The Rule of Grace

We are standing on a cultural boundary line entertaining the possibility of two very different futures. A new direction is being determined. The rule of law, right and trusted as it has been despite our human failings, has proven it cannot be the guarantor of our freedom nor can it be the hope of our future. Those who transit this moment in history and remain intact emotionally and spiritually are the ones who see the rule of grace as the only sure vehicle for safe passage no matter what unfamiliar boundary is crossed. 

Continue to contend for truth and justice in your personal relationships and within each sphere of culture. If a moment comes when truth and justice are pushed aside and the rule of law loses its authority, the Kingdom of God will remain solid and sure because it is eternally rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Choose to rest in God’s gracious faithfulness while you contend for what is right. He has remained the same throughout the ages in the rising and falling of each nation recorded in human history. In the end, grace will endure all things, even the tumultuous and painful seasons of change that come to visit each generation.

Removing the Muzzle of Fear

Living in silence during critical moments of our national history can become a threat to the effectiveness of the Church, an assault on our credibility, and a sorrow in the heart of God. As long as our voice remains safely cloistered behind the walls of a church building, without having a culture-shifting influence, we will miss what God has assigned for us to accomplish in love for His glory. 

Jesus was never silent. Neither were his first followers. Jesus always spoke the right word with the right heart. Just like His original twelve disciples, each of us will blunder forward in our attempt to emulate the Lord. Christ-followers are a diverse group. If you define unity as agreement on politics or social issues, you are missing a deeper understanding of what constitutes our unity and what it is that holds us together. The glue of our unity is love expressed in the person of Jesus Christ. It can be nothing else. Any other binding agent will eventually come apart.

In 1975, Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ) and Loren Cunningham (Youth with a Mission) met in Colorado and defined seven areas of culture where the Church must have a presence and a voice if it is to fulfill the Great Commission. The seven spheres of culture Bright and Cunningham defined 43 years ago are Government, Religion, Education, Economy, Arts and Entertainment, Family and Media. The voices that control these spheres of influence are not absolute or forever. The love of God has the power to transform the sound of these institutions and the message they deliver. To think the Church would not be able to voice an opinion from within any sphere of culture misses the point of our purpose on Earth. 

The Great Commission was not limited to altar calls. It was a larger commission that included the salvation of souls who, once born again, would partner with Jesus in the worldwide Kingdom mandate to, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus loved the individual, but He also saw nations, the ethnic clusters of humanity.

If you are nervous about a believer voicing an opinion on a hot topic in the public square regarding politics or the historic biblical view of marriage, are you equally nervous about that same person having an opinion about media, economics, education or any of the seven areas of cultural influence? Each of us seems to pick and choose our preferred offense.

Paul said that once we have been equipped and matured as a believer, we were to speak the truth in love. That assignment requires three things, sound, truth, and love. Remove truth or love from the conversation and the Church will become just another angry voice in the clamorous crowd. We have been called to make a sound. If the sound we choose to make is not the truth motivated by love, it is wise to remain silent.

Fear can become a muzzle on our faith. Scripture tells us that perfect love will cast out fear. When fear is removed from our thinking, the truth is then free to be spoken in love. That truth has an assignment to be heard first in the hearts of individuals and eventually from the summits of each mountain of cultural influence. 

Discovering Old and Forgotten Foundations

I was hiking along a deer trail away from roads and civilization. The trail led me through an open prairie where I came across an old foundation. Upon inspection, I found it to be stable and strong. It was covered with moss, but other than the moss and its apparent age, something new could be built upon its footprint.

Some of you have been wandering along an unfamiliar path. This unfamiliarity of the surrounding terrain has caused you to ask questions about your next steps. You are about to discover the reason for your journey. The Spirit of God has been directing you toward an important discovery that will provide historical significance and a clarity of perspective about the future. That discovery will reveal the assignment God has planned for the next season of your life. 

In years past, a foundation was laid by others but was not built upon. Those who went before you were foundation builders. It will be your assignment to erect a healthy structure, both relationally and spiritually, to facilitate what God is about to release. 

Go back to your point of departure and announce your discovery. You will see other builders gathered at the trailhead, many who have the resources and calling to join you in constructing this new thing. You will lead many back to this old foundation, a foundation that has remained hidden to be revealed and built upon for such a time as this.

