Near and Far Faith

Practice 5: Purity

I love the scene in Minority Report after Tom Cruise gets his eyes replaced and wakes up to get some food. He will not have the use of his eyes for some 8 hours, but the skeevy doctor (also the Russian cosmonaut from Armegeddon. I can’t help it—my brain just likes to make those connections) has left a sandwich and milk for Tom’s character in the fridge so he can eat while he recovers… next to a month-old version of the sandwich and milk. So John Anderton stumbles to the fridge and takes a huge bite of a the rotten, moldy sandwich and, after spitting it out, tries to wash the taste away with the bad milk.

Often this is how the first stumble back into our stolen identities looks. The enemy places a healthy desire next to a rotten action—sex is not bad, but sex outside of marriage is not God’s future for us. Drinking is not condemned in scripture, but being drunk is. Looking at a girl is not wrong, but picturing her sexually is a start towards pornography.

Why does God call us into purity? The same reason he allowed sin to enter the world. Without it we would know nothing of divine love, mercy, grace, or forgiveness, and we cannot define our true identity without these things.

As you practice purity, know this: it is not the end result that is God’s goal. You will never “reach purity”. It is the journey towards it that is the goal. Each step is a new goal leading to the next and each one uncovers more of God and us.

Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Ponder for a moment the second part of verse 19—”You do not belong to yourself.”

Our identity is actually God’s. He spent eternity designing it and gave it to us. We should not only discover it, but also maintain it. That’s what the practice of purity is all about.

Practice 4: Fellowship

Our Life Group is one of my favorite events each week. In the past, fellowship always meant 16 dishes of bad food that left the whole church smelling like cat food for a week and sitting with people that were socially awkward. But these people, my friends, in our Life Group are helping me redefine that (the food and the fellowship part).

“Fellowship” is first used in the Bible to describe someone’s relationship with God—”...Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years.”  It changed in Acts chapter 2 when it began to mean what we see it as today—a deep bond of spiritual significance between people.

How do you see church? Have you been hurt or made to feel insignificant? When you have experience after with people with stolen identities, your vision becomes clouded. Because of people, our view of the church is messed up. Many of us see church as a spiritual feeding mechanism, and while it is, it is designed to spur us into growth. Many of us see it as a spiritual growth shot that lasts for a week, when we should see it as just another morning at the gym.

Fellowship though is a huge and overlooked part of church. Think about it… God bringing together people that claim devotion to him. Why is it not the relationship hub of our lives? If it’s not the church’s fault, the only one left to blame is here doing the reading.

Read Acts 2

The experience of the first mass Holy Spirit encounter was intense! Who is one person who you’ve had an intense or amazing experience with? What is that bond like?

Do you trust God to bring more those relationships to you at your church?

Often God will reveal parts of our true identity, and his, to us through other people. Fellowship—the deep spiritual  bond—is the way he will do it. What changes in relationships should you make based on this?

Practice 3: Emptiness

There’s nothing that competes with the motivation of boredom. When I first learned to play the guitar, I wrote a song called “I am so bored.” I don’t remember much of it, but the chorus went something like this: I am so bored. Oh lord won’t you take me away from here. Insert emo teenage angst here. Couple that with a shaved pony tail hair cut and free time and it’s the making of a hit.

What if we began looking at all our time—busy-ness and boredom—as a gift. A chance for us to get to know more about God. The practice of emptiness is not about feeling nothing, but rather about disposing of our own glamour and need for attention and utilizing the free will God gave us. I’m not saying that every spare moment you should be reading the Bible or praying, but using what God has given you.

How often have we tried to fill ourselves up with something to make ourselves feel better without simply posing the question to God “why did you bring me to this moment right now?”  The dangerous part to this is that when we selfishly fill ourselves up– be that our time or relationships—we’re listening to a lie that says “it will last”. Well, it doesn’t. We know this—we’ve experienced it. It actually expands our appetite and now it takes more and more for us to feel filled up.

Read Luke 12:22-34

What Jesus is teaching us here is to empty ourselves of the needs we think have and focus on the heart of God. What’s on your heart right now? What do you want to do at this instant? Now what do you think God wants to do with you right now? Where do these things overlap? Often the activities we want to do spring out of desires God has given us. Rather than steal them from you, he wants you to experience them even greater!

