A Rationale for LivingThe Lord Jesus sadly declared that the incredible life He offered to mankind would be found by only a few (Matt. 5:13-14)! To discover the small gate and narrow path to His Light demands precise following (John 8:12). My vision for Ventures is to be a ministry "to the few" in hopes they will "impact the many" with the "precision secrets" of the Christ Life. I must quickly add that I consider anyone who is hungry for more of Jesus to be numbered among "the few."
In every generation our Lord has raised up men and women to stir the fire at the heart of His radical message (Luke 3:16; 12:49). Veterans of the cross must tell the generations following (Ps. 89:1). Comprehending what many have called "the Christ Life" is the highest path that will enable the honest and hungry Disciple to break free from the "devil's circle" of boredom, routine, mirage, frustration, pretence, failure, legalism, powerlessness, lethargy, shallowness, rebellion, deception and depression.
These pathologies have defeated multitudes of Christians. Still, church history witnesses to a genuine and overcoming remnant who entered the advanced dimension of "father spirituality"! At Ventures we call this the Z-Life … the pursuit of living the Christ Life at its highest level (I John 2:12-14; Rev. 1:8). Children learn the ABC's of the faith while adults sort out the MNOP's of taking up the cross. Only the fathers and mothers who know that everything is "in Christ" are most fully prepared to live out the XYZ's of their own servant vision. Their primary passion in life is to understand and follow the Servant of Heaven ... Jesus! (Luke 22:27) Remember the Savior's words, "I Am among you as One who serves!"
My goal is to impact Disciples with the seed truth of "advanced Christianity." Foundational and anointed insights are being honed, graphed and rephrased into a fresh strategy for "precision discipleship." Our Ventures mission is to excite and enable everyone we can to "put" all of their thoughts and circumstances "in Christ"! To do so is to endure and conquer the agonies and ecstasies of existence and to reign in life by being an overcomer! (Rom. 5:17). Our lives can be dominated by "grace sweetness" if we learn to keep stirring the bitter waters of earth with the cross (Ex. 15:23-27). If we authentically call out to Christ as our only deliverer, He will answer us, as He did Moses. The Redeemer will show us immediately the cross (tree) we are to take and use to overcome our crisis.
A Revelation of Life
But what is the essential Christ Life? It is for us to be awed increasingly by the purpose of Christ being "in you" and of your being "in Christ"! It is to experience in your inner self all you can of what He experienced in His inner self while He walked the earth. It is to learn and absorb from every idea, relationship, event or situation … good or bad … something more about our Lord's wisdom, intentions, suffering and joy! It is to realize how God is taking everything messed up on earth and putting it back together for His eternal purposes. It is the stunning realization of the brilliant and wondrous Person the Lord Jesus must be! It is to be amazed at what He has to endure to bring His love promises to fallen and arrogant people like us. It is to know Him … confidently, intimately, ecstatically … and the power of His constant rebounding resurrection (Phil. 3:11). It is to join the Godhead in the dream and the drama of highest vision as you achieve your zenith ambitions as a new creation in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:17). The key word in this discovery is "identification." The more we experientially identify with all that Jesus taught, did and endured the more we possess for ourselves the same kine of life He live while He walked the earth.
In summary, it is to increasingly discover "in Christ" the why and how of what the Father created and redeemed you to be and is now perfecting you to become (Eph. 3:10-11; Heb. 10:14)! It is my conviction that the most immediate and direct path to making this revelation real in one's life is the process I call "e;Triune Thinking."
A Resultant Called the Christ Life
What are our conclusions about this "in Christ" reality? The clearest insight would be the Apostle Paul's witness in Philippians 4:11-13, "I have learned the secret of what it means to be sufficient and adequate for every circumstance I encounter. I have been initiated in 'how to be enough' for all the things that challenge me … and I overcome them by my 'in Christ' empowering!" As authentic Disciples, facing the deceitful offerings of a fallen world, we will do well to heed the counsel of an insightful French philosopher, "Nothing is enough unless you are enough!" The conclusion … I am only enough when I am convinced that Christ "in me" is enough!
Your Purpose and Mine
Once we begin to identify our Christ Life connection we more resolutely embark on our adventure of earthly and cosmic purpose … for Him, for others and for ourselves (Eph. 2:10, 4:32). That destiny is rooted in our Lord's thoughts in John 20:21. "If you truly love the Father then go into the world just as He sent Me and repeat My Life!" Can this stunning and staggering command be fulfilled by the sorry likes of you and me? Evidently yes! The Savior does not command us "to do" unless He knows we "can do." But only if we are becoming masters of the Christ Life! Only if we capture the passion of Isaiah 6:1-13 … to see … to cry … to go! Our goal is not to do it all ... we can't ... but we can aim at doing "enough."
