Month: June 2013

Room of Pictures

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

What do we do in secret, in the dark, in our (with a scary movie announcer voice) ROOM OF PICTURES? God once asked the prophet Ezekiel, ““…have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures?” (Ezekiel 8:12) Perhaps the same question should be asked of us who are disciples of Jesus today. Let me put this scripture in its proper context, and then I’ll try to give some 21st century application.

Israel had repeatedly rebelled against God, killed the prophets, and committed idolatry. It wasn’t just the “average Joe,” but even the priests, elders, and the prophets had forsaken the Lord. Those who should’ve been leading the nation in repentance were instead leading them further away from the Lord. And judgment was on the way. Israel had not survived the earlier Assyrian invasion, and now Judah faced God’s judgment in the form of Babylon. God sent the prophet Ezekiel (already in exile) and showed him how far the people had fallen into idolatry. They had crossed the line; there was no room left for national repentance. And those who should have been the voice of God to the people had instead engraved idolatrous images in their “room of pictures,” and abandoned the true worship of YHWH. So what? I’m glad you asked.

We who are the present day disciples of Jesus are to “be Jesus” to the world. We are the body of Christ, and it is through the church that the world is to see the beauty of God’s holiness as we display the love, grace and mercy of God through our own lives. The only way for us to do this is to abide in Jesus, fixing our eyes upon the author and finisher of our faith. But in our “room of pictures” who is it that is portrayed there? Don’t misunderstand me, none of us are sinless, we all fall short, but the elders of Israel had engraved these idolatrous images on the walls of their hearts. This speaks to me of a habitual lifestyle, practicing sin if you will. Engraving to me denotes permanence, it was what and who they had become. Christian who or what is engraved on the walls in our room of pictures? Do we worship religion? Is it pornography, drugs, TV, sex, food, money, power, video-games, WHATEVER. What is it that we “gaze upon,” that we continually run to for comfort, purpose, and fulfillment? Like I said, we all fall short, that’s not what we’re talking about today. We are talking about things that may have become engraved on the walls of our hearts and are keeping us from Jesus. I know we don’t like to hear it, but we who are the Church bear some responsibility for what’s going on around us. “If the righteous are barely saved then what shall become of the wicked?”

The wonderful thing is that God continually extends love, grace, and mercy to us. The cross of our Lord says it all. If there are idolatrous images engraved on the walls in the room of pictures, in our hearts, the blood of Jesus can cleanse us. We who have experienced forgiveness, grace, mercy, and the love of God can then extend the same to those around us. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Look Out Man

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel…”

More often than not, when you listen to so-called prophets today, their message is one of blessing, victory, the thrill of being God’s anointed, and instructions as to how you too can receive the awesome mantle that God wants to give you. One thing you don’t hear too much about is sharing in the “suffering of God,” and the suffering of others.

It is truly amazing when you look at the life and ministry of the prophet Ezekiel. Here is a man that did not escape the difficulties resulting from  the judgment of God upon his rebellious people. Ezekiel endured exile and ministered to his people as a fellow captive. This was not a man who sat in his house receiving lofty messages from God, and then pontificating the word of the Lord to his audience by some ostentatious means. No, this was a man who lived among his people as one of the people. His prophetic calling did not afford him the reputation of being some super-spiritual mega saint, no; God required him to offer his very life as an example of what was about to befall the nation. Read the first four chapters of Ezekiel, and you’ll see just how God demanded of his messenger wild and even humiliating behavior. Are we willing to allow God to use our lives in what ever way he sees fit in order to reach those around us?

God shared with Ezekiel the brokenness that he (God) experienced over the people’s “whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols.” (Ezek. 6:9)  How many of us today move close enough to the heart of God that we weep and mourn over the condition of his people? We desire God’s blessing and anointing, but reject the fellowship of his sufferings. Today, we are more concerned with our rights, how things are affecting our lives, but spend little time at Jesus’ feet so that we might see and share in God’s heart. We put more effort into making sure we can keep our guns and have a right to privacy, than we do in endeavoring to “understand” how God’s Spirit is being grieved. Let us repent of our preoccupation with ourselves, and turn our hearts towards God that we might become preoccupied with him and his desires.

