Veiled

Chapter 3
The "already, not-yet" kingdom of God is "veiled versus visible...The really good news is that in Jesus the new order (His kingdom come) is already among us, but in a veiled, hidden form." That made me think of the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us and yet, we are so blind to it.  Then my mind jumped to me...how much of me is veiled to me?  God sees me through Jesus blood, pure, the woman I could be here on this earth if I would just completely surrender to him.
Father, your illuminating light is starting to break through the veil around me.  Give me the courage to tear back the curtain and let that light shine on me.  My "already, not-yet" is more like "not-yet but stretching toward." And most days, "not even close."  Thank You for letting this warrior-waif serve in your kingdom-now-and-yet-to come.

OCCUPY EARTH!

Pg 44 - "We mere human beings are given the privilege of inviting in God's glorious future.  We are given the privilege of asking heaven to invade and occupy the earth."

Occupy Earth is our prayer!  "Lord your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!"
Ok, now I am confused.  My whole upbringing in the western church has taught me the exact opposite of what Jesus teaches us to pray.  I was raised in a non-denominational church - then spent some time in a charismatic church - worked in a Baptist, Covenant, Presbyterian, Lutheran and non-denom. church all through high school and college as a janitor.  One teaching/outlook all these denominations had in common......."To Hell with the earth, it is all about getting out of here (earth) and getting to Heaven!"

Sadly, my posture and attitude reflect the crass quote above.  At times I don't want Jesus' Kingdom to invade the earth.  I want out of here!  I want a place of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control!  And so does Jesus!  So He teaches us to pray, "Father OCCUPY EARTH like you OCCUPY HEAVEN!  Father bring heaven down to earth so that the nations might be saved!  Father invade the earth with your Kingdom so that the inhabitants might know love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control!

We need teachers, parents, and mentors praying this prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.  We need the Father to invade and occupy Jim Elliot Christian School.  Our focus in mentoring students shouldn't be, "How do we prepare them for the world out there," but rather, "How do we prepare them for God's ongoing invasion of the earth with His kingdom!"

Jesus taught us to pray this way - "Father your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!"

God Appeases Himself

I'm still stuck on the concept of God doing what only God can do.  It both fascinates and puzzles me because now I can see it in so many ways I never realized before.  I am doing a Bible study by Kay Arthur and in it there is a statement close to this: Reconciliation is unique to the Christian faith.  Every other religion teaches that man has to appease God.  Biblical Christianity teaches that God appeases Himself, supplying what is necessary to reconcile us to Him: His Son's blood for forgiveness of our sins.  I never made that particular comparison to the world's thinking and God's doing.  God appeases Himself! Awesome!

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Your Kingdom Come - Rule without Rival - Chapter 3

Your Kingdom Come -- As I read in chapter 3 about us partnering with Jesus through prayer to usher in His Kingdom, two passages of scripture popped in my head.   The first scripture that popped was John 12:31-32  – “Now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I when I am lifted up will draw all people to myself.”

I’ve always marveled at this scripture because in these two verses alone Jesus proclaims judgment, announces a massive cosmic shake up of the principalities and powers of darkness, and publicizes the most outrageous evangelism claim which is that this crusade will “draw all people to himself.” He covers a lot of ground in a few words here. WHOA!  

Even more outrageous to me is how he pulls off judgment, casting out, and drawing all people.  He accomplishes these incredible spiritual upheavals by being stripped and beaten and nailed to the cross.   In short, he reveals his utmost power and authority by dying for prideful punks in weakness and shame.  [Adding insult to injury – he offers this declaration of spiritual victory just after stepping off a donkey –(not the preferred mode of transport for kings asserting their ultimate authority.)]

The other scripture that came to mind while reading and thinking of John 12 was Isaiah 53.  Isaiah offers a visceral biography of creation’s king when he prophesies,

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.”

These passages lead me to a prayer: Dear god, Thank you for revealing love’s highest glory and love’s greatest power through Jesus.  God I try to avoid it and pretend many times it’s not true but in this moment I can see just a little that the glory of love, the power of love, and your Kingdom of love are most intensely and visibly seen in one eternal place and one eternal time…..the cross.  God, often I forget or deny that if I want to encounter love in its purest form, then I need to have the courage to see Christ and Him crucified.  And Lord, I need to see Steve Mann and him crucified.  God, give me the courage and the wisdom to put myself in a sacred place of laying down my life for others so that I can commune with you, and with Jesus, and your Holy Spirit as a child in the image of your Son – dying, in love, for a lost world.  From the very beginning you willed to make me in your image.  Help me to see the freedom in letting you accomplish this promise. 

