Moving from Palm Sunday to Change the World Monday

I grew up attending church. This was the era of flannel graphs in Sunday School. Palm Sunday was a time of kids with palm branches and conversations about donkeys. The shift then moves to Good Friday and Easter. But if we move too fast we miss a lesson that Jesus taught to change our world and rock our heart.

In Mark’s telling of the story he sandwiches the story of the clearing of the temple with the strange story of Jesus killing a fig tree. The depth of the message of Mark 11:12-25 is beyond what I can cover in this post, but let me challenge us with three lessons that could impact the world.

Be on your guard against hypocrisy

Jesus finds a tree that has lots of leaves, but without any fruit. Moving from there to seeing Jesus disrupting the religious establishment of the time makes the message clear. You can have a lot of the trappings of religious activity but not be producing any spiritual fruit. This is hypocrisy. The danger of hypocrisy is that it is easier to see in others and hard to see in ourselves. Hypocrisy insulates our heart from the humility we need to be hungry for more of God. We need to be desperate for God in order to produce fruit out of our connection to Him. I realize that even this post loses its power without the energy of God.

[tweetthis]Hypocrisy insulates our heart from the humility we need to be hungry for more of God.[/tweetthis]

Be aware of our own draw toward racism

In Jesus’ day a reference to a verse in the scripture is a reference to the whole chapter where it is found. Jesus’ reference to, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” comes from Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56 is a word of encouragement to the immigrants living in the land. Jesus’ here matches the challenge that He and the early disciples gave to confront the ethnic superiority of the day. If we read carefully we see Jesus getting in trouble again and again for disrupting racial stereotypes. Speaking of immigrants and racism today may be read as a political statement of some kind.

Although I do see racism in both political parties that is too safe to point that out. Jesus wants to get closer to our heart. Rather than engage in arguments what if the church led the way by going in the opposite way of love? But even that is too safe. What about me? So I am committing right now to learning Spanish to a level that I can preach in Spanish. What about you? Will you let God’s word break through your heart to an actual change that may be uncomfortable?

[tweetthis]What if the church led the way against racism with radical love?[/tweetthis]

Prayer should not be a side dish

The story of the fig tree is explained by Jesus with a challenge to pray things that require faith. I wrote a book on simple ways to engage in conversation with God. But we must not forget that prayer also has great power to change things. Prayer invites us into a faith adventure with Jesus that should produce fruit. God invites us to change the world with our prayer.

Are you praying dangerous, audacious prayers? As Lisa Bevere says, “If you are not praying the kind of prayers that scare you, believe me, they are not scaring the enemy.” We need Christians who believe for a life that makes a difference. As Pete Grieg says, “We need to move from survival to revival.”   What are you going ask God for that will make a difference for Jesus’ kingdom?

[tweetthis]We need to move from survival to revival.-Pete Greig[/tweetthis]

I believe that if we really let these things past our guard and into our heart we could change the world. Are you with me?

The Celtic Call to Prayer and Adventure (Updated)

I was listening to a message by Dr. Paul Alexander of Trinity Bible College in Ellendale, ND and he shared a great story from history. It was about early Celtics and a call that they would make on their lives. It was a call to the cell and coracle.

The call to the cell was a call to prayer and time with God. Ministry was to start there. In their case it would be a commitment to the monastery.

Then is the call to the coracle. I was not sure what the coracle was so I was glad that Dr. Alexander went on to explain. These people would come to a point where they would go to the abbot for his blessing. The abbot would pray over them and send them to the kitchen for a few days of food. After getting their food, they would head down to the beach and get into the coracle.

The coracle was a small lightweight boat. The Coracle Society of the United Kingdom describe them as, “Coracles are small, keel-less boats, traditionally made as a basketwork frame, covered with an animal hide.” (http://www.coraclesociety.org.uk/history) These people would get into these small boats and head out to sea. Wherever they ended up would be there assignment for missionary work.

Dr. Alexander reminded us of the importance of adventure in our walk with God. We are called to prayer and then walking out in prayer to a life that God is calling us. I have written elsewhere about the importance of not sitting back and the need to engage in all that God has for us. It is the rhythm of spending time with God and then coming out of that time and walking with Him in adventure that makes like full.

So as the Celtic’s would say, “To the Cell and Coracle!!”

Warning: You may be missing out on all that God has for you!

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Since I live in Minnesota dealing with snow is a part of life. That said, it doesn’t mean that we don’t sometimes go in our minds to a happy place: like standing on the beach. This is especially true for a guy like me with Sri Lankan blood. There is something that is good for the soul about standing by the ocean watching the waves crash in as you soak up the sun.

But it reminds me of something I heard Dave Williams of Strategic Global Mission share about the ocean. He talked about how the ocean is vast like our God. God is bigger than we can imagine. But so often we come to the ocean of God and all that we bring with us is a cup. Since a cup is all that we bring to our relationship with God that is all that we can take away. What if we brought a bucket? Or for that matter what if we brought a truck that could carry water? Dave said, “The problem is not with God, it is with our capacity.”

[tweetthis]The problem is not with God, it is with our capacity.-Dave Williams[/tweetthis]

One of my favorite quotes of George Mueller is, “God has dealt with me according to my expectation.” What are you expecting from God? What are you asking Jesus for today? Might as well ask for a sea crossing, sun stand still, Goliath slaying kind of miracle!

[tweetthis]Might as well ask for a sea crossing, sun stand still, Goliath slaying kind of miracle![/tweetthis]

Let us ask big today!