Attention

Matthew 11: 11 is a remarkable verse. In this verse there is so much to be contemplated. With one statement Jesus draws a line in the sand and separates centuries of human history into 2 categories: old and new.

"I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

Geordie paraphrase of this verse is: "Of all the guys who lived up till now, John is the best of the best. BUT the person who sees Jesus as the King and responds like Jesus is the King, is better than John ever was."


That means that John is greater than Abraham, Enoch, Daniel, Isaiah, Elijah and, yes, I'm going to say it...David!


BUT if you have surrendered your life to Jesus and have committed to follow him. Even after the first second you made that commitment, you are greater than John, Abraham, Enoch, Daniel, Isaiah, Elijah and, yes, I'm going to say it....David!

You see, the New Covenant, which Jesus ushers in with his death and resurrection, makes available for us to live a life where the Kingdom of God can live inside of us. Heaven is now actually living on earth in those who believe!  

John never had that chance. It was never even an option. Neither was it an option for Abraham, Enoch, Daniel, Isaiah, Elijah and, yes, I'm going to say it...David! 


As good little Christians we know the theology of this but we fail to live it out as actual reality. Who do you pay attention to when you read the Bible? Moses, David, Isaiah? Abraham, Daniel, Solomon? The author of Hebrews, in chapter 7, calls the Old Covenant: "weak and useless". That means if we follow what these guys just mentioned followed, we follow something weak and useless!


The very next verse in Hebrews chapter 7 says "(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God." The "better hope" is what I want! I want to follow the one who moves me away from weak and useless and towards a better hope.


My hope is is Jesus. This is the essence of the New Covenant. Jesus moves us closer to God and away from a weak and useless system. That is why what you have is greater than what John ever had. 


You have what the world needs. Don't kid yourself about your role and position you have. The hero's of your Bible have nothing on you!


Lets rightly divide the word of truth. Old Covenant=weak and useless, New Covenant=better hope!

Blindness

The Pharisees were not blind because they couldn't see they were blind because they refused to see.

This seems like an obvious statement because we have been trained to read and interpret that Pharisee=Bad/Ignorant/Evil.

The Pharisees were people trying to figure out this Jesus guy and where he fits if at all. What made them blind is their refusal to even open themselves to the idea that they might not know something.

Jesus comes as the Son of God, the exact representation of God and the religious "elite" refuse to accept Jesus.

Jesus calls them blind because their behavior dictates their identity.

Are we as blind as the Pharisees? Does our behavior show the world that we really are blind? Or do we make our lives available for Jesus to move through.

Does the world know you are a christian before they see you go to church? Does the world around you know that you are a christian before you call yourself a christian?

The real question is do you see Jesus as Lord? Do you see Jesus as the number one thing in your life? Do you see Jesus on the top of your list of important things? Not just near the top but above family, above personal agendas, above career or above future dreams?

If you see Jesus as Lord and your behavior reflects it the world begins to see the Lordship of Jesus and his Kingdom on this earth.

We will see the fruit of the spirit being poured out on this earth THROUGH us! All we have to do is begin to see. See Jesus as he really is: Lord, Master, Everything!

Intimacy

Ironically intimacy with God has become quite the religious phrase. The irony, of course, is intimacy with God is the antithesis of religion!

But really, think about it, what does intimacy really mean? Ya, ya, I know; into me you see and all that. That still doesn’t mean anything to me!

Now stay with me here as I try and connect some dots.

I like the word “abide”, you have to look at the word and figure out what it means. My simple definition of abide is: to live with and to know about.

When Jesus says abide in me he is inviting us to actually live with him and have a relationship where we know each other.

But just like intimacy, abide also carries with it that religiousness. So instead of abide I like just what Jesus says in John 17: I in you and you in me.

The reality of Jesus is that he is that close to you and me. He can actually live inside of each one of us. Jesus actually wants to be that close.

This is what blasts religion out of the water. Jesus in us makes sure that our actions and behavior honor the Father and demonstrate the Kingdom of God.

When we get a deeper understanding of Christ in us we will see our behavior change to Kingdom values. We will see our identity change to Kingdom reality. We will see our passions show the heart of God.

This Christian thing begins and ends with us wrestling with the truth of Jesus in us.

Value

This is a topic that I find fascinating. Value is maybe the wrong word for the topic but it does have the right tone to get the point across.

All through the Bible and the gospel of John especially, I find Jesus continually shake up the thinking of Israel and the religious leaders thinking. The Value they seem to have is not on God or anything he values!

John chapter 6 starts off a long series of stories about how the value of Jesus is missing. After Jesus feeds the 5000 he blasts the crowd, the people who actually took the time and effort to follow him, for following him because of bread not because of who he is.

This seems to be the case of Western Christianity as well, we find Jesus is an ingredient to a problem not the solution to the problem. We take what we need from Jesus and hope he doesn't touch the rest of our stuff.

There seems to be so much complaining about what God has NOT done. We fail to see that IT DOESN'T MATTER what has or not happened. God is God and he is good. The Bible is full of scriptures to show us the nature of God and his kindness. Yes, kindness. He has shown us the reality of his kingdom and what that makes us. If we can actually find out who we are, the reality of our present afflictions don't matter. Who we are in him and what that makes us must trump any circumstances that happen to come our way.

But lets not fall on scripture alone. This has to turn to experience if this is going to make any sense at all. Allow God to speak to you and tell you who you REALLY are, ask Him why he has put you together this way.

We have to put value on Jesus. If we don't put value on him we will fail to listen to him and fail to embrace the life he wants to bless us with.

Confusion comes when things don't go the way we want them to! Jesus is the solution to your problem not just an ingredient to your life to make things go the way you want. Stop using Jesus and allow him to use you!

You can find me on twitter these days, so follow @gmumby and @kingdomawakning. If you found this via twitter throw me a ReTweet. Leave a comment on Facebook as well! Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings!

Transformation

I have been thinking about what makes us change our lives once we find the reality of Jesus.

It seems pretty simple on the surface but I think its worth taking a look at but there is more to it than meets the eye.

In the environment of The Fathers House Church we see people on a daily basis "wrestle" with the idea of God and the promises of the gospel. What is told to the clients and interns is, "your life will be the best it has ever been." THAT IS TRUE, and we make no apologies for being confident of the result of following Jesus.

What I am being more aware of is people becoming part of community, following rules (for the most part!), doing the programs and meetings and seeing their lives change. Good right? Well yes....but....removed from community will they be successful?

Maybe, but I'm not satisfied with maybe.

I want to see transformation like hero's from the Bible saw transformation.

They had radical experiences from God that radically changed the way they thought, acted and behaved. Peter went from scared of losing his life because a servant girl called him out after Jesus was arrested to, being so bold as to stand up in the middle of Jerusalem, after Holy Spirit came in the upper room, announcing to everyone who would listen, "this is Jesus who you crucified"!

Peter changed his behavior from pretend bold but really scared, to really bold and not afraid. How?

Through experience with God.

If we want to see more lives changed we have to invite an experience with God.

We must have a transformational experience with God for us to have permanent success.

The key to all this is found in Acts 4 when the Holy Spirit showed up again just like He had in Acts 2. They needed to continue to have amazing experiences with God. It was never a one time deal.  

We need to have a relationship with God where we hunger for more and more experience with Him that continues to shift our thinking. Then we will see true transformation, success will not have to be about a geographical location but the reality of Jesus found through experience.

Trust

Trust seems to be an issue no matter what your background happens to be.

In the last few weeks I have been head to head with trust issues, mainly as we are 2 months into a new class and we are making some great headway in restoring peoples lives.

It comes down to "trust is earned." This is a motto I go by and a motto I teach my students. BUT, there is a catch! You have to understand that there is a catch before you can use the motto. The catch? You have to give me some of your trust so I can earn it!

Trust is not trust until it is tested! THAT is the real problem, we don't trust enough to give trust away to earn trust from people who might lead us to freedom!

Here at The Fathers House Church, Pastor Steve says, "inspect the fruit." Meaning look at the result of someones life choices and decisions and the result of those choices and decisions. We must be fruit inspectors so we can more intelligently give trust to be earned. Look at the lives of the people you call leaders, can you trust them? You will know if they are trustworthy by looking at their fruit.

If I fully trust someone then I follow without knowing the outcome but I trust that the one I am following will lead me into the best place possible. To be able to move in this level of trust I have to believe that the one leading me has good fruit.

Inspecting fruit is the key to trust. Trust has to be earned. Allow the ones with the best fruit to earn your trust. BUT, you have to give trust for it to be earned!

Jesus

I will apologize in advance for my poor grammar but I felt I needed to begin to write some of my thoughts and experiences down from the unique ministry experience of Kingdom Awakening.

I'm Geordie Mumby and I oversee, and along with my team, run Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship.

From time to time I want to share what is going on at The Fathers House Church and what I see happening in this unique community.

I'm finding more and more common in my daily talks with my students and the clients that Jesus isn't really known past initial salvation. This, it seems, leads to a dysfunctional relationship with Jesus where we begin to expect a relationship with Jesus on a selfish level ALONE.

We understand that Jesus saves us from the "fires of the pit of Hell" but don't move into a relationship with him where we see John 17 play out, "I in you and you in me", or John 15 "abide in me". We tend to keep Jesus at arms length, happy with a selfish relationship getting what we can get (a free trip to heaven). We end up begging God to not take any more away from us and become offended when he asks us to give up our "pet dragons".

 "Haven't you taken enough from me already?", we selfishly scoff at God. "I gave up drinking, drugs, girls, money and now you want WHAT?" It all becomes and looks dysfunctional to you and everyone who is watching.

What we sacrifice with this approach to Jesus is a life of what he has actually promised. A life of peace, a life of joy, a life of trust, love, faith. A life not dictated by circumstances. What he has for us is exactly what we avoid and we continue to maintain our level of selfishness which leads to dysfunction.

We need to begin to be honest about relationship with Jesus. Is he someone that is closer than a brother? Is he just your ticket to heaven? Is he your answer to your every circumstance? Is he with you all the time? Do you want him with you all the time?

What would your relationship with Jesus look like if Hell was not an option?

Jesus is our savior and he wants to more than that. He wants to know you and to be known by you.

Matt 7: 21-23 says, (and I'm going to take a lot of liberty on the translation) "many are going to come to me and say, we did all the stuff you wanted us to! We are good right? And I'm going to say, I don't know who you are....get away from me.

Lets get real with our relationship with Jesus. He is the most real thing, make him that!