The Wilderness Blog

A lot of life is lived in reaction.  We aren’t always the most proactive people so it seems like we are playing catch-up rather often.  The same is true for the way we connect with church.

Quick think of 5 negative things about church…easy right?  But what is that building?  I have read book after book and blog after blog about the way institutional church, corporate Christianity, etc. are killing the message of Jesus.  Maybe it’s all true, I don’t know.  Why are putting so much energy into explaining it and analyzing it?!?

We cannot control every leader and we certainly can’t build on a negative.  Deep fellowship cannot be built on a hatred for Sunday morning niceties.  True discipleship cannot be built on a dislike for programs. Connection to God cannot be born out of an irritation with the way communion is served.  Isaiah 57:14 says “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”  Even this blog post is somehow ironically tied to the negative!  To quote Switchfoot, ‘if we’re adding to the noise, turn off this song.’

What I am really trying to say is this…each church is different…each church has it’s function and dysfunction…but God’s mission on earth has these churches.

Bottom line is…that going forward each Pastor/leader/Apostle must be able to look in the mirror and honestly say whatever mode, structure, model or mission they embrace is born out of a sense of obedience and call to share the gospel, bring about the kingdom of God and see people transformed.

Truth: The solid historical church needs us wacky misfit missional folks and we need them.

If you know me at all, you will know I am an avid reader.  What you might not know is that I used to read in search of The Magic Door.  What does that mean?  We all do it I’m sure…we have this magic door we are looking for.  Maybe it’s through a job or a piece of knowledge or a relationship or an experience or an amount of wealth.  We all have this tendency to think that once we walk through it that we will feel peace, content, love, joy, and all will be alright.  I thought I would find it in a book.  I would read library books, online books, new books, borrowed books, books I’d read before.  Most of them dealing with ministry, church, God, prayer, or some combination of the aforementioned.

I would hear stories of people who had their whole lives changed in an instant when they had an encounter with God or some epiphany of faith.  This would frustrate me even more as I have had a great many encounters and realizations of my own.  I would wonder what was wrong with me and plunge headlong into another book…only to completely miss the point.

There have been others who have missed the point as well.  God speaks to the prophet Jeremiah (Chapter 2 Verse 13), ‘ My people have committed two sins:  They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’  Just like me, Israel was trying to find the magic door.  I would contend that those who are using drugs, experimentation, relationships, etc. as an escape are also searching for the magic door or as God calls it – digging broken cisterns.

So what is the opposite of digging or searching?  Remembering the spring of living water.  Sounds philosophical or metaphorical perhaps.  But if searching and digging indicate forgetting, then it is a remembrance that frees us.

In Hebrew the term for forget means to obliterate or abolish a connection!  All our digging and searching help to destroy God within us.  Thus remembrance is really to give life to something…allowing that life to move within us…allowing the well spring of life to fill our cisterns.

God is here now in fullness.  Can we remember?

Hey crew. Here is the details on what is exactly going on in our lives:

1. I am working in Psychosocial Rehab. What is that? Basically case management for those with mental disorders…helping them adjust to society.

2. I will also have a few part time things going to pay the bills.

3. The real focus of what is happening in our lives is that we are working to plant a church in Boise. This is why God called me back to Boise. We will be meeting in homes for a time as we gather momentum. Awake is the name of our church. It is based on Ephesians 5:14. We want to call people into healing, wholeness, restoration, mission, and discipleship.

4. If you want to hear more about our mission community or want to support us in prayer or any other way…give me a call! or message me. I want to meet or talk with you and bless you!

I’m betting you are going to name your next kid Mephibosheth…or maybe try to convince your sister to name her kid that because she didn’t like your suggestions of Megatron, David Bowie, or Anita Knapp.

Mephibosheth (that name is long…I’m gonna call him Mephi from now on) is the Grandson of King Saul (Check 2 Samuel 9 for the details).  This guy had not one but two crippled feet and was the grandson of the guy who tried to kill King David numerous times.  Needless to say Mephi didn’t get nominated for homecoming king at Canaan High.  Then David calls Mephi to appear before him…

I sense that this is how many of us must feel before God…crippled and afraid.   When David greets Mephi, all he can do is call himself a servant.  David wont have any of that.   He gets all John 15:15 on Mephi.  David gave him all the land that Saul once had and told him he would always eat at the King’s table! What?!?!  By the way, I’m pretty sure David looked just like Richard Gere.

David restores and exults Mephi because of Mephi’s father, Jonathan.   Mephi didn’t do anything amazing.  It was the grace of the King and the actions of the father that created this banquet feast.  Beyond that King David places servants under Mephi!

You and I come before God in the same state right?  We feel crippled, broken, beat down, and unworthy or perhaps uncertain, afraid, unqualified, or just plain confused.  God calls us friends, puts us in His feast,  and wants to move us into a place where we can give from our abundance (sure finances if we are blessed in that area…but I really mean spiritual abundance – love, joy, peace, etc.)

But we are so convinced of our lowly servant-hood that we can’t accept or see or live into the feast!  God is not a cure-all for whatever ails us but He surely doesn’t desire for us to be depressed and oppressed!  God desires to set us free and bless us to be His hands and feet in this world.  Now we have to ask the question – ‘How do we do this?’

to be continued…

Ephesians 5:14 – “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

I would contend or hallucinate that most people feel dead inside, at least in part.  We take in this form of media or that drug to try and mask it or boost us a bit.  Where is the freedom of living…the spark?

According to the CDC, 1 in every 10 Americans over the age of 12 are on some form of antidepressant. ( http://www.newser.com/story/131508/1-in-10-americans-on-antidepressants.html )  This isn’t a path to freedom.   It’s merely covering over the bondage of depression and anxiety.  I’m not looking to start a debate.  I know that some people experience a chemical imbalance and need it…but I’m saying there is freedom to be had?

We have sold ourselves short of what God can do.  We live in language of defeat.  Rather than awakening, we slumber.  Rather than running into the light, we cower in darkness.  God is not a magic genie waiting to grant wishes.  But God is a God who calls us into life, to awaken, to light, to feel, and to experience.  Do you feel dead?  Are you bound by defeat?  Are you masking your pain?  A new life is more than just possible!  This isn’t some cheesy self-help nonsense.  This is the living God, creator of the cosmos calling out to us to live!  Don’t start to get caught up in ‘how’…get caught up in ‘now’!  Let’s start praying for freedom.  Expect God to show up.  Tell me what you need to be free of and I will join you, our community will join you.  Let us proclaim life…let us awake!