True servants of God rarely resemble the flamboyant superstars prevalent in our churches today, but like Ezekiel, are those who share in the suffering of the people, being burdened by that which touches the heart of God, and offer their very lives as a living gospel.

The Bridge: An Introduction

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

“Excuse me
Oh will you excuse me
I’m just trying to find the bridge… Has anybody seen the bridge?
(Have you seen the bridge?)
I ain’t seen the bridge!
(Where’s that confounded bridge?)”

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine (one who is about 13 years younger than me) about how “church” is done here in America. We talked about many things, but mainly about what I hear so many ministers  ask: “How do we effectively reach the Gen Xers and Millennials?” Today I received a letter from this individual, and wanted to share it with you.

To my fathers and mothers- shepherds,

I heard that you were looking for me.

And while I have looked forward to this introduction for a long time now, I must admit that the idea of coming out of the corners and shadows of American Christendom really doesn’t sound like something that I am looking forward to.  Now I know that there is a lot to say.  There are words I have reserved for this very moment and I know them all too well.  Those sharp and jagged words have played and replayed in my thoughts time and time again, dripping from my dreams to my soul and back again, in a rhythmic flow of anger, joy, hurt, and peace.  But in my maturity I have realized that those are words that are not ready to be shared, at least not yet.  We have a lot more introducing to do and we have a lot more trust to establish before we are ready to deal with the consequences of those words. 

 Getting back to the point,

 I must admit I am curious about a couple of things.  Why are you looking for me?  It is odd you see, that you would be looking for me now.  It’s odd that after all this time you have found it important to come looking for me at this moment and at this time.  Please forgive me, but I am curious about your motives and your intent.

But let me back up a moment, perhaps I should introduce myself a bit.You see while you may believe you know me, I think that you may have to rethink things a bit.   Perhaps, just perhaps, if you would be willing to pause a moment you may realize a few things.So if you are willing to hear what I have to say…..

 You may believe that you could pick me out in a crowd, like a dislocated tourist clothed in full rain gear in the center of Times Square during a sunny-sky heat-wave, but shepherd you may want to think again.  I am not sure if you have considered it, but could it be that a reason you have been unsuccessful in finding me is that you don’t actually know what I look like or who I even am?  Could it be that when we have wondered into your places of worship your lack of knowledge of me, my life, my dreams, or worldview have left me shaking my head disappointed with your ignorance?  And instead of pursuing your company we simply walked out of your carefully manicured institution crying with tears of sadness and loneliness. 

 Could it be that we have been in your presence for a long time now, many since birth and yet you have walked right past as if I possessed the attributes of the Invisible Man?  Could it be that you now seek something that God deposited into your life years ago, and yet you have neglected, rejected, and overlooked?

Could it be shepherd? Now I know there are many things to be said at this point, and there are a great many things that we will have to work out.  There is much forgiveness to be sought, much forgiveness to be granted, and plenty of repentance for us both to entertain.  But we aren’t there yet shepherd, not even close. 

 You see man and woman of God, before we can even speak we have a language to bridge.  You see this isn’t an issue of marketing slogans, Christian survey strategies, hipster haircuts, or intense worship experiences.  This is not an issue of supporting the most relevant social justice projects, building the newest beautiful building, or voting Jesus into office. 

 You see my friend it’s not an issue of dialect, no not even close.While you may believe the response you seek will occur if you can find the magic generational hip-spoken relevant message coming from a David Crowder masked sermon.  Shepherd this issue goes way deeper than that, and I have to tell you something that may just break your heart and disappoint your religious authorities- It won’t work….

 There is a fundamental error in your perception of me shepherd.  For a long time now I have heard voices emanating from somewhere behind your pulpit proclaim with Ecclesiastics 1:9 flair that I am just as all others that have come before, that I am just as my fathers and my father’s fathers and my father’s- father’s- fathers.  But your hermeneutical error shepherd is where you have missed the hello of our conversation.  Despite the great Evangelical desire to lift the reality of yesterday onto today, the effort has failed. 

 So shepherd could it be that perhaps the answer you seek and the hearts you desire have evaded you not due to failed strategy or poorly executed seeker sensitive programming, but because you have no idea who I am?Could it be, that there are consequences to cultural decisions and those consequences have unraveled to produce a schism in the reality you believe you understand shepherd? So let me explain a bit:

 We are the generation of latch key kids, abandoned at birth, flavored by microwave dinners.  We are the resulting generation of fallout from the sexual revolution, HIV, deregulation, and the fall of communism.  We are the generation that found itself standing face to face with a little man proclaiming his wisdom and authority from behind a rotten wizard’s curtain.  We are the generation who realized that the Santa Clause of the American Dream was an imaginary sugary placebo pill as intangible as the “truth” we learned of from the worn sweat stained floors of our local church.  We are the rejected generation of single-mother families who clung to televisions like daytime-night-lights dreaming of a day when we would feel whole for the first time in our lives.   We are the generation of technological social media prosthesis.  We are the generation that will, for the first time in American history do worse financially then our parents.  We are the generation that not only lost our childhood innocence but our ignorance of the world and its monsters way too soon.  We are a generation without heroes, for our heroes exist in death, Celebrity Rehab, or prison cells.  We are a generation of ADD, ADHD, Ritalin infused lifestyles, and anxiety flavored depression.  We are the generation of immediate gratification, lopsided debt to credit ratios, and Science.  We are the generation of designer babies, cloning, abortive mass genocide, and chaotic financial instability.  We are the generation that watched screeching planes destroy our buildings, Columbine mass murder, Al Jazeera, worldwide political protest, celebrity confessions of homosexuality, and Congressional investigations play out live in real-time from the un-comfort of our Best-Buy television showroom floors.  We are a generation who does not trust the politician, the doctor, the teacher, the parent, the neighbor, the employer, or the pastor to not rape, molest, lie, manipulate, and steal our dreams and heart.

 And yet shepherd

 I am a generation that despite myself, my experience, and my cynical reservations desires to believe. I want to believe in you shepherd. But shepherd you will not win my trust in the ways you have been trying.  You will not find my heart or my body anywhere near the places you have been looking to find me.  It is a wasted attempt and it will not work.

 So here we are shepherd.  Perhaps you have been lost in my introduction.  Perhaps you don’t understand what I have tried to explain.  But that’s okay shepherd.  Even if you don’t know where to find me, even if you have no idea who I am or what it is I live for, it’s okay.God has moved me beyond the hurt, the rejection, the neglect, and the pain.Where in times past I wanted nothing less to strike a match and watch your man made traditions burn, I am coming back to start a new conversation, to start the restoration.  But understand shepherd I am not looking to be involved in the restoration of your religion, your institution, or your previously designed programs intended to manipulate our hearts into a tradition that can not contain the dream of Jesus Christ for our lives.  I am seeking the restoration of a relationship of our hearts.So let’s start with an introduction.  I would love to get to know you.

 Your brothers and sisters in Christ,

The Nameless Faceless Generation

 

Looking, Loving and Speaking

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

“And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him…” (Mark 10:21)

How often do we really look at people? In our “I have 5,450 friends on Face Book” culture, it is so easy to not look at each other. Oh, we’re quick (especially us preachers) to tell people how they should live, what they should and should not do, where they should and should not go, etc…; but do we take the time to truly look at the folks we’re talking to? In reading Mark 10, I was struck by the way Mark described Jesus’ reaction to the “rich young ruler.

The young man had come to Jesus, curious as to how one goes about gaining eternal life. The conversation was not too intense at first. Jesus tells him, “You know the commandments.” The young man replies, “I’ve kept those all of my life.” And then, instead of immediately launching into “You need to do this” or “You need to do that,” Mark tells us that Jesus looked at him. So often, we spout off spiritual prescriptions to people without taking the time to ask God to help us see them as He does. We have become a society of people who prefer surface level relationships, and very rarely take the time to go deeper. We spend hours looking into the computer screen, but have a hard time looking into each other’s eyes. Check out the progression in the verse above: Jesus looked, and then he loved.

