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Romans 4, Again: Faith in a Promise, Before Fulfillment

2026-09-07T12:07:43.670-07:00

The God Who Counts Things That Are Not as Though They Are

1. Paul Tells Us Which Circumstance Establishes the Doctrine

When Paul explains how a person is counted righteous before God, he takes us to one particular moment in the life of Abraham. We might naturally want to look through Abraham's entire story and point out his faith, his obedience, his failures, and his good works. But Paul does not permit us to do that. As we explored in a previous post previous post, Paul tells us the crediting of righteousness is "not found" at other places in the chronology of Abraham's life. He tells us exactly where to look:

“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
—Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6

Why does Paul choose Genesis 15:6?

Abraham had already believed God in Genesis 12. He had already obeyed God by leaving his country and going where God told him to go. And there would be much more faith and obedience in Abraham's life after Genesis 15. Yet when Paul establishes the basis upon which righteousness is counted, he deliberately points to Genesis 15:6.

That is not an accident. Paul is the one interpreting Abraham's story for us, and he tells us which circumstance establishes his point.

This is not simply Paul's interpretation of an Old Testament story; this is the apostle entrusted with the gospel explaining the terms by which God counts righteousness under the New Covenant (Gal. 1:11-12). Paul takes us to this one event in Abraham's life to show us the grounds of the righteousness that God now grants through faith in Jesus Christ. If we want to understand Paul's doctrine, this is the story he tells us to understand it through.

But Paul does not merely point to Genesis 15:6 and leave us wondering why this moment is the basis for the New Covenant. He tells us why faith alone is theologically indispensable.

2. Abraham Believed God for What He Could Not Produce

He did not believe because the circumstances were favorable. He believed because God was able to do what He had promised.

Paul says Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” Then Paul repeats the conclusion:

“That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.”
—Romans 4:22

This is why Genesis 15:6 matters so much.

Paul is not describing righteousness as something Abraham gradually built up by combining faith with an increasing record of obedience. Abraham had faith before Genesis 15. He had works before Genesis 15. He had faith and works afterward. But Paul identifies one particular circumstance in which righteousness was counted to him: when Abraham believed God's promise concerning what he could not possibly produce himself.

The impossibility is important.

Abraham could not manufacture the fulfillment of God's promise. His effort could not make the promised child appear. There was nothing he could contribute that would bring God's promise to pass. The fulfillment belonged entirely to God.

And this is where Paul moves from Abraham to us.

Paul says that the words “it was counted to him” were “not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.” We are to understand the same principle from Abraham's experience.

Now there is something fascinating happening in both directions.

3. Both Believed and Counted Before Seeing

Abraham called God able before the promise was visible; God called Abraham righteous before the righteousness was visible.

Abraham believed God could bring about what had not yet appeared. Though he and Sarah had no natural ability to produce the promised child, Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” He trusted God before he could see the fulfillment.

God, likewise, reckoned Abraham righteous at the moment of faith, before that righteousness had been fully manifested in his life.

Both were counting something before it could be seen.

God was not pretending Abraham was something he was not, nor was Abraham's later obedience unnecessary. Rather, God did not wait for a lifetime of righteous behavior before reckoning Abraham righteous. He reckoned him righteous when Abraham believed the promise.

And Abraham did not wait for visible evidence before trusting God. He believed in the God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17).

This is the New Covenant theme Paul gives us: Abraham trusted God for what had not yet appeared, while God reckoned Abraham righteous before that righteousness had been manifested.

Faith rests upon God's promise before the fulfillment can be seen.

The Complicated Relationship of the Church Fathers to Baptism in Water

2026-09-05T10:03:27.834-07:00

It is sometimes claimed that the early church fathers were unanimous in teaching that "water baptism saves;" the person who believes in Christ is saved through faith only when that faith is followed by baptism. But there is another historical question that deserves attention:

How did baptism become something that could be postponed for a lifetime by people who nevertheless considered themselves committed Christians, and then become urgently necessary when death was near?

The evidence of the practices of the church fathers themselves is surprisingly difficult to reconcile with such a simple claim.

Baptized at or immediately before death

Constantine the Great (337)

baptized during final illness, died shortly afterward.

Constantius II (361)

baptized when facing his final crisis/illness, died shortly afterward.

Baptized because death appeared imminent, but survived

Novatian (c. 250)

catechumen, gravely ill, received clinical baptism on his sickbed, recovered, later became a prominent Roman presbyter.

Baptized during illness but lived for years afterward

Theodosius I (380)

baptized while ill, but lived another ~15 years.

1. Augustine's writings penned before he was baptized:

Augustine converted to Christianity in 386 and was baptized by Ambrose at Easter in 387. During the months between his conversion and baptism, while he was still a catechumen, he composed the famous Cassiciacum dialogues:

Against the Academics (Contra Academicos)
The Happy Life (De Beata Vita)
On Order (De Ordine)
Soliloquies (Soliloquia)

He also wrote letters to Nebridius during this period. Augustine himself later refers to these works in the Confessions, describing what he had written at Cassiciacum before his baptism.

There is also On the Immortality of the Soul (De immortalitate animae), which is generally associated with this same pre-baptismal period, although its exact chronology relative to the Cassiciacum works is less secure.

So we're talking about at least four major surviving works, and probably five, written by one of Christianity's most influential theologians while he was still technically a catechumen, or by some people's theology, "unsaved."

2. Ambrose - baptized after becoming bishop of Milan

Ambrose is perhaps the most astonishing example.

He was raised in a Christian family but had not yet been baptized when, in 374, the people of Milan suddenly chose him to become their bishop.

Theodoret reports that when the people demanded Ambrose as bishop:

“up to this time he was still unbaptized.”

He was then baptized and subsequently ordained/consecrated bishop.

And, of course, this is the same Ambrose who later defended the salvation of the unbaptized Valentinian.

3. Basil the Great

Basil's delay wasn't because he rejected Christianity. Quite the opposite: he was raised within an intensely Christian household.

Interestingly, Basil later became strongly opposed to delaying baptism. He actually rebuked people who kept postponing it.

The practice of delayed baptism existed even among deeply committed Christian families, but later Christian leaders increasingly criticized the practice.

4. Gregory Nazianzen - baptized around age 30

Gregory is another especially interesting case.

Gregory's own writings are particularly revealing because he later became an extremely strong advocate for timely baptism.

In Oration 40, he warns people not to use Christ's baptism at age thirty as an excuse for delaying their own baptism. He says, in effect, that Christ had a unique reason for waiting, whereas ordinary Christians face real danger in dying without baptism.

This is fascinating historically: Gregory himself had delayed baptism, yet later strongly opposed the practice.

5. John Chrysostom

Chrysostom was also raised in a Christian environment. His widowed mother, Anthusa, was a devoted Christian.

The same Chrysostom who himself had been baptized relatively late later described martyrdom as a form of baptism.

6. Constantine the Great - baptized on his deathbed

He was not baptized until the final illness of his life, in 337.

Eusebius gives us an unusually detailed account. When Constantine became convinced that his death was approaching, he went to the church, confessed and prayed, and then summoned bishops to baptize him.

Constantine himself said:

“The hour has come in which I too may have the blessing of that seal which confers immortality.”

He had apparently hoped to be baptized in the Jordan, but instead was baptized at Nicomedia shortly before his death. This delay was deliberate on his part.

The practice was connected in part with the widespread fourth-century concern that baptism remitted sins and that serious sins committed after baptism created a grave spiritual problem. Contemporary and later historians specifically identify Constantine as the classic example of this practice.

7. Novatian - baptized during a serious illness

Novatian, a prominent third-century Roman theologian and later the leader of the Novatianist schism, was baptized while seriously ill and thought to be near death.

According to Cornelius of Rome, Novatian had been a catechumen when he became gravely ill:

“he was, therefore, given baptism by affusion as he lay on his bed.”

He survived, but apparently did not subsequently receive the other rites that normally accompanied baptism.

This is an early example of clinical baptism—baptism administered to someone on a sickbed because death seemed imminent.

Summary

These examples make the sweeping claim that the fathers simply taught “water baptism saves” far less adequate as a description of what they actually practiced. Their behavior suggests that the relationship between faith, baptism, forgiveness, and final absolution was considerably more complicated than that formula implies.

The Church Fathers Taught Baptism Apart from Water

2026-09-05T02:08:41.147-07:00

The Church Fathers: Baptism by Water, Alone?

The fathers certainly regarded water baptism as important for admittance to the church. Yet a number of them also recognized that the saving reality associated with baptism could be present without the ordinary application of water.

The following examples are arranged roughly chronologically.

Tertullian - Baptism by Blood

Tertullian (c. 155–220) is one of the earliest and clearest witnesses.

In On Baptism, chapter 16, he calls martyrdom a second baptism, baptism in blood. More importantly, he says that this baptism:

“stands in lieu of the fontal bathing when that has not been received”

In other words, Tertullian explicitly describes blood baptism as taking the place of water baptism when it has not occurred.

This is important chronologically because it shows that the idea is not something Augustine invented in the late fourth century. It was already present in North African Christianity around the beginning of the third century.

What this establishes: Tertullian did not understand the saving significance of baptism to be absolutely confined to the physical application of water. He recognized martyrdom as a second baptism that could stand in the place of water baptism when the water rite had not been received.

Origen - Water, Spirit, Fire, and Blood

Origen (c. 185–254) is particularly valuable because he explicitly recognizes water, Spirit/fire, and blood as forms of baptism.

In his Commentary on John, while discussing John the Baptist's statement that Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit, Origen says that Christ is:

“baptism of water, and baptism of Holy Spirit and of fire, and to some, also, of blood.”

He connects the baptism of blood with Jesus' words about His coming baptism in Luke 12:50.

Even more interestingly, Origen says that martyrdom can bring forgiveness of sins. In Homilies on Leviticus 2.4–5, he lists several means by which sins are remitted, including baptism, martyrdom, and repentance.

What this establishes: Origen recognized water baptism, baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, and baptism associated with blood as distinct biblical realities. He also connected martyrdom with the remission of sins.

Cyprian - Baptism of Water and Baptism of Blood

Cyprian (c. 210–258) develops the same idea.

He explicitly distinguishes:

baptism of water
baptism of blood

and associates the former with remission of sins and the latter with the martyr's crown.

In Epistle 72.22, he discusses people who believe and repent but are killed before receiving water baptism. His argument is that such catechumens receive the “baptism of blood.”

He explicitly connects this with the thief on the cross, saying that those who are baptized in their own blood are perfected and receive the grace of God's promise.

And in Treatise 11, Cyprian makes the distinction particularly clearly:

“In the baptism of water is received the remission of sins, in the baptism of blood the crown of virtues.”

So Cyprian definitely does not collapse water baptism and blood baptism into exactly the same thing. But he recognizes blood baptism as a genuine baptism with saving significance.

What this establishes: Cyprian continued to regard water baptism as the ordinary Christian baptism, but he also recognized baptism by blood as a genuine baptism for a believer who died before receiving water. The absence of the physical water rite did not automatically mean that such a believer was lost.

The Anonymous On Re-Baptism - The Spirit Before Water

The anonymous treatise On Re-Baptism, probably from the third century, is extraordinarily important for this question. Its exact authorship is uncertain.

It argues from Acts 10: Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit before water baptism.

The author says:

“the Holy Spirit is found to have been given to men who believe, by the Lord without baptism of water”

The author then immediately cites Peter's experience of the Spirit falling upon Cornelius and his household before Peter commanded them to be baptized in water.

The preceding discussion also distinguishes the “baptism of the Spirit” from the “baptism of water.”

The work therefore recognizes that the Holy Spirit can be given to believers before the physical water baptism occurs.

The same work also considers the case of a person who hears the gospel, confesses Christ, and is then killed before he can receive water baptism. The author asks, in substance, whether such a person should be considered to have perished because he was not baptized with water. The answer is no. The author appeals to Christ's promise concerning those who confess Him and describes martyrdom as accomplishing what water baptism could not in that circumstance.

What this establishes: On Re-Baptism provides evidence for both Spirit baptism occurring apart from the timing of water baptism and a believer receiving the saving benefit associated with baptism despite dying before receiving water baptism.

Gregory Nazianzen - The Different Kinds of Baptism

Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329–390) gives an even more interesting text.

In Oration 39.17, he explicitly says:

“Let us speak about the different kinds of Baptism.”

He then identifies:

Moses' baptism — water, cloud, and sea
John's baptism — water and repentance
Christ's baptism — in the Spirit
baptism by martyrdom and blood
and even a fifth baptism involving tears and repentance.

Most importantly for this question, he says:

“Jesus also baptized, but in the Spirit. This is the perfect Baptism.”

He also calls martyrdom a “Fourth Baptism”—baptism by martyrdom and blood.

What this establishes: Gregory explicitly distinguishes water baptism from baptism in the Spirit, calling the latter the “perfect Baptism.” He also recognizes martyrdom as another genuine form of baptism. For Gregory, therefore, the biblical concept of baptism is broader than the physical water ceremony.

Ambrose - The Valentinian Case

Ambrose is essential because Augustine's thinking is not occurring in isolation.

In AD 392, Emperor Valentinian II died while still a catechumen, before Ambrose could baptize him.

Ambrose's funeral oration asks whether Valentinian nevertheless received the grace he desired:

“Did he not obtain the grace which he desired? Did he not obtain what he asked for?”

Ambrose answers affirmatively because Valentinian had desired baptism and requested it.

This is historically important because a recent scholarly study identifies Ambrose's 392 funeral oration as the first clear articulation of what later became known as baptism of desire.

What this establishes: Ambrose provides evidence that a person who desired baptism but died before physically receiving it could nevertheless be regarded as having received the grace he sought. The physical rite had not occurred, but the desire for the rite was treated as spiritually significant.

Augustine - The Thief and Baptism Received in the Heart

Augustine's earlier writings provide particularly interesting evidence.

In De diversis quaestionibus 83, Question 62, written approximately AD 391–395, Augustine considers the thief on the cross, who received Christ's promise of Paradise even though he could not physically receive baptism.

Augustine writes:

“baptism was imputed to the believing thief”

and says that it was considered received “in his free mind” because he could not receive it in his body while hanging on the cross.

Augustine's reasoning is significant because he is not simply calling the thief a martyr. He is explaining how the reality of baptism could be credited to someone who could not physically receive the rite.

What this establishes: In his earlier writings, Augustine recognized that the physical absence of baptism did not necessarily mean the absence of the reality God associated with baptism, particularly when a person was prevented from receiving the rite.

Augustine - Faith and Conversion Can Supply What Baptism Lacked

Augustine later develops the argument even more explicitly.

In On Baptism Against the Donatists, Book IV, chapter 22, Augustine discusses the thief and concludes:

“not only martyrdom for the sake of Christ may supply what was wanting of baptism, but also faith and conversion of heart”

when baptism cannot be received because there is no time.

Augustine's point is striking. He does not limit the thief's case to martyrdom. The thief was being executed for his own crimes, not because he was a Christian martyr. Yet he believed, turned to Christ, and received Christ's promise.

Augustine therefore recognizes that faith and conversion of heart can supply what baptism lacked when the sacrament cannot be received.

What this establishes: Augustine explicitly says that faith and conversion of heart can supply what baptism lacked when baptism cannot be received. The thief therefore provides an example of salvation in which the visible sacrament of baptism was absent.

Augustine - Cornelius Received the Spirit Before Baptism

Augustine also discusses Cornelius in Acts 10.

Cornelius had not yet received water baptism when the Holy Spirit came upon him. Augustine recognizes this sequence and uses it in his discussion of baptism.

The Spirit therefore came upon Cornelius before the water baptism that followed.

Augustine does not use Cornelius to reject water baptism. In fact, he maintains that Cornelius would have been guilty of contempt if, after receiving the Holy Spirit, he had refused baptism.

But the sequence itself remains important:

The inward work of the Spirit came first. The outward water baptism followed.

What this establishes: Augustine recognized that the Holy Spirit could be given before water baptism. The outward sacrament did not necessarily precede the inward work of the Spirit.

Pelagius - Water, Spirit, Fire, and Blood

Pelagius, commenting on Romans 6:1–4, discusses the meaning of baptism in the context of dying to sin and walking in newness of life.

He writes:

“Baptism is received in the Scriptures in three ways: with water; with the Holy Spirit, who is also called fire; and with blood in martyrdom, concerning which [our] Saviour said: ‘I am to be baptized with a baptism’ (Luke 12:50).”

