THE CHURCH TODAY

VIDEO INTERVIEW: CHUCK MCKNIGHT AND KEITH GILES

Listen as Keith and Chuck talk about Organic Church, Nonviolence and different Christian views of Hell.

EPISODE 4: Dan Notti and Keith Giles - "God's Design For Church"

Does God have any design for how He wants us to come together and seek His face? If He cared so much about how the Sanctuary and the Temple were built (down to the cubits), doesn't He have a plan for how we - the Body of Christ - are to worship Him?

Swimming won't make you a fish...

Polar Opposites?

EPISODE 3: Dan Notti and Keith Giles Podcast: Doctrine and Ekklesia: Where Do They Fit?

In our third Skype Podcast, Dan and Keith discuss what place Doctrine and Teaching hold in the Ekklesia. 

We also touch on issues like homosexuality, fornication, and church discipline, as well as personal struggles with finding balance in our own christian fellowship with regard to teaching, doctrine, disagreements and how to love one another as Jesus taught us.

NOTE: This is an audio-only recording.

God Will Not Cooperate

GOD WILL NOT COOPERATE 
(It's His World, We Just Get To Live In It)


After over thirty years of being a Christian I have learned a few valuable lessons. This is probably one of the most crucial ones; God will not cooperate.

If you want to know what frustration is, try to bargain or reason with God. Want to know how to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.

Sometimes we get the idea that we can change God's mind about something. There are even a few scriptural accounts where it appears that Moses and Abraham convince God to go along with their plans. The problem with this is that you cannot negotiate with someone who already knows the end from the beginning and knows your thoughts before you speak. Want to know what is really happening in those passages? It's God demonstrating that He knows things always go better with us if we think it was our idea.

Once in a while you will see a bumper sticker that says, "God Is My Co-Pilot". I always pray for people who have that on their car because if you think God is about to sit quietly in the passenger seat while you drive your life outside of His will you are either sadly mistaken or you are in the wrong car. Soon enough you will discover that things go so much smoother when you scoot over and allow God to be the Pilot.

We all know the passage where Jacob wrestles with God and refuses to let go until God blesses him. The problem with that is God had already promised to bless Jacob before he was even born. Jacob didn't need to wrestle the blessing out of God's hand, but God allowed him to wrestle anyway. Truth is, God loves to wrestle. I think what we need to consider is, what will we do with God AFTER he gives us that blessing we wrestled from Him? Will we let go of Him? Often, we do exactly that. We vow to not let go of God until He blesses us, and then after He blesses us, we let go of Him. Bad idea.

I firmly believe that God will drop trouble into our lives just to hear our voice after a long silence. 

Save yourself a lot of trouble and just surrender now. God will have His way...(just ask Job or Jonah)...and His way, believe it or not, is much better than all of your beautiful plans and dreams.

Die to yourself daily and things will go SO much better in your life. Practice daily saying, "I Give Up!" and watch God do amazing things with your life. His will, His Kingdom, will come to your life, to your house, to your job, and things will be like Heaven...where His will is always done without question or gripe or complaint.

I recently discovered a phrase used by the early Church Fathers that says, "Conversatio Morem!". It translates to "Constant Conversion!" which honestly is what we all need to embrace. We all need a daily, constant surrender to Jesus in order to fully walk in The Kingdom of God.

"Man makes his plans but God orders his steps."
-Proverbs 16:9

Life in the Kingdom begins with surrender. The sooner you can practice this in your actual life, the sooner you can begin to live in the Kingdom of God, where His perfect will is always done.

God will not cooperate.

-kg

NOTE: This article originally appeared on the weekly [Subversive Underground] e-newsletter.

EPISODE 2: Dan Notti and Keith Giles - "Leadership"

Leadership. Is there a more important topic in the American Church today than leadership?

Keith and Dan talk about what constitutes true leadership as Jesus revealed it, and explore some practical ways that leaders can operate in a simple, organic church to elevate and empower others.

Is It Really All About Jesus?

THE BLOGALOGUE SERIES: "Encountering Jesus: Inside and Outside the Meeting"

Is It Really All About Jesus?

For me, the essence of an Organic Church is centered around Jesus. Everything we do should be designed to help us hear Him, experience Him, worship Him, love Him, serve Him, and draw nearer to Him. Anything that prevents that from happening should be eliminated from our lives, and from our time together as a Body.

If I could re-name the movement, I’d call it “Jesus Ekklesia” because, for me, that’s closer to what it’s all about: It’s for Jesus, by Jesus and of Jesus. With Jesus at the Center, Jesus at the top, and Jesus surrounding us, the Ekklesia is a Jesus-centric organism that won’t operate properly apart from Jesus.

