Every Christian Is Called To Participate In God's Global Purpose: The Sequel

After enjoying Jeff Lewis' comments in the first session (see the previous entry) I returned to participate in the discussion on "The Context of Our Faith". In biblical studies we try not to take scripture out of context. In fact many theological debates arise because of an interpretation of a specific passage whose meaning might hinge on its context (I Cor 14 comes to mind).

This discussion aimed to examine the larger context, not of a specific passage of scripture, but, of the entire bible and, in fact, of our faith.

Jeff argued that almost every aspect of our religion can not properly be understood without understanding them in a global context.

For instance, you'll never understand God's blessings, if you don't understand them in a global context.

Gen 1.28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

God blesses intentionally and with purpose. God blesses his people as a strategy to reveal his glory to the nations, and to draw his creations into relationship with him. Gen 1.28 says God blessed Adam and Eve. The purpose is seen in the previous verse: Gen 1.27 So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. He blesses them with the ability to fruitfully procreate in order that his image bearers will go throughout the world, declaring his glory.

The first reference to God blessing gentiles is found in Gen 12.3 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." God tells Abram that he will be a blessing to ALL people. God blesses in Abram in order to let Abram bless all the nations. Gal 3.8 clearly makes that point: The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you."

One more example: Joshua 4.23,24 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."

Over and over again in scripture we can find this theme that God blesses his people in order that the whole world will be blessed and come to know him. He has a global purpose in his blessings.

You'll never understand salvation if you don't consider the global context. Despite what we like to say, Jesus is not our personal savior. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God's desire is to save the world.

Exodus 19.4-6 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I brought you to myself and carried you on eagle's wings. Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the nations of the earth; for [this hebrew preposition can be causal which could mean he is selecting a special treasure 'because' all the earth belongs to him - indicating his main purpose in having a special people is to use them to bless the world] all the earth belongs to me. And you will be to me a kingdom of priests, my holy nation.' Give this message to the Israelites."

1 Peter 2.9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Clearly God's people serve to deliver God's message of salvation to the world. Without the spreading of the gospel, the world will be a dark place.

You'll never understand worship if you don't consider the global context. Over a third of the psalms speak positively of the nations. It seems the point is that God is not some tribal deity or local god. He is the living God of all the people. The 10 plagues seem a bit like overkill if his point was merely to free the Jews. In fact, each plague was linked to one of the Egyptian gods, as if Jehovah was saying "I'm more powerful than that god," with the onset of each new plague. Jehovah God is the only God worthy of worship. All peoples are called to worship Him.

The discussion went on...

You'll never understand church if you don't consider the global context.

You'll never understand escatology if you don't consider the global context.

You'll never understand fellowship if you don't consider the global context.

You'll never understand prayer if you don't consider the global context.

...the point was well made.

God is intentional in his purposes and his strategies. All facets of our relationship with God are designed to somehow affect the entire world. He desires all his people.

Every Christian Is Called To Participate In God's Global Purpose

As promised (I know you've been on the edge of your seat) I'll quickly describe the breakout sessions I attended at the Ignite Conference. Jeff Lewis led discussions on "The Knowledge of God's Glory Among the Nations" and "The Context of Our Faith". Both sessions were fresh and enlightening.

Each discussion is usually a semester long dialogue under Jeff's direction so it was difficult to thoroughly discuss each topic, but we did manage to understand the thrust of his thoughts.

The premise of the first discussion was that God's glory is clearly communicated in Scripture, however Satan strives to blind people's eyes to the knowledge of that glory.

II Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Then, as Christians, it is our calling to be used as tools to unblind the unbelievers.

We do that primarily through Kingdom based communities.

Deut 4:5-9 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

Acts 2:42-47 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

In short, God's intention is for his people to live in community with one another, not only for their own benefit, but so that outsiders to the community will see the value and righteousness of the community and realize that it is a manifestation of God's glory. One might think, an outsider might not necessarily attribute the value and righteousness of the community to God's glory, but this theme is prevalent throughout scripture. God uses his people's community to expose his glory to others. Regardless of whether we think it effective, this is one of God's strategies to find reconciliation with his image bearers. I'll discuss this point a bit more in the next post (it's just cliffhanger after cliffhanger around here).

We are also used to unblind the unbelievers through our intimacy which leads to conformity to Jesus.

II Cor 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Rom 8:28-30 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

This tranforming conformation that occurs in Christians brings the characteristics of God's Spirit into the world so that all the nations can see God's glory. The transformation shows up in our lives in the form of the fruit of the Spirit. Those fruit are the characteristics of God and when we exhibit those characteristics in the name of the Christ, then God is glorified.

Finally, God uses spiritual awakenings/revivals (not tent revivals, but rare, large movements in cultures that bring people back to God) to awaken his people to his transcendent nature and to the reality of their condition before him, which leads to confession, repentence, and restoration, which results in authentic worship, obedience, and engagement in God's global purposes.

While three (or four) Great Awakenings have been identified in American Culture, God uses similar times of awareness in all cultures to draw his people closer to him.

I take a slight different stance than Jeff on this point. I think that God can use cultural events to draw masses to him, however, I have a hard time classifying these periods of time into "Great Awakenings" with beginning and end dates. I am convinced that God is always at work and constantly restoring his people. These period of "Great Awakenings" might be more faddish than God's work. Then again, God certainly may choose a 20 year period to really do some great things. What do I know?

