Giving Your All For God

I particularly love the following words by David Platt: …..I invite you simply to let your heart be gripped, maybe for the first time, by the biblical prospect that God has designed a radically global purpose for your life….I invite you to throw aside the gospel-less reasoning that might prevent you from accomplishing that purpose. I invite you to consider with me what it would mean for all of us – pastors and church members, businessmen and businesswomen, lawyers and doctors, consultants and construction workers, teachers and students, on-the-go professionals and stay-at-home moms – to spend all of our lives for the sake of all God’s glory in all the world…..It sounds idealistic, I know. Impact the world. But doesn’t it also sound biblical? God has created us to accomplish a radically global, supremely God-exalting purpose with our lives. The formal definition of impact is “a forcible contact between two things,” and God has designed our lives for a collision course with the world. My friends, if these words indeed seem idealistic to you, I submit the following for your consideration. You may have unwittingly imbibed too deeply the world’s value system. You may have bought, hook, line and sinker, our culture’s definition of what is realistic and what is pie-in-the-sky, dream-in-your-eye fantasy. The fact is my friend, when Christ entered the scene all those years ago in the Holy Land, he set about turning the existing status quo on its head. What the world considered realistic, practical, and the right way to do things largely went out the window in Christ’s teaching. In the collection of teachings known to us as the “Sermon on the Mount,” the Master often prefaced his remarks by saying, “You have heard it said…but I say to you.” Again, I submit to you that if you think that God’s call on your life – the call to give your all for God’s all – is too idealistic, perhaps the stain of our culture’s reasoning, no matter how sacred, hallowed, or closely held, has gone far too deeply into your being. At some point we all are faced with a choice: do we accept the beliefs and values of our culture, or do we follow the teachings of the Master, even if they sound like an idealistic dream? I conclude with these words from the great scholar Houston Smith. I encourage you to reflect deeply on what these words say to you: …we have heard Jesus’ teachings so often that their edges have been worn smooth, dulling their glaring subversiveness. If we could recover their original impact, we too would be startled. Their beauty would not paper over the fact that they are “hard sayings,” presenting a scheme of values so counter to the usual as to shake us like the seismic collision of tectonic plates…We are told that we are not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek. The world assumes that evil must be resisted by every means available. We are told to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. The world assumes that friends are to be loved and enemies hated. We are told that the sun rises on the just and the unjust alike. The world considers this to be indiscriminating; it would like to see dark clouds withholding sunshine from evil people. We are told that outcasts and harlots enter the kingdom of God before many who are perfunctorily righteous. Unfair, we protest; respectable people should head the procession. We are told that the gate to salvation is narrow. The world would prefer it to be wide. We are told to be as carefree as birds and flowers. The world counsels prudence. We are told that it is more difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom than for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye. The world honors wealth. We are told that the happy people are those who are meek, who weep, who are merciful and pure in heart. The world assumes that it is the rich, the powerful, and the wellborn who should be happy. In all, a wind of freedom blows through these teachings that frightens the world and makes us want to deflect their effect by postponement – not yet, not yet! H.G. Wells was evidently right: either there was something mad about this man, or our hearts are still too small for his message. Think about it. (c) L.D. Turner 2010/All Rights Reserved

