8 June 2006
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I met a guy named Tony this week.
 
Tony was walking funny, like he was injured. I asked him what was up. He told me that 13 days ago, he gave his kidney to his dad, who was in need of a transplant.
 
I perked up instantly, and heard myself say to him, “You did? No way! That is cool!” I wasn’t sure that this was appropriate, but I said it before I thought about it (a semi-common mistake of mine).
 
Tony put his head down with a satisfying smile, thankfully, and then looked up and said, “Yeah…it was cool.”
 
I asked him all about it, and he graciously gave me the details. His look told me he was wondering why I was so on the edge of my seat about his special gift to his dad. Maybe you are, too.
 
Well, about 2 1/2 years ago (right, dad?), my dad found out he was in need of kidney transplant. He went onto dialysis, and onto a waiting list.
 
It hit me hard when I thought of all the unknowns about donating a kidney. But when my dad told me, I said (somewhat reluctantly, and full of fear of the unknown, but wanting to do the right thing), “Dad, I’ll give you kidney.” And then I waited for his response…
 
I didn’t wait long. As if he had prepared his answer for such an offer from any of his sons, he said, “Nope. I’ll be fine on dialysis.” And then in his usual, unstoppable optimism (a trait that I am so grateful to have inherited from him in double portion), he added, “All the signs say that I’m a great candidate for a transplant before too long. I’ll be just fine.”
 
He then added, “You may need your second one later.”
 
At the time I didn’t argue with dad. My fear of the implications of the voluntary surgery right then in the heat of the moment prevented me from being stubborn about it. Even though I think I told my dad ‘thank you’, I don’t think I ever told anyone how very relieved I was with his response.
 
In a talk I did on the very next Father’s Day, I replayed this story to my church family, saying, “It was out of deep love for my dad that I offered him my kidney, and it was out of my dad’s deep love for me that he refused it.”
 
But something triggered in me when I met Tony. I imagined the same interaction between him and his dad, but 13 days ago, they had a very different outcome play out. I can imagine Tony getting up and saying at his church, “It was out of deep love for my dad that I offered him my kidney, and it was out of my dad’s deep love for me that he accepted it.” I don’t think that Tony’s dad loved his son any more or less by receiving the offer. And I don’t think my dad loves me any more or less by refusing mine.
 
(SIDE NOTE: I am grateful for whoever donated their kidney to my dad. I guess in a weird sort of way, that person donated the kidney to me. Because I wouldn’t have two of them if it wasn’t for them.)
 
Okay, so if it is true that it is the thought that counts, then I gave my dad a kidney. But Tony has a scar on his side that I don’t have, and is doing healing from his gift that I didn’t do. Not that I needed any more evidence, but this showed me once again that I don’t think it is the thought alone that counts.
 
I wonder if, when I told Tony that my dad refused mine, if something triggered in him?
 
I wonder if my dad had any feelings of unworthiness at receiving such a gift from me? I wonder if Tony had any feelings of wonder at why his dad wouldn’t refuse his? Neither of us even thought to talk about this stuff as we were celebrating the unity we had at the opportunity of giving such a special and sacrificial gift to our fathers, who we love. In the end, we both got to love our dad’s with the same offer, and we both received love from our dad’s in different ways.
 
In an episode of the current hit TV show, LOST, one of the dudes had a flashback to an interaction with his long-lost dad, who faked deep love for his long lost son who he tracked down because he was in need of a kidney. He emotionally manipulated his son into the operating room, disappeared from the hospital as soon as it was over, and again removed himself from his son’s life. It was desperately painful to watch such pain inflicted on a son by a Father, especially in the under the guise of love.
 
I guess Tony just made me long for the blessing of actually loving my dad through actual sacrifice of myself. And it was neat to see someone who did it for his dad.
 
I praise God for the opportunity Tony and I had to offer ourselves to our dad’s, who love us deeply right back.
 
Not that I’m hoping for it, but next time, dad, I might argue with you a little bit.
 
I love you and thank you for yours.

How Jesus Transforms…How I Join Him

5 June 2006
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Disciple: I am such an incompetent weakling. Why would you invest in me when I promise to be so difficult, so resistant, so ungrateful, and so quick to turn against you?
 
Master: Because I believe in you. Your difficulties, resistances, ingratitude, and momentary betrayals have nothing to do with me. They have to do with you not seeing what God sees in you. But I have eyes that can see nothing else.
 
