130331 Easter: Blessed

It’s interesting how there are some people you listen to more than others on certain subjects.

If you want to know about how to have a great beginning in the MLB, you might listen to Buster Posey more than most other players.

If you want to learn how to win multiple Tour de France races illegally without getting caught, you might want to consult Lance Armstrong.

If you want to learn about investing in the stock market, Warren Buffett will probably be at or near the top of your list.

The Williams sisters will be who you want to talk to about dominating tennis. 

If you want to know how to move a football team from good to champion-level in two years, you might want to talk to Jim Harbaugh.

Want to know how to overstay your welcome in late night television?  Give Jay Leno a buzz.

Want to know how to make it in the recording world?  Talk to Simon – you don’t even need to know his last name.

Movie industry?  Steven Spielberg.

Famous for no particular reason?  Kim Kardashian.

And when it comes to wanting to know about what God is like, my hunch is the majority of us would want to hear what Jesus had to say about it.

Roughly 2,000 years have passed since the very first Easter morning came and changed the way people thought about God and life and life after this life.  Empires have risen and fallen.  Christianity has moved from an obscure Jewish sect to the religion of international domination to the biggest religion in the world to a struggling religion trying to hold on to its aging members.  But despite people having issues with Christianity, Jesus as a key person in history with knowledge and experience of God has stood the test of time.  Jewish people respect him.  Muslims respect him.  Buddhists respect him.  Even some Christians respect him!

This Easter, rather than spend time looking specifically at the resurrection itself, I’d rather talk about how it has impacted Jesus’ stock value.  If you want to get your brain around what happened to Jesus after he died, you will find a great resource in The Meaning of Jesus by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright.  In the chapter on the resurrection, you will find that while they have different views on what happened, they both passionately agree that Jesus was experienced after he had died, and that experience made an enormous impact on Jesus’ followers.  The went from frightened, shaken followers to passionate, bold world changers in ten seconds flat.  All because of Easter.

It’s not that anything Jesus taught or did changed in that moment.  It’s simply that when they experienced Jesus on Easter morning in resurrected mode, all that Jesus taught took on greater power.

One teaching he gave I think probably stuck with all them.  It was probably his greatest sermon he ever delivered, and one of the most profound and powerful and hopeful sermons ever given by anybody.  He likely gave it many times, but is remembered as giving it in a natural amphitheater, where hundreds and maybe thousands gathered to hear him speak.

This is what he said in the first movement of his talk (Matthew 5:1-12, The Message):

When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

     “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

     “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

     “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

     “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

     “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

     “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

     “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

     “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

     “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Another way to think about the word blessed is to read “God is with you.”  Try reading it using that phrase instead of blessed.

The reason this was so profound is because it challenged common beliefs of Jesus’ day.  And our day.  We generally think of feeling like God is on our side – with us – when things are going great.  When we are successful in our culture’s eyes, it feels like God is smiling on us.

But Jesus turns that on its head.  He says that when we are feeling desperate, when we’ve lost that which is precious to us, when we’re content and not feeling the need to climb another rung up the ladder, when we’re passionately searching for God, when we are compassionate, when we pursue all that is good and beautiful, when we pursue peace, when we are committed enough to God to take a stand, and when we get pushed around for living in the footsteps of Jesus, God is especially with us.

Why?  Because in all of those situations, we know we need God, we seek God, and our openness to God makes it much more possible to actually experience God.

When we are in those modes of life, we experience God because God is with us.

There are other times, by the way, when it is very hard to experience God.  Mainly because God is not always with us especially.

I know, I know – God is omnipresent, so God is always with us, right?  Theologically, yes.  Practically, no.  I believe God loves us unconditionally and forgives us long before we know our need.  But that doesn’t mean God is necessarily with us.  God is not a party to our behavior at certain times.

A wife may love her husband, but she is not with him in his addiction to pornography.

A husband may lover his wife, but he is not with her in her addiction to narcotics.

God may love the corporate CEO, but is not with him in his leadership that overly inflates his already ridiculous salary at the expense of his struggling employees.

God may love the consumer, but God is not with the consumer when in their passion to get a bargain support an industry that forces children to work in sweat shops half way around the world.

Maybe the reason some people experience God more than others is because God is with them more than others because they are with God.

Maybe the reason some people question God’s existence is because God isn’t with them because they are not with God.

Many millions of people who find themselves in the blessed modes of Jesus famous teaching are experiencing Easter as a living reality.  They experience the presence of God in powerful ways in spite of their poverty, despair, abuse, grief, and defamation.  They experience God because they are seeking God as if God is really the most important voice worth hearing.  They are with God.  God is with them.

Many millions of people will celebrate Easter today as part of a dead tradition.  They wonder why they bother.  Their lives represent the painful reality that they not really seeking God because they have proven with their choices that other voices are more important to them.  They do not experience God because they are not with God, and God is not with them.

God loves us all.  God dreams great life for us all.  God speaks to us all.  God desires us all to experience the reality that Christ is risen – he is risen indeed!

Whether or not we will is not up to God.  It’s up to us.  Will we be anymore renewed this Easter than we were the last?  Will we become any more like Christ from now until Easter 2014 because we have chosen to seek the voice of the One who lives on?

130324 Palm Sunday Posture

When I was in college, I read a book by Charles Swindoll that served to seriously ramp up my life: Living Above the Level of Mediocrity.  Definitely fit into my Type A, Seven Habits personality type.  (Note: I’m not nearly as Type A as I used to be).  Years later I heard him speak at a pastors conference in Indianapolis.  He was talking about how we pastors have a tendency to wrap our egos way too tightly around our ministries.  We can lose focus of why the church exists, and take too personally its successes and failures.  In essence, we can find ourselves thinking that the church and ministry and even faith itself is really about us.

So Swindoll spoke for a moment about Palm Sunday.  Specifically, he talked about the beast of burden Jesus chose for his ride into Jerusalem.  As he rode the never-ridden-before young donkey, the crowds lined the streets, laying down their cloaks, waving palm branches, and shouting praise to God and support for Jesus.  Swindoll wondered out loud what the donkey must have thought of all of this.  “This is amazing!  these people love me!  I had no idea! I am really special – I must be with all these people cheering me on!”  Swindoll noted that we sometimes feel that way – we who carry Jesus into the world – that the we are the ones people are crowding to see.  Swindoll’s tender advice?  Don’t be a jackass…

I love that story.  I told it years ago in my church and one of my members gave me a commemorative jackass to remember the moment and remind myself of the point.

Don’t be a jackass?  Well, maybe we’re not supposed to be thinking we are the point, but the jackass actually is a critical part of the story, and is a critical part of our story, too.

Sometimes when we read the Palm Sunday story we read it with the wrong set of glasses.  We definitely read it from a post-Easter perspective.  And from a post Constantine-adopts-Christianity-as-the-official-religion period as well.  And, to push it further, I believe we now read it from the vantage point of being citizens of the current global Super Power.  We are the champions.  We therefore rather like the title our ancestors gave this passage: The Triumphal Entry.  I’ve been tempted to want to be part of this “Bad Ass Christianity” which has a strong following in the US.  But the more I read about Jesus, that approach would just make me look like a dumbass.  I think I now hear a jackass braying somewhere in the distance.
The truth is Jesus entrance into Jerusalem was meant to communicate anything but triumphal.  So, we need to put an asterisk on that title, and a footnote that says “an example of irony.”  Jesus knew what he was doing, too – don’t think for a moment that this whole scene just sort of happened in the moment.

Jesus knew where to send the disciples to fetch the young donkey.  People from the region of Galilee in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover knew Jesus by sight, knew his message, and were ready to play their part in Jesus’ well-designed dramatic entrance marking the beginning of the last week of his life.  He wanted to make a statement.  He knew what he was doing.  He wanted to be crystal clear with his communication.  And he knew he had to be congruent with the rest of his life.  The message was wrapped up in how he packaged himself.  His posture as he rode into his final week of life communicated what he was really about, and what God was really about, too.

