Bricks or Sticks

(Really, the choice is plain,
Where loss is gain and
Gain is dross;
Where’s might’s not right and
Blind is sight.
The choice is here and
Here right now:
Not What? and When?, but
Who? and How?)

Men with sticks, they tap and lean;
Blind and weak, they know their need –
They know the Crutch is how they’re freed.
Three-legged friends, in whom I’ve seen
Release from soulish, selfish ends.

Now men with bricks know no such limp –
They’re strong and big, they’re Lives out Loud;
They’re Sunny Days with scarce a cloud
And scarcely too have time for wimps,
Who would never make their Building Crew.

This limping lot aren’t apt to build,
But totter on in needy stance.
This walk of weakness – to Christ a Dance –
Grants them frail friends, a Rejects’ Guild,
Whose means will never make their Ends.

The strong ones bake and lay their bricks;
They build at pace as men at work
And raise their towers like kings berserk.
They read for power and place their ticks
By feats that make the feeble cower.

But when deeper in the Word we peer
We see weak men strong and strong made weak;
We see bread that feeds in ravens’ beaks
And One Who builds with those whose Fear
Is greater than great goals fulfilled.

Some with sticks and some with bricks –
Who shall be crowned on Kingdom Day?
Men who made much, of whom much was made?
The ones e’er healthy, the Never-Sick?
Well, where’s the Healer, with the frail or wealthy?

There’s change afoot, a New Revival
That brick-men miss as men who lead –
The Mustard Plant’s not for mighty weeds
Who fierce promote their own survival
Above a Heaven too remote for them to sense
There’s a Future to their Present Tense.
There’s a Builder upon Whom weak men lean,
And in leaning live out their wildest dreams.

Men with sticks and men with bricks –
Make your choice and take your pick.
Make it wisely, make it now;
It’s not What? and When?, but
Who? and How?

Nick

The Christian's Inheritance (Final)

Christ and the Twofold Blessing

So, how does the Christ fit in with the two-fold blessing of the inheritance promise made to Abraham – that of nations and generations, dominion and dynasty, geography and genealogy?
Am I opposed to any form of inheritance in the here and now? Well, in spite of Christ’s words that we were to “invite those to supper who could not invite us back” (that we “might have rewards in heaven”), I am ALL FOR the displacement of darkness with light; ALL FOR healthy marriages, healthy churches and church multiplication. I am all for healing, deliverance….the KINGDOM COMING.

The hermeneutical Christ-key for me, however, means that Christ Himself is my Reward, in spite of what may befall me here on earth.

In the place where we are genuinely enjoying Christ for Christ’s sake - not for reward or blessing or help or miracles’ sake – I believe we live powerful lives, that change others while keeping them free.

How else can any man walk away from success, from salary, from home, from the known, from applause? How else can we go to the third world, to the valley of decision, to war-torn nations?
How else will batons be passed on without hooks? Or disciples released to surpass the discipler? How else could the elders be honored, or the weak not despised?

The litmus test for what we are truly aiming at in the depths of our hearts comes when lesser things are taken away, position is lost, troubles come, prayers are not answered. Is Christ my sufficiency, or not? When lesser things take on idolatrous positions in our hearts, then when they are removed (God will do it), we feel useless, displaced, confused, suicidal.

So, regarding NATIONS as one leg of our inheritance, we are called to go, by Christ Himself (not by men who tell us what Christ has called us to). And as we go, we find our Christ-inheritance. Like the Levites, who were assigned no land, so too for us God Himself is our Reward. When we are blessed with the things of the earth, we are “as those not engrossed by them” . When the time comes for us to choose, unlike Lot we will not “choose for ourselves”, but always for Christ. When deferring rewards enriches others, blesses others, saves others, we will defer our rewards, because we ultimately and primarily are citizens of another Kingdom, and we too are seeing the City with Foundations.

Regarding GENERATIONS, what joy it is to see our children serving the Lord with zeal. Our biological and spiritual children, that is. They belong to God, yet in Christ we can enjoy all saints as part of our Christ-inheritance in the here and now too!

1 Cor 3:21-23 “So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”

When it comes time to ENDURE SUFFERING, Christ is with us, close to us, fellowshipping with us in it. He is enough. He is coming soon and His reward is with Him.

