In our family worship time we've been spending a lot of time lately on the subject of loving God and loving others—basically the two great commandments given to us by Jesus (Matthew 22:37–40). What does that love look like? Is it a feeling? An act?
In 1 John the Apostle talks over and over about loving others, and repeatedly does so in the context of reminding us of God's great love for us. It seems that as we reflect on, and respond to, God's love for us we inherently love Him more, and that love gives to us a capacity to love others. It tells us that we love because He first loved us. So if our love for others is tied into our love for God (which is made possible by His love for us) then what does it look like to love God?
I asked the question this morning, "If you were to go on trial tonight for the charge of loving God would the evidence of your day be enough to convict you?"In other words, what does a life look like that loves God and has God's love perfect in it?
Obedience: In John 14:15–24 Jesus makes it undeniably clear that a love for Him will result in an obedience to Him and His words. It makes sense. When we love someone we want to please them and honor them. It is a fascinating thing that the Apostle John says, "Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected . . ." (1 John 2:4-5). When we keep His word, it perfects, completes, carries to fulfillment, the love of and for God!
Loving Others: John says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:7–8). We love others as a choice. As an action. Love is also a fruit of the Spirit of God in us, and we are given a capacity to love others because as a believer God is in us, and He loves them. Sometimes loving others is an "act" of surrendering to God's love in us for them.
Additionally, John says, "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:12). This is another stunning statement. When we love others, it also brings to perfection His love through us! I love this procession: God loves us, we respond to that love, God comes to dwell in us, God loves others, we love others. God's love is perfected and carried to completion by His first loving us and ultimately our loving others!
Trust: Another "perfection" statement in 1 John that deals with perfecting God's love is found in 1 John 4:17–18 where it says that when we have confidence regarding the day of judgment then God's love is perfected in us—and if we have fear of punishment His love is not perfected in us. His love is perfected in us when we completely trust Him and His work on the cross and His word and His character and promises. And this makes sense, you can't love someone fully if you don't trust them and you despise their character and nature. You can fully commit yourself into someone when you trust them completely.
Time Guarded: Some of my earliest memories are my parents taking an hour or so each day to have a cup of coffee together after work and share the day, catch up, and just talk. Mary Ann and I have guarded this "tradition" of taking time each day to have a cup of coffee and talk in our own marriage. Even when we can't just sit together, but are able to work on a project together, we enjoy each other's presence and company. We are best friends, and just being together is joyful. Ephesians 5:22–33 tells us that a Christian marriage reflects God's love to the world, and I'd like to think that in guarding time together, and enjoying each other's presence in working together, we are revealing a bit about how love for God can look.
Priorities Revealed: Back when everyone wrote checks for everything someone said, "Don't tell me your priorities. Show me your checkbook register for the last month and I'll tell you your priorities." One could say the same today looking over credit card statements, check registers, online payments, etc. Our investments represent our priorities. Be it our financial investments, our time investments, etc. Jesus said to store up our treasures in Heaven, not on earth where moth and thieves and rust destroy. He said that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. If we want our heart to love God more then we must store up the treasures that He loves. We must invest our money and time in the things that He is invested in. The things eternal. The hurting, the lost, the poor, and the defenseless like the unborn and widows and orphans. Our treasures define our heart.
Along those lines, Jesus warns us against believing the lie that we can love both God and money, etc., when He says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24). The Apostle John confirms this in 1 John 2:15–17 when he writes, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
I do not believe this means we aren't to enjoy things. James 1 tells us not to be deceived but to know that every good and perfect thing is a gift from God to us. And the Apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:17–19, tells us God gives us things to enjoy. We just aren't to love those things, or get too fixed on them, but to rather love and be fixed on the One who gives them to us. The full passage is revealing when it says, "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life."
Least of These: Jesus said that God sees whatever we do for the "least of these" as if it was done for Him—and whatever we neglect to do for them, He sees as having neglected to do for Him (Matthew 25:31–46). So, when we love the "least of these" He says He receives it as loving Him. When we visit the sick, the prisoners. When we feed the hungry. When we defend the unborn. When we spend time with the rejected. When we love them He says we are loving Him, and in 1 John 3:17 the question is asked, "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?"
Inevitably in any discussion of helping others comes all the questions, "What if I get taken advantage of?" or, "What if I am enabling someone?", etc. I believe the Holy Spirit must guide us in each moment, but I can say in my own life that God has given me ten thousand fold more than I've ever had taken from me. I'd always rather error on the side of love and being taken advantage of, then miss a moment God had positioned me for. Besides, I don't know what fruit my act of kindness might bear down the road as the Holy Spirit moves on someone and convicts their heart and brings them to repentance. Ultimately, in these moments, I have to ask myself, "What is my goal?" Because if my goal is to love God in giving to another, then whatever they do with it is between them and God—I have met my goal.
These are just a few thoughts we've arrived at regarding loving God and others. Maybe you have more. It has been a special week plus talking it over, and I look forward to continuing it. Thanks for sharing in my life. In a way, now, you've sat in on family worship with us . . . you just need a good cup of coffee to "perfect" it.
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Friday, July 22, 2016
Anger Without Sin
Note: I will still post more of my thoughts, reflections, and struggles regarding abortion (See "A 'Floating' Controversy: Parts 1, 2, and 3") in days ahead, but I wanted to share this today. Thanks so much to those of you who have taken the time to talk with me, or email me, or comment with your prayerful thoughts about abortion and how we are to address it. You have blessed me. I am truly shaped, by God, through Godly friends, in so many ways.
Well, I did it. In my anger and frustration I posted something sarcastic on Facebook, and later took it down . . . though at the time I posted it I even felt in my spirit a caution (which I ignored). Basically it was a meme (or whatever they are called) that was a reference to Ted Cruz's convention speech the night before, and the boos and hate that came when he didn't endorse Trump. It said, "Dear Trump Voters . . . Here is the most critical question of all for those who didn't like Ted's speech. When he asked people to vote for a candidate who shares your values and would defend the Constitution, why didn't you think he was talking about your candidate?"
I know about "the pledge" Ted took. I know he refused to endorse Trump. I know all that. This isn't about Ted. This is about my frustration and the biting sarcasm God has really helped me come free of all coming together in a perfect storm and causing me to sin and have to relearn a lesson.
As a background I am so tired of the biggest reason anyone can give me to vote for Trump being that it is a vote against Hillary and to save our Supreme Court. These are powerful reasons, I get it, but what does it say when the strongest arguments "for" a person are the arguments against their opponent? I am sick of a nation more concerned about allegiance and blind loyalty to a political party—even one that no longer reflects them—then to God (one of the reasons I went from the Republican party to no party affiliation toward the end of the primaries). I am tired of being made to feel like if I don't vote for a man like Trump I am voting to destroy a nation I put my life on the line to defend. I am so tired of people who I know love God (even some candidates I used to respect) singing Trump's praises simply to beat Hillary, knowing that, despite a few token "God" references thrown out, he is proud, a self-proclaimed lover of money, rude, arrogant, seemingly unrepentant, if what I have heard about his book is true then a boaster in sexual exploits, and his financial success is in part tied into an industry that preys on people at their most desperate and lost place (gambling and the associated lives, entertainment, and industries around it) . . . to mention a few things.
God opposes the proud! God! God does! I am supposed to vote for a candidate who God is going to oppose? My doing that is going to "save" America and make it great again? Really? If we ever thought our greatness came from anything other than God's blessing and favor then we are more ignorant than I thought.
More and more I am seeing how this world is not my home. It doesn't reflect me or my values. I am an alien and stranger in it. My citizenship is in Heaven. I am seeing things called "okay" that I never thought I'd have to prepare my daughters to deal with in a mainstream society. But, I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess that is what verses like this are talking about:
But here is the crux of this post, and the real reason for it. I have many friends, who I love, who are probably voting for Trump—and my falling to sarcasm in my anger and hurt and frustration was not love toward them, or toward anyone who feels they are doing the right thing. These are people who I do believe love God and treasure this nation, and I let my hurt cause me to be sarcastic and biting toward them.
Cutting sarcasm is something I struggled with in my early Christian days. Before Christianity I loved to debate. I loved a chance to verbally dissect someone without having to use profanity or things like that (an ignorant way out, I felt). Oratory was something I studied for fun. A hero was Winston Churchill who supposedly told the lady who said that if he was her husband she'd poison his tea, that if he were her wife he would drink it. I took pride in that zinger that left somebody floored. And I was good at it. After I came to Christ I really had to reign that in. To be OK not getting in the last word. To let someone get me with a zinger and to hold back the one I had for a reply—one I knew would knock out their verbal knees from under them.
At first I reigned it in with sheer will, but gradually God has helped me to where it isn't even a first thought anymore. I don't want to "zap" people. I want to love them and show them Christ. I don't have to get in the last word or line. It is OK to just love and take it. Just like Jesus did.
But yesterday, seeing all the hate coming towards Ted for failing to endorse Trump, and the blind party loyalty we are "demanded" of just to "stop Hilary," and feeling trapped in a no win situation, I saw someone's meme and thought it biting and, lashing out, I shared it. And in doing so I let my anger cause me to sin. To be unloving to people I care about. To go the way of the world and not love. Scary, isn't it, how close that "old stuff" still often is in our new creations?
I don't believe loving means compromising on truth. But God says in Ephesians 4:26, "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." I have found—unfortunately too many times—that I can be as well-intentioned and even scripturally "right" as can be, but if I am not acting in love it is worthless because God is love, and He won't bless or be a part of that which isn't.
Well, I did it. In my anger and frustration I posted something sarcastic on Facebook, and later took it down . . . though at the time I posted it I even felt in my spirit a caution (which I ignored). Basically it was a meme (or whatever they are called) that was a reference to Ted Cruz's convention speech the night before, and the boos and hate that came when he didn't endorse Trump. It said, "Dear Trump Voters . . . Here is the most critical question of all for those who didn't like Ted's speech. When he asked people to vote for a candidate who shares your values and would defend the Constitution, why didn't you think he was talking about your candidate?"I know about "the pledge" Ted took. I know he refused to endorse Trump. I know all that. This isn't about Ted. This is about my frustration and the biting sarcasm God has really helped me come free of all coming together in a perfect storm and causing me to sin and have to relearn a lesson.