The crowd responded to him as if they were heralding the arrival of a king.  Laying cloaks on the ground, waving palm branches, even their words of praise all make a statement of belief about the one who was receiving it.  It is interesting to note that they weren’t dissuaded by Jesus choice of transportation, which is important.  For all of our talk about what first century Jewish people expected in their messiah, these folks were fans of Jesus who knew his message well.  Jesus’ choice fit the message he had been sharing his entire ministry.

The traditional idea is that people expected a truly triumphal entry, where the Messiah rides in on as with a  victory parade, riding in on a majestic, well-dressed Arabian.  But he didn’t.  Rather, he chose to ride into Jerusalem on humility personified.  Regular.  Humble.  Unpretentious.  Even lowly.  Reminds us of his storied beginning – born into poverty amongst farm animals in a cave-stable.

The message this communicated?  I come in humility.  In peace.  Non-threatening.  Nonviolent.  Non-aggressive.  Jesus’ Palm Sunday posture was peace.

Jesus’ entrance was the antithesis of power, aggression, dominance, and strength.

This was no Trojan donkey, either, as if it was just a rouse to get him in the gate in such a way as to fool the Roman authorities so that he could pull out his assault carpenter’s hammer once he made it safely inside.
His final week of life witnessed him challenging greed (power), challenging poor religious leadership (power), and emphasizing love and peace.  He told people to pay their taxes (even if his language was provocative).  He reminded people that loving God and loving others was the real point of faith.

When he had his famous last supper with his disciples, what did he do there?  He washed their feet – the act of a servant – modeling the posture of those who fully and passionately follow God.  He told them to think of the bread and cup in a new way – a symbol to remind them of not only what Jesus would soon do, but what they were to model: sacrifice for the redemption of the world.  He even told Peter of his forthcoming denial without condemnation, as if to say that “I know just how human you are, and I still love you.”

That same night they camped out at a friend’s garden – Gethsemane.  Jesus did not spend any time sharpening a sword or loading his nail gun.  He spent in on his knees in passionate prayer, because he knew that the orientation of the powerful is to squash whatever threat is perceived.  It broke his heart, and made him sweat through the sleepless night until he was arrested before dawn.  Jesus posture tells us about him, and teaches us how to model our own lives.

The next day went from bad to worse to horrific to death.  And through it all, Jesus maintained his posture of grace, forgiveness, peace, and love.  It’s as if that’s what he was really all about.  Which makes us wonder if that’s what we’re really all about.

We live entwined with the global Super Power that promotes peace, but has in her back pocket the world’s most powerful military.  Which message is louder?  Jesus could have gone that direction, but he didn’t.  He chose to represent God in humility, period.  As if that would work.  Which still does to this day.

So what’s you posture, Jesus follower?  Does your posture reflect Jesus’?  How have you sought forgiveness from God?  How have you sought forgiveness from others?  How have you forgiven others?  Who do you need to forgive?  Where in your life are you really wanting to bring out your weapons – whatever they may be – while Jesus is calling you to leave them behind and follow him?  How are you sowing and reaping redemption with your posture?

130317 CrossWalk: It's a Being Thing

Mark 8:34 “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” Being a crosswalker means we come to grips with the seriousness of the invitation – this is a call to put your life on the line, in Someone else’s hands, for Someone else’s purpose.

St. Patrick died on this date over 1,500 years ago in 462 AD. His story, which it has probably been embellished some, is incredible. He was kidnapped as a teenager and enslaved in Ireland for six years. Then he escaped and felt a call to become a priest. Once ordained, he wanted to return to Ireland to serve the Christians and take the Good News to the majority of Irish people. He used their language and symbols to communicate the good news of Christ, and is credited with transforming it into a Christian country. He lived the life of a crosswalker.

When pastors use a ton of scripture, it sometimes is an indicator of amateur status. But sometimes seeing a wide range of scripture along a certain line of thought is incredibly eye-opening. I hope that’s happens for you in this reading.

Last week, I had us look at what a crosswalk does. Today, I want to take a look at crosswalk as a way of being. Enjoy the verses below…

• Mark 1:15 “Repent and believe”. Being a crosswalker means we continually (re)turn toward God with our thinking, our being, and our doing.
• Mark 1:17 “Follow me and I will show you how to fish for people.” Being a crosswalker means we are passionate about reaching others with the Good News. To not be about this is to not follow.
• Mark 2:14 “Follow me and be my disciple.” The tax collector understood being a crosswalker meant he was going to be learning a new way of life and faith with Jesus.
• Mark 3:35 “Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Being a crosswalker recognizes God’s work wherever its done, regardless of tribe or tradition.
• Mark 4:22 “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given – and you will receive even more.” Being a crosswalker is to pay attention and pursue deeper understanding. Not listening leads to misunderstanding, which leads to being misled.
• Mark 6:31 “Let’s go rest for awhile.” Being a crosswalker means taking rest seriously.
• Mark 6:37 “You feed them.” Being a crosswalker means we are partners in this ministry thing, not couch potatoes.
• Mark 6:50 “Don’t be afraid.” Being a crosswalker will push us way out of our comfort zones in many ways, which will create anxiety. Knowing that ahead of time may be helpful!
• Mark 9:35 “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” Being a crosswalker means we gladly look after others before ourselves, knowing that it winds up achieving both.
• Mark 10:21 “Go sell your stuff, give it to the poor, and follow me.” Being a crosswalker means we are aware that nothing is more central to life than God, and sometimes that requires radical surgery.
• Mark 10:39 “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering.” Terrible marketing … Being a crosswalker means we get that there are going to be tough rows to hoe.
• Mark 10:43 “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave of everyone else. Being a crosswalker means our orientation is to serve, not to be served.
• Mark 12:30 “Love God with all you’ve got, and love others as you love yourself.” Being a crosswalker gets that abiding fully by these two principles, the rest comes on line.
• Mark 13:33 “Stay alert and pray!” Being a crosswalker understands that the Spirit may move at unexpected times in unexpected ways, and we don’t want to miss it.
• Mark 14:30 “You will deny three times that you even know me.” Being a crosswalker swallows the hard truth that we will blow it like Peter. Our humanity has a way of keeping us humble…
• Mark 14:34 “Stay here and keep watch with me.” Being a crosswalker means we realize that we will fall asleep at the wheel now and then, which really stinks.
• Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” Being a crosswalker means we go global all the time, not just when we’ve got our backyard all nice and tidy. While we are reaching our neighborhood we are also reaching well beyond our borders.

The above verses represent most of what Jesus said about what it meant to follow him. Of course, we know that the majority of communication we give and receive is nonverbal – some say as high as 93%. This means that being a crosswalker means that we pick up most of our queues from Jesus’ actions, expressions, tone, and expressions. He touched lepers. He redeemed prostitutes. He ministered to gentiles. He partied with the wrong crowd. He did life as God led him, and it was messy. He stood for peaceful justice. He took a beating without retaliating. He forgave the people who hurt his feelings, disrespected him, accused him, betrayed him, disowned him, slapped him, spit on him, publicly humiliated him, crucified him. That’s what being a crosswalker is. Paradoxically, this counterintuitive way of being and doing truly leads to the best that life has to offer. Few find it. Have you?

What part of being a crosswalker comes easiest to you? What comes hardest?
How are you sensing God’s invitation to be a crosswalker in new ways at this stage of your life and during this season?

130310 CrossWalk: It's What We Do

What is a crosswalk? We are so accustomed to using crosswalks that I wonder if we have lost our appreciation for them. In short, crosswalks exist to provide people safer passage from one side of the street to another. Most often they appear at intersections, but sometimes they show up halfway down a block. The idea is that when people need to get from one side to the other, they know to look for a crosswalk. While its no guarantee that they will find safe passage there, it’s much more likely that the lines will guide them effectively to the place they want to go. I’ve never seen a crosswalk, for instance, that moves a person into oncoming traffic, or off a cliff, in a circle. Their purpose is pretty obvious: get people to the other side efficiently and effectively.

A number of years ago, the First Baptist Church of Napa, CA made a bold and not completely popular move to start calling herself CrossWalk. Our corporate name didn’t shift, and neither did our affiliations. In fact, the way we did church didn’t change much at all. That’s because the church was already thinking about itself as a crosswalk more than a place where Baptist Christians might gather for worship. The name CrossWalk reflected what we wanted to do: provide safe passage efficiently and effectively for people looking to get from one side to the other. Some people are looking for some assurance that there is a heaven, and want to know how to get there. We proclaim that our assurance in our future comes as we walk with Jesus, because we recognize the grace of God more and more as we do. For others, they are looking to change their direction – to get off the path they’ve been on – in order to experience a different quality of life. We teach Jesus here, and try to help them figure out what it means to walk with God in this life as Jesus modeled.

But is this even biblical? Is it a good idea? For who?

Jesus was a crosswalk. Take a minute and think about what Jesus was actually doing with his life, and who he was doing it with. He was famous for exorcisms, healings of every kind, commanding resurrection, and apparent power over physical reality. Of course, people flocked to him to hear his take on God, too. He raised eyebrows with his interpretation of Jewish scripture, laws, and traditions. Sometimes it got him in trouble with religious leaders. All of his teaching and all of his miracles were for a reason: to help people cross over from wherever they were to a more fully-engaged life with God. What he did was what a crosswalk does.

What is known but still lost on many of us in the West today is who he surrounded himself with and who he sought and who sought him. And who he didn’t seek. The people he invited to be his followers were regular folk – everyday people. Blue collar guys. Some with heightened political hopes. Plus an IRS agent for kicks. He didn’t ask any rabbis or religious leaders to fall in (not that they would have acquiesced). He didn’t pursue religious people, either – not that he ignored them – he made it to church every week. It’s just that the people he went to needed a crosswalk more than the people in church. He went to people who had lives that made it difficult for them to believe that God gave them a second thought. Sick people. Deformed people. Disabled people. People who couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk. People with skin diseases that made it impossible for them to go to church as it would have broken the law. People who were born under the wrong country code. People who were born female. People who were children. People who made decisions for a wide variety of reasons that took their lives to a torturous hell – public scorn for being a prostitute, or a tax collector. All of these people he sought (and who sought him) found Jesus to be a crosswalk where they could cross over to life with God in spite of what they had previously learned or were being currently told.

Side note: the Hebrew people were known as the “cross over” people because of the stories of crossing boundaries and rivers as acts of faith. To be in the Hebrew tradition is to make that cross over. Jesus knew such a move would be so much easier with a crosswalk…

We live in a country that began, in part, because of a desire to be a different kind of people. People who crossed over. People who wanted to do life with God freely, in ways they didn’t feel free to do in Europe. Other earlier immigrants to our shores has less lofty goals in mind: they wanted to make a lot of money, and felt that the New World probably held untold wealth for those daring enough to look for it. They had freedom to pursue wealth in ways they couldn’t in Europe. Both camps of people grew in number and strength over the next few centuries or so. The United States is, as we citizens know, the sole Super Power in the world, and is one of the most dominant voices – if not the most dominant voice – when it comes to the global economy. We are among the leaders when it comes to quality of life, GDP, and military prowess. Much of that has been funded by the American Dream of making it happen, sprinkled with a bit of faith. A bit of faith that is waning.

In their book, Exponential, Dave and Greg Ferguson give the following statistics:

• Fewer than 20% of Americans attend church regularly and only 22% have a positive view of church.
• Half of the 300,000 churches in America did not add one new believer last year.
• Every week 43,000 Americans are leaving the church for good.
• 100 years ago there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans and today there are only 11 churches for 10,000.
• In the US today we lose about 75 churches per week and opens only 25 per week.

What happened? Why is it that we are seeing such statistics when our country was founded in part on the idea that life with God was worth risking everything for?

I think it may have something to do with whether or not we are being crosswalks the way Jesus thought of being a crosswalk. Jesus’ life and teaching compelled people to want to do life with God. And they did. And they compelled others similarly. And a world was impacted with the Good News that God exists and is the embodiment of love for all people, the beacon of Truth, the infinitely deep repository of grace, and promise of justice. But many don’t want to be a crosswalk anymore because it carries a price.

