A Vision of the Possible
So I have to admit that I stole the title of this post from a great book on missions and church planting. With that out of the way, I still love the title. It encapsulates what should be our attitude towards Jesus and His kingdom. Most of the time if we are honest we have a vision of the impossible. We live as if what Jesus said about power and authority being ours, what he told us about His heart for His world and all that stuff about the kingdom breaking in on the world now was all just smoke and mirrors. Yet, when he talk about stuff like heaven and hell, sin and salvation then we listen up.The reality is we can’t pick and choose the parts of the bible we think Jesus really meant and those that we can sort of ignore.
Mark 1, Jesus calls the first disciples and gives them a simple job description.
1. Invitation– come (be with me)…these guys were drop outs, the left overs from the Jewish system of religious education that did not make the cut. Yet, Jesus says you follow me! He sees in them what they will be before they see it.
2. Imitation– Follow me… do what I do. Need we say more!
3. Vocation– I will make you fishers of men… you will work like I work.
Do we believe Jesus was serious about this call? We as Christians have fallen into the trap of thinking Jesus can’t use us. Church leaders reinforce this by doing everything for us (aside from cutting our meat and feeding it to us), and Christian culture had helped us along by helping us consume as much as we can with out calling us to a costly life of sacrifice for Jesus.
We need to recapture Jesus sense of the possible! He entrusted to his followers the power and authority to carry on His mission. His kingdom is not in jeopardy…He is not afraid of what we are afraid of. It means being with, following and working for Jesus is not an add on to discipleship, but what it means to be a disciple.
Do we know how to do it? Do we teach our people to do it? Are we willing to be taught how to do it?
So I am done, but I cannot leave you with out a glimmer of hope. Over the next few months, I want to blog on the possible. This is where I think we all can start www.livebio.org. Take a look and let me know what you think. Let it spark in you a vision of what is possible with Jesus