God didn't drop the bible down from heaven!
God didn’t drop the Bible down from heaven!
• He could have remained in heaven and told us to read it, figure it out and when we’ve got it right, then we can talk.
• He could have met us half way while still remaining above us.
• But he didn’t. We serve a missional God. That means that he came to us. The creator became the created and moved in next door to us, he lived among us, ate our food, drank our drinks, slept on a bed, went through adolescence, cried our tears, felt pain like we do, laughed at our jokes, played our games, went to our weddings, our dinners, our social gatherings…
God showed up on our turf, speaking our language, experiencing the created world as creation. He moved in our ways, through our culture in order to identify so closely with us that his good news would indeed be our good news. He did not pluck us out of our surroundings, our people, our lives and put us in a rest home with pews and a steeple. But rather he came to our surroundings, he met our people, he lived our lives and showed us how we must live out life in a way that is pleasing to him right in our own backyard!
This is the heart of our missional, incarnational God. And now Jesus has called us to do the very same thing he did, not to hole ourselves up behind closed doors and wait for heaven.
People need skin, they need to touch other people. We are the skin of Jesus now. But when the church makes people compensate in some way before they can touch his skin, that's not conversion it's PROSTITUTION!
My paraphrase of the Great Commission:
In every conceivable way the authority, power and right to tell you how to live has been given to me. Therefore, this is it. Listen up. Make the whole world into my disciples. Do this as you go about, as you live your life. Go to the people! Don't make them come to you. Immerse the disciples you make in the fullness of God, that is, in the Father who is Spirit, in the son who was flesh and in the Holy Spirit who is our guarantee of adoption. Teach them everything I have commanded you. That means you better know it yourselves, like the back of your hand. Love it, memorize it and live it because as I have shown you, you don’t teach with your words, but with your feet and your hands. And, see, I will always be right here with you …until the end of time.
• He could have remained in heaven and told us to read it, figure it out and when we’ve got it right, then we can talk.
• He could have met us half way while still remaining above us.
• But he didn’t. We serve a missional God. That means that he came to us. The creator became the created and moved in next door to us, he lived among us, ate our food, drank our drinks, slept on a bed, went through adolescence, cried our tears, felt pain like we do, laughed at our jokes, played our games, went to our weddings, our dinners, our social gatherings…
God showed up on our turf, speaking our language, experiencing the created world as creation. He moved in our ways, through our culture in order to identify so closely with us that his good news would indeed be our good news. He did not pluck us out of our surroundings, our people, our lives and put us in a rest home with pews and a steeple. But rather he came to our surroundings, he met our people, he lived our lives and showed us how we must live out life in a way that is pleasing to him right in our own backyard!
This is the heart of our missional, incarnational God. And now Jesus has called us to do the very same thing he did, not to hole ourselves up behind closed doors and wait for heaven.
People need skin, they need to touch other people. We are the skin of Jesus now. But when the church makes people compensate in some way before they can touch his skin, that's not conversion it's PROSTITUTION!
My paraphrase of the Great Commission:
In every conceivable way the authority, power and right to tell you how to live has been given to me. Therefore, this is it. Listen up. Make the whole world into my disciples. Do this as you go about, as you live your life. Go to the people! Don't make them come to you. Immerse the disciples you make in the fullness of God, that is, in the Father who is Spirit, in the son who was flesh and in the Holy Spirit who is our guarantee of adoption. Teach them everything I have commanded you. That means you better know it yourselves, like the back of your hand. Love it, memorize it and live it because as I have shown you, you don’t teach with your words, but with your feet and your hands. And, see, I will always be right here with you …until the end of time.
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