Pelagius then returns to Paul's teaching in Romans 6, explaining that those baptized into Christ are buried with Him, die to their former life, and rise to walk in newness of life.

The importance of the statement is that Pelagius does not use the word baptism exclusively for the physical water ceremony. He identifies three biblical forms: water, the Holy Spirit/fire, and blood in martyrdom.

What this establishes: Pelagius understood the biblical category of baptism to extend beyond water baptism. The term could describe baptism with the Holy Spirit and baptism associated with martyrdom as well as the ordinary baptism with water.

Apostolic Constitutions - Book V, section 6

This is a particularly strong passage because it addresses a catechumen who has not yet received water baptism and then dies for Christ.

The text says:

“though he be but a catechumen, let him depart without trouble; for his suffering for Christ will be to him a more genuine baptism, because he does really die with Christ, but the rest only in a figure.”

John Chrysostom - Panegyric on St. Lucian, 2

The passage is remarkably explicit:

“I have called martyrdom a baptism; for here too the Spirit descends with great abundance, and a removal of sins and a certain wonderful and extraordinary cleansing of the soul takes place.”

He then compares the two:

“just as those who are baptized with waters, so those who bear witness are washed in their own blood.”

What Does the Evidence Show?

These writers do not all make exactly the same argument, and they should not be made to say more than they actually say.

They consistently affirm the importance of a ceremony in water to be counted as baptized. Many of them describe it as the normal or necessary means of receiving salvation. Yet they also repeatedly recognize circumstances in which the reality associated with baptism is present without the ordinary application of water.

The evidence includes:

Tertullian: martyrdom is a second baptism that can stand in place of water baptism.
Origen: baptism can be spoken of as water, Spirit/fire, and blood; martyrdom is connected with forgiveness of sins.
Cyprian: a believer who dies before water baptism can receive the baptism of blood.
Anonymous On Re-Baptism: the Holy Spirit can be given before water baptism, and a believer who dies before receiving water need not be regarded as lost.
Gregory Nazianzen: Christ's baptism is baptism in the Spirit, and martyrdom is another baptism.
Ambrose: a catechumen who desired baptism but died before receiving it could nevertheless receive the grace he desired.
Augustine: baptism could be imputed to the believing thief who could not physically receive it.
Augustine: faith and conversion of heart could supply what baptism lacked when the sacrament could not be received.
Augustine: Cornelius received the Holy Spirit before water baptism.
Pelagius: Scripture speaks of baptism in water, in the Holy Spirit/fire, and in blood.

Taken together, these examples establish a clear historical pattern:

The early church did not understand the saving reality associated with baptism as being absolutely confined to the physical application of water.

Water baptism was regarded as the ordinary Christian practice to be saved, and was often strongly defended. Nevertheless, Spirit baptism, baptism by blood, faith, conversion, and the desire for baptism were recognized by various early Christian writers as realities through which God could confer salvation.

Romans 2: A Remarkable Passage Disproving Salvation Through Baptism

2026-09-05T01:24:25.404-07:00

As we examine baptism, it is helpful to first look at an outward covenant sign that Paul discusses at length: circumcision. Paul is using circumcision as a case study to demonstrate something much bigger about righteousness before God.

Romans 2:25–29 shows God's brilliance in how He evaluates the relationship between an outward religious act and the inward spiritual reality it represents.

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.

Paul makes two remarkable observations.

1.The Outward Act Does Not Establish Credit with God; the Inward Reality Does

Paul begins with the outward sign:

“Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.”
Romans 2:25

The point is striking. A person could be circumcised outwardly and yet, because the reality represented by that sign was absent, God could regard him as though he were not circumcised.

The physical act itself did not establish righteousness.

But Paul then turns the situation around:

“So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?”
Romans 2:26

Now the person does not possess the outward sign, yet Paul says that person can be regarded as though circumcised.

This creates a remarkable symmetry:

Circumcised + lawbreaker = regarded as though uncircumcised.

Uncircumcised + obedience in the heart = regarded as though circumcised outwardly.

Paul is showing that God does not ultimately evaluate a person according to possession of the outward sign. What matters is the spiritual reality of the outward act.

That becomes even clearer in verses 28–29:

“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart…”

The physical sign was not meaningless. But the physical sign was never the thing that God ultimately wanted by itself.

The outside does not create the inside.

And, remarkably, Paul says that the inside is credited as the completeness signaled by the outside act, even when the outside act is absent.

That is an important principle.

God can recognize the inward reality even when the outward sign is not present. Conversely, the outward sign does not guarantee the inward reality.

2. The Mechanism Is the Spirit, Not the Written Code

But Paul does not stop with the distinction between outside and inside. He tells us how the inward reality is produced:

“Circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.”
Romans 2:29

This is crucial.

Paul identifies the mechanism for regeneration: the Spirit.

The written code could tell a person what God required. But the Spirit comes within to enact the transformation God desires, without us first satisfying His code.

So Paul's argument is not simply about having access to God's written commands. The deeper issue is what God is doing inside the person.

The inward work of the Spirit does not merely give meaning to the outward sign. It constitutes the spiritual, inner reality that God is regarding as the satisfaction of the outward sign.

And that brings Paul's argument back to the two sides of the case study:

The outward sign without the inward reality is insufficient.

But the inward reality produced by the Spirit is recognized by God even without the outward sign.

Why This Matters

God is not ultimately impressed by the presence of an outward religious marker when the inward reality is absent. And the inward work of the Spirit is powerful enough that God ratifies that reality even when the outward marker is absent.

That gives us an important principle to carry into our discussion of baptism:

We should not automatically assume that the outward act itself creates the inward spiritual reality. We must first ask what Scripture says the outward act represents, and what Scripture says actually produces spiritual status with God.

Romans 4: What Abraham Teaches Us About Salvation Apart from Obedience

2026-09-05T00:16:12.121-07:00

When someone first reads Romans 4, one detail can easily become confusing: circumcision.

Paul talks about Abraham's circumcision several times. Does that mean Christians are supposed to be circumcised?

No. To understand why Paul discusses circumcision, we first need to understand what he is actually trying to prove.

Romans 4 Is a Theological Case Study

A case study is an example examined closely to establish a larger principle.

Paul has just explained in Romans 3 that God's righteousness is available through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from works. Someone could ask, “Is this really how God counts people righteous? Or is Paul introducing something new?”

So Paul examines the life of Abraham.

His central question is:

On what basis did God count Abraham righteous?

Since being counted righteous is Paul's language for justification, this is ultimately a question about the basis on which a person is saved and accepted as righteous before God.

Abraham's Story Gives Us the Answer

Paul quotes Genesis 15:6:

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

The timing of this statement is critical.

Abraham was not yet circumcised.

The chronology of Genesis is:

Genesis 15
Abraham believes → God credits righteousness.

Genesis 17
Abraham is circumcised.

Genesis 22
Abraham demonstrates remarkable obedience when God tests him.

Paul is deliberately using this chronology to separate the basis of Abraham's righteousness from the things Abraham did afterward.

Righteousness Came Before Circumcision

Paul makes this point directly in Romans 4:10:

“How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised?”

His answer:

“Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.”

Then Paul explains circumcision in Romans 4:11:

“He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised.”

Notice the order:

Faith → righteousness credited → circumcision

Circumcision was a sign and seal of the righteousness Abraham already had by faith.

It was not the act of obedience that caused God to count him righteous.

This is why Paul's discussion of circumcision is actually evidence against the idea that a physical act of obedience could make Abraham righteous.

Abraham's Obedience Came Later Too

Abraham eventually demonstrated extraordinary obedience, particularly in Genesis 22.

But that happened after Genesis 15:6 had already declared that his faith was credited as righteousness.

Paul's point in Romans 4:4–5 is that righteousness is not something a person earns from God as a wage for performing enough works.

Instead:

“To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

Abraham's later obedience was real and important. But it did not become the basis of the righteousness God had already credited through faith.

Why Abraham Matters to the New Covenant

This is the larger purpose of Paul's case study.

Paul is establishing the grounds for the righteousness made available throughout God's new-covenant plan of salvation.

Abraham demonstrates that a person can be counted righteous before receiving the physical covenant sign and before performing the later works of obedience.

That is why Abraham can be called the father of those who believe, whether or not they possess the physical sign of circumcision.

What Romans 4 Is Really Teaching

Paul is using circumcision to answer a much larger question:

How does God count a sinful person righteous?

Abraham's life provides the answer:

He believed God.

[next,]

God credited righteousness.

[next,]

Circumcision came afterward as a sign and seal.

[next,]

Obedience followed.

The order matters.

Righteousness was received by faith; the sign and the works came afterward.

Romans 4 is establishing the basis of justification, and how a person is counted righteous before God. It refutes any teaching that righteousness is earned through religious ceremonies or good works.

That is why Abraham is such a powerful case study for understanding the gospel.

One Important Distinction

Romans 4 is primarily explaining how a person is counted righteous before God. That does not mean Paul's larger message, concerning righteous living, is unimportant.

The chapters that follow increasingly address the next question:

How does that righteousness become evident in the believer's actual life?

That distinction helps us read Romans correctly.

What's in the Greek? “Baptism”

2026-09-04T23:19:20.323-07:00

When the New Testament uses the words baptize and baptism, it is easy to assume that the word itself always means a person being physically dipped into water. But the Greek vocabulary used by the New Testament is more precise than that.
A useful place to begin is with Strong’s Greek entries 911, 907, and 908, which are related words:
βάπτω (911) → βαπτίζω (907) → βάπτισμα (908)
dip → baptize → baptism
Looking at how these words are actually used in the New Testament helps us understand why the word “baptism” cannot automatically be equated with a physical water ceremony, much less assumed to mean that a person receives salvation by physically undergoing that ceremony.

1. βάπτω (911): The Word for Literal Dipping

Let's look at our Strong's concordance and the use and meaning of the various derivatives of "bapto."

The Greek verb βάπτω (baptō), Strong’s 911, is the clearest place to begin because it is the root word/base word.

βάπτω (911)
↓ derivative relationship
βαπτίζω (907)
↓ nominal derivative
βάπτισμα (908)

#911 is found in only four instances in the New Testament.
Matthew 26:23 — Jesus speaks of someone dipping his hand into the bowl.
Mark 14:20 — someone dips into the dish.
Luke 16:24 — the rich man asks that Lazarus dip his finger into water.
John 13:26 — Jesus dips the morsel into the dish.
In every occurrence, the basic picture is the same:
A physical object is dipped into a physical substance.
Luke 16:24 provides the clearest example because the substance is explicitly water. The Greek word translated “dip” is βάψῃ, a form of βάπτω (911).
Thus, the New Testament demonstrably had a word that could describe the simple physical action:
a physical object → dipped → into water.
This gives us an important point of comparison when we examine the words translated “baptize” and “baptism.”

2. βαπτίζω (907): The Word Used for “Baptize”

The related verb βαπτίζω (baptizō), Strong’s 907, is the principal New Testament verb translated “baptize.”
It certainly can describe physical baptism involving water.
For example, Matthew 3:6 describes people being baptized by John in the Jordan River. Matthew 3:16 then describes Jesus coming up from the water after His baptism.
So there is no question that βαπτίζω can describe a physical water baptism.
But its New Testament usage is broader than that.

Consider Jesus' words in Mark 10:38:
“Are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
Jesus was not asking James and John whether they were willing to participate in a water ceremony. He was speaking about the suffering and death that He was about to experience.
Verse 39 continues:
“The baptism with which I am baptized, you shall be baptized.”
The same baptism vocabulary is therefore being used in a context where physical immersion in water is not what Jesus has in view.
The New Testament also uses baptism language in connection with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist says:
Matthew 3:11
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Here the element or sphere of the baptism is not ordinary water.
The same basic vocabulary is therefore used in several different contexts:
βαπτίζω (907) can refer to:
baptism involving water
baptism involving the Holy Spirit
baptism associated with suffering and death
certain forms of ceremonial washing
The important point is not that all of these uses mean exactly the same thing. Rather, the word βαπτίζω itself does not specify the nature of the baptism in every occurrence.
The context tells us what kind of baptism is being described.

3. βάπτισμα (908): The Noun “Baptism”

The next word is βάπτισμα (baptisma), Strong’s 908.
This is a noun, rather than a verb.
The relationship can therefore be viewed simply as:
βάπτω (911) — dip
↓
βαπτίζω (907) — baptize
↓
βάπτισμα (908) — baptism
The noun βάπτισμα identifies the baptism itself—the baptismal event or reality.
Again, context determines what kind of baptism is being discussed.
For example, Matthew 3:7 speaks of people coming to John's βάπτισμα, his baptism. In that context, the baptism is clearly associated with his physical water ministry.
But the same noun is also used in contexts where baptism refers to something other than a physical water ceremony.
Jesus speaks of His own βάπτισμα in connection with His coming suffering and death. Thus the same noun can identify different kinds of baptismal realities.
John's baptism involved water.
Jesus' baptism involved suffering and death.
Other passages speak of baptism involving the Holy Spirit.
The vocabulary remains related, but the nature of the baptism is determined by context.

4. Why the Distinction Between 911 and 907 Matters

This brings us to an interesting feature of the New Testament vocabulary.
The New Testament authors knew and used βάπτω (911) when they wanted to describe a tangible physical dipping. Why then is it only used 4 times? Why is this verb not used at all in the doctrinal passages about baptism?
Luke 16:24 is particularly useful:
“Dip (#911) your finger in water.”
So the New Testament writers had a Greek verb available for the very specific picture of:
taking a physical object and dipping it into water.
Yet when they describe baptism, including physical baptism involving water, they use the distinct vocabulary of βαπτίζω (907) and βάπτισμα (908) rather than simply using βάπτω (911).
That distinction does not prove that water baptism never involved immersion. The New Testament clearly describes physical water baptisms.
But it does establish something important:
“Baptism” cannot simply be defined from the word itself as “a person being physically dipped into water.”
The New Testament uses baptism vocabulary in contexts involving water, the Holy Spirit, suffering, death, and ceremonial washing. Consequently, we must determine from the context what kind of baptism a particular passage is describing.

Summary

The New Testament authors had a word for ordinary physical dipping—βάπτω (911)—and used it to describe things such as dipping a hand, a morsel of food, or a finger into water.
Yet the words they used for baptizing and baptism—βαπτίζω (907) and βάπτισμα (908)—have a broader range of use.
Therefore:
The NT writers consistently employed the distinct βαπτίζω (907) and βάπτισμα (908) vocabulary when speaking of baptism, including both physical water baptism and baptism understood in theological or Spiritual terms.

Part One: Christian Nationalism is Unbiblical

2021-03-17T19:59:00.002-07:00

[ This is going to be a three part series. Part one will cover the unbiblical theology we'd best avoid. Part two will describe American exceptionalism and how it has created quite opposing political agendas, especially amongst Christians. Part three will update poor theology with a biblical framework of "exile," that Christians might better channel their faith.]

Photo by Daniel Reche from Pexels

Part One: What Not to Believe

If you ask a “Patriotic Christian” the question, “Does the founding of our country on Christian ideals give Christians today privilege to dominate politics and law?” they would whole-heartedly agree. Their expectation of political outcomes follows suit. Non-Christian citizens owe it to Christians to let them dominate the political agenda. Christians have a God-given right to have this society ordered by God’s Word. Much quotation of the Founding Fathers is used as birthright, on par to scripture itself:

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting sun may His kingdom come."

- Sam Adams, Father of the American Revolution

But to quote mere men like this is to add to scripture. I’m not here to revive a debate on the history of whether America was founded as a Christian country. But I will ask you to be honest: isn’t it an irrelevant question? Whether it was or not doesn’t change the fact that our constitution grants religious liberties to all faiths.

“Yes, but my faith in Jesus guides me to be a politically-active American. I want what God wants. And God does not want these changes.” I can hear the responses. Christians are tired. Over the last 50 years they've been losing social prominence as witnessed by legalized abortion, changes to the institution of marriage and gender dysphoria, and the removal of God from our military, schools, holidays, etc. It’s time to ask some sobering questions about how God thinks about America. Does America belong to God? Is America special in God’s eyes? What does God want Christian Americans to fight for? If God wants us to fight, can that even mean violent force?

Unfortunately, Jesus’ has no plan for a Christian theocracy (co-mingling of God’s law and government) in America; not from its inception and not for its future. How do I know?

Because of the scriptures. Scripture makes it clear the American government will not be the conduit of Jesus’ kingdom-come on earth.

