kingdom of God – Broken Believers

It’s Time to Share

“The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.”

Mark 6:30, ESV

You could never find a more astonished group of men in Israel. Going out 2×2 they shared their faith and performed miracles. They had returned at the predetermined time to be with Jesus. They had travelled and witnessed to hundreds.

I believe that the Lord desires that we come to Him and share the details of our day. The things that happened–in His name, and in our heart. We are His witnesses, plain and simple. And we should tell Jesus all that we did, how we touched others, how we endured temptations, or even failed Him.

But as we tell Him about these things, He can transform them so good will come. Difficulties that we encounter are also to be shared. He is fully absorbed with us, and He devotes Himself to you during these times. I believe that He even understands when we come back carrying nothing.

This “inventory” requires you to be honest, and completely forthright, for He already knows all. Jesus is wonderfully attentive; as we share and release things to Him (in His name), we become more like Him. We do what He has done already.

To be a witness is our true calling. We probably won’t ever get it right. But we must remember that His treasure is in clay pots.

What God is bringing you through will be your testimony that just might bring someone else to Him. Without your witness of Jesus’ love they may never find Him. That is terribly tragic.

Your story is the key that can unlock someone else’s prison. Touch others with your testimony.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

Listening to God’s Voice 101

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”

Matthew 13:16, ESV

There is a vast audio ocean that surrounds us. Did you know that in the room where you are reading this, that there are “voices” going on? You just don’t see or hear them unless you have your radio or television tuned in to the right frequency, or they’re just too far away. We live in this golden age of Bluetooth, and cell phones. ( I suppose that they have positives, but also negatives.)

There is a frequency that we must lock into, where we can hear important things (or block-out confusing sounds.) But the Holy Spirit really wants to talk with us. We soon understand that He wants us to communicate with Him. He yearns for a dialogue with us, just like He had once a long time ago in the early chapters of Genesis. (Gen. 3:9)

“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. Gods voice in response to mine is its most essential part.”

Andrew Murray

Knowing that I’ve been created in His image I can ponder the visible, which is a shadow of the real world. Mankind in general, creates and communicates–this is what we do–because it’s how God acts. After all, we are in His image. Just look at a mountain or an apple tree, in a way they explain God, if we can listen with our hearts. We will hear Him.

He is always speaking, but we’re not always listening.

The attribute of listening is amazingly profound. Forty years ago, I listened to my local radio station while I’m driving. When I moved away from the radio tower, the signal got weaker and weaker. But if I turned the car around and drive back into town, the signal becomes stronger and I can hear it again.

In the same way, we stop hearing God when we drift away from Him. But if we will turn around and come back to Him, we’ll hear His voice again. The closer we are to God, the clearer we can hear Him. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

Dear one, if you foster listening to Him you’ll be really hearing, and that is why God created you. Hey. Read your Bible, and ponder a passage, and then prepare to hear Him.

We Need More Towels

washing-feet — There are no shortcuts in discipleship

^“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.”

John 13:3-4, ESV

He was always a servant. Nothing could erode His place or position. The authority had been His Father’s, and it had been given to Him. He carried it as a special burden, treasured and separating Him. Jesus had the freedom to act like the servant. But it didn’t bother or confuse Him, He understood perfectly who He was.

Unlike us.

With the supreme authority given to him, He got down on His knees, and began to wash dirty feet. I can offer no magic or flair to adjust this scene. All He did was to wash off dirt, He cleaned between toes, making filthy feet clean. And all of this ‘as God in human flesh’. This staggered the disciples.

Perhaps a baseball bat on the side of the head would’ve been more preferable.

You see, this was revolutionary, it completely devastated the disciples. They just couldn’t grasp what was happening. Jesus, who was ‘God in flesh’, had decided, in a moment of time, to clean their feet. Outrageous! Not really happening! No way! Never!

Essentially, it buried them. Jesus Christ, as Servant pounded them into the ground. Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs Jesus. Becoming an indentured slave was now the way of Christlikeness. This servanthood was to now guide us to a point of slavery.

Gone are the days of Zebedee when one can ask for a position, on the right or the left. We can ask, most certainly, but we haven’t been the first.

So very many have gone before us. We must become a people who accept and then press into His grace, seeing His supreme beauty, and walk in His presence. Becoming like Jesus, the servant/slave.

Today, the Church needs more towels.

We have got to renounce out ‘need’ for recognition and pick up from the pile the rag of servanthood. We must ‘ask’ our brother/sister if we can “scrub” their feet. We must get on our knees and do the disgusting, (and yet exalting)

We must find a way to clean off their feet. This dear one, is what you’ve been told to do.

“Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.”

Albert Schweitzer

Your brother, Bryan

His Impossible Love

“Nothing in the church makes people in the church more angry than grace. It’s ironic: we stumble into a party we weren’t invited to and find the uninvited standing at the door making sure no other uninviteds get in.

Then a strange phenomenon occurs: as soon as we are included in the party because of Jesus’ irresponsible love, we decide to make grace “more responsible” by becoming self-appointed Kingdom Monitors, guarding the kingdom of God, keeping the riffraff out (which, as I understand it, are who the kingdom of God is supposed to include.)”

— Michael Yaconelli

*****

Things seem this way at times.

Often there can be a frustrated hostility simmering just below the veneer of a religious person. It can be seen in sudden outbursts of irritation that seems to come from nowhere. It is often encountered when they feel the ‘spigot of grace’ has been open too long, too much water is being used, and the people are getting a little wild in showing their enthusiasm. “They’re acting like ungodly pagans.”

Regulating the watering hole becomes a compulsion, and a necessary work of the “Church.” Jesus’ love is for all is a confirmed fact, but we must have some standards of decorum and appropriate levels of conduct and respect. “We the keepers-of-the- spigot are called to take some responsibility in this,” we end up saying.

Celebratory shouts of joy are simply not acceptable. Dancing in the mud is way ‘out-of-line.’ But there is an outrageous element to grace. It is preposterous and disturbing. It is untamed and wild, and not at all logical. “We definitely prefer the thinking side of our faith,” we say.

Judas rebuked Jesus as he was getting a foot massage from the ungodly woman. She had no business to be there in the first place. And secondly, she has just poured this incredible fortune on the feet of Jesus! Judas said, “way out-of-line!”

But there is a irrepressible love that always pushes its way forward.

For those of us who have first experienced God’s love and grace we must keep an alert out for our hard hearts. First, He is in charge of how the water is utilized. Second, [and we MUST believe this] when a man or woman connect with the water, there can be spontaneous displays of joy!

We must change our thinking, e.g. repent, and insist that we ‘cease and desist’. Our attitude is not acceptable or true to the Spirit of Christ. We are the ones way “out-of-line” and we have not been good witnesses about his grace and love. We had better turn from this sin, and ask Jesus to free us again.