This week Marc Hardy writes on his experience in Organic Church. The title of the post is, Desperation for the Lord. 

It’s a beautifully simple article. Please read it and subscribe.

CLICK HERE TO READ

—————————LAST WEEK————————————

Wow! Last week’s post, “What I’ve Learned in Organic Church: The Difference Between Brotherhood and Buddyhood” surprised me by the amount of readers and responses. I appreciate everyone that read and shared that post on their social media pages. It was the busiest day on my blog thus far.

Today, Mark Lake writes on his experience in Organic Church. He sent me the draft last week and I’ll just say that it’s a must read. It’s along the lines of how we share and explore Christ together as a Body in the ekklesia.

Check it out HERE. Also, if you get a chance, I’d encourage you to explore some of the other posts of his from the past. Mark is full of insight and wisdom that he shares freely and in terms that can be understood. I’ve known him for about 2 years now, and his humility and wisdom make him a vital fixture in the church here in Gainesville, FL.

Hope you enjoy!

Today, Mark Lake writes on his experience in Organic Church. He sent me the draft last week and I’ll just say that it’s a must read. It’s along the lines of how we share and explore Christ together as a Body in the ekklesia.

Check it out HERE. Also, if you get a chance, I’d encourage you to explore some of the other posts of his from the past. Mark is full of insight and wisdom that he shares freely and in terms that can be understood. I’ve known him for about 2 years now, and his humility and wisdom make him a vital fixture in the church here in Gainesville, FL.

Hope you enjoy!

Brotherhood and Buddyhood: There is a Difference

In the Organic expression of the church, we share many things with each other. We share our homes, our personalities, our strengths, our weaknesses, and our lives. This leads quite naturally to strong friendships and deep bonds of love and trust with each other. Of course, this would be quite impossible without the common bond of Jesus Christ. For we come from an extremely wide variety of backgrounds, cultures, influences, and geographical locations. Without Christ as the center and bonding-glue, I can say without a doubt, we would not have fellowship.

But here in lies one of the first lessons of true organic fellowship.

In the natural, we make friends based on preference and common interests. If I’m into playing guitar and listening to rock music, I may make friends with others of the same interests. They can be Christian or not, and I still would thoroughly enjoy spending time with them. Many people make most of their friends this way.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with this. But if organic church is to work, we must take our relationship preferences to the cross. We must let them die and allow the Lord to resurrect them.

We can’t make church work the way we want it to. We can’t meet around the fact that we are all into rock music, working out, sports, outdoor activities, hunting, fishing, surfing, or a long list of other things. We have to meet around the Lord Jesus Christ and our common bond to see His eternal purpose seen on the earth; that He would have a place to dwell, a temple made up of brothers and sisters in Christ. Without that, we become just another club. And the church of Jesus Christ is not a club. It’s something much deeper, much more grand, much more precious, and holds much more responsibility.

Letting the Preferences Die

For me, I had a dream of what I thought OC what going to look like. In my mind, everyone was going to be so cool and so like me (key word here is me) and we were all going to have a great time together. But I quickly realized that the people I had joined in fellowship were all so different from me. They were polar opposites in many ways, at first glance. Even with that, they were quite different from each other too. It was like being in a bowl of multi-flavored jelly beans. So many different flavors and colors.

Letting our preferences in Christian relationship die isn’t as easy as it may sound. We live in a culture now that offers a vast array of different Christian “churches” that meet according to common interests. We have options now to satisfy our flesh. But is that really what our Lord is after? That is the question.

This is the difference in brotherhood and buddyhood. Brotherhood goes to the cross, dies to self in order to see the Lord’s goals are met. Buddyhood simply wishes to see others that I prefer to hang out with met. I’m not saying that we don’t become buddies in the church. We do. But it’s beyond that…much beyond.

In buddyhood we are more apt to see what we  can get out of the relationship. In brotherhood, we are constantly looking to see what Jesus Christ can get, first, then what our brother or sister can get out of it. This is putting other’s interests above our own.

Buddyhood is conditional to how we may be treated, how the other person makes us feel, or whether or not we have fun together. But brotherhood is completely, 100% unconditional.

Brotherhood doesn’t allow natural differences like political beliefs, sports teams preferences, or even doctrinal differences determine fellowship. In Brotherhood, the fellowship is based, founded, and relied upon Jesus Christ. Nothing more, and nothing less (even though Christ is infinite).

The Reason for Brotherhood

We don’t become brotherhoods and sisterhoods over night. We also don’t become brother/sisterhoods without reason. The reason is because our Lord is after something. He’s looking for a spiritual house for His dwelling (1 Peter 2:5). We simply can’t be “built together” just so we’ll have some other like-minded Christians to hang out with. It is for Him, and we are included and we get to share in the blessing. But if nothing else in the entire Bible is clear, it is that without struggle, without death to self, there can be no blessing. A quick read of the story of Joseph, David, and Jesus will abundantly confirm this.

