Wednesday, August 31, 2016
The Love of God
By Rebekah Royal
My precious grandson’s spent the night tonight. God has used these little boys to teach me more about the love of God than just about anything I’ve experienced in my life. Being the survivor of abuse, one of the repercussions of my experiences, left me having trouble giving or receiving love for many years. As I began to heal and learn who I am in Christ, God has removed the veil from my eyes regarding love. As a young mother of two, in a difficult marriage, my heart ached for years. God redeemed my heart, my marriage and my life and this year my husband and I will celebrate 35 years of marriage. I’d love to share with you what God taught me just last night.
As I said, our grandson’s (ages 4 & 6) spent the night last night. It was a stormy night in Georgia. Tornado warnings were announced and the lightning and thunder were present. Many times we allow the boys to bring their mattress down to the living room to “camp out.” This was a great night to do that since Nana wanted to make sure these boys were safe in this storm. We watched a couple of their shows on television as we laid on the mattress together. I had to split my time between the two with my “place” on the mattress. I cannot even express to you the joy that I feel from these two. As we turned off the television and the lights and I went to my room, which was very close to the living room; I left my door open so I could hear the least little sound. I cannot even imagine not being right there if they awakened with any need. When I thought I heard a sound I leaped out of the bed and pressed my ear in their direction. False alarm. They were sleeping soundly.
This morning Father God is bringing so many thoughts and scriptures to my mind. Luke 11:11-13 NLT, “You fathers – if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Of if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children (And boy do I know how to do this since gifts is my love language), how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Luke 13:34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”
If I am quick to my feet when I hear the least little sound of these boys, how much quicker is God to rush to our need when we call out? Do we believe this? Haven’t we all had experiences where we cried out to God and felt nothing? As a counselor, I often hear the complaints of my counselee’s who are confused, bewildered and even angry because they “feel” as though God has abandoned them. If you are there, it’s okay. But work through those negative emotions or we will continually push away his wings of shelter. We don’t have to STAY in our anger. Will we believe God’s word, or will we believe our feelings? If my heart can be stirred in the direction of my grandson’s slightest need, how much more, can a God who IS LOVE not turn a deaf ear to our cry? Friends, HE IS THERE! HE is in you! HE cares! HE feels what you feel! If HE is silent there is a reason! Will we believe truth no matter what our feelings are screaming? I can easily hear Bill Gillham’s voice in my head, “Rain on those feelings!” Those are some of the most profound words we can remember. IF HE is in you, that means HE feels what you are feeling. HE weeps with you. HE holds you in your confusion. HE never leaves you nor forsakes you. Know that HE is holding on to you until the fog of confusion leaves you. HE is giving you the faith you need to get through those painful and difficult days. HE LOVES YOU!
Oh, and guess what, grandson number three will be here in July! I never knew I was capable of such love. But then again, why am I surprised? God IS love and HE resides in me! And HE resides in you!
I have to go now. I’m hearing a sweet, sweet voice calling, “Nana, I’m awake!”
Drawing Strength From The Vine
By Anabel Gillham
…we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
II Corinthians 3:18
It was one of my favorite nature study science lessons, and I always had as much fun as my fifth grade kids did watching what happened. It was, of necessity, a springtime experiment because that was when the daffodils appeared to announce with golden voices that winter was pretty well over and spring was on its way.
Several of the kids would bring daffodils from their yard (I think Glenn usually ‘found’ one in the neighbor’s yard, but I never scolded him or embarrassed him. He had a rough time at the house he called ‘home’). We would all get out our Gerber baby food jars, fill them about 2/3 full of water and then add some cake coloring to that water, using several different colors in the jars to see which one we would like the best. Then we would place a flower in each jar and watch enthralled as it thirstily ‘drank’ the colored water and the elaborate map of its tiny veins began to be evident as it took the color from the jar.
That’s a wonderful object lesson in teaching about Jesus being the vine and how we branches draw our strength from Him and actually begin to look like Him-like one of His children. And we begin to act like Him, as we allow Him to be our strength, our life, our beautiful color-as He flows through the myriad tiny veins.
The Greeks came to Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” I think there are multitudes of hurting, curious people saying the same thing today. They watch us and how we operate in our world with our circumstances and they are watching to see if Jesus appears. Too often we act just like they do and they see nothing in our life that would make them feel the necessity to have Jesus to be a part of their world. They don’t relate.
But if we have our “feet in the water” and are “drinking thirstily” they are going to see myriad things that will tell them, “Their strength doesn’t come from themselves. Look, what’s happening! They ‘look like’ Jesus!”
…we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
II Corinthians 3:18
It was one of my favorite nature study science lessons, and I always had as much fun as my fifth grade kids did watching what happened. It was, of necessity, a springtime experiment because that was when the daffodils appeared to announce with golden voices that winter was pretty well over and spring was on its way.
Several of the kids would bring daffodils from their yard (I think Glenn usually ‘found’ one in the neighbor’s yard, but I never scolded him or embarrassed him. He had a rough time at the house he called ‘home’). We would all get out our Gerber baby food jars, fill them about 2/3 full of water and then add some cake coloring to that water, using several different colors in the jars to see which one we would like the best. Then we would place a flower in each jar and watch enthralled as it thirstily ‘drank’ the colored water and the elaborate map of its tiny veins began to be evident as it took the color from the jar.
That’s a wonderful object lesson in teaching about Jesus being the vine and how we branches draw our strength from Him and actually begin to look like Him-like one of His children. And we begin to act like Him, as we allow Him to be our strength, our life, our beautiful color-as He flows through the myriad tiny veins.
The Greeks came to Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” I think there are multitudes of hurting, curious people saying the same thing today. They watch us and how we operate in our world with our circumstances and they are watching to see if Jesus appears. Too often we act just like they do and they see nothing in our life that would make them feel the necessity to have Jesus to be a part of their world. They don’t relate.
But if we have our “feet in the water” and are “drinking thirstily” they are going to see myriad things that will tell them, “Their strength doesn’t come from themselves. Look, what’s happening! They ‘look like’ Jesus!”
How Much Are You Worth?
We know what something is worth to someone by what they are willing to pay for it. Consider, then, what our heavenly bridegroom was willing to pay to redeem us and make us his bride. Out of his love for us, the all-holy God was willing to do nothing less than to go to the extremity of becoming our sin (2 Cor 5:21) and becoming our God-forsaken curse (Gal 3:13). This means that God’s love for us led him to go to the extreme of somehow becoming his own antithesis. In other words, God revealed how much we are worth to him by somehow becoming anti-God!
God could not have gone further than he in fact did to free us from our bondage and make us his bride. And if the worth of something or someone to another is determined by what they are willing to pay to acquire it, then the fact that God was willing to pay the greatest price that could possible be paid can only mean that we have the greatest possible worth to God.
The unsurpassable price God paid for us means that we have unsurpassable worth to God. God could not possibly love us more than he actually does, and we could not matter more to God than we actually do.
This love lies at the core of God’s being. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), as we explored in this post. God loves us with the very same love that God eternally is. Calvary is what the love of the Trinity looks like when it encompasses us. Jesus reflects this truth when he prays that we would know that the Father loves us with the very same love he has for his own eternal Son (John 17:26).
In other words, God loves us with the same love he has for himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. When we receive this love, we are incorporated into Christ and therefore into the eternal triune community so that we receive and reflect the very same perfect love that unites God throughout eternity.
The God whose love led him to go to the infinite extreme of offering up his Son to become our sin and our God-forsakenness also gives us, as a result of this unsurpassable sacrifice, “all things” (Rom 8:22). It’s no wonder that Paul declared that God’s love for us in Christ “surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:18-19).
All of this is part of the magnificent revelation and promise of the cross. On the cross God reveals his perfect love for us and reveals our unsurpassable worth to him. And on the cross God promises to always love us like this and to always ascribe this worth to us.
Even more, the fact that God’s love for us is demonstrated “while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8) makes it clear that God’s love for us is completely based on God’s character, not ours. Even when we are in bondage to sin and are thinking, feeling, and/or acting like God’s enemies, we can trust that it remains as true as ever that we could not be loved more than we actually are, and could not matter more to God than we actually do. God’s perfect, unsurpassable, unwavering love for us is also unconditional.
—Adapted from Benefit of the Doubt, pages 240-242 - Greg Boyd
God could not have gone further than he in fact did to free us from our bondage and make us his bride. And if the worth of something or someone to another is determined by what they are willing to pay to acquire it, then the fact that God was willing to pay the greatest price that could possible be paid can only mean that we have the greatest possible worth to God.
The unsurpassable price God paid for us means that we have unsurpassable worth to God. God could not possibly love us more than he actually does, and we could not matter more to God than we actually do.
This love lies at the core of God’s being. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), as we explored in this post. God loves us with the very same love that God eternally is. Calvary is what the love of the Trinity looks like when it encompasses us. Jesus reflects this truth when he prays that we would know that the Father loves us with the very same love he has for his own eternal Son (John 17:26).
In other words, God loves us with the same love he has for himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. When we receive this love, we are incorporated into Christ and therefore into the eternal triune community so that we receive and reflect the very same perfect love that unites God throughout eternity.
The God whose love led him to go to the infinite extreme of offering up his Son to become our sin and our God-forsakenness also gives us, as a result of this unsurpassable sacrifice, “all things” (Rom 8:22). It’s no wonder that Paul declared that God’s love for us in Christ “surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:18-19).
All of this is part of the magnificent revelation and promise of the cross. On the cross God reveals his perfect love for us and reveals our unsurpassable worth to him. And on the cross God promises to always love us like this and to always ascribe this worth to us.
Even more, the fact that God’s love for us is demonstrated “while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8) makes it clear that God’s love for us is completely based on God’s character, not ours. Even when we are in bondage to sin and are thinking, feeling, and/or acting like God’s enemies, we can trust that it remains as true as ever that we could not be loved more than we actually are, and could not matter more to God than we actually do. God’s perfect, unsurpassable, unwavering love for us is also unconditional.
—Adapted from Benefit of the Doubt, pages 240-242 - Greg Boyd
A Brief Theology of God’s Love
The most profound truth of the Bible is that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). This is the most fundamental thing to be said about God, for it encompasses everything else that can be said about God. Peter Kreft explains this passage it this way:
Love is God’s essence. Nowhere else does Scripture express God’s essence in this way. Scripture says God is just and merciful, but it does not say that God is justice itself or mercy itself. It does say that God is love, not just a lover. Love is God’s very essence. Everything else is a manifestation of this essence to us, a relationship between this essence and us. This is the absolute; everything else is relative to it.
As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God eternally exists as perfect love. Each divine person within the godhead ascribes ultimate worth to the others. In doing this God is not being conceited but simply accurate. For as the one eternal uncreated reality, the triune community is the ultimate value, if you will, from which all created things derive value.
While we cannot clearly conceive of what the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit looked like prior to creation, we can discern its basic nature from the way God reveals himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. In Christ, and throughout the New Testament, we learn that the fellowship of the three divine persons consists in mutual submission.
The triune fellowship is Christ-like. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ascribe ultimate worth to one another without any competition. Their eternal life together consists in the divine joy of expressing the absolute value each has for the other.
The essence of this triune love is revealed in God’s love for humanity. The eternal, other-oriented love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is revealed outside of God, as it were, in his love for humanity. God’s own inherent worth is expressed in the worth he ascribes to humanity, and it is truly breathtaking.
God expresses unsurpassable love for us and ascribes unsurpassable worth to us by sacrificing the One who has unsurpassable value on our behalf! And this unfathomable expression of love to us displayed the perfect love that the three divine persons have for one another.
God is toward us as he eternally is within himself: God is love.
—Adapted from Repenting of Religion, pages 25-26 - Greg Boyd
When Our Prayer Life Changes…
This process of inner transformation is fascinating to watch, in my own life and others. It’s disorienting for many when their age-old religious practices start to shift. I know it was for me. One day you’re doing a regimen of Bible reading and prayer, feeling good about yourself for ticking all the boxes. Then, they seem lifeless, or at least ineffective. Part of you says keep doing it no matter what, another part invites you down a journey away from religious obligation to discover what a real engagement with the Scriptures or God might be. I enjoy stories of those who take the road less traveled, and risk moving away from the lifeless status quo to discover a real relationship with God.
Transformation comes slowly. We may even been a bit naughty at the beginning since we’re not doing the things we’re “supposed to do.” But what many of us have found on the other side is that prayer and Bible reading become so much more real inside a growing relationship, rather than as a rote exercise out of obligation.
