The Rich Young Ruler and Lukewarm

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In my previous essay, we looked briefly at the letter to the Laodiceans in Revelation (Rev. 3:14-22), and how it described a church that was being chastised for depending on their own resources and abilities rather than depending on God.

This is an easy mistake to make, and Scripture is full of reminders that we need to depend on the Lord.

I believe an example of lukewarm thinking often occurs when we look at Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. In that passage, Jesus makes two statements about the possibility of the rich being saved. To me, this gives us the opportunity to explore where we think the focus should be placed when doing the Lord’s work.

Continue reading “The Rich Young Ruler and Lukewarm” →

Avoiding Laodicea

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The book of Revelation includes a set of letters to churches in which Jesus commends, instructs, and challenges various congregations. One of these is a letter to the church in Laodicea. It is noteworthy as being the only letter in which Jesus has nothing good to say about the church; every other contains some positive comment.

Apparently, the error at Laodicea was bad enough, or important enough, that it left no room for praise.

For some reason, this letter has captivated me as a way to seek understanding of the faith’s shrinking impact today, and have found that meditating on it suggests new opportunities that, at least for myself, may be helpful in challenging ourselves to reach our broken world.

To begin with, here is the text:

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.’
“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ” Revelation 3:14–22 (ESV)

Jesus first reminds the church who is speaking, then immediately describes their problem as being lukewarm – neither hot nor cold. In visceral terms, Jesus warns them that, because of their lukewarmness, He is about to reject them. Therefore, they need to change.

What could be so bad? What is meant by being “lukewarm”?

The picture of lukewarm water comes from the nature of the water supply in Laodicea. Nearby Collosae had springs of cool water, refreshing and good for drinking. Another nearby town, Hierapolis, had hot springs, where the bubbling mineral waters were believed to be good for healing.

Laodicea had neither of these, and so had to bring water from these two towns for its own needs. Remnants of the pipes used for this still exist.

Unfortunately, the water was no longer as good by the time the water made it to Laodicea. The cool water had become warmer, while the hot water had become cooler. Both had become lukewarm, losing much of their original value. They had become useless.

This was the picture that Jesus used to describe Laodicea’s (spiritual) condition. Useless, ineffective, having lost their original usefulness.

But what had caused this?

Jesus described how the Laodiceans thought they had everything they needed, but in reality they were helpless.

In fact, history shows that Laodicea was a wealthy and successful town because of the success of its banking, textile, and medical (specializing in eye salve) industries. They were so well off that, when a major earthquake struck in 60 AD and caused significant damage, the city actually refused help from Rome, preferring to restore the city from their own means.

Given this, what could Jesus mean by saying that they were actually helpless? The answer can be found by looking at the fix that Jesus gave them. In three pictures that paralleled their secular successes, He pointed them back to Himself as the source of what they really needed. In other words, although they thought their secular successes were enough, in reality they needed to be depending on Him.

This isn’t new teaching, of course. Throughout Scripture we are taught that true success comes only from God rather than worldly power or ability (Ps 20:7, Isa 31:1), that we must not rely on our own understanding, trusting instead on God to guide us (Prov 3:5-6). Even our basic needs will be supplied when we seek the kingdom first (Matt 6:33) and walk by faith rather than sight (2 Cor 5:7).

Jesus plainly stated that we can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:5). The admonition to the Laodiceans was really a reminder of this fundamental truth. Perhaps they had become so convinced in their own abilities that they neglected to seek the Lord’s guidance and provision.

After the initial warning, Jesus gave them a list of changes to make, described symbolically. Refined gold, white clothes, and salve for eyes are all Biblical metaphors. As such, there may be multiple interpretations, perhaps representing opportunities to seek for different individual circumstances.

For myself, here are interpretations that have occurred to me.

