Lion of Judah

The first movie my wife and I saw as a couple was "Legend's of The Fall." Besides "Tombstone" it happens to be my one of my favorite movies. The movie is set in the beautiful mountains of the frontier. A log home surrounded by forests. The plot revolves around three brothers and their father. The eldest brother is focused on wealth and power. He moves to the city, starts a business, and later gets into politics. The youngest brother dies in the world war. The middle brother, Tristan, played by Brad Pitt is restless and dangerous. He is the untamed lion of the family. His heart will not him be controlled. He is wild at heart. An old Native American in the movie says he has the spirit of the bear. He says the spirit of the bear cannot be tamed.
The Spirit of Jesus cannot be tamed. Howard Mocey says, "The spiritual life cannot be made suburban; it is always frontier and we who live in it must accept and ever rejoice that it remains untamed." The poodle us suburban, tame, and domesticated. The lion is frontier, untamed, and undomesticated. It is very difficult to put a lion on a leash. Yet this is what we have attempted to do with Jesus when we replace the missionary pioneering presence of the Spirit of God with the domesticated, safe lifestyle of doing church.
I am convinced that Jesus has a lot more to teach us if we are willing to go. We miss out on the blessings of God because we have settled. We have not gone all the way with Christ. We have stopped and placed ourselves in comfortable seats when Jesus is challenging us to press on with the message of hope, love, and peace. What is it going to take to reach the 1.6 billion people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? It is going to take a pioneering presence. It is going to take a church that does not settle for comfort and safety. It is going to take people of faith who go out in boldness possessed by the Spirit of the Lion of Judah.