A Week Lacking Oswald Chambers

A week lacking My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers is synonomous for a string of gloomy days. My copy of this magnificent book was left at our church, an hour and a half from my home, and awaited my return today. As I sit in my brother's office, listening to him and the members of the "worship team" practice for Sunday, I am attempting to read the last four days of brillance from Mr. Chambers.

September 22nd-
"To have a master and to be mastered is not the same thing. To have a master means that there is one who knows me better than I know myself, one who is closer than a friend, one who fathoms the remotest abyss of my heart and satisfies it, son who has brought me into the secure sense that he has met and solved every perplexity and problem of my mind."

To be mastered involves a certain amount of conquering between two opponents. The weaker of the two, more than likely, will be the one who is forced into submission. The one who is mastered will probably not look upon the "master" with favor. Thinking spiritually about mastery, when I view my relationship with God as Him overtaking me, I struggle all the more with obedience. Yet, God is Master, not because He has conquered me into submission, but because He knows all. He is my Master whether I recognize Him as such or not. He sees the depths of my heart and loves me the same. He has all knowledge and can solve all of my finite problems. Why would I not want Him as Master?

"He wants us in the relationship in which He is easily Master without our conscious knowledge of it, all we know is that we are His to obey."

This is the highest form of obedience and one that I strive for every day- to obey without knowing it because I am His child and want to please Him in all I do. Why do I not live this way when I want to? Is it beacuse I do not know what I should do? No, for I know the good I ought to do and do not do it, therefore sinning. The reason, so many times, that I do not obey is because I lack belief in the promises of God. If I believed God as I should there would be no hesitance in my obedience. His promises proclaim Him to be trustworthy. His promises show His faithfulness from age to age. It is only my self-centered foolishness that hinders me. Praise Him for His mercy and grace.

September 23rd-
"We start with Christ and we end with Him- "until we all attain to the stature of the manhood of Christ Jesus," not to our idea of what the Christian life should be. The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen; he is useful and he does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of His Lord."

What is my aim? Do I focus my energy on being the Christian that the Christian society demands from me? Or do I pour my life into doing the will of God? Those are hard questions to answer, not because of the questions themselves, but because they are so close it is hard to seperate which is which. There is a point where I can focus on being the "best Christian ever" and lose sight of doing God's will. Yet, when I pursue the will of God, the other will automatically happen.

The Lausanne Covenant

God has called me where

my deep gladness

and the world's deep hunger

meet.

Inside each person there are certain dreams and desires that are ignited by simple things- things that affect no one else. Your pulse might not quicken when you see a world map. Your heart might not melt at the sight of dirty children in grass huts. You may not spend countless hours studying unreached people groups. You may not enjoy eating strange cross-cultural foods or browse international food markets for fun. You may not look at an airplane ascending to the sky and wish you were on it headed across the ocean to a distant land. You may not feel an overwhelming sense of energy when you think about taking God to the nations.

I do. Oh, I do.

The Lausanne Covenant was written in 1974 at the International Congress on World Evangelism and was signed by over 2,300 people. After spending a large amount of time in prayer and fasting, grieved over the lack of world evangelization, they decided to write a covenantal confession. Fifteen years later they wrote The Manila Manifesto as a second part to the covenant. Both are absolutely incredible. If I, as an individual, would embrace this confession whole-heartedly and live my faith with such passion, my sphere of influence would change. If we, as believers in Jesus Christ, would embrace this confession and work together to glorify God as He deserves to be glorified, the world as we know it would never be the same.

The Lausanne Covenant

INTRODUCTION
We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ from more than 150 nations, participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with each other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day, moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelization. We believe the gospel is God's good news for the whole world, and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to proclaim it to every person and to make disciples of every nation. We desire, therefore, to affirm our faith and our resolve, and to make public our covenant.

1. THE PURPOSE OF GOD
We affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.

Isa. 40:28; Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:11; Acts 15:14; John 27:6,18; Eph. 4:12, Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 5:10; 2 Cor 4:72

2. THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE BIBLE
We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We also affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose of salvation. The message of the bible is addressed to all men and women. For God's revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit still speaks today. He illumines the minds of God's people in every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus discloses to the whole Church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.

