Viola - Revise us again: living from a renewed Christian script

REVISE US AGAIN

Published by David C Cook

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David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the Holy
Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE
MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000,
2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group; KJV are taken
from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain); NASB are taken from
the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman
Foundation. Used by permission; NKJV are taken from the New King James
Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All
rights reserved; ASV are from The American Standard Version. (Public Domain).

LCCN 2010923215

Hardcover ISBN 978-1-4347-6865-0

International Trade Paperback Edition ISBN 978-1-4347-0101-5

eISBN 978-1-4347-0331-6

2010 Frank Viola

Published in association with the literary agency of Daniel Literary Group, 1701 Kingsbury Dr., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37215

The Team: John Blase, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, Karen Athen

Cover Design: Amy Kiechlin

Cover Photo: iStockphoto

First Edition 2010

CONTENTS

Gods Three-Fold Speaking

Revising the Lords Voice

The Lord Told Me

Revising Christianeze

Let Me Pray About It

Revising Christian Code Language

Spiritual Conversational Styles

Revising Our Semantics

Whats Wrong with Our Gospel?

Revising Our Message

The Felt-Presence of God

Revising Our Awareness of the Divine

Captured by the Same Spirit You Oppose

Revising Our Attitudes

The God of Unseen Endings

Revising Our Spiritual Expectations

Stripping Down to Christ Alone

Revising the Holy Spirits Ministry

Your Christ Is Too Small

Revising Our Chief Pursuit

The Three Gospels

Introduction

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:3

G OD rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

Psalm 18:24 MSG

The very day I was converted to Christ, I was handed a script. And I began living from it.

Over the years, that script has expanded both in size and variety. As I attached myself to various churches, denominations, parachurch organizations, and ministries, new lines of text were added to my script.

In the same way, every human being is scripted through their upbringing, their surroundings, their culture, and their religious influences. Our scripting works unconsciously. We are usually unaware when the scripting is happening to us. Somewhere along the line, however, I became aware of the religious script that was given to me.

As Christians, we can safely assume that some of the script we have been handed matches the heart and mind of our Master. But typically, much of it doesnt.

In such cases, we want those lines of script that are incompatible with the teachings of Jesus revised and re-visioned to match His heart and mind.

Transformation (spiritual formation) can be described as editing out that which is not Christ and revising that which is. Or to use Pauls metaphor in Ephesians, its a matter of putting off the old and putting on the new.

Revising is a process. And it begins with opening ourselves up to the possibility that the script we have been given in life is not perfect. Its in need of regular evaluation and reevaluation.

In the pages that follow, I will introduce you to ten specific areas where many of us are in need of revising. Some of these areas touch on things that are rarely talked about in Christian circles today. They work below the surface. Yet once they are exposed, we can look back and say to ourselves, How did I miss that? (This has been my experience at least.)

A good bit of what you will read in this book will be intuitive. Therefore, I expect that during the course of your reading, you will say in your heart, But of course!

In much of this, Im simply sharing some of the discoveries Ive made in my own personal struggles and challenges as a follower of Jesus Christ. So I hope you will find this book to be challenging, inspiring, and encouraging all at the same time.

My hope is that the Holy Spirit of God, who writes not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of our hearts, will use this book to help edit those religious habits that do not map to His heart, and in turn, begin rescripting us into the glorious image of Christ.

CHAPTER 1

GODS THREE-FOLD SPEAKING

Revising the Lords Voice

Theres a very obscure passage in the Old Testament that sheds light on how God communicates His mind to His people. Its found in Jeremiah 18:18:

The teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets.

The ancient Hebrews divided the Old Testament up into three sections. The first section is called the Torah, or the Law. It includes the first five books of the Bible. The steward of the Torah is the priest.

The second section of the Old Testament is the Prophets. It includes the Major and Minor Prophets and the Historical Books. The steward of the Prophets is, of course, the prophet.

The third division of the Old Testament is called the Wisdom Literature, or the Writings. It includes Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Job, and the Song of Solomon. The steward of the Wisdom Literature is the sage, or wise man.

These three sections of the Old Testament represent the three major ways in which God communicates His mind to His people.

Where Weve Been

One of the greatest obstacles to hearing the Lords voice is our religious background. Virtually every Christian has at some point been given a narrow lens through which he or she interprets Scripture, the Lord, and the Lords speaking.

Therefore, its critical that we understand that we all have been given such a lens. The following list shows how incredibly powerful our religious backgrounds are in shaping these lenses. The list is obviously tongue in cheek, but I believe the truth is not far off.

Suppose that you are traveling to work and you come to a stop sign. What do you do? Well, that depends on your religious background. For example

1. A fundamentalist, taking the text very literally, stops at the stop sign and waits for it to tell him to go.

2. A Christian who follows the traditions of his denomination does not bother to read the sign, but she will stop if the car in front of her does.

3. A seminary-educated evangelical preacher might look up stop in his English lexicon and discover that it can mean (1) something that prevents motion or (2) a location where a train or bus lets off passengers. The main point of his sermon the following Sunday on this text is this: When you see a stop sign, realize that it is a place where traffic is naturally clogged; therefore, its a good place to let off passengers from your car.