Disciple: How will you get me past my limiting beliefs? My wounds? My fears? My defensiveness? I have seen how horribly these things control me.
 
Master: I will stay with you through it all. Until you can see what I see.
 
Disciple: What if I say no? What if I refuse you outright? What if my fear and pride make me choose the life of pretending and call it freedom?
 
Master: I will stay with you through it all. Until you can see what I see.
 
Disciple: What if I spitefully rebel against you to get you to leave me alone? What if I rally others and convince them that your “ways” are not good and I get a whole army of people to agree with me?
 
Master: I will stay with you through it all. Until you can see what I see.
 
Disciple: What if I attack you outright? What if I kill you for wanting to change me? And what if I get many others to agree to help me?
 
Master: I will die willingly at your hand. It is not in me to fight you, or hurt you, or defend myself against you. And my submission to death by your own hand will be the ultimate proof to you that I will stay with you through it all. Until you can see what I see.
 
Disciple: But you will be gone. What if, instead of being inspired by your humble submission to an inferior, I pridefully think that I was right? You will be gone. What will you do then.
 
Master: I will rise from the dead. And I will stay with you through it all. Until you can see what I see.
 
Disciple: Teacher, you are much to high of a creature to do such things for a lowly man such as me! Why would you do such a horrible and wonderful thing?
 
Master: Because I am Truth and I am Love. I am incapable of doing any other thing.
 
Disciple: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man! I can not bear the thought of walking through this fire that will come if I stay with you! It is too much for me!
 
Master: It is too much for you, but it is not too much for me. I will stay with you through it all. I will bear it all. Until you can see what I see. Walk into the fire that you work so hard to avoid. It is a consuming fire, able to burn away all your sins. It is a refining fire, able to shape you into my own image. It is a painful fire, to be sure, but it is good. And soon, my disciple, you will lead others into this same fire, those I will send you to.
 
Disciple: And what am I to do then?
 
Master: You are to do then to them, what I am doing now to you. You are to give up everything and be my disciple. You are to be Truth and Love. You are to be incapable of doing any other thing. My promise to you is that it will be life, and it will be life to the full.
 
Disciple: This is a hard thing to believe, Teacher. And you believe this to be true for everyone?
 
Master: Do you want to leave?
 
Disciple: Where would I go? You have the words of eternal life. My heart stirs when you speak. My mind races when you talk. My soul swells at the sound of your voice. My strength returns only when I listen to you. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.
 
 

Masochistic Life

24 May 2006
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“Every culture that exists is in danger of having a horrible addiction to itself.” – Don McLaughlin 
 
“The whole world becomes a slave to its own activity, … if you want to be truly free, perform all actions as worship.” — Bhagavad Gita
 
“Life at the edge of death – the greatest life there is.” – Jim Spivey
 
I eat peanut butter and cheese sandwiches sometimes. Weird, most people tell me, but these are two of my favorite treats and combining them works for me. I have no expectation (or need) for it to work for others.
 
That sort of comes to mind when I look at the above three quotes. They don’t appear to perfectly mix, but it’s working for me today. Let me explain…
 
When I pull back and look at my beloved life’s work, it seems that I have made it my business to be a “culture-changer”. And I get to work with lots and lots of cultures. The easiest one to point to in my life is the church culture I work in the midst of. Put me at any church in the world and I will find myself looking at it, listening to it, immersing myself in it…and then changing it. And I work to change it based on the distance that I perceive between it and the person of Jesus Christ. 
 
I do the same thing with individuals (including, at the top of the list, myself). Put me in any relationship with any person in the world and I will find myself looking at them, listening to them, immersing myself in their life story…and then changing their personal little culture. I guess there is always a danger that I could come across judgmental, unapproving, unaccepting, and arrogant…but that is not how I feel (with little flair ups here and there when my ego feels threatened)…and for the most part I’m unafraid of that as long as I am confident that I am in love with the other person, and out unabashedly for their good, and willing to do anything to help them have it.
 
I do the same thing in any culture I choose to be involved in…and the challenge of my life is to constantly do it in my own little family. It is my hardest work, my greatest challenge, my training ground, my litmus test, and the most intense privilege and responsibility that I will have (I’m an intensity junkie, so I mean that positively). I am committed to doing this work in and with every day of my life. I’m like Babe Ruth in this area, striking out way more than I hit home runs, with very few accidental base hits in between because of my “all or nothing” attitude. And that is part of my own personal culture that I have been trying to change for years now…with some headway (“base hits”), thanks to the Power that lives within me and my surrender to it.
 
