The Fever--for more than Cow Bell

2006.11.11 Venice Santa Monica 0147.jpg, originally uploaded by grubbykupp.

venice beach is a bean salad, man. Over there, I'm full at ease. In LA, there is no contoversy to a guy who wants to follow Jesus... a guy who calls others to live among the poorer Americans... a guy who calls out the obvious hypocrisy in our "big house of power" way of discipleship...
Over there... well, I could do what I do and find a lot of christian folks unsurprised, and a lot of pagan folks who would be refreshed...

Here, where our city lies in a kind of "Americana Christian Culture Religious Right" political death grip, people are very very galvanized to the message of Jesus. They've been, a Billy Graham said, "innoculated" against the real message of Jesus.

Are you familiar with what Billy said about that?
Do you know what an "innoculation" or "vaccination" or "immunization" are made of? Click the links to read the Wikipedia links for those terms.

So are you familiar with that idea? It is the introduction of a weakened or dead version of the real thing in order to familiarize the immune system with the threat. This prepares the defenses to fend off the affects of the introduction of the "Real Thing".

I know it might not be nice sounding, but faith in our Lord Jesus is a lot like a virus. It is Caught long before it is Taught. It spreads through communicability. People see the hope, the joy, the righteousness, the LOVE of a true disciple. This might mean that there are fewer true disciples than we may wish. This may mean we ourselves are less true than we may have wanted to accept. Yet it is a solid analogy, that faith is like a virus... It is caught and communicated. It spreads and brings changes.

It's like a virus in reverse. Whereas a virus spreads destruction to the individual cells of a body, leading to sickness and death, the Faith I speak of spreads life to an already sick church and a dead world. An "infection" of a dead cell-=the soul of a person who is dead in sins (Eph.2)--results in an awakening to life in the Spirit. This is the whole "Born-again" thing. This is basic Bible.

So the dynamic of immunization is at work in the earth. Satan and the world he controls are in conspiracy with the godless leanings of our flesh to shake us free of the Voice of God that convicts us of sin. If we listen to the voice of God, we'll fall at His feet in worship and repentance, relying totally on the Grace given in Christ. If we keep that up, we'll be so filled with the holy spirit and the joy of our hope that others will catch the "cold". Or shall I say the "fever"?

and no amount of cow bell can touch this fever, my friends.

yet with the prevalence of weakened and dead versions of the Kingdom of God, many people are immune to the strong, true form of the Gospel of Christ... We have received a weakened version of the Gospel that doesn't touch the heart of our lives, displacing our concerns over our wealth and poverty, status and security, nationalism and materialism...

The churches of this city and this nation are often guilty of preaching "another Jesus", made up of the sayings and teachings of Jesus. Few are the times when a Sunday morning will have a "vertical" orientation, with the actual Person of Jesus centered in our worship.

We talk about him, but not to Him.
We sing about him, even about singing to him--listen to the words! It's almost unbelievable to find myself gathered with hundreds of people, every week, for months, and singing about singing to him.
Meanwhile, there aren't healings and movement of power. There's a lack of holiness and conviction of sin. There's little contrition adn repentance, since the message that bring them is not conducive to a successful 10 million dollare building project...

Do you feel me?
Isn't this starkly SUB-Christian?
Starkly so.
Yet this is the prevalent form.

How many sundays have seen the congregation LOST IN PRAYER and WORSHIP before the throne of God? How many messages of pastors on Sundays have NECESSITATED action and repentance? How many teaachers are taking up the prophetic edge and commanding the people to OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST?

a weakened gospel.

turning from it may cost us, but the benefit is JOY, LoVe, Power of the Holy Spirit...
truly a return to revolution...
Spirit-filled life...
fundamentally spiritual
bleeding grace in the world.
testifying to the resurrection and empty tomb of Jesus
laid out at his feet...