I have discovered somethings about my faith in the last 2 years that have begun to shock me.
1) There are NO rules. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is punctuated by Jesus himself saying, John 14:16 - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. That's the promise of direct and permanent communication with the Spirit of God. We don't have ANY rules. We have God.
2) Christians spend more times talking about the rules we don't have, but really want, than about the Gospel or living the Gospel. Jesus warns us about following the doctrine of man, the rules we all assume are right, when he says: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?"
3) We tend to spread the rules; telling people what we hate, what we fear, what is wrong with the world, instead of keeping calm, and showing our Love for the Lord.
As it turns out, these cards, shown above, are 2.75" x 4.25 inches, and shiny card stock, and were designed to pass out to people who ask about Jesus; who complain about pretty much anything and are Christians, and to explain to people who express interest or ignorance, that one of the benefits is to "Keep Calm."
If you want your Name or Website on the front of the card, the Keep Calm side, then enter it on the order form when you order. Please allow for 14 days after proof approval for delivery.
Back when AIDs was still a plague that was killing all it touched, I was wrapped up in trying to learn how to deal with my own issues brought on by my still existent TBI, and what was said about AIDs didn't effect me, and was not part of my world. After all, I have always been heterosexual and I am still married to the same awesome women I married in 1979.
Not my monkeys, not my circus, so to speak.
Then my wife and daughter took me to see Rent right off Broadway in New York City.
I have learned much since then about my own prejudice, institutional prejudice, societal pressure, about my own discernment of the scriptural text and most importantly what the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God, wants me to do and understand.
All of that, however, was not enough for me to write this blog entry, until my recent family trip to watch my nephew receive his baccalaureate from the University of Oregon in biology.
Caveat Lector - The Truth Shall Set you Free, but it will Hurt.
We arrived in Eugene Oregon at 6:30 in the morning and went straight to bed, after 12 hours of traveling. When we woke up, this was the view from the porch. Pretty awesome that the home my sister had rented was in such a fantastic setting.
It was a Sunday early afternoon, and we were in a house with 5 females and 12 males, all pretty much relaxing all over the place. The numbers of people would also fluctuate radically during the day, as friends of the family and the graduate came by to enjoy the company and the celebration of my nephew's accomplishment. It was, even for me, a paranoid anti social person due to TBI, a joyous time.
We went shopping as a team, went to Starbucks as a team, came home and cooked and ate as a team, or at least what passes for a team in the Northwest, where personal freedom of action is not just a nice concept, but a reality of every day life.
After dinner, it started to get cold, so the groups got tighter and the fire on the porch was ignited. As it turns out, one of the genes from my nephew's other side of the family was music, so many of the people there were musicians. And then, most of the older attendees, and by older I mean old enough to remember JFK, rather than remember who he was, were sitting around the fire swapping stories of my sisters' (Both of my sisters live in the northwest and were there) and my life, since none of them had ever met me (the friends that is - I knew my sisters).
Off hand, one of them said, "I would have died from aids way back then if Robin had not been there."
Alarm bells rang in my head, but not at first from the "I would have died" part, but from the AIDs part. That meant that they were probably gay. Wait a minute, I was already informed that they were gay, and was taking a low profile on my faith, because the gay community, as a rule, pretty much distrusts Conservative White Christians. Me. They distrust me I thought, so I avoided any apologetics for the first day of our trip.
Yet, even so, it had not really occurred to me that people I knew actually had AIDS.
I stupidly said, as it sank in, "Then you must have seen many of your friends die?" I meant it as sensitive, and fortunately they took it that way, but in retrospect, it was loss of impulse control, as the real fact that these were gay men, looking around, most of them were gay men, that had AIDs.
I then heard stories of just how my sister had "saved" them, and it was those stories that prompted this video.
I heard story after story of personal encounters with who I know as God, but they called "Higher Being" or "Spiritual Encounter." Everything they said was in line with scripture and had the feel of genuine encounter with the Spirit of God.
Everything they were told in their encounters showed the Love of the Lord.
This did not confuse me because of the assumption that they were an abomination, according to a tight and blind reading of the scripture, but it did confuse me because of the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, as they did not profess to know Jesus. To be sure, I was jealous.