Refined gold, and riches in general, often refer to wisdom or guidance, and empowerment from the Lord. For example, Paul describes the riches of understanding Christ in us, in whom are treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:2-3). In a practical sense, this can be a reminder of the importance of prayer and being filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Clothing is often a metaphor for our walk, such as fine linen representing the righteous deeds of the saints (Rev 19:8), or when Paul discusses putting off the old self and putting on the new self (Col 3:9-10). So, perhaps Jesus is reminding the Laodiceans that behavior is important. Think of all the admonitions in the various New Testament letters to not walk as the pagans do, that our behavior must set us apart from the lost world.

Sight is often used to represent spiritual sensitivity. Paul said that he looked at the unseen things rather than the seen (2 Cor 4:18), and regarded no one according to the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). Jesus demonstrated this when challenged about eating with sinners, when He described them as needing a physician, clearly describing their spiritual condition (Luke 5:31). Perhaps Jesus was likewise reminding the Laodiceans that they needed to be aware of the spiritual state of those around them (in addition to their own), and to see spiritual needs as well as physical.

So, three possible themes are spiritual wisdom and empowerment, right living, and spiritual sensitivity.

Given that the emphasis of this site is to explore new approaches for evangelism, here are some thoughts about how they might apply, and how I’ve tried to walk in these principles.

An obvious starting point for spiritual wisdom and empowerment is prayer, of course, and we saw in an earlier post how prayer was essential in Jesus’ teaching and to the early church. Similarly, we’ve also seen how the Spirit explicitly empowered people to speak effectively, just as Jesus said He would and as Paul prayerfully sought. So it seems that both of these are aligned with Jesus’ direction.

Right living is a pretty broad category, and while we can all do better, the focus in evangelism may especially include having a good reputation before unbelievers (Matt 5:16, 1 Pet 2:12, Rom 2:23-24) and love of the Brethren (John 17:20-21). The latter seems especially important since Jesus pointed out that our unity would lead the word to believe that He was sent by the Father. As such, it may be that ecumenical activity can be considered evangelistic. For myself, I strive to maintain connections with believers from different churches, even helping out when it makes sense. I’ve found that unbelievers find this sort of activity surprising and very positive.

Lastly, spiritual perspective in evangelism helps us remember to pay attention to people’s spiritual needs, not just their behavior or physical needs. In doing so, we may find that many who are all around us are far from God. This is the perspective discussed in earlier posts on having a spiritual interpretation for the “ends of the Earth”. Personally, I’m trying to develop ways of reaching people who are not reached by the most current evangelism, through completely non-spiritual activities like art and technology.

Again, these pictures from Jesus may best be thought of as tools for seeking direction in our own lives, so different people may come to different conclusions and applications. But for myself, the observations above seem to agree with the other spiritual perspectives that I’ve developed from studying Scripture.

In addition, it seems that these observations may help address some of the limitations I’ve seen in my own involvement with evangelistic activities, perhaps some of which may exist elsewhere and contribute to the growing unprecedented darkness.

  • Prayer, although sometimes involved, is rarely persistent or nearly as based on Biblical principles as when praying for ourselves.
  • We are often taught approaches that are highly scripted, rather than taught to seek the Spirit’s leading for each encounter. Things like sharing our testimony, quoting the Roman road, using canned gospel scripts, and so on, run the risk of quenching the Spirit when compared to seeking His guidance for each encounter, as evident in Scripture.
  • The common approach of inviting people to church, rather than inviting them into the kingdom, in my experience quickly narrows the audience to those who are already comfortable with Christianity at some level, definitely not those who are far from God.
  • The growing importance of church political involvement, essentially bringing the kingdom through worldly power, often ends up estranging those outside the faith such that even mention of Christianity becomes a barrier to sharing the gospel.
  • Focusing on physical ministry without addressing people’s spiritual needs not only limits the audience to those for whom we can minister with worldly means, it teaches that God’s love is essentially the same as the world’s love.
  • The historical trend to isolate different denominations and even different congregations, has led to a perception of Christianity as a shattered group of people, rather than a unified whole.

