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  THE JESUS STYLE
  by Gayle Erwin
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Gayle Erwin's exploration of how Jesus' teaching about greatness through
humility and servanthood can be practiced by modern believers, contrasting His
accessible example with His unique divine nature.

  Chapters: 5

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. The Jesus Style
    1. Part 1
    2. Part 2
    3. Part 3
    4. Part 4

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  CHAPTER 0: THE JESUS STYLE
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  CHAPTER 1: PART 1
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The Jesus Style by Gale D. Irwin The Foreword by Richard C. Halverson The
world's first exposure to the Christ was in the human being, the person, the
man, Jesus. The Jewish carpenter turned itinerant rabbi. His teaching was
radical, cutting across the religious orthodoxy and the conventional view of the
Messiah King and his kingdom.

We fail to hear today what Jesus says since we're always in danger of reading
into his radical teaching what we think we already know and believe in our
cultural and theological context. Our traditions get in the way. In the Jesus
Style, Gale Irwin helps us to see and feel and hear Jesus as though for the
first time without any preconception, predisposition, or prejudice.

He helps to free us from our traditions and the same dogmatic prison in which
the religionists contemporary with Jesus were bound. And he said to them, Well
did Isaiah prophesy of you, hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me
with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.

You leave the commandment of God and hold fast the traditions of men. Some
theological scholars have been insisting that the critical issue in the church
is what we believe about Jesus Christ. So in a very basic sense, he has always
been the critical issue in the church, and for that matter in history.

Invariably and inevitably when anything else is made the issue, it tends to
divide those for whom Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. One way to look at this
is that when other issues are allowed to polarize those for whom Christ is Lord,
that issue, whatever it is, elevated to a position of greater importance than
Christ himself. One eminent scholar for whom I have profound admiration and
respect put it this way, Whatever you make the issue, you make the idol.

That Christ is the critical issue is indisputable. He made himself the issue
when he confronted the disciples at Caesarea Philippi with the fundamental
question, the answers to which is the foundation upon which he builds his
church. Quoting Scripture, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied,
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 16, verses
15 through 17, RSV The apostle John, who wrote his first epistle to those that
believed on the name of the Son of God, was explicit as to the central issue
when he defined the criterion for truth. Scripture By this you know the Spirit
of God.

Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. 1 John 4, verses 2
and 3, RSV The first heresy in the church did not deny the deity of Jesus. It
denied his humanity.

Gnosticism, believing matter to be evil, rejected the idea that Christ had a
physical body and affirmed that he only appeared to be human. In the first third
of this century, the controversy about the deity of Jesus dominated the church.
In their justifiable preoccupation with the deity of Christ, evangelicals
somehow seemed to lose their sense of the humanity of Jesus.

In doing so, for all practical purposes, they abandoned the human model which
God sent into history to show us not only what God is like, but humanness as God
intended it. The very essence of the divine strategy, God's consummate
revelation of himself in human flesh, was, in effect, sacrifice to a dogma
which, though absolutely correct, caused us to lose touch with the essential
aspect of God's identifying himself with man. It is the settled conviction of
this writer that this fact is today critical in the evangelical approach to an
unbelieving world.

Instead of presenting the fascinating, irresistible man Jesus, we communicate a
doctrine. The tendency is to ask a person to believe this or that about Christ
rather than to know him, receive him, trust him, love him. Our gospel has become
a dogma rather than a fascinating person who was the center and circumference of
apostolic faith.

The apostles knew very little about Jesus, but they knew him. We tend today to
know much about him, but fail to enjoy an intimate relationship with him. The
critical issue, then, is Jesus, who he was, what he said and did in his earthly
pilgrimage.

Gail Irwin brings us face to face with the man, Jesus, the real person who
walked the dusty roads of Galilee, lived a real life in real situations with
real people, and communicated the profoundest truth in the simplest terms. Out
of his own pastoral experience and early failures, it might be added, the author
forces his readers to consider honestly or, perhaps it is even better to say,
reconsider the simple teachings of Jesus with which they are already very
familiar. In this book, we are presented with the Jesus of the New Testament in
a way which penetrates our traditional views and demands that we abandon the
rationalizations we have invented which allow us to profess to be Jesus'
disciples, while at the same time giving him half-hearted, partial obedience.

Personally, I met Jesus in a new way reading this book, for which I am deeply
grateful. In reading, I thought of John's opening statement in his first
epistle. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also
to you.

1 John 1, verses 1 and 3, RSV. Richard C. Halverson, Chaplain, United States
Senate The Preface This book was born out of a crisis of understanding and
purpose that occurred in my life during an early pastorate. At that time, I did
not know how far-reaching the effects of that crisis would be.

There came a point in which simple integrity demanded that I begin to match my
pastoral activities to what I understood the Bible to teach, rather than permit
tradition and cultural expectations to rule my actions. I discovered, however,
that the bridge between the real and the ideal seems to be in disrepair. You
cross at your own risk, and you dare not carry excess baggage from your past
habits.

Crossing that bridge became a source of disillusionment with much of the
familiar, and it skirts dangerously close to a chasm of apathetic cynicism. I
have often wished I could ask God one specific question and know that He would
answer it fully for me. Why have you let your church get in such dismal shape,
with factions, fighting, and heresies? Well, I don't have that answer, but I
have come to an understanding of principle and purpose that has rescued me and,
in my view, has the potential of freeing the church to become what Jesus
designed it to be.

Chapter A Style of His Own Subtitle Jesus, Yes It was only one of the many
placards we saw wielded by the protesters of the 60s, but it arrested me. The
sign simply said, Jesus, Yes. Christianity, No.

I pondered why, through all these years, has the reality of Jesus remained
innately attractive while our interpretations of Him have proved less
captivating. Somewhere we have missed an understanding of Him that portrays Him
properly. But what? Could there be anything about Him that we have not
researched or developed? Is there a key? I share my search with you.

The focal point of all time, all history, all study—my bias is evident here—is
the person of Jesus Christ. Yet this book is not about the omniscience,
omnipotence, or omnipresence of Jesus, not about predestination or the
foreknowledge of God. These traits, as I read them in systematic theologies and
their treatment of His nature, place Jesus beyond my reach, sometimes I think
safely so.

What more can be said of His visual awesomeness than the word pictures in the
first chapter of Revelation? Instead of these overwhelming, majestic
descriptions with endless possibilities of theological convolutions, I want to
speak of His incarnation. I want to take His thundering power, compress it into
the body that was His, place Your hand against His skin, and—if Your mind can
handle it, I know that Your spirit can—let You know that the touch and the
warmth You feel is God Himself. When that first cry was heard from the stable of
Bethlehem and into the care of Mary and Joseph came a wrinkled, blood-covered
baby, the universe reached its turning point.

For the first time, the God and Creator who before had been only heard could now
be seen and touched. All that He was now occupied human flesh, approachable,
available, vulnerable. Yet mankind prefers the unseen, distant God.

We have difficulty with a God who is living flesh. We would rather wrestle with
principles, dogmas, and ideas than hear Him call us to Himself as a person. But
God would not have it that way.

Jesus, the dividing point of time, could be touched, and He put us in touch with
God. It is appropriate that the records show Him going everywhere, touching
people, even those who had been untouchable until that time. Ironically, the
records also show that those He touched did not understand who He was.

Even His closest followers were often uncertain. SUBHEAD—THE UPSIDE-DOWN KINGDOM
John the Baptist, Jesus' own cousin, is an example of that uncertainty. Early in
his ministry, he said of Jesus, This is the one.

Later he asked, speaking out of his doubts, Are you the one? What happened in
the meantime? Why did he get confused about who Jesus actually was? John gives
us a clue to what might have been the source of his confusion. At the time he
made the first statement, he revealed that he would not have known Jesus had it
not been for the Spirit descending and remaining on him. In other words, there
was nothing automatically messianic in his appearance—a difficult thing to
believe when we look at the artistic portrayals of Jesus now.

Nor did his actions match the traditional expectations of the Messiah. Though
John preached the message of preparation given to him, he, along with the
disciples, who were constantly asking Jesus when he was going to throw off Rome
and establish the kingdom, may well have harbored a traditional understanding of
the Messiah. Somehow, whatever their expectations, Jesus did not coincide with
their or our popular understandings of the Messiah.

The question is, how do we align our understanding with the truth? The disciples
repeatedly struggled with what Jesus was trying to teach them about the kingdom
of God. They jockeyed for position, maneuvered for favor, argued over who was
the greatest. I frankly appreciate seeing their humanness.

Naturally, I consider myself too sophisticated today to stoop to such a crass
approach. Indeed, when I go into committee meetings, I scheme about how I can
get the others to do what I want them to do while they think it's what they want
to do and then ultimately to give me the credit for it. Or I join with others in
clever political maneuverings behind the scenes at church conventions and remain
conveniently blind to my own motivation.

Jesus responded clearly and firmly to the competitive discussions of the
disciples and to my own motives in this scripture. You know that those who are
regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials
exercise authority over them. Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and
whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Mark
10, verses 42 through 45.

This man said he came to serve rather than be served. He rules, as one author
put it, in an upside-down kingdom. As we study him, we may be in for as many
surprises as were the disciples.

When John the Baptist asked, Are you the one? Jesus responded by listing his
caring, healing actions, actions somewhat less dramatic than the traditional
expectations of the Messiah. John was still in jail, undelivered. Rome was still
in control.

Where was Jesus the King? Either something had gone wrong, or the
misunderstanding had been complete. Jesus, knowing the tension between His
reality and our understanding, stated, Blessed is the man who does not fall away
on account of me. Luke 7, 23.

This is the Jesus I want to talk about. The Jesus who called Himself a servant.
For reasons I cannot understand, I have not, in my research, found the qualities
of servanthood, which seem so self-evident and basic to who Jesus is, treated in
any but a surface and brief way.

I only know that the realization of them, and even minimal incorporation of them
into life, has power that I cannot describe. I can only invite you to it. We
will look at these characteristics in the following chapter.

Chapter titled, The Jesus Approach. Let's pose a speculative question. What if
you were God and wished to completely reveal yourself to a planet? Knowing the
awesome disparity between yourself and the people of that planet, what would be
your first act? There's no end of irony and incongruity in the way God did
choose to reveal Himself.

Let's look at some of the paradoxical events that happened when Jesus entered
our world. Heading, Born in a Barn. What an unlikely place for a king to be
born! After a difficult journey for a woman in the ninth month of pregnancy, a
stable is the last place a caring husband would want her to be.

The nativity scenes that decorate the landscapes during Christmas season are
somewhat less than accurate. None of them smell quite right. We don't fully
understand the unsanitary conditions of having to walk carefully around the
droppings of animals and then lay a newborn baby fresh from the pains of
delivery in a feeding trough streaked with the saliva of animals.

We don't fully understand the embarrassment Joseph must have felt to watch his
wife go through this pain in these surroundings. The Son of God deserved
something better. My four children were all born under very sanitary conditions,
so sanitary that I was unwelcome.

It was somewhat devastating as a father to have the nurses quickly remove the
newborn baby from the mother's room because I was coming in. If God would have
consulted with me, since I've had some experience in public relations, I would
have advised Him to snap His fingers and create a multi-story magnificently
modern hospital gleaming bright on the outside, with a giant diamond on the top
to catch the sun's rays and scatter them over the countryside. His son, of
course, would be the exclusive user, and all the world would then visit and gasp
and wonder at the birthplace of the Son of God.

But He didn't consult with me, and instead had His son born in a barn. This was
a birth that could impress no one, and certainly no one would be threatened by
it. Most could even brag about their better circumstances.

Well, maybe we can cheer for His city. Or can we? And how about the choice of
location? A famous city would have increased people's ability to remember Him
and definitely would have improved His image. But Bethlehem? There are not
sufficient hotels and motels and convention centers to make this an appropriate
place to visit and honor the memory of the King.

No, Bethlehem was not large enough to warrant having the Son of God born there.
But He was. No one could be intimidated by His birthplace.

Ah, but royalty is royalty, and the sophistication of His parentage surely will
show through. Or will it? And what about His parentage? We believe in the virgin
birth now. This doctrine has been deliberated upon and agreed to by most of the
Christian world.

However, at the time of Jesus' birth, they did not know about the virgin birth.
Jesus grew up amidst whispers of bastard and the stigma of having been conceived
out of wedlock. What if the choice young girl of an outstanding church youth
group suddenly appeared pregnant? Nothing about her life would indicate that
such would ever happen, so everyone is shocked.

With great hesitation and embarrassment, the leader of the group finally gets up
enough courage to ask her who the father is. She responds, The Holy Spirit. Ha,
the church would laugh her to scorn.

Do you suppose the friends and neighbors of Jesus never asked Him why He didn't
favor Joseph? Do you suppose His childhood friends never gathered and laughed at
His claim that the Holy Spirit was His father? Do you suppose the Pharisees
never brought it up to Him? In biblical times, a bastard and his descendants to
the tenth generation were excluded from the assembly of the Lord. Bastards had
no claim to paternal care or the usual privileges and discipline of legitimate
children. Though we know that is not what Jesus was, the world viewed Him
differently.

If you were seeking to be recognized as God, you wouldn't want this sort of
thing on your record. Any opponents would have buckets of mud to sling in your
face. The whispering campaigns would be devastating.

But multitudes of people who had borne the taunts of the world would now find
one whose birth wouldn't intimidate them, one who could redeem them. How utterly
vulnerable he made himself to the caustic world, born of a virgin. And if that
wasn't enough, his ancestry left him with few bragging points.

Subhead. His family's checkered past. Genealogies have never inspired me, and
from what I hear, many people have tired of reading the Bible once they had to
wade through the baguettes.

But there is more to the record of Christ's ancestry than a list of names. Just
as a study of our own heritage may produce a horse thief or two, Jesus, were he
not God with us, would be embarrassed by some from whom he issued. The beloved
purity of the Jewish line was compromised in Ruth the Moabite and Rahab the
Canaanite.

Further shame, Rahab was a prostitute. Jacob, as his name indicated, was a noted
cheat. Judah was a womanizer.

David, on whose throne Christ sits and whose name he takes, was an adulterer and
murderer whose bloodstained hands precluded his building the temple. Out of
David's union with Bathsheba, for whom he murdered Uriah, comes Solomon, who in
spite of his wisdom had hundreds of wives and concubines and turned his heart
away from God. We may be proud of royal or outstanding genetic strains in our
ancestry, but this amazing Jesus forgoes such a luxury so that his ancestry can
never intimidate us and the skeptic can never claim that he was merely the final
product of a super race.

Jesus also managed his messiahship without the privilege of an unusual name.
Now, you may protest that the name of Jesus is not a common name and definitely
not a weak one, but we need to understand its background before we jump to these
conclusions. To begin with, his name was not actually Jesus.

His name was Joshua or Yahshua. It was a good name, meaning Jehovah is
salvation, but it was a very common name, not one appropriate to a king. The
name Joshua comes to us through the Greek as Jesus.

We've used it that way unquestioningly. It's easy to understand the change when
we see how the name James translates into Spanish as either Iago or Jaime.
Because the common name of Joshua did not stand out from all the rest, it is a
clue to his nature, for he was also to be called Immanuel, which means God with
us.

He chose to identify himself with his people, not stand apart from them. What
name would we recommend for him if we were to suggest one more appropriate for a
king? Wouldn't we want a smooth-sounding, attractive, looks-good-in-lights,
unique Hollywood stage name? But Joshua? There were probably three in his block
already. Why even bother to announce a birth that is off to such a bad start?
And the way it was handled, it would have to be considered a rather weak
announcement.

Again, you may protest. Wait a minute. They didn't have angels singing when I
was born.

How can you call that a weak announcement? You will see. Subhead, The Way He
Arrived First, if God would have consulted with me, I would have recommended
that he make the announcement with a little more flair. Perhaps he could stand
on the moon with an expensive microphone, hang two billion-watt speakers out in
space, and then broadcast, Hello, world, this is God.

Or, since God chose to go with a choir, I would have recommended that he follow
the chain of command and go to the Sanhedrin first. Or at least use his energies
wisely and go to the marketplace and get the announcement to the greatest number
of people in the shortest time. But no, he persists in picking a desolate spot.

What if you had been one of the members of that angelic choir chosen to announce
the birth? For two hundred years you have been practicing and anticipating the
glorious presentation. Everything is in perfect tune and timing for the concert
of the ages. For one hundred years they've been building a stage in the sky for
that great moment.

Then Gabriel says, He's born! You're on, fellas! The curtains are pulled back
and you see the crowd. Six shepherds? What a letdown! Okay, someone asks, who
was in charge of posters? Well, shepherds weren't exactly in the centers of
communication. Their captive audience could only talk to other sheep.

Also, shepherds were not the best messengers to be carrying such important news.
In the time of Jesus, they had lost the respectful reputation that they might
have had in the time of David. Now they were a group with a questionable
reputation.

They tended to be a little light-fingered with other people's property. Nor were
they particularly welcome in town. People didn't put much stock in their word
either.

Can you hear the conversation in a home in Bethlehem? The shepherds have visited
the manger and then leave town, knocking on doors as they go, all the while
yelling, Joshua is born! Joshua is born! Oh boy, another Joshua in this
neighborhood. That's all we need. Who said that anyway? Oh, just our friendly
local burglar.

What did you say? As we read about this primitive birth announcement, we're
amazed at who gets elevated in the presence of the servant Jesus. Anyway, wait
until we see his face, then we will be properly awed. Won't we? Subhead, the way
he looked.

Jesus was not handsome. This you may find difficult to accept. You may respond,
now you've gone too far.

I have his picture on my wall and he isn't ugly. He's striking a really fine
figure of a man. Sorry, but Isaiah tells us how he looked.

Scripture. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his
appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53, 2. Jesus was so common in his
looks that often he was able to lose himself in crowds.

Judas had to identify him with a kiss, even after three years in the public eye.
Who knows, the traitor may have been better looking than the betrayed. This is a
good clue to Jesus' approach to persons.

I know how I feel when I'm in the presence of inordinately handsome men.
Jealous. But Jesus came in a form that was not intimidating to anyone.

All could feel at ease around him. His looks in no way separated him from the
common poor people to whom he was sent. But if his face didn't separate him,
surely his home would, wouldn't it? Let's look at that aspect of his coming.

Have you ever wondered what you would have done if the Messiah had been born
into your family? Here you have the most precious jewel in all of history. Now
what are you going to do with him? What kind of home would you buy? What kind of
city would you choose? What kind of neighborhood would you select? What kind of
friends would you permit him to have? Some things are so valuable that you don't
know what to do with them. You would not carry the hope diamond around in your
pocket or wear it on a chain around your neck in public places.

Subhead. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? But Joseph and Mary now had the
Son of God in their possession. What were they to do? They took him to Nazareth
after fleeing for their lives to Egypt.

But surely Nazareth was not the place to raise the Son of God. The moral and
religious reputation of Nazareth was so bad that Nathaniel's response to meeting
Jesus of Nazareth was, can anything good come out of Nazareth? John 1 47. So
Jesus consistently found himself moving among and identifying with the least in
life.

But his father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Let's see what happens when
he starts spending that money. Ownership of things is central to Western
society.

As I tour through the Beverly Hills section of Hollywood in California, I'm
dutifully impressed with the displays of wealth. Massive homes, automobiles,
security guards. The owner's importance is evident.