In fact, the Church itself is nothing apart from Christ. The Apostle Paul calls it a Profound Mystery. Christ and the Church are One – like a living person who has a head and a body and organs that all work together to sustain life. We are in Christ and He is in us, and we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit where Christ lives, and He is the One in whom we live and move and have our being. So, we are in Christ and He is in us, and we are in the Father.

Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Yet, if we remain in Him and He remains in us then we will bear much fruit.

Is it possible to have a meeting without Jesus? Unfortunately, yes. It’s also possible to have a wonderful meeting “about Jesus” where people get together to sing about Him, talk about Him and study Him – much in the same way a group of people might study any other topic of discussion.

But rather than have a meeting “about Jesus”, or a meeting “without Jesus”, our aim and purpose should always be to have a meeting “WITH Jesus.” He is the One we want to hear from. He is the One we want to touch, and to see and to experience.

Keep in mind, it’s possible to know stuff about someone without actually knowing the person. For example, I could know all sorts of trivia about Kobe Bryant, but if he walked in the room he wouldn’t say, “Hello Keith!” because I don’t actually know Kobe Bryant. I only know stuff about him.

The same is true for Christianity. We can know lots of stuff about Jesus, but that does not mean that we actually know Jesus in an intimate, relational way.

But how do we do that? How do we take hold of Christ – or allow Him to take hold of us?

I mean, if I’m not connecting with the actual Jesus in my private life, then I’m certainly not going to be able to connect with Him in a room full of people.

And, of course, if I’m in a room full of people who are also not in connection with the actual person of Jesus, then even if I am connected to Him, their limited connection to Him will probably make it impossible for all of us to encounter Him together.

How do we connect with Jesus as individuals? How do individual Christians encounter Jesus when they come together as a Church?

Those are the big questions, aren’t they?

I’ll do my best to answer both of those questions.

INDIVIDUAL CONNECTIONS TO CHRIST.

One of the most important things Jesus ever said about the Christian life was this: “Abide in me and I will abide in you. Apart from me you can do nothing.”

So, our individual connection to Jesus begins with living in Him. Not just placing our faith in Him, or trusting in Him for salvation, but actually living and breathing in Christ daily.

Or, to put it another way, the Christian life is about allowing Jesus to come and live and breathe in you every moment of every day.

Does that sound like a paradox? Good.

Imagine an empty water bottle with the lid screwed on tight. It’s full of air. Now throw it into the ocean. It’s surrounded by water, but on the inside it’s still empty and dry. That’s sort of like what it can be like for Christians who find themselves surrounded by Christian “things” and ideas, or even in a gathering of other Christians, but on the inside they are still empty and dry.

Even if you were to submerge that bottle deep into the center of the ocean, it would be wet on the outside, but dry on the inside. What needs to happen is for the bottle to be opened up so that the ocean can come flooding inside.

Jesus is the Ocean. We are the bottle. We can get close to Him and still not let Him inside. Total surrender is required for transformation to begin.

And I say, “to begin” because this is a process not a onetime event.

We allow the process to begin when we surrender our lives to Jesus, die to everything that is our self, and open our hearts up to receive His life, and His heart, and His presence.

We do not ask Jesus into our life, which is empty and dry and weak, but instead we respond to Jesus as He invites us into His life which is pure and eternal and abundant.

The Christian life is cultivated and nurtured and celebrated daily. We spend time with Jesus. We talk to Him the way we talk to our closest friend. We ask Him daily for help as we put His words into practice. We lean on Him for wisdom. We turn to Him for comfort. We look to Him for everything.

Keep in mind that practicing the presence of God like this will likely impact your behavior. It will facilitate the transformational power of the Holy Spirit as you open yourself up more and more to His command and control.

Any Christian who is consumed by this sort of attitude and activity can’t help but experience more of Jesus in their daily life. Now just imagine what would happen if a dozen or so other Christians who were also practicing this sort of faith were to get together for a meeting with Jesus as their functional head?

That’s what Organic Church is all about.

CORPORATE CONNECTIONS TO CHRIST.

When followers of Jesus are accustomed to encountering Jesus like this seven days a week, it’s nothing out of the ordinary to put something very similar into practice when they gather with others who are familiar with the concept.

The New Testament describes for us in some detail what a gathering of the Body of Christ should look like. In 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, Paul talks about the Church using the metaphor of a body where the head (which is Christ) controls every member of his body (the members of the church) as they operate together in ways that are various but necessary to the overall health of the entire organism.