Be it my own personal culture, someone else’s own personal culture, my church family’s culture, my personal family’s culture, or any other culture in the world…I love changing it and find it impossible for me to do anything else, even when I try. And, yes, all of this has everything to do with the first quote…I’m addicted to the culture of getting cultures unaddicted to themselves (And you thought peanut butter and cheese sandwiches was weird!).
 
I have found healing for culture’s addiction to itself in the truth found in the second quote…performing all actions as worship.
 
Once someone learns how to really and practically start implanting, “I will do ___________ as an act of worship to God” into their life, their life’s culture changes instantly, and in the most healthy, freedom producing way.
 
Which leads to the last quote…cultures change only by dying, being replaced with new ones. So, to avoid addiction, and caring more for keeping things “how they are” and always be running towards the perfect way of life, which is Christ’s way of life, I must always live life at the edge of death. And any family, church, society, political system, or planet that wants to produce life must also constantly and willingly live life at the edge of death if it wants to produce life to the full.
 
Funny that it is around death that I find my work as a “culture changer” most easily done. I performed a funeral last week, once again intentionally connecting myself to the pain that this family was experiencing. And once there, I did the only thing that I seem to know how to do…I immersed myself in their culture, listened to it, watched it…and then worked to change it. Interesting to me is the life that physical death seems to invite is all those touched by it. Physical death forcibly changes cultures… and since death (of all different kinds) is inevitable, it is most convenient for us that it is also the best possible means to life.
 
And so I hope you volunteer for it every day (rather than waiting for it to forcibly change you)…looking anxiously for what part of your life’s “culture” that you are addicted to, the part that needs to die today…so that it can be replaced with a newer, truer, better one.
 
 

Human on Human, both on Christ

18 May 2006
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“Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.” — The apostle Paul
Admittedly, my imagination shoots to the clouds a little bit when I think about this meeting between 2 powerful guys that I really respect and have allowed to coach and mentor me in how I think and live. I really wish I could’ve been there.
 
…when Peter asked Paul to recount how his friend Jesus showed up on the Damascus road, and Peter excitedly answers with how Jesus showed up to him each time after Jesus’ death, too.
…when Paul, with wide eyes, asked Peter all about his 3 years of walking with Jesus in the flesh.
…when Peter asked Paul what it was like to have such a dramatic shift in life, from killing disciples to making them.
…when Paul asked Peter what it was like to leave his fishing business and family to follow this controversial Rabbi.
 
What a moment of iron sharpening iron!
 
I wonder which of the 15 days it was that they had moments of confession to each other: Paul speaking with great anguish about his prideful supervision of faithful Stephen’s stoning, or his angry march towards Damascus with intentions of violence against precious souls. And Peter matching it with his own tears and weeping as he recounts his 3 time refusal to acknowledge that he even knew Jesus in the midst of his friend;s darkest hours, or the time he lacked understanding so much that his Lord looked at him and saw Satan’s hand at work through him. I wonder how long they cried together.
 
And I wonder when the crying stopped and they submitted once again to the redeeming and restoring work of Jesus in their life! Paul, with amazement, listening to Peter’s story of “going back to work” fishing, and Jesus showing up on the beach to remind him of his call, and his belief in him! And Peter listening as Paul tells of all his guided moves by the Spirit of Jesus since those life-altering, life-giving friendships God sent to him through Ananias and the disciples in Damascus! I bet they were friends of Peters. “What a small world it is!” they might have said to each other.
 
The friendship and partnership didn’t end there. 14 years later Paul went to Peter and other leaders of the Messiah Movement once again, moved by God to do so, letting them know of his call to take Christ’s way of life to non-Jews. It stands out in my head that their partnership in Christ and their friendship in the Way was strong enough and important enough for Paul to confront Peter about Peter’s insecurity in standing strong in the purity of Christ’s call in the face of the Jews. Iron sharpening iron, indeed.
 
Sharing, confessing, celebrating, confronting, learning, teaching, growing, partnering…this is what my imagination says happened that 15 days.
 
And this is what I have been blessed to be a part of with the band of disciples that I run with here in Amarillo, TX. It is a fantastic group, and I am still amazed after 2 years of being here. They share with me, confess to me, celebrate me, confront me, learn from me, teach me, grow with me, and partner with me.
 