Jesus broke tradition. He “violated” the Sabbath. He went where he wasn’t supposed to go. He touched contagious, contaminated people. He partied with people who knew how to party. He didn’t cater to the religious elite. He taught incredibly deep truths with simple stories – making meat as palatable as milk. He chose to serve instead of demanding to be served. He chose peace in the face of one of the most violent regimes to ever wield its power in human history. His own family said he was crazy. Religious people said he was apostate, heretical, even satanic. Yet he never wavered. Even when he was tortured and killed for what he lived to embody.

There is no need to wonder if the church has lost touch with its marching orders to be a crosswalk to the same people Jesus reached. The question is, will we stand for such apathy any longer?

130303 Credo

Clarifying what we actually believe, and then applying that to who we are and what we do, is an ancient practice that yields much fruit. Below is a brief sketch of some of my beliefs about Jesus. I use some traditional language, but don’t be surprised if the way I state my beliefs sounds at least non traditional if not heretical…

I believe Jesus was more in flow with the Spirit of God than any person who ever lived before or since. In Jesus we see incarnation at its best. That’s why I follow Jesus and his teachings about life and God.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe Jesus modeled humility in his words and actions, all the way to the point of his martyrdom. He was nonviolent at a time when those around him clamored for an uprising. As his follower, I strive to do the same.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe Jesus was clear about the cost of doing life the way he discovered and taught. Following Jesus requires a massive paradigm shift – very different from the way the vast majority of people live and think. That’s part of what makes it so tough – the Way is narrow and often lonely, and most people are flying along on the freeway, unawares. As his follower, I choose to join him on the narrow, challenging path that leads to life.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe part of Jesus’ mission was to help his disciples be in the flow of the Spirit, too, and they were. I have experienced the Presence of God as a communion of sorts. I have experienced his leading and inspiration. I have experienced healing. I have experienced great comfort at times of struggle and loss. As his follower, I consciously strive to be in the flow of the Spirit, too.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe Jesus came to provide a prophetic voice to the world. To those who assumed they had little value in God’s eyes because of the actions of the world that dominated them, he came to tell them that they are loved deeply and infinitely by God, and that they were not alone. To those who had the power to change things, Jesus spoke boldly, challenging the worldview they had adopted that was keeping the world just as it was. Jesus challenged greed and all of it’s cousins – together they have kept God’s presence from restoring and renewing this beautiful creation. As his follower, I am called to bring love and grace to those who feel none, and a word of truth to the comfortable who have neglected their role as stewards in this world.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe Jesus embodied forgiveness and grace. As one in the flow of the Spirit, he pronounced forgiveness of sins to countless numbers of people. Their confidence in its truth must have been strengthened by what they saw in his eyes and how they felt in his presence. All of this took place long before the cross, and did not require sacrifice on their part. This was Truth trumping tradition. Jesus did that on a regular basis. As his follower, I am called to pronounce forgiveness of sin, too, because we can be confident in the grace of God to be sufficient.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe Jesus taught about the afterlife, and was living proof of its reality as many people saw the resurrected Christ after his death and burial. While I believe there is more mystery than certainty about what that experience will be like, I believe the overwhelming picture is one of being fully immersed in the Presence of God, where we are stripped of all that is not of God, and live on in the freedom of Spirit, unencumbered by all that inhibits us in this world, in these bodies. As his follower, I look with hope-filled confidence to that day.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe that the salvation Jesus came to bring is rooted in the Jewish concept of shalom. To be saved is to be restored, renewed, healed from all that sin is and does. “Sin is the culpable disturbance of shalom.” God’s dream is to restore shalom everywhere for everything. I think that’s what he was talking about in John 17:3. As his follower, I pursue the salvation God is working in me, encourage fellow Jesus followers to do the same, and share the news of this salvation with those who have yet to hear.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe that embracing the fullness of what Jesus taught and modeled changes our lives for the better. We become more whole. We become better people. Better partners. Better parents. Better employers. Better employees. Better citizens. Better everything. And that, in part, brings shalom wherever it goes. As his follower, I strive to become the best “me” I can be with the guidance and strength of the Spirit.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?

I believe Jesus gave us a call to reach the world with the Good News he brought. We are to move into the world with this news. We are driven by a blend of compassion and obedience. As his follower, I will be and proclaim the Good News of Christ gracefully where the Spirit leads.

What do you believe? What difference does it make?