“True have his promises been, not one has failed. I bear witness that never servant had such a master as I have; never brother such a kinsman as he has been to me; never spouse such a husband as Christ has been to my soul; never sinner a better Saviour; never mourner a better comforter than Christ hath been to my spirit. I want none beside him. In life he is my life, and in death he shall be the death of death; in poverty Christ is my riches; in sickness he makes my bed; in darkness he is my star, and in brightness he is my sun; he is the manna of the camp in the wilderness, and he shall be the new corn of the host when they come to Canaan. Jesus is to me all grace and no wrath, all truth and no falsehood: and of truth and grace he is full, infinitely full”. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Closing
Christ is in all, over all through all. I cannot be Christ-centred merely by claiming it to be true, nor teaching it as truth. My private passions reveals my true priorities and preference – for rewards seen and now, or for the secret Treasure, for the spiritual table of feasting, for “the food you know nothing of” .

I believe this secret feasting, through sunshine and through trials, will be the hallmark of the next revival tsunami. That which moves powerfully yet invisibly within us, does massive damage when it reaches the shores of men.

Many are saying, “here he is, there He is”, but as for us, let’s stay true to our True North. Let’s make Him our Reason and Reward - practicing the fellowship of the Spirit; taking the spy-cams out of the master bedroom of our love affair with God. He wants to take us deeper into Himself; higher up His holy Hill. In this place, we will care little for worldly things. As Christ takes us further into the mysteries of this hidden Kingdom, the Kingdom will come, but also “without observation”, unselfconsciously, accidently.

Christ is our Inheritance – His realm is our Nation, His people our Generations.

love

Nick

The Christian's Inheritance (Part 3)

Major Malady – Missing the Christ-Hermeneutic

Humanism is ugly in any form. This anthropocentric tug came into force the moment Eve bit into the apple . It is man’s way of doing things his way. It is man’s way of remaining focused on man – this goes beyond the Tower of Babel even into Christian ministry .

God wants us looking to Him, for everything. In life and in death, in sickness and in health, in riches and poverty. Blessings and hardships – these are all God’s way of turning our eyes to Him.

And then, ultimately, God sent His only begotten Son. In surrendering His dignity, His status and His very life for our sins, Christ opened the Life Gate that All may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice…. yet so many remain deaf, unwitting, un-appreciating.

And so too in the church, we get saved in a rush of heaven, and we fall in love. But our motive in this marriage can be as self-indulgent as many men on their honeymoon. And as time goes by, the selfish nature of our mindsets pervades into self-centered pursuits, where our new Life Partner is invited to bless, help, serve, love, but we remain the Lord of our own chariots.
In the modern world, many in the church are not so carnal as to merely use Christ for material Ends. But use Him we still can do. In this more ecclesiastical scenario, He is the empoweror of our Preaching, the planter of our Churches, the Enlarger of our Congregations, the worker of our Miracles, the definer of our Success-Identities, the vindicator of our Decisions.

I cannot give my life to these ends, no matter how noble or altruistic they might “feel” for a while (normally 10-15 years). The “Christ-hermeneutic” is more than a change of source of blessing (whether corporal, ecclesiastical or social); it is a change of heart, aim, ambition, power, destiny, Sovereign.

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”.

The threefold prayer of Paul for the Ephesus church – that they might know the hope, the inheritance and the power – all were prefaced with the chief prayer of “knowing Him better”...

• The key to prosperity is Christ, not a faith formula. Ps 16:5 “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.”

• The key to leadership is Christ, not training leaders. 1 Cor. 11:1 “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

• The key to miracles is Christ, not atmosphere or music or a quest for miracles. Gal 3:2, 5 “I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”

• The key to marriage is Christ, not marriage seminars. Eph 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”

• The key to church planting is Christ, not the right team or prayer. Acts 11:20-22 “Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.”

• The key to perseverance is Christ, not success nor psychology. Heb 12:2-3 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

• The key to rewards is Christ, not a focus on rewards, or trying not to focus on them. Phil 3:10-11 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

• The key to scripture is Christ, not another podcast. 1 Cor 2:16 ““For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”. But we have the mind of Christ.”

• The key to unity is Christ, not an insistence on unity. Eph. 4:15-16 “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

• The key to holiness is Christ, not principles for holy living. Col 1:22 “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”

The key to our inheritance is Christ, for He is the sum total of our Inheritance.

It is true that leaders and ministers in a church scenario without Christ as the central gaze, become something other than pure channels of the gospel. to quote directly from Os Guiness, in his book "Dining with the Devil" (pages 69-70), leaders take on the form of one of the following caricatures (as more earthly inheritances than Christ are pursued) :

• Pundit – the one for whom everything can be known; everything can be pronounced on, centered professionally on the importance of information. Knowledge is more powerful than Christ’s Humility.