I got this from someone today in that very process:
I’ve been contemplating something this morning…. I have a hard time with journaling now for a few days. I was an avid journaler as that’s where I communicated with God. I have a hard time “speaking prayers”… I can say “help me God” but most of the time all that’s there are the thoughts within. I don’t speak out much in the “dear God” prayers. I’m not overwhelmed with guilt because I think of the Spirit groaning and Jesus interceding and since Jesus lives in me I believe that my thoughts and aches are translated in intercession to the father. I’m not worried that I don’t have words because I know how I feel with my own children. Sometimes my son will come out of his room and just sit in the living room, yes, often on his phone… 🙂 But he’s in the living room with me. I don’t care that he’s not talking. I’m just happy he’s in the room with me. If he wants to say something he can, if he doesn’t it’s ok. He’s with me.
I know that there’s been such a huge distortion in regards to prayer for me as I often just don’t want to “talk” to God. For one, it was displayed as an act of allegiance to stay in right standing with God. For two, so many of my prayers were about me getting what I thought was best for me. An example: my broken-down car. The way I would approach it was to start to pray… and gather as many people as I could to pray. We would all ask God together to cause the car to be an inexpensive fix. That was the best thing for me, right. I would pray constantly asking God to make it an inexpensive fix. When the call came telling me it was a transmission there would be a deflation…. Why didn’t God give me “the best thing” and inexpensive repair. What about “whatever you ask for in His name will be given to you”? I had used Jesus’ name and asked over and over again, believing. What happened there? As a parent I would do that for my child, why wouldn’t he do that for me? What kind of love is that?
Somehow I believe I have equated prayers answered the way I wanted with love, attentiveness, and care. I got to the point that I stopped asking for things because what was the point, I rarely get what I pray for anyways. Answered prayer became some type of symbol of his love. When it wasn’t answered the way I had prayed the indications were that something was really wrong, with God’s care for me of maybe with my value to Him. I think somehow this distortion has hidden His love. I think of the scripture that talks about “if a child asks for bread would he be given a stone.” I often felt like I was being given the stone when God wouldn’t give me what I “so desperately needed”.. (of course I was determining what I needed)
So much has been distorted in the 50 + years of religious teaching that I sat under. So nowadays I don’t say much in the ways I once did with words of “dear God”… I don’t ask for much. I don’t journal much.
This is an incredibly healthy process. For me, when I realized that most of my prayers came from anxiety and that led me to always ask God to do what I thought best, my prayer life took a dive as well. No he doesn’t bless me from my agenda, he saves me from it. He’s not the fairy Godfather turning our pumpkins into chariots. He’s with us in the reality of negotiating a broken world and all the while inviting us to know him better. As love began to win me, my prayer life too a real shift. First it seemed to die, then something more real and rewarding began to emerge.
His love built greater trust in me and I learned the power of prayer that rises from growing trust. They weren’t “fix this” or “fix that” prayers; they were honest pleas for him to help me see what he was doing in the circumstances I was in and how I could be a part of that. So instead of turning my anxiety into prayer requests, I just began to pour out my anxieties to him, knowing that love needed to win me into safer space. “God, why am I so anxious about this?” “Father, what do you want to show me of yourself.” “How do I keep my attitude free with the frustration of a broken car, or because someone else forgot an appointment, and how might you redeem this situation for your glory?”
I began to look toward him in everything and now pray more confidently for those things that God seems to nudge me towards. Transformation is a great process. Isn’t it fun to discover new things, to see movement in our journeys, to lose the religious habits of the past and find a real way to relate to him?
I love all that stuff and I love that it is happening in this woman as well.
What an amazing season when you risk the illusionary safety of the status quo and begin to let Jesus show you just how real this journey was meant to be.
Transformation comes slowly. We may even been a bit naughty at the beginning since we’re not doing the things we’re “supposed to do.” But what many of us have found on the other side is that prayer and Bible reading become so much more real inside a growing relationship, rather than as a rote exercise out of obligation.
I got this from someone today in that very process:
I’ve been contemplating something this morning…. I have a hard time with journaling now for a few days. I was an avid journaler as that’s where I communicated with God. I have a hard time “speaking prayers”… I can say “help me God” but most of the time all that’s there are the thoughts within. I don’t speak out much in the “dear God” prayers. I’m not overwhelmed with guilt because I think of the Spirit groaning and Jesus interceding and since Jesus lives in me I believe that my thoughts and aches are translated in intercession to the father. I’m not worried that I don’t have words because I know how I feel with my own children. Sometimes my son will come out of his room and just sit in the living room, yes, often on his phone… 🙂 But he’s in the living room with me. I don’t care that he’s not talking. I’m just happy he’s in the room with me. If he wants to say something he can, if he doesn’t it’s ok. He’s with me.
I know that there’s been such a huge distortion in regards to prayer for me as I often just don’t want to “talk” to God. For one, it was displayed as an act of allegiance to stay in right standing with God. For two, so many of my prayers were about me getting what I thought was best for me. An example: my broken-down car. The way I would approach it was to start to pray… and gather as many people as I could to pray. We would all ask God together to cause the car to be an inexpensive fix. That was the best thing for me, right. I would pray constantly asking God to make it an inexpensive fix. When the call came telling me it was a transmission there would be a deflation…. Why didn’t God give me “the best thing” and inexpensive repair. What about “whatever you ask for in His name will be given to you”? I had used Jesus’ name and asked over and over again, believing. What happened there? As a parent I would do that for my child, why wouldn’t he do that for me? What kind of love is that?
Somehow I believe I have equated prayers answered the way I wanted with love, attentiveness, and care. I got to the point that I stopped asking for things because what was the point, I rarely get what I pray for anyways. Answered prayer became some type of symbol of his love. When it wasn’t answered the way I had prayed the indications were that something was really wrong, with God’s care for me of maybe with my value to Him. I think somehow this distortion has hidden His love. I think of the scripture that talks about “if a child asks for bread would he be given a stone.” I often felt like I was being given the stone when God wouldn’t give me what I “so desperately needed”.. (of course I was determining what I needed)
So much has been distorted in the 50 + years of religious teaching that I sat under. So nowadays I don’t say much in the ways I once did with words of “dear God”… I don’t ask for much. I don’t journal much.
This is an incredibly healthy process. For me, when I realized that most of my prayers came from anxiety and that led me to always ask God to do what I thought best, my prayer life took a dive as well. No he doesn’t bless me from my agenda, he saves me from it. He’s not the fairy Godfather turning our pumpkins into chariots. He’s with us in the reality of negotiating a broken world and all the while inviting us to know him better. As love began to win me, my prayer life too a real shift. First it seemed to die, then something more real and rewarding began to emerge.
His love built greater trust in me and I learned the power of prayer that rises from growing trust. They weren’t “fix this” or “fix that” prayers; they were honest pleas for him to help me see what he was doing in the circumstances I was in and how I could be a part of that. So instead of turning my anxiety into prayer requests, I just began to pour out my anxieties to him, knowing that love needed to win me into safer space. “God, why am I so anxious about this?” “Father, what do you want to show me of yourself.” “How do I keep my attitude free with the frustration of a broken car, or because someone else forgot an appointment, and how might you redeem this situation for your glory?”
I began to look toward him in everything and now pray more confidently for those things that God seems to nudge me towards. Transformation is a great process. Isn’t it fun to discover new things, to see movement in our journeys, to lose the religious habits of the past and find a real way to relate to him?
I love all that stuff and I love that it is happening in this woman as well.
What an amazing season when you risk the illusionary safety of the status quo and begin to let Jesus show you just how real this journey was meant to be.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Love That Keeps On Giving
In English, we have one word for love. In ancient Greek, there were four different words that we can translate as “love.” And each has a different meaning. Let’s consider each briefly.
Storge—referred to a person’s affection for something. When we say we love our car or a person’s smile or another’s ability to sing, we are using love in this sense.
Eros—usually used in reference to romantic or sexual love. This is what people mean today when they speak about “falling in love” or “making love.”
Phileo—most commonly used in reference to friendship. When we tell a best friend we love him or her, we don’t mean it romantically (eros), nor do we mean only that we have affection for something about that person (storge).
Each of these senses of love involves an emotional feeling we have toward another person or thing. For this reason these first three kinds of love are neither universal nor unconditional. We cannot have affection for everyone and everything (storge); we cannot have romantic feelings toward everyone (eros); and we cannot experience personal friendship with everyone (phileo).
Agape—this fourth kind of love is universal and unconditional. This love is not a feeling one has, although certain feelings often follow from it. It is rather a commitment one makes, a stance one takes toward another, and an activity one does. It should be present in each of the first three senses of love but also when those forms of love are absent. Agape is a kind of love you can have when there’s nothing about the other you like, when you have no romantic interest in the other, and even when the other is your enemy rather than your friend.
Agape is the most fundamentally the kind of love God had for us while we were yet sinners and the kind of love we are commanded to have toward all others.
The Bible does not give us an abstract definition of agape love. It rather points us to its perfect expression in the person of Jesus Christ, dying for us on the cross. “We know love by this, that [Jesus] laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 Jn 3:16). In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). This is what agape love looks like. As Bonhoeffer put it, “love … is the revelation of God. And the revelation of God is Jesus Christ.”
Love, as defined by the one who is love, lays down its life for another, however undeserving. Agape love ascribes worth to another at cost to oneself. On the cross, God expressed this love in its most perfect form.
The kind of love that defines God, that characterizes the life of Christ, and that is commanded of believers has nothing to do with getting something. The agape love that flows from the Spirit of God is rather about giving something. It is constituted by a unilateral movement toward another. God does not love because he needs something from us. He is not trying to get his own needs met by relating to us. Rather, God loves out of the abundance of his life and in the interests of the beloved.
What is it that agape love gives? In a word, it is worth. God does not love because of the worth that he finds in another, as is typical of most expressions of love. If that were true, God could not love us with a perfect love, for we are unworthy sinners. Rather, God loves in order to ascribe worth to another.
—Adapted from Repenting of Religion, pages 24-25 and Seeing Is Believing, pages 145-146
Storge—referred to a person’s affection for something. When we say we love our car or a person’s smile or another’s ability to sing, we are using love in this sense.
Eros—usually used in reference to romantic or sexual love. This is what people mean today when they speak about “falling in love” or “making love.”
Phileo—most commonly used in reference to friendship. When we tell a best friend we love him or her, we don’t mean it romantically (eros), nor do we mean only that we have affection for something about that person (storge).
Each of these senses of love involves an emotional feeling we have toward another person or thing. For this reason these first three kinds of love are neither universal nor unconditional. We cannot have affection for everyone and everything (storge); we cannot have romantic feelings toward everyone (eros); and we cannot experience personal friendship with everyone (phileo).
Agape—this fourth kind of love is universal and unconditional. This love is not a feeling one has, although certain feelings often follow from it. It is rather a commitment one makes, a stance one takes toward another, and an activity one does. It should be present in each of the first three senses of love but also when those forms of love are absent. Agape is a kind of love you can have when there’s nothing about the other you like, when you have no romantic interest in the other, and even when the other is your enemy rather than your friend.
Agape is the most fundamentally the kind of love God had for us while we were yet sinners and the kind of love we are commanded to have toward all others.
The Bible does not give us an abstract definition of agape love. It rather points us to its perfect expression in the person of Jesus Christ, dying for us on the cross. “We know love by this, that [Jesus] laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 Jn 3:16). In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). This is what agape love looks like. As Bonhoeffer put it, “love … is the revelation of God. And the revelation of God is Jesus Christ.”
Love, as defined by the one who is love, lays down its life for another, however undeserving. Agape love ascribes worth to another at cost to oneself. On the cross, God expressed this love in its most perfect form.
The kind of love that defines God, that characterizes the life of Christ, and that is commanded of believers has nothing to do with getting something. The agape love that flows from the Spirit of God is rather about giving something. It is constituted by a unilateral movement toward another. God does not love because he needs something from us. He is not trying to get his own needs met by relating to us. Rather, God loves out of the abundance of his life and in the interests of the beloved.
What is it that agape love gives? In a word, it is worth. God does not love because of the worth that he finds in another, as is typical of most expressions of love. If that were true, God could not love us with a perfect love, for we are unworthy sinners. Rather, God loves in order to ascribe worth to another.