There is an element of attaching to each others pain that goes along with this kind of Christ-conforming, disciple-making friendship that makes life raw and real, transformation attainable and possible (as opposed to only theoretical and conceptual). I am immersed in this work on every side, and it is so real and practical that the language surrounding the idea of “new creation” that I find in the Bible jumps to life as I read about it…like God planned for this stuff to happen all along.
 
It’s not always romantic and rosy, mind you. Nor is it always what we might call successful and productive. But when I’m faithful to the work of Christ, living out and witnessing His death, resurrection, and ascension story over and over again…it is paradoxically always romantic and rosy, successful and productive.
 
And it is the life you and I were born to live. 
 
 

Surround Yourself with Kings

31 March 2006
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“When I am walking true, my mere existence in that state attracts people who are striving to walk true and repels people who are choosing not to.” – Jim Spivey
 
“Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth.” – King Solomon
 
“Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” – King David
“Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” – King Jesus

I desire the company of Kings.
 
Not people of mere “power” as the world knows it. Not people with the loosely clad “title”. But true masters of the universe, who sit on a throne of peace, joy and righteousness. Regardless of the prominence of their position in man’s eyes, and regardless of their capacity to “make things happen” with the influence of their money, relationships, talent or zeal, these kings whose company I want live and speak and think and ponder and do all that they do from a the more powerful place of deepest Truth and deepest Love (which are the same thing, by the way).
 
Kings are sensitive people. They have ears that “hear” what’s actually being said, eyes that “see” only the real things. And then they operate with powerful strength out of that reality.
 
Kings are doing people. Never for “doings” sake, or for outward accomplishment or fame, Kings are always doing something in the innermost place. Even their sleep becomes beneficial for inward advancement. It does manifest itself outwardly in forms seen by men, but the mere outward form being done does not prove that he is a King. Many people honestly want to be Kings, but they mindlessly imitate the outward actions of those who are, rather than perceive the inward actions that make Kings.
 
Kings are all about relationships. They often excel in the crafts, trades, or endeavors of their lives, but they all have come to intimate grip with themselves in relation to others, accepting wholeheartedly that to live truly for themselves is to live for God and others. And the greatest Kings work towards making relationships THE craft, trade, and endeavor of their lives.
 
Kings are both indifferent and personal towards all people. Indifferent, in that they give themselves (and the love and truth that resides in themselves) fully to any human being in the world that they happen upon. Personal, in that they speak and do the truthful words and actions that are specifically appropriate and called for with each human being in the world as they are specifically moved.
 
When I walk submissively from the “wisdom of the inmost place”, by the “truth that comes into the light”, “speaking truth” with “honest lips”, I know that I am living from and for God, and it “is seen plainly” that what I do “has been done through God”.
 
And when I do that, it seems I am surrounded by these Kings, learning, growing, and transforming more and more into the image of Christ…King of Kings.
 

I want to be you

3 March 2006
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“I want to you be you.” – spoken to me by Shade Canon Mashburn, my son
 
There is a baby in the Ukraine I met yesterday. When it was born, it was likely to die without one of those clear, plastic, medical baby-bed things, and they didn’t have one. There is a guy in Amarillo,TX , who’s name I don’t know, who said he was moved by God to give a sum of money to another guy in Amarillo named Jimmy, telling him to use it for God in whatever way he deems best. Jimmy gratefully accepts it, and calls a guy he knows in the Ukraine named Roger, telling him to use this money in whatever way he deemed best. Roger happens to know that baby I found out about yesterday. He used the money to buy one of those clear, plastic, medical baby-bed things and gives it to the family with the baby. I met that little baby in a picture of her lying in that baby-bed thing yesterday. And I was moved to tears that God knew where that baby was, what her need was, and then met it with the a chain of events initiated on the other side of the planet.
 
There is a baby in Amarillo that I met yesterday. It’s the new daughter of my friends Kyle and Jennifer, and her name is Ellee. She is beautiful and her parents were shining after a tough day of labor. She arrived safely, surrounded by love and more than enough medical equipment and doctors and qualified people to handle anything that might happen to her that would possibly put her in jeopardy. I wasn’t moved to tears, but I was very conscious and moved that God knew where that baby was, what her needs were, and then met it right here in Amarillo.
 
I am amazed at how God works in the lives of people here on this planet, that He being so big and great would pay such detailed attention to us. I am also humbled with the natural questions about why He does what He does, and how He does it, knowing that there are many stories of newborn babies in all the nations that are much more amazing and unlikely, but also many that are as amazingly tragic and without happy endings.
 
I long ago stopped trying judge the unseen reality of things by the seen, satisfying my sense of injustice with blind faith that it is only my sense of things. My feelings are real, but they are not always right. I have learned and seen that God is both real and right…even if I don’t understand it. What I have seen gives me faith in what I cannot see.
 
There is another baby that was born 6 years ago today that made this visible, fleshly life very, very dangerous for me. It raised the stakes for me living in this material world in such dramatic fashion, that I literally had to re-orient myself to find peace. This baby, a boy born in Houston, TX, was put into my hands and given the title “my son”. Shew! What a day! The love that came rushing into my heart scared me. I think I’ve said before that it was like my heart’s most vulnerable spot was put into flesh and now resides outside of me where it is dangerously out of my control.
 
What a day.
 
I was very conscious and moved to tears that God knew where that baby was, and what his needs were, and that He was saying to me that He was meeting them, partially at least, by putting that boy in my hands. I sometimes still wonder what He was thinking.
 
My wife and I called the little boy Shade Canon Mashburn, and the last 6 years have been unbelievable excitement, adventures, and thrills. I really think I have learned more through him in these last 6 years than I did in my 32 years before. Maybe not more “head knowledge”, but for sure tons more heart stuff. I am just plainly and simply a better human being because of that day, more closely aligned with the heart of my Father in Heaven.
 
So, Shade, this day is for you, buddy. You have taught me so much… about love, passion, authority, friendship, sharing, teaching, learning, playing, patience, perseverance, curiosity, desire, consequences, and discipline…to name a few things. Happy Birthday, Buddy. I am so proud of you, and honored to be called your dad.
 
I want to be you.

I found a small, dark cave

3 March 2006
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“A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places to explore.  One must go without familiars in order to be open to new influences, to bold growth and dramatic change.” — Katharine Butler Hathaway

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”  – Jesus Christ

I went out to the Palo Duro Canyon this past Monday for some solitude and silence with God. I walked to a new place that I had never been before. It wasn’t far past a place that I had been, and my inclination was to just go back to that great location. But for some reason, I kept going just a little bit past it. Around the base of the mountainous canyon wall I was traversing, I way up in the distance to the top and saw a dark cave that I really would love to get to someday and explore. It was very far away, a journey not within my time limitations for the morning.

Continuing on, I came to an interesting area…land formations and rock shapes and cavernous crevice-looking things that were new to me. They were sort of like trails, but with walls. I entered into them, feeling good about being an explorer. I was slowly going up the side of the canyon wall as I walked, and came to a spot where at my feet was a very small, dark cave. I had to get down on my stomach to poke my head in the hole which was no bigger than my waist, but it looked deep and like it “went somewhere”. I wasn’t about to crawl in, I didn’t even have a flashlight, and couldn’t see 5 feet from the cave mouth.

I found some other, bigger, better lit tunnels that I descended into and ended up having a great adventure through that just seemed to keep going and going! When I ascended the top of the tunnels, I found myself a halfway to that big, dark cave at the top! Inspired by how easy it was to get this far, I went the rest of the way, and sat in the cool, peaceful perch, with a fantastic view of the canyon, and spent some time being still and knowing God is God. Awesome.

When I descended, I went through the tunnels again, finding more, being a little more adventurous, until it got to where to continue would’ve meant walking in pitch black. So I ascended a difficult hole that promised the sunlight and went home.

I brought my son and daughter back that afternoon (to give my wife some space, and also to show them my new find), and I brought a flashlight this time. And guess what? The beginning of this long system of tunnels, that speedily got me to the far away place I was longing to go, was that tiny little, seemingly impassible dark cave! The unfamiliar place that I did not want to go.

Do you ever separate from the familiar? Really. I mean do you ever quite intentionally walk away from safety and towards something brand new? I don’t think you do.

Obviously, I could be wrong… but for the vast majority of people reading this email, I would put money down that I am right. A fearless look at my life has shown me that unless it is by force, coercion, or accident, I rarely walk towards the unfamiliar in ways that matter. And, like you, I have some great, reasonable excuses to explain why.

Do you go on retreats with a whole group of people of a different religious belief? Do you engage in conversations with people you are not comfortable with? Do you buy and read books that directly challenge your way of thinking? Do you listen deeply to the people in another political party in order to understand, learn or (Heaven forbid) validate the parts of their way of looking at things that are (shudder) corrective for your political views?