As a background I am so tired of the biggest reason anyone can give me to vote for Trump being that it is a vote against Hillary and to save our Supreme Court. These are powerful reasons, I get it, but what does it say when the strongest arguments "for" a person are the arguments against their opponent? I am sick of a nation more concerned about allegiance and blind loyalty to a political party—even one that no longer reflects them—then to God (one of the reasons I went from the Republican party to no party affiliation toward the end of the primaries). I am tired of being made to feel like if I don't vote for a man like Trump I am voting to destroy a nation I put my life on the line to defend. I am so tired of people who I know love God (even some candidates I used to respect) singing Trump's praises simply to beat Hillary, knowing that, despite a few token "God" references thrown out, he is proud, a self-proclaimed lover of money, rude, arrogant, seemingly unrepentant, if what I have heard about his book is true then a boaster in sexual exploits, and his financial success is in part tied into an industry that preys on people at their most desperate and lost place (gambling and the associated lives, entertainment, and industries around it) . . . to mention a few things.
God opposes the proud! God! God does! I am supposed to vote for a candidate who God is going to oppose? My doing that is going to "save" America and make it great again? Really? If we ever thought our greatness came from anything other than God's blessing and favor then we are more ignorant than I thought.
More and more I am seeing how this world is not my home. It doesn't reflect me or my values. I am an alien and stranger in it. My citizenship is in Heaven. I am seeing things called "okay" that I never thought I'd have to prepare my daughters to deal with in a mainstream society. But, I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess that is what verses like this are talking about:
2 Timothy 3:1-5 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.I guess, if I'm honest, I want to be able to "win" in this world and I should have never expected to be able to. I want to be able to vote for a candidate I believe in and who I feel like God will bless, and not feel like I am betraying my country (and even my daughters' future, if Hillary gets to pick the Supreme Court). I can't win. And so I guess I have to choose—trust (and fear) God more than man and vote for who I believe He will bless, or vote my "wisdom" and hope God comes behind my choice.
Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
But here is the crux of this post, and the real reason for it. I have many friends, who I love, who are probably voting for Trump—and my falling to sarcasm in my anger and hurt and frustration was not love toward them, or toward anyone who feels they are doing the right thing. These are people who I do believe love God and treasure this nation, and I let my hurt cause me to be sarcastic and biting toward them.
Cutting sarcasm is something I struggled with in my early Christian days. Before Christianity I loved to debate. I loved a chance to verbally dissect someone without having to use profanity or things like that (an ignorant way out, I felt). Oratory was something I studied for fun. A hero was Winston Churchill who supposedly told the lady who said that if he was her husband she'd poison his tea, that if he were her wife he would drink it. I took pride in that zinger that left somebody floored. And I was good at it. After I came to Christ I really had to reign that in. To be OK not getting in the last word. To let someone get me with a zinger and to hold back the one I had for a reply—one I knew would knock out their verbal knees from under them.
At first I reigned it in with sheer will, but gradually God has helped me to where it isn't even a first thought anymore. I don't want to "zap" people. I want to love them and show them Christ. I don't have to get in the last word or line. It is OK to just love and take it. Just like Jesus did.
But yesterday, seeing all the hate coming towards Ted for failing to endorse Trump, and the blind party loyalty we are "demanded" of just to "stop Hilary," and feeling trapped in a no win situation, I saw someone's meme and thought it biting and, lashing out, I shared it. And in doing so I let my anger cause me to sin. To be unloving to people I care about. To go the way of the world and not love. Scary, isn't it, how close that "old stuff" still often is in our new creations?
I don't believe loving means compromising on truth. But God says in Ephesians 4:26, "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." I have found—unfortunately too many times—that I can be as well-intentioned and even scripturally "right" as can be, but if I am not acting in love it is worthless because God is love, and He won't bless or be a part of that which isn't.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Too Crazy to Grasp!
In John 15:9 Jesus tells His disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." (ESV)
God is perfect and complete. The Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit are all God, unique but One. Their love is perfect and complete for one another. Because God is perfect and complete (not wanting in some area) it means He didn't need us. No, He wanted us! And when we realize that He didn't need us, but made us completely because He wanted us, it makes His love for us even more incredible. It magnifies grace because it magnifies that it is completely one way—everything God did for us, including the most amazing part of giving Himself to us, He did from desire and love, not from any obligation or need. Wow!
Because God is perfect and complete, and has been since before time itself, it means His love within Himself, Father for Son, etc., is perfect and complete. A love that is perfect, free of our fleshly pulls, not self-seeking, not keeping a record of wrongs, never failing, without any shame or condemnation, holy and righteous—this is God's perfect love, expressed within Himself before we were ever created. And now we read that in the same way the Father loved the Son, the Son loves us!!! In reality, since the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One, we can say that in the same way God loves Himself (and that is perfect love!) God loves us! This is absolutely stunning for a believer to meditate on, and Mary Ann and I have been doing that in our conversations lately as we process a lot of hard things in the lives of many people around us. Reflecting on this reality that God loves us in the same way He loves within Himself does multiple things for me when I reflect on it:
1. It leaves me in awe, and very secure, in the vast height and depth and width of God's love for me. It is so incredible it is something I could meditate on for the rest of my life and never fully grasp. It is so important for us to understand that as shame and guilt and self-attacking are so easy to fall into. God loves us and presents us to Himself as holy and righteous from His good pleasure and with a complete love that is so perfect it is how He the Father loves the Son!
2. It is, I realize, even one more thing that God calls us to do (to love others as we love ourselves) that He first did for us. How amazing, and incredible, that God would do so much for us before ever asking us to do it ourself! It is no wonder the incredible news of God giving Himself to His creation was so amazing and so unthinkable that even the prophets and angels sought to understand the mystery of God He had prepared before the ages but that He only revealed in Christ. God was going to give Himself to His created people! God was going to love them with a love reserved for within the Trinity!
3. This is a self-giving, perfect love from God, to me,that the world can not touch, take away, or alter. It is an anchor not of this world in a world that has so much pain and brokenness.
Who could ever imagine that God would give us Himself? Who could ever even guess that God would love us with the love He Himself loves Himself, His Son? I have to think spending much time dwelling on that would break many a stronghold of the enemy in our heart, and put a fire into our worship! It has been doing great things in Mary Ann and my heart recently and I hope it blesses and encourages you as well.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Turning Our Sin and Inadequacies to Praise
I have been struck recently by the wonderful opportunity we have to turn even our sin and our inadequacies into praise that glorifies the Son. Take, for instance, a sin I commit. There are two main possible responses. One focuses on my sin, my shortcoming, how bad I messed up, how lousy I am, etc. The other stands in awe that God forgave my sin, that He saw it before the earth was formed and created me anyway, that He loved me so much He would erase it with His own blood, that He has completely separated me from it, etc. One puts the eyes on me, the other the eyes on Him.
I tend to think the Biblical response is to dip quickly in and then out of the first, “Father, I’m sorry. I blew it," and then to dive and swim in the latter, “Oh, but thank You so much, Father, that you knew I’d do that before You even formed me yet you still did! I love you, Father. Thank you, precious Lord Jesus that you bore that sin on the cross for me! Thank you that I am completely forgiven of that sin and separated from it! Thank You that You will never leave or forsake me despite my mistakes! Thank you that you are so awesome and holy and wonderful that You love me with a love so vast and so deep and so wide! Thank You that sin matters to You, that you are purely good! Thank you that I matter to You, that You want me with You! Thank You! You are so wonderful and amazing! I praise You!” It strikes me that this is the pattern we see in Paul—he spent a bit of time, now and then, acknowledging his shortcomings, but the bulk of his time was spent praising God and God’s love and God’s complete sufficiency and provision and forgiveness in the face of his shortcomings.
What a difference a shift of focus can make! Our inadequacies can follow the same pattern. Either, “I am so inadequate to do this or that. I fall so short. I do so lousy at this or that,” on and on, etc., etc. Or we can say, “I praise You, Father, that though I alone am so weak at this or that, You are not, and Your grace is sufficient for me, and You are with me, and You will never leave me or forsake me, and that with You nothing is impossible, and that You are faithful to complete the good work You’ve begun in me, and that You both put Your desires in me and You work in me to bring them to pass! You are awesome and amazing and I love You and I praise You!” etc.
It’s about the eyes of our heart and mind. Are they on Him or on us? One path will take us down into the mucky pit and mud of self-focus, self-bashing, negative expectations, bitterness, depression, gloom, and darkness. The other will lift us beyond our shortcomings and into a place of praise and love and awe that stirs in us faith, positive expectancy of the future, and a longing to go on, to get closer to Him, and to glorify Him more. It has never been about us—we couldn't do anything to be born again (except faith) and we can't do anything to lose it. It is not about us, it is all about Him and what He has done. The enemy wants our eyes on us and our work (or lack of) so that we never fully understand the magnitude of the work Jesus did on the cross and our utter and complete forgiveness and acceptance before God, and the position we hold in Christ. God wants us to focus on His Son and the work His Son did, from love, on our behalf so we might walk from our position in Christ—completely forgiven, accepted, adopted, righteous, and with authority over the demonic. May we choose the latter and may all we do point to, and glorify, the Son! He alone is worthy!
I tend to think the Biblical response is to dip quickly in and then out of the first, “Father, I’m sorry. I blew it," and then to dive and swim in the latter, “Oh, but thank You so much, Father, that you knew I’d do that before You even formed me yet you still did! I love you, Father. Thank you, precious Lord Jesus that you bore that sin on the cross for me! Thank you that I am completely forgiven of that sin and separated from it! Thank You that You will never leave or forsake me despite my mistakes! Thank you that you are so awesome and holy and wonderful that You love me with a love so vast and so deep and so wide! Thank You that sin matters to You, that you are purely good! Thank you that I matter to You, that You want me with You! Thank You! You are so wonderful and amazing! I praise You!” It strikes me that this is the pattern we see in Paul—he spent a bit of time, now and then, acknowledging his shortcomings, but the bulk of his time was spent praising God and God’s love and God’s complete sufficiency and provision and forgiveness in the face of his shortcomings.
What a difference a shift of focus can make! Our inadequacies can follow the same pattern. Either, “I am so inadequate to do this or that. I fall so short. I do so lousy at this or that,” on and on, etc., etc. Or we can say, “I praise You, Father, that though I alone am so weak at this or that, You are not, and Your grace is sufficient for me, and You are with me, and You will never leave me or forsake me, and that with You nothing is impossible, and that You are faithful to complete the good work You’ve begun in me, and that You both put Your desires in me and You work in me to bring them to pass! You are awesome and amazing and I love You and I praise You!” etc.
It’s about the eyes of our heart and mind. Are they on Him or on us? One path will take us down into the mucky pit and mud of self-focus, self-bashing, negative expectations, bitterness, depression, gloom, and darkness. The other will lift us beyond our shortcomings and into a place of praise and love and awe that stirs in us faith, positive expectancy of the future, and a longing to go on, to get closer to Him, and to glorify Him more. It has never been about us—we couldn't do anything to be born again (except faith) and we can't do anything to lose it. It is not about us, it is all about Him and what He has done. The enemy wants our eyes on us and our work (or lack of) so that we never fully understand the magnitude of the work Jesus did on the cross and our utter and complete forgiveness and acceptance before God, and the position we hold in Christ. God wants us to focus on His Son and the work His Son did, from love, on our behalf so we might walk from our position in Christ—completely forgiven, accepted, adopted, righteous, and with authority over the demonic. May we choose the latter and may all we do point to, and glorify, the Son! He alone is worthy!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Light and Darkness, Part 1
Hello all. No, I haven’t “disappeared”—I have just been putting hours upon hours in to wrapping up the history-cookbook fundraiser we are doing for our youth group, and most of the rest of things have slipped to the side. But, it is close . . . and I am feeling things start returning to “normal” (whatever that is—someone said the other day that “normal” is a setting on a dryer and all the rest is life . . . )
With that said, as a “sub” series in the running study I am teaching on the Kingdom of God (which is focusing on the present-day, “breaking in” aspect of His Kingdom—as opposed to the place Heaven, or the future Kingdom reality) I have been doing a shorter series on the stark contrast that exists (and should be evident) between the two kingdoms—God’s reign and rule versus Satan’s. The Kingdom of God, in the present day sense, is the reign or rule of God in a situation or person. Jesus said if He cast a demon out of someone the Kingdom of God had come upon them. He would heal a sick person and use it to talk about the Kingdom of God, and Colossians 1:13 says that when we are saved we are taken out of the rule/authority of Satan and into the Kingdom of Jesus.
When God comes in to a person or situation the contrast should come to be stark because His rule has just replaced Satan’s, and their two hearts are very different. Jesus came in love that we might have life (eternal life begins at salvation), and have it abundantly, and He left us access to His joy and peace and indwelt by His Spirit which produces such things as love and kindness, etc. Satan, on the other hand, is by Jesus’ words a thief who comes naught except to steal, kill, and destroy. When God’s power comes against Satan’s, God’s is always superior—just ask Pharoah’s magicians, the demonized man in the tombs, or Simon or the woman with the spirit of divination in Acts.
Unfortunately, in Western Christianity, the world seems to rarely see such a stark contrast between itself and God’s Kingdom, and I think that one of the reasons is that we try (and our culture permits us) to live at the same time with the security of Heaven, and the pleasures, values, and priorities of earth—and we often have little more respect for the authority and truth of His Word than the scientists do who mock it (hence our faith is weakened). Thus we are powerless, His voice is quieted, His Spirit is quenched, and all the world says is different about us is that they have Sunday morning off and we don’t. For the most part, Western Christianity is a far cry from those in Acts who “turned the world upside down.”
I want to begin in the next few posts to talk about one of the stark contrasts between God’s Kingdom (reign and rule) versus Satan’s—the stark contrast between Light and darkness (and what God means by those two words). I think that it will really help us to better understand why a “good” person can go to Hell, and how we miss God as the mark of all that is good. I encourage you to follow this along, I think it will bless you. Until then, may God pour His favor upon you.
With that said, as a “sub” series in the running study I am teaching on the Kingdom of God (which is focusing on the present-day, “breaking in” aspect of His Kingdom—as opposed to the place Heaven, or the future Kingdom reality) I have been doing a shorter series on the stark contrast that exists (and should be evident) between the two kingdoms—God’s reign and rule versus Satan’s. The Kingdom of God, in the present day sense, is the reign or rule of God in a situation or person. Jesus said if He cast a demon out of someone the Kingdom of God had come upon them. He would heal a sick person and use it to talk about the Kingdom of God, and Colossians 1:13 says that when we are saved we are taken out of the rule/authority of Satan and into the Kingdom of Jesus.
When God comes in to a person or situation the contrast should come to be stark because His rule has just replaced Satan’s, and their two hearts are very different. Jesus came in love that we might have life (eternal life begins at salvation), and have it abundantly, and He left us access to His joy and peace and indwelt by His Spirit which produces such things as love and kindness, etc. Satan, on the other hand, is by Jesus’ words a thief who comes naught except to steal, kill, and destroy. When God’s power comes against Satan’s, God’s is always superior—just ask Pharoah’s magicians, the demonized man in the tombs, or Simon or the woman with the spirit of divination in Acts.
Unfortunately, in Western Christianity, the world seems to rarely see such a stark contrast between itself and God’s Kingdom, and I think that one of the reasons is that we try (and our culture permits us) to live at the same time with the security of Heaven, and the pleasures, values, and priorities of earth—and we often have little more respect for the authority and truth of His Word than the scientists do who mock it (hence our faith is weakened). Thus we are powerless, His voice is quieted, His Spirit is quenched, and all the world says is different about us is that they have Sunday morning off and we don’t. For the most part, Western Christianity is a far cry from those in Acts who “turned the world upside down.”
I want to begin in the next few posts to talk about one of the stark contrasts between God’s Kingdom (reign and rule) versus Satan’s—the stark contrast between Light and darkness (and what God means by those two words). I think that it will really help us to better understand why a “good” person can go to Hell, and how we miss God as the mark of all that is good. I encourage you to follow this along, I think it will bless you. Until then, may God pour His favor upon you.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
God is Love
God doesn't just choose to be good, to avoid evil, to act morally, etc. God is holy. He is transcendent from those things—totally set apart and separate from them. It is not just some moral code or ethical law that we find in His law and commands . . . it is the very nature and character of Him. There is such a powerful realization in the truth those few sentences above contain. If someone simply chooses to be a certain way then there is always the option of them choosing not to be that way any longer. But when someone is that way—inherent in who they are, in their very being—and they are completely cut off from, and separated from, the alternative—then we can know with assurance they will always be that way.
The Apostle John tells us twice in 1 John 4 that God is love. It is part of who He is. It is not simply that God chooses to love, but that He is love, and there is a big difference. So, when we don't love another we are partaking in a something that God can't be a part of. He can't be a participant in, or an advocate of, or lend His hand to it when we don't love. So, while I know that He won't ever leave me, and that I am sealed in adoption as His child by my faith in Jesus, there is a sense that each and every time I don't love I am separating myself from God—or separating Him from what I am doing . . . not to mention I am not honoring Him by my choice to disobey Him, and I am failing to love one whom He loves enough to die for.
When I choose to not love another with a love that is patient, kind, not self seeking, not keeping a record of wrongs, not rejoicing in evil, etc., I am, in a sense, choosing to step outside of Him because, He can't be part of "not love" when He is love. I don't know the full "theological" implications (or explanations) of the concept I am trying to convey, but to me it is pretty clear that, up to the edge of losing my salvation, I am separating myself from God in those times (or at least moving outside of Him in my actions, or causing my actions to be outside of His cover and blessing and presence). I don't know if this is what the Bible talks about in quenching the Spirit and grieving the Spirit and things like that, but I do know that if I truly desire Him to be my breath and life, and to bear His image, and to have His voice and Spirit lead me, and to have Him work through me, then I must love. When I don't, in some way He pulls back, because He can't be a part of that because it is against who He is.
Matt 22:37-40 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
The Apostle John tells us twice in 1 John 4 that God is love. It is part of who He is. It is not simply that God chooses to love, but that He is love, and there is a big difference. So, when we don't love another we are partaking in a something that God can't be a part of. He can't be a participant in, or an advocate of, or lend His hand to it when we don't love. So, while I know that He won't ever leave me, and that I am sealed in adoption as His child by my faith in Jesus, there is a sense that each and every time I don't love I am separating myself from God—or separating Him from what I am doing . . . not to mention I am not honoring Him by my choice to disobey Him, and I am failing to love one whom He loves enough to die for.
When I choose to not love another with a love that is patient, kind, not self seeking, not keeping a record of wrongs, not rejoicing in evil, etc., I am, in a sense, choosing to step outside of Him because, He can't be part of "not love" when He is love. I don't know the full "theological" implications (or explanations) of the concept I am trying to convey, but to me it is pretty clear that, up to the edge of losing my salvation, I am separating myself from God in those times (or at least moving outside of Him in my actions, or causing my actions to be outside of His cover and blessing and presence). I don't know if this is what the Bible talks about in quenching the Spirit and grieving the Spirit and things like that, but I do know that if I truly desire Him to be my breath and life, and to bear His image, and to have His voice and Spirit lead me, and to have Him work through me, then I must love. When I don't, in some way He pulls back, because He can't be a part of that because it is against who He is.
Matt 22:37-40 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Friday, February 25, 2011
"Hate" Speech?
Recently the Christian Post had an online article about a Maryland senator who changed his stance on gay marriage because of the “hate and venom” of gay marriage opponents (as he put it). One of the comments to the article asked, “Is it hate speech for a doctor to tell a patient he has cancer? Is it hate speech to be told to evacuate because a hurricane is coming? Is it hate speech for a parent too tell a child not to touch a hot stove?” A reply to that comment said, “Sure, if it was written in ancient times or involves an imaginary source as it's basis. Try using the medicinal remedies from Biblical times and you'll see what I mean.”
It raises an interesting question that we, as Christians, will have to deal more and more with in the days and years ahead if we choose to stand and declare from God's Word what He says is right and what He says is wrong. The question is, just what is “hate” speech? (Recently some nations have tried to hold pastors accountable if they had talked about homosexuality being a sin, and someone in their congregation has later committed a “hate crime” against a homosexual.) So, just what is “hate” speech?
Clearly, in the comments above, the distinction between the two commenters lies in their outlook on God’s Word. For one, it seems, telling a truth and warning people about a sin before God is as clear, and as necessary, and loving to the person, as warning them about a danger or sickness. To the other, because they don’t believe in God’s Word as truth, it is hateful. It seems that this is really what it comes down to. If someone doesn’t believe in God’s Word, then voicing an opinion (and even trying to bring about legislation) that speaks unfavorably about another lifestyle is intolerant, unloving, and hateful. But, to a person who believe’s in God’s Word, it would, in fact, be unloving to not warn someone of their choices that are sinful before God, or to embrace laws that encourage continuing in that lifestyle. Of course, we must be consistent in our speech . . . if we speak against gay marriage, but say nothing to a friend or coworker who is having an affair, or looking at pornography, or gossiping, etc., then we are in danger of being hypocritical because they, too, are practicing choices that are sin before God.
I think that the manner in which we speak says volumes. Recently a young man in Iowa, Joel Northrup, stepped down from a state championship wrestling match because he felt it went against his beliefs to wrestle against a girl and have that kind of contact with her. His statement was gracious and kind to the two girls in the match, and he is the one who paid the price and stepped out of any chance at the championship—in true, Christ-like fashion, he took the hit, he didn’t rant at the girls or try and get them thrown out.
Isn’t that Christ’s way—to speak truth, but to die for the very ones attacking Him? Yes, He fashioned a whip and drove money changers out of the temple . . . and yes, He called Pharisees hypocrites and other unkind things. But, we need to be very careful before we take that level of combative speech, and remember that He did so as One without sin . . . we address sin as ones saved from sin, but deserving of death for sin. There is a big difference.
Some of the most hateful web sites I have ever visited are self-appointed Christian watchdog web sites that slam other Christians and their belief differences (not all are like that, and discernment is important). What does that say about us when our hate and our attacks are no different from the worlds? Yes, we must speak truth. But we must also remember that Christ is truth, and He is love, and He modeled laying down a life for the very ones who hate you. I was not there to hear the testimonies that the senator in Maryland heard—but if they were not said in love then, no matter what was said and how true it was in word, it was not true in Spirit and God was not authoring it.
I believe that we can’t compromise our speech or stand on that which God declares as right or wrong, but:
1) We need to make sure we are even more aggressive in noticing, and correcting, our own places where our choices, lifestyle, and thoughts are sin as we are pointing out other’s sin, and . . .
2) We need to make sure that our life bears as much witness as our words. We can point out the sin of another’s choice, and share what God has to say about it, and encourage our nation not to adopt laws flaunting or enabling it, but if we don’t have love we have nothing. If we aren’t laying down our lives, loving those we share with, and doing it from a place of love, we ought to shut our mouth, get in our prayer closet, cry out to God, and get back into the proper place, or our words will never glorify God, nor model His love to another.
We, as Christians, have the greatest privilege in the world. We are the very dwelling place of the Creator of the universe, and we have recognized the very source of truth in the form of Christ, and His Word. We have tasted of the greatest love ever known, and we are privileged to serve God and bear His love, and words, and truth, and power in a world that is lost, dying, blinded, and in slavery to Satan. What a calling, and what a privilege! But, we can never, ever, forget that the greatest truth of God is love, and if we do, or say, anything that does not come from love and faith, then it is not from God, no matter how “true” it is at face value. And, if we aren't willing to lay down our life for the very ones who hate us, then we are not modeling Him as well.
It raises an interesting question that we, as Christians, will have to deal more and more with in the days and years ahead if we choose to stand and declare from God's Word what He says is right and what He says is wrong. The question is, just what is “hate” speech? (Recently some nations have tried to hold pastors accountable if they had talked about homosexuality being a sin, and someone in their congregation has later committed a “hate crime” against a homosexual.) So, just what is “hate” speech?
Clearly, in the comments above, the distinction between the two commenters lies in their outlook on God’s Word. For one, it seems, telling a truth and warning people about a sin before God is as clear, and as necessary, and loving to the person, as warning them about a danger or sickness. To the other, because they don’t believe in God’s Word as truth, it is hateful. It seems that this is really what it comes down to. If someone doesn’t believe in God’s Word, then voicing an opinion (and even trying to bring about legislation) that speaks unfavorably about another lifestyle is intolerant, unloving, and hateful. But, to a person who believe’s in God’s Word, it would, in fact, be unloving to not warn someone of their choices that are sinful before God, or to embrace laws that encourage continuing in that lifestyle. Of course, we must be consistent in our speech . . . if we speak against gay marriage, but say nothing to a friend or coworker who is having an affair, or looking at pornography, or gossiping, etc., then we are in danger of being hypocritical because they, too, are practicing choices that are sin before God.
I think that the manner in which we speak says volumes. Recently a young man in Iowa, Joel Northrup, stepped down from a state championship wrestling match because he felt it went against his beliefs to wrestle against a girl and have that kind of contact with her. His statement was gracious and kind to the two girls in the match, and he is the one who paid the price and stepped out of any chance at the championship—in true, Christ-like fashion, he took the hit, he didn’t rant at the girls or try and get them thrown out.
Isn’t that Christ’s way—to speak truth, but to die for the very ones attacking Him? Yes, He fashioned a whip and drove money changers out of the temple . . . and yes, He called Pharisees hypocrites and other unkind things. But, we need to be very careful before we take that level of combative speech, and remember that He did so as One without sin . . . we address sin as ones saved from sin, but deserving of death for sin. There is a big difference.
Some of the most hateful web sites I have ever visited are self-appointed Christian watchdog web sites that slam other Christians and their belief differences (not all are like that, and discernment is important). What does that say about us when our hate and our attacks are no different from the worlds? Yes, we must speak truth. But we must also remember that Christ is truth, and He is love, and He modeled laying down a life for the very ones who hate you. I was not there to hear the testimonies that the senator in Maryland heard—but if they were not said in love then, no matter what was said and how true it was in word, it was not true in Spirit and God was not authoring it.
I believe that we can’t compromise our speech or stand on that which God declares as right or wrong, but:
1) We need to make sure we are even more aggressive in noticing, and correcting, our own places where our choices, lifestyle, and thoughts are sin as we are pointing out other’s sin, and . . .
2) We need to make sure that our life bears as much witness as our words. We can point out the sin of another’s choice, and share what God has to say about it, and encourage our nation not to adopt laws flaunting or enabling it, but if we don’t have love we have nothing. If we aren’t laying down our lives, loving those we share with, and doing it from a place of love, we ought to shut our mouth, get in our prayer closet, cry out to God, and get back into the proper place, or our words will never glorify God, nor model His love to another.
We, as Christians, have the greatest privilege in the world. We are the very dwelling place of the Creator of the universe, and we have recognized the very source of truth in the form of Christ, and His Word. We have tasted of the greatest love ever known, and we are privileged to serve God and bear His love, and words, and truth, and power in a world that is lost, dying, blinded, and in slavery to Satan. What a calling, and what a privilege! But, we can never, ever, forget that the greatest truth of God is love, and if we do, or say, anything that does not come from love and faith, then it is not from God, no matter how “true” it is at face value. And, if we aren't willing to lay down our life for the very ones who hate us, then we are not modeling Him as well.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Jealously Loved . . .
Have you ever been jealous when someone gave their affection or time or attention or admiration to another? Be honest (and no, you don’t have to post a comment and tell us all when and why).
Seriously though, have you ever been jealous of another’s affection or attention? Has it ever been so strong in you that it almost defined who you were? Maybe it was at a younger age over the “love” of one you “loved” being given to another, maybe it is a wounding you have suffered recently when one you love gave themself to another in either heart or body, maybe it was when someone gave praise and admiration to another when you wanted to get it from them instead. You were stirred inside with feelings very deep when you saw affection given to another, from one who you desired affection from, and you felt that the affection they gave that other took it from you. The greater your affection for a person, the greater could be your jealousy toward that person—you don’t care who someone loves if you don’t love that person.
Jealousy can be a powerful, driving force when unharnessed and allowed to drive and define a person. Proverbs 27:4 says, “Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” and Galatians 5:20 lists it as a work of the flesh. And yet, during our Family Worship time, or whenever we play worship music, one of our favorite songs has been Jeremy Riddle’s version of “How He Loves.” In it is a line that says God is jealous for me. Having heard it probably 40-50 times, this morning it struck me powerfully and seemed to jump out from all the rest. I thought, “God is jealous for me! Wow!”
Just to nip in the bud any rebuttals in advance—I am not accusing God of sin; nor am I saying that His jealousy for us is identical to the jealousy in us that I asked about in the first paragraph; nor am I saying that any human analogy I use is a perfect or completely correct way to look at God. But, there is the fact that God uses human relationship to illustrate our relationship with Him (Father/child, Bridegroom/Bride). And, there is also the fact that God is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14 says, “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).” Jealous is one of God’s very names, and His names define a part of who He is.
Similarly, Joshua 24:19-20 records Joshua saying to the people: "You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good."
Psalm 79:5 asks: How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Zechariah 8:2 says: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.
Indicating that there might, in fact, be a “proper” kind of jealousy, in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 Paul writes to the believers in Corinth: I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
And, to conclude sharing just a few of the many verses on God’s divine jealousy, in James 4:4-5 it says: You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?
The word “jealous,” when used in the Scripture in reference to God, is most often used in the context of God’s anger. They are fearful passages in the Bible that talk about God’s jealousy and the consequences of His pouring out His wrath from jealousy. But, may I suggest, that there is another side to looking at this as well (not meaning in any way we should ignore the first). May I suggest that God is jealous for you because He so loves you? That if you had no worth or meaning to His heart your misplaced affections and worship would mean nothing to Him (i.e., in admittedly flawed human terms, would you be a jealous lover if someone you had no feelings for loved another?). Might the depth of His jealousy toward you be a mirror of the depth of His love for you?