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:16)

Being “built together” isn’t always an easy task…maybe it’s never an easy task. Personalities collide, differing opinions clash. Brothers and sisters must let go of their ideas and opinions and allow the Lord to have His way. At other times, we must boldly proclaim our ideas and opinions even when others may disagree. It’s a matter of listening and obeying the Lord. But, as we should know, anything that is of Christ brings unity…not division (that is, He doesn’t divide spirit, but He does divide flesh from spirit).

To say it more plainly, what I’ve learned in Organic Church is that if I’m not willing to take my opinions and preferences to the cross, I will have a very difficult time. I simply won’t be able to go very long before I give up. But the cross leads to resurrection…and oh how beautiful it is! Words fail to describe the peace and life that come with resurrection from the grave.

It takes time, but it’s all been quite worth it. I’ve been in this group for 2 years, and I can’t wait to see what the coming years in Christ have to bring. The value of the cross is priceless.

Amen.

We were “established” as an ekklesia in August, 2009. A few of the bloggers that will be sharing have been here from the beginning, others joined later. But most of us have been meeting this way for at least a year.

I designed this a couple of years ago

The reason we started this series is to share with others what we’ve learned; which includes our successes, our failures, our good-times, our hard-times, and through bitter-sweet experience. You’ll find some stories to be quite humorous, others quite sad. You may find some inspiring. But we hope, above all else, that you will see Christ in a new way…or at least in a larger way as we wish to express Him to you through our experience in Organic Church life.

Please note: The series includes only what we’ve come to discover by experience. This series is not meant to be a “rule book” or a “how-to” to Organic Church Life. Also, please be aware that we are still learning what it means to have Christ as Head in our group. We are, by no means, experts on the topic. However, experience does outweigh book-learning and theory by a hundred-fold. In fact, most of the books written on the topic have been learned by experience, not theory.

Below is a list of all the bloggers that will be participating. For now, it only includes the saints here in Gainesville, FL., though we hope to include others in the future (it really depends on how this series goes). I have spent much time with the brothers and sisters listed below. They are truly saints of gold and I would do anything for them. Also, the revelation of Christ that each one of them carries is unique, carries depth and weight, and is invaluable. I am truly blessed to have them as brothers and sisters in Christ. I have the best friends on earth.

The posts will be one per week from a particular person. Don’t worry about trying to find out who is writing in a given week, I’ll be posting the link and title here each week, as they will be doing the same. I’d also encourage you to go and subscribe to some of these blogs…they are golden.

Tomorrow, I’ll be starting the series with a post titled, “Just Let it Go!”. So be looking out for that one. Hope you enjoy!

**UPDATE: The first post will be titled, “The Difference Between Brotherhood and Buddyhood”.

Meet the Bloggers of Gainesville (dates posting):

R.C. Babione (2/29/12)

Brigette Babione (2/8/12)

Nathan Burgman

Jackie Dukes (2/1/12)

Marc Hardy (1/25/12)

Mark Lake (1/18/12)

Seth Roach (2/15/12)

Tobias Valdez

Carrie Walters (2/22/12)

But relax! There is another option: instead of dying and being put into a box 6 feet underground, never to be seen again on this side of eternity, you can die and let Someone Else live through you. The Person that wishes to live His life through you is very rich. He has an infinite supply of health, peace, patience, kindness, and love to give to others. This person not only wishes to live His life in and through you, He also wishes to give you a good reputation in life and business. Yup, He’ll do all the work while you get all the reward! How sweet of a deal is that? Too sweet, really. Who in their right mind would turn down such an offer?

But there is a catch…

If you once again try to pick things up to do them with your old, dead self, they will be fruitless. Even if they appear to be fruitful, right, and good, they will still have the stench of your dead, rotting fingers upon them. But if you continue to rest in this Person, allowing Him to do the work that you initially agreed to allow Him to do, you will reap the reward of His labor.

Restless Until Death

Resting in Christ and allowing Him to work in and through you is a wonderful, beautiful, and glorious thing. It is something that is promised to every child of God under the Sun (or in the SON ).

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:29)

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14)

“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” (Psalm 62:1-2)

However, there is an aspect of finding rest that must be observed and is the main point of this post. That aspect is on dying to self in order find rest.

It is very easy to say to someone, or to yourself, “Rest in Christ, He has all you need to get through this situation.” But it is a whole other thing entirely to walk it out, to live it.

It is easy to “let go” in particularly tough situations, those things in life that come up that are drastic and life-altering. Then, it is easy to see how utterly useless and hopeless we are in our own strength. During such times, we can confidently say, “Lord, my own strength, my own natural abilities, are but filthy rags before You. I desperately need you right now!”

But what about the mundane, day-to-day stuff that just about anyone can do, with or without Christ? What do we do when, for instance, we wake up one morning completely unable to do anything? Simple things like menial tasks at our jobs that we’ve been working for years; doing the normal tasks around the house?

From what I’ve come to discover in my own life, this is where the “pick up your cross daily” becomes a reality. This is where the cross meets us, in daily life. We may have the vocabulary to teach others about “resting in Christ,” we may have our doctrine down, we may be able to quote Watchman Nee and others and speak into other’s lives this way. But when the cross of really letting go comes to things that you could most certainly do apart from Christ, what will your decision be?

The Natural Man says: “You can do this! You’ve done this a thousand times. In fact, you do this thing every day of your life. Why can’t you do it now? Go ahead, just give a little more effort…that’ll work.”

But the Spirit of Christ says, “Stop. Be still. In your own abilities, maybe you can do this. But why would you want to? You can let Christ do it in and through you. You can truly find rest unto your soul. All you have to do is let it go.”

Do you see the difference? There is most certainly a death in letting go, in resting in Christ. For what man or woman wants to be told that they can’t perform? What human being wishes to see a task in front of him/her and be told that it’s impossible. That’s simply not human nature. But that’s the very nature that caused Adam to eat the only fruit he was told not to eat.

But when we do honestly, sincerely say to Him, “Lord, even this small, daily thing that I know I can do apart from You, I need You to do it through me. I simply have nothing to offer you or anyone in this world, but You do and You’ve chosen to live in me. So, my Lord and my Friend, give me rest!”

It won’t be easy, because we still like to think we have something to offer, but we don’t. But once we sincerely make the decision to truly let go and let Christ, we find rest. Things become more fruitful. We learn that we can trust Him more than ever. Our faith gets strengthened. And, best of all, our Lord gets expressed to those around us!

A Quick Clarification

There is a vast difference in resting in Christ and being plain lazy. Just because we now find that He is willing and able to do things in and through us, doesn’t mean that we sit back and do nothing. We are still responsible for our decisions. Because the main decision is, always, whether we’ll turn to Him who is strong, or if we’ll continue in our human effort to accomplish this and that. We don’t lose the gift of free choice and free will. We simply turn our will to Him and align ourselves in a such a way as to make our own will His will. This simply takes time…a lifetime!

Amen.

***NEWS***

Starting next week, Tuesday, January 10th, I will be posting an introduction to a multi-blog series titled, What I’ve Learned in Organic Church, followed by the first post on January 11th. The other blogs will consist of other brothers and sisters that are currently meeting “organically” with me in Gainesville, FL. I’m really excited to read what they’ve written!

To ensure that you’ll receive the posts, feel free to subscribe by clicking the button at the top right of the page. The intro post to the series will include links and dates of posting of the other bloggers.

Recently I saw some pictures that an artist had created of modern depictions of some of our favorite Gospel stories; like Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus, the Last Supper, and the attempted stoning of the Adultress Woman (you can see these photos below).

I must admit, upon first impression I was slightly offended. The women that were used in the pictures were modern-day prostitutes. The men at the Last Supper table were what some would call “questionable.” In that photo you see a wide variety of misfits: men and women that typical society would reject…and some that I’m sure many churches would try to change or avoid (sadly).

But why was I offended? Is it because I can handle the fact that Jesus spent a majority of His time and ministry with the misfits of that time, but I can’t handle that He would hang out with the misfit of our time? But aren’t they the same exact thing? Yes, of course they are.

It is a stunning fact to learn that most that call on the name of Jesus regularly reject those who we deem as “questionable,” “sinful,” or “misfits.” Many, including myself, have idealogicalized the Gospels. Many will say such statements like, “Yes, Jesus hung out with fisherman, prostitutes, and tax collectors. The Pharisees saw them as ‘sinners’ but that’s why Jesus came; to save them!” But when those same “sinners” arrive at the front door of our lives, of our daily routines and outings, we too, like the Pharisees, reject them. Please bear with me, for I wouldn’t be talking this way if I wasn’t guilty of the same behavior myself.

Jesus Christ came for men and women that are in need of a physician. He says so Himself that He didn’t come for the healthy, the righteous, or the clean. He came for the sick, the sinner, and the unclean (Mark 2:17).

When we claim to be righteous in and of ourselves, we are saying we have no need of Jesus. When we reject the very people who Christ came for, we reject Him. When we do all we can as Christians to avoid such people, we are doing all we can to avoid the atoning work of Jesus Christ Himself.

You may disagree and say that God is angry with the sin and corruption of the world. I will not try to argue with that. For Scripture is quite clear that God hates iniquity (look what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah). But if not for Jesus, you and I would suffer the same fate. We are no different from they. The Gospel testifies to this and the grace and mercy that God has freely given in Christ testifies all the more to this.

