The Transformed Life in Christ

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 1 Cor. 5:17

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1,2

This year, we are asking God to bring about a change in our lives, our families and our church or spiritual community.

God is asking us, calling us, to step out by faith and follow His lead … wherever that may take us.

When I read the above verses, I struggle with words like change, transformation, metamorphosis. When we use these words we often have different ways of understanding them and different perceptions of what they mean … meanings that we don’t all share.

For some of us change is a shift that may or may not last, or stand the test of time. It’s often pivotal in nature. It is one or the other, black or white, however, it doesn’t always reflect the  whole process or journey of progression in our life.

In 2012, we are using the word transformation to speak of an enduring process in which a person is radically reformed … meaning that they would not ever revert to their previous condition, hence, a transformation … once a caterpillar, now a butterfly!

We should not be afraid to change our perspective on words like this, and their meaning to us, but should dare to consider a new way … a new perspective.

I’m not talking about compromise or lowering God’s clear standards regarding holiness.

I’m talking about acknowledging that Jesus Christ through the power of his Holy Spirit  may have something fresh to say about what He regards as being truly holy!

When we talk of the transformed life in Christ; I believe there are some foundational characteristics:

Inclusiveness

Christianity that is unhealthy and toxic is always dividing the world between “us” and “them.” I realize that  in order to explain one’s own faith or position some differentiation  is necessary, however, speaking of your beliefs and convictions cannot come with the arrogance that you are the sole possessor of truth and knowledge.

Inclusive Christianity does not believe that all roads lead to God or that all beliefs are equally valid, but it does contend that God will travel many different roads to get to us, and that truth is truth wherever it may be found. Christians entrenched within exclusive Christianity insist that everyone  outside of their group must believe what they believe or relate to God the way they relate to God in order to be called true disciples of Him.

I am so grateful for the many different kinds of churches here in London, and as we continue to reach out to communities here in London and the surrounding area, we must continue to be thankful for and supportive of their efforts to reach out to their communities.

Anything we do as Gateway Church, must never come with any expression or thought that what we do is better than anyone else or that our way is the only way.

Compassion

Compassion is both a feeling and a way of being that flows out of that feeling.

To show compassion is to feel the hurt or pain of someone else and then, on the basis of that feeling, to act on that person’s behalf to comfort, care and come alongside. It means a willingness to participate in both the suffering and the healing of someone else. To be transformed means to become the embodiment of what it means to be compassionate.

We must not only feel the pain of those in our neighborhood, but we must also identify with their redemption. Jesus comes into our lives and wants to bring us back into God’s original plan for us and for those we love.

Conversion

Transformative Christianity must result in real life change. Salvation is not merely about going to heaven in the afterlife, nor is it just about some theological, judicial transaction that occurs when one believes certain things about Jesus; say the right words and poof, now your born again!

Conversion is about becoming who we already are; children of God, created by God, wanted by God, planned by God, before the foundations of the earth.

It’s about learning how to love; in our homes and in our relationships. It’s about how to love one another in the church, and if we are successful in that, we can take it to those outside the church in a way that accepts people as they are, created, loved and called to be His children.

This brings me both comfort and irritation. I really do want to become everything God wants for me. I really do want to be transformed from the inside out, yet, as I lead this spiritual community, I look into the mirror, and if I hold up the  measuring stick, I have so much more growing to do.

So this is my goal…for this year:

God come into my life … change … yes, but even more, transform my life.

Change the way I see those who are in my life … their struggles, their failures, and their successes.

Help me to hold close, those who you bring into my life. Help me to be an agent of transformation for them.

Give me eyes to see the heart and the hurt of those in my community.

Help me to swallow my pride, when it comes to the hard choices of conversion, the 180 degree turns that no one understands … that we struggle to take.

Make this the year, I get my wings!

For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. 2 Tim. 1

Courage by definition, is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. “Physical courage” is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while “moral courage” is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement.

When I think about courage, it is most often associated with physical courage. This September 11 was the 10th anniversary of the  9/11 attacks. I was privileged to be in New York City that weekend and stood among some 4000 flags at Ground Zero, each remembering a life lost. I met person after person who spoke of the bravery, courage and the willingness to do what is necessary for their fellow man. I sat with a woman who retold her tearful story in vivid detail, and I wept. So did she.

The questions of “why God?” were only matched by my own silence and tears and I gently hugged her in that hotel lobby. I felt cowardly.

Thursday night before I left for New York I was at the pre-release showing of the film “Courageous”. It’s a movie that measures a different kind of courage … moral courage. The kind of courage that makes you stand up when everyone else around you is sitting down. The kind of courage that speaks to the inner ickiness and fear of rejection that we all feel when knowing that the right thing to do is to speak up, even though it will surely be met with snickers, disbelief and mockery.

Perhaps its greater measure is in a parents willingness to muster up the courage to walk into their child’s bedroom and pray with them or share the Word from a bedside.

As I weigh each in my hands, why is it that there seems to be such a paradox?

