The Tangibility of God

This blog entry by my friend Mackenzie sent me into an whirlwind of a huge idea. By the way, it seems as if the most impactful ideas and times of understanding of God, humans, myself, the world always begin within some context of community and fellowship. Just hanging out with people, fellowshipping, talking about life and then BAM I realize how important and overarching the idea is that we are talking about and it stays with me for at least a week. These are probably moments when the Holy Spirit really wants to teach me something, but I find it interesting that it comes out in this context of other people – this supports my point exactly.
Read this paragraph from Mackenzie talking about words, God, and tangible feelings:

this all got me to thinking of how words from tangible people impact me deeply and immediately. written. spoken. unspoken. if coming from a tangible person, i am impacted. but from our invisible god? its much more difficult for me to trust the depth of those words. for them to impact me in the same way. i am, and have been, wrestling with wanting to be touched and changed by them much more deeply than by tangible mouths. its not that i don’t believe what he says. it just takes much more of an effort for them to sink in than do those coming from tangible bodies. will it always take this effort? i’m not sure. but today, i was also struck by how the lord uses tangible people to speak to us. to encourage. rebuke. wrap in love. even, and especially, on funky stationery or in a steamy bosnian bakery.

The words of God takes more effort to sink in than those coming from tangible bodies with tangible mouths. The effort for the word of God to sink in to our hearts into tangible feelings is the effort of faith, but God also uses these tangible mouths and words to reveal Himself

God is invisible, yet still tangible. Just because I don’t touch Him directly doesn’t mean that He is not clear or definite in that since of tangibility. Tangibility can mean the ability to touch something or the ability to discern something as clear or definite. Moses saw the back of God’s glory and came down from the mountain with his face radiating from that glory of God (Ex. 34). We cannot touch Him, yet He touches us. We cannot see Him, yet He sees us. We can talk to Him, yet He talks to us. Ben, are you saying God speaks words to you? Yes I am. Is it audible? No. Is it tangible? Yes. The communication of God to us is not the way in which we communicate to each other, but that has no effect on its tangibility or clarity.

God is invisible yet reveals Himself through tangible means. A good question to start off with is, “What do you know of God that has not been expressed, revealed, or communicated within tangible or natural means?” I cannot think of a single thing. Creation is an act of God’s words and hands in revealing who He is by the complexity of life around you every day (Rom. 1). Every time you see birds, crunching nut hats, or a soft breeze hits you, isn’t God speaking to you, “I love you.” When you see a smile on a child’s face or their energy build up into a visible and bodily earthquake, isn’t God saying, “I love you?”

God also has revealed a major part of Himself within Scripture. When you read the words of God which came to you by natural means of God inspiring men to write His words, you learn of His wisdom, character, fervent and longsuffering love for us, He is saying to you daily, “I love you.”

We can reflect upon Jesus Christ, the ultimate manifestation and revelation of God to men and He bids us to come to Him, touch the wounds of His side and hands and ask us, “Do you love me?” God Himself came to us and ate with us, laughed with us, mourned with us, taught us, disciplined us, rebuked us, worshiped and prayed to the Father with us, and died for us to bring us to the Father. “Do you love me?” Jesus Christ is the most tangible form of God this world has ever known and all of these tangible revelations give us a peace and assurance of God telling us, “I love you.”

If that wasn’t enough, and it usually isn’t for untrusting people such as ourselves, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us when He left to comfort, guide, and impart the wisdom of God to us. Through the Spirit we can reflect Christ to others as a tangible influence of God in others’ lives. We become a part of the tangibility of God. We touch others; we love others; we comfort others; we bear hug others and write letters to others to show the grace and love of Jesus Christ, the grace and love of God intangible in tangible ways. We the church, the bride of Jesus Christ show the light of God to those who cannot see nor feel because of lack of knowledge or lack of faith.

God is invisible yet reveals Himself in visible ways. God is intangible yet reveals Himself in tangible ways.

When you desire to see, hear, and know God in a tangible way, know He is intangible, but has revealed Himself in creation, the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the church…us. Know that through these means He touches us and speaks to us 10,000 times a day, “I love you.” The question is, will you listen? Will I listen?

Pray.

(feel free to email or comment on anything you agreed or disagreed with)

What is a Missionary?

I’ll post a little about the Missions Training Institute I just began after a while, but first I want to tell you all about the situation I am in right now and how unique and rewarding it has been to be a part of it.

The Oasis Apartments:
Zach, Doug, and their guests Dustin, Cody, and Josh Ward are all staying in a first floor apartment. Dana and Ale are living above them on the 2nd floor.

Woodvine II Apartments:
Myself, Steven, Justin, and our guest Paul our staying in #9 on the first floor. Directly above us is Lauren and Kana.

