“Better is a little with the fear of the LORD Than great treasure and turmoil with it.”
Proverbs 15:16 NASB
What does it look like to “fear the Lord” today?
With this post I will attempt to translate “the fear of the Lord” into 2018 American English.
A man or woman who fears the Lord never takes the things of Jesus Christ lightly. Never disregards him or what she knows he wants.
When what he wants smashes against public opinion, tradition, routine, mood, or attitude. She lets him win out thoroughly and quickly.
She is intense about Jesus, not about her status within her church , not about anyone else, not about being religiously fulfilled. But she is intense about pleasing and surrendering to the person of Jesus Christ.
She may even get accused of being obsessed or overly into Jesus.
She is indifferent, laxidasical, and disregards anyone’s personal ambitions, desires and ways that interfere with those of Jesus Christ. Including and most especially her own.
Frank Viola’s books and ministry have opened up a new glimpse of Jesus Christ to me in the past 3 years. His new book Insurgence continues that process so I wanted to share it with my readers.
This book (and post) is about the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The revolutionary news that Jesus is this world’s true king. This good news has powerful implications. Implications which can infuriate many, it uproots and overturns societies like nothing else. It truly is an insurgence to end all insurgencies.
The gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is so beyond, so radical, so much larger than what is being preached in most ministries today. It is almost an entirely different message.
If you don’t normally read books this book is not like others. Frank broke the book into a blog post style which makes it very easy to read, set down to process, and think about, then pick up again when you are ready.
I write the book I myself want to read but cannot find. INSURGENCE is a book that does the following:
* presents the gospel of the kingdom comprehensively from Genesis to Revelation. (Not just “the kingdom” but “the gospel of the kingdom”).
* declare the message without any agenda for the progressive left or the conservative right (the gospel of the kingdom cannot fit into either).
* present the material in a highly accessible and easy-to-read manner so that a high school can understand as well as scholars and theologians (due to the depth).
* give practical exercise to navigate readers to implement the message into their own lives and churches.
* give an update on the present Insurgence that’s sweeping the world.
Because I couldn’t find one book that did all of those things, I wrote INSURGENCE: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom (landing page at http://Insurgence.org with samples and reviews by scholars, theologians, pastors, etc.).
I address this in the book itself, but they are the same gospel. The gospel of the kingdom stresses the kingship of Jesus and its massive implications while the gospel of salvation emphasis the Lord’s deliverance from the world system, the flesh, the grip of the devil, and God’s judgment. They are two sides of the same incredible gospel message.
There are many. Here are two examples from two seasoned leaders:
“I have written about fifty books, read hundreds—maybe thousands IN MY 83 years. “INSURGENCE” IS THE ONE BOOK YOU MUST READ! It is everything I believe, said much better than I am graced to say it. You ask me what I believe. I will respond: “What he said!” To all of my beloved friends and fellows who are diligently laboring for reformation, restoration and revival: “Your efforts will be unfruitful apart from the kingdom foundation clearly laid out in Frank Viola’s new book.” During the entire time of reading this book my spirit has been vibrating like a tuning fork that has just been struck!”
And another:
I am finding this book to be singularly unique among the thousands I own. I am ¾ the way done and the timing of this book for me personally has the Lord’s fingerprints all over it. In many ways, it has encouraged. But it has also devastated me. Quite honestly, I’m undone in many ways.
Like Sam, the Lord has used the book to highlight and clarify issues of worldliness in my own life. Some of those issues were obvious to me and I have desired liberation. Some were more subterranean and the Light has invaded. For three weeks now, I have been seriously mulling the idea that I should get baptized again because of the light dispensed by this book. And I plan on it. I want to. I was not aware as a new believer of the totality of what being in Christ meant. One cannot say that after reading Insurgence.
I am encouraged that such “a word” was permitted to issue to the Body of Christ because it can only mean that the Lord is ready to do something. Something I have been longing for both personally and for the Body. I don’t feel that it will be a sweeping worldwide phenomena global (the best and truest moves of God never are) but I do think it can affect pockets of believers globally. That will be enough to please His heart.
This book threads a very precarious needle where others have tried and missed the mark. It is almost impossible to write a book like this without some measure of legalism creeping in. Yet, the tightrope wire is successfully crossed in Insurgence. This is a book that will smoke out the libertine and legalist hiding in plain sight in each of our hearts.
My prayer for myself is: “Lord please don’t let this word go wasted in my life. Have mercy, I am desperate! It is an appointed hour in my life. Please don’t let this be another good book that moved me merely while I was reading it and for a week two beyond that. DO SOMETHING in my heart! Something permanent. Something irrevocable. Something eternal. Something that brings pleasure to your heart. Something that meets your need in this hour. Something that moves the boundary markers of your Kingdom forward! Something that is fully in synch with your Eternal Purpose!”
I pray it may be so for all of us.
I am receiving emails like this daily from readers. Profoundly honoring and hugely humbling.
People can learn more at http://Insurgence.org
NEW! – Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom – Join the Insurgence
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