I don’t know how common these are, but they do seem to come up regularly. Also, when considering the message to the Laodiceans, they seem like good examples of relying on worldly power, wisdom, and perspectives, instead of Jesus.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20:7 (ESV)

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! Isaiah 31:1 (ESV)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

for we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 (ESV)

that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2–3 (ESV)

it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Revelation 19:8 (ESV)

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:9–10 (ESV)

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18 (ESV)

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 2 Corinthians 5:16 (ESV)

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Luke 5:31 (ESV)

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)

You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Romans 2:23–24 (ESV)

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:20–21 (ESV)

Prayers for Evangelism

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As we’ve discussed different aspects of sharing the message of the kingdom in this blog, we’ve seen over and over the importance of keeping a spiritual perspective. Seeing the need around us and seeking the Spirit’s empowerment to speak to that need, it becomes clear that we cannot rely on just human ability. This is especially clear when we see today’s growing darkness and begin to appreciate the need for additional approaches.

Looking to Jesus for guidance, notice that when He saw the great need around Him, His response was to point the disciples to prayer. Responding in obedience, we can start by considering the Scriptures, and as is often the case, we can start with the Lord’s Prayer.

In doing so, we find that the first request in the prayer is for God’s kingdom to come. There are multiple aspects to this, ranging from personal spiritual growth to the full establishment of God’s kingdom here on Earth at Christ’s return. One specific aspect would be a desire to see people come into the family of God now, because this is one way that God’s kingdom comes – by the arrival of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life.

Jesus focused His disciples this way when He responded to the great spiritual need around Him by telling them to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest. He did this during His own preaching, just before sending out the twelve, and then again when sending out the 72.

The disciples also echo this sentiment later when they asked for boldness in Acts 4 – basically combining obedience to the Lord with Isaiah’s “send me” heart. In addition, Paul sought prayer for his own evangelistic ministry on several occasions.

Overall, the need to pray for the work of proclaiming the kingdom is taught by Jesus, commanded by Jesus, and modeled by the disciples. It seems good to make this a deliberate part of any kingdom growth strategy.

In my experience, it’s fairly common to include prayer for missions, for evangelistic programs, and for specific people in our lives. However, I think that there is an opportunity to add an element of directed prayer modeled on specific Scriptural principles.

For example, since Jesus told us several times that we should pray for people to be sent out, and especially since this is the only such prayer that He specifically commanded, then we should obey it.

Similarly, since Jesus said that the Father would give us words to pray when speaking of the kingdom, and Paul specifically asked for that in his letters, it would be appropriate for us to pray for this ourselves.

In fact, there are a number of similar specific things we could pray about regarding evangelism that I plan to develop in this blog. Here is a preliminary list of possible topics:

  • That the Father would send people into the field (Matt 9:37, Luke 10:2).
  • That, in particular, we would be sent, echoing Isaiah’s heart (Isa 6:8).
  • That the Spirit would speak through us and give us effective words (Matt 10:20, Luke 12:12, Eph 6:19).
  • That we would be given boldness (Acts 4:29 & 31, Eph 6:20).
  • That, like Stephen, the Spirit would give us words that cannot be withstood (Acts 6:10).
  • That we would be given the ability to speak in ways that our listeners can understand, as the Spirit did at Pentecost (Acts 2:11).
  • That we would have servants’ hearts to become whatever is needed to reach others (1 Cor 9:19-23).
  • For wisdom from above in order to exhibit purity, peace, gentleness, openness, mercy and good fruits (James 3:17).
  • That our eyes would be open to people’s spiritual needs (Matt 9:10-13, Mark 2:15-17, 2 Cor 4:18, 5:16).
  • That God’s kingdom would come in people’s hearts and His will would be done in their lives (Matt 6:10).
  • That we would exhibit unity, and that such unity would indicate to the world that the Father has sent Jesus (John 17:21).
  • That God would open doors for the word, to clearly declare Christ as we should (Col 4:3-4).
  • That the word of the Lord would go out and be honored (2 Th 3:1).
  • That we would be delivered from wicked and evil people (2 Th 3:2).
  • That God would work in people’s lives to reveal Himself to them (Acts 4:30).
  • That he would save even those who seem hard-hearted (Mark 10:25-27, Acts 4:34-35).

Each of these could be developed into a devotional, and praying them regularly, especially as part of evangelism work, seems good.

Leaders and the Ends of the Earth

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There is a spiritual darkness, a spiritual hunger, growing in our culture today and our religious institutions seem unable to address it. The reasons for this are various and only partly known, but we clearly need a new effort to go into the darkness and declare the light.

Unfortunately, it often seems that our religious organizations are even holding us back. The effort needed to keep organizations running smoothly keeps leaders focused inward, which is natural. The leaders, in turn, keep the lay believers focused inward. Unfortunately, this all works in opposition to the “go” mindset. Even when churches reach out, they do so from an organizational perspective.

For example, a lot of outreach consists of inviting people into church. Such invitations may be to religious services or largely secular activities designed to be welcoming and attractive to non-Christians. This is not the same as sending people from church into the darkness, however. Consider that the ways spiritual truths are shared almost always use Christian terminology and often even Scripture, which is not the way people share ideas in the darkness.

As we’ve seen elsewhere, there is a need to reach those who are spiritually furthest from church. They probably will not respond to invitations, have little interest in learning about Christianity (the religion), and so on. They may well need to be brought into a relationship with God before finding a church, and the best church for them may not be the one associated with whoever led them to God.

Thus, those furthest from God (at the spiritual ends of the Earth) are not good targets for typical organizational outreach efforts. In addition, leaders are so focused on the organizations that they seem not to recognize the need to send their people out. Rather than encourage individual seeking, they encourage passive listening to in-church teachings that continue to focus internally.

In a sense, I think something similar is pictured in Acts. When the persecution started after Stephen’s death, the apostles stayed in Jerusalem while the other believers scattered, preaching the word as they went. In other words, in the face of persecution, they redoubled their efforts to spread the gospel (Acts 8:1-4).

This continued until these believers reached areas that were far from Judea, both physically and spiritually. The final breakthrough to people completely separate from God occurred in Antioch, through the ministry of these unknown believers (Acts 11:19).

So, the picture seems to be of the leaders focusing on keeping the church healthy, while the lay believers focus on witnessing of Jesus.

Some of the things I’ve read about the early church also seem to echo this. Writings of the church fathers seem often to do with organizational matters, doctrine, liturgy, and so on. Things that are (rightly and necessarily) focused on keeping the church healthy, but not necessarily growing the kingdom.

On the other hand, one of the earliest clear apologetic writings is by an unknown author (The Letter to Diognetus), apparently a lay believer who simply felt the need to share the gospel clearly with someone who needed to hear it.

To be sure, there are numerous stories of the apostles spreading the gospel in different regions, but these extra-Biblical accounts seem to be exceptions, rather than the rule.

Whether these observations of the early church are correct or not, it does seem that the reality today is that current organizations, and the people who lead them, are not interested in reaching far into the darkness. This leaves an opportunity for lay believers to make that journey, just as happened in Acts.

Revisiting the “Ends of the Earth”

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In Jesus’ final appearance before His ascension, He described how the Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to be His witnesses all over the world, starting in Jerusalem. The well-known sequence in Acts 1:8 of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the Earth is used to describe how we should be taking the gospel progressively outward all over the world. It is often used today to encourage Christians to participate, or at least support, evangelism that goes out from wherever they are.

This use of the passage takes its physical meaning, but it is also sometimes used figuratively by applying it to cultural, relational, racial, or economic differences. The idea is to reach those who are different from ourselves, rather than those who are far distant from ourselves. Note that in either case, we place ourselves at the center of the sequence.

This essay considers a different way of looking at the sequence by placing God at the center and thinking of the sequence as a series of spiritual steps. I hope that this perspective can shed new light on ways to reach the growing darkness in today’s world.

To start with, it’s good to recognize that Acts describes the fulfillment of Jesus’ sequence in a physical sense. Evangelism started in Jerusalem, then spread to other regions of Judea, eventually getting to Samaria, and eventually to regions far from Judea. That is the most direct, literal interpretation.