But Jesus never owned more than what he carried on his back. No one could be
very impressed or intimidated by that. He said of himself, foxes have holes and
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head,
Matthew 8 20.

How does he expect to impress this economic world without even a house to sleep
in? He simply doesn't view riches the same way we do. In the Sermon on the
Mount, his words were straightforward, quoting Scripture, Do not store up for
yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves
break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth
and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. But where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also, Matthew 6 verses 19 through 21.

Jesus was not fooled by money. It was not important to him. He who was able to
pay taxes from coins found in the mouth of a fish and turn stones to bread could
easily have been the financial baron of all times.

The problem with wealth, however, is that it affects our relationships with
people. If I know people are wealthy, I have a difficult time being real around
them. I become much too nice.

After all, you never know when you might want to borrow from them. Jesus'
decision to remain uninvolved with the world's goods freed him from the hidden
agenda of jealousy that would affect any conversation with someone more wealthy
or less wealthy than he. Thus he was able to direct all of his energies and
sensitivity toward the real needs of the persons to whom he was ministering, and
he was able to act out of love alone.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9 wrote that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. Jesus, by
choosing to walk this earth unencumbered by riches, was choosing not to let
anything come in the way of his giving himself to people. He had not come to
redeem things.

He had come to redeem people, and he gave himself fully to us. Heading, and he
came with a very strange advance man. If I were organizing a series of crusades
around my own ministry and sending someone ahead to prepare the way, I would
send a handsome, smartly dressed, smooth-talking ambassador who would in no way
embarrass me.

Jesus obviously didn't do it my way. Instead he used a raving, rough-hewn man
who dressed inappropriately for a minister and was committed to organic foods.
To top it all, he closed his services by doing a most undignified thing, dunking
in water those who were brave enough to respond.

Scripture. And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching
repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins. John wore clothing made of
camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild
honey.

Mark 1 verses 4 and 6. John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him,
you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Luke 3, 7.
How tactless can you be? If I were Jesus, I would be afraid I would have to
spend most of my time explaining the actions of my forerunner. However, Jesus'
whole life was marked by the use of the most unlikely persons. He always saw
people differently than I do.

That view of people becomes obvious when we look at some of his other choices.
Subhead. His motley crew.

When we get a new president of the United States, everyone watches closely to
see who he surrounds himself with, what kind of staff and cabinet he chooses. So
the Son of God comes to earth and begins to reveal what kind of reign he will
have by putting together his traveling band of people. Now I would have told him
to go to the best-known seminary and pick at least three professors who would
have a good grasp on theology and all of its ramifications.

Then he should go to Hollywood and get people with charisma who can command the
attention of the crowds and explain to them what he meant when he said
something. Then go to Wall Street and pick a few millionaires. It's always good
to have a few of them on the team.

Then by all means go to Muscle Beach and pick six bodyguards. Otherwise those
religious leaders might have him crucified. But Jesus didn't check with me.

Instead, he went to the streets and wharves and picked out the strangest crew
ever to be sent out on a mission to change the world. Had you been walking
within 50 feet of them, you probably would have detected the odor of fish. He
had a zealot and a tax collector on the team.

This is a combination not unlike a black revolutionary and a Ku Klux Klan
member. Some of them had heavily identifiable accents, inappropriate to the need
for eloquence on the team. Jesus was found constantly among the sordid, from the
violent to the crafty to the sensual.

I would have fired Peter within a week or two of his hiring. His life indicates
that he suffered from foot and mouth disease. His impulsiveness decreased his
usefulness to 50% at the most.

Yet Jesus let him remain and even gave him prominence. How could that be unless
Jesus sees people far differently than I do and patiently calls the best from
them? I find the analysis of his crew very encouraging. If he could work with
them, then he can work with me.

And you. He doesn't use the criteria that we naturally would. A wantad calling
for the weary and heavy laden was hardly the way to pull together the most
skilled of followers, and he continues to call the unlikely.

Scripture quote. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many
of you were wise by human standards.

Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong so that no man may
boast before him. First Corinthians 1, 26 through 27 and 29. His love for and
few of persons is beyond the limit of my logic.

But they are very much compatible with his nature. The only thing left that
could have saved his reputation was a rapid and overwhelming rescue from death.
But I'm afraid that his death was the final blow to any chance for
impressiveness.

Let's look at what happened. Subhead. The way he died.

We would all agree that Jesus died a notorious death. Yet I found that I didn't
understand the extent of his shame. The truth of scriptural description was lost
on me.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. First
Corinthians 1, 18. The cross was never foolishness to me.

I saw it everywhere. It gracefully adorned lofty steeples. In polished silver or
burnished wood, it decorated the interiors of churches and other religious
buildings.

It hung an expensive jewelry around elegant necks. It graced the lapels of suits
and marked the fancy stationery of big churches. It was sung about and
proclaimed.

People carried huge and heavy crosses for penance or publicity. The cross
permeated my world, but it was never foolishness. How could it be? Then it
occurred to me that I didn't truly understand the cross, primarily because
people don't die on crosses in these days.

Had Jesus come to this age, we would have treated him far more humanely. We
would have electrocuted him or hanged him or gassed him or placed him before the
firing squad or at least injected him with a lethal dose of drugs. Imagine the
results of such a modern execution.

I would now be collaring people on the streets and witnessing in this manner.
Neighbor, my best friend just died in the electric chair for you. If you'll
believe this and take up your electric chair and follow him, you will be saved.

Our great hymns would certainly be different. Can you hear us singing? At the
electric chair, at the electric chair, where I first saw the light. Or, there's
room in the gas chamber for you.

Or, take up your firing squad and follow me. We would become the laughing stock
of the world. We would be embarrassed that our hope had died so shamefully, even
though we knew he had been resurrected.

Such a death is really tough on our image of the cross. Let us paraphrase the
scripture and see how it sounds. Jews demanded miraculous signs and Greeks
looked for wisdom, but we preached Joshua electrocuted, a stumbling block to
Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

1 Corinthians 1, 22, 23, with apologies. For I resolved to know nothing while I
was with you except Joshua Messiah and him electrocuted. 1 Corinthians 2, 2,
with apologies.

If I were to identify with someone in their death, I would want it to be a
heroic death, worthy of medals of honor rather than the death of a common
criminal. His cup was more than mere death. It was the shameful, degrading
sentence that comes from carrying the sins, the crimes, the atrocities of all
creation on his shoulders.

Now let's look back to see what we've discovered. Subhead, the chance to choose.
When I look at the clues we've discussed that indicate the nature of Jesus, born
in a barn, questionable parents, spotty ancestry, common name, misdirected
announcement, unattractive looks, reared in a bad neighborhood, owning nothing,
surrounding himself with unattractive co-workers, and dying a shameful death, I
find his whole approach unable to fit into the methods that automatically come
to mind when I think about winning the world.

His whole approach could easily be described as non-threatening or
non-manipulative. He seemed to lead with weakness in each step of life. He had
nothing in the world and everything in God and the Spirit.

With this kind of approach to us, he could be sure that our response would be an
honest one. None of the methods that would coerce us and get something less than
genuine belief were used. This is indicative of true love.

Being an others-oriented person, a servant to others, made him want to free them
to be as real and honest as possible. He wanted them to be able to make genuine
decisions. On Thanksgiving Day of 1956, I shivered more from fear and excitement
than I did from the biting cold of Memphis, Tennessee, as I held a ring in my
hand and asked Ada Faye Brown to become my wife.

Fortunately, she agreed. I could have done it another way. I could have held a
ring in one hand and a pistol in the other hand and told her that she was going
to marry me for her own good.

Had it happened that way, every meal she fixed for me I would have made the dog
taste first to see if he remained alive. Love only wants a genuine response. We
make so few genuine decisions in life.

Most of the choices we make are affected by outside forces and demands, but when
it comes to the most important decision in our life, our decision about God,
Jesus seeks only a genuine one. So we are approached in a way that lovingly
frees us to make that decision genuinely. We can accept or reject.

God refuses to violate our personhood and our power to choose. That is love.
Chapter The Style Setter Subtitle Number One If one were to objectively examine
the Bible and try to list events and persons in some sort of priority, Jesus
becomes, without question, the central figure.

Jesus himself said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as
well.

From now on you do know him and have seen him. John 14, verses 6 and 7 The Holy
Spirit helped Paul to see Jesus as recorded in his letter to the Colossians.
Scripture quote, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation.

For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things were
created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the
firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the
supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things.

Colossians 1, verses 15 through 20 Since Jesus is everything that God is, but
expressed in bodily form, and since all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
are in him, we can each say, If I am to know God, I will know him through Jesus.
If I am to gain knowledge, it is deposited in Jesus. If I am to have wisdom, I
will find it in Jesus.

If God dwells in me, it is because Jesus dwells in me. If I wish to study God, I
must study Jesus. If the Holy Spirit is active in my life, I will hear him speak
of Jesus.

His personality, his life, and his words are to be grasped and assimilated with
all our energy. In everything he must have the supremacy. However, I must
confess that other things have found a more sure place in my life.

Far too much of my thought life is centered in the things that appear to provide
security, acquisition of funds and titles, realization of ambitions, for
instance. Perhaps these have gained prominence because of my faulty view of the
reality of Jesus. Spiritual myopia tends to distort my vision.

Anything that works or prospers, as I culturally understand prosperity, and has
his name attached to it, does so, I often conclude, because I am doing it the
Jesus way, and therefore he is blessing it. So many successful worldly systems
of operation I uncritically accept as God-inspired simply because they cloak
themselves with the name of Jesus or the form of a church. But to realize my
failing is not necessarily to understand and follow the answer.

How do I correct this faulty view? Must I truly live the nature of Jesus? For an
answer, let us look at a command that he gives and emphasizes, literally
demanding that the disciples conform to it. Subtitle One for All Jesus gave many
commands to the disciples and all those who would follow him, but all of them
are mere subheads to the primary command he left us. A new commandment I give
you, love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another.

All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. John 13
verses 34 and 35. Two things grab my attention immediately as I read this.

First, Jesus has authorized only one identifying mark of his followers, love for
one another. Not my knowledge of scripture, not my style of clothing, nor its
percentage of body coverage, not the rituals I go through each week, not my
membership in a specific organization, not my hair length or other adornment,
not even my orthodoxy. Only my love for others properly brands me.

Saying this brings immediate protest to my mind. It sounds as if Christ is
negating the necessity of knowledge, of holy living, of proper looks, by saying
only those who love are his. He doesn't even mention the proper rooting of
spiritual experience and practice in this context.

What about conviction, salvation, sanctification, baptism, holy living, tithing?
Are these not labels? Won't they identify me just as quickly? In our minds they
might, but Jesus certainly doesn't give them any credence here. Is this a cheap
and easy gospel he's finally dishing out to us? Hardly. It does not take long
for me to realize that I am a hopelessly selfish, unloving person, with notable
but inconsistent exceptions, without the presence and power of Christ within me.

The second item of attention was his command to love each other as I have loved
you. I knew there was a catch somewhere. Does this mean we are all going to have
to be crucified just like he was, else we will not love as he did? Frankly, I
find that possibility unattractive and very impractical.

If all the Christians get themselves crucified, who will spread the gospel? This
could give rise to an interesting new church ritual. But wait. When Jesus gave
this remarkable command to his disciples, he had not yet been crucified, and
they still seemed to understand what he meant.

Not even Peter asked the question, what do you mean by love? Something about
Jesus' total actions toward them up to this time had not only convinced them of
his love for them, but also laid down a practical, imitable pattern. In our
culture, if we wish someone to know that we love them, we merely say, I love
you. Although he may have done so, there is no evidence in Scripture that Jesus
employed such means.

I doubt that he lined the disciples up and said, Peter, I love you. James, I
love you. John, I love you.

Judas, I am. Jesus' servanthood to the disciples made his love clear. No one had
ever loved them in this wholly unselfish way.

So important is this command and example that once you see it clearly, you will
discover it to be the common thread that weaves the New Testament together.
Subtitle All for One Few themes are clearer in the New Testament than that of
love. Jesus himself underscores its prominence.

Scripture quote One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this
question. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like
it.

Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two
commandments. Matthew 22, 35 through 40 In other words, this is what the Bible
is all about.

Incredible! With this much prominence for love of God and love of one's
neighbor, it came as a shock to me to find out that such a statement was missing
from the great doctrinal statements of denominations, missing from the great
systematic theologies, missing from the creedal statements, and most
unfortunate, missing from our daily lives. But still, does this servanthood
nature of Jesus fulfill all the elements of Jesus' love? And what are the things
that love will do? The apostle Paul makes a classic statement about love in 1
Corinthians 13. Here he tells us that glossolalia and eloquence, prophecy and
knowledge, faith and philanthropy are all worthless without love.

That hits us at our weakest points. The speaking circuit is most easily open to
the eloquent who can move us and to those who can excite us with the possibility
of speaking with the tongues of angels. But Paul denounces these dynamic
speakers if they are loveless.

Periodically, prophetic students hit the trail to reveal to us times, seasons,
dates, or to give us the latest word direct from God. Our hunger causes us to
welcome them with open arms. But Paul again relegates this to dust if it is
without love.

I teach in a college. There, knowledge is the premium. It's the only thing we
know how to grade, and it's the only thing that will ultimately bring the reward
of a degree.

Persons of such knowledge and degree are held up for example in our institution
and in others, yet Paul equates it with mindlessness if love is not the guiding
force. Faith and faith teaching is big business in Christian circles. If a
practitioner were to come along and state that he was going to move Pike's Peak
from Colorado to Nebraska and then do it, every news medium in the country would
follow him relentlessly, and he would be in highest demand to speak in the
largest auditoriums.

Demonstrated faith is a big producer. But Paul reduces it to paganism if it is
not motivated by love. The world gladly accepts the efforts of a philanthropist,
especially one who is so generous that he's even willing to have slave marks
burnt into his body, thereby belonging to someone else.

But strangely enough, even that can be motivated by something other than love
and become meaningless. Some giving is done for influence or for tax benefit.
Eloquence, faith, knowledge, giving are all good in our eyes and beneficial, but
it is love that is the height of achievement.

Even the good and beneficial become deliverers of death if they are not
motivated by love. Paul goes on to give a powerful, overwhelming list of what
love is and does. Love is patient.

Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast.

Love is not proud. Love is not rude. Love is not self-seeking.

Love is not easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not
delight in evil.

Love rejoices in the truth. Love always protects. Love always trusts.

Love always hopes. Love always perseveres. Love never fails.

Servanthood fulfills these actions by its very nature. Listen also to the demand
for love in the letters of John. This is how we know what love is.

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for
our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need
but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us
not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3, verses 16 through 18. When I was struck with the fact that our
relationship with God and our effectiveness in the world is predicated on our
ability to love one another, I began to see that there was a wealth of
instruction about how we are to treat one another in the New Testament. Here's a
sampling.

Kindly affectioned one to another. In honor, preferring one another. Of the same
mind one to another.

Not judging one another. Following peace and edifying one another. Receiving one
another.

Admonishing one another. Saluting one another with a holy kiss. Having the same
care one for another.

Serving one another. Forbearing one another. Being kind and tender-hearted one
to another.

Forgiving one another. Submitting one to another. Not lying one to another.

Comforting one another. Edifying one another. Being impartial one to another.

Wait for one another. Pray for one another. And many times it says, love one
another.

Here again servanthood fulfills these commands by nature, by very definition.
Years ago, I heard a speaker at an Easter sunrise service state that the Bible
has much to say about what to believe, but little to say about how to relate to
people. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is time that we took this abundant store of instruction and developed a
theology of relationships. With this, we might be better able to live as
citizens of the kingdom of God. With this understanding of relationships, we may
see more clearly the principles of Scripture in their proper perspective.

With this, we may be less abusive of Scripture for selfish gain. Every year, in
classes that introduce students to the principles of Christian education, I have
asked them to write a brief paper about the teacher who most affected their life
and had most motivated them to learn. Without exception, these have been
teachers who loved them and exhibited that love.

Expertise in the subject and refinement in teaching method was secondary to the
power of love. However, no educational institution that I know of, including
Institutes of Biblical Learning, chooses its faculty on the basis of their
ability to love. This case, for the necessity of love and the necessity to love
as Jesus loved, is certainly not exhaustive.

Hopefully, it will be clear that the servant nature of Jesus answers all the
questions we have. The Great High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, recorded in the 17th
chapter of the Gospel of John, can only be understood in the context of His
prior commandment to love one another. By His great commandment in chapter 13,
He has made it clear that our relationship with God is evidenced by our
relationship with each other.

Now, in His prayer, He reveals that the evangelistic side of the relationship
coin is also bound up in my ability to love my brother. Five times in this great
prayer, Jesus prays for the same thing, a repetition that should catch our
attention. For His followers, He prays that they, being many, may be one.

His prayer is amazingly simple. He prays that we may be one, just as He and the
Father are one. I must admit that though I am a believer in the Trinity, I do
not understand it.

It is difficult for me to understand how three separate and distinct persons can
be one inseparable God without being a committee, a committee that perhaps voted
two to one to send Jesus to the earth. Yet their unity was such that Jesus was
able to say, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. What kind of unity must
we have in order to say, If you want to know what kind of Christian I am, just
check another Christian out.

I am like him. For this to occur, there must be change and improvement in the
kind of love we are expressing to each other within and across denominational
lines. Another expression that He connects with His prayer for unity has serious
implications for evangelism.

He prayed, May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you
sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17, 23 Most of my
evangelistic efforts have revolved around developing even more creative means to
get the gospel past the defenses of the world. So I have moved into better sales
systems for personal soul winning, into better staging of programs for
auditoriums, into more eloquent speakers, into more dramatic use of the media.

Yet the power source for effectively winning the world lies in how well we love
one another and affect the unity that Jesus prays for. Why should the world
listen to us until they see that fruit which most properly indicates our abiding
in Christ? Until the fruit of unity is evident, Christianity is merely another
philosophical system to be debated but not lived. Surely we can see that
selfishness is the source of division and servanthood is the basis of unity.

If true love were seen among us, the world might even begin to beat a path to
our door and take the kingdom by force. In His command in John 13 and in His
prayer in John 17, Jesus holds His followers up for judgment by the world. He
says, All men will know that you are my disciples, and to let the world know
that you sent me.

Here again my mind protests. It seems unfair. Most of my life I have hidden
behind the rationalization that you can't judge me.

You only see the outside, but God sees my heart. That may be true, yet God has
here authorized the world to check our fruit of salvation and growth. I have a
tree in my yard that I was told when I purchased the house was a peach tree.

True, it's shaped like a peach tree and has leaves similar to a peach tree, but
in all these years it has never borne a peach. When I decide to approach that
tree with an axe so that it will no more encumber the ground, it may plead with
me, Don't cut me down. You can't judge me by the outside.

In my heart I'm really a peach tree. Well, such pleas will be unheeded. It was
created and planted for fruit, not for peach hearts.

The question I must ask myself is whether I am part of the fulfillment of this
prayer of Jesus. Am I a gate to his kingdom, or am I a lock on the door that
will not let anyone in unless they know the right combination? My combination,
of course. Here again I am faced with the necessity to love and serve others,
first to be identified as a Christian, and second to be effective in winning the
world.

So what does the evidence say? If I am to love as Jesus commanded and be in
unity with the body as he requested, I must know that he is the full revelation
of the Father and is my example. If I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I must
hear him speak of Jesus and follow the guidance of the Spirit in being like
Jesus.