The Future Kingdom of Jesus

Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

All of the earth’s governments will be restored to God through the second advent of Christ (Col. 1:20). The most significant Gentile empires throughout all of history are represented in the statue of Nebuchadnezzer’s prophetic dream. The feet of iron mixed with clay was hit by the rock not cut with human hands (Dan. 2:34-45). This rock is the government of Jesus. During the time this post-apocalyptic government reigns, all nations of the earth will offer their greatness to the kingdom of the Most High, whose is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey Him (Dan. 8:27). On that day -- our desire for a theocracy will be satisfied.

The Patriot would refute, “But -- America was founded on better things in God’s eyes!” Scripture itself may have been the guiding light which frames the constitution - but it isn’t enough. No mere man’s words, no matter how godly, brilliant and glorifying to God as they may be, are any guarantee. No human has willfully indebted or obligated God. America shares in common the condition of all governments on earth - corruption. No amount of political reform can ultimately purge the corruption in any government; even a largely Christian one. How do I know? Scripture. Satan is currently the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).

Matt. 4:8-9. “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’”

Satan offered America to Jesus as a temptation because Satan possesses America - and Jesus refused to take the governments.

The Former Offer of the Kingdom

Jesus’ government nearly arrived 2000 years ago. Jesus offered a Christian kingdom, a God-ruled government (theocracy) to first-century Israel - but not to the nations. In the beginning half of Jesus’ ministry He and John the Baptist preached “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand [or, near].” It was at hand because their Messiah had arrived and if they repented they could have ushered in their Messianic kingdom.

The people of Israel had three conditions to satisfy so that they might receive the kingdom of Christ: 1- they must accept their Messiah 2- they must be living in the promised land and 3- they had to have spiritual obedience to God’s commands. When the people refused to repent and meet the conditions required, and when the Pharisees demonstrated unbelief at Christ’s miracles, that offer was put in abeyance (put on delay). This turning point was in Matthew 12:24. Jesus set aside the offer of a Christian kingdom away from Israel and began to teach them in parables. From then on when Jesus teaches, the kingdom is not at hand and it will be postponed till after the church age. That is why in Acts when the disciples asked a risen Jesus when the kingdom would be established, Jesus changed the topic:

Acts 1:6-8 “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’”

Are There Any Special Promises God Can Make with America?

Seems straightforward to say, even Israel had conditional terms for possessing their inheritance! But at least God had promised Israel to the Jews. You might sum up the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants by saying the land was unconditionally owned and conditionally possessed. Christian Americans have no such arrangement in the scriptures for us and this North American nation. Even Israel got kicked out of their own land when they didn’t keep in obedient step with our God. How much more can we expect to have no rights over our land!

“Special Promise” Proof Text #1 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” Psalm 33:12

Response: Well, which nation is it who has God as their Lord? Isn’t that Israel? Put the verse into context and read it again…. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” The rest of the sentence identifies that nation whose God is the Lord; it is the people of His inheritance which is Israel of course. Didn’t God promise blessing to Israel in Deuteronomy 30? Of course. Deut. 32:8-9 says, "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance." America doesn’t have a covenant like Israel, concerning possessing the land or blessing in the land. America doesn’t have any promises in scripture. Yet Franklin Graham, a Christian nationalist, used this verse and this verse alone as justification for his most urgent call to political action.

“Special Promise” Proof Text #2 “... if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Response: This promise I am certain has truth in it that can be applicable to American believers. Certainly we believe that if we humble ourselves God will lift us up for that is written in the epistle of James. But once there is a promise toward a “land,” we have to ask ourselves is this part of the specific covenant God has with the land of Israel?? The answer is yes, this verse while in part relevant for all believers everywhere, has specific promise to the land of Israel alone, for it is only the nation of Israel who is given a promise from God. Look at the context for more clues anyway - it is right after Solomon dedicates the temple. God said to him one sentence above, “I have… chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice” vs. 12.

The Patriot might ask, “I thought we could subvert American government to God’s blessings and authority?” The logic goes that if there are enough Christians in a country who love God, God will give them what they want, which is control over the land.

While we commend that as many Christians run for office as possible, while we commend believers who use their right to vote and their rights to peaceful protest and recall and reform, we cannot go so far to condone this Christian nationalist falsehood in the public square: that America’s ruling caste is Christianity.

Does this mean we should just give in and give up in the face of government corruption? That’s not right either. We should participate. Our grounds for involvement are NOT from knowing the framers’ Christian beliefs! Our reason for involvement is because we care about our society! Our reason for involvement is because God has given us gifts and callings. Our grounds for involvement is the constitution which extends the right to participate equally to all citizens.

And Finally - And Most Sensitively - What About Violence?

How far should we go to advance Christ’s kingdom? Should we fight for it? Like, literally physically fight for the agenda of Christ? Take up arms?

To Pilate Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36)

Though Jesus was a King, He was no threat to Rome or Pilate because His kingdom would not come through a worldly revolution. His kingdom would be in heaven, for the individual citizens born from above during the church age; it would not come to dominion over a land until after tribulation.

In light of Jesus’s words, how should we understand January 6th and the storming of the U.S. Capitol? How does God feel about the Christians who were there with Jesus banners, hitting police with their flagpoles?

Jesus said, "My servants would fight" if His kingdom were here. Because the kingdom of God is not here, who were these violent Christians truly serving in the Capitol breach? Peter could have been a model citizen of the rioter's kingdom because he used a sword as they arrested Jesus. He swung and sliced off a soldier's ear. But Jesus healed the soldier’s wound. It is clear that Jesus did not condone revolutionary violence for spiritual matters, nor for any other such as Barrabus's. Barabbas was jailed for murder with other insurrectionists of Roman rule.

Matthew 26:52 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back in its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword."

In conclusion: this certain expectation of providence upon the political aims of well meaning-brothers and sisters needs a refresh. Together we can examine the truth about the hope of Israel and the millennial kingdom of Christ. Until the day of the Lord, we might do well to find a more biblical stance for our sojourn.

That Golden Thread of Hope

2020-03-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Today marks one week since the spiral of societal closure began. It's been a weird seven days and I am sure it'll keep getting more weird. Strange thoughts run through my mind at odd hours of the early morning, such as "if society continues to break down, who will be the new bourgeoisie?" and "should I expect to stand in line at 6 a.m. outside Fred Meyer like it's Black Friday so I can put toilet paper under our tree - ha!" I am curious to see how this will affect the attitudes of young adults; will they become savers like those in the Depression? Coronavirus moves all of us into uncharted waters. We have never had to put so much of our near future under strain; our democratic principles, our unity, our patience, our modes of educating, working, and experiencing community; our commitment to being healthy and preserving life.

In the midst of this crisis, yes - I feel stress from a dozen angles. We are all facing grave risks; some more than others. But there is another feeling that is beginning to build: hope. Hope really has no explanation for why it's making a home in the middle of a mess. Yet there it is, having its way in my heart. I can remember one of the first times I experienced an inexplicable sense of hope. I was 16 and a sophomore in high school. There was a boy I liked and I often hung out around him at lunch. One day there was a new girl and she liked him too. She told me she was going to beat me up, so I laughed and said "okay, Zena Warrior Princess." Big mistake! She claimed to know what bus I rode and how in two days she'd get off on my stop and beat the crap out of me.

For 48 hours I had an eerie sense of dread and stress. I felt a lack of control and disturbing anticipation of trouble, in a very small way similar to what the world feels right now with Coronavirus. It was hard to assess the real risk and what would really happen with this bully. And it was terrible waiting to find out. What should I think? In the place of a thought instead was a feeling. The feeling had its own message. I somehow knew there was more to who I was and more to my ultimate destiny. But I couldn't explain why I felt this way inside. I just did! So, while my mind replayed a graphic fantasy of being smacked across the face in just 24 hours (oomph!), this other feeling grew stronger. I felt so amazing, so new, and so excited. It made me want to talk to my destiny, to "ultimate reality." I had watched a movie about Jesus recently but wasn't sure if there was an all-attentive Being guiding the unseen.

In spite of not really believing much about God, I found myself talking to God. Every time I opened my mouth and tried it, my heart swelled. Not only did I have the feeling that somehow I would be alright with this bully, but I wanted more. I wanted a relationship with what was unseen. I asked questions and got audible silence, nevertheless I was more and more thrilled on the inside. I was hungry for this connection and I couldn't get enough. I was feeling God respond to my words by changing my heart.

Maybe you're reading this right now and believe the same way I did then - unsure there is anything dwelling in the unseen. In the middle of this extremely difficult and upsetting situation with Coronavirus, do you also feel something unexpected and unexplainable...? Is it hope? Can you explain why you would feel hope in an impending crisis? Do you feel a stirring in your soul when you look into the sky? Do you feel this momentum in your heart that there is something bigger going on, and it wants to have a relationship with you too?

I will tell you what I was discovering about God in sophomore year. There is something separating us from God and they call it sin. That word means that we don't live up to God's standards, even our own self-imposed ideas of right and wrong - we fail ourselves. God knows we have this problem and sent His Son. Jesus did everything right through His relationship with God. Then, Jesus went to the cross to die there for us. If He had only gone for one of us, it would have been enough to Jesus. He went there not just for me, but for every person ever. There really is a punishment; God gets mad when someone vulnerable gets hurt. Well, God put all His rights for justice over sin not on us, but on His own Son. When Jesus was on the cross, His blood poured out, He died, and He was buried. But three days later, God raised Jesus back to the living. God did that because Jesus doesn't deserve to die; He was innocent. Many hundreds of people saw Him alive after seeing Him dead, and this is the proof that this religion is valid in the unseen realm. And so there is nothing left to expect, except peace with God. He is longing to have a connection with us. Anyone who believes this has received peace with God.

It says in the Bible, "To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12.

I didn't yet have a developed idea of ultimate reality, but I'll tell you the rest of the story -- that bully girl did get on my bus. She rallied the kids to watch us fight. I calmly told her I wasn't going to fight her. When I stood up to get off, she stammered an excuse how she can't get into any more trouble or else her parole officer would put her in juvie. She sat down quiet and gave up. I went home and I never saw that girl again.

If it weren't for hope, I don't think I'd continue seeking a connection with an unseen Being. I could feel it - so I followed it. It is a golden thread that has woven through the most unpleasant fabric of my life. I am trying my best to follow it today - day 7 - and there are worse days to come. Yet, I am convinced surprising things will continue to happen!

What are you facing because of Coronavirus - unemployment? Cabin fever? Physical fever? Worries about retirement? I'm sure the list is long! Who knows when hand sanitizer will ever be restocked. Yet I believe there's a purpose for the hope in your heart. It's leading to something that for now is possibly unclear. It's between you and God. I hope you find peace in your connection with the unseen!

"Captain of the Sons," a Poem

2017-01-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

Word in a weary
season
I'm a stranger on the
earth
He stoops low to see
me
So high He makes my
worth

Angels minister
here
For partakers in the
light
The world is in
subjection
Marvel at His
might

Jesus, crowned with glory
Captain of the sons
Firstborn of the brothers
Pure through suffering

For the earth's
sojourners
He keeps the desolate
lands
Granted apostleship
His descendants are like
sand

Give your back to those who
harm
Like flint, set your
face
Our youths on the
horizon
You will not be ashamed

Jesus, crowned with glory
Captain of the sons
Firstborn of the brothers
Pure through suffering

I'm not yet done
confessing
And you've already
restored
I do not know the
way
To your highway for the
LORD

Righteousness as
waves
Descendants as
sand
Wax your Spirit
here
Your kingdom at
hand

Jesus, crowned with glory
Captain of the sons
Firstborn of the brothers
Pure through suffering

Isaiah 48:11, 18-19; 49:22-23; 50:6-7
Hebrews 2:5, 2:16, 5:8
Colossians 1:12

Keeping up with the Kingdom

2015-07-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

"Then He said, 'What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.'

And again He said, 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.'"
Luke 13:18-21

Exponential Multiplication

That's what the Kingdom of God is like. It is reaching everywhere, it is penetrating everywhere. Not because we are credited as having taken it, but because that is the nature of God's love. God's love as expressed in the gospel of Christ and in His miracles and transformations and authoritative power is infectious. It is a reaction that changes people, just like yeast creates a reaction that makes dough rise. It spreads quickly from one group to the next, along lines of community belonging. Once we have seen our closest friends or family in our lives be changed by Jesus, the stark change, the hunger for more of God cannot be contained.

So the question isn't how quick or successful the yeast or mustard seed is, by its nature. We know it works. We know it wins. We know it incarnates to reach every nook and cranny of this city. We have heard stories of how the gospel spreads like wildfire in every part of the earth. The question is, do we unintentionally create obstacles? Do we keep in step with God's speed? Is what we do like a mustard seed or like yeast in bread dough? Or do we look a little differently arranged than that?

If Jesus is "that fast" to lend authority, do we reflect that in how quickly we lend authority?

If Jesus is "that fast" to save groups of people and incorporate them in the life of God, do we ever bottleneck that flow?

I know I do, especially the second above. Ask me what kinds of stuff I'm finding in myself as obstacles..

Kingdom Yeast in Salem and Keizer

Jesus is the "woman" in the parable of the yeast. He is kneading the Kingdom into Salem and Keizer. The yeast will permeate because no one will stop it. If we don't keep up, it doesn't mean the yeast will fail to permeate. It does reflect on us however as not being in synch with its pace and direction. Therefore, there are real rewards and judgments that are coming our way when we do or do not facilitate the Kingdom in our city.

"And the Lord said, 'Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. ... [Yet] that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes."
Luke 12:42-47

This parable recalls Joseph. What was Joseph doing while imprisoned in Genesis 39? He dispensed daily ration of grain to the prisoners. He knew how much grain it took to survive on. He knew how much each person needed and he made sure everyone prospered. This was absolutely critical training needed to later rule over all of Egypt during the famine.

A man who practices faithfulness to their neighbor in the small ways will find rulership over much more in the Kingdom.

Lent Authority is Multiplied Authority

When Christian authority is leaned upon from one Christian to another, the effect is the number of those in Christian authority increase, and the church grows indefinitely in this pattern.

Joseph's "grain" may be metaphorically equivalent to Kingdom authority. Without authority, the Kingdom doesn't spread. Without authority, Christians don't fully embrace their responsibility and privilege to represent God. To be sure, every believer in Christ has authority, just as the Kingdom by nature is a tiny seed with tremendous reactionary capability. Only when a Christian does not understand, experience or believe in his own power, does the Kingdom get stop-gapped.

How much Christian authority does it really take to successfully accomplish the Great Commission? Does it take a lot? Or is it more ration-sized? If some have too much authority stock-piled in barns, does that impose a paradigm to others that they do not have enough authority?

Can we see how stockpiling authority is out of synch with God's speed of Kingdom saturation?

"But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, 'There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.'"
Luke 13:14

This is just one of a thousand gospel examples of not keeping up with the Kingdom. This ruler got in trouble with Jesus because he imagined he might restrict growth to 6 days instead of observing that it moved contiguously on the seventh. Whether it is in regard to days and time or any other way of life, our preconceptions of the Kingdom can stockpile authority and not see it spread to where it is truly needed most. What about missionary power? Can missionary potential be stockpiled?

"Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: 'The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, "What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?" So he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.'" But God said to him, "Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?" So is he who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God.'"
Luke 12:16-21

Be it Joseph's positive example from Genesis or the parable rich man's antithetical example, it is clear that God wants to save all people, and He has the means to do it very quickly and very powerfully. I've been honest enough to admit that I don't facilitate the Kingdom as I might, and I assume I'm not alone in this.

I usually come back to some basic objectives to get me on track. Helpful tips I can share to keep up with the Kingdom:

1) End discrimination. Our ministry preferences have to end. We will get stuck over and over again being out of touch with who God wants to save and where and when and how if we discriminate ministries or people to be involved in. It's probably the hardest and most important daily decision I choose to make, so I feel it too. We all get comfortable and begin to religiously identify who we are with what we do, as the parable of the good Samaritan teaches us.

2) Get into a practice of observation. Notice how passion for Jesus moves through relationships and communities. Consider keeping track of this as the most important administrative priority. Make phone calls. Ask to go out to coffee. How do routines and belonging to communities factor on the spread of the gospel?

3) Ask God for wisdom. God wants His people to believe in their own authority in Christ to execute the great commission to the full and to the best of their gifting and ability. This goes for people who have known Christ all their life or are just coming around. It may take some discipling-up or dusting off the founding documents and histories of your Christian tribe.

