Jesus isn’t a Christian

I was capable of womping up something, or subjecting these folks to something I could regurgitate from zondervans latest bestseller list, or better yet grand stand someone else’s living relationship with Christ. All options I just couldn’t bring myself to subject these dear people too.  A few years ago I decided if I was going to stay in vocational Christianity God was going to have to give me the goods, so you can see why I was freaking out… I even came to a point of asking God to give me something… Anything… To keep me from looking like a complete idiot in front of all these leaders. (I was experiencing 400 years of silence squeezed into 24 hours.  I was getting flashbacks of High School, actually hot flashes … Of one morning that I was faced with having to turn in a term paper I hadn’t started yet, of which I had 10 months to work on.)

The morning of this training, I was woken by a dream I had – this is the only time I feel like the Lord spoke to me in a dream, so I was quick to brush it off and put it on the shelf for future contemplation.  I’ve got an hour drive to the auditorium, it was painful… I’m telling God, “ok, if you want me to look like a moron, your coming with me.”

The stage is set, seats occupied, I did have my guitar with me so I did have one stall tactic with me.  We sang a couple songs, it was nice… Then that dream resurfaced in my mind, it’s all I had – if that wasn’t bad enough, I let everyone else know that’s all i had.

“I had a dream this morning, I saw God wearing an outfit with your logo on it, God’s head was a bright light, I saw the arms of your jacket raise up to where a face would be, shafts of light that represented arms were shooting out past the sleeves… It was too small –  so he took the jacket off. Showing me God doesn’t work for your ministry, I saw him wearing the jacket of Adventures In Missions, the organization I work for, the same thing happened, the jacket was too small, he doesn’t work for AIM.  I then saw a series of jackets God was trying on, I saw a jacket that had Israel on the back, it was too small so he took it off… God’s not a Jew. The next jacket had America written on the back, it was too small so He took it off and laid it down because He’s not an American. The next jacket had the word Islam written on the back, it was too small so He took it off and laid it down… Because God’s not a Muslim.  This last one made me think I was having a heretical dream, it had the word christian on the back, God looked at His arms extending way beyond the sleeves and took it off… Because He’s not a christian… He’s God.”

At this point, I was mapping out my exit strategy – I was in self preservation mode, being asked back to teach was the least of my concerns, I just wanted to go home and see my wife and 3 kids. I asked the crowd if they would be still for a few moments.  30 seconds later (which seemed like an hour) one of the executive staff of this ministry raised his hand and asked if he could share something. I said “sure.”  He didn’t stand, but began to share with some authority in his voice.  He said, “As I listened to the description of that dream, a picture began to play in my mind, I saw Christ walk into a thrift store, he was walking around the racks of clothes.  He approached a rack of shirts, and began to pick through them, he singled out a long sleeve button down and took it up to the counter. It was the worst one, full of stains tares and missing buttons, he bought it anyway.  When he left the thrift store he took the shirt and put one arm on and then the other, when he did that the stains in the shirt fell to the ground, the tares were immediately mended and buttons restored.” He went on to share, “I then knew that I was that shirt, stained and torn –  He chose me, then purchased me, restored me, and then put me on to ware. I am the shirt worn by Christ.”

What happened after that is too holy to put English words on, as if anything else needs to be said after that.  God is God, and will not be confined or clothed with my perceptions, doctrines, religions, or my experiences. His thoughts are not my thoughts, His ways are not my ways.