Month: May 2011

Wait, Jesus!! Don't leave…

Have you ever found yourself wondering about how better things could be if Jesus were still around…I mean, physically in person?

What if you had some troubling theological question and you knew Jesus would be walking through town tomorrow.  You could maybe stalk him at Starbucks and pop the question while he waited in line for his latte (although, let’s be honest, Jesus wouldn’t visit Starbucks – he’d probably visit some little family-owned hole in the wall coffee shop that served organic fair-trade coffee : )

Or worse, imagine you had some debilitating disease that all the doctors had written off as incurable.  BUT, you’d heard about the crazy healings Jesus was doing and you were just desperate enough to believe there might be something to those stories, and even more so, maybe Jesus could do the same for you!  So you stalk him at the local hole-in-the-wall coffee joint prepared to jump out and grab him, hoping to draw out some of his healing power by your miserable, desperate faith.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of Jesus’ disciples 2000 years ago, when all of a sudden the miracle-working, wisdom-speaking, nature-mastering Jesus you’d spent nearly every moment of your life with for the last three years tells you he’s getting ready to leave, and you won’t see him any longer.

Imagine the heartache and sheer devastation.  I mean, you’ve tasted the wonders of His kingdom and experienced the unthinkable, and now you’re to go back to “life as normal”??  Forget it!!  You’ll find some way to restrain him or persuade him not to do whatever crazy thing he’s planning to do next (die on a cross, rise from the dead, return to Heaven).

Then, just as you’ve hatched in your mind the ridiculous plot to kidnap Jesus and hide him in your closet, he turns around and says –

“But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”  (John 16:7, NLT)

It is best for you.  What could be better than having Jesus here in person?  Have you ever really thought about that?  What was it that not only comforted and encouraged Jesus’ followers to not only press on after his death, resurrrection, and ascension, but then go on to mobilize the most significant world-changing movement that’s ever come on the spiritual scene?

The Advocate.  Also translated as the Comforter, or Helper, or Friend (the actual greek word is “paraclete”).  All of this is referring to the Holy Spirit.

Possibly the most misunderstood, misrepresented, and under-utilized person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  Holy Spirit is NOT an “it”, or a “force”, or a philosophical concept.  The Holy Spirit is a “HE” – specifically He is the Spirit of Christ, Himself.

Look at what Jesus says about Him in John 14 –
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

“In a little while the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live too. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you. The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” (John 14:15-21, HCSB)

Last issue we looked at how God’s intention is for you and I to be a “God Vortex” – an irresistible center of God’s transforming activity.  Jesus told His disciples (and I believe us, in effect) “you will do the works that I do…you will do even greater things than these.”  How is this possible?  Certainly not by our own capability or strength!  The ONLY way this promise becomes reality is by the Spirit of Christ Himself dwelling within us, teaching us, inspiring us, and empowering us.

Perhaps all this Holy Spirit stuff is new to you.  Maybe you’ve never heard Holy Spirit is a “He”, and not some mysterioius force.  Maybe the thought of Jesus’ Spirit actually dwelling in you is hard to believe, and harder yet to access in your day-in, day-out experiences.  Let me invite you to ask Him to reveal Himself to you.  Ask Him to show you more of what it means to truly be “led” by Him and “empowered” by Him.  If you do, and earnestly mean it, be prepared for the unexpected!

For some further reading on the Holy Spirit – check out these passages of Scripture:

Ezekial 36:26-28
Joel 2:28-29
Matthew 3:11
Luke 24:49
John 16:12-15
Acts 2:1-13, 33, 38
Romans 5:5
Romans 8 (what a chapter!)
Galatians 4:6-7
Ephesians 1:13-14

and there’s so much more…

Caught in the Vortex

The last month has seen the deadliest and most devasting outbreak of storm weather across the country (mostly the South) in almost a century.  I’m floored and saddened by the increasing death toll and damage report that seems to grow daily.

If you are at all able to give, I full-heartedly recommend you check out World Vision’s Website HERE .  World Vision is an outstanding Christian Relief organization that is almost always one of the first on the ground when disaster strikes around the world (including here in the United States).  Your donations are safe with them.

When we think about the word “vortex”, naturally we think about the terrors involved in being caught in a tornado.  “Vortex” can be defined as:  “a whirling mass of air, especially one in the form of a visible column or spiral, as a tornado.”  In this sense, being caught in a vortex means being sucked into the very center of that storm’s destructive focus.

There is a sense, however, in which a vortex can be a powerful phenomenon for good.   A lesser known definition for “vortex” is: “any activity, situation, or way of life regarded as irresistibly engulfing.”

When Jesus walked the earth – God in human form – you could say He was a spiritual vortex of God’s irresistible activity.  He was drawing crowds of hungry, hopeless, and desperate people who needed God to supernaturally transform their situations and their lives.  And Jesus did just that.  He was the ultimate God-Vortex on earth who was healing the sick, blind and lame, delivering from demonic bondage, walking on water, even raising the dead!

One of the most amazing passages of Scripture to me (and to be frank, one of the most terrifying) is in John 14 when Jesus is speaking his most intimate promises to His followers.  At one point He says:

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:10-14, NIV)

If you blink, you’ll miss one of the most astounding promises Jesus ever makes – that He always intended to continue carrying out these amazing deeds….through US!!

Jesus was the ultimate God-Vortex…but His plan for you is to make YOU a God-Vortex as well – an irresistibly engulfing center of God’s transforming activity – drawing in the hopeless, the hungry, and the desperate, and ministering Christ’s transforming power into their lives.  Tall order…I know.  Frightening…yes.  But Jesus is calling us to this, if we will believe and trust Him and follow.

The beauty of this is that in the midst of life’s very real destructive vortices that are tearing apart homes and lives (literally with natural disasters, and spiritually with sin, grief and loss), Jesus wants to empower you to unleash an even greater force of healing, hope, and restoration.  Yes…YOU.

Whether we realize it or not, God is constantly on the move.  Are we too busy, too distracted, or too apathetic to allow ourselves to become engulfed in God’s irresistible activity?  This week I challenge all of us to get alone with God and ask Him to show us what’s getting in the way of us becoming a God-Vortex.  When He shows, lets pray for the courage and faith to move beyond those obstacles and to let Christ’s Spirit move through us.

There’s a lot of hurt, hopelessness, and just outright spiritual blindness out there.  The only True hope is Jesus’ transforming power.  Let’s be a God-Vortex…