From as long as I can remember I was always enchanted, intrigued, and inspired by the stories of heroes. You have to excuse me, but I know my geek is showing. Yes I was the comic book collector of the neighborhood. I would trade my sports cards for Marvel Super hero cards. I remember being upset that DC Comics began killing off heroes like Superman and Batman’s sidekick, Robin. As a kid I wished that a radioactive spider would crawl into my bedroom and bite me while I was sleeping, or that the local area industrial plants would explode and expose me to gamma rays. When that didn’t happen, I decided that my only other choice was to become a billionaire so that I could spend my fortune developing a flying indestructible iron suit. I wanted to be a super hero, not just for the benefits super powers or because I am addicted to adventure, but because I wanted to save the world. And I thought, just like every other super hero fan, that I was the one to do it. When we were kids we thought we could do it. When did we stop believing that we were heroes? When did we stop believing that we were called to save the world? The place that is supposed to be breeding, training and dispersing more heroes than any other institution in world is the church. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case in recent history. But the world’s need for heroes has grown more and more in recent history. We may not be indestructible or fly or are freakishly strong, but we still have a world that needs us. We stop wanting to be superheroes because we lose our vision. We lose our since of adventure. We lose the zeal of the calling that we originally had when the call was fresh. As people of God, we simply embrace that it is our turn. It is our turn, because it is a new world, with new people, but it is the same God. We aren’t the first heroes to do this. There is a difference between first and new. We aren’t the first people to go through this, we are just the new heroes that are doing this. We are the latest additions to the heroic storyline. When you choose to enter into this story with God, you are joining a line of heroes who said God, will you please use me to serve your world? Church!
The word “Christian” is a noun. It is defined as a follower of Jesus that is doing certain things in the world. In the scriptures ‘Christian’ is a noun. It was intended to be a noun and never an adjective that you tack onto things to make them safe and acceptable. It’s not an adjective that you can attach to things so that you can uncritically consume them. The danger in branding things “Christian” is that you will lose a fundamental power that is found in the scriptures. There is a danger of branding things Christian that isn’t the truth, and not branding things that are truth as Christian. The danger is that we would then consume it without using discernment and mindlessly digest it. The danger in not labeling it, is that I would discard it as not truth. What if God was using that to speak truth to me?
My faith gets bigger the more I find truth in other things outside of the obvious things that I am religiously used to experiencing. It is a different experience to break free from the mindset that Christianity has the exclusive rights on truth. Jesus came to destroy and demolish religion that says God is only over “here”. Jesus gets angry when religious people make “man boundaries” and say God is “here” but not “there”. “I AM the truth”. I claim truth where ever I find it. Christianity isn’t a closing of the mind, but it is opening my heart and mind to how things are in ways that I never saw before. We are looking for Jesus everywhere we can find Him, and the more I find Him the bigger the faith gets.
Jesus is bigger than any religion and that includes Christianity. We are followers in the way of Jesus, not because it is the best religion, but because following Jesus is the best way to live and if not, then He is a liar. If you don’t believe that He is a liar then “all things are yours!”
CHURCH
There are plenty of us that have brushed up against Christianity and have been left with an uncomfortable feeling. We have tried it and it left us feeling stale and lame and some of us decided to stay away based on those feelings. We refer to it as “searching” or “seeking” or “on a journey”, but what ever it is,it is totally normal to the human experience.
This experience is true for so many people. And because it is, then where has the church failed? Where did we blow it? When did we start mindless ideas that left people empty, angry, and ultimately separated from God? How has the church failed in our modern culture?
No one the bible is committing to the argument that God exists. The assumption is that He does. No one has to prove if reality exists, because it does. So then we don’t have to argue that God exists because He is the ultimate reality. So the writers of the bible were people making observations about what was already reality. Statements about God are assumptions about ultimate reality.
Jesus exposes us to the deepest levels of our existence. We have to remember that the religious right of his time was not Christianity, it was Judaism. Everything that he then taught was revolutionary to that contemporary religious order. So Jesus was not coming to just start a religious order that he thought was better. No. He came to expose things as they really are. Not through the eyes of religion, but through the eyes reality. Jesus is not calling us to a religious structure, he is calling us to how things are.
So as a “Christian”, we then should be people that are in tune or in harmony with how reality is at it’s deepest level. He didn’t come to create a new thing and then sit separated, he came to show us how it really is. We don’t have to defend reality.
