holiness heathen

i had a chat about holiness theology with an unbelieving man i work with.

it should be mentioned: he believes in "the divine," and he is sure that there is a supernatural, spiritual realm. he's just not a Christ follower. he's also a very smart man, and he knows a lot about philosophy and psychology.

it began because i was talking about my class (Extreme Holiness) in The War College. i was sharing how many of the students don't agree with my thoughts, and how it's a fairly controversial subject.
he asked me what was so disputatious about the whole thing.
i was reticent to explain it to him, because i figured that theological argot would not be beneficial to a nonbeliever. so i began to define the controversy, and we ended up talking about nothing but holiness for the next 2 hours. (i'm getting paid for this! haha!)

shocking:

he agrees with my theology more than most Christians i have spoken to!

i narrowed it down to two polemics:
1.) it is possible to live a holy life, not just be forgiven and continue to sin.
2.) it is possible to receive holiness in a single moment, and grow from there-- it's not a point that we need to strive for our whole lives, and never reach.

i am stunned that he agreed with me.
i am especially stunned because most believers i meet do not agree.

point #1
he told me that his big objection to Christianity is the fact that so many Christians accept forgiveness and continue to sin.
ME TOO! it seems that our belief in grace affects us so that we think we'll always sin, and that's why we have Jesus. sounds like cheap grace to me. both my co-worker and i think that there HAS to be a change of heart and action, or else the mercy of God is thrown away.

point #2
he's seen it quite a few massive transformations in his friends lives, because he is involved with NA. he says that it almost always happens overnight. surely, people grow and change gradually, but when God does a miracle in a person, it can happen in a single moment. he said that to say it would take our whole lives to "reach Christlikeness" would be to limit God.
I AGREE! our journey of holiness is not an asymptote. forgive the math-headed-ness. but listen to this:

an asymptote is a curved line approaching a straight line (in this example, the y-axis and the x-axis) and getting closer and closer to intersecting, but never touching. for infinity the fraction of space between the curved line and the straight line will get smaller and smaller, but but it will never disappear.

this seems to be the prevailing thought in the Church about holiness. we think that for our whole lives we will become more and more like Christ, but we'll never be Christlike. that's the problem with thinking of holiness as a point to be reached-- we think we'll never reach it, or we get caught up in legalism and striving by trying to touch that line.
both my co-worker and i think that this "blessing of a clean heart" must be viewed as a gift and a journey, but not a destination. make sense?

the discussion turned toward faith and salvation. hallelujah. keep praying for this guy, if you think of it. actually, pray for both of my co-workers-- each of them are close to repenting. the other guy i work with prayed with me the other day. he prayed, "God, if You're real, show Yourself to me." i'm believing that He will.

anyway-- i'm feelin a bit sad that a nonbeliever agrees with my theology more than the Church does. he's putting us to shame!

this n that.

well...
quite a weekend it has been.

FULLNESS prayer and fasting weekend has just come to a close-- my stomach is finally satisfied, my mind is racing, and my heart is going deeper. i love Jesus.

my mom was here to preach.
she is not only a joy, a constant source of entertainment, love and empathy, she is also a FIREBALL. her preaching this weekend has been top notch. what an example. i want to imitate her in the same way that Paul told us to imitate him.

Tom Freeman was the worship leader.
he has, as we say in the Munn family-- a "land-o-lakes" voice. smoooooth like butter. and anointed (i don't use that word loosely).
and Rae Freeman. what a prophet (p.s. for some, strange feminist reason, i wince at the word prophetess.) her words are from the Almighty, no doubt.


i suppose anyone who has been a leader, a teacher, or a discipler (is that a word?) would resonate with what i'm about to share:
my War College students, my teen-cell girls, and my disciples bring me the greatest joys in life, as well as the greatest grief. when they succeed and follow the Lord, i rejoice so strongly with them, and my heart bursts with happiness. but when i see any hint of coldness to the Spirit, or any lack of wisdom, it causes me to mourn.

anyway, this weekend i experienced a bit of both.
hallelujah, it was RICH to see people being responsive to what the Lord was saying to them during FULLNESS. many responded to a call to holiness (i swear, i didn't pay her to preach on that!) my heart sang :o)

i'm leaving in a week and a bit to go on a little journey:
first i'm in London, Ontario where i'm preaching and dancing (two of my favorite things on earth!) at a youth councils.
then i'm chillin at 614 London for a few days and soaking up the Gillinghams.
then i'm in Toronto for a couple days to visit with friends.
then i'm going to New York to reunite with my family! it's the first time that the 4 of us will have been together since August. sweetness.
then we're all heading down to Hershey, Pennsylvania where the Territorial Kaleidoscope Congress is going to be held. i'm setting up the 24-7 prayer room there, and i'm rehearsing and performing with a group of dancers, so i'll be far from bored. i'm SO excited to dance again. :o)

pray for me if you think of it: especially in regards to the first leg of the trip-- the Lord is going to do some massive things at that Youth Councils in London, and i want to jump in and join Him in His work.

love it, hate it

my last post was brief and didn't say much about my life, but it is definitely the thing that is strongest on my heart these days. i struggle to convey my deep feelings on this in words, but the feelings are unmistakably there. i hope that it made some sense to you.

a friend said this to me yesterday:

"would u agree that worldliness has only just stopped being seen as a sin in the last chunk of decades? funny how it seems to coincide with the SA becoming less effective.."

i have yet to respond to him, because i feel absolutely convicted.

in class (Extreme Holiness) we often try to clarify terms before we discuss them. we try to define "sin," "human nature," "sinful nature," and "flesh," so that when someone uses the word we all know what they mean. one of the terms that we recently tried to define was "THE WORLD."

a few times in the Bible we are told to hate the world.
"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
(James 4:4)

it's obviously worth defining, because God loves the world, and we're told to go into all the world and preach the good news, and Jesus died to save the world...so what is it exactly that we are hating?

the world is not:
-the earth (as in creation)
-all people
neither of these things are to be hated. in fact, they should be loved! the Lord created them, He declares them good, and He loves them. i do too :o)

some define the world as narrowly as "sin."
but i think that perhaps it's broader than that. sure, we should hate sin, but i wonder if the world also includes things that are not wrong in themselves, but that are temporal and could lead to idolatry.

for example-- things. relationships. popularity.
they aren't necessarily inherently sinful, but they could lead to sin.

what my comrade said, i believe is true.

we don't treat a hunger for material things as vile idolatry.
we don't act as if craving for romance is going after our second love and ignoring our first.
we don't act as if friendship with the world is hatred toward God.

dang.

i don't HATE those things. sometimes i get a glimpse of reality, and i remember that they are only a shadow, but most of the time i enjoy those things of the world and no one calls me on it.
i'm sure i'm not the only one.

maybe when we consider worldliness a sin, the Lord will be able to use us.

c'mon y'all, let's just go for it. throw off everything hinders.

can we please just get rid of any garbage that would prevent us from going after Him?

why would we want anything else? anything that keeps us from Him is DEATH, because true, eternal life is nothing more than to KNOW Christ and His Father.

like little children, sometimes we think we want something, but the truth is, we want Him, and we want to be totally free to sprint after Him...forever.

stop accepting slavery.