“and when he (Jesus) drew near and saw the city, he wept over it…” luke 19:41

nehemiah, in the old testament, has a strikingly similar story. he loved his city and he wept over it – the very same city Jesus weeps over 400 years later. but he didn’t stop there. he did something about it. he united a people to rebuild the city. in the process the temple was rebuilt. his life helped transformed a city. his life had a lasting impact on the Kingdom.

he was a man and leader that wouldn’t get too much buzz or tmz action if he was around today.

he wasn’t your celebrity christian.

he wasn’t even a pastor.

he worked a regular job, just like us.

he was the cupbearer to the king of babylon – a job that was secret service duty (making sure the drinks were not poisoned) meets chief of staff (hey, any man who is putting his life on the line like that deserves to be listened to).

but, God used him greatly.

because God used him exactly where he was.

his people, the israelites were in captivity and scattered thanks to the babylonian exile. jerusalem was left empty. jerusalem was pillaged of everything good and destroyed – including the temple. this once proud city was turned into the ancient equivalent of the modern day projects or ghetto.

maybe it looked like toker town near downtown fullerton.

maybe it looked like that run down street or apartment complex near your house, the one you pass all the time but never think about.

restoring and transforming this city became his life’s work. he lived his life in a way that demanded an explanation. nehemiah traded the comfort of the palace for the hardships of the ghetto.

what sacrifices, like nehemiah, do you need to make to love your city?

how will you serve your city?

I’m really excited about the focus on mission within the global church at the moment. Whilst there is certainly a lot of hype flying around, the essence of the situation is this; the church has recognized that it hasn’t done a great job of representing what the gospel is and actually getting that message to the people who need to hear it the most.

This cultural basis for ‘mission shaped living’ – a fancy way of saying ‘being a Christian’ – is joined with strong biblical evidence too. In each of the gospels Jesus makes it his final priority to remind his disciples that the good news about his death and resurrection leaves them with an obvious imperative – go and preach the good news to all the nations! Get out there, tell them about what this all of this means and show them the evidence at the same time. Jesus invites us to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come and to do it with all the resources that were at his disposal, namely God’s own Spirit.

This mission is not an add on to the gospel message, but the heartbeat of it. Just as the purpose of God’s people in the Old Covenant was that the nations would be blessed through them, so the New Covenant has the same aim. God’s people are now defined as those who believe in His Son and are filled with His Spirit. Those of us who have received the Holy Spirit are now God’s people in the world, called to do the work of building His Kingdom. Isn’t that crazy? God gives His own Spirit – his own self, his essence, his heart – to all of us who are believing in Jesus, SO THAT we will have all we need to get into the world and do his work.

God sets us up to succeed.

The point is this. The mission of the church is not to build a better church but a better world. Whilst the latter will obviously include the former, history has shown us that those that concentrate on simply building the best church possible never get much further than that. Instead, our starting point as Christians is authentic worship which flows out into mission, not into more chatter about the church. The church is the means of the gospel message getting out into this beautiful world that God has made and plans to fully restore.

Where have we allowed the church to become an end for us, rather than the means?

“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:22)

Wow! Recently I felt that God was saying to me that He wanted to bring His people back into intimate relationship with Him.

I was convicted.

It is very easy to become busy with our lives, our agendas, with producing lots of good things, attending lots of Christian events and yet miss getting to know Jesus. It is so easy to miss Jesus in all the Christian activities we do – we can even attend prayer meetings or read the Bible yet miss Jesus in the midst of it. Someone wise once said “Do you think you will get to heaven and be able to give Jesus a hug?”

A personal relationship with Jesus is essential in being a disciple. It is through our relationship that Jesus shows us whose we are and who we are. He directs our paths in His ways and not our own and He makes our lives more effective as we hear and see what He is doing and how we can join in. He brings us into spiritual maturity, He increases our faith, He makes our lives about His purpose, He makes us secure without having to compare or compete.

Without developing our personal relationship with Jesus we rely on others to have the relationship for us. How often do we go to people to answer a question we might be struggling with before we ask God what He thinks? How often do we rely on the words of someone’s prayer and not focus on God’s voice? How often do we go to church and rely on the pastors ‘relationship with God’ to tell us about Jesus? How often do we rely on people to validate us and not God? How often do we just get on with doing stuff – even ‘holy stuff’ – without asking whether this is God’s will for us?

Don’t you want to hear His voice for yourself and have your own stories of seeing God move in your life? I do!

Like any relationship it takes time and effort to learn how to communicate with Jesus. Our culture wants everything now, but relationship with God does not necessarily gratify immediately. Perhaps we give up on developing our personal relationship with Jesus because it just seems so hard.

Let’s take up the challenge together to sit in the presence of Jesus and ask Him to speak to us without doing anything. Try imagining He is sitting next to you in the car or walking with you in every situation during your day. Speak to Him as if He is present with you in every moment. After all, He is!

‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ (1 Cor 1.18 NIV)

I recently heard a story of how a man called John came to follow Jesus. He had been learning a bit about Jesus and was considering what to do about it. One evening, whilst in his friend’s house, he fell to his knees, began sobbing, and invited Jesus into his life. He was as surprised as anyone by this turn of events.

Whilst all this was going on, a memory of a time long passed came to his mind. He remembered being in a park in LA trying to find an old friend so he could borrow some money. As he was waiting for his drug-dealer friend he saw a man walk by wearing a sandwich board. On the front it read “I am a fool for Christ”, on the back simply “whose fool are you?”

At the time John thought this was stupid, but when on his knees in that living room he realized that Jesus was asking him the same question; ‘Whose fool are you John? Will you be my fool?’ He said ‘yes’ and God worked through him in amazing ways.

As I heard the John’s story I sensed that God was asking me the same question. I was moved and if I am honest, terrified. Am I really willing to be Jesus’ fool? Am I willing to let go of all other symbols of identity and abandon all I have to him? Am I really willing to let go of my reputation, of my attempts to make people like me? I want desperately to say ‘yes’ to this question but it is so difficult to do. It involves putting to death many other things I have held dear for a long time now. These other things are described in the bible as idols. They set themselves up against God and rob us of the truest life that can only come from submitting to him, and becoming his fool.

We are all someone’s fool. Maybe we are our own fool. Maybe we are pursuing our own agenda for success with the trappings of Christian discipleship. Or perhaps we are swallowing the world’s agenda hook, line and sinker. I know I have done that for a long time. But the goal of this Jesus thing is to give everything up to Him in order that He might work in us the thing that is really life – his abundant life.

I’m a fool for Christ (in training).
Whose fool are you?