To Love is To Hate...

I love my favorite football team, I love a really good steak, I love a well crafted novel…In fact there are hundreds, maybe thousands of things that I “love”. It is probably the most played-out word in my vocabulary. It hit me the hardest after seven years of marriage when the mantra of “I love you, baby” started falling on deaf ears. It had been said and heard so much that her ears were numbed to its meaning. Maybe she wondered “does he love me like he loved that New York Strip we had at dinner, or maybe he loves me like he loves the “total stranger” quarterback on his favorite team.”

                  Then the real weight hit me when I was talking to God one afternoon. It was sweet moment of fellowship with Him when I whispered “I love you Lord”. The next thought in my head was “do I love Jesus like I love sleeping in on Saturday mornings?” Do I love Him like I love beating the high score on a Nintendo game?”  Do I love Him like I love a free upgrade to first class on a long flight, or like I love the sound a golf ball makes when you hit it just right?  Disgusted by the shallowness of my affection, I asked God “What does it mean to love you?”  I heard this so clearly in my heart, “TO LOVE ME IS TO HATE WHAT IS NOT ME.”

                  As a society we love sitcoms, hobbies, food, clothes; almost anything can be labeled by love. So it is easy to tell God we “love him.” Just like it’s easy to tell the barista at Starbucks that we would love a low-fat caramel macchiato.  We’ve so abused that word that it virtually means nothing. So when God commands us to love the Lord with all our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies; we say no problem. But there is a real problem, because in turn we must also hate anything that is not of Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and body.

                 

                  Hate is not a word that gets thrown around as much. It is not as distorted in its meaning as love is. So it paints a truer picture in our hearts of where we stand. Do you hate Greed? Do you despise disobedience? Do you loath lust? It’s not so easy to answer those questions as haphazardly. Would you rather die than gossip about your neighbor’s short comings? Would you rather pluck out your own eyes then imagine what’s under that mini-skirt? Would you rather amputate your hand then raise it in anger to your spouse or kids?  Now, ask yourself honestly do we really love Him?

                  Here’s the answer….Your love for Him can be measured by the same degree that you hate sin!

                  Would you rather never speak another word; then tell a joke you know He disapproves of?  Would you rather be “entertained” or enter in to His Glorious Presence? Would you gladly embrace the pain of telling the truth or escape into the ease of a lie?  Is being right more important to you then being righteous? Would you rather have Him, or your next fix?

                  I know it’s a lot of questions but I want you to think about all of these.

                  Can you recite this sports season statistics, but not the secrets in His scripture?  Do you spend more time in the mirror putting on make up, then in His word putting on the armor of God? Do you really hate the very secular song that is stuck in your head right now?

                  So Do we really Love Him???

Personally I would have to answer that, not as much as I thought I did.

                  Now the last question is. Do you really WANT to love Him?

                  If your answer is yes, Jesus died to give you that privilege. Just stop playing games and tell Him the truth. You are where you are. Only He can change that, but only you can let Him. Religion has taught us to stop being honest with ourselves and to put on a mask. But you can’t see God’s face till you take the mask off yours. In living the religious life we have robbed ourselves of true transformation.  This is how it is supposed to work. This is the way God intended our journey towards Him to progress. We draw near to God and He draws near to us. When we draw near to Jesus, He reveals our sin to us; we repent, or let me use a better word we CHANGE (only by His Grace). Then we take another step into the depths of His splendor, and He reveals even more of our sin to us. So we CHANGE again and again and again. This is the process from Glory to Glory to Glory. So don’t be discouraged by the things that have separated you from true intimacy with Him. Just repent, receive His empowerment and CHANGE. That is how you will come to truly love Him and to hate what He hates. We get there by confessing we’re not there yet, and then submitting to His leading and following Him to our destiny in His arms.

The Mirror

(Jas 1:23-24)  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Has the standard fallen…has the muse stopped whispering wisdom across the fading frequency of faith.  Being deaf isn’t an issue when all you’re listening to is inside your own head. Excuses come easy when the only voice of reason, is reasoned away. And everything makes perfect sense, when filtered through perfect nonsense.  Perception is reality! As we believe in our hearts so are we (Proverbs 23:7), and unfortunately as we don’t believe in our hearts so will we never be.