This means that a church is really only “the Body of Christ” if it is submitted fully to the Head. If any church is not operating so that Christ alone is the functional leader – and everyone in the church is operating in their gifting as directed by the Holy Spirit – then that church is not actually behaving like a Body. It might be acting like a corporate entity, a 501(c)3, a business, or a bible study, but it’s not a Body.

When a group of practicing Christian disciples gather together under Christ in order to see Him and hear Him and encounter Him, the chances of doing so increase exponentially.

Obviously, if Christians are not practicing a daily surrender to Christ in their personal lives, and if they are not gathering with other Christians who are encountering Jesus in this way, and if when they gather together they don’t all work together to experience Jesus in their midst as their functional head…then there’s a very, very good chance that they won’t.

Having said that, let me admit something here: It doesn’t always come together for us either.

Sometimes we realize that we’ve not been walking as close to Jesus as we should. Sometimes we get together and we discover that most of us have neglected to seek His face during the week – hey, it happens. We’re all human. We get distracted. We get busy. We fall back into old habits and formulas.

At other times we find that one person in the group isn’t as focused on seeking Him as the rest of us are. In those cases we have grace. We wait for them. We ask how they’re doing. We minister to them in love.

We don’t compare ourselves to them as if we are more holy than they are. Mostly because we remember that we ourselves are prone to the same failures and weaknesses.

Still at other times we can all be in the right place at the right time and with the same intention and yet we don’t experience the power and presence of Jesus the way we hoped we might.

Again, that’s ok. Our faith isn’t in an experience. Our faith and our hope is in a person. We trust Him and we wait for Him. If He decides to move among us, then we rejoice and we receive. If He decides to remain silent, then we continue to wait on Him.

I think sometimes Jesus changes things up simply to keep us from relying on formulas. People love formulas. But when we have a formula we don’t need God.

Church isn’t about a formula, it is (once again) about a person. Jesus is a person and so we learn to accommodate Him and to defer to Him and to relate to Him as a person, not as a formula.

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE

A few weeks ago our little group experienced the Headship of Christ and it was really wonderful.

After our singing time, one of our sisters shared about a message she had seen on someone’s t-shirt at the grocery store the previous week. It said “Live what you love” and that little phrase stuck with her all week. She began to meditate on how we should live our lives for Jesus and follow Him because He is the One we love.

After that, another sister shared two verses from the New Testament about love and talked about how the Lord had revealed more of His love to her that week.

Then I jumped in because that morning I had been reading through 1 John which is all about love and I read a few specific verses from that book and shared my perspective on how important it is that we learn to love one another.

Then one of our brothers shared what God had been showing him last week as he read through the book of Hosea. After that another brother shared what God had been showing him as he was reading a book about the prophet Hosea, which dove-tailed beautifully into what everyone else was already sharing.

We ended by praying for one of our other sisters who shared a little from her heart about needing to be reminded of the love of God for her – which is what we had all been talking about all morning long anyway!

As we laid hands on her, and read scriptures over her, and even sang songs over her of God’s amazing and astounding love for her, everyone was edified and blessed and touched by the Lord’s tender presence with us.

That was an incredible morning with the saints! And I wish I could tell you that it happens like that every single week, but it doesn’t.

The good news is that it’s starting to happen more and more often as we all begin to catch a vision for what the Lord intends for us as individuals and as a corporate Body of believers.

-kg

**

NOTE: This blog is part of a Blogalogue Series of posts from Neil Cole, Richard Jacobson, Dan Herford, Jon Zens and myself.

The Topic: Encountering Jesus: Inside and Outside the Church

The Schedule:

Richard Jacobson: Week of Feb. 9

Keith Giles: Week of Feb. 16

Dan Herford: Week of Feb 23

Neil Cole: Week of March 2

Jon Zens: Week of March 9

Video Skype Roundtable discussion: Saturday March 14 or Sunday March 15

ARE THE NT DOCUMENTS RELIABLE?

With so many people casting doubt on the veracity of the New Testament documents, I submit this excellent bit of research from Dr. Peter Williams which goes into astounding detail about just how incredibly reliable the Gospels really are and how simple details - such as names and places - help to solidify their claims.

This is a "Must Watch" video clip.

Untamed Christianity

Our faith defies the status quo.

Our Savior calls for a complete revolution of the human heart. 

Our Gospel is designed to ignite a total regime change within the soul of every living person.

Our Messiah was executed for defying the Empire - both the Church and the State.

He encouraged his followers to lay down their lives and die for Him - not as suicidal martyrs, but as radical agents of love who would rather die than resort to hatred or violence.

The majority of our Scriptures were written by a former terrorist who helped to imprison and murder numerous disciples of Christ.

