Theme: Does an ambassador act on his own?
Last night, after coming down from the ‘high’ of worshipping our Lord, hearing a great message from Pastor Dan, spending an hour in the children’s wing with our future leaders (whom I love so much), visiting my, soon to be 103-year-old mom, and spending time with Kirby, Zac and my two dogs, I settled in to watch a movie made in 2023 called “Jesus Revolution”. It is the true story of a spiritual explosion that took place in the early 70’s that spawned the term, “Jesus Freaks”.
As I watched the Pastor of dying church in Southern California, and his frustration in not being able to connect with the young people of the hippie movement of its time, and even with his own young daughter, there were many parallels to Pastor Dan’s message of acceptance and non-judgement in our outreach. As the story developed, the Pastor’s daughter brought home a colorful hippie named Lonnie Frisbee, who was just traveling the country telling young people about Jesus Christ. At first, her Pastor/father was floored by this young man with a long beard, mismatched clothing and no shoes. But when he heard Frisbee’s simple, yet profound message of Jesus, he was moved to tears, because he had forgotten the passion he had in year’s past.
Well, soon his church was filled with shoeless hippies, new music and more, and a church board that was threatening the Pastor to remove them or be fired. Many left the church, but those who remained found a new passion for the Lord and a love for these young people. Soon, the ministry exploded in popularity. Christian conversions and group baptisms in the Pacific Ocean followed as membership at Calvary Chapel grew to such proportions that services had to be held outside under a large tent, and Time magazine even did a cover story on the Jesus revolution in 1971. Literally hundreds of thousands of young people came to Jesus Christ across our country during this time, and because of this one spark.
When we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ, we gave up the natural for the supernatural, yet we too often want to cling to our natural perception of things. When we cling to even a particle of our natural outlook, we limit the possibilities that God has for us and His church. We hide from the “freakish” appearance of the pure joy and passion that come with being totally surrendered to Jesus and cover ourselves in our old look with just a hint of change.
Let us remember that Jesus instructed us to be reborn and new creations, not just Christ-light.
Allow me to quote much more intelligent people than I, who wrote about what it means to reach others as Jesus’ Body in this world:
"To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist.” Madeleine L'Engle (1918 – 2007)
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.” Francis of Assisi (c. 1181 – 1226)
"We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining- they just shine." Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)
“Jesus died for sinners. Cannot we live for them?” Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)
“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.” C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into
His wonderful light.”
Prayer:
Lord, I am blown away by the possibilities that exist when I finally surrender every ounce of me to you; To not see flesh and blood, but only spirit, to not have preconceived notions, nor first impressions. To be a “freak” in the world, yet a “freak” who everyone is attracted to and wants to have some of. Lord, I am laughing as I write this, because I can only imagine the shear joy of being so outrageous that the only reason for my behavior must be because you exist. Make me that person at all cost, Lord. Amen
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