2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; Isa. 55:fl; Rom. 1:16i 1 Cor. 1:21; John 10:35; Matt 5:17-18; Jude3; Eph. 1:17-18

3. THE UNIQUENESS AND UNIVERSALITY OF CHRIST
We affirm that there is only one Savior and only one gospel, although there is a wide diversity of evangelistic approaches. We recognize that everyone has some knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can save, for people suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also reject as derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and dialog which implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God and people. There is no other name by which we must be saved. All men and women are perishing because of sin, but God loves everyone, not wishing that any should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as "the Savior of the world" is not to affirm that all people are either automatically or ultimately saved, still less to affirm that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim God's love for a world of sinners and to invite everyone to respond to him as Savior and Lord in the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance and faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above every other name; we long for the day when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue shall confess him Lord.

Gal. 1:6-9; Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Tim 2:5,6; Acts 4:12, John 3:16-19; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Thes. 1:7-9; John 4:42; Matt. 11:28; Eph. 1:20-21; Phil. 2:9-11

4. THE NATURE OF EVANGELISM
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sin and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialog whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Savior and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his Church and responsible service in the world.
1 Cor. 15:34; Acts 2:32-39; John 20:21; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45

5. CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of God and man, our love for our neighbor and our obedience to Jesus Christ. The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination, and we should not be afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When people receive Christ they are born again, into his kingdom and must seek not only to exhibit but also to spread its righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world. The salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead.

Acts 17:26,31; Gen. 18:25; Ps. 45:7; Isa. 1:17, Gen. 1:26-27, Lev. 19:18; Luke 6:27,35; James 3:9; John 3:3,5; Matt 5:20; Matt. 6:33; 2 Cor. 3:18; James 2:14-26

6. THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISM
We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father sent him, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very center of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church which preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things including promotion and finance. The church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology.

John 17:18; 20:21; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Eph. 1:9-10; 3:9-11; Gal. 6:14,17; 2 Cor. 6:3-4; 2 Tim. 2:19-21; Phil. 1:27

7. COOPERATION IN EVANGELISM
We affirm that the Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose. Evangelism also summons us to unity, because our oneness strengthens our witness, just as our disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however, that organizational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be closely united in fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by sinful individualism and needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the development of regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance of the Church's mission, for strategic planning, for mutual encouragement, and for the sharing of resources and experience.

Eph. 4:34, John 17:21,23; 13:35; Phil. 1:27

8. CHURCHES IN EVANGELISTIC PARTNERSHIP
We rejoice that a new missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of western missions is fast disappearing. God is raising up from the younger churches a great new resource for world evangelization, and is thus demonstrating that the responsibility to evangelize belongs to the whole body of Christ. All churches should therefore be asking God and themselves what they should be doing both to reach their own area and to send missionaries to other parts of the world. A reevaluation of our missionary responsibility and role should be continuous. Thus a growing partnership of churches will develop and the universal character of Christ's Church will be more clearly exhibited. We also thank God for agencies which labor in bible translation, theological education, the mass media, Christian literature, evangelism, missions, church renewal and other specialist fields. They too should engage in constant self-examination to evaluate their effectiveness as part of the Church's mission.

Rom. 1:8; Phil 1:5; 4:15; Acts 13:1-3; 1 Thes. 1:6-8

9. THE URGENCY OF THE EVANGELISTIC TASK
More than 2,700 million people, which is more than two-thirds of all humanity, have yet to be evangelized. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected; it is a standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church. There is now, however, in many parts of the world an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church agencies to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries and money in an evangelized country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate the national church's growth in self-reliance and to release resources for unevangelized areas. Missionaries should flow ever more freely from and to all six continents in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be, by all available means and at the earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity to hear, understand, and receive the good news. We cannot hope to attain this goal without sacrifice. All of us are shocked by the poverty of millions and disturbed by the injustices which cause it. Those of us who live in affluent circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple life-style in order to contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.