There is a man in the locker room at the gym I work out at that absolutely must have the TV on the Stock Exchange channel for the 15 minutes he is in the locker room. He doesn’t mind being seen as a total jerk by 10 other guys watching ESPN before he changes it, either. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t even listen to it. He’s just used to it being that way and seems to think everyone else should be that way, too.

Do you just immerse yourself in the familiar? Surround yourself with those most like you? Do the same things every day/week that protect you from having to confront anything you might hold too dear to reconsider? Go to lunch with the people who agree with you? Do other people’s ideas frighten you? Why? I mean, they can be dead wrong, but why the heck would it frighten you that they are? Seriously? What triggers fear in your heart?

You should intentionally escape the familiar and venture off into the ‘dark caves’ of new things. I think everyone should. It is the humble thing to do. And all of your excuses for playing it “safe and comfy” in the subtle (and not so subtle) areas of your life’s experiences are challenged with this one argument that suggests you should do otherwise: It is the humble thing to do. When you do, it says, “I don’t know it all. I have more to learn. I’m not afraid to be corrected. I am open to others knowing something that I don’t. I am secure in God’s love for me. I am after the Truth, not my truth.”

The reality is that most of us don’t want to be bothered with what it might require to find out something new. We’re getting along just fine. I can pretend I’m an honest searcher for truth if I can just believe I’ve found enough of it to get by.

Am I a searcher for Truth, or a fortress guarding what I already know? Am I an sponge, searching down every dark cave for Truth, or an statue, immovable and unmoldable out of fear that I might lose something if I’m wrong.

If I’m an old wineskin, then now wonder I run from new wine. New wine would make me burst.

But as I look back on life, it is only when I have fallen down (or been thrown down) and squeezed into the dark caves of uncertainty that I have found all the great Truth that has shaped and formed me.

There is probably a dark and scary cave at your feet right now that if you went into it and accepted it as an adventure of discovery rather than an intimidating threat, you would enjoy it and find yourself halfway up the mountain to the goal that you think looks too far off to attain.

Go for it.

Should we follow the Bible?

26 February 2006
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“It is the Lord who can strengthen you, not the {verse} which speaks of Him so doing.  It is not enough to have the verse.  You must have the One about whom the verse speaks.  We knew the verse, “My Grace is sufficient for thee.”  But the verse is not sufficient.  It is the Grace which is sufficient and not the verse.” – Richard Wurmbrand

“Everything depends on whether we have remained in the sphere of words or if we are merged with the divine realities.” – Richard Wurmbrand

“A friend of mine compared [the focus on the Bible, to the exclusion of Christ] to a man who might have memorized the menu of a restaurant, know who wrote it, can describe what kind of paper, style, and font was used, can dissect the language in which it was written, knows how and what to order–and yet who never takes a single bite of the actual food from the menu he knows completely. We would call such a man ridiculously foolish!  Who would want to study food rather than eating and enjoying it?” – Steve Austin

“The Scriptures must be fulfilled.” – Jesus Christ

Jesus never ever said that He was here to follow Scripture. He was here to fulfill it. Maybe it’s just me, but I like the idea of being a “Bible Fulfiller” a tad more than being a “Bible Follower”. For me, it’s a subtle, but very important difference. Listen closely…

If I approach Scripture with a mind to follow it, I‘ll end up focusing on the Scripture’s that I can extract rules from. I’d adhere to those rules externally, and if I do a good job I’ll probably be considered religious. However, if I approach Scripture with a mind to fulfill it, I‘ll end up focusing on the Scriptures that tell me what to become. I’d strive to conform my character and priorities to the Idea behind Scripture, and if I do a good job I’ll probably be considered a good person…a Christ-like person.

Let me give you an example…Eph 5:18-20 says “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Bible Follower in me reads these 3 verses and sees some rules I need to follow in order to please God. 1) Don’t get drunk on wine, 2) don’t be involved in debauchery, 3) find psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs and speak those to others, 4) and sing to God. I would see obedience in terms of doing these things externally (taking nothing away and adding nothing to them, by the way), and the Bible Follower in me would say I am pleasing God and therefore is saved.

The Bible Fulfiller in me reads this text and sees some qualities that I need to become in order to have the life God promises. I need to become 1) someone who is filled with the Spirit, 2) a part of community of friends who will speak God’s truth to each other 3) a heart-felt, sincere, aware-of-God, grateful worshipper. With my agreement that I should fulfill these expressions of Godliness and Christ-likeness on earth, I would as a Bible Fulfiller say that I am pleasing God and following the Bible by becoming who the Bible says I am.

