Identity Crisis - Part 2

(If you haven't read part 1, click here and do that now before continuing.)

When Moses asked God what name He should use in defending his authority before pharaoh, God simply said, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). I love Louie Giglio’s explanation of I AM:

It’s an amazing name. In Hebrew the word for I AM is Hayah. Hayah carries with it the idea of the very breath of God. In English the name I AM translates into the verb to be. Or simply be. Therefore God’s name is Be. I AM – I Be. I AM is the present tense, active form of the verb to be. As God’s name, it declares that He is unchanging, constant, unending, always present, always God. (Louie Giglio, I Am Not But I Know I AM, p. 38.)

That’s an amazing title. Think of I AM as one of the top steps in a series of escalating stairs—the lower steps being titles that we’ve already looked at, the Living Water and the Bread of Life. John escalated to a breaking point—I AM. Now there was no doubt to anyone in earshot of Jesus that He was claiming to be God.

I love it. I love that this is the title by which God chose to reveal Himself to Moses—the unchanging God—the always-present God—always there by Moses’ side. The always-existing One knew Moses—in the same way Jesus knew Nathaniel before they ever met (John 1:48)—in the same way Jesus knew the Samaritan woman with all of the baggage of her past (John 4:29)—in the same way Jesus knows you and everything about you—every detail, every mistake, every thought, every action, every intention. Jesus knows. Jesus knows you.
Here’s a fundamental truth that we can’t afford to miss.

Our identity as followers of Christ is totally wrapped up in Christ’s identity.

In other words, Christ is our life (Col. 3:4). So the converse must also be true. Our misconceptions of Jesus misconstrue or blur our identity as followers of Christ. In my experience, there are at least two misconceptions about Christ that most Christ-followers believe at some point in their relationship with Him. So I want to clear these up briefly.

Misconception #1: “Jesus is my Homeboy”

The homeboy mentality says this: Since Jesus is my best friend, He’ll let me do whatever I want, and He’ll always be there to forgive me when I mess up. The homeboy mentality makes Jesus nothing more than a confession box that I spill my guts to once I mess up. It views Jesus as a passive parent, like the mom from Gilmore Girls—the idea that I can mess around with my boyfriend or girlfriend, masturbate, view internet porn and repeatedly push the boundaries of right and wrong simply because I know Jesus will always forgive me. It’s the idea that I have an endless supply of get-out-of-jail-free cards—since Jesus is one of the guys I can sin as much as I want and simply ask for forgiveness because He understands how I really am anyway. But Romans 6:1-2 says just the opposite:

“What should we say then? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

And here’s the resulting identity of the follower of Christ who falls prey to this misconception.

The Cheap Grace Identity

The cheap grace identity laughs in Jesus’ face as the blood flows down from the cross. The cheap grace identity says, “Jesus, thanks for dying for my sin so that I can mess up as many times as I want and not really feel bad about it since you paid for it all anyway!” It says to Jesus, “Jesus, thanks for caring enough for me that You would let massive spikes be driven through your hands into a wooden beam so that I can use my hands to get in my girlfriend’s pants!” The cheap grace identity is nothing more than a cheap imitation for coward Christians.

Fields and Creeks

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody. We just rolled back into town about an hour ago from a crazily hectic weekend. But a good one.

Friday night and Saturday we led worship for Wakefield Baptist Church's Women's Conference in Wake Forest, NC. It was great to have my friend, Tim Norton, back with us playing djembe. Tim, his wife Anna, and new addition, Judah Elijah Norton, will be embarking for the DRC (District Republic of the Congo) later this year as missionaries through the IMB. Pray for them as they rigorously pour over the endless paperwork and details before they can leave.

Ruth McWhite, director of Women's Studies at North Greenville University in Tigerville, SC, came and brought the Word to the ladies each session. Here's a couple of quick highlights from one of her talks:

* "For everything I would have called an inconvenience, there was compensation if I looked hard enough and had the grace to be grateful." - Elisabeth Elliot, referring to the toughness of jungle living after her husband Jim died.

* When we tell our kids, "Don't tell God what you don't want to do because that's exactly what He'll make you do", we make God look more like a ticked-off father, rather than a loving father. When we emphasize this to our children it makes them scared of God's will.

Well, Saturday afternoon we drove up Route 1 to Henderson, NC to New Sandy Creek Baptist Church, the church where I served as youth pastor and worship leader for 4 years. It was awesome to be a part of their groundbreaking celebration for the new Family Life Center that they are building.


It's refreshing to see what God is doing there. This little country church in the tobacco fields of Henderson has baptized over 30 new believers since this past October. Unbelievable! Praise God! New Sandy, we love you guys. You'll always be home to us. (Daniel Atkins and Robbie Watson are seen here with me. They rocked Henderson with their delicious harmonies and to-die-for licks.)


Sunday morning we were back at Wakefield Baptist leading worship for their 2 services. Pastor Scott Parkison is one of those guys that I feel like I've known forever because of the mutual friends we have, though I only met him for the first time this weekend. I'm sure we'll be reconnecting with them down the road. Scott, thanks again for having us. We love you guys. Thanks for making us feel right at home.