Our Ventures passion is to be a precise and strong voice to the Father's people! We trust our efforts will compellingly illustrate the centrality and magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ to all who will listen! Daily ... hourly ... even minute by minute ... we can be recipients of His promised Presence in every earthly circumstance!
Dear friends, it is the pursuit of the "Christ Life" alone that will awaken us to all life can be. It is only "in Christ" that the pull of the impossible will take your life beyond itself. To "put" all you are "in Him" is the risk each of us must take to find our true self created and recreated in the Godhead's likeness! Christ Life living is to continuously lose ourselves for Jesus' sake and become participants in the wonder and thrill of the Kingdom purposes of God, "To lose your life for My Life is to save your life …" (Luke 9:23-27). "Triune Thinking" is our best tool on "fixing" how to lose our life for His!
The Bullet of the Christ Life (Part 2)
When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you." Exodus 15:23-26
Let's pick up with the following from last weeks post on the meaning of the Christ Life! We find Moses and the people of the exodus at the bitter waters of Marah. They are just three days out from the miracle of crossing the sea, after the resurrection of our Lord, the greatest miracle to occur thus far on earth. Yet they were already groaning, griping and complaining. The Israelites cried out against their leader when they found undrinkable water in the desert. Blaming a leader is always the first reaction of immature and self-centered people. Moses' reaction is a magnificent example to all who wish to live the Christ Life. Faced with turmoil, problems, demands, injustice and rebellion he turned to his Lord and was shown the Divine plan for deliverance, overcoming and sweetness.
Our lives can be dominated by "grace sweetness" if we learn to keep stirring the bitter waters of earth with the cross of Jesus (Ex. 15:23-27). If we authentically cry out to Christ as our only deliverer, He will answer us and show us what to do. As He did with Moses, He will "show us" a new dimension of reality. The Redeemer will reveal to us immediately the cross (tree) we are to take and use to overcome our crisis. Note that when the people turned on Moses in criticism, blame and rage, he didn't react against them. Instead, he went to God! This is always the mark of maturity as we live with our own imperfections and the wearying imperfections of others! The Hebrew word here symbolizing the cross could be translated stick, piece of wood, log or tree. Whatever "it" was was enough! None of us will ever grasp the full meaning of our Lord's cross, but, if we see enough of it in whatever form in the midst of our crisis, and trust its promise power over our problem, our situation will become enjoyable.
What is our Christ Life lesson from this incident? To the Cross Disciple, one who is focused on the Christ Life, it makes absolutely no difference what people do to you, say about you or how they fail you. All that eternally matters is that you respond to all other people … both outwardly and inwardly … in such a way that you please the Father. We should be like His Son! "Father, forgive them!" (Luke 23:34). Pleasing the Father about how you respond to people will steadily blow away any and all pain people may cause you! Besides, we need to be harassed by the imperfections of others so we will expedite our hunger and search for the perfections of our Savior.
Think of the delight in the Lord's heart when He saw Moses make his great decision! Instead of cursing back at the people who were cursing him, Moses turned from their foolishness and disbelief and sought the counsel of His Redeemer. Even thought the people were faithlessly wrong in their grumbling and self-centeredness and Moses was obediently right, he still left them alone and "cried out to the Lord" (15:25). One man's belief in the Savior's Voice overcame and trumped the shallow faith of thousands of others.
The breakthrough here, out of an impossible situation … no water in the midst of a desert … was the result of Moses' seeking "more of the Master in the midst of the mess." (This is one of my current mottos!) The Lord told Moses that the whole episode was a test of their faith. He wanted them to learn "precise supernatural obedience" rather than put their confidence in "vague natural belief" (15:26). If you are in your desert right now and are desperate for the water of life, the Lord is ready to help! Why not do the Moses thing and "cry out to the Lord"? If your heart is ready to truly believe that dependence on the Lord is bigger than your distress over your problems (?) and truly ready to yield to praise to whatever might happen according to His sovereignty (?), then you can count on His showing you "the cross answer to your problem"! After all, the Lord Jesus told us life won't work unless we take up His cross (Luke 9:23).
Just praise God for the people or events that brought you to "the bitter place" so you could "take the test"! Put His cross answer on your test paper and the sweetness will come! That's what students of the Christ Life learn when they listen to their Teacher! "Triune Thinking" always shows us His cross solution for our bitter waters! There are many things we need to learn that we don't like learning. The lessons bring tension, anxiety, disappointment and hurt! But they are all made temporary by faith! They teach us the Mind of Christ! And to live with His Mind is to overcome all that enters our experience. This is the essence of the Christ Life!
Masters at living the Christ Life have learned the great secret of endurance, overcoming, adequacy and contentment. No matter what hits them they have learned to "throw the cross" into the situation and are confident of triumph. The Beloved Apostle John confirms the process, "Fully developed love for the Father throws out all of our fears." (I John 4:18) Hence, one of the compelling wonders of the seeking the Christ Life!
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