Author: Drew Anderson

Son. Brother. Husband. Father. Friend. Mentor. Spiritual Director. Consultant. Coach. Student. Communicator. Organizer.

Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 6

Part 6: Spiritual family

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock…You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:28,35 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 20, or haven’t in a while, first go read it – especially the very end.

This chapter is the story of Paul’s last couple “stops” on his lifelong missionary journey before he heads to Rome, where he expects to be convicted, imprisoned and likely killed for his faith.

It’s in this context that he shares some final words in person with the elders in the church in Ephesus.

It’s good to note that “the church in Ephesus” was not a singular organization of people with a building and a pastor (how we conceptualize church most times today). It was an extended family of spiritual families. They were groups of people who became the church and met in homes. They remained connected across the city and were led by those referred to as “elders” (or spiritual parents). This is important in the dynamic of what he shares. These elders are receiving his message as encouragement to persevere as spiritual parents. Not thru the lens of the power dynamics of an organization that we too many times read things.

So it’s in these final words that Paul says “guard yourselves and God’s people.” He goes on to use the analogy of shepherding, and how shepherds must defend a flock of sheep from predators. It’s not as much an analogy about how people are like sheep, but that the caring for our own souls and souls of others is very much like the work of shepherding. And how those who seek to harm the family of God are like predators.

It’s also likely related that shepherding was a family business in their day. A shepherd’s sheep were a part of the lifestyle of their family. The whole family was involved in caring for the sheep. They knew the sheep by name. They cared for their sheep as a family cares for the things their responsible for.

Caring for a spiritual family’s individual and communal relationship with God is much like the work of shepherding.

In this part of Acts 20, Paul teaches from his own example of giving himself completely to those in need – both physically and spiritually. And you can tell the seriousness and weightiness with which Paul is talking.

There are several points that can be implied about Paul addressing the elders in this way and about these things:

First is that there had likely already been examples of wolves in sheep’s clothing that had come into the community of faith and attempted to gain a following. Paul had undoubtedly addressed this issue many times directly himself. And the elders of the church had probably relied on Paul to help them handle such occurrences. But now he is passing on that responsibility completely to them. So it’s not a new problem. However, it is likely the first time this responsibility is now uniquely theirs to fulfill. Paul will not be around to help shepherd any longer.

Second is the emotion evidenced both in Paul’s words and in their reaction to him. There are tears – both in Paul referring to his own handling of shepherding them and in their reaction to Paul handing off that responsibility. This is more important than maybe some would want to admit. This unashamed acknowledgment and display of emotions communicates a reality about the work of shepherding that is too often overlooked – the deeply emotional connection with those you shepherd.

There’s a deep level of connection that goes into becoming the spiritual family of God.

In Acts, these spiritual families go thru a lot together, much of it caused by external pressures – persecution, being disowned by their earthly family, the general hardships of life, etc. And we read in the New Testament letters a constant encouragement to persevere together thru those things.

But alongside that, there is also a constant challenge for them to correctly handle the internal pressures that cause hardship. There’s no sense of “rose colored lenses” in Acts (or the New Testament letters) about the difficulties within the church.

The external and internal hardships are expected. It’s how the people are being called to handle those things that the Spirit cares about and the Scriptures address.

Too many times we are formed by the world and culture around us in how to handle hardship. But the Spirit seeks to re-form those of us who follow Jesus into new ways of handling those things as God’s family.

God desires us to become a display for the world of what a true family is like. Many of us grow up in earthly families where not all of these things are displayed well. And so the Spirit is forming the church into a people who are willing to persevere the external hardships (resilient relationships and advocates for justice/righteousness) and also a people who seek to form healthy relationships in the midst of internal hardships as well (communities of character and spiritual intimacy).

This work of becoming a spiritual family is not easy. It means dealing with conflict directly. It means being patient with people’s personal growth. It means giving ourselves away to others, knowing that potentially we may receive from the Spirit alone.

That last part is important. And it is what Paul ends his address to the elders with: “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”

This mentality is in direct competition with the consumer mentality of our world (a mentality that is unfortunately perpetuated in many ways in how the church today attempts to do ministry). And some times, even those of us who recognize this reality (and even say we are not consumers) have been so shaped by consuming that we struggle to truly embrace this generosity mentality. We run our Christianity thru the framework of a hedonistic consuming, and end up missing the importance of the shared life we read about in Acts.

Let’s also not over-spiritualize this calling to shared life.

Becoming spiritual family requires a wholistic approach. There are certainly elements that are expressly spiritual – eternal things that deal with the soul. But there are definitely elements that are related to our humanity – that are simply a part of the reality of life on earth.

In Acts we see people selling things they own and giving away all of that money to share with those who have need among God’s people. This should be a part of our normalized reality in the church (whether it rubs against our American sensibilities or not).

This is not about politics. This is about family.

This us not about economics. This is about generosity.

This is not about people’s ideological beliefs. This is about their souls.

For the sake of your soul and the souls of the family of God you are a part of (and maybe even help shepherd), you must truly believe it is more blessed to give (sacrificially, without expecting anything in return) than to receive (even potentially receiving attention for your giving).

Shepherding is tiring work. Forming a spiritual family can bring the same difficulties as an earthly family. Both deal with real life circumstances. Real hurts. Real needs.

It will mean giving things up for others. It will mean sharing your money, your stuff, your time, and your life to a higher degree than you might have thought you ever would have.

It’s the work of Jesus. And it’s the work of Jesus’ disciples.

It’s what we see the church in Acts living out. It’s what the church in America usually struggles with the most.

We must become the spiritual family the Spirit longs to form, not just an organization we are strategic enough to create.

We must encourage our leaders to be elders (spiritual parents/grandparents), not merely those who can run programs or speak in public.

And we must do the hard work of shepherding those who come behind us – and allow ourselves to be shepherded by those who go before us – not try to constantly chart our own pathway “in the faith.”

The church is not a startup company to be launched. It is a family to be formed in the midst of the joys and the hardships of life.

As we are seeking to become more Christlike than American, we will have to deal with conflict that arises among God’s people. There will be those who want to promote all kinds of things that are not the true Gospel. And we cannot ignore our responsibility to deal with those attacks accordingly – all the while caring of the souls of those who are hurt in the process.