Christian Essentials: Obedience

L.D. Turner It has taken me a long time to get this basic Christian teaching past my overly active, comfort seeking, rationalizing mind: obedience lies at the very core of the Christian walk of faith. It should be easy enough to see this fundamental reality but the fact is, no matter how many pious platitudes we may utter or how much lip service we may give to the importance of obedience, the church has a major blind spot when it comes to actually following the teachings of the Master. I don’t know about you, but when I first became seriously aware of what obedience to Christ really entailed, I wanted to run for the nearest exit. It wasn’t so much that I saw the requirements as too restrictive. Instead, my desire to head for the hills flowed out of my honest self-assessment, which screamed: Ain’t no way I can pull this off. And it was precisely at this juncture that I needed a solid, gifted mentor in Christ who, exuding wisdom, confidence, and agape love, would have informed me that this was the most amazing aspect of the whole gospel package: I didn’t have to pull it off. Christ was going to place a new spirit in me, and, in fact, he was going to take up residence in me and in so doing, he was going to empower me to live as he wanted me to live. Unfortunately, no such mentor appeared. Instead, I was left with an incomplete understanding of the gospel message and how it applied to my life. Yes, I understood who Jesus was, at least marginally, and I understood that through his death on the cross my sins were forgiven. I had no inkling, however, of how Christ and the Holy Spirit were going to help transform me into new order of being. Over the years I have come to see that the spiritual quagmire that I found myself in was not unusual. In fact, it seems to be the norm. The church has been woefully inadequate in preaching and teaching the full gospel message. Further, there appears to be a marked shortage of teaching on the role obedience plays in bringing about the godly lifestyle described in scripture. In an attempt to make the Christian life appealing to contemporary Americans, many church leaders, pastors, and teachers (far too many) have jettisoned the message of obedience in favor of a gospel of comfort, convenience, and cash flow. The result has been the creation of a Christian faith that is a superficial replica of what the Master intended. For countless people who identify themselves as Christians, Christ is seen as their Savior but certainly not as Lord. As stated, this shallow sort of Christianity is not what Jesus intends when he issues the call, “Follow me.” Time and time again, scripture reveals that much of our inheritance as Christians hinges upon our obedience to the teachings laid down to us by the Master. Unfortunately, the whole “grace vs. works” issue has clouded this reality to the point that the vast majority of Protestant believers have little understanding of the necessity of obedience in the Christian walk of faith. If you have any confusion on this issue, I suggest you prayerfully and with reflection spend time with the closing section of the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 7:21-27. In his latest book, Follow Me, David Platt takes up the practical implications of what it means to walk the Christian path as a disciple, as opposed to a cultural or non-committed “believer.” Platt makes the point, and I have long said the same thing, that “making a decision” for Christ, or “taking Jesus as your personal savior,” or “inviting Jesus into your heart,” are all woefully inadequate in becoming a true follower of Christ. Only one thing will guarantee that you are indeed an authentic Christian: obedience. Christ repeats this time and time again, along with his call to repentance and his teachings on the necessity of “taking up one’s cross,” which basically means to die to self. It is apparent, however, that we as a church have found all manner of clever strategies for watering down these teachings or worse, ignoring them completely. Platt laments:

With good intentions and sincere desires to reach as many people as possible for Jesus, we have subtly and deceptively minimized the magnitude of what it means to follow him. We’ve replaced challenging words from Christ with trite phrases in the church. We’ve taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put Kool-Aid in its place so that it tastes better to the crowds, and the consequences are catastrophic. Multitudes of men and women at this moment think that they are saved from their sins when they are not. Scores of people around the world culturally think that they are Christians when biblically they are not. Earlier in the book, Platt describes how “belief,” although important and even essential, is far from the whole enchilada when it comes to treading the Christian path. The church has perpetrated a glaring disservice to “converts” by stressing the need for belief without a concomitant commitment to obedience to Christ. After all, scripture openly tells us that even the demons believe (James 2:19). Platt goes on to say: Clearly, people who claim to believe in Jesus are not assured of eternity in heaven. On the contrary, only those who obey Jesus will enter his Kingdom. As soon as I write that, you may perk up and ask, “David, did you just say that works are involved in our salvation?” In response to that question, I want to be clear: that is not what I am saying…….Instead, it’s what Jesus is saying.

Platt goes on to make the clear point that Jesus is not saying that our works are the basis of our salvation. The Master, and later Paul, makes it quite clear that only grace is the basis of our salvation. I think the point Platt is trying to make, and it is the same point I have made on numerous occasions in this blog, is that the church has put so much emphasis and stress on God’s unmerited grace, that our part in the overall Christian walk of faith has been minimized and, in some cases, completely ignored. The result has been a Christianity that is quite frankly, a shallow farce which lacks transformative power. Worse, it has deceived far too many “believers” into thinking they are authentically Christian when, in fact, they are not. Referring to Jesus words at the end of Matthew 7, Platt continues:

…….in our rush to defend grace, we cannot overlook the obvious in what Jesus is saying here (and in many other places as well): only those who are obedient to the words of Christ will enter the Kingdom of Christ. If our lives do not reflect the fruit of following Jesus, then we are foolish to think that we are actually followers of Jesus in the first place.