But, the Power of the Love of the Lord overwhelmed me non the less. I have felt this a couple of times in my life. At Church on Christmas Day a few years ago; when my daughter accepted the Lord, though at the time I had not; when I was baptised for the 3rd time; When I decided to give up on using TBI as a crutch and a few times when my wife ran "Run to Homebase" for others with TBI. I'm prone to emotional events, but these events were not emotional but rather total life altering extra vision, on your knees noticing the Power of God spiritual. I recognize the Spirit of the Lord when it moves now, and this was one of those events.
Suddenly I saw God working in these people, and in one of their encounters with the Holy Spirit, God told them they "were ok, just they way they were."
I could give you dozens of reason why many read the "clobber" phrases in the bible as a condemnation of homosexuality, but I won't. That's the wisdom of man, rather than the wisdom of God. I will just say this. Love the Lord your God and Love your neighbor as your self. Love is an action, and it does not have condemnation or judgement in it. Condemnation is God's job, not ours. We are called to the Gospel of Jesus, the Christ. That is Love in spite of Sin, to obliterate condemnation. Do that. Just Love people.
Be the Little Christ that Christian means, rather than the little demon in other people's lives.
So I crossed the line that day. Before Monday June 15, 2015, I supported Gay Rights, because I "thought" and my biblical research supported Gay Rights. I had long ago stopped saying "life style choice," because I am a physicist, and science has shown without doubt it is not choice. Just like it has shown that the earth is not the center of creation and that African Americans are NOT inferior to anyone. All of these bigoted choices have at one time or the other been supported through selective and gymnastic interruptions of the Bible. I had already crossed that line, but on Monday, I crossed another line. I felt that I had been called to stop living in the shadows, performing random acts of love. I had been called to make a stand.
This scarred the heck out of me. I had not idea what I could do, or what would happen.
Then the rest of the story happened. Anne and I spent the rest of the week at my sister Robin's house in Seattle Washington. I told her what some of her friends had said about her work with them.
She then told me a little more about what she had done in the last few decades. She called the early years of HIV a plague, and if you remember, 100% of those with HIV were supposed to die, and most actually did. She and her colleagues created a group, I believe it was Team Quest, in Portland Oregon, and it's purpose was to create protocols that would keep the gay community with HIV alive, against all odds, until medication was invented that would keep them alive. Fortunately, that day has come, which was also news to me. However, keeping people alive against a virus that is 100% fatal seems like a fools quest. It was not. They not only keep people alive, but they are one of the primary reasons that people are not afraid to be tested for HIV in the northwest. They provided the love, the care, the concern and the counselling that was necessary and never before done for a community that was being obliterated by a plague and shunned by the people of God. They became God's hands. The were Love. There is far more to the extent to which Robin personally went, but this is enough to see the Love. Love is sacrifice, and it only come from God.
So, this is my call. To bring God, though Love, to this community. They already are more spiritual than I. Many have talked directly to God. But our bigotry, our hate, our fear has caused them to turn for the Lord, and approach him from a different angle. How can we let that stand. Salvation and Love is the gift of God to all people, and we are called to be bring the gospel of Love and Forgiveness, not the gospel of Hate. Examine what you believe, about the gay community, then ask yourself, what would Jesus do. I can't see him with posters saying he hated gays. I can't see him trying to get the Romans to execute, disenfranchise and destroy them. I can't see him not selling them cake.
I can see him walking into their community, as he did with leapers, who were believe to be sinners in their time, and Loving them, touching them, feeding them.
We have been playing for the other team. Stop it. Be Gods light, not the darkness.
1) Every day write down 3 good things that happened that day for which you are grateful.
A. Once we got to my daughters house, as mentioned in day 4, one of the simple things that emotional entangles me easily
was repaired. I have a really personal kitty named dragon show to the left. I missed my kitties and more important, I missed any kitty sleeping on me. 10 minutes on the bed, and Audrey, my daughter's oldest kitty, decided I was a good kitty person, and moved right in.
