and i'll... follow You into the world

I’ve been stuck on The Message lately. The words jump off the page and slap me every time I read from the translation. And I love it. Spiritual bruising CAN be good, y’all.

This morning, the verses below clicked. I’ve claimed them as my back-to-school Scripps because they managed to be altogether convicting and inspiring and relevant (like, you know, most Scripture), and I really wanted you guys to see them, too.

I should probably let the Word speak for itself without any more of my babbling commentary, but do lock-in on this: “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” Now, here we go:

"It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

“This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

“But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

“Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

“Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.”

- Galatians 5:19-26

So you’ve seen the words. Read them in the original language. Heard them eleven billion times. Spoke them. Got them down.

A Franciscan saying goes like this, "Preach the Gospel. And when necessary, use words."

Time to live them?

I'm praying this for all of us. It's not easy AT ALL, but it's SO worth it. I love you guys!

"So let YOUR NAME be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher...."

dwyl

I love how The Message words what Paul wrote, especially his plea in the verses at the bottom:

"Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,

I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.

"Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing. Our work as God's servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

"Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!"

- 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

let's rebel

"I'm a rebel, you know the kind that die in the street cause you refuse to conform, won't eat the king's meat. Christ rebelled by shunning the culture. He eatin' with sinners, givin' Pharisees ulcers. He never got married; He was broke plus homeless. Yeah, that's the God I roll with..." - Lecrae

This morning, I woke up to

this
this
this
this
this
this

headline.

I have been digging around all morning for Ri Hyon Ok's story, and if I find it, I'll post it. But even with this little bit of information, I'm honestly overwhelmed. I'm praying Christ would be our only Treasure, so real to us that we consider everything else as worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Him as Lord. And that, for His sake, we will discard everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that we could could gain Christ. (Phil 3:8) What are the chances the woman in the headlines above, executed for distributing Bibles, lived out this verse?

It's all so easy sitting comfortably in the suburbs under our umbrella of religious freedom. William Wilberforce put it this way: "Yet thus life rolls away with too many of us in a course of shapeless idleness. Its recreations constitute its chief business… amusements are multiplied, and combined, and varied, to fill up the void of a listless and languid life; and by the judicious use of these different resources, there is often a kind of sober settled plan of domestic dissipation, in which with all imaginable decency year after year wears away in unprofitable vacancy. Even old age often finds us pacing in the same round of amusements which our early youth had tracked out."

My prayer is for us to be so satisfied in the morning with His unfailing love (Ps 90:14) that our lives won't be described as “shapeless idleness,” “listless and languid," “domestic dissipation,” “unprofitable vacancy."

Paul said, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." How different would our lives be if we could say those words and mean them? Let's rebel.

summertime and the living is easy

I believe that the greatest trick of the devil
is not to get us into some sort of evil
but rather have us

wasting time.

- Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

DWYL sermon jam