• Engineer – the one for whom everything can be designed, everything can be produced, centered professionally on production. Production and administration are more important than Christ’s Love.

• Marketer – the one for whom everything can be positioned, everything can be sold, centered professionally on consumer satisfaction. Impact is more important than Christ’s Truth.

• Consultant – everything can be better organized, everything can be better delivered, centered professionally on management. Efficiency and workflow are more important than Christ’s Life.

• Therapist – everything can be gotten in touch with, everything can be adjusted or healed, centered professionally on healing. Human need is more important than Christ’s Mission.

• Impresario – everything can be conveyed to advantage through the presentation of images regardless of any reality, centered professionally on public relations. Sensation and Corporate Experience are more important than Imitating Christ.

May ours not be the lot of these dead-end streets to "ministry"!!

In our final session, we will contemplate the Christian and his inheritance of the Two-Fold Blessing in Christ.

love

Nick

The Christian's Inheritance (Part 2)

The Twofold Promise in the Present Tense – for the “Israel of God”

Abraham today remains “the father of all who believe”(Rom 4:11). As for Israel’s acts and rebellions, “these things happened to them as examples and were written as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Cor 10:11).

I see the two thrusts of God’s syntheki covenant still thrusting through the church, which is Abraham’s children – the “seed” of genealogy and the “spreading” of geography.

As with Israel, this implies more than making babies and relocating into the world. For it to be God’s inheritance, it needs to include blessing and headship, the presence of God amongst His people and dominion over His enemies.

This is a vital turnkey for us today. If we had to go by numbers of people declaring themselves “Christian”, then USA should be the most blessed and Kingdom-minded nation on earth . If we had to go by geographic coverage, then surely the Catholic Church should be held up as the apogee of Inheritance geographically ?

No, when we speak of “geography and genealogy” or “nations and generations”, it may be better to refer to the words of Stephen Dempster, “Dominion and Dynasty”.

• Dominion – are the nations blessed? Are they being discipled? Is the meal salted and the dough-batch yeasted?

• Dynasty – are the generations surpassing their ancestry? Are our spiritual children mighty, or are they those who, like Israel after Joshua’s death, “took Canaan’s daughters to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods" (Judges 3v6)?
  

So, rightly, God has raised up several, progressive reformations and revivals, all of which have to some measure large or small seen Dynasty restored and the Dominion of Christ and His Church extended.

Small Malady #1 – Excessive Genealogical Focus
When we only see our inheritance as receiving the blessing of the gospel and passing it on to our family, the church introspects and eventually dies. I know of a church in Australia that is now buried in the church cemetery, and the building has been rented out for secular use.
No matter how noble the family intent, the church remains to propagate the power and person of Jesus Christ throughout the earth. As Christ came with a message, so too do we carry the same message for the multitude in the valley of decision .

Small Malady #2 – Excessive Geographical Focus
When the effort is missional more than familial - when the mission becomes a “missional movement” - we spread out but are leached over time of power, testimony and the legacy to keep things going. Churches are planted, but most never quite take root. Fathers are burnt out and gifts become “as sharp as basketballs”. For a few years, the hubris of national and global spread warms the innards with tales and testimonies from jungles to rented school gymnasiums, but eventually the movement dries and withers through rootlessness; through inter-generational failure .

Small Malady #3 – Gravitational Focus
By “gravitational”, I mean that within me that pulls things towards me. The self-focus. Most people love the Kingdom coming when it means blessing, but not when it includes suffering.

Suffering is part of our short term inheritance, in walking as Jesus did, in attaining to the same resurrection.

The Latter Rain movement, also known as Word-Faith, spawned many good ministries, and also definitely stimulated faith in churches. Sadly however, as it became a “movement”, much was directed gravitationally, attested to now by the vast swathe of TV and internet ministries, promising or suggesting blessing, healing and prosperity - if the “faith-formula” is followed. Such a push-button god is not the God of the Bible .

A sector of this focused not so much on wealth, but on doing the miracles of Jesus. Miracles – megas teras – are part of the Kingdom coming, but our founding faith should not be in them, or a lack of them. The focus on “Kingdom Now” (focused on social and national transformation through the gospel) teaching de-prioritizes spiritual ambitions as well as Christ’s return; while “Word of Faith” (focused on doing the works of Christ) teachings still all too often de-deify Christ to the unbiblical single-nature “Man with the Spirit”, thus elevating ourselves to Christ-status, once we have received the Spirit .

