"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
- Matt 7:1-5, NIV
For lots of years, especially through high school, I used to wonder about all of those "art people". You know, the musicians, the artists, the drama team. Even the kids who always "got" the right interpretation of the works of say, a Shakespeare or Hemingway, or could read the raw emotions into a Van Gogh painting. Needless to say, I was never one of those people. I was into math and science and the matter-of-fact writing style of journalism. And that was all good. I couldn't relate to "that other group" and so I just didn't. And we all did just fine, thank you very much!
But things changed. I grew up. I began to like music for more than just the tunes. I married somebody who had always made it a point to hang out with all those "artist types". I started to appreciate great writing when I saw it. And something else. I learned about life. And emotion. And struggles. And pain. And you know what it made me start to do? You guessed it... I began to write songs.
And suddenly I was "one of them".
You know what? I became "one of them" again. Just this weekend, in fact. Our church's innocent little Santa event at Green Acres has affected me huge. Maybe it's the spirit of Christmas, as they say. Maybe it's just my emotional state. But it may well be God, and I cannot afford to take the chance that it isn't. You see, in the middle of doing the photography and wishing people a Merry Christmas, and surrounded by activity in every direction, I felt something. Something that has been right there in my heart all along, but something I could never really own up to all the way...
I've classified you. You and everybody else. I've put you in one of two categories: "know Jesus", or "no Jesus". Now, before you stone me for heresy, of course I know that there are people who know Jesus (and need to) and people who don't know Jesus (and need to). And of course I know that this is what the gospel is about - bringing people into fullness in Jesus. But I can most assuredly tell you what it is not about: classifying people.
Yeah, you read that right. Classifying (which is judging) is a human epidemic going all the way back to the garden of eden and the tree of knowledge. When we "classify" people, what we are doing is classing them out of "our class", so we don't have to deal with the responsibility of their lives in relationship to ours. This is what Adam did when God asked him about whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit. Such a display of alpha-maleness: "...the woman You gave me - she's the one who made me do it." (paraphrase mine)
Here's the problem with judging: it automatically blinds you to any possible good you can do the person you're judging. Judging is a mechanism that works like this: since I am insecure about my own worth, I need to perform and "earn" your approval (or God's). You will either accept what I do to perform for you and/or become a resource in my doing it better (in which case I judge you to be good and I will use you for my benefit), or you will reject what I do and/or compete and hinder me from performing (in which case I judge you bad and I will push you away or harm you). Bottom line: I judge because I have to come out looking good, which in a me-centered world usually means I have to push somebody else down and out to do it.
Judging also has this nasty little habit of coming back on you. And so then you have to fire back. And so goes the blame game until everybody is so rejected we all have to go to counseling and medication to feel good about ourselves - or anybody else for that matter. And then there is the societal escalation of judging... prejudice. This is pre-judging people by "classifying" them in groups defined by race, ethnic origin, socio-economic status, even physical attributes. And as Christians, we're real quick to say it's wrong, but let's be honest... if you're not of Middle Eastern roots, do you still feel the same way about Arabic or Middle-Eastern people in your community since 9-11? Really?
Now I'm going somewhere with this. You see, I think - no, I know - we have classes set up in church. I'm not talking about Sunday school here. I'm talking about the way we construct a culture in a church (and all churches have culture; we have one within BCC) so that we - the "haves", the "in" people, the "core" - can be comfortable about where we are with God and with our own particular sins. In other words, where we fail to execute True Love.
For just one example, a particular church might have a strong anti-gay culture or a pro-life culture or a anti-drinking culture. And you can pretty much bet that Those Who Know Best are not going to be struggling with sexual identity or abortion issues or alcoholism (at least not in any revealing way). But among even the leaders there might be some blatant violent over-the-top authoritarian fathers and within the body a majority of people who aren't entirely honest on their taxes or some who are maybe extremely overweight. In this example, these things may well largely be overlooked, or at least people will be accepting of each other as they "struggle" with these sins. These issues may be preached on from time to time, but if they're non-threatening to the culture you'll hear people excuse themselves with something like, "oh, God knows I'm working on being more patient at home", or whatever.
Now, there are obviously differing levels of consequence for sin and I'm not saying that some are not more harmful (although which are treated more extensively and heavy-handed in scripture is entirely debatable, and you might be surprised to find where the emphasis gets placed... anger issues just about always make the worst of the lists, for example!) than others. But sin is sin is sin in God's eyes. And love is love is love. And our cultures tend to be very sin-selective in which sins get "managed" and which ones get hammered. This means if my sin is on the "out" list, I'm not going to be accepted or given the time to work through my issues in the way you will be with yours. In other words, the struggling homosexual will have a whole lot more trouble in a church like the one described above, because he will find himself "classed" out!
So what are our "classes" at BCC? I don't know for sure, but I think we have shown tendencies to judge people who have more wealth, traditional or extremely untraditional frames of reference about church, and people who haven't gone through their "fair share" of pain. There may be more or I may just be seeing things a bit skewed, but I'd like to know what you see. Cause you know what? I want to help make BCC a classless community!
At Green Acres on Sunday, you know what I saw? I saw love and in it I saw God. In and around the lives of people who may or may not have been believers. I saw the same kind of "God-things" around some of the more "classed-out" types of people that I would expect to find flowing from a Christian: joy and gentleness and giving - and love! I am becoming so convinced that God's love is so permeating of everything and everyone (people made in His image, of whom Paul wrote in Acts 17, that in Him we all live and move and have our being). And, again, shoot me for heresy if you will, but I saw something else - we are so much all the same!
We all have the same hopes and fears and struggles and need for acceptance and somebody who understands us and loves us anyway. We all face the same mountains and giants and tendencies to addictions and persistence of fleshly battles and demonic attacks. And we all have access to the same love from the same God through the same Son who still today is saying that our sins are no longer held against us,and He is begging us all to be reconciled to Him (2 Cor 5)!
I felt a connection with the Spirit of God who loves each and every person on this earth. And I felt a connection with the souls - the hearts - of those beautiful people at Green Acres. Those people with whom we have been called to join at the intersection point of our souls and lay down our lives as Jesus has laid down His life for us. And it doesn't matter what color, nationality, religious background, gender or social status label you may wear. It doesn't matter if you accept God's good news or not (but He'll make it hard for you to say no!) It doesn't matter if you ever even think of becoming part of BCC. it doesn't matter if you ever "get your act together" (whatever that means).
There is a love here for you, whoever you are. And I recognize that love in my own heart. It is of God and it came from God and it is there for you. And it is outrageous! And so I refuse to judge you anymore. I refuse to classify you anymore. I refuse to see you "inside" or "outside" - in fact, I want you to belong, even before you believe! I want to know you... be in your story.... feel your heart... share the stuff of life as God directs.
And, as we seem to be on the road to more and more association with the emerging church movement in some significant ways, I can say that what I love about this movement is its humility about not having all the answers and its near-obsession with Jesus and His life. Jesus is the one who models for us what God does. And what do we see? We see Him bringing everyone He touches into a new revelation of God's love. A love that never quits and never fails. A love without limits. And He invites everyone in the celebration and dance of that very love that exists between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. And that to me is outrageous!
I just want to love. And to have a culture where love is classless. Maybe that's why Christmas is so special to the whole world - for a little while we somehow transcend our judgment just to love and to give. And that's beautiful. And it's classless. And because it is, it transform lives into the glory of God, purposefully and over time. And that is what makes it outrageous.
I want to be that outrageous all year in this community. Can we love that well? Let's decide to. Jesus already has!
Live Courageous!
Check out these pics from our incredible Christmas Eve experience at Green Acres!
Note that you can both download and order these pictures (some of them are pretty cool) through the Picasa album site that the link connects to. Please be sure to use discretion in terms of communicating any personal information about GA residents that you may know in relationship to these pictures to anyone outside of our body.Thanks - enjoy!
Ask for my hand you know I'll give it
And if you're cold I give you warmth
And I don't care if it's unfair
Cause I would sacrifice myself
Now that I know
The only thing that matters:
Us.
- "Us", Sixpence None the Richer
When I really got serious about God and my commitment to Him some 22 years ago, so full of life and zeal (and relative stupidity) I can remember observing a lot how spiritual leaders spoke and prayed and ministered to people. And, ya know, I was really good back then at always just "knowing" - must have been a gift - when things said and done were spiritual or when they were fleshly or even demonic. And I'm sure I got it right every time. I was so good that I was sure I could be more spiritual than those so-called leaders I heard every week on Sunday!
I now know that, not only was I obviously completely ignorant, blind and prideful (not necessarily in that order) I was probably nearly always wrong! Today I can say with all confidence that I know so little about judging what's really going on with a person, that I've pretty much given it up as a completely useless way of spending my time and energy. cause you know what? I'd still be just about always wrong.But back in the day, one of my easiest ways to tell if someone was spiritual or not was his or her use of the plural when addressing people in preaching or prayer. What I mean is, if the minister said something like, "we know in our hearts we have to choose God's way", or prayed along the lines of "Lord, we turn from our sins", I would have said every time that that leader was in the flesh. Why? Because everybody spiritual knows (I sure did!) that "real faith (you have to say this making a growling sound with your voice) is something that only you can have between you and Gawwwhhhd, and Gawwwhhhd will hold us each accountable (you have to raise your pitch a bit here) for what you and you alone choose to do in your walk with Him."
You see, I was falling for a half-truth that sounds like a Las Vegas tourism ad... you know, "what happens between me and God stays between me and God". It's up to me. My faith. My prayer. My sin issues. My success or failure. My works. My life. My problem.
And, you know, it is up to me. Well, sort of.
If one looks at earlier church history (even all the way up to around the 17th century and the dawning of the Age of Reason), this wasn't the way things were generally seen. And the New testament itself adds quite an exclamation point to the idea that our faith is largely an "us" thing, not an "I" thing. "We", not "me". Most of Pauls' instructions to the church in his epistles were made in the plural: it was for them together! It's obvious that an individual has to have a relationship with his or her God, but something else must happen when those relationships intersect with one another. And that would be...
Us.
And us is not just a good thing. It's an absolute imperative if we are going to be agents of the Kingdom of God! We hear lots of talk about how all I need is Jesus and how I can be everything He was/is and how I can do all things, etc, etc, etc. But all that kind of teaching does is pick right up on our American state of modernity and individualism. It's all about me so it's all up to me. And all I need is Jesus... and me.
And so what about us? Now that isn't what I need, is it? You're certainly not what I need. Not really. After all, I have Jesus. And I have me. And that's all good. Right?
Maybe that's why the average person now has less than two good friends and why there is such a culture of individual rights that the lawyers run the planet. Maybe that's why loneliness and depression and alienation and rejection are epidemics in this world. Maybe that's why everybody keeps to themselves and lives in front of their PCs and TVs and why when the guy down the street ends up snapping one night and shooting his entire family while they sleep, you get to hear the touching words of some surprised neighbor: "He was such a nice guy... never caused any trouble... (and let's all say it together now) ...he just kept to himself".
Kept to himself. That's what happens. We keep to ourselves. Live that way. Die that way. Maybe we all just want to be like Frank Sinatra. You know... "I did it my way." It seems so individual. Powerful. Responsible. So American.
But not so... Christian. When will we realize that we need each other? That we have doors in our lives that only other people have been given the keys to? That God Himself is a relationship and that we must live in real relationships to experience Him. That we are made to fit together and be the body together and be Jesus together?
"Me and Jesus" doesn't work. It never did and it never will. And the sooner we wake up and connect our hearts to His and to one another (one might ask which of these comes first when John says, "... if we love one another, God abides in us and His love has been perfected in us."), the sooner we will begin to see the outrageous love that not only characterizes His Kingdom, but that changes this world in its power!
As for me, I'm back to using a lot of "we" terminology. In fact, "we" used it tonight in our branch meeting. We saw Jesus in OUR midst. We changed song lyrics from "I" and "me" to "us and "we". We prayed as an us. We shared prophetic words as an us. And God moved strongly among us. And brought us into more and more clarity about the identity and purpose of us.
Don't get me wrong. Jesus cares about you and about me. And we have individual lives that matter. Us is not a replacement of me. But it is a real context for me to find my life. And for that matter, for me to find your life. For you to find my life. For us to find our lives. And together, to discover Jesus' life.
After all, we "together" are His body. And that is the only Jesus physically on this planet. And His real presence is the thing that matters.
And you'll find Him right where you find...
Us.
Live Courageous!
If you know anything about computers, you know there are such things as compressed files, or "ZIP" files, or archives. These are "containers", which take large files and "squeeze" them down to a manageable size so they can be transferred, e-mailed or otherwise moved around with greater ease.
For reasons that I will probably only fully know in the presence of Jesus, the Spirit of God seems to take great delight in using this type of spiritual technology in communicating with me from time to time. With no regard to place, time or activity, some casual meditation will turn into a huge download. Maybe you've been there. You know you have something really, really profound and something has just gotten bigger in your spirit. The problem is that you only have a vague idea of what it is you now know that you didn't just five minutes ago. And you have even less of an idea just what you're supposed to do with it.
The latest spiritual "ZIP" file for me was just over a week ago, and it came in a few segments over a couple of days. In this particular case, I was at least priming the pump by reading a book. But nonetheless, what I received from God seems almost too large for my hard-drive of a mind.
And so, I begin to unpack the file and as it has started to extract into my heart, something very real and deep is being revealed, in some ways for the first time. I am talking, to be certain, about the Kingdom of God. And with this "download", I am beginning to live in something far bigger, far more beautiful and far more powerful than I have ever experienced it to be. And, be sure of this... the Kingdom of God is meaningless to any person without its being experienced by that person!