Rather than following a knee-jerk reaction to those words, spend some time prayerfully reflecting on what Platt just said, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you just where you stand in relation to this issue. To what extent are you obedient to the teachings of the Master? Granted, no one is perfect, but how consistent are you in putting your faith, as defined by Jesus, into daily practice? Does your life indeed reflect the fruit of following Jesus? Only you can answer these questions with any degree of honesty. If you ask the Holy Spirit, he will give you the discernment you need to make an honest, self-assessment. I know when I spent time reflecting on these themes, it was a real eye-opener that resulted in one of those life-changing, epiphany-like moments. And I hope it can become the same for you. © L.D. Turner 2013/All Rights Reserved

Spiritual Formation Through Serving Others

I am convinced that few of us truly comprehend the enormity and the depth of what Christ accomplished through his sojourn In this world, his mission, death, resurrection, ascension, and divine infilling of everything in the universe. (For more info on this divine infilling, see Ephesians 4:10) . Whenever I speculate on the scope of the mission Christ undertook when he left the spiritual realm and landed in that manger in Bethlehem, I am often overwhelmed. Christ’s mission, when seen in its enormous, multi-faceted wholeness, is much like a prism. When you shine light through a prism you will see different colors, depending upon the perspective you are viewing from. It is the same with the work of Christ, depending on the angle you are looking from, you will see different aspects. In the end, the mission gave rise to what we call the gospel and, just like the mission itself, the gospel is also multi-dimensional. Referring to the work of Jim Marion, Cynthia Bourgeault concurs that Jesus saw the “Kingdom of Heaven” as a state of consciousness that viewed this unified and universal indwelling of Christ: It is a whole new way of looking at the world, a transformed awareness that literally turns the world into a different place. Marion suggests specifically that the Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus’ own favorite way of describing a state we would nowadays call a “nondual consciousness” or “unitive consciousness.” The hallmark of this awareness is that it sees no separation – not between God and humans, not between humans and other humans. …….No separation between God and humans. When Jesus talks about this Oneness, he is not speaking in an Eastern sense about an equivalency of being, such that I am in and of myself divine. What he more has in mind is a complete, mutual indwelling. I am in God, God is in you, you are in God, we are in each other. His most beautiful symbol of this is in the teaching in John 15 where he says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Abide in me as I in you.” In these passages in John 15, as well as later in his great prayer in John 17, the Master is stressing the reality of the divine intimacy now made possible through his incarnation, his successful mission in this physical world, his coming ascension and the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Through his accomplishments and through his ongoing presence within everything that exists, Christ is facilitating the restoration of the divine interconnection that existed in the original relationship between the Creator and Creation. This interconnection is brought about by the deepest intimacy possible and this unparalleled intimacy is the natural flow of God’s nature – love. God is love and, created in his holy image, so are we. Bourgeault continues: There is no separation between humans and God because of this mutual interabiding which expresses the indivisible reality of divine love. We flow into God – and God into us – because it is the nature of love to flow. And as we give ourselves into one another in this fashion, the vine gives life and coherence to the branch while the branch makes visible what the vine is…………The whole and part live together in mutual, loving reciprocity, each belonging to the other and dependent on the other to show forth the fullness of love. Personally, I find the Master’s use of the metaphor “vine” and “branches” particularly profound as it gives us a clear picture of what our vertical relationship with he and the Father is. Notice I said “is” rather than “is like.” I did this for a reason and perhaps it is the same reason Jesus used metaphor rather than simile. Simile uses words such as “like” or “as” to draw an analogy between two things. For example, it Jesus had used a simile he would have said, ‘I am like the vine, and you are as the branches.” The Master, however, wanted to make his point perfectly clear and part of that clarity was the fact that this divine intimacy transformed the identity of those involved. Metaphor does not use like or as, but instead, says that something is something. “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Our mutually interdependent relationship is not “like” vines and branches, it “is” vines and branches. It is a very subtle distinction but one that makes all the difference. Taking