Ok, Ok, we all instinctively know how dim and dark the current church is….We all know that this is not the best God could come up with for His people.  So I could join again the chorus of voices screaming in disheartening harmony how terrible of a darkness has fallen over us, but the best at describing the darkness, never produced a single ray of light . And the seeds of hope have never grown in the poisoned soil of pessimism. But, and this is a big BUT, even a “half full” glass of water, won’t extinguish the fire of Hell burning in the fallen hearts of mankind. And leaders with rose colored glasses, pushing all-inclusive resort style salvation, lost their way when they dropped their crosses. Neither extreme offers answers, neither the “all is blue skies group” nor the “sky is falling camp” have opened the heavens in our hearts.

So where the answer….It is in the mirror.

I have a double meaning with the statement above.  First off YOU have an anointing and need that no man teaches you (1 John 2:27), because the answer if you have yielded your heart completely to Jesus is inside of you. We should all stop waiting for next best-selling self help book to transform our paradigm, because what I have come to see, after watching a parade of self-help, next best thing, “revelations” hit store shelves.  Is most of the time the only self that is helped is the author’s wallet, and reputation. Why, because you can’t expect to see your reflection in someone else’s mirror.  Moses can’t climb the mountain for you, because the tablets he brings back will only become law to you.  Ministries should stop trying to produce mini-me’s of the preacher, and start introducing their congregations to the only one worthy of imitation…Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:1). We must all encounter our own burning bush, and hear the words for ourselves that proceed from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Anything less than this will cause dependency on a man, instead of confidence in Christ. That is why the apostle Paul exhorts us with these words, “I know IN WHOM I have believed, and I’m persuaded He is able…” (2^nd Timothy 1:12).

I feel I have to stress this as not to offend clergy, authors, and the avid consumers of the like; books, DVD, sermons aren’t bad within themselves, But (another big one) when they are the vehicle of our revelation instead of the confirmation of it, they become Idols and separate us from Jesus. When we are led by the Spirit and they strengthen our faith, by community, or affirmation of what we are hearing in our own spirits. They are wonderful tools, but tools offer no help, if the destiny we are building is off God’s blueprint for someone else. It took me a long time to get this…I can’t read my way to my destiny, I can’t listen my way to the mountain top of His purpose for my life. I must take up my cross and DIE, my calling is on the other side of my coffin (Luke 9:23).  It’s easier then we try to make it, we don’t need literature or long-winded pep talks…We need to encounter our Maker at the crucifixion of our own way. We need give up our quest to be something, and become nothing (John 3:30). Let’s let Jesus be transfigured in our hearts, from the image that others have created into who he actually is….Now again the question… How?

So again the answer is……The Mirror.

The Mirror of his pure, unadulterated, uninterrupted word, it will reflect who He is and who you are.  We are to be just a mirror image of Jesus Christ. When he shines His glorious light into our hearts we reflect it back into the darkness of our day (Matthew 5:16), and all the sudden we no longer have to describe how bad it is, because we now display how good He is, and His goodness will lead this world to repentance…to truth (Romans 2:4). That’s why God gave us the bible, because it doesn’t have a bad day, it doesn’t have its own agenda. It’s not pushing for royalty checks, or status and rank. It’s not concerned with the amount of people in the pews, or change in the offering. It is however dedicated to the change in our spirits.  Jesus said he did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34)(Luke 2:35)(Ephesians 6:17). He came to bring the sword of the Spirit, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

Sounds like a perfect mirror to me. On the other hand we have spent so much time gazing into this world’s “Fun House Mirror”, and we have created our identities based upon the distorted reflections it has shown us. Its “magic mirrors” have told our daughters that there value is equal to their bra size; it has told our sons that life is counted in the notches in their bed posts, or commas in their salary. It has displayed us as a handicapped humanity. It has defined us by the color of our skin, and the amount of letters after our names. Yet the mirror of Jesus’ word cuts through all of distortion, and reflects our created nature (Acts 17:29).  Have you ever seen the old 80’s milk commercials when a scrawny 90 pound pre-pubescent teen stands before a full size mirror and tells the homecoming queen cheerleader…that he might not be “much now”, but he’s drinking milk. And then the mirror displays a 250 pound, 3 percent body fat stud.

