Saturday, March 17, 2007

Who Is A Fanatic?

I am still reading the book After God's Own Heart in that I am also reading other books at the same time. Here is something interesting I read yesterday.
"The definition of a fanatic is someone who loves Jesus more than you do. Fiery lifestyles disrupt religious people. Religious systems and people resist abandonment because it threatens their stability and power. There are few radical believers in the Western church today, and yet people who drink from the well of Western values are greatly offended by these passionate, sold out believers. It unnerves them. They feel judged by the lifestyle. They don't like the "in-your-face" prophetic statement that an abandoned lifestyle makes. Like David's family, they want to write you off so they can soothe their consciences and settle down into business as usual without disruptions.
Fearless, wholehearted believers will be in the majority before the Lord returns. But on the way there, in the years that lie ahead, there will be great unsettledness in the body of Christ as radical fasting-and praying believers upset the status quo. These people are no better than anyone else; they don't form a new spiritual elite. (They will be hungrier, but not better!) But they will cause all kinds of turbulence for a few decades as they go after their goal with great zeal even in their weakness. Others will feel judged. People will transfer their anger and bitterness toward God to these believers.
So be warned: contending for the power of God with intimacy is disruptive. You will be confronted and criticized for your lifestyle. Beloved, the people of God in our culture and in this time of history will not all applaud your consuming zeal for Jesus. A fiery life provokes fire in return-even friendly fire from family and acquaintances. They will come up with theological, emotional, and relational arguments to write you off. You will feel the stigma placed on you, and you will bear the reproach that David and John the Baptist bore."


Wow! I think I want to be "guilty" of that!

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