Identity Crisis - Part 1

I'm excited to say that my first book, The Discovery: Beyond the Jesus of Flapjacks and Grilled Cheese is in the production stage, and should be out in about a month or so. We had a tiny set-back in production, but now things are rolling. It's a 21-day devotional journey through the Gospel of John geared toward students and young adults. I'm pretty psyched about it! I'm praying that God will use it way beyond what I'm capable of doing in my own strength. It will be available on Amazon.com shortly after it's release next month. I'll keep you updated. But for now, here's the first of several posts I'll do using excerpts from the book. Also, in honor of Flashback Friday, this seems appropriate!

Chapter 8 - Identity Crisis

There’s no feeling that leaves you quite as vulnerable and helpless as having your identity stolen. A few weeks ago this happened to me. The sad part is, it wasn’t stolen. I gave it away. Like a bumbling idiot I gift-wrapped my identity and merrily handed it to a zit-faced hacker sitting in his mom’s basement. To my credit, the e-mail looked legitimate—the famous last words of many a victim of ID theft. But it did! It was two days before Christmas and I received one of those mass phishing e-mails that looked identical to other PayPal e-mails that I occasionally receive. I followed through with it, thinking that I was doing my duty as a privileged PayPal customer.

The instant I clicked send on the form I knew I had made a mistake. Call it instinct. Call it Firefox instantaneously popping up a bright red warning box with flashing skulls and slogans like “Death to the passerby” and “You idiot, you just funded a nuclear warhead aimed at a small island!”

“Wonderful,” I thought. “It’ll arrive just in time for Christmas!” I held myself close and rocked in the fetal position in the corner of the room.

I gave the world my identity—everything about me—everything important—all of it. It was out there—every bit of it. Nothing hidden. That’s exactly what John wanted. That’s what he wanted people to know about Jesus—everything. Nothing hidden. No misconceptions. This was his number one goal—that no one misses the real identity of Jesus—the ultimate discovery. This was his number one concern—more than my concern that America never loses its love and admiration for The Andy Griffith Show in the wake of reality TV and the I-bet-you-can’t-out-do-this-one mentality of television programming—more than my concern that brown sugar and cinnamon Pop Tarts never go out of production—more than my concern that my kids understand that running around naked in our house is cool, but not so much out in public, and not so much fifteen years from now—more than my concern that my kids never take up playing in traffic as an extreme sport—and more than my concern that my kids never know or at very least never speak the name of the purple singing monstrosity Barney in our house as long as I live. As passionate as I am about those things, John was even more passionate about communicating Jesus’ true identity.

Over and over he reiterated this one essential truth. Again and again John drove home the point that Jesus is the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. And more than that, that Jesus is God wrapped in human flesh.

John 8:58 is a crucial verse in John’s depiction and increasing awareness of who Jesus is:

“Jesus said to them, ‘I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.’”

This is one of the clearest arguments for the deity of Jesus in the entire Bible. By using the title I AM, Jesus very clearly claimed to be God. He claimed for Himself the divine title found throughout the Old Testament.

Spotlights and Supply Watchers

The other day I read 1 Samuel 30 and God rocked my world with it. If you get a chance, check it out, but here’s some quick background so you know where I’m coming from.

The Amalekites invade Ziklag, the city where David’s family lived along with the families of David’s 600 mighty men, while David and his men are away from home. When David gets back to Ziklag, he discovers that his city has been sacked and every woman and child has been taken, including his own wives. Overtaken with vengeance, David and his men quickly begin tracking the assailants through the desert. Through a series of providential events, David’s men locate their enemy, make a thorough annihilation of them, and safely recover every woman and child.

Early on though, 200 of David’s men decide that they need to stay back and guard the supplies while the other 400 take on the Amalekites. As you can imagine, the 400 who defeated the enemy begin feeling like the other 200 don’t deserve to partake in the spoils of their victory, because they weren’t on the front lines. “To the victor go the spoils” becomes the mentality of David’s men, and the 200 were undeserving—so they presumed. But I love David’s response in verses 23-24:

"My brothers, you must not do this with what the LORD has given us. He protected us and handed over to us the raiders who came against us. Who can agree to your proposal? The share of the one who goes into battle is to be the same as the share of the one who remains with the supplies. They will share equally."

The point is not who was on the front lines, the point is what team they were on. The job of the 200 men to guard the supplies was just as important as the 400 who advanced against their enemy. The mentality of much of 21^st century Christianity is exactly this—the front line mentality. The problem is, God hasn’t gifted all of us to be in the spotlight. God didn’t design his body to all perform the same function. The job of the powerpoint clicker in the back of a dark sanctuary is just as important as the job of the worship leader who gets the colored lights and the glaring eyes. The job of the parking lot attendant is just as important as the one who stands to deliver the Word of God. The job of the poop-wiper in the nursery is just as important as those who lead the people of God from a stage or spotlight. I love how Paul put it in Romans 10:4-6.

“Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts.”

It’s all about the grace of God given to us—undeserving sinners who have been redeemed by a God who loves to give gifts to His children. And He gives them liberally, but not identically. So, let us not presume that any of us have any greater gifts or more important gifts than anyone else in the body of Christ. It’s true, some of us are called to the front lines, but others of us are called to guard the supplies.