So what’s my point? It is this: let us not so easily reject the rejected. Let us not so easily try to avoid our calling to reach out to these people (though, in reality, they are just like us) by using Scripture and our own ideology to condemn them.

Take a few minutes to behold the pictures below. I have left out a few of them due to the graphic nature of some. But if you get a chance, check out the artist’s full gallery (disclaimer: some of his other pieces of art aren’t so “spiritual”. In fact, some are down right graphic. So, if you have a weak stomach, or don’t wish to view some things that are disagreeable, please don’t view the gallery). Also, I don’t think Jesus really looked like that. He wasn’t an American, He was a Jew.

All artwork found at the LaChapelle Studio at http://www.lachapellestudio.com/editorial/i-d_3/

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:9-10)

“Beloved, let us love one another…” (1 John 4:7)

The Bible is packed full of examples and exhortations to “love one another”. And not just to love our fellow brethren in Christ, but to love all, even those who “curse you”.

This love that is spoken of so often in Scripture isn’t the love that many of us have come to know in modern society; that is, love that expects something in return. This love, that Jesus and His apostles spoke so often about, is to be a sincere love — the love that is in Christ. For His love, for He is love, is different from what many of us have come to know. His love, which indeed dwells in us, seeks to honor others above Himself.

The love that we naturally possess (apart from Christ) has limits and bounds. However, the love that He possesses and that He embodies, is the love that is found in 1 Corinthians 13. And the amazing thing about this love is the very fact that it’s not ours to show, but it is His to show through us. This comes by simple rest and trust in Him who lives in us by the Holy Spirit.

Love: the Lost Art

For many of us that have left the institutional system, we have lost something that needs so desperately to return to us: Love.

Many have been abused, mistreated, and even spiritually and psychologically damaged by many religious systems and movements. This is a fact. Also, many of us have also come to see through this mistreatment a need to return to the pattern of church practice and structure that we see in Scripture. It’s a beautiful thing, don’t get me wrong.

But, one thing that has been lost or forgotten in the process, is that we are called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ — no matter what our theological or ecclesiological differences may be.

Many see the “Organic Church Movement” in a very negative light because many in this “movement” have spent countless hours speaking badly against their fellow brothers and sisters that choose to meet in traditional churches. This fact is sad and literally breaks my heart.

Many break away from the traditional system because they see the inconsistency in what they read in Scripture versus what they see in church. But after breaking away from that system, they often become what they oppose. Instead of showing by example what is right, they continue to set themselves apart from the religious system by ridiculing the people who still attend such services. They cry for unity but they divide. They claim a desire for love and acceptance, but they disown and reject.

The words of Christ are quite clear: love one another, love those who curse you; bless those who abuse you.

But this doesn’t only apply to those who are in agreement with the “Organic Church model” of doing church. It applies to all that call on the name of Jesus. That means loving and accepting those who may have different beliefs how worship is supposed to be done, how to dress, whether or not the rapture will happen, emphasis on spiritual gifts, etc. etc. The reason we have over 30,000 Christian denominations today is because we refuse to accept and love those who have opposing emphases on different matters of theology or doctrine or church practice.

The model for the church, whether you attend an institutional church or an Organic Church, is all accepting. In the words of Paul (which still have a use today), “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)

Regaining that Lost Art-Form

This post is meant to be an encouragement — an encouragement to love those who disagree with you. To love those who say you are wrong and strictly oppose you with their words and actions. To love those who gossip about you, to bless them and pray for them. To love those who you may deem as “religious”. To love those that accuse you of sin or heresy, even when it hurts. And above all, to love those who misunderstand you.

Love doesn’t mean that we lose our opinions and our convictions and give in to what others are saying in order to relieve disagreement. But love seeks unity within the midst of disagreement. Love seeks patience against a violent word against us. Love seeks peace in the midst of strife and friction. This is the way of Jesus Christ and you and I are called to this way as well.

To love this way means to deny ourselves. To be silent at times we wish to defend ourselves. At other times it means to speak up and be heard.

Saints, children of God, loved by the Father, let us love one another in order to show others, believers and unbelievers alike, the way of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Quickly after devoting my life to my savior, my redeemer, my friend, and my sponsor (that’s AA talk), Jesus Christ, I was introduced to the world of religion and Churchianity. I was living in two parallel universes. I was in Christ who is full of life, mercy, peace, and freedom. But I was also living in religious practice and ritual which is full of death, war, strife, and legalism. Somehow I had confused these two universes. I had mixed them up, I had blended them together—or at least I tried to. They are polar opposites. And as we know, water and oil don’t mix–the repel from one another. But fortunately I didn’t stay in the religious universe for too long.

