Living with a 1st generation faith experience

There is nothing like 1st Love… Most of us remember our first “crush.” As special as these early memories are, there is nothing like the early days of the Christian life.

With this in mind, there is nothing more important than handing off the faith to our children. Unfortunately, the narratives in the Old Testament tell tragic stories of men who failed to hand off the faith to their children.

Do you remember, perhaps, the saddest day in Samuel’s life when “…the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 1Samuel 8:4-5

Samuel’s mentor, Eli, is not remembered by most for years of faithful service to Israel and his impact on Samuel's life. In 1Samuel 2:12 we read, “Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.” I do not think I am the only one who visualizes Eli as a “big guy” who lost control of his sons.

I don’t know where you are spiritually, but in Galatians 3:26 Paul reminds us, “You are all sons of God through faith.” The Bible uses the term “adoption” to describe the faith transaction which causes us to become part of God’s family.

It is sad when a married couple begins to take each other for granted. It is tragic when Christ followers begin to take God and the things of God for granted.

Please prayerfully check out the symptoms of loosing the sense of the 1st generation experience.

We're loosing the sense of that 1st generation faith experience when...
1-We take our faith and relationship with God for granted.
Our Christian faith is not like our political affiliation or alma mater. It's not a box we check in a survey or on an application. God became man and died in our place and adopted us into His family as we trust him!

We're loosing the sense of that 1st generation faith experience when...
2-Our behavior leads to a change in our beliefs.
Nobody dabbles with drinking, drugging, immorality or other activities after doing an exhaustive study of the Bible about the issues. Nobody fails to give, read, attend church after doing an exhaustive study of the Bible about the issues. We slowly change our behavior and then change of belief system to accommodate our new behavior. We struggle, for awhile, with the inconsistency and "deal with it" by changing our position on the issue.



We're loosing the sense of that 1st generation faith experience when...
3-We define ourselves in ways other than as a Christian.
Notice how we are identified or how we define ourselves. Most of the time we are defined or noticed by our appearance, career choices, spouse, marital status, zip code or hobby.
Sometimes we are defined by our personalities or skill sets. When we loose that 1st love feeling we cease to think and talk like a follower of Jesus Christ. Imagine what it would look like if being a follower of Jesus Christ defined everything about us!

We're loosing the sense of that 1st generation faith experience when...
4-Our Christian disciplines are rituals or rote behaviors.
I define the Christian Disciplines as reading, praying, church attendance, giving. In Hosea 6:6 god said, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. If we are going through the motions we are in trouble!

On the other hand…
We keep a 1st generation experience to the extent we live for him. We live for Him and personify the 1st generation experience when we:

We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
1-Maintain a close connection with the Word of God.
This means read, reflect and use the Bible as a guide and a source of wisdom, comfort and direction for all areas of our lives.

We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
2-Live a life consistent with our calling.
Paul said “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Ephesians 4:1. Ponder what it means to live a life “worthy of our calling!”

We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
3- Constantly prune, evaluate and ask why and why not…
Again Paul said…“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24 The older I get, the more I stay away from the mirror! This may work in some areas of life, but it does not work in the spiritual realm. In the spiritual realm the mirror is a combination of God's Word and godly people willing to speak into our lives.


We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
4-Fill our life with decisions that demands God be God.
These decisions often are small but significant decisions…
You will never loose the 1st generation mindset is you fill your life with decisions that demands God be God. This includes decisions to do and be... as well as decisions to refrain from doing, saying and thinking. It is supernatural!

We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
5-Live a life that allows you to claim God’s promises.
In Acts 20:22-24 Paul spoke to members of Ephesian church saying:
“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Paul never chose the easy road. He knew God. He knew God's Word. He believed what God said about Himself and what He said to us. With this mindset there is no uncertainty or insecurity.

We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
6-Tell somebody about Jesus…
And tell your wife, husband, kids, or small group about it.
Disclaimer… This is a command, a trick and a tool.
In 2Cor. 5:19-20 Paul says: God “…has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” He says “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” That's the command part. The trick and tool part is built into obeying the command. As we commit ourselves to "the message of reconciliation," [Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved"] our lifestyle and Christian disciplines will be sharpened.

We'll keep that 1st generation faith experience as we...
7-Surround yourself with new believers.
There is nothing more exciting… it is often messy but it will change your life! TRUST me!

Blessings your way...

Who Cares? By General William Booth

On one of my recent journeys, as I gazed from the coach window, I was led into a train of thought concerning the conditions of the multitudes around me. They were living carelessly in the most open and shameless rebellion against God, without a thought for their eternal welfare. As I looked out the window, I seemed to see them all - millions of people all around me - given up to their drink and their pleasure, their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties, their politics and their troubles. Ignorant - willfully ignorant in many cases - and in other instances knowing all about the truth and not caring at all. But all of them, the whole mass of them, sweeping on and up in their blasphemies and devilries to the throne of God. While my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision.

I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightning flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.

In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed, they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark, angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those, who were already safe on the platform, were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety.

On looking more closely, I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats, and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of this sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of all the consequences, in their passion to "rescue the perishing." And I hardly know which gladdened me most - the sight of the poor drowning people climbing onto the rocks, reaching the place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole beings were wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance.

As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different "sets" or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea.

But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have for gotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care - that is, any agonizing care - about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes... many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and even their own children.

Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went regularly to hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these poor drowning creatures was described.

I have already said that the occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed night and day in trading and business in order to make gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes, and the like.

Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock, others in painting pieces of cloth, or in playing music, or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking, others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning creatures that had already been rescued.

But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the platform to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt they ought to obey it - at least they said they did - those who confessed to love Him much and were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had undertaken - who worshipped Him or who professed to do so - were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving and pleasures, their families and circles, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland, that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this Wonderful Being who had Himself gone down into the sea. Anyway, if they heard it, they did not heed it. They did not care. And so the multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

And then I saw something that seemed to me even more strange than anything that had gone on before in this strange vision. I saw that some of these people on the platform whom this Wonderful Being had called to, wanting them to come and help Him in His difficult task of saving these perishing creatures, were always praying and crying out to Him to come to them!

Some wanted Him to come and stay with them, and spend His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to come and take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning the truth of some letters which He had written them. Some wanted Him to come and make them feel more secure on the rock - so secure that they would be quite sure that they should never slip off again into the ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel quite certain that they would really get off the rock and onto the mainland someday; because as a matter of fact, it was well known that some had walked so carelessly as to lose their footing and had fallen back again into the stormy waters.

So these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they could, and looking toward the mainland (where they thought the Great Being was) they would cry out, "Come to us! Come, help us!" And all the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them trying to drag them out, and looking up oh! so longingly, but all in vain to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all hoarse from calling, "Come to Me! Come and help Me!"

And then I understood it all. It was plain enough. That sea was the ocean of life - the sea of real, actual human existence. That lightning was the gleaming of piercing truth coming from Jehovah's throne. That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of God. Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling, and agonizing in the stormy sea were the thousands and thousands of poor harlots and harlot-makers, of drunkards and drunkard-makers, of thieves, liars, blasphemers, and ungodly people of every kindred, tongue, and nation.

Oh, what a black sea it was! And oh, what multitudes of rich and poor, ignorant and educated were there. They were all so unalike in their outward circumstances and conditions, yet all alike in one thing - all sinners before God - all held by, and holding onto, some iniquity, fascinated by some idol, the slaves of some devilish lust, and ruled by the foul fiend from the bottomless pit!

"All alike in one thing?" No, all alike in two things. Not only the same in their wickedness, but unless rescued, the same in their sinning, sinking... down, down, down... to the same terrible doom. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts, and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who professed to be saved from sin and hell - followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking their own lives in saving the perishing, were true soldiers of the cross of Jesus. That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of God, "the same yesterday, today, and forever," who is still struggling and interceding to save the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery, and noise of life, calling on the rescued to come and help Him save the world.

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters. You are on the rock. He is in the dark sea calling on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact - a fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

Look! Don't be deceived by appearances - men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great white throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the sea - to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

A young Christian once came to me and told me that for some time she had been giving the Lord her profession and prayers and money, but now she wanted to give Him her life. She wanted to go right into the fight. In other words, she wanted to go to His assistance in the sea. As when a man from the shore, seeing another struggling in the water, takes off those outer garments that would hinder his efforts and leaps to the rescue, so will you who still linger on the bank, thinking and singing and praying about the poor perishing souls, lay aside your shame, your pride, your cares about other people's opinions, your love of ease, and all the selfish loves that have kept you back for so long, and rush to the rescue of this multitude of dying men and women?

Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous? Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you, as for everyone who takes it means difficulty and scorn and suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death. He who beckons you from the sea, however, knows what it will mean - and knowing, He still calls to you and bids you come.

You must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises - very much of heaven on earth.

Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

You must do it. With the light that has now broken in upon your mind, and the call that is now sounding in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them.

Now, what will you do?

Taking nothing for granted…

This week a process that began almost two years ago reached a conclusion. We are moving into the new offices across the street from the Church at 2337 Darby Rd.

We are in moving mode, so you have to have a vivid imagination or be able to look beyond boxes and clutter. In spite of the mess, the staff’s excitement is obvious to anyone who takes a few minutes to visit.

God gave me a timely scripture this week. I was reading the narrative in Deuteronomy 8 about the days leading up to Israel’s entry into the Promised Land. The reminder not to “forget the Lord” caught my eye and penetrated my spirit as I sat in my new office earlier this week.

Perhaps knowing God’s people, in fact, did “forget the Lord” caused me to stop, pray and commit to give God the glory for His gracious provision.

The new office is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and the sacrifice of God’s people who call or called Grace Chapel their “home.”

The pull of human nature will make my commitment to remember the Lord’s provision hard work. The keys to success on this front are found in the verses surrounding the warning about forgetting the Lord. Deuteronomy 8 is filled with simple words of warning and encouragement. God’s people are called to “be careful” in 8:1. They are called to “remember” in 8:2. The next paragraph begins with the call to “observe the commands of the Lord… walking in his ways.”

The next paragraph contains the warning against forgetting the Lord and an inspired glimpse into the ways of man.
Forgetting the Lord leads to a heart [which becomes] proud as we grow satisfied and settle down. [8:12]

The principles that consumed me this week in the new offices will also be relevant as we progress in the renovation and the New Century Campaign. God has been gracious to us. Let us be careful… remember… observe and walk in his ways.

Blessings…
PB

Kenya follow up

Two months after Kenya and I am still recovering. Our team of 12 returned to the States on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The physical recovery took longer than I imagined. Sleep was hard to come by but I blamed it on a mind that was spinning faster than the little beach ball on my laptop when it is having trouble processing too much information.

I tried to slip back into my routine while anticipating my daughter, Ashling’s wedding, and planning for the Christmas ministry season. But I viewed everything in the final days of 2007 with a Kenyan lens.

It’s 2008 and the impact of the trip is getting stronger and stronger. I assume the media coverage of the chaos in Kenya following the presidential election helps keep the trip in my mind’s eye. But I think it is more than that.

Kenya today reminds me of the fragility of life in real time. In my travels from Nairobi to Karundas to Kisumu my senses were overloaded but the evidence of the difference the Church has made in Kenya warmed my heart.

It is obvious that when everybody else gets tired, bored, discouraged or distracted the Church and God’s servants remain.

I spent “Black Friday,” with the Pastors of a church planted by Africa Inland Mission missionaries in 1904. A huge church, even by American standards, with a school, an orphanage, a thriving youth ministry and community development projects all run by nationals. Risper’s parents and her extended family hosted us. They had waited anxiously for my arrival. They greeted me with song, prayer and much celebration. They peppered me with probing questions covered with deep pride about the prospect of Barak Obama becoming the next president of the United States.

While the ladies prepared the first of two incredible meals I toggled between talking to the Pastors and meeting the Kenyan believers.

The Pastors had an endless list of questions about shepherding God’s flock. The question that brought the biggest smile to my face was their problem of introducing contemporary music into their worship services. They explained the problem of the senior members of the church rejecting anything but the great hymns of the faith, imagining I could never understand such a conflict!

They tried to sit at my feet but in reality, I was the student, I was the novice in the faith life. The daily and weekly discipline of the members of the church in Kisumu is the stuff of the hero’s of the faith. The prayer, the fasting, the knowledge of Scripture, the sacrificial giving and the broad ownership of the call of God to provide light and salt to their world caused me to be humbled as I said goodbye and returned to meet the team in Nairobi.

Today Kenya, the most stable country in central Africa, is reeling. Someday soon the politicians will figure out a way to save face and work to restore the confidence of the people, the rest of Africa and the world.

The local churches scattered across Kenya will not wait for the politicians and governmental authorities to restore order. They have already begun the process of preparing for the next chapter of God’s work in this part of Africa. I trust we can be part of that story!