We are a team of missionaries. Students, Workers, “in transition”. These are the titles that could be applied to us, but we are all missionaries. Let’s talk about this word missionary for a little bit. Missio is a Latin word that means ‘sending’ or ‘to send’. A Mission is defined as “an important assignment carried out for political, religious, or commercial purposes, typically involving travel.” Missionary is the “person sent on a religious mission, especially one sent to promote Christianity in a foreign country.”

We all lived in houses and apartments spread out through the city of Denton and all collectively decided to move into this poorer neighborhood with the intention of seeking God’s leading in how we might be integrated into the community, meet their needs, shine the light of Christ through our actions, and by divine appointment share the message of Jesus Christ to those we encounter. Now it is not a foreign country, but it is a lot closer to a foreign country than where we were to begin with. Everything else applies though for us to be missionaries. We live, we work, we continue our lives as usual except with the goal and intention of perhaps making a difference in the lives of the people we meet in this particular community, our home.

Our actions:
Sometimes we can be very open and bold in meeting people or setting up times to hang out with others, and other times it simply takes stepping out of our shell, resisting the urge to look through the blinds and peepholes, and walk outside to see what kind of interactions might take place with our neighbors. But every time requires us to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to not resist the ideas that God gives us that works so steadily against our comforts or preferences.

Sometimes we feel like we aren’t doing anything at all, and other times God orchestrates so many ‘chance’ encounters and ‘random’ interactions that we cannot help but fall on our faces in worship and rejoicing in the privilege of being used by God in the subtlest of ways.

I write this to tell you what is happening in my life, but I pray I do not write this out of a desire to boast. If I boast, I boast in the joy of serving Christ and not in my own works. But most of all I write this out of a belief that the most radical movement and revival of the American church can and will occur if only everyone sitting in the seats of churches every Sunday would begin shaping an identity for themselves as ministers and missionaries. No, they do not need to leave their homes or jobs or quit doing the things that they feel God has gifted them so abundantly to do. Our group has only switched homes but maintained everything else in our lives. What you must do is simply consider yourself as a missionary right where you are, as one called by God and sent to your workplace and neighborhood in order to carry out the most important assignment and orders of our Lord Jesus Christ to, “make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things,” Jesus has commanded you to observe. If only we all could take this vision as our own and shape our identity as missionaries.

Would you please pray for us, for yourselves, and for the American church to act out the love of God and calling of Jesus Christ in whatever ways the Holy Spirit might lead us all to do?

Confirmation of "Spiritual Learnings" by A. W. Tozer

From A. W. Tozer - "The Knowledge of the Holy"
Confirmation from A.W. Tozer:
“To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.
There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him. Here is His promise: ‘And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.’
Let Him lead thee blindfold onwards,
Love needs not to know;
Children whom the Father leadeth
Ask not where they go.
Though the path be all unknown,
Over moors and mountains lone.
~Gerhard Tersteegen
God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark. ‘I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.’”

Spiritual Learnings

I’m thinking about a lot of really big issues or thoughts on the Christian life. Occasionally in my life I experience these moments either through prayer, a conversation, a Scripture, or just a daily moment in life where it’s like God truly steps down and reveals something directly to me. It can be something I have heard hundreds of times before, but somehow hearing it again in just the right way causes me to think deeply about it and to understand what God is teaching me at that moment. This is actually God’s Spirit at work which I will discuss later.

1) Hard not Heavy

Jesus says, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:30). Christ’s burden that He carries is easy and light meaning He has plenty of strength to help us and carry our burdens in our place. When the Christian life becomes heavy – stressful, anxious, worried, controlling, burdensome – this is due to your own control and your lack of surrender unto Christ who will carry your burdens for you. We like to hold on to the reigns of our lives (even though we all know the final result of doing so ends in disaster) and control our lives making “bootstrap” accomplishments that we can pat ourselves on the back with and say to ourselves, “Well done good and faithful Ben. You had a problem and you took care of it yourself without even having to ask God for any help at all!” This is what the world praises right? Self-sufficiency. Individual accomplishments. Awards. Cinderella sports teams. Hear me now my family in Christ! If the entire weight of the world lay on your shoulders, it would not begin to describe the burden that is upon you without Christ! Jesus Christ is stronger than you are and He calls all people to lay down this burden that you cannot even stand under and give it to Him so He may free you from this stress, this anxiety, these desires. Jesus frees people from their own contradictory and self-destructive selves. If only I could just submit to God and let go of my control over my life, things would be so much simpler. Letting go is the hardest aspect of the Christian life.
So it is meant to be hard? Yes, the Christian life is meant to be hard, but it is not meant to be heavy. Does that make sense? Heaviness is you carrying an impossible burden on your shoulders. Hard is dying to yourself and letting go of your control over life trusting in God’s sovereign and loving nature to lead you through. Heavy is the pressure that is placed upon yourself to do and not just be.

