Paradise Thoughts

Q – Did Gideon’s 300 defeat 135,000 enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat?
A – No

When Gideon’s 300 broke their pitchers and sounded their trumpets, enemy soldiers in panic and chaos began to take each other’s lives. Even so, many thousands escaped and began to scatter in every direction.

Gideon sent word to fighting men from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh, and Ephraim to take pursuit.  Soon not an enemy soldier remained alive.

Note the progression: big, concentrated, big.  How does this relate to PARADISE?  Watch this:

Gideon started with a big army of 32,000. From those were chosen 300 consecrated ones, a concentrated army. That group got to see the glory of God’s deliverance with their own eyes. They never even drew a sword.

But the next day, the army of God became big as whole tribes joined the battle, under God’s orders.  There’s the pattern:  big; concentrated; big.

This gives us new eyes as we look at registrations for PARADISE 08.  Big numbers of invitations to PARADISE went out to thousands of national and local leaders, and to tens of thousands of students. A concentratednumber, who deeply desire to magnify the Son of God in undistracted worship, are responding to the invitation. They will get to hold “the trumpets and torches.”  God willing, with their own eyes they will see and exalt God’s Son in fresh, wonderful, and powerful ways.

As a result, one of the Church’s greatest enemies may begin to flee that day. That enemy? The shortfall among many of God’s people in how we see, seek and speak about God’s Son for ALL that He is.  As that enemy is exposed during and after May 25, the Father may choose to mobilize a big army of leaders and students — from many “tribes” (streams of the church).  The Spirit may empower them to help accelerate and expand across the land undistracted worship and pursuit of our majestic Lord Jesus.

So, which group would you like to be a part of?
• The concentrated group who may witness a magnificent (possibly unrepeatable) revelation of the supreme glory of the Christ on May 25?
• Or the big group who later may join together to spread that vision far and wide?

Just over 3,000 are registered for PARADISE (April 24).  In Psalm 50:5, God commands: “Gather to me my consecrated ones.”  Consecrated ones have responded to the invitation.  Even if that number were to double before May 25, it still will be a concentrated army — a “Gideon’s army.”

But in this response we find great hope!  Participants are coming from 48 states. Many of us believe the purity and power of undistracted worship of the Son on Sunday, May 25, in the center of our nation will send out transformational ripples from that field, engaging the hearts of a big number of national leaders, local leaders, and multitudes of students. (Remember, Pentecost flowed out of just 120 in an upper room who were in worship and prayer before their King).

Would those closest to you like to be there at the beginning of all of this?  Would they like to join this “Gideon’s army”?

Those who are influencing the most believers to come to PARADISE have said to their friends and family: “I plan to stand before Christ Jesus on May 25. I invite you to come stand with me.”

Perhaps these videos will help you cast the vision:

Video One
On GodTube
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f7f115d9312201aa8cfc
On YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS-GUnPxQAc

Video Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYlbJjNGIFM

Blessings,
Richard

College students are more involved in the Presidential campaign in 2008 than in recent memory. That can be a good thing. But whatever influence they can have on the election is eclipsed by the influence they can have on the Church and the kingdom, by the power of the Spirit. The Christian college students who chat in my home seem to be saying . . . 

As collegiate believers we grieve over the state of the American Church.
   We grieve over the focus on Jesus for the benefits He brings rather than on His majesty and reign in glory.
   We grieve over the drought of prayer in most congregations.
   We grieve over the intrusion of the money changers and retailers into places of worship.
   We grieve over congregations that build palaces for themselves rather than multiplying missional communities.

But something is stirring in 2008.
   Aslan is moving. We can detect the forest is just beginning to melt.
   The ‘round-the-clock prayers from scores of campuses have reached His ears.
   For the first time in a long time, we have hope that change is coming.
   We sense our all-powerful Father has immediate plans to exalt His Son.
   We now believe an awakening to Christ, for all He is today, is a possibility in the American Church.

