Follow the Word

i love that god set up the church – the gathering of his children to represent his kingdom as family with one another and as light to those not yet experiencing new life in jesus. 

follow the word is the spiritual family that met on the navajo rez for a few years and now is scattered about living god’s purposes for our lives, and his life out of us, in various places and various ways.  so, i write this more for them………

follow the word is a group of people who found jesus in ways that cause them to consistently strive to live the opposite of f$%@ the world – which is how most of them used to feel all the time in general. we lived out life with jesus on the navajo reservation and helped each other journey on with god’s purposes and live in new ways.  this was both glorious and messy.   i suppose i could focus on how we are a group of broken, ragamuffin-type jesus followers struggling to live out grace.  and, frankly, those descriptions are true of each ftw person.

yet, i’ll just say that, moreso, they are what we all are as we choose new life in the resurrected son of god:  they are victory.

to live jesus is not just about us being messed up and needing grace.  we DO.  don’t here me wrong.  we are nothing without the cross. and, we mess up all the time, and it is grace that allows us to move forward.  but that is the point: there is – and can be – and is meant to be – a moving foward.  too much we get stuck in just without really living victory – living the resurrection – the power – and letting ALL that jesus is in us have control.  and hey, i say this as one who sucks the grace out of jesus more than i care to admit, as one who fully recognizes that receiving grace is nothing we can earn – nothing to have to live up to then – nothing short of a miraculous gift to receive with a great big sigh.

but i also see it as one who knows how it is to then just get stuck in being broken and not really move forward.  we are all messes.  it’s just that too much we can wear our messiness as a badge of honor for how much we need grace – because grace is so great.  and – it is!  but, there is more! grace isn’t the end – it is the beginning.  it is the start of the kingdom of god.  grace is the fuel for real life.  and yes, we may – and will probably – need it all the time – all the time. 

to be one who needs and experiences grace isn’t to be one who needs a crutch – it is to be one who has had the crutch thrown away by the VICTORIOUS HEALER.  we become marks of victory.

and victory is then what we are.

sure, we will continue to mess up and need grace.  grace, though to energize us to live victory.  this is transformation – not the end – only the level leading us to ultimately living out the kingdom of god – multiplication.

so following the word, is to just keep doing that.  live out romans 12:1-2.  live out being a new creation.

and so, being part of ftw helped me to live more of jesus and help others find the way – the truth – the life.  and my constant prayer for each ftwer is that you will each continue to do the same and let the experience god gave us all together to be more fuel with the grace you each have and need to help others find the way in ways that he’s designed for you.

you are a group of people breaking out and living jesus in difficult places.  it is not living the norm of what the world says makes sense, but living beyond to experience and extend his life to others.  yes, it is a messy ebb and flow process, but with one heart and one love to move forward.  we do and see the glory of god’s name shine forth and go forth in impossible lives and circumstances.

to follow the word who became flesh and the words that are truth – the WORD that is life is the journey god invites us all to follow.  to take part in this journey together is church.  the experience of salvation, transformation, multiplication is shared as it is walked out individually and collectively for the sake of all people needing life.

 Romans 12:1-3 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.3I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.