Thank you for unleashing your spectacular power unto salvation on Good Friday.  Thank you for inviting me to participate in “your kingdom come” by bidding me to take up my cross daily. 

Amen. 

Steve's Most Terrifying Prayer Request...... Glorify Your Name

A day has yet to go by in my life that I don't marvel that Jesus defines the hour of His glory as ascending to the throne of the cross. 

Calvin pictures the scene this way - "For in the cross of Christ, as in a splendid theatre, the incomparable goodness of God is set before the whole world.  The glory of God shines, indeed, in all creatures, on high and below, but never more brightly than in the cross." (38)  

Darrell Johnson describes the stunning glory of the cross when he writes -  "Because in giving his life for the world, in emptying himself in servant love, the nature and character of God is fully manifested for the entire world to see."  (39)

When by grace, I can just glimpse a little bit of Christ's complete & passionate commitment on the cross to His unfaithful, abusive bride, I am awestruck & breathless.  The power & glory of His body broken for me when I was faithless crushes my knees.  His absolute mercy shatters my rebellious soul.  

Thanks Jesus for being the perfect revelation of love.  

Thanks Jesus that you inspire me by Paul to consider, "Don't you realize, that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you!"

Jesus -- I timidly offer you this most uncomfortable & terrifying prayer - "Jesus, would you make me in your image of perfect love?  And glorify your name?"

Amen.  

Father, hallow your name!

"Jesus is inviting us to enter into the deepest passion of God's heart; "Father, hallow your name." - pg. 33.
The gentle reminder the author gave me was refreshing.  I can't hallow God's name on earth like it is in heaven- only He can!
"On earth as it is in heaven"
Only the Father and the Son know the reality of heaven.  I do not...yet...so Jesus teaches us to pray, "Father, bring the reality of heaven to earth!
The Father can hallow His name like no one else.   An incredible clarity comes upon me when I view life through the lenses of the Father hallowing His name vs. me hallowing His name (I should say- me attempting to hallow His name).

I echo the author's opening remarks, "What a great gift Jesus has given us in the prayer!"

Father, You Make Yourself Real

I was so caught off guard by the explanation of "let us hallow your name" in chapter two.  I am humbled to realize that this is another example of asking God to do what only He can do. I want to be part of the process of giving glory to God but I am not able to actually glorify God the way it should be done.  That thought is both humbling and freeing. "Only you can display the glory of who you are. O Father, you do it." (page 32). And help me to play my part!

Allowing His kingdom to come...

     In reading chapters 2 and 3, I found myself feeling like I was on the ocean - at one point, I'm at the crest of the wave, and then a few pages later, I'm in the trough. Let me explain...
     I love the part about praying back the names of God! His name - so many meanings - so very powerful. "El Roi" - the God who sees; "El Rophe" - the God who heals; "El Shaddai" - the mighty God - gives me hope that He sees, knows, feels these tough times with us, that He will heal my husband, the He is almighty, able to handle what we've been given. The "crest of the wave."
     Then in chapter 3, praying for His kingdom to rule in me..."King Jesus, illuminate every corner of my life with your healing light. Father, break through any resistance in my soul;...break the bondage that enslaves me; ...give me courage to follow You come what may" (pg. 51-52).  The "trough of the wave."  Of course I can honestly and eagerly pray for His kingdom to come - be unveiled - in the world today, in my non-believing friends' and family's lives...But to really pray that His kingdom rules in my life so that I am willing to go where He sends me, do what He asks me - am I willing to truly hand over the reins I so jealously guard? Yes, I am completely His and He is mine - yet still I cling to my selfish ways, wanting what I want, not absolutely giving Him total control. This is something I must be willing to pray - even if my prayer is that He makes me willing to be willing...! This is the taking up of my cross daily...this is praying that His kingdom comes in my own life. I'm working on it.

In Response to Reid's Post - A Comment that Became a Post

Your post challenges me to consider that when I feel like I am consciously competent, Jesus may reveal that I'm actually unconsciously incompetent.  What's amazing to me about Christ revealing foolishness is that He trips folks up (trips me up for sure) with the way that He reveals His Lordship.  When I fight to be first, he's in the back of the line washing filthy feet.  When I am fighting to save my life. He's dying on calvary.  Tonight I opened my bible and discovered that when I think I am competent by being first and saving my life Jesus through Paul writes to me -- "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God..... but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."   Your post has pushed me to consider how my lack of "God competence" keeps me from embracing Christ's call to foolishly abandon my "Steve competence pursuit of self-preservation." Your post pushes me to surrender to Christ's wisdom, give up the self-preservation game, and consider dying for my family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and enemies as the wiser, competent course.