4) Discard regularly. We want to be good stewards who feed people well. There are good things we do all the time that get us into a rut. The rut I'm referring to is not Spiritually, inwardly, like a personal dry spell. I'm talking about fruitfulness in illuminating the Kingdom to others. Is anyone testifying of God's goodness through your ministry? Are they making the choice to take up their cross because of your ministry? Are they being loved without strings attached, if they are unbelievers or wary of God?

5) While strategy and observation are essential, don't spend all your effort on this. Have your own, deep, passionate, humble decimation before God. It is the meek and those who are poor in Spirit who will inherit the Kingdom. Remember how empty life was when you came to the gospel, and stay there. Let the gospel dwell richly within you. I can testify that when I have been the most decimated, God comes around in my confusion and pain to be awesome in His Kingdom. Others will catch the yeast of the Kingdom best through your own relationship.

Still blogging?

2013-10-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not done blogging. Though I'm thinking of changing things up and making a brand new blog!!!

Daily Movement of God

Sanctification is still Free Grace. Yes, I haven't fallen out or become disinterested. I just needed to take care of a few things that required going on the DL. Now that they're underway, I'm resurfacing.

Sanc is also still the number one fan of La Femme Nikita and all its derivatives. Boring!

I still love the LDS, still go to the same church, still love the LORD - more than ever do I love HIM!

Go + Stay

2013-05-22T12:00:00.002-07:00

Two posts ago I wrote an article proposing the gospel impacting the Patient Grower's Network. That week I prayed for God to open a door, but the Holy Spirit did not open a way. That is the way things go sometimes, and I trust God for an open door elsewhere.

If you have been reading here in the last year you may remember a post on the Juggalos in downtown Salem, and J.K.'s story. J.K. and I are still friends and because of her I am getting to know her friends. I love them. I don't know how to spend more time downtown which is what it would take. I could list the ways I'm failing. The biggest one would be that I am not living in the rhythms of the lives of those God wants to reach. I swoop in, spread a little love and gospel, and swoop back to Keizer. What I am doing, stinks.

Missional does not equal just "go" ing.
Missional = GO + STAY

I love this video...

Have you ever heard of the "Person of Peace"? God opens a door for the gospel with a Person of Peace. It is based on Jesus' sending out of the apostles. Jesus commanded them to preach the Kingdom only where they were welcome. Jesus taught Go + Stay. Mike Breen teaches in his book Building a Discipling Culture that a Person of Peace:

1. Welcomes/receives you, listens to you
2. Serves you

When I read that last year, it freed me up to see who it is that I need to be pouring the gospel into.

The people downtown are SO OPEN to me. They are so friendly, so lovable. They have shared their lives openly with me. They are people of peace toward me.

I have good news. After a couple weeks, the guys were talking about how everyone downtown has a nickname. I said, "I don't have a nickname." One of the young men named Jack looked at me and said, "I know what your name is."

"What?" I asked.

"Your name is Faith. That's what you represent," he said.

I looked at him for some time, to read his face and his body language. Was I the kind of faith that was overbearing? Annoying? Preachy? Out of touch with reality? I didn't see any of that in his body language. He looked genuinely positive. My heart swells thinking about it!

There's another older man downtown who was widowed recently. He goes to the same spot every day for two hours in the afternoon. He greets every person who walks by, wants to know them all. He is a believer who wants to share the love of Jesus. His own son was once addicted to drugs for years but today he is sober and taking care of his family because of the power of God. He is a natural shepherd with favor of the people. It is so encouraging to talk to him. He is also very open to me, totally encouraged by me talking in various forms about God's apostolic impulse.

All the young men respond so positively to this older man. He was getting out of his car across the street and they all exclaimed his name loudly as he made his way, they were so excited he had come. He got a nickname too that day. Jack said, "there is no one as unique as you," to him. The older man wanted to know why he was unique. Jack said, "because you are the only older person I know who cares to get to know people, who will actually spend time with them instead of just drive right past them." Isn't God good?

Jack is an agnostic who thinks the bible was written by men, full of inconsistencies. Would you pray for this young man?

Here's the rub. I feel so inadequate. Let me give you a list of reasons why. I've got more than one!! :)

1. I am a woman. Yes, so I'm smart-n-stuff but you never know.

2. My faith is not as strong as I wish it was.

3. I'm not the best discipler. I'm more of an apostolic/prophetic than a teacher. There are others who are gifted at teaching and I sure would like some of those to come alongside.

4. People downtown are sometimes mentally ill, former criminals, or addicted to drugs. How can I stay ahead of all Satan's strategies?

I guess this is something for this older man and I to figure out together. He is struggling with trying to answer the same questions: how do we know when to trust? I've reached out to the Union Gospel Mission to get a feel for the way things really are and the resources they have available, the real struggles they are already engaged with.

Yesterday evening I went to Sonrise Church, also known as "Stitches." It is an interfaith discipling ministry across the street from the Salem Conference Center. I met Bob, one of the associate pastors. He knows some of the people at Salem First Baptist. He showed me everything they are doing to reach the young street folk. One girl got bored waiting for our conversation to end and she came up to Bob and just snuggled in for a hug. This moved me. I love this place.

They started off doing an open grill down at the bus depot several years ago. This developed into a group doing devotions at various places on the street. In an alley. On the capitol steps. Eventually they got themselves a building.

I said to Bob, "You guys are doing everything that I want to do, though I don't want to develop things toward a permanent building with permanent services. But you've got so much resources. You have a men's mentoring program. You have solutions for drug addiction. I don't have any of that."

He looked me in the eye and said, "You don't need that. I can tell you having worked here for several years, even when it comes to something like drug addiction: it is the love that sets them free. That's it. And it is the only thing that will keep them free. You've got everything you need, as long as you are filled with love from God."

Ahh! That was a word from the LORD to me. So I pass it on to you. You also are adequate in Christ's love! God IS love. All of His Holy Spirit ministry is captured within that powerful love.

I have two women who are praying with me, we are praying for one another's opportunities to advance the gospel. We've been doing this for a month with one woman, several months with another. One of the ladies wants to come with me downtown! So I am planning on picking her up with me as I go. God is so good to answer my prayers for partnership!

I am also being mentored by the longtime ministry partner of George Patterson. Ralph Winter, the international missions leader who coined the term "Unreached People Groups" and in so doing catalyzed a new wave of world missions, calls George Patterson one of the top three experts in the world on church growth. I am so glad for God's favor. I can't even tell you how special this is to me.

I don't want to do church services - I want to do what is called a people movement toward Christ. Work within the circle of natural community that exists. See a few come to Christ and naturally they will reach the rest of their circle.

I don't want church FOR the people. I want church BY the people, on the street, in the places they carry out life. Mike Breen says,

I've said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.

-- "Why The Missional Movement Will Fail" by Mike Breen

Praises:

For the young men and women who are open to me
For prayer partners who faithfully pray for the people downtown
For seasoned mentorship

Needs:

Prayer
Safety and Wisdom
Teacher(s)
Increased Faith

"Bring the Better Wine"

2013-05-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Miracle of Water Turned to Wine

Yesterday I was shopping at Walmart for shirts. At the checkout I was cracking jokes with the clerk. She asked me if I wanted to keep the hangers. She said people use them for all sorts of things. I said, "and I suppose I could keep the price tags as... bookmarks."

There was a little old woman in her eighties who had finished putting her things in her basket ahead of me who came back to the clerk. She interrupted us and said, "I did all of that and forgot to pay you so I could take ice out of the ice chest on the way out the door. Can I still do that?"

The clerk said, "Yes," but did not explain how. So the little old lady stood there for a while waiting to figure out how to do that. She finally realized and asked, "Do I have to stand in line again then?" The clerk replied in the affirmative. She kindly began to wheel her basket around to about five patrons deep a line.

I said, "I'll buy the ice," but she didn't hear me as she headed around to the line. So the clerk told the lady, "she is going to buy you ice ma'am."

The little old lady said from the back of the line, "Oh; well, I was going to buy five bags of ice."

By now the 5 patrons-deep line of people knew what was going on and was listening.

The clerk had told me they were only $1.85 a bag so I said, "It's no problem I can do that."

So the clerk ran up the bill and I paid for it. The clerk said, "Ma'am you don't have to wait in line, you can go get your ice. It's paid for."

She wheeled back around and came up and said to the clerk and to me, "Thank you."

I replied saying, "Bless you."

She turned to leave and then turned back one more time to add, "The ice is for my grandson's wedding. He is getting married tomorrow."

"Wow," I said out loud. "Bless him too."

I heard several people in line exclaim their own version of wow. The other people in line probably longed to rejoice with the little old lady. I admitted to the clerk as she rolled away, "That -- was the Holy Spirit right there. I had no plans to be that awesome."

The clerk said, "It'll come back around to you."

I replied to her idea of Karma saying, "God is great."

****

I remember Jeff Vanderstelt teaching Christians "bring the better wine" to celebrations. The miracle of turning water to wine was the first miracle Jesus did in John chapter 2.

Nice people help little old ladies. Perhaps they even do it with a belief in Karma; the hopes of some cosmic payout from an unknown god. But only YHWH arranges care for a little old lady in such a memorable moment of her life.

The only true and living God, YHWH, used frozen ice to bless a wedding happening somewhere in Salem, today.

Luke 10:20 says,

Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

God lives even in me! Celebration time!

How to Start a Movement

2013-04-08T17:01:00.001-07:00

We can't just keep doing church for ourselves.

-Pastor Mark, 2008, Salem First Baptist Church

As an example, I believe that God wants to plant the gospel in the Patient Grower's Network in Keizer. I have heard from one of my best friends, about the willing attitude toward the Kingdom of Christ, there. What draws them together is the use of medical marijuana. They are a new community of people who gather for education, access to doctors, friendship and fun. It's located along Cherry Ave. and it's been incorporated for about two years now. My friend has been sharing God there and people are capable of following Jesus - however if they do, they will be keeping much of their culture. Culture is not a bad thing - it was created by God for His glory.

SFB's Past

Perhaps you've heard that Salem First Baptist Church used to hold Russian services in their sanctuary in the 1980s? I believe their services were on Saturdays.

Perhaps you know that this same church once saw Salem's Chinese Immigrants who had come to the U.S. to build our railways, as an opportunity for church planting? On the History of Salem First Baptist Church page you can read that the pastor's wife opened a school to teach the Chinese people English and to also teach them about God - and charged money to teach 40 pupils. A few years ago I was part of the church's 150th celebration - how neat our church has been here for so many years! I heard the story of what the church did incarnationally (evangelism without a program) for the Chinese.

They pushed the pews out along the walls

and put tables in the sanctuary,

so they could invite Chinese people in to eat dinner with them.

We've done it before. Will we keep in step with our history of reaching out to our neighbors? How can we push aside some of the ways we do church to make some space for outsiders?

Current Evangelism is Productive by Addition

You may say, "we keep reaching the lost. We brought 47 adults and children to faith in Christ through Upward. Perhaps 14 through the Easter services. And three through the women's retreat. That's evangelism too!"

It is evangelism, and I am immovably excited about it. I pray all the time for Salem First Baptist to reach the lost, for souls to accept Jesus. In preparation for the Easter services there was a list available with first names on a piece of paper during the prayer meetings. I'd say there were 500-1000 people listed on that page. I'm thankful for 14, but is there any way to see more come to faith than our usual annual total of about 100 individuals scattered across our various programs?

Experts in missions talk about the difference between addition, and multiplication.

George Patterson is a world-renown missionary who has written articles for the Perspectives Course being held Monday evenings in the Banquet room in Salem First Baptist. He is also a speaker at missional community conferences such as "Verge" which I listen to. This is because the missional movement here in the United States that has started in the last few years is built on the expertise of worldwide missions. The things being taught in the Perspectives course are the same things contextualized for American local evangelism in the "missional movement." How trendy is the missional community movement? About as trendy as modern missions around the world. If you take the course you will see how painstakingly mission theory changes through time, for the sake of winning the lost successfully. Yes; they trend too.

In an interview here, I've duplicated what Patterson says for American evangelism at minute 35 of the video. In it the interviewer asks George what word he would have for American pastors and church members:

A word to pastors and church members in United States, to their role in the great commission.
It is a declining movement, and they need to make some drastic changes.

Step Number One. What I do is I talk to Pastors and say "the challenge is right from Jesus [the Great Commission]. Let's get together and discern. There are fields around us, that are ripe and ready for harvest. Now obviously Pastor, if your church hasn't been growing well, you're not working in that field. So let's look at some of the other fields around us. Can we do that? Will you obey Jesus and do that?" (The Pastors will all say, "yes.") Yeah - let's do that. It's totally Biblical, it's what Christ told us to do, it's what the Spirit enabled them to do. Let's open our eyes a little wider; let's look around. Ok.... We want to look for the fields that are ready to harvest. Now let's find them. We probably don't have to drive more than ten miles. We're probably going to have to shift down to a lower class, less-affluent, less-educated level, too. Alright, let's do that. And that's step number one.
Step Number Two, is to ask "What kind of church would be easily reproduced or multiplied in that environment?" Invariably they are much poorer, so our type of big church stuff can't be produced to the same level there. Give them a good pattern to follow. Let's make an analysis, it's fun. Let's look at the New Testament and see how it was done there. We have good patterns to follow.
Step Number Three, find the people in your congregation who are gifted. God has promised that within all congregations there are people who are gifted as the "sent ones" with the apostolic gifting. There there are your feet. Find them! Talk to them about these ripe fields. Talk to them about what the church would be like there. Turn 'em loose. Give them adequate preparation from a mentor who has experience in that type of church, and turn 'em loose. And so you'll have two tracks within your church. And then you keep doing the same thing with the same people who know church as it is as they've come to expect. But don't push those people out to do cross-cultural work. You let those who are satisfied with the status quo continue to be pastored beside still waters. Ask for their prayers, ask for their blessings, love them, and they maybe will help you financially. And, so what? Get the focus off a non-responsive segment of the population and onto the fields as Christ commanded. Analyze what has to be done, and send out the workers to get it done. It's very simple and often has to be done with non funded workers, out of their own pocket money who will go and just do it. Don't need expensive procedures, just follow the New Testament pattern.

- George Patterson

But maybe you're thinking about Salem First Baptist starting various indigenous church plants all over Salem and you're thinking, "I'm not sure I'm totally on board with this." Maybe you like getting individuals to come to church, only, and you believe this is what the local church should be doing. It's a fair question. One that missionaries have been grappling with and still are grappling with out on frontiers around the world. Here is another article explaining the difference in outreach, between seeking individuals to become attenders and seeking whole people communities to follow where they already are. This also is from the readings for the Perspectives course. You can read the full thing here.

American Christians worship in churches that are a collection of fragments of families and various ethnic backgrounds. So when they first got to the mission field they were unprepared to plant a culturally relevant church within a cohesive ethnic group. Instead they focused on individuals, largely ignoring the implications of the surrounding culture.
As a result, when missionaries first went out from the West, they most often began to get people saved one at a time by "extracting misfits and rebels" from their surrounding culture who then adapted to the missionary's culture. This resulted in the creation of a culturally "different" church which very few others from the surrounding people wanted to join. Dr. McGavran in his writings referred to this as the Mission Station Approach since the missionaries would live together in a common area.
Extracting individual converts is one thing we must not do if we want to see a whole people come to Christ. Donald McGavran quotes Bishop J. W. Picket, in his study Christ's Way to India's Heart, as saying,
"The process of extracting individuals from their setting in Hindu and Moslim communities does not build a Church. On the contrary it rouses antagonism against Christianity and builds barriers against the spread of the Gospel. Moreover, that process has produced many unfortunate, and not a few tragic results in the lives of those most deeply concerned... It has sacrificed much of the convert's evangelistic potentialities by separating him from his People. It has produced anemic Churches that know no true leadership and are held together chiefly by common dependence on the mission or the missionary."
Must We Join Another Race to Be Saved?
McGavran goes on to say that converts achieved through extraction "felt that they were joining not merely a new religion, but an entirely foreign way of living--proclaimed by foreigners, led by foreigners and ruled by foreigners...In many parts of the field it was as psychologically difficult for a person to become a Christian as it would be for a white man in South Africa to join a Negro Church knowing that his children would intermarry with the black children. The person not only became a Christian, but he was generally believed to have joined another race." Our job is to give people access to the Gospel without putting up unnecessary cultural barriers for them to cross over.
McGavran continues, "People Movements have five considerable advantages. First, they have provided the Christian movement with permanent churches rooted in the soil of hundreds of thousands of villages. For their continued economic life they are quite independent of Western missions. They are accustomed (unfortunately too accustomed) to a low degree of education. Yet their devotion has frequently been tested in the fires of persecution and found to be pure gold. They are here to stay. They are permanent comrades on the pilgrim way.
They have the advantage of being naturally indigenous. In the Mission Station Approach the convert is brought in as an individual to a pattern dominated by the foreigner. The foreigner has set the pace and the style, often to his own dismay. But such denationalization is a very minor affair in true People Movements. In them the new Christians seldom see the missionary. They are immersed in their own cultures. Their style of clothing, of eating and of speaking continues almost unchanged. Their churches are necessarily built like their houses--and are as indigenous as anyone could wish. They cannot sing or learn foreign tunes readily, so local tunes are often used. Thus an indigenous quality, highly sought and rarely found by leaders of the Mission Station Approach churches, is obtained without effort by People Movement churches.
People Movements have a third major advantage. With them 'the spontaneous expansion of the Church' is natural. Spontaneous expansion involves a full trust in the Holy Spirit and a recognition that the ecclesiastical traditions of the older churches are not necessarily useful to the younger churches arising out of the missions from the West. New groups of converts are expected to multiply themselves in the same way as did the new groups of converts who were the early churches. Advocates of spontaneous expansion point out that foreign-directed movements will in the end lead to sterility and antagonism to their sponsors, and that therefore the methods now being pursued, here called the Mission Station Approach, will never bring us within measurable distance of the evangelization of the world."