Mark 16:15; John 9:4; Matt. 9:35-38; Isa. 58:6-7; James 2:1-9; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; James 1:27, Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-35

10. EVANGELISM AND CULTURE
The development of strategies for world evangelization calls for imaginative pioneering methods. Under God, the result will be the rise of churches deeply rooted in Christ and closely related to their culture. Culture must always be tested and judged by Scripture. Because men and women are God's creatures, some of their culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because they are fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and insists on moral absolutes in every culture. Missions have all too frequently exported with the gospel an alien culture and churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to Scripture. Christ's evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others, and churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory of God.

Mark 7:8-9,13; Gen. 4:21-22; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; 2 Cor. 4:5

11. EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP
We confess that we have sometimes pursued church growth at the expense of church depth, and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture. We also acknowledge that some of our missions have been too slow to equip and encourage national leaders to assume their rightful responsibilities. Yet we are committed to indigenous principles, and long that every church will have national leaders who manifest a Christian style of leadership in terms not of domination but of service. We recognize that there is a great need to improve theological education, especially for church leaders. In every nation and culture there should be an effective training program for pastors and laity in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, nurture and service. Such training programs should not rely on any stereotyped methodology but should be developed by creative local initiatives according to biblical standards.

Col. 1:27-28; Acts 14:23; Titus 1.5,9; Mark 10:4245; Eph. 4:11-12

12. SPIRITUAL CONFLICT
We believe that we are engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers of evil, who are seeking to overthrow the Church and frustrate its task of world evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves with God's armor and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and prayer. For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false ideologies outside the Church, but also inside it in false gospels which twist Scripture and put people in the place of God. We need both watchfulness and discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel. We acknowledge that we ourselves are not immune to worldliness of thought and action, that is, to a surrender to secularism. For example, although careful studies of church growth, both numerical and spiritual, are right and valuable, we have sometimes neglected them. At other times, desirous to ensure a response to the gospel, we have compromised our message, manipulated our hearers through pressure techniques, and become unduly preoccupied with statistics or even dishonest in our use of them. All this is worldly. The Church must be in the world; the world must not be in the Church.
Eph. 6:12; 2 Cor. 4:3-4, Eph. 6:11,13-18; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; 1 John 2:18-26; 4:1-3; Gal. 1:6-9; 2 Cor. 2:17; 4.2; John 17.15

13. FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION
It is the God-appointed duty of every government to secure conditions of peace, justice and liberty in which the Church may obey God, serve the Lord Christ, and preach the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of the nations and call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience, and freedom to practice and propagate religion in accordance with the will of God and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also express our deep concern for all who have been unjustly imprisoned, and especially for those who are suffering for their testimony to the Lord Jesus. We promise to pray and work for their freedom. At the same time we refuse to be intimidated by their fate. God helping us, we too will seek to stand against injustice and to remain faithful to the gospel, whatever the cost. We do not forget the warnings of Jesus that persecution is inevitable.
1 Tim. 2:1-4; Col. 3:24; Acts 4:19; 5:29; Heb. 13:1-3; Luke 4:18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12, Matt. 5:10-12, John 15:18-21

14. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent his Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without his witness ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth and Christian growth are all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled church. A church that is not a missionary church is contradicting itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become a realistic possibility only when the Spirit renews the church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness, love and power. We therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the whole Church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice.

Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 2:4; John 15:26-27; John 16:8-11; 2 Cor. 12:3; John 3:6-8; 2 Cor. 3:18; John 7:37-39; 1 Thes. 5:19; Ps. 85:4-7; Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; Ps. 67:1-3

15. THE RETURN OF CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, in power and glory, to consummate his salvation and his judgment. This promise of his coming is a further spur to our evangelism, for we remember his words that the gospel must first be preached to all nations. We believe that the interim period between Christ's ascension and return is to be filled with the mission of the people of God, who have no liberty to stop before the end. We also remember his warning that false Christs and false prophets will arise as precursors of the final Antichrist. We therefore reject as a proud, self-confident dream the notion that people can ever build a utopia on earth. Our Christian confidence is that God will perfect his kingdom, and we look forward with eager anticipation to that day, and to the new heaven and earth in which righteousness will dwell and God will reign forever. Meanwhile, we rededicate ourselves to the service of Christ and of people in joyful submission to his authority over the whole of our lives.
Mark 14:62; Heb. 9:28; Mark 13:10; Matt. 28:20; Acts 1:8-11; Mark 13:21-23; 1 John 2:18; 4:1-3; Luke 12:32; Rev. 21:1-5; 2 Peter 3:13; Matt. 28:18

