I spine a lot of time in Mark in 2009—the fast-paced record of Jesus’ works and words.

The more I read and meditate, the more I identified with the disciples.

They spend their days walking along with Jesus as He does these spectacular miracles and says these wonderful sentences. And just when they think they have figured out their Master, He says something that turns them sideways.

“Hey, wait a minute Jesus. Are you saying that…

…you’re interested in these IRS guys and these prostitutes?”

…you love people who do the will of God more than your own mother?”

…we shouldn’t be afraid of these huge waves in this little boat?”

…we should tell these thousands of people that we’re going to feed them?”

…you’re really not interested in all these religious rules we grew up with?”

…rich people aren’t God’s favorites?”

…we can’t just make religious excuses to throw away our marriages?”

…we have to give up to gain, lose to win, serve to be great, suffer to follow?”

I know how they feel, don’t you?

Jesus said…

Jesus always tells me more than I can understand, but not as much as I want to know.

He tells me that somehow if I give my money to Him, I will end up with more to give to Him.

He tells me that if I love Judy with sacrificial love, I’ll receive the blessing.

He tells me that if I’m willing to suffer and serve, I’m on the road to true happiness.

He tells me that if I pay less attention to the people the world thinks are great and more attention to the powerless and poor, the homeless and hungry, the IRS agents and whores, I will make Him happy.

But Jesus didn’t say…

But He refuses to tell me exactly what He wants me to do today, or how to make sure that nothing goes wrong in my week, or how to avoid pain this year, or why He’s allowing our nation to become so wicked, or why some of my friends are sick and dying, or if He’s going to let me continue living with leukemia.

I guess that’s what it takes to follow the Living God who refuses to submit His power to my will: Trust!

The older I get, the more I feel like the desperate father who begged Jesus to deliver his tormented son. When Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes,” he responded honestly and in tears, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

A few years ago I was sitting in the Phoenix Airport listening in to a conversation between two cultists. They were talking about their hope of heaven. As they talked I was thinking that what they were saying isn’t that much different from a lot of so-called evangelicals today. It’s all about working hard and measuring up.

What do you say?

Here’s my question for those who tell me that telling people that eternal life is a free gift given to all who trust in Jesus is “just too easy”: What sets your gospel apart from the works-based message of the cults?

“He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” –Jesus Christ, John 6:47

DISCIPLESHIP!

Recently I was discussing our revival–the Jesus Movement of the 60s and 70s–at a conference for church leaders when one of them asked, “What do you mean by ‘layered’ discipleship?” As I explained my personal conviction that healthier churches grow by connecting believers to one another on many different levels—maturing mentors with newer Christians, established leaders with emerging leaders, small supportive groups led my shepherding couples, and missional teams training one another, someone else asked a question I thought I would never hear from a pastor, “What is discipleship?”

I’m sure it was the Holy Spirit that kept me from saying, “What is discipleship? Are you seriously asking me that? It’s only the result of obeying the core command of our Lord Jesus to His church—make disciples of all nations! If you have to ask me to define discipleship, there’s not much I can do for you in the few minutes I have left.”

Not Growth!

Instead, I remembered how much pressure these leaders were under to “grow” their churches, how gaga the Christian community is over its megachurches, and how much we have bought into the bigger is better lie. So I turned him to the Lord’s final charge to the church in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Discipleship Worked

If we want to get the Jesus Movement moving again, maybe we should try what Jesus said to do. His simple plans always work!

He didn’t hesitate. “The leaders of our revival trusted God enough to handoff ministry to us. And there wasn’t much in us to trust. Think about it. A bunch of radicals-turned-disciplers. I bet you can’t find many leaders today who would do that. Today’s Christian leaders are all about control and credit.”

It was a great reminder of just how important it is to be a releaser rather than a controller, a risk taker rather than a fortress builder.

If you want to see a revival, and I do, you have to let go of most of the stuff you’re trying to control. God help us to risk revival.

Just before our day ended he looked off and asked of no one in particular, “When did the church become so mean?”

I said, “We’re not mean, why don’t you come here and give us a chance?”

He laughed uncomfortably, and said, “I might just come and visit you some Sunday, Ed.”

I prayed for him and we shook hands. As I watched him drive away with his cameraman, his question haunted me.

On the drive home that night I turned my radio dial to Christian talk radio. Appalled by the snarling arrogance of the host, I prayed that the man I had met that day wasn’t listening. Whether he knew it or not, his “we’ll show those sinners when this bill gets passed” and “just wait until God deals with these idiots” sent a message to those outside of God’s grace: God’s on our side and He hates you.

The Bible teaches that God is on the side of the righteous and emphasizes that ultimately our side will win. But our victory will not come through favorable voting returns but at the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign on earth.

What the Bible does not teach is that God hates sinners. The New Testament says that the message of the church is the Good News of reconciliation “who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

If God hated sinners—those unreconciled to Him—this verse tells us He would have to start with us. Instead, He loves sinners and sent His Son to die in order to reconcile sinners like us. To us, the reconciled sinners, He has given this ministry of reconciliation, “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and his commit to us the world of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

So how would your non-Christian friends and acquaintances classify you? Do your life and words scream condemnation or do they whisper reconciliation?

This is an excerpt from my book, Reborn to Be Wild: Reviving Our Radical Pursuit of Jesus! It’s all about the Jesus Movement and the lessons we learned.

David C. Cook Publishers

Kind of like Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8!

Something wonderful happened to me the day my firstborn child, Aimee, came into the world. For the first time in my life, I had totally selfless thoughts. Suddenly, I was holding in my arms someone who meant more to me than, well … me. At that moment, I knew that no sacrifice would be too great for this little girl I had just met but instantly cherished. Before I could become too proud of how dear she had become to me, I placed her in the arms of her mother. From the moment Judy began to nurse our baby girl, I knew they were experiencing a bond I would never know and could never experience.

If you’re thinking of the birth of your child and your love for them or your father and mother and their love for you, then you are picturing the role of an authentic spiritual leader—a parent. Paul reminds his readers of the selfless motives of the team he brought to Thessalonica by describing their role. They were parents to their disciples, as gentle as a nurturing mother and as firmly encouraging as a concerned father.

That’s the measure of authentic New Testament leadership.

So who are the people in your life the Lord Jesus is asking you to lead in His name? Remember, it’s not about them following you; it’s about you selflessly leading them to follow Another. His name is Jesus.

“But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

Question: Do you have a story of someone who led you well? I’d love to hear it.

That’s the way it was during the Jesus Movement. No one examined your ecclesiastical portfolio before asking you to serve Christ. Shoot, we didn’t even know what the word “ecclesiastical” meant. We were still trying to admit that we belonged in this thing called the church.

I had been a Christian exactly two weeks; didn’t even know that the Bible had books in it, and couldn’t tell a deacon from a dalmatian. But there it was–a choice to either follow Christ or live for myself.

Wow, Jesus had something for me to do…and it would cost me something to follow. I chose to follow. And forty years later I can tell you that it was a good choice.

Has it hit you yet, that Jesus has something for you to do and it will cost you something to follow Him? When it does, will you?

I was sure God was going to answer our prayer.

• Our leadership team, all abiders in Christ and claiming John 15:6, begged God to rescue our budget with a huge December.
• Following our Lord’s instructions on prayer (Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7-11; Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-5), we prayed specifically and persistently.
• We prayed alone, as couples, as families, in groups, and in community at all of our Christmas leadership events.
• Most of us fasted and prayed multiple times during December.

I was so sure that God would say yes to this prayer because usually He says yes when a request burdens our community in this way.

God Said No

He said no. Emphatically no. It wasn’t that He was testing us some to see if we would trust Him enough to move forward with a more robust budget in 2012 by giving us a partial yes. Our December giving didn’t even come close.

I’m devastated and my faith is shaken.

Like you, I don’t know what to do with no answers to my purest prayers when it seems I did everything right. I started doubting whether I really was abiding, if I was asking unselfishly enough, if maybe I was foolish to be so bold and public in leading our church in this prayer.

