“Missionary life is simply a chance to die.” – Amy Carmichael

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” – Phil. 1:21

What is it with Christ followers and their “dying to themselves” and living in Christ stuff?  How come we just can’t be who God created us to be?  Ya know, give our best?  Just do it?  that sort of thing.  No, it would seem that we are forced to live the dream of someone greater than us.  To give up our desires and go after some sort of ultimate goal, and on top of that, give it up to some sort of Spirit we can never even see.

It’s always been difficult for me to explain the why and how God uses us to accomplish things for His kingdom, but I’ll try this way.  A few times in 1 Corinthians, Paul shares with his fellow Christ followers that we are God’s temple, and that it is important how we treat and utilize the temple of God.  I have this belief that every person was created to be God’s temple, but many choose to worship something other than God in their temple.  In the Old Testament, the Jewish nation of Israel built (under the commands of God) first a tabernacle, and then a temple. In the innermost parts of these buildings was a room called the Holy of Holies where God’s presence was said to have dwelt.  No one was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, except one time a year when the High Priest would enter to make a sacrifice for the people of Israel.

In the OT, the ark of the covenant (symbolic of the presence of God) was taken or stolen by the Philistines, and initially used as a motivator for the gods of the Philistines, until the ark brought great misfortune on the Philistine people, so they sent it back to Israel.  During that time though, Israel had no power, their temple or tabernacle was literally worthless.

A thousand years later Jesus walked the earth, then sacrificed himself on a cross.  In the gospel accounts of this sacrifice, the authors parenthetically take us to the temple about the time of the death of Jesus.  They take us to the large veil or curtain that blocks the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple, and this veil literally breaks in two from top to bottom.  This is no easy task by the way, as the veil was said by Josephus to be 60 ft and 4 inches thick. This also suggests that the temple is no longer the place where people come to worship God, but we now have access to God through the person of Jesus Christ.  As we surrender ourselves to the person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are then filled with the power of God – in short, God’s temple is now filled with the presence it was created for.  But too often the follower of Christ still falls back on what he’s known his whole life – trust in himself – so the power of God is pushed aside for a weak and lackluster imposter.

“Go for it!” We tell ourselves.

Let’s illustrate it this way – let’s say there is this balloon that flies.  And let’s say that this balloon looks like a flying saucer/UFO type thing.  Please do your best to use your imagination on this one.  One day, a 6 year old boy gets in this balloon and it flies.  Now this is a helium balloon without any sort of controls, so there is no way to direct or control the balloon from going anywhere it wants to go.  Everyone frets about the young boy and how they are scared for his life.  With our technological advancements today, maybe even the whole nation watches helplessly as the boy rides in the balloon.  Surely this boy is going to die.  This balloon has the capability of landing anywhere from Denver to Flagstaff to just about anywhere within a few hours of Colorado.  In the mountains or in some body of water or in the thick woods.

Jesus says to his followers in Matthew that one must become like a little child to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Only a child would take a big leap into a balloon that you cannot control and where there was no chance of knowing how things were going to end.  Only a child would face a giant warrior who had killed countless numbers of people and who stared down a nation to its knees.  Only a child would suffer the consequences of a lions den and a fiery furnace because their trust was in the God who they worshiped.  Only a child would jump out of a boat and attempt to walk on water to be with his Savior.  And only a child would take that action that was completely out of the control of that child.  An adult would be too afraid to die.

Then the balloon decides to land.  It lands in a nice soft dirt field at an amazingly slow pace and everything appears to be alright.  the authorities who of course were worried sick about the amazing adventure this young boy had taken get to the balloon first.  And then he comes out.  The young boy is fine and everyone raves about his heroism and strength as he battled against all odds to do survive this ordeal.  The world is mesmerized by the story.

You see, the world is mesmerized by stories of individuals who are not afraid to die.  Individuals who act more like children than adults, and the ironic part is that those are the people who actually live.  Those are the George Mullers and the Martin Luther King Jrs and the Billy Grahams and the Amy Carmichaels of this world who believe that living their lives is really just a chance to die.

Now let’s say the door of the balloon opens and the boy was never in the balloon, but chose instead to stay in his attic, what then?

Then nobody really cares.

What if you gave a teacher or a leader  everything they wanted?

At Fellowship, I’m teaching through a series called “I want to be one of them” and highlighting some heroes of the Christian faith.  I’ve shared the stories of George Mueller and Tony Dungy so far with two weeks left.  One of those weeks we will be talking Jonathan Edwards, one of the great pastors/theologians/authors/philosophers of 18th century New England.  As I’m reading one of his biographies, a thought came to my mind concerning learning from other people:

What would happen if I gave everything I had to mimic the teachings and example of ______________________?

Whether the “fill in the blank” for you is Jonathan Edwards, Joel Osteen, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Billy Graham, Rob bell, John Piper, Martin Luther, or Martin Luther King, what would happen if you gave them everything they wanted from you in their lives?