He was radically transformed by a supernatural encounter with our Jesus and that day became an ambassador of the Prince of Peace.

After that day he left his violence behind and instead embraced the way of the cross, seeking not to destroy his enemies, but to love them and to share in the sufferings of Christ as he boasted all the more in his own weakness.

Many of those early disciples and saints were led like lambs to the slaughter, much like our Lord. By the hundreds they submitted to the governing authorities and were burned, boiled and skinned alive, beheaded, and even crucified upside down, never once reaching out to do violence to their oppressors, but declaring their love for Jesus and even praying for those who put them to death.

These subversive missionaries of light understood that their struggle was not against flesh and blood. They knew that the weapons of their warfare were not of this world, but spiritual, and far more powerful - able to transform hearts and minds alike.

They knew that they were sent as lambs and doves, not wolves and serpents, into a world dominated by power and lust. Yet they refused to participate in the things that make for war or death. 

Instead, they devoted themselves to the way of life, and light, and peace, and mercy, and most of all to love.

Oh, blood was shed, to be sure. But the blood that was shed was their own. 

What happened to those Christians? Where did those sorts of believers in the message of Christ go?

Why, today, is it so rare to find anyone who claims the name "Christian" and still embraces the Gospel of Christ?

Instead of resisting the Empire, many Christians today embrace it, salute it, pledge their allegiance to it, and even kill others to protect the honor of their Empire.

Instead of seeing everyone alive as someone Christ loved dearly enough to die for, many of them openly express their hate for people of other faiths, and make no attempt to veil their contempt for those who oppose them, or their Nation, or even their Political ideology.

Instead of laying down their lives and their rights so that those who are without Christ might see a living example of His radical love, many who claim to follow Jesus attempt to cut people off from God's grace simply because they are "sinners"; forgetting that Jesus was a friend of sinners and spent most of his time among them in fellowship.

Many Christians today are deeply and profoundly offended by the idea that Jesus loves terrorists, and homosexuals, and communists, and transgender people, and those who simply think differently than they do about God, or Politics, or Theology.

If those early Christians were like the people who wear His Name today, they would have tortured or killed someone like Saul of Tarsus before he ever had an opportunity to be changed, or to write most of our New Testament.

I'm so glad they weren't like us. I just wish that we were more like them.

The truth is, we cannot say we love God if we do not love others. 

That means, I love God as much as I love the poor.

I love God as much as I love the homosexual.

I love God as much as I love my enemy.

What if, at the final judgment, Jesus identified you as a sheep or a goat based on how well you had loved your enemy?

Is there any reason to think that He won't? He warns us that on that day He will divide us by groups into those who showed mercy and love to the outcast, and those who did not.

Jesus also said that not everyone who called him "Lord", would enter His Kingdom. Only those who do what He said to do. 

Loving our enemies is one of the clearest and most unmistakable commands Jesus gave us.

"Why do you call me ‘Lord, lord’ and do not do what I say?"

Are we so sure that our attitudes about others are justified? Are we certain that Jesus won't expect us to have embraced His call to love others as He has loved us?

The Gospel of the Kingdom is simply about submission to Christ as Lord. If He is truly Lord, then we can love as He commanded and not worry about the outcomes. 

It's time we untamed our Christianity. 

Let us return to a wild, unbridled pursuit of the radical Messiah who challenged us to live outside our comfort zones.

Let us defy the status quo and begin to love with more audacity and abandonment than anyone would consider feasible.

Let us resolve to hate no one - to condemn no one - to shame no one.

Let us take up our crosses, set our eyes on the One who would rather die than live without us, and follow in His footsteps towards a Kingdom that is already in the making.

"Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:15) 

[Subversive Radio Podcast] Review: American Sniper

A few thoughts after watching the film, "American Sniper" and the slow death of the myth of redemptive violence.

INTERVIEW: Brandon Chase and Keith Giles talk about "Love, Fear and Nonviolence"

Brandon Chase interviewed me on his Real Life Radio podcast. This is the raw video of the conversation we had together about the barriers that keep many Christians from fully embracing Jesus' message of radical love and nonviolence - Nationalism, Old Covenant Christianity, and Fear (which casts out Perfect Love).

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Jesus makes it clear that love is a high priority in His Kingdom.

The Greatest Commandment? To love God.
The Second Greatest Commandment? To love our neighbor as ourselves.
The Mark of Genuine Faith? They will know we are Christians by our love.
How do we know that we are children of God? When we love even our enemies.
What's greater than hope and faith? Love is greater.
What Spirit has God given us? A spirit of love and of power and a sound mind.
What is so great that it surpasses knowledge? The love of Christ.
What is the first fruit of the Spirit? Love.
How do we overcome evil? With love.
What is the nature of our obedience to Jesus? Love.
What hopes all things, believes all things and endures all things? Love.