—Adapted from Repenting of Religion, pages 24-25 and Seeing Is Believing, pages 145-146
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Buried Alive
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. --Philippians 2:5-8
Man needed redemption not only from sin but also from himself. In order to accomplish that, God had to become a man, be victorious over all that vexes mankind, return to heaven, and from there dispense His victorious life to all who would ask. We have to wonder what it was like for Him who created the entire universe to wake up in the morning and discover Himself in the body of a baby. Imagine waking up and finding yourself in a coffin six feet under the ground. Would you panic, beat the sides of the coffin, yell, scream, and plead for deliverance? The body in which He found Himself was indeed a coffin, for in it He would die, but when God yielded Himself to living as a man, He humbled Himself.
Isn’t it interesting that when the Man with an immeasurable IQ tells us something so very simple and uncomplicated that will dramatically “improve” life for us here on earth, we read it as if it were the day’s severe weather prognostication and go about our business unmoved…umbrella left at home.
1. have this attitude…
2. empty yourself (humility)…I have nothing.
3. ask for His victorious life to be dispensed to us today
4. enjoy His life abundantly all day long
Doesn’t seem too difficult, does it? Can we believe it will happen?
Why Your Imagination Matters
The flesh, which we discussed in this post earlier this week, is shaped by Satan’s web of deception that deeply infects our imaginations. This is why it has such power to move us to perform in order to obtain life and then to hide our failures when we fall short of true life. And of course the end result is destruction.
Satan’s deception is anchored in powerful, imaginative misrepresentations of reality, and until these lies are confronted with truth (as explored in this post) in ways that are at least as vivid and powerful as the misrepresentations, the lies of the flesh will continue to dominate our lives. Until this happens, our experienced self-identity, our old self, will continue to exercise a strong influence in our lives, suppressing the truth about who we are in Christ. We are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), but if this truth is believed in the form of mere information while the old self is continually experienced in vivid imaginative ways, we will find it nearly impossible to display our new nature consistently.
One of the most fundamental problems with contemporary Western Christianity is that we have lost the positive spiritual use of our imagination. So many of us only know Christ intellectually. We know and experience the web of deception imaginatively and vividly, but often this is not how we experience our Christianity.
For many, faith is little more than intellectual assent to certain propositions and a commitment to live a certain way. So is it surprising that our experienced self-identity continues to reflect more the pattern of this world rather than conformity to Jesus Christ?
Is it surprising that our old self seems more real than all the incredible things Scripture says about our new self?
If our faith is going to be powerful and transformative, it is going to have to be imaginative and experiential. St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, wrote “It is not knowing a lot but grasping things intimately and savoring them that fills and satisfies the soul.” Memories shape us profoundly because we grasp them and savor them not as information, but “intimately.” This is the manner in which we need to embrace our faith if it is to satisfy our souls and transform our lives.
It’s a wonderful thing to know that God is love (1 John 4:16), but this information will not significantly impact us until we can intimately grasp and savor the truth that God loves us individually. It’s a wonderful thing to know that Jesus died for the world, but this information will not significantly impact the way that we experience ourselves and the world until it becomes vivid, experiential, and personalized. I need to be able to savor in a concrete way the truth that Jesus died for me, that he loves me to this unfathomable degree, and that I am completely forgiven.
This involves the imagination.
We need to imagine truth and savor it; only then can the flesh that holds us in bondage be broken. We need to see pictures of grace in our minds and savor them; only then can grace break our flesh-driven compulsion to perform. We need to engage imaginatively in the unconditional love of God; only then can it break our flesh’s need to hide.
When we do these things, we will find ourselves savoring wholeness and life, our new identity in Christ, rather than death and destruction.
-Adapted from Seeing Is Believing pp. 79-80
Satan’s deception is anchored in powerful, imaginative misrepresentations of reality, and until these lies are confronted with truth (as explored in this post) in ways that are at least as vivid and powerful as the misrepresentations, the lies of the flesh will continue to dominate our lives. Until this happens, our experienced self-identity, our old self, will continue to exercise a strong influence in our lives, suppressing the truth about who we are in Christ. We are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), but if this truth is believed in the form of mere information while the old self is continually experienced in vivid imaginative ways, we will find it nearly impossible to display our new nature consistently.
One of the most fundamental problems with contemporary Western Christianity is that we have lost the positive spiritual use of our imagination. So many of us only know Christ intellectually. We know and experience the web of deception imaginatively and vividly, but often this is not how we experience our Christianity.
For many, faith is little more than intellectual assent to certain propositions and a commitment to live a certain way. So is it surprising that our experienced self-identity continues to reflect more the pattern of this world rather than conformity to Jesus Christ?
Is it surprising that our old self seems more real than all the incredible things Scripture says about our new self?
If our faith is going to be powerful and transformative, it is going to have to be imaginative and experiential. St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, wrote “It is not knowing a lot but grasping things intimately and savoring them that fills and satisfies the soul.” Memories shape us profoundly because we grasp them and savor them not as information, but “intimately.” This is the manner in which we need to embrace our faith if it is to satisfy our souls and transform our lives.
It’s a wonderful thing to know that God is love (1 John 4:16), but this information will not significantly impact us until we can intimately grasp and savor the truth that God loves us individually. It’s a wonderful thing to know that Jesus died for the world, but this information will not significantly impact the way that we experience ourselves and the world until it becomes vivid, experiential, and personalized. I need to be able to savor in a concrete way the truth that Jesus died for me, that he loves me to this unfathomable degree, and that I am completely forgiven.
This involves the imagination.
We need to imagine truth and savor it; only then can the flesh that holds us in bondage be broken. We need to see pictures of grace in our minds and savor them; only then can grace break our flesh-driven compulsion to perform. We need to engage imaginatively in the unconditional love of God; only then can it break our flesh’s need to hide.
When we do these things, we will find ourselves savoring wholeness and life, our new identity in Christ, rather than death and destruction.
-Adapted from Seeing Is Believing pp. 79-80
- Greg Boyd
Monday, August 22, 2016
Hell: Should We Keep Quiet About It?
By Peter Ditzel
Is it better to not talk about hell?
The thinking I want to address in this article is this: There are some people who profess Christianity who say that it doesn't matter whether hell is real or not, the doctrine of hell is an unnecessary teaching that can be dispensed with, and, in fact, speaking of hell as a reality is harmful to the furtherance of Christianity. Their reasoning goes like this: Since (whether we believe in a literal hell or not) we would all agree that Christians are not going to hell, therefore Christians don't need to hear anything about hell. They may as well just forget about it. Further, since many non-Christians refuse to believe in a God so cruel that He would condemn people who do not trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior to eternal torment in hell, then it would be better if we also stop talking to them about hell. In other words, we would get more people saved if we dropped hell from our vocabulary. Thus, why don't we just stop talking about hell altogether? This sounds reasonable to many people. Is this sound thinking? Does the Bible support it? Is there a flaw somewhere?
Teaching Hell to Christians
I certainly agree that Christians are not going to hell, and, therefore, they don't have to worry about it. Nevertheless, just because we don't have to worry about something doesn't imply that we should remain ignorant of it. Since God determined in eternity that there would be a hell and what it would be like, learning what the Bible teaches about hell tells me something about God and His plan for humanity. This is important. Christians are to know whom they have believed (2 Timothy 1:12). Part of God's written revelation to us is His revelation about hell. Just because we don't have to worry about going there doesn't mean that we should avoid that part of His revelation.
Evangelizing and Hell
When it comes to speaking of hell while evangelizing, we can fall into ditches on either side of the road. One ditch is the Jonathan Edwards' type of evangelism in which the preacher scares people into a profession of faith by painting vivid pictures of a vengeful God who may drop them into the eternal fires of hell at any moment. Not only does this promote a wrong idea of God, but it also could easily scare many non-elect people into making false professions simply because they're scared. Neither Jesus nor the New Testament writers ever said that preaching about hell must be a central part of heralding the Good News of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Central to the Gospel is God's love expressed in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the sins of all who will trust in Him as their Savior. The Bible says that the goodness (chrÄ“stotÄ“s—kindness, gentleness, graciousness) of God, not His anger, leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). It doesn't say that preaching hellfire and damnation leads to repentance. Paul says that "when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love towards mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us...." (Titus 3:4-5). The Gospel isn't a horror story about the torments of hell. It's a love story: "By this God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).
On the other hand, just because the fact that unbelievers are on the road to hell isn't the focus of the Gospel, this doesn't mean we should sweep hell under the rug. Doing so would be the ditch on the other side of the road. After all, the Gospel is an announcement of salvation in Jesus Christ, and salvation is a coin with two sides. Not only are we saved to heaven and eternal life with God, but we are also saved from sin, condemnation, and death (John 5:24). Moreover, the Bible doesn't teach death as oblivion but as eternal punishment in hell (Matthew 13:50; 25:46; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). I don't believe that the Bible instructs us to scare people with hell, but I do believe it is entirely appropriate to speak of salvation from hell as one of the benefits Jesus Christ has purchased for believers.
Deception Is Not an Acceptable Approach to Evangelism
People who refuse to believe in a God who has decreed that unbelieving sinners will be eternally tormented in hell are refusing to believe in the true God. This is because the Bible certainly teaches hell as real. The Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for sinners cannot be separated from the Jesus Christ who is recorded as speaking or warning of hell (either Hades or Gehenna) about fifteen times.
Preachers who purposely avoid speaking of hell are deceiving their audience. The real Jesus spoke about the real hell. Are we to avoid these words of Jesus just to satisfy the carnal sensibilities of people whose minds are as yet self-evidently untouched by the Holy Spirit? No! If we were to do this, where would the deceptions end? A Jesus who didn't believe in hell is a Jesus who never existed; He is a fairy tale Jesus, and a fairy tale Jesus cannot save anyone. The ministers of such a Jesus might increase the number of people who make a profession of faith, but they are false professions because the object of their faith is a false Jesus. What's more, when we agree to stop talking about something, we are almost guaranteeing that error will creep in to take its place. Denying the existence of hell is only a couple of small steps from the heresy of universal salvation.
Fear of the Truth
When people say we should stop talking about something, it is most often because they are afraid. Totalitarian regimes repress many books and outside news sources because they are afraid that their citizens will learn the truth and work to overthrow them. Religious cults tell their followers to not read "dissident literature" because they are afraid of losing control over them. Christians must not be like this. "God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7). Paul didn't avoid certain subjects so as to fool people into believing. He said, "I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).
I believe that people who reject a God who will condemn unbelievers to hell are afraid. They may express their fear as scorn or anger, but I believe the root of their response is fear. Of course, there's really no need for their fear, if they would just believe on Jesus. And that's why their criticisms against the God who created hell are really hollow.
How can you possibly denounce a God who gave the gift of life to people He did not have to give it to, who put the first people in a paradise where they could have stayed if they had just obeyed one simple command (remember, it was they who sinned and brought on all the suffering in the world, not God), and who gave us such a simple and sublime remedy for sin and way out of hell that it makes you want to smile or maybe even laugh. Just trust in His Son as your Savior. That's all. How simple can it get? How can you criticize such a God? Yet, these people do criticize because in their hearts they are rebels against the God of the universe. They want to set the rules themselves and make God in their own image, and their desire to suppress the truth about hell must not to be catered to by avoiding the subject.
Preachers who want us to stop talking about hell are doing no one any favors. Sadly, most of their proselytes are likely unconverted. One day, they'll learn the truth about hell. Hopefully, that will be in this life, and they will come to believe the true Gospel. Otherwise, they will learn when it is too late and hell becomes for them an empirical reality. Jesus spoke the following words to the Pharisees of His day, but they can, quite ironically, be applied to many of today's preachers: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte; and when he has become so, you make him twofold more a son of Hell than yourselves" (Matthew 23:15, Literal Translation of the Holy Bible).
Is it better to not talk about hell?
The thinking I want to address in this article is this: There are some people who profess Christianity who say that it doesn't matter whether hell is real or not, the doctrine of hell is an unnecessary teaching that can be dispensed with, and, in fact, speaking of hell as a reality is harmful to the furtherance of Christianity. Their reasoning goes like this: Since (whether we believe in a literal hell or not) we would all agree that Christians are not going to hell, therefore Christians don't need to hear anything about hell. They may as well just forget about it. Further, since many non-Christians refuse to believe in a God so cruel that He would condemn people who do not trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior to eternal torment in hell, then it would be better if we also stop talking to them about hell. In other words, we would get more people saved if we dropped hell from our vocabulary. Thus, why don't we just stop talking about hell altogether? This sounds reasonable to many people. Is this sound thinking? Does the Bible support it? Is there a flaw somewhere?
