The New Norm:What Is It and How Do We Get It?

[HKHaugan]

The New Norm; What Is It and How Do We Get It?

The intellectually disabled liberal mindset is after us to take 'old' values, discard them and come up with so-called new concepts to breed what is called 'the new norm.' It is actually the same 'old' anti-God self-elevation called sin masquerading as modern freedom from past inhibition. The 'new norm' is really anarchy of the individual mind, heart and spirit. It's rebellion against God and His people. We see it reflected in the mass shootings, terrorism, political correctness, the errant judicial system, liberal takeover in the educational system, profanity laced sexualized movies and media, blurring sexual identity, massive pornography, failed political leadership and add what you will.

Let me suggest that the new norm is not new but has always been new and the new norm has always been new for every person who recognizes it. That's right. The real new norm starts with recognition, then realization and then reception of Jesus who is new and comes into our lives new each day to meet every next moment which is a new moment. For us who are disciples of Jesus we worship the real new everyday. Everything outside of Jesus is self worship relying on self-created strategies of survival. The so-called 'modern' thought is really all about freeing the self from all restraint to play like we are gods. The worship our One God brings is the new that discards the old. So let's look at worship for what it really is and why its bringing in the real new.

Worship recognizes Jesus is someone who is more worthy of being praised than myself. That kicks the liberal 'new norm' in the face. We praise Jesus because He is the definition of what it means to be the normal man. The most profound reality, He is more eternal than me, which leads me to see He is:

More right than me.
More loving than me.
More worthy of recognition than me.
More worthy to be heard than me.
More worthy to be followed than me.
More wise than me.
More intellectual than me.
More personal than me.
More kind and compassionate than me.
More forgiving and understanding than me.
More courageous, brave and confident than me.
More spontaneous than me.
More honest than me.
More truthful than me.
More confronting than me.
More passionate than me.
More focused than me.
More intentional than me.
More moral than me.
More concerned than me.

More gracious than me.
More relational than me.
He sees, hears, feels, thinks, touches and probes far beyond my ability to even imagine.
Which all says:

He is more normal than me.

Because:

When I think I am alone He is there,
Where I am blind He sees,
Where I am crippled He walks,
Where I could not reach, His hand was already there,
Where I fear He stands,
Where I am afraid to go He has already walked,
Where I have fallen He has already picked me up.
Where I am anxious, He is calm.
When I am proud, He humbles me.
When I thought I knew who I was He revealed to me who I really was.
When I thought I was in control, He came to save me with His control,
When I needed to shift from me to Him He knew just when, where and how, then He guided me all the way.

See what I mean about normal? He is the norm for we who are really abnormal, outside the normal, if anything, subnormal, thus needing His norm to correct us.

Worship? It is allowing and trusting Him as the definer and guide to being normal. Thus we let Him dominate, control, lead and direct every next moment. Why? Every next moment is a new moment. Every person we meet is a new moment with them. We either bring the same old world into that moment or we bring the new into it. Every next moment being a new moment is a 'looking forward moment.' I can make the choice. Will it be an old world moment or a Jesus moment?

Worship is the realization of all above that is recognized and then some. To realize is to embrace that we are face to face with a living, perfect, complete, totally right God---all of which summed up is in one word---HOLY. Holiness is the norm, which says the old truth, the Holy God, is the new norm. The old norm is being conditioned by the attitudes and opinions of others as well as 'fitting in' to the world's old standards of self-survival and self-gratification. The new norm for healing 'old standards' people is Jesus. He gets us to look forward to every moment as a new moment and He has a new experience for us in that moment. He is 'the new norm.'

We realize we have been dealing with a Holy God, the God of normality, who is not only worthy but there is nothing beyond or before Him. He is a Lord whose hand, arm, mind, eyes, heart, will and being are everywhere, penetrating every place both visible and invisible.

It is one thing to recognize Him, it is yet even more awesome to realize who He is. But the climactic moment is when we make the decision is to receive Him, to believe who He said He is (John 1:12). From recognition to realization to reception, that is when something new happens. We begin to experience Him. What was an externally viewed historical figure becomes an internal reality challenging all our preconceptions about ourselves, life, other people and the universe. He is no longer external. He and everything He is about becomes an ongoing internal experience. We are being normalized. That is when the internal fortress of self-protection and its spirit of fear started to crumble. The proud walls of our self-made abnormal image began to crack. The spiritual stress was severe. But His merciful hand came and started replacing the damage with a new structure, His assurance, His thinking and His love---the new walls, restoring the normal image of God within.

IF then, we have recognized and realized God from without and within what is our response to be? We can not just leave it there in suspension. If we are created in His image, we will feel the need to change from what we were to what He wants us to become. Isaiah(6.5) cried out “Woe to me, I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Uncleanness is subnormal, beneath the norm. Here Isaiah recognized and realized where his heart was. His response was repentance. A seraph flew to him and touched his mouth with a live coal and pronounced him free of guilt and atoned for. God had taken guilt and sin from him. God atoned for it. It was in this act of atonement that God asked the question, “Who shall I send, who will go for us?” Isaiah, freed from guilt and sin said, “Here am I, send me.” That response was what Jesus did when He became man for us. His death was a sacrifice of atonement to make us new born in the Spirit. The Cross is the key to our becoming new and normal. Accepting Jesus is our cross to follow Him instead of my fear driven instincts. Our cross is to go from fear to faith in every next moment. So, here I am Lord, send me.

Just what made Isaiah recognize, realize and respond? It was the presence of God in the words He spoke, the God of the norm. Scripture records His words. Scripture is the special Word God gives to insure His presence amongst us. Where the Word is there is the Lord. Now think of this, when He created the universe what were the words He said? That's right, “Let there be.” When you and I were born He said, “Let there be...” and you and I came into being. New, brand new. When He spoke the universe came into being. When He spoke you and I came into being. Each of us is a new creation within in Creation, His Creation. The universe is an image of His power, a word He spoke. When we received Jesus as Savior and Lord we were born new, brand new. We are images of Him, words He has spoken. He is our true Father and we are His children. Worship is the recognition and practice of staying close to our Father Creator and bringing His newness into every next moment.

Images of God are recovering sinners. Recovering sinners need His Word for healing. Being a believer is being a disciple. Discipleship is being immersed in the Word. Here is the mind, the heart and the hand of God reaching out to us. Discipleship is allowing worship to be formed in our mind and heart. It is allowing the Lord to restore and rebuild the walls of the Temple. Each of us is a temple and at the same time a part of a larger temple, the Body of Christ and together we are a larger temple filled with the Holy Spirit. “Unless the Lord builds the house, he who labors, labors in vain (Ps.127:1).” The rebuilding of each temple and the larger temple (the individual and the Body) is the purpose of discipleship. Worship is the first step in the discipling process. We learn how to praise our Father Creator and His Son through whom we were created to be like. If we can see ourselves as new, which is the way God sees us, take His words seriously, “Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lam.3:22-23).” Every next moment is a new moment to give praise and to live praise.

Ministry then is how each individual believer in the Body processes His new found life with others who are doing the same thing. It's all about learning how to grow as His images by sharing ourselves with other believers. This is the reason the Lord has given spiritual gifts to the Body. These define us spiritually as we begin to see and react, recognize and realize ourselves as spiritual brothers and sisters who are to live spiritually with one another. Our emotionality and our physicality no longer define us. We are not any longer short, fat, skinny, tall, old, young, ethnically identified or measure our selves by our disabilities. We see each other in terms of who we are intended to be spiritually to one another. As we come to depend on one another spiritually we are lifted to a new level of being and action. It is this sharing that builds our discipleship, the purpose of which is to build our confidence in reaching out to those around us who are not believers.

Mission then is reaching out beyond ourselves and the Body of believers to those who have not ever known God personally. Mission is to make disciples who then come into the Body for healing, ministry and growth. Then they too are sent out to help others be recovered and restored. “He will be a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel (Lk.2:32).”

So worship is not only where and when we meet together to praise our Father God and His Son Jesus in the Spirit. Worship has a purpose. It's to bring God's newness into the world. It leads us into the natural extension of our selves from personal belief into discipleship, then into ministry and out into mission. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come (2Cor.5:17).”