Out of the 58 "One Anothers" in the New Testament what do more than half of them say? "Love one another".

Love is a big deal for those who are following Jesus.

Without love, we are nothing.

I've always wondered why the greatest heresy in the Christian church isn't a failure to love extravagantly as Jesus commanded and as the Apostles urged us to do more than 25 times in the New Testament.

Love is our mantra. Love is our theme. Love is our tattoo.

Let love reign.

-kg

[VIDEO PODCAST] Episode 1: Dan Notti and Keith Giles: When Jesus Leaves The Church

My friend Dan Notti and I had an interesting conversation about what happens when the Church leaves the house and spills out into the world.

Our dialog begins with Dan's reaction to joining our house church family as we served breakfast and shared the Gospel with our friends at the Motel Church in Santa Ana.

From there, we began to wonder what might happen if the Church made a habit of being both outwardly and inwardly focused. 

Listen and share your thoughts and reactions in the comments below.

We'd love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for future Video Podcast conversations.

Follow Dan Notti at his BLOG

Thanks,

-kg

[Subversive Radio Podcast] BEWARE: New Revelation vs The Gospel

New Revelation is exciting, but what about the old Gospel Story? Where does that fit in?

FILM REVIEW: STAINED GLASS RAINBOWS

I have a lot of great friends. One of them is Kent Williamson. He was the first guy to introduce me to Christian Alternative Rock music when I was in college. He played bass later on in my Christian Rock Band. He's probably the reason I ended becoming a walking encyclopedia of 90's Alternative Rock Music, which is why I got my job at Diamante Music Group about 20 years ago, which is why I ended up moving to California.

It's a pretty amazing thing.

And now, I am blessed to watch his latest documentary film: "Stained Glass Rainbows".

This film will not serve to reinforce your views on this topic - regardless of what your views may be.

Director Kent Williamson has assembled an excellent cross section of subjects to interview for his film - from Westboro Baptist Church "God Hates Fags" Christians, to "I'm Ok/You're Ok" Liberal Christian Pastors, and everything in between.

By that I mean: Christians who are gay and struggle with it as part of their sinful nature, and Christians who are gay and feel that it is part of who their loving Jesus made them to be.

Everyone interviewed brings a fresh, and challenging range of ideas and thoughts to the table. No one stands out as having all of the right answers, and some of the most profound statements made come from the mouths of those whom you would probably find yourself surprised to agree with.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who is a Christian and is interested in understanding every possible angle of this dialog.

Even if this film doesn't change your mind, it will certainly move the needle closer to the heart of understanding what it means to be gay, and to be a Christian, and how our calling to love one another can be more fully and perfectly practiced within the Body of Christ.

To learn more, and to buy your copy of the DVD for your church or home group discussion go to www.StainedGlassRainbows.com

Love and Sacrifice

I awoke this morning with a fragment of a dream in my head. I got up and went into our den. It was around 3:30 a.m. or so.

I knelt down in front of our sofa and started to pray about what I had seen and it began to unfold for me.

Whether it was a dream, or a vision, or just an idea that was playing itself out in my head visually, I'm not sure, but this is what I saw:

I walked into a convenience store. It was night time. There was a man standing in the middle of the store with a mask over his head. He was holding a gun and pointing it at the store clerk.

When the man with the gun saw me walk in, he turned and pointed the gun at my head. He pressed the barrel to my forehead. I heard him cock the hammer on the weapon with his thumb. It made a loud "click".

Then the man spoke to me these words: "Give me the password to your blog our I'll kill you."

My reaction was about the same as yours: Huh?

But the more I meditated on this the more I understood what it was all about.

I have seen it happen more than once in my lifetime. There are some who get a taste of fame and develop a large following on their blog, or through their podcast, and they start to neglect their family - their wife, their children - in favor of nurturing that "ministry."

It can be very difficult to realize that you're sacrificing your family for your own selfish ego, especially if you couple all of that with a "brand new revelation from God" that you - and you alone - seem to have a finger on.

Honestly, I have known many people who are willing to sacrifice their marriage for their fanbase.

Oh, trust me, they would never put it in those words. Never.

But they would say that their wife just doesn't see the vision, or that the Enemy is attacking them because they alone can see the Truth, or something along those lines.

Let me say, here and now: My wife is more important to me than my blog. I would never allow my podcast, or my pursuit of more "likes" and "shares" and "comments" to overshadow my family, or my marriage.

At least, I sincerely hope I wouldn't.

