Follower

From Not A Fan

Inside Before Outside

HT: Not A Fan

AmI Quiet Enough?

“If you’re in need of a startling realization in your life, begin with solitude and silence. You may find that God has been trying to get your attention for awhile but you haven’t been able to hear Him. Not because he hasn’t been loud enough, but you haven’t been quiet enough….when God speaks, He often speaks in moments of solitude and silence.”

          -Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

Empowered

From www.NotAFan.com

Priorities

Blessed Interference

HT: Not A Fan

A Built In Reflex

"Peter Kreeft, a philosopher, puts it this way" 'The opposite of theism is not atheism, it's idolatry.' In other words everyone is going to worship a god. We were created to be worshipers  as birds were created to fly and rivers were created to flow. It's what we do. The question for you is who or what will be the object of your worship..."

"...When you subtract the religious language, worship is the built in human reflex to put your hope in something or someone and then chase after it. You hold something up and then give your life to pursuing it. If you live in this world, then sooner or later you grow some assumptions concerning what your life is all about, what you should really be going after. And when you begin to align your life with that pursuit, then, whether you realize it or not, you are worshiping."

       - Kyle Idleman,  Gods At War: Defeating the Idols That Battle For Your Heart. pages 58-59

Passionate Pursuit

"If someone ever asks you  'What's so special about Christianity? What sets it apart from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or anything else?' your answer is found right here. Nowhere else do we find God in passionate pursuit of people...."

"...You can't understand the seriousness of idolatry without understanding the jealousy of God. Any you can't understand his jealousy without some understanding of his relentless, powerful love for you, because they are intertwined."

       - Kyle Idleman,  Gods At War: Defeating the Idols That Battle For Your Heart. pages 48-49

It's Not An Open Relationship

"The only relationship God is interested in is one that is exclusive and completely committed. He is not interested in an 'open relationship' with you. He won't consider sharing space on the loveseat of your heart...

....God is jealous for your heart, not because he is petty or insecure, but because he loves you. The reason why God has such a huge problem with idolatry is that his love for you is all-consuming. He loves you too much to share you."

       - Kyle Idleman,  Gods At War: Defeating the Idols That Battle For Your Heart. pages 43-44

Do It Yourself Idolatry

"Remember your commandments.

First: no other gods.

Second: no making other gods to worship.

The profound wisdom of that second commandment is that anything in the world can be hammered into an idol, and therefore can be a false god, if misplaced at the top spot of our affections It's DIY idolatry: choose from our handy assortment of gods, mix and match, create your own....

...Anything at all can become an idol once it becomes a substitute for God in our lives."

    - Kyle Idleman,  Gods At War: Defeating the Idols That Battle For Your Heart. pages 25-26

Always the Issue

"Idolatry isn't just one of many sins; rather it's the one great sin that all others come from. So if you start scratching at whatever struggles you're dealing with, eventually you'll find that underneath it is a false god. Until that god is dethroned, and the Lord God takes his rightful place, you will not have victory.

Idolatry isn't an issue, it is the issue. All roads lead to the dusty, overlooked concept of false gods. Deal with life on the glossy outer layers, and you might never see is.; scratch a little beneath the surface, and you begin to see that it's always there, under some other coat of paint. there are a hundred million different symptoms, but the issue is always idolatry."

         - Kyle Idleman,  Gods At War: Defeating the Idols That Battle For Your Heart. page 22

Gods at War

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time should easily be able to determine that one of the themes I am very interested in right now is idolatry - How discovering, understanding and confronting the idols we (I, you) worship is a major key to spiritual freedom and victory over sin. No one breaks any of the other 8 commandments until they first break numbers 1 and 2. This was a major theme in Mark Driscoll's book which I recently reviewed, and it came up in Keller's book on Galatians.

I was intrigued and excited when I heard that Kyle Idleman's new book dealt with this message.  His first book, Not A Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus, was a bestseller and one of the best books I read back in 2011. I'm now reading the new one, Gods At War: Defeating the Idols That Battle For Your Heart. What's it about? From the back cover:

"..there are false gods at war within each of us, and they battle fore the place of glory and control in our lives. What keeps us from truly following Jesus is that our hearts are pursuing something or someone else. Behind the sin you're struggling with, the discouragement you're dealing with, the lack of purpsoe you're living with is a false god that is winning the war for your heart."

Expect a lot of quotes to be posted.

Links Worth A Look

Some links that are worth a look:

Nine Things You Should Know About Duck Dynasty

Top 10 Theological Challenges Coming Our Way

Here Come the Radicals - Chan, Idleman, Claiborn & Platt

Radicalism & Reality - A Response to "Here Come the Radicals"

The Sin of Silence - In the face of abusive church leaders

Why Studying Doctrine is the Best Medicine - Tim Keller
 
Charismatic Renewal: 10 Strengths & Weaknesses

Life From the Inside Out

"When we learn to truly follow Jesus, we find that obedience to God comes from the inside out.  Submissions to what God wants for our lives flows naturally out of that relationship.  It's not to say that what we do or don't do doesn't matter, but what we do or don't do must come from who we are as followers of Jesus."