As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,(1^st Peter 2:2).

I would say the same to all eyes gazing into the mirror of the words you just read. You might not be “much now” but keep drinking the milk of the word of God, let it nourish your troubled soul, and look into its mirror and see what you will be with the infilling of Gods unending grace (Hebrews 12:28). The Church might not be “much now”, but it will be pure and spotless at his coming.

The answer is in the Mirror of being honest with yourself, and picking up the only accessory that compliments the wardrobe of a warrior….His cross. The answer is in staring endlessly into the Mirror of His holy word and letting it transform you into a polished reflection of the brilliant light our Master longs to unleash into the shadows of the souls of men. And then we will be the enlightened ones who will shine truth into the recesses of refracting, rebellious, religion: the ones revealing who Jesus really is to this world.

Organic Christanity

\“This is the undiluted hope of the gospel, the good news of the organic opportunity to be his Holy and Spotless Bride.”

James 1:17 … [The] Father of lights, with whom there is NO VARIATION OR SHADOW OF TURNING.

John 14:30 …for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has NOTHING in Me.

We live in a world that screams that there are no absolutes. A world looking for shelter from its conscience, in the grey areas of life: the places between black and white truth; which excuse allegiance, and promote indecision. Right and Wrong have been replaced with the hybrid of tolerance and relativism. We are told to question everything, except those who tell us to question everything. Our new society condemns any who would define Truth in specific terms. Instead society chooses the path of appeasement, enabling its people to believe, that belief in nothing at all…amounts to something.

Morals and values are termed “Old Fashioned” in an attempt to belittle integrity and equate faith to fable.  The atmosphere of acceptance has settled over our spirits and minds like a thick fog, and seeing we no longer see, and hearing we no longer hear (Matt 13:13). We deify the frailty of our own understanding and follow our feelings; enthroning our assumption and theory in a kingdom of politically correct, blissful ignorance.  All the while agreeing only to bring one sacrifice to our alters: TRUTH.

Even religious people have become entangled with this perception creating one of the greatest industries the world has ever known…… the lukewarm church. We have mixed the worldview of the cold and callused with the fire of an eternal God, and end up a tepid institution with multiple personality disorder: dying from the disease we are supposed to be the cure for. We are intertwined within a spaghetti culture where reality suffocates under wishful thinking, and where Disney world optimism substitutes heavenly insight.

Instead of a pure, clean, organic Christianity, we subscribe to a brand containing our own man made additions; self-preservatives, religious fillers, and the artificial colorings of our own emotional hype. Our salt has lost its flavor (Mat 5:13), so we season our services with synthetic sermons, and imitation splenda-style sacrifice.  We substitute the grand Holiness of an organic God, with the empty “faith free”, god-zero variety of our own way, and wonder why in “taste-tastes”  (Psalms 34:8) we can’t compare. Our “diet-right” morality has crippled our cause, and our leaven additive (Mat 16:6), pseudo-spiritual, hype-injected version leaves us powerless and deceived.

But there is a better way. There is an Organic Christianity: a caged-free; Spirit-Fed style of intimacy with our creator. A true, all-natural, nothing added relationship with the God of all eternity is available to us all; it was paid for by the pure, sinless, holy blood of our Savior. He is the one and only absolute God who created the universe, who is all powerful, and all knowing, and still concerns himself with numbering the hairs on our head. A God who dwells in inapproachable light, with no variation or shadow of turning; lets discuss what this means.