Honestly, I can understand how this happens. Last year I wrote a blog post about the "Blood Moon Hoax". On a normal blog post I may get a few hundred hits in a week or two. But in that case I got about 10,000 hits - in a single week.

So, what did I do? I wrote another post about the End Times. Why? Because, obviously, this was a topic that a LOT of people were interested in.

Then, I did a podcast about it. And then I did another blog post about the book of Revelation.

Why did I do all of that? Because I got addicted to all those crazy hits, and "likes" and "follows".

But then I realized that writing about those topics isn't what God had called me to do. It had become all about pleasing an audience rather than writing what was really at the core of my own personal calling and convictions.

So, I can understand how sometimes people can get blinded by all of that and lose perspective.

If people were sending me thousands of dollars to support my ministry, and flying me around the country to speak at their conferences or church events, and cheering me on via social media and singing my praises, that would be pretty intoxicating.

And then if Wendy didn't "get it" or wanted me to stay home and spend more time with the family, I could understand how it might be easy to write her reaction off as "the Enemy's tactics" or just dismiss her lack of enthusiasm as a lack of faith.

Of course, none of that is happening to me right now. And I pray that if it ever does I am wise enough, and humble enough, to lay it all down and walk away.

I have also seen Pastors, and Evangelists, and Prophets, and Teachers neglect their children, and their marriages, for the sake of the Ministry. They see it as some great sacrifice that God requires of them because of their special calling. They consider it to be some sort of Abraham and Isaac scenario where God is testing their love and commitment to Himself by requiring them to place their family and their marriage on the back burner.

It's a lie.

God does not require us to neglect our family in order to serve Him. He does not expect us to spend hours with total strangers while we starve our own children of love and our own wives of our affection.

Our families are not a distraction from our ministry. They are a huge part of our ministry. This is why Paul says that those who cannot take care of their own households should not be considered for ministry within the Body.

Our ministry starts at home. If I can't love my wife and my children as Jesus loves the Church (and gave Himself up for it), then how can I love anyone else?

So, for the record:

This blog is not more important to me than my wife.

My podcast is not more important to me than my family.

My internet fame (such as it is) is not worth more to me than my own sons.

I would lay it all down, give it all up, in a heartbeat, to save my marriage and salvage my family.

A wise man once told me, "If the ministry won't survive without you, then it's not God's ministry, it's yours."

God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. I chose grace over pride.

Anyone willing to sacrifice their wife, or their family, for their ministry is choosing pride.

Can their fall from grace be very far behind?


-kg

Guest Post: Steve Kline

Contemplating how love and fear are opposites, Steve Kline took a few liberties with 1 Corinthians 13 and wrote the following:

Love sees the best in people and fear sees the worst.

Fear is impatient and is evil; fear envies and lusts for what others have; 
fear parades the self for all to see; fear puffs up; fear is rude, disrespectful, and demeaning, 
fear seeks its own gain, fear is provoked and brings the self under the control of what is feared; 

Fear thinks evil continuously; fear rejoices in iniquity and lawlessness; fear rejoices in lies;
fear is impatient, it bears nothing and demands everything now; 
fear believes nothing and is skeptical of everyone; 

Fear despairs and says all is lost; 
fear waits for nothing and takes action immediately.

I have acted in that fear. Sadly, I still do. 

But, praise God I'm learning more and more to walk by, with, and in, Christ.

[Subversive Radio Podcast] Fear, Shame and Love

If perfect love casts our all fear, then why do so many Christians continue to live out of their fears?

 

Fearless

So, as I’m drilling down to uncover why so many of those who profess to know Christ are comfortable with killing, and torture, and war, I’ve discovered something: It turns out that what we really seem to lack is an abiding connection to the love of Christ in our daily, walking around lives.

At least, I cannot personally fathom how anyone who was abiding in Christ – who is Agape love incarnate – could look at another person made in the image of God and condone their torture, or approve of their death, or justify their suffering – even if it was in the best interest of our nation.

Not only are we disconnected from the love of Christ ourselves – and lacking in love for one another – we are also more often ruled by our fears than by our confidence in our Lord Jesus.

The truth is, our world is inundated with a continual, abiding fear. We are immersed in fear. We are surrounded by it. It is nearly inescapable in our culture today.

Don’t believe me? Just watch the evening news and count how often the word “fear” is used. Listen for how many times the news anchors refer to people who are afraid, or who are horrified, or terrified, etc. and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Then pay attention to the TV shows you watch. Notice how often fear is used to motivate everyone’s actions. Or how those real-life mystery shows train you to suspect your spouse or to mistrust your neighbors.

It’s on the Internet too. Just the other day I posted this on social media:

“Fear says: Buy bigger guns, locks and dogs to protect yourself. Love says: Welcome friend. What's mine is yours.”

The reaction I received to that was this: “Easy enough to say until you’re watching some thug rape your wife or daughter.”

Wow. Instant, automatic fear response. (And, yes, this was from a Christian).

Our choice is simple: We either decide to remain in a place of fear – and then we make decisions that flow from that fear – OR we decide to live in the love of Christ and then we make decisions that flow from Him and His love.

Let’s not kid ourselves here, we cannot do both.

Either we put our hope in Christ and we walk in His love, or we walk in fear and we live our lives as people who must manage those fears.

Let’s consider this for a moment: Could someone who honestly put their hope in Christ ever live in continual fear? Of course not! And someone who is led by their fears can’t – at the same time – be completely trusting the Lord and placing their hope in Him. The two are mutually exclusive.

As I’ve said once before, Jesus came and introduced us to something called “The Good News (or Gospel) of the Kingdom” and it is about complete submission and daily reliance upon Christ.

We either follow the Way of the World (which involves fear, and violence, and torture, and power, etc.), or we follow the Way of Christ (which involves trust, and love, and humility and service to others, etc.).

We cannot follow the Way of the World and the Way of Christ at the same time. It’s like saying that you’re going to get in your car and drive East and West at the same time. It can’t be done.

Either go one way or the other, but you can’t do both because one path will take you in the opposite direction from the other one.

Why am I writing about fear? Because fear is the flip side of the coin from love. We’re told that “Perfect love casts out all fear.” (1 Jn. 4:18) And I believe that if we cling to our fears we’ll also experience less love and suffer from the effects of that deficiency.

Anyone who doubts this can simply look around you. Our world is not following the Way of Christ. It is saturated with fear. It is ruled by fear. It is all about power and control and exploitation and selfishness. 

Jesus came and died to demonstrate a better way. That’s what we call the Good News. 

It means we can abandon those ways of being and start living a different way – a Heavenly way. It means we can actually be transformed from within by His incredible love and His amazing Holy Spirit into people who are not ruled by fear any longer.

Because we put our continual hope in Jesus we can love without fearing pain. We can trust without fearing violence. We can give without fearing poverty. We can share without fearing guilt.

As followers of Jesus, we have to say no to fear and yes to love. We have to repent and turn away from the way of the world. We have to put our hearts into His capable hands and begin to trust Him with everything. We have to start learning how to walk in love and to leave fear behind us for good.

Abiding in Christ means abandoning fear. The only thing that casts out all fear is His perfect love. When we are filled with his love there is no more room for fear. When His love fills us, we can’t help but love everyone around us – even our enemies.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:16-19)

Shameless

 

 

I’ve noticed something lately that has been disturbing me. Not that the behavior itself is anything new – it’s certainly not – but that I am now beginning to notice it and react in a different way.

Whenever someone says or does something that the other person finds objectionable, there is an automatic reply of “Shame on you!”

I used to write this off as simply one way to respond to someone you disagree with. But lately I’ve started to realize that it’s quite inappropriate. Especially from one Christian to another.

Here’s why.

Jesus came to remove our shame. On the cross he took all of our shame upon us. He suffered, bled and died to wash away all of our shame. When it was all done, he threw back his head and shouted, “It is finished!”

Now, when another Christian expresses an opinion you disagree with, is it appropriate to smear that shame back on them once again?

Absolutely not.

We are free from shame. We should not place shame back on one another, nor should we allow another person to place shame back on our shoulders now that Christ has washed us clean.

No shame on me. No shame on you. No shame on anyone.

There is no shame.

Just look at the way Jesus interacted with the people in his day who were considered shameful and you’ll see that shame is not something Jesus ever recognizes.

 

He sees no shame in the Samaritan woman at the well, even though she had many husbands.

 

He sees no shame in the face of the woman with the issue of blood who was too afraid to even approach him and ask for healing.

 

He sees no shame in the Roman centurion who didn’t consider himself worthy to come to Jesus in person when his servant was sick.

 

Jesus treats zealots, and prostitutes, and drunkards, and lepers, and everyone else whom that society saw as shameful with complete dignity and respect and love.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

Disagree if you want. But do not attempt to put shame on one another. Jesus washed that off long ago and we stand now as those who have been made whole, and clean, and totally free.

No shame.

-kg

 

 

Video Round Table: Who Decides in Organic Church?

Neil Cole, Jon Zens, Richard Jacobson, Dan Herford and Keith Giles share their thoughts about how decisions are made in Organic Church community.