Around the end of the year in 2009 I made my final decision to leave the religious system. I made a few futile attempts to return thinking that maybe I had made a mistake. But it seemed that every time I would go back, it would be only a couple of weeks before I left again. I had realized that what I was witnessing simply wasn’t God’s intention for the church. If He required the same laws and religious rituals that Jews performed for thousands of years, then why crucify the Law on the cross of Christ? Why do away with the old just to bring about the same Law and practice? It didn’t add up.

The things I was witnessing in “church” simply didn’t reflect any of the New Testament practices. The teachings we hear every Sunday of constant strife and self-effort to please God and be “holy”, the guilt-driven teaching of evangelization, and the constant persuasion to give your money in the name of “tithing” didn’t remind me of the character of our Christ. It reminded me of the character of man.

Mankind is always on a “mission” to build, to defeat, to subdue, to conquer, and to achieve. And this character ultimately rubs off on our view of God. When a person becomes a follower of Christ and is right away brought into a system of religious, man-made practice, his/her walk with God will reflect that strife and self-effort. But the Scripture, specifically the New Testament, does not show us this type of practice.

Once I realized this I began my time of detox (which I am no doubt still in). Most people, if not everybody, will have to go through a season of intense detox once they leave the religious system.

Here I have reflected how religious detox is very similar to drug detox. Believe me, they are very similar.

The Process of Drug/Religious Detox

When coming off of narcotics there is first and definite step: withdrawal.

When the addict makes the decision that he/she has had enough, the only path to freedom is complete abstinence from drug or alcohol use. Typically, that person will be checked in to a detox and/or rehab center. Withdrawal can be a painful, dangerous, and life-threatening experience. Without the proper medical treatment, some specific narcotics’ withdrawal can be life-threatening. Heroin, alcohol, and benzodiazepines  (Valium, Xanax, etc.) are known to be some of the most painful and dangerous of all drug withdrawal. Others aren’t quite as life-threatening as these, but equally excruciating if not treated properly.

When we come to the place where we’ve decided to leave the religious system, its best to have a couple of brothers and sisters around us who are like-minded. Preferably ones that also have left the system. These people will act as our counselors. They will be the ones to assist us and give us moral support once we make that leap. Leaving some religious systems can be life-threatening too.

Many have been seriously injured spiritually and psychologically by various religious systems. Sadly, many leave these so embittered and frustrated that they leave the Lord because of it. They see the character of man’s religion and equate it to God as though it’s His character on display. This is the saddest part of all! It breaks my heart to hear such stories.

So in some instances, we may need a brother or sister there to show us who Christ truly is apart from a man-made religion. Without it, some indeed parish.

Once withdrawal is over, the real recovery begins. This brings us to the next process: unlearning.

When the drug addict finally completes his/her time of withdrawal symptoms, the treatment of mind and body must begin. The addict is typically a very habitual creature. They have learned by association that certain things lead to a good time. Because of the lifestyle that is attributed to drug use, the addict has been immersed in a life of certain unhealthy behaviors. Those behaviors need to be unlearned if the addict ever intends on staying clean and sober the rest of his/her life.

Many things for the addict are associated with drug use. Even the way he/she may sleep, eat, talk to people, carry oneself, etc., can carry with it the lifestyle of the addicted mind. Because every part of the addicts life becomes an association to drug abuse, the addict must change every part of his/her life. Certain places need to be avoided for a good time, certain music or bands that he/she used to listen to, and certain people who aided with their destructive lifestyle must be cut-off completely if treatment is to be successful. This isn’t something that has to be final, but it does need to be indefinite.

We have been taught so thoroughly how to be legalists that it takes a serious treatment of the Holy Spirit to unlearn it. We have been taught that we are to strive day and night to “be more holy”, to act more righteous, to refrain from certain practices, and to fight the devil’s schemes by resisting the urges of our flesh (I have still yet to meet someone who has ever been successful by doing such things). There then comes a season where many may actually take a break from many things like reading their Bible, attending religious activities (like prayer meetings and bible studies), and even praying depending on the level of legalism they were subjected to. But isn’t this a bad thing? Isn’t refraining from Bible reading a sin? No. It’s not. Otherwise the Christians of the 1^st century would have been guilty of sin, for they didn’t have a bible yet (besides maybe a few books of the Old Testament in the local Synagogue).

Like the addict, the religious detoxee may need to spend some time away from old practices and habits. Many have associated the Bible with an instructional manual on how to live a more holy life—to keep away from sin and defilement—instead a book to find Christ, wisdom, peace, and comfort.

