Wednesday, July 26, 2017
The Kingdom of God
May the blessed spirit of truth make very real to all who read these lines that the phrase "the Kingdom of God" is only a manner of speaking. That is why Jesus never said, "The Kingdom of God is such and such," but always, "the Kingdom of God is like such and such." He explained the Kingdom in terms of parables and metaphors. There is actually no such entity as the Kingdom. It is not a kind of visible structure or outward establishment that God sets up. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there!" It is rather God Himself exerting His rightful power to actually rule by His Spirit over all people, to bring them consciously under His control, to subdue them to His purposes. and direct them by His will. When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom as "coming," He does not mean some "thing" or some "age" or something else which is to appear or begin. He speaks of God Himself making His rule effective in the hearts and affairs of men. May God help us to see the great and eternal truth that when we speak of the Kingdom of God we are talking about something that has no existence at all apart from GOD HIMSELF. Just as we speak of the grace of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, or the power of God, we deceive ourselves if we think of them as having some tangible existence apart from God Himself. They are merely verbal ways of describing God Himself as He acts and manifests out of His state of being. So the Kingdom of God is a way of speaking of God Himself as He moves in power and glory and goodness and wisdom and righteousness to influence and rule in the hearts and activities of men!
Friday, July 21, 2017
A Quick Fix for Low Self-Esteem
Sometimes it happens to even the best of us. We aren’t watching for it, we aren’t expecting it, but suddenly it overwhelms us like a tsunami. In a moment we’re plunged into the depths of sorrow and despair. Now we find ourselves grappling with negative thoughts, we realize we’ve lost confidence in our abilities, we have let go of all sense of self-worth. This is the plague of low self-esteem and none of us is immune.
What can we do in these times when our self-esteem plummets? How can we respond when our self-worth is at low ebb? Here’s a quick fix for low self-esteem, a tried and true pick-me-up: Say something negative about another person. Find a friend and share a juicy little tidbit of gossip; go online and spark a discussion to belittle a common enemy; if all else fails, just sit quietly and ponder another person’s foibles and flaws. Very quickly you’ll find yourself beginning to feel better, and soon you’ll have regained your boldness and confidence. Your self-worth will have been restored.
Here’s the reason this method is so effective. Low self-esteem is first a spiritual problem. It springs up where there is low spiritual maturity and lack of godly character. Where these traits are lacking, we easily fall into the sin of comparison. We compare ourselves to others and inevitably lose. We see their accomplishments but our failures, their progress but our shortcomings. We see the ways in which they are gifted but we are ordinary. We remember accolades they have gained and the so-many times we have been overlooked and under-appreciated. Despair is never far away.
We can address this downward spiral through growth in spiritual maturity and commitment to godly character. These traits disrupt and destroy the comparison game by causing us to compare ourselves to the incomparable Son of God. Now we realize the utter futility of comparing ourselves to anyone else but Christ. Now we look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” to be inspired by his holiness and seek forgiveness for our depravity.
But maturity and character are traits that are hard to come by. They require time and effort, diligence and discipline. But gossip? That’s easy. We’re already naturals at that, already well-practiced in it, and this is exactly why it is our ready response to low self-esteem. We gossip to make ourselves feel better. We gossip to address low thoughts of ourselves by broadcasting even lower thoughts of others. We gossip when our love for others is too low and our love for self is too high. After all, diminishing an enemy requires far less effort than personal growth. It’s easier to disparage another person than to improve yourself. Gossip is our ready, but temporary, fix for low self-esteem.
What can we do in these times when our self-esteem plummets? How can we respond when our self-worth is at low ebb? Here’s a quick fix for low self-esteem, a tried and true pick-me-up: Say something negative about another person. Find a friend and share a juicy little tidbit of gossip; go online and spark a discussion to belittle a common enemy; if all else fails, just sit quietly and ponder another person’s foibles and flaws. Very quickly you’ll find yourself beginning to feel better, and soon you’ll have regained your boldness and confidence. Your self-worth will have been restored.