Teaching Hell to Christians
I certainly agree that Christians are not going to hell, and, therefore, they don't have to worry about it. Nevertheless, just because we don't have to worry about something doesn't imply that we should remain ignorant of it. Since God determined in eternity that there would be a hell and what it would be like, learning what the Bible teaches about hell tells me something about God and His plan for humanity. This is important. Christians are to know whom they have believed (2 Timothy 1:12). Part of God's written revelation to us is His revelation about hell. Just because we don't have to worry about going there doesn't mean that we should avoid that part of His revelation.
Evangelizing and Hell
When it comes to speaking of hell while evangelizing, we can fall into ditches on either side of the road. One ditch is the Jonathan Edwards' type of evangelism in which the preacher scares people into a profession of faith by painting vivid pictures of a vengeful God who may drop them into the eternal fires of hell at any moment. Not only does this promote a wrong idea of God, but it also could easily scare many non-elect people into making false professions simply because they're scared. Neither Jesus nor the New Testament writers ever said that preaching about hell must be a central part of heralding the Good News of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Central to the Gospel is God's love expressed in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the sins of all who will trust in Him as their Savior. The Bible says that the goodness (chrÄ“stotÄ“s—kindness, gentleness, graciousness) of God, not His anger, leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). It doesn't say that preaching hellfire and damnation leads to repentance. Paul says that "when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love towards mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us...." (Titus 3:4-5). The Gospel isn't a horror story about the torments of hell. It's a love story: "By this God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).
On the other hand, just because the fact that unbelievers are on the road to hell isn't the focus of the Gospel, this doesn't mean we should sweep hell under the rug. Doing so would be the ditch on the other side of the road. After all, the Gospel is an announcement of salvation in Jesus Christ, and salvation is a coin with two sides. Not only are we saved to heaven and eternal life with God, but we are also saved from sin, condemnation, and death (John 5:24). Moreover, the Bible doesn't teach death as oblivion but as eternal punishment in hell (Matthew 13:50; 25:46; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). I don't believe that the Bible instructs us to scare people with hell, but I do believe it is entirely appropriate to speak of salvation from hell as one of the benefits Jesus Christ has purchased for believers.
Deception Is Not an Acceptable Approach to Evangelism
People who refuse to believe in a God who has decreed that unbelieving sinners will be eternally tormented in hell are refusing to believe in the true God. This is because the Bible certainly teaches hell as real. The Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for sinners cannot be separated from the Jesus Christ who is recorded as speaking or warning of hell (either Hades or Gehenna) about fifteen times.
Preachers who purposely avoid speaking of hell are deceiving their audience. The real Jesus spoke about the real hell. Are we to avoid these words of Jesus just to satisfy the carnal sensibilities of people whose minds are as yet self-evidently untouched by the Holy Spirit? No! If we were to do this, where would the deceptions end? A Jesus who didn't believe in hell is a Jesus who never existed; He is a fairy tale Jesus, and a fairy tale Jesus cannot save anyone. The ministers of such a Jesus might increase the number of people who make a profession of faith, but they are false professions because the object of their faith is a false Jesus. What's more, when we agree to stop talking about something, we are almost guaranteeing that error will creep in to take its place. Denying the existence of hell is only a couple of small steps from the heresy of universal salvation.
Fear of the Truth
When people say we should stop talking about something, it is most often because they are afraid. Totalitarian regimes repress many books and outside news sources because they are afraid that their citizens will learn the truth and work to overthrow them. Religious cults tell their followers to not read "dissident literature" because they are afraid of losing control over them. Christians must not be like this. "God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7). Paul didn't avoid certain subjects so as to fool people into believing. He said, "I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).
I believe that people who reject a God who will condemn unbelievers to hell are afraid. They may express their fear as scorn or anger, but I believe the root of their response is fear. Of course, there's really no need for their fear, if they would just believe on Jesus. And that's why their criticisms against the God who created hell are really hollow.
How can you possibly denounce a God who gave the gift of life to people He did not have to give it to, who put the first people in a paradise where they could have stayed if they had just obeyed one simple command (remember, it was they who sinned and brought on all the suffering in the world, not God), and who gave us such a simple and sublime remedy for sin and way out of hell that it makes you want to smile or maybe even laugh. Just trust in His Son as your Savior. That's all. How simple can it get? How can you criticize such a God? Yet, these people do criticize because in their hearts they are rebels against the God of the universe. They want to set the rules themselves and make God in their own image, and their desire to suppress the truth about hell must not to be catered to by avoiding the subject.
Preachers who want us to stop talking about hell are doing no one any favors. Sadly, most of their proselytes are likely unconverted. One day, they'll learn the truth about hell. Hopefully, that will be in this life, and they will come to believe the true Gospel. Otherwise, they will learn when it is too late and hell becomes for them an empirical reality. Jesus spoke the following words to the Pharisees of His day, but they can, quite ironically, be applied to many of today's preachers: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte; and when he has become so, you make him twofold more a son of Hell than yourselves" (Matthew 23:15, Literal Translation of the Holy Bible).
The Flesh: 4 Things to Know
The New Testament contrasts “life in the Spirit” with “life in the flesh” (see Gal 5:16-20). In some translations, the word for “flesh” (sarx, in the Greek) is translated as “sinful nature” as if one’s identity, or who we are in our essential being, is sinful. However, such a view of the flesh denies that our “old nature” is really old and that our identity is not completely “in Christ” as God’s children.
Instead the flesh is a deceptive way of seeing and experiencing oneself and one’s world, and thus a deceptive way of living in the world. It’s a way of thinking, experiencing, and living that is conformed to the “pattern of this world” (Rom 12:2). It is a worldview that is based upon a lie, which therefore opposes the truth about God and about our identity in Christ.
Let’s briefly introduce four aspects of the flesh.
1.Deception. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Satan’s original lie from the Garden of Eden was that God is not really loving and giving. The serpent basically told Eve, “If you believe God loves you and has your best interest in mind, you are wrong! God is keeping your eyes closed and preventing you from realizing your full potential because he doesn’t want any competition!” Corresponding with this deception about God, the serpent told Adam and Eve that their freedom, their identity, was somehow separate from relationship with God. The lie suggested that they were much more self-sufficient and had more potential than God would have them believe.
2.Performance. The second aspect of the flesh follows directly from the first. When we believe our life is based on the deception that God is not able or willing to fill us with life, we strive for fullness of life by doing things and acquiring things. Everything from riches to religion begins to look like potential food to feed the soul. Insofar as we live in the flesh, we assume that our worth must be acquired from the world around us and by our own effort.
3.Hiddenness. If we choose not to find life in a beautifully dependent relationship with our Creator, we must strive to find life in our doing, in how we appear, and in what we can acquire on our own. These strategies for acquiring life never fully satisfy, even when we are successful at them, and so we have a persistent sense of emptiness and shame that we try to hide. For example, if part of my strategy is being acknowledged as successful or holy, I must conceal all failures and shortcomings. The reality of who we are must be suppressed for the sake of how we want to appear and what we want to do as a way of getting life.
4.Destruction. The fourth aspect of the flesh is the consequence of the first three: we die. God is life itself, and when we are separated from God, trying to acquire life on our own, we die. Our natural union with God is severed, and we are blocked from God’s provision.
In sum, whenever we believe a lie about who God is and who we are, we cease trusting God to be our sole source of life. Whenever we cease trusting, we have to perform as a strategy for getting life. Whenever we perform as a strategy for getting life, we have to hide every aspect of ourselves that is inconsistent with this strategy. And whenever we hide aspects of ourselves, we are in the process of destroying ourselves.
Instead the flesh is a deceptive way of seeing and experiencing oneself and one’s world, and thus a deceptive way of living in the world. It’s a way of thinking, experiencing, and living that is conformed to the “pattern of this world” (Rom 12:2). It is a worldview that is based upon a lie, which therefore opposes the truth about God and about our identity in Christ.
Let’s briefly introduce four aspects of the flesh.
1.Deception. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Satan’s original lie from the Garden of Eden was that God is not really loving and giving. The serpent basically told Eve, “If you believe God loves you and has your best interest in mind, you are wrong! God is keeping your eyes closed and preventing you from realizing your full potential because he doesn’t want any competition!” Corresponding with this deception about God, the serpent told Adam and Eve that their freedom, their identity, was somehow separate from relationship with God. The lie suggested that they were much more self-sufficient and had more potential than God would have them believe.
2.Performance. The second aspect of the flesh follows directly from the first. When we believe our life is based on the deception that God is not able or willing to fill us with life, we strive for fullness of life by doing things and acquiring things. Everything from riches to religion begins to look like potential food to feed the soul. Insofar as we live in the flesh, we assume that our worth must be acquired from the world around us and by our own effort.
3.Hiddenness. If we choose not to find life in a beautifully dependent relationship with our Creator, we must strive to find life in our doing, in how we appear, and in what we can acquire on our own. These strategies for acquiring life never fully satisfy, even when we are successful at them, and so we have a persistent sense of emptiness and shame that we try to hide. For example, if part of my strategy is being acknowledged as successful or holy, I must conceal all failures and shortcomings. The reality of who we are must be suppressed for the sake of how we want to appear and what we want to do as a way of getting life.
4.Destruction. The fourth aspect of the flesh is the consequence of the first three: we die. God is life itself, and when we are separated from God, trying to acquire life on our own, we die. Our natural union with God is severed, and we are blocked from God’s provision.
In sum, whenever we believe a lie about who God is and who we are, we cease trusting God to be our sole source of life. Whenever we cease trusting, we have to perform as a strategy for getting life. Whenever we perform as a strategy for getting life, we have to hide every aspect of ourselves that is inconsistent with this strategy. And whenever we hide aspects of ourselves, we are in the process of destroying ourselves.
- Greg Boyd
Friday, August 19, 2016
The All-or-Nothing of Kingdom Living
Nothing is more central to the kingdom of God than agreeing with God about every person’s unsurpassable worth and reflecting this in how we act toward them. Nothing is more important that living in Christlike love for all people at all times. In fact, compared to love, nothing else really matters in the kingdom.
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says that all the most impressive religious and humanitarian activity in the world is completely worthless, except insofar as it expresses love. Let’s explore these.
A person may speak in tongues—even the glorious tongues of angels—but if his speaking isn’t motivated by love, it’s just religious noise.
A person may have the gift of prophecy and be able to proclaim the word of God in ways that dazzle audiences and build incredible mega churches. But if the use of these gifts isn’t motivated by love, they are, from a kingdom perspective, utterly worthless.
It doesn’t make a least bit of difference that a person has breathtaking insight into all mysteries or that they posses all knowledge. This would undoubtedly impress crowds and maybe even get them on the cover of your favorite Christian magazine, but if they aren’t motivated by a desire to ascribe unsurpassable worth to all people at all times, it’s meaningless.
Nor does it matter that a person has faith such that they can command mountains to be relocated and the mountains actually obey. This sort of miracle-working ability would certainly land them a nice spot on Christian television and would undoubtedly make them an excellent fund-raiser. But, according to Paul, it’s complete devoid of value unless it’s fueled by an agreement with God that every person alive is worth God himself dying for.
Finally, and perhaps most surprising, even if a person gives every single thing they own to the poor and endures great hardships in the course of their ministry, if there actions aren’t motivated by a love that looks like Jesus dying on the cross, it accomplishes absolutely nothing.
Let me go so far as to say this: If this is true about love—if the kingdom is nothing without it—then it seems to me we should regard the command to love to be the ultimate test of orthodoxy. To fail to love like Jesus is the worst form of heresy, regardless of how true one’s beliefs are. Demons believe true things, James tells us, but their true beliefs are worthless because they are not accompanied with works that reflect God’s love.
Love is the all-or-nothing of kingdom living. The “only thing that counts,” Paul says, is faith expressing itself through love.” We are to “do everything in love,” he says. Love is the primary expression of the kingdom life. Where God truly reigns in an individual or community, they will look like Jesus, sacrificially ascribing unsurpassable worth to all people, no ifs, ands, or buts.
—Adapted from The Myth of a Christian Religion, pages 51-52, 60-61 Greg Boyd
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says that all the most impressive religious and humanitarian activity in the world is completely worthless, except insofar as it expresses love. Let’s explore these.
A person may speak in tongues—even the glorious tongues of angels—but if his speaking isn’t motivated by love, it’s just religious noise.
A person may have the gift of prophecy and be able to proclaim the word of God in ways that dazzle audiences and build incredible mega churches. But if the use of these gifts isn’t motivated by love, they are, from a kingdom perspective, utterly worthless.