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  CHAPTER 2: PART 2
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Chapter Title The Jesus Style Subtitle Within Our Reach No theology is of any
threat or consequence until we try to apply it to our lives. Such is the case
with this study of Jesus. Our lives will be safely humdrum until we dare to live
like our Master.

At that point, we can expect this promise of Jesus to come true. All men will
hate you because of me. Matthew 10.22 This is one promise that is not found in
many promise boxes.

As we saw in the first part, many of the clues to Jesus' nature seem uniquely
designed to reveal the intent and character of the Father and are not direct
commands for us to fulfill. For instance, I cannot be born in a barn of
questionable parents receiving a common name and angelic announcement. Though I
grew up in poverty and in a bad neighborhood, that's of no redemptive
significance to you.

The same would be true of other marks of Jesus, such as His motley, cruel, and
shameful death. Though these are merely indicators of His nature for us and
might not be copyable, His nature as expressed in the greatest in the kingdom
teachings and in Philippians 2.5-11 are definitely within our reach. Let me read
scripture found from all four of the Gospels.

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Whoever wants to become great
among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of
all. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over
them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash
one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done
for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. The greatest among you should
be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last. For he who is least among
you all, he is the greatest. Subtitle At Your Service Whoever wants to be first
must be slave of all.

When Jesus began to teach the disciples what it meant to be greatest in the
kingdom, he was teaching about his own nature, for indeed he was and is the
greatest in the kingdom. By that time, the disciples had had the opportunity to
observe the servanthood of Christ, and they understood what he meant. So the
greatest must be slave of all, a servant.

How totally opposed to all of my natural leanings! My culture teaches me that if
I follow the clean living precepts of Christianity, God will reward me with
prosperity and with consistent rise in status until I become boss, maybe even
president. How strange that the true nature of Jesus would be so different from
my ambitious view! How would my family react if I were to come home and brag to
them that I had been chosen as slave? Probably not with much glee. In fact, it
isn't something I would want to boast about.

Maybe nothing about the nature of Jesus and my living it out lends itself to
advertising. One way I try to get around servanthood is to select a nice
clientele that I can serve gladly, but the scriptures won't allow me to escape
with such thinking. Jesus said, servant of all.

A servant's job is to do all he can to make life better for others, to free them
to be everything they can be. A servant's first interest is not himself, but
others. Yet enslavement is not what I'm talking about.

Servanthood is a loving choice we make to minister to others. It is not the
result of coercion or coercion's more subtle form, manipulation. Subhead.

Don't trip on the doormat. There is no joy in being a doormat, even if it is a
Jesus doormat. We can easily fall prey to manipulation and become merely a
doormat unless we understand the underlying dynamics of manipulation and how the
nature of Jesus prevents it.

Manipulation permeates our relationships with each other. Through crafty and
coercive means we get others to do our bidding. When they succumb to our
cleverness, we do not respect them for it.

Indeed, we often despise them. And when they don't give in, we often with
righteous indignation instruct them on how they should be willing to serve us. I
have had people ask me to do what I knew was not the best thing for them.

And when I refused as graciously as I could, they would say, but I thought you
were a Christian. Aren't Christians supposed to do things like this? That is a
guilt gotcha. When I don't want to do something but give in to keep from feeling
guilty or losing face with significant persons, or when I'm afraid not to do it,
then I have been manipulated.

When I have been manipulated, I feel even worse. I know I've been had again, and
my self-esteem takes another drop. Perhaps the strongest form of manipulation
used on me is when people hint that if a Christian ever did a certain something
for them, they might consider becoming a Christian.

Of course, the situation works its way around until it becomes a question of
whether I will be the one who will bring them into the kingdom by so doing.
Sometimes we're forced to do things by people who withhold love or money from us
until we do. Parents at times manipulate children by feigning sickness unless
the child obeys.

The list could go on. Jesus had some classic cases in which people tried to
manipulate him. Some of the Pharisees and Herodians were sent to catch him in
his words.

They came to him and said, Teacher, we know you're a man of integrity. You
aren't swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are. But you teach
the way of God in accordance with the truth.

Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn't we? But
Jesus knew their hypocrisy. Why are you trying to trap me? He asked. Mark 12, 13
through 15.

The chief means of resisting manipulation is humility, knowing who we really are
and facing it. Jesus knew himself and was at ease with himself, so he was not
swayed by their flattery. Had it been me, I would probably have thought that at
last I was being recognized by these people for my true worth, and now would be
a good time to wax eloquent.

There's nothing wrong in receiving true affirmation, but humility is sensitive
to flattery and knows when it is occurring. Jesus resisted manipulation
vigorously as he had done in a previous encounter. The Pharisees came and began
to question Jesus.

To test him, they asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, Why
does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign
will be given to it. Then he left them, got back into the boat, and crossed to
the other side.

Mark 8, 11 through 13. Jesus knew the Pharisees were there for hostile reasons
and not to get help. Often such hostility is clear.

Out of his humility, that is, being who he was and not less or more, Jesus was
able to express the anger he felt at the moment. Then, because further
interaction was not profitable, he withdrew from them. A secondary method of
resisting manipulation, then, is withdrawal.

Jesus used it more than once. John records that Jesus, knowing that they
intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again into the hills by
himself. John 6, 15.

A particular characteristic of manipulation is that it destroys our ability to
choose. It forces us to move defensively into the pattern or mold that others
have chosen for us. Not a single person who tried to manipulate Jesus got the
answer they expected.

All of them received an expression of the true feelings of Jesus. From some of
them, he withdrew. In each case, he protected his ability to choose.

There is a distinctive difference between coerced slavery and servanthood by
choice. When Jesus stated that he chose to lay down his life and that no one was
taking it from him, he was describing the basic element of love. Love always
chooses to do the right and serving thing for others, but it is a choice.

You can only love by choice. True love cannot be the result of either decree,
force, or manipulation. Anything that I do to deprive someone of the right to
choose is a violation of his personhood.

When I sense that my own right to choose is being threatened, then I know that I
am not being loved and the doors are not open to ministry. In humility, I can
say something like this. Although it may not be true, I am feeling pressured and
manipulated.

I am not able to choose and act out of love when I feel this way, so I am
removing myself from the situation until I feel free to make the choice I feel
is right. Sometimes, when manipulation is detected in a request, a simple no is
the right thing to say. A demand for a reason is often part of the manipulative
process.

We must, in order to properly resist, know that we don't need to give an answer,
but we do need to live with integrity so that we can have the power to make
loving, others-oriented choices. Often when we say no, the person who has been
trying to coerce us will create a scene. That, too, is part of the manipulative
process.

And it is included in the price to be paid if we wish to keep our integrity. But
don't let the scene fool you. It can also be part of the healing process for the
manipulator.

To be a manipulator is to be a sick person. If we permit someone to manipulate
us, then we have contributed to and reinforced that person's sickness. To resist
manipulation, though it may be difficult and may cause scenes, is to contribute
to that person's health, and certainly to contribute to our own health.

Another form of manipulation that often befalls persons trying to live the Jesus
life is self-directed. We see the needs of the world and realize that the world
needs us. Yet there is so little of us.

Then we are unable to rest. We try to respond to every genuine need that comes
along until we have totally exhausted our resources and collapsed into a bruised
pile, saying we can never try to live the Jesus style again. Once more, humility
provides the answer for us.

We are not God, so we can quit trying to be Him and, in our finiteness, trying
to solve all the world's problems. When we are honest about ourselves and
recognize that we are running out of steam, then it is proper to be in seclusion
and rest for a while. Jesus was often taking the disciples to places to rest.

Though He was God, He refused the manipulation of His own life. He always kept
His strength to make loving choices, and He calls us to make the loving choices
necessary to be servant of all. The Power Pyramid Rulers of the Gentiles lord it
over them.

Not so with you. It amazes me how many of our church and religious systems break
apart when analyzed in terms of this command, and yet we continue claiming our
structure to be biblical and authorized of God. The principle of being servant
to all is devastating to chains of command and to systems where submission is
upward.

Many religious structures are carbon copies of the flowcharts of giant
corporations where the lording system is pyramid-shaped. In the Kingdom of God,
the Power Pyramid is reversed, upended, so that the authority is on the bottom,
not the top. When Jesus alludes to submission, it is always directed toward
leaders or the ones who want to be great in the Kingdom, and they are always
ordered to submit downward, not upward.

For example, in Matthew 20.26, Jesus expressly says, Whoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. This downward submission of the greatest seems to
be a natural outgrowth of the way Jesus viewed people. He served them because he
knew their value.

We lord it over others because we don't recognize their value, and we don't view
them in the way Jesus does. Those who lead in the Kingdom of God are to
recognize that every Christian has a unique and direct relationship to Christ,
the head of the church. Unlike world systems whose goal is control, the Kingdom
leader is chosen to equip people for ministry, to bring unity in faith and
knowledge, and to mature people so as to provide stability.

See Ephesians 4, 11-16. Jesus reserved his strongest words for the spiritual
leaders of his day. He was moved with compassion for the masses who were a sheep
without a shepherd.

He put no pressure on the masses to submit to a leader, but instead put the
pressure on leaders to be slaves of all. Subhead. I'm in charge here.

I'm constantly hearing pronouncements from leaders of this day about how their
followers, the masses, should be honest with them, how their followers should be
obedient, how they should support, how they should submit. However, whether
followers are free to respond honestly and without coercion in all these ways is
entirely the responsibility of the leader. First of all, just as Jesus did,
leaders are to take the servant initiative to reveal their lives.

Unfortunately, few preachers and other religious leaders are intimately known to
those to whom they minister. Because of the training they have received or books
they have read, many ministers feel they must maintain a professional distance
from the people, thereby placing themselves above others. That stance has
devastating and built-in problems.

Someone who is at the top of a pyramid of authority finds himself isolated from
reality. Those beneath him no longer give complete honesty. The top person is
told by those under him only what is necessary to protect their jobs.

The only means by which the person at the top can be assured of honesty and
truthfulness from those beneath him is to make himself of no reputation, to lay
aside his power and authority and approach them as a servant. And that
initiative must first be taken by the person at the top. It cannot come from
those beneath him.

Only revolution comes from that direction. In the nature of Jesus, it is only
possible to submit downward in the human realm. I read an article once about a
person who had completely submitted himself to a leader.

The leader, in order to teach the submitted person servanthood, required that
person to mow the leader's lawn. That is a perversion of the Jesus style.
Servanthood should be taught by mowing the other person's lawn.

One who leads in the style of Jesus does not use forms of coercion, nor does he
depend on institutional position for authority. Instead, by serving people, he
leads as they recognize his ability and choose voluntarily to follow. And those
who follow, by whatever means, will become like their leader, for better or
worse.

A religious leader under fire once, for using his position for personal gain,
defended himself by stating to his followers that he hadn't done anything that
they would not have done had they had the chance. In other words, if they could
have gotten away with it, they would have also. That statement was the greatest
indictment against their system and ethical training that could have been made.

Perhaps a good way to handle the trappings of leadership would be to put the
word slave over the doors of our plush offices and take away everything from the
surroundings that's incompatible with that word. Remember, power corrupts, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely. A slave should have no title that raises him
above that lowly level and definitely no title that raises him above others.

A slave should have no status symbols except the scars that come from hard work.
You would not expect a slave to have a special parking space more accessible
than his master's. A slave would not have an office larger than others or more
ornately decorated in order to show his position.

A slave would not wear clothing that intimidated others or impressed them in any
way except as being their servant. A slave would not use his position to limit
the expression of his master's capabilities. A slave would not try to use his
power to protect his position of first.

There are so many ways that the nature of Jesus is in direct opposition to the
leadership patterns of the world that have been unquestioningly adopted by the
church that this list could go on and on. This is indeed unfortunate, for it is
that visible modeling that has greater force than the expression of doctrine. We
have been so careful to identify doctrinal heresy, perhaps it's time to identify
heresy of practice.

Quote, but people are dumb sheep and need to be motivated. Unquote. I've often
heard in defense of the world's system.

Well, if we wish to admit that we are not the church and intend to have no part
of Jesus, then we can motivate people any way we wish to get them to do our
bidding. But if we wish to be followers of Jesus, then we must be lovers of
people, and any motivation must come out of their voluntary response to love,
even if it doesn't seem as rapid or as efficient as the experts tell us it can
be. We cannot finish with worldly systems what was begun by Jesus working
through the Holy Spirit.

What would happen to the body of Christ if we all treated each other in keeping
with the nature of Jesus and our leaders lived it out for us first? My mind is
staggered at the possibility. What we do now has been taught to us, so certainly
we could be taught something different. Were it so, the world would beat our
doors down to be part of the church.

Subhead, both sides of the coin. Perhaps the most significant place to begin to
turn the power pyramid upside down is in the family. The world's first
institution has had some rough going.

Some of the chuck holes in the road of marriage have been placed there by the
teachings of various religious systems. To see how the nature of Jesus
dramatically affects marriage, let us look first at some of the current
teaching. Quote, at the top of every chain of command is a man.

Unquote. All women are somewhere down the scale. Access to God is often
prohibited unless through the authorization of a man.

Current teaching especially emphasizes this in the marriage bond. The mainstay
of such teaching is in Ephesians where Paul says wives should submit to their
husbands as unto the Lord. Books by women for women also take advantage of this
understanding and support it with an interesting twist.

Women can be taught how to get their man to do what they want him to do by using
the strength of sex, and this clever thing called submission. It's degrading,
but at least the women win eventually. Consequently, men are forced into the
role of being God, which they can't handle, and women are forced into the role
of weak underling, which they don't want.

Submission gone sour is the result of not understanding the nature of Jesus. Let
us look at the Ephesians passage thoroughly, but let's start a little earlier
than most others do. Scripture, Submit to one another out of reverence for
Christ.

Wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the
wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their
husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the
church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 5, 21 through 25. So the first command is to submit ourselves to each
other. That is the way a body would work.

Then the next commands are enlargements on the first. They tell us how
submission works its way out in a marriage relationship. Wives to the husband as
unto the Lord, husbands loving the wives as Christ loved the church.

The wife's position has been rather clear for a long time, but what is the
description of the husband to whom she submits? Well, how did Christ love the
church? He came to the church as a slave, not lording it over them, being an
example, being humble, being as a child, being as the least, as the younger, as
the last, using no force, being of no reputation, obedient to this nature even
to death. Anytime I treat my wife in this manner, submission is never a point of
contention. And submission that is coerced is not submission.

Remember too that the burden of initiating the slave role rests on the leader or
head. Humility then permits husband and wife to work out differences without
violating one another. Rather than attacking and accusing when arguments occur,
they can be honest about their own feelings.

It is important to note that in God's new order, we are all members of the
family of God before we are members of our earthly family. So my wife is my
sister in Christ before she is my wife. Thus I must treat her as God's child and
with even greater care than I would expect someone to treat my own children.

I dare not be superior and manipulative with one of God's children. Subhead,
Seen and Not Hurt. How can we be a servant to our children and not spoil them?
Actually, servanthood is the best guarantee of their spiritual health.

If we understand that our children are God's children first, then we understand
that we are rearing them in His behalf as His servant and theirs. Consequently,
we will be willing to train and discipline them out of our servanthood in order
to reproduce the spirit of their Heavenly Father in them. Servanthood causes us
to be present with our children, in touch with them and meeting their needs,
alert to their tendencies to wander from the nature of the Father, and committed
to confront that wandering.

Servanthood means making right choices in behalf of children and sticking to
them. Servanthood means saying no when no is for their benefit. It is also
consistent with Paul's admonition, Fathers, do not exasperate your children.

Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians
6.4. Living the Jesus style will not exasperate children but will cause them to
know they are loved. Servanthood means equipping children for independent
adulthood and then turning them back to their other Heavenly Father.

It means neither strictness nor permissiveness. It means appropriateness. To be
placed by God as the slave in charge of His children is an awesome
responsibility, but no matter what the circumstances, God honors the servant
love of parents.

When I was six years old, my father was severely injured in an airplane accident
and was left partially paralyzed and brain damaged. My mother then became the
breadwinner of the house. Since my mother was often not there as she attempted
to make a living, and my dad not there physically or mentally, the stage was set
for family failure.

But our family did not fail. Through difficult times, both parents stayed
faithful to God and to us. Prayer, belief, steadfastness, and love surrounded
us.

Money and fine homes didn't. When my father died, my two brothers and I stood in
front of his casket and made the following statement to the friends who had
gathered for the funeral service. Our father did not leave a financial empire
for us to carry on.

Many things that a dad normally does with his sons, ours was unable to do. He
was unable to teach us many things that a dad normally teaches, but he did leave
us something that he had. He left us with a love of God, a love for the Bible, a
love of people, an understanding of worship, and an inability to hate.

We feel that he has left us only those things that will last. So we stand before
you as his sons and declare publicly that we will follow his God. Servant
parents who value deeply the gift of God in their home recognize the privilege
and responsibility to carefully tend God's garden of life.

Thus their children are reared with fewer bruises, stronger spirits, and
healthier personalities. The fact that Jesus was reared in a bad neighborhood is
evidence that servanthood does not require ideal family or physical situations
for success, nor does it require financial opulence. It merely requires our
obedience to the servant nature of Jesus.

Subtitle I'D RATHER SEE A SERMON I have set you an example that you should do as
I have done for you. My wife and family were once braving a 400-mile journey to
join me at a camp where I was speaking. Their trip took them, at first, through
a large city whose street configuration was rather confusing.

For two hours they tried to make it through the city. They sought directions
from policemen and others who would know, but each attempt to follow the
directions was met with frustration. Finally, on the edge of despair, they
stopped at another service station for one more attempt to get adequate
instructions.

With each direction given, my family responded, but we tried that. It didn't
work. Then a man who overheard the conversation said, I'm in this red car parked
here.

You follow me. I'll show you the way. So, through the jungle of streets he led
them, guiding them through difficult intersections until they were several miles
beyond the city.

When only the main highway remained, he stopped and said, Now you can't get
lost. Just keep going on this road. That man was like Jesus to my family.

I don't know if he was a follower of Jesus, but he certainly had a better
understanding of the leadership style of Jesus than many of us who are his
followers do. The most effective form of Christian leadership is leadership by
example. Jesus didn't say, Do as I say, not as I do.

Rather, as Matthew reports, and I quote the scripture, Jesus said to the crowds
and to the disciples, The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses'
seat, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what
they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and
put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a
finger to move them.

Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and
the tassels of their prayer shawls long. They love the place of honor at
banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues.

They love to be greeted in the marketplace and to have men call them rabbi. But
you are not to be called a rabbi, for you have only one master, and you are all
brothers. And do not call anyone on earth father, for you have one father, and
he is in heaven.

Nor are you to be called teacher, for you have one teacher, the Christ. The
greatest among you will be your servant. Matthew 23, verses 1 through 11.

In God's army, generals are not in protected posts behind the lines. No, their
position is at the front of the troops, exposing themselves first to the best
fire the enemy has to offer and showing how the battle is won. I listened in
disbelief once as a theology student complained that the college he was in
didn't have a separate dormitory for his kind, so they wouldn't be disturbed and
corrupted by those not interested in the ministry.

This age has joined with the age of Jesus in removing the influence of believers
from sinners. Everywhere Christian ghettos are springing up. The light is hidden
under church pews rather than shining openly.