- Not A Fan, Kyle Idlemann, page 77

$100, One Penny at a Time

"Most of us think of dying to ourselves as this one big moment where we hand over our 100-dollar bill.  I don't want to take away from that moment. That moment of salvation is the most important moment of your life.  But to see following Jesus as a one-time decision is like saying after your wedding, 'Now that we are married, it's back to life as usual.' There is more to being a husband or wife than a wedding ceremony. Instead of thinking of our lives as a 100-dollar bill that we give to God and that's the end of it, we give our 100-dollar bill to God and he accepts it but says, 'This is mine, but I want you to cash it in for pennies and give one penny back to me each day.' It's a daily death."

- Kyle Idlemann, Not a Fan, pages 168-169

(Anybody figured out yet that I recommend this book?!)

A Call to Be CompletelyCommitted Followers

Kyle Idleman at Not A Fan

Are You a Jesus Fan?

...or a Jesus follower?  A recommended book - Not a Fan - and a recommended website - Not a Fan.:

fan: an enthusiastic admirer.

In the Gospels, Jesus never seemed too interested in fans.

Is that how you define your relationship with Him? An "enthusiastic admirer"? Close enough to Jesus to get the benefits but not so close to require sacrifice?

He was looking for followers. Not just any follower though, but a...

completely. committed. follower.

How would things change if you lived as Jesus lived, and loved the way He loved?

Maybe you’re ready to join the hundreds of people who have stepped across a line and said:

i am not a fan.

We Have It Better Than We can Imagine

Christian, you and I have it better than we realize, and even better than we can imagine.  Consider these words from Kyle Idleman (italics in the original).

Sometimes I hear people talk about the different men and women in the Old Testament, and there is a hint of jealousy.  They may say it, or just insinuate it, but here's what they communicate.

What would it have been like to hear God's voice and see him move in such powerful ways? I wish it was the same for us as it was for those whose stories we read about in Scripture. When I get to heaven I can't wait to ask David, Elijah, or Moses what it was like.

But I think it will be just the opposite in heaven. Before we can ask David what it was like to slay the giant, to win the battles, he'll say, Tell me what it was like on earth to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, giving you strength when you are weak.  We might say to Elijah, What was it like to call down fire from heaven before the prophets of Baal and to raise that boy from the dead? And I think Elijah might say, Yeah, he actually ended up dying again.  You tell me what it's like to have God living inside of you. What was it like to live life on earth with the Holy Spirit giving you joy when you are depressed or giving you the power to overcome sin in your life? We might say to Moses, What was it like to follow the cloud by day and fire by night? What was it like to meet with God on that mountain? And  Moses might say, I had to climb that mountain to meet with God. You tell me what it was like to have him dwell within you every day.  What was it like to have the Holy Spirit giving you directions whne you didn't know what to do or where to go?

               ( From Not A Fan, Kyle Idleman, page 91)

If we really realized that we have it better than the Old Testament heros, if we really believed that Jesus meant what he said about it being better for the disciples if he went away so he could send the Holy Spirit, wouldn't our lives be radically different?

Think about it.  I know I am.

Fan or Follower?

Another book I have added to my wish list! - Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus by Kyle Idleman.  The Amazon.com description says:

"Are you a follower of Jesus? Don't answer too quickly. In fact, you may want to read this book before you answer at all. Consider it a 'Define the Relationship' conversation to determine exactly where you stand. You may indeed be a passionate, fully devoted follower of Jesus. Or, you may be just a fan who admires Jesus but isn't ready to let him cramp your style. Then again, maybe you're not into Jesus, period. In any case, don't take the question---Are you a follower of Jesus?---lightly. Some people don't know what they've said yes to and other people don't realize what they've said no to, says Pastor Kyle Idleman. But Jesus is ready to clearly define the relationship he wants with his followers. Not a Fan calls you to consider the demands and rewards of being a true disciple. With frankness sprinkled with humor, Idleman invites you to live the way Jesus lived, love the way he loved, pray the way he prayed, and never give up living for the One who gave his all for you."

I'm starting to see some blog buzz about it:

"I believe what we’re looking at here is a book that has the potential to pick up where books like Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Radical by David Platt left off and move us to the next level of commitment." 

-Book Review: At Thinking Out Loud: 

"His “fan or follower” metaphor woven through not a fan. is simply inspired.....Not a fan. is a bottom-line reality check for every pew-sitter—from Boomer to GenXYZ

Review by Ron Brackin at This and That

So many books to buy and read!


Update:  Found out today (6/1/11) that I won a copy of this book in a drawing at the blog Thinking Out Loud.  Looking forward to reading it. Thanks, Paul!