! Brothers, there is a shaking on the go. Carved on the steely stamp head of God’s dispatches are these words: Humility and love are only available to all who desire it from the Lord, and they are necessary!

[1] Dean Jones, in the DVD, “St. John in Exile” [©1996 DJ Productions, PO Box 570276 Tarzana, CA 91357][Distributed by Bridgestone Multimedia Group Inc. 804 N. 2nd Ave. E. Rock Rapids, LA 51246]

The Revelation of our Flaws – An Encounter!

The Revelation of our Flaws – An Encounter!

Father, thank you for accepting all our flaws. Thank you for your sovereign grace over our lives, which has made allowances for all our faults as you did for Jacob’s. It is a wonder that you would allow someone not to feel a sense of guilt, while encouraging others to deal with their attitudes… You are a wonder to us. Many of us feel like we have come out of a very dark tunnel that almost threatened our lives. We may be feeling your unconditional love for the first time in a long time. Father, to have been so blind to your awesome love, and yet your love has been constant. We have needed a grace on grace experience. You did not abandon us. Our fears are so unfounded. We learn your love by your grace, and not by what we do. We learn to be constant by experiencing your constancy and not by our endurance. For many years we have felt to carry people in prayer every day; name after name; over and over again; year after year, and then we saw that somewhere along the way we had gotten in the way of your grace that enables. We, ourselves, have behaved, at times, in despicable ways. Our view of you had receded as relationships changed, and various things happened, people left without even saying goodbye. We had gotten lost in our lists. All our well-meaning efforts had lessened our Christ and left us seemingly up the creek without a paddle – we had somehow lost our way… we tried to re-find it in many things, but eventually realized that only a revelation of Christ would do it! You did this first by revamping our theology from one with an Armenian emphasis [mingled with sizable helpings of Sinless Perfectionism], to one that sees your Sovereignty made possible only by the Holy Spirit. Thus, began a search for us that lasted 5 years, many shakings, a real good and honest look at our ecclesiology, and a closer examination of what is this ‘face to face’ encounter with you that was prophesied 32 years ago! When your grace finds us, discernment grows between what is the devil’s accusation, and the Holy Spirit’s conviction, and we rise up in glory refusing to either accept false-guilt, or to excuse true guilt. Either way, it is not your plan that any man would have to live in guilt! Suddenly, the psychological black holes we fall into, and our ever-present faultiness becomes the evidence of your grand and merciful love for us, and becomes the fuel for our worship of you! Having, at times, no clue whatsoever of our guilt in situations, no longer grips us with anguish, but points directly to your amazing love for us, and to your indescribable patience. Your love, which covers our sins, but does not overlook them, has reached into the deep recesses of our hearts, so that we might readily forgive others and ourselves. We come out of our encounters with you Holy Spirit asking this question: what are you doing? Let us find out what that is, for that is where the blessing is! Under your gentle hand, our experience catches up. We are carried along a spiritual journey of less system, and more of you! Less of what is mandatory, and more of the Magnificent. Less of the obligatory, and more of the Inspired! Our maxim becomes, “our Christ is our life, and not our cause!” Enjoying what we are called to seems less, and not more confusing, and as we stride out in You, we bring hope…

The Plight of the World’s Poor and Sick!

The Plight of the World’s Poor and the Sick!

The New York Times states that the “quest for eternal life, or at least prolonged youthfulness” is now within reach. “In five or six or seven years,” said Christoph Westphal, one of Sirtris’ co-founders, “there will be drugs that prolong longevity.” [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/science/29aging.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes] How much fun is that? I do applaud every drug discovered that will combat degenerative disease, but am left wondering whether it is the best use of resources at this time while the world’s majority suffocates on a daily income of less than $1 per person? Caring for the world’s poor has never been more necessary, nor is the potential for global disaster more acute. In a Foreign Policy® article by Roger Bate, titled: The Deadly World of Fake Drugs, [Carnegie Endowment, September/October 2008, Page 57]. He states, “Whether it’s phony Viagra or knock off cancer meds, fake drugs kill thousands of people each day, thanks to counterfeiters in China and India who mix chalk, dust, and dirty water into pills sold around the world. With the internet becoming the world’s dispensary, these poison pills could be coming to a pharmacy near you.” Later in his article, he writes also that bad malaria meds kill 200,000 African children every year. The western frontiers of the mid-20^th century were Bosnian, or perhaps Mediterranean? However, today’s fault lines are already drawn down the main streets of our cities. As has already been mentioned, C. S. Lewis calls Nature, untrammeled by values, the Magician’s Bargain: whereby people give up their souls bit by bit, in return for power. However, once the soul – that is, the individual self – has been given up, the power conferred does not belong to them.[i] The value we speak of is: Caring for others above ourselves! [MQ, Page 36]

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[i] C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, A Touchstone Book, published by Simon & Shuster, distributed by Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1996, p. 80

A Theological Emphasis – part 2 [brief intro]

A Theological Emphasis

Part 2

I do agree with Donne, who stated that we either confess all Christ or no Christ. Let us continue to flesh out this truth. It is precisely a greater revelation of God that releases us to effective lives. As we have journeyed everywhere, we have noticed a common theological thread – it is that in every case, abuse of some form always results when a revelation of Christ is lessened by those who have mingled their efforts to God’s Gospel; have preached a justification++ Gospel, and added circumcision to the cross. By lessening Christ, they lessen the cross. To some, the cross has even become an enemy. Focusing on Christ is walking by the Spirit, and is the very essence that produces a proper faith and life [we could not achieve it by rules, or by the law - we live by a higher standard - a better covenant]. The Holy Spirit honors God’s Word, and not our opinions. Focusing on Christ is not ‘an exercise’; it is an intimate, and personal relationship with Him. To drift from Him leads to many perils fueled mainly by various fleshy compulsions, resulting in guilt and despair. Recognizing that we need a much deeper revelation of Christ is not oversimplifying the Gospel, or complicating it. It reveals rather the need for humility, and more honesty in how we approach the throne of grace.

Focusing on Christ can never be an overemphasis, nor cause anything else of God to be oversimplified, or ignored. If there has been one ailment [sin] that has consistently dogged the churches of our country, it has not been “too much of Christ” but “too little of Christ” and, too much of everything else, yes, including our view of leadership and structure. I wrote that some “fear the risk of abandoning themselves totally to the Spirit”. They do, and will sometimes go to great lengths to justify their deeds before God. Sadly, these are all but thresholds placed alongside God’s as Ezekiel warns. Conversely, men who humble themselves in seeking Christ are more likely to manage their families well. People who are kissed by God in worship, and intimacy, can no longer view the world the same way – not the lost; not those who oppose them, and not anyone else. Christ is the motivation for like-mindedness, and having the same love and attitude. Getting the cart before the horse complicates the process made simple by Jesus. As we put Him first, then we may perhaps not need the Ephesus rebuke [that "they had lost their first love"].

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A Theological Emphasis – Part 1 [brief Intro]

A Theological Emphasis!

Part 1

A theologian stated that heresy rarely starts with outrageous falsehoods, but with one doctrine elevated above another – i.e., from over-emphases [We are generally more predisposed to resist something blatantly presented, than what is subtle and counterfeit]. The first symptom of a drift from our Christ to our various systems of religion is to focus on what we do more than on whose we are! The subtlety of the enemy is sometimes seen in the assumption that Christ must surely agree with our values and their application. However, in responding to areas of overemphasis, we do not want to go into a ditch, nor do we want to back off from the good in it. For example, leadership is crucial to what God builds, but it cannot be preached as essential – only Christ is essential. Some might say: you are making an unnecessary point? I disagree, since I have seen that leadership preached too loud can produce works that place ecclesiology ahead of Christology. Leadership should be neither over emphasized nor de-emphasized [The greater problem today, is that any de-emphasis or overemphasis of leadership, will lead to either the abandonment of community on the one hand, or the control of community on the other. We should want neither]. Even a cursory look at the New Testament shows the areas of proper emphasis. Jesus preached about the Father mainly, and how we should relate to Him. Paul spoke about the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit mainly, and again about how we should respond to God, as both leaders and people together. The same goes for Peter, James, and John. Any drift from Christ is an improper emphasis on what is illegitimate, and on what will fail to restrain our indulgences and carnality. If we cannot preach the whole New Testament within our theology then we have again slipped into an overemphasis of one kind or another….

…We believe that all the instruction, advice, and counsel given by Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John, were given from the Holy Spirit, and are not given as behavioral shopping lists. They can therefore not be fulfilled but by the Holy Spirit, and are only applied through the Royal law of Love! The Holy Spirit works God’s works in and through all who believe in Him. We believe that speaking the truth in love makes the truth much clearer. We believe that the God-breathed Word of God, is still God-breathed to us, and any attempt to achieve any of it outside of intimacy with Christ is futile; impossible, and will increase anxiety and sin. We believe that any ministry not focused first on Christ, will invariably be judgmental, accusative, self-protecting, selective, exclusive, hypocritical, arrogant, imposing, insensitive to the Spirit, quenching the Spirit and prophecy, finger-pointing, self-justifying, negative, divisive, subtle, agenda-filled, ungracious to differences in others, self-excusing, and less joyful and kind. A friend recently wrote with regard to true Gospel preaching, “To quote an old favorite, do we comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable? To those sick with sin, broken, enfeebled, powerless, hopeless… do we offer them Christ, truly, His love, power, total forgiveness and sure hope of heaven (how can I if I still believe I can lose heaven somewhere?). To those at the front of the temple, thanking God for their prowess and success, does His word in us call them to die, that they might live? And herein, the “law” does not feature”.

We believe that those who are walking in intimacy in Christ, will please God, and will be used by God to encourage others. We have sought to do so in our NCMI tribe. However, if we were to ask what are the first thoughts people think of when they think of us would they be, “These are they who have built friendship, team, the apostolic, reached the nations and church planted well”? Or, “These are Christ-filled; Holy Spirit led, and they have caused a great disturbance everywhere they have gone, by healing the sick; preaching Jesus Christ; and whose faith has become known everywhere”. Finally, we believe that by the fruit of the Spirit, we will see those that are Christ’s, the fruit of: kindness, gentleness, goodness, godliness, self-control, peace, love, faithfulness, and patience! Indeed, does His Love not call us to pick up our cross, and to lay down our lives for one another?

Be His. Loys

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