I recently posted a link to Jeff Vanderstelt's blog to help convey the transformation that has taken place about how I (and Kimberly) see myself as a member in the body of Christ and a missionary on mission with Jesus. One of the terms in the title is incarnational. Of course the root word here is incarnation, which is a theological word for God becoming man. More specifically, the Son of God taking on human flesh. Fully God and fully man. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." God entered this world as a Jew and into the Jewish culture. He came and sought out sinners. He went to weddings and parties. He worked as a carpenter. He taught at synagogues. He understood the culture of His day and he taught using illustrations that Jews could understand. He didn't condemn the people with a poster saying, “the end is near.” Rather He made really good wine, healed lepers, cast out demons, made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dead to live again and he granted forgiveness of sins to repentant sinners. He didn't tell people what they wanted to hear, rather His teaching astonished the multitudes, silenced his opponents, shamed his accusers, enraged His country men and confused his disciples and transformed people to see that He is the Son of God and Savior of the world. Grace and truth entered this world and their culture in the person of Jesus. The King who didn't come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Now, His body is called to go and make disciples and serve at the cost of their lives. I want to quote a story from the book Total Church that is a picture of what being incarnational looks like for our day as missionaries on mission with Jesus.

"Matt rang to ask what he should do. His friend George had asked him to go street preaching. Matt wasn't interested, but didn't know how to respond. So the three of us got together. As the conversation began, it was clear that George thought we were selling out in some way. But as we talked about sharing our lives with unbelievers, about evangelism that was 24/7, about opening our homes, George's tone changed. At the end of our conversation he admitted, 'I'm not sure if I'm up for that kind of commitment.'"

"Paul Tripp...talks about how bad language is not about vocabulary so much as it is about the motives of our hearts." (Taken from the desiringGod blog.)

(Photo was taken in our front yard.)
















"Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel: "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!" Deuteronomy 31:30-32:3

"I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." 1 Timothy 1:12-16

I have been dwelling on these verses because I was so struck by them when Keith read them aloud two Sundays ago. The one condition for me to be to accepted and loved by God is to be a sinner. Not just that, I have to know that I am so. I must be convinced that Jason Clements is bad. Not just bad, but really bad. Worse than bad. I must feel the horror of how bad I am. How does this happen? Grace. It is truly amazing. Paul says that it overflowed. Grace has it's root and beginning in the abundant love that exists between the Father and Son and overflows so beautifully to really bad people. Once our hearts are awakened to the glory of Christ we can't help but see ourselves for what we are. The one condition for grace is a bad condition.

"Father, let me forget to get cupcake liners and frosting from the store, but let me not forget to be missional wherever I am at." That's my prayer as I write this. Earlier Kimberly asked me to run to the store to pick up cupcake liners and frosting because she forgot them at the store. Granted, she was starting on the cupcakes and didn't feel like moving much because she did a total body workout this week with an instructor who was a Nazi in a previous life (to quote Kimberly). Thankfully Jesus gave me strength to love my wife and go. As I was checking out, I forgot that I was wearing my New City church shirt when the cashier said, "New City church? What is that all about?" To which I replied, "Well, we are a new plant in downtown Macon at the Cox Capitol Theatre." "O.k." She said. "Tell me about it. How does your church differ from my Baptist church?" At this point I got really excited because this is no ordinary question. "We don't focus on religion or a list of do's and don’ts." I said. "We just focus on Jesus and the Bible and reaching people. We're laid back. We have Starbucks serve coffee at 10:00 a.m." "Are you serious?" She said. "You know, that makes sense. Most people don't want to go through the tradition of most churches. I know when I go to church I want to be told what I'm supposed to do. I know what I'm not supposed to do, but I want to hear what I'm supposed to do." At this point she was done checking me out and not wanting to tick the person off behind me I said, "We are online if you want to check us out." "I will", she said. You know, even more than being told what we are supposed to, the gospel, when it is preached, transforms the human heart to see what Jesus has already done. It is by faith we are saved and sanctified and perform good works. Legalism only dusts off the surface of our behavior, but the gospel comes in with a heart transplant. I thought of this as I was leaving and thanking Jesus for His mission.