Here’s the reason this method is so effective. Low self-esteem is first a spiritual problem. It springs up where there is low spiritual maturity and lack of godly character. Where these traits are lacking, we easily fall into the sin of comparison. We compare ourselves to others and inevitably lose. We see their accomplishments but our failures, their progress but our shortcomings. We see the ways in which they are gifted but we are ordinary. We remember accolades they have gained and the so-many times we have been overlooked and under-appreciated. Despair is never far away.
We can address this downward spiral through growth in spiritual maturity and commitment to godly character. These traits disrupt and destroy the comparison game by causing us to compare ourselves to the incomparable Son of God. Now we realize the utter futility of comparing ourselves to anyone else but Christ. Now we look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” to be inspired by his holiness and seek forgiveness for our depravity.
But maturity and character are traits that are hard to come by. They require time and effort, diligence and discipline. But gossip? That’s easy. We’re already naturals at that, already well-practiced in it, and this is exactly why it is our ready response to low self-esteem. We gossip to make ourselves feel better. We gossip to address low thoughts of ourselves by broadcasting even lower thoughts of others. We gossip when our love for others is too low and our love for self is too high. After all, diminishing an enemy requires far less effort than personal growth. It’s easier to disparage another person than to improve yourself. Gossip is our ready, but temporary, fix for low self-esteem.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
In My Flesh Dwells No Good Thing! How About In Yours?
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good {is} not. --Romans 7:18
I sat listening to a couple discussing a topic that is much more prevalent today than it was just a few years ago: pornography on the Internet. The husband had been caught looking at it. "I cannot believe you would do that," said the wife.
I looked at her and said, "I would!"
She immediately responded, "How?"
"It is simple. In my flesh dwells no good thing! Are you telling me that in your flesh dwells a good thing?" It took me years to realize that I--that is, my flesh--am never going to get better. When I am not abiding, the flesh is the same it has always been: hostile to God.That is why we teach a moment-by-moment victory and ultimate improvement only through Christ in us.I could look at the Internet sites but I do not, and not because I am strong, but because I know men much stronger than I am who get in bondage to it. Since that is the case, what chance would my flesh have? I do not look because I am weak, not because I am strong.
Do you believe that in your flesh (body, mind, will, and emotions under the influence of anything other than Christ) there is something good? Every time we look at a person and say, "I would not do that," we are saying that we are stronger than Christ. We know that all Christ ever did, He never did, for it was the Father working through Him. He not only taught abiding but lived it. When we succeed, it is not because of great strength, but because we have recognized abiding in Christ, and His grace and strength are on and in us. When we judge, look out! All God has to do is lift His grace and abiding presence, and we will discover we are just as weak as anyone else.
Have you admitted you are weak and in your flesh dwells no good thing? You must admit where you are before you can leave where you are. You must own a weakness before you can lose it. If I want to give you a cup, I can only give it if I pick it up and own it first. It is not until you own your weakness that Christ will be able to be your strength. For instance, if you will own that in your flesh you hate another race, you can give that shortcoming to God, and He can become your strength. Once you do this, you will not be a compassionate person loving someone from another race; you will be a person able to dispense the pure love of God. Admit you cannot be a husband, own it, and let Christ's love flow through you for your wife. But if you will not own it, you can never disown it.
"Power is perfected in weakness!"Think of a teacher, pastor, or elder. Do you know five of his weaknesses? Three? Just one? If you do not know any of his weaknesses, this person is attempting to minister in the strength of the flesh. If power is perfected in weakness, why hide it?It is because we want to appear strong and build our own glory. However, He is the glory, and He will never give His glory to another. We are wrong to teach Christians to be strong and hide weakness. All of us are strong in Christ and weak in the flesh. In my flesh dwells no good thing.
It is a tragedy that so much teaching lands at the Christian’s feet and tells him all he needs to do and be, when God tells us Christianity is all about explaining what Christ will do for us. Well, amen.
And what a tragedy that with little recognizing and teaching of “the flesh” there is so little teaching of Christ’s power being perfected in our weakness. Then, too, there is the abundant teaching of our needing to be strong. Oh, wow!
A wrong focus will take our eyes off Jesus every time.
- Mike Wells
I sat listening to a couple discussing a topic that is much more prevalent today than it was just a few years ago: pornography on the Internet. The husband had been caught looking at it. "I cannot believe you would do that," said the wife.
I looked at her and said, "I would!"
She immediately responded, "How?"
"It is simple. In my flesh dwells no good thing! Are you telling me that in your flesh dwells a good thing?" It took me years to realize that I--that is, my flesh--am never going to get better. When I am not abiding, the flesh is the same it has always been: hostile to God.That is why we teach a moment-by-moment victory and ultimate improvement only through Christ in us.I could look at the Internet sites but I do not, and not because I am strong, but because I know men much stronger than I am who get in bondage to it. Since that is the case, what chance would my flesh have? I do not look because I am weak, not because I am strong.
Do you believe that in your flesh (body, mind, will, and emotions under the influence of anything other than Christ) there is something good? Every time we look at a person and say, "I would not do that," we are saying that we are stronger than Christ. We know that all Christ ever did, He never did, for it was the Father working through Him. He not only taught abiding but lived it. When we succeed, it is not because of great strength, but because we have recognized abiding in Christ, and His grace and strength are on and in us. When we judge, look out! All God has to do is lift His grace and abiding presence, and we will discover we are just as weak as anyone else.
Have you admitted you are weak and in your flesh dwells no good thing? You must admit where you are before you can leave where you are. You must own a weakness before you can lose it. If I want to give you a cup, I can only give it if I pick it up and own it first. It is not until you own your weakness that Christ will be able to be your strength. For instance, if you will own that in your flesh you hate another race, you can give that shortcoming to God, and He can become your strength. Once you do this, you will not be a compassionate person loving someone from another race; you will be a person able to dispense the pure love of God. Admit you cannot be a husband, own it, and let Christ's love flow through you for your wife. But if you will not own it, you can never disown it.
"Power is perfected in weakness!"Think of a teacher, pastor, or elder. Do you know five of his weaknesses? Three? Just one? If you do not know any of his weaknesses, this person is attempting to minister in the strength of the flesh. If power is perfected in weakness, why hide it?It is because we want to appear strong and build our own glory. However, He is the glory, and He will never give His glory to another. We are wrong to teach Christians to be strong and hide weakness. All of us are strong in Christ and weak in the flesh. In my flesh dwells no good thing.
It is a tragedy that so much teaching lands at the Christian’s feet and tells him all he needs to do and be, when God tells us Christianity is all about explaining what Christ will do for us. Well, amen.
And what a tragedy that with little recognizing and teaching of “the flesh” there is so little teaching of Christ’s power being perfected in our weakness. Then, too, there is the abundant teaching of our needing to be strong. Oh, wow!
A wrong focus will take our eyes off Jesus every time.
- Mike Wells
Monday, July 17, 2017
Immediate Results
For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God [directed] toward you.Test yourselves [to see] if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? –II Corinthians 13:4, 5
Often we allow our eyes to drift from Christ to our problems and circumstances through the immediate-results syndrome, which dictates our success wholly by what we are currently experiencing, either positively or negatively! This syndrome is actually a major obstacle to faith.Let me illustrate. Most will agree that the United States is losing its economic edge because Americans, unlike those with an Oriental or Asian mindset, are not so willing to invest in something that will not reap immediate benefits. We want wealth right away, while they are willing to invest year after year, receiving much less current tangible rewards but knowing in the future they will be repaid tenfold their original investment, and the wait will have been very worthwhile. Having seen the wisdom in investing and waiting, they are not discouraged by any occasional hiccup in the current financial situation. The wisdom of their policy is now creating repercussions in our own economy. As we apply the principle to our spiritual lives, wanting immediate results is a hindrance to faith; in fact, this mindset will actually nullify faith! The greatness of our faith is not to be judged by how much we have received, but rather by how long we can wait and receive nothing! Faith makes my Christian walk a joy; therefore, if I have voided faith through wanting immediate results, I have also to the same extent annihilated joy.
