It takes a transformed life to transform lives.

I haven't written in a while and wanted to take up this blog again. 

It takes a transformed life to transform lives.

The trouble with the status quo (a critique):

We (in the church) spend a great deal of effort on education, training, giving/receiving advice, studying the Bible, etc., that refine our thinking, but don't transform our lives. We worship and pray, but require that in doing so we are not made 'uncomfortable,' rather than demand that God's presence be made manifest. In our lives, if not our theology, we expect God to make our lives easier, rather than  expect that God wants to give us a much, much better life.

I'm speaking from within my own tradition (exaggerating things a bit to make a point), though I've seen the same tendencies among other theological and ecclesiastical traditions.

Where we put our efforts and our dollars demonstrate what we value - or at the very least distract us from our core values. We value the well-studied mind, the well-read man or woman, the one with extensive Bible knowledge. We love to learn stuff: specifically information. It is, at best, interesting. Jewels and nuggest of knowledge tantalize our minds like fine chocolate tantalizes the palate. In the end we divide over subtleties of theological thought, while remaining just as sinful, selfish, and unforgiving as we were before we were so richly informed.

Sometimes, as in the case of the so-called 'worship wars' we demonstrate quite clearly and forcefully that we're not interested in worship - at least not the worship of God. We're interested in our way of singing songs, our preferences for our order of service, our religious traditions, etc. - all arguments couched in theological jargon, but ultimately boiling down to: de gustibus no disputatum est (a Latin saying that roughly means: "when it comes to matters of personal taste, no argument persuades").

In everything from "health and wealth" gospel preaching, to praying for parking spaces, my team to win, and for my stock to come through, our prayers are not merely self-centered, but self-protecting. We want God to help us live our lives and it never occurs to us that God wants us to live the life He has for us. To be crude, we see God as our enabler, in the sense that an addict finds someone to enable him/her to continue to live a destructive life that is doomed to destruction.

Who wants a religion that is merely a mental construct? Who wants a religion of personal preferences? Who wants a god who endorses and encourages a life of emptiness?

If all we have are programs, all we'll get are people who are programmed (to say the right words, do the right things, not do the wrong things, etc.), but ultimately the same as they were before the program started - only more so.

Is it any wonder so many leave the church disillusioned? Is it any wonder so few want in?

The Gospel (a few thoughts):

The Gospel of Jesus is so much more than what an observation of many churches would tend to suggest. The Good News is so much more than merely getting our sins forgiven, and our "Get Out of Hell Free" card. The Gospel is ultimately about reconciliation with God Himself. It's far more than a mere forensic transaction. It is that. I'm not arguing against substitutionary atonement. What I'm suggesting is that the purpose of the atonement is also the Gospel. The word "atonement" means literally "at one-ment." The atonement both forgives and reconciles. The purpose of the atonement is reconciliation with God Himself - that's the Gospel!

But wait there's more!

The Gospel includes and must include the Kingdom of God, which according to Jesus is "within reach" (or "at hand"). This Kingdom is "of God" or "of Heaven." In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), when the Kingdom comes, healing, deliverance, resurrection comes. This is because in both God and Heaven there is no illness, demonization, nor death.

The Gospel includes the presence of the Spirit within us and upon us. The Spirit dwells within us to transform us into the people God dreams for us to be. The Spirit also comes upon us to empower us to do God's work in this world. The Spirit gives gifts to help us do God's work as a church, and gives them to us in such a way that we need each other to get it done! What a marvel! A Spirit-less Christianity is no Christianity at all. And a Spirit-filled and empowered believer is unstoppable.

The Manifest Presence

What if the great concern and primary project of the Church became seeking, hosting and cultivating the manifest presence of God? (If you haven't heard the term "manifest presence" let me explain: the very presence of God felt, sensed, experienced.)

Let's stop making "experience" a bad word, and make it an expectation. A gospel that has no experience in it is not the Gospel, it's no more than words and ideas (and who needs more of that!). The message of Scripture is clear: those who seek Him find Him (not merely truths about Him). How do you find something without seeing it, touching it, or experiencing it in some way. If we found God, how would we know, if there was no experience associated with it. 