However, it doesn’t really make sense to follow the same physical sequence today since the same countries and regions don’t exist and Christianity has already spread far from Jerusalem. Instead, the sequence is generally applied either by placing ourselves at the center instead of Jerusalem, or by taking the sequence figuratively.

When we place ourselves at the center of a physical interpretation, the ends of the Earth become places that are far from ourselves or our church. For example, for a church in America, that might mean going to Africa. But for a church in Africa, that might mean going to America. The point seems to be to get far from home.

If we take the sequence figuratively, then we often interpret it to mean we should reach people who are different from ourselves in some characteristic. The difference may be cultural, racial, economic, or any number of other ways we describe groups of people. So a wealthy church may reach out to the poor, or intellectuals may be sent to the uneducated, and so on. Once again, this generally places ourselves at the center.

Going back to Scripture, we find that the term “ends of the Earth” is also sometimes used figuratively. It’s often used in the Old Testament to describe places far from Israel, but also sometimes refers to Gentiles without regard for their location.

In fact, Paul uses a quote from Isaiah 49:6 in exactly that way. It mentions God’s salvation going to the ends of the Earth, and Paul applied it to reaching Gentiles instead of Jews. In other words, what Paul seemed to be focusing on was people’s spiritual state, not their physical location.

Paul’s quote seems to be from the Septuagint, which is commonly how the Old Testament was quoted in the New Testament writings. Interestingly, Jesus used exactly that Greek phrasing in Acts 1:8, even though He used other terms in the Gospel accounts that are also commonly translated “ends of the Earth”. In other words, Jesus used different wording in Acts than He used anywhere else, and that different wording matched the Septuagint translation for the Isaiah passage that Paul used.

Could it be that Jesus also intended His sequence to describe spiritual states in addition to physical ones? It’s hard to be sure from such a brief statement, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time His statements often had layered meaning with spiritual undertones.

At the very least, it seems reasonable to take a spiritual perspective like Paul. In that case, the phrase “ends of the Earth” refers to those far from God, having no relationship with Him at all, perhaps even hostile to Him. There are certainly people all around us in that category today. In other words, we don’t need to travel to encounter the ends of the Earth, we just need to be aware of people’s spiritual states.

Note that this interpretation not only has us focus on the spiritual, it places God at the center of the discussion, rather than ourselves. What becomes important is their relationship to Him, rather than their relationship to us.

An interesting followup question is to ask whether there are equivalent meanings to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Going back to Paul’s encounter in Acts 13 again, we see three groups of people mentioned before he turns to the Gentiles (a fourth group). They are Jews, proselytes (converts to Judaism) and God-fearers (people who respect or worship god without fully converting). In some ways, these match the physical sequence:

  • Jerusalem is the city of David, the center of Jewish religion. So it most clearly matches pure Jews.
  • Judea was the greater Jewish nation, still focused on God but with a greater involvement with secular activities. This nicely matches the group of people who, although converted to Judaism, were not necessarily culturally Jewish.
  • Samaria was the region of mixture, where Judaism had blended with surrounding cultures, keeping some aspects of the religion but not purely Jewish. As such, it matches the mixed nature of people who fear God but haven’t completely committed to Judaism and likely still live as Gentiles.

There are probably many ways these can be aligned to today’s world. For example, Jerusalem may represent devoted Christians who are deeply involved with church (a center of religious activity). Judea may represent people who are Chrisitan but not involved with traditional religious activities. Samaria might then represent those who are spiritual, perhaps like some aspects of Christianity, maybe even attend some church events if invited, but don’t describe themselves as Christians.

These categories probably are not that important, but thinking through them helps us learn to see people with eyes of faith rather than eyes of flesh.

One initial observation with this perspective is that those at the “ends of the Earth” may have little to no interest in attending church events. Given the prevalence of Christianity in our culture, they often feel they have enough exposure and without any relationship with God, have no interest in changing that. As such, we need to make more deliberate efforts to go to them. This, then, raises a series of questions about how to evangelize people who have no interest in church or Christian activities.