CHURCH
The issue with religion is that religion says, something scared has to take place in order for something to be spiritually “Holy”. But the question is what makes that thing any Holier then the other thing? And the answer is….(wait for it, wait for it) it is not. We miss the power of God if we think that He is limited to ritual. This misunderstanding of ritualistic Holiness ends up harming us and confusing God’s plan, purpose, and presence in His creation. Holiness and Sanctity are everywhere and we are not awake to it. He is everywhere and we are asleep. He is always in the place and we are the ones that just showed up.
Jesus was teaching us to be in tune to what is always happening around us. The idea is that you might live a better life if you understood that He is involved and concerned with every area of your life. Every interaction, every conversation, every place, every person, every mess, every time, every problem, every location. God is always doing something. It’s not a view that He is involved with the things that are “churchy”. He doesn’t get bored with one thing and moves onto another thing and forgets about the first thing. If He is not done with me then He is not done with you. If He can be here then He can be there. He is always working. Life in Christ is about being fully awake to the work of God in all things. (John 5:17)
“The purpose of worship is not to escape from this world, into the other world, but to open oneself to the meaning of Christ in the Common.” Church is not supposed to be a bubble that you run to, to hide from the world. It is a place where you go to learn how to make every place a sanctuary. We are to learn how to be like Christ in unChirst like situations. Worship is to help is realize these depths of our world. If worship doesn’t do this, then it is an empty ritual.” (John Robinson-Honest to God)
CHURCH!
The Reformation of the church gave us the “5 solas” of the church: Sola Fide, Sola Christo, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura, and Soli De Gloria(Faith alone, Christ alone, Grace alone, Scripture alone, to God be the Glory). The 21st century has brought us a new “sola” that is described in the Neo-Reformation as Sola Cultura (Culture Alone). Sola Cultura has caused much argument within the modern church because of the belief that it should be separated from the other Solas.
Scripture has no power if culture is not present. Scripture is the story of the supernatural God, intersecting with real people within their culture.God power can never be denied because the whole earth is filled with the significance and weight of who God is. Truth is everywhere. So we should not surprised when God’s truth pops up in all places, and all cultures. We are called to confirm truth where ever it pops up. No matter where it comes from, even if it is not from the places that we think are of God. God’s word even contains words from people who didn’t believe in the one true God that our bible is written about.
Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.
As some of your own poets have said,’We are his offspring.’
Relation is the best teacher. Scripture, Jesus, and the One true God are all foreign concepts to them, but Paul uses relation to argue his point about the One true God. He not only affirms what the Greek poet said about “their gods”, he spins it and claims it for the one true God.
The reality of God so profound, so wide, and so deep that we can take statements that are not in relation to the one true God and spin them to affirm and testify of the truth of God.The history of the church is filled with ideas that came from contemporary understanding at the time, to be used to better understand the world that we live in. Why? Because, “all things are ours”, and we are of Christ, and He is of God, and He made the whole world and we just live in it! The depth of God is everywhere!
CHURCH!
Since June 25th , 2009, billions of people began and are still mourning the death of a cultural icon, who they had never met, but were inspired by. His death has proved that Michael Jackson was such a mega star being more popular than Barack Obama, and more recognized than Oprah Winfrey, proving that he is and was the most recognized individual on the planet. Michael Jackson was a cultural icon that transcended four decades, and transcended geographical and geo-political boundaries.
Michael Jackson is one of the most celebrated musicians of modern times. He is one of the only artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He has sold 109 million copies of his most popular album “Thriller”. At its peak, Thriller was selling over 2 million copies a week, thus earning Michael a Guinness World record for most albums ever sold. He was crowned the title the King of Pop, because of his influence in the record industry. Never before Thriller did the record industry grade artists by album sales, until then artists were graded and paid from sales of singles. It has been said that Michael Jackson is the first African American artist to have mass cross-over appeal. Regardless of your likes or dislikes to the lifestyle and personality of the Gloved One, we all have this indescribable feeling when we heard his music. No matter what your background or affinity of music is, Michael Jackson has provided a soundtrack to our lives that has span four decades. So it is no wonder that millions of people were shocked and overwhelmed by the headlines that Friday morning in June that read “The King is Dead.” But,the King is not dead! The King of Pop may be gone, but there is another King that is alive and his reign is forever!
God is waiting for His people to return to Him. God says that He will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, if you just return to him. Your breakthrough is only gonna come when you return to him. The Invisible King can only make things happen if you submit to His kingdom. You have to allow the invisible king to take a seat on the throne of your life, and let him drive the devils out of your life and establish His lordship in your life.
I want my king back. I need the king back. I need Him back for my family. I need the king back for my job. I need the king back for my situation. I need the king back in my finances. I need the king back in my mind. I need the king back on my campus. I need the king back in my health. I want you back!!
CHURCH!
