Emergent Hearts

One of the series Mike did here at the College church in the 80's was "Righteousness Inside Out". The whole series caused me to have a paradigm shift in my concept of righteousness! It completely blew me away, along with several hundred other families and thousands of college students. It was a study of the "Sermon on the Mount" and the foundational verse was Matthew 5:20 "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven". Mike got in our face (it was ok because we knew he loved us) and made us realize Jesus was more concerned with who we were BECOMING as opposed to what we were DOING. He affirmed to us that God is not calling us to do more Holy THINGS, he is calling us to a deeper relationship with Him that will result in DEEPER HOLINESS. You don't have righteousness by doing, it is imputed to you by becoming. It rocked my world, because Jesus always does, doesn't he?

As I indicated, that study impacted a lot of individual lives......and I think it is safe to say it impacted that fellowship, and therefore this whole community. Jesus always does, doesn't he?

Greg Taylor's post on his blog yesterday and Chris Gonzalez's post today concerning the "Emergent" church caused me to reflect back on "righteousness inside out" and how it looks as a body of believers who are committed to BECOMING........ transformed. Put any name on it you want to, but that is a group I want to be a part of. So did Paul. "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, BECOMING like him in his death, so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Emphasis mine. Paul wanted to be transformed with a righteousness from within. He had a close encounter with Jesus, and his life was changed. Jesus always does, doesn't he?