In other words, while it’s easy for those immersed in church-based faith activities to settle with an invitation-based strategy, Jesus call to go to the ends of the Earth should make us realize that this will not work for everyone, may actually be working less and less effectively over time, and that we need to deliberately go to people who are far from God.

I think this spiritual structure can lead to other insights and challenge us to look for new approaches. At least, it has for me.

The Importance of Evangelism

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The way of the Lord is justice and righteousness, summarized by Jesus as loving God and our neighbor. This is to be our nature as members of God’s family, and this theme is repeated throughout Scripture. However, the Old Testament also makes it clear that legalism cannot create such kingdom people – we need transformed hearts, a new covenant. Legalism relies on human ability, but the prophets looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would fulfill God’s promises through the power of God.

Continue reading “The Importance of Evangelism” →

Sharing the Gospel with the Spirit’s Words

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As described earlier, the Spirit led people to speak the gospel in ways that listeners needed, and He gave them power for the task.. Another way to picture this is as two different ways of speaking – words powered by human abilities, and words powered by the Spirit. The events at Pentecost showed people being given power from the Spirit, but He also continued to enable them to speak effectively after that.

For example, Peter boldly stood before the crowd at Pentecost and proclaimed Jesus even though he previously shrank from even being associated with Him. Such boldness continued as he confronted the very Jewish leaders who had earlier intimidated him. It also empowered other believers when they prayed for boldness in Acts 4, and the result was that they were filled with the Spirit and spoke the word boldly (v 31).

In another aspect of the Spirit’s power, Peter’s bold speech not only communicated well, it touched the hearts of his listeners (Acts 2:37). In a similar manner, Stephen, filled with the Spirit, later spoke such that his opponents “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10).

Both of these are clear examples of the Spirit empowering believers to speak the gospel effectively, but there are many more. The power to go, to speak prophetically, to speak beyond one’s station, to live aligned to the words spoken, to refute opposition, to speak in love and with Godly wisdom, and so on.

References to these things run throughout Scripture once you look for them, but one of the clearest statements is when Paul is reinforcing the Thessalonian’s faith and recounting how they had originally come to salvation through Paul’s words. He described them as accepting his message as the word of God rather than the word of man, and that it was at work in their lives (1 Th 2:13).

It seems that we can proclaim the gospel in many ways, but for people to accept it as the word of God, it must be shared with the Spirit’s power rather than just human wisdom and abilities. Then it can work in their lives.

Speaking with the Spirit’s power doesn’t guarantee success, but we still need to seek His help to reach into the darkness of today’s world. We still need the power from on high that Jesus promised.

Speaking in Power

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In a previous post, I described how the Spirit enabled the early church to speak in ways needed to proclaim the Gospel. Jesus had foretold that the Father would give words to be spoken and the miracle at Pentecost was a sign of that starting. Paul recognized this and asked for prayer, and Scripture gives many other examples of how the Spirit enabled the early church to adapt the word to different contexts.

However, I think that using words that communicate effectively was just one manifestation of the “power from on high” that Jesus promised and when He told them that they would receive Holy Spirit power to be His witness all over the world (Acts 1:8).

When that happened at Pentecost, Peter boldly stood before the crowd and proclaimed Jesus, even though he previously shrank from even being associated with Him. Such boldness would continue as he confronted the very Jewish leaders who had earlier intimidated him, and it would also empower other believers (Acts 4:31).

Peter’s bold speech not only communicated well, it touched the hearts of his listeners (Acts 2:37). In a similar manner, Stephen would later speak such that his opponents “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10).

Clear communication, boldness, speaking to the heart, and standing against opponents were just the beginning of ways the Spirit would empower believers to spread the word. Scripture shows that they would be spiritually sent, spiritually guided, speak beyond their stations, speak in Godly wisdom, speak in love, speak words of knowledge, and so on. All of these were empowered by the Holy Spirit, continuing the process that began at Pentecost.

Speaking in power would now compliment the “power and authority” to perform miracles that Jesus had previously given the disciples (Luke 9:1). Since they are both expressions of God’s power, it seems easy to confuse them. In particular, our modern mindset separates the spiritual and the material in a way that was not common in the first century. Because of this, we may interpret ambiguous passages in a way that assigns physical manifestations where it was not meant, and vice versa. Therefore, we need to be careful to distinguish the type of power at work when reading Scripture.

While this brief essay describes speaking in power, there is still an opportunity to seek God further about its representation in Scripture and the various ways it is manifested. In doing so, we can open the door for Him to work through us today.

Developing a Spiritual Pointer Called “Whole Reality”

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As I’ve sought the Lord about new spiritual insights for sharing the Gospel over the years, one concept has consistently been forefront as an example of the principles: virtual reality photography. Not as something perfect to be copied, but something different to help me seek. Prayerfully working with it, both online and as a witnessing tool, has shown how new approaches can open doors that have been closed to conventional witnessing.

Studying apologetics has also shown some new ways that this way of grabbing people’s attention can be used to point to the Gospel. Bringing these insights together, I hope to rebuild the experimental efforts that I used over the last decade into a next step.

It starts with the idea that we need to get people’s attention, and does so with a particular type of photography. We need to point to the spiritual without necessarily being explicit about it at the beginning. This is done through the use of metaphor, symbolism, and so on, and the goal is to enhance the link to the spiritual through writing, although the initial content is intended to engage people with concepts that they already find interesting – their “unknown gods” – and point them to deeper consideration.

Like Paul’s efforts in the Athenian marketplace, this hopefully leads them to want more. That deeper content, more directly spiritual and leading to the cross, would be presented in a different site called “Kelvin’s Clouds”.

There are two reasons for keeping Kelvin’s Clouds separate. First, due to the post-Christian nature of our society, I think we need to be careful about introducing spiritual concepts, especially Christian, right away. A separate site allows Whole Reality to engage people with abstract ideas without immediately triggering any anti-religious sentiments.

Second, there may be other ways to bring people to the content being developed for Kelvin’s Clouds, and it may be best to not confuse those paths with what to some is a rather obscure photographic interest.

At any rate this is the initial plan. Whole Reality is described below.

Comments are more than welcome.

Whole Reality is an exploration of the art and craft of spherical photography* and its use to convey ideas and emotion. This is common with some types of standard photography such as fine art, abstract, and so on, but is much less common with spherical photos.

Instead, spherical photos are normally used to provide viewers with a “you are there” experience by allowing them to look around a scene in any direction. Examples include Google StreetView, showing real estate or hotel rooms, and making immersive games. These applications are useful and fun, but still leave plenty of room for new artistic expressions.

As a result, there’s an opportunity for new thinking to develop this capability.

To start with, some existing photography genres use techniques that can be adapted to spherical photography. So a key opportunity is to learn techniques that can be adapted to spheres – the way images are composed to express ideas, how colors and lighting are used to evoke emotion, how symbolism can be used to communicate ideas, and so on. Exploring these ideas in spherical photography involves first understanding and practicing standard photography.

There may also be possibilities that work only with spherical photography. For example, making prints that are not flat, finding ways to experience spheres other than just panning around, and making standard photo prints come alive with virtual content. In fact, the connection between standard and spherical photography is another reason why regular photography is part of this work.

The results may still be beautiful, but also interactive, surprising, eye-opening, and fun. They can encourage us to consider more than just a fixed view, illustrating the value of looking around and paying more attention to the world around us.

While it is valuable to learn to see more, the ultimate goal is to learn to understand more. The vision-expanding nature of spherical photography is also useful for exploring things like the nature of consciousness and self, reality and transcendence, beauty and perception, and connections (especially human). Many of these are ideas that stretch the limits of rational thought and therefore benefit from being explored through art.

Much of this seems to be uncharted territory, so to a large extent it represents a journey rather than a well-known destination. Nevertheless, I hope there are plenty of interesting and useful things to share.

* Also called “virtual reality photography”, “VR photography”, “360 photography”, “Photo Spheres”, and more.