The more extreme statements must be contemplated, simply because many of them came from the “founders” of the Word-Fath Movement. To illustrate this de-deification of Jesus, Kenneth Copeland said the following in 1989:

The Spirit of God spoke to me and He said, “Son, realize this. Now follow me in this and don’t let your tradition trip you up.” He said, “Think this way: a twice-born man whipped Satan in his own domain.” And I threw my Bible down, like that, and I said, “What?” He said, “A born-again man defeated Satan, the firstborn of many brethren defeated him.” He said, “You are the very image and the very copy of that one.” I said, “Goodness, gracious sakes alive!” And I began to see what had gone on in there. And I said, “Well now you don’t mean, you couldn’t dare mean that I could have done that same thing?” He said, “Oh yeah. If you’d had the same knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could’ve done the same thing, ‘cause you’re a reborn man too.” (Substitution and Identification, 1989)

The evangelistic awakening through Billy Graham and the healing crusades of Roberts, Coe and Branham were stirring indeed, and I would agree that millions of believers fly well below the altitude God wants for us. I do believe in miracles to gather crowds for the preaching of the gospel; I do believe in supernatural healing too - having received it from God and seen God give it through my prayers. I do believe in signs and wonders. I want to see more, but my gaze must remain on Jesus, and He remains the Son of God, and I only a son in Him.

One nett effect of gravitational ministry is the formularization of God’s nature, power and dealings with mankind. It also so easily lends itself to guruism (“get the touch; “carry the flame”; “receive my anointing”), imitation and a robbery of the power and romance of each individual journey and calling. I would prefer to aim at something rather than nothing, yet this alone does not protect us from all manner of idolatry in the long run.

In my final blog on the Christian's Inheritance, i want to look at the Christ Hermeneutic as the turnkey to all believers' rewards.

love

Nick

The Christian's Inheritance (Part 1)

Preface – “The Not’s”

The Psalms start with David telling us what righteousness is NOT. So too, regarding our inheritance as believers in Christ, let me commence by declaring what I do not believe.

• I do not believe in some distant promise of paradise, as the sole inheritance of believers. The moment God saves us, we inherit, and continue to inherit. Acts 2:41-42 “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

• However, I do not believe in secular rewards-based motivation. The rewards Christ promised in the gospel, were the rewards of those who follow Christ, not of those who follow rewards. Phil. 3:7-8 “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

• Neither do I believe in altruism, the deliberate ignoring of all thought of reward, as anything genuine or glorious. Matt. 19:29 “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

• I do not believe in quick inheritance as the substance of our Christian largesse. Heb. 6:11-12 “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

• I do not believe in “one generation wins all” - Christianity’s inheritance in and of Christ has been spread out over church history, by God’s providence. Rom. 4:16 “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”

• I do not believe that material inheritance should ever outweigh the nature and profoundness of the Kingdom coming as our true source of joy as heirs. Num. 18:20 “The LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.”

• I am skeptical of all formula-based approach to inheriting, as much as Jesus Himself warned us in Luke 17:23 “Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them.”
  

Inheritance in Israel

It is clear that Genesis 1-11 is God’s way of crashing through the millennia to get to one man – Abram. He goes from heaven to earth to Mesopotamia to Ur. He summarizes thousands of years of genealogy in a few paragraphs – all to arrive at His dealing with this son of Terah.

Abram, a man stranded halfway between nothing and nowhere, gets gate-crashed by God. As Stephen Dempster writes, “how could it be possible that one without such promise could hold so much promise?".

Yet God cuts a covenant with him, and promises him TWO THINGS – “a seed” and the land of Canaan. God extends this several times when He declares that “all nations will be blessed” through Abram.

Through faith and patience, Abraham and Sarah inherit Isaac, the son of the promise. Isaac begets Jacob and Esau (the permanent parallel worlds are perpetuated from the time of Cain and Abel/Seth). Jacob begets the 12 patriarchs and they are called to Egypt by God’s providential dealings. No sign of the promised land yet. Not for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or his children!

After 430 years, Moses leads Israel out of Egypt and Joshua leads them into Canaan. By now the twofold promise to Abraham is materializing – Israel is many (Deut 1v10), and they inherit much of the whole promised land (Josh 11v23).

So, in part, God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled on earth.

The continuation of the Old Testament into the historical and prophetic books really then speak of Israel gaining or losing their inheritance through cycles of obedience or disobedience to God.

We see the outworking in the two-pronged nature of their inheritance – inter-generational and inter-national blessing-dynamics rose and receded, depending on Israel’s response to God.  All of God’s dealings with His people are covenantal.

In the next few blogs, we will look at Two-Fold Inheritance for us, the Israel of God, in and through Christ.

Love
Nick