The Bible Follower is at risk of only following the rules of the Bible, but not fulfilling it and becoming like Jesus. The Bible fulfiller will not only go to Christ for salvation as the Bible tells him to, but he will also end up following the Bible as God intends. 

The Bible is our most authoritative source for knowing Jesus. So we need it. But we don’t need it like we need Jesus. We use it to find Jesus.

I wish it was a trivial issue. But it isn’t. You see it in churches.

Jesus–centered churches don’t argue and split over “Biblical Issues”. Bible-centered churches do. Jesus–centered churches try to be like Jesus in all circumstances, including when people don’t agree with them about the Bible. Bible-centered churches try to get all people to believe like them about the Bible. Jesus–centered churches think they are saved because of Jesus being at their center. Bible–centered churches think they are saved because they have followed the rules they’ve extracted from their Bibles.

But it is Christ, and Christ alone, that we need to extract from our Bibles…and when we do, we will become Bible Fulfillers…like Jesus.

 

The Ladder or The Life?

23 February 2006
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“I have discovered only one aspect of myself that I could say is truly extraordinary…and that is how alike and equal I feel to every person I meet, and know that that extends to every single person on the planet.” – Jim Spivey
 
We know how to talk a good game about loving one another, but what is all too frequently really going on in that maniacal mind of ours is the careful examination, “Where do I fit in the ranking of human beings (and specifically between me and you), and can I live with that?”.” – Jim Spivey
 
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  – Jesus Christ
 
My great friend and partner in crime, Kyle Wade, regularly does an exercise with students that he affectionately refers to as “the Ladder”.
 
He takes a group of students that he is teaching, asks them to stand up, and then asks them to order themselves into a line (aka: ladder) from the least to the greatest. He does this several times giving them different criteria by which to measure themselves, each other, and the group as a whole. He might tell them to line up according to athletic ability, smarts, popularity, or looks. It is a grueling process he puts them through, and a visible display of our deeply human “maniacal mind” caring deeply about where we rank related to each other.
 
I just got back from a forum of my peers…ACU Lectureship. It was a very large collection of ministers like me, trying to advance the Kingdom of God in a full-time capacity like me. It is a great place to play the Ladder game in real life, using fabricated criteria with which to measure yourself and each other (church size, speaking ability, “are you lecturing while you are here?”, how many/who came to your talk).
 
I see my 3 kids learning it too, jockeying for position on the ladder with toys, who get’s to sit next to mom, who’s taller, older, better.
 
I went to a wise, influential man’s lecture named Edward Fudge…he sends out an email like this one, he mentioned to over 4,000 people. I hadn’t thought about it right then, but I instantly used that to think about how many are on this list…a clear invitation to me to re-enter the Ladder thinking.
 
The Ladder is everywhere. And it is poison to Life.
 
I think in large part thanks to Jesus Christ being my cosmic mentor and teacher, and also to one of my mentors and teachers Jim Spivey who so embodies in flesh the Christ-like characteristic of humble recognition of the value of every human being in his life where I can see it with my eyes (and feel it in my bones in his presence), I spend much of my time avoiding the Ladder.
 
I look forward to the day when I do this naturally, for the time being I will do it intentionally. It brings me life to the full.
 
 

The Generations Respond Profoundly

22 February 2006
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Below are five responses, representing people from 5 different decades, to my email/blog-before-last on February 9th entitled “The Bible and the Word of God” about the role and authority that the Bible has in our lives (you can check it out at http://brianmashburn.blogspot.com/).

“Do I see [the Bible] as a list of rules to follow or as a book of stories and letters (what it really is)? And how does that have authority over the way I live? And the answer I’ve come to as of now is that it points me to Jesus and his life. It is one of the ways I know Christ and experience him. It really affects the way you see the Bible and how you interpret it. I think when we begin to see the Bible as  “THE Word of God” we begin to worship it. But I follow a man, not a book. The book just points me to that man.” – My friend DW, in his 20s

“I’ve always been terrified when questions have arisen that relate to my foundation of belief.  And the VERY few people with whom I’ve tried to talk about it have done the equivalent of putting their fingers in their ears and humming loudly.  They really just don’t want to hear something that might make them question the same things.  And, truthfully, I don’t want to cause someone to question these things.  I don’t want to be held accountable for screwing anyone up.” – My friend JB, in her 30s

