1000 Days

Jesus walked this Earth for roughly 33 years.  We don’t know much about the first thirty years, other than that His birth was pretty incredible, and He taught the teacher in the temple when He was twelve, but otherwise life before thirty is pretty hazy, but then Jesus goes to John and gets baptized, and everything changes.  For the next three years or 1,000 days, Jesus starts teaching, preaching, healing, and transforming common people into world changers.

Those incredible three years related in the Gospels are the subject of Jonathan Falwell’s book: 1000 Days: The Ministry of Christ. 

Falwell doesn’t necessarily talk about those three years chronologically, but rather organized by themes.  He begins each theme with a modern day story to engage the reader, and then relates the story to a teaching or event in Jesus’s three-year ministry.

Often times the Gospel is referred to as being simple much to the chagrin of the folks who write systematic theology textbooks, and I think Falwell would drive those folks crazy because 1000 Days is pure Gospel in its simplest terms, and I loved it.  I didn’t learn anything new and Earth shattering, but I was reminded that my Savior shattered sin and death and set me free.  I was reminded that Jesus taught us how to love and what’s important, and He did it in a way that was simple and approachable much to the chagrin of the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees.

Yes, 1000 Days is simple, but the simplicity of the Gospel is one of its most beautiful aspects.  There’s no work, there’s no special knowledge we need, no ritual, no fill in the blank.  The Gospel just says repent and believe; Jesus paid it all.

I definitely recommend Falwell’s book if you find yourself needing a reminder of the simplicity of the Gospel.

I received the book free from the publisher for review.  All opinions are my own.

An Arsonist in a Flammable World

There’s fire in His eyes, and I’m not using some cheap cliché either.  There is literally fire in His eyes.  The Arsonist’s gaze turns my way, and I can tell He’s looking to light the match in me too.  It won’t take much; I can feel these dry bones aching to combust.

Still, I resist.  I am afraid.  I turn to run, but where can I go.  He’s everywhere I look.  His fire calls to me; it beckons: “Come and die that you might truly live.”

“I am alive,” I retort, but it’s a lie.  I’m not even sure what “life” is, but I know I haven’t got one.

I am alone yet surrounded by others fleeing the flame. It’s hard to tell where we’re running in the darkness, but we can’t stop lest we be consumed. Some have surrendered to His fire, and from the depths of the inferno, they plead with us who run: “Turn back! Turn back!  That’s the road to destruction. Turn back!”

I laugh.  How can I not?  They’ve given up everything to the Arsonist, and they have the audacity to lecture me for running?  I call them names.  I tell them to put out the flames.  I tell them to run with me, with us.  We can outrun the fire in His eyes. It’s easy, way more easy than confronting Him.

I don’t know how it happens exactly. I’m sure if I look back at the path I’ve taken it would make sense, but somehow I . . .

I fall.

Lying on the ground, I know I’m broken.  There’s no coming back from this one.  I’ve done too much damage.  I look up and see two feet like molten bronze in front of me.  It’s the Arsonist.  He’s finally caught up with me. 

“I’ve never left you,” He says. His voice is like leaves in the breeze.  He reaches down and pulls me to my feet.  And for the first time, I pause and look deep into the fire in His eyes. 

It’s love.  Burning.  Passionate.  Zealous. Obsessive. Love.

The fire burns for me. 

It burns in me. 

I’m baptized in it. 

And then the water comes.  It’s alive, pouring out of the Arsonist like a flood, but it doesn’t douse the flames; it fans them.  Suddenly, I’m ablaze in love.  I can’t contain it; it’s bubbling over like a volcano ready to blow.

The Arsonist turns me toward the runners, and I’m horrified by what I see.  The runners are dry, hollow, just kindling ready to spark.  They’re running toward a chasm of flame, but it’s not the same as the Arsonist’s.  It’s dark.  Flame without light, without love.  He points toward them, and tears fall from the fire in His eyes as He says, “Go, tell them to turn back to Me.”