It turns out that when individuals are won, and they start learning how to live life in a local assembly they often largely exit their culture and family and community where they used to live. This is what a "Stationary" mission subtly communicates as the proper way of life for believers, which is to draw them out. To new converts of this method it is an advantage to live life in the church because they never really fit in society anyway. I don't know if I, personally, fit the "misfit of society" stereotype... now I wonder if I did! McGavran even points out that there are a few jobs on the Mission compound to give a means of self-support to the converts, but because the jobs are few, older converts actually discourage new converts so they won't have competition for their job in the missionary compound! What a conviction that is on life in the local assembly, where there are only a few positions of leadership and everybody wants to make an impact, not knowing where else they could find work for the LORD!

scattering our people for mission in Salem

But if a whole hobby club, or small community, or extended family out in Salem somewhere, together decides to follow Christ because one or two of its members in continuous relationship and good standing incarnate a changed life for Jesus, how powerful is that? Thus the goal is not to draw converts toward the mission station and pull them out of the vastly unevangelized frontier. The goal is to create an entire people-movement toward Jesus by keeping individuals who are newly saved in their normal places of community and family.

Does this make sense?? I'm doing my best to explain what it means to become a missional church.

Their impact is so natural because they will be in the relationships they have already been living with those people, all their lives. It is SO MUCH BETTER than a missionary who acts and speaks Christianese coming in and telling people how to be like them in absolutely everything (mixed in with the message to pursue Kingdom life).

I think about this when I think about the 14 response cards after the 500-1000 people out there our church prayed would become saved through the Easter services. McGavran concludes,

"Desirable as spontaneous expansion is, it is a difficult ideal for the Mission Station Approach churches to achieve. They might be freed from all bonds to the Western Churches, they might be convinced that they had all the spiritual authority needed to multiply themselves, they might be filled with the Holy Spirit and abound in desire to win others to Christ, and yet--just because they form a separate people and have no organic linkages with any other neighboring people--they would find it extremely difficult to form new churches. In People Movement churches, on the contrary, spontaneous expansion is natural. Thus we come to the most marked advantage of these movements.

We don't often have to learn a new language or come to learn extreme cultural differences in order to win a few converts here in Salem, Oregon. The kind of differences we need to cross come from the fact that not everybody is comfortable with studying a bible. Or dressing up for church. Or they have a different avenue for medication which is use of marijuana. These are smaller differences and we can't confuse a call to enter the Kingdom with the call to superficial uniformity and Spirit-devoid morality. When it comes to winning souls, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You must choose between planting the gospel, or planting everything else.

So We Let Them Keep Their Own Communities.
Does This Mean We Never See The Fruit?

Seeing the fruit. That's one reason we want them inside Salem First. What are some other important reasons we gather together at one time? Gathering ourselves back to SFB is just as important as scattering ourselves into pockets of the city.

Salem First Baptist Church has a vision to start a third service. Are 100 new converts annually going to be sufficient to populate a third service? Perhaps. What if we shared the gospel in natural communities in the Salem area and the communities began to believe? They would need a place to congregate. What if the Islander immigrants began following Jesus and they needed a place to congregate? We CAN keep in line with our history. We can see whole congregations of the Chinese, Russian, or other varieties of peoples "come to church." If we went into their services, we might not understand the language of their sermons. Or their music. Or their ways of social interaction. And that would be ok, wouldn't it, as it once was?

Would you give up a little cultural comfort through insisting that everyone in Salem be comfortable growing in our kind of church... and trade that for filling our sanctuary with additional services?

Gathering is just as biblical as missional communities

Imagine if every few months, we held a super-service! We gather to be encouraged by what God is doing on the universal scale. This would be a special service where all the cultures and communities were represented in worship and language in one combined, super gathering. I think we would all believe in God a little more than we do today. I think God would be a little more glorified than He was before, too. Yes, we should long to gather together into One Body, for that is what we are. But it needs to be ok to be separate out of cultural distance, as well.

We're Losing Salem Without Moving Preservationally
Through Its Cultural Uniqueness

Salem First Baptist's vision is "A growing community of followers of Christ who are being transformed into His likeness and reshaping culture to reflect God's heart."

You may prefer to see salvations occur individual by individual. Increasing by addition, instead of by multiplication. You may say, "Other churches in may close their doors here locally, but as long as we keep reaching individuals like we have, we will survive the impending churchlessness in America."

That may be true. Even if SFB stays open, other churches will still close. We don't want other churches to close! If they do, we also lose! With a shrinking witness, I'm afraid the animosity and confusion toward Church in the surrounding culture will only intensify. There is only one way to change the culture. It is from within the culture. It will not be by maintaining our "safe base" like in the game of tag that our children love to play. It will have to be by finding indigenous representatives of all the pocket communities in this city and developing them to do and be the church where they are, so that all of them can know Jesus in a way that makes sense in the culture they have.

I'm looking for someone, just one person who feels this way about the PGN. I don't know what the mission looks like, but I know God wants to plant the gospel there. There is only one reason why I'm still blogging about missional opportunities...

"Adullam"

2013-04-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

In the last couple years this passage has become dear. It is my testimony. 1 Sam. 22:1-2,

David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

David was a fugitive. He never could remain in Jerusalem long so he became a nomad. For a long time he was alone except for one friend. And then all of a sudden one day, people saw it for something more and they became a family.

1658, Claude, Landscape with David at the Cave of Adullum

If Sundays and Wednesdays at church are Jerusalem, the remainder of the week is the cave of Adullam.

Life Beyond Jerusalem

I haven't been satisfied by inviting friends to church. It isn't enough. When a person responds, "yes I'll come," sometimes they have come and never heard the gospel. Sometimes they may have heard it but they seemed not sure why they should think the gospel was significant to them. I refused to just "let them go." If they didn't want to come to church, I told them the gospel. Sometimes while standing on the sidewalk outside our home, or wherever else was convenient. I wanted them to understand this invitation He gives to see Him as real in our life.

Sometimes they would say, "Yes I believe that," but they didn't seem to respond at the level of their soul. I could have just let them go, again, but my concern that they understand what Jesus has done, and it moved me to try to invite-in the wonder of God.

Finally, some started seeing Jesus for themselves. Which was wonderful! And yet I should not be surprised! "So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." But they would come to church and feel weirded out by one aspect or another. They think that they can't be Christians unless they do everything we do. Which is just not true.

So I have ended up showing people how to live for the Kingdom, or at least doing my best to testify about that, inviting them the way Jesus invites me daily. To not worry about whether they understand worship music, and not worry about bible studies which are overwhelming like homework, or not worry about why their clothes are different than most everyone else.

If anyone's leading, they lead me. I want to know as much as they do how to see a viable Jesus outside of Sundays and Wednesdays. These unchurched Christians are largely available and interested to play around with what following Jesus looks like outside of those structured times.

I like them better than I like myself. They know how to take care of people like a real family. They know what freedom ought to smell and look like. Most of all they are SERIOUS about lavishing grace on broken people even if they have to do it in an earthly manner till they meet the means of grace in the person of Jesus.

They aren't bogged down by years of thinking about church like I do and so they bring an awareness of life with the King that I would never have noticed otherwise. In fact there has been such success in seeing the King outside of Sundays and Wednesdays that now several longtime churched Christians, and even the de-churched, are purposely joining the rest-of-the-week band. The harvest is plentiful. Where? Perhaps for Americans, the question isn't where but WHEN. The harvest is plentiful during the rest-of-the-week, when people are eager to see the King, come, in their very existence.

This is my testimony: It is possible to follow Jesus and not fit into the typical experiences of going to church as we know it.

Indeed: THERE ARE MANY MORE WHO CAN FOLLOW JESUS THAN THOSE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND OUR WAYS OF DOING CHURCH, than we could have dreamed. They just need someone to help them seek the Kingdom with vitality, in their own way of living life! All their sin issues can be and are being conquered by the same Holy Spirit.

The "unchurched" have a King, too. This King is the same as everyone else's. He leads them with the same vitality as He leads those who attend Sundays and Wednesdays. My passion is still, that the unchurched would come to church. Some may be able to bridge that gap to perceive their place in a regular church service, eventually, while some never will and that's ok.

Why do I suggest that there is some invisible wall forcing me to juggle life between the unchurched and the churched? Only because of one reason: I invite people to come to church, and they don't see Jesus right away, for some strange reason.

This is a challenge to develop myself as missionary. The problem isn't who I've invited, the problem isn't my church. It's that they need someone who will be a gap-stander.

Perhaps that what the discontented saw in David: a true ruler over the City, yet one who had legitimacy in life as an outsider.

I myself love church on Sundays and Wednesdays, but I cannot get myself to forget those who do not. As David one day finally rested, I pray too that I and the people who I share life with can come and experience the joy of being gathered together with other saints. There is one body, one baptism, and Jesus has took the dividing wall and abolished it through His body.

I long for those reading here to meet some of these.

Note: 'Adullam' is the name of the church started by Matt Smay and Hugh Halter. I became familiar with the story of their church. Recently I attended their pre-conference track in Texas. Then recently I revisited this passage and that name, 'Adullam,' popped right out in my attention. "Yeah!" I thought with a twinge of jealousy - they are experiencing a similar movement for God, as they found their namesake in this passage.

Imbue & Infuse

2013-03-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

Christians are not like computer processors. Yet they come to church and get the latest download, of information, and go home. It is like a mainstreamed variety of Gnosticism as my friend Tim pointed out. It is the belief that having the right knowledge will save.

What we find is that history can repeat itself. All knowledge and no structures in church life for integration produces a people who know a lot and have no lifestyle to reflect what's in their mind. They called it pharisee.

infuse: to instill a quality

Do not be deceived. There is only one exam of whether we know Christ. It is the highest biblical depictions of a life well lived. Remember that in all Israel, there was no man who was like a son. There was no heir. Christ came as the God and Man to be the image for all of us, by grace through faith. This image is to be infused, imbued, into our being.

imbue: to inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality

We need life paired with life in order to attain this. We need to give Christians permission and time to think of church life together outside of the inner track of a few who put together our activities of knowledge-dispensing.

I want to be a full-color Christian. Everything counts. I need God to color me, to permeate me, to give me what I need. I need Christians outside of Sundays and Wednesdays to bring me to life in God. It is time to let down the walls and let friends in. Let them come in and make something true-colored in application.

when blue showed up, yellow was never the same

The Image of Jesus...

Imbued, Infused Together,

By Grace,

Through Faith.

THE COLOUR OF MY LOVE by Paul Ryan

Ill paint my mood in shades of blue
Paint my soul to be with you
Ill sketch your lips in shaded tones
Draw your mouth to my own

Ill draw your arms around my waist
Then all doubt I shall erase
Ill paint the rain that softly lands on your wind-blown hair

Ill trace a hand to wipe out your tears
A look to calm your fears
A silhouette of dark and light
While we hold each other oh so tight

Ill paint a sun to warm your heart
Swearing that well never part
That's the colour of my love

Ill paint the truth
Show how I feel
Try to make you completely real
Ill use a brush so light and fine
To draw you close and make you mine

Ill paint a sun to warm your heart
Swearing that well never part
That's the colour of my love

Ill draw the years all passing by
So much to learn so much to try

And with this ring our lives will start
Swearing that well never part
I offer what you cannot buy
Devoted love until we die

God Has Visited His People

2013-03-09T13:44:00.002-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the pre-conference with Missio people about two weeks ago. There was a lot that I learned about "modality" and "sodality" which explained a lot of the pains and frustrations I've been experiencing. I plan to bring those out here.

The most important highlight for me was Jeff Vanderstelt's talk during the main conference the first day. Jeff is one of the founders of Soma, a missional community movement in Tacoma, Washington, under which my brother-in-law has also joined in partnership. Jeff was sharing a little more about his friend, Clay. Last year on facebook I posted a video of Jeff introducing Clay. If you clicked on the video back then or have run across it yourself you may be familiar. Clay used to go to concerts and use drugs as the highlight of his life. Jeff and his wife were invited to hang out with Clay at concerts. Obviously Jeff and his wife were uncomfortable, however they respectfully served Clay during those concerts.

At some point after that video, I assume that Clay became a believer. At the conference, Jeff was updating his story. In my memory of the conference Jeff said,

I have been wondering about Clay. He doesn't seem to show much signs of growing so I just prayed and prayed for him. One day I'm going over to Clay's house, and I see all these firetrucks and an ambulance with their sirens blaring. The thought comes across my mind, "I wonder if that has anything to do with Clay?" So I follow the sirens and they turn down Clay's street. Then they stop in front of Clay's house. Clay's wife is standing on the front lawn, crying. So I go up to her and pause, and say, "Is... Clay... ??" She says that Clay was over in their neighbor's garage.

Clay had answered a call for help from a neighbor. The man who lived there had hung himself in the garage. Clay is in the garage and it's completely dark, and he's looking around for anything that will cut the rope. Somehow there's a sliver of light shining on a pair of scissors, so, he's cutting the rope while trying to lift the man up to relieve the pressure around his neck. He gets him down. He starts doing CPR. Nothing. Clay starts to pray. Clay prays, "You know, God, if it's this guy's time to go, go ahead and take him. But if he's not would you save his life?"

The garage door starts to rattle as a wind blew through the cracks, and as the wind blew past Clay and this man, the man takes a breath....

He's in the hospital, and wouldn't you know that one of the members of our Soma community is his nurse, so as he regains consciousness in the hospital he gets to hear the story of what happened. This nurse is only 21 years old, and she leaves Tacoma and goes on vacation to visit her family in southern California. While she's there, a group of pastors ask her if she would come down and share the story of what God is up to with Soma and the story of Clay's neighbor. So, here's a 21 year old girl teaching pastors about the power of God and what missional community is all about, the mission to reach others for Christ.

I talk to Clay and you know what he told me? He said, "Yeah, I was reading the gospel of Mark lately (!!), got through several chapters and read how Jesus does miracles."

God answered his prayer... AND CLAY'S NOT EVEN THAT GREAT A CHRISTIAN, you know... what I mean?

So here Jeff had been praying for this new believer who doesn't really understand much about God and how He works in our lives, not even knowing he had been reading the gospel of Mark!

This testimony stirred me. It was as if I was waiting for something, but when I heard that God was even raising the dead... I felt an urgency, that I was living in the days when God moves. Then I read Luke 7:11-16 for no good reason and was shocked by the scriptures:

Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.

Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.

That was exactly the words I felt: God has visited His people. Their minds were settled that His favor had come into their lives. So I have been praying ever since, for God to visit me, visit US. I want to see His Kingdom not for my satisfaction, but for the sake of the lost. He taught us to pray that His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. I realize He's not going to transform all till His return, but I believe nevertheless. What if we prayed together for His Kingdom to come to us? Would He set a limit and not be supernatural if we asked? I believe it honors Him when I trust Him for His Kingdom, here and now! I think the more we seek Him, the more we will find, even if we do not receive all His Kingdom in this dispensation. Will you pray with me? Luke 11:9-13,

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Playgrounds & Airports

2013-02-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

I love and serve the traditional, attractional, programmatic local church. As I do, I wonder what it will require to embrace the missional transformation. Below are pictures of where and why we need innovation and new ministry. The following is written to the traditional church by those who are leading the missional movement.