May we guard our souls and the souls of those in our spiritual family with vigilance and courage.

May we care for our souls and the souls of those in our spiritual family with virtue and compassion.

May we become more like Jesus and less American in how we handle conflict and how we handle with care the souls of those in our spiritual family.

May we become more like Jesus and less American in how we hold open handedly our money, stuff, and time to be used by God to care for the lives of those in our spiritual family.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 5

Part 5: Advocates for the kingdom

“One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way…Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:2-3,46 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 13, or haven’t in a while, first go read it.

This story of the sending of Paul and Barnabas to “the nations” (usually translated “Gentiles”) is foundational to our experience and understanding of the Church.

And they did not see it as a secondary result of the Gospel, but as a part of the primary mission of God’s people. The unity of the nations (“ethnos” in Greek) into the kingdom of heaven is essential to the outworking of the Gospel!

Jesus came to reconcile all people to God and to one another in Him. And so as the church formed it was to become a people who would display this reconciliation to the world. The earliest disciples knew this and it was an essential part of their lives.

Too many times in American church culture today you hear the refrain “Just preach the Gospel” in response to the work of reconciliation. And the assumption is that simply by verbalizing a message to people, all things that are supposed to work themselves out will. But we don’t do this with other issues that come out of the Gospel and shape the people of God…

Does just preaching words automatically give us a relationally healthy church?

Does just preaching words readily form a group of people across ethnicity, age, and socioeconomics?

Does just preaching words naturally bring reconciliation of people to God and to one another?

While words are certainly powerful, there is an active roll we play in advocating for the kingdom of heaven to come here on earth. There is a key relational piece that must occur and not just words that are to be shared.

The testimony of words is crucial. But the witness of reconciliatory relationships is too. The Gospel is not the Gospel without both.

Here’s the truth of Acts 13: Just as the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) lives in us, so we become advocates for the kingdom to be displayed on earth as it is in heaven.

We certainly anticipate the return of Christ as the ultimate reconciliation of all people into the kingdom. But we participate now in bringing the kingdom to earth, just as Jesus and his disciples did, to the highest degree we can.

And the main ministry we are called to in this kingdom work is reconciliation – a relational experience of a coming together, not merely words that are preached.

Since we know there is no division in heaven – not because of secondary theological issues, not because of cultural differences and certainly not because of personal preference – then our efforts must be toward the most amount of unity possible here on earth as well!

Yes we recognize that perfect unity is still not yet achievable before Christ’s return. And yet that shouldn’t cause us to resign ourselves to division as if reconciliation cannot be a reality while we are still on earth – this perspective typically leads to a divisive attitude or a desire to justify division.

So what do we do with the reality of this call to reconciliation while we are still here on earth?

It seems we are left with two options: 1) Leave the kingdom reality of unity across uniqueness (individually and in people groups) to only happening after Jesus returns; or 2) Advocate for that kingdom reality on earth as it is in heaven until Christ returns and it is fully realized.

And in my reading of Scripture, it seems only one of those options fits. Considering that this kingdom reality is not only described after Jesus’s return (Revelation 7), but prayed for by Jesus (John 17) and then sought out by Jesus’ followers (the whole book of Acts starting in Acts 2); then it must be our earnest prayer and earnest seeking as well.

Isn’t it amazing that the immediate result of the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) inhabiting those first believers was a bringing together of people from different unique languages and “ethnos” (Acts 2)?

Isn’t it amazing that the response of the Advocate to the dispersion of believers was to empower them to be witnesses wherever they ended up to the people right in front of them who were not “like” them (Acts 8)?

Isn’t it amazing that the plan of the Advocate was to ultimately send out believers specifically to the unique people groups (Gentiles) across the known world in order to plant the Gospel and see the Church spring up right there among them (Acts 13)?

It should not be lost on us how intentional God is in emphasizing at the very beginning of the Church how important it is that the Gospel bring together all kinds of people from all kinds of places into the kingdom of heaven.

It does not happen by chance or circumstance.

It does not happen because of some expressed cultural value.

It happens because it is a key result of the call of the Gospel and the empowering of the Holy Spirit among His disciples.

The uniqueness of the image of God evidenced in each person from every place is brought to a full display of beauty as we find ourselves united in Christ.

To devalue the uniqueness of God’s image within people and people groups is to misunderstand the Gospel altogether.

And this is what Acts displays for us.

Acts is ultimately a prophetic critique of anyone or any group of people who tie the Gospel to their specific culture or their specific nation. Any ethnocentrism, tribalism, or nationalism of any variety within God’s people is a foreign reality to the kingdom of heaven.

As we read Acts 13, and internalize this outward trajectory of the Spirit’s calling to unite the unique image of God within all kinds of people, we must wrestle with how we may have been formed by parts of our own American culture in a way that might deny this reality instead of embrace it.

Do we trust God enough to prioritize the call of the Spirit to go to those who do not share our ethnic values or do we find ourselves bunkering down into silos out of a need for comfort or control?

Do we trust God enough to live as residents of the kingdom of heaven here on earth among all kinds of “people groups” right around us (many that may not look like us or live like us) or do we distance ourselves from that calling because it may inconvenience us?

Do we trust God enough to identify and deal with our own biases so that we can love our neighbor as Jesus loves them or do we live with blinders on which keep us from valuing someone enough to love them well?

Do we trust God enough to celebrate as someone else to express their faith thru the uniqueness of how God has formed them (and the people He’s formed around them) or do we feel the need to get them to conform to our version of expression as if it is “the standard”?

Acts models for us what it looks like for the kingdom to come to earth across all earthly divisions (specifically ethnicity).

May we become Advocates for this united multiethnic kingdom of heaven being displayed here on earth and not for any ethnic-specific version of the American church.

May we become Advocates for this multiethnic kingdom that wages war against the evil in this world that divides and dehumanizes, in order that we may display fully both righteousness and justice as the very witness of The Advocate’s work in our lives.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 4

Part 4: Resilient Relationships

“A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria…Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Phillip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” Acts 8:1,30-31 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 8, or haven’t in a while, first go read it.

There’s this amazing scene of Philip with the Ethiopian in Acts 8. Philip, following the guidance of a messenger of God, walks along the road an Ethiopian official was traveling. The Ethiopian official is reading the book of Isaiah aloud while traveling. Philip joins him to explain the Gospel of Jesus to him thru the reading in Isaiah. The Ethiopian asks to be baptized right then as they come upon some water. Philip baptizes him and then is miraculously transported by the Spirit to another place – he disappears the moment the Ethiopian comes out of the water!

And to think this scene happens – and the spreading of the Gospel to the people of Ethiopia (one of the first regions in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion) – because of the scattering of the believers due to persecution.

It displays one of the foremost necessary traits of someone becoming Christlike: resilience.

Don’t miss the significance of this. Christianity had mostly existed within the areas surrounding Jerusalem up to that point. But now the Gospel would go to the places Jesus told his disciples (Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth) because they are being empowered to be witnesses of Him after persecution scatters them.

The scattering of believers is a crucial part of the story of the early church in Acts. It’s a crucial part of the story of God’s people period.

If we left off with just the initial portions of the book, we could assume everything was fairly easy…somewhat organic…maybe systematic even: The Spirit comes. People are converted. They form simple faith communities. And the Gospel slowly but surely spreads methodically from place to place.

Except that isn’t what happened.

What happened was disruption. What happened was the real world. What happened was an opportunity for Jesus’ disciples to follow the Spirit into the wilderness. What happened was the chance for them to become like Jesus by being resilient.

There are some aspects of our discipleship that can only be developed in the wilderness – out beyond the places we “know.” And one of those is certainly resilience.

Other words like it might be perseverance, longsuffering, or endurance.

Resilience has two basic aspects to it: toughness and flexibility.

It means someone can handle the pressures, the difficulties, and the unknowns of life. They aren’t weakened by them, but rather are able to navigate them however is needed.

In the life of those in Acts 8, this looks like dependence upon the Spirit after they are scattered by persecution. It looks like the loss of their comfort zone and the giving up of control.

Too many times in American Christianity we’ve made it about staying in comfort zones and staying in control more than surrendering to the Spirit. We don’t want to embrace significant change (unless it’s on our terms). We don’t even really want to tolerate it. In fact, we do everything we can to guard against it.

Why? Because comfort and control have become things we worship alongside Jesus. And that never works out.

The problem with it is that by worshipping those things it actually makes us weak and inflexible – both qualities that are antithetical to the resilience needed to live as disciples of Jesus in this world.

Jesus promised that in this world we will have troubles – if our master did, then how much more so will we as his servants. But He also comforts us by reminding us that He has overcome the world (John 16).

Following Jesus into the world – knowing troubles will come but He has overcome – requires resilient relationships. We must have a relationship with Jesus and with other believers that is both tough and flexible. And resilience is best displayed when we find ourselves in the wilderness.

There is little need for it in the safety and predictability of Jerusalem. But thru the difficulties of persecution and in the unknowns of Judea and Samaria, it will be required. At least that’s what Acts 8 shows us.

We may not find ourselves actively persecuted for our faith and scattered to the areas bordering the one we call home.

We may not find ourselves literal immigrants (and yet this reality that as Christians we live as immigrants in this world is very real).

We may not find ourselves taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth more so than the ends of our neighborhoods.

But we certainly will find ourselves being called by the Spirit into areas of our communities and our world where we can take the Gospel to places it has not gone – in order for people to be fully aware of the God who is with them – that we might be Jesus’ witnesses to those who have yet to know Him personally.

The kingdom of God does not grow without resilient relationships. And we cannot form resilient relationships without being led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

How are we fighting against this calling into the wilderness instead of growing in resilience thru it?

How are we preventing this calling from shaping our lives under the guise of protecting ourselves, our kids, and others?

How are we idolizing our comfort over this calling by trying to put a “hedge of protection” around our comfort zones?

And how are we striving to control the relationship we have with God and with His people instead of walking into this calling by faith?

Relationships cannot become resilient if we try to confine them to a couple hours a week.

They will not be produced if we try to define them by what we do in a building.

They will not be refined to the degree we need them within the context of our comfort and control.

Resilient relationships with God and others happen as communities of character form around personal experiences with the Spirit as we follow Him together thru the wilderness of life.

May we find ourselves being known for our resilience and not our resistance when it comes to the troubles of this world.

May we be known for our Christlikeness in how we navigate the wilderness and not cling to our Americanness in our desire for comfort and control.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 3

Part 3: Communities of character

“Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard…All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.” Acts 4:19-20,32 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 4, or haven’t in a while, first go read it.

After Pentecost in Acts 2, we read that the personal encounters with God where the believers are filled with His Spirit continue. Peter is filled with the Spirit and speaks publicly. The believers meet to pray for boldness and the meeting room shakes as the Spirit fills them.

So the deeply personal (and miraculous) “God within them” experience doesn’t stop after the upper room in Acts 2. But rather it continues.

And as it continues The Church begins to form. The earliest expressions of these gatherings of believers (churches) are described in both Acts 2:42-47 and again in Acts 4:32-37. And what is described are communities of character.

Devotion. Boldness. Transparency. Generosity. Unity.

Those are all words we could use to describe the communities of character that formed.

They became full of people who lived out in public who they were in private – speaking about the things God was doing in their midst as their lives were interconnected together.

They displayed for the world around them integrity as they gave themselves fully to a very personal and yet communal relationship with God.

They followed in the example of the apostles as they apprenticed in the ways of Jesus and committed themselves to friendship with one another.

They sacrificially shared with anyone in need – in simple ways like shared meals and in extravagantly generous ways like selling all they owned – and faithfully spent consistent time together in prayer and celebration.

The stories we read in these early chapters of Acts are so simple, and describe profoundly transformed lives.

It’s one thing for someone to say they’re an imitator of the way of Jesus – who had no where to lay his head and taught people to turn the other cheek – and another thing to actually live it amidst a world that celebrates self-centeredness and greed.

If we are honest, self-centeredness and greed are far more common than we would like in an Americanized version of Christianity. We see too many times that those who call themselves Christians use their faith to garner temporary, earthly success. They use it as something to grow their own self-importance rather than growing their humility.

God becomes a means to an end, instead of an end Himself. Working for God ends up merely being about oneself. And the fruit of that labor ends up being money, material things, and even the approval of others.

It’s completely the opposite in the early church. What we see in Acts is the evidence of people who pursue the desires of the eternal Spirit and not the desires of the temporary world. They experience the presence and love of God so deeply that they are then able to be fully present with and fully loving toward those around them.

This sort of life can only happen because of an on-going personal and communal experience of the presence of God.

When that happens, it begins to form a community of character – a people who devote themselves to apprenticeship to Jesus thru the example of the apostles, thru genuine friendship with one another, thru the sacrificial sharing of one’s life with those friends, and thru the consistent rhythms of prayer and celebration both personally and collectively.

What we see form in Acts is undeniable. And it is so very simple.

Have we overcomplicated the Christian life as we’ve “Westernized” it and eventually “Americanized” it?

Have we attempted to take control of the things we should be letting go of and thus remained in our comfort zones instead of living by faith?

Have we pursued dreams Jesus never gave us and built things the Spirit never led us to construct?

Have we become a people that call ourselves “The Church” but would be unrecognizable to those who formed the very first Church on earth?

Have we formed organizations, systems, and processes that produce communities of character or in how we’ve created those things are they potentially working against it and keeping us from seeing the “results” we verbalize that we want?

May the same Spirit in Acts once again fill us, that He might lead us to stop complicating, controlling, and constructing and re-form us into devoted communities of character.

May The Church in our country today begin to look more like Acts than America.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 2

Part 2: Personal experience with God’s presence

“And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages…How can this be?” Acts 2:4,7 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 2, or haven’t in a while, first go read it.

And then spend a moment simply reflecting on the power, importance, and personal nature of the story it tells.

God’s Spirit – His very presence – fills His disciples. This is “God with us” to a whole new level.

No longer is it Jesus – God as man – being with disciples and empowering them. Instead it is now God within them empowering them.

And the people witnessing this miraculous event are in awe: “How can this be?”

How can this be that a group of people who are not educated in our languages could be speaking our languages?

How can this be that they have flames of fire resting upon them as they speak?

How can this be that they are sharing the truths of God with us so directly (as if they are prophets or priests)?

But the power of the story in Acts 2 doesn’t actually lie in the miracle of speaking in tongues. It really lies in the extremely personal nature of God to inhabit – make his habitat – His disciples.

God isn’t merely “filling” them with His Spirit so they can prophesy (like He had done before with His people). God is making His dwelling among them in a whole new way. He is making them His very home. That is why the New Testament goes on to describe the believer individually and the believers together both as the Temple of God.

The deeply personal nature of this event should not surprise us. Nor should it be something we overlook in order to focus on other details. Too many times people are drawn to the speaking in tongues or later the 3,000 being added to the church that day. But the power and simplicity of this group of disciples (and then eventually all those who also were added later) receiving God Himself into their very being is the foundation for what then occurs for the rest of the entire book!

This brings to mind some other “How can it be?” questions for me. As I think about much of the American Church in light of this story I ask:

How can it be that there are those in the American Church who have never had this sort of a deeply personal, powerful experience with God’s Spirit in their life and yet call themselves Christian?

How can it be that we get so focused on the external workings of God (like speaking in tongues, healing, prosperity, numeric growth, etc.) rather than keeping our focus on the world-changing internal miracle of God to live within us?

How can it be that we’ve lost our sense of awe and dependence upon God to do what only He can do – fill people in ways only He can, add to the church those who are being saved in ways only He’s able, grow within us fruits of the Spirit that then display His very heart thru our very life, and so much more?

Other questions might come to your mind too as you reflect upon how these Acts 2 stories compare to many of the modern expressions of church in America…including questions like the one I asked in Part 1 concerning whether we’ve actually (unintentionally) “de-personalized” God thru how we “do church” today…

There are several stories I could share about how God has personally and powerfully shown up in my life:

  • On a mission trip where He stripped me of my emotionalism so I could know it was really Him there with me and not just my heightened feelings
  • At a concert with some friends and He sent an angel (that I visibly saw and physically felt near me) to heal one of my best friends, as we could feel the fullness of His presence around us
  • In the moment, after a church leader had brutally hurt my wife and I, when I wept during one of my seminary classes as I expressed my desire to leave the church while they surrounded me to embrace me and pray for me, showing me how God was so very near to me in my brokenness
  • As God has once again “put on flesh” thru my time this past year with a spiritual director and a small group of people who are journeying together with me in the area of spiritual direction, and has met me in such ways that I never really knew He could be oh so personal…and real…and tangible…

Maybe you have such stories as well. Maybe you don’t.

I actually don’t write any of this with any desire that my experience with this powerful God would be compared with yours. But rather that it would simply echo the story of Acts 2. That this deeply personal God desires to become very real to you, to each of us, if we will wait upon Him as the disciples did and live into the kind of community He forms us to be (that we see His disciples living out immediately).

A personal experience with God’s presence is the main foundation of a journey to becoming more Christlike than American.

As we begin to reflect upon our own experiences with God in relation to the stories in Acts we will hopefully begin to see similarities. And yet we will also see some distinctions – many times because as Americans we’ve added some things to what we see happening in Acts. Mostly out a cultural desire for more or better, or for uniqueness or modernity. And yet it will take identifying those things and stripping them away to really rediscover the simple core commonalities of what a personal relationship with God worked out in community really looks like today. Just as it did in the life of those disciples in Acts.

Becoming more Christlike means being in relationship with a deeply personal God as He sends His Spirit to dwell with us.

It transforms our lives.

And it forms our churches.

May this relationship with God, and these relationships as the church, be the basis of a re-formation of God’s people once again today.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 1

Part 1: Questions about why

“Why are you standing here staring into heaven?” Acts 1:11 NLT

If you’ve read Acts 1, this is such a pointed and powerful question. [If you haven’t read Acts 1, go read it now]

The disciples have just finished 40 days with the resurrected Jesus, which concludes with one “final” recorded conversation with him about the kingdom of God. This is where he reminds them that they will be his witnesses [martyrs is the Greek word] all over the world after they receive the Holy Spirit.

