Where do you live?

One of the greatest mistakes that create erroneous Biblical teaching occurs when those who seek to teach the Word take the passage or verse they are teaching from out of context. When a verse or two from Scripture is quoted out of context, it is possible to make that verse support whatever bias the teacher wants it to support. This results in error and does a disservice to Biblical wisdom.

But context isn’t only for studying the Bible. Context is also important in understanding what God is trying to do in your life and in the lives of those we are trying to lead. Knowing your current spiritual context, will unlock God’s wisdom for you and your ministry.

Recently, the Lord has been showing my wife and I the importance of understanding our context. He pointed us to the story of the Israelites and their journey from Egypt into the wilderness and eventually into the Promised Land. The insight and the challenge for us was inspired by this question: Where do you live? Egypt? The wilderness? The Promised Land?

These three contexts provided a framework of understanding where we were in our journey and became a source of understanding and assurance.

Egypt
Living in Egypt means that you are not living the life God intended you to live. You are a slave to someone else’s agenda. Rather than pursuing your God-given dream, you are building someone else’s dream. Instead of fulfilling your purpose and realizing your destiny, you are creating the desired future from someone else’s purpose and destiny. In Egypt, you are a slave to someone else.

If you realize that you are living in Egypt, know that this is not all there is. There is more. You have a Savior who is mediating on your behalf. As Moses liberated Israel from the land of slavery, Jesus desires to liberate your from your context of slavery. From the cross, Jesus is saying to the powers that keep you in your Egypt, “Let my people go!”

Egypt is the land of not enough. It is a place of extreme hardship for our lives; a place of lack. How does one survive in Egypt? Who is God to us in Egypt?

When we find ourselves in Egypt, we must look to God as our only hope. We hang on to the conviction that there is a greater destiny in store for us. We must believe that there is a God-sized dream waiting for us; that we have a Promised Land that we have yet to enter. In Egypt, we hold onto hope.

And when we hear the voice of our liberator calling us to rise up and leave Egypt, we must turn that hope into action and leave the land of slavery behind us.

The Wilderness
Leaving Egypt behind does not automatically bring us into the Promised Land. Rather, abandoning Egypt brings us into the wilderness. Most people think the wilderness is a bad place to be. It is a place that seems barren. A place that seems vast and uncertain. But the wilderness is a place where many lessons must be learned before entering into the Promised Land. We cannot enter the Promised Land without first going through the wilderness.

The wilderness is a place of revelation. It was in the wilderness that God revealed His laws and statutes. It was in the wilderness that God taught Israel how to be His people. The wilderness was the place from which the Law was received by Moses. It was a place of revelation.

The wilderness was also a place of temptation and testing. It was in the wilderness that Israel’s obedience was tested. This was the place where their faith would be proved. It was a testing ground for Israel’s confidence in the goodness of God. The time in the wilderness was to determine who really would be the god of Israel.

Unfortunately, a whole generation of Israel failed that test. A whole generation would be lost before Israel could move on. It would be a whole new and different generation that would actually see the Promised Land.

How long does it really take to walk from Egypt to Canaan? The journey should have only taken around 40 days to complete. But they ended up wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years! Disobedience will delay your destiny.

The wilderness is the land of just enough. Time and time again, over 4 decades, God proved Himself to be capable of supplying all the needs of Israel. Every day, God provided manna for food to eat. This was heavenly food. But it wasn’t a time to store up any excess manna that was left over. No, manna would be provided on a daily basis. Just enough for the needs of the day.

When we find ourselves in the wilderness, our faith will be tested. But God will reveal Himself as the daily provider for our needs each and every day we are here. Our time in the wilderness is not a time of abundance. It is a season of just enough.

What lessons must we learn in the wilderness? Careful obedience. As God reveals His secrets to you, He will show you what you must do...how you are to be His people in this season. Whether we obey or not will determine how long we will stay in the wilderness.

Let me offer hope for the wilderness. Remember, Jesus overcame the wilderness. He was tempted just as we would be tempted. But he overcame. In the same way, we must look to Jesus to get through the wilderness. And like the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, Jesus and His Spirit will lead us through the wilderness to the place of promise.

Carefully obeying Jesus can only come from the conviction that in the face of our most pressing basic needs...Jesus is enough. The bottom line is that the wilderness is a place where we must learn to trust Jesus. In the wilderness, we trust and obey.

The Promised Land
Of course, ultimately, we all want to be living in our Promised Land. But the Promised Land context is not the place where we rest and kick up our feet and sip exotic drinks by the beach all day. There is much to do when we enter our Promised Land. There are battles to win. Kingdom culture to establish. A destiny to fulfill.

The Promised Land is the land of more than enough. It is a place of abundance. And while every promise is yes in this place, we must still be careful to fulfill the purpose of God in this place. The Promised Land is something that must be fought for. We have an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy our purpose. There is nothing that this enemy would want more than for us to squander the opportunities that the Promised Land offers. The enemy will try to deceive us into thinking inwardly and focusing our attention on ourselves rather than on the mission Jesus has set for us.

God said to Abram about His people, “You will be a blessing to many nations.” The role of Israel in the Promised Land was to be a blessing to the people’s of the world. The land of Israel was to be a base of operations from which God would bless the world.

We must remember that even while we may find ourselves in a context of abundance, we have a purpose to fulfill. The problems that Israel faced in the Promised Land stemmed from losing sight of their purpose. Seduced to pursuing other gods, they put themselves outside of God’s purposes. They lost their distinctiveness as God’s people.

