Posted by another one on May 19, 2001 at 16:27:26:
I don't want to define my audience, so suffice to say that if you are content, then this probably isn't for you.
The time has come. It is time for action. The time is now as the world screams out for a new type of Christianity. One that has real power and real promises that work in the real world in which we live. There are many of us who are tired of sitting in churches and hearing the messages of hope and forgiveness and the powerful promises of God to those who believe, only to be sickened by the gross inadequacy with which these promises are truly acted upon. We are ready for deliverance, and we believe that it is there. We are ready for hope and we believe that it is there. We are ready for peace in our lives and freedom from anything and everything that keeps us from our truest desire to seek our God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, and we believe that it is there... It's only that we can't seem to find it. We know that our God is a God of love. We know that he will carry our work to completion in His time, but still we are not content to continue even one moment longer in the futility and defeat that smears our lives.
My point is not to rant against the church of today or recount the many sins of organized religion. For those who need the soft reassurance of a forgiving and loving God who accepts and never abandons or fails, the sort of message we often hear is perfect. We know that our God meets all people where they are and brings His presence into the lives of all of those who seek Him in the way that they best receive it. That is why I am not writing to those of you who feel this way. If you are reading this and find yourself not attracted to what I am saying, then read no further, there is nothing here for you. But for those of us who feel the ever-present breath of the Hounds of Hell on your neck, if you fight the darkness every time the lights go out and you are alone. For those of us who battle with sexual addictions, or cannot shake the invisible hold of marijuana on your life. For those who live in a volatile state forever battling the unmitigated rage just below the surface. For those who look around and see nothing but bleakness in the world around us, all despite the knowledge of the promises of God, then perhaps what we need is something more.
Perhaps what we need is a hardcore faith. This is nothing new in the history of Christianity. There have always been those of us for whom the wiles and grips of this world and our flesh are too strong to break in the easy moopy version of our faith that so many in this country ascribe to. And they have banned together to practice their faith with the discipline that they demand. The difference is that here, today in this culture, it is almost unacceptable to think of taking responsibility for our actions, many are far too weak to be able to face the depth of their own wickedness and claim it as thier own. They need to be constantly reminded that the love of God has washed them and saved them and they need it to be forgotten. But for those of us who are all too familiar with the whore-scum that seethes below our various masks of civility, there is a faith for us as well.
We know that Jesus paid the price for our sins. We know that God is powerful enough to shatter the chains that bind us with the merest whim... this is not what we challenge. The problem is that our flesh won't get out of the way to allow us to receive this grace. And it is the sheer power of this grace that convicts us so deeply of our own wickedness. Thus every failed attempt to be right is all the worse to us because we know exactly how unworthy we are of the grace which has pardoned us. And this guilt is the very thing that slows us the fraction of a second necessary for those demon hounds on our heels to take hold and wrangle our souls once more, "If you really love your God, how can you do this to him? See you are scum. You might as well just give up, because I'll be seeing you agian." Sound familiar?
Well no more. I don't care what the world or the Christian community says, the time has come for those of us who know that we need it to take up this hardcore faith and pursue our God with all our strength, tearing down every castle and stronghold of the flesh, staring into the face of Satan himself if need be and declaring that he has no power over us in this world or any other anymore. And as brothers and sisters in this fight we need stand strong with each other, fighting for each other when one falls and forcing each other ever onward as true servants, faithful and strong, until the day that we enter the rest promised to those of us who finish the race.
Does this ring strangely true deep inside you? If so, you need to spare no time and get in touch with me right now. Not because I am anyone special, I can't even help you, but because I am one who recognizes that God is beginning to awaken this desire in many people and pulling them together. Some of us have already banned together in this, and there is room for more. What we are talking about is a hyper-accountable, real-world, lifestyle-altering community of faith. We talk openly among ourselves of those things which we battle, those things that even our churches don't really want to hear. We pray together, we confess to God in the presence of our brothers so that we can fight together and draw strength from each other, we practice disciplines that break the flesh and enable us to move ever onward. If anything stands in the way, whether finances, work, objects, addictions, we work to strip them away never looking back, one after another until the only thing that remains is that which cannot be stripped away. We will accept nothing less than all the way. We are not content to continually fall into the same sins over and over again, only to repent and head straight back to it once more. All things are possible for our God and guess what... He's here with us too. He honors our efforts and guides us each individually and as a whole. And the reason we do this as a community is so that someone will be there to smack the pipe from your hand when you go to light up. Someone will be there to ask you if you jacked off on the internet the night before. And someone will be there to stand against the face of all Hell as they storm against you in the dark and pray the peace of Christ over you when you are too weak to claim it. We can and will turn to each other and point blank call you down when you need it, but we won't leave or abandon you, for just as Jesus has stood by us and endured the fires of His own wrath to bring us home, so we stand by each other. It is a life long commitment to God. A commitment to always strip away whatever stands in our path, and to allow God, not men, access to every portion of our life. I will not fool you, this will be the hardest thing you have ever undergone. Not because of anything we subject you to, but because the only way to truly find these promises in their fullest is to bring yourself to the point that you have died to everything else in your life. Only then will you be broken enough to look upon the face of the one true loving God who bore the penalty of His own wrath for you so that you could be free and accept the place and the identity that he has restored you to next to Him in His kingdom.
Each of us who have joined together in this know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the promises that God lays before us in His word are true and literal and for today. We claim these promises, and in so doing we take whatever actions, literal, spiritual, or otherwise are necessary to see them.
The power of God is unstoppable. If you are ready for this kind of hardcore, real-life faith, then get in touch with me. It's time for us to quit playing games and become the true men and women of God that he has called us to be.
Accept nothing less than all the way.