It doesn’t make a least bit of difference that a person has breathtaking insight into all mysteries or that they posses all knowledge. This would undoubtedly impress crowds and maybe even get them on the cover of your favorite Christian magazine, but if they aren’t motivated by a desire to ascribe unsurpassable worth to all people at all times, it’s meaningless.
Nor does it matter that a person has faith such that they can command mountains to be relocated and the mountains actually obey. This sort of miracle-working ability would certainly land them a nice spot on Christian television and would undoubtedly make them an excellent fund-raiser. But, according to Paul, it’s complete devoid of value unless it’s fueled by an agreement with God that every person alive is worth God himself dying for.
Finally, and perhaps most surprising, even if a person gives every single thing they own to the poor and endures great hardships in the course of their ministry, if there actions aren’t motivated by a love that looks like Jesus dying on the cross, it accomplishes absolutely nothing.
Let me go so far as to say this: If this is true about love—if the kingdom is nothing without it—then it seems to me we should regard the command to love to be the ultimate test of orthodoxy. To fail to love like Jesus is the worst form of heresy, regardless of how true one’s beliefs are. Demons believe true things, James tells us, but their true beliefs are worthless because they are not accompanied with works that reflect God’s love.
Love is the all-or-nothing of kingdom living. The “only thing that counts,” Paul says, is faith expressing itself through love.” We are to “do everything in love,” he says. Love is the primary expression of the kingdom life. Where God truly reigns in an individual or community, they will look like Jesus, sacrificially ascribing unsurpassable worth to all people, no ifs, ands, or buts.
—Adapted from The Myth of a Christian Religion, pages 51-52, 60-61 Greg Boyd
Three Keys to a Prayer Life
Every Christian comes to find that prayer is difficult. Prayer is a tremendous joy and a tremendous blessing but the joy and blessing come through tremendous difficulty. Thousands and tens of thousands of Christians have written about prayer and offered their counsel on becoming more skilled, more consistent, and more confident in this precious discipline. I was recently reminded of David McIntyre’s counsel as offered in The Hidden Life of Prayer and it both encouraged and motivated me to pray and to pray all the more. Here are his 3 keys to a powerful prayer life.
A Quiet Place.
The first key is a place of quiet, a place that is free, or as free as possible, from distractions. “With regard to many of us, the first of these, a quiet place, is well within our reach. But there are tens of thousands of our fellow-believers who find it generally impossible to withdraw into the desired seclusion of the secret place. A house-mother in a crowded tenement, an apprentice in city lodgings, a ploughman in his living quarters, a soldier in barracks, a boy living at school, these and many more may not be able always to command quiet and solitude. But, ‘your Father knoweth.’” Of course today we have distractions that may arise from the very devices we use to pray—the iPhone that houses our prayer app, for example—so we need to take special care that we “silence” our devices so they do not distract us.
A Quiet Hour.
Having found a quiet place, we also need a quiet, committed period of time. This is the second key. “For most of us it may be harder to find a quiet hour. I do not mean an ‘hour’ of exactly sixty minutes, but a portion of time withdrawn from the engagements of the day, fenced round from the encroachments of business or pleasure, and dedicated to God. … We who live with the clang of machinery and the roar of traffic always in our ears, whose crowding obligations jostle against each other as the hours fly on, are often tempted to withdraw to other uses those moments which we ought to hold sacred to communion with heaven. … Certainly, if we are to have a quiet hour set down in the midst of a hurry of duties, and kept sacred, we must exercise both forethought and self-denial. We must be prepared to forgo many things that are pleasant, and some things that are profitable. We shall have to redeem time, it may be from recreation, or from social interaction, or from study, or from works of benevolence, if we are to find leisure daily to enter into our closet, and having shut the door, to pray to our Father who is in secret.” The most important appointment you make every day is the one you make with God. All of life’s other responsibilities will threaten to encroach upon this time. You will be constantly tempted to neglect it. But it is too good, too sweet, to miss.
A Quiet Heart.
With place and time secured, we now face the most difficult task—securing the heart. McIntrye is right when he says “For most of us, perhaps, it is still harder to secure the quiet heart.” Prayer is difficult when we are hurried or surrounded by distractions. Prayer is more difficult still when our hearts are withdrawn, when our hearts are distracted, when our hearts are uninterested in praying. McIntrye shows how this has been the challenge of many great Christians: “Stephen Gurnall acknowledges that it is far more difficult to hang up the big bell than it is to ring it when it has been hung. Mc’Cheyne used to say that very much of his prayer time was spent in preparing to pray. A New England Puritan writes: ‘While I was at the Word, I saw I had a wild heart, which was as hard to stand and abide before the presence of God in an ordinance, as a bird before any man.’ And Bunyan remarks from his own deep experience: ‘O the starting-holes that the heart hath in the time of prayer; none knows how many bye-ways the heart hath and back-lanes, to slip away from the presence of God’.” It is difficult but necessary.
Christian, find a quiet place and a quiet time where you can quiet your heart before God. These are the keys to powerful prayer, to effective personal devotions. If you need further inspiration, consider Jesus himself:
Crowds were thronging and pressing Him; great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed of their infirmities; and He had no leisure so much as to eat. But He found time to pray. And this one who sought retirement with so much solitude was the Son of God, having no sin to confess, no shortcoming to deplore, no unbelief to subdue, no languor of love to overcome. Nor are we to imagine that His prayers were merely peaceful meditations, or rapturous acts of communion. They were strenuous and warlike, from that hour in the wilderness when angels came to minister to the prostrate Man of Sorrows, on to that awful “agony” in which His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood. His prayers were sacrifices, offered up with strong crying and tears.
Now, if it was part of the sacred discipline of the Incarnate Son that He should observe frequent seasons of retirement, how much more is it incumbent on us, broken as we are and disabled by manifold sin, to be diligent in the exercise of private prayer!
A Quiet Place.
The first key is a place of quiet, a place that is free, or as free as possible, from distractions. “With regard to many of us, the first of these, a quiet place, is well within our reach. But there are tens of thousands of our fellow-believers who find it generally impossible to withdraw into the desired seclusion of the secret place. A house-mother in a crowded tenement, an apprentice in city lodgings, a ploughman in his living quarters, a soldier in barracks, a boy living at school, these and many more may not be able always to command quiet and solitude. But, ‘your Father knoweth.’” Of course today we have distractions that may arise from the very devices we use to pray—the iPhone that houses our prayer app, for example—so we need to take special care that we “silence” our devices so they do not distract us.
A Quiet Hour.
Having found a quiet place, we also need a quiet, committed period of time. This is the second key. “For most of us it may be harder to find a quiet hour. I do not mean an ‘hour’ of exactly sixty minutes, but a portion of time withdrawn from the engagements of the day, fenced round from the encroachments of business or pleasure, and dedicated to God. … We who live with the clang of machinery and the roar of traffic always in our ears, whose crowding obligations jostle against each other as the hours fly on, are often tempted to withdraw to other uses those moments which we ought to hold sacred to communion with heaven. … Certainly, if we are to have a quiet hour set down in the midst of a hurry of duties, and kept sacred, we must exercise both forethought and self-denial. We must be prepared to forgo many things that are pleasant, and some things that are profitable. We shall have to redeem time, it may be from recreation, or from social interaction, or from study, or from works of benevolence, if we are to find leisure daily to enter into our closet, and having shut the door, to pray to our Father who is in secret.” The most important appointment you make every day is the one you make with God. All of life’s other responsibilities will threaten to encroach upon this time. You will be constantly tempted to neglect it. But it is too good, too sweet, to miss.
A Quiet Heart.
With place and time secured, we now face the most difficult task—securing the heart. McIntrye is right when he says “For most of us, perhaps, it is still harder to secure the quiet heart.” Prayer is difficult when we are hurried or surrounded by distractions. Prayer is more difficult still when our hearts are withdrawn, when our hearts are distracted, when our hearts are uninterested in praying. McIntrye shows how this has been the challenge of many great Christians: “Stephen Gurnall acknowledges that it is far more difficult to hang up the big bell than it is to ring it when it has been hung. Mc’Cheyne used to say that very much of his prayer time was spent in preparing to pray. A New England Puritan writes: ‘While I was at the Word, I saw I had a wild heart, which was as hard to stand and abide before the presence of God in an ordinance, as a bird before any man.’ And Bunyan remarks from his own deep experience: ‘O the starting-holes that the heart hath in the time of prayer; none knows how many bye-ways the heart hath and back-lanes, to slip away from the presence of God’.” It is difficult but necessary.
Christian, find a quiet place and a quiet time where you can quiet your heart before God. These are the keys to powerful prayer, to effective personal devotions. If you need further inspiration, consider Jesus himself:
Crowds were thronging and pressing Him; great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed of their infirmities; and He had no leisure so much as to eat. But He found time to pray. And this one who sought retirement with so much solitude was the Son of God, having no sin to confess, no shortcoming to deplore, no unbelief to subdue, no languor of love to overcome. Nor are we to imagine that His prayers were merely peaceful meditations, or rapturous acts of communion. They were strenuous and warlike, from that hour in the wilderness when angels came to minister to the prostrate Man of Sorrows, on to that awful “agony” in which His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood. His prayers were sacrifices, offered up with strong crying and tears.
Now, if it was part of the sacred discipline of the Incarnate Son that He should observe frequent seasons of retirement, how much more is it incumbent on us, broken as we are and disabled by manifold sin, to be diligent in the exercise of private prayer!
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
God’s Slow and Glorious Work
Opening my email every day is like going on a treasure hunt. I have appreciated the stories people have entrusted to me as they hold a longing in their heart for a more vital walk with God than they are yet experiencing. I get to be with them in the darkness and encourage them as best I can to lean more deeply into God’s reality. Learning to do that always takes longer than people hope or want. It is easy to get frustrated as their options narrow and the fears begin to rise that maybe he is not there and is not drawing them toward himself. My heart breaks for them knowing they can’t yet see what is right in front of them, but I know Father is working and one day that work will surface in a way they can see, too.
Yes, it would be easier for us all if he would work faster, if he would function on our time instead of his. But he does not delay to make sport of us, only because he is doing something far deeper and far more profound than we can possibly imagine. He’s not just making the outside better, but liberating us from the inside so that we can live differently and more freely in him. He seems to enjoy that process. I thought about that last night as I waited endlessly for our new puppy to take care of business before we put her down for the night. It’s painstaking raising a puppy. It would be far easier just to get a dog after it’s already grown up a bit, but loving a puppy is so worth it, even for all the accidents and damaged shoes and furniture. Sara and I love the process of helping a puppy grow up into a treasured part of our household.
Would it be so strange that God would enjoy our growth, too? Yes, he knows the pain we’re in, but he’s not about alleviating the pain, he’s about transforming us so the pain no longer destroys us. I got an email the other day that spoke to the glorious way God works, and hopefully sets us at ease to let him do it, rather than living in the frustration of our own timeline:
Thank you for responding to my several emails throughout my journey. Your “work” (podcasts, books…) has been instrumental in my growth. When I first contacted you a few years back I was inquiring about how to find a fellowship of like-minded believers so I didn’t have to feel so alone. You told me to ask God. I did. Nothing happened. This confirmed my inner less-loved outlook (actually “Esau complex”) at the time. So I went into another downward spiral, one of hundreds if not thousands. The interesting thing is that I have not been able to quit God, though, I’ve tried.
Why would I want to keep coming back to a God whom I feels kicks me down and then kicks me when I’m down? It makes no logical sense whatsoever as I don’t have a victim mentality. Yet, it has all been part of a process of God answering my prayers. Looking back, you and Brad and your online community have been for a time those “bigger brothers” (and sisters) that I prayed about. I was not left totally alone. I have a “sister” in Christ whom I’ve shared my journey with since 2000. She lives in another state but we communicate frequently and have the kind of conversations you and Brad have. So, while God didn’t answer my fellowship prayer in the way I wanted, He did answer it.
I know you’re familiar with the book Tattoos of the Heart. In it, “G,” made a comment about “trusting the slow work of God.” Google informed me that it is a poem, which has brought me great comfort. I don’t feel like God’s cast-away any more. I don’t feel like Esau (I shared this with you once before), and while I still don’t feel “LOVED” not feeling hated is AMAZING. I trust that one day I will be able to feel the Father’s love because I am now able to recognize that He is doing this work in me, and He will complete it. Here is the poem.