And then he ascends. Right in front of them.

And there they are. Standing. Staring into heaven. When two “white-robed” messengers ask them this simple, and yet profound, question: Why?

This “Why?” question has always gripped my attention every time I’ve read the story. And it makes me wonder if I too have found myself staring up to heaven instead of looking to what’s right in front of me – to people right around me and most of all to God who is with me.

This “Why?” question centers me upon potentially the most important part of the Gospel: the incarnation – that God “took on flesh” in Jesus, and is still “taking on flesh” today thru His Spirit within His people. This truth of the Gospel really changes everything.

This “Why?” question sets the trajectory for the disciples living out this reality of incarnation in their day. And it can do the same for us today.

And it’s really less about answering the question (I’m sure we could psychoanalyze why we think the disciples were staring into heaven) than it is about that asking of it to bring about awareness – awareness to what we find ourselves doing.

If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of questions being asked right now in our culture. Especially among the younger generation of Christians in America.

Questions about faith. Questions about life. Questions about how faith works itself out in the midst of life.

Questions about the church. Questions about society. Questions about how the church lives out it’s values in the midst of society.

And on we could go.

Almost everything is being questioned. And most of the questions are really “Why?” questions.

And that scares some people, or at least unsettles them. But I don’t think it does God. Jesus himself asked many questions. And God fields questions constantly from those we read about in the Bible.

Questions are important. Questions can bring awareness. Questions can cause self-reflection. Questions can set a trajectory for the journey ahead.

And the questions being asked right now – especially the “Why?” questions – will shape the way forward for many people.

And even more so, the posture of asking questions – and the journey to understanding that comes from asking them – is shaping the church for the next generation more than even the answers themselves will.

As I observe the questions that are being asked today, they all seem to be about identity.

Which really relates to what this question in Acts 1 is getting at.

Are we people who are standing and staring toward the heavens? If so, why?

For many of us, it feels like much of our lives have been shaped by a teaching that says God is personal (God is with us) but also by practices that depersonalize God (“staring into heaven”).

Does being invited into a “relationship with God” in a non-relational context where you “pray a prayer” during an “altar call” really connect us with a personal God?

Does prayer being treated as how we “talk at God” and Scripture being used for how we “receive a word from God” really connect us with a personal God?

Does the church being so concerned with attendance and attraction, with buildings and budgets, and with numbers and nomenclature, really connect us with a personal God?

As myself and others have been asking these kinds of questions, I’ve found myself returning consistently to the book of Acts. Which always brings me to this question: “Why?”

And as we look to the stories of Acts as our guide, we will find the answers to so many of the questions we’re asking.

But, even more so, as we look to the stories of Acts, we will rediscover the posture of disciples and of a church that concerns itself far more with “God with us” than the desires and scorecards of this world – or even just our staring up to heaven.

The simplicity of the question asked of the disciples in Acts 1 is only matched by the simplicity of the community we see God form throughout the rest of the book.

And it’s that simplicity – that clarity – that questions like “Why?” can bring to our lives, to our faith, and to our churches. 

If we let them.

If we don’t run from them.

And it’s those sorts of questions we will be exploring as we navigate thru the stories in Acts in this blog series.

Let’s become more Christlike than American together.

*This post is the beginning of a series of reflections I have written that focus on “Becoming more Christlike than American.” They are based specifically upon the examples of the disciples of Jesus we read about in Acts. It is a follow-up series to one I did previously asking the question: “Do we look more American than Christian?” [Click here to read the first blog in that series]

I’ve spent over 15 years with that question, and have also walked with people who have been asking similar questions as well. I’ve found that the “crisis” we are in is really about our definition of Christlikeness. Many of us grew up in a church culture that gave us a lot of information about Jesus, and taught us to live moral lives, but we were mostly formed by religious programming more than a personal relationship with Jesus. A relationship that works itself out in personal relationships with those around us.

In my own journey with the questions in this series, I’ve found that ultimately I had learned to depersonalize God. And I find many are struggling with the same experience – and thus, why they are “deconstructing” with their faith and “disconnecting” with the church. For them (and for me) too many times the church has not “put flesh on” Jesus, but has just been a “place” (a building or time during the week) of looking to the heavens.

I hope this series will help others, who are on the same path as I am, to see God be fully “incarnate” in our lives once again.

God is with us. May we have the eyes to see Him and the ears to hear Him.

Previous Posts:

The Soil of My Soul

A reflection on this past year, inspired by Jesus’ parable of the soils in Matthew 13.

There’s this deep work that God wants to do in me. It can’t be done on the surface-level of my life but only at the soul-level.

And it seems like everything in my world works against it. Even many of the ways I was taught to live and lead in the church…

And this creates a dissonance.
A confusion.
A wrestling with God.

This is how I’ve always done things.
But this is not how He wants to do them in me.

The things He longs to do require my soul to be ready in a way it never has been before.
In a way that much of my faith life has not yet prepared me for.

He tried to show me His true way of living long ago. I caught a glimpse, but the busyness of a “religious life” distracted me and I remained stuck where I was. I even made excuses for it – even learned how to justify it with Scripture – but it really just burdened my soul.

So He tried again to take me down this path He has for me. He took me by the hand and walked with me a short while.

But soon the pressures to perform “religiously” bore down on me and I let go of His hand – soon failing at my own attempts to make it down the path myself.

I tried to make sure people still saw how successful I was at it though – so they didn’t notice I’d let go of His hand long ago – but that merely increased the tension in my soul.

And so He tried patiently, yet again, to show me the fulfillment that only His way could bring me. I experienced the fullness of it just enough to know He was so right.

But nevertheless I gave in to desires that were fleeting and led to no where but weariness and emptiness. Desires that have even been made acceptable within my “religious circles.” I masked them with a correct amount of piety, of course, hoping no one would see – but that simply made it feel like my soul couldn’t breath.

Then things started happening that disrupted me.
They broke thru the hardness.
They provided me temporary protection.
They brought clarity and removed distraction.

They plowed the soil of my soul.
They readied me for what He had for me all along.

And so this time, when His work began, I was now ready to let Him lead His way.