We stand away from the sinner as he sweeps helplessly to his doom and safely
advise him not to sweep helplessly to his doom. But Jesus was Immanuel, God with
us, and he bids us follow him. He didn't lord it over the disciples.

He never asked them to do anything that he had not done first and shown them how
to do. If we really love people as Jesus did, we will involve ourselves with
them in showing them how. Subhead.

Teaching without walls. While teaching at a Christian college, I noticed that my
lecturing on prayer and asking good questions about prayer on tests did not
teach the students how to pray. All that system taught them was how to take
notes and how to answer test questions.

I was able to teach prayer only to those with whom I prayed. A leading professor
in a well-known seminary candidly admitted that his seminary did not train
people to pastor. It trained people to teach in seminary, because that's the
example set for them in the classroom.

Jesus chose modeling rather than the classroom as his intimate style of
teaching. To learn an attitude or skill that we have not seen performed is
extremely difficult. I'm thankful that a driver taught me how to drive an
automobile, that gentle hands guided mine to tie my own shoelaces.

If the old cliche, those who can do, those who can't teach, were true, there
would be no teaching, because teaching is guided doing. Also, it is in modeling
that one can truly be last by going first. When students are experiencing
anxiety at the prospect of going first in some new activity, the teacher, by
taking the unfavored role of being first, performs an act of servanthood much
like that of the king's food taster in history.

Education is what we call the process of passing along knowledge and values and
the process of shaping behavior. For the Christian, there's a dimension beyond
that, the passing along of life. Only life begets life.

For years, the church has taken its signals on how to educate from the world and
not from Jesus, who said, a student is not above his teacher, but everyone who
is fully trained will be like his teacher. Luke 6.40. We have brought students
away from life into a classroom. Jesus drew students into the middle of life.

We have limited the time for education to an hour or two. Jesus gave all his
time to educating his disciples. We have gloried in ever larger classes.

Jesus chose twelve to be with him. We have kept teachers in isolated,
non-revealing lecture roles. Jesus exposed his life to the disciples.

We dump our children into a reservoir of bodies and leave their training to
strangers. The Bible gives the first responsibility to parents. If you are a
teacher struggling with a classroom setting or some other limitation imposed
upon you, the following principles should be seen as an encouraging call rather
than a frustrating lack.

Education in the Jesus style has teachers who walk with students, revealing
their own lives and struggles, teachers who fulfill the servant qualities of
Jesus. Education in the Jesus style recognizes that the student is the reason
for being, not the teacher or the administrator, and shapes its actions
accordingly. Education in the Jesus style trains people to be members of the
kingdom first, not citizens of the United States or any country first.

The teachers and other workers in their chosen structure model the kingdom for
the teachers. Education in the Jesus style prepares the home to be the major
force for spiritual training. Education in the Jesus style discerns the
difference between the law of love and the kingdom of God and the forces of
culture and tradition, and does not teach culture and tradition as the kingdom
way.

Education in the Jesus style keeps the number of students for any teacher
limited to the number he or she can love and closely associate with. Education
in the Jesus style does not use any means of evaluation that will lessen a
person's view of himself. Education in the Jesus style does not build any system
of discipline that is not born out of and supported by an intimate relationship
with the disciplinarians.

Education in the Jesus style uses as its criterion the equipping of the students
to be everything God has gifted them to be. It does not use a profile of other
expectations as a mold into which they must fit. Education in the Jesus style
views the long-term impact and prepares for the whole of life.

It is not subservient to fads or programs to benefit the educational system
rather than the student. Education in the Jesus style recognizes love as the
goal of life and not knowledge for its own sake. It recognizes that knowledge of
God, properly taught, produces lives that love as Jesus loved and live as he
lived.

Subtitle No More No Less Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven. I had long misunderstood humility. Thinking it to be
an inferiority complex, I adopted a properly despondent look and asserted that I
was nothing.

I couldn't sing, I couldn't preach, couldn't play the piano or any other
instrument, was barely coordinated enough to walk. People would respond as
expected by saying, My, you're so humble. In all humility, I would thank them
for noticing.

Now, I realize that this attitude was not humility, it was sickness. Humility is
no hang-dog approach to life. Humility is simply seeing ourselves as we actually
are, not higher nor lower.

It means being gut-level honest about ourselves, being upfront. It means knowing
who we are and owning that, and owning our emotions. It means living without
hypocrisy.

In the desert, Moses had an encounter with God through the burning bush. After
agreeing to return to Egypt to lead the children of Israel out, Moses wanted to
be sure no one was playing a practical joke on him, so he asked for the voice to
identify itself. What company name was going to be on the business card? God
replied, I am who I am.

God is congruent. He is who he is. Jesus also said, I am the way, the truth, and
the life.

And before Abraham was, I am. Humility is being an I am. One of the most loving
things I can do for someone is to be honest or humble about myself so they don't
have to sift through my deceptions.

I doubt that when Jesus greeted the disciples in the they had to ponder over
what he really meant. His being the same yesterday, today, and forever probably
didn't mean that he had no emotions or moods, but may have meant that he was
always honest about them, always an I am. Jesus was willing for people to see
him intimately.

From scripture, I quote, they said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you
staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. John 1, verses 38 through 39.
Especially note that Jesus' openness did not come as a result of probes or
congressional investigations.

His openness came at his own initiative. He did not have the philosophy that
what they don't know won't hurt them. Jesus chose the disciples to be with him,
a state of relationship that can only be revealing.

In withness, we see behind the social graces to the realities of everyday life.
When my wife and I were courting, we carefully dressed, combed, and deodorized
ourselves. Not until the withness that marriage brings did she discover all of
the uncouth actions of my physical being and begin to discover the nature of my
motivations.

Time and withness produce revelation. Jesus was faithful in his revelation to
the disciples. In his graduation sermon, he states to them, I have called you
friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.

John 15, 15. Friendship requires revelation. Although the larger crowds
benefited from the teaching of Jesus about openness and revelation, full
intimacy was reserved for the disciples.

Teaching about the Father was the most important thing for Jesus, and that's
what he did in the larger settings. Showing the Father was best done in more
intimate relationships that would not be casting pearls before swine. Jesus
judiciously did not satisfy the curiosity seekers, but those who truly desired
access to him attained it.

In our society, both church and secular, the higher you go up the ladder, the
more inaccessible you are to people, the more hidden your personal life is. The
further Jesus went into his messianic ministry, the more his friends could see
into the depths of his inner life and emotions. Subhead in Broad Daylight We are
so unaccustomed to living openly that these are probably some of the most
threatening words in scripture, and I quote from scripture, Be on your guard
against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be
made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and
what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from
the housetops. Luke 12, 1-3.

Humility might well be described as walking in the light. Humility chooses to be
real, to hide nothing, to be open. This certainly is a loving way to be toward
people.

The progression in 1 John 1, 7 then is logical. But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus,
his Son, purifies us from every sin. Our attitudes and values are so rarely
derived from living scriptural principles that we are utterly out of touch with
the power that comes from living in the light.

We fear the vulnerability of it. Knowing the changes we will have to go through
causes us great anxiety. Yet we need not fear that people will see our
imperfections.

We join the human race in having them. Our rejoicing is in the fact that we are
forgiven and are growing. All of us are sinners, and I am not sure that some
sinners are really greater sinners than others.

It is just that some sins are more visible than others. I can cover up well on
the outside and still regard iniquity in my heart. Jesus indicated that those
who are forgiven much love much.

This could mean that those who are fully repentant of both inner and outer sins
are now fully visible and open. They feel the complete redemption of God,
therefore enabling them to spend their energies loving much. But the Pharisees,
whose outsides were whitewashed, had not repented of the inner, hidden sins and
were thus handicapped in their ability to love.

Subhead—The Cost of Hiding Any secret, whether good or bad, produces, according
to psychologists, the same guilt effects on our being that sin does. Any strong
emotion, positive ones included, that we contain and store up rather than
learning how to express, works on our being and our environment in unhealthy
ways. Our true nature is not designed for us to hide ourselves.

The efforts toward covering that began at the fall of mankind are typical of the
whole earthly lifestyle. The energy that goes into hiding is costly to us as
persons. Anything we hide forces us to live in a way that will keep what we hide
safely hidden.

In other words, we become unreal, untrue to ourselves, incongruent. That
unreality is opposite to the nature of Jesus, who is the God of reality. No
energy was spent in covering his life with a mask.

In him, there was no darkness at all. The poignant statement, Jesus wept,
recorded by John, is evidence that even publicly, Jesus was free to be real with
all of his inner being. His angers were openly expressed.

The compassions that moved him, his joys, his griefs, were obvious enough that
the writers of the gospel could observe and record them. Only through humility
are we able to properly handle strong emotions. The Bible tells us to be angry
and sin not, and not to let the sun set on our anger.

We tend to interpret that as meaning we're to keep a stiff upper lip. Don't
reveal your anger. Grit your teeth.

Grin and bear it. The opposite response that occasionally breaks out when we've
gritted our teeth as long as we can is to use violence or even subtle vengeance.
Neither violence nor sublimation are healthy ways of handling anger.

Humility permits me to own my feelings, to admit them. Now I'm free to say I'm
angry. I'm free to admit what I'm reacting to.

I'm free to ask if anger is what the person wanted to produce in me, and to ask
for help in changing if my reaction is inappropriate. This ability to express
our true feelings out of humility extends even to our relationship with God.
When events in nature occur that frustrate and anger us, we subtly label them as
acts of God to show our feelings.

Would expressing anger outright to God be any more dangerous? Do you suppose God
is affected by diplomacy or flattery? Since most of our prayers are basically
complaints about how God is running the world, would honesty about feelings we
have toward God or disappointments we experience in our relationship with Him be
out of order? The beauty of intimate relationships is they not only survive
emotional expressions but are often enriched by them. It is the abba
relationship with God that is not too fragile for us, nor need we fear fierce
retaliation from the author of mercy. Even Jesus cried in that despairing
moment, why hast thou forsaken me? It is striking how we, because of cultural
influences, are trained to hide our feelings.

Sadly, some Christian groups are taught that we must smile through the deepest
of hurts. They even deny that these hurts exist, thinking that Christians must
always and only be positive, joyful, and smiling. How often couples who are
going through difficulties journey to church unsmiling, not speaking, until just
outside the door when they put on the smile.

When the official greeter asks how they are doing, the standard, smiling
response comes, just fine, thank you. If there is one place where we ought to be
able to come with our sins and feelings exposed and find help and healing, it is
the church. But more and more, it has become the one place where we must be the
most careful to hide our true feelings and instead support the appearance of
consistent, gleeful victory.

The body of Christ, especially in well-functioning, small, intimate groups, is
the most healing body in the world, yet we do not treat it as such. We wouldn't
think of relating to a medical doctor with the same reserve as we have in the
healing body of Christ. Would we say to a doctor, I have this unspoken illness?
Of course not.

But we often use the term unspoken request in sharing our needs with the body of
Christ. Would we try to deceive a doctor into thinking our hurt is non-existent
or in a different place than it actually is? Of course not. Would we say, I'm
here for a friend, examine me and diagnose him? Of course not.

Yet we will treat the church with such distrust and fear we choose to hide.
Somehow we have decided that the is supposed to be the company of the perfect
rather than the company of the forgiven. This attempt to keep up appearances has
brought the church to a crisis of honesty in which reality has fallen by the
wayside as we attempt to project for all to see a facsimile of the ideal.

Meanwhile, we desperately hope that the truth is not discovered and that the
facade is accepted. In the name of Christ, we cover our own sins and failings
and crucify those in our ranks who would dare cry foul and bring our mistakes
out into the light. Sir Walter Scott spoke of the nature of humility when he
said, oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we fashion to deceive.

When, by my incongruency, I give people wrong signals, they respond accordingly
and wrongly. Then I respond wrongly to their wrong response. On and on this
cycle continues until a war is started and no one remembers how it began.

Paul underscored the importance of openness in the church when he wrote to the
Philippians, whatever you have seen in me, put into practice, Philippians 4, 9.
To the Thessalonians he wrote, we have loved you so much that we were delighted
to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well because you
had become so dear to us, 1 Thessalonians 2, 8. In writing to the Corinthians,
he developed the concept further, and I quote from scripture, we are not like
Moses who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at
it while the radiance was fading away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we who with unveiled faces all
reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with
ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, 2 Corinthians
3, 13, 17, and 18.

I had always used these verses, declaring freedom where the Spirit is, to
justify some of the more bizarre aspects of enthusiastic church life. Now I see
that the presence of the Holy Spirit frees me to rip off my veil or my mask and
walk openly, not because I am perfect, but because I am now reflecting the
Lord's glory and am being transformed, constantly improving, growing. Moses
veiled his face to hide his He chose to do so.

Apparently there was no real need to do that. However, whenever we operate under
the law, human frailty, perhaps especially in the face of great spiritual
experiences, forces us to pretend, to hide, to cover up in order to put our best
foot forward for all to see. Grace is so different in its fulfillment of the
law.

John tells us in John 1, 17, that the law came by Moses, grace and truth by
Jesus Christ. The law demanded righteousness. Grace delivered righteousness.

The law required. Grace provided. The law was pressure.

Grace was relief. The law was bondage. Grace was freedom.

Grace and truth can only be modeled in the light and being seen. Because of the
very nature of grace, we have no reason to hide. Whoever lives by the truth
comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has
been done through God.

John 3, 21. To live with a mask is not to experience the freedom of the Spirit,
who administers forgiveness and gives us courage to rip the veil aside and
reflect God's glory. We are free to do so not because we have reached a stage of
perfection that would guard us from the embarrassing gaze of the world, but
because, unlike Moses, we are not fading away, but are instead increasing or
growing in God's likeness.

In the plan of God, everything said, done, or thought will be revealed. For
those who hide, it will be disaster. For the open and growing, it will merely be
redeemed history.

Subtitle. A Child Is. Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God
belongs to such as these.

Jesus had a special place in his heart for children, and through them he taught
the disciples a needed lesson. I quote from scripture. People were bringing
little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, Let the little children
come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as
these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like
a little child will never enter it.

And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them.
Mark 10, 13-16. Subhead.

A Child Is Unthreatening. I would not mind meeting a child in a dark alley. Now,
if we are to follow the footsteps of Jesus and represent him correctly, the
world must be no more threatened by us than we would be by a child.

Jesus even states, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as
shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10, 16.

Some years ago, when I was an associate pastor in Illinois, the ladies of the
church would come on Thursday mornings for a prayer meeting. Since it was a
ladies' meeting, and I was not invited, I chose to go and spend time in the
nursery, playing with their children. I shall never forget the first time I did
it.

Opening the top half of the nursery door, I leaned in and said, Hi kids, Pastor
Irwin here, let's play. One of them ran into the other room frightened. The
others merely went about their business.

Well, they didn't seem to understand who I was, I thought. So I entered the
room, walked to the middle of the group, and said again, Hi kids, let's play.
Another one ran into the adjoining room terrified.

The remainder continued their actions as if to say, Did you hear a noise? By
this point my ego was getting involved. The nursery attendant had begun to smile
in amusement. I wanted to grab one of them and shake him and say, You are going
to play with me and you are going to enjoy it.

Do you hear me? But then the Holy Spirit helped me to remember what adults
looked like when I was that size. They were frightening giants. My world was
kneecaps.

I never carried on conversations with adults. What could we talk about? I knew
nothing about politics. Economics was out.

I thought a nickel was better than a dime because it was bigger. I was to be
seen and not heard. So, with this memory moving me, I fell to the floor and then
said, Hi kids, let's play.

In thirty seconds every one of them was on top of me, squealing, pulling my tie,
my hair, destroying my dignity. From then on I played no role games. I would
enter, hit the floor, and be considered a close friend, unthreatening.

The unthreatening child likeness of Jesus intimidated no one. Both friend and
foe approached him freely. The Pharisees and Sadducees attacked him with a
fervor they could never have mustered had Jesus walked the earth with a heavenly
glow and spoken in a royal, electronically enhanced voice.

Children were comfortable around him, which even a surface observation would
tell you could not be so without his own child likeness. The Sanhedrin plotted
to capture him and were held off, not by their fear of Jesus, but by their fear
of the crowds. Subhead.

A child isn't good at deceiving. Part of being like a child is to be humble, to
be real. You can tell when children are happy or when they are sad.

If they're afraid, they act accordingly. It is well known that any two children
playing together will go through alternate stages of laughing, squealing,
running, being angry, and crying. When we affirm their freedom to do so, they
can be terminally angry at a friend and five minutes later be playing again as
if nothing had ever happened.

When my son was about five years old, he wanted to take a toy out of his room
that, because of its delicacy, we had instructed him to keep inside. He made the
attempt, nonetheless. With arm behind him, bent over body, in furtive glance, he
shuffled stealthily sideways, in plain view of the whole family.

What he was doing was written all over him. He didn't know how to sneak. But
just give me a little time and I will teach him the sophisticated adult art of
sneaking.

At one time he was interested in magic tricks, but their proper execution eluded
him. You always knew where the hidden item was. It was in the closed hand.

He didn't know how to deceive. Most of us can picture those times we needed to
give our children a spoonful of medicine. Their tightly clenched mouths formed
the immovable object oblivious to our pleas to open up.

Then with parental deception we would say, look, it is good. See? I'll take some
first and show you. Then we would sip a little of the foul-tasting brew, but
smile as if we had embarked on a gourmet feast.

The now convinced child opens his mouth and learns quickly that to be grown up
means to lie and deceive. If I thought someone I loved was cheating on me, or in
some way trying to deceive me, how would it affect me? How would it change my
relationship with others if I knew they wouldn't deceive me? Deception is not
compatible with childlikeness, or with love, or with Jesus. I enjoy telling
stories to children.

They can suspend their disbelief so easily. If I tell them something as the
truth, they accept it as such. They are adept at accepting things at face value.

Apparently this is precisely the way Jesus requires us to accept the kingdom of
God. It is first and primarily a matter of our belief. We chose to accept,
before it ever becomes part of our logic.

Subhead. A child is innocent. When Jesus told us we must be as a little child in
receiving the kingdom, he was using as an example one who had not yet come under
the requirements of the law.

Only after a certain age was a child considered accountable and under the
command of the law. Until then he was innocent. To receive the grace and
forgiveness of God as a child would is to understand that we are now in a state
of innocence.

How difficult it is for me to accept the forgiveness of God that way. I continue
to lay different types of laws and requirements on myself and others. I find it
so difficult to accept my state as being just as if I had never sinned.

I keep trying to earn the acceptance and forgiveness of God. Until I accept this
forgiveness and innocence, I will minister to others out of guilt and my own
needs, rather than being free to be totally oriented toward them, sensitive to
them, serving them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: PART 3
========================================================================

Subtitle The Hand-Me-Down Set The greatest among you should be like the
youngest. Firstborns always did have it better. Statistically, they achieve
more, reach higher positions, score higher on IQ tests, etc.

They receive more undivided attention from their parents than subsequent
children. They are given responsibility earlier, and that provides for rapid
maturity. In a real sense, the elder needs little outside help.

He has it made. Not so the younger. First of all, he has to deal with the
problems of a somewhat arrogant elder brother.

That can give him lifelong hang-ups. Many of his possessions are second-hand
offerings from the brother who has outgrown them or used them. The standard by
which he is judged is often the elder brother.

His identity is tied up with him in the school system. Oh, yes, you are
so-and-so's brother. He is expected to excel in the same areas his brother did.

Much of life becomes an odyssey to discover just who he himself is. Being the
younger is, by its nature, not a position of strength or authority. It does not
speak dominance.

It tends to be a position that waits and accepts whatever comes to it after
others have had first choice. When Jesus used the word younger, it was filled
with much more meaning than it is today. The younger brother was stereotypically
a rebel, a person who had no stake in the status quo.

The system under which he lived was an oppressor to him. Success in life
depended upon his own abilities and the mercy of others. Life in general and
tradition in particular were not a benefactor to him.

The elder received the birthright and, in some cases, all of the inherited
property. Why shouldn't the youngest be a rebel? Power was strictly on the other
side. Even the slightest self-preservative action would brand him as a rebel by
the elders in control.

In contrast, the elder brothers had a vested interest in the existing system.
Just by birth order they had secured future positions. For them, the watchword
was, protect the status quo, things are working well now, let's keep them that
way.

Elders were the governors. The positions of authority went to them. As far as
the world was concerned, it was the most advantageous position to be in.

But Jesus said we must be as the younger, even if we are elders. Any power or
advantage we have that is not handled as if we were the younger is a violation
of the nature of Jesus. For the status quo power systems of the world and the
church, this is a declaration of war.

Since in Jewish tradition and law, the elder brother received an extra portion
of the inheritance, Jesus, by this statement to be as the youngest, urges us to
hold lightly to material goods. In a sense, Jesus weakens the desire for power
and greed with this command. I thought I had this part of my life under control
until my wife and I moved twice in one summer.

I couldn't believe how many boxes we filled. Many simply could only be
identified as stuff. I realized then that I was a collector of stuff.

I even had items in my possession that went back 30 years. I had three cabinets
with plastic shelves to hold them, but I could not identify the shelves because
I didn't know what they were. But they looked too interesting to throw away for
30 years.

Why would Jesus want us to travel light? Simple. So we wouldn't be greedy, and
so we could be flexible enough to go wherever he wanted to use us. I travel an
immense number of miles every year.

I've discovered that the joy of my journey is directly related to how much
luggage I take. The more luggage, the less joy. The less luggage, the more joy.

Heaven is carry-on. So, being as the younger has its own joys, though we are the
disadvantaged ones, and perhaps the poorer ones, we are the free ones, and he
who has overcome the world is on our team. Subtitle Bringing Up the Rear If
anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last.

The very last. How much this is in keeping with the whole lifestyle of one who
would be a servant. But how different from our human nature.

When my family was young, we would travel together during the summers in a
Volkswagen van and tent camp along the way to speaking engagements. It combined
business and pleasure very well. After a drive of 200 miles or so, we would
begin to be bone-weary, and I would pick a place to stop and rest, occasionally
a small neighborhood park.

Can you picture my children bounding out of the van, racing toward the only
swing at the park, and shouting all the way, I'm last, I'm last, I'm last? Don't
try too hard to envision it, because it didn't and simply doesn't happen. The
nature of our humanity drives us to be first. This is a competitive age.

But competition is meaningless unless there is a best or first to be gained, and
a competitor to be conquered. It's very difficult to compete with someone who
chooses to be last, who refuses to join in the race to prove himself superior.
Whether I wish it to be so or not, being first means to relegate others to
lesser positions.

My superiority is always at the expense of someone else. So I have a choice.
Will I be self-seeking? Or will I love and serve others? So powerful is my
selfishness that I will go to great lengths to prove that the Scripture permits
me to be this way, that God just wills some of us to grab the brass ring and,
well, who am I to argue with God? I often find myself first in the art of
rationalization, subhead, sibling rivalry.

Because they seem good in our secular society, a host of customs have been
brought across without question into the Church. Competition is one of them.
Early in our lives we are steeped in the concept of winning, getting there
first, getting the most, garnering top honors.

School is a daily dose of the competitive spirit. It provides a lot of enjoyment
in what would otherwise be unbearably long times. It is unquestionably a good
form of motivation.

We work harder in a good competitive situation. But what are the implications of
competition in the body of Christ? No body can survive with its parts competing
against each other. A body is designed to be healthy when each part is doing its
job in a thoroughly cooperative manner.

Competition, by its very nature, is self-serving, the very opposite of the
servant, self-giving nature of Jesus. Some specific attributes of competition
should prove our case. For competition to work, there must be a prize, either a
material one of value, or else the prize of simply proving mastery over others
and being number one.

First, to seek a material prize as the result of doing the work of God is to
misunderstand or disobey Scripture. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of
eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Second, to desire to be master over others is to disobey the injunction to be
last for the kingdom of God.

To seek and achieve a position over others is to feed one's pride. Without
pride, the achievement of being better than others would be meaningless. Because
of the value of the prize and our drive toward it, competition tends to give
rise to cheating.

Rather than fostering the best attributes, it brings out the things that go
along with the spirit of materialism and pride. I have discovered that I'm a
poor winner. When I have bettered someone, I gloat.

I can't help it. It's the natural me. Sometimes in friendly kidding, I will
remind him frequently of the fact that I have beaten him.

I can become rather obnoxious. But if I'm a poor winner, I'm an even poorer
loser. After losing, I ransack my storehouse of rationalizations.

My feelings of jealousy and resentment toward anyone who would be so arrogant as
to defeat me run rampant. From the moment of the loss, I enter the scheming
phase, planning for that moment when I can even the score. It dawned on me one
day that the attitudes I had in both winning and losing had little
Christ-likeness about them.

Another problem of competition is that it can only measure the least significant
of our actions. One can never give a prize for spirituality or faith or love
because these cannot be measured. Instead, we measure specific physical actions
like the number of visitors brought to Sunday school or the most money collected
for missions.

The prize given for such actions gives a good clue to the actual motivation.
Every contest has to have rules. Who decides the rules? Someone sits down and
comes up with a set of rules depending on what action the rule-setter desires.

This is a rather arbitrary way to let our lives be guided. Perhaps the biggest
problem for the health of the body of Christ is that competition creates so many
losers and so few winners. To belong to Christ is to be a winner as far as
eternity is concerned.

Any activity that does not enhance that reality but instead reinforces the
common human feeling of being a loser does not fit within the pattern of the
nature of Jesus. Now, people have argued vehemently with me that competition is
fine within the body, that it's fun and its motivation makes it worthwhile. The
one thing I have noticed is that only people who are accustomed to winning—those
who by reason of their birth, not their choice, were blessed with strong and
coordinated bodies and minds—are so vehement in defending competition.

That seems to the whole point to me. I do believe that competition can be
redeemed. Making the prize valueless or only of value inherent within the action
would be the first step, such as the sheer joy of the activity or of being with
friends.

Designing games so that athletic prowess is of no value and everyone, regardless
of ability, is on equal footing would be a second step. Creating situations that
build the spirit of fellowship more than the spirit of competition would be a
third step. To devise means of giving the less honorable parts special honor, as
Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 20 through 25, would be a fourth
step.

A subtle problem can arise that we must be aware of and resist. We are not to
say, since I am the greatest, you be the first, I will be last. How nauseating.

No, if we love others the way Jesus does, we will rejoice so much in seeing them
achieve and enjoy the position of being first that we will hardly notice that in
our efforts to help them we turned up last. This is the result of the totally
others-oriented servant. The exciting question to be pondered is, what would
happen to the Church if we all treated each other this way? I believe this
loving servanthood within the body of Christ would inspire the members and so
captivate the hearts of searchers that the masses would seek us out.

Love is irresistible. I long for the world's commentary to once again be, my,
how those Christians love one another. It was out of the disciples' spirit of
competition, the desire to be greater than the other, that Jesus began to teach
the opposite, the traits of the greatest in the kingdom.

If I am to live after the pattern of Jesus, it must touch every part of my life,
including that innate pride that drives me to defeat my brothers. Subtitle Room
in the Manger For he who is least among you all, he is the greatest. No prizes
that I know of go to those who are least.

Those who are least are not therefore the glory it offers. Willingness to be the
least is possible only if we are comfortable with ourselves and with who we are.
If it is injurious to us to lose face, then we will never choose to be least.

If we have an unhealthy need for recognition and crave praise for
accomplishment, then we won't go in the direction of the least. Leaders with a
desperate need for success have found awards and honors a profitable way to
manipulate their followers. Dignified statesmen have been shamelessly
compromised for the sake of potential recognition.

Just as competition works only because of the drive for self-exaltation, so the
fires of our desire for honor are fueled by a trait different from the one that
motivated Jesus. He made himself of no reputation. Our violations of his nature
in the area of honors and recognition are so obvious that I choose only to call
a few to our attention.

The society I live in is an advertising and public relations oriented society.
The weekly church page in the local newspaper is filled with the same
self-chosen superlatives that Hollywood uses to present its product. What a
judgment that it should be the least read page in the newspaper.

Individual and corporate church public relations releases list accomplishments
and honors in the same fashion that the world does. To hear the introductions
given at Christian festivals and conventions is a painful experience and
aggrandizement. The use of honorary degrees by Christian colleges to gain
donations or other reciprocal benefits is a scandal.

Some college honor plans are devised to cash in on vanity and sell books to the
honored recipient. Some denominational public relations agents have as one of
their job tasks to gain public honors for denominational hierarchy. I, to my
shame, have worked intimately with others on honor giving schemes designed to
tap this weakness of humanity and move them to achieve our goals.

How we can ignore the warnings of scripture and continue to use honors for
manipulation and continue to clamor for them is a dangerously unanswered
question. The teaching of Jesus is very clear about the things we do for the
view of others, and I quote scripture. Be careful not to do your acts of
righteousness before men to be seen by them.

If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give
to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and on the streets. By the way, I tell you the truth.

They have received their reward in full. Matthew 6, 1 and 2. Jesus invites us to
secret giving and a few sentences later to secret praying, so that the Father is
free to reward us openly. It must, however, be left to the Father to handle the
reward, not to the hands of men.

We cannot rationalize once we have become part of a self-honoring system, that
it comes from the Father because the system honored us and not we ourselves.
Paul draws the demarcation line firmly in 2nd Corinthians 10, 17 and 18. But let
him who boasts boast in the Lord.

For it is not the man who commends himself who is approved, but the man whom the
Lord commends. Two instances in which Jesus was apparently given commendation do
not provide adequate reason for our own systems of commendation. In Luke 2.52 it
says, Jesus grew in favor with men.

However, these same people in whose favor he grew were the very ones who later
scoffed at him and rejected him, causing Jesus to state that a prophet was not
without honor except in his own country. Later in the triumphal entry passage of
Matthew 21, the crowds that honored him with the palms and hosannas also called
for his crucifixion. The honors of men, no matter how obtained, are empty and
fickle.

The only prize legitimate for us to seek, the only prize that will not be
brought low, is the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3.14, King James Version. That high calling is the call to
servanthood.

Subhead. When the inn is full. It isn't that least is the cellar in which the
indolent, inadequate, apathetic riffraff justly find themselves collected.

In the nature of Jesus, least is a choice you make when you have such a high
view of others that you want to do all you can to elevate them, and your
position happens, because of your efforts in their behalf, to end up least. And
you really didn't notice. Very few people can make it to the top in this world.

Some are injured. Some are discouraged. But even if all were able, there is so
little room at the top that even capable deserving ones will be thwarted.

The inn called fame and fortune is always filled just at the time when you
thought you could make it. So many applicants for the best jobs. Prices so high
for the best housing.

There just isn't room. But there is a place where adequate room seems available.
It's called a manger.

It's small and dirty and inhabited by animals, but it is the place where the Son
of God, the greatest in the kingdom, the servant, was born. And there seems to
be enough room when it comes to servanthood. Not many people are fighting to get
into the manger.

If you really love people and want to serve them, there will always be room.
Perhaps no human glory or prizes, but plenty of room. Mary, when she heard from
the angel that she was to bear the Messiah, understood about the proud and the
humble, and perhaps even then about mangers.

And Mary said, My soul praises the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all
generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for
me.

Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to
generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm.

He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought
down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the
hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his
descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers. Luke 1, verses 46 through
55. So we find Jesus in humble places, in mangers among the poor, being a
servant, being humble, being an example, being as a child, being as the younger,
being as the last and as the least.

And wherever he is, his servants will be. Now we read Philippians 2, verses 5
through 11. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being
in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Subtitle, Good-bye strong-arm tactics. Christ Jesus did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped. Paul delves deeply into the person and nature
of Jesus in the letter to the church at Philippi.

He uses some of the same descriptions Jesus gave himself in the greatest in the
kingdom teachings, but he also adds some fresh insight. Your attitude should be
the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, Philippians 2, 5, and 6. In
the simplest interpretation of this passage, it states that though he deserved
it, being equal with God, Jesus did not try to take over the kingdom by force.
Major amounts of money are being spent in the world today for armaments, but
Jesus valued people too highly to violate them through the use of force.

Certainly he had the power to call legions of angels to rescue him from the
cross and wreak vengeance on the crowd that had mistreated him, but he didn't.
Certainly he could have roamed the countryside grabbing people by the neck and
threatening them with cosmic annihilation if they did not follow him, but he
didn't. He refuses to do anything that would destroy or inhibit our ability to
choose.

Love works that way. Matthew quotes Isaiah to show the gentleness of Jesus, and
I quote scripture. Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in
whom I delight.

I will put my spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He
will not quarrel or cry out. No one will hear his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out
till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.
Matthew 12 18 through 21.

We do not have a comparable idiom for the reference to a bruised reed and a
smoldering wick. The closest meaning we can obtain from what he is saying is
that he won't kick a man when he is down, and he looks for the brightest spark
of hope in people and tries to fan it into flame. When I was in Boy Scouts, we
made fire from flints or from rubbing sticks together.

We would take a handful of very flammable material called tinder and place it
where sparks from the flint could fall into it or heat from the sticks would
make it begin to smolder. Quick action would soon have a spark in the tinder. I
never saw anyone look at that single spark and in disgust stomp it out,
complaining all the while that it was only one spark.

To the contrary, they would pick up the tinder, cup it in their hands, and blow
through it in an effort to provide additional oxygen and create a flame. That
seems so descriptive of the way Jesus treats us and so unlike the way we treat
each other. As a college teacher, I'm called upon to evaluate people through
grades.

It is my least favorite thing about teaching. According to the system, if people
do not measure up to at least 65% of my standard, they're not worthy to be in my
continued presence. They must go elsewhere.

Unfortunately, conscious or unconscious grading occurs in our general evaluation
of people. If they do not meet a majority of our criteria for quality people,
then we do not bother to give them further opportunity to be our friend. In
church, if someone does not succeed in living up to our tenets of minimum
behavior at least 80% of the time, then we no longer have time for such a
person.

How different is Jesus' gentle invitation from the condemnatory harangues,
voiced or silent, that I have heaped upon weary and burdened people. Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest
for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. He does not stomp on us because
there's only one spark of hope in us. No, he gently lifts us and blows the great
wind of God on us until his fire baptizes us.

Subhead. Does the end justify the means? The other meaning, additional, not
alternate, of Philippians 2, 5, and 6, which speaks of not grasping the kingdom,
is that Jesus was not driven by blind ambition. When goals are of the highest
order and represent eternal values, keeping the method of achieving those goals
in proper balance is difficult.

We've all heard the question, does the end justify the means? Surely Jesus, who
had the highest of goals, should have been free to use whatever means he needed
to attain the goal. However, he refused to be blindly driven. Anyone who has
worked within the ranks of industry or any human economic system is acquainted
with the cutthroat methods used by the to rise in the ranks or to multiply
income.

Such increase usually comes at the expense of another. In the church, too,
people become pawns and stepping stones to others' goals, even very acceptable
goals, like evangelism. Subhead.

Winning ways. Much evangelism is akin to the frenzied eating of a starved shark.
We thrash around and produce a lot of blood, thereby fulfilling our hunger for
statistics.

There is a thought pattern which goes, the important thing is to get them to say
the sinner's prayer. It doesn't matter how we get them to do it. The important
thing is that they do it.

It doesn't matter if they understand very well what they've done. The important
thing is that they do it. Consequently, we've used every kind of approach to
reach sinners, short of loving and relating to them.

We're taught to approach them as a salesman would, not revealing our reason for
the conversation until the right psychological time, and then moving in for the
close, whether there's an invitation for it or not. Then, the ritual concluded,
we leave appropriate literature and fade away from the person's life. We leave
our new child and hope he finds his way to someone's doorstep or that someone
else will remember to visit him.

The only thing akin to a modern altar call in the New Testament occurred on the
day of Pentecost, after Peter's sermon, when 3,000 accepted Christ. The
significant difference is that Peter did not issue the call. The crowd did.

How different from today. Whether the Holy Spirit moves people or not is
immaterial. We try to do it on our own.

Evangelists trade secrets of how best to move the greatest number of people to
the altar. Having been in the church all my life, I think I've been subjected to
all the manipulative forms, and it hurts to rethink them, but let's look at a
few. How often I heard closings to sermons that were totally unrelated to the
message that had just been given.

Instead, a well-placed deathbed story designed only to elicit emotions
immediately preceded the call to the front. The whole structure of heads bowed,
eyes closed, the organ gently playing, creates an unreal atmosphere that can be
destructive to a person's ability to make a genuine choice. In this mood-setting
atmosphere, psychological forces unrelated to the choice at hand can come into
play and confuse the issue.

Once, when I was presenting the Good News to an individual and giving him the
opportunity to make a decision about Christ, he asked me a question that stopped
me in my tracks and made me wonder what kind of grinder he had been through
before. He asked me, will you still be my friend if I say no? Evangelism in the
Jesus style never violates or is disrespectful of the freedom of anyone. It
increases their ability to make a choice rather than takes it away from them.

Evangelism in the Jesus style never uses deceptive means or dishonesty in any
form to make converts. God is truth and reality. Any means that requires that
the person be tricked or fooled or any means that works only under a cloud of
secrecy is a violation of the Jesus style.

Evangelism in the Jesus style focuses on the person of Jesus himself rather than
any fringe church doctrines or styles. Evangelism in the Jesus style grows out
of the fruit of our lives and asks us to be willing to reveal ourselves even to
sinners. Again, Jesus, who came to redeem people, not use them, refused to take
advantage of others on his path to the cross.

He easily could have taken advantage of a repentant Zacchaeus or of a seeking
young man who was rich or of the crowd he fed who wanted to make him king. But
Jesus, dedicated to the greatest goal, was equally dedicated to the greatest
means. He was driven by love and obedience, not blind ambition.

This is the end of side A. Please turn the tape over to listen to side B.
Subtitle. Hello, I'm Reverend... Christ Jesus made himself nothing. He made
himself nothing.

Emptied himself. The great kenosis, it's called. He made himself of no
reputation, no image.

I can recall my father shaking his head and repeating over and over to himself,
if only I knew what this meant. There's something powerful here, if only I
understood it. Maybe that's why this scripture has glued itself to my mind and
equally disturbs me.

Reputation is so important to me. I want to be seen with the right people,
remembered in the right light, advertised with my name spelled right, live in
the right neighborhood, drive the right kind of car, wear the right kind of
clothing. But Jesus made himself of no reputation.

Image building is a significant industry in the United States. Presidential
candidates and others who need a tangible expression of approval from the public
spend millions of dollars on simply building their image. Advertising companies
spend billions just to let you know that their clients are around.

And to build an image that will cause you to trust them regardless of the
quality of their product. For Americans, image is of supreme importance. Image
or reputation is simply a means to gain control over others or manipulate them
to our best advantage.

Most people are guilty of it. Certainly we clergymen are. If I were to introduce
myself to you by saying, Hello, I am the Reverend Mr. Gail Dean Irwin,
immediately I would have you intimidated.

You would clean up your act, quit cursing, hide certain reading material, become
unreal. Or, if I don't get to introduce myself, I can wear a black suit and
white shirt and immediately you know I'm either an umpire, undertaker, or a
preacher. Same result.

Or I can simply speak with my pulpit voice, the sanctuary tone with a tear in
every word, and immediately you know only preachers talk that way. Once again, I
have you cowed. In an airplane between Los Angeles and Dallas, I had occasion to
share the good news with the owner of an electronics manufacturing company.

As he neared the point at which he would accept the Lord, he stopped and asked
me what I did for a living. I told him I was a minister. The wheels began
turning in his head as he wondered what he had been saying to this clergyman.

A lady seated on the other side of me, overhearing that I was a clergyman,
squealed with delight and asserted that she had wanted to meet one so she could
ask him some questions. Whereupon she asked me something like, How many angels
can actually sit on the head of a pen? The conversation with the executive then
became proper. The weight of all the unreal image we have helped to build came
crashing down on me.

I still wonder at the books I have read, written by great men, that urge me to
keep up a professional image as a minister. They exhort me not to let my people
get close to me, or see me with my hair down, or call me by my first name. They
must be taught to respect the office of a pastor and honor it as a profession,
so these books tell me.

Perhaps that is why I meet so many lonely, frustrated pastors in my travels. But
God has not designed us to live that way, and according to Luke, Jesus didn't
live that way either. The tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around
to hear him, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man
welcomes sinners and eats with them.

Luke 15, 1, 2. Jesus kept doing the things that were detrimental to his
reputation. He didn't mind who he was seen with. A former prostitute kept
constant company with his group.

He would do whatever would serve the best interests of a person, regardless of
the cost to himself. Quoting Scripture, Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus
to have dinner with him. So he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the
table.

When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was
eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as
she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her
tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on
them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If
this man were a prophet, he would know who's touching him, and what kind of
woman she is, that she is a sinner.

Luke 7, 36-39. A good Pharisee would never have let a woman, especially one like
this, even touch him in public. But in this scene a woman of ill repute begins
to caress the feet of Jesus in the only way her skills had taught her to do.

Rather than rebuke her for it, Jesus rebukes the judgmental Pharisee and honors
this repentant woman who had kissed his feet ceaselessly from the time Jesus
arrived. I have a friend in a large foreign city where prostitution is legal and
the women display themselves in rooms so customers can make a choice of who they
want. He's a respected pastor whom God has burdened with the plight of these
women.

He realized that no one cared about them. Anyone who could have helped them
avoided the place where they were so as not to tarnish their own reputation. He
began to enter these houses and talk with the women there.

At first they tried to be erotic but quickly they realized that he was not there
to take advantage of their bodies and began to talk with him about Christ and
reality. This pastor risked all of his reputation and image for such a burden of
love. I suspect Jesus did the same.

If I am but a pilgrim and stranger in this world, I do not need to hold on to
anything that would guarantee my success in it, not my reputation and not my
possessions either. Subhead. Possessions are nine-tenths.

Paul gives us further insight in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9 into what it meant for
Jesus to make himself nothing. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor so that you, through
his poverty, might become rich. Whether we interpret this to be poor in spirit
or poor in finances, the outcome is a major shaking of our own nature.

After gaining new insight into the nature of Jesus, I can begin to understand
why he said that it is more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Possessing wealth is
probably the strongest deterrent to growing into the nature and lifestyle of
Jesus. A wealthy man has so much to give up.

When Jesus talked to the rich young ruler who had put honest effort into right
living and thinking, and discerned that he was possessed by his riches, the
final instructions were, go and sell what you have and give it to the poor. I
have been fascinated by how many people, including me, rationalized their desire
to be wealthy by stating that they wish to be rich so they can help people with
their money. Meanwhile, they gave themselves to no ministry that even indicated
a slightest desire to serve people.

Ah yes, Jesus knew the hearts of men, and he knew how best to resist temptation
for himself as well. His instructions were not, go and sell what you have and
give it to God through my organization, nor were they, show your love and
devotion by selling what you have and giving it to me, the Lord. The rich young
ruler seemed to have everything else correct.

Perhaps fulfilling Jesus' instructions was the only step he lacked in being able
to become a lover of people. Yet apparently Jesus did not say to all of the
wealthy friends he had that they must sell all and give to the poor as he did to
the rich young ruler. He has a keen sense of where our treasure and heart is.

Jesus did not pull back from the total impact of what he had to say about
wealth, even though it was not always understood by the disciples and was
especially not appreciated by the Pharisees. The Pharisees felt that possession
of things was a sign that God was pleased with them and that people were poor
because it was a sign of God's displeasure. Jesus consistently reversed the
value systems of the world.

And I quote from Scripture, the Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and
were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves
in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men
is detestable in God's sight.

Luke 16, 14, and 15. Men's value, God's abomination. What an indictment of our
system.

The nature of Jesus, however, is both opposite to the fallen nature of man and
redemptive of it. Jesus gives us insight into the proper priority of values in
the following conversation, quoting Scripture, Teacher, we know that you speak
and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality, but teach the way
of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar
or not? He saw through their duplicity and said to them, Show me a denarius.

Whose portrait and inscription are on it? Caesar's, they replied. He said to
them, Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Luke 20,
21-25.

Money falls under the realm of Caesar's whether it says in God we trust on it or
not. It is the stuff of this world, the symbol around which our greed gathers.
In this age, the desire for more has led parents to take multiple jobs in order
to provide their families with higher standards of living.

In this drive to excel, they have deprived their children of the richest of
gifts themselves. I pray for a generation that will accept a lesser standard of
living in order to give themselves away to their families and others. People are
the realm of God.

His inscription is on us. He has created us in His image, and we are to be given
to Him. His making Himself poor was not to create a dramatic show and thus
impress the world, or simply prove to Himself that He could do it.

No, He made Himself poor for our benefit, so that by His poverty we might be
made rich. Subhead. Building Bigger Barns.

It is easy to lose sight of proper priorities in the practical decisions of
life. For example, take the choices that we must make regarding church
buildings. Church facilities as we know them were not part of the early church
and certainly were not commanded by Jesus.

They are made compatible with the nature of Jesus only by diligent awareness and
effort. When we decide on the location for a building, we have made a
sociological decision as to which strata of people will feel comfortable coming
to it. Then when we decide on the architectural style, we have made another
sociological decision as to who will feel comfortable being present in it.

Each choice reduces the number of people. When we choose the liturgy we will
use, we have made another sociological decision as to who will worship with us.
Our choice of clothing style, reading material, rules and regulations limits
even further who will attend.

The whole approach of Jesus seems to be to remove those limits. He opens his
arms to the weary and heavy laden. Anything we do that in any way closes the
door to that group is out of step with the nature of Jesus.

One of the most powerful abominations that has crept into our decision process
concerning church facilities is the statement, Jesus deserves the best. I agree
that he does, but the problem is we haven't the foggiest idea what the best is
until we thoroughly understand and pursue the nature of Jesus. Otherwise we will
attempt to voice material opulence on him who exactly avoided such
self-glorification.

I think that what we are saying is we deserve the best. How have we so perverted
the gospel that we concentrate the majority of our church income on the
facilities instead of on the people? The world stands up and cries, selfish. If
we are truly pilgrims passing through this world, what purpose is served in
spending so much of our time, energy and resources on a physical building while
the needs of the people go untouched? If we are locked into a building or
building program, then we need to ask certain questions of it.

Will it enable us to be better slaves? Will it cause us to lord it over others?
What will we be examples of in this building? Can we be humble here? Can we be
as a child in this building? Is this building a product of our ambition? If we
had to pay for it individually, would we still do it? Would people think we had
made ourselves of no reputation with this building? Would we die for this
building or is it expendable? What will we do to keep people from damaging this
building? Will we let them stain the carpet? Will we permit bare feet here?
Would those bare feet be comfortable here anyway? Are there any furnishings that
memorialize persons other than Christ? Are there any pews or areas that are
understood to be reserved for certain people? In what ways can we tell the
difference between the rich and the poor in this building? If we must have
buildings, then let us break away from the theater designs of the last centuries
in which the performance on the stage is the most important thing and all seats
are fixed in that direction. Let us begin to design buildings that will enhance
the interaction of the body and give us a chance to fulfill the call to love one
another. Let it be known that the congregation is where the action is, and God,
not our structure, is the center of worship.

Let us drop the Saturday marquee page in the newspaper that tells what
performance is going on where in our efforts to lure fish away from another fish
bowl. Whatever buildings we have, let us utilize them fully seven days a week so
as to be good stewards. And whatever we build, let us hold to it ever so
lightly, knowing that those things that can be shaken will be shaken, causing
only the permanent to remain.

Subtitle Down to Earth Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness, and being found in appearance as a man. A church administrator in a
high position once expressed that he feared I was describing Jesus in terms too
human. He felt that it was dangerously close to humanism.

Hardly. Humanism recognizes no divine other than mankind, but Jesus was fully
God, fully man. If he was fully man, then he was just like me, a man with the
same passions and temptations that I have.

The writer of Hebrews reveals to us that we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Hebrews 4.15. Tempted in
every way, just as I am. The Son of God.

That's a little hard to believe, but it is so. Occasionally I believe I have
original temptations, ones that Jesus could never possibly have faced. But he
did.

James writes that each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged
away and enticed. James 1.14. Does this mean that the lust structure of Jesus
was like mine? Apparently so, for that is the source of temptation, when we are
drawn away of our own lusts. Yet he was without sin.

It encourages me that though he was just like me, he was able to perfectly obey
his Father, and now imparts that ability, as well as his sinlessness, to me.
Fully human. Sweating, smelling, bathing, eliminating sin.

Sweating. Fully human. Fully God.

Now this frees me to be humble, to own my own humanity, to not try to hide it in
the presence of friends, not try to put on a mask of spirituality if it is not
there, to learn to be honest about myself, to be free to be forgiven and to
forgive. Subhead. Living Without Weights.

Nothing is quite as regular as paying the bills. Most of us never escape the
burden of our debts, though we long to be free. In the same way, by the time we
reach age 30, we can record a long list of things we wish we hadn't said or
done, trespasses against others for which we carry the burden of guilt.

And also, by age 30, we can list injustices we have suffered, whose memories
awaken anger in us, adding bitterness to our burden. The burdens of debt,
trespasses, and bitterness are all weights that destroy our peace and our right
relationships with others, weights that can only be removed by forgiveness.
Servanthood knows that bitterness cripples the slave and renders him useless,
and servanthood wants for others the freedom that comes from forgiveness.

Jesus chose forgiveness as a major trait of those who follow him. Then Peter
came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he
sins against me? Up to seven times. Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times,
but seventy-seven times.

Usually, I'm good for three times of forgiveness, although I am cautious after
the first time. But Jesus wants me to identify with a struggling brother who
desires to change but can't always get it together. Jesus wants me to teach him
how to forgive by forgiving, just as he taught the disciples by saying, Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

It is as if Jesus, in spite of the horrendous scars and deep wounds we had given
him, conspired with the Father to get even with us and said, let's teach them a
lesson. Let's forgive them. God helped me to love the sinner in his sin and let
him know it.

Sin is a distortion of our created nature. Forgiveness has an amazing power to
correct that distortion. Forgiveness also has a way of eliminating the distance
between people, bringing us close enough to touch and embrace, actions very much
in keeping with servanthood.

Subhead, Love Wrapped in Skin Few things communicate acceptance and warmth to us
as much as touch. Even a child knows its value. One night a mother went into her
little girl's bedroom to comfort her in the midst of a thunderstorm.

The mother said, don't worry, Jesus is here and he will protect you. Her
daughter responded, okay, you sleep here with Jesus and I'll go sleep with
Daddy. That child wanted touch.

It seemed so appropriate that the Incarnation would bring us to the Servant King
who would touch us and let us touch him. Scriptures filled with references to
Jesus touching. Since his love for mankind is so complete, even the lepers, the
untouchables, felt the warmth of his hands.

Children, animals, the ground he created, were all beneficiaries of his touch.
Little wonder that so many of the one and others of the New Testament express an
intimacy that would require touch. Little wonder that the touch of washing feet
was a requirement for fellowship between Jesus and Peter.

Little wonder that touch, even of a garment hem, provides such healing. Little
wonder, then, that the ordaining of ministries requires the laying on of hands.
Little wonder that gifts and birthrights were passed along by the laying on of
hands.

Little wonder that the writer of Hebrews considered the doctrine of the laying
on of hands to be elementary. While on earth Jesus was love wrapped in skin, and
even now, the saga of the Incarnation continues as Jesus serves us in advocacy
before the Father. The book of Hebrews reminds us that he is still touched with
the feeling of our infirmities.

Hebrews 4.15 Subtitle Like father, like son. He humbled himself and became
obedient. Obedience has always had a distorted meaning in my mind.

For me, it represented an unwelcome task mask or demand that you do what you
didn't want to do and maybe didn't think was right, and that you were made to do
by someone larger and stronger than yourself. This does not seem to be the
meaning of obedience in the life of Christ. What was the difference? Obedience
was a joy for him because it was being true to the original nature, the made in
the image of God nature that Adam and Eve had polluted by their choices.

The special mark of Jesus' life was his total obedience to his Father. I tell
you the truth. The son can do nothing by himself.

He can do only what he sees his father doing, because whatever the father does,
the son also does. But the father loves the son and shows him all he does. John
5.19-20 Since Jesus was revealing the nature of God, then we must assume that
the traits discussed in these pages describe the God of all creation.

God and his son are servants, examples, humble, as a child, as the younger, as
the least, as the last, using no force, emptying themselves. These traits that
totally speak love were guiding principles, even commands for the life of Jesus.
He was completely faithful to them.

Jesus was obedient to this servant love of man even in Gethsemane when the cost
was going up astronomically. At the most crucial point, he chose to do the act
that would most lovingly display the reality of the Father to us. In my own
selfishness, I usually fail at that very point.

My ability to make choices is always loving of others. But Jesus knew the secret
of obedience which produces joy. In Matthew, he gives to his disciples what may
be the most condensed secret of God, the atom out of which all else is built.

And I quote Scripture. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose
it.

But whoever loses his life for me will find it. Matthew 16, 24 and 25. If I
could put this principle fully into effect in my life, all the others being
discussed here would fall into place.

This is the essence of how God operates, the essence of what holds the universe
together, the essence of what keeps my body going, the essence of what keeps the
body of Christ functioning. So to activate it in my life unlocks the power of
God for me more than anything else. It isn't mysterious or mystical at all.

But it doesn't have the drama behind it that other verses do, so it's easy for
me to neglect. Working on the principle of giving myself away has provided
greater results in counseling for me than any other principle. It has
drastically altered my own life.

All the selfish forces that create the abnormalities and sufferings of life fall
by the wayside when I get in touch with the God-life, the atom that moves me to
act in luck toward others. The charismatic gifts around which so much excitement
revolves are also subject to this principle. None of them are to be used for
self-seeking purposes, only for the edification of the body.

The ministry gifts are to be used for the equipping of others. Any act not
beneficial to others is disobedient and damaging to the body. Our piety has been
polluted, with many of our holiness requirements becoming purely personal and
having little to do with how we relate to others.

At a Christian festival, I had a conversation with two couples, one of whom was
Buddhist, in response to a session that I had taught in the afternoon. About
halfway through the conversation, the Christian man lit a cigarette, then
apologized, saying he wanted to give them up because they heard his witness. The
Buddhist woman responded with a statement that continues to shake me.

She said, We non-Christians, when one of our rank becomes a Christian, do not
watch them to see how well they live up to some self-imposed standard of piety.
We watch them to see how they start treating people. I felt as if I had heard
the word of the Lord from her.

The Pharisees could accuse Jesus of being a glutton and a wine-bibber, but they
could not accuse him of not loving people. He had succeeded. He had been
obedient to the Father.

Subhead. A Strange Catchword Power for obedience to the Father came to Jesus by
the anointing of the Spirit that comes from the Father. Anointing, however, is
not always clearly understood.

In the past, I have heard it used as a strange catchword. When a minister felt
that he had the anointing, the physical results were immediate. The voice rose
in volume.

Pulpit pounding would increase. Similarly, when a congregation talked of a
preacher who was anointed, it had nothing to do with what he was saying, but
instead was a way of describing the style with which he preached. But let us see
what the anointing does to Jesus.

First, he is driven into the desert by the Spirit, where, while fasting, he is
tempted heavily by the devil. There he sees the strength of the things that
makes us fall. He perceives what we go through and discovers how much of dust we
are.

Then, with the battle won, he goes to the synagogue where a scroll from Isaiah
is handed to him, and he reads, That is what the anointing did to Jesus. It
caused him to fulfill his nature, to be obedient. Sacred anointing, as different
from social or medicinal anointing, has a specific meaning.

To dedicate to God, to set apart, to empower for a specific purpose. The word
Messiah, or Christ, means the anointed one. In other words, Jesus was fully
dedicated, fully set apart, fully empowered, not to some volume of voice or
manner of eloquence, but to do something, to preach good news, to proclaim
freedom, to give sight, and to release.

That is what the anointing must produce in me if I follow in his steps. Along
with what the anointing caused him to do, notice the clientele to which it sent
him. Poor, prisoners, blind, oppressed, hardly the most attractive sort of
companions.

None of these people would be able to properly repay him for his services. They
could only receive. Obedience thinks more about giving than receiving.

Let us see the kind of people our anointing will send us to and what we are to
say to them. Subhead. Whose side is God on? Good news to the poor.

I think I would more likely want to preach good news to the rich. The returns
are better. But poor people hardly know what to do with good news.

They seldom get any. They tend to go overboard when something good comes along
and take advantage of it. You can't help the poor until they understand better
how to handle being helped, I tend to think.

But the first result of the anointing of Jesus was to give the poor good news.
Freedom for the prisoners. When is the last time you visited someone in jail?
You may be a little ashamed if you even know someone who is in jail.

If, like me, you are apt to say, why should I visit someone in jail? They are
there because of the wheels of justice and part of their punishment and
rehabilitation is to be deprived of interaction with people like me. Then this
part of the anointing has meaning that is deeply disturbing. Not all people in
jails received or are receiving justice.

Many of them, because they have no wealth to keep the legal processes going, are
swiftly forgotten and, long past the time they should have been released, had
justice been dealt out equally, languish in a cell. Prisons are great places for
individuals to be forgotten. That is certainly not healthy for a person's
outlook on life.

So Jesus finds the forgotten and remembers them. Though they have failed society
and are paying debts, the fact remains that those in prisons are people. And
Jesus came for people.

After imprisonment for his role in Watergate, Chuck Colson, as a legal expert,
saw the unjust situation of so many in prisons. This revelation so changed his
attitudes that he has now gone from being a presidential advisor to a minister
to prisoners in the name of Jesus. Prisons are not the best neighborhood for
developing a strong personality and a high view of yourself.