Perhaps to that end, the King is calling us to assemble before Him on May 25.
   We want to exalt Him and invite Him to inhabit our praise and adoration.
   We want to unite our voices in deep prayer and fall prostrate before Him.
   We want to hear Him bless us, challenge us, and give us our specific callings.

For this sacred assembly, we will remove as many distractions as we can.
   Nothing will be sold or advertised.
   No agenda or cause will be announced.
   No one will be introduced, receive attention, or become more famous.
   Even the musicians will lead us from a hidden place so our eyes will be fixed on Jesus.

We desire a multitude to be present for this sacred assembly.
   Christ the King deserves to be adored by a vast multitude.
   We want students present who can return to every campus and community – with the call to an awakening to Christ on their lips.
   We know how to work the phones, network online, knock on doors, and raise funds.
   We know how to mobilize a multitude.
   We know of a generation who overcame any obstacle to assemble at Woodstock. We will overcome any obstacle to call together our generation of believers for a nobler purpose.

If this is God’s timing and He wills it to be so,
   a true awakening to Christ may begin in us
   and perhaps spread to our friends
   and maybe spread to our communities of faith
   and perhaps spread through the American Church
   and maybe, after waiting a full century, spread to the culture.

Our Candidate already has won.
   He only needed One vote to be declared ruler of the universe.
      Now we will lift the eyes of the Church and the nation to Him.

Do you deeply desire to see justice reign? Then join Christ in extending His reign in the land.

Note David’s words in Psalm 9 (NIV):

“The Lord reigns forever;
He has established his throne for judgment.
He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will govern the peoples with justice.
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble. . .

Sing praises to the Lord, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
For he who avenges blood remembers;
He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. . .

The Lord is known by his justice;
the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. . .
But the needy will not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.“

As the sun sets on May 25, a multitude of believers may arise to join Jesus in his kingdom purposes. Where the reign of Christ is then extended, justice will reign.

Richard

Jesus Himself is calling believers to assemble before Him on May 25. Because He is sovereign, He will reveal Himself to believers that day however He chooses.

He may choose to reveal Himself as reigning King. He may choose to reveal Himself as Commander. He may choose to reveal Himself as Savior. His person is so multifaceted that human language cannot begin to capture His breadth and depth.

Jesus may reveal Himself on May 25 to be like a man committed to winning back a wife who has been unfaithful. Without losing any of his majesty, our King may come to us at PARADISE in intimacy, seeking to draw us back into a purity of devotion to Him for all He is. These phrases from Hosea 2 (NIV), so full of wonder, almost seem to be written about the PARADISE gathering:
 
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards. . . . There she will sing as in the days of her youth. . . . In that day, you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ . . . I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.”

Who of us wouldn’t drive from Florida or Oregon to meet in a field in the center of the nation if that were the place where the Son of God planned to bring us into a much deeper intimacy with Himself as the Lord of glory?
Richard

