Culture of Honor - Danny Silk

The truths in this book cultivate a culture in which the glory of God can be fully realized in the life of every believer. The culture is one of honor and promotes freedom. In fact, this book is all about freedom. It challenges all believers but leaders in particular to take the same risk God has and trust that what Jesus did on the cross was for freedom and it was enough. This culture of honor, as Danny says is "the core value for creating a safe place where people can be free." In other words, creating a safe place where believers can learn how to be dangerous.

In my (and my wife's) opinion, this book is a must read for everyone and particularly for leaders. The idea that leaders are meant to lead a free people may seem obvious but it's a rare thing in the church today. This book graciously and relentlessly contends that a free people in alignment with Gods heart can radically change the world.

A culture of honor is a beautiful place of intimate relationship with the Father, where sons and daughters know their identity, are committed to each other, and have one goal - to see Gods Kingdom established on earth as it is in heaven.

I highly recommend this book!

- Jason

A Portrait of Jesus

I will be teaching at the Branch's School of Ministry over the next four Wednesdays starting this week the 27th. Below is the heartbeat of the message. Come on out. www.branchchurch.org/school

If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” This is what Jesus said about himself. I believe Jesus lived to reveal the Father and that we live to reveal Jesus. Matthew 6:22 tells us that if the eye is single the body is full of light. Jesus revealed this in how He lived. His revelation or view of the Father is what released him to be the expression of the Son. In focusing only on what he saw his father doing he showed us how to live. We will spend four weeks focusing our eye on Jesus that we might know our Father and become transformed into his likeness. In my opinion, that’s the only reason to study Jesus!

The Philosophy Professor

I met a philosophy professor the other day. Well, actually I see him a few times a week. He frequents the same coffee shop I do. We have often caught each other’s eye over our laptops from across the room. It was just a matter of time before we struck up a conversation. He is a very nice man and very smart. Just like me, he is also writing a book and enjoys the coffee shop atmosphere.

I asked him what his book was about. He talked for a couple of minutes, and as best as I could tell, it seemed to be a book about nothing. At first I was impressed cause I’m pretty sure that writing a book about nothing is harder than writing about something.

I pressed him for a little more information. “Really, I am writing about the human condition,” he said. He then began to explain the state of mankind in such abstract terms that I really had a hard time following - “which is good if you are philosophy professor,” I thought.

“What is pain, what is joy or love?” He asked. “They are just feelings, particles bouncing off other particles - just chance. Nothing in this universe is sure; everything is determined by what you feel.”

“It really is a book about nothing.” I thought again…

He went on to say that man is the sum of what we feel - emotionally and physically. There is no great purpose or meaning to life and all our philosophies and theologies are simply the wild imagining of men who need to feel a sense of purpose. In the end life is simply about seeking joy and trying to avoid pain.

“So, it’s a book about nothing then?” I asked sadly. He smiled. It was a tired smile. “In a way, yes.” He said. I couldn’t think of anything to say, about his book. It was overwhelming, the idea of writing a book about nothing. I couldn’t even find a common denominator, as my sincerest prayer is that my book would be about something.

“So, how long have you been working on it?” I finally asked.

“For almost 20 years.”

He has been writing a book about nothing for almost 20 years! This broke my heart. That a man would write faithfully for 20 years is amazing. That a man can write about nothing for 20 years is excruciating.

It dawned on me as I stood there that if you’re writing about nothing, then its probably gonna take a long time. I felt sad for this tired man who seems to have been searching for some truth in a universe where he is convinced truth doesn’t exist.

I couldn’t take it anymore. So I asked him the question that should never be asked of a philosophy professor. “Where does God fit in.”

He was quick to both acknowledge that religion plays a role in philosophy but also that religion was for weak minded individuals.

“Good thing I didn’t tell him what I was writing about,” I thought.

But I hadn’t asked him about religion, I’d asked about God. He had done what many often do and confused the two as being one and the same. So I tried the same question from a different angle. “Where does love fit in?”

He looked at me - he seemed exhausted, as if this question was just too much, “Love is a subjective feeling.” He responded.

“But what if it isn’t…” I asked. “What if love is the very foundation of everything? What if Love is the beginning and the end and everything in between?”

He just looked at me.