When believers do not have a long-term plan, they become susceptible to the ups and downs of daily life. Their energies get focused on resolving right away whatever is placed in front of them in order that they might feel comfortable and secure in the moment. Next they become controllers, pushing God out of the way and beginning to try to fix in their own strength and with a variety of plans and manipulations what they perceive to be the real problem. In other words, they simply begin to play God. To say the least, in this way the Christian life becomes a struggle, filled with discouragement, depression, anger, and doom, with minds and emotions flooded with questions, accusations, and feelings of hopelessness from the enemy. It is tough to play God! All of this because things are not going as they feel they ought to today.
Imagine sitting in a bathtub full of water when somebody dumps into the tub a bucket of ping-pong balls on which are written all of the problems, circumstances, failures, and people that are causing you trouble. Your job is to somehow keep every ball under water. The whole exercise would at first be frustrating and in the end quite exhausting. This pictures, of course, the believer who is trying in his own strength to control every area of his life.
“DO YOU NOT RECOGNIZE THIS ABOUT YOURSELVES, THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU…” Incredible Truth. Monumental Truth. His Life Himself in us.
What does God tell us that our life IS…equals…? Christ. Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is (equals)our life…” (It helps to have the old-timey definition of what “is” is). So, I have started thinking of His Life as my life. I find great victory, peace, comfort, joy…name all the lovely attributes you can think of…in Life As A Christian (not TRYING to live “the Christian life”). Are all those great attributes what we get when we “play God,” OR when we allow God to BE Himself in us (us not TRYING to live “the Christian life”).
Often we allow our eyes to drift from Christ to our problems and circumstances through the immediate-results syndrome, which dictates our success wholly by what we are currently experiencing, either positively or negatively! This syndrome is actually a major obstacle to faith.Let me illustrate. Most will agree that the United States is losing its economic edge because Americans, unlike those with an Oriental or Asian mindset, are not so willing to invest in something that will not reap immediate benefits. We want wealth right away, while they are willing to invest year after year, receiving much less current tangible rewards but knowing in the future they will be repaid tenfold their original investment, and the wait will have been very worthwhile. Having seen the wisdom in investing and waiting, they are not discouraged by any occasional hiccup in the current financial situation. The wisdom of their policy is now creating repercussions in our own economy. As we apply the principle to our spiritual lives, wanting immediate results is a hindrance to faith; in fact, this mindset will actually nullify faith! The greatness of our faith is not to be judged by how much we have received, but rather by how long we can wait and receive nothing! Faith makes my Christian walk a joy; therefore, if I have voided faith through wanting immediate results, I have also to the same extent annihilated joy.
When believers do not have a long-term plan, they become susceptible to the ups and downs of daily life. Their energies get focused on resolving right away whatever is placed in front of them in order that they might feel comfortable and secure in the moment. Next they become controllers, pushing God out of the way and beginning to try to fix in their own strength and with a variety of plans and manipulations what they perceive to be the real problem. In other words, they simply begin to play God. To say the least, in this way the Christian life becomes a struggle, filled with discouragement, depression, anger, and doom, with minds and emotions flooded with questions, accusations, and feelings of hopelessness from the enemy. It is tough to play God! All of this because things are not going as they feel they ought to today.
Imagine sitting in a bathtub full of water when somebody dumps into the tub a bucket of ping-pong balls on which are written all of the problems, circumstances, failures, and people that are causing you trouble. Your job is to somehow keep every ball under water. The whole exercise would at first be frustrating and in the end quite exhausting. This pictures, of course, the believer who is trying in his own strength to control every area of his life.
“DO YOU NOT RECOGNIZE THIS ABOUT YOURSELVES, THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU…” Incredible Truth. Monumental Truth. His Life Himself in us.
