2012 is Yet Another Y2K

I’d like to get a jump on the current end of world fad. For anyone who has the blessing of not being in front of a TV set, or has missed movie previews of late, here’s the scoop…the Mayan Calendar has some kind of end predicted within it that points to December 21, 2012. Actually, some have a tick of the clock attached to this…11:11a.m.

I feel fairly confident to announce that I will likely be here, tapping words into my computer at precisely 11:12a.m. December 21, 2012 and beyond. In fact, I plan to be publishing another book…or writing a blog at that precise moment calling on everyone who profited from this fraud to donate all their ill-gotten gains to local food pantries and homeless shelters. I have experience in this kind of behavior. Allow me a moment to elucidate.

When a herd of noisy Christians were advocating that we should be storing food and water for the coming Y2K cataclysm (late in the year 1999), I was busy being a pastor. I told my flock that if they were storing food when their neighbor might be potentially hungry, repentance was the only option. I told people to empty their cupboards, basements, bomb shelters and every secret storage facility they had and give this bounty to the poor. Most people joined me in my good cheer. A few people quietly disagreed and shook their heads in disdain at my ignorance of prophecy.

Our church actually planned a fireworks display on News Year’s Eve 1999. We thought it was a nice touch to illustrate our disgust for this kind of sadness. When the clock turned 2000 without incident it was as if the world breathed a sigh of relief that yet another thief of hope had been exposed.

I am personally committed to the notion that Christianity must completely separate itself from every thief of hope. One of the most common examples of this is the “end of the world” predictions that make a run at us every so often. I hate it when, at best, too many Christian leaders take a stance sounding like, “Well, no one knows for sure” and, at worst, some high profile hucksters seize the moment for raising funds for their ministries and scaring people into faith or church. Yuck!

Let me recommend some enlightening reading for your spiritual edification: “Surprised by Hope; Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright. “The Rapture Exposed; the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara Rossing. And, “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold Eberle and Martin Trench.

We have ignored the incalculable damage done to the Name of Christ by this junk for too long. We have allowed ourselves to be guilty by association, at best, and guilty by outright manipulation, at worst. I will not stand by, I will not be silent, I can not let innocent hearts be soiled and I decline to accept the end of man (see William Faulkner’s speech in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950). There is a far more soul enriching manner in which to read and enjoy the scriptures than to be force fed with the notion that God is focused on His stop-watch.

For the record, the popular TV preachers, Jack Van Impe and John Hagee are promoting an interpretation of scriptures I find completely and egregiously flawed in this regard. It is based on a school of theology that slices and dices the scriptures in so many directions you can hardly trust any verse to mean what it really says. Note, I am not saying these gentlemen are evil or false prophets….I don’t personally know them. I just know that their interpretation of the Bible requires a catastrophic vision of the future. In my opinion, that interpretation is unacceptably damaging to the character of Christ which is the heart and love of God for the world.

Catastrophic events come and go, but they are, by and large, the result of our sowing and reaping and not God’s sadistic thirst for misery just to “get our attention”. The Bible actually promises the complete healing of all of nature. It speaks of every nation being healed and streaming to the people of God for visionary answers. Scriptures predict that all weapons will one day be converted to agricultural purposes and military academies will no longer be required to train for war. God actually set in motion a momentum for the reversal of the food chain mentality, in humans and the animal kingdom. (Isaiah 11, 60, 61, Micah 4)

I happen to believe that our participation in the scriptures has always been required for any promise of God to be activated. From the salvation of an individual to the salvation of the nations, we are co-laborers with Christ. Our will and consent has always mattered!

So, while I am sure that the Mayans were lovely people and ahead of their time in art and culture, I am equally certain that their calendar is predictive of nothing in particular. Some scholars suggest that the 2012 reference in the Mayan calendar is simply a point at which the dates are a “do-over” and not at all a cataclysm. Unfortunately, that interpretation won’t sell movies or promote a ministry.

RENEWAL...HERE....NOW! Part 2

I love the prophet Isaiah: the book, yes, but even more so, the man. This dude has a clearer and more distinct revelation of Jesus Christ hundreds of years before Jesus arrives on earth’s shores than those of us who have mountains of written material about Jesus along with 2000 years to read it all!

It underlines for me the necessity of my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Many in Christianity today are happy with the Father, Son and Holy Bible… but only the Holy Spirit can truly reveal the Bible so that we can authentically know the Father and Son. There are visions of God, His beauty, His majesty and His destiny that can only be accessed by the Holy Spirit’s dynamic inside us.

Now, back to Isaiah, and specifically chapter 61. This is the portion of wonder that Jesus pulled out and read in the synagogue as recorded in Luke 4. It absolutely drives a stake in the heart of any stagnant religious behaviors, Old Testament and New Testament! It seems that when Jesus took this scroll and read aloud that He was saying, “RENEWAL….HERE… NOW!” (Read my previous blog "Renewal...here...now")

In fact, Jesus did say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). I’m captivated by the words, “…in your hearing…” because something in these syllables suggests to me that I should hear something more than words. I should hear prophetic destiny being constructed in my body, soul and spirit! It reminds me of Ezekiel being dared to voice life to dead bones! (Ezekiel 37)

I marvel today at the inability of some in the church to see the glory recorded in these Words. It seems to me that some folks are so determined to have God in a particularly nasty mood that they simply can not see Isaiah 61 as true. Or, if they see it as true, it is locked up in the twilight zone they call the millennium. My take on their doctrinal contortions is that they see these Words as too good to be true, so outrageous and so demanding of faith that we simply must push them out away from our responsibility to live in deep end of these treasures.

Open a Bible. Read Isaiah 61. Ignore Scofield’s notes. Listen to the Holy Spirit. I dare you to believe every Word in that chapter as True, NOW.

I dare you to seize the promise of every Word of that chapter as your destiny in life. Don’t limit this chapter to a “Promise Box” approach of all the truly sweet things that Jesus has come to make real in your personal life. I believe those promises….but when I read all 11 verses as my personal prophetic word, I am stunned to find out that His healing in me is for the purpose of wildly astonishing healing through me!

Ruined cities are waiting the arrival of a healing army that has been so amazingly healed, they can not contain the flood of healing out of their abundant virtue. Ruined cities are waiting for the footsteps of Jesus stepping out through our feet the radiance of a transcendent dominance.

Verse four says that generational desolations will yield to our faith! The definition of the word “desolations”is, “stunning, amazing destruction”. This says to me that a greater, more stunning and amazing CON-struction arrives when we believe who and what Jesus has redeemed us to be!

Since Jesus has declared this to be true, I agree with Him! TODAY, in our hearing, in our time….RENEWAL…HERE…NOW!

Only the Mediocre...

"Only the mediocre are always at their best" -- unknown Texas preacher

"I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity" ~me~

LIfe Shrinks or Grows...

"Life shrinks at the speed of our self limited and self serving cultural choices. This happens when we chose a desired end result ahead of any informed or enlightened process of personal growth. Life can also expand at the speed of enlightened hunger for formation in spite of any casualties to my own opinions." --Pastor Randy Dean--

RENEWAL...HERE....NOW!

Through the years I have heard stories of God’s exploits and often, these wonderful testimonies are only as great as they are thousands of miles away from where I am. It is enticing to hear reports about great waves of renewal that are happening in other countries. But, these revivals of epic proportion and culture shaping depth seem to only occur far, far away. Recently I heard of a “global” impact being prophesied for an eastern European nation that would ultimately send missionaries to the United States. I think many of you reading this know what I’m talking about.

I am totally excited about these truthful and genuinely epic moves of the Holy Spirit. I have no doubt of the veracity of the reporters or the prophets who call these things out. “IT” is happening. I have seen “IT” with my own eyes in Mexico, the Ukraine and Russia.

Where I begin to have pause is when I hear of deeply sincere and completely well-meaning believers from the States talking about going to these far away places to experience and enhance all of the above beauties with even the slightest implication that “IT” can not happen here. Too often, these sincere believers are coming from churches and localities in great need for “IT” to be true in the place where the soles of their feet tread everyday. I’ve blessed some to “go” when inside I am weeping for them to stay and light a fire, right HERE.

I hasten to say that I would never suggest that we shouldn’t go to other nations. I have gone and I will continue to go. I CERTAINLY BLESS THOSE WHO SACRIFICE TO "GO"!That being said, however, I have come home numerous times smoldering, internally roaring and fiercely determined for MY nation and MY church and MY region to experience renewal…NOW!

To go anywhere far from where you live JUST to experience the singular enormous pleasure of the Kingdom pulsating on earth as it is in heaven, is to VISIT renewal like it is a spiritual Disney Land….all the while missing the greater possibility of living IN an ongoing state of renewal right HERE, right NOW.

Hear me carefully…

Renewal is NOT being withheld from America because of our sin. “…where sin abounded, grace abounded much more…” (Romans 5:20). Isaiah 60 pounds into the air a command to anyone living anywhere in darkness, “ARISE, SHINE; your light has come!” I don’t have the time or space to elucidate the rest of that passage and its clear commanding tone for us to BE a revival ANYWHERE, ANYTIME renewal is needed.

There is NOT an elusive “to do” list that must be completed before God is somehow convinced to get past His Holy hesitation to light the night sky of the U.S.A. The results of revivals of our history should never be seen as prerequisite for us to GET a nation-wide renewal! The truest of all awakenings occur simply because people decide to end their satisfaction of the spiritual status quo.

Here’s another thought on the matter; “What American Christians need is good old fashioned persecution…that’s the only way we’ll ever be revived!”

I respectfully and vociferously disagree. Persecution is not greater and more powerful than God! Now, I know that persecution has worked for groups and nations in the past, but that doesn’t make it the only formula!

In fact, if it was the only formula then God would have said about Israel going in to the promised land, “Behold, I am taking you to the most awful place on earth! It is a land flowing with rats and pestilence. There’s not a dwelling, a hut, a cave or place of shelter anywhere! You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. NOW THAT will make you serve Me and keep you convinced to stay in line and cling to Me!”

NO! God promised them a land flowing with outrageous goodness, free homes and extreme abundance (Read Dueteronomy 28 – 30)! I believe that God is looking for a generation of people who will enter into His best IN THE MIDST OF incredible days of ease and comfort! Why? Because we aren’t running away from some kind of trouble and woe to be rescued, but we are leaping into His Arms in genuine desire for Him AND HIM ALONE!

Through my years of pastoral ministry I’ve witnessed time and time again when someone comes to Jesus out of misery or trouble only to “fall away” when everything worked out. It’s called “jailhouse religion”. It’s shallow and short-term. God is looking for long term worshippers whose passion is to serve Him all the days of their lives and pass their passion on to the next generation for a doubling of that passion. My ceiling is to be their floor!!

Again, and for the record, I know that persecution moved the early church out of Jerusalem and into all the world when they were otherwise inclined to keep it all at home. But that was not God’s best for them…it was plan B.

Plan A was, “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Not a single mention of, “and when you’ve resisted too long and been sufficiently disobedient, persecution will ship you out!” God’s original desire was to overwhelm them with such power and revelation of who He was and who they were so that they could not HELP but to explode everywhere and at all times.

The time and place for Kingdom Come is right here where the soles of my feet stand. The time and place for renewal, revival, awakening and quite frankly I don’t care what you call “IT”….that time and place is NOW!

I am on the planet sucking air so that my life will be the tipping bean of a grand and glorious plethora of spiritual goodness in this land of the living. In America, lives are being majestically renovated and regally renewed! In America, miracles are happening at a dizzying pace through the lives of ordinary “little people” who are lit up like permanent fireworks tattooed on an inky black sky. In America, Jesus is being wonderfully seen and famously heralded as the King Who IS on His Throne….

Oh, land that I love, Come see the glory of God, HERE, NOW in tiny hamlet in western Wisconsin. The township of Forest is on fire with HIM because we stopped waiting for revival, praying for revival and simply started BEING a revival of Kingdom Come!

School Prayer

Not long ago I saw one of those yellow portable signs in front of a business that implored, “Put God Back in School”. As I drove past this I wondered out loud (I was alone), “Is God short a few credits? Did He drop out? Who was big and bad enough to kick Him out? Is this business suggesting that God needs a better education?” Worthy questions, I thought.

Of course, the signage had nothing to do with those questions. It is one of those tired old protests suggesting that God has been helplessly removed from public schools in America and we must be called to action to put Him and prayers to Him back in school.

I have good news...God never left public schools. I take Him there every time I chair a board of education meeting. I know thousands of students who pray in public schools every day. I know teachers who are speaking “Kingdom Come” on public schools all over the nation. I know administrators who are boldly walking school hallways and touching students with their faith every day the doors open.

Do you think that maybe we should pray FOR schools more than we debate and protest over having prayer IN schools? Is it possible that we’ve been distracted FROM prayer by a silly political dispute ABOUT prayer?