How can we love people we don’t look at? I believe if we would slow down, pray for wisdom and discernment, and ask God to help us see people by his Spirit; we would be able to truly love them. Jesus looked at the young man in our verse, and he loved him! True spiritual insight will move us to respond from a heart of genuine love and concern, instead of a desire to hear the sound of our own voices. Like Jesus, if we would but look, and let God fill our hearts with love for those to whom we would minister, we would then be ready to meet the real need in their lives. Only those who look and love can discern what it is that a person needs to hear. Remember, Jesus looked, loved, and then spoke.

Sadly, I must confess that there have been times when I loved the sound of my own voice more than the person to whom I was speaking. I just couldn’t wait to offer my “two cents worth,” and probably what I said did more harm than good. Jesus, motivated by love for the young man in our verse, clearly saw the area of need in his life, and addressed it with laser precision. People don’t need flippant, trite, prepackaged responses; they need our attention and love. Jesus was able to be brutally honest with our young man because he loved him. He saw the man’s heart, which revealed the man’s need, and then, with love and clarity, provided the answer to his initial question.

If we really want to connect with people and truly minister to them, I think perhaps we should remember: look, love, and then speak.

The Realio

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

Quite often, when my daughters and I phone each other and leave a voice mail, the message we leave is only three words, “You don’t see.” For us, this has come to be an inside joke whereby we are telling each other, “You don’t see what’s really going on.” or “You don’t understand how cool I am.” Basically though, it simply means that you are failing to comprehend the “realio.” You just aint gettin’ it! I think that’s what Jesus was saying to the disciples in Mark 8 when he said, “Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear…Don’t you understand yet?” (Mark 8:17-21)

It’s sobering to realize that Jesus was speaking to a group that earlier he had referred to as insiders who had been given the secret of the Kingdom of God. Now, these insiders are acting like outsiders that don’t yet truly understand who Jesus is at all. They had seen miracles. They had seen him calm the storm. They had seen him cast out demons, but still did not grasp the fact that the guy they were dealing with was the promised Messiah, the Son of God. These guys had intimate, regular interaction with Jesus, and yet were slow to comprehend who he is. Are we any different? We go to church, sing the songs, hear the sermons, and even (God forbid) have emotional outbursts. But who do we say that he is? Do we love and worship Jesus because he is God or simply for what he can do for us, or because he makes us feel good about ourselves? If Jesus is God, then how can I respond to him as if he is simply a hobby? Do we who call ourselves Christians, who are to be the light of the world really know who Jesus is?

The religious leaders of the day thought they knew how Messiah would be, how he would act and what he would do. King Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist, back from the dead to haunt him. Some said Jesus was Elijah or some Old Testament prophet. Even those closest to him had trouble fitting Jesus into their preconceived concept of Messiah. And we who make up the church today are guilty of trying to make Jesus fit into our boxes as well. We are very much like the blind man at Bethsaida who, after coming in contact with Jesus, said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”(Mark 8:22-26)  He needed Jesus to touch him again in order for his sight to be fully restored. Perhaps we too need a “fresh touch” so that we can see more clearly. The problem is that we think we know everything. We think that our little group is the only one that really sees.

At the end of Mark 8 we see (no pun intended) Peter finally comprehending and confessing that Jesus is the Christ, but he still suffers from blurred vision. Jesus tells the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem where he will be rejected, killed and after three days rise again. “As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.” Peter still didn’t quite get it. He had his ideas about how it should all play out, but Jesus would have none of it. Further clarity was needed. There was no easy path for the Lord to take; he must lay down his life. And what’s more, so must we. Jesus wanted the disciples (and us) to first see who he really is, and then they must be made to understand that to follow him, they too would be required to lay down their lives. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”(Mark 8:34, 35)

The realio is that Jesus is God, and as God deserves my all. I don’t know everything, and need continued fellowship with Jesus as well as the body of Christ to ensure that I am seeing properly. One of the ways I can be sure that my vision is okay is when what I’m seeing moves me to deny myself and give all I am to the One who denied himself and gave all he is for me. Do you see?