• By the will of the Father and the power of the Spirit, the first love of the church today is to be focused on the Son. That first love is not to be some weak sentiment but a consuming love that propels the believer to make Christ supreme in all things.
• For the past half century, the American church progressively has abandoned this consuming love. Increasingly, the Son has been approached as a mascot of the church rather than its Monarch.
• The church now speaks of Christ only when looking back on His days on earth or His future return. Sermons, lessons, or even hallway conversations about the present majesty and enthroned glory of the Son of God almost have completely disappeared.
• Adult believers have replaced passion for the supreme majesty of Christ with passion for their own personal happiness, peace of mind, and possessions. Adopting these lesser gods predictably has led to personal chaos, broken relationships, and lives often marked by quiet desperation.
• Because adults are focused on their lesser gods and the personal chaos that follows, they have had limited warmth, intimacy, instruction, and structure to offer their children.
• Some adults have been mean and even abusive; many have physically abandoned their children; and most have emotionally abandoned their children.
• Almost no parents of the church have taught their own children about the supreme majesty of the Son of God or introduced them to His reign over all things. In fact, they have abdicated to the church almost all of the spiritual instruction of their children.
• Teenagers and collegians today are the most abandoned and empty of any generation in the past half century. They respond to their deep pain by harming themselves, harming others, medicating themselves, or searching for warmth in destructive relationships.
• By His grace God seems to be orchestrating events at the present moment to call the American church back to a consuming love for His Son.
• At the launch of His public ministry on earth, Jesus drew around Himself twelve young believers through whom He would establish the church. Some researchers believe most may have been the ages of youth and collegians today.
• Christ seems to be using a similar strategy in our day—gathering around Him students whom He is awakening to all He truly is. From skinny skateboarders to collegiate athletes, from inner-city street kids to preppy suburbanites, He seems to be assembling a generation that will adore Him as supreme.
• Christ delights in doing the unexpected. He seems to be taking the most empty and abandoned generation in recent history with plans to use them to reintroduce the American church back to Him.
• If students awake to more of the supreme majesty of the King and kings, and if they begin to adore Him for who He is, then they will arise to join Him in His kingdom activity. The new vibrancy of their first love, the joy of their adoration, and the boldness of their kingdom activity may ripple through their homes and churches.
• After fifty years of prayer and waiting, the American church finally may wake up to Jesus Christ, may begin to adore Him privately and corporately, and may arise in a new burst of kingdom activity orchestrated by their King Regent. Believers consumed with the love of Christ may move out to introduce Him to all peoples near and far so that all the nations will glorify God.
• Even so, come Lord Jesus!

During periods when His people have wondered far from Him, God always has preserved a remnant. In our day, are you part of that small remnant who daily worship Christ as your Sovereign? Do you grieve in your prayers over the state of the American church? Do you personally have a burden to reintroduce the church to a consuming love for Christ? If you are part of the remnant, then consider these challenges:
• Student—Don’t let people look down on you because you are young. Be a humble, respectful example to the believers. Fall more in love with Jesus every day, adore Him with abandon, and then join Christ in reintroducing the church back to Him.
• Collegiate or student ministry leader—Invite students to join you in a spiritual journey as they prepare to stand before the King on May 25.
• Shepherd—Begin today to construct messages that exalt the name of Jesus and lift the eyes of your parishioners to His present enthronement in heaven. Confess before God that no program or attempt to reform your church will matter much until your people rediscover their first love.
• Educator—Choose or write curriculum that exalts the name of Jesus and His present reign. Realizing that teachers cannot take pupils where they have not been, gather the teachers and prayerfully awaken them to more of who Christ is.
• Speaker—Similar to Spurgeon, let every talk and speech you give “make a beeline to Jesus.” As you construct every message, ask, “How will this particular talk reveal more of who the reigning Christ is today?”
• Musician—Find or compose music that lifts eyes to heaven. Music that looks back to the incarnation and forward to the consummation is essential, but the church has a desperate need for music with the same laser focus on the majesty of Christ as Handel’s Messiah.
• Publisher—The invention of the printing press made it possible to disseminate widely new thoughts to the church. In our day the invention of digital communication joins the printing press as a useful tool in waking up the church to Christ. Purpose that from today forward your publishing enterprise will have as its chief goal to join the Father in the exaltation of His Son.

If you were God and had an important message for the church, whom would you call together?

Our Father knows there is a major problem in the Western church. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the fact is, too few of us who shepherd His people are fostering among them an exalted vision of what the supreme majesty of His Son is all about. Thankfully, many Christian leaders across the land are waking up to this potentially fatal shortfall.

Now the question arises: how might we expect the Father to turn this situation around?

One possibility: He might choose to form a massive gathering of all the pastors and shepherds of the church. Once assembled, He might say to them something like: “I listen to every word of every sermon you preach. You quote my Son, and you speak of His days on earth. Some of you even point to His return. But too often you bypass showing my children a fuller picture of the present majesty of my Son. Think about it: how often do you invite your flocks to see Him as enthroned, to adore Him as the one who reigns in glory over the universe? From this day forward, I want your sermons and teachings consistently and boldly to proclaim my Son for all that He is as the King at my right hand, high and lifted up, leading My purposes to victory.”

Or He might target this urgent crisis by inviting a multitude of the churches’ music worship leaders to stand before Him. Once they are assembled, He might open His heart to them this way: “You are doing much better at calling worshippers to proclaim glory to Me. Ten years ago this theme was almost absent. But you have not gone far enough. In this age of the church, I intend for my Son to be exalted as both central and supreme over everything. In some of your songs, you quote His words. Other times you sing of His ministry on earth. But I long to hear you singing so much more about His reign and His majesty. Would you commit to inspire my people to adore my Son so fully that they would leave times of worship to live for His kingdom purposes more passionately? From this day forward, I charge you in all your worship planning to make absolutely sure that the exaltation of my Son remains central in the midst of all the praises you offer Me.”

Who can understand the mind of God?

In recent months it has started to dawn on leaders from across the nation that the Father may, in fact, be choosing to assemble, first of all, not the shepherds or the musicians, as vital as they are.

Rather, He may be choosing to assemble a multitude of students.

On May 25, it may be thousands of high school and college students who hear the Father challenge them like this: “I know you love Me. And I know you love my Son. You love His friendship and the way He helps you survive the hard times. But you are missing so much more of who He is to you and who you are in Him.

My Son is more than just your buddy; He is your King! Today I am summoning your generation to embrace His royal majesty with all your hearts. Today my Spirit will begin to fill you in whole new ways in order to reveal to you the glory of Jesus so you can adore Him for all that He’s worth, ruling on His throne.

Then, as you depart this field, I will continue to inspire you to arise to join your King in what He is bringing forth across this world. I will send you back to your families, friends, and churches to tell them about the new vistas of His kingdom you have discovered as you worshipped my Son in His fullness and splendor. I want to use you to wake up My people, to invite them to adore my Son in deeper ways, just as you have begun to experience together today. I want you to call them to come with you as you join the King in the greatest adventure of your lives, to spread the gospel of the Redeemer King everywhere!”

If you were God, whom would you assemble for such a message? God may have chosen a multitude of Christian students convened from every corner of the nation.
 
If this is so, then as shepherds, student workers, and worship leaders, we need to ask ourselves: “What sacrifices might be in order to ensure that every student I serve gets to be a part of that unparalleled turning point on May 25, 2008?”

I have received a note from a dear brother and colleague in student ministry. He wrote:

I really need to apologize to you for my lack of response on Paradise. I must reluctantly admit that I have not caught the vision of what you are trying to accomplish. Can you help me see how this event will differ from other worship experiences? I understand the “no personalities” and “no commercials” stance. How will this event be possibly more meaningful to the students than . . . (other well-known events).

 Great question. Here is part of the answer.

1. The laser focus of PARADISE is on the supreme majesty of God’s Son, on who He is and what His reign is all about right now as He rules from God’s right hand. Student ministry writings, talks, and events too seldom focus on the supreme majesty of Christ. Thus, inadvertently, many students are learning to see the Lord Jesus primarily as their buddy who helps them get through their hard times. Imagine what might happen if an entire generation were truly to see Him high and lifted up, to see and follow Him for all that He is as their King. That’s the vision of PARADISE.

2. PARADISE actually is more than just one gathering. Our goal is to provide a journey over these next few months that will prepare them for the gathering on May 25, to ensure that they are ready for a corporate encounter with the King of glory. For example, this journey will lead students to move through 28 morning devotionals on this very theme. We are also giving ministry leaders resources to facilitate four student rallies/meetings focused on the supreme majesty of God’s Son.
 
3. The PARADISE journey offers interactive, digital communications that allow students and leaders to personalize and help shape the journey and the gathering. When students walk onto the worship field in May, they will know that much they are about to experience was molded directly by members of their generation. Maybe the greatest benefit of this dimension of PARADISE, however, is how it will help create an online community of students who are passionate for the glory and reign of Christ.