Also, a person may have been taught to pray a certain way. Usually, they pray how their pastor prays. They pray using old English with its “thees” and “thous”. Or, they may pray in a way that is very pious and sound ultra-spiritual. They may use certain words to summon God’s power by saying “Almighty God”, “Lord God, Jehovah”, etc. (Please note that I am not saying that these are bad ways to pray, but for some they bring about negative feelings because of their bad experience with religion). That person may need to spend some time simply not praying. Yes, I said it, not praying. The prayer of the heart is much more powerful than the outward, simply superficial prayer. With God, it’s all about the position of the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

In some movements, one’s place with God is determined by how much one “feels God’s presence”. In these circles, if you can’t “feel God” then He isn’t around. They equate God’s presence to a feeling or outward manifestation. Such movements are based on emotion. The people leaving these circles must unlearn these things too. I know that I had to. They must unlearn that God is a God that only touches feelings and emotions, that He dwells not only in the soul (where our emotions dwell), but He dwells in our spirits (the part of the human that is eternal and is the most secret place of man [see 1 Corinthians 2:10-15]).

For me, there was a time where I didn’t “feel” God as much. I didn’t have the same type of worship as I did before. But with death comes resurrection; and with resurrection comes life.

Here’s where we come to the next phase: relearning.

Once the addict has unlearned many old habits, he/she must now relearn how to live life apart from drugs and/or alcohol. That means doing such basic tasks like grocery shopping, working, going to social outings, etc., sober. The addict has in fact done everything now for years under the influence of narcotics. They have found a way to live life this way—essentially worshiping emotions. Now they must learn to live a steady life without so many ups and downs.

The religious person may have spent many years on spiritual highs and lows. They have gone weeks or days on cloud-9 and then spent time in the ditches of death. For most people, this can be very traumatic. So they must learn to live a steady, balanced walk with God. So a time may come when the major ups of emotions tend to dwindle. But this isn’t a bad thing. It means you are being healed and matured.

Sometimes in order for us to see what is right, we must first see what is wrong; in order to build, first we must at times destroy. By the time we get to this phase of spiritual unlearning, we are now clear-headed enough to begin our phase of relearning. I love this part! But usually to get to this part, we must first go through the hard part.

Once we realize that the Christian life isn’t about constant strife to please God, that we aren’t to always be doing and achieving to somehow earn His love, we come to a place of rest and peace.

The first thing that came to me during this process of unlearning, was that I now had to discover ways to live the Christian life successfully. Because, after all, the bible does tell us quite clearly that we are not to sin. This is where I learned how truly rich our Lord Jesus Christ is!

You see, religion taught us that we are to be the ones in control of our desires and flesh. That we are to work and strive to please God and to refrain from sinning too much. In religion, man is the ultimate factor in spiritual growth. But in Christ, He has been made unto us “righteousness from God”.

We must begin learning the all-sufficiency of Christ. How rich and unsearchable He truly is. Not only by a mental assumption or by a doctrinal stance, but by a living experience. This means that instead of asking God for more wisdom, we ask for Christ to be our wisdom. Instead of asking God for more peace in our lives, we begin to see how Christ is our peace. Instead of asking God to make us more holy, that we are already holy because Christ is holy and He lives inside of us! (I would suggest reading Watchman Nee’s ‘The Normal Christian Life’)

This is the part where an ultimate decision had to made on my part. For me, the only way I was able to fully know Christ (like He can be fully known this side of eternity), was to be built together with other saints like me; that the portion of Christ I have in me was limited. I needed other brothers and sisters with their portion, or perspective, of Christ too! In order for me to know Him more, I must seek Him in His children. This goes way beyond Sunday service, way beyond even an Organic Church meeting. This means being molded together with heat and fire from God with other sons and daughters. This isn’t easy for the individualistic Christian.

I personally know no other way to fully learn the riches of Christ and the all-sufficiency of Christ. If there’s another way, I know it not. So I’ll simply stick to my own experience here.

To the addict, time is his/her most valuable asset.

In all the above phases there is one thing that is, above all else, the most valuable commodity in detoxing fully. That commodity is time.

It simply takes time for the addicts mind and body to recover from years of drug abuse. The brain has lost countless brain cells, has been on a roller coaster of emotions going up and down constantly. The body has had to deal with daily ingestion of poison into its system. The liver and kidneys are usually the most damaged of all the organs. So time for the addict is literally a life saver.

In proper time, the brain begins to recover (usually after about 18 months of sobriety), thinking and basic motor functions become more sharpened. Vocabulary and fluent speech become more evident. The addict with some time under his/her belt sober is able to form more complex and healthy thoughts.

The addict also begins to feel better physically without the aid of numbing drugs to assist. As the body gets healthier, eating and sleeping patterns become more consistent. In fact, one of the number one suggestions given by doctors and addiction therapists is to begin eating healthier and sleeping on a more strict schedule. The health of a person is usually in direct harmony with their eating and sleeping patterns. The addict has spent years with a completely undisciplined lifestyle which includes not eating and not sleeping. But time takes its course, and the addict gets back on a more normal lifestyle.

With the man or woman who is detoxing from religion with its man-made practices and self-effort, time is our best friend!

Most spiritual ailments that have been afflicted by religion upon our souls can usually be treated with simple time—granted that time is spent in a healthy way.

