WALKING HUMBLY IN GOOD COMPANY

Imagine yourself as one of the two disciples on that first, post resurrection Sunday morning.  Put yourself in the story.  You’re on your way from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  You were a disciple.  You followed Christ for three years.  He and the other disciples were the company you kept all that time.  Now your following is over.  You are walking to Emmaus with a friend, another disciple and talking about the events of the last few days, the arrest of Jesus, the trial, the crucifixion, burial, and now the empty tomb.  As you walk, you’re both sad and confused.  How is it possible?  Jesus the Messiah is dead.  The mind-blowing change you hoped for Israel just didn’t happen.  The oppressive rule of Rome will continue. 

You don’t realize that everything has changed.  While you walk, your eyes are about to be opened like the man blinded from birth that Jesus healed.  Your preconceived notions about the Messiah are about to be washed away like the mud from the blind beggars eyes.  You’re soon about to see all of life differently. Then it begins.  As he comes along side, your worldview and way of life is forever altered, reconstructed, transformed.  Beginning with Moses and the prophets, Jesus explains what is said in the Scriptures concerning himself.  Jesus totally renovates your mind, your perspective, your worldview, your understanding of the Kingdom and his work as your Messiah.  He just does that.  By the end of the day you make a remarkable discovery.  You realize your idea of him was all wrong.   At the dinner table, when Jesus simply breaks the bread, your life is dramatically changed.  You suddenly realize that this stranger is someone you’ve known, but misunderstood for years.  It is a flashbulb, life-changing moment.  You rediscover the risen Christ.  It is Jesus, the Messiah, the living, life giving Christ. 

Looking back, you realize that along the way you encountered him in a deeper, more intimate, and possibly in a more disturbing way.  You remember how along the way your ideas changed and your heart warmed.  Then it became like a blazing fire.   At the same time you were humbled by his presence and by the magnitude and implications of your discovery.  You realize you will never be the same.  Now it is clear.  In the company you kept all long the way, you walked humbly with God! 

Just as he is the Bread of Life, broken for us, we must be Christ's broken bread for others. . .

My life must be Christ's broken bread, 

My love his outpoured wine,

A cup o'er filled, a table spread

Beneath his name and sign, 

That others souls refreshed and fed,

May share his life through mine.

Albert Orsborn (1888-19670)

Love mercy.  Do justly.  Humbly keep company with Jesus.

Micah 6:8

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WHOLE LOAF?

When Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" he meant the whole loaf, not just half of one.  Today the body of Christ in America looks more and more like half a loaf.

Here's why . . .

The Barna Group is a market research firm specializing in the study of religious beliefs and behavior of Americans.  In 2011, they completed a study of 15,000 Americans that brings to light one of the most compelling pictures of contemporary Christianity beyond what one might imagine.   Their results are so astonishing, we have to ask, "What happened to the whole gospel?"   

The Barna Group researchers clustered their findings along a continuum of ten groups or what they call “Ten Transformational Stops” along the journey with the percentage of the national sample that falls into each of the ten stops or categories.  The ten categories and their percentages include:

1.  Unaware of sin                                                                                         1%

2.  Indifferent to sin                                                                                      16%

3.  Worried about sin                                                                                   39%

4.  Forgiven for sin                                                                                         9%

5.  Involved in faith activities                                                                       24%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -                                                                              -----

6.  Holy discontent                                                                                         6%

7.  Broken by God                                                                                          3%

8.  Surrender and submission                                                                         1%

9.  Profound love of God                                                                              0.5%

10. Profound love of people                                                                         0.5%

JD Walt, in Seedbed Sower's Almanac & Seed Catelog,
Seedbed, Sow for a Great Awakening, Seedbed.com, 2015

Notice how the major activity falls between categories 3 through 5.  After 5, the percentages drop precipitously.  Another way to say this is that 89% of the persons surveyed are accounted for in the first five “stops” (1-5) and Only 11% go on to be represented in one of the upper 5 categories (6-10).  

The movement beyond step 5 and onward to 10 reflects spiritual progress toward spiritual formation, maturity, holiness, and empowered service to the glory of God.  Christians having been justified by grace through faith seem to stop there and get busy in religious activities with little to show beyond that.  It is a kind of bus stop religion:  get saved, wait around for the glory bus to heaven, and in the mean time do a little good.  As you can see steps 3 to 5 seem to be saying “You’re a sinner.  You need a Savior. Pray this prayer and you’re good to go.  Now get busy in the activities of the church.”(J.D. Walt, 2015)*

The overwhelming majority of American Christians are living out only a half gospel.  It would seem that for many the work of evangelism only brings people to a redemptive point of salvation from sin and fails to take them any further other than keeping them busy in religious activities.  The data shouts that very few go on to do serious discipleship work of restoration to the Imago Dei and holiness.  It is no surprise that the majority Christians remain immature, babes in Christ, drifting either into a state of being nominal Christians, or of a dissipation of their faith, or both.  The alternative is to embrace forms of evangelism that continue to establish people in the Kingdom, and to facilitate an intentional life of discipleship leading to holiness, purity of heart, and fidelity to the Great Commandment and Great Commission.

The faith communities that identify with the saving work from sin offered by Jesus Christ need to get on with the second half of salvation, salvation to the restoration of the Image of God in every believer, holiness after the likeness of Christ. May the findings of the Barna Group become so well known and compelling that they fan the flames of passion for a Great Awakening.  We are over due for a national repentance by Christians who are leading lives that fall short of God’s best and the sanctifying and glorifying grace that God intends for all who confess that Jesus is Lord.

*J.D. Walt, "The Whole Gospel:  Getting on with the second half of salvation,"
  Seedbed Sower's Almanac and Seed Catalog, 2015.