“The challenge is to look at the text and see what we need to see.  There are rules there that must be followed.  There are examples there that must be followed.  There is Jesus there that must be followed.  The Pharisees looked at the text for the rules…they came up short.  In grade school I was shown the examples by my Bible class teachers and they were great stories…that came up short.  Now I am challenged by this kid with spikey hair and no suit to look at the same text and find Jesus.  This is a frightening, eye-opening experience.  I’m seeing a different man than I have ever seen before.  Not because He is different but because I am seeking in a different way.  The text hasn’t changed, but the Book sounds different to me. It was much easier to look at the text and see the rules to check off and follow those good examples without having to be…a disciple.  It was easier to be a disciple when I thought a disciple was just a believer.  But a disciple is a person who has a burning desire and passion to be like his teacher.” – My friend DP, in his 40s
 
“Everyone that I have been asking and interviewing about the subject has good intentions however; I am getting all types of opinions from different people. Plus every denomination seems to have their set of ideas. For some reason, I have this desire to find out more…and the truth especially.” – My friend KG, in her 50s
 

“My honest feeling is that there are some folks that will glean from this just what they want to hear.  I am fearful that some will come to the conclusion that the scriptures aren’t the true word of God.” – my friend LL, in his 60s

My oldest brother, LL, here has a legitimate fear…that people will think that the Bible isn’t actually from God. Those people would really miss out on incredible blessing and guidance in life if they didn’t understand that God was behind it. But they would have to pretend I said that, and I sure can’t control that.

My youngest brother, DW here has an equally legitimate fear…that people will worship the Book rather than (or in addition to) Christ alone. And many of us have grown up in churches that have confused us about whether there is a difference. I don’t blame them for my confusion, any more than those LL are afraid will be confused by me can blame me.

My oldest sister here (no offense KG) is frustrated by a dozen different views on spiritual issues, all appearing valid to whoever holds them, and all making sense if you subscribe first to HOW THEY APPROACH Scripture. This is what I am exploring in these thoughts…what is the Scriptural way to approach Scripture? Is there a Biblical method of getting from the Bible what we are supposed to?

Notice that my youngest sister, JB, here has been taught (not overtly, I bet) to be “terrified” when questions arise about her foundational beliefs. And evidently she’s “blessed” with a community of faith who feels the same way and won’t engage in dialogue with her about it. Notice she is even afraid she would be accountable for “screwing up” anyone who joined her in her questions. What religious beliefs has caused this terror?

Let me bring all my friends thoughts together with mine…My brother DP, in the middle above, is humbly opening up to the idea that there is something “truer” than what he already knows. We go to the Scripture to find Jesus, and it challenges us at the foundation of our beliefs. It IS terribly risky – open and vulnerable to other’s misinterpretation and judgments – but completely worth it, and even good for those who misinterpret to be “shaken up” right along with you (and don’t worry, if they really can’t handle it, they will do the equivalent of putting their fingers in the ears and humming). The “frightening, eye opening experience” that the pursuit of Truth brings just reminds us that we are fully alive, and must be humble as we live. And the fear of accountability that our own doubts, questions, and discoveries might “screw someone else up” is no more dangerous than the accountability for NOT doing so, since they may be in desperate need of it, confounded in total lies, but just comfortable with (and therefore confident in) it. In the end, we must have relentless faith in the idea that our Teacher Jesus told us, that “the Truth will set you free”. And praise God for the “desire to find out more…[of] the truth especially”. That desire is a gift of God…Him moving in us to set us free.

I rarely know where I am going when I sit down to type, and I’ve composed this piece over the course of many days, and I’m not sure I’ve wrapped a bow around it for you. But let me tell you two truths that I have discovered that have given me a taste of freedom that I hope and wish for all of my friends above, and for all of you…

1) I know that it is not in my “getting it right” that God saves me. So I can hear and consider anything from anyone, giving them full credibility as a qualified fellow human being, challenging every single one of my most dear and precious beliefs, knowing that in the chaos of confusion inside of me (and that I create in my community, no matter how they respond), He is re-creating in me what He intended in the first place. And if Jesus has set me free from our knowing the right things, then I am free indeed.

2) I believe I could not do one more thing for God ever, for the rest of my life, and He would still love me exactly the same. Because of this great love, I will do anything for Him, for the rest of my life, out of my great love for Him.

“I’m not in the Kingdom of Heaven because of what I believe or what I do, I am in the Kingdom of God because it brings God pleasure to to have me there.” – Yours Truly

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