THE PLAYGROUND [1]

As I've thought about it, it's as though we as churches have taken the leaders of our church and put them in a playground that is just 10 feet long and 10 feet wide and enclosed by a tall fence.

We put these leaders on the playground and tell them to play. That may sound good, but there are a lot of them in one place, and it's pretty crowded. Because the space is so small, there is only room for a swing set, a short slide, and a little merry-go-round. People take turns playing, but they spend most of their time waiting around, wondering when it's going to be their turn. The fence of the playground is so high that you can't see over it. As a result, the leaders don't even know that this playground is situated right in the middle of Walt Disney World. There are a lot of rides and a lot of fun to be had just on the other side of the fence... and they don't even know it.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that if we took the fence down to let the leaders see what could be, almost all of them would stay in that small playground. Why? They know the playground. It's what they've always known. They like the swing set, the slide, and the merry-go-round. Space Mountain? The Tower of Terror? The Teacups? They've got no idea what to do with those. Walt Disney World is way too foreign and looks more than a little scary compared to the playground they have always known. So chances are, even if you took the fence down, they'd never leave the playground.

THE PLUG-AND-PLAY PROBLEM [1]

Imagine that it is a Tuesday morning, and that the staff of your church has gathered for its weekly staff meeting. Staff members discuss the weekend service and whether it delivered the message and experience they hoped it would. They discuss attendance numbers; small group numbers and effectiveness; budget, buildings, and cash flow. ... Then, there's a soft but decisive knock on the door. Someone says, "Come in!"

Into the room, dressed in normal clothes, step Peter, Paul, James, Priscilla, Timothy, and Lydia. (Obviously, we're in a hypothetical situation here.) They introduce themselves and say that the Lord sent them to your church to serve in any way they can. They ask, "What can we do? We don't want to be on the stage or anything. You're doing the preaching/teaching thing really well. But we'll do anything else you need. Just tell us what you'd like."

A stunned silence comes over the staff--after all, this is a strange situation. But soon enough, the staff members snap out of it. "Uhh, well, OK. Well, how many of you are there? Six. Well, let's see. Could three of you be small group leaders? We're looking to start some new small groups, and clearly you'd be great at that. Peter, James, Paul, could you do that?

"Hmmm... you know, we just lost the person who heads up our First Impressions team a month ago, and it has been a bit lackluster. It has lost the punch it used to have. You know it's important that people have a strong impression of our church within the first 15 seconds when they come to the service. Priscilla, do you mind heading that up?

"Timothy, we could sure use another usher, you look like you could handle that. Lastly, Lydia, I hear you play a mean bass and can sing too. We're down a bass player and would love to have you in the band. Maybe you can even fill in and lead worship from time to time. Are you up for that?"

This is called plug-and-play. This is about having various positions we need filled in the machine of our churches and plugging people into those roles Now don't get me wrong: there are always going to be logistical needs when the scattered church gathers. That's reality, and we need to attend to that and do it well.

But does anyone really think this is where a church should be using Peter, James, Paul, Priscilla, Timothy, and Lydia? Would this be the most effective use of their time and energy given the skill sets they have [for multiplying followers of Jesus]?

THE AIRPORT [2]

I travel by plane almost every week. This means I get to visit a lot of airports. On a fairly routine basis, airports get confused about what they're there for -- and for whom. They think that if a bunch of planes are on the ground, close to the hub, and the concourse is full of people, they are winning. They apparently think they are the destination! Of course, when this happens, it means a bunch of people aren't getting where they want to go. They're stuck at the airport, like flies on flypaper.

The airport is a place of connection, not a destination. Its job is to help people get somewhere else. An airport-centric world of travel would be dull and frustrating, no matter how nice the airport is.

When the church thinks it's the destination, it also confuses the scorecard. It thinks that if people are hovering around and in the church, the church is winning. The truth is, when that's the case, the church is really keeping people from where they want to go, from their real destination. That destination is life. Lucky for us, it just so happens this is what Jesus promised to bring to us. (He did not say, 'I have come to give you church and give it to you more abundantly.') Abundant life is lived out with loved ones, friends, acquaintances in the marketplace, in the home, in the neighborhood, in the world.

The church is a connector, linking people to the kingdom life that God has for them. Substituting church activity as the preferred life expression is as weird as believing that airports are more interesting than the destinations they serve.

So... what do you think? Do these pictures tug at your heart for something richer? This is just a trim over the top into why we need missional leaders: people who can gently and personally mentor, leading us outside the safe spaces of the church building and into the world so the Kingdom might expand.

[1] "Multiplying Missional Leaders: From Half-Hearted Volunteers to a Mobilized Kingdom Force" by Mike Breen. 3DM, 2012.

[2] "Missional Renaissance" by Reggie McNeal. Jossey-Bass Publication, 2009. pg. 45.

"This is a Safe Place"

2013-02-05T11:38:00.001-08:00

Is life beating you down?

Do you have a wound or affliction that just won't clear up?

The Hemorrhaging Woman

She was bleeding. It had been this way for 12 years. The doctors she saw only made her worse, not better. This woman who hemorrhaged had lived a life with wounds and fear. The bleeding was only part of the problem. She also struggled to be part of society for all those years. You see, wherever she laid or sat would be unclean for anyone else, and if others touched places she had been, they also would be unclean for a few days. Think that would take a toll on her feelings?

Would you push your way through a tight crowd and talk publicly about this problem to Jesus? It would cause instant recoil.

She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't want to reveal that she would make everyone unclean in the crowd. So she found a way to interact with Jesus without looking Him in the face. Faith brought her. She thought, "if I can only touch the hem of His robe, I will be healed."

And she was! She stopped bleeding as soon as she touched Jesus. He had made her finally feel safe from the oozing wound. Her plan was to slink away. But the Lord was thinking about how she felt in the presence of many.

Thank God for Jesus! He didn't follow the usual protocol and count this bleeding woman unclean. He was safe, for her. What happens when we only feel safe with one?

In this video Nikita intuitively hears wisdom's voice. Nikita stops Alex's oozing wound. She retells her own story to Alex. How, once she had an oozing wound, a need for safety, and Carla stopped the hemorrhaging. In spite of Carla's absence, Nikita grasps the rest of the lesson and embodies it for Alex: "And I thought, 'There has to be a reason."' She wasn't going to wait on Carla - her own devotion to righteousness called her to excellence in being a mentor herself.

The Clackamas Town Center Shooting

When people become associated on an intimate level with shocking tragedy, such as the Newtown School shooting or Clackamas Mall shooting last December, they say afterward, "I'll never go there again."

This kind of thinking is like the woman who only wanted to be healed in body and not in the crowd: a half-way deliverance. It seems like wisdom to avoid the places where people remind you of something that brings you down.

But experts in trauma and post-traumatic stress suggest that the best thing you can do after a perceived life-threatening experience, is to revisit the very place where it all happened. To face it. To sit in the corridors, to walk the expanse, and just let your senses take in the normalcy of it all.

The woman who hemorrhaged very well might have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Research shows us that people with chronic life-threatening illness, such as cancer, can be triggered with intense re-experiences of traumatic fear for survival. They call this the "fight-or-flight" response, or "hyperarousal" or "hypervigilence." It is a lower-brain response, not part of the brain responsible for critical thinking at all. It comes from the amygdala, which for example, tells you to take your hand off a burning stove even before you've had a chance for the more advanced part of your brain to interpret the situation and decide to remove your hand. It's much faster, beyond thinking almost. The amygdala and hippocampus are in charge of fear responses and the way those memories are held and revived in the mind.

The hypervigilence of post-traumatic stress is similar to what schizophrenics experience in paranoia. It's not paranoia, but it acts similar. Hypervigilence seems like a foreign concept until it just comes over someone. Their senses warn them saying, "I've seen this situation before. Run first, ask questions later!"

Those Who Don't Go Back, Lose Community

Why go back to a place of a nightmare? For mall shoppers who don't go back, it seems at first like a no-brainer, like a healthy decision. Somewhere down the road however, it may catch up. This increases in likelihood if there should be another life-threatening experience later, even if it is completely unrelated to the first. The re-experiencing of a traumatic response doesn't just happen in that mall, on the third floor right at the Macy's entrance where the tragedy occurred. The mind may revive this experience through totally unfair reminders, such as the scent of Bath and Body Works, down the hall. Or any retail center which has the same tiles on their floors. Or overhead holiday music. The amygdala and hippocampus just plays unfairly. The fear can irrationally come out in so many more places and scenarios than you would have ever thought possible. It makes public places and people, unsafe, and there is little community for people with fear.

This is why it is good to consider going back, when life settles down to normal. The traumatized should attempt to take back and normalize the situation that had been terrifying.

Moving Us Toward Community

Your responsibility is to go back. Your mentor's responsibility is to advocate for your community. We must find a way to help people feel safe around one another, after tragedies like these shootings. Mark 5:30-34,

And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes?'
But His disciples said to Him, 'You see the multitude thronging you, and you say, "Who touched me?"'
And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.'

Many Christians have trouble being vulnerable beyond a couple of our closest friends. What if, barring a few mismatched personalities, Christians were a safe place to be yourself?

Jesus became a beacon by which the woman could retake a sense of safety and rapport with several more.

He instantaneously imposed on all His followers to become that safe environment. He did it through His public acceptance of her, in the place and the people where she was most aware of her issue. This is a fine example of healing communities.

As I write this I realize some readers are thinking about those who have not been safe. Have you ever taken a risk, and stood out? Did you ever choose to be vulnerable? Have you shown a small community your battle scars and risk being misunderstood? Sometimes Christians go silent because they don't know what to say, even though they feel respect and compassion for you. Sometimes they add judgement on top of your wound, instead of moving toward vulnerability themselves. Imagine in the television show above if Nikita and Birkoff separated themselves from Alex because they could see her hemorrhaging?

If this is the case in your life, take a look at the scriptures. The woman honestly didn't know what would happen if she became known. But she was sure scared! God defends and saves those who take Kingdom risks. Those who tell "the whole truth" for His glory and power to become known. Jesus stops to hear her story. He isn't defending the comforts of those following Him in the crowd. He puts them on edge. He wraps her in acceptance and this is the story that is left for us from the disciples in our bibles. Jesus is on the side of the openly broken. Through His dialogue with her, He subtly tells everyone else their duty which is to communicate: "We are okay. You're going to be fine." Depend on Jesus to do this for you in your vulnerability! He can transform Christians who struggle to embody safe community. God doesn't guarantee that all our afflictions will healed in an instant, but He has shown us that we don't have to live this life alone.

It just might be that Jesus would use your openness as a model of His grace for a whole throng of onlookers.

The Community's Response: This is a Safe Place

Do you suffer from wounds and fear? I can't promise you all Christians will treat you right. It is the Savior, Jesus Christ, who ended the era of separating the broken. Have you ever thought that your words and your presence is a ministry God can give through you to someone in need? When I've drawn near to someone's wounds and pain, that was not me; it was Jesus who lives in me and who's shown me in His Word how much He loves everyone so much, that He took many wounds for us. He will be closer to you than I ever could. I'm not perfect. I will let you down now and then. If you happen to have felt acceptance from me, come and experience acceptance in the community of Christians with which I follow Jesus. As D.T. Niles said, "I'm just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread" -

"You can stay here.
This is a safe place."

The Power of Praying 'Arise'

2013-01-29T15:22:00.002-08:00

(this post was originally written on 11/13/12)

Today I am reminded,

"Each one should be careful how he builds."

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

I used to pray "Lord, open a door for this ministry, Lord, open a door for that message." Then, I prayed, "Lord, Arise, open a door for Yourself, and come in." He has come, He has arisen. He is passing through this church. I see stubble in me. I have feared men, made them weighty in my heart and mind. This is a sin.

The word "splendor" also means, "weighty." God should be the weighty one in my heart, the one of splendor, the one I alone fear.

I see God who is fearsome. Ezek. 21:16-17

Swords at the ready!
Thrust right!
Set your blade!
Thrust left--
Wherever your edge is ordered!
I also will beat My fists together,
And I will cause My fury to rest;
I, the LORD, have spoken.

Do I dare believe He will spare me just because I have the gift of eternal life? No, God is no respecter of persons. He did not spare His own people from fire. Isaiah 27:10-11,

Yet the fortified city will be desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
When its boughs are withered, they
will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will
not have mercy on them,
And He who formed them will
show them no mercy.

These branches are the same mentioned to the church in John 15:5-6,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

This is a verse for Christians, and everyone else who might have appropriated the righteousness of God's living water into their lifestyle. The word "branch" means ruler, son, king (Matthew 24:32, Zecharaiah 6:12, Isaiah 60:21, Psalm 80:15). That is why I will never forget worship dancing on Palm Sunday, when King Jesus enters Jerusalem and the people ushered Him by waving palm branches. Palm branches are a symbol of a victorious son or a ruler. What sort of rulers am I replicating into this world I will leave behind - righteous sons, or wicked sons? This is what it means to be a branch for Jesus that bears fruit in the world. To the church Jesus warns in Romans 11:20-22,

Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

Not our whole life will be cut off from the presence of God. When it says, "you" will be cut off, I believe it means, "in regard to any work of your life under consideration at the moment." I believe for our delight God gives saints the command to lift holy hands. Take a look at your hand, your palm. I believe every time a Christian raises his hands he thanks God and agrees with the Spirit for a righteous branch, a righteous people, coming out of their life.

It is only because a Christian's heart continues to pursue Him that a Christian is favored. God has mercy on sins done in ignorance. He has mercy on those who want to know Him. God gives grace to all who ask, however some choose not to seek it. When the light comes, and it is coming now, the wicked and the righteous are freshly discerned. Isaiah 25:10-11,

With my soul I have desired You in the night
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see.

I want to see Jesus as He arises for His people, to bring them every depth of salvation. I can't make Him give the depths of salvation to me. I can't earn His mercy with anything I do for Him. He gives it freely. Psalm 40:13,

Be pleased to save me, LORD...

I love how God's Word gives me boldness to say what is both true and significant before the dawn has made everything apparent. Those who fear the LORD have assurance. Malachi 3:16-4:2,

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
“They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts,
“On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.
For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

The jewels, those precious things I can build upon the foundation of my salvation - what are the jewels according to scripture? In Malachi above, Jesus calls people His jewels. What are jewels for NT saints? The same: they are people. This prophecy in Isaiah below was fulfilled by the woman at the well in John 4. Isaiah 49:18, 22-23,

Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord, “
You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.
Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.

The power of praying "arise" is that He makes me get out of the way. He stands out alone as pure. Being judged as sinning feels like fire, now. It is unpleasant to discover that my choices are stubble to Him. It is much more wonderful afterward to see His Kingdom developing in me! I'm thankful that He saves me because He is pleased to do so. And I pray that through repentance, God would help me stay in step with Him as He passes through.

Thank you Jesus, for your life on earth, your death and resurrection, which makes this hope for jewels my greatest opportunity.

Biology Class Growing Up

2013-01-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

Monday evening I walked into a class I wasn't even signed up for because I got an email about it. It's a perspectives course on Christian work throughout the world. The topic was missionaries to unsent peoples. As I was walking into my church, into my Sunday school room where we've been lately pouring over the issue of creation vs. evolution, guess who was standing there to register me in the class?

I shook my head in disbelief as I approached. It was obvious God was up to something. I smiled at him and said, "You're Mr. Shrout, right?" He was indeed.

He is my science teacher from when I was in 7th and 8th grades. Amazing. This is just another step in almost a year's worth of development that God is making for me in my life when it comes to the issue of creationism vs. evolution.

In fact I've been trying to write this blog post since June 12th.

It all started when I was in my friend April's church last spring, visiting one of their services. An older gentleman walked up to me afterward and said to me with a smile, "I know who you are. You're... Michele, right?"

"Yes," I said. I looked at him for awhile. I recognized his face and I smiled big. "I know you too...!" I trailed off. I couldn't figure out how I knew him. He filled in the blanks.

He said, "You were in my science class."

"Yes, I remember. You're... Mr. ..," and I almost said it as he did, "Mr. Haight." I smiled bigger and said, "Oh my gosh! I remember being in your class! Biology at North Salem High."