Discerning Momentum

Our life-momentum must be frequently discerned to make sure we are moving forward with the empowerment of God’s Spirit, not our need for recognition or affirmation. We can discern the quality and substance of our momentum by asking this question, “What generated this momentum and what is perpetuating its existence in my life?” 

Any momentum initiated by an undisciplined ambition, self-promotion, or a need to be accepted by others will create a tiring and disappointing experience. No human being is able to maintain this negative kind of momentum for long without coming to a place of compromise in their ethics and morals. 

When we are the empowering source of our life-momentum, we will eventually run out of steam and find our life stranded and stalled in a dark and lonely place. God’s momentum is different. It creates a life of rest where striving is absent, and peace is the atmosphere that fills our being. God is powerful and faithful. He is able to get your life moving and keep it moving forward for His glory. Trust Him and rest. It's the only healthy way forward.

Embedded Provision

We've had a Tiffany lamp for years. It is old and beautiful. I write by its light each morning. Like my writing chair, it has become a familiar companion. This morning, as I turned toward the desk where the lamp rests, I saw the grape cluster embedded in the glass. I know I have seen the grapes before, but this morning I was being directed by the Spirit to see it with new eyes. From my perspective, the grapes were being highlighted by the light from the bulb within the lamp. As I looked at the cluster of grapes, the Lord spoke two words, “Embedded fruitfulness.”

Some of you have walked by a place of fruitfulness not seeing it with the eyes of the Spirit. It has remained unnoticed because it was a matter of timing, not because you were spiritually blind to its reality. God has embedded supernatural fruitfulness in your life in an obvious, but an unrecognized place to be discovered and experienced in this season. God is about to draw your attention toward the fruit of this provision. When He finally makes this embedded fruit known to you it will be a notice that an unexpected provision of His goodness is about to be revealed and released into your life. 

Answering Questions with a Question

Wisdom does not always provide easy answers. Neither does it answer the deep questions about life from the same shallow resource pool of information used by the asker to frame their inquiry. Wisdom responds from a deeper source of revelation not considered when there is a demand for a quick and simple answer. God is not nervous or hurried in how He responds to the questions asked by people, neither should we.

Jesus had a unique way of answering questions posed by people trapped by an Earth-bound perspective regarding life and spirituality. He answered some of their questions with a question to help the inquirer step out of the shallows of their current mindset to entertain the depths of a greater reality. The Lord’s encounter with the rich young ruler is one such example.  “Good Teacher,” the young man inquires, “What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good?” 

Most evangelical Christians would pounce on the opportunity offered by the young man’s question inviting the man to bow his head in the supermarket checkout line to make sure he got saved. I don’t fault those who take this approach. I just think more is at play.

Jesus was after something deep inside the man’s heart - something still uncovered that could hinder Lordship if not addressed. It would require wisely crafted questions to uncover this hidden treasure of possibility.

After telling Jesus he had kept all the Law, the young man asked another question, “What am I still lacking?” Jesus, going deep into the place of the man’s misplaced identity, told him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. The Lord's answer went to the real heart issue, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” The Scripture tells us the rich young ruler went away sad from this encounter. 

Many of our first answers to the questions asked by individuals and the broader culture are not the answers God would provide. Wisdom will ask us to pause before we respond to a surface inquiry. In the pause, revelation has an opportunity to come and help us ask the kind of questions that can actually get to the heart of the issue being addressed. That is the kind of wisdom that has the ability to answer the deepest questions about life if we will give it a place in our dialogue.

Dissolving Assumptions

This morning, I was corresponding with a friend who is an American citizen living outside the United States. We were talking about life and faith. As I wrote to him, I remarked, "I realize now that I know less than my assumptions have led me to believe." 

Our assumptions can become a barrier to a life of faith. We all have assumptions about how to live this life and how to interpret difficult sections of Scripture. We have assumptions about God and His Kingdom and about who God should love and what that love should look like.

I have come to realize we actually know less than what our assumptions so confidently declare. This is why our life of faith must boil down to Jesus alone. He is the purest essence of our faith. There is a danger in this boiling down process. We can stop the process at the shallow depth of our intellect or at our narrow interpretation of Scripture or a hardened political stance. Our faith must boil down to the depths of Jesus Christ and Him alone, or you and I will continue to follow our assumptions giving them a place of authority in our life they should never occupy.