2) The Spirit and the spiritual: the only way to learn, the only way to change

The Holy Spirit’s movement is the only way I can ever understand anything; it is the only way I can ever change or learn anything about God or about myself. Without it I stay the same man year after year, I read the same scriptures over and over having no ears to hear the words and no eyes to see the truth that lies within it. I said above that what needs to happen in the Christian life is a dying to yourself, a release of control. How can I give up control of myself, how can I die to myself?? The first lesson is recognizing that you don’t know how to do it nor do you have the ability to do it. I’ve been praying for God’s Spirit to work in me because without it, without Christ the vine, I can do nothing (John 15). Abiding in Christ simply means to remain as you are – don’t break yourself off from the tree. It is only by the Spirit that I can learn these truths. It is only by the Spirit that it becomes spiritual knowledge and not just information stored in my brain. It is only by the Spirit that these truths will actually stay with me long enough to have any effecting change. It is only by the Spirit that truth finds its way to action in my life. Yes I want to be more than do, but as you are being, doing will occur naturally and led by the Spirit of God rather than by your determination, drive, discipline, or boldness to change yourself (James 1).

It is good to feel God’s Spirit working in my life after a month of distance and distraction.

Reluctant Leadership (the Moses in all of us)

Here's a little guide to keep you from getting confused: when I say Moses, I am referring to the Moses of the Bible, and when I say Moses A., I am referring to Moses Abele my Kenyan ministry partner pictured above.

Every now and then in life you come across an incredibly vivid and powerful analogy of Christian living drawn from an everyday life circumstance. Moses A. experienced something like that the first Sunday we were at the Word of Life camp. I was able to hear of his experience when we met together the day after for our first official discipleship time.

Moses A. is a great guy. I really enjoyed getting to know him while in Kenya, connecting with him, sharing struggles with him, and teaching him through my experiences. Moses A. has a natural leadership quality to him. No matter what I think people will always look to him in some way to lead, he cannot hide from it. Yet like all of us there is a reluctance to lead. Some have this reluctance from lack of self-confidence like the Moses of the Bible who five times gave excuses to God for the commission given to him by God (Exodus 3:11,3:13,4:1,4:10,4:13). Moses said, "I am not good enough," and God replied, "I will certainly be with you." Moses said, "The people won't know your name," and God replied, "I AM WHO I AM. They will know my name because they know my faithfulness to them in history." Moses said, "They won't believe that You have really appeared to me," and God replied, "I will give you signs and wonders as proof that I am with you." Moses said, "I cannot speak well," and God replied, "I made your mouth and will give you the words and ability to speak." Moses said, "Please send someone else," and God replied in ANGER yet mercy giving him Aaron for help but still giving His presence and power to Moses. Moses' reluctance to lead was based in his lack of self-confidence which adversely affected His trust in God's power; along with his self-confidence issues, he did not believe the people would even want to follow him - this is based in his thinking of himself as lowly and thinking of the people as un-trusting or unfaithful (not so far from the truth). The problem with both of these thoughts is that they are true by a strictly earthly view, but if you add God and His power into the equation, all things become possible. With God, you become a confident leader and the people become faithful followers. It is good to be lowly and humble in your own sight, but if it gets to the point where you stop trusting in Jesus, His power, and authority, it becomes a problem of unfaithfulness in God to use the lowly.

On that Sunday, Moses A. and the rest of the group had decided to go to the beach for an afternoon swim. The beach area right next to the Word of Life camp was not a good place to swim. Moses A. was the only person in the group at the time that had been there before and he knew of the perfect place to swim. So he was automatically placed as the leader of the group for a while. Moses A. began to lead the group on a 20-minute walk to the best swimming area. After about 10 minutes, some people in the group began to wonder how far this place was and asked Moses A., “Are we close yet?” The area they were walking through was very rocky and there also were a lot of sellers on the beach, which were causing some of the people in the group to get a little uncomfortable. As Moses A. continued leading, he began to doubt himself because the people were complaining, but he knew that where he led them was the perfect place to take them for swimming. He was the only person who had seen how good the place was, and so he pressed on because he knew what was best for the group.

This is exactly what we have been called by God to do every day. The commission that Moses received by God was to deliver His people from Egypt and the commission that we have received by God is to go and make disciples of all nations. We are called to lead people no matter how we feel of ourselves – we are to be humble but not doubt in God’s power to use us. We are to lead people into the glorious relationship with Jesus Christ and then teach people how to ground themselves into a loving and fruitful relationship with their Creator. This will cause some discomfort in the people we are leading, but we must stay focused and continue to lead them because we have seen it is good and it is the very best place for them to go. This is the essence of a shepherd, and exactly what Jesus does with us everyday as we follow Him towards the very best things that He is giving us. For Jesus, the Shepherd, to teach us and grow us, He will cause discomfort so we will walk closer to His side as He leads us. Leadership / Discipleship always begins by being led by Jesus, by being a Disciple of Jesus Christ.