You have the right to change your mind. Don’t let anybody make you think you don’t. It is a God-given right & the essence of repentance. You have the right to reconsider, to study the fruit of any tree, search your own soul & take an honest look at how you’ve been indoctrinated.
The story is too long for a Twitter thread and, truly, Twitter is not worthy of our deepest, most personal stories. But in hopes that someone might find encouragement, I’ll say this much. 4 1/2 years ago some events shocked me so jarringly that I was forced to stare a number of
very troubling realities in the face. Then I started digging at the roots. They weren’t pretty & neither was I. I don’t know where I belong anymore except I belong with Jesus. I belong in His Word. I belong in a local church. But I no longer belong to a system. I changed my mind.
These four years have been brutal. But I promise you this. Not nearly as brutal as they would have been had I stayed complicit and kept my mouth shut. I figure one day it will all be clear enough to put it on paper but I’m still on the journey for now. I’ll conclude with this:
I may have had the naivety shocked out of me but I can tell you what held: the gospel. I have never been more certain that Jesus is the only answer and all that makes sense of this world. The Way. The Truth. And the love of my life.
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As long as what’s Right or Left is more important to professing Christians than what is right or wrong in light of Jesus, we are doomed to present a caricature of him to the world. Christ is neither left nor right nor is He centrist. God seated him “far above all rule & authority
& power & dominion & above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Eph 1:21-23)
No matter who it is, the president of the United States is not the head of the church in America. He wasn’t the last 4 years. He won’t be the next 4 years. And he won’t be in 2024. Until we get this straight, we are in grievous sin & in desperate need of repentance in the church.
Exodus 33 today. A chapter virtually unrivaled in the OT. God tells Moses He’ll keep His word. He’ll send them forth to the land flowing with milk & honey. He’ll place an angel ahead of them to drive out their enemies. He’ll do every single thing He promised. But He’s not going.
More theology - more insight, wisdom, direction & understanding of God - is packed into the response of Moses than we could teach, tell or preach on our own in a lifetime: “If Your presence does not go, do not make us go.” No amount of success can make up for God’s absence.
No goal fulfilled can assuage the hollow soul of a human who once savored the divine presence. Nothing is worth it. At the end of Deuteronomy, we find these words: “No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face-to-face. He was unparalleled...” (CSB)
My reading today was Exodus 32. Moses has been on the mountain with God, hearing the instructions for the tabernacle & receiving the stone tablets. The people below, who’d seen the smoke above & heard the thunder &, that very morning, filled their bellies with bread from heaven,
decided Moses & that God above were taking too long. They needed a god below who would get with it. Get with them. Get them where they wanted to go. So they gathered around Aaron & said, “Come, make gods for us!” The same Aaron of Ex 24 who’d been invited by God to see the very
pavement beneath God’s feet. Aaron & his sons & the 70 elders, “saw Him and they ate and drank.” That Aaron. So he tells them in Ex 32, Bring me your gold & let’s see what I can do. He fashions it into the image of a calf & they present it to Israel in wording shudderingly
Oh man, I loved my Bible reading this morning. It was Exodus 28 where God gave Moses the instructions for the priestly apparel Aaron & his sons were to wear. The attention to the minutest detail confirms what we can still count on today: everything God prescribed had purpose.
Whether or not they understood it, whether or not we understand it, God is not haphazard. Nothing is for nothing. For me, one of the most marvelous parts of Bible study is how often he does tie things together for us, connecting the dots, connecting the testaments, the covenants.
I’ll just offer 1 example from Ex 28. V.3 says “You are to instruct all the skilled artisans, whom I’ve filled with a spirit of wisdom (isn’t that fantastic?), to make Aaron’s garments for consecrating him to serve Me as priest.” The turban was an important piece of the apparel.
I’ll save the snarky stuff I have to say about 2020 for later. This AM, just prayer: Merciful Savior, grant healing to the sick, effectiveness, safety & speed to vaccines, tenderly bandage every wounded & broken heart, grant presence to the lonely and recovery to the traumatized.
O God, grant provision & financial recovery to the staggering number of people who lost jobs & income. Restore businesses. Give courage to the scared, safe harbor to the homeless. Holy Spirit, hover over the dying. Save the lost. Reassure the found. Lift the eyes of the downcast.
Mend by your infinite wisdom, righteousness & kindness, the countless wounds caused by hate in this hour of human brutality. Bring forth a harvest of repentance, forgiveness & the power to forgive. Bind the darkness that has befallen us. Break forth the dawn of a fresh awakening.
I’m not much of a New Year’s resolution person but I do thoroughly believe in planning and preparing to live in pursuit of God & Christlikeness, in pursuit of love, faith & joy in a coming year. Our natural default is to sow to the flesh. We won’t sow to the Spirit by accident.
These are perfect days to plan. We have no idea what 2021 holds so 1 recommendation I’d make if this resonates with you is to seek God’s leadership in how he’d have you map out a plan for your spiritual disciplines. He DOES know what 2021 holds for you. Fellow communicators,
we’re not talking here about preparing messages or planning chapters to write. Those things are important but they are separate matters. We’re talking in this thread about continually growing in our relationship with Christ. I don’t know a lot of things but I know this: