Rich Kao

Friends, let's go change the world.  We only have one life to live, then eternity with Jesus.  Let's do it in our generation.

We live in a generation in which relationship, authenticity, community, intimacy reign supreme.  However in our zeal to be re-rooted in these values, we mustn't just be "relational" all the time, we must also be pillars of truth (1 Tim 3:5). 

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he was writing to his young & beloved disciple on how to be a great pastor, how to care for people, how to love them and serve them, i.e. how to be great relationally.  But in the midst of his encouragements, he also charged Timothy to be a man of truth, to be doctrinally sound, and to exhort & preach with all confidence (2 Tim 4:1-3).

Why this charge?  Because relationship without truth is not love (Eph. 4:15).

2 Kings 4:38-41 gives us a powerful picture of what this generation is like...hungry for reality ("there was a famine in the land").  But when we we are living out of a famished state, our discernment is gone and we'll eat anything  ("wild vines, wild gourds").  We think happiness will be found in money, career, relationships, hobbies, nature, addictions; we're aching to fill the hunger, and as a result we eat things with "death in the pot."

What did Elisha do to remove the "death?"  He threw meal" (NIV: flour) into the stew, and "then there was no harm in the pot."

That's our call...to throw "meal" into the pot, i.e. to throw truth into those things that people are eating and feeding on, and is making them sick. 

There is a prophetic call (ala Elisha) on us to take the truth of the gospel and throw it into the "pots" of our generation so the "death" in it can be removed.

Let's be pillars of truth.  Fearless and bold in the name of love.  We'll save a lot of people from "death."

This song gets me every time.  Touches me the same way when I first heard it a few years back.  Hillsong does a great job.

As I walk with God, I find more and more what those wise old saints are talking about when they speak of the cross; it's indeed the path to life.   Everything must pass through the cross if we want abundant life and maturity.  Here's the really cool part; it's not like I thought..."embracing the cross" is not some spartan, quaker, take-your-medicine like discipline.  In fact, once you're tasted it, you want it.  It's not embracing the cross with gritted teeth because you know it's good for us; No, rather it's hugging the cross with a sense of relief and rest and delight because that's where we know our safety and His glory lie.  The affection is there, hence the hug is there.  This will be the title of my new (imaginery) book that I don't have the time or skill to write, but I like the title anyway.

Here's the lead in to my first big thought: The cross -- letting go of our way and our timing and bowing to God's -- is the key to multiplication, and bounty, and more-than-when-the-grain-and-the-new-wine-abounds kind of life (Ps 4:7).  God wants us to have open skies (Mt. 3:16 - the heavens opened) and traffic in multiplication (Mt. 3:16 - dove upon us).  But the key is the cross (i.e. embracing righteousness which is embracing God's agenda; "Permit it at this (God's) timing"; submitting to God's timetable, God's method - Mt. 3:15).

If we don't bow to the cross we stay in the realm of our own strength, our own soul, and we keep a lid on ourselves.  We actually limit ourselves to ourselves.  But when we embrace the cross, the cross becomes a lid blower and we enter and traffic in God's realm -- amazing supply, power, wisdom, anointing -- that's open sky living.  (Changing my mind:  maybe my book title should be "Open Sky Living;" I'll have to debate this with myself).  

Did you catch that?  When you live in your own soul, your own strength, your own plans, your own timing, you actually put a lid on yourself!  You limit yourself and your potential to yourself.  But when you hug the cross, you blow the lid off and come into God's realm.  You move from closed skies to open skies.  God becomes your inheritance, not yourself.  The God of Jeshurun, the hertitage of Jacob is your portion (Deut. 33:26; Is. 58:13-14), and what a big portion that is!  Hug the cross today.  (Actually, it's not an event, but a lifestyle).