B. I discovered that I could walk with the crutches the same distance I could walk with the walker, 1 week ahead of schedule.
C. I discovered that I could go up the twenty stairs to the bathroom, and did not have to use the commode as a commode, unless no-one else was in the house.
2) Journal about one positive blessing. One of the three, and explain why that good thing is better than the bad things that happened.
The counter point that represents Thursday's evil is that the home nursing company my hospital chose to use to give me injections lied to me at the hospital. One of the reasons we stayed at my daughter's home was because when we asked if I could have a friend, one of our black belts no less, who worked for them, be our nurse. The told us that we defiantly could. This accomplished 2 things. First, I did not have to reintroduce myself and TBI to yet again another health care provider, which is one of the worst self debasing and humiliating things I have to do every time I see one. Second, this nurse has been a rock in my life. Her church treated her like garbage at exactly the same time I was discovering Christ, so as I grew into the light, she began walking in the darkness. The problem is, there is more Godly fruit in this persons life than nearly any Christian I know, and I owed her. So, this would have been a blessing I could have sent her way. I was emotional destroyed by this companies lie, and it was going to get worse, because I had not yet started answering all the freaking questions. The blessing that countered all the Bad for day 6, the source of light that brought shining brightness into my dark world was the simplest one. My daughter's kitty. I was unconditionally adopted, (as unconditional as you can get for a cat) by my daughters kitty. She made me her bed. She trusted me. She changed the light in my world. The littlest things sometime really do matter. 3) Meditate and detach from multi-tasking, by focusing on scripture~ read it, research it, think about how it might impact your life.
I a continuing my exploration of the Holy Spirit and relationship to him, and today's reading from this awesome book, and consequently the bible supporting his research knocked hard at one of my God given gifts, Leadership. Today, I was reminded that I MUST be able to follow if I am going to lead, and it is not just and idea, but a daily reality for the Christian Leader. This is a quote from that book:
The name of the Book is "Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit."
I am Not a world class biblical scholar or a classical linguist. Just me, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and a near infinite supply of Bible Translations on my computer and/or on my phone, combined with a all too overwhelming supply of historical work and real time translation of Greek and Hebrew. But mostly, just reading the bible everyday, for 20 years.
One of the sorrows in my life is hearing the word twisted and pointed at a Christian Denomination or a Pastor, as if we, or more personally, I, am not twisted too. As if I am somehow the second human in the history of the world to have avoided the contamination of sin, and am so clean, I can be my brothers or sisters Judge.
Most assuredly, the scripture asks, no, tells us how to correct a brother we think is in error, and demands that we do so; but notice, when I quote it below, that there is no ancient equivalent to "post it on face book," or "Twitter Bomb," them if they are evil. There are many directives on not hurling curses at them however. Think about it for a second. If your final conclusion is that they are not of Christ, why waste your energy on condemning them; it's not your job. They are of the world, and we are NOT to hold them to our standard. A really good example of what Jesus would do in the face of "capital" sin, by one who did not claim knowledge of God, is John 8:7 (ESV) When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Just Love them, just as Jesus did. If they are a fellow follower of Jesus, to whose advantage is their public slaughter, other than Satan of course. Matthew 18:15-17 (ESV) Tells us how to deal with issues with brothers. "“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." (Just a question though. How did Jesus talk to and treat tax collectors? You know, like Matthew, they guy who the Holy Spirit used to write this Gospel. Matthew 9:9 (ESV). )
Why talk to him the first time alone, rather than just go tell him how evil and un-Godly his behavior is?
I will give you an example. A close friend recently gave me some news about a pastor, whom I follow and read and trust, dealing with Eastern Thought, specifically Meditation. I know quite a bit about that, because in the '70s I was into TM hook line and sinker. I was way past exploring it, I have since discovered it's non-biblical roots and its traps. For me, it was the serpent that encouraged me to be god, rather than follow God. I flipped out at hearing this news. How Could he, I thought. That particular form of eastern thought is a pillar in a non-Christ religious system. When the founder was asked in the late 70's why they had dropped the official sanction of religion in TM, he said that it did not matter if the practitioners knew they were talking to the cosmic consciousness or not. They were talking to he/it, and he/it talked back. In other words, if you practice mediation like TM, you are hooked on not-God even if you think you are not. So I whipped out a killer crush email to this pastor. Good thing for me that it was stopped by his official office staff wall of protection, as I got standard boiler plate email in response. Like you get from your Representative to congress when you email them. Thank you for caring. Pastor XXXX is happy to help. Blah Blah Blah.Etc.