"Lord teach us to pray"

"Have you ever observed that the only thing the first disciples of Jesus are recorded to have asked Jesus to teach them is, "Lord, teach us to pray"(Luke 11:1)? (Johnson, Darrell 57 Words That Changed The World)

I think that is incredible!  It is not recorded of them asking Jesus to teach them anything else.  Yet, They called Him "Rabbi" or teacher!  In 2014 disciples of Jesus often refer to Jesus as their "Lord" and "Savior".  These last two weeks because of the reading has caused me to take inventory of my relationship with Jesus.   How many times do I ask Jesus to teach me something?  Do I allow Him to teach me?  I thought about all the nuances of a student (me) / teacher (Jesus) relationship.  How do I respond when I don't understand something He is trying to teach me?  What kind of Student of Jesus am I?  Not in the sense of how much do I know about my teacher, (head knowledge) but how much do I allow my teacher to know me?

The disciples were born into a culture of prayer.  They prayed a minimum of three times a day.  They had lengthy prayers memorized  from the time they were six years old.  Prayer would have been a subject they had mastered!  Yet, what they saw in Jesus caused them to humble themselves and ask, "Lord, teach us to pray"!

What areas of my life and relationship with God do I believe I have "mastered"?  
What areas of my life and relationship with God do I believe I am good at?
What areas of my life and relationship with God do I believe I don't need Jesus to teach me in?

The 57 words recorded in Matthew known as the "Lord's Prayer" gathers up all of life, including my own and presents it before God.  It is as if Jesus through this prayer is telling His disciples and us, 
"There is more than you know - There is more than you see here!

I am excited to be a student of Jesus as He teaches us about prayer!

Chapter 1 - Encouraged & Inspired by God's Gracious Invitation to Participate!

“To pray the Lord’s prayer is to participate in heaven’s invasion of the earth.” (Darrell Johnson, 57 Words That Changed The World) 

I love the invitational quality that Darrell Johnson captures in explaining how we participate in God’s work.  I felt as I read the chapter that God’s passion is to bring His kingdom and God’s passion is to allow us to participate.  The chapter focused my attention on God's design to  INVITE us to participate in heaven's invasion through the cross and by prayer!

INVITE - We hold to four key discipleship points a Sonshine.  The points are Befriend, Encourage, Model, & Invite.  Recently I wrote in a journal about our fourth point, “Invite.”   I wrote, “Our natural mold is to serve.  Our master’s nature is pure servant hood.  Intimate communion with the master comes with practicing the dance steps of serving while trusting that the Lord of the Dance will sweep us away to the rhythm of His Kingdom come in us and through us.” 

I felt encouraged when Darell invited me to join "others across the face of the globe who are asking God to cause his kingdom to break in." (Darrell Johnson, 57 Words That Changed The World.)  I felt inspired when he gave his invitation the perspective that “each day we can join the Father’s Son and multitudes of his brothers and sisters in the cosmic act of bringing heaven down.” (Darrell Johnson, 57 Words That Changed The World.)

57 Words that changed the world

Hello Mentors! Below is the reading schedule that will take us through the end of the year. You

will have two weeks to read each chapter. Each chapter is designed to encourage, challenge, and
invite you into deeper intimacy with Jesus. Every "Mentor Group Tuesday", Mentors will meet
from 8:20 – 8:35 at the school (location TBA). We will briefly review together the previous
week's reading, pass out that day's group questions. Our hope is that this time together will be a
springboard into Mentor groups.

Thanks to everyone who has been participating in this Blog. The Blog is a great resource for

those of you who seek a platform to journal, respond, and encourage in the greater Mentor
community. As a reminder you may also comment as much or as little as you want on other's
posts. Our hope is that the bi-weekly discipline of reading, meeting, and blogging will create
and foster a community of disciples that befriend, encourage, model and invite the next
generation to greater intimacy with Jesus.

Mentor Groups:

February 4
February 18
March 4
March 18
April 1
April 15
May 6

 Fifty-Seven Words That Changed The World - A Journey Through the Lord's Prayer -

Jan. 20-Feb. 3. (Ch. 1 - Bringing Heaven Down) by Darrell W. Johnson
Feb. 4-17 (Ch. 2 - Make Yourself Real)
Feb. 18-March 3 (Ch. 3 - Rule Without Rival)
March 4-March 17 (Ch. 4 - Fulfill All Your Good Pleasures)
March 18-March 31 (Ch. 5 - Be Our Provider)
April 1-April 14 (Ch. 6 - Cancel All Our Debts)
April 15-May 5 (Ch. 7 - Rescue Us & Ch. 8 - Not All That Complicated)

No separation

Brothers and Sisters No separation at all, No separation only with God No separation