One thing we Reformed can learn from charismatic and Pentecostal circles is that the manifest presence of God is often the center, focus and purpose of everything.* Often in Reformed circles, it's not that we're opposed to such a thing, we just think it's exceptional, rare - wonderful but not something to count on regularly. But if the Greek word for know (ginosko) means what the lexicons say it means, then we should expect that the "knowledge of the Lord" would be much more than knowledge (or opinions!) about the Lord. [For Spanish speakers conocer has it's etymology in the Greek word ginosko - if that helps.] No, we should expect to know and experience Him often, daily, whenever we turn our hearts toward Him.

The Apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). Prayer is (most broadly speaking) encounter with God, and it is the prerequisite for ministering God's word (IMHO). Those who have the title "Minister of the Word" (the official name for what we call "Pastor" in my denomination), must then also be those who seek God through prayer. What would happen if in our preparation for Sunday's service(s), we spent more time with God (in prayer) than with commentaries?

We owe them (church and world) an encounter with God

What we all need is God Himself. What we settle for are imitations or substitutes. My theological training seemed to me to be primarily interested in communicating theological truth. That's a substitute for an encounter with God, or (at best) treading the spiritual waters until the encounter with God comes. It's something to do, along with singing some songs, while we're "Waiting for Godot." Though Moses would not go without the Presence of God (Exodus 33:15,ff), too often we do.

Instead of that spiritual poverty, where God is beyond experience, Jesus teaches the Kingdom of God is within reach. God in fact is present everywhere. We know this and believe this. It is also possible to actually experience this--experience Him. How wonderful, sweet, precious, beautiful, amazing, and more! 

John says whoever doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love (1Jn 4:8). That's not about having an intellectual apprehension of God's love, but a transforming experience of it. Having encountered a loving God, we become loving. 

It is impossible to have an experience of God and remain unchanged. God's manifest presence transforms us.

The objection I most often hear about Christianity is not that it's not true, but that it doesn't make any difference. Christians look and act like everyone else. Sadly, this is often both a valid observation, and conclusion!

The solution is, I'm convinced, to seek, host, and cultivate experiences of God's presence. This transforms people in ways mere teaching can rarely do. While teaching can correct, guide, point, suggest, open and close doors, it cannot transform. Only God can do that. He can do it in subtle and long ways through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, but He can and does do it in powerful and sometimes instantaneous ways through a direct encounter with Him.

Seek the Lord while He may be found, the Bible says (Isaiah 55:6). To seek means to go looking, often in places you haven't yet looked. (It's sort of crazy to keep looking for something in the same places you haven't found it!) Look through soaking or listening prayer, with other seekers, in other churches/denominations, among Christian people you disagree with about other things. "Seek" means "go looking" (not wait), so go somewhere!

He promised that whoever seeks Him finds Him (Deut. 4:29; Jer.29:13; Matt. 7:7-8, e.g.), so keep seeking until you do, because He has already promised us success!

It's the transformed life that is the best agent of transformation for others.

If God doesn't make us better people, if He has no positive influence on who we are, then Christianity has no more power than pop psychology.

If, however, God gives hope to the hopeless, rescues slaves from their masters, sets people free, makes the unloving love, the unforgiving forgive, heals the hurting and broken, restores relationships, makes us joyful, happy, expecting good (even when things don't look good), if He makes the selfish selfless, the greedy generous, the anxious peaceful, then God is good and others will want what we have.

If you and I are examples of what God does, we become magnets for those seeking what we have. Let our lives be sign-posts of God's transforming power. As we ourselves are transformed into the likeness of Jesus (cf., Rom. 8:29), we become better agents of God's offer of reconciling and transforming love to those around us.

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*Yes, I know Pentecostals and charistmatics get distracted too, and not all those who call themselves charismatic or Pentecostal pursue this equally. In fact, some who are Pentecostal in name, are 'uncomfortable' with 'that sort of thing,' and some charismatics will cut off part of a program when God's manifest presence is there, to get on with the 'order of the day.'