“BUT WARS” -- Emasculating the Devastating “BUT” with Christ’s CONJUNCTIVE work in us and through us on the Water

“BUT WARS” -- Emasculating the Devastating “BUT” with Christ’s CONJUNCTIVE work in us and through  us on the Water

In this post I simply took DJ’s six statements of faith and then tied/connected/CONJUNCTIVIZED each statement to a sentence or paragraph from our Sonshine Devotional Guide.  

Our summer experiences over the years have for me effectively highlighted the necessity of spiritual arithmetic to be simply CHRIST + NOTHING as opposed to CHRIST + (BUT one more thing) – AKA (per DJ) – 'The Devastating “But.”'

SIX STATEMENTS OF FAITH

1 – DJ - 1 – I put no confidence in the flesh.  I put no confidence in my ability to make myself right with God.

Sonshine Paraphrase - Our legacy as children of Adam is to flee from our creator.  We flee mercy because mercy pierces our facades of self-promotion, self-control, and power.  Like the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda.  We are spiritually crippled and perhaps want to stay spiritually crippled.   We are spiritual invalids.  While we are huddled in a crippled heap, Jesus, “the one who saves” walks into our garden and says to our invalid souls, “do you want to get well?”  It takes profound discipline and humility to confess that we didn’t discover mercy but the mercy has discovered us and said to our helpless souls “rise, get up, take up your mat and walk.”

2 – DJ - I boast in Christ Jesus.  Boast in what Jesus has done.  Focus needs to get off of us and on to Christ.  Depend on Jesus and His effort to make me holy.

Sonshine Paraphrase - Whole hearted celebration and fulfillment stems from the discipline of internalizing Christ's presence and allowing Him to define an individual's effort and group's corporate effort.

3 – DJ - Actually knowing him makes all the difference in the world. 

Sonshine Paraphrase - Working shoulder by shoulder in a team effort while prying beneath the facades of fashion and etiquette through mentoring is an amazing one-two combination punch into hearing and seeing God's person. For in teamwork and mentoring God's extraordinary testimony is expressed in the perfectly unique form of each team member, mentor, and mentoree.  Ultimately God's dreams are not fake dreams, they are the very heart of everything that's genuine and true. And when you commune with Jesus and ingest His presence, His word, you are the living expression of all things true and real. You are the living expression of Christ.  So cheers to the left-brained-right brained, male-female, introverted-extroverted, logical-emotional, conservative-liberal, law-prophets witnesses that make up this team.  I listed these one-two combinations because all these one-two combinations highlight the unique witness that God has made each one of you to be. The one-two combinations remind me that each and every moment of our time serving together is packed with potential to see God's incredible, too good to be true (thus dreamy) heart in the countenances and words that we share in our work together.  The way that God's word reveals itself with such diversity among His people blows my mind. His creative capacity is beyond (for me at least) imagination and thus dream like -- but its real.  His creative capacity expressed through you is truth. Jesus is the truth and He is speaking and living truth before us right now as we serve each other and the students on houseboats.

In short, can I dream up such a God? Of course not, but your unique witness establishes in me the reality of that dream. Your unique witness reveals Christ in you the Hope of Glory and it is stunningly beautiful.

4 – DJ - That I may found in Him.  IN Him.  Final stress falls on union with Christ. Life with fellowship in Christ.  FOUND IN HIM! FOUND IN CHRIST!  Where else would you want to be found but IN CHRIST?!? We don’t find Christ. Christ finds us!

Sonshine Paraphrase (Note – this is from Staff Culture, not Devo) – God is NEW every morning. Baptize your day in “newness.” Lay claim to God’s promise that He will make all things new in you and through you, no matter what your activity, today, and every day.

5 – DJ - God in His love leads us into situations beyond ourselves so that we die to confidence in ourselves and He resurrects our confidence in Him thereby meeting the deepest desires of our hearts. 

Sonshine Paraphrase – “Jesus gained the attention of the moral elite, like Paul or the folks in the temple, by violent confrontation.  If Jesus stoops to serve you, thank Him.  If Jesus violently confront you, thank Him.  Whether served or beaten you are having the Kingdom of God wrestled into you and for that, you rejoice.”

6 – DJ - I press on to lay hold for that which Christ Jesus laid hold of me.

Sonshine Paraphrase – “God has consigned creation to futility and decay to constantly bid all creation to surrender their prison of death to His prison of love.  Solomon says that God has hardwired “eternity” into our hearts.   Through the cross, our pretty but fading cut flowers of date nights, passionate worship, joy-filled celebrations, are grafted into the eternal root of Jesse.  Through His root, dead flowers become eternally sustained.  Our moments are not fleeting. Our moments are not empty but instead pregnant with Christ, the Logos, the eternal meaning that floods our dead hearts and dead moments with faith, hope, and love which remain. . . eternally.”