Bullets for the Battle

The Bullet of the Christ Life (Part 1)

A Rationale for Living

The Lord Jesus sadly declared that the incredible life He offered to mankind would be found by only a few (Mat. 5:13-14)! To discover the small gate and narrow path to His Light demands precise following (John 8:12). My vision for Ventures is to be a ministry “to the few” in hopes they will “impact the many” with the “precision secrets” of the Christ Life. I must quickly add that I consider anyone who is hungry for more of Jesus to be numbered among “the few.”

In every generation our Lord has raised up men and women to stir the fire at the heart of His radical message (Luke 3:16; 12:49). Veterans of the cross must tell the generations following (Ps. 89:1). Comprehending what many have called “the Christ Life” is the highest path that will enable the honest and hungry Disciple to break free from the “devil’s circle” of boredom, routine, mirage, frustration, pretense, failure, legalism, powerlessness, lethargy, shallowness, rebellion, deception and depression.

These pathologies have defeated multitudes of Christians. Still, church history witnesses to a genuine and overcoming remnant who entered the advanced dimension of “father spirituality”! At Ventures we call this the Z-Life … the pursuit of living the Christ Life at its highest level (I John 2:12-14; Rev. 1:8). Children learn the ABC’s of the faith while adults sort out the MNOP’s of taking up the cross. Only the fathers and mothers who know that everything is “in Christ” are most fully prepared to live out the XYZ’s of their own servant vision. Their primary passion in life is to understand and follow the Servant of Heaven … Jesus! (Luke 22:27) Remember the Savior’s words, “I Am among you as one who serves!”

My goal is to impact Disciples with the seed truth of “advanced Christianity.” Foundational and anointed insights are being honed, graphed and rephrased into a fresh strategy for “precision discipleship.” Our Ventures mission is to excite and enable everyone we can to “put” all of their thoughts and circumstances “in Christ”! To do so is to endure and conquer the agonies and ecstasies of existence and to reign in life by being an overcomer! (Rom. 5:17). Our lives can be dominated by “grace sweetness” if we learn to keep stirring the bitter waters of earth with the cross (Ex. 15:23-27). If we authentically call out to Christ as our only deliverer, He will answer us, as He did Moses. The Redeemer will show us immediately the cross (tree) we are to take and use to overcome our crisis.

A Revelation of Life

But what is the essential Christ Life? It is for us to be awed increasingly by the purpose of Christ being “in you” and of your being “in Christ”! It is to experience in your inner self all you can of what He experienced in His inner self while He walked the earth. It is to learn and absorb from every idea, relationship, event or situation … good or bad … something more about our Lord’s wisdom, intentions, suffering and joy! It is to realize how God is taking everything messed up on earth and putting it back together for His eternal purposes. It is the stunning realization of the brilliant and wondrous Person the Lord Jesus must be! It is to be amazed at what He has to endure to bring His love promises to fallen and arrogant people like us. It is to know Him … confidently, intimately, ecstatically … and the power of His constant rebounding resurrection (Phil. 3:11). It is to join the Godhead in the dream and the drama of highest vision as you achieve your zenith ambitions as a new creation in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:17).

In summary, it is to increasingly discover “in Christ” the why and how of what the Father created and redeemed you to be and is now perfecting you to become (Eph. 3:10-11; Heb. 10:14)! The key word in this discovery is “identification.” The more we experientially identify with all that Jesus taught, did and endured, the more we possess for ourselves the same kind of life He lived while He walked the earth. It is my conviction that the most immediate and direct path to making this revelation real in one's life is the process I call “Triune Thinking.”

It is my conviction that the most immediate and direct path to making this revelation real in one's life is the process I call “Triune Thinking.”

A Resultant Called the Christ Life

What are our conclusions about this “in Christ” reality? The clearest insight would be the Apostle Paul’s witness in Philippians 4:11-13, “I have learned the secret of what it means to be sufficient and adequate for every circumstance I encounter. I have been initiated in ‘how to be enough’ for all the things that challenge me … and I overcome them by my ‘in Christ’ empowering!” As authentic Disciples, facing the deceitful offerings of a fallen world, we will do well to heed the counsel of an insightful French philosopher, “Nothing is enough unless you are enough!” The conclusion … I am only enough when I am convinced that Christ “in me” is enough!

Your Purpose and Mine

Once we begin to identify our Christ Life connection we more resolutely embark on our adventure of earthly and cosmic purpose … for Him, for others and for ourselves (Eph. 2:10, 4:32). That destiny is rooted in our Lord’s thoughts in John 20:21. “If you truly love the Father then go into the world just as He sent Me and repeat My Life!” Can this stunning and staggering command be fulfilled by the sorry likes of you and me? Evidently yes! The Savior does not command us “to do” unless He knows we “can do.” But only if we are becoming masters of the Christ Life! Only if we capture the passion of Isaiah 6:1-13 … to see … to cry … to go! Our goal is not to do it all … we can’t … but we can aim at doing “enough.”

Our Ventures passion is to be a precise and strong voice to the Father’s people! We trust our efforts will compellingly illustrate the centrality and magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ to all who will listen! Daily … hourly … even minute by minute … we can be recipients of His Promised Presence in every earthly circumstance!

Dear friends, it is the pursuit of the “Christ Life” alone that will awaken us to all life can be. It is only “in Christ” that the pull of the impossible will take your life beyond itself. To “put” all you are “in Him” is the risk each of us must take to find our true self created and recreated in the Godhead’s likeness! Christ Life living is to continuously lose ourselves for Jesus’ sake and become participants in the wonder and thrill of the Kingdom Purposes of God, “To lose your life for My Life is to save your life …” (Luke 9:23-27). “Triune Thinking” is our best tool on “fixing” how to lose our life for His!