Yet that is our goal for others if we love them. Jesus did, so he came to
proclaim freedom for the prisoners. If you are uncomfortable with my emphasis on
literal prisons and prefer to see that in the context of spiritual prisons, the
analogy is still appropriate.

Much of the world is captive to some addiction, drugs, alcohol, tobacco,
gambling, perversion, or locked into inappropriate emotional reactions. We often
isolate such prisoners as surely as if they were behind bars. We yell at them
through their bars or from a distance to tell them that they are free but show
no indication that we really believe they are by giving the gift of our
presence.

Prisoners of sin and prisoners behind walls also suffer the stigma of being
viewed with suspicion and seldom trusted once they are released. Once we begin
to minister to them, we will find that they take immense amounts of our time and
energy. I guess we will have to be lovers of people and anointed before we will
ever proclaim freedom to prisoners.

Recovery of Sight for the Blind One of my running arguments with God is that not
enough people are healed to please me. His running argument with me is that I
both fail to pray for them enough and fail to walk with them through their
recovery. Healing is something I don't understand.

I've seen enough of it to believe that it occurs and is not always
psychologically explainable. But I've also seen enough to know that the pop
theologies which clobber the sheep for not having enough faith are inadequate.
When Jesus walked the earth, he healed the sick freely.

In some places he healed all the sick. I doubt that the faith of those crowds
exceeded that of today. Only occasionally did Jesus compliment outstanding
faith, yet he continued to heal.

The only places he didn't do much healing was where disbelief was the major
attitude. When hurting people come to Jesus today and ask for people to pray for
them, it is not out of disbelief that they have come. Some are healed, but not
all.

To send away the unhealed who came in belief with a condemning sermon on their
lack of faith ringing in their ears does not sound like Jesus to me. I do not
understand why some are healed and others are not. But I am under orders from
the Master Servant, so I will pray for the sick and the blind and leave the
healing up to the Lord.

In the meantime, what is my ministry to the blind, physically or spiritually, as
they recover? I can walk with them, keep them on the road and away from harm,
talk to them to restore their personhood, and keep them constantly in touch with
the Healer. And if you'll forgive my selfishness, I enjoy being the first one a
physically or spiritually blind person actually sees. To release the oppressed,
or to set at liberty them that are bruised, KJV, oppressed people are an enigma
to us.

We want to help them, but they keep doing things that frighten us, and often
they throw our help right back into our face. So we end up believing they are
oppressed because they deserve to be. Whether or not they deserve it, the heart
of the Church should always beat in harmony with the heart of the oppressed.

Often it doesn't. Even worse, the greatest of abominations occur when the Church
is a source of oppression. To exclude anyone because of his color or station in
life, or to support as a Church institutions that do, is totally out of step
with the nature of Jesus.

It is not listening to the Father. It is a sin that removes the action of the
Holy Spirit from us. I only hope that it doesn't involve holding Jesus up to
such shame that it falls within the category of the unpardonable.

Many of us in the Church missed a golden opportunity during the 1960s as
radicals took up the cause of the oppressed. I don't care whether the radicals
had a hidden agenda or used the wrong methods or not. We should have been with
them in our desire to free the oppressed.

We should have been there first. Instead, because we didn't like the radicals,
we used them as the reason we didn't release the oppressed. Then we decided that
anyone who tried to release the oppressed was probably just like those radicals
and was undoubtedly communist-inspired.

Jesus didn't care who else was on the side of the oppressed. He only knew that
he was. I think I try to protect my reputation too much.

Maybe I should empty myself just as he did. The other side of the coin is the
releasing of those personally bruised and oppressed persons. When someone hits
us, it will likely leave a bruise.

Because of the potential pain, we try to protect bruised spots on our body.
Additional bruises cause us to take additional steps to protect ourselves until
finally we are twisted hulks whose whole lives are wrapped up in attempting to
shield our injuries. After a disappointment in love, I said to myself that I
would never let anyone get that close to me again.

I even threatened never to love again. Our bruises thus become the starting
points at which we begin to cut ourselves off from the vulnerable, loving,
person-oriented lifestyle and begin instead to center our lives around
self-protection. That is walking death and oppression.

Jesus calls us, through the same anointing, to gently find and heal the bruises
so people can be free to live without self-protection. Jesus told us in the
Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 3 through 5, not to cast out the splinter
from someone else's eye until we have removed the log from our own. This
provides a symbol of how we are to help the hurting.

I must never approach others as the official splinter hunter. That will only
cause them to recoil in fear. However, if I've had a log removed from my eye,
you can be sure I will remember the pain associated with it and will deal very
gently with others who have a splinter.

And I would not go myself to an eye doctor who had two logs sticking out from
his own eyes. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. What is it about me that
wants to let the world know that it is in disfavor with God? Had I been one of
the group that caught the woman in the act of adultery, I probably would have
scolded her thoroughly and voted for her stoning.

As a young evangelist, I went around telling the world just how evil it was. Of
course it already knew. People's hearts condemned them already.

I was saying it more eloquently and forcefully, I thought. Then I hear Jesus say
that the anointing will cause me to proclaim to the world that God is on their
side. We are in favor with him.

How different it is from my message, and yet how much it is the message the
world longs to know. So the work of the Holy Spirit in anointing Jesus was
totally consistent with the nature of Jesus and his Father. It resulted in
dedication and obedience, in thoroughly giving himself to others and serving
them.

Will the anointing do any less for me? Amen.


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  CHAPTER 4: PART 4
========================================================================

Subtitle, Shepherds Don't Run. He humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even death on a cross. Greater love has no man than this, that one lay down his
life for his friends.

John 15, 13. This is the ultimate test of love. Am I willing to go that far in
giving myself away? It's important that we note that Jesus was not coerced into
any of this.

Love is always a choice. No one is ever forced to love. To be enslaved is one
thing, but to choose to serve, that constitutes love.

So even the step of death was a loving choice that Jesus made, and I quote the
scripture. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep.

The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep, so when he sees the wolf
coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and
scatters it. The man runs away because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for
the sheep.

I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the
Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I
have other sheep who are not of this sheep pen.

I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one
flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life
only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to
lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I receive from my
Father.

John 10, 11-18. Power for such self-giving can only come from knowing what the
Father is like and hearing His voice. The important response now is for His
sheep to hear His voice, to know what kind of sounds the Father makes, to hear
the call of the servant nature, to understand that obedience to Him means never
to violate others by being self-serving.

Jesus knew that death did not end it all. It merely began a whole new world.
Since most who read this book live in cultures that offer little threat to our
lives because we are Christians, we then must ask ourselves basic questions,
such as, For what am I willing to die? A place or places? A thing or things? A
belief or a set of beliefs? A person or a people? Where do I place myself and
say, Here I stand, so help me God, even if it cost me my life? Our answer to
that question ultimately determines the depth of our servanthood.

Subtitle Serendipity Therefore God Exalted Him Examining the nature of Jesus as
we have leaves the natural me a little afraid. None of these traits of the man
Jesus are useful to conquer the world. Yet Jesus left us with the command to
make disciples of all nations.

How, without using power, influence, and money, can we make His name known? How
can such a non-self-serving system ever get the job done? Here God reveals the
bottom line to this list of the traits of Jesus. He lets us know where His
interests lie. In the Philippians 2 passage, Paul gives the results of living
the Jesus nature of obedience to the Father.

I quote the scripture, Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave
him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2, 9-11
Now I see. If we live after God's manner, we'll get God's results.

We cannot win the world in our own strength, so we must approach it in a way
that frees God to use His power in our behalf. I have seen people succeed in
religious circles who did not use much of the Jesus style. This disturbed me
until I saw it in perspective.

Their success was minor compared to what it could have been. We can succeed on
our own, but the success will be restricted to the limits of our human abilities
and will never fully do the job left to us. But when we live in the Jesus style,
our success is limited only to God's ability.

It will never fit our worldly logic, but it will fit our faith and will
unquestionably require us to trust Him. But He is faithful and promises to
uphold His part of the deal. He says to us, I no longer call you servants
because a servant does not know his master's business.

Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my
Father I have made known to you. John 15, 15. That is the glorious outcome.

Now we know how to pray. Now we know how to love. Now we know the source of our
power.

Now we know how to use power. Subtitle The Power Broker Jesus knew that the
Father had put all things under His power. I was watching a television program
in which candidates for a certain bodybuilding title were being interviewed.

As they walked out onto the stage, the muscles rippled beneath their oiled skins
like so many small animals racing each other. Their show of strength was
awesome. When the announcer asked them what they did with their strength, their
answer was to take appropriate poses to show again the shape of their muscles.

The more he insisted on knowing how they used their strength, the more they took
poses of power. What do you do when you have all that power? For the last
quarter-century, Superman has been part of the American culture. Begun as a
comic book then serialized on television, his adventures have now been made into
a series of expensive movies.

We are enraptured by the thought of being faster than a speeding bullet, more
powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. We
love power, and Superman fits our deepest fantasies perfectly. But what do you
do with all that power? What does Jesus do? Jesus knows, in John 13, the time
has come.

He prepares to show the disciples the full extent of His love. Jesus is aware
that He has come from God and is returning to Him, and He knows that the Father
has put all things under His power. What are we to expect now? Fireworks? An
awesome show of raw power? Imagine Jesus, biceps bulging beneath a seamless robe
with flowing cape, reclining at supper with His disciples.

The forces of evil have been collecting for months and are about to kill Him,
but don't worry. All the power ever created is coursing through His body. He
gets up.

This man, surrounded by overwhelming evil forces, walks over to the disciples,
and with all of this incredible power, begins to do what? He got up from the
meal, took off His outer clothing, wrapped a towel around His waist. After that,
He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet. So that is
what He does with power.

He washes feet. We do not have a custom with which to compare foot washing. Foot
washing was a hospitable thing, always done by a slave or the head of the house,
if he were too poor to have a slave.

It was a lowly thing, never done by persons of significance for whom it would
represent a loss of stature. It's like having the President of the United States
clean the restrooms of the White House or having a king sweep the streets. One
would not perform such a lowly job and risk losing stature unless he were
completely comfortable with his own identity.

Jesus knew who He was, and consequently He didn't have to prove anything. He
could do the lowest job. Had it been me, I would have held one foot slightly
elevated for all the disciples to see as I coughed nervously and hinted that
something important had been left undone.

It would have been beneath me to do such work. And Peter recognized that this
behavior was beneath the dignity of Jesus. He was unable to receive such a free
gift, so he told Jesus he would not allow his feet to be washed.

Jesus' answer speaks volumes about our relationship to Him and each other and
about His nature. Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me. Unless we
understand the true nature of Jesus and let Him be to us what He is to be, we
can never fully comprehend Him or truly be a part of Him.

We may be a member of His club or take on much of the right vocabulary, but
unless He serves us, we have no part or fellowship with Him. Peter's response is
typical of the way we approach one another. Above all, you must not see the real
me, we reason.

I'll wash my own feet. You can rinse them ritually. Perhaps just as not letting
Jesus wash our feet removes us from fellowship with Him, not fulfilling the
command of Jesus to wash one another's feet removes us from fellowship with each
other.

We are to be cleansing agents to each other, removing the dust of our daily
travels to prepare us to sit at the table of the Lord. I quote from Scripture.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to
his place.

Do you understand what I have done for you? he asked them. You call me teacher
and Lord, and rightly so, for that's what I am. Now that I, your Lord and
teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you
the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater
than the one who sent him. John 13, 12-16.

Some interpret this passage to mean that Jesus was instituting a new type of
ritual, an actual foot-washing service. I have no real argument with those who
do so. I've been in foot-washing services, and they can be a time of real
exhilaration.

However, I have never been in a service where there were any dirty feet. We're
careful to clean them thoroughly before we expose them to the gaze, smell, and
touch of the saints. Personally, I doubt that Jesus was introducing a new
liturgy.

He definitely was telling us how we were to relate to one another. If it is not
literally to wash feet, then what are we to do to fulfill this commandment? One
question in response would be, what things make us feel cleaner and more fit for
the Master's table? When someone takes the time to listen to me, I feel as if my
feet have been washed. When I'm complimented, my feet have been washed.

When someone shares a joy with me, my feet have been washed. When someone values
my ear enough to share a burden or confess, my feet have been washed. There are
countless ways to wash feet.

We need only to begin to notice where the dirt comes from in our own lives, and
we can give cleansing to others. This thought altered my approach to Sunday
sermonizing. I began to realize that neatly dressed people, seated neatly in
rows, are not feeling neat inside.

Most of them struggle with non-Christian fellow workers. Some listen to constant
streams of profanity and off-color stories. Many of the women have been
propositioned in the past week.

Families sit coolly angry and nonconversant. Guilt, real and unreal, hovers over
them and strikes deeply at their inner beings. Shall I flail them with ominous
words from a pulpit? Shall I berate them because they live no better? Shall I
blame them for a broken heart? No, they, like me, need their feet washed.

We cannot discover true fellowship until our times together as Christians are
foot-washing times. Jesus said, now that you know these things, you will be
blessed if you do them. John 13, 17.

Chapter title, Living in Style. Subtitle, The Sweet and the Bitter. In following
a map, we must first know where we are before we know where to go.

Now that we have seen Jesus and ourselves in contrast, we at least have some
idea of where we are. By now, it should be obvious that our journey is going to
take a lifetime, but we will get there. When Ezekiel was told after receiving a
revelation from God to eat the words he had written, he found them to be sweet
in his mouth and bitter in his stomach.

There is a parallel to that in the words I have shared with you. As good as they
may sound or taste, they are difficult to digest, simply because they are so
opposite to our natural inclinations. We begin to fear and tremble as we work
out this salvation.

Thankfully, we have help. We will see that clearly as we look now at the body of
Christ and at God's involvement in our personal growth. It will become obvious
also that God's invitations have an RSVP note on them.

Subtitle, The Ankle Bone Connected to the Foot Bone. Reading from scripture, God
has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts
that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its
parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part
suffers with it.

If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of
Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12, 24-27.

It is appropriate that God chose the body as an analogy for His followers. It's
organic, flexible, growing. It can only survive as it lives according to the
nature of Jesus.

Not one part of the natural body exists for itself. Every single part of the
human body is designed and placed there to be a servant to the rest of the body.
If a part of the natural body becomes self-centered and begins to exist only for
itself, it becomes what medical doctors call cancer.

Both my natural body and the body of Christ can survive only as long as each
part functions as servant to the rest of the parts. The analogy of our being a
body can be carried to some logical conclusions. No body has any ambitious parts
in it.

You'd never hear my toes say to me, if I'm a really good toe, can I work my way
up the body and become a knee, an elbow, or a nose? Ridiculous. My toes spend
most of their lives in darkness. They've been seen by few people.

They work under great pressure and in less than the best atmosphere. Yet they do
not complain that they've never tasted ice cream or that the face gets more
attention. Never once have they said, if this is all the thanks I get, I'm going
to join another body.

If an ankle is sprained and cannot carry its share of the load, the body does
not threaten to cut it off because it makes the whole body limp. The other parts
of the body are glad they can take up the slack while the injured part is
repaired. When I'm driving a nail and accidentally hit the wrong nail, the one
on my thumb, my injured hand does not grab the hammer and beat the other thumb
to get even for the injury.

My right hand does not berate my left hand because it is weaker and not as
dexterous as my right hand. Shaving scrapes off a layer of skin that requires
the corpulses of the blood to come and repair it. They do it every day.

Not once do they complain that if the person doesn't learn his lesson and quit
damaging his face, they will cease healing the shaved area. My fist does not hit
my stomach if it aches or my face if it is burned. Quite the opposite.

My body is carefully self-protective. Without regard to its own safety, my hand
will cover my face to protect the eyes. Occasionally the parts of my body will
signal their complaint if they're overworked, but at no time do I have to handle
a stack of complaints from the parts of my body saying they resent the part that
they are.

Surely what this all means is obvious. If we are members of the body of Christ,
we are designed to serve one another. It's the only way Christ would have it to
be.

Subtitle Prisoners of History If our individual lives are expected to reflect
the nature of Jesus, then the structures we individuals form—our organizations,
our denominations—are not in an exempt category. Yet within a few years of the
founding of almost all religious groups, they began to take on the
characteristics of the average business corporation. They're shaped like a
pyramid in their authority structure.

Efficiency experts begin to determine their functions rather than body structure
and spiritual gifts. Nepotism reigns. They become ingrown and far removed from
the thinking of their constituencies.

Corporate proclamations vastly differ from the private expressions of the
individual members. In personal conversations with a number of different persons
in high denominational boards, I've found them to be basically progressive men
who cared for people and had deep misgivings about various theologies and about
their own roles. But when they get into a meeting together, the product of the
meeting is opposite to their private expressions.

I wonder if they aren't getting their signals from somewhere else once they fall
into the system that resembles that of the world. If an organization's system
deprives or inhibits persons in their ability to hear from God and decide on
that basis, then something is drastically wrong. That is not the Jesus style.

It was the nature of Jesus to be given to persons. It is the nature of
organizations to be given to self-preservation. To be self-seeking is to violate
the words of Jesus.

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will
preserve it. After a period of time, structures begin to suffer hardening of the
categories, and those categories become more important to them than the persons
they serve. The Greek myth of Procrustes describes the situation well.

Procrustes had a house midway between two major cities and a day's journey from
each. Because of its location, travelers sought it out regularly for a night's
lodging and for meals. The hospitality of the home of Procrustes was beyond any
that the travelers had ever experienced before.

Meals were sumptuous. Rooms were spacious. Payment was not accepted.

Procrustes allowed them the run of the house and informed them that there were
no rules for them to worry about. Only one requirement would be laid upon them
for the whole night. Joy abounded.

Then the requirement was revealed. Every person who stayed there would have to
fit the bed. If he was too short, he would be stretched.

If he was too tall, he would be cut off. Many people fit the bed, slept well,
and went about praising the hospitality of Procrustes to their friends in
various cities, urging them to spend a night there when they traveled through.
But many people died in the of Procrustes.

No one heard their testimony. When denominations and other religious
organizations become established, their theologies and social structures tend to
be rigid. Anyone with fresh insight or a prophetic word is stoned verbally or
excluded from the Jerusalem or headquarters of the group.

Only those who fit the prescribed pattern survive. Also, as systems of choosing
personnel are refined, only those who can move up through the ranks are
accepted. Spiritual leadership falls by the wayside as the rigid bed of
political ability wins.

The early days of most new movements are marked by outstanding leadership, often
chosen because it simply is outstanding. Later, as the movement dies, leadership
in the resulting institution follows a more bureaucratic model. On several
occasions, I have asked people who were training for ministry to list the
persons to whom they looked for spiritual leadership in the church.

Never has an elected official of any organization been named. Somehow, the
rights to true leadership are laid aside in the shuffle for power. What can a
structure do to prevent such failings? Basically, it cannot do anything.

That's the nature of the beast, and the only way it can be handled is to be
killed. Here is a drastic proposal. Every religious organization should have in
its first constitution the irrevocable provision that it be disbanded and
dispersed at the end of 50 years.

For some, this limit should be 25 years. This would free the constituency to be
more constantly in touch with God, thereby increasing openness for revival. It
would free the organization from seeking wealth and prominence.

Its funds would be channeled toward people. The non-Jesus-like structures would
die, and the church would not be as guilty of damaging people. Such an approach
would simply be recognizing the manner in which the Holy Spirit works anyway.

He keeps raising new movements that are alive and in touch with Him while the
older structures get huffy and kick the new movement out. The new movement shows
its vitality by growing faster than anything around until it may even become as
big as the group from which it was expelled. Then the new group becomes rigid
like the former one, and another new movement more in touch with the Holy Spirit
and people emerges, and it in turn gets expelled by the new group that was
expelled by the first one, and on, and on, and on.

Why not just move with the Holy Spirit and guarantee our death so that we can
multiply like a grain of wheat? The humility of Jesus requires us to be
gut-level honest about ourselves. Yet systems that seek to preserve themselves
tell only enough of the truth in their promotional material to encourage people
to continue supporting them. Some promotional material makes a system sound
alive and well long after it has died and decayed.

To follow the style of Jesus is to refuse the temptation of self-promotion and
glorification. It would mean accepting only the support of those who have
volunteered their resources because they are grateful for service to them. The
moment a structure begins to promote itself, it has violated the nature of
Christ and has drunk the poison of its death.

Religious organizations should limit the amount of funds they hold in reserve.
The more funds in reserve, the less we have to rely upon the Holy Spirit and the
less we have to stay in servanthood to people. Even denominations should not lay
up treasure where rust corrupts and thieves break in and steal.

The Christ nature isn't designed to hoard large sums of money. Anytime you see
an organization with massive sums, you can count on scandal being uncovered at
some point. No system should violate the nature of Jesus by demanding anything
of its people for the system's benefit.

The kingdom of God is made up of volunteers. One who operates as a slave, a
child, and the least can hardly be demanding toward others. Systems that do so
are desperate and dying.

Every system should have as its first priority the building of relationships
that will fulfill the commandment to love. No structure should be built that
demands authority and obedience over love and unity. No person in the structure
should be more than one step away in authority and contact from the
constituency.

No power should be granted simply on the basis of position. All authority must
reside in the person's chosen of God, and unless their lives and abilities have
already granted them recognition, then no position should decree it.
Institutional authority can never be a satisfactory replacement for God-given
abilities and the authority which accompanies such giftings.

We must free ourselves from cultural forms such as elections, also called
divisions of the house, and learn to make decisions that come out of unity,
produced by open and caring relationships, decisions from leaders who have
renounced empire-building, decisions carefully designed to violate no one. We
must free ourselves from viewing the clergy as an elite core with privileges
that come from ordination. Most such structures are merely preacher's unions
that have little correlation to being servants.

When William Stringfella declared all worldly institutions to be demonic because
they do to people the same things demons do, he was close to the truth. I find
it difficult to refute his statement. Jesus walked among the people.

He never became a part of any of the religious structures of his day except in
areas such as the synagogue, where the people were, and where the lowest part of
the pyramid of power lay. This fact should be a strong guideline for the
religious world. When we examine the life of Jesus, we discover that his anger
was most kindled by those nestled within self-serving institutions who had lost
sight of the needs of people and had long since ceased to be servants.

Even the great commands of the past, such as, remember the Sabbath day, had
become institutional policies. Jesus put them back into perspective. The Sabbath
was made for man, not man, for the Sabbath.

Mark 2.27. All of Christ's love was aimed toward the redemption of man, not in
an attempt to pigeonhole human actions in life, but to let mankind know the
truth and be free. The law had to be subservient to love. Jesus got angry at any
person or system that degraded or ignored people and their needs.

Quoting from scripture, Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin, but you have
neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and
faithfulness. You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being
condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and
teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, others you will flog in your
synagogues and pursue from town to town.

Excerpts from Matthew 23. Apparently the Pharisees were so brainwashed by the
system that they had built that they now knew only how to destroy people with
it. We must not be so blind as to think that those words of denunciation by
Christ were only for a remote people.

They are for today. Somehow God must erase centuries of misunderstanding in our
minds and help us to see that the institutions and structures of the world and
management systems that accompany them bear no relationship to the organic body
of Christ. However efficient the world system, it cannot be automatically
applied to the church.

One more scripture that I wish to include speaks to our understanding of how
Jesus lived in relation to the world system, both religious and secular, of his
day. I leave it to you and the Holy Spirit to apply. Quoting from scripture, The
high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin
offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through
his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he
bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city
that is to come.

Hebrews 13, 11-14. Subtitle Binding us together. If there is one thing that all
the Christian world agrees about, it is that Jesus is Lord.

Doctrinal fringes, cultural differences, and individual ambitions have separated
us into the splintered group that we are today. If there is to be the unity that
Jesus prayed for, it will come around him and him alone. At a gathering of
Catholic sisters, I was one of a small number of Protestant ministers that was
asked to address the group on the prospects for ecumenical life and on what we
saw as separating us.

The convolutions of church history and tradition were discussed with such
knowledge and eloquence that I began to be embarrassed by the simplicity of my
approaching statement. At my moment, I said, I am a member of a very young
denomination that has nonetheless developed many traditions of its own that
would separate us. I do not want to tell you of them, and you don't want to hear
of them.

You are members of a very old group with many more traditions than either of us
wish to delve into today. Change in these patterns will not bring resolution and
put us together. However, anytime you want to get together and talk about Jesus,
I am ready.

With that, I sat down. At the close, I was inundated by requests to come to
their schools and say the same thing. A few years ago, I attended a conference
in Singapore whose goal was to explore prospects for church unity and hear what
God was saying to each other.

400 people from 40 different denominations attended. After a week of intense
interaction, the one statement to which all names could be freely signed was,
Jesus Christ is Lord. There may never be an organic world church, and were there
one, it might be more an object of fear than of reverence.

But living unity is coming because the Father answers the prayers of Jesus, who
prayed, Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave
me, so that they may be one as we are one. May they be brought to complete unity
to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have
loved me. John 17, 11, and 23.

I've had the chance to see a good measure of church unity. It's always present
when people are living the servant style of Jesus. I've had a chance to see a
good many church splits, and it has become obvious that no church has ever split
because the two factions were arguing over who would get to be slave, or who
would get to be the least, or who would get to be last, or who would get to be
of no reputation, or who would be the last to use force.

Unity comes out of our loving one another just as Jesus loves us. That's why we
are given a description of his nature, so we will know how he loved us, how we
can love one another, and how the church can be unified. Subtitle, At Home with
the Body.

If you're ready to begin the servant lifestyle, I'd like to offer a place to get
started and a direction to go. The recommendations here are certainly not the
exclusive directions. However, the fulfillment of servanthood demands an
intimacy unfamiliar to many, so I share the experience of small groups with you
so that you can begin your own journey.

The early church discovered homes to be ideal places for the dynamics of
Christianity to take place. There was no room for ritualistic trappings. The
size made total participation possible and normative.

Everyone would know each other, so maintaining good relationships was of primary
importance. Time would be available for prayer and ministering to each person.
Scripture could be learned in dialogue and with immediate application.

Jesus himself chose twelve as his primary ministry group. The nature of Jesus
was one of love, which demands close interpersonal relationships. Servanthood is
difficult in large impersonal groupings.

I found that small groups can be successful when the nature of Jesus is used as
a guiding force. A leader who seeks to be a servant in a small group would
control his own participation in order to free others. He would be sensitive to
the needs expressed in order to minister to them.

For example, he would not expect the other members of a group to share to any
depth or answer any questions that he had not shared or answered first. He would
lead the way in listening and in affirming and in expressing his feelings
honestly. Out of humility, he would indeed share his true feelings and lovingly
confront when necessary.

As a child, he would accept persons at face value and would not probe into their
lives but would rejoice and weep with them. As one of no reputation, he would be
willing to let the group see his own failings and struggles honestly. As the
younger, he would be sensitive to when anyone was abusing someone else and would
tend to protect them.

In all my studies and participation in small groups, I've yet to see a proper
leadership action that was not covered by the nature of Jesus. I consider it the
secret of church life in small relational settings. The next three sections of
this chapter discuss the techniques of helping those relationships grow.

Subhead, Sharing Ourselves Fifth Amendment right-to-privacy thinking has turned
the body of Christ into a group of private individuals who meet together but
remain in protective shells. In order to break out of this, we must consciously
share ourselves with others. In spite of what you can know by observation, you
can truly know me only when I relate my story with its struggles and feelings.

To share my story, to deposit myself in vulnerability to others, is certainly in
the order of servanthood. Subhead, Walking in the Sunshine If you were involved
in a group not built around the principles of the body, your self-revelation
might well be followed by confrontation or a form of verbal attack to produce
catharsis. But such are not the ways of the body.

The body's response to a threatened or anxious member is protection. Our
response to the self-revealer is affirmation. The whole structure and process of
body of Christ is captured in a single statement of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12.7
as he declares that the gifts of the Spirit are given to each one for
edification, or building up, for the common good.

Paul's strongest statement about how we should view and respond to each other
comes in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 16 and 17. So from now on, we regard no one
from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do
so no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone. The
new has come.

In other words, I must now see you as the new creature you are. I must be able
to discern the best. No longer can I say, you're a good person, but, and then
launch into a diatribe about your faults.

Your position as a child of God must be affirmed by me. Sometimes I hear a
protest to such affirmation, and it usually takes this form. But how are people
going to know how to improve if I don't tell them what's wrong with them? The
answer is simple.

Jesus states that our hearts already condemn us, so he didn't come to condemn,
but to offer abundant life. If I were to ask you to write on a sheet of paper
five things you don't like about yourself, you'd likely be finished within 60
seconds. Then if I asked you to reverse the paper and write five things you like
about yourself, you may need hours.

We're painfully aware of our inadequacies. A fairy tale, many of them seem near
inspiration, expresses it well. The sun and the north wind observed a man
walking along wearing a heavy overcoat.

They decided to see who could get the coat off of him. The north wind elected to
try first. He blew a howling gale around him, but the stronger the wind, the
more tightly the man drew his coat around himself.

Then the sun said, now it's my turn. So he beamed warming rays down upon the
man, and soon, of his own choice, the man removed the coat and walked happily in
the sunshine. When we surround people with warmth, they will, by their own
choice and energy, reveal and remove unnecessary heavy weights they have used as
protection.

By sharing our histories with each other, we have deposited the most valuable
thing we have, our revealed selves, with each other. Now that we have responded
to that deposit with affirmation, a remarkable development occurs. We realize
that our deposit is safe, and we can risk even further.

We can now trust. Subhead. The Freedom of Commitment.

Armed with this new trust, we are free now to risk the commitment that before
would have been too painful and perhaps even unproductive. The first freedom of
our new commitment is confession. James 5.16 proclaims, Therefore confess your
sins to each other, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed.

Now, without trust, I will confess your sins, or else confess socially
acceptable and common sins, such as not enough faith or not enough prayer. But
with trust, I can share those things that truly hinder me, and, consequently, I
can expect prayer and healing. Confession is like the daily elimination
processes of the body.

With confession, we can walk in comfort without unnecessary waste products.
Infrequent confession creates a waste buildup that is traumatic, indeed, to
eliminate. Such confession also creates an appropriate form of discipline.

By confession, I authorize others to pray for me, and also to check back with me
later to see how I am doing. Such gentle, regular accountability is woefully
lacking in the Church. As a result, we are pathologically independent and
infected.

Our second freedom is to approach the Word of God personally through
applicational Bible study. Applicational Bible study is basically confessional
since it responds to two personal questions. What does the Bible say to me, and
what am I going to do about it? The answers to these questions are confessions
of our conviction by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus and James call us clearly to such application. Therefore, everyone who
hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock. Matthew 7.24. Do not merely listen to the Word and
so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says. James 1.22. The third freedom of our commitment is
confrontation. We seldom wait until after the process of trust-building to
confront areas in our relationship with each other that damage our relationship.

When we do not wait, however, we cannot enjoy good fruit. With the process that
builds trust, we have earned the right and the necessity to confront. For a
reminder of the context of confrontation, reread the sections on humility and
manipulation.

The fourth freedom of commitment is to the intimacy that the New Testament calls
koinonia. We are no longer merely passengers together on the bus we call church,
but we are desperately, eternally, and intimately loyal to each other. Our
dreams and visions, as well as our goods, become one another's property.

We forsake not the assembling of ourselves together. At this stage, we find
completion of our servanthood, the love that servanthood expresses, gives, and
receives in the constant, often unconscious interaction of body-life. In the
small group setting, we discover that the body of Christ, like our own body,
changes slowly and gently, but surely, even under such radical calls as issued
in this book.

If you are working with an old wineskin, the tenderizing process, if successful,
must be slow and careful. At any rate, it's the wine that is important and must
be preserved. Subtitle Sharing the Pain A group of pastors with whom I had
shared the principles of servanthood, and who had been progressing in living
them, asked me to return for a weekend of retreat and discussion.

One of us, I admitted that I didn't know, apologized for causing their pain and
urged them to return to their former ways. They replied, never. Their pains had
begun to shift away from the frustrations of self-seeking to the empathetic pain
of walking with others.

Though that pain was greater, they never wanted to return to what they were
before. Much suffering that is common to all is simply the product of our fallen
human state—accidental injuries, sickness, disappointment. But such suffering is
not necessarily the kind that is redemptive.

Paul states in Philippians 3.10, I want to know Christ, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. I am far more
acquainted with the desire to know the power of his resurrection. Hebrews 5.8
tells us that Jesus learned obedience by what he suffered.

All of the scriptures that I have found indicate that the sufferings of Jesus
were in our behalf, and were it not for our behalf, he would likely have none
but common sufferings. Since Jesus said we would be treated as he was, it's
logical that a practical outworking of following Jesus would be suffering in
behalf of others. Subtitle One word follows another.

Once we grasp the all-encompassing servant nature of Jesus, and begin to view
all things through that lens, remarkable clarity comes to areas of scripture
that might have been murky before. Therefore, I here propose a new system of
biblical interpretation that is both profound and simple. If we agree that there
is a basic internal agreement throughout the Bible, then we would have to go a
step higher and agree that the written word will not be contrary ever to the
living word, Jesus.

True internal consistency of the Bible means that it is amenable to the nature
of Jesus, who was the complete revelation of God. Consequently, no
interpretation of any scripture must place it at variance with his nature, which
was that of being slave, example, humble, child, younger, last, least, no
reputation, no force, etc. Any scripture whose interpretation on our part is at
variance with the nature of Jesus must be set aside until we have enough light
to interpret it properly.

It remains as scripture, yet we admit that because the way we presently view it
is not consistent with the nature of Jesus, we do not understand it well enough
to proclaim it. By now you can recognize that some scripture which is currently
used for doctrine and lifestyle is in trouble. If we try to harmonize it with
the nature of Jesus, that should simply let us know that we've interpreted it
wrongly.

It is important, too, that we not fall prey to thinking that the Bible is the
fourth member of the Godhead. The Bible is the written revelation of God, but
regardless of what we believe about it, it must never violate the one it was
written to reveal. Subtitle, The Style for All Seasons.

The revivals of this century have primarily been Pentecostal or charismatic in
nature. The rediscovery of the gifts of the Spirit by the Pentecostals and their
outstanding fervor prompted them to believe and teach that their revival was the
end-time revival. They felt that there was nothing left to rediscover in
scripture, thus their charismatic phenomena represented the ultimate, the
revival of revivals.

Though the Pentecostals did restore to the church a neglected, even lost, power
principle, they've not swept the church and world with the unity and
effectiveness that one would expect of ultimacy. Despite their Jesus-centered
worship and enthusiasm, the major emphasis for which they have become known has
not been this knowledge of Jesus, but instead their consortium with the Holy
Spirit. It is the glossolalic emphasis that is immediately apparent rather than
the Christological, although for both the Pentecostals and Charismatics the
strength of their relationship to Christ is unquestionable.

Perhaps the grand scheme is unfolding, that the Holy Spirit, now having achieved
the attention of a broader spectrum of the church and world, is preparing to
sweep aside mythological entanglements in the Jesus of nostalgia and fulfill his
major predicted function, that of glorifying Christ. In the Gospel of John,
Jesus foretold the coming and the action of the Holy Spirit. I read from
scripture, The Holy Spirit will teach you all things, and will remind you of
everything I have said to you.

When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you, he will testify about me. He
will guide you into all truth. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is
mine and making it known to you.

John 14, 26, 15, 26, 16, 13, and 16, 14. The most apparent conclusion to be
drawn is that the Holy Spirit, as his primary function, will reveal the nature
of Jesus to us and convict the world about him. The revivals of emphasis on the
Holy Spirit violated this very principle by focusing on the Holy Spirit rather
than letting the Spirit speak to us and the world about the person of Jesus.

I believe the world's final great revival will be a revival that centers on
Jesus himself and his nature. The world has seen no power greater than that of
Jesus, and the church exercises no power greater than that of living the loving
lifestyle of Jesus. We cannot escape the call and command given by Jesus to his
church.

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. John 20, 21.

Can we honestly believe that we are to be sent partially as the Father sent
Jesus? Surely not. We must accept that we are sent with the same nature, the
same requirements of attitude that were given to Jesus. The work of the gifts to
the body of Christ is to equip us to minister to each other in a way that will
bring us into a likeness of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in
the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4, 13. Our maturity is to make us like Christ. Our ministry is to
mature others to be like Christ.

To be like Christ, we must have his mind and absorb his nature. If the things
spoken about the nature of Christ in this book are true, then the Holy Spirit
will quicken them to you and help you apply them in your own unique way. The
implications listed in prior chapters are things that the Holy Spirit has dealt
with me about in my own life.

They need not be your quickenings. Whether those implications are confirmed in
your mind or not, you still must respond somehow to the call to be like Jesus,
taste of his power, fellowship in his sufferings, and become like him in his
death. Lest you end this book feeling a load of guilt and hopelessness about
whether you will ever attain to the maturity and fullness of him, I wish to
share an encouraging word from Scripture.

I read, For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his
purpose. Philippians 2.13 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2.10 I
worked in an office once where the men of the office would take lunch hours on
Tuesdays and Thursdays to play basketball in a gymnasium across the street.

Now, basketball is not my best game. When we would choose upsides, it threatened
to go this way. Gentlemen, we had Gale last time.

It's your turn to take him. So you can see I was mainly there for the exercise
and fellowship. However, there was one fellow, named Dave, who was six feet
eighteen inches tall when he stepped onto the basketball court.

I loved to get on his team, because we would always win. All I had to do was get
the ball to Dave, and he would score. When we would get the ball back, I would
dribble it around a while simply for appearance sake, lob the ball over to Dave,
and he would dunk it for another two points.

Then I would say, Aren't we good? That's much like the relationship we have with
Jesus. He's the one who is at work in us to help us want to do His will, and
then to help even more as we try to do it. We are His workmanship.

What we are is His full responsibility, and He accepts it. Our job is to stay on
the same team as He, cast our cares on Him, and let Him do the scoring against
Satan for us. The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

So make yourself available to Him. Permit His Holy Spirit to make you aware of
the mind of Christ as it works its way out in your life. Give yourself away and
keep growing.

I read from Scripture, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12.2. To help you
explore the lifestyle of Jesus in more detail, Servant Quarters offers a wide
variety of books, audiobooks, audio messages, and videotapes. For a complete
listing of these resources, please write Servant Quarters, Post Office Box 219,
Cathedral City, CA 92235, or you may call Servant Quarters toll free at
888-321-0077.

You may also visit our website at www.servant.org.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/the-jesus-style/
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