What does God tell us that our life IS…equals…? Christ. Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is (equals)our life…” (It helps to have the old-timey definition of what “is” is). So, I have started thinking of His Life as my life. I find great victory, peace, comfort, joy…name all the lovely attributes you can think of…in Life As A Christian (not TRYING to live “the Christian life”). Are all those great attributes what we get when we “play God,” OR when we allow God to BE Himself in us (us not TRYING to live “the Christian life”).
Friday, July 14, 2017
Man in the Image of God
The Father has a desire to the work of His hands, and I rejoice to be one small part of the work of His hands. In that long ago beginning Adam, the type and prophecy of man in God’s image, was brought forth from the hands of God on the sixth day of the Lord’s creative process. Why was the creation of man saved for last? Because it was the culmination of all that preceded it. Into that man God breathed the breath of life. God breathed! Although all living things have a “breath of life,” man was the only being who received his breath of life directly from God. Man’s “breath of life” is not the air of earth’s atmosphere. The breath of God is the Spirit of God – for breath and spirit are the same word in Hebrew. God breathed – God infused into man His very own life. This set man apart from the animal kingdom, for man was endowed with divine life and was fashioned in the image and likeness of God. There is great purpose here! Let me ask – was the creation of mankind an incidental event, or was it the event around which all else revolves? I believe we are perfectly safe and on God’s ground to say that the creation of man is the event around which all else revolves. Man was made in the image of God and given dominion over all things and commissioned to subdue and subject all things. That dominion is to the extent over all the works of the Creator’s hands and that includes, according to Psalm 8:3, the heavens, the moon and the stars. Can we not see by this that our earth, yea, our galaxy, is the launching pad for God’s creative, redemptive, reconstructive program on behalf of the whole creation? Let us UNDERSTAND! In man, and in man alone, was blended the reality of both the Creator and the creation! God is invisible – spirit. Creation is visible – material. Adam was formed of the dust of the ground – earth; and God breathed into him the breath of life – spirit. Man in his spirit was from God and heaven, while in his body he was from earth. Ever since man has been, he has been made to live for the one purpose of giving revelation and manifestation to God, and to be ruler for God. The invisible God desired to be known by His visible creation – but then existence was on two different planes. So God put His spirit and His image into Adam, that in the visible could be seen and known the invisible. Adam is thus the connecting link between the upper and lower worlds – between Creator and creation. Man was created for the specific purpose of becoming the bridge between the celestial heights of the spiritual realm and the lowest depths of the physical world, that God might be known, experienced, fellowshipped. Man is thus the channel through which the Creator’s grace and glory and blessing and power flow from the high realm of the spirit to the corporeal world.
- J. Preston Eby
- J. Preston Eby
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Like Jesus
You are never more like Jesus, than when you are choked with compassion, with the brokenness of others.
- Brennan Manning
- Brennan Manning
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Flesh And The Ministry
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. –Romans 8:1
If God is revealing a person’s flesh, should he stop ministering? It is not as odd a question as one might think. I am often asked it by those who do ministry, for it is a question that the enemy loves to plant in the mind of a disciple of Christ. After Peter’s denial, should Peter have just quit? I believe that God is dealing with us continually and bringing us into conformity with what we have always had in Jesus. Ministry remains constant while our growth—the increasing revelation of what as Christians we have always had and been--is in flux. In short, much of our insight during times of ministry comes from having already been where the people are to whom we are talking. I often look across my office and see in a person the very things that have been in me. Our experiences equip us to minister. Peter denied the Lord and yet ministered on the very topic later. He had been there. If being there disqualifies a believer, Peter would have been disqualified. Past experiences (even failures) equip us to minister in the present, and though we have grown through them and can then minister from what we gained from them, that will not rule out the possibility of a life full of like experiences. This may sound odd, but personal growth in private areas of life can be unrelated to the ministry occurring today, even though it is preparation for further ministry in the future. Many make a mistake when they see flesh in their lives and proceed to listen to the enemy as he whispers that they are not fit, they will bring dishonor to Jesus, and they are hypocrites. The enemy’s goal is accomplished to the extent that the believer withdraws from ministry. What does such retreat really accomplish? Time is taken away because of a newly revealed area of the flesh, and an attempt is made to fix the issue. The believer’s eyes are taken off of Jesus, he is no longer giving of himself to others, and he becomes absorbed with the problem, all of which are counterproductive. Also, does he really believe that this will be the FINAL issue in his life? Does he believe that this revelation of his flesh is the last one? When a believer thinks that he has dealt with all the flesh that will ever be revealed, he is deceived and only seeing flesh from his own definition. He must come to see that the continuous process of revelation of flesh and resulting renewed reliance upon Jesus is what keeps his teaching fresh. “There is nothing the nearness of Jesus will not cure.”Even today His nearness may be fixing a problem in any or all of us!
If God is revealing a person’s flesh, should he stop ministering? It is not as odd a question as one might think. I am often asked it by those who do ministry, for it is a question that the enemy loves to plant in the mind of a disciple of Christ. After Peter’s denial, should Peter have just quit? I believe that God is dealing with us continually and bringing us into conformity with what we have always had in Jesus. Ministry remains constant while our growth—the increasing revelation of what as Christians we have always had and been--is in flux. In short, much of our insight during times of ministry comes from having already been where the people are to whom we are talking. I often look across my office and see in a person the very things that have been in me. Our experiences equip us to minister. Peter denied the Lord and yet ministered on the very topic later. He had been there. If being there disqualifies a believer, Peter would have been disqualified. Past experiences (even failures) equip us to minister in the present, and though we have grown through them and can then minister from what we gained from them, that will not rule out the possibility of a life full of like experiences. This may sound odd, but personal growth in private areas of life can be unrelated to the ministry occurring today, even though it is preparation for further ministry in the future. Many make a mistake when they see flesh in their lives and proceed to listen to the enemy as he whispers that they are not fit, they will bring dishonor to Jesus, and they are hypocrites. The enemy’s goal is accomplished to the extent that the believer withdraws from ministry. What does such retreat really accomplish? Time is taken away because of a newly revealed area of the flesh, and an attempt is made to fix the issue. The believer’s eyes are taken off of Jesus, he is no longer giving of himself to others, and he becomes absorbed with the problem, all of which are counterproductive. Also, does he really believe that this will be the FINAL issue in his life? Does he believe that this revelation of his flesh is the last one? When a believer thinks that he has dealt with all the flesh that will ever be revealed, he is deceived and only seeing flesh from his own definition. He must come to see that the continuous process of revelation of flesh and resulting renewed reliance upon Jesus is what keeps his teaching fresh. “There is nothing the nearness of Jesus will not cure.”Even today His nearness may be fixing a problem in any or all of us!
Monday, July 3, 2017
Why Every Day Is An Adventure
I’ve just begun a two-week trip to South Africa, where I will be meeting with people in Durban, Cape Town, Mulzenburg, and finish up in the Johannesburg area. I have no idea what God has in store for me or the people I’ll be with over that time. I don’t go anywhere anymore with notes and topics I want to speak on. I used to. I’d “discern” what “God wanted” me to “impart” to others and then bring lots of notes to lecture from.
Somehow all of that faded away a a couple of decades ago. I discovered that my plans were mostly, well, my plans. I thought they were God’s because it was stuff on my heart after I had prayed for wisdom, but I came to discover that they were mostly formulated so I wouldn’t have to worry about what I’d say. But more and more I noticed that God was nudging the conversation elsewhere and sticking to my notes became more difficult and less effective.
I discovered that my “preparation” was about my need to have all my ducks in a row and it kept me from helping people by joining them in their world, sharing where needs and interest lie, rather than where I was comfortable or thought I’d be most entertaining. It was a gradual process of learning to encounter people in “their time” rather than my own. I also learned that God was more concerned with how I was living alongside him and loving who is in front of me today than he was giving me a topic to speak on a week from now. He is the God of the present after all. And while I was praying for future events, I was missing opportunities right in front of me.