He said, "I remember you were really good at science, seemed to know a lot of the answers, that's what I recall about you." I smiled and I tried to shuck his compliment away but he continued. "I remember one day I was upset with the whole class because of how badly they did on a test. You raised your hand and said, 'It's our fault for how we did.' And that made me feel like you were defending me, it was nice of you."

I thought about that. Coming to think of it later, I can remember that. What I remember more is how on one time I took advantage of his trust. There was a kid who was doing something naughty, and I advocated for him. Looking back, the kid didn't deserve my advocacy. Mr. Haight looked me in the eye about it and I felt it. That's my memory.

I remember something else. The funny kid in class was eating gummy bears. When Mr. Haight turned his back to the class to write on the board, this guy would take a juicy bear out of his mouth and throw it full-force toward the wall or the ceiling. It would stick. Mr. Haight turned around and couldn't tell why people were laughing. Ohh, the naughty things kids do! But Mr. Haight was a great teacher. He cared about the kids. That's why I remember him so fondly.

Me in 5th grade

I told Mr. Haight as he was before me now, "I remember in class that sophomore year you had a creation vs. evolution debate for the students by the students. I was on the evolution side. I remember it was so odd to me that people used the Bible at all, or would argue things like that. I thought everyone should or did believe in evolution. That was the beginning of my awareness that there could be something else. It was a big deal to me."

He didn't respond too much to that. He moved on to ask me about my kids who I had brought with me. He's been a Christian all this time, and a wonderful one at that. How fascinating! No wonder he wanted to have that debate in the classroom!

Fast forward to May.

My daughter Grace goes to an orientation for entering Middle School - Claggett. I see this teacher at the school, and I think he looks familiar but it doesn't click in my thinking. Later they announce "Life Science class is taught by Mr. Shrout." What! That was my science teacher when I was in Middle School (Whiteaker). Then I realized who I had seen in the hall.

I find out over the summer that he is retiring that year. So my daughter will not have the opportunity to have him for Life Science like I did growing up.

I wondered if he had recognized me. I had seen him coming out of the school once or twice since May. So this thought of actually getting to talk to him too has been building in my mind since last year.

One of my science teachers was a Christian, how neat! But what if my other science teacher was not? Mr. Shrout was my most favorite teacher of all. He was my teacher when I kind of discovered that I loved science, and wanted to do stuff in science for the rest of my life. That's the way I completely felt back then.

If I met him, what would I say? All these months, I wondered. I tried to explore my heart. I could hear some normal questions he might politely ask.

"Did you end up doing something in paleontology?"

"Did you become an anthropologist like you had been thinking about?"

"Are you doing something in science at all?"

My answers:

"No."

"I stay at home with my kids."

"I'm trying to build momentum for something called 'missional communities.'"

"I'm a Christian, now. So, ..?"

And all I could imagine someone saying in reply to that, is, "Oh." And that's where I've never been able to figure out how the rest of my story, goes? What would I say, about my love for science? I feel like, I still love science. I still know everything I once did. It just doesn't mean as much to me. Does that mean anything at all, to someone who teaches science for a living, who invests himself in students so they might become something someday? I can't tell you how I solve the question of what hominid fossils are all about. I don't know the answer between what the Bible says and what the fossil record shows. I don't have enough science to make the Bible a scientific textbook. I'm stuck saying mostly, "I don't know."

Do you see now why I couldn't finish this blog post?

(I even told my arch-nemesis in middle school that I was going to be a paleontologist when I grew up!)

Because of Monday evening, I realize I don't have to finish this blog post. The story ends a little differently. My other science teacher, is also a Christian! Hm.

All of this, was built into this moment, walking into my church and seeing my science teacher standing there. I don't have to try and explain why I'm a Christian, thank God for that! He would know!

I said to him, "I was one of your students." (He probably hears that a lot.)

"Oh, what year?"

I said, "About '92, '91..."

"Hmm," he said.

"I remember one of your jokes. 'Why didn't the moss hang out with the lichen? Because he heard he wasn't a "fungi [pronounced 'fun guy'],'" I repeated to him. He acknowledged.

"Remember, I did special reports on science over the summer because my dad made me study college level Biology? I gave you a paper at the beginning of the year? You asked me to be teacher's aide the following semester? You had me help pass out papers? One time you asked me to transfer dead frogs for dissection from one bucket to another bucket in the back storage room. And I cried and said I couldn't do it?"

He listened and said, "I'm sorry, I don't remember."

I looked at the floor, and tried again. "Remember I wrote down all your jokes you told in class on my book cover?"

His eyes lit up and he said, "Oh, that's YOU?" and took a step back.

"Yes, that's me," I said smiling. "Remember at the end of the year you asked me if you could photocopy my book covers so you could keep all your jokes?"

He replied, "Yes, my son was just wondering where those were. They put on a retirement party for me and he wanted those out as part of a display. I'll have to text him in a little bit and let him know that I met you."

That was wonderful. I was pretty sure my testimony of becoming a Christian would matter because he would remember the textbook covers. But I still don't know what my testimony is, about science.

I remember that I was always raising my hand in class. I remember the other kids eventually got annoyed. They started to say, "Okay Michele just put your hand down" and I would laugh. Kids thought I was teacher's pet. I remember that Mr. Shrout was hilarious. He was so funny. He is humble about how funny he is. Most of his jokes were puns, but I just remember the entire class breaking out into laughter out of nowhere because of him. All the time. I remember dissecting frogs and worms. I remember his green bicycle that he stored in class. Even back then it had a reputation: it was dubbed "the green machine." I had so much fun in that class in 7th grade.

Over the summer my dad used to make me choose a college-level textbook and read it and write reports. So I picked 200-level Biology and studied it. When I got to the end of the summer I had written some papers on things like the evolution of man and chemistry of ATP converted to energy in the bloodstream. I could draw the tree of human evolution and used it for speech class and for random papers in English all through middle school. I knew all about evolution.

In the last few years, I've tried to abandon what I know altogether. Most of the books I read in the last few years about creationism only talk about the hoaxes, they don't really say anything about the thousands of fossils of hominids that are out there to be considered. I guess I'm stuck between two worlds.

I didn't expect to discover that my science teachers were Christians.

I can't explain to you the sense of lostness that I lived in spiritually, growing up. At 17 I saw the movie about what the Bible explains about Jesus. I saw Jesus as strong. And authoritative over creation. Provocative. A leader who meekly gave His life, dying cruelly. He said He did it for me, and for everyone. He depicted how God cared if a bird fell to the earth, and how much more God cared for me. And then, He gave me His kind of JOY. It changed my life. I still didn't understand sin, or God, really. Or what my purpose was. I just knew that I knew the Author. The Origin.

Me, age 17

Looking back, now, over all those years of feeling empty and lost, I just feel like God had this big hug, wrapped around me. He was there. All along. Even though I was lost, He was there. His people were there. God was never that far away.

Why did I have to wait to get saved, I wonder? So many people who were saved at the age of 17 have done much to glorify Jesus. Just something I've noticed. Reid Saunders was saved at 17. Billy Graham was saved at 16. The missionary who spoke to us Monday night who went on to give 20 years of his life to the Iteri people, was saved at the age of 17. It is a kind of fervor that is truly annoying to those who are closest to you; they are a people who just won't stop talking about Jesus.

Don't you just love how provocatively God speaks? Like sending my favorite science teacher into my church classroom on Monday night where the day before, we had been discussing evolution. I marvel at God's message to me:

Honey, your science teachers were Christians, just like you.

Thank God for filling in the blanks, showing me His creative presence is so near.

Strangers, An Offering to the LORD

2013-01-11T15:22:00.002-08:00

What is an offering that would please the LORD? Malachi 3:8-10,

"Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it."

Does God want an offering of your money? Sometimes. I suppose if it has the power to bring the nations to Christ, then yes. But on the other hand sometimes God likes to accomplish things without our resources, so we can see the difference between our effort and God's power; so He can increase His own fame.

Simon trying to buy the Spirit he already had as a believer, Acts 8

The prophetic book of Isaiah ends with an interesting take on offerings made to God. It describes STRANGERS as the offering God is seeking. Isaiah 66:18-21,

"For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them; and those among them who escape I will send to the nations: to Tarshish ad Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem," says the LORD, "as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD. And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites," says the LORD.

While some of the evangelism described here makes us think these verses are fulfilled in the church age (now), all brothers from all nations have not been brought to Jerusalem (being referred to as the holy mountain which speaks of the future dispensation).

If the age of the 1000 year reign of Christ is characterized by this, shouldn't our Spiritual duty today look the same? From the beginning of the promise uttered to Abraham, God has been patiently seeking the redemption and transformation of unchurched people! The excellence... of the power of God on display in lives being changed. What if that is what He will have His servants offer Him?

And if in the Kingdom era there will be literal pilgrimages to Jerusalem of new believers in Jesus, shouldn't that be fulfilled now in a Spiritual sense? Malachi 1:7-8,

"You offer defiled food on My altar,
But say,
‘In what way have we defiled You?’
By saying,
‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’
And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice,
Is it not evil?
And when you offer the lame and sick,
Is it not evil?"

If this is true, ... Then what, do you think possibly...

Lame = ?

Sick = ?

Blind = ?

Disciple Making Means the Unchurched will Follow Him

We quote God's Word in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) a lot, but what does a discipling movement look like? The word "disciple" means "follower, learner". Disciple-making therefore means making disciples of the unchurched. Wait a second, you might say: I make disciples of the people who already attend church! Isn't that also disciplemaking? Well, of substance yes, but let me explain a little further.

By definition, a disciple is someone who is willing to follow Jesus. Once someone is willing to follow, then your engagement in making a disciple is done. The disciple is made - and a certain amount of maintenance remains. We might differentiate disciple-maintaining from disciple-making.

Help me tell the story of Jesus.... Jesus saw the crowds following Him, picked out 12 to be His first missionaries... and then: did He send them to minister to the crowds already following Him on foot?

Is that how the story goes?? No :) On two occasions (prior to Pentecost) Jesus gave the 12 the power to speak and do as He did. Who were they sent to? They were empowered to reach the nearby villages where people had not heard the good news so they could be given the chance to follow Jesus too.

The Necessary Work of "Disciple-Maintenance" (Shepherding)

"Disciples" are the willing. They showed up. How about at church? Who shows up at church, usually? Isn't it the willing? Those who have chosen in some motivation to follow Christ?

Jesus didn't concern Himself with developing the 12 missionaries' Christianity very far at all before He anointed them to successfully make followers of the LORD. They weren't intelligent, they weren't professionals. It's not necessary for a "movement." We all want Christians to have character, granted; and they will by God's grace.

God has a plan in disciple-maintenance, and maybe that is your passion to serve Him. What I mean by "disciple-maintenance" is the giftings of Shepherd and Teacher. In His concern for sin, Jesus said, "You follow me because I fed you the bread." He continually ministers to develop godly character. This is the sanctification process and we're all working on becoming who He has destined us to be. We come together as a Body to refresh and strengthen our willingness to follow, to learn.

There is a small percentage of followers that aren't what they seem. But even that God has under control. On occasion, disciple-maintenance leads us down a road of departure. Followers "work themselves out." 1 John 2:19,

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

His Power is in Disciple-Making Movements

How big is the testimony of God in the world if we only offer up the incremental faith of the already faithful? Compare the faith of Paul from the writings of 1 Timothy to 2nd Timothy - can you see his faith grow between writing these two books? Probably not, I'd guess. By contrast, can you tell the difference between Saul the persecutor of Christians, and Paul the convert of Jesus? Absolutely! Conversion is His renown! Isaiah 61:5,6,9,

Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
And the sons of the foreigner
Shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers....
You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,
And in their glory you shall boast....
All who see them shall acknowledge them,
That they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed.

Would our God be more awe-inspiring, and be more glorious if we could bring the unchurched, the un-gathered, the non-following? Saved... from the grip of hell on earth, transformed like nobody's business? Can you remember the last time you heard the story of someone who just accepted Jesus as Savior? What happened to your soul? The newly converted remind us of what is important. I love to hear how touching it is for a person to finally meet God in all His love for them. How "lame" in transformation are wonderfully but predictably faithful Christians compared to a babe in Christ? Malachi 1:12-13,

"You also say,
‘Oh, what a weariness!’
And you sneer at it,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick;
Thus you bring an offering!
Should I accept this from your hand?”
Says the Lord."

Stolen = Researchers have been reporting that most church growth statistics come from transfers from other congregations of people who are already Christians...?

What if the most beautiful offering in God's eyes is the testimony of His presence in a stranger's life? What if He loves to hear a new people overwhelmed to discover God as alive, as powerful, as near, as protective, as saving, as gracious.

It can't be bought with money.

Can you give it to Him?

Hungry for Mission

2013-01-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

a post originally written on 11/11/12.

"Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:10

Jesus is hungry. Jesus is also thirsty. Jesus "must needs go through Samaria." What does the God of the universe need that He does not already have? The redemption of man in these three years of His life. His mission: to come and reconcile us. He needs his bride. If He does not find His bride, His purpose is failed. Without a Bride, Jesus doesn't drink. Jesus doesn't eat. When Jesus was low on sustenance, he goes on a mission trip.

No he wasn't talking about earthly food. His followers think this means earthly food. They look around a place like Samaria and think, "If we are going to eat in this place, it will have to be brought in from somewhere else." They take off to get the food, meanwhile Jesus sits down to the feast.

Jesus needs to succeed at His mission to win us. But if we should not comply and let ourselves be won over by Him, then He has failed. In that sense, Jesus is thirsty and hopes that His people will give Him a drink.

There is no spiritual food and there is no spiritual drink without a mission trip. The water is meant to irrigate my sphere of influence and spill out like a flowing moving body of water (streams of living water will flow out from within). The irrigated area of my sphere of influence is supposed to bear fruit.

So I thought that God was supposed to make the water flow from within me? But in fact I find that I want most to have God flow His life-giving water out through my life when I come across a person who doesn't know Him at all. That is why Jesus is thirsty to be around the Samaritan woman.

Why would anyone rob Jesus, mission? Why would anyone rob Jesus water and food?

"You will ask, 'When did we give you a drink? When did we feed you?' I will answer, 'Whoever does this to the least of my brethren, He does it unto Me.'"

Why do I rob Him drink and food? I get busy and caught up with the finer things in life, such as writing blog posts.

We think that it's hard. We think that it's hard to find success as a missionary because it's hard in the places we want to win people. But, it's not. It really isn't. That is what Jesus is telling us here. The disciples look around Samaria and think there is no way to barter for food. They're totally wrong. "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" If we are willing to get out of our earthly families as Jesus left His, reaping the harvest is unbelievably easy. It is already ready! All we have to do is drink, like Jesus is drinking. Drink the water of mission. We can make our prayers about mission. Ask and He will pour water through you to others.

Children of Comfort

2013-01-04T18:41:00.001-08:00

This blog post starts a new post emphasis (label) titled, "Mother Jerusalem's Advice."

What am I replicating in this life -- for all replicate! Everybody is bearing fruit, but only some fruit lasts to eternity. What I make of my life will be counted as "children" before God.

Children = good works, the Holy Spirit manifested through me, people accepting the gospel, disciples, eternal life, godly fruit, being clothed properly for Jesus at His coming.

"I want the women adorned with good works..." 1 Tim. 2:10

According to Isaiah 51:18-19, in the next life, "children" are the ones who comfort believers:

Stand up, O Jerusalem...
There is no one to guide her
Among all the sons she has brought forth;
Nor is there any who takes her by the hand
Among all the sons she has brought up.
These two things have come to you;
Desolation and destruction,
famine and sword --
By whom shall I comfort you?
Your sons have fainted,
They lie at the head of all the streets
Like an antelope in the net;
They are full of the fury of the LORD,
The rebuke of your God.

According to the New Testament, the Holy Spirit (John 16:6-7) is the one who comforts believers:

But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

We need offspring, we need a child for the next life whom God will be pleased with, Isaiah 52:1,

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion;
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city!
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
Shall no longer come to you.

God gave such an offspring! Isaiah 9:6,

For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a Son is given

Any person who has believed in Jesus for eternal life has a certificate of having adopted a child. Jesus has been adopted as our Son, though, His true monogenes (pedigree) is that He is the Father's Son. Why did the Father give us His Son to be our son? Because there would be no hope for us to bear godly offspring and make disciples of all nations without this gracious gift. Inside the Jewish nation He was hidden as the lone eternally fruitful legacy of humanity. Isaiah 49:1-2,

The LORD has called Me from the womb;
From the matrix of My mother He
has made mention of My name.
And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.