Trust in the Slow Work of God
by Pierre Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest. This poem speaks to the sometimes excruciating experience of waiting on God.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown, something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
— that is to say, grace —
and circumstances
— acting on your own good will —
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser. Amen.
Amen indeed! No matter what evidence you think you have to the contrary, he is at work in you and he will complete what he has begin and fulfill every longing he has put in your heart. It will go so much better for you if you can relax into his timeframe instead of trying to force your own. Remember, he’s not doing what is fast, but what is right, real, and enduring.
I’ve had many a pained email by those on the verge of giving up, thinking that God isn’t there or if he is, that he doesn’t care about them. Then months, sometimes years, later I get the triumphant email that comes when they finally see what he has been doing all along. It takes an amazing heart to hold a longing before God until his glory makes itself known. But the joy that follows knows no bounds.
- Wayne Jacobsen
Yes, it would be easier for us all if he would work faster, if he would function on our time instead of his. But he does not delay to make sport of us, only because he is doing something far deeper and far more profound than we can possibly imagine. He’s not just making the outside better, but liberating us from the inside so that we can live differently and more freely in him. He seems to enjoy that process. I thought about that last night as I waited endlessly for our new puppy to take care of business before we put her down for the night. It’s painstaking raising a puppy. It would be far easier just to get a dog after it’s already grown up a bit, but loving a puppy is so worth it, even for all the accidents and damaged shoes and furniture. Sara and I love the process of helping a puppy grow up into a treasured part of our household.
Would it be so strange that God would enjoy our growth, too? Yes, he knows the pain we’re in, but he’s not about alleviating the pain, he’s about transforming us so the pain no longer destroys us. I got an email the other day that spoke to the glorious way God works, and hopefully sets us at ease to let him do it, rather than living in the frustration of our own timeline:
Thank you for responding to my several emails throughout my journey. Your “work” (podcasts, books…) has been instrumental in my growth. When I first contacted you a few years back I was inquiring about how to find a fellowship of like-minded believers so I didn’t have to feel so alone. You told me to ask God. I did. Nothing happened. This confirmed my inner less-loved outlook (actually “Esau complex”) at the time. So I went into another downward spiral, one of hundreds if not thousands. The interesting thing is that I have not been able to quit God, though, I’ve tried.
Why would I want to keep coming back to a God whom I feels kicks me down and then kicks me when I’m down? It makes no logical sense whatsoever as I don’t have a victim mentality. Yet, it has all been part of a process of God answering my prayers. Looking back, you and Brad and your online community have been for a time those “bigger brothers” (and sisters) that I prayed about. I was not left totally alone. I have a “sister” in Christ whom I’ve shared my journey with since 2000. She lives in another state but we communicate frequently and have the kind of conversations you and Brad have. So, while God didn’t answer my fellowship prayer in the way I wanted, He did answer it.
I know you’re familiar with the book Tattoos of the Heart. In it, “G,” made a comment about “trusting the slow work of God.” Google informed me that it is a poem, which has brought me great comfort. I don’t feel like God’s cast-away any more. I don’t feel like Esau (I shared this with you once before), and while I still don’t feel “LOVED” not feeling hated is AMAZING. I trust that one day I will be able to feel the Father’s love because I am now able to recognize that He is doing this work in me, and He will complete it. Here is the poem.
Trust in the Slow Work of God
by Pierre Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest. This poem speaks to the sometimes excruciating experience of waiting on God.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown, something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
— that is to say, grace —
and circumstances
— acting on your own good will —
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser. Amen.
Amen indeed! No matter what evidence you think you have to the contrary, he is at work in you and he will complete what he has begin and fulfill every longing he has put in your heart. It will go so much better for you if you can relax into his timeframe instead of trying to force your own. Remember, he’s not doing what is fast, but what is right, real, and enduring.
I’ve had many a pained email by those on the verge of giving up, thinking that God isn’t there or if he is, that he doesn’t care about them. Then months, sometimes years, later I get the triumphant email that comes when they finally see what he has been doing all along. It takes an amazing heart to hold a longing before God until his glory makes itself known. But the joy that follows knows no bounds.
- Wayne Jacobsen
How Much Do You Think You Know About God?
I couldn’t resist sharing this thought above. I love it and it’s a great reminder every day that we live. There is far more about God that we don’t know, than what we think we know. That’s especially true when we add in the conundrum of how much of God we think we know about him that isn’t even true. We just think it is.
It’s from a book I recommended a couple of months ago, called Paradox Lost. The whole book is designed to help us settle into the reality that our Father in heaven could never be cataloged in a book and just about the time we think we’ve figure him out. It’s a book I know many of you will enjoy.
That’s why we will find more joy in following him as he reveals himself, rather than following concepts of him that often disappoint us. I had a friend who often referred to God as Jehovah Tsdnikki. You’d have to be an old King James reader to fully appreciate that moniker. The way he shows up unexpectedly and the things he does to touch our lives defy our imaginations. That’s why trying to follow a God that meets your expectations will be horribly frustrating. I know, I did it for decades and spent a lot of time wallowing in the anger of disappointment. And there I missed so much of what he was still doing around me.
Realizing God is so much more than we can sort out at any stage in this life can set us at rest from trying to do so. Fortunately we have a God who wants to reveal himself to us in the smallest bits every day. I find greater joy walking in what he has revealed about himself than frustrating over what I don’t yet understand. When I pray, “Father I want to know you as you really are,” I find he answers that in the things I most need to see in the circumstances I’m facing. That often comes in conversations with others who are seeing things about him I haven’t discovered yet.
Figuring him out is an adventure we’ll never complete in this lifetime and our awareness of that can create a humility that doesn’t try to force our view on others. And we’ll not sort it out here. I’m hoping eternity will last long enough to maybe get to the end of him there, if getting to an end is even possible in eternity.
- Wayne Jacobsen
It’s from a book I recommended a couple of months ago, called Paradox Lost. The whole book is designed to help us settle into the reality that our Father in heaven could never be cataloged in a book and just about the time we think we’ve figure him out. It’s a book I know many of you will enjoy.
That’s why we will find more joy in following him as he reveals himself, rather than following concepts of him that often disappoint us. I had a friend who often referred to God as Jehovah Tsdnikki. You’d have to be an old King James reader to fully appreciate that moniker. The way he shows up unexpectedly and the things he does to touch our lives defy our imaginations. That’s why trying to follow a God that meets your expectations will be horribly frustrating. I know, I did it for decades and spent a lot of time wallowing in the anger of disappointment. And there I missed so much of what he was still doing around me.
Realizing God is so much more than we can sort out at any stage in this life can set us at rest from trying to do so. Fortunately we have a God who wants to reveal himself to us in the smallest bits every day. I find greater joy walking in what he has revealed about himself than frustrating over what I don’t yet understand. When I pray, “Father I want to know you as you really are,” I find he answers that in the things I most need to see in the circumstances I’m facing. That often comes in conversations with others who are seeing things about him I haven’t discovered yet.
Figuring him out is an adventure we’ll never complete in this lifetime and our awareness of that can create a humility that doesn’t try to force our view on others. And we’ll not sort it out here. I’m hoping eternity will last long enough to maybe get to the end of him there, if getting to an end is even possible in eternity.
- Wayne Jacobsen
Transformation is a Journey not an Achievement
When we live by religious rules and traditions we unwittingly shift into achievement mode, trying to do the best we can to live up to our standards and most days falling far short and bashing ourselves. That, however, is living by the law. The new creation offers us a new way to live, not by meeting the expectations of law (or even New Testament principles), but the joy of learning to live by his Spirit will draw us into Father’s reality and shift the way we live as the fruit of a growing relationship of love. Transformation is a journey, not an achievement. While perfection is the long-term hope, it is never a daily expectation to be disappointed.
It is such a joy when that reality sinks into a heart. I got this email the other day from a friend and it so touches me to see how this shift has happened in her and her compassion for others still lost in the world of achievement and performance:
I had to write and tell you that I loved, loved, loved reading your book, In Season. It just helped solidified so much of what is going on in my life. It’s helped me to stand strong through the trials I’ve gone through lately. However, I can actually say that I feel like I’m coming into my harvest time. I loved your book He Loves Me, but people really need to read In Season! I think, just my opinion! I’ve given away many copies of your book, He Loves Me, but, now I’m doing it with, In Season.
You know, I’m realizing there’s a lot of people out there that are hurting in institutional religion, that would probably love to walk in a journey like ours, but are just too afraid. I love my journey with the Lord and I would never go back. I’ve given my yoga instructor your book, He Loves Me. She loves it and talks about it all the time… she’s a believer! She says she can’t wait to read In Season.
I use to regret so much in my life, but I don’t any more. I’m the person that I am today, because of the things I’ve walked through. I’m stronger, steadier, and less afraid! I know that trials will continue to come, but, my responses are and will be so much different.
Isn’t that what’s great about a journey? You don’t have to waste time in regret for the past. Yes, we all have things we wish we hadn’t done, or spent more time trying to get something to work that was never meant to, but even those things become part of our journey as he draws us into himself and shows us how we can live freely in him even in the broken world that can cause so much pain.
That’s why I wrote In Season, to help people see that instead of trying to accomplish something for God by our own efforts, we can relax into the rhythm of his work in us realizing that each day holds the possibility of new discovery and greater freedom. Since I grew up on a vineyard, this is a farmer’s view of John 15 and Jesus’ encouragement to learn to live in him like a branch lives in a vine. We get to enjoy the relationship and in doing so our lives are transformed with better ways to think, live, and love in the world. Spiritual growth is organic, a response to the circumstances and challenges in our life and the joy of walking in them with him and his strength.
And I love her compassion for people still lost in the world of religious performance. Having been there ourselves, who better to realize how lost and blind you can be even as your patting yourself on the back for being a ‘radical’ disciple of Jesus? They need our love, compassion, and friendship, not our judgment and anger.
- Wayne Jacobsen
It is such a joy when that reality sinks into a heart. I got this email the other day from a friend and it so touches me to see how this shift has happened in her and her compassion for others still lost in the world of achievement and performance:
I had to write and tell you that I loved, loved, loved reading your book, In Season. It just helped solidified so much of what is going on in my life. It’s helped me to stand strong through the trials I’ve gone through lately. However, I can actually say that I feel like I’m coming into my harvest time. I loved your book He Loves Me, but people really need to read In Season! I think, just my opinion! I’ve given away many copies of your book, He Loves Me, but, now I’m doing it with, In Season.
You know, I’m realizing there’s a lot of people out there that are hurting in institutional religion, that would probably love to walk in a journey like ours, but are just too afraid. I love my journey with the Lord and I would never go back. I’ve given my yoga instructor your book, He Loves Me. She loves it and talks about it all the time… she’s a believer! She says she can’t wait to read In Season.
I use to regret so much in my life, but I don’t any more. I’m the person that I am today, because of the things I’ve walked through. I’m stronger, steadier, and less afraid! I know that trials will continue to come, but, my responses are and will be so much different.
Isn’t that what’s great about a journey? You don’t have to waste time in regret for the past. Yes, we all have things we wish we hadn’t done, or spent more time trying to get something to work that was never meant to, but even those things become part of our journey as he draws us into himself and shows us how we can live freely in him even in the broken world that can cause so much pain.
That’s why I wrote In Season, to help people see that instead of trying to accomplish something for God by our own efforts, we can relax into the rhythm of his work in us realizing that each day holds the possibility of new discovery and greater freedom. Since I grew up on a vineyard, this is a farmer’s view of John 15 and Jesus’ encouragement to learn to live in him like a branch lives in a vine. We get to enjoy the relationship and in doing so our lives are transformed with better ways to think, live, and love in the world. Spiritual growth is organic, a response to the circumstances and challenges in our life and the joy of walking in them with him and his strength.
And I love her compassion for people still lost in the world of religious performance. Having been there ourselves, who better to realize how lost and blind you can be even as your patting yourself on the back for being a ‘radical’ disciple of Jesus? They need our love, compassion, and friendship, not our judgment and anger.
- Wayne Jacobsen
Sunday, August 7, 2016
What Follows AFTER
After night, day
After winter, spring
After rain, sun
After dormancy, life
After cold, warmth
After ebbtide, high
After waning moon, full
After drought, replenishing
After bitterness, hope
After ruin, mercy
After agony, compassion
After anger, release
After fear, security
After failure, grace
After turmoil, peace
After sorrow, joy
After endings, beginnings
After death, life
After time, eternity
After everything, LOVE!