Now I was really angry. I tried step one, talking to him directly, and failed. Well, kinda step one. Writing and email is not like talking to someone face to face or on the phone. It is the cowards way out. Face to face or voice to voice requires a higher degree of social grace. Any fool can email. I was any fool.
So I skipped step two, and went to my pastor to tell him how wrong he was, and did not know he was wrong, because his friend was sponsoring this evil pastor who was dealing with Eastern Thought. Shame on him. My super power personal experience would be enough to convince anyone with a lesser experience.
My pastor listened to my rant. When I came up for air, he told me that this pastor was NOT suggesting the use of meditation as I knew it. Rather, he was allowing these non-christian elements into his sphere, because it was most likely the only way he could get them into a church, to hear the gospel. He was operating under the totally Christ-like behavior of talking to everyone, especially the tax collections and thieves, buy showing them the churches love, and then telling them the truth.
Oh, I said. He is preaching to them when they are in his church?
Yes, that is the only reason he is doing it.
I do that in Sunday School. I don't care which friends the students bring. Saved, or unsaved, Jesus loves them. Unsaved, however, need the word even more. Yea to the unsaved coming to Sunday School because it is Fun, rather than for God. Who cares why they first came, as long as all the time they hear the word and feel the love of Christ.
So, now all such attacks seem the same to me. Catholics are twisted. Really? Without them, there would be no church. They stood up for Christ when no one else would for 1500 years. Did the Catholics make mistakes? Sure. Has your denomination? Sure.
I teach martial arts. In my town some not so nice person is putting up posters everywhere that tell you to google Martial Arts and Sex Crimes. Why? Because he wants people to think there is a connection. What do you think you will find if you google that? Martial Arts and Sex crimes is my guess. Duh. If you would google Martial Arts and Changing Lives you would find a lot too. You get what you look for. This guy is angry.
So, let me google some things for you.
Is 1.2 Million a Lot?
1.4 Million for Those Who Preach Christ
I'm a Baptist .... Am I therefor Evil?
If you are looking for dirt to throw at your fellow Christians, it's not hard to find. But that is not what we are supposed to do.
I know we are supposed to be each other's humble servants: John 13:14 (NIV) "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet."
I know we are supposed to honor one another: Romans 12:10 (NIV) Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
I know we are supposed to be convinced that we are all full of goodness: Romans 15:14 (NIV) I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
I know we are supposed to be patient with each other: Ephesians 4:2 (NIV) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
I know we are supposed to encourage each other so sin will not get us down: Hebrews 3:13 (NIV) But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
So, I want to apologize for all the harsh not so blessing filled things I have ever said about or to any fellow brothers and sister's in Christ. We are not supposed to be about that. We are supposed to be about love.
Spread the Word. God is Love. None of us is worthy at all, much less more worthy than another fellow Christian. Spread the Word. We are the hands and feet of Christ, and each other's servants. Let us begin to change the world with the Word and Power and Christ. Today. Right Now.
I went to a private high school in the upper mid west, back in 71 - 75. I was an army brat and a scholarship kid, and my roommates were from families of wealth and privilege. I know that now. Back then, they were just kids.
Anyway, I was on the wrestling team, and we had a match against a team from a Blind School, where all the children were legally blind.
There were different rules. If we let go of our opponent, the match was stopped, for example. We destroyed them. My match was very easy. I wondered, at the time, why they even bothered.
Then I found out. The were evangelical Christians, as well as blind. The each approached us, and starting tell us how we were going to hell, and how God loved us so much, he had a way out. I can recall thinking something like, "You are already in hell, save yourself and leave me alone you freak."
Most of us bugged out as fast as we could. This was not fun for us or for them.