These were the three main methods we discussed by which God uses his people to do the work of the unblinding of nonbelievers to the glory of God.

Ignited

The Ignite Church Leader Conference at Pinelake was fantastic. I wished others from Meadowbrook would have been able to attend. A meager 20 bucks and a few hours was well worth the inspiration, encouragement, and teaching that was available at the conference.

Bob Russell was the keynote speaker. He has a gift for humor and insightful teaching. At these sort of events, it seems you always come away with a few catch phrases that speak immeasurable truth. Indeed I did catch a few such phrases. I'll share one principle Bob Russell shared that I think made the weekend worthwhile: Churches can always recover from bad decisions; Churches can never recover from stagnation and lack of action.

The lesson there? Be haphazard in your decision making and actions? Certainly not. As church leaders, we need to pray hard and long about big decisions. We need to carefully consider all aspects of an issue. And then after we have discussed it and prayed about, let's have faith that the Spirit is working among us and guiding us to the will of the Father. Let's make a decision and take bold action. When we see where God is leading us, let's be faithful to Him and follow. Let's dream so big and set goals so high that without God in them we will certainly fail.

Bob told the story of South East Christian Church in Louisville, KY. He also gave a disclaimer, saying certainly God isn't only interested in numbers. Humans have a tendency to measure success of churches by attendance and giving numbers. While those things are important, they certainly aren't the end goal. What God is really interested in is our faithfulness in following His leading.

Another highlight of the weekend was the worship time. It's good for me to get to worship on occasion without also thinking about the queues and mechanics that are naturally present in body worship (body worship is my new term for corporate worship - I've decided corporate worship connotes a feeling of some sort of sterile, organizational behavior tied to the business/corporate world; I believe the sentiment we are trying to express in the term "corporate worship" can better be expressed by "body worship" or "family worship"). It was refreshing.

I'll talk a bit about the breakout sessions I attended in my next post. They were just as encouraging.

I'm an old fat man

Today Dixie kicked me out of the bed at 6:15 and made me go run. Not really...Well sort of...

I really want to start getting some exercise, and she helped motivate me to get out there and run. She is starting to run too, so we'll both be in better shape soon.

A few things I discovered during this morning's mile and a half run:
1. Mississippi is fairly humid.
2. Jack Johnson's "Good People"'s 88ish beats per minute is just slightly too fast for me to run with the beat.
3. Mississippi is very humid.
4. My body remembers how to run. I was proud to make the mile and a half in less than 12 minutes.
5. Running brings back a lot of memories of when I was in the USAF. Good times and bad. I hated running the flight line at Goodfellow AFB against 30 mph winds. Running along the beach in Monterey, CA was pretty nice though.
6. Jack Johnson's "Bubble Toes" has a tempo change that was just right for the home stretch sprint of .2M.
7. Mississippi is ridiculously humid.

...

This weekend Dixie and I are going to the Ignite Church Leader Conference at Pinelake Church. We're looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it goes.

KT Tunstall

Last night I downloaded KT Tunstall's latest album, and first American release, Eye To The Telescope. I highly recommend it. To get a taste of her music check out this video clip.

Meet the Teacher

Tonight was Isaac's "Meet the Teacher" night before he starts Kindergarten on Thursday. He is so excited it's like he's on speed or something. He can't walk anywhere - he only runs. Bouncing off the walls is an understatement. He is just so pumped about it that he can't calm down.

Tonight, we met his teacher, Mrs. Hancock. She seems like a nice lady and we've heard good things about her. We're looking forward to an exciting school year.

Isaac is pretty far ahead academically - he can read, add, subtract, multiply, tell time, count money, etc. - but Kindergarten will be a good experience for him socially. I hope he learns how to make friends, how to talk to adults, how to interact with people socially, and most importantly, how to treat others with respect and love.

From my brief encounter with Mrs. Hancock, I think she will foster an environment of love in that Kindergarten room. That is what I hope and pray she will be able to do.

At Isaac's age, academics are great, but learning how to love people is a principle I hope he masters for use throughout his lifetime.

11 years

Tomorrow Dixie and I will celebrate our 11th anniversary. First of all let me state the obvious: we are getting old. Ok, we aren't really getting old, but for two kids who fell in love when they were 16 and 17, we have come a long way.

When Dixie and I started dating she lived on Haymarket Street. I lived about 10 minutes away, but I could make the drive in about 3 minutes after I had squeezed out every minute I could stay with her and I was late for curfew and trying to get home quickly. I remember often trying to squeeze out every minute I could. Our time together was so precious to me.

Studies show that some of the most powerful memories are based on smells. That must be true. I can remember Dixie's perfume. I remember the smell of her little diesel Audi that we would sometimes drive on our dates. For some reason these are some of the strongest memories I have from our dating years.

I was surprised when Dixie first showed an interest in me. She was way out of my league. I know that's hard to fathom for some of you readers, but I haven't always been the fine specimen I am today. And she's always been a hottie. Anyway, through all this time she has loved me - and I am so grateful.

So tomorrow we celebrate 11 years of marriage together. I am glad she chose me. I would choose her again in a second. I choose her everyday.

I'm having fun growing older with her.

Here's to a great 11 years...going on 75.