The Good News

Some time ago, I was studying Paul’s writings to the church in Ephesus in the books of 1 and 2 Timothy.  As I read through the aging apostle’s writings I was struck with his fascination of what he called, “the blessed Gospel.”  Here was a man who had seen and done it all for Christ.  He had matured as much or more than any man had in Christ, and yet, here he was, absolutely fascinated with the power and beauty of the Gospel!  I was pierced by my own flippancy toward what is “the power of God to us who are being saved.”  I had viewed the Gospel as something for non-Christians to hear, and for new Christians to make their foundation, but beyond that we should mature into something greater.  I’d been a Christian for years.  Yet again, I was confronted with Paul and his childlike adoration of what Jesus had accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Was it possible that I had far undervalued the enormity of what it meant that God Himself had become a man— to die, and then be raised from the tomb after three days?  What incredible wonder is this that the Creator would enter His own Creation simply to let them kill Him— just so He could have them???

Over the course of the following months, I was struck, stunned, astounded, and driven to my knees in awe and gratitude over what Jesus Christ did for me, for us.  I had never known how complete His work truly was, and why He was able to utter, “It is finished,” until that period of time, and my life was revolutionized once again.  All it took was one moment with God, when He opened my eyes and I saw what He’d done, and everything became clear:  ”It is finished.”

In two and a half weeks, at FireUP be.loved 2011, Jesus will be the center, the essence, and the everything of this event.  The Good News will be proclaimed, and lives will be changed.  I hope yours is one.

 

A Heart That Burns

A few years ago, I went to an event of a similar nature as FireUP, and it was at that event that I heard a man speak of something that so burned in my heart that it brings tears to my eyes to this day as I speak of it.

The preacher was a man about fifty years of age, he spoke with a burning passionate love for Jesus, and a conviction that what he spoke was Truth.  In his message, he told a story of being a man in his early twenties.  He was at a conference with about three thousand young people, the same age he was, and the man speaking asked the young people there to commit to live a life faithfully burning before the Lord.  And at that conference three thousand people in their early twenties responded to commit to a life of faithfulness before God.  They celebrated together dancing in worship before God.  Three thousand young people.  Commitment.  Dancing.

As I sat and listened to this fifty year old preacher tell this story, I was wondering why the tone of his story was tinged with sorrow.  He paused after telling of the dancing, and the commitment all three thousand had made.  His voice caught in his throat as he said, “three thousand young people, dancing…  and now, thirty years later, after trial, hardship, and time, of those three thousand, all that are left is a handful.  A handful out of three thousand that still dance, and burn before the Lord.”

Something in my heart tore open.  How grievous!  That at a conference, everyone is ready to live for Jesus, and when they get back home, life gets in the way.  Friends don’t want them to change.  Parents are uncomfortable with this new passion they have.  People wonder why they have to be so radical.  It’s like a wet blanket is being thrown on them… and the fire begins to fade…  Not right away, but slowly over time.  Soon a year has gone by, and they return to the conference where the year before they had committed to burn for Jesus, and here, a year later, they’re a bedraggled wreck, storm tossed and tattered on the sea of life.  How sorrowful!

So, as much as I love conferences, and watching people worship with passion before Jesus, what I love even more is when I meet one.  One person who wakes up in the middle of the night crying out for God to move in their city.  One person who walks with integrity in spite of the response of their friends, family, and workplace.  One person who sets all of their life aside to spend a couple hours everyday with God in prayer and in the Word.  I love conferences, and dancing masses of people, but I’d trade it all in a heartbeat for one.

So when we designed this event, the thrust was to lead people into an encounter, a personal meeting, with the Living God.  But we refuse to let it end Saturday, August 20th.  It must carry on throughout the year.  It’s not enough to get excited once a year at a big conference!  Jesus is exciting everyday!

But we can’t do it on our own.  We need the company and support of the family of believers. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. So, get involved in a church, a small group, a discipleship group.  Get tied in with people who will push you deeper and deeper into God’s burning heart. Find a friend that will commit to pursue Jesus with you, and commit to each other to hold the course.  My hope is that each year, as you return to FireUP, you’ll come back stronger and more in love than when you left the year before, and that throughout the year you will enjoy the strength and encouragement that comes from being a part of a local church body.

Because we know that resources are at a premium, we’re providing access throughout the year to weekly podcasts, devotionals, and books that will challenge you to continue to burn with love for Jesus— one day at a time, all year long.  That access will be provided for you when you sign in at FireUP be.loved in August.  See you then.

In hope,

Charlie

…but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

The last time I felt the Lord move me to write was almost two years ago.  The things happening in my heart were involving the disappointment I was having regarding a promise God had given to me about the leadership of FireUP (I have had dreams of speaking at FireUP since 2003.)  A year before I wrote about hope deferred, I had shared my vision with the Board of Directors of FireUP and had been rejected.  I knew God had promised this to me, and my heart was broken…  I was hurt, angry, frustrated, discouraged, everything I wrote about in those two blogs…

And now almost two years to the date after I wrote the first of those about my disappointment, we will be hosting our first ever FireUP be.loved and I have been charged with being the director.  The Lord did a mighty and amazing work to bring this about.  So what I want to share with you, is the path I had to walk to get here…  While I won’t share all of the details of the last three and a half years, what I will tell you is this:  Jesus is the dream, and whatever the current assignment he has you in, if you’re found faithful with that, he will entrust you with the potential he has planned for your life.

When God gives us these dreams, these promises, these hopes for our lives, He is giving us a potential we can live up to, if we walk faithfully with Him in love and obedience in what He has given us to do.  Our coming into His potential for us is dependent upon our abiding obedience.  Jesus spoke of the importance of abiding in His love, and how obedience and abiding are inseparably yoked together, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:10-11)  See, there isn’t joy apart from abiding in his love.  And there isn’t abiding in his love apart from obedience.  Joy, love, and obedience are all inseparably bound together.

So my point is this:  you can walk in the fullness of joy, and in the fullness of His love, long before you ever step into the full potential He has for your life.  If you’re waiting for circumstances to change before you walk in His pleasure, you’re falling more in love with an assignment, than you are with the Beautiful God who gives that assignment.  So establish yourself now in a deep and intimate love relationship with Jesus, walk in obedience in your current assignment, and He will bring you into the potential that He desires for your life.  That is the part that’s up to us.

But the truth of the matter is, He is the only one who gets us into the promises He has for us.  Over the years, we give up so many times, we complain, we stumble, we want to walk away, we run out of strength, and it is God, all God who finishes the good work He began in us.  The only thing we do is let Him pull us along in love and obedience.  And when we come into the promise he gave us, we’re so awestruck by His ability to get weak, broken, and powerless people into a glorious destiny that only He could create, that we’re humbled to tears at His kindness and sovereignty.

So now, FireUP.  To be honest, a lot of circumstances have changed in the last three and a half years.  We have a baby girl, Elisa Joy.  We bought a house.  We have another baby due in December.  I’m the Associate Pastor of Water’s Edge Church.  I’m the Director of the School of Life and Ministry, an equipping discipleship program in Marquette.  And I’m the director ofFireUP be.loved.  And I still work at Babycakes Muffin Company, a coffee shop downtown.  And I can tell you honestly, that while my joy has increased, the source has been the ever-increasing awareness of His pleasure in me as I walk obediently in love before Him.  He is just so kind, so good.  I’m so thankful that He kept me, and brought me into this time of life.

I’ll be writing the Director’s Blog here over the next months, both to keep everyone updated on our progress, but then as a resource for people who’ve attended the event to continue to go deeper with God throughout the year.  It’ll also be continually updated on the SLM website.  I look forward to this season God has for us together.

Hope deferred (Pt. 2)

The next part of disappointment that I have been chewing on is this:  we’re so used to “surrendering everything to God,” that we often take the promises of God and stop believing that He is going to fulfill them because somewhere along the line, we hoped, and it didn’t happen and so we “surrendered” it —right into unbelief.