But when He hid Jesus as the son of Israel within the Jewish Nation, God also hid Jesus as a child for all the world. Isaiah 49:5-6,

And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Every "offspring," every "child," every practice and manifestation in our lifestyle that bears out in our community to take people away from faith in God will be destroyed before God's face. As He turned to destroy earthly Jerusalem, so He may destroy us. God will not be mocked, we will reap what we sow. Isaiah 63:10,

But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit;
So He turned Himself against them as an enemy,
And He fought against them.

Our lives are either manifesting this Son or else our deceptive idols of gaining peace with God. 1 John 4:17,

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

And how was Jesus in the world? John 4 shows us that Jesus was busy making disciples of God wherever He was accepted. He equated His own work at evangelism and disciplemaking (evangediscipleship) so critically as whether or not He would have access to food and water stored up in the next life. John 4:4,

But He needed to go through Samaria.

When has God ever needed ANYTHING...? John 4:7,

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.'

Jesus plays as much by Kingdom rules as we must. He was both thirsty and hungry. He needed to make babies. He knew this woman would make babies with Him. Her word of His gospel made the city believe. A whole city of believers were born. He taught the 12 how to prepare for the next life, by storing up food NOW. John 4:34, 36,

Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. ... And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life...'.

Her children rise up and call her blessed....
Give her the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.
Prov 31:28, 30-31

There will be desolation and famine for all who have not birthed with Christ a team of fellow Christ-followers from among the nations. They will eat in the next life, but they will have to find food from those who have it. Jesus equates "evangediscipleship" throughout the Old and New Testaments as essential to survival that He calls it:

Food.

Water.

Clothing.

(No wonder Jesus relates to the least of these!)

I believe that evangediscipleship is the oil in the lamps of the virgins. I believe that evangediscipleship will be the measure for our personal bodily resurrection described in Romans 8 and Philippians 3. I believe it is the purpose for Abraham's family. And more. There are so many theologies to unpack from the Bible. And I don't have the mind for it so much these days, even though I think about these every day. I just want to paint this quick picture for those reading here. Isaiah 62:5,

For as a young man marries a virgin,
So shall your sons marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.

I know the most important thing I can do after attending to my own inner persevering faith in God is to create disciples. To me, it is exciting to know that the sojourners I choose to bind as a community, as a team, as my Body, my church in this life are the people I will be in network with for all eternity. Is. 49:18,

'As I live,' says the LORD,
'You shall surely clothe yourselves
with them all as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.'

If you want to make babies, God has given you His Spirit through which you can exponentially redeem the lives of so many. It won't look as tangibly productive as literal childbearing or adoption. It won't feel like this awesome thing that is "done" like holding a baby in your hands and giving him your last name. You may never see or physically hold or call them your own, but God will cause them to come running back to you in the end. Isaiah 49:20-23,

The children you will have,
After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
'The place is too small for me,
Give me a place where I may dwell.'
Then you will say in your heart,
'Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone; But these, where were they?'
Thus says the Lord GOD:
'Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their arms,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
Then you will know that I am the LORD,
For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.'

My World is Already Different

2012-12-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

Is it safe to write????

Every time I've tried to start a blog post in the last few weeks, a tragic or horrible piece of news comes in our direction. Here in the Painter household, we have been subject to secondhand news of upsetting things. If you are managing your own mental well being and do not want to read of upsetting things, I will list the worst at the end of this post.

Skip this post when it becomes beneficial.

Have your kids returned to public school this week like mine have? How has it gone for you as a parent? I posted Psalm 91 on facebook; it is a great set of promises from the Promise-Maker for the concerns of physical safety. I am praying for my kids every time I drop them off, and we are talking a lot about how to be safe and yet not live with fear.

Lijie has afternoon kindergarden. I didn't want to be a nuisance as this tragedy was just coming across communication lines on Friday afternoon, but I really wanted to be present for my own sense of protecting my child as he went into his class. I did not walk down to his class like I have oftentimes, I let him go and then peeked around into the office to speak to the secretary. I asked,

"Do you have a different protocol for security at a time like this? I assume you've gathered what happened this morning?"

I paused and waited while she gathered her thoughts. She replied that she just received an email about their security a few minutes prior. That there was a police car patroling the local streets around the school... that there were particular staff persons who were walking the grounds of the school at certain intervals. I nodded my head.

I had seen a police cruiser with his lights flashing as we were driving to the school - only he had pulled over a fellow mother I knew and was giving her a ticket for speeding I assume. It was a comfort to see the police myself. Then I said to her,

"Okay. I am afraid for copycats."

She replied with a "yeah" because we're all trying to take this in without overreacting. I told her with a tear in my eye how much I was thankful for all they do. She was touched and said thank you.

I am curious to brainstorm how I can be encouraging to the school at this time? I want to help, but I don't think I can do anything to be helpful, except give them winter break to gather their wits and come up with some substantial suggestions. I assume they will hold meetings for parents to describe their plans and solutions and on that day, I plan to be a part and offer my help.

On Monday (yesterday), things were just as tense. Taped in the front door window there was a piece of paper which said,

Please have patience with us. We are currently revising our security protocols for the school. At this time you may be asked for identification before entering the building.

Well, I paused. And then I walked inside. I walk in a lot and have had my children attending this school for 7 years, so they "know" me. Right? No. Here's the deal: Adam Lanza was "known" too. It doesn't matter how long they've recognized me, or that I'm a parent. Anyone, anyone can put the children at risk including me. I stood inside and froze out of respect. Nothing happened. There was a teacher leading her students across the lobby area toward the gym. They followed one another in a perfectly straight line. The teacher, a beautiful young woman just like at Sandy Hook, stared straight at me, ignoring her students. She just stood there between me and her students, staring at me, but smiling.

It doesn't matter who I am, I realized. All that matters is whether or not I pose a threat. I was wearing a coat that comes down to mid-thigh. Long enough to conceal a gun and I shook my head later when I thought about it.

I need to be thought of as the bad guy: this is the teachers' job, now. To size up risk, to keep me out. That is exactly what I want for my child while he is at school. I just wish it wasn't happening to me, because obviously I along with 99.999% of people who walk into that building, am not the enemy, but an ally.

My world is different now.

So is my daughter's. Grace came home from school. She said that a week prior they practiced their "lockdown drill." I asked her to explain.

Level 1 This is the level the school is commonly on every day. It means the doors on the exterior of the building remain locked during school hours.

Level 2 All classroom doors must be locked from access in the hallway. Students stay in their seats and class continues.

Level 3 All classroom doors must be locked from access in the hallway. Students are supposed to hide in the corner of the room where there is no visibility from the window on the door, or hide in closets or cabinets. Anything to make the room look vacant.

On the one hand, I was like, wow. That's great. They already have thought through a situation like this. On the other hand I marvel. I never did "lockdown drills" as a kid. We did earthquake drills, and tornado drills when I was in Illinois. I remember learning how my parent's generation had atomic bomb drills. I guess this is the next generation's most likely terror...? What kind of a world does my daughter live in, today? Why should she have to learn how to hide from a gunman... or a team of gunmen?

I drove along Broadway Street, past another elementary school. I saw children outside, lined up against the wall, perhaps preparing for recess. For a moment I thought, "oh my God" ("oh my God" is not a cuss word, it is an address to God directing His attention to a situation that needs Him). A sniper could take them out so easy. The playground is out in front of the school, right next to the street. How can teachers send them out to play? How can they protect them from a gun, there?

Fear creates such a mess. Like the airlines after 9/11, I just wonder if life in schools will ever be the same. I wonder if it is going to be just as bad as that tragedy, just as far-reaching.

This is going to be a hard time as a nation. It is going to be hard on everybody, especially those who directly care for children. I am praying for God to give me wisdom for how to encourage teachers and staff.

Public Places

Secondhand experiences have reached us from the tragedy at Clackamas Town Center Mall. Ben's mother had time off from work as an elementary teacher. She planned to go to that mall the very next day after the shooting. She shops there frequently. It is a suburban, upper-scale mall. Not the first choice for an act of home-grown terrorism. I know that she shops a lot at Macy's. She called to share her experience that night, and Ben lovingly called her the next evening to see how she was doing again. It is hard to imagine her entering that place again.

A couple days later, Ben forwarded me an email from one of his martial arts teachers of the last 9 years. His teacher's email was filled with sadness to share that one of his students, a fellow black belt in their martial art (Kosho Ryu Kempo) and friend of 20 years, Steve Forsyth, was one of the two victims (the male victim) that was killed in the shooting at the Mall. Ben had not met Steve personally, but it certainly made the grief more profound.

And then yesterday, Ben came home from work again after Kempo class. His other teacher who taught him today is a black belt and police officer with Clackamas County. He was called to the scene at the Mall and was one of the first responders as an officer. I asked him what he experienced. He said,

"things that can't be said with little ears present."

Tonight Ben tells me part of his story: that there were well over 10,000 people in the mall. That as a first responder he had to go from room to room to room to release people in hiding. The eerie state of seeing not a soul but hearing Christmas music playing overhead and seeing strollers, purses, food -- everything abandoned in an instant when people ran for their lives.

Personal Relationships

My friend Elena as I mentioned in the previous blog post was murdered. We had known Dave since before he filed for divorce, and Ben and I had built some friendship doing couples things to try and share in life and a sense of understanding. It is difficult of course, now. Ben and I joke how crazy it is that we personally know a murderer. I was told by a certain individual that she was shot in the cranium, however their were multiple gunshot wounds. It's awful. The Statesman Journal reported from police officers that Dave confessed to have thought previously of murdering her in ways other than with a firearm. I don't know if Dave is guilty of having done any wrong. It's not my place to judge; I am quoting what is commonly known. This is quite unnerving, and we occasionally have poured over our knowing him to try and come to the mindset of this outcome, but, of course, we can't understand it. As with the other tragedies, how can someone logically come to the decision to murder, which is by definition not an accident, not self-defense?

We are left picking up the pieces. The local funeral home is trying to arrange for a cost-effective way to get her home. The memorial is this Saturday and they'll release her cremated remains to me so that I can transport her to the church for the service. Tough stuff. I spoke again to Kathie at Victim's assistance and after a few minutes we both felt the need to talk about the national sense of devastation this last week, how everyone stopped processing heartache about Elena while that was happening. Kathie said that she is also working on the case of the victims at Clackamas Town Center. Crazy. She is a great lady. I love her manner. She is slow. Her tone is just perfect for grieving people. I couldn't think more highly of her.

One Thought at a Time

I recognize that I am overreacting, in some ways, to what I see as risk for children to be shot while attending school. I do recognize it. I'm allowing myself the grace to experience it as it comes. I believe this is the only healthy way to do it. I haven't yet processed fear of generally public places, such as the mall, theaters, even church. I'm trusting God, but I just haven't thought out how to be as safe as is attainable without robbing joy for life. I haven't processed yet the fear completely that the people in my own life are people who are possibly capable of doing much harm. I've seen scary moments before in my life, and I felt like I learned the lesson of walking by faith and in victory in Christ, but I guess with each new wound, it must be regained, it must be relearned. And if it takes time, it takes time.

How can anybody not feel like a jerk for having ever felt anger in their heart.... When we can all see the fruit of hate... which is murder? Jesus warned us about this. He said that hate is murder in the heart. These are horrible realities on the human condition. I want Jesus in my life so much more than I did three weeks ago.

If I'm concerned by all this, perhaps there's something wrong with me. Am I too responsible for others? Am I not responsible enough? What am I supposed to be learning about my pride and self-reliance? An unspoken goal I've had for a few years is to be a pastor without the title. Lots of people do this, it's obviously easier than attending seminary. How much does it serve to have the title of pastor or minister? Every Christian is a minister (has priesthood), there is no distinguishing ministers in God's Kingdom but by an exceptional love relationship with God. I can be even less ambitious-minded by not thinking of myself as "Christian". Ministry simply amounts to no more than living life as God intended it in community. Am I able to hear His voice in the place that I am? I could have attended seminary for a few years now. The Spirit asked me about whose kingdom I'm building, and I'm not convinced that seminary is God's best. Life seems too short to secure a measure of authority to interpret the bible by a paper's certification. If God opens doors for me to do all the work of a pastor, church-planter, etc., without ever holding a title I would be as happy as a sunflower in the sun. However, if it turns out I could really stand to grow in Kingdom relevance through seminary, if seminary would make me grow in humility or character then I trust God to lead me in that direction.

What's the Good News?

Psalm 91 has been good news to me. God's word has been good news. And His power has been good news. At a time when I feel my worst... at a time when my head is the least functioning than it's been in a couple years... I can say this: God has favor for me, and it isn't because I am on the ball. It is only because of His grace that He calls me servant in such a state as I am in. I am amazed that the story of my personal life coincides to bless the local sphere.... Translation: I never would have dreamed my friend would leave this earth. If I could change it, I would do it in a heartbeat. But it prepared me a few weeks before the whole nation, the whole culture started suffering with the same issues: Guns. The mindset of murder. Trauma. Feelings of living in an unsafe world. Wanting desperately to depend on the normalcy of people who live around me. How is God not amazing in His plans that He prepared me just a little bit so that I could send the comfort that He has given me to others.... I never saw such a thing coming my way. I would take the entire month back in every aspect if I had a choice. But it never will go back to being exactly the way it was before.

I am proud of my husband. He adds such a love for things that are pure, and patient but consistent boundary for things that are not pure. He understands grace and compassion better than fewer people I've ever known. And most importantly he loves taking risks to affect transformation. I could not have asked for a better life-partner. It means so much to me that we both have a deep, true, unfailing love for people.

God has caused His providence to protect me. Dave called me the day before he allegedly murdered my friend. I didn't pick up the phone. I didn't call him back. He didn't leave a message. At the time I was led to hear, "let the call go." I did. Generally when he calls it's because something is happening with their relationship and he wants me to listen or mediate. Sometimes it is to pick her up. If he had asked me to come and get her on that day or the next, I would have done it. I might have been there the moment that this situation turned for the worst. I've been included in their disagreements at times in the past. These things add up to tell me that God said: No. He was going to make sure that nothing would happen to me. I cannot explain why I was protected. I cannot explain why my friend died. I cannot explain the mystery of God's will. But I am thankful that God protects me. Always, God will protect me until it is also my day to begin eternity at His side.

Ask one of the ten thousand people inside Clackamas Town Center Mall why they were protected from harm and someone else was not and they will probably have no better answers. Some things are just too big for us to explain. Close call? Not by a longshot. God directs me on a level path. I gave my life to Him, and He guards it. Matthew 10:28,

And fear not them which kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul...

Missing my friend. Her life is still unfolding like a gift to me. Look forward to seeing her in eternity so I can tell her again that I love her.

So thankful for the template of one tv show in four iterations all these years. I'm thankful for art. For fanvids depicting the subtle interweavings of significance in the human experience. Life... and your story of it, is art. It is the genius of a Master. Ephesians 2:11 ("workmanship").

I'm thankful for a nation becoming my community overnight. For the fellowship with everyone in recent mourning. For the never-wished-for-but-welcome companionship mirroring this specific battle to recover.

I'm thankful for the chance to absorb all that God has purposed me to become in the image of His Son.

"I'll Be Your Soldier" by Gavin Degraw

Where did all the people go?
They got scared when the lights went low.
I'll get you through it nice and slow,
When the world's spinning out of control.

Afraid of what they might lose
Might get scraped or they might get bruised.
You could beg them, what's the use?
That's why it's called a moment of truth

I'll get it if you need it,
I'll search if you don't see it,
You're thirsty, I'll be rain,
You get hurt, I'll take your pain.

I know you don't believe it,
But I said it and I still mean it,
When you heard what I told you,
When you get worried I'll be your soldier.

Funny when times get hard,
At the last moment when you're supposed to charge,
Always on the longest yard,
Oh, they feel their feet getting cold.

Hiding here, hiding there,
Find them underneath the stairs,
People hiding everywhere,
Trying to be still like a stone.

I'll get it if you need it,
I'll search if you can't see it,
You're thirsty, I'll be rain,
You get hurt, I'll take your pain.

I know you don't believe it,
But I said it and I still mean it,
When you heard what I told you,
When you get worried I'll be your soldier.

My aim is so true,
I wanna show you,
I'll try forever,
I'm never gonna say "surrender".