When we look at the brutality of the cross in all its graphic reality, and at the spiritual horror of One who was without sin taking on Himself the sin of the world, we are forced to realize that God loves us with a love more passionate and alive and deep than we can ever fathom or capture. It is no wonder that He is “jealous” for us—He loves us!—and it makes me feel good to know that God loves me so actively and vibrantly and passionately that my highest affections and my “worship” and “service” turned to anything other than Him provokes Him to jealousy (not feeling good that I do that, but that He cares enough to care).
I think that, in our theological talk, we often lose the “aliveness” (my word) of our faith. God becomes an idea, a theology, a “topic,” when, in fact, He is very alive, very passionate about things, ferocious, wonderful, awe inspiring, Holy, able to be grieved and angered, deeply and actively loving, participatory, etc. Any true relationship with Him is alive, dynamic, and an interchange of feelings and communication because He didn’t stay in the tomb, having paid for our sin, but He rose again to dwell with us and in us! “God loves us” is a living reality, not an idea. “God is jealous for us” is an expression and a truth, not a verse. Our sin is against Him, not a Bible. “God is with us” is a physical, real, tangible, truth, not simply a “feel good” platitude. He is real. He is interactive with us. He is mighty, and alive! We get so caught up in our own “feelings” that we forget that God feels things too, and that He has invested Himself completely in relationship with us.
God is holy, and He is awesome. He is worthy of our worship and reverence (and, when appropriate, fear) whether or not He loves us. His jealousy for me is passionate and alive, and that, in some way, tells my childlike understanding that His love for me is too. And, I am glad for that. May the living reality that God’s heart burns for you touch and awaken you throughout the days ahead.
Seriously though, have you ever been jealous of another’s affection or attention? Has it ever been so strong in you that it almost defined who you were? Maybe it was at a younger age over the “love” of one you “loved” being given to another, maybe it is a wounding you have suffered recently when one you love gave themself to another in either heart or body, maybe it was when someone gave praise and admiration to another when you wanted to get it from them instead. You were stirred inside with feelings very deep when you saw affection given to another, from one who you desired affection from, and you felt that the affection they gave that other took it from you. The greater your affection for a person, the greater could be your jealousy toward that person—you don’t care who someone loves if you don’t love that person.
Jealousy can be a powerful, driving force when unharnessed and allowed to drive and define a person. Proverbs 27:4 says, “Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” and Galatians 5:20 lists it as a work of the flesh. And yet, during our Family Worship time, or whenever we play worship music, one of our favorite songs has been Jeremy Riddle’s version of “How He Loves.” In it is a line that says God is jealous for me. Having heard it probably 40-50 times, this morning it struck me powerfully and seemed to jump out from all the rest. I thought, “God is jealous for me! Wow!”
Just to nip in the bud any rebuttals in advance—I am not accusing God of sin; nor am I saying that His jealousy for us is identical to the jealousy in us that I asked about in the first paragraph; nor am I saying that any human analogy I use is a perfect or completely correct way to look at God. But, there is the fact that God uses human relationship to illustrate our relationship with Him (Father/child, Bridegroom/Bride). And, there is also the fact that God is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14 says, “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).” Jealous is one of God’s very names, and His names define a part of who He is.
Similarly, Joshua 24:19-20 records Joshua saying to the people: "You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good."
Psalm 79:5 asks: How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Zechariah 8:2 says: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.
Indicating that there might, in fact, be a “proper” kind of jealousy, in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 Paul writes to the believers in Corinth: I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
And, to conclude sharing just a few of the many verses on God’s divine jealousy, in James 4:4-5 it says: You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?
The word “jealous,” when used in the Scripture in reference to God, is most often used in the context of God’s anger. They are fearful passages in the Bible that talk about God’s jealousy and the consequences of His pouring out His wrath from jealousy. But, may I suggest, that there is another side to looking at this as well (not meaning in any way we should ignore the first). May I suggest that God is jealous for you because He so loves you? That if you had no worth or meaning to His heart your misplaced affections and worship would mean nothing to Him (i.e., in admittedly flawed human terms, would you be a jealous lover if someone you had no feelings for loved another?). Might the depth of His jealousy toward you be a mirror of the depth of His love for you?
When we look at the brutality of the cross in all its graphic reality, and at the spiritual horror of One who was without sin taking on Himself the sin of the world, we are forced to realize that God loves us with a love more passionate and alive and deep than we can ever fathom or capture. It is no wonder that He is “jealous” for us—He loves us!—and it makes me feel good to know that God loves me so actively and vibrantly and passionately that my highest affections and my “worship” and “service” turned to anything other than Him provokes Him to jealousy (not feeling good that I do that, but that He cares enough to care).
I think that, in our theological talk, we often lose the “aliveness” (my word) of our faith. God becomes an idea, a theology, a “topic,” when, in fact, He is very alive, very passionate about things, ferocious, wonderful, awe inspiring, Holy, able to be grieved and angered, deeply and actively loving, participatory, etc. Any true relationship with Him is alive, dynamic, and an interchange of feelings and communication because He didn’t stay in the tomb, having paid for our sin, but He rose again to dwell with us and in us! “God loves us” is a living reality, not an idea. “God is jealous for us” is an expression and a truth, not a verse. Our sin is against Him, not a Bible. “God is with us” is a physical, real, tangible, truth, not simply a “feel good” platitude. He is real. He is interactive with us. He is mighty, and alive! We get so caught up in our own “feelings” that we forget that God feels things too, and that He has invested Himself completely in relationship with us.
God is holy, and He is awesome. He is worthy of our worship and reverence (and, when appropriate, fear) whether or not He loves us. His jealousy for me is passionate and alive, and that, in some way, tells my childlike understanding that His love for me is too. And, I am glad for that. May the living reality that God’s heart burns for you touch and awaken you throughout the days ahead.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
A Special Year, and a Great Day . . .
Note: It is hard for me to believe that it has been a year today since I made my first blog post, The Perfect Coffee Mug and the God Who Makes the Impossible Bow. I have so enjoyed this place to share about my life and things God is doing in me and showing me. I can't thank, enough, all of you who have followed it, and all of you who have seeded into my life. I encourage you to continue and to make generous use of the comment feature on the blog—I value what you have to say, and I know that what God has to say through you is of value to others as well. (If you are having trouble making comments you can click HERE for a post I made some time back walking readers through the comment process. If you are just visiting here and have not subscribed your email to receive notifications of new posts I highly recommend it. I know that there are many blogs out there I have good intentions of returning to and often let fade off somewhere, and getting an email that says there is a new post is a blessing to me. You can use the box in the right column to subscribe.)
Yesterday we had a wonderful day at the 15th Annual Oak Shores Kid's Fishing Derby. It is sponsored by Oak Shores Christian Fellowship and is in honor of its founder, Ron McKibben, who loved God, loved kids, and loved fishing. Eighty one kids took part and the weather
and the lake (Lake Nacimiento) were perfect.It was so wonderful to hear Pastor Ed open the derby in prayer and to know that eighty one kids and their families heard thanks lifted to God for His Creation we were about to enjoy, and to hear petitions to God for our safety and enjoyment! God's precious presence was felt there, and I can't say enough how special the atmosphere and day were. Our family was blessed to have our friend Rich Lingor bring his boat over for us to go out on. He helped us fish, and blessed us with his love, patience, and skill.
Bethany caught eight White Bass, a beautiful Catfish, and a really nice Spotted Bass. Abigail had a glorious day, catching 6 White Bass and a prize winning 2.9+ pound Spotted Bass (not to mention winning a really cool pink full-sized fishing pole in the drawing held after the tournament!). Abigail ended up winning the largest bass trophy for the Junior category, and her bass turned out to the largest caught in the whole tournament! Her bass was so big she even placed 3rd overall in the combined weight bass category, competing against others who had caught up to five Spotted Bass total! (The girls actually caught more Spotted Bass, but threw back ones under the 12'' legal size.)
I thank God for the time with my girls, for fellowships like Oak Shores that reach their heart out so generously, for friends like Rich who love our girls and seed in to their lives, and for all of the precious people He has surrounded us with past year who have loved us, had grace for us, encouraged us, and stood beside us. It has been a good year, and a year of deep growing—our first year of homeschooling, the tenth anniversary of my pastoring, our 17th wedding anniversary, a time of wonderful new people coming in to our lives, and a time of pain and hurt as others have left our lives. Through it all, God is good. He is a mighty, awesome, all powerful, all loving God who we have clung to often in this year past, and who is forever faithful and never lets go.
Monday, April 26, 2010
17 Years . . .
This Saturday Mary Ann and I celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. As I tell her often, "If God lined up all the women in the world and told me I could pick any one I'd walk up and down the line and not stop until I'd found you again." She is my bride, my best friend, my "buddy," my pal, my partner. I can't imagine my life without her, and I think she is the greatest wife I could ever have, and the greatest mom our girls could ever have.
This is not to say we have not had, or don't still have (or won't again have), struggles, rough times, disagreements, but with all of that I would do it again in a heart beat. As I look back on these years there are a few things that stand out in my heart:
1) God—not some generic "god," but the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is what has carried us through and made us what we are. I can not thank Him and Mary Ann enough for the day when we sat in Pastor Bill Holdridge's office at Calvary Chapel in Monterey. We were engaged, deeply in love, and I was seeking God, but I wasn't a Christian . . . and Bill knew it. He had Mary Ann read the unequally yoked passage in 2 Corinthians 6:14. She got part way through and, with tears, turned to me and said that she would wait as long as it took, but she couldn't marry me until I became a Christian. I can not describe the anger and hurt I felt, nor, for Mary Ann, what a wrenching decision that was for her to choose to love God more than me. But, it was a catalyst to my seeking the truth about the man called Jesus until I found it . . . and it was the greatest moment of my life to date. I can not imagine if I had entered that marriage not being a Christian, and how much we would have missed together at a level it is impossible to share apart from that spiritual union.