What if Love created everything? What if Love saw what He had created and said, “It is good.” Which is something Love would probably say. What if Love has all authority but not all control, as Love does not control because Love is about freedom. What if Love set you free, free to be loved and to love? What if Love wasn’t just a feeling but a tangible expression of that same freedom? What if Love could be truly known by every person on earth? What if Love was a person who walked the earth and gave love away to any who would receive?

These thoughts ran through my heart. But I didn’t know how to express them any clearer than the questions I had already posed.

But thinking about it now, it sure would be a great idea for his book! Love. It’s a profoundly infinite and beautiful subject. Another writer once put it this way, “If every one of (the things Love did) was written down, I suppose the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 22:25)

If only my new Philosophy Professor friend new this love, well, then he could know what it is to write with purpose. He could spend the next twenty years trying to fill the world with books about something.

Before he packed up to go he asked what I was writing about. I told him that I was writing about love and that I too would never be finished writing.

He said he would like to hear more about it sometime...

The Right Question

I have three kids, Eva is my youngest and she is at an age where I am beginning to get the questions. You know, like when I give her a bowl of soup and say “Honey do you want some crackers for your soup?”

“Why?”

“Cause these crackers taste good in soup.”

“Why?”

“Cause they are yummy soup crackers.”

“Why?”

“Because the soup cracker ferry made them yummy for soup.”

“What color is the soup cracker ferries dress?”

“Blue.”

“No daddy, its pink and purple.”

If you are a parent or have ever spoken to a child, you have laughed, sighed, had your patience stretched, and your heart expanded while answering a question.

If you are a parent or have ever spoken to a child, you know this next statement to be true. There is such a thing as a dumb question. You also know that if the question is sincere then there is no such thing as a dumb question. Its how children learn.

If you are a parent or have ever spoken to a child, you also know that the question reveals an awful lot about what your child already does and doesn’t comprehend and who he or she is becoming. You also know that when giving an answer, you have to speak in the language of your child. This is determined by their age and experience.

Lastly, if you are a parent or have ever spoken to a child, you have often responded to you child’s question with a question of your own. “

“Mom, how do you spell dog?”

“What says “da?” “da?”
or,
“A, B, C? …”

Why do we do this, because the question positions our kids for the answer. It’s meant to help them to learn how to process and find the answer themselves. It’s about helping them mature.

I have learned that when it comes to a sincere question, God absolutely loves them. This is evidenced in the life of Jesus. Have you ever noticed that Jesus rarely answers a question directly? When he is asked questions, often his response is to either tell a story –parable- or ask his own question.

Even when he was just speaking to someone, he almost always raised huge questions. He told Nicodemus that to enter the Kingdom of heaven, he would have to be born again. He told a large crowd that, unless they ate of his flesh and drank of his blood, they had no life in them. While we now know what Jesus meant, at the time, these were inconceivable thoughts that raised lots of questions.

So why did Jesus often respond to questions with either stories or questions of His own? I would like to suggest that questions are one of the best ways to communicate with a free people. And Jesus was absolutely intent on releasing people into greater freedom.

God loves, and when I say loves, I mean absolutely without even the slightest hint of deviation, our freedom. He will not compromise even a fraction when it comes to protecting freedom. It is the foundation upon which everything operates. Why is freedom so important, because it’s the atmosphere in which love can exist. And love is the whole point. Our freedom was what Jesus died to protect, it’s what the cross was all about. It’s the biggest thing that’s ever existed because it’s the soil in which love can be cultivated.

Jesus doesn’t tell free people the answer; he helps them devise a better question. So, He tells stories, He asks his own questions. Along the way He challenges how we think and if we are hungry for an answer, we begin to reform our questions until our mind is, in a word, renewed.

How do you get a renewed mind, you keep asking questions until your questions align with His question. Until at some point you ask the right question. The right question is the one that has power in it. It’s the question that releases the answer, transformation. It’s the question that resonates in heaven.

Jesus came to reveal the Father. That was the whole purpose of his years on earth. He told us that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father. To truly see Him, we have to learn how to ask the right questions until our perspective is aligned with heavens perspective. Does that make sense?

There is a moment when you ask the question that aligns with the heart of God. And that’s the whole point of asking questions. It’s a search for what is in heaven, what is in Gods heart, so that we can live out His answer here on earth. When you ask God the right question, the answer comes with revelation and power. It sets you free to know His love in greater measure. That’s the whole point of freedom, that’s why it’s so huge.

I am learning that my whole walk with God is about asking the right questions. And God seems intent on helping me with questions of his own. I have learned that when I ask a question, if it’s sincere, it reveals what I know, what I’m missing and where I want to go. And when a question is asked in sincerity, it has power to transform.

