Luke Larner is second half of a "Jesus Freak" couple based in the South of England. His wife is Jeni and they are based at Redbourn in Hertfordshire, but moving into Luton. Luke is currently working part-time and is devoting himself to studying Theology, Mission and Ministry on the CMS Pioneer course, and setting up a fresh expression of Church among the poor and marginalised in Luton. Jennifer is a support worker at Azalea (www.azalea.org), a Christian charity helping women exit sexual exploitation through God's Love. For more info you can visit www.theroadsidemusings.com
I asked Luke a few weeks ago if he would be a guest blogger and posed him a question.... "What does it mean to you to be a Jesus Freak"? in a real dynamic way this is what he said.
It was late summer in 1999 when Jesus exploded into my life like an atom bomb. The air of excitement and expectation for the new millennium couldn't light a candle to the inferno of passion in my heart in those days. Words from old scriptures and hymns I remembered as a kid suddenly came alive:
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see!"
The world around me seemed alive with new possibilities, and I was desperate to share this Good News with anyone who would listen (and some who wouldn't).
At times I look back on those days with both fondness and a pang of regret, that at times I've let the suffocating nature of life in the west choke those flames. But God is as faithful in the valley as on the mountaintop.
I used to listen to a track called 'Jesus Freak' by a Christian group called 'DC Talk' with my best mate, who was the first one to drag me kicking and screaming back to Church. One verse from the song stands out as a reflection of our growing faith at the time:
"Kamikaze, my death be his gain
I've been marked by my Maker
A peculiar display
The high and lofty, they see me as weak
But I won't live and die for the power they seek"
We grew up putting posters on our wall of Kurt Cobain with the words 'Justice is a rock in a cop's face' written on his guitar. For me the heart of following Jesus has always been counter-cultural, and God took our rebellion and disillusionment and redirected it. Having parents involved in local government gave me a perspective of the injustice all around me, and as I started to devour the Bible as a new Christian I begun to find answers and new questions to pursue. The incarnation of Jesus as the word made flesh has always been an important concept for me. Truth is at the heart of all that Jesus stands for, and this was life-altering for me a screwed up teenager.
Fast-forwarding 15 years to the present I have a great fondness looking back at those days. But to resign the passion of my conversion to the naïvety and hormone rushes of youth is something I simply cannot do. Over the short years I have followed Jesus in a quest of faith I have seen so much which reinforces the rebellious and counter-cultural heart of my early faith. From witnessing abject poverty on 'mission' in Third World countries to the bigotry and racism still so present among the right-wing evangelicals of the Deep South my heart's cry is that another world must be possible.
And this point things can get hard for the rebel in me. See, a cursory glance at the Bible to see the heroes of the faith and the close group of friends Jesus gathered around him lends me to believe that God quite likes rebels, freaks and outcasts. In his own blood-line was the prostitute Rahab, and one of Jesus' disciples was a member of a revolutionary paramilitary cell which would put Hamas to shame. But the natural progression in faith for rebels is discipleship. Jesus uses us rebels because we are not invested in the world, we want change. But a life of constant rebellion and self-determination does not lead to lasting change - the 60s taught us that. Jesus calls us freaks to a life of self-denial, to lay down our own lives in hope of the world to come.
"Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me." (Mark 8:34 NLT)'
So back to the question, "What does it mean to you to be a Jesus Freak?".
It starts with a rejection of things as they stand, a rebellion, and leads to chasing God in a life laid down for him, for the poor and lost, for truth and justice. It means a rebellious discipline which undermines our selfish 'me' focused culture. It means an expression of community - a community of freaks on fire to change the world. What does it mean to be a Jesus Freak? - As Pete Greig put it in his wonderful writing, 'The Vision':
It starts with a rejection of things as they stand, a rebellion, and leads to chasing God in a life laid down for him, for the poor and lost, for truth and justice. It means a rebellious discipline which undermines our selfish 'me' focused culture. It means an expression of community - a community of freaks on fire to change the world. What does it mean to be a Jesus Freak? - As Pete Greig put it in his wonderful writing, 'The Vision':
"Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner...............Guaranteed."
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner...............Guaranteed."
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