Shane Ash

More Oswald Chambers…the words from today’s devotional are still ringing in my heart. Today is the day of God’s presence. Sadness, doubt, guilt, lies, burden, death, brokenness, heartache, frustration, sorrow…non of these can match the power of the resurrected and ascended Christ!!

“The disciples had to tarry until the day of Pentecost not for their own preparation only; they had to wait until the Lord was glorified historically. As soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” The parenthesis in John 7:39 (“For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”) does not apply to us; the Holy Ghost has been given, the Lord is glorified; the waiting depends not on God’s providence, but on our fitness.

The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Immediately Our Lord was glorified in Ascension, the Holy Spirit came into this world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revelation that He is here. The reception of the Holy Spirit is the maintained attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive quickening life from the ascended Lord.

It is not the baptism of the Holy Ghost which changes men, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into men’s lives by the Holy Ghost that changes them. We too often divorce what the New Testament never divorces. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ: it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not make you think of Time or Eternity, it is one amazing glorious NOW. “This is life eternal that they might know Thee.” Begin to know Him now, and finish never.” – My Utmost for His Highest

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday (50 days following Easter). It is the day in the Church calendar marked to remember when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles (Acts 2). Some refer to Pentecost as the birthday of the Church.

(PS. I would recommend checking out Francis Chan’s website and book, Forgotten God.)

Today while I was reading and researching for an upcoming sermon series, I ran across this prayer written by St. Bonaventure (1221-1274 A.D.).

Lord Jesus, as God’s Spirit came down and rested upon you,
May the same Spirit rest on us,
Bestowing his sevenfold gifts.
First, grant us the gift of understanding,
By which your precepts may enlighten our minds.
Second, grant us counsel, by which we may follow
in your footsteps on the path of righteousness.
Third, grant us courage,
by which we may ward off the enemy’s attacks.
Fourth, grant us knowledge,
by which we can distinguish good from evil.
Fifth, grant us piety,
by which we may acquire compassionate hearts.
Sixth, grant us fear,
by which we may draw back from evil
and submit to what is good.
Seventh, grant us wisdom,
that we may taste fully the life-giving sweetness of your love.

Happy Birthday Church…and as we celebrate, may we not extinguish the flames of your Spirit, but allow them to purify our lives through and through.

According to this cool site and their Global Rich List…I have more money and resources than over 99% of the people on earth.

This knowledge certainly puts life into perspective when the “Joneses” no longer live across the street but in a different country. We are used to measuring our value through the comparisons of those whom we live closest too (our neighborhood and friends) rather than the global view.

I wonder how God views our riches? [insert sarcasm here] Does he use the local street view or the global view to make his consideration of our generosity?

It is amazing how generous and willing to give we become when we visit places of extreme poverty. I have been in places in Central America and even in local homeless shelters that I refused to leave without giving the extra dollars in my pocket and extra clothes in my bag. It wasn’t a sacrifice to give…it was a moral mandate. I couldn’t have left the needy in their state knowing that I was living in abundance.

How rich are you? How does measuring our resources in light of the transcendent and global view of God change the way we build our plans to spend?

This morning I spent a couple of hours in conversation with our pastoral team about discipleship. Clear discipleship is crucial for us to live out our local church mission of creating a community devoted to living out Christ-likeness.

Perhaps one of the hardest leadership components of pastoring is leading the church community toward embracing a biblical pattern of spiritual discipleship. We (the Church) have become so ingrained in institutional growth models (focused on organizational growth rather than interpersonal or corporate spiritual formation) that we often struggle to embrace the accountability of discipleship that happens best in the context of the community.

Our human tendencies lead us to flee from inter-relational discord  or conflict that often comes from being in community with one another and instead of benefiting from the formation in these relationships, we run away and stay in our self-centered felt needs. And within the organization, we also tend to resist sacrificial and servant-living because of the desire to be recognized by others as being successful (large crowds, bigger buildings, brand-name recognition, etc….).

This morning I was sent a link to this interview of Dallas Willard entitled How Do we Assess Spiritual Growth? In this interview he was asked, “How can churches know if they are being effective at making disciples?”

His response:

Many churches are measuring the wrong things. We measure things like attendance and giving, but we should be looking at more fundamental things like anger, contempt, honesty, and the degree to which people are under the thumb of their lusts. Those things can be counted, but not as easily as offerings.

I love his response. And this shift of attention in what we measure should influence how we look for leaders and disciple-makers, we ought to be looking for those who exude the attitudes of Christ (humility, kindness, love, desire to serve…), rather than just those who meet the requirements for involvement.

This focus on measuring the wrong aspects of faith has led us into the spiritual and relational poverty within our individualistic culture of today. It breeds a lack the biblical understanding of God’s vision for the faith-community and God’s ultimate purposes for His Kingdom.

At the end of the interview Willard is asked, “What can pastors do to change this dynamic?”

Change their definition of success. They need to have a vision of success rooted in spiritual terms, determined by the vitality of a pastor’s own spiritual life and his capacity to pass that on to others.

When pastors don’t have rich spiritual lives with Christ, they become victimized by other models of success—models conveyed to them by their training, by their experience in the church, or just by our culture. They begin to think their job is managing a set of ministry activities and success is about getting more people to engage those activities. Pastors, and those they lead, need to be set free from that belief.

Great thoughts from Mr. Willard.

I love to read thoughts written by Oswald Chambers. Often his words transcend the culture he spoke to and speak throughout time. Today I picked up the worn devotional and once again read these words:

A spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand – “Believe this and that;” but with the demand that you square your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One Whom the Bible reveals (cf. John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty of conscience, not liberty of view. If we are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty – the liberty of realizing the dominance of Jesus Christ.

Always keep your life measured by the standards of Jesus. Bow your neck to His yoke alone, and to no other yoke whatever; and be careful to see that you never bind a yoke on others that is not placed by Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us out of the way of thinking that unless everyone sees as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one liberty, the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.

Don’t get impatient, remember how God dealt with you – with patience and with gentleness; but never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples,” not “make converts to your opinions.”

I have read it again and again…and it never gets old. In our social culture and in the changing church culture of today…this is a message needing to be heeded. This thing called “church” is not about us or our ways and traditions. It is about Him…and His way…the way of love.

If and when we find ourselves struggling against the changing moves of the Spirit, we need to quickly refocus ourselves back onto Him.

It’s His time, and His way.