So, I go.  I tell them about Jesus.  I tell them how He wants to set their world on fire, so they don’t burn it down.  Some turn. Others do not.  And my tears mingle with the Arsonist’s.  Oh how I wish they could know the heights and depths of the flames of His love.

For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29)

Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus

Jesus isn’t interested in having fans and fan clubs; He wants truly committed followers who will give everything for His sake. That’s the message of Kyle Idleman’s new book: Not a Fan.

Idleman writes one of the most serious books about what it means to follow Christ I think I’ve ever read.  In fact, much like Jesus, the author doesn’t pull his punches and cuts to the heart of the matter.  In following Christ, there are no “halfways”, “most of the times”, or “excepts”.  It’s all or nothing. 

If there are ever those times where you think “does this passage about the rich young ruler apply to me? Does it mean I should sell everything I have and give it to the poor?”, the answer is a resounding “yes”.  Don’t listen to a pastor who tells you that Jesus didn’t mean that for everyone.  If you are not willing to give up everything, you cannot be His disciple. (Luke 14:33)

The subject matter is so intense in Not a Fan that Idleman has to put some comic relief in the footnotes.  The first time I checked the footnotes, I thought, “This is inappropriate.  It’s serious stuff here.”  By the end of the book, I was praying for a funny footnote so I wouldn’t be crushed by the weight of conviction steeped in the message of the book.  And Jesus had some funny lines that helped alleviate the tension of His message too.  Just try to picture a camel going through the eye of a needle one time.

I have never read a book I would recommend so much as this one.  If you’re a fan of Jesus, get this book, and find out what a follower looks like.

Were Jesus' Prayers Answered: Unity

Part 1 of a 5 part series

In John 17, Jesus prays over the disciples, and in verse 17:20 He makes it clear that the things He is praying not for them alone, but for all those that come after them who believe in Jesus, in other words us.

As I read this passage, I began to notice that the things Jesus prayed don’t seem to be so.  Is it possible that Jesus’ prayers weren’t answered? He is the Son of God.  If His prayers weren’t answered, then how can we have any hope?  They must have been answered, but how? 

Here’s an example:

That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:21-23)

I don’t know about you, but in the past 2,000 years, I haven’t seen much unity in the so-called followers of Christ.  There have been denominational splits after denominational splits after denominational splits, and they started almost immediately.  Paul talks about these issues in the first chapter of first Corinthians:

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but [that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them [which are of the house] of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:10-14)

Why all the divisions? 

The answer is pretty easy actually.  They’ve taken their eyes of Jesus.  A.W. Tozer puts it this way:

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same [tuning] fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

~ A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (1948), p. 97

And if they’ve taken their eyes off Jesus, I don’t believe they aren’t part of the group Jesus is praying for here. He is not praying for Catholics, Orthodox, or Protestants.  He is not praying for Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Non-Denominationalists, or any of the other hundreds of denominations out there.  

He is praying for those who believe in and follow Jesus.  They may have come to that belief through a denomination, but their denomination doesn’t define them.  They don’t say, “I’m a Baptist”, “I’m a Catholic”, “I’m a Lutheran,” etc.  They say, “I love Jesus!” 

In my experience if you take a bunch of Jesus lovers from all the different denominations and gather them together what you get isn’t discordant arguments about doctrine and dogma, what you get is unified worship of the only One worthy of worship, God Almighty! I’ve seen it many, many times. 

Yes, Jesus’ prayers for unity were answered, but those prayers only apply to those who have believed on Jesus and not an organization of men.  You won’t see a Baptist in heaven, and you won’t see a Catholic in heaven, nor a Presbyterian, nor a Methodist, nor an Orthodox believer. 

There is only one way to the Father and His name is Jesus. And the only people you will see in heaven are those who chose to follow Him, and they will be unified in their worship of God in the next age just as they were in this one.

Next in the series: Protection