Magna Carta of an Out of Control Disciple

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Magna Carta of an Out of Control Disciple

As we bring this year of Freedom Fighter e-votionals to a close, I want to share with you two powerful readings that I came across several years ago:

John Wesley wrote in a "Covenant Prayer"--

        I am no longer my own, but Yours.

        Put to me what you will.  Put me to doing.  Put me to suffering.

        Let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You.

        Exhalted for You, or brought low for You.

        Let me be full. Let me be empty. Let me have all things.

        Let me have nothing!

        And now, O Father, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it.

        And the covenant I am making on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

        Amen.

I am part of the Church of the Out-of-Control.  I once was a control junkie, but now am an Out-of-Control Disciple.  I've given up my control to God. I trust and obey the Spirit. I've jumped off the fence.  I've stepped over the line. I've pulled out all the stops. There's no turning back, looking around, slowing down, backing away, letting up, or shutting up. 

Its life against the odds, outside the box, over the wall, the game of life played without goal lines other than "Thy will be done...."  I am not here to please the dominant culture.  I live to please my Lord and Savior.  My spiritual taste-buds have graduated from fizz to froth to fire and ice. 

Sometimes I'm called to sharpen the cutting edge.  Don't give me that old-time religion.  Don't give me that new-time religion.  Give me that all-time religion that's as hard as rock and as soft as snow.  I've stopped trying to make life work, and started trying to make life sing.

I am finished with second-hand sensations, third-rate dreams, low-risk high-rise trades and goose-stepping, flag-waving crusades.  I no longer live by and for anything but everything God-breathed, Christ-centered, and Spirit-driven.  I can't be bought by any personalities or perks, positions or prizes.

I won't give up, though I may give in...to openness of mind, humbleness of heart, and generosity of spirit.  In the face of adversity no longer will I hang in there.  I will stand in there, I will run in there, I will pray in there, I will sacrifice in there, I will endure in there--in fact, I will do everything in there but hang.

My face is upward, my feet are forward, my eyes are focused, my way is cloudy, my knees are worn, my seat uncreased, my heart burdened, my spirit light, my road narrow, my mission wide.  I won't be seduced by popularity, traduced by criticism, travestied by hypocrisy, or trivialized by mediocrity.  I am organized religion's best friend and worst nightmare. 

I won't back down, slow down, shut down, or let down until I'm preached out, teached out, healed  out, or hauled out of God's mission in the world entrusted to members of the Church of the Out-of Control...to bind the confined, whether they're the downtrodden or the upscale, the overlooked or the underrepresented.

My fundamental identity is as a disciple of Jesus who lives in Christ, who doesn't walk through history simply "in His steps," but seeks to travel more deeply IN HIS SPIRIT.  Until He comes again or calls me home, you can find me filling not killing time so that one day He will pick me out in the lineup of the ages as one of His own.

And then...it will be worth it all...to hear these words, the most precious words. I can ever hear:  “Well done, thou good and faithful...Out-of-Control Disciple."

Well brothers, are you an “out of control disciple?” Are you willing to pray the prayer of John Wesley as we welcome in the New Year? Thanks for joining me on the journey in 2010. I look forward to your participation in 2011. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick

Digging Deeper:  Congratulations! If you read these scriptures every day, you have read through the Bible in one year! Proverbs 31; Malachi 1-4; Revelation 22

Dig This Quote: What can the world offer you without Jesus? To be without Jesus is hell most grievous, to be with Jesus is to know the sweetness of heaven. If Jesus is with you, no enemy can harm you. Whoever finds Jesus, finds a rich treasure, and a good above every good. He who loses Jesus loses much indeed, and more than the whole world. Poorest of all is he who lives without Jesus, and richest of all is he who stands in favour with Jesus. Thomas a Kempis

Determined Digging: Level 1: Acts 16:31; Level 2: John 1:8-14

Determined Praying: If you love God, you cannot be at a loss for something to say to Him, something for your hearts to pour out before Him, which His grace has already put there. – Matthew Henry