4. Just as importantly, PARADISE holds the promise of capturing the attention of the nation regarding the fuller dimensions of Christ’s supreme majesty. These days God (god) can be a turnip, a New Age mantra, or the force behind jihad. How can we call the nation to repent and return to the God of the Bible if most know little about His character, His ways, and His kingdom? We must rivet their eyes on the Son! He is God and the clear revelation of who God is. Reporters may very well ask PARADISE students, “We understand why during Woodstock students would drive clear across the nation to hear Jimmy Hendrix or Janis Joplin. But the ‘stage’ here is empty. Whom did you drive so far to see?” And the students will, with voices filling the airways, point listeners to the magnificence of God’s Son!

5. The gathering dimension of PARADISE (May 25) will provide a creative environment of pure and undistracted worship. Retail, marketing, making people more famous—none of those things will be part of May 25. Our sense is that this one day could demonstrate the power and wonder of purely Christ-focused worship in such a way that it might lead students and leaders across the land to rethink their own worship events back home. Could PARADISE mark the day that corporate worship begins to take a whole new direction in the church and among students especially?

Those five elements are what make PARADISE unique. Each student and leader must kneel before Christ the King and give Him permission to clarify if, in fact, PARADISE is part of His plan for one’s life and ministry.

This morning I hugged my son goodbye. He probably saw the tears in my eye. This is the day he moves into a college dorm to begin a new chapter of life. Clayton has been such a delight to live with for eighteen years that I grieve this season of our lives has come to an end.

I am excited for my son and all that awaits him, but I also am aware that today he is stepping over a gap.  Let me explain.

As passengers board the trains in Europe, the conductor often calls out “Mind the gap.” With that expression he cautions passengers to not step down into the gap between the loading platform and the train. He knows that a foot falling into the gap can lead to a sprained ankle or worse.

We all know there is a gap between high school and college these days. Statistics vary but at least half of those who were active in Christian youth groups fall into the gap. They fail to connect with the community of faith and sometimes even the private spiritual disciplines during college days.

Perhaps Christ intends for PARADISE to help close the gap. Perhaps He will call college students to invite their younger sisters and brothers in the faith to travel with  them to Kansas. Perhaps high school students will be inspired by watching college students worshipping before they throne. Perhaps the two age groups will kneel together and pray that the gap will be mended. Perhaps college students will make new commitments to be role models and encouragers to those coming behind.

Usually the high school students have their trips and the college students have theirs. Maybe it is time to mind the gap. Maybe it is time for these two “generations” to journey and gather together before the King of the Ages.

Richard
 

I need a car. I have given mine to my son Clayton since he is starting college this fall. Since I now stand on curbs waiting for someone to take me somewhere, I have plenty of time to think about what car I want to buy. Even though people my age often head to the cafeteria at 4:30 PM for dinner, I still want a car with some acceleration. My body may be moving a little slower but I want a car that will move a little faster.

The concept of acceleration also comes to mind often as we think about PARADISE. That may seem strange, so let me explain.

There isn’t much hype in public statements about PARADISE. You don’t find many saying, “The universe forever will be changed on May 25. . .” Etc. Instead, most of us are more focused on acceleration. The official mission statement for PARADISE says that we seek “. . . to awaken students . . . to the supremacy of God’s Son, to call them to adore Him as King, and to inspire them to arise to bravely join Him in accelerating His kingdom purposes for this generation . . .”

Let me ask, what do you most love to see students join the King to do? Perhaps you are thrilled to see students sharing Christ in a loving, relevant way to peers. Students awakened to the supreme majesty of Christ may well accelerate the harvest of new believers in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. Or, perhaps you are blessed when believing students come along side those unfairly disadvantaged in society. Students who embrace Jesus as their Monarch likely will accelerate His kingdom purposes of justice and righteousness for all. Or, perhaps nothing moves you like seeing students going to the nations. Students who see Christ high and lifted up may so accelerate the mobilization of their generation that they take the gospel to the last groups waiting to hear.

What do you most love to see students join their King to do? If Christ wills it to be so, the day after May 25 you may well see acceleration.

Richard