This conversation rounds out the "blogalogue" series of posts on this same topic.

Enjoy!

[Subversive Radio Podcast] Jesus In Samaria

The people in the little Samaritan town didn't ask for a sign or a miracle, but simply received Jesus with open hearts. How could that be? Join us as we look at this extraordinary event in the life and ministry of Jesus and see what it can teach us about our own walk with Him.

[Subversive Podcast] Constantine: Violence and Hierarchy

Some Christians will only admit that Constantine was either the one who brought the Church into a Pro-Violence Nationalism, or a Clergy-Laity Divide, but not both.

In this podcast we'll look at how Constantine's influence was directly responsible for leading the Church away from two of Jesus' main teachings:
"You are all brothers" and "Love your enemies."

See also:
Biblical Scholarship In Support Of Non-Hierarchy

Interview: Scott Bartchy (Part 2)

The Disciples on Leadership and Hierarchy

Get Busy Living

Welcome to the New Year!

As I was reflecting on this new year earlier this morning, I realized something a little bit frightening: The beginning of a new year signifies that we have less time than we started with to start living the life we wanted to live.

In other words, with another year behind us, we have less time ahead of us to allow Jesus to live and breathe in us the way He deserves to - and the way we want Him to.

I couldn't help but remember these words: "If you stopped learning today you wouldn't live long enough to put into practice all that you already know."

And it's true. The time for learning new information about Jesus is - for most of us - long over. And the time for putting into practice what we already know that Jesus commanded us to do is now at hand.

But most of us would rather continue to be Biblicists; reading and learning and studying and then re-learning and re-studying, and taking notes until Jesus comes back.

But Jesus isn't coming back for people who know stuff about Him. It's why He said: "Why do you call me 'Lord, lord' and do not do what I command?" [Luke 6:46]

It's why He also said: "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." [John 13:17]

Because what Jesus wants us to understand is that having the information about the Gospel is worthless if you do not obey the Gospel.

In other words, it's not how much information about Jesus we have. It's what we do with that information once we have it.

The great Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard put it this way:

"The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly."

He's right, you know. Just the other day I read a comment from someone who claimed to be a Christian, yet attempted to suggest that the words of Jesus were just too difficult for anyone to understand easily. This person wasn't saying that we should all keep on studying and learning so we could eventually understand Jesus. Not at all. He was saying this to justify NOT knowing what Jesus meant and therefore seeking to escape those commands that seemed too hard for him.

Ultimately, it's not about what you or I do, anyway. The point is not to "live a life for Jesus". That's honestly impossible. 

What Jesus wants us to do is to stop trying to live for Him and start allowing Him to live in us.

Until Jesus is alive in you - living and breathing within - you are not alive anyway. Remember: "Apart from me you can do nothing" [John 15:5]

So, as we stand at the beginning of a brand new year, let's not ask ourselves "What can I do for God?" but let's ask, "What could God do with someone who was totally and completely surrendered to Him?"

That's the Gospel of the Kingdom. One life, totally surrendered to His rule and reign.

Can we take that step? Can we begin, right now, to let Jesus have His way with us? Can we lay down our lives and let Him live in us by His Spirit?

Honestly, that's what Jesus came and died for - all of you! Not just a little piece of you, but every single part - even (and even especially) that part of yourself that you are most afraid of surrendering to Him.

He is trustworthy. He won't mess up your life. Instead, He will give you real, abundant life, starting the moment you let go of this dead, empty shell we call "life".

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” [Matt. 16:25-26]

Make the most of the days you have left. Let go of your life and surrender it fully to Jesus. There's no better time than now to start.

-kg

[Subversive Radio Podcast] The Didache: Ch. 14-16

We finish up the Didache study in this podcast with a look at "The Lord's Day", "The Appointing of Overseers and Servants", and instructions about "Watching over your life".

Jar of Remembrance

Last night our family sat down together and took turns pulling little slips of paper out of a glass jar. On each one was a date and a detail about how God had either surprised us with His favor, or answered a prayer, or revealed His love for us over the last 12 months.

It was beautiful to hear, again, how much the Lord has been faithful to us, and how much He has lavished His great love upon us, day after day.

How he provided extra time for my oldest son to complete his assignments in school, or how he provided an opportunity for my youngest son to join the leadership team at a local youth group, or how he faithfully protected my sister-in-law as she went through surgery and emerged cancer-free, or how he showered my wife with his inexpressible grace at just the right moment, or how that check came in the mail just in time for us to pay that bill.

Now that jar is empty. It sits on a small table in our den, waiting to be refilled with all the blessings and miracles of 2015.

I can't wait to see what God does next.

-kg