That is the danger of the Promised Land...the seduction to idolatry...when good things become god-things. In the Promised Land, we must hold on to Jesus as the God of purpose and destiny.

Where do you live? Egypt? The wilderness? Or the Promised Land? Understanding our context will give us the wisdom to respond accordingly.

Where in the world is Mark?

Some of you who read my blog here might be wondering where I've been. It's been a while since my last post. And you might be wondering what's up?

Well, for the past couple of weeks (3 days after my last post actually), my family and I went on a road trip to New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. It was a blast! I had 5 speaking engagements with 4 churches in those states. I also got to meet up with some friends Beth and I haven't seen in years.

Aside from that, I've been working with a web developer to launch my own website. If you've been in my personal email directory, you probably got a notice from me announcing the launch of the new site.

My plan is to switch over to the new blog over there. I've also been toying with the idea of starting new blogs to cover different and more specific topics. I'm still trying to figure out how and if I want to transfer all the content here onto the new blog. Any suggestions?

The new site at www.markjuane.com or www.DreamBigRevolution.org will have an opt-in form so I can send you some free resources. Chekc it out and let me know what you think ok?

Worship is so huge...

More Roaring Lambs

Here are a few more excerpts from chapter two of Roaring Lambs. The title is Salt: Make Use of It...

...the salt Jesus had in mind is stinging, biting, cleansing, and preserving and is anything but dull, anything but tame. To the kind of salt Christ spoke about is to be on the cutting edge, in the fray, at the forefront of battle.

The way to be salt is to replace evil with good, not just to sound off against the evil.

We do not have to be the best to be effective, but we have to be at our best.

Being a roaring lamb is not about special days, special emphases, special people, and special professions. Rather, it is about everyday people doing everyday jobs with a very special goal---that of effectively representing Christ in all areas of society. Our churches should exist for this.

I love how this challenges us to do ordinary things with an extraordinary purpose. That last sentence that our churches should exist for this is so right on. As a leader and equipper in the Church, my main goal ought to be to glorify God by equipping God's people to shine (or in this case, to be salty) in real life.

If Not Excellence, What?

Here's another word from Tom Peters which I think is absolutely essential to our discussion on being roaring lambs, being miracles. If not excellence, what?


Excellence Always from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

Roaring Lambs

This morning, I picked up my copy of Bob Briner's book Roaring Lambs. Once again, it ambushed me with both passion and truth. Below is an excerpt from chapter 1. It's lengthy but well worth the read.

...despite all the fancy buildings, sophisticated programs, and highly visible presence, it is my contention that the church is almost a nonentity when it comes to shaping culture. In the arts, entertainment, media, education, and other culture-shaping venues of our country, the church has abdicated its role as salt and light.

Culturally, we are lambs. Meek, lowly, easily dismissed cuddly creatures that are fun to watch but never a threat to the status quo.

It's time for those lambs to roar.

...My point is really quite simple. Look around you. Can you honestly say that Christian influence is felt in Hollywood? That a Christian presence is evident in the major art galleries and museums of our land? That when you turn on the television you are aware of an underlying foundation of Judeo-Christian values in that medium? That as you pick up the morning newspaper you see objective (not favorable, just objective) treatment of religion in your community? That when you browse through the best sellers at the airport bookstores you will find even one novel written by an active, church-going, born again Christian?

Do you honestly believe that our big churches and highly visible Christian leaders have brought about a movement that is taken seriously in this country?

We feel we are making a difference because we are so important to ourselves. We have created a phenomenal subculture with our own media, entertainment, educational system, and political hierarchy so that we have the sense that we're doing a lot. But what we've really done is create a ghetto that is easily dismissed by the rest of society.

...I'm afraid many in the world view us as a flock of lambs grazing in the safe pastures surrounding our churches that have been designed to blend right in with the neighborhood landscape. We're good neighbors. We look like everyone else. And except for Sunday morning, we follow the same patterns of behavior as those who have little or no interest in religion. Our lives are divided into sections labeled religious and secular, and neither category seems to affect the other. Consequently, our religious views are not taken very seriously.

I have a number of friends in network television, the business community, newspaper journalism, and the arts, and I've learned two things about them. First, they have little to do with Christianity, but second, they are consumed by their pursuit of success. What this has told me is that if I want to reach them with the Gospel, the worst thing I could do is invite them to church or "witness" to them during a break in the board meeting. On the other hand, if I want to point them toward the Savior, I need to make sure my professional behavior is stellar. I need to make the best presentations, close the most successful deals, deliver the greatest product I possibly can. To them, my work is a reflection of who I am.

...We need to reclaim the territory, not in a triumphalistic sense but out of a strong conviction that this is where we belong. Our churches are growing. Our colleges are full. Subscriptions and sales are up at our magazine- and book- publishing companies. And our broadcast media continue to bring our own music and teaching into our homes. In short, our subculture is healthy. It doesn't need more attention. It's the world that needs help.

It's time for the lambs to roar.

What I'm calling for is a radically different way of thinking about our world. Instead of running from it, we need to rush into it. And instead of just hanging around the fringes of our culture, we need to be right smack dab in the middle of it.

Can we hear the voice of the Spirit here? This is what I've been talking about. Dream big! Act now! Stand out! Be the miracle!

Watch out for my new initiative DreamBigRevolution! A community and a movement that seeks to nurture, inspire, and equip shining stars for the Kingdom of God.

Dream Big: Henry David Thoreau

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau