This week, I dreamed of a visit by Jesus to Earth. I saw a large restaurant/bar before me. Around it hovered a cloud of dust that hung like smoke. From the building came the sound of many voices in mingled conversation. I had the sense that the people inside were of this world's system and not of those who knew Jesus as Lord. Jesus stepped up to the outside of the building and began to blow with his lips. The dust gradually dissipated until the air was clear. He started to speak to the people that were inside. He was not angry, but he spoke with a firm voice. At first, no one heard him. As he continued to speak, people started to hear his voice until all were silent.
I could not make out what he was saying, but his tone was amazing. He spoke with an authority that made it easy to yield to him. As I stood listening, I bowed my heart before him. It occurred to me that I would be happy to spend forever listening to the sound of his voice. It made me feel very secure inside. Once he was done speaking to the people in the building, he approached me briefly. I do not have a clear understanding of what he did next in the dream, but what he did carried a clear meaning: Jesus is not religious at all. As the dreamed ended, I was saying, "I might have to give up my religion". I had discovered that Jesus was something more than I had imagined him to be, and I knew that I would have to let go of what I wrongly thought what he was.
Growing up as a Christian, I knew that Jesus was not like those of this world's system, those that we call "worldly people". So, I imagined that he had to be like us Christians. After all, we are his representatives to a lost world, so he must be like us. I do not believe that I ever thought it explicitly, but it seemed to be a logical assumption. The truth that I get from my dream is this: Jesus is not worldly but neither is he religious. Generally, I would consider myself to be very non-religious, but my proof is only that I am less in this way or that way than those folks from the church across town. To be honest, that sounds a little like the self-righteous man who justified himself before God because he was not like worldly people.
Jesus is not like us. God is in the process of shaping our inner person to resemble Jesus' character, and we are called to represent him. In spite of those facts, I am not very like him, nor do I represent him well to others. Do not get me wrong. I often think that he belongs my school of thought. I congratulate myself inside that I represent him better than some other folks. The reality though is that he does not think the way that I do. He is not religious like I am.
As Father begins to pour out his Spirit about the Earth, Jesus will encounter both the worldly and the believing. We are going to find out very quickly that he is everything that he says is and yet far different that what we confidently believed he was. We have compared him to ourselves and have believed that he is just like us. We are about to find out just how wrong we were and how wonderful he actually is. As we start to receive a deeper revelation of who Jesus is, we will either be so offended that we will hate him or we will be changed to resemble him as he truly is. He is not religious like we are today, and he is coming to strip religion from us.
Showing posts with label self-righteousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-righteousness. Show all posts
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
Does not Envy
Love does not envy, yet I have always struggled with envy inwardly. The form of Christianity that I have lived out most of my life made it shameful to be incomplete or immature. To be holy was to hide my flaws by putting on a perfect performance. It was to present my righteous acts as though they were the whole of me. Of course, the Bible says that all of our righteous works are like filthy rags in God's sight.
"But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." - Ephesians 4:20-24 (NKJV)
In our age of intellectualism, we have studied the Bible with a microscope until we have lost the heart of what was being communicated. Ephesians 4 instructs us to put off fleshly acts, to renew our mind, and to put on godliness. Paul follows this with a list of things that the reader needs to put off. It is too easy for us to extract verses and to depersonalize them. Paul was addressing stuff that was actually happening in the Ephesian church. The first three chapters of his letter deal with our identity in Christ. It is those truths that we must renew our minds with. Paul exposed the sin, and he did so in the light of our identity in Christ.
"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?" - Romans 2:1-3 (NKJV)
I am slowly learning that God is not ashamed of my weaknesses and flaws. It is the introduction to intimacy when I come into the light of his truth. His light exposes both the flaws and reveals his love for me. As painful as it is to admit my sins and shortcomings, it frees me from a greater bondage: self-righteousness. If I am honest about my struggles before God, it makes it harder for me to ascend a throne of judgement, a throne that positions me higher than my brother and my sister. Instead, I can sit with them in their struggles, not because I can fix them but because I can love them in their weakness.
"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16:11 (AMP)
Love does not envy, and though it is my struggle for today, God's process will lead me to a more complete intimacy with Jesus and with other believers. It is an ultimate revenge against sin when the very thing that caused me to hide from God in shame becomes the thing that leads to intimacy with God. By confronting a sense of inner lack, I begin to enter into the presence of the only One who can deeply satisfy me.
"But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." - Ephesians 4:20-24 (NKJV)
In our age of intellectualism, we have studied the Bible with a microscope until we have lost the heart of what was being communicated. Ephesians 4 instructs us to put off fleshly acts, to renew our mind, and to put on godliness. Paul follows this with a list of things that the reader needs to put off. It is too easy for us to extract verses and to depersonalize them. Paul was addressing stuff that was actually happening in the Ephesian church. The first three chapters of his letter deal with our identity in Christ. It is those truths that we must renew our minds with. Paul exposed the sin, and he did so in the light of our identity in Christ.
"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?" - Romans 2:1-3 (NKJV)
I am slowly learning that God is not ashamed of my weaknesses and flaws. It is the introduction to intimacy when I come into the light of his truth. His light exposes both the flaws and reveals his love for me. As painful as it is to admit my sins and shortcomings, it frees me from a greater bondage: self-righteousness. If I am honest about my struggles before God, it makes it harder for me to ascend a throne of judgement, a throne that positions me higher than my brother and my sister. Instead, I can sit with them in their struggles, not because I can fix them but because I can love them in their weakness.
"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16:11 (AMP)
Love does not envy, and though it is my struggle for today, God's process will lead me to a more complete intimacy with Jesus and with other believers. It is an ultimate revenge against sin when the very thing that caused me to hide from God in shame becomes the thing that leads to intimacy with God. By confronting a sense of inner lack, I begin to enter into the presence of the only One who can deeply satisfy me.
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