For instance, years ago my family and I felt God call us into an unsalaried full time ministry position. While I was in a deep discussion with Jesus and with thousands of dollars in the bank I asked, “God, how do I pay my bills?” He answered like he almost always does, with a question of his own. “Do you trust me?”

I spent the next five years learning how to live in His question and along the way I asked many more of my own until one day I asked a question that shifted everything. I was deep in discussion with Jesus and with just four dollars in the bank I asked “Father, what is on Your heart for today?”

That was the right question and the answer was beautiful... If you are curious, part of it is happening as I write this.

One last thought…

The right question leads to a renewed mind, a renewed mind is the precursor to breakthrough. That word breakthrough, its one we all love, its a wonderful word. It’s the desire of all believers to experience breakthrough in every area of our lives. It’s a prayer prayed daily by millions, “Father release breakthrough in my family, my workplace, in my friends Fox Hollow Coffee house in Orting WA; Lord release breakthrough, I want all that is on your heart for today!”

I am learning that the way we experience breakthrough is by asking the right question. Please hear me cause I think this is big; breakthrough is a position or place in the heart of God. It’s a revelation birthed from God encounter after God encounter. It’s not found in a magic prayer or a good desire or hard work. Breakthrough is found in the process of asking the right question. The right question sets up God and positions our hearts for the answer. God knows we can’t handle a breakthrough until our hearts have become positioned in our Father, until our hearts have been transformed into the likeness of our Fathers.

God wants to answer the question! Everything in the heart of God wants to answer the question! And God values us so much that he waits until our hearts are positioned for the answer, until our question reverberates with the answer that is in His heart.

If its sincere, there's no such thing as a dumb question. Keep asking questions until your perspective is aligned with the heart of God. Keep asking questions until you get the answer that releases heaven into your life.

Love is Always an Encounter Before its a Decision

I read a Donald Miller blog years ago where he wrote about how his blog is the first sounding board to the book he is writing. I liked that and am endeavoring to do the same. Right now I am thrilled to be writing about our identities as sons and daughters of an always good and loving Father.

Over the coming months and probably years, I will post thoughts here. For me, I know I have something when I can communicate it in a way that releases life. That’s my heart; so if something I write seems harsh or off the wall, love me enough to tell me. I may disagree with you but I wont bite. Please know that I am writing opinions and suggestions.

Below are some thoughts that God is working in me regarding becoming love – which is really what this breathing oxygen is all about…in my opinion…

Love is Always an Encounter Before its a Decision

Love is always an encounter before it’s a decision. The encounter is the point, if its not, the decision to love can never be made. We love because He first loved us. Our love is a response to an encounter with His love. From our encounter we can decide to love but in all honesty, the decision to love is not the goal of a believers life, it’s the first stepping-stone to our destiny.

We were not saved by love so that we could decide to love. We were saved by love so that we could become love. If you become love, you don’t have to decide to love, its just who you are.

In many ways throughout my life, I have placed my focus on the decision to love. At these times I have almost elevated it above the encounter. What I have learned is that when I do this, I relegate, demote and dis-empower His love. A love birthed from a decision has less power to transform than a love birthed from an encounter.

I am not saying that the decision to love is bad, it’s absolutely astounding and we must perfect it. I’m simply saying that from my own experience, if I stop encountering His love, my decision to love becomes sterile. In fact, loving God or others becomes an overwhelming impossibility. I have learned that I cant fully love without first encountering His. We love because we are first loved.

I love my wife Karen, and yes, there have been moments in my life where I have not felt it and had to make a decision to love her. But that is not nor should it ever be the norm in a love relationship. As Karen and I grow in love, having to "decide" has decreased. I believe that before we enter heaven we will have so encountered love that having to make a decision to love will have long since gone extinct - at least, that's the goal, hey, its how God loves us...

I use my relationship with my wife to show what happens when two people chose to love each other like God loves. My heart here is to reveal that the power of our love is birthed in the encounter with love. If Karen and my relationship became solely about a decision, eventually we would stop having love encounters. A marriage without true love encounters is not fun and eventually deteriorates to nothing more than a legal partnership.

It’s the same with God; a relationship without true love encounters is simply religious formality. My prayer is that God would daily reveal his love to me. And not just that but also that he would give me eyes to see it and the heart to experience it...........