It’s like this:  we get a word or a promise from God.  Something we’re super excited for.  For me it was the ministry God had before me.  Three years ago I got a word that it would happen around Thanksgiving time.  Well, let me tell you, that Thanksgiving three years ago was the least thankful givings I may have ever had.  So anyway, I “surrendered” my dream, my promise, my desire to the Lord and told Him, “fine, Lord, I’ll just stay in my job for the rest of my life, and I won’t think about the ministry thing again!”  So I tried and I tried to forget about this dream, but it haunted me.  I was believing for revival in my workplace (still am), and trying to surrender this dream and give it back to God that I might get His desire for my life.  There was just this one problem:  The very promise I was working so hard to give up, was the very one He was wanting to give to me!

See, we get promises from God, that He wants us to joyfully and excitedly expect to be fulfilled.  Then, when they don’t come how and when we thought they should, we get disappointed and beat ourselves up for ever wanting anything from God other than His Presence, and we try to surrender ourselves right back into holiness.  Only it’s not holiness that we’re surrendering into—- it’s stupidity!  Here’s why:  God gave us promises to be excited about, promises that He fully intends to fulfill.  But because we are so afraid of being disappointed, we stop believing Him, just to protect ourselves from being let down again.  We actually slide into unbelief because of our fear of disappointment.

What God would have us do instead, is to draw near to Him (see Pt. 1), and taste and see that He is good.  When we have tasted of His goodness, faith arises once more for the promises that have been given to us.  See, when God gives a promise, He wants us to excitedly believe for it, and watch for it, celebrating its arrival even before we have it.  When disappointment comes, we are to press into Him, and through the disappointment, to maintain and actually grow in faith of the promise that just days ago we were ready to abandon!  It is not God’s desire that we would abandon His promises for our lives because we’ve been disappointed by their (in our esteem) untimely arrival!  It is His desire that we would rejoice in His goodness as we continue to let faith build in us, knowing that God is good and that good is on the way for us!

We have two options left to us:  One, because of our fear of disappointment, to not allow ourselves to hope for anything, and to maintain an even keel at all times in the name of “surrendering everything to God,” and by doing so live a life with no faith and no impact and no disappointment.  Two, to live such a radical life of faith and hope, that we are unwilling to let our own disappointments hinder us from hanging on to the goodness of God and of the promises that He has given to us!  I would rather be disappointed a thousand times and yet live with such great faith that mountains move, rather than live a life without faith, never tasting of disappointment again and leaving no mark on eternity whatsoever.

Rules or Rule-breakers?

As I sought the Lord this week on some things, He confronted me with the person of Moses.  One thing that resounded in my spirit last week, was a realization that as Moses stood upon the Mount, (in the Presence of an earth shaking, Holy God) receiving the Ten Commandments, as Commandment #6 (you shall not murder) came forth there must have been an incredible feeling go through Moses in that moment.  Recall if you will that for Moses, at this point, it was already too late.  He was a murderer already.  ”Oh golly.  This is not looking good.”

But something happened in that moment for Moses.  He realized that as He stood in the Presence of this Holy God, that the God who shook the earth was actually far more in love with the Rule-breaker (Moses) than He was with His own Rules.

Moses leaned in to the goodness of God, and in spite of his failure, He found that God cared far more for his friendship, than he cared for his performance.  What an incredible thought.  And so, to fulfill all the rules, that friendship might be had, Jesus Christ fulfilled all the performing that we might be friends of God.

And for you?  Are you more concerned with those around you breaking the rules?  Or are you more concerned with the rule breakers?  As we become more like our Father, we will be less concerned with the performance of those around us, and more enjoying of the friendship we can share with them in spite of their performance.

Jesus you are Beautiful.  Thank you for desiring friendship with us.  Thank you for overlooking our shortcomings and looking instead upon us as beautiful.  Renew our hearts and minds to love as You do, not the rules, but the rule-breakers.