After winter, spring
After rain, sun
After dormancy, life
After cold, warmth
After ebbtide, high
After waning moon, full
After drought, replenishing
After bitterness, hope
After ruin, mercy
After agony, compassion
After anger, release
After fear, security
After failure, grace
After turmoil, peace
After sorrow, joy
After endings, beginnings
After death, life
After time, eternity
After everything, LOVE!
Are You a Castaway?
How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen this way? --Matthew 26:54
There are many passages concerning the exemplary lifestyle of the believer. “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments: You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; you shall love your neighbor as yourself . . . sell your possessions and give to the poor.” “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.” (Matthew 19:16-22) The young man would have been even more disturbed had he hung around to hear a little more of Jesus’ teaching, for he would have discovered that his statement that he had kept the commandments was a bit premature. “For if you think it in your heart, you have done it!” (Matthew 5:28) In the end, who is guiltless? Can anyone stand the examination?This leads us to wonder: Did Jesus come in order to exclude men? It would appear so. However, He clearly teaches that He does not want to exclude but to include, yet His teaching does exclude, and often Paul’s does, as well. What is going on? Something simple! When man sees that his own behavior and work have excluded him, he can cast himself on Christ and His forgiving love that includes. Yes, something must be cast away, and it must be man’s efforts, so that he can throw himself on Him.
Things have to happen a certain way. One Scripture must be read in light of all others and never taken alone. God is multifaceted; if He is putting a believer out on one count, it is only so He can bring him in on another. This is the love of God! We must lose our righteousness daily to be able to accept the Lord’s. We must admit what we are not and then, like Abraham, move out of works and into faith for our justification.
Beautiful! Lose to gain… That’s a challenge for man. Be a “not” to become justified. Hooooo-boy! Listen to the legalists scream. The “works” folks.
After one becomes Born Again and “understanding” has come…it is interesting that one of the first questions that surfaces is this: how come everyone else doesn’t see, hear, and understand this!?!
How come the young man in Michael’s illustration doesn’t grasp the Truth of Jesus’ words? How come there are so many “ways” that man tries to think of how he will “stand in the examination?” How come so few ever really “see, hear, and understand?” Well, for one reason the Lord told us it would be that way. And another reason is that possessions can get in the way. There are other reasons.
Suffice it to say, let us stick with Michael’s final words:
“What is going on? Something simple! When man sees that his own behavior and work have excluded him, he can cast himself on Christ and His forgiving love that includes. Yes, something must be cast away, and it must be man’s efforts, so that he can throw himself on Him.
Things have to happen a certain way. One Scripture must be read in light of all others and never taken alone. God is multifaceted; if He is putting a believer out on one count, it is only so He can bring him in on another. This is the love of God! We must lose our righteousness daily to be able to accept the Lord’s. We must admit what we are not and then, like Abraham, move out of works and into faith for our justification.”
Let us “cast, throw ourselves, lose, accept, admit, and move” on Christ. He is our only hope.
There are many passages concerning the exemplary lifestyle of the believer. “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments: You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; you shall love your neighbor as yourself . . . sell your possessions and give to the poor.” “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.” (Matthew 19:16-22) The young man would have been even more disturbed had he hung around to hear a little more of Jesus’ teaching, for he would have discovered that his statement that he had kept the commandments was a bit premature. “For if you think it in your heart, you have done it!” (Matthew 5:28) In the end, who is guiltless? Can anyone stand the examination?This leads us to wonder: Did Jesus come in order to exclude men? It would appear so. However, He clearly teaches that He does not want to exclude but to include, yet His teaching does exclude, and often Paul’s does, as well. What is going on? Something simple! When man sees that his own behavior and work have excluded him, he can cast himself on Christ and His forgiving love that includes. Yes, something must be cast away, and it must be man’s efforts, so that he can throw himself on Him.
Things have to happen a certain way. One Scripture must be read in light of all others and never taken alone. God is multifaceted; if He is putting a believer out on one count, it is only so He can bring him in on another. This is the love of God! We must lose our righteousness daily to be able to accept the Lord’s. We must admit what we are not and then, like Abraham, move out of works and into faith for our justification.
Beautiful! Lose to gain… That’s a challenge for man. Be a “not” to become justified. Hooooo-boy! Listen to the legalists scream. The “works” folks.
After one becomes Born Again and “understanding” has come…it is interesting that one of the first questions that surfaces is this: how come everyone else doesn’t see, hear, and understand this!?!
How come the young man in Michael’s illustration doesn’t grasp the Truth of Jesus’ words? How come there are so many “ways” that man tries to think of how he will “stand in the examination?” How come so few ever really “see, hear, and understand?” Well, for one reason the Lord told us it would be that way. And another reason is that possessions can get in the way. There are other reasons.
Suffice it to say, let us stick with Michael’s final words:
“What is going on? Something simple! When man sees that his own behavior and work have excluded him, he can cast himself on Christ and His forgiving love that includes. Yes, something must be cast away, and it must be man’s efforts, so that he can throw himself on Him.
Things have to happen a certain way. One Scripture must be read in light of all others and never taken alone. God is multifaceted; if He is putting a believer out on one count, it is only so He can bring him in on another. This is the love of God! We must lose our righteousness daily to be able to accept the Lord’s. We must admit what we are not and then, like Abraham, move out of works and into faith for our justification.”
Let us “cast, throw ourselves, lose, accept, admit, and move” on Christ. He is our only hope.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
God Wants to Consume You
God wants to consume you with a burning
fire, but not the one you may think.
God’s desire for you is that you would be
consumed by Him.
His love rages for you as a passionate
inferno which refuses to be quenched until He has subdued every part of your
being.
He is jealous for you and will not rest
until you are so engulfed in the flames of His love that everything else in
life is incidental by comparison.
The point to be understood isn’t that you
should experience the same thing as others have experienced. God’s expression of love for His bride is
universal, yet at the same time it is deeply personal and unique to each of us.
The key is in understanding that God has a
burning love not just for people in
general, but for you specifically.
It isn’t enough to simply acknowledge
intellectually that God loves you. To restrict God’s love to the intellect
alone will greatly limit our ability to enjoy Him.
The raging fire of His love seeks to
permeate your mind, your emotions, and your will. Then, having ravaged your
soul, His love will leap from your life, through your actions, onto those
around you, like a fire that jumps from one tree in the forest to another.
God wants His love to invade every part of
our being.
A balanced life is one in which we clearly
understand His love intellectually, deeply experience His love emotionally and
purposefully live out of His love volitionally.
With life in balance, the written word of
the Scriptures guides us objectively and the living Word within guides us
subjectively. From out of the center of His love, we are then able to live the
carefree, abundant life that Jesus Christ came to give us.
Imagine a life in which the fire of God so
consumes you that you lose all inhibitions; a life in which you charge forth
confidently into every day with the assurance that God will guarantee your
success that day. This life isn’t imaginary, it’s real!
When we live from the blazing glory of His
love for us, that is the life we can live.
When consumed with the fire of God’s love
you can say with the Psalmist, “Our God is forever and ever; He will guide us
until death” (Psalm 48:14).
With the confidence of David when he was
surrounded and outnumbered in battle by the Philistines, we can shout to the
world with assurance, “This I know, that God is for me” (Psalm 56:9)!
- Steve McVey
In Order to Grow, You Must Let Things Break.
Walking in the Way is always a process. We
are always subject to change, so we need a joyful mindset about it—a mindset
that enjoys the journey will always travel well.
Most of the time the process is sweet, fun,
and exciting. We get to see God in all His beauty. This is vital, otherwise
adoration is not possible. Then there are moments where the process is tough,
relentless, and heartbreaking. We learn to bow down and kiss the hand that
hurts.
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery
ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange
thing were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12)4
It is at times like this where we discover
the true nature of the Comforter.
Only God can bring us comfort from the rod.
If we take comfort from elsewhere we cannot
grow as much as He would like. The righteous God tests our hearts and minds
(Psalm 7:9). Some of the process with which we engage is not concerned with
just change, but more so the discovery of who God is for us.
The Lord must bring us face to face with
what we are like without the Christ. We must learn how stubborn and willful we
are as we get introduced to the worst parts of our sin habit.
God will not do this without permission.
Somewhere in our past, our hearts became so
full of love and longing for the Lord that we gave Him permission to do
whatever He wanted in our lives, in order that we might be changed.
Initially nothing happened; but trust me,
the prayer was filed away, only waiting for the right moment to be answered.
Everyone of us gets to points in our lives
where something in us has to break before we can move on to the next level of
relationship and anointing.
There may be hardness in us because of
previous hardships or a bigger experience. Or there may be a besetting sin that
constantly overcomes our desire for righteousness. We may have poor attitudes
or a victim spirit. It may be that our self-reliance prevents us from experiencing
God’s fullness.
It could be that we need to be humbled, not
because we have an excess of pride, but because of what the Lord is calling us
up to in life and ministry.
Humility is more necessary the higher the
calling is.5
The struggle makes no sense until we
realize that it is not about sin. It is about the will that is behind it. The
sin just represents the power of our own independence.9
The part of our life that we did not know
we were holding back is now rising up within and we realize that it has been
killing us for some time! It is the one thing that prevents us, at this time,
from fully experiencing the beauty of true fellowship with God.
Brokenness takes us to a far more powerful
place of value and relationship.4
Death turns into life. In the time of being
broken, we discover a level of fellowship with God that takes us out of the
grip of the enemy by taking us firmly into the secret place of abiding.
- Graham Cooke
Monday, August 1, 2016
This is Mine?
I love You, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield, my great and powerful Savior, my high tower.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
Psalm 18: 1-3
Are there times when you feel like you’re being dragged along, you can’t get a footing, you have nothing for an anchor, and you desperately need something that would bring stability into your life? Maybe something like a great big rock–with secure hand holds–nothing slippery or sharp–and a flat place where you could sit down or stand and observe the turbulence around you but be completely untouched?
How about those times when you wish you could run into an impenetrable fortress, slam the door, drop a heavy beam down that would keep anyone from opening the door, and you could just heave a sigh of relief and collapse? Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Is anyone still alive who can remember the saga of “The Perils of Pauline”–a serial at the Saturday movies eons ago? It would always end with the heroine, Pauline, in a terrifying situation dreamed up by the villain–all trussed up and about to be sawn in two by the huge lumber saw coming closer and closer, or dropped off a cliff, or hit by an onrushing train? (We would, of course, be sure to attend next Saturday where we saw her deliverer rescue her out of this horrible, impossible situation!) “My hero!” Was always Pauline’s next line. (We read her lips!)
Perhaps you have longed for something to shield you from the hurts of your world? Something that would keep those ugly words, the rejection, or the tragedies in your life from hitting you and destroying you? “They hurt so badly! Where can I turn? What can I do?”
I know around Poteau (my home town) there are these tall, tall towers in isolated mountainous places that game wardens use to watch for forest fires or any thing that might harm their assigned territory. I have never had the slightest desire–not the slightest! –to climb up to the little house sitting precariously at the top of the ladder, but I understand they can be locked, are comfortable, heated, and have a small supply of food. You talk about being safe! Bears can climb trees, but they can’t climb a ladder that tall and should anyone or anything make the perilous climb to the top they would find the door locked tight. Sounds like a nice place to run when your world is topsy-turvy. (Want to go with me?)
What have we left out of these verses? You are so right! “My great and powerful Savior!” This great and powerful Savior wants to be your Rock, your Fortress, your Deliverer, your Shield, and your High Tower.* As you stand on Him–your Rock–you can shiver as you see the turbulent waters reaching for you, but you’re safe! You have an unshakable Foundation and He is right there with you! The door to your Fortress is always open for you and He loves to be your Hero–the One to deliver you from the perils of your world! He will shield you, protect you, and lead you safely to your High Tower.
Psalm 18: 1-3–memorize those verses. I have. In my Bible they are colored red, (for important), highlighted with yellow, in a box that I drew around them, and marked up with cross-references. Why? Because I need all of those things. And a human cannot possibly fulfill those needs, that’s too much to expect from anyone in your circle. Only your Great and Mighty Savior can be all of those things for you.
The question is, do I allow Him to BE all of those things for me? Is He lying to me? Are those just “sometimes He is” verses? Can I possibly grasp His amazing role in my life? It is so incredible! I truly desire this. Show me, Lord.
