The Jesus Movement

One of the coolest things the Lord has allowed me to do is to co-host a musician's jam every second Tuesday evening at the home of one of the Jesus movement's biggest musical "superstars". One evening, after everyone had left, this person said they had recieved a phone call from a young man in his 20's who had seen the video "First Love" which talked about those days, and had footage, as well as current interviews with most of the major "names" in christian music from that time. (BTW, if you have a chance to buy this, is will be a HUGE blessing for you whether you were born yet or not!) This young man related that he wished he had been around during that time, and that he wished the current generation could experience the same thing. He said he feels they are somehow sort of "missing out" on a blessing.
Gotta tell ya, he's right. Today's culture is SOOOO sophisticated and high tech, it would be very difficult to break through to the simplicity of those days. Difficult, but NOT impossible.

First, we need only go back to scripture in Matthew 16:24 " Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
When was the last time we denied ourselves anything? Our culture is so affluent, and geared towards acquiring stuff, that we don't, or maybe we can"t even appreciate how much we have. And the more we have, the more we see what we don't have. An example: I played the same guitar for over 20 years before I even thought about wanting or needing another. Now, Guitar Center has EVERYTHING you want, CHEAPER than it used to be, and acquring new gear has become more important to many young players than learning to play better. No, that's not fair, it has become the way to sound better, whether you actually are or not. Greed and avarice used to be words reserved for ruthless and miserly people who had this obvious character weakness. Now they are so integrated into the culture in millions of small ways that they go unnoticed. Why do we as christians need more stuff? Or would we be willing to deny ourselves to see Jesus more clearly? Remember the rich young ruler who lived a good life, was religious, and tried to walk according to the commandments? Jesus told him to sell his "stuff" and follow him. Why? Is stuff so bad? No, but this young man was too attached to his, and Jesus knew it. How attached are you to yours?

Second, as in the second part of that scripture, we need to die to ourselves. How? Well, I believe we need to stop trying to be in control of our lives, and let Jesus "take the wheel". What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul in the process? As christians, our lives should be saying "Lord here am I, what would you have me do?", and too often we find ourselves saying," Lord I love you, please bless what I am about to do." I am not saying don't make plans, plans are scriptural. I am saying, if you are His, your life is no longer your own. This life no longer matters. The ONLY thing that should matter is pleasing Jesus in everything we do.

During the days of the Jesus Movement life was much simpler, technology was much simpler, but there were still distractions. Building careers, making more money so you could afford the luxuries like Air conditioning, stereo music and radio gadgets, car 8-track players so you could take your music with you, long hair and leather vests were a sign of coolness. Newer and better autos (including the new "imports"). AM radio was the center of teen music, and everyone waited for the next issuance from their favorite artists. BUT, todays culture is much more materialistic, and I think that this is part of the problem. I believe that if we, the followers of Jesus want to really see God move again as he did in those days, we must disentangle ourselves from the things of this world. We need to see, once again, that we are not of this world, and that our home is not here, but in heaven. We must really become dissatisfied with what the world has to offer, and this gets harder every day. The Jesus Movement was really a "counterculture" which spread quickly like the early church, due to it's honesty, and simplicity, and mostly it's unabashed love of and willingness to serve Jesus. I believe we could have that once more if we would be willing to scale back our lives to have only what we need, turn off the TV, and turn on to Jesus once again.