I came up with strategies to explain away the no. Some of that I’m sure was to protect the “reputation” of God, but a lot of it was simply to try to make sense of it myself.

And then, my grandson Zachy taught me a lesson on prayer.

Jesus rejoiced in the childlike faith of His disciples. Their excited reports of what God had done for them after their first missionary journey, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (Luke 10:17), elicits this response from the Master:

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21).

Zachy

Zachy was spending the night with us for the first time in his almost three years on earth Friday night. He had moved from a world of a lot of no’s (too many if his parents were to consult Judy and me!) to a world of yes’s. He got just about everything he wanted that night. Okay, I admit it. He got everything he wanted that night.

But then, when it came time to go to bed, his little heart broke. He cried and cried, saying only, “Mommy, Daddy, Sammy” over and over again. Finally, after an hour of comforting him and stroking his little back, he fell asleep with the whispered whimper, “Mommy, Daddy, Sammy.”

The next morning when mommy and daddy and brother Sammy came to pick him up, he ran into their arms and immediately asked them for something he couldn’t have.

They told him no. He protested. And then he asked again.

Children don’t care as much about yes’s as they do about relationship. They protest and throw fits when daddy says no, but what they most fear is being away from daddy…and mommy…and Sammy.

What a child wants most is the secure love of a parent and the familiar surroundings of the community of the family.

But they never stop asking!

The Measure of Faith

There’s my lesson. We tend to measure faith by adult behavior. God measures faith by childlike behavior.

I’m still begging my Father for more money to do the things we want to do for His Kingdom in 2012, but I’m not going to try to fine tune my prayers.

He’s given me what my redeemed heart longs for most: His unfailing love and strength, and a community of faith where I feel safe.

Just like Zachy, what we really want is the presence of our Father rather than His yes.

Question: When God says no to your prayers, do you tend toward more adult behavior of explanation or the childlike behavior of running to His arms and protesting His no?

As a SoCaler, I spend a lot of time on the freeways. Sometimes I listen to Christian radio. Sometimes it truly blesses me. Other times it just ticks me off.

Like yesterday when this radio preacher was screaming and shaming his congregation and anyone tuning in about their lack of commitment in just about every area of the Christian life. What bothered me most as he bellowed his way from one shaming truth to the next, was that he acted like he didn’t struggle with this stuff. He, unlike the peons and maybe-not-authentic-believers he vilified and mortified, had his religious “stuff” together.

Right. Sure. Wanna-bet?

My first thought when I hear these performance-driven sermons is, “I wonder what this guy’s hiding?”

I’ve Got a Secret!

Because he is; count on it.

Most of the teaching in the church is framed around the notion that the button-down, loafered-up, “I-got-it-all-together-and-never-have-any-doubts” Christian actually exists somewhere.

Read your Bible. The only One who fits that description wore sandals, had long hair, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Paul was the “chief of sinners”; Peter denied Christ, and Mark ran from the garden naked like some frightened little puppy.

They all let the Lord down mightily; but the Lord used them mightily.

That’s called grace. I prefer grace to arrogance any day.

You know what I mean, you may even use “camping” jargon:

• He’s not in our camp–meaning he doesn’t agree with your interpretation of Scripture, your theology, or your practice of the Christian life.
• They’re a part of that camp–meaning that they just don’t fit into your group.
• What camp are you in? This is a question that determines if someone is on your side.

120 Seconds

I’m too busy and I’m too tired of Christian “campers” to write anything substantive or maybe even profound, so I’m giving myself two minutes, 120 seconds, to say what is on my heart.

I was wrong when I insisted that those who disagreed with me or didn’t follow Christ in the same style I did were outside of my camp.

You’re wrong if you’re doing that now.

Can we disagree? Should we disagree?

Absolutely!

But should we divide into camps?

Absolutely not!

The next time you’re tempted to divide Christians between “us” and “them,” read Mark 9:38-50.

I’d say more, bit my time is up. So I’ll just close with Jesus’ words:

“For He who is not against us is on our side” (Mark 9:40).