this theme and the Master’s metaphor, let’s turn now to the horizontal aspect of our relationships – human to human. Again, Christ makes a very subtle distinction. Cynthia Bourgeault explains this quite succinctly: One of the most familiar of Jesus’ teachings is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But we almost always hear that wrong. We hear “Love your neighbor as much as yourself.” (And of course, the next logical question then becomes, “But I have to love me first, don’t I, before I can love my neighbor?”) If you listen closely to Jesus’ teaching, however, there is no “as much as” in there. It’s just “Love your neighbor as yourself” – as a continuation of your very own being. It’s a complete seeing that your neighbor is you. There is not two individuals out there, one seeking to better herself at the price of the other, or to extend charity to the other; there are simply two cells of the one great Life. Each of them is equally precious and necessary. And as these two cells flow into one another, experiencing that one Life from the inside, they discover that “laying down one’s life for another” is not a loss of one’s self but a vast expansion of it. This expansion of our identity and our subsequent actions based on our sense of horizontal intimacy with others reveals two prongs that characterized Jesus’ ministry and mission perhaps more than anything else: wisdom and compassion. Christ revealed the true nature of God as a being of infinite love – a being of kenosis, who emptied himself into all creation through Christ. Since then, things have never been the same on this planet and they never will. Through the blessings of the Incarnation, blessings far too sublime for us to ever wrap our minds around, Christ revealed the heart of God. When I reflect on these themes, I suddenly and profoundly see John 3:16 in an entirely new light: For God gave his only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in him should never perish, but have everlasting life. Our mission is one of continuing incarnation, of becoming the hands, feet, and especially, the heart of Jesus in this hurting world. Nowhere does scripture reveal a more cogent, relevant, and profound truth than in Matthew 25:35-40, where the following exchange between Christ and the disciples is recorded: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to see you? And the King will answer and say to them, “Today I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers and sisters of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.” (NAS) This world we find ourselves living in is broken in many ways. Some theologians and biblical scholars call our world “fallen,” but I think this misses the mark somewhat. Is this world steeped in what Christians typically call “sin.?” Without a doubt. Is this world populated by a majority that operates on the premise that you should always “look out for Number 1” You bet it is. Is this world a place where trust and openness more often leads to pain than comfort? Just try it and see. My point here, however, is not to detail how much our world has fallen from God’s standards and ideals. No, my point is just the opposite: This world, with all its suffering, pain, and injustice, is the ideal place for us to grow spiritually through following Christ’s example of kenotic self-transcendence. This world, warts and all, provides us with the proper venue to hone our spiritual skills in ways a utopian society never could. Rather than seeking to find ways to accelerate our way back to our pristine spiritual homeland, we are to embrace this world, find out where God is working, and join in, utilizing the spiritual gifts that God has already placed in us. This is the way to become the optimal version of ourselves and, along the way, attain spiritual fulfillment. If the Church is to reach the growing post-Christian culture in ways that are relevant and effective, several things must be seen with clarity and focus. First, the primary question that must be answered is not, “How can we evangelize these people?” Instead, the relevant question must be, “How can I help you?” It is through this sort of proactive Christian service that the Church’s evangelistic witness can be best fostered. Secondly, the Church must reconsider how it can best present the truths of the faith in new wineskins that are more appropriate than the 19th Century model that is commonly used, even today. We must re-introduce people to God, to Christ, to the Scriptures, and to the Church and this must be done in ways that are both practical and palatable, given the parameters of the environment in which the Church now lives, moves, and has its being. (c) L.D. Turner 2011/2012/All Rights Reserved

Live Your Divine Calling!

L.D. Turner

I am always amazed when I hear people talking about a belief in the random nature of the universe; how everything sort evolved by accident or through some sort of cosmic game of pin the tail on the comet. From my perspective, this is an exercise in absurdity. Every aspect of the universe, not to mention our own bodies, are functioning in a highly intricate and perfectly balanced manner. To think this all happened by accident or chance is beyond the realm of reason.

