Fools Together For Jesus.

The experience of Christian Community, a loving-forgiving Family of Faith is not a luxury for the spiritually affluent, nor is it a panacea for the lonely and forlorn.  It is a necessity, and a divine intention, for every last Child of God.  A Family, a Tribe, is what Jesus formed with His band of misfits; it’s what Paul meant under the inspiration of the Spirit when He spoke of the Ekklesia— the assembly of those ‘called out’ from the world through faith in the Word— small Christian communities, Bands of Brothers {men and women alike} praying together, worshipping in the Word, healing and loving, forgiving and reconciling, supporting and sustaining one another, offering words of challenge and encouragement.

Author and psychologist Scott Peck say’s: “There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace— and ultimately no life— without community.”  {Different Drum, p. 233}  Which is another way of saying, without relationship and without transparency.  We need a Fellowship of friends and like-minded Disciples who get us ...who understand who we are and where we’re coming from.  “We need perspective on the present... so we pray together; we need an understanding of our story, so we share our lives with each other; we need a  clear vision of the Day of God, the Day when we will live happily ever-after, so we dream together.”

And ‘together’ we’ve been called to a life of counter-culturism: of simplicity and beauty, of purity in heart, of unwavering obedience to the Good News of Grace.  The truth is this will lead us exactly where it lead our Lord— to a hateful death at the hands of the world.  But the Cross always comes before the Crown.  Thus, all roads lead to Calvary, for we preach as ambassadors of the King: “Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” {1 Cor. 1:23-24}.

A conscious choice to simplify our lives and to purify our hearts, to live in obedience to the wisdom of the Word, looks like weakness in the eyes of the world because we no longer rely on our possessions and privileged positions for security.  You can expect derision, arrogance and outrage because “authentic discipleship”— as Brennan Manning has said— “is a life of sublime madness.”  Injury and insult are guaranteed to those who labor in the Conflict of Christ— 1 Thessalonians 3:4.

A believer living in the world but not of the world is a sign of contradiction to the compromises which surround us.  As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:10, “We are fools for Christ’s sake….”  To which I say: Better to be a fool for Jesus than a genius for Satan!  The foolishness of faith is the only hope we have of breaking free from the prison of The Matrix.  “The greatest threat to any system is the existence of fools who do not believe in” it, who refuse to accept it as the final reality.  “To repent and believe in a new reality— that is the essence of conversion.”  To repent of our fears and lack of real faith, to trust in the tenderness of God’s heart toward His Children, to accept that you are accepted, to believe that you are beloved, is the very heart of conversion.  And it is this we most desperately need today.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously