Martin Luther knew something about revival and a lot about persecution.

The primary reason he was persecuted was his uncompromising stand on the grace of God.

He explained his radical view of grace to his friend, Melanchthon:

If you are a preacher of grace, do not preach a fictitious, but a true grace; and if grace is true, carry a true, and not a fictitious sin. Be a sinner and sin vigorously…. It is sufficient that we recognize the wealth of God’s glory, the lamb who bears the sin of the world; from this, sin does not sever us, even if thousands, thousands of times in one day we should fornicate or murder.”

Now that’s some radical grace.

Interesting, isn’t it? His words are still upsetting the religious and the self-righteous today.

Do these words upset you?

How many fornications and murders in a day would you say the blood of Christ makes payment for?

Are you okay with maybe two or three?

How about lies? Is ten the limit?

What if we overeat only once or twice a week?

How about gossip? How many people do we need to hurt to disqualify ourselves from the grace of God in Christ?

Before you get too upset at the hyperbole from Luther’s pen and the ridiculous idea of someone actually having the time and the energy to commit murder and fornication thousands of times in one day, think about how upset God must be….

…when people who name the name of Christ actually claim to decide for Him what type of and how many sins His Son’s death on the Cross actually made payment for.

If you’ve read this blog for long, know me, or are one of the dozens who have bought my books, you know that I’m a little driven.

Okay, I’m a lot driven.

Recently I was in a Tampa hotel all by myself with everything I needed as a pastor and author to get a LOT OF WORK DONE!

Internet? Check! Free wireless and my trusty MacBook Pro.

Privacy? Check! I didn’t know anyone within a hundred miles. And to make it even better, I had left my cell phone charger at home, so I had to turn it off.

Great ideas? Check! Or at least I think they’re good. I’m working on my first fiction book, another Christian book, about five blogs, doing some editing for some author/publishing friends, and have about a thousand things to do as a pastor of a healthy faith community.

Energy? Focus? Attitude?

NOT CHECK!

I was exhausted.

So, I set my alarm and went to bed…at about 5:30 PM my time!

The next day, I knew that Jesus was saying, “Way to go, Ed. Way to trust Me with your life, your time, and your passion. Now, let’s get to it!”

If Jesus seems distant to you and you’re a hard charger like me, maybe you don’t need to get another assignment done or tell someone about Jesus or even pray.

Maybe what you need to do is trust Him enough to say, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul (life) to keep.”

The Cults Say: Get to Work!!

A few years ago I was sitting in the Phoenix Airport listening in to a conversation between two cultists. They were talking about their hope of heaven. As they talked I was thinking that what they were saying isn’t that much different from a lot of so-called evangelicals today. It’s all about working hard and measuring up.

What do you say?

Here’s my question for those who tell me that telling people that eternal life is a free gift given to all who trust in Jesus is “just too easy”: What sets your gospel apart from the works-based message of the cults?

“He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” –Jesus Christ, John 6:47

The television celebrity impressed me deeply. I couldn’t help thinking that if he and I had grown up together or had served together in the military, we would have been good friends. I liked him in spite of all the rumors about his lifestyle. He joked about being a “backslidden” worshiper from his childhood church. God had cycled our lives together for one fascinating afternoon when he introduced me to his media world and I talked with him about the history of Church of the Open Door.

Just before our day ended he looked off and asked of no one in particular, “When did the church become so mean?”

I said, “We’re not mean, why don’t you come here and give us a chance?”

He laughed uncomfortably, and said, “I might just come and visit you some Sunday, Ed.”

I prayed for him and we shook hands. As I watched him drive away with his cameraman, his question haunted me.

On the drive home that night I turned my radio dial to Christian talk radio. Appalled by the snarling arrogance of the host, I prayed that the man I had met that day wasn’t listening. Whether he knew it or not, his “we’ll show those sinners when this bill gets passed” and “just wait until God deals with these idiots” sent a message to those outside of God’s grace: God’s on our side and He hates you.

The Bible teaches that God is on the side of the righteous and emphasizes that ultimately our side will win. But our victory will not come through favorable voting returns but at the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign on earth.

What the Bible does not teach is that God hates sinners. The New Testament says that the message of the church is the Good News of reconciliation “who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

If God hated sinners—those unreconciled to Him—this verse tells us He would have to start with us. Instead, He loves sinners and sent His Son to die in order to reconcile sinners like us. To us, the reconciled sinners, He has given this ministry of reconciliation, “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and his commit to us the world of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

So how would your non-Christian friends and acquaintances classify you? Do your life and words scream condemnation or do they whisper reconciliation?

This is an excerpt from my book, Reborn to Be Wild: Reviving Our Radical Pursuit of Jesus! It’s all about the Jesus Movement and the lessons we learned.

David C. Cook Publishers

I remember the moment it hit me: Jesus saved me to do something (Ephesians 2:10). I’m not prepared for this. Actually, up to that point, I’d pretty much dedicated my life to avoiding responsibility. But there I was, faced with a decision I never imagined would be mine. Would I become the Young Life leader of a local high school?

That’s the way it was during the Jesus Movement. No one examined your ecclesiastical portfolio before asking you to serve Christ. Shoot, we didn’t even know what the word “ecclesiastical” meant. We were still trying to admit that we belonged in this thing called the church.

I had been a Christian exactly two weeks; didn’t even know that the Bible had books in it, and couldn’t tell a deacon from a dalmatian. But there it was–a choice to either follow Christ or live for myself.