Considering all this, I just don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.

The same principle applies to our lives. As we looked at earlier, God not only created the universe with a finely tuned balance and rhythm, he also planned our lives around a finely tuned purpose. God has a plan and, as an integral and intricate part of the plan, he created a unique plan for each of us.

One of the greatest gifts of God to each of us is the placing of this divine plan for our lives deep within us. God has his generalized plan for humanity and a personal plan or mission for each of us. You, me, the butcher, baker, and even the candlestick maker have a divine purpose scripted on our hearts by the Creator and it is a plan just for us. More incredible is the fact that God has equipped us to carry that plan out and in so doing, help establish his kingdom right here on earth and bring great glory to his being. What a wonder! What a blessing! What a responsibility!

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you have been, and what you have done. That divine purpose still exists inside you and with a little effort and a lot of faith, you can discover it. Start with prayer, asking God through the Holy Spirit to reveal his divine plan for your life. Be persistent in your asking; be vigilant in waiting for an answer; and be confident that the answer will come.

Also, keep in mind that it is never too late to get started on the dreams God has for you. God created you to accomplish extraordinary things and no matter how old you are, how sinful you have been, or whatever afflictions you may suffer from, God can and will use you because that is one of the primary purposes you were created in the first place. Listen as Jim Graff speaks clearly to this issue:

God uses ordinary people – with all their flaws and problems – to accomplish extraordinary dreams. You and I don’t have to wait until we have it all together, achieve a certain degree of fame, earn a specified amount of money, get a better job, or meet the right person. Instead, we can start today to embrace who we are and how God made us, knowing that he will use us. From this knowledge, wellsprings of confidence water our hearts. That confidence allows us to see our dreams and visions as God’s road maps to significant lives.

A significant life – that is what God created you for. Make a consecrated commitment right now to lead a life of excellence in cooperation and divine partnership with the Holy Spirit. The life of excellence is what Jesus demonstrated for us and it is that same kind of life to which each of us is called. Sure, we may foul up things from time to time, but God is right there with us offering a hand to pick us up, dust us off, and send us on our divinely appointed way.

As said earlier, it matters not where you have been. In fact, past failures and problems may be part of your qualification for the task God has for you to perform. I worked for many years in the field of addiction prevention and treatment. The most effective professionals ministering to those suffering from addiction were those people who were former addicts themselves. It is this foundational philosophy upon which Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are built.

Whenever I explore scripture I am consistently amazed at the cast of characters that God selected to carry forth major projects on his behalf. We see in both the Old and New Testaments that God repeatedly chose people that seemed completely incapable of doing what he was calling upon them to do. God didn’t go out in search of heroes to carry our his important missions. Instead, he looked for seemingly insignificant, weak-kneed characters in need of major character overhaul. Erwin Raphael McManus speaks cogently about this in his book Uprising:

The history of God’s people is not a record of God searching for courageous men and women who could handle the task, but God transforming the hearts of cowards and calling them to live courageous lives. Adam and Eve hid; Abraham lied; Moses ran; David deceived; Esther was uncertain; Elijah contemplated suicide; John the Baptist doubted; Peter denied; Judas betrayed. And these are just some of the leading characters.

Looking through the pages of scripture and seeing how God goes about staffing his major kingdom projects gives credible hope to even a misfit like me.

If you think your past sin(s) prevents you from carrying out your purpose for God, you have been lied to by the Master of Deceit himself. Satan would like nothing more than for you to continue walking around half-alive, depressed, despondent, and spiritually paralyzed. That’s why that little voice tells you time and time again that there is no way God will ever use you.

Listen my friend – God saved you and God will use you. He is not a God of wasted effort. God never does anything without a reason and a purpose. If you are saved, you are to be used. You are destined to be God’s instrument for something special.

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• You Are Never Disqualified (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• Spiritual Complacency and Quiet Desperation (Part One) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• Spiritual Complacency and Quiet Desperation (Part Three) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)

Books That Bless: Saving Jesus From the Church (Part One)

L.D. Turner

If you are a heavy reader like I am, you will fully understand what I mean when I say that I recently read one of “those books.” One of “those books” is a book that I needed to read at exactly the time that I read it. The Holy Spirit, knowing me better than I know myself, put this book in my path at just the right time, then opened my heart and mind to the message contained within its pages. As a result, I came away from my experience with that book a changed person.

The book I am speaking of is Robin Meyer’s “Saving Jesus from the Church.” The sub-title is even more telling: “How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus.” If that doesn’t grab your interest, perhaps the picture on the cover will. It is a head shot of Jesus with eyes almost closed and a strip of duct tape across his mouth. Given the book’s title and cover, I expected that this just might be a book that would both challenge me and, at the same time, make me think. Meyers delivered and delivered well on both counts.

A professor of philosophy at Oklahoma City University, Meyers is also a nationally syndicated columnist and pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church. In the book, the author explores a variety of themes that I find highly pertinent to the survival of the Christian faith. A self-proclaimed liberal, certainly much of what Meyers has to say will sit side-saddle in the mouths of those of a fundamentalist bent. Although there are several key points where I part company with the liberal wing of the faith, I can say the same about the more conservative side of Christianity as well. For these reasons, I have learned to have an open mind and perhaps it is also for these reasons that I find a book like this one so stimulating and thought-provoking.

I should also say at this point that this is not a standard “book review” or anything like that. Instead, it is just what it actually is – a blog entry. I hope, however, to be able to give my readers at least a glimpse of the importance of Meyers’ book and perhaps whet their appetites enough to motivate them to read the book and reflect on its content. I will do this by sharing several lengthy quotations from Meyers’ book, the first from near the front and the final one from the epilogue. I have selected these quotations because I think they give a generally vivid picture of Meyers’ take on the problems the contemporary Christian faith faces and possible solutions to those problems.
Near the beginning of the book (on page 10 actually) Meyers throws down the gauntlet:

“In the beginning, the call of God was not propositional. It was experiential. It was as palpable as wine and wineskins, lost coins and frightened servants, corrupting leaven and a tearful father. Now we argue over the Trinity, the true identity of the beast in the book of Revelation, and the exact number of people who will make it into heaven. Students who once learned by following the teacher became true believers who confuse certainty with faith.”

“We have a sacred story that has been stolen from us, and in our time, the thief is what passes for orthodoxy itself (right belief instead of right worship). Arguing over the metaphysics of Christ only divides us. But agreeing to follow the essential teachings of Jesus could unite us. We could become imitators, not believers.”

“Two roads that ‘diverged in a yellow wood’ so long ago looked equally fair, but now one is well worn. It is the road of the Fall and redemption, original sin, and the Savior. The other is the road of enlightenment, wisdom, creation-centered spirituality, and a nearly forgotten object of discipleship: transformation. This is the road less traveled. It seeks not to save our souls, but rather to restore them.”

If you have followed this blog for any length of time or read my writings in other venues, you should be well aware of my feelings about the whole “Fall-Redemption/Original Sin/Blood Sacrifice/Atonement” schemata and all that travels in its wake. Along with the whole “Faith vs. Works” issue, these doctrines have ripped the very guts out of the true gospel and have made transformational Christianity virtually impossible. I won’t go into that diatribe right now, for this is not the time nor the place. Suffice to say, Meyers is of the same opinion and fortunately, so are an increasing number of thoughtful followers of Christ.
Meyers goes on to say that if the church is to find healing, it must go back to that fork in the road and, as did Robert Frost, take the road less traveled. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of the very heart of the faith. According to Meyers, we must go beyond the attempts to maintain the status quo on the one hand, and the quest to “demythologize Jesus” on the other. Instead, our task is to:

“…let the breath of the Galilean sage fall on the neck of the church again. First, we have to listen not to formulas of salvation but to a gospel that is all but forgotten. After centuries of being told that “Jesus saves,” the time has come to save Jesus from the church….If any priest tells us we cannot sing this new son, we will sing it louder, invite others to sing it with us, and raise our voices in unison across all the boundaries of human existence – until this joyful chorus is heard in every corner of the world, and the church itself is raised from the dead.”

