Maybe I Got It All Wrong

I was pastoring full-time when “What Would Jesus Do” emerged onto the church scene. I remember thinking: How can we do what Jesus did if we don’t know what Jesus actually did? In other words; people need to get a better grasp of the four gospel accounts contained within the Scriptures. I used to think: If I could just get the Scriptures into the minds of people; then God would take his word and begin to change them to look more and more like His Son.

I would have backed up my philosophy of ministry by using Rom. 12:2 and 2Tim. 3:16-17. The first passage exhorts me to change the way I think so that I don’t resemble the world and instead resemble God. The second passage clearly teaches that Scripture is completely trustworthy because God is the author and since the Bible is God’s word to us, I should read it and obey it.

I have completely abandoned this philosophy of ministry because (1) it overlooks the central teaching of the New Covenant and (2) it pours an Old Covenant model of sanctification into these New Covenant verses.

If you have been going to church in the last twenty years, you have been exposed to the philosophy on ministry I just described. Maybe, just maybe, you’ve gotten it all wrong. I know I did. Twenty years of being a Christian, two bible degrees, and over ten years in the ministry and I realized I had it all wrong. Let me just say this abandonment did not come quickly nor easily. Reaching that third paragraph was a very painful.

Come with me on a journey. Partly my journey and partly others who have gone before me and see if maybe the way you have been taught to grow and mature in Christ has been built upon the wrong covenant. The one Paul taught against in his days, what he called the “old way of the written code,” because there is a “new way to live by the Spirit.”

Changed Prayer Life

My prayer life has changed. I used to pray for God to work in a persons life, or for God to help someone see how a certain activity was harmful or maybe sinful. I wanted God to do it by Himself, rarely if ever was I involved. Oh sure I was the one praying, but God and God alone was the one acting.

I don’t pray that way anymore because I believe the fullness of God is in Jesus and Jesus is in me and I am an ambassador for God’s kingdom possessing the mind of Christ which God has given me in His Spirit to know His spiritual truths and He has made me into a new person that is holy, blameless, and righteous standing before Him without a single fault having been raised from the dead and seated with Jesus at the right hand of the Father and receiving not only the desire to obey Him, but the power to please Him with the peace of Jesus ruling in my heart along with His words in all their richness making me wise so that I can speak as a representative of the Lord Jesus.

I’ve moved from, God do this for me, to God do this through me.

Missing The Point

This is a satellite picture of my town. If you came to Pekin you would find signs that help you find Pekin. They would point you in the right direction. That’s what signs do; they point. The sign serves the city; it helps direct people to the city; the sign would never ever try and become the city. Just saying that sounds absurd.

Jesus said, “The Scriptures point to me.” Like a sign pointing to a city the word points to THE WORD.

Have you ever noticed we call the Bible these days: the word of God? But the Scriptures proclaim Jesus as the Word of God, not the other way around. Over the past couple of years I have noticed numerous times Bible teachers and preachers getting the Bible and Jesus mixed up. Let me give you an example.

Paul told the Colossians to let their roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Jesus. Have you ever heard a sermon telling you to do that; or have you heard the other one; the one that goes like this.

We all need food in order to sustain our physical body and what will happen if we neglect nourishing our bodies with food? We will get sick and our bodies will suffer, and it is no different in the spiritual realm. So feed on the Scriptures.

Do you see what has happened here? The word has replace The Word. The Bible never ever says, feed on me as your source of spiritual food. Remember it points.

The Bible says, feed on Jesus; He is the source of nourishment. But is that what we are hearing today? I don’t think so. I think we are missing . . . the point.

Tithing

Have you ever heard a sermon or testimony about someone who was having financial difficulties and then they decided to start tithing and soon after the Lord “blessed ‘ em” with more money. I have. More than once.

Here’s a different story.

About four years ago I repented of “old way” a life style the Apostle Paul describes in the New Testament. Basically it means I quit trying to please God by doing religious works; like tithing. So I quit. I don’t tithe anymore.

What I stopped doing was giving money away so that God would bless me. I give to Him and then God will give back to me. This for that. Quid pro quo. God hates it when I try to manipulate Him that way.

So in the last four years my giving/tithing to the local church has dropped by 75%, but my income has gone up. Each year I gave less and less to the church and each year it goes up.

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not making more and keeping more. I make more and I give more and more away, but I don’t worry or have any pressure on me to give away so much each month.

Do you think God’s going to “zap” me in the near future since I stopped tithing. I’ve been having some trouble with my left eye; might it be a tumor and if so; did I get it because I quit tithing? Have you ever had thoughs like that before? You do when you live the old way. Been there and done that a lot.

So I’m wondering...I had a job interview this week for a new job; a promotion; more money down the road. Next week may bring an eye tumor or more money, or neither, or both; I’m not sure. But I do know that it has no connection to how much I gave away last week or last year.

I don’t live that way anymore.

Speak Jesus

I recently spoke to a group of young people at Bradley’s student center. I told these young people that Jesus lives in them and they live in Jesus and the way they live there lives should be different if they truly believe this. And then I also said, “I don’t need the Bible but I need you to grow in Christ.”

That statement troubles people. It sounds so unbiblical. But is it true?

I believe it is because Paul, the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, teaches the same thing. Let me highlight some passages in the letter he wrote to the Colossians. I’ll be quoting from the New Living Translation.

Follow what Paul taught these new believers in Colosse. "For God in all His fullness was please to live in Christ." (Col. 1:19), "for this is the secret: Christ lives in you." (Col. 1:27), "Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him, so you will grow in faith..." (Col. 2:7), "Let the words of Christ in all their richness live in your hearts and make you wise. Use His words to teach and counsel each other. Sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of our Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through Him to God the Father." (Col. 3:16-17).

God is in Jesus, Jesus is in me, I draw up nourishment from Him, speak it to you, and then I thank my Father.

Christians, real Jesus followers, can speak and act and have Jesus Himself flow out of us. God's words gushing out of us, me and you, with power and authority to teach and counsels others. Jesus in you and Jesus in me; pouring out of each other and into one another.

The Bible never points to itself as the source of spiritual growth. The Bible always points to Jesus as the source.

I need Jesus followers in my life and so do you. This is New Covenant teaching. The one Jesus established in His own blood. The one that replaced the Old Covenant.