Practice 2: Prayer

Prayer is one of the most elusive practices for some Christians and the most simplistic for others. Why is that? Why are some “prayer warriors” (which makes it sound like much more fun then it actually is) but I struggle to do more than just the “Holy crap! Help!” prayers?

Jesus spent time in solitude, but also time praying. There’s something that has been lost in the generations since he set an example for us in Matthew 5—this is how you should pray: Our Father, who art…. Life should be a conversation with God. Like a conversation with anyone else.

The reason it’s become so obscure is this: talking face to face with someone forces me to either be honest or hide. For many of us we’ve been hiding behind stolen identities for so long that our own God doesn't even comprehend our talks with him. We try to impress others, communicate with others. The last thing we try to do, typically, is simply talk.

Read John 17

This is Jesus praying for his disciples. Remember that this is literary—poetic because of the context and date. In the day it was spoken, this would’ve sounded much different than what had been the example for so long.

List the categories of things that you notice Jesus pray for:

Now spend a few moments in silence and then transition into a conversation with God. Listen to what he’s pressing on your heart. He’s in control—discern between yourself and God and let his thoughts prompt yours. If you’re like me and have a hard time focusing, you may want  to have this conversation on paper—writing both your requests but also his responses.

Practice 1: Silence

Read the following verses and then the chapters that they are in:

Mark 1:35

Luke 4:42

Mark 6:46

Matthew 14:13

Luke 5:16

If Jesus needed solitude—time free of distraction or interruption, remote-ness—then we sure do. This is time used to connect with our God completely undistracted. This is going to be hard. Mentally prepare for it for a minute.

Find a timer that will beep or let you know without looking at it that some time has past—like the alarm on a watch. Set it for 3 minutes.

Now for the next few minutes just sit. Close your eyes to free you from the distractions. Be aware of your body and setting, but let your mind drift. It’s not about not trying to think, but about gaining space from the entanglements of the mind and it’s worries. Be aware of your breathing, but don’t control it. As you exhale feel the mind drift and gain space.

Now… “be still and know that I am God.”

Leg 3 of our journey takes us straight to the creator. Part of our false or stolen identity is a false identity of God. Think of all the different ways He is portrayed in the media: old, far away, angry. If we are to discover our true identity, then the only place that truth can be found is in Him. We are, as humans, reaching for this knowledge whether we acknowledge it or not. Embrace it now as part of who you are meant to be—seeking God.

The amazing thing about uncovering your true identity is that, contrary to the lies of the enemy, it’s actually extremely freeing. But to truly know who you are you must embark on an endless leg of your journey—getting to know God. If we can get to know him our entire lives now fall into a purpose—from the details of the daily routine to the life-changing decisions—they now all have eternal significance that lies on his shoulders and not ours. Can you feel the freedom creeping in? What if my friendships are not reliant on me to impress others, but on me listening to a Father that loves beyond compare and knows, even deeper than I do, my longing for companionship?

So we begin this never-ending leg of the trip. Perhaps this is your 700th beginning, or perhaps the very first intentional meeting of you and your creator. Either way, over time you will learn the exhilaration of feeling his control that is always found in love, and letting go of your own self preservation. Discovering your true identity is truly discovering that you are part of a bigger picture—a solid foundation of hope and future that doesn’t revolve around you. And here... there is freedom.

This leg will take us through 7 different practices that, if exercised, will continually grow our knowledge of our Father. Some of them you will find great comfort in, while others will challenge you to frustration and you’ll be severely tempted to give up. Know this: God is with you coming from the other direction. Not only are you pursuing him, but he is pursuing you. So take heart.

Who’s in your clique? Your inner circle? Why are they there? Do you remember a time when maybe someone else tried to enter it and, because of your stolen identity, you ridiculed them to make your false self feel better? If you’ve never been there, you’ve seen it or perhaps been on the other end.

Bringing all the good news of rescue and life to the outsiders (gentiles) was huge. Jesus himself said that he was coming first after his people—Israel. But Paul broke the rules (I know—some of you just got really excited that God condones breaking rules while others just questioned a God that does).

Read Acts 13:44-52

Who has been trying desperately to break into your circle? Is there someone? Or maybe you need to look for one to include.

What do you notice about Paul and Barnabas’ message in verses 46-47?

Make a list of 3 names that you will commit to pray for– that God would show you how to rescue them while just being your true self.