Wow, Jesus had something for me to do…and it would cost me something to follow. I chose to follow. And forty years later I can tell you that it was a good choice.

Has it hit you yet, that Jesus has something for you to do and it will cost you something to follow Him? When it does, will you?

Radio Excoriator

As a SoCaler, I spend a lot of time on the freeways. Sometimes I listen to Christian radio. Sometimes it truly blesses me. Other times it just ticks me off.

Like yesterday when this radio preacher was screaming and shaming his congregation and anyone tuning in about their lack of commitment in just about every area of the Christian life. What bothered me most as he bellowed his way from one shaming truth to the next, was that he acted like he didn’t struggle with this stuff. He, unlike the peons and maybe-not-authentic-believers he vilified and mortified, had his religious “stuff” together.

Right. Sure. Wanna-bet?

My first thought when I hear these performance-driven sermons is, “I wonder what this guy’s hiding?”

I’ve Got a Secret!

Because he is; count on it.

Most of the teaching in the church is framed around the notion that the button-down, loafered-up, “I-got-it-all-together-and-never-have-any-doubts” Christian actually exists somewhere.

Read your Bible. The only One who fits that description wore sandals, had long hair, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Paul was the “chief of sinners”; Peter denied Christ, and Mark ran from the garden naked like some frightened little puppy.

They all let the Lord down mightily; but the Lord used them mightily.

That’s called grace. I prefer grace to arrogance any day.

No You Don’t!

“I just want to know what God wants me to do,” the man said to me.

His eyes filled with rage at my answer: “No you don’t!”

“What do you mean?” he protested. “I do too; I want to know God’s will!”

As we sat across the table in my office, I reminded him that he had asked me to help him determine God’s will in his finances three times before, over a period of about six years. Each time I brought him to the same conclusion from God’s Word: “God’s will is clear—give to His work. You cannot look past His clear teaching that connects all of His financial promises to your faith in Him. You must trust Him enough to give before you can expect His guidance and blessing concerning your money situation.”

But here we were, going around the same block, considering his same questions, and reviewing God’s same answer.

Don’t Ask If You’re Not Willing

It’s dangerous to ask God for directions unless you are willing to follow them! When the wicked idolaters who had fled to Moab and Edom as the Babylonians poured into Jerusalem returned to try to wrest power from the puppet king, they asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them. When Jeremiah told them that the Lord wanted them to stay in Jerusalem, stop their idolatry, and submit to the Babylonians, they accused him of lying, took him prisoner, and forced him to flee to Egypt with them where they worshiped their “Goddess of Heaven.” (Jeremiah 41-44)

The Father tires of those who are simply curious about his will or come to him only in a crisis to see if he offers a pleasant option for deliverance. This is the state of so many Christians. In the merry-go-round of their lives, they just repeat the same mistakes and live under the same pathology year after year. They sometimes ask God what to do, especially when these pathologies cost or hurt them. Then, they decide once again not to do what God says and to return to their idols of career, materialism, and recreation.

How sad, but the Lord wants better for His children…for you!

When He directs, follow. I believe that too many refusals just cause the Father to know that we are not really serious about doing His will. So He stops speaking, as He did to the unbelieving generations of Israel and Judah.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

In the first three chapters of my book, Reborn to Be Wild, I tell my story as a 60s radical who met Jesus during this great movement of the Holy Spirit. Every time I read these chapters, the stunning reality of the deep darkness I came out of stirs my heart.

When His enemies came after Him in the garden on the night He was betrayed, Jesus said, “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).

That describes life without Christ. Every hour blackened by that same desperate darkness–the darkness dominating Christ’s enemies. That was me…that was you.

I’m overwhelmed by the grace of God and Jesus’ love that rescued me from the power of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Colossians 1:13).

Are you?

If you want to fall on your knees in thanksgiving, spend a few hours writing down what the darkness of your life was like before His love ran you down!

Question: Do you remember the darkness?

Before you can finish the sentence, “I’ve been set free by Christ, and now…” some spiritual hall monitor is going to remind you that “Your liberty in Christ should not lead to license.”

Okay. Got it.

Is there anyone who has been in a church more than a few hours who doesn’t know that our freedom in Christ isn’t freedom to sin?

Is there any way the Holy Spirit isn’t going to convict the holy stuffing out of a believer who is using his or her freedom to excuse their sin?

Come on, man.

Why are we so afraid of our freedom in Christ?

I think I know.

We’re afraid of losing control.

But I thought that was what the Christian life was all about. Losing control of life by handing it over to Jesus.

Freedom doesn’t intimidate Jesus. He loves it.

Stop being so afraid of what “might” happen if you tell people the truth that Christ sets us free that you miss seeing what “could” happen.

Like revival!

Question: How have you been warned “not to abuse your freedom in Christ”?

We Were Pilgrims

I met Jesus in the 60s.

Before the idea that some Christian moral majority could make people behave right so that we could live comfortably in this world.

During the Jesus Movement we knew our status: We were pilgrims living as aliens in a hostile land.

I remember times in classes at the University of California when we Christians spoke up. The venomous wrath of the professors and our fellow students let is know they didn’t think we belonged there.

What’s Changed?

That was okay with us, because we knew they were right.

We didn’t belong there.

Still don’t.

None of us do.

We’re aliens, living for a while in a place we don’t belong and longing for home.

And along the way, experiencing the full measure of His grace and peace (1 Peter 1:1-2).