Running to Keep Up With the Lord

If you've been following my posts for the last couple of weeks, you'll know that there has been a frequent theme of personal transformation in many of these posts. I've been crying out to the Lord for that personal transformation, considering this to be of higher value and importance than even my healing. And I can now give testimony that the Lord has answered my cry.

In Matthew 5:6, the Lord said:

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

I believe that every touch from God is preceded by a hunger for Him. In fact, sometimes the Lord will purposely withdraw the sense of His presence in order to cultivate a deeper hunger. And for the last few weeks, my hunger for the Lord has been insatiable. And as Jesus promised, because I have "hunger[ed] and thirst[ed] for righteousness," I have indeed been filled.

The last few days I've been up most of the night just praying. Not praying for my healing, but praying for God to reveal Himself in greater and deeper ways. And I'm now running, just trying to keep up with what God is showing me of Himself. It is, quite honestly, overwhelming. Much of it has to do with His purpose, not just in my life but in the world, His plans for His Church and the wonder of the goal He is heading toward. I'm going to share about this in this blog, but I'm actually creating two new blogs, specifically to begin to share in a deeper way what the Lord is showing to me. The two new blogs are:

• A Gospel for the 21st Century - describing issues related to the Gospel, God's redemptive narrative and life-changing power.

• A Church for the 21st Century - describing issues related to the Church, God's redemptive vehicle and the living expression of Jesus in today's world.

I'm just starting to put these blogs together, but soon I'll start posting in them. And I'll let you know when that happens.

By the way, I've also been helping my parents over the last couple of days put together three blogs for their own authorship. These can be found as follows:

• The Living Edge - true stories of God's miraculous intervention and the many visitations of the Holy Spirit that my parents have experienced over 50 years of ministry as missionaries in Asia and the Pacific.

• Sure Foundations - articles on the nature of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and its transforming power in people's lives.

• The Birthright - a discovery of God's glorious plan and purpose for every believer, as revealed in Scripture.

Now, back to my own journey of personal transformation. Much of what the Lord has been unveiling to me personally has to do with the 6pm Twilight Service, the congregation I'm pastoring at ECC here in Melbourne. But there has also been a lot of very personal stuff, some of which is still percolating (and thus is not ready for this blog), but some of which is matured enough for me to share. So the personal stuff, I'll share here, while I'll reserve the "deeper" stuff, regarding God's purpose in and through the Church, for the two blogs listed above.

When we are transformed by the power of God's Spirit, we come out a different person than the one that began the process. This is very true for me. I'm a different person from the one that began to write this blog, late last year, and I'm even a different person from the one writing just a couple of weeks ago. That's the nature of transformation. Although you have the same name, the same memories, the same personality, yet the transformation process makes of you someone who is in many ways different. You look at the world differently, you even respond differently to situations.

The Bible calls this the "new creation" dynamic. Take a look at these verses:

• 2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

• Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

• Ephesians 4:22-24 - "You were taught...to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

• Galatians 6:15 - "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation."

That last verse in particular is interesting. Circumcision was the big theological dissension in Paul's day. There were lots of heated debates was to whether Gentiles should be circumcised or not, as required by the Law of Moses, after they had confessed faith in Jesus Christ. Paul has a lot of things to say in this matter (read Galatians 5:1-12), but at the end of it all, after all the theological discussions are over, he says, "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation"! You can substitute "circumcision" with any theological debate currently running the rounds in the church. Here are some examples:

• Neither Calvinism nor Armenianism means anything; what counts is a new creation!
• Neither Evangelical nor Charismatic means anything; what counts is a new creation!
• Neither Premillenialism nor Postmillenialism means anything; what counts is a new creation!

How easily we can get caught up in heated debates about things that, in the context of eternity, mean very little (see 2 Timothy 2:23; Titus 3:9) -- and how much has the Church been guilty of waging these theological battles, while the world looks on bemused, at best, and totally turned off, at worst. It's all about the new creation in Christ! It's all about personal transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-6). That's my focus as I move forward in this exciting journey of following Jesus.