This means changing our diets. We begin to learn how to quit eating the fast food of religion. Religion is so appealing because it typically offers a quick emotional fix, satisfying our “itch” for purity. But as I’m sure many of us know, it’s short-lived.

We have to begin to learn how to eat and drink of Christ as our food and nourishment instead of rituals and methodologies. Relearning how to eat of Him, who is deeper than how we may feel at times, can take years. After 2 years completely away from the religious system, and 18 months in Organic Church, I’m still learning how to eat and drink of Him. As far as I know, this could be a life long process.

The Journey Continues

Now, I want to be quite clear that our Lord isn’t confined to these phases. These are only what I have personally experienced and witnessed in others. He is more than capable of detoxing us in a flash. He’s also capable of moving and leading His children in such movements mentioned above. I want to make it quite clear that I don’t think God can only work in Organic Church. I would never make that assumption. But I do believe (mostly because I’ve seen it) that many people are severely hurt by certain movements and religious institutions. In these movements, Christ is not Head. Instead, man is head over his own ambitions and kingdoms. There are, of course, many of these institutions that God blesses and uses to further His purpose and the leaders of these movements love God more than most. So please don’t get me wrong here.

Truth is, we are all learning, relearning, and unlearning. Even for someone like myself who didn’t grow up in the church, I’ve still had to go through some religious detox. Even with the limited time I spent in that system, I was still exposed to enough to have to unlearn quite a bit. I have yet to meet a person who is completely immune from having to go through the detox phase. Perhaps if an individual was brought to the Lord without any prior assumptions about Him into a non-religious group of believers, than maybe he/she would be immune. But religion, believe it or not, is saturated in our culture. We can draw simple conclusions about God from movies and books.

I hope this article helps someone who may be going through religious detox and be encouraged that the Lord is with you. That He is fully invested in you and loves you. He won’t give up on us even when we may give up on Him. But sometimes it takes trust and yielding to be brought to where He wants us to be.

Amen.

I first met Milt and his wife, Mary, in Florida a couple of years ago. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Milt and Mary in their home (when they lived here) and their vicious beast of a dog, Roxy (actually, she’s harmless).

There aren’t many people in this world like these two individuals. Their humble hearts, their Solomon-like wisdom, and their unrelenting pursuit and service to the their Lord Jesus Christ is found, displayed, and expressed in their lives in such a way that it rubs off on all those who have contact with them.

I can say that Milt, specifically, has had quite a lasting impact on my life that will never fade. The work and labor of this man to the Lord goes way beyond simply writing a few books. These are only a small portion of his ministry and testimony. I have watched him in person labor for the Lord and His precious Bride, the church. There is no doubt in my mind that this man and his wife have a rich reward in the Kingdom and will most certainly hear the words of our Lord say to them, “Well done, good and faithful servants. Enter now into the reward of your Father.”

With that in my mind, allow me to give my thoughts on one of his books.

The God Who is Community

The God who is Community is the title of the first chapter in one of Milt’s most powerful, most mind-bending, and most Christ-magnifying works to date.

I first heard Milt give a message along these lines (that the Triune God is Community) at an Organic Church meeting last year, and again at the Threshold 2011 Conference in July 2011. I must admit that the first time I heard this message, I was quite reluctant to believe it. It was too big, too mind-bending for my feeble mind to comprehend. How could God, the Creator of all, be in community…and still be One God? But as I began, first, experiencing community life with a group of believers, and then began to dig more into the life of Jesus while He was on earth, did I finally begin to realize that Milt had made a discovery that was indeed true–and rarely taught.

So after hearing The God Who is Community for a second time, and after some things within me began stirring after the message, I went right to the back of the conference room (they had some of his books for sale there) and bought a copy of The Community Life of God. I also got a copy of Mary Rodriguez’s (Milt’s wife) book Return to the Wild. I began reading it that very night in my hotel room and finished about a week later at home. Upon reading it many things about God that I thought were things that God did “just because He was God” became more clear. I began to see why God did things the way He did: why He created, why He established the Church, and much more. I suddenly realized that without viewing a God who is community, many things in the Christian walk don’t make sense! Even our theology, to me, doesn’t make sense without a community-bound God. Eureka! Light bulb!

The Tree and the Seed

In Chapters 6-8 Milt compares Christ to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. He goes in, chapter by chapter, and describes in detail the eternal purpose of God through the Church and how that looks for you and me. He also threads through and finds the very reason why Christ came to earth. It was for a much larger, much more glorious reason than just redemption.

Though redemption is such a beautiful thing in and of itself, there was a purpose God had in creating before mankind ate from the wrong tree and the “fall” occurred. Milt describes beautifully how Christ not only was the Lamb of God, but also the Seed sent to earth to be planted…to grow into many trees with the very life of God living with in them.

The Big “Why?”