Why am I am so willing to consider the notion of dying in a terrorist attack or some other grandiose form of courage and yet, secretly am fearful to walk up to a stranger and share my faith? Or to be timid in letting a golf partner know I’m a Christian during a round?

I’m sure that hours of Christian counseling would provide me with the answers, or a stern rebuke, from those more spiritual and theologically astute, meant to set me on the straight and narrow. Yet, I have found that people measure courage with such varying measuring sticks, all of which are twigs, compared to the timbers of the cross.

The simple truth is, I’m a coward.

In my human nature I measure courage as the world does….with sticks, and stones and bloodshed and medals. The struggle I have as a disciple of Christ is not for what I am willing to die for but, rather of for whom and for what am I willing to live.

I have people in my life for whom I would die. I have beliefs and values that are for me grave-worthy if necessary. I’m not afraid to be laughed at, or mocked or to die for that matter.

But, my faith in Christ is a reminder that Jesus did the dying so I could do the living.

He promises to fill my life with a boldness of spirit from His. I need to remind myself that it’s not just a once in a lifetime moment that this occurs.

It’s daily.

It’s everyday.

He promises to overcome my weakness and timidity, with His power, His love and with a soundness and confidence if I let him. and that is courage worth living for!

People sometimes talk about finding the will of God as if it is some great accomplishment, or about doing the will of God as though it is some kind of great achievement.

While the question of the will of God for our lives is perhaps the greatest journey that a man or woman may embark on in their lifetime, we often lose sight of the true goal along the way. The goal is not personal fulfillment, meaning, happiness or inner peace… yes, these are perhaps by-products, but the goal is simply… to experience God.

The reality is, the will of God is neither an accomplishment nor an achievement; it is not something you “get to” – rather it’s something you experience every day.

Every morning that we wake up, it is an opportunity to discover the presence and person of God Himself, and, at His invitation, to get involved in His plan and His will. When that happens, all of life is never quite the same. Only then are we able to see the good, the bad, and even the confusing times of our lives as an experience in His perfect plan for us.

So maybe the question isn’t, “What’s God’s will for my life?”

Maybe it’s, “When was the last time I was truly experiencing Him?”

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to leave a comment.

It’s been a couple of weeks since my return from Rwanda and I have been working with my travel companion, Mike Mycio, Missions Director at Gateway Church, as we debrief and prayerfully consider what God is leading Gateway to become a part of.

I have been privileged, over the years, to travel to many countries and cities where I have preached, listened, encouraged, hammered, sweat, played, prayed, laughed, cried, savored, vomited, taught and learned, and through it all I grew … I became …

… and I have come to the conclusion that “missions” is one of the most self-serving things I’ve done.

When I first started traveling more than 25 years ago, I thought that God wanted to use me mightily to transform countries, cities and churches with an anointing and empowering that God Almighty would bestow upon me. Truth? None of that happened. None. Everywhere I went I encountered people who prayed more than I, love God more than I, and who heard and followed God more than I.

I have concluded that cross-cultural, developing-nation travel is mostly about me!

My influence in this world is in proportion to the waves I create by sticking my finger in the ocean and my recent trip to Kigali, in Rwanda, only confirmed this all the more. I have nothing to offer to the city of Kigali that it can’t one-up-me on at every turn!

As I struggle with their kindness, their forgiveness, their mercy and humility after the 1994 genocide, I am the student. During this monumental political, social and religious travesty almost 1,000,000 men, women, and children were brutally killed in less than 100 days. I wouldn’t be so kind, so forgiving or so merciful. I have so much to learn, and so much more maturing to go through.

You see missions, really is all about me. It’s about me changing, me repenting, me learning, me growing and me becoming everything God wants me to be!

I realize that we need to do missions better as a western church. We are guilty of causing so much of the problem, albeit in ignorance, but at the end of day, I am committed to the call of God to “go into all of the world”, and share God’s love.

We now commit to doing it better, more honestly, in greater humility and as servants of God and the people He calls His children.

I pray that He will motivate us to be more self-serving, and in the process, continue to become the people He wants us to be!

Rwanda…the land of a thousand hills.

As I sit here looking out upon the first morning of my time here in this beautiful country, I am blessed by the notion that I am finally visiting the land I heard about countless times in the small church of my childhood. So many times I sat mesmerized by missionaries, who told of incredible God-encounters in this sometimes wild and provocative land, filled with drums, lions, elephants and strange customs.

And now, I am here…no lions yet…at least not from where I stand on this balcony drinking my morning coffee. The only remotely “wild” animal was a crazy rooster crowing at 5:30 this morning! (I may just eat him before I leave…who’s being wild now?) As for the people, well, let’s just say we could go a long way in learning from them about warmth and genuine friendliness.

And so, as I begin my time here, my prayer is not to see with my childhood eyes, nor with the foggy lenses of a seasoned pastor from Canada. Rather, I pray that I would see this land with the eyes of Christ. I want to take notice of the things He places in my sight.

Show me your Africa, Lord