Modern-day Mystic

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Location: Fredericksburg, Texas, United States

Saturday, September 30, 2006

That Is Why We Fail

"I don't believe it!" Luke Skywalker
"And that is why you fail." Yoda

It is a classic scene from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In it Luke Skywalker struggles, and fails, to raise his ship out of the swamp he crashed into while Yoda watches. Yoda then demonstrates the power of the Force by lifting the ship out and setting it on dry land. To which Luke respondes incredulously, "I don't believe it."

Jesus shows his disciples an even greater power. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father " (John 14:12). Greater things than Jesus! That just blows my mind, here is the Son of God, God himself, promising that I can do things like raise the dead, give sight to the blind, proclaim forgiveness for sins, and on and on. This promise wasn't just to the original 12 apostles, or the early church, God offers this power to any who call upon his name. Yet, how often to we avail ourselves of this power, not for our own uses, but for those who need to receive it? Why don't we throw ourselves into the current of God's power and let ourselves be used for his glory?

The simple answer is like Yoda's response. We fail because we don't believe. We, as Christians, don't believe that God would use someone like "me" (insert your name here), or worse yet we don't believe in a God that is able to do miracles. We may offer prayers for healing or for provision, but in the back of our mind is a little voice saying, "God doesn't do that any more, he can't or won't do..." and it is our unbelief that limits what God does. It is not that God is unwilling or unable, the block lies within our doubts and disbelief. We may even preach that our God is a God who does miracles, but in the deep parts of our heart we don't buy it. And that leaves Christians feeling much like Luke, frustrated at our inabilities and astonished by someone else who has enough faith to do, what others consider, the impossible.

My question is simple: "Do you believe?"

Thursday, September 28, 2006

The Church as Samson

Now that I've found my voice it's time to say something!Reading "A Peculiar People" by Rodney Clapp for one of my classes has provoked some interesting trains of thought about the Church (meaning the universal body of believers). He argues that the Church has grown so ineffective as to be almost useless. I agree with some of his statements, but was generally turned off by his judgmental tone.The Church reminds me much of Samson. Samson, like the modern Church, told the secrets of his strength to a harlot by the name of Delilah. The Church has traded the power of God for the pleasures of the world. We wonder why the Church has become helpless to the influences of culture, we bemoan the fact that the Church is infiltrated by all the things of this world. It's because we have opened the doors of our faith and invited the world into our bed. Like Delilah, the world has used that against us, to destroy us, to weaken and break us, to blind us and make us it's slaves.The Church has so little power now because we've given up the power that God promises us over and over again. It is His own power that he offers to every believer, to use in the strengthen and building up of His Church. That is not to say that the Church is without hope. Just as Samson's hair grew back, after he prayed to God for a chance to right his mistake, so God offers another chance. If we will confess our wandering hearts and return to Him as His people He will do mighty and powerful things through His Church once more. But the crucial question is, "Will she?" will the Church respond to the offer of forgiveness or will she continue to sacrifice the power of God for momentary pleasures and general acceptance from the culture. If she refuses then she will only grow more ineffective, irrelevant and archaic, unable and unwilling to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand, to invite sinners to repent and believe and be saved. And she will have failed in the most important task she was assigned, "to be witnesses to...the ends of the earth."

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Finding my Voice

I've been here at Asbury for three weeks, and in that time I've been disoriented, overwhelmed, and completely blown away by the working of God on this campus. I've seen things, experienced things in such powerful ways that I know God is moving among his people. I am excited to be in the midst of such a stirring. I am finding my voice here. At first I just I took time to observe those around me, to listen to their voices, and to the meanings behind the words. The thing though is I'm quickly realizing that there is much that needs to be said, and few voices willing to speak.

I was worried when I got here that I would be the youngest here, and because of that I would not be taken seriously. While it is true that I am nearly the youngest (I've only found one other person who is younger than me), that is not an excuse to remain silent. I have been given a voice, and I am finding it here more than ever before. I am used to being the defender of the Christian faith against atheists and agnostics, now my voice is to call Christians to return to their first love. To prepare their hearts for the moving of God, to urge them to be ready for whatever is coming. I'm still learning when to speak, and what to speak, but I will not be silent any more.