Join me in leaving the “Put God back in school” argument to people who just enjoy fighting. From this day forward, every time you drive past a school pray this, “Thy Kingdom COME, Thy will be done in that school just as it is in heaven”. Or put the Aaronic Blessing on every school bus you see; “The Lord BLESS those students and staff. The Lord KEEP them and make His face shine on them!” The original word for keep drew the picture of an ancient shepherd building a portable coral for his sheep made of thorny bushes. The idea was to keep predators from getting too close to these precious lambs.

Picture this; a typical classroom is filling with students on their first day back from summer vacation. The teacher welcomes them and starts a roll call; “John? Here. Sue? Here. Mary? Here. Fred? Here……uhmm….God?” And over half the class room thunders back, “HERE!”

Moral Inventory

Before I dive into this blog, let me lay down three defining principles that will help keep me and you on track:
1. I am using Alcoholics Anonymous’ Fourth Step as the platform for these thoughts. I’ve heard it said that A.A. needs the church, but the church equally needs A.A.
2. Unhealthy introspection leads to nothing…and I mean nothing! If I was the devil (and I’m not) I would have Christians preoccupied with deep and obsessive internal reviews to keep them feeling religiously active and spiritually neutered.
3. Too many people love to use the word, “morals” as long as they can emphasize their favorite ones to the exclusion of a wide variety of other, equally valuable morals. For instance, Romans chapter one lists homosexuality along with other deeds of the flesh such as slander, gossip and being unloving and unmerciful. Once you quote a list like this you surrender the right to pick and choose…its all or nothing.

Other than for taxes or financial reports, when a store conducts an inventory it is quite often for the purpose of simply knowing what sells. They are productively looking for the means of how to serve a larger customer base. When a grocery store notices that sugar coated “Sticks and Stones Cereal” has been sitting on their shelves for months while “Wilbur’s Wonder Cereal” is flying off the shelves, they act precipitously to stock what is selling and lose the dead weight inventory if they want to grow and keep their customers well served.

Galatians 5:19-26 offers a superb grid for a healthy moral inventory and the clarity of defining two value systems: “The deeds of the flesh are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and “things like these…” On the other hand, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Allow me to play a couple of scenarios for you. Let’s say one of my church members comes to me today, stumbling drunk, and says to me, “I got drunk because the Obama administration is taking this country into a socialist state.” I will rise from behind my desk, walk over to them and say, “You are drunk because you are living out of the wrong value system. You are living in the flesh and outside pressures have exposed your erroneous priorities”.

Now imagine another member walks in my office, red in the face with anger, and they say, “I just came back from a town hall meeting and I am just so angry because the Obama Administration is taking this country into a socialist state.” Once again, I would rise from behind my desk, walk over to this church member and say, “You are angry because you are living out of the wrong value system. You are living in the flesh and outside pressures have exposed your erroneous priorities”.

Angry outbursts are no more or less acceptable than drunkenness! They both bear witness to our internal realities. When our internal realities are only within the scope of our own abilities, measured by our human reasoning and marginalized by fear, the “deeds of the flesh” WILL NOT BE FAR BEHIND.

Verse 21 of this chapter says, “…those who practice such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” When our life is lived within the anemic framework of our own resources unplugged from Heaven’s Resources, we will miss seeing the transcendent supremacy of the Kingdom of God happening before our very eyes! The only thing we inherit is our frail limitation.

God is offering us a far, far greater bounty. When our internal reality is steeping in the River of the Holy Spirit’s unlimited power, out of us will rush, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law”.

And when we live this way, we will SEE the Kingdom of God trumping all inferior realities around us. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality”. Conversely, this means that when we amputate truth from the soil of the Holy Spirit, it has the same outcome as compromising the same truth we say we hold dear.

After his home was fire-bombed Pastor King (I love remembering that this hero was just simple pastor) was taunted and admonished to join the radical militants of the civil rights movement. In response, he called the media to his front yard, stood on his charred and badly damaged front porch and proclaimed forgiveness to the perpetrators of that crime. He refused to allow his internal realities to degenerate into the obtuse limitations of the flesh. Instead he chose the unlimited power of the Spirit and His resplendent fruit.

My brothers and sisters, we are in a similar time, though in vastly different political dynamics. When we are wronged, politically or in any other way, we have a choice to transcend or descend. If we truly believe that the Kingdom of God will ultimately triumph over all inferior challengers, then we will live TODAY by seeding the world with the Kingdom’s Fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.