There's a scripture in Psalm 115 that I would refer to here:
The heavens are the heavens of the LORD,
But the earth He has given to the sons of men
-Ps 115:16, NASU
Without breaking this out too much, one might suppose that the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, exists first and foremost in the heavens, which according to this scripture, are the Lord's. But when you and I think of heaven, we usually think of that otherworldly place "way out there somewhere" that is beyond the reaches of this universe. But do you know that scripture itself refers to no less than three heavens, and that the first heaven is understood to mean the very atmosphere around us? That the "heavens", which are the Lord's, might be as close as our very breath?
Again, because of space, I will dispense with all of the scriptural evidence here, but suffice it to say that many biblically-recorded encounters with the Lord (Old and New Testament) happened in some manifestation within the physical properties of the environment around the (usually surprised) personalities who were objects of those encounters. And so, the kingdom was manifested, as it were, right out of "thin air"!
And the point in all of this? The nearness of the Kingdom to our hearts and lives. The revelation? Hard to put into words, but it has to do with the celebration of the wonder and beauty and vastness and grandeur and, maybe most importantly, the accessibility of the Kingdom of God!
Something has started to happen in some deep part of my soul that is going far beyond the healing of my heart I have experienced in recent years. Something about God. How big he really is. How much He is really up to in this world - in my world, for that matter. How deep and wide His touch of all people. How present He is in all of creation. How evident He is in even the secular space occupied by "ungodly" men and women. How generous and giving and expressive and compassionate and merciful and richly present and passionately affectionate He is as He touches His children. And how True His love is for us... always.
Paul wrote in Romans 14 that the Kingdom of God was righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And these are the inward workings of True Love. The outward workings are the power-manifestation of those things. Power that really does rearrange the "stuff" of our temporal world to align it with God's rule. But here's the key... the rule begins in us, and if we can merely allow the experience of His love to permeate us (something that only He can do), the experience of His Kingdom will work change in us.
It's as if you and I are "portals" through which God's kingdom comes. I have felt/seen/heard deep impressions of the power of the Kingdom at work in me the past 4 or 5 days. I have, on 3 occasions in that same interval, been used of God to pray and/or speak in Kingdom-bringing ways. And here's the thing... I don't expect that flow to stop unless I step out of it.
You can use Eastern religion terminology if you want, but that would just be acknowledging a counterfeit. Our (ancient) faith is mystical, transcendent and only meant to be lived as spiritual beings having a human experience. What the enemy has managed to do (and we do it repeatedly to ourselves even more) is relegate the spiritually-powered reality of the kingdom of God to key principles, steps and ought-to's/must-do's. We take our very essence and bury it under the weight of being nice, ethical, Bible-reading, church-going people who are essentially good citizens of our communities but legalistic, fearful and powerless participants in the reality of the kingdom.
And I have been one of us, because there have been so many lies and so much damage to my heart that I have been struggling as well just to really see it. And most of you around BCC have been engaged with me through this season, as I have tried to be "nakedly" honest with all of you as to the struggles of my own story. And you all have compassionately prayed for and stood with me, which is amazing and an incredible testimony of community, where love is sufficiently there for the "members" to shepherd the "pastor"! And all this, even as I have tried to teach and preach the substance of this very message for years now! I guess there's something to be said for "walking out" truth!
But it appears that the joy of a new season is on the horizon. And all I can say in response is, as Jesus, that the Kingdom of God has come! And it's very near to us. And it will take some significant work of God's love to uncover it, even within our own lives. But I'm tasting it now as if it were the very first time. And I can't imagine letting it go again on purpose. So... seek it until you find it. Because it's as near as our hearts and as the very air we breathe!
And when it comes, it changes everything!
Live Courageous!
I want to kick off the new, official BCC Blog here with a simple thought... God is always revealing Himself and His heart to us. And He has given us the capacity to get heart-to-heart in such a way as to share those very personal revelations in some very edifying kinds of expressions. Now, we say we're a close family, and that may well be. But we seem to be somewhere between easily distracted, overly quiet and deeply contemplative.
Well, BCC, it's time to open up! There are so many stories to tell, so many "downloads" from the Holy Spirit, and so many ways to encourage and challenge each other (or even rant a bit if you need to!), that I think it's time to start.
This blog is initially set up with only our leader team as actual members, which means they can all post blogs. Since we don't know yet how many people should all be blogging, we've allowed everyone else to post commments but not separate blogs (yet). (If you want to blog, register at blogspot.com and you can have your own and put a link in your comments... I'm still gonna get a bit more hardcore on my PBN blog, by the way). But none of this takes away from the ability to share back and forth (it just makes it a little less insane).
So, if you want to post a comment to anything you read, just click on the "comment" link and write one up. It automatically goes to my e-mail where I'll approve it (this is to protect us against outside blog spam since this is a public site).
Enough of the instructions. Let's talk about what God is doing and showing us and wher He's taking each of us. In a high-tech world, this is one solid step toward the kind of sharing a community does all the time!
Live Courageous!
Brice