To call something Organic means that it is undiluted, wholesome, and uncontaminated. God is just that, perfect. Jesus said the ruler of this world (Satan) is coming and he has NOTHING in me. Jesus was saying I am faultless, I am pure, I am untainted by anything evil. There is not a hint, a trace, a speck of anything other than good in God.  Jesus’ absolute power comes from his absolute purity. Just as the higher the octane of gasoline, the more power it provides, and the more concentrated a cleaner the greater its potency. The higher the proof the stronger the drink, the purer the gold the greater its value; the same is true of the character of our Lord; His supreme authority is a by-product of His supreme purity.

Thus contrasting and exposing the source of humanities hypocrisy, our weakness comes from the mixture of the mundane with the miraculous. Just as James says, a double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8), and fresh and bitter water can’t come from the same spring (James 3:11). The fusion of faith and fallacy is why we are not the church God intends us to be. We have a concocted blend of Christianity, combining relationship with Jesus with the rebellion of our own way, and in doing so have robbed our generation of the power and the presence that come from His purity.  That is why God hates lukewarmness, because it is in complete conflict with who He is. It is the hot fire of God being diluted by the cold sin of this world.

God uses no exaggeration when he speaks, in fact, He cannot. Remember God said “Let there be light” and light appeared. It is hard for us to understand this about God, because we are so different, but His words are His actions (Is 55:11). We can say one thing and then do another, but God is not a man that he should lie (Num 23:19, Tit 1:2, Heb 6:8). So when He says “Be Holy as I am Holy” (1Pet 1:15), and “Be Perfect as I am Perfect” (Mat 5:38) His grace is available to achieve this, or he would be denying he own, word which He cannot do (2Tim 2:13). The same God that brought light forth with a word says this: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28). Jesus is saying His grace enables us to serve Him acceptably, His grace changes us from the lukewarm church that makes Him sick, to a glorious church that brings Him honor, and brings His uncompromised truth to every lost soul.

This is the undiluted hope of the gospel, the good news of the organic opportunity to be his Holy and Spotless Bride. To be “sin free” because He is “sin free”; it is not something we have earned or ever can earn.  It is the difference between the 87 octane unleaded of manmade religion and the righteous rocket fuel of a perfect God’s grace residing the tanks of our spirit. Our vehicles can go nowhere apart from the power of the fuel we impart to them. But ask yourself this next time you “pay the price” to fill up your car with the fuel it requires to reach its destination; how would you feel with the key turned in the ignition if nothing happen? You would call your vehicle broken but, our churches call it acceptable. The bible calls it clouds without rain, (Jude 1:12) advertising what they can’t deliver. It is having a form of godliness (being like God –literally holiness: Strong’s Dictionary) but denying it’s power (2Ti 2:15).We look like a vehicle that can drive the highway of holiness to our destiny, but we have mixed our sin with the purity of God and have “broken down on the side of the road”. Why? Because a little leaven, leavens the whole lump! Just like a little bad fuel corrupts the whole tank and stops us in our tracks. So we have the full measure of Jesus’ Spirit available to us, yet we can’t get “started’ to drive the evil from our communities, or transport the lost and hurting masses to their divine destination (even though the greatest price of all was already paid). The answer is to repent, to pour out of our hearts the idolatry, religion and rebellion that pollute our potential, and to be filled with the Organic Spirit Of God (Ephesians 5:18).

All things are possible to our Glorious God (Matthew 19:26). He is able to do more then we could ever think or imagine (Ephesians 3:30). Mountains could be moved if we would just believe (Matthew 17:20). He is offering us an infinite, limitless love affair with Him, to make us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37), to empower us to walk in undiluted Holiness right beside Him. Our decrypted world craves more than the, over processed, prepackaged, artificial answer we have given them. God is offering organic intimacy to anyone who will repent of the contamination inside of their heart. He has extended extravagant relationship to all who would deny the corrupted life of lukewarmness, and the pious pollution of our reprobate religion. We must cry aloud for our pretense to fall to His purity, and our filthiness to fade to His faithfulness; in doing so we will be full of the great grace, which gives us His divine nature to revolutionize this planet with His perfect presence.