I call upon the name of the Lord and I am saved…
But it isn’t sacrificial bullocks or goats that I want from you. For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! If I were hungry I would not mention it to you–for all the world is mine and everything in it. No, I don’t need your sacrifices of flesh and blood. What I want from you is your true thank; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust Me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you, and you can give Me glory. (Psalm 50:9-15 TLB)
By Anabel Gillham
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield, my great and powerful Savior, my high tower.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
Psalm 18: 1-3
Are there times when you feel like you’re being dragged along, you can’t get a footing, you have nothing for an anchor, and you desperately need something that would bring stability into your life? Maybe something like a great big rock–with secure hand holds–nothing slippery or sharp–and a flat place where you could sit down or stand and observe the turbulence around you but be completely untouched?
How about those times when you wish you could run into an impenetrable fortress, slam the door, drop a heavy beam down that would keep anyone from opening the door, and you could just heave a sigh of relief and collapse? Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Is anyone still alive who can remember the saga of “The Perils of Pauline”–a serial at the Saturday movies eons ago? It would always end with the heroine, Pauline, in a terrifying situation dreamed up by the villain–all trussed up and about to be sawn in two by the huge lumber saw coming closer and closer, or dropped off a cliff, or hit by an onrushing train? (We would, of course, be sure to attend next Saturday where we saw her deliverer rescue her out of this horrible, impossible situation!) “My hero!” Was always Pauline’s next line. (We read her lips!)
Perhaps you have longed for something to shield you from the hurts of your world? Something that would keep those ugly words, the rejection, or the tragedies in your life from hitting you and destroying you? “They hurt so badly! Where can I turn? What can I do?”
I know around Poteau (my home town) there are these tall, tall towers in isolated mountainous places that game wardens use to watch for forest fires or any thing that might harm their assigned territory. I have never had the slightest desire–not the slightest! –to climb up to the little house sitting precariously at the top of the ladder, but I understand they can be locked, are comfortable, heated, and have a small supply of food. You talk about being safe! Bears can climb trees, but they can’t climb a ladder that tall and should anyone or anything make the perilous climb to the top they would find the door locked tight. Sounds like a nice place to run when your world is topsy-turvy. (Want to go with me?)
What have we left out of these verses? You are so right! “My great and powerful Savior!” This great and powerful Savior wants to be your Rock, your Fortress, your Deliverer, your Shield, and your High Tower.* As you stand on Him–your Rock–you can shiver as you see the turbulent waters reaching for you, but you’re safe! You have an unshakable Foundation and He is right there with you! The door to your Fortress is always open for you and He loves to be your Hero–the One to deliver you from the perils of your world! He will shield you, protect you, and lead you safely to your High Tower.
Psalm 18: 1-3–memorize those verses. I have. In my Bible they are colored red, (for important), highlighted with yellow, in a box that I drew around them, and marked up with cross-references. Why? Because I need all of those things. And a human cannot possibly fulfill those needs, that’s too much to expect from anyone in your circle. Only your Great and Mighty Savior can be all of those things for you.
The question is, do I allow Him to BE all of those things for me? Is He lying to me? Are those just “sometimes He is” verses? Can I possibly grasp His amazing role in my life? It is so incredible! I truly desire this. Show me, Lord.
I call upon the name of the Lord and I am saved…
But it isn’t sacrificial bullocks or goats that I want from you. For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! If I were hungry I would not mention it to you–for all the world is mine and everything in it. No, I don’t need your sacrifices of flesh and blood. What I want from you is your true thank; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust Me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you, and you can give Me glory. (Psalm 50:9-15 TLB)
By Anabel Gillham
Alone
Matthew 4:1-11
He threw back His shoulders, lifted His chin, and walked slowly and fearlessly into the dry, barren land. There was determination evident in His walk, His posture, His eyes, the set of His mouth.
As He looked at the utter desolation of the place, the forsaken terrain before Him, He couldn’t keep from comparing it with the beauty of home. How He missed being home! He had been gone for thirty years but the memories were vivid! Back home there were trees everywhere, shading luscious green carpets; magnificent flowers had been scattered extravagantly–like the sands of the sea–and their fragrance permeated the atmosphere. The brooks, crystalline clear, were dancing over the rocks–you could almost hear them sing! And talk about singing! The songs of the birds were filling the air, they were calling, chattering, little ones chirping, huge ones soaring in the heavens, all of their songs raised in praise and love to His Father. Yes, there was incomparable beauty everywhere at home. There was no beauty to be seen before Him in this desert. No desire to enter. No one He knew calling encouragement to Him from the endless wasteland before Him.
But this was where He was to go, the Spirit had led him to this desert. He knew that it was to be preparation for what was to come, it was to be a learning experience. He would confront evil in its vilest form, hunger and thirst, loneliness and pain. But He would be able to relate to hurting people, lonely people, tempted people–in a way that He could never have done until He passed this time of isolation in the wilderness. And He would come to know His Father’s ways. He was being transformed by His suffering.
I didn’t know that You would lead me into the desert, Lord. I just prayed to know You more completely and that You would use me to be a source of encouragement to the people around me who are hurting, lonely, and confused about You and Your ways.
But here I am–and You aren’t surprised that I’m in this desolate place. How I pray that I will learn, like Jesus did when He was isolated and hurting, about Your love, Your presence, Your strength, Your sustenance, and Your ways–Your ways are so different than what I would plan.
I will choose to accept this time in the wilderness–not fight it or resent it. I will anticipate what each day will bring, trusting You to teach me and use me as I asked You to do. And I know that I will one day be released from this time of desolation, grief, and suffering. I’ll get to go out into my world and tell everyone about You and what I learned in the desert. Or maybe I’ll get to go Home, where beauty and love will engulf me. I don’t want to waste this time–thank You for entrusting to me this awesome role of witnessing of Your presence within me.
By Anabel Gillham
He threw back His shoulders, lifted His chin, and walked slowly and fearlessly into the dry, barren land. There was determination evident in His walk, His posture, His eyes, the set of His mouth.
As He looked at the utter desolation of the place, the forsaken terrain before Him, He couldn’t keep from comparing it with the beauty of home. How He missed being home! He had been gone for thirty years but the memories were vivid! Back home there were trees everywhere, shading luscious green carpets; magnificent flowers had been scattered extravagantly–like the sands of the sea–and their fragrance permeated the atmosphere. The brooks, crystalline clear, were dancing over the rocks–you could almost hear them sing! And talk about singing! The songs of the birds were filling the air, they were calling, chattering, little ones chirping, huge ones soaring in the heavens, all of their songs raised in praise and love to His Father. Yes, there was incomparable beauty everywhere at home. There was no beauty to be seen before Him in this desert. No desire to enter. No one He knew calling encouragement to Him from the endless wasteland before Him.
But this was where He was to go, the Spirit had led him to this desert. He knew that it was to be preparation for what was to come, it was to be a learning experience. He would confront evil in its vilest form, hunger and thirst, loneliness and pain. But He would be able to relate to hurting people, lonely people, tempted people–in a way that He could never have done until He passed this time of isolation in the wilderness. And He would come to know His Father’s ways. He was being transformed by His suffering.
I didn’t know that You would lead me into the desert, Lord. I just prayed to know You more completely and that You would use me to be a source of encouragement to the people around me who are hurting, lonely, and confused about You and Your ways.
But here I am–and You aren’t surprised that I’m in this desolate place. How I pray that I will learn, like Jesus did when He was isolated and hurting, about Your love, Your presence, Your strength, Your sustenance, and Your ways–Your ways are so different than what I would plan.
I will choose to accept this time in the wilderness–not fight it or resent it. I will anticipate what each day will bring, trusting You to teach me and use me as I asked You to do. And I know that I will one day be released from this time of desolation, grief, and suffering. I’ll get to go out into my world and tell everyone about You and what I learned in the desert. Or maybe I’ll get to go Home, where beauty and love will engulf me. I don’t want to waste this time–thank You for entrusting to me this awesome role of witnessing of Your presence within me.
By Anabel Gillham
Dedicated to Me
You lightly broke your solemn vows to me,
yet I will keep the pledge I made to you
when you were young.
I will establish an everlasting covenant
with you forever.
Ezekiel 16: 59-60 TLB
I see myself in that verse of scripture.
The day that I followed my Dad to the front of the First Christian Church of
Poteau, Oklahoma and gave my heart to Jesus, I entered into a “solemn vow” with
Him. Numerous times since that day I have, with tears and sincere regret,
renewed that solemn vow–only to “lightly break that vow” again in a time of
frustration, anger, self-protection, weariness, or doubt.
But the Person with whom I made that
agreement when I was twelve years old says, “It’s all right, Anabel. I’m not
going to back out of the covenant we made. I’m going to keep all of My promises
to you. We’re different–You and me. You can trust Me, dear one. I won’t break
the vows I made with you.”
You know, I’ve counseled a lot of married
people. Sometimes one of the twosome is trying–everything possible–to make the
marriage work, to make it the beautiful relationship that God created it to be.
But for that to happen, both of them have to commit themselves to trying to
make their union something special, and then beauty begins to come. Then love
is renewed. Then the relationship becomes all that it is supposed to be.
In my covenant with the Lord, He is doing
His very best to make our relationship all that He longs for it to be. I’m the
one putting sand in the gears. I’m the one who is chasing other ways for
fulfillment and I confess, “It’s me, Lord. And I am so sorry.”
As recently as yesterday I went to the
front of the Church at the invitation of the pastor to pray. How sweet it was
to be there–as close to prostrate as I dared to get in front of everyone who
might have been looking. Once again I declared my love by this overt action,
and my commitment as a Believer; I was acknowledging His authority and His
majesty by kneeling and once again I renewed my solemn vow.
Thank You for being the Person of integrity
that You are. Your love, your faithfulness, your dedication to me are
absolutely marvelous!
Your steadfast love, O Lord, is as great as
all the heavens.
(That’s beyond our ability to grasp, isn’t
it?)
Your faithfulness reaches beyond the
clouds.
(Beyond the clouds? No way can I imagine
that.)
Your justice is as solid as God’s
mountains.
(I have never analyzed the “solidness” of a
mountain, have you?)
Your decisions are as full of wisdom as the
oceans are with water.
(Quite a comparison, isn’t it?)
You are concerned for men and animals
alike.
How precious is Your constant love, O God!
Psalm 36: 5-7 (TLB)
What seems to be a minor infraction to
me–lightly breaking the solemn vow I made with You–is a very major infraction
with You. Help me to see that, Lord.
By Anabel Gillham
Good From Evil
The Bible is very clear that God has
nothing to do with evil. There is “no darkness” in God. (I Jn 1:5). Far from
intentionally bringing about evil, God’s “eyes are too pure to look on evil”
(Hab. 1:13). All evil, therefore, must be ultimately traced back to decisions
made by free agents other than God. Some of these agents are human. Some of
these agents are angelic. Either way, evil originates in their willing, not
God’s.
This isn’t to say that God can’t bring good
out of evil. Scripture teaches that “in all things God works for the good of
those who love him…” (Rom 8:28). As I read this passage, the phrase “works for”
(sunergÄ“o) is all important. In the Greek, “sun” is a prefix meaning “with” or “alongside
of.” “ErgÄ“o” means to work to bring something about (we get the word “energy”
from it). So the term literally means to work with or along side other things
or other people to bring something about. So, it seems that in this passage God
is promising to work with us and alongside the circumstances he finds us in to
bring good out of evil.
But think about this in terms of how many
conceive of God predetermining every circumstance of history. If “all things”
were already an expression of God’s will, because God is supposedly behind
everything, why would God have to work with us and alongside circumstances to
bring good about? If all things are already an expression of God’s will,
there’s nothing outside of God’s will for him to work with or along side of.
In this light, I suggest this passage is
teaching us not that all things happen for a divine purpose, as though God
wills all that comes to pass, but that all things happen with a divine purpose.
Whatever comes to pass, however much against God’s will it may be, God works to
brings a good purpose to it.
He is, after all, an infinitely intelligent
God who is able to anticipate each and every possible event as if it were a
certainty. Whatever comes to pass, therefore, God has an eternally prepared
plan in place on how best to respond to it. I believe this is why the Bible
depicts Gods’ providence not only as a rule of power, but even more so as a
rule of wisdom. If God himself brought things about or faced an eternally
pre-settled future, devoid of possibilities, he’d need no wisdom in steering the
world toward his objectives.
Wherever you are today … whatever
challenges you are facing … wherever you face evil … God is with you, working
with you and alongside your circumstances to bring about good. God did not
bring about that evil, but he is working to bring good out of it. Even as you
read this, ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see this reality. - Greg Boyd
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