Living from the Inside Out

There's a story in Luke 6 that's become an anchor for my life over the last several years. It reads,

One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles…17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him because power was coming from him and healing them all (Luke 6:12-13, 17-19).

Wow, what a story! You’d be forgiven, given the sensational nature of that last part, for ignoring the first part, but, you should know, Jesus never did. Jesus had a deeply spiritual life. Have you ever thought about the spiritual life of Jesus? This little text reveals what Henri Nouwen called…

The Pattern of Jesus

You can think of it as three concentric circles. The center circle, the heart of it all, is…

Communion (Life with God)

Jesus spent a night praying (v. 12), talking to the Father. This was one of His regular spiritual practices. He regularly pulled away so He could be alone with God. And His intimate communion with the Father enabled Him to be with others in authentic spiritual…

Community (Together)

That's the second circle. "When morning came, He called His disciples to Him...(v. 13)." To live in community with others, you need regular communion with God. It’s your deep, love relationship with God, time spent in His presence, that enables you to be with others in a meaningful way. Communion with God in the context of spiritual community, then, is the foundation for the third circle…

Ministry (For Others)

... or your presence in the world.

Jesus had his first calling first and his second calling second. Being preceded doing. Being with God preceded being with others, preceded ministry. He was living from the inside out.

If we’re honest, many of us have an underdeveloped communion circle, an almost non-existent community circle and a frenetic, performance-based, spits-and-starts or non-participant ministry circle! We have friends; that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that most of us don’t have spiritual friends who're more concerned with how we’re doing than what we’re doing. We want to say the words of Jesus and do the works of Jesus, but we aren’t willing to live the life of Jesus. We want to do the stuff that Jesus did, but not necessarily all the stuff. Jesus spent extended time with God. Jesus practiced His faith. He gave attention to His interior life. He practiced prayer and solitude and silence and rest. And Jesus lived in community with others. His life was not a solitary life, a cloistered life, an individual life. He lived an open, vulnerable, available, shared life; a with-God, with-others life. And that life, that shared life, was the foundation, the overflowing cup out of which he cared for others. Jesus modeled it for us. It was His pattern, but it was also His prayer for us.

The Prayer of Jesus

Jesus meant for us to be one with Him, to do life together, to journey with God and others in a close-knit, spiritually formative community. How do I know? In John 17, Jesus said,

"My prayer is not for them [his earthly disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you (John 17:20-21)."

He prayed that we might grow together and journey together. And it’s not just sentimentality, a nice idea, or wishful thinking. It’s not, “Father, wouldn’t it be nice if they would all work together, do life together, and love each other?” No, Jesus prayed this way because He knew...

We grow best in the context of loving community!

In other words, our individual journey, becoming more like Jesus, is heavily dependent on our participation in all three circles! Let me show you how it all works together. The Apostle John laid it out for us in no uncertain terms. He wrote,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him…16 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world, we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:7-9, 17-19).

I love this text. I’ve taught it several times over the years. It describes what I’ve come to think of as…

The Flywheel of Perfect Love

God is love -> God loves us -> God sends Jesus -> We live in God’s love -> God delivers us from fear -> Love one another

Here’s how perfect love is made complete among us. God is love, and God loves us, so much so that He sent His Son, Jesus, love incarnate, love in the flesh, to pay the price for our sins. By surrendering our lives to him, we learn to live in His love, out of love, confident in that love, and the result is a life free from fear. Can you imagine it? A life without fear, free of anxiety, free of what other’s might think of you, say about you, or do to you. This life, no longer dominated by fear, enables us to freely love one another with all our imperfections. We can’t possibly hope to love one another, as flawed and finite as we are, unless we’re rooted and grounded in God’s perfect love for us, allowing Him to love us. I can love you because, come what may, God loves me. Unless we learn to live in God’s love, we can’t hope to love others as we ourselves are loved. But -- and here’s the thing that really captivates me -- if we learn to live in love, abide in love, rely on His love and allow His perfect love to drive out all fear, we can really love each other. We can actually experience the love of God through each other. Did you know you were meant to experience the love of God through others?

There’s an old story I read as a young pastor, the details of which have grown dim, but I’ve never forgotten the tag line and have used it and applied it in various situations over the years. If you’ve been around the church for any length of time, you may have heard it, but I had to look it up. The story begins with…Late one stormy night a small voice was heard from the bedroom across the hall. “Mommy, I’m scared!” Mom responds sympathetically, “Honey, don’t be afraid, I’m right across the hall.” After a short time, with thunder clapping in the distance, the little voice says again, “I’m still scared!” And mom replies, “You don’t need to be afraid. Close your eyes and pray. And remember that Jesus is always with you.” The next time the pause is longer, but the voice returns along with a little child standing next to her bed, “Mommy, can I get in bed with you and daddy?” As Mom is just about to lose her patience, her little boy catches her eye and says, “Mommy, I know Jesus is always with me, but right now I need Jesus with skin on.”

Have you ever felt that way? You know that Jesus is always with you — He’s beside you, beneath you, above you, He’s all around you — but sometimes, sometimes you need Jesus with skin on; you need to experience His presence, His affection, His reassurance, His love in and through someone else. This is where loving community comes in. We can be God’s love with skin on for each other.