Mankind’s most ancient of questions is “Why?”. Why am I here? What is my purpose? Why did God make me and what does that look like?

Though we may never fully understand these questions or be able to answer them within the sphere of time and physical being, I believe Milt has done a fantastic job at it.

The reason for everything is Christ. The reason why we are saved, the reason why we were made, the reason we have this entity called the Church, is to manifest, express, and make God known through Jesus Christ. He is the Perfect Man and showed us what being human is all about. He lived by the life of the Father and always pointed us to the Father. The Father, when He speaks, always point us to Christ. The Holy Spirit was sent to point us to the Father and to Christ.

So there is this wonderful mutual sharing of one-another within the Triune God. They are constantly giving all they have to one-another. They are constantly speaking about one-another. And they each live inside of one-another! Talk about mind-bending!

So our purpose in living is the same. However, we aren’t just sent here to display this Christ as individuals. We aren’t an island in and to ourselves. This wasn’t how Jesus lived, and it’s not how we are to live.

In The Community Life of God, Milt puts into words how you and are to share in this glorious community of the Godhead…with one-another.

I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll let you read for yourself .

Helpful Links

Below are some helpful links to more info on the Milt and Mary’s ministry and the book.

Order Here

The Rebuilders Website (Milt and Mary’s Ministry)

Milt’s Blog

More Books by Milt and Mary Rodriguez

Maybe not, but possibly.

I believe these two simple words have been very much misunderstood in the church today. Not that it has been missed, ignored, or even wrongly interpreted, but instead it has only been partially interpreted and defined in our age.

We are all aware that, being washed in the Blood of Jesus, and having the promise of the Holy Spirit, “guaranteeing that which is to come”, that we will live forever with Jesus Christ in glory. This is a promise of God to His children, that we may dwell in the “New Jerusalem”. And this is what many take as the meaning of “eternal life” that Jesus spoke so freely of. However, I believe that this is only a small piece of a much greater, and much more blessed reality.

A Spring of Living Water Welling Up…

Jesus met with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He asks her, “Will you give Me a drink?” The woman, being a Samaritan who do not associate with Jews, replies, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How is it that You ask me for a drink?” So not only was this person a Samaritan, but a woman at that. In that time it would have been considered a taboo for a Jew male to interact with a Samaritan female! But nonetheless, Jesus responds. “If you knew the gift of God and who is is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” Of course, this woman had no clue who she was speaking to.

Then comes Jesus’ most beautiful, most life-filled response. This response is such a glorious summary of who He is, what He did, and how that changes the lives of you and me. It even explains how you and I are to live the Christian life while on earth.

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In my estimation, this passage simply doesn’t make much sense if “eternal life” is reduced to only living forever in Heaven. Though that is a part of it, that is not the full reality.

The full reality is that Jesus Christ is the Living Water. He is the Eternal Life that is a spring welling up, pouring out, quenching thirst, and giving life to men and women. He is that life. The “spring of living water welling up to eternal life” is the very substance that holds all life together; the very thing that created all things, and lives in all things: Jesus Christ.

Yes, you have a deep spring of Life living within you. This Life, or living water, is the most fertile substance on earth. But it isn’t just a substance, or a thing–it’s a Person.

Jesus Christ isn’t this figure, this it that lives in Heaven that tells you and I what to do all day every day. He isn’t someone who just created a bunch of plant and animal life, earth and soil, stars and sky, that simply places you and me here to live to the best of our finite ability. No, that would make us like pets, and we simply are not that!

No, He is the God that not only created all things, but He is the very essence of His creation. He dwells within His creation and He is the life that causes trees to grow, stars to shine, and air to breath. He is all and in all.

The very Person that causes this life, the very Person that gave air to breath, lives inside of us once we believe. He comes to dwell in such a way that causes us to be springs, vessels, reservoirs of living water. This living water is something that at any second, any hour of the day, in any situation, we can draw from. This is what it means to “never thirst”. We are never in lack of any of the infinite riches that are in Christ.

We just have to learn how to use a bucket to draw from this well.

The Glory of the Church

So, eternal life isn’t just a neat phrase to describe living forever. No, it is the life that is in Jesus Christ, the life that is Jesus Christ. For His life is eternal, for He is eternal. That water has been shared with you and me. We may drink of Him at any moment. We may share and partake of this life as well. Not only for our own needs, but for others as well.

We may share this water that is within us to others. This is the task of the church and this is the glory of the church: to make Christ manifest and expressed by sharing the living water with one another and with those around us. This is at the very heart of the Father, that is, to make Christ known and visible here on earth. It is a very interesting thing to ponder that humans long so much to be in Heaven while God longs to be made known and visible on earth (I won’t go any further with that thought, I’ll leave that one to you )

So think about that next time you see or hear the phrase “eternal life.” Don’t think only of living forever, but think of Him!

Amen.