Now I understand the rhetoric that’s coming next from most people that we just follow Jesus, but every teacher and leader wants us to do and give something, and finding out what that is might be important.  Because we, being human, tend to be very one dimensional and like people who are like us and do not like people who are not like us.  If you like Jonathan Edwards or John Piper, you might like to have fun, but probably not when it comes to church.  If you’re into Joel or Nelson, I’m guessing you believe everything’s changing slowly into this ultimate utopia.  If mother Theresa or Martin Luther is your thing, then you want to work, work, work for the kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, and when you’re done, you have to keep going.  Clearly these are huge stereotypes and not to be made a big deal of, but the question is…

What would be the end result if you wholeheartedly followed the people you listened to?

“So it finally happened. I got caught.  I had expected it for some time, living in the shadows, and hoping no one would see me doing it.  But alas my time had come, and I had no one to blame but myself.  I made the bad decisions. I lived as I pleased.  And now I would pay dearly.”

In August of 1997, I was a college graduate that loved to have fun and who had just gradauated from a college where I could not make my own decisions.  This did not make for a very good combination.  I tried to figure out what I wanted to do as far as work was concerned, but it wasn’t easy.  I wanted to be some sort of half pastor/ radio DJ/ politician. Like a mix between Rush Limbaugh (he was “in” back then) and Billy Graham.  Instead I chose to be a high school history teacher in Atlanta.  Pretty cool, huh?  I thought so.  I remember loading up my new car – a 1993 cherry red Nissan Sentra, and began the drive from Tucson, Arizona where my parents lived, to Hotlanta.

After leaving Tucson at 9:00 pm on Friday, August 1st, I finally arrived in the “land of sweet tea” on Sunday, August 3rd at around noon.  The friends I was temporarily living with in Atlanta had called me and told me they would be away.  They left a key underneath the flowerpot or something, and I could make myself at home.  They were at some camp with kids and I was in Atlanta until next Friday by myself.  Cable television kept me busy until around 5:00 pm until I got bored and decided to drive around the suburb I would be living and explore.  On that drive, I discovered Chick Fil-A. But it wasn’t open on Sunday!

Then I received a call from my friend Ruben.  Ruben was a crazy man who loved to stretch me in all things adventure and this conversation would be no exception.  He confessed he was in Massachusetts, having a great time,and since I had a week before I had any responsibilities, I should come up.

Now remember I had just driven 35 hours or so to get to Atlanta and had only arrived hours before. But something about Ruben the adventurer always made me say yes.  So around 7:30 pm, my car hit the highway again to drive to the northeast, a place I had only visited once before.
I share this story with you because this was the way I lived my life.  Adventure and fun drove my decisions.  No one dared to tell me what to do any longer.  I could drive to Massachusetts if I wanted to drive to Massachusetts on an hour’s notice. I could go to bed when I wanted to go to bed. (I know that is a funny thing to say for a 21 year old, but the college I attended had a bedtime of 11:00 pm)  And I would from now on make my own decisions.  I was free!  You might even say I was my own king.

By October of the same year, I had hit my stride.  My students loved me.  I taught not only in school, but also a “singles class” at the church I attended.  Don’t worry, I was not teaching people how to be single, I was teaching life, a subject I was certainly qualified to teach, right?.  In short, I was on fire.

The only thing I didn’t have was money, but that would come sooner or later, now I was serving and having a blast with a bunch of people around me – peers, parents, students, and whoever else wanted to come around.  I remember walking from one class to another one day telling myself how invincible I was becoming. Life couldn’t get any better than this!

But it could get worse.

Thinking your invincible is a little like thinking you’re the best at the game of basketball because you hit a shot from 3 point land while you’re shooting around by yourself.  No one can prove you’re not the best, and of course that’s where the burden of proof lies.  So when you hit the shot, you smile smugly to yourself about how good you are,and how the Celtics deserve to have a guy like you on their team.  Basically what I’m saying is, it’s ludicrous to think that way…

This was part of an rough draft introduction to a project I recently started working on entitled,”The Worst Story ever told and a few really bad ones too.”

One year ago today I started blogging.

I wrote of my trip to the Catalyst Conference ‘07 (which at the time was my 4th) with my cousin Tim, and how Rick Warren brought it to 12,000 pastor-leaders.

Today I’m back in Atlanta at the Catalyst Conference enjoying my team and some old friends, and ready to be influenced by some of the greatest Leaders of our generation:  Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Andy Stanley, Seth Godin, William F. Young, Craig Groeschel, Jim Collins, and Steven Furtick are just a few of the names that have already impacted me significantly through books, blogs, and messages I’ve heard and read.

You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or this blog (blog posts in the evenings this week).  I’ll share what I’ve learned, who I’ve heard, and who I’ve connected with as I keep an account of what’s happening here in Hotlanta.

Tonight at 7PM, we’ll be hosting another live broadcast of what we’ve learned on FCTV.  We tried this last night, and it went well.  People connected with us by texts and with each other by the chat mode on FCTV.  Latest reports have people tuning in last night from Massachusetts, Virginia, Germany, New York, and of course, Atlanta.  So check it out tonight, October 9th, at 7 pm.  (This time may be changed if we do not get out of the conference in time, but I will offer prompt notice on twitter and facebook if this occurs.)

Hows your week going?