The Wisdom of Rich Mullins, Part X

To close this series, I want to show how the actions match the words.

Perhaps the greatest songwriter the Christian music world has ever known, and he ends his concert by taking off his guitar, stepping to the front of the stage and singing the words “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” and the congregation picks up the song and continues in beautiful harmony.

As soon as they get going, he moves slowly off stage and the lights fade. The song ends to darkness and a people praising their God, not a musician.

And he was dead not too long after.

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We are not saved because we’re good. We’re good because we’re saved. Never forget what Jesus did for you. Never take lightly what it cost Him. And never assume that if it cost Him His very life, that it won’t cost you yours.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. Why?

Because God has a really big house, but He’s gonna have a lot of guests and He doesn’t want all that luggage to deal with.

If we could lay down our stuff and let God love us, I think we’d pretty nearly be in heaven. And I hope you’re there. That’s where God wants you to be. And maybe you didn’t know that. I think a lot of us think that God is looking for ways to keep us out of His kingdom. Well, if that were the case, then Jesus would be absurd. But, if Jesus Christ is Who the Scriptures teach us that He is, then God wants us to be saved; we know that God wants us to be with Him.

I had a prof one time - my favorite prof in the whole world - This is one of my favorite bible college stories. He said, “Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since.

So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself.

And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway because God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and has been speaking through them ever since.”

I just read a comment on a site about music. The content of the post was about how much the author hates the stereotypical “Christian guy with a guitar at a party”. It was an okay post, but the real gem was a comment in the ensuing discussion. It hit home and made me, a lifelong bass player, laugh out loud. I *so* relate.

I started playing bass in high school so I could play with the youth group worship band.

It’s the only instrument that you can suck at and still be allowed to play with real musicians.

And folks, sometimes we think that we’re saved because of how good we are, or because of how smart we are, or how clever we are, or how much we give.

All those things are in a sense salvific. God does save us through our own work. If you don’t believe me, then become a Lutheran and cut James out of your Bible.

But, we’re mostly saved, not because of what we do, but because of what Christ did. Had Jesus not died, all the water in the world wouldn’t wash away your sins. Had Jesus not taken away our sins, all the prayers in the world that we could pray would never reach heaven. Had Jesus not come down as God and become flesh, there is no way that you and I could become holy.

Then she said, “What I really want to know is when you were born again.”

I said, “Lady, which time?!”

Used to be I’d only get born again about every year - once a year. That was when I was goin’ to camp. You know, every year you’d go and you’d get ‘born again’ again.

You’d go up there and you pray and cry and feel like a fool. Yes, it’s embarrassing to be born again, but imagine how embarrassing it must have been to be born the first time.

(laughter and cheers)

At least this time you get to wear clothes!

(more laughter and cheering)

But, those of you that are young enough to go to camp and re-dedicate your life every year, you keep doin’ it, ’cause about the time you get to college you’re gonna learn that you have to re-dedicate your life about every six months. And then you’ll graduate from college and it will become a quarterly thing. By the time you’re in your 40’s and 50’s you’ll do it about four times a day.

And you will never understand what you’re doin’. But God will.

Sadly, some Christians and some Christian leaders, while not denying the cross, prefer to keep it out of plain view because they wrongly believe that nice, decent people hate to have their sensibilities offended by such violence and gore. Consequently, the word has gotten out that being a Christian is about avoiding the suffering, pain, and horrors of this life by living in a safe, zip-locked Christian plastic bag filled with diversionary worship songs to prom-date Jesus so we don’t have to pick up any cross or shed any tears. — Mark Driscoll in Vintage Jesus

We as a people, here in North America, need to be reminded about how terrible life is. We’ve been insulated from reality by five dollar coffees in vat-grown melamine mini-malls, our little boxes made of ticky-tacky, our four foot TV screens that show us the world without connecting us to it.

I’ve just finished reading Brave New World (for the fourth or fifth time) and Crome Yellow (an early novel in which Huxley has a character present many of the ideas that make up the society of the later Brave New World).

I’ve always been fascinated with the comparison between 1984 and Brave New World. People still remain afraid of the Orwellian terror of 1984, yet have no recognition of our culture’s persistent slide towards Brave New World.

Huxley’s concept of a populous so spoon-fed and over-entertained that they cease to care about anything is applicable to church culture as well. Think about the church culture rather than “the world” as you read this comparison between 1984 and BNW:

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the Feelies, the Orgy Porgy, and the Centrifugal Bumble-puppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us. — Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death (emphasis mine).

Think about worship and read that again. Think about Christian products and read that again.

In Brave New World, Mustapha Mond describes how they simply cut the tops off of all the crosses to make T’s which stood for Henry Ford’s Model T and the people hardly noticed. The new religion simply replaced God with culture, replaced Christ with mass production of luxury goods and replaced cross-bearing with recreation.

We as Christians desperately need to be reminded of the Cross and why it was (is!) so necessary. We need to shed tears for the world. We need to stop being drugged into peaceful bliss by the very people we trust to lead us. “Open your zip-lock and follow me…”

The warm, soft truth is that for those who do love Jesus, this life is as close to hell as they will ever get. Heaven awaits them. — Mark Driscoll, in Vintage Jesus

Think about that.

This life, the one you’re living right now, is as close to Hell as you will ever get.

There are two ways to take that. The first is “Whoohoo! I’m never getting closer to Hell!”. The second is the way I took it originally: This life is essentially Hell, compared to what’s coming up. I’m not trying to be one of those folks who deny the existence of Hell as a real place of punishment for unregenerate sinners. But think about the fact that you, as a believer, are now farther from God than you will ever be in the future. Soon you will live in His presence, singing “Holy, Holy, Holy!” around that glassy sea. But for now, you’re here, and you get the idea of his presence, but you’ll look back and laugh when you get the real thing. “How’d I ever make do with that?”

How little I understand that this life isn’t where it’s good for me, it’s where I make it good for other people. I need to make sure I keep perspective on this life.

I long to be closer to God. At the risk of sounding cliche, my heart burns to know more of Him.

But He’s placed me here, He’ll call me to Him when it’s right, and until then I need to live this life like I’m just passing through going somewhere great.

Hey! I’m on my way to the greatest place ever! Wanna come along?

So they called me up and they said, “How old were you when you became a Christian?” I said, “Boy, I ["takes a deep breath and exhales shaking his head indicating he's unsure of an exact moment"], I don’t know.” They said, “Well, give it a shot.” And I said, “I don’t know, probably two or three.” They said, “So young! What happened?” And I said, “Well, I was in Sunday School and we prayed ["Rich sings"] ‘Into my heart, into my heart, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.’”

And the lady said, “Well, that’s not what I meant.” She said, “You couldn’t have possibly been old enough to have understood what you were praying.” And I said, “Lady, we never understand what we’re praying, and God, in His mercy, does not answer our prayers according to our understanding, but according to His wisdom.”

I just love his whole take on things about how little we really understand. It’s such a ray of sunshine among the internet world of “I’M RIGHT!”, “NO, I’M RIGHT!”.

A comment to the children, but with a lesson for the adults…

Bear in mind, children, that they listen to you because you are kids - not because you are right. That’s how our Father listens to us.