CONCLUSION
Therefore, in the light of this our faith and our resolve, we enter into a solemn covenant with God and with each other, to pray, to plan and to work together for the evangelization of the whole world. We call upon others to join us. May God help us by his grace and for his glory to be faithful to this our covenant! Amen, Alleluia!

International Congress on World Evangelization, Lausanne, Switzerland, July 1974

A Title Defined

Thunder. Thunder resonates. Thunder permeates. Thunder can be heard many miles beyond its location of origin. Thunder strikes fear in the most gallant knights and spawns whimpers in the tiniest babe. Thunder echoes off of monstrous mountains and cascades through bottomless valleys.

What images and emotions are awakened in your heart when you think of thunder? Fear? Awe? Respect? Honest adults will admit a fear of thunder that haunted their childhood. Violent storms and warm blankets, pulled tightly around ones’ chin, are inseparable memories of growing up. Then we awake one day no longer terrified of the piercing rumble. Now we understand the cause and effect, explaining it away as just a part of nature. Still, it frequently catches the bravest off guard as it splits the evening sky with flashes of brilliance and deafening cracks.

The word ‘thunder’ is used in a myriad of descriptive forms. The dictionary defines thunder as, “A deep prolonged loud noise; a loud, explosive, resounding noise; a threatening or startling utterance, denunciation, or the like.” Thunder can be used to describe the explosion of air colliding, galloping horses, a startling bang, gunfire, etc.

Three particular images used for thunder encompass all that is envisioned for the title and purpose of this new blog. First, Scripture declares that the voice and presence of God thunders (Exodus 19:16, Job 37:2, Psalm 18:13, Psalm 81:7). The entire temple in Isaiah 6 violently shuttered when Holiness Itself was praised.

Second, thunder describes a proclamation or admonition when it is said, “Her voice thundered through the auditorium.” When a person wants to convey urgency and importance, do they whisper? When danger is present and a loved one could be harmed, do we speak quietly? Of course not, we yell, scream and cry out as loud as possible!

Finally, imagine an army. Picture the movies you have seen in which an army rides to battle. Do the warriors step the hooves of their horses softly in order to avoid being heard? No, they usually blaze ahead in a full gallop, thundering across an open plain to oppose the enemy. They are not silent. They are not afraid. They have a cause to defend. And they are willing to risk their lives for their people and their king.

Perhaps thunder is used to illustrate God’s voice because He wants us to fear Him and listen. Perhaps when we hear God’s voice our proclamation to others should reflect urgency. Perhaps it is time to arise as an army and confront the evil that wages war against what God says is true.

Thunder IS rumbling in the heart of this generation. It may be a distant thunder, but it exists all the same. Can you hear it?

It is not time to be comfortable. It is not time to seek wealth. It is not time to pursue fame. It is not time to warm the church pew, donate to charity and write checks.

It is time to stand for truth. It is time to know God. It is time to believe what He says is true. It is time to suffer, as Christ did. It is time to be selfless, as Christ was. It is time to confront everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Confronting evil is risky and dangerous.

A Distant Thunder will not be for the weak of heart, those who want to remain comfortable or anyone who is content with where they are at spiritually. A Distant Thunder will dive into topics like abortion, neo-theism, discipleship, Islam, home education and captivity to Christ.

I do not claim to have reached perfection, no, instead to learn as I write and write as I learn. I do not claim to have answers, but to somehow challenge those who follow Christ to do so- with everything that they are.

A distant thunder can be heard…

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. A voice says, “Cry out. And I said, “What shall I cry?” You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!” ”
(From passages in Isaiah 40)

First post, woohoo