He’s been breaking apart the hardness of old ways.
He’s been fighting back the intensity of deep shame.
He’s been removing the idolatry of selfish motivations.

And what He is producing now cannot be contained in what I was told would hold all He had for me.

It does not fit within the expectations of what’s been imposed on me.

It will not be limited by the scorecard of “how things have always been done” that’s been told to me.

His way of true life will reshape every way I’ve ever lived, and there’s no way I’ll go back to a “normal” that never produced what He wanted anyway.

No matter how much the “religious status quo” cries out for me to.

His way of true life will reshape every way I’ve ever lived, and there’s no way I’ll go back to a “normal” that never produced what He wanted anyway.

Commentary:

This past year has disrupted my life more than any year previously. The pandemic was merely one of the plows used to make my soul ready for what God wants to produce.

God already had begun the work long before, and there were many other things he used this last year to make me good soil.

He has certainly done significant work on my soul at previous times in my life. But His work has been new and deeper this past year.

And I truly believe He desires the pandemic to have been a plow for His people in the world. Yet it grieves me to watch so many who call themselves Christians – especially Christian leaders – still miss the work God longs to do thru the plow of the pandemic in their lives and amidst God’s people.

But many seem to be fighting it. Why? Because we’ve been so conditioned by this world – the hardness, the heat, the weeds – it all works against being ready for what God has.

Too many Christians are still living out of the immaturity we’ve inherited and not living into the maturity God has made us for.

Too many Christian leaders are still trying to lead in ways that haven’t actually produced the results we say we want and are not actively reintegrating the original pathways of transformation that Jesus taught.

It just burdens me to watch…and the evidence of how far off the mark we’ve been for so long has been seen this past year in so many ways: political idolatry on all ends of the spectrum, continued and stark racial division within the church, the harsh words we continue to see exchanged between believers, a lack of humility and self-awareness by those who claim to “know” the most about Jesus (even many with seminary degrees and titles to lead in the church), etc.

So many continue to be hardened by their pursuit of what’s comfortable or what they’ve always done.

So many continue to be burned by a way of faith they were taught that keeps producing shame and surface-level spirituality.

So many continue to be satisfied by the temporary enthusiasms of a “spiritualized entertainment” or “check the box of tradition” church culture.

I know. Because I’ve been surrounded by it my whole life. I was taught to live it. I was trained to lead others into it.

And yet all along I’ve noticed it too rarely produces the way of Jesus. At best it makes someone more “moral” and gives them enough knowledge to puff themselves up.

The soil of our souls are not being cared for and the desires of our hearts are not being transformed by the current conditions of contemporary religious expectations.

The pandemic revealed this in very public ways. But so many, too many, continue to just go back – and even lead others back – to the old ruts of hardened paths.

Maybe your life has been plowed and the soil of your soul has been readied, but you still haven’t allowed God to form new pathways to produce the fruit He desires. And the temptation will continue to be stronger than ever to simply give in to the cultural currents of the old expectations.

But we all know that the old ways weren’t working anyways (and that includes what many of us were taught was “church”).

And unfortunately there will be those who are so invested in the “old ways” that they aren’t interested in helping you navigate these “new ways” (which are ironically actually the original ways).

But what you will find, if you will venture into these plowing pathways of transformation, are mothers and fathers of the faith that can help lead you to discover new terrain.

You will find a community of people navigating by faith and depending on the Spirit’s guidance.

You will find certainty and mystery in who Jesus is and the inspiration of His word.

You will find rhythms of life that not only help you survive but thrive in the harshest of conditions.

And you will find the ruins of old expectations, old models, and old structures that are now being overgrown by what God is producing in the soil of people’s lives who are devoted to Him in deep ways.

There are more people than you may realize who are going thru this same process of the plowing of their souls and the re-seeding their faith, and are interested in what it looks like to do it together and not merely return to the ways things have (only recently) always been done.

It may feel scary at first.
It will definitely feel a little awkward.
But the results will be what you’ve been looking for all along.

And don’t worry, He knows what He’s doing.
He knows the only way to produce what you need most.

And what you need most right now is for the soil of your soul to be ready to receive the seeds of the kingdom He longs to plant in your life.

This is a Reformation

I’m going to make a seemingly bold (and yet not really all that bold claim):
We are in a Reformation.

In actuality, we are always in “reformation.” This is why the reformers of the 16th century variety coined the phrase “semper reformanda” or “the church reformed, always reforming.”

It’s the reality that we are always being re-formed, if we are active in a relationship with God. On an individual level, being formed continuously into the likeness of Jesus. On a church level, being formed continuously into the body of Jesus for the sake of the world.

However, there are also times in history where there is noticeable change to how The Church organizes itself and is present in the world (or in actuality usually ends up divided in the goal of bringing change). It usually happens alongside noticeable societal change – which is many times indirectly related.

We have seen Reformations (big “R”) like this about every 500 years according to most church historians (it’s not a science, but it’s pretty close to being predictable).

And I would like to suggest that we are in the beginnings of another Reformation right now.

Years ago I heard people claim this was true about the different “nondenominational,” mega-church, or emergent church movements we were seeing. But that didn’t really pan out as an actual Reformation. All of that was really just progressions of what currently existed (whether organizationally or intellectually).

But what’s happening now.
Along all sorts of lines – the failures of celebrity leaders, the issues of racial disharmony, the seeming frailty of the current church models to withstand persecution, and the rise of The Church in the global South and East.
In pretty much every church, denomination, or network.
It looks like a Reformation to me.

The intense and widespread deconstruction that is happening (specifically among many American Christians) must be followed by a massive reconstruction that must look a lot different than what was in many ways falling apart anyways. And what is reconstructed must look more like the early church we read about in Acts.

That was then, this is now

The last Reformation in the 16th century was about The Church in the West returning to God’s intention, but the thing that needed to be addressed most immediately was a problem of right teaching.

This Reformation today is also about The Church in the West returning to God’s intention, but the thing that needs to be addressed most immediately is a problem of  right relationship(s).

It has the same end: to return us to the original Scriptural vision of God’s New Testament people (see the book of Acts).
But it does not have the same means.

Right teaching is important, of course. We should never diminish that. And teaching and relationships are ultimately tied together. And so in the 16th century Reformation there was much to say about doctrinal issues – or what The Church taught. However, the context we are working with today is different than the context of the previous Reformation. And thus, the focus of the Reformation needs to focus on relational issues – how The Church lives.

Part of this is likely because we are in the age of information. Anyone can gain access to all the orthodox teachings of Scripture from excellent communicators of the truth (like The Bible Project). So what people need from The Church right now is less around the forming of correct ideas (though incorrect ideas need to be confronted) and more around the forming of right relationships – to God, to one another, and also to the world.

One leads to the other. And both things must ultimately be held together. But (to use a medical analogy) The Church in the West is hemorrhaging (specifically in America) – and not just numerically, spiritually as well. And to “stop the bleeding,” we must start with right relationship in order to be able to address right teaching as well.

Too many seem to have more of a relationship with their preferred idealized version of church than with the very God who establishes The Church. Too many purport to “know” the Truth without the evidence of being “known” by the Teacher.

And when teaching is placed above relationship (and not alongside of it), and then the correct value of relationship is also lost – it can morph the Gospel into a transactional proposition and not a transforming presence.

It also then influences the way we form relationships with other believers (inside the organized church especially). Churches end up connected by their ideology or vision statement or pithy sayings or denominational perspective, as opposed to by the Spirit that inhabits and knits them together.

We end up forming “Bible studies,” “Sunday schools” and “small groups” in highly transactional ways (not relational ways) and call those transactions “community” or “discipleship.” Of which they are rarely either.

Dissonance and Discipleship

This is a difficult critique of one’s faith or faith community. And I recognize that, because I’ve been living in this difficulty and leading in the church amidst this dissonance now for well over a decade.

I’ve seen how transactional I was taught faith was. I’ve experienced how transactional I was modeled church to be. I’ve noticed how transactional I was trained evangelism should go.

A dissonance has been created. In many cases, as The Church in America, we aren’t who we say we are. Which causes all sorts of discomfort.

That’s the problem with a Reformation really: it disrupts our comfort.

The current Reformation, while targeting ideas as well, is not as much about reforming the teaching of the church – as the most recent one was.

Instead, it’s targeting the values and lifestyle of the church, and is primarily about reforming us to live beyond the shallow and even nonexistent relationships the church has allowed to be counted as “discipleship” for far too long.

Jesus may very well have been after The Church’s “mind” in the last Reformation.

But it seems like Jesus is after The Church’s “heart” in this one.

Jesus may very well have been after The Church’s “mind” in the last Reformation.
But it seems like Jesus is after The Church’s “heart” in this one.

What must change?

The mind will need to be renewed as well, no doubt. But the heart needs a complete reformation this time around.

Too many in The Church have allowed our hearts to be wooed by other lovers.

Politics. Business. Popularity. Comfort. Pride. Greed. Power.

And The Church has too often followed suit in idolizing the lovers of the hearts of its people and leaders.

Thus the need for a Reformation focused firstly upon right relationships.

And our brothers and sisters from The Church in the East and global South should be our guides. We must learn from them how to again live faithfully amidst the difficulties of this world. Leadership for this Reformation in The West will have to continue to emerge. But our best hope for recovering what we have lost is to mutually submit ourselves to our Church family that is thriving all over the world – and stop looking pridefully to ourselves for all the answers.

We must return again to the fullness of a love relationship with God – Father, Son, and Spirit; not merely a conversion transaction for the purpose of going to Heaven one day.

We must return again to the unity of a love relationship with one another – The Church actually being the church across a community, not merely allegiance to “my church.”

We must return again to the calling of a love relationship with our neighbors – for God so loved the entire world, not just the ones we perceive to be “like us.”

And the depth of spirituality that these right relationships will produce can be seen throughout the history of The Church, and is still seen all over the world in the places Scriptural Christianity is thriving. We see it evidenced in the church in Acts, in the early church mothers and fathers, in the monastic communities, in the awakenings and revivals in the West of the last several centuries, and continuing in the global South and the East:

  • Organic relationships that lead to spiritual family being valued over organizational leadership principles.
  • Rhythms of a shared life together being valued over religious services offered by religious professionals.
  • Spirit-led conversations that take place in the context of genuine friendships being valued over strategic “gospel presentations.”
  • Equipping believers to disciple those around them being valued over entertaining church attendees who simply “invite their friends” to a religious experience.
  • Grace-filled and generous servant leaders who model empathy and patience being valued over goal-oriented and gregarious influencers who rarely enter into the mess of the brokenness of their own life nor the lives of others.

Jesus is calling The Church in the West to once again walk thru the wilderness of a Reformation in order to return to the right relationship(s) He’s desired for us all along.

Will we follow Him there?

With that in mind, read the words of God to His people thru the prophet Hosea, as they are still no doubt His words to us today:

And now, here’s what I’m going to do:

    I’m going to start all over again.

I’m taking you back out into the wilderness

    where we had our first date, and I’ll court you.

I’ll give you bouquets of roses.

    I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.

You’ll respond like you did as a young girl,

    those days when you were fresh out of Egypt.

HOSEA 2:14-15 [The Message; emphasis added]

The “Why” We’ve Always Done Things

Words help shape the way I live.

Whether you like it or not, it’s also true for you. You just may not have ever thought about how much words influence your reality.

How you think.
How you behave.

You don’t realize how big a deal it is until one day you wake up and realize you’ve been using a word wrong your whole life!

One of the best ways to change how we think is to change how we talk.

[Believe me, I spent an entire undergraduate degree studying communication and words, and part of a graduate degree studying interpreting languages…it’s fascinating how unaware we are of how much words shape us]

 

So here’s a suggestion I have: instead of talking about the “way we’ve always done things,” let’s talk about the “why we’ve always done things.”

The problem with focusing on the “way” we’ve done it, is we only think about the product or outcome. We get caught up in the performance of life. The doing.

But what typically matters to us about the things we’re doing aren’t the things themselves. It’s the “why” behind them.

Here’s an example from church life:
Maybe you prefer hymns and not modern worship songs. But it’s not really about the hymns. It’s about God speaking thru them. It’s about you feeling His presence as you sing them. It’s maybe even a little about hearing your mom’s voice in your head from when you were a kid as she sang them standing next to you.
[Believe me, I get it, I can still hear my mom singing certain hymns in my head when I sing them in worship]

Really it’s about the “why” you’ve always appreciated hymns.
That’s why you think the way you do.
It’s why you behave the way you do.
It’s not actually (as much as people may think it is) about the hymns themselves.

The who, what, where, when, and how of life can change. In fact, it does quite often throughout our lives. And it’s because those things are truly circumstantial (though related to the why), but the “why” at the core of who we are.

Motive.
Desire.
Heart.
Purpose.
Meaning.
Focus.

These are what spring up from within us and shape our lives, our families, our workplaces, our churches, our communities, our world…much more than the “way we’ve always done things” actually does.

As humans, we are actually pretty adept at navigating changes. People act like they aren’t. We get told all the time that we’re terrible at it. But as soon as a dissonance exists between someone’s “why” of doing something and their “way” of doing it, then in a moments notice, they’ll make a change.

I know, there’s been a lot of change this year.

But more is coming whether we like it or not. If we think just because 2020 is over then all the surprises are over, we clearly have not lived very long (or are sticking our head in the sand).

I know when change comes, even the most forward-thinking positive people can find themselves longing for stability and comfort. And sometimes they will even voice that they want to go back to the way they’ve always done things.

But actually, they really just want to recover the why they’ve always done things.

And when the way we’ve always done things is disrupted…then we really have the opportunity to identify the “why” and live it out.

And when the way we’ve always done things is disrupted…then we really have the opportunity to identify the “why” and live it out.

Maybe for the first time in a long time.
Even if it is in a new “way.”

Yes, we need to deal with the emotions of change, for sure. The emotions typically surround the “way” we’ve always done things.

But then, we must deal with the identity of change. The identity of it deals with the “why.”

And when we can do that, then we will be fully living into reality.

Allowing our life to be shaped not by our doing, but by our being.

Allowing words to shape our lives correctly, not keeping us stuck.

And it ultimately allows God to be at work in our life in deep ways in our life. Dealing with our desires and motives – our “why” for living the way we do. Impacting us with His words so that we might actually live the way that Jesus showed us to live.

The “why we’ve always done things” has more to do with our discipleship to Jesus than we realize at first.

Maybe this year we can do a better job about talking about the “why” than talking about the “way.”

It might just allow us to follow Jesus’ way a little more closely.

The Sirens Of Busyness

The Sirens of Busyness are singing.

Can you hear them?

I can. Very clearly.

 

[If you don’t remember much from Greek mythology, you likely remember the imagery of the Sirens.

Half-birds, half beautiful maidens, the Sirens were singing enchantresses capable of luring passing sailors to their islands, and, subsequently, to their doom. Daughters of the river god Achelous and a Muse, they were fated to die if anyone should survive their singing. When Odysseus passed them by unharmed, they hurled themselves into the sea and were drowned. You can read more about them here.]

 

In our culture, and in many other cultures, “busyness” is worn with like a badge. It’s celebrated as an achievement. It’s complained about as “the cross we must bear.” It’s worshipped like a god.

And this past year, first with the quarantine and then with the continued impact of the pandemic, we saw just how much of a god busyness has become.

People felt lost without their packed schedules.

Anxiety set in when there was so much time suddenly available. Many felt like they had to just do something. Anything.

 

And this quest to remain busy, merely revealed a god we had long been worshipping.

Even above The God.

 

Maybe you call this god by a different name than “Busy.”

Maybe you call it “Normal.”

 

Let me confess, that I worshipped at the altar of this god alongside most of you. That why I know it so well. Because this god had become my god too.

And I can hear the Sirens of this god calling back out to me again.

It’s like an enchanting echo. Calling out to me to come back.

And yet, I know what it leads to. The pandemic exposed it for me. Maybe it did for you too?

 

Anxiety.

Shallowness.

Vanity.

Stress.

Weariness.

 

Whether we want to admit it or not, the answers we seek for the deep longing in our soul will not be solved by going back to this god.

Going back to busyness.

Going back to “normal.”

 

How do I know? Because I did. For a couple weeks. About a month ago.

 

I had a 2 week stretch that “felt” like life before the pandemic.

Breakneck pace.

Laundry list of things to do.

Public attention for what was being done.

 

It was as if my soul was screaming the whole time: STOP. But I couldn’t. I had already been drawn into the rocks.

 

If this pandemic has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that our culturally accepted “pace of life” rarely ever matches up with Jesus’ pace of life for me.

It’s certainly not that all of life should be slow.

But I can also say it’s definitely not the opposite as well.

 

There’s a rhythm to how Jesus lived his life and desires for us to live ours. And for too long we’ve ignored it. We’ve simply opted for the culturally acceptable path of least resistance: busy.

But Jesus has a better plan than busy.

It’s called abundant.

 

This abundant life is a life of balance. Of boundaries. Of boldness.

 

And if we want to recover it, it will require a fight. It won’t merely come easily at first. It will require silencing the voices of the sirens. 

It will require Sabbath.

 

Not a day of laziness.

Not a day of “church activity.”

Not a day of catching up on chores.

Not a day of hobbies.

Not a day of “prepping for the week.”

 

A day of rest. Truly finding rest for our souls. Resting in the presence of God.

A day of relationships. Truly relating on a soul level. Relationships with others who are also resting in the presence of God.

A day of re-creation. Truly re-setting ourselves to the rhythms of God’s creation. Re-centering our lives within the will of God.

A day of remembering. Truly reminding ourselves who God is, who we are in Him, who He desires us to be, and how we are fully satisfied only in Him. Retelling the stories God’s people and the stories of God’s work in our lives today.

I can hear the Sirens of busyness singing: Come back.
But I can feel the Spirit of the living God urging: Come home.

I can hear the Sirens of busyness singing: Come back.

But I can feel the Spirit of the living God urging: Come home.

 

The god of busyness will not satisfy. Because like all false gods, it cannot deliver the abundant life it allures me to believe it can.

Only God can do that.

Only God will do that.

And I can only begin to experience it as I begin each week as God designed: with Sabbath.

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