2) Time together—making our relationship a priority—has been a rock of our relationship. I grew up watching my folks end each day after work taking an hour long cup of coffee together and sharing and catching up. Mary Ann and I have made our "coffee time" a priority that we don't let a lot get in the way of. I believe that has contributed deeply to our friendship, and I find that it is the time of day I look forward to most. In fact, given a choice with going anywhere in the world, but not having Mary Ann with me, or being with Mary Ann sharing a cup of coffee by our fireplace or on our screen porch, and I would choose the time with her every time (unless we felt God was calling me to go somewhere). In fact, I can't think of really anything that we would rather do apart than doing something together—be it stringing barbed wire on our fence, or going through papers and filing. We just love to be together.
3) Choosing love—by God's grace and help I believe that choosing to love the other over ourself has proven the turning point in many a difficult moment. Love is a force which God is all about and all over. He just comes in to its midst. When we choose to love the other more than ourself or our own flesh or rights or emotions, we have come well past half way in turning a situation around.
I could write for days on end about my marriage to my best friend, but I think I've said enough. Nothing I have written in any way says that other marriages with different choices are any less loving or true than ours—I am just sharing from a joyous heart a little about ours. Mary Ann has loved me, supported me, upheld me, and been God's voice to me more times than I can count—and I thank God for her more times than I can count as well.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
It's Not about Them and Me . . .
Over the last few months I have been studying and teaching on Jesus' commands to love our neighbors as ourselves—and, as He says in another verse, to love others as He has loved us. As I have studied this I am more and more coming to realize that my loving someone else is not about me and them, but about me and God. This is hard because (especially when someone has hurt me) I want to justify my love or response or action (or lack of any of these) toward them by their action toward me. But God doesn't give me that room. . .
The more I read through the New Testament the more I see the solitary nature of this love and how verse after verse basically says that if I love God, I will love them. I want to cry out to Him, "But God, don't you see how they are acting, or how they don't even admit their wrong, or how they will take it for granted, or . . .?" It is like He says, "Yes. I do. Now, do you love me?" When I answer, "Yes, I do," He says, "Then love them."
"But . . . , but . . ." to which I again hear, "Do you love me?" to which I answer, "Yes," and to which He then, again, says, "Then love them."
This is both freeing and constraining at the same time. Freeing in that I can love someone who is very unlovable because I am loving them for Him, not them. Constraining in that I can't use their actions to justify not loving them—I can't give myself that way out.
The more I spend time on this, the more I realize that it can't be any other way. When I love another the way He calls me to it is costly, sacrificial, not about my rights, not about their action, not about their response . . . and that is exactly how He has loved every one of us. He FIRST loved us. He loved us when we were still His ENEMIES. He forgave us when we were unrepentant. His love cost Him everything. He laid down His rights to love us. He humbled Himself to love us. He has met our needs at every level—spiritual, emotional, and physical—He didn't just "pray for us" and wish us well.
When we look at the costly love He calls us to love others with, and when we read about the love the early church had for one another in Acts and the Epistles, we realize that this amazing level of love is simply a love He has already loved us with. He is simply calling us to love others the way He loved (and loves) us. So, it really has to be that way if we want to be the image and fragrance of Christ. Everything He did for us—salvation, healing, deliverance—all came from, first, love . . . and He reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that we can have all the spiritual gifts and Christian charity, but if we don't have love we have nothing. But, when we operate in love toward friends, and enemies, we truly take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. We truly become His fragrance and I believe that He comes in all over that and loves hanging out in the presence of love.
I understand, and need to state, that a persons response to our love may dictate and affect our physical expression of that love—and that situations may require withdrawing from an environment that is, say, abusive—but the heart side of love is not about them, it is about us and God. He reminds us that even the lost love their friends . . . it is the fragrance and presence of Christ to love an enemy and it is that type of love the world desperately needs to see if it is going to recognize Jesus. The world has enough of itself—it needs something out of this world—and the love of Christ, through us, that is radically contrary to its ways and values, is where it all begins.
The more I read through the New Testament the more I see the solitary nature of this love and how verse after verse basically says that if I love God, I will love them. I want to cry out to Him, "But God, don't you see how they are acting, or how they don't even admit their wrong, or how they will take it for granted, or . . .?" It is like He says, "Yes. I do. Now, do you love me?" When I answer, "Yes, I do," He says, "Then love them."
"But . . . , but . . ." to which I again hear, "Do you love me?" to which I answer, "Yes," and to which He then, again, says, "Then love them."
This is both freeing and constraining at the same time. Freeing in that I can love someone who is very unlovable because I am loving them for Him, not them. Constraining in that I can't use their actions to justify not loving them—I can't give myself that way out.
The more I spend time on this, the more I realize that it can't be any other way. When I love another the way He calls me to it is costly, sacrificial, not about my rights, not about their action, not about their response . . . and that is exactly how He has loved every one of us. He FIRST loved us. He loved us when we were still His ENEMIES. He forgave us when we were unrepentant. His love cost Him everything. He laid down His rights to love us. He humbled Himself to love us. He has met our needs at every level—spiritual, emotional, and physical—He didn't just "pray for us" and wish us well.
When we look at the costly love He calls us to love others with, and when we read about the love the early church had for one another in Acts and the Epistles, we realize that this amazing level of love is simply a love He has already loved us with. He is simply calling us to love others the way He loved (and loves) us. So, it really has to be that way if we want to be the image and fragrance of Christ. Everything He did for us—salvation, healing, deliverance—all came from, first, love . . . and He reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that we can have all the spiritual gifts and Christian charity, but if we don't have love we have nothing. But, when we operate in love toward friends, and enemies, we truly take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. We truly become His fragrance and I believe that He comes in all over that and loves hanging out in the presence of love.
I understand, and need to state, that a persons response to our love may dictate and affect our physical expression of that love—and that situations may require withdrawing from an environment that is, say, abusive—but the heart side of love is not about them, it is about us and God. He reminds us that even the lost love their friends . . . it is the fragrance and presence of Christ to love an enemy and it is that type of love the world desperately needs to see if it is going to recognize Jesus. The world has enough of itself—it needs something out of this world—and the love of Christ, through us, that is radically contrary to its ways and values, is where it all begins.
Friday, January 15, 2010
A Devotional on Loving God . . .
Mary Ann and I are big fans of quality Christian movies. As such we have really valued the ministry of Dave Christiano who produces Christian movies, and also sells Christian films through his ministry Christian Films.com.
This week he sent out an email newsletter and in it he reprints a devotional from a friend of his, Jimmy D. Brown (www.living4jesus.com). In light of what I have been studying this week, and I have asked both you and the fellowship I pastor to meditate on (what it means to love God), I found this to be more than coincidence. I contacted Jimmy D. Brown and received his permission to reprint the devotional here:
This week he sent out an email newsletter and in it he reprints a devotional from a friend of his, Jimmy D. Brown (www.living4jesus.com). In light of what I have been studying this week, and I have asked both you and the fellowship I pastor to meditate on (what it means to love God), I found this to be more than coincidence. I contacted Jimmy D. Brown and received his permission to reprint the devotional here:
I was reading this week and just one of the most basic verses of Scripture there is just really resonated with me: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength".It is truly something to stop on for awhile and meditate about. What does it look like to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength? What would it look like if more did it? I think we might be truly shocked at what God stands ready to do through one person who would simply love Him with everything he or she has.
That's it. That's everything. That's the whole entire thing we're supposed to do here on earth all rolled up in one simple statement. Love the Lord with everything we have.
Oh how our families and other relationships would be blessed if everyone did it. There would be no more Tiger Wood headlines. Nor wars in the middle east. Nor thievery or murders or hatred. No more broken homes and cheaters and selfishness and pride.
If every one of us just loved the Lord with everything we have, what a different world we'd live in.
Just love Him. More than anything else. With all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Or, said another way...
Keep Christ First!
Jimmy
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Studying and Honoring the Word
I received and email today from Derek Prince Ministries in which the president of its USA division, Dick Leggatt, talked of the foundational importance of God's Word to us and said of Derek, "One of my fondest recollections of my early contact with Derek Prince had to do with his love for the Word of God, and his priority of studying and honoring it."
He then went on to tell of a time in 1972 when he visited Derek's home and, while Derek was out of the room, sneaked a peak at Derek's open Bible to find out what he was studying and found he couldn't read it because it was all in Greek. He says, "Derek was studying his New Testament in the original Greek. My very next thought was, 'What kind of a man is this?' " Dick then wrote, "I'll tell you the answer to that question. Derek was a man who knew and loved the Word of God. It was the foundation of his life. It was his rock."
As I read the email I was struck with a distinction Dick made early in it when he talked of Derek's priority of studying and honoring the Word. I thought, that is a very wise distinction. We are told to study God's Word, to meditate on it, to immerse our self in it, to rightly divide it. But that alone won't be a foundation for us. I knew a man who could quote the Bible inside and out—far better than I ever will. He had even, if my memory serves me correctly, chosen his college because it was the only one at the time offering a New Testament study course. The man was brilliant—with a memory seemingly without holes and with an IQ that led him to shatter test records. He also thought the Bible yielded some good history but was basically a good story book. In fact, his lifestyle was in open rejection of what God says is pleasing to Him, and he held no belief in God, especially as a personal Lord and Savior. The last time I met him, years later, that hadn't changed.
You see, it is not enough to simply study the Word of God. We are almost, in seems in so many cases in America, taught way past our point of obedience. We know far more than we are ever obeying. We must not only study the Word of God, but we must honor it. When we honor someone we put them up higher, we call them to the front, we give them a place of esteem and recognition. We must honor the Word of God. It must be something we esteem, we put to the front of our life, we anchor our hopes and expectations and choices in, we live worthy of. Our lives must bear out our esteem for the Word by honoring it with our choices to live by it—not just saying it is important to us, but our lives being a testimony by which someone could tell the Word is important to us even if we never said it.