That picture colored the rest of my educational life and how I looked at Jesus. I find it amusing now, how I can't remember where I live or what time it is, or how to add 2 digit numbers, but I can remember a spiritual event that happened a lifetime ago. God really does work in mysterious ways.
From that point until today, I think most Christians fall into 1 of two or three different categories.
Category one is the one I find most often applies:
1) I am duty bound to work out my salvation, after the fact, by following every law in the bible and in the land that I can, except for ceremonial law. I will keep my head down in prayer, and never make a noise in my life, as life's purpose is about God, not me. I can not have fun, it would be disrespectful.
This one is pretty classic. You either believe that you were saved by the grace of God, as outlined in Ephesians, or you believe that you have to work your salvation out by works, from James. Perhaps, you believe that you must do good works because you saved.
Personally, I do what is right when I am walking with the spirit, because is gives glory to God's name, and it seems as though there is no other choice. Simple example. I always return the shopping cart to the place that it belongs at the grocery store. Even if I am late. Even if it is raining. It seems right. I would hate to have someone who is NOT a Christian yet, see we just rolling it next to my car and leave, just because I did not want to get wet. I am not a fair weather Christian. I love the Lord. All the time.
Category two is the polar opposite, and seems to apply to the youngest adults most often:
2) I am already saved, if I have been called to be saved, and God has given me the world, so I will use it. All of it, un-apologetically and without gratitude to my fellow humans, since God gave it to me. Those who help are only vessels for God's grace, so I don't owe them anything.
This example nearly prevented me from becoming a Christian as well. One of our karate students, about 16 at the time, and a member of a very conservative Evangelical Baptist church in our area, was bragging about how he and his girl friend (now wife) had gone to a move, and since there were already in the theater, when that show, for which they had paid, was over, they just got up and walked into a different movie, for which they had not paid. Why I asked them. "Why not," they answered. "I thought you were a Christian?" I said. "What's that got to do with it?" they said.
What would Jesus do? Go to the movies for free, because God has given him the whole world, right?
The third category is the reason for this blog. Live life large, as God intended us to do.
3) You must celebrate the life here and the life eternal you have been given. Every living thing has difficulty, and we too will have our share. Some of it will be because we live in a fallen world and some will be there for teach us. But we have something those who are not yet saved do not have. We have the helper (John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you"), they holy spirit, praying for us, guiding us and keeping us within God's grasp, (Romans 8:26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.. We have assurance of life everlasting (John 14:1“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.), and we have the love of the creator of the universe.
Live you life like you were the child of the King, because you are.
John 14:27 - (ESV): "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
My mind races with the consequences of my actions every moment of my waking life it seems. For example, 2 months ago, I hit a car in a parking lot. At the time, I was not sure I hit it. I looked, it did not appear damaged, so i parked 10 feet from the car, and waited for my wife to do her business within the building I was parked in front of. She came out and told me to drive next door to pick her up. On the way out, just to make sure I did not hit the car, and if I did hit it, I did not damage it, I looked again. Seemed whole to me. I pulled out of the parking lot, turned left, saw why wife, pulled to the side of the road, picked her up, and spent the next 45 minutes going from business to business for her within the same town.
Then, as I was entering the Geo Tag in facebook, for the business she was then inside of, a local police officer scared the tar out of me by sticking his head in the van's window. You gotta know that this was a 15 passenger van, and was very tall, so his head actually was right in front of mine, face to face. He then told me we had a problem. Since I was still thinking about the near miss I had in the parking lot, when he told me that I had hit the car, I said "Oh Crap -- I did hit it?"
He flipped out. Reminded me of a DI. Screaming, pointing, being rude, calling my wife a Girl, refusing to accept the registration which in CT in on the windshield, refusing the insurance card at first, never letting me tell him what happened. He just went nuts.
Since then I have been told that he was probably not used to people telling him the truth, so he just assumed I had hit the car and left the area. He was told that I had hit the car, sped away, picking my wife up on the side of the road, and beat feet to get out of the area. No one told him I had been there for 10 minutes after I evidently did hit the car. It did not occur to him that I was still within a mile of the store where this happened 45 minutes later.
Rather, in his rush to PROVE that I was an idiot, he wrote on the report that there was food wrapping trash from the store I was parked at when all this happened. There was trash on the floor, for sure, but not from there. We don't eat there. It makes me ill. In addition, my wife and spent 10 minutes talking to friends inside the store, and they have volunteered to tell the law that we did not buy any food. Further, I have the Geo Tags which are time stamped to show how long I was there. No one fled the scene. 10 minutes I was parked within 10 feet, and there were only 2 or 3 cars in the parking lot.
He never asked. He just assumed I was a bad guy. After I got the citation, he finally asked why I left. I said, "If I remember -- " He yelled, "What do you mean, if I remember, it only happened 30 minutes ago?" I apologized, and said, "I have a brain injury, and I ...." He yelled, "I don't care." I lost it. I walked into his personal space, put my face inches from his face, and said, "Excuse me?" The reason I told him I have a brain injury is because I have VERY poor short term memory. I only remember emotional things, and those poorly. This one I wrote down.
Why is this important? Because I failed the Lord. I know I did not do much wrong. I should have called the police, even though I could find no damage, or was even sure I hit that car. I should have looked more carefully. I did not, I am not at peace because of it. I am afraid of the court date too. Why? Because the officers report was horrible. His vision of what happened is all one sided. Makes me look very bad. I could have prevented that, if I just remembered who this life is all about. I abandoned the peace of the Lord and tried to do it on my own.
The problem only escalates for TBI patients though. Now, since I can not really remember what happened, only what I tell people happened, and fear rules my day, I see myself in prison for 15 years. Not possible, but that is the nature of my illness.
So why don't I have the peace of the Lord? Am I not forgiven?
Perhaps my conservative friends are right, and the Lord is punishing me for my loss of control. You know, Forgiven but still responsible. I don't buy that, but that is running around in my head.
Perhaps God just does not care about me right now. I don't buy that either, but obviously I have thought it.
But then I ran across this verse. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
Jesus, as he was dying, left us a gift far bigger than I at first understood.
He left us Peace, and not just any Peace, His Peace.
Wow.
Jesus did not leave it there, just in case I misunderstood. He said, Not the world's peace - you know, the forgive but don't forget type, but His peace.
And just to make sure I did not miss the point, he tells me to not be troubled or afraid.
So why was I troubled and afraid when I started writing this? Because I allowed the world's peace to be my guide.
Why am I sitting up straighter and breathing slowly right now, without the fear or trouble?
Because I accepted this gift too. Right here. Right now.
Read the Bible, listen to Holy Spirit within you, and be at peace. It is your new birth right. Own it.
I came to this book because I longed for an emotional & spiritual experience which I perceived that other followers of Jesus the Christ all had, or said they had, when they became followers of Jesus. I was literally crying out for something more, something deeper, something real from my faith. If you would like to know more about my spiritual journey, and why "crying out," is not something that would surprise me, read my article on my conversion experience called Diving In, an Act of Faith.
It was actually recommended by Amazon when I finished another book, The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin Raphael McManus, so I bought it. It rocked my world. It rocked my spiritual world first, but it ripped the foundations off of my life in the "World." I will never be the same again.
Before I tell you what I learned and what else I thought of the book, let me tell you a little about the author. Alan Kraft is the lead pastor of Christ Community Church, Greenly, Colorado, and he is both a husband of many years and a father of several ages of children. He has lived life, made mistakes, admits them, and is willing to share what he has learned with us.
I recommend this book to anyone who does not believe that they have not yet experienced “brokenness, faith or a personal relationship with Jesus" at the levels they once expected or hoped for. If you long for the “Peace of God that surpasses all understanding,” (Philippians 4:7) then this book is for you.
I recommend this book with even more urgency if your life is full of fear. I don't mean spiritual fear, (like fearing God, fearing you are not worthy, fear of death), though it will help with that too. I mean fear of anything in your life that is tangible or not. If you are tired of being chased by the same anxiety; if you think a lot, "I can not catch a break," or you are having trouble sleeping because of the pressure in your life, this is a MUST READ.