To be continued……

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Personal Reflection

Image by theroamincatholic via Flickr

Jesus forms a movement of people who trust him and believe his message. They believe that they don’t have to wait for this or that to happen, but rather that they can begin living in a new and better way now, a way of life Jesus conveys by the pregnant phrase “kingdom of God.” Life for them now is about an interactive relationship – reconciled to lives as an opportunity to make the beautiful music of God’s kingdom so that more and more people will be drawn into it, and so the world will be changed by their growing influence. Everyone can have a role in this expanding kingdom – women and men, masters and servants, powerful and powerless, old and young, urban and rural, white collar and blue collar, previously religious and previously irreligious. Each life can add beauty to the secret message of Jesus. Each person can be a secret agent of the secret kingdom.

Brian McLaren

(from The Secret Message of Jesus)

You All for God's All

Image via Wikipedia

L.D. Turner

I particularly love the following words by David Platt:

…..I invite you simply to let your heart be gripped, maybe for the first time, by the biblical prospect that God has designed a radically global purpose for your life….I invite you to throw aside the gospel-less reasoning that might prevent you from accomplishing that purpose. I invite you to consider with me what it would mean for all of us – pastors and church members, businessmen and businesswomen, lawyers and doctors, consultants and construction workers, teachers and students, on-the-go professionals and stay-at-home moms – to spend all of our lives for the sake of all God’s glory in all the world…..It sounds idealistic, I know. Impact the world. But doesn’t it also sound biblical? God has created us to accomplish a radically global, supremely God-exalting purpose with our lives. The formal definition of impact is “a forcible contact between two things,” and God has designed our lives for a collision course with the world.

My friends, if these words indeed seem idealistic to you, I submit the following for your consideration. You may have unwittingly imbibed too deeply the world’s value system. You may have bought, hook, line and sinker, our culture’s definition of what is realistic and what is pie-in-the-sky, dream-in-your-eye fantasy.

The fact is my friend, when Christ entered the scene all those years ago in the Holy Land, he set about turning the existing status quo on its head. What the world considered realistic, practical, and the right way to do things largely went out the window in Christ’s teaching. In the collection of teachings known to us as the “Sermon on the Mount,” the Master often prefaced his remarks by saying, “You have heard it said…but I say to you.”

Again, I submit to you that if you think that God’s call on your life – the call to give your all for God’s all – is too idealistic, perhaps the stain of our culture’s reasoning, no matter how sacred, hallowed, or closely held, has gone far too deeply into your being.
At some point we all are faced with a choice: do we accept the beliefs and values of our culture, or do we follow the teachings of the Master, even if they sound like an idealistic dream?

I conclude with these words from the great scholar Houston Smith. I encourage you to reflect deeply on what these words say to you:

…we have heard Jesus’ teachings so often that their edges have been worn smooth, dulling their glaring subversiveness. If we could recover their original impact, we too would be startled. Their beauty would not paper over the fact that they are “hard sayings,” presenting a scheme of values so counter to the usual as to shake us like the seismic collision of tectonic plates…We are told that we are not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek. The world assumes that evil must be resisted by every means available. We are told to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. The world assumes that friends are to be loved and enemies hated. We are told that the sun rises on the just and the unjust alike. The world considers this to be indiscriminating; it would like to see dark clouds withholding sunshine from evil people. We are told that outcasts and harlots enter the kingdom of God before many who are perfunctorily righteous. Unfair, we protest; respectable people should head the procession. We are told that the gate to salvation is narrow. The world would prefer it to be wide. We are told to be as carefree as birds and flowers. The world counsels prudence. We are told that it is more difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom than for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye. The world honors wealth. We are told that the happy people are those who are meek, who weep, who are merciful and pure in heart. The world assumes that it is the rich, the powerful, and the wellborn who should be happy. In all, a wind of freedom blows through these teachings that frightens the world and makes us want to deflect their effect by postponement – not yet, not yet! H.G. Wells was evidently right: either there was something mad about this man, or our hearts are still too small for his message.

Think about it.

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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