I like that distinction—studying and honoring. Those two, together, make for a powerful foundation for a Christian's life! When we know God's Word, and then we make a decision to esteem it and hold it high in our life, we will find ourselves living a life of holiness, and also a life of faith. Holiness because God's Word calls us to it and we honor that. Faith because we make His Word important enough to us that we believe it even when what we see around us contradicts it.
Holiness and Faith. Wow! When those mark our life there is no telling how He might "turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6) through us. Couple that with a decision to sacrificially love God and others above all else and I can't imagine what a life might look like . . . but I am hopefully moving toward finding out because I want those to be the marks of my life, and the witness and strength and inheritance I give/show to Mary Ann and Bethany and Abigail and others.
Note: Please prayerfully consider commenting on my "I Gots to Know!" post (1/12/2010) on what it means to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I really believe both you, and we the audience, will be blessed by your prayerful searching out that subject and then sharing what you find.
He then went on to tell of a time in 1972 when he visited Derek's home and, while Derek was out of the room, sneaked a peak at Derek's open Bible to find out what he was studying and found he couldn't read it because it was all in Greek. He says, "Derek was studying his New Testament in the original Greek. My very next thought was, 'What kind of a man is this?' " Dick then wrote, "I'll tell you the answer to that question. Derek was a man who knew and loved the Word of God. It was the foundation of his life. It was his rock."
As I read the email I was struck with a distinction Dick made early in it when he talked of Derek's priority of studying and honoring the Word. I thought, that is a very wise distinction. We are told to study God's Word, to meditate on it, to immerse our self in it, to rightly divide it. But that alone won't be a foundation for us. I knew a man who could quote the Bible inside and out—far better than I ever will. He had even, if my memory serves me correctly, chosen his college because it was the only one at the time offering a New Testament study course. The man was brilliant—with a memory seemingly without holes and with an IQ that led him to shatter test records. He also thought the Bible yielded some good history but was basically a good story book. In fact, his lifestyle was in open rejection of what God says is pleasing to Him, and he held no belief in God, especially as a personal Lord and Savior. The last time I met him, years later, that hadn't changed.
You see, it is not enough to simply study the Word of God. We are almost, in seems in so many cases in America, taught way past our point of obedience. We know far more than we are ever obeying. We must not only study the Word of God, but we must honor it. When we honor someone we put them up higher, we call them to the front, we give them a place of esteem and recognition. We must honor the Word of God. It must be something we esteem, we put to the front of our life, we anchor our hopes and expectations and choices in, we live worthy of. Our lives must bear out our esteem for the Word by honoring it with our choices to live by it—not just saying it is important to us, but our lives being a testimony by which someone could tell the Word is important to us even if we never said it.
I like that distinction—studying and honoring. Those two, together, make for a powerful foundation for a Christian's life! When we know God's Word, and then we make a decision to esteem it and hold it high in our life, we will find ourselves living a life of holiness, and also a life of faith. Holiness because God's Word calls us to it and we honor that. Faith because we make His Word important enough to us that we believe it even when what we see around us contradicts it.
Holiness and Faith. Wow! When those mark our life there is no telling how He might "turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6) through us. Couple that with a decision to sacrificially love God and others above all else and I can't imagine what a life might look like . . . but I am hopefully moving toward finding out because I want those to be the marks of my life, and the witness and strength and inheritance I give/show to Mary Ann and Bethany and Abigail and others.
Note: Please prayerfully consider commenting on my "I Gots to Know!" post (1/12/2010) on what it means to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I really believe both you, and we the audience, will be blessed by your prayerful searching out that subject and then sharing what you find.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I Gots to Know!
Email Subscribers: I have changed the automatic delivery time of email notifications of new posts within the last 24 hours from 3–5 pm (Pacific) to 3–5 am (Pacific). My hope is that you will see any post from the day before to start the day and not half way through it, but I don’t want them to be buried in a block of overnight email either. Please let me know how this works for you. Thanks for reading!
Today's Post: Over the recent months God has been impressing more and more on me the core essential nature of two commands which Jesus emphasized and left us with found in Mark 12:30–31 and other places. These are, from Mark, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
According to Jesus, all other commandments, and in fact the whole law, hang on these. In fact, it is safe to say from the Bible, that love should be the very fragrance of the Christian—the defining mark by which the world will judge both our Christianity, and even Jesus Himself.
So, I have shared with our fellowship that we will be beginning a period of looking at these two commandments, starting with loving the Lord, our God, with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength, and at some point moving in to loving our neighbor as ourself—loving others as Christ loved us. While there is nothing I will be able to teach that will “make”anyone love God with their all (that is a transaction each person must choose to make with God), we can look at what God means by that, what it should look like, and what our role in it is.
In our society, love has been reduced to a feeling that comes and goes, and a word we all use way to casually and easily, when, in reality, I believe that love is probably more costly, and more of a choice, than many of us, including myself, realize—both in our love for God and our love for others. I have asked our fellowship to meditate on this first commandment. I really look forward to hearing what God shares with us on what He means by loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
So, as the bank robber said to Dirty Harry when Clint Eastwood made his famous, “So, do you feel lucky, punk?” line, “I gots to know!”—I “gots” to know what YOU think God means by loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind/understanding, and strength. What is He asking? What does it really look like? Does He really mean ALL, and if so how can that be? What is our role in it? What might our life look like if we really did that? Your prayerful comments on this will, I believe, bless both me and others. Please consider meditating on this most important commandment (it is a command, by the way) of all, and don't shy away from the depth of choice and cost you may come to realize it means.
Note: In keeping in the vein of the Clint Eastwood theme of this post, what follows is a fun piece of useless trivia about me for any of you interested in not just my thoughts and reflections, but also in me as a person (ignore it if not—no hard feelings).
When I was at West Point in the mid-80s I was a huge Clint Eastwood fan (especially of his westerns). My roommate, from Puerto Rico, was as well, and to hear him recite lines from Eastwood’s movies in a Puerto Rican, twirled r accent, was really quite fun! (The picture is of him and me in front of the Clint Eastwood poster on the back of our room’s door.) We memorized many of Eastwood's classic lines (“When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk,” plus, “I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth...,” and, “Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy,” plus more). When Clint was elected mayor of my hometown of Carmel, California, it warranted a special late night phone call from my folks with the election news, and when I made the varsity pistol team my dad had a friend of his who was also a friend of Clint’s get me an autographed still from the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, with a note written on it from Clint Eastwood congratulating me. Now, all of that is probably way more than most of you would ever want to know, but a few of you may enjoy it. God bless (and, no, I don’t still memorize his lines—now I memorize God’s lines—smile).
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A Christmas Wish, Story, and Thought . . .
First, a Christmas wish. I wish each and every one of you the joy of Christmas. May the message and wonder of salvation and God's love permeate your spiritual pores until it embodies all you are and think. May it so fill you with joy and peace that no circumstance that comes your way can dent it. May you find your heart and hands and voice lifted toward heaven with uncontainable, spontaneous awe and worship and love and adoration!Second, a neat story. We spent Monday in Carmel on our "traditional" (in our family, anything twice becomes tradition) day of Christmas shopping and hanging out with my mom. We begin the "tradition" each time (this is our second time) with my dad joining us for coffee at Il Fornio, and we are batting 100% in getting the seat by the fire. You can enjoy the moment with us in our "traditional" picture, above. Last year's picture is in the right column of the blog, a ways down, if you want to see how much the girls are growing in a year (or how well I am aging—ha, ha).
Anyway, while shopping mom took the girls for a few minutes to a store so Mary Ann and I could be clandestine and get a few things. About five minutes before leaving Carmel Plaza to rejoin them, my left ankle started hurting with a real sharp pain that made it uncomfortable walking. We crossed the street and a woman passed in front of us on the sidewalk, being pushed in a wheelchair by a man whom I assume was her husband. We fell in step behind them and as I looked at her foot in a cast I thought about Jesus and Christmas and His love and power. I spoke kind of loud to them as they were a few steps ahead of us, "Can we pray for you?" They stopped and said, "Okay."
Now often people caught like that think you mean, "Can I pray for you sometime in the future or when I think about it." They usually don't think you mean "right now, on this corner, in downtown Carmel" so I quickly added "now" and moved up beside them. Mary Ann joined me and I put my hand on the woman's shoulder and we all bowed our heads there by the intersection and I asked God to pour out over them, to defy the doctors with her healing, and for it to be the best, most God-filled Christmas they have ever had. After we were done praying they thanked us and we parted. As we left them and began walking up a hill toward our rendezvous with my mom and the girls, I noticed that MY ankle pain was gone! How cool is that!
Third, a Christmas thought. I shared this in much more detail with our church on Sunday, but I wanted to share its core here with all of you as well.
When the angel appeared to the shepherds he said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lu 2:10-11). There is, in this proclamation, the foundation of our whole faith and joy. When everything else is stripped away, when theology is confusing us more than helping us, when life has broken us, there is a place of joy we can turn to.
The angels said that the birth of Christ (which would end at the cross) was:
1) Good News!
2) of Great Joy!
and it was to all the people! He didn't say, "to people of secure finances" or "to people who have a great marriage" or "to those who have it all together." No, he said that this good news, of great joy, was available to all people. Now Jesus didn't go and fix every earthly problem, but He did pay for our sins that we might be restored to our Father in heaven if we would embrace His gift and Lordship. So, this is clearly an "eternal" joy—a joy fixed on our eternal condition, tied in to Jesus' role as Savior. It shows the Father's emphasis on eternity over simply the now (though I do believe He desires us to joyfully walk in, and use, the authority He gives us to tackle and destroy the works of the devil in this life, as well).
The other day I hit a real low spot. I wasn't sure anymore what this pastoring was about or supposed to look like, or what I was supposed to be telling people, and it seemed like every "theological" conclusion I came to I was finding a verse to contradict it. I felt closer to stepping down than I have ever felt, and I was sitting by the fire with Mary Ann and I told her, "I don't know what this is about any more." She said, "Yes, you do." She then said something to the effect of, "God loves you and He sent His Son to die for you and you are His forever." It was utterly simple, and it touched and stirred something so deep in me I can't explain it. When all else is stripped away, when you feel like a failure, when life crashes in, that is the core, foundational message that it all comes back to—that is the message that never changes or leaves you—it is the good news, of great joy, that is unto me and you. This doesn't mean we take joy in clear victories of the devil, but it does mean that no matter what is stripped away there is, at the core, a place that can't be touched and which we must always return to—a place which simply is our eternal, born again, new creation life with God that can't be taken from us, and that came because His Son came to earth and died for us out of a love beyond our comprehension.
