What is reality?

I still remember standing there, it was my junior year of college, I was at a retreat with other students in my major and I was so happy to get "away" for a few days. It was our first day and we were circled up and I prayed...I thanked God that we could "escape" the "real world" for a couple days and just focus on Him...and then the professor that was with us said something that I have been wrestling with ever since, "this is the real world!" he went on to explain something to the effect of this: "life does not get more real than when we are conscious of being in God's presence...and this was how we (as Christians) were to live everyday."

In the first two chapters of The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard introduces this very idea, the very thought that in the midst of the world that surrounds us where fewer and fewer people accept the fact that anything can be absolute truth. A world where more and more people a pursuing intimacy in places where they are merely left empty; a world where self-sufficiency is viewed as a tremendous strength, where one who can go through life while paving one's own road is praised. It is in the midst of this world that God came in and provided an invitation to a life in His Kingdom, in His presence, in intimate relationship with Him.

But is this the same invitation that the Church is presenting to the world around us? Are we (the Church) inviting people to share in intimate relationship with God, or merely inviting them to receive a "to go pass"? Or are we inviting people to a religious system where we must constantly be checking off a religious to-do list? I have personally tried to live out both of these approaches to my Christian walk, neither of which do I believe is "having life to the full (John 10:10)" that Jesus invites us to experience. In the first model, one can easily become so entwined with the world that they never even look for anything beyond the physical realm one has always know. With the latter model, one often becomes so busy "doing God's work" that they blind themselves to His very presence.

So what are we to do to return to the invitation that Jesus brought into the world? Willard suggests a return to this invitation must start in the message presented by Christian leaders all over the United States from the pulpit; Willard suggests that "the disconnection of the life from faith, the absence from our churches of Jesus the teacher—is not caused by the wicked world, by social oppression, or by the stubborn meanness of the people who come to our church services and carry on the work of our congregations. It is largely cause and sustained by the basic message that we constantly hear from Christian pulpits (57)."
When church leaders decide to stop trying to make the Gospel relevant and begin to show the culture how the gospel is relevant (Driscoll’s definition of contextualization) I believe we will see this return. When the church leaders present the invitation to the life transforming reality that humanity can share in an intimate relationship with its Creator. When the Church stops trying to complicate the gospel and proclaims the same Kingdom that Christ proclaimed there will no longer be a question within the church as to what reality is. The presence of the creator God is so real, so tangible that after being experienced it cannot be denied. The desire for the things of this world begin to fade and one can experience reality humanity was created to.

Freedom

I have had a lot of random thoughts about the idea of "freedom" over the past month or so. The following is merely diving into my mind (which can be a scary place!) and what I have been thinking...

Freedom: Have American Christians made themselves slaves to Freedom?

Our culture has led us to believe we have all of these "rights" and the "freedom" to worship our God without the world interfering...but does this line up with New Testament Christianity? Does this agree with what Jesus taught life for His followers would be like?
Jesus clearly states that if we choose to be a follower of Him we WILL face opposition; we will face trouble, but we have no reason to fear because He has "overcome the world (John 16:33)." I wonder what would happen if, rather than getting all torn up about "our rights" being taken away, we focused on our call to love God and love people. What if rather than focusing on what the world is doing, we focus on fulfilling what God calls us to do and we make disciples?

New Testament freedom does not hinge on politics, it does not hinge on those around us, rather it hinges on what Christ has already done to free us from slavery to sin and idols!
We are free to be the face of God everywhere we go; we are free to show the glory of God on our faces without a veil! (2 Corinthians 3)
We are free from the obligations of the old covenant. (Gal. 5:1)
We are free from the fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
We are free from being slaves to sin (Romans 6:17-18; 8:2) and in this freedom we have gained a right...a right to become a slave once again: a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:17-18).
This translates into living in right relationship with God!
What does this new life like?
I believe to see this we need simply to look at Jesus’ call:
"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23 italics mine)

As I read scripture the freedom that I see Christians possessing is the freedom to die to themselves, which, to me means dying to their "rights."
I am not saying that we should not enjoy our religious freedom, but I am saying that we need to be careful to not allow our religious freedom to get in the way of living out the gospel.

Why am I here?

As I have just completed my second Sunday interning at Christ's Church of Effingham it has been interesting how many people have asked me why I am here? Why did I choose to do another internship? What do I expect to get out of this internship? It was a little funny at first because I hadn't done too much thinking about this. I hadn't really thought to much about my motives behind what I am doing.

But God has revealed quite a bit to me lately about how different my motives have been in the past; I have done things to "be a better Christian," to "experience ministry in the 'real world,'" to "just do what God wants me to do." But my motives this summer are a little different (I still intend and feel that I am doing what God wants me to do), this summer I am pursuing something that I should have been pursuing for a long time now: discipleship.

Discipleship is an interesting thing, being trained to be able to replace another is not really an easy thing at times! God has taught me an incredible amount about myself and His plans in the last 12 days; He has revealed to me the value of discipline in EVERY area of my life. He has shown me how discipleship and discipline go hand in hand, and, although it is not always fun and pain free, it is the life that He intends EVERY Christian to live.

Are you being discipled? Are you discipling someone else?

I know that this post contains very few complete thoughts, but I will try to complete these thoughts as the summer goes on.

Peace n' blessings

-Andrew