Light the Fuse

Control.  It's an illusion that none of us can seem to separate from reality.  Parents think they have control over their children.  Governments assume they have control over their people.  Religions think they have control over what ever it is they think they have control over.

Ok, so maybe by strict definition they do.  But control can be resisted, removed, rescinded, refuted, reneged, you get the idea.

This is not me supporting anarchy.  I am not anti-control.  Depending on where the reigns of that control rest.  I don't want to get too deep or off course and delve into the semantics and politics of all of that.  What this post and revolution are primarily concerned with is how we conduct ourselves no matter what "control," is over us.

As far as I am concerned, there is only one ultimate source of control.  One authority that will take all our decisions and actions into account.  The choices we make yesterday, today, and tomorrow will be laid out before us some day.  How we handled those choices in regards to that sovereign authority will be our undoing or remaking.

Let me make this perfectly clear.

There is one God.  His name is "I Am."  He sent his only son Jesus to redeem the whole world from death.  He speaks to us, now, today, through his Spirit.  Here and here alone rests the final authority for all life.  For me, that is irrefutable fact.  It is upon that authority that I rest all of what I believe, say and do.

If you are starting to wonder what any of that has to do with this revolution.  I've been alluding to, well here is where they meet.

Those who claim to follow Jesus (I would be among them) as a whole, have been lulled into a crippling illusion that going to a building on Sunday in nice clothing, singing a few songs, putting money in an offering, and spending about an hour and a half together, is what he imagined the Church would be.
 
I will not apologize for thinking we have bastardized his dream.

The Church is not a building.  It is not a program or a pulpit.  The Church does not succeed or fail because of a board of directors or a philandering pastor.  It does not rest in the man made authority of pointy hats, white collars, or tailored suits.

The Church is people.  The guy in the corner of the coffee shop.  The woman across from you on the train.  You.  Me.  The Church succeeds because Jesus is it's authority.  It will grow in the soil full of the best crap.  The Church doesn't fail because Jesus doesn't fail.  (What fails is us, or our expectations.)  It's authority rests in the safest place.  The nail scarred hands of the Messiah.

The Church is so much more than we mortals have restricted it to be.

The revolution is to become the Church Jesus wanted us to be.  To feed the hungry.  Quench the throats of the thirsty.  Make the stranger a guest.  Clothe the naked.  Care for the sick.  Visit the prisoner.  To look after orphans and windows.  To remember his teachings, and make disciples.To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

It starts inside each of us.

Get on your knees.  Cry out to God.  Ask him to strike the match, and light the fuse.

grace, peace + hope
-Bear