The utter simplicity and foundational essence of that reminder brought to life for me, again, the Christmas proclamation—and I hope it helps you, too. God bless each and every one of you, and Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Mount Everest
I have been reading Dreaming With God by Bill Johnson and in it he talks about an incident that I have shared in church before. The details vary in different accounts of the story, but most say that it occurred at a dinner for survivors of George Mallory’s third attempt to scale Mount Everest. Mallory had tried twice to reach the mountain’s summit and failed, and on the third attempt he was killed. It is reported that, at the dinner for those who survived (but didn’t make it to the top, either—that was still about 30 years away), the leader of the expedition stood up, faced a picture of Mount Everest at the back of the room, and said:
"I speak to you, Mount Everest, in the name of all brave men living, and those yet unborn. Mount Everest, you defeated us once, you defeated us twice, you defeated us three times. But Mount Everest, we shall someday defeat you, because you can't get any bigger, but we can!"I love this story! I have seen tremendous victories in my life and the life of people I have ministered with, and I have seen some heart-breaking losses—some times when “Mount Everest” won a battle. I don’t understand why I don’t see more victories, and why I sometimes struggle so, but I do know that I am an heir of tremendous promises from God and I have in me the Holy Spirit of my God, who defeated Satan at the cross. I am lured, and invited, by the possibility latent in such verses as:
John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Matthew 17:20 . . . For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
John 16:23-24 . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Mark 9:23 . . . All things are possible for one who believes.
Additionally, God’s Work tells me that I don’t need to be anxious for anything, that I am a co-laborer with God, and that I am to pray (and play a part in bringing about) that His will would be done ON EARTH, as it is in HEAVEN! I am to partner with God in showing Heaven’s realities and the Father’s heart and love and will (which is always good!) to a world that desperately needs to hear it.
I am, according to 1 Peter 2:9 . . . a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession [that I] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you [me]out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Here is the thing. The devil, like Mount Everest, can’t get any bigger. But I have an invitation from my Father in Heaven to grow in intimacy with Him, to walk in purpose with Him, to live for the eternity He promises me with Him that the devil can’t take away, to demonstrate His love and power and nature to the world, to be transformed in to the image of Christ, to grow in grace, and to work toward seeing those awesome promises above become more and more the reality of my life as I seek to destroy strongholds of the enemy in my life and the lives of others.
The temptation the devil would love me to swallow is to say those promises (or, as I see them, invitations) above don’t really mean what they say, or seem to say. Once I swallow that I start to water their meaning down to match my level of experience, and I don’t grow but I shrink the meaning of God’s Word down to justify the level I am at. But, as long as I don’t water down what God’s Word says and, instead, contend to raise my experience level to match it, I continue to grow and the devil hates the sound of that! It is time for the people of God to start moving in greater and greater measure of not just declaring, but also demonstrating, the love and power of our mighty God! A world bound by deception, pain, hopelessness, abandonment, addiction, disease, purposelessness, orphan spirits, and counterfeit power desperately needs it.
Photo of Mount Everest from a free download of travel wallpaper at http://travel.desktop-wallpaper-photo.com
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Family of Christ . . .
When the transmission went out on our van a week and a half ago we thought our planned camping trip was over. Instead, we were blessed beyond measure (the only regret is that we missed seeing a special family at Hume Lake where we were going to go originally). W
e had three people offer us vehicles (two from our church, and one from our homeschool group who we had just met that day) and a family in our church loan us a luggage roof rack for the vehicle that we did borrow. Not sure where to go as camping was out for space reasons, we kept hearing about Shaver Lake (we wanted to do some fishing and some homeschool outdoor science time). On a whim, Saturday morning, I did a search for Shaver Lake and found the link for The Church of Shaver Lake. I thought that maybe some brothers and sisters in Christ could give us some advice about the area and where we might stay for not a lot. I called the number and one thing led to another and we were heading up there on Monday morning to meet some new "family". We were so absolutely blessed by the hospitality of the fellowship, from their amazing pastor Jim and his wife Debbie, to the family we stayed next to who live at the church, to the rest of the fellowship that we met. The trip was a beautiful balance of being outdoors, having fun, and that fellowship in the love and Spirit of Christ 
that is so beautiful. We were completely at home in the family of Christ there and we felt the sweet presence of the Spirit there. It was so wonderful and blessed to be a part of their family for a short time, and we know that we have made friends for a lifetime.
We got to fish (even had Warner in their fellowship take us out for a day and teach us fly fishing), go out on Jim's boat, see giant Sequoias, swim, BBQ, go to some high mountain lakes, relax, laugh, love, and just be blessed. I think that it must so make our Lord happy when His children love one another, open their arms and homes to one another, and embrace one another as a true brother and sister, sharing their hearts as well as their "talents." We can't thank all the people who seeded in to our time with their prayers, loaners, and h
ospitality. We can't thank God enough for His love and goodness. It was truly wonderful and amazing to feel so at home and loved and welcome am
ong a group of people you had only met hours before. There is, indeed, a sweet love and bond and fragrance among those who love the Lord.
Pictures: The chapel used by The Church of Shaver Lake, Mary Ann fly fishing with Warner teaching, our family at Dinkey Creek, the "girls" and their donuts (and bagel) at Dinkey Creek (really roughin' it!). If you are on my Facebook page I posted other pictures there as well.
e had three people offer us vehicles (two from our church, and one from our homeschool group who we had just met that day) and a family in our church loan us a luggage roof rack for the vehicle that we did borrow. Not sure where to go as camping was out for space reasons, we kept hearing about Shaver Lake (we wanted to do some fishing and some homeschool outdoor science time). On a whim, Saturday morning, I did a search for Shaver Lake and found the link for The Church of Shaver Lake. I thought that maybe some brothers and sisters in Christ could give us some advice about the area and where we might stay for not a lot. I called the number and one thing led to another and we were heading up there on Monday morning to meet some new "family". We were so absolutely blessed by the hospitality of the fellowship, from their amazing pastor Jim and his wife Debbie, to the family we stayed next to who live at the church, to the rest of the fellowship that we met. The trip was a beautiful balance of being outdoors, having fun, and that fellowship in the love and Spirit of Christ 
that is so beautiful. We were completely at home in the family of Christ there and we felt the sweet presence of the Spirit there. It was so wonderful and blessed to be a part of their family for a short time, and we know that we have made friends for a lifetime.We got to fish (even had Warner in their fellowship take us out for a day and teach us fly fishing), go out on Jim's boat, see giant Sequoias, swim, BBQ, go to some high mountain lakes, relax, laugh, love, and just be blessed. I think that it must so make our Lord happy when His children love one another, open their arms and homes to one another, and embrace one another as a true brother and sister, sharing their hearts as well as their "talents." We can't thank all the people who seeded in to our time with their prayers, loaners, and h
ospitality. We can't thank God enough for His love and goodness. It was truly wonderful and amazing to feel so at home and loved and welcome am
ong a group of people you had only met hours before. There is, indeed, a sweet love and bond and fragrance among those who love the Lord.Pictures: The chapel used by The Church of Shaver Lake, Mary Ann fly fishing with Warner teaching, our family at Dinkey Creek, the "girls" and their donuts (and bagel) at Dinkey Creek (really roughin' it!). If you are on my Facebook page I posted other pictures there as well.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
He Cares for Me . . .
Tomorrow at the church I pastor I am going to be leaving the ongoing study of Genesis I have been teaching to spend a morning in 1 Peter, specifically Chapter 5, verse 7, which encourages us to cast all our cares/anxieties on Him, because He cares for us. This was written to a persecuted, dispersed church who would have, I believe, desperately needed to be reminded of that. I don't know why God has so quickened my heart to this verse this week, but it is the one that my thoughts have repeatedly returned to.
We use the word "love" so loosely in this day and age---we love a movie, we love a food, etc.---that the word "cares" almost carries, for me, more power and tenderness. I have found myself having to stop and take time to meditate and focus on that line---God CARES for ME! I encourage you to stop on that today, and this week, as well. Don't just read it past, or nod and move on. Stop and let that sink deep into the core of your being. God CARES for YOU! Not just "you"---the body of Christ at large---but "you" meaning "you"---the person reading this right now.
HE cares for you!
He CARES for you!
He cares FOR you!
He cares for YOU!
Only the Holy Spirit can bring that truth to life in your heart, but I pray right now that He awakens that truth in your heart to such a level that it becomes the foundational bedrock of your faith and trust in Him. Then, you can cast/throw all your cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for you.
What a wonderful God we love and serve! May this verse become a hook in your heart that you can't shake or let go of, but that your heart and mind are drawn back to over and over in this coming week as you go deeper and deeper into the layers of all that means and means for you!
We use the word "love" so loosely in this day and age---we love a movie, we love a food, etc.---that the word "cares" almost carries, for me, more power and tenderness. I have found myself having to stop and take time to meditate and focus on that line---God CARES for ME! I encourage you to stop on that today, and this week, as well. Don't just read it past, or nod and move on. Stop and let that sink deep into the core of your being. God CARES for YOU! Not just "you"---the body of Christ at large---but "you" meaning "you"---the person reading this right now.
HE cares for you!
He CARES for you!
He cares FOR you!
He cares for YOU!
Only the Holy Spirit can bring that truth to life in your heart, but I pray right now that He awakens that truth in your heart to such a level that it becomes the foundational bedrock of your faith and trust in Him. Then, you can cast/throw all your cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for you.
What a wonderful God we love and serve! May this verse become a hook in your heart that you can't shake or let go of, but that your heart and mind are drawn back to over and over in this coming week as you go deeper and deeper into the layers of all that means and means for you!
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