If you have the world by the tail, and you really are "all that," you won't like this book.
1) A personal relationship with Jesus. I had asked friends at two churches in two states what a "personal relationship with Jesus," was, and what it felt like, because I was tired of the "Jesus Speak," I always heard from Christians like myself when speaking about Jesus. I really did not know what it meant. One church, only members answered. Even though it was a monitored page and the pastors read it, no one who was trained answered. The people said things like, "it's just like your relationship with other people." and the like. NO IT IS NOT. It is mind blowing and emotional, and it is all over the Gospel and can even be found throughout the old testament. This book tells you where it is in the Bible and even shows you how to start down the path. It will make you cry. It will make you happy. It will make you safe.
2) An Emotional Recognition of my Brokenness beyond the technical definition of sin we have all heard so many times before. I discovered just exactly how I could discover what my sins really were, and that brought me to the floor, face down, several times. Way past mind blowing. Deeply soul stretching.
3) An understanding of the roles of the Holy Spirit, Jesus and God the Father in my prayer life and in my mortal life. I have always wondered what the deal was with the Trinity. Why the doctrine was created by man, justified by scripture and memorized by millions, but not understood by anybody. I discovered the sameness of God. I discovered the Power of grace in the three parts of God, and most importantly to me, I discovered the universality of the Gospel. How it applies to my life in all its aspects, every moment of the day, and just how amazing grace really is.
I don't know if these things were the intended messages of the book, but I do believe that the Holy Spirit and the Bible support the messages that I got for my life, and I suspect it will in your life as well.
After reading the first few paragraphs, it was clear to me that Erwin Raphael McManus was attempting to illustrate how "civilized" most Christians have become and how far from the standard of behavior and passion that Jesus set for us in his life and ministry. Such a rich background of real life stories, both from the author's life and from history, illustrate the point, that is hard to imagine how anyone who reads this book will not have the leash holding their faith back from extraordinary actions ripped from their necks. I want to paint my face blue, wear animal skins and break all the rules for the Lord Jesus. I have, in fact, changed my behavior and my reaction to the world has been significantly altered. This is not only a Must read, it is a must do type of book.
As I was reading this book, and I am a sloooooowww reader and I still only took less than 1 day to finish the first time, I first thought that this was a book that people who have accepted Jesus as Lord decades ago would have a very good chance of capturing the power and purpose they and always hoped to have, but missed. Yet, the more I read, it became obvious that New Christians would also benefit from this book, and might even get to miss the "lack of wonder" stage that so many Christians go through soon after accepting Jesus into their lives. It even occurred to me that leaders, students, employees, athletes and children could all learn how to face their fears and act with power. Pretty much, if you love Jesus, and you want to be in the kingdom as a warrior rather than a busboy, then read this book.
The book starts by explaining why Jesus was so unaccepted by the world when he was in it, and relates that to the behavior of a Barbarian, while at the same time relating the religious community to the "Civilized." This is done artfully by juxtaposing scripture and other historical examples. He tells two stories from his own life, both early life as a Christian, and his family life, that had me crying. Not because of how 'sad' or 'funny' they were, but because without really trying, he had found the weakness of my own actions and behaviors, and that of the religious institutions of our own time, and opened my ears to the call of the Lord. And he did call. And I did hear. It scared me it was such a powerful moment.
He goes on with the same high craft to tell us how we can change our own lives, so that we can life a life a true freedom and by so doing be the changed person we are called to be. This is not manuscript of philosophy, but rather a way to under stand the word of God through the Holy Spirit withing you. This is a how to book, though the only how to is how to be a barbarian for Jesus. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God do the rest of the telling, but once the fog of my entire life was lifted from my eyes, and I saw Jesus' life for what it was, everything was changed.
There was one line of scripture in the first few pages that I felt he took out of context, and that interpretation permeated the entire book, but in the end, the miss us of one word, Fire, turned out to be totally unimportant. I could describe this book as an attack on Orthodox Churches, even my own, but that would be cynical. He really did not attack any Church. He attacked my understand of the power of God, and he was right.
Plug into this book, but leave 3 hours, because once you buy it, you will not put it down happily.
