Radical Journey

RELATIONSHIPS

m aCRe

m Community Group

m your ‘Paul’

MEMORY

m mark 1:16-18 (novice)

m matthew 10:16-23 (eager)

m matthew 6:1-17 (radical)

PRAYER

m professors

m Europe (list)

m fast (radical)

READING

novice (6 days)

m mark 13

m mark 14

m mark 15

m mark 16

m john 1

m john 2

eager (6 days)

m luke 1-3

m luke 4-6

m luke 7-8

m luke 9-10

m luke 11-12

m luke 13-14

radical (7 days)

m mark 3-4

m mark 5-6

m mark 7-8

m mark 9-10

m mark 11-12

m mark 13-14

m mark 15-16

Radical Journey

RELATIONSHIPS

m aCRe

m Community Group

m your ‘Paul’

MEMORY

m mark 1:14-15 (novice)

m matthew 10:7-15 (eager)

m matthew 5:21-48 (radical)

PRAYER

m apartments/suites

m Africa (list)

m fast (radical)

READING

novice (6 days)

m mark 7

m mark 8

m mark 9

m mark 10

m mark 11

m mark 12

eager (6 days)

m mark 7-8

m mark 9

m mark 10

m mark 11-12

m mark 13-14

m mark 15-16

radical (7 days)

m matt. 16-18

m matt. 19-20

m matt. 21-22

m matt. 23-24

m matt. 25-26

m matt. 27-28

m mark 1-2

Radical Journey

RELATIONSHIPS

m aCRe

m Community Group

m your ‘Paul’

MEMORY

m john 10:10 (novice)

m matthew 10:1-6 (eager)

m matthew 5:1-20 (radical)

PRAYER

m freshmen/dorms

m Middle East/N. Africa (list)

m fast (radical)

READING

novice/eager (6 days)

m mark 1

m mark 2

m mark 3

m mark 4

m mark 5

m mark 6

radical (7 days)

m matt. 1-3

m matt. 4-5

m matt. 6-7

m matt. 8-9

m matt. 10-11

m matt. 12-13

m matt. 14-15

ICE CREAM (ok, it’s actually CUSTARD) SOCIAL:  FRI. Aug. 20th We are going to be out at the Gazebo on campus at 4:30.  We’ll have a volleyball there and other games.  Everything we need to ruin dinner!!

There are a few things that come to our mind when we hear the word “gospel.”  We think generally what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “that Christ died for our sins… that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.”  Jesus revealed that message to His closest followers, but it wasn’t His main message.  In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.”

Jesus borrowed this phrase from Caesar’s messengers who would announce the ‘peace of Rome’ was upon newly conquered areas.  Caesar and Jesus were announcing peace, protection, provision, and leadership.  This was intended to be ‘good news’ or ‘gospel’ by both.  Caesar’s messengers then commanded the newly conquered people to change their allegiance to Rome, trusting that it was a good thing to be under authority of the Roman Empire.

As leaders, ministers, Sunday school teachers, parents, etc. are we teaching this kind of repentance?  Are we living this kind of repentance? …not just stopping doing bad things and adding a few good, but are we calling people to a total change of allegiance to Jesus’ leadership and authority?

This is the only way to start out if we are going to have churches or campus ministries with people who are selfless servants (Titus 2:14) and bold ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5) like Jesus desires.

This year Brian “Doc” Reed designed specific flyers for orientations and they look great.  Some CCFers looked at the stack and comment on how great they look, and then they ask me how many I had made.  I say, “153.”  Every time I say, “153” I feel a little strange.  Being a literal person (or just weird), I don’t even consider saying “150.”  Once one gets to 51 color copies the price drops, our flyers are three to a sheet, you see how that works out…  I’ve explained that a few times.

The morning after our first Orientation, I was reading and there it was… “153.”  Do you know where that number is in the Bible?  The morning of Peter’s Reinstatement (John 21), they were fishing.  The resurrected Jesus tells the fishermen to through their nets on the right side of the boat.  How many fish was it?  153 LARGE FISH!!

Unsure of how much God had to do with it (timing was pretty perfect though), I’m reminded that Jesus knows more than the smartest and most experienced of men.  So… would you join me in praying for 153 freshmen CCF can invest in at UNCW to be/make disciples and to impact the world.

I saw a sign outside of a church. You know those signs with (usually not so clever and theologically inaccurate) sayings written on them. One read, “Faith isn’t believing God can, but knowing He will.” Half way annoyed, I chalked it up to semantics and a waste of space, but it stuck with me. I started to unpack the implications and remember the list of the faithful in Hebrews 11 (a must read)… hold that thought.

FAITH is what was lost in the Garden of Eden. We like to focus on the fruit moment, but it started with doubting God’s words, intentions, integrity, consequences, etc. Then God called Abram (Abraham), the father of the FAITH to a distant country. Genesis 15:6 reads, “Abram believed the Lord, and [God] credited it to him as righteousness.” In Romans, it explains God’s people are of the FAITH of Abraham, not the lineage. FAITH is currency that buys rightness with God (by grace, of course) not a ‘moral’ life.

Okay, back to the church sign. “I LIKE IT!!” Imagine that. It takes FAITH from a heady acknowledgement of God’s ability to a mantra to cling to when all ‘you know what’ breaks loose. “I know God will, I know God will!”

-Maybe the standard by which our spiritual maturity should be measured is how FAITHful we consider God to be? (Romans 12:3; Hebrews 11:11)
-Maybe God wants us to praise Him for His FAITHfulness more than anything else?
-Maybe as a Father, He is hurt when we think He is unable or not caring enough to come through for us?
-Maybe when we randomly think, “I want to please God today,” we should remember Hebrews 11:6, “And without FAITH it is impossible to please God.” Remember, He is not impressed with our works.

TAKE AWAY: For whatever situation you are worrying or concerned, God, our Father, desires you to relax and “know He will!”

“Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale (December 23, 1923 – July 5, 2005) was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the United States Navy“ (Wikipedia).  He had a conversation with Jim Collins (author) about his time in a Vietnamese POW camp.  Collins asked who did NOT make it out.  Here is Stockdale’s reply…

“Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Paul starts 2 Corinthians 4 with these words, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.”

Stockdale added… “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” (Good to Great, Jim Collins & Wikipedia)

The witnesses in Revelation 11 are said to be “the olive trees and the two lampstands.”  John is uses imagery from Zechariah 4 to help paint the picture of how the church age is going to be.  It combines the idea that even though it is the Spirit’s power accomplishing God’s work, it is also our hands.  We must not allow our faith in God to lull us to a complacent optimism.  An optimism that says we aren’t in a battle.  An optimism that says nothing will go wrong now.  We must not ignore the brutal facts of the situation on this earth simply waiting for heaven.

The Stockdale Paradox:  Never lose faith — face the brutal facts.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God — We will be hated and persecuted for our faith here on earth.

Revelation 11 is a picture of the church age from the vantage point of believers.  There are two witnesses given the power of Moses and Elijah (v. 6), but they are clothed in sackcloth (v. 3).  Being clothed in sackcloth represents mourning.  They are eventually killed by the beast from the Abyss, and the nations gloat.  God breathes life into them again, striking fear into the nations, and they go up to heaven on a cloud.  So in this church age witnesses for Jesus (all true believers are witnesses for Jesus) will mourn, some will die, but all believers will rise in the end to eternal life.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”

That sounds like witnesses who should be wearing sackcloth to me.

Where did we get the idea that comfortable and carefree is the norm for Christians?  Joyous, YES, that’s scriptural, but comfortable?

More about Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale coming in Part 2.