Last night as I was opening up my bible to spend some time with the Father, I felt the desire to open up to Paul's letter to the Ephesians. I love Ephesians. First it starts out with the acknowledgement that long before we were born, we were elected through grace by our Heavenly Father to worship Him for all of eternity.
We then get to a verse that really got me - A Prayer for Spiritual Strength. I wanted to put it on here, but I have changed the words to reflect as if this were coming from you or myself rather than in letter form from Paul. Please pray this with me:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory may he grant me to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith - that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comeprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that I ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in te church and in christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Radical Christian Sacrifice
Let us pray together. Father we together now renounce and do pray that these friends would do this with me. We renounce all self reliance, all vain glory, pride, greed, envy, cowardness and fear of man, lust that threatens to sweep our brains away, anxiety about what's going on at home and ask for freedom. We renounce sinful anger and bitterness, satan and all his works and ways, and together now submit to Christ and submit to your word, and we ask for the Holy Spirit to brood over these thousands that something extraordinary will happen for the glory of Christ and the reaching of the nations.
My desire and prayer to God is that your life and your ministry will have a radical flavor. A gutsy, counter-cultural, war time flavor that makes average American people in your church uncomfortable. A strange mixture of tenderness and toughness that keeps people a little bit off balance. A pervasive summons to something more, something hazardess, something wonderful, a saltyness and a brightness about your life and about your church. Something like Jesus. Salt and Light are joyful embrace of suffering. That's what the world is waiting for.
I don't come here for nothing, I want something, I want you to do something. I want this world to be rocked by your lives. Where are the young men and women of this generation that will hold their lives cheap and be faithful until death. Who will lose their lives for Christ, flinging them away for the love of Him. Where are those who will live dangerously and be reckless in His service? Where are the men of prayer? Where are the the men who count God's Word more important to them than their daily food? Where are the men like Moses of old commune with God face-to-face? Where are God's men in this day of God's power?
They are not impressed with us. Prosperous, weathly, safe, middle class, do what everybody else does. Don't build a church like that. It will cost you your life to build a church that doesn't live like the rest of the world. You've got to live like that. You've got to have a flavor about your life that is risky and radical and different.
The only people who are of any earthly good are those that are so radically heavenly minded that they are free from this world. Free from stuff. Stuff is killing us. Houses are killing us. Books are killing us. Carpet is killing us. Cars are killing us. Computers are killing us. What creates this craziness, what creates this radical, risk taking, sacrificial life is the reward that is coming, and it is everything to me.
We treasure our future reward vastly more than we treasure this world. Christ supreme, glorious, magnificant, and precious, is that reward. He is God's final revelation. He is the heir of all things. He is the creator of the world. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact inprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. He made purification for sins. He sits at the right hand of the majesty. He is God enthroned forever with the septer of uprightness. He is worshipped by angels. His rule will have no end. His joy is above all other things in the universe. He took on human flesh. He was crowned with glory and honor because of his suffering. He was the founder of our salvation. He was made perfect in all of his obedience by his suffering. He destroyed the one that has the power of death. He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He is a merciful and faithful high priest. He made propitation for sins. He is sympathetic because of his own trials. He never sinned. He offered up loud cries and tears with reverent fear and God heard him. He became the source of eternal salvation. He holds his priesthood by virtue of an indestructable life. He appears in the presense of God on our behalf. He will come a second time to save those that are eagerly waiting for him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Therefore, let us go to Him, and bear the reproach He endured.
(I did not write this, but wanted to put these words into text)
My desire and prayer to God is that your life and your ministry will have a radical flavor. A gutsy, counter-cultural, war time flavor that makes average American people in your church uncomfortable. A strange mixture of tenderness and toughness that keeps people a little bit off balance. A pervasive summons to something more, something hazardess, something wonderful, a saltyness and a brightness about your life and about your church. Something like Jesus. Salt and Light are joyful embrace of suffering. That's what the world is waiting for.
I don't come here for nothing, I want something, I want you to do something. I want this world to be rocked by your lives. Where are the young men and women of this generation that will hold their lives cheap and be faithful until death. Who will lose their lives for Christ, flinging them away for the love of Him. Where are those who will live dangerously and be reckless in His service? Where are the men of prayer? Where are the the men who count God's Word more important to them than their daily food? Where are the men like Moses of old commune with God face-to-face? Where are God's men in this day of God's power?
They are not impressed with us. Prosperous, weathly, safe, middle class, do what everybody else does. Don't build a church like that. It will cost you your life to build a church that doesn't live like the rest of the world. You've got to live like that. You've got to have a flavor about your life that is risky and radical and different.
The only people who are of any earthly good are those that are so radically heavenly minded that they are free from this world. Free from stuff. Stuff is killing us. Houses are killing us. Books are killing us. Carpet is killing us. Cars are killing us. Computers are killing us. What creates this craziness, what creates this radical, risk taking, sacrificial life is the reward that is coming, and it is everything to me.
We treasure our future reward vastly more than we treasure this world. Christ supreme, glorious, magnificant, and precious, is that reward. He is God's final revelation. He is the heir of all things. He is the creator of the world. He is the radiance of God's glory. He is the exact inprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. He made purification for sins. He sits at the right hand of the majesty. He is God enthroned forever with the septer of uprightness. He is worshipped by angels. His rule will have no end. His joy is above all other things in the universe. He took on human flesh. He was crowned with glory and honor because of his suffering. He was the founder of our salvation. He was made perfect in all of his obedience by his suffering. He destroyed the one that has the power of death. He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He is a merciful and faithful high priest. He made propitation for sins. He is sympathetic because of his own trials. He never sinned. He offered up loud cries and tears with reverent fear and God heard him. He became the source of eternal salvation. He holds his priesthood by virtue of an indestructable life. He appears in the presense of God on our behalf. He will come a second time to save those that are eagerly waiting for him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Therefore, let us go to Him, and bear the reproach He endured.
(I did not write this, but wanted to put these words into text)
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