So I’m learning to walk with God each day in whatever circumstances I’m in. I don’t show up with my plans anymore, but simply with a prepared heart ready to see what people are hungry for and how I might help. Oh, I might have an inkling of things God will sprinkle into the conversation, but I use them only if they unfold in the moment. It has been so much more helpful to people who are really on a journey of living in the Father’s love to let them shape the conversation and offer myself as a resource for their journey, rather than try to dazzle them with mine.
And it has helped live more full in the present, whether I’m home, on a plane, or in a far off land. That’s why I have come to love this quote by Aldous Huxley because it captures the possibilities that every day affords us:
Every moment of our human life is a moment of crisis; for at every moment we are called upon to make an all-important decision – to choose between the way that leads to death and spiritual darkness, and the way that leads towards light and life; between interests exclusively temporal, and the eternal order; between our personal will, and the will of God.
A Quest for Values
I realize this can be read from the darkness of performance, where a demanding God is looking over our shoulder every moment judging everything you do or say. That is how I used to see him and I didn’t enjoy quotes like this because they just made me paranoid. No matter how many good decisions I made, I know I wouldn’t get them all right and I was far more aware every day of where I fell short, than where I had leaned into love and life.
That’s the problem with performance-living. Every day demanded perfection, which of course wasn’t possible so every day ended in frustration and confession and pledges to try harder. But you now what? No child would learn to play piano, baseball, or ride a bike if they had to be perfect at it on the first day. God intended life to be an adventure, not were we get it all right today, but where we simply make progress in learning to walk alongside him and see the world through his eyes. Then we’ll know how to live and that will spill over in helping others.
I love how he is setting me free on the inside to be more aware of what’s unfolding around me and have a sense about how I might be loving, kind, or helpful to others. It’s not a demand of his; it’s an adventure of mine to learn a bit more each day what an amazing world he created and how I can be in it to bring hope and healing rather than more destruction.
Nope, I’m not perfect, but I am making progress and I honestly think that’s all he desires for me.
- Wayne Jacobsen
Somehow all of that faded away a a couple of decades ago. I discovered that my plans were mostly, well, my plans. I thought they were God’s because it was stuff on my heart after I had prayed for wisdom, but I came to discover that they were mostly formulated so I wouldn’t have to worry about what I’d say. But more and more I noticed that God was nudging the conversation elsewhere and sticking to my notes became more difficult and less effective.
I discovered that my “preparation” was about my need to have all my ducks in a row and it kept me from helping people by joining them in their world, sharing where needs and interest lie, rather than where I was comfortable or thought I’d be most entertaining. It was a gradual process of learning to encounter people in “their time” rather than my own. I also learned that God was more concerned with how I was living alongside him and loving who is in front of me today than he was giving me a topic to speak on a week from now. He is the God of the present after all. And while I was praying for future events, I was missing opportunities right in front of me.
So I’m learning to walk with God each day in whatever circumstances I’m in. I don’t show up with my plans anymore, but simply with a prepared heart ready to see what people are hungry for and how I might help. Oh, I might have an inkling of things God will sprinkle into the conversation, but I use them only if they unfold in the moment. It has been so much more helpful to people who are really on a journey of living in the Father’s love to let them shape the conversation and offer myself as a resource for their journey, rather than try to dazzle them with mine.
And it has helped live more full in the present, whether I’m home, on a plane, or in a far off land. That’s why I have come to love this quote by Aldous Huxley because it captures the possibilities that every day affords us:
Every moment of our human life is a moment of crisis; for at every moment we are called upon to make an all-important decision – to choose between the way that leads to death and spiritual darkness, and the way that leads towards light and life; between interests exclusively temporal, and the eternal order; between our personal will, and the will of God.
A Quest for Values
I realize this can be read from the darkness of performance, where a demanding God is looking over our shoulder every moment judging everything you do or say. That is how I used to see him and I didn’t enjoy quotes like this because they just made me paranoid. No matter how many good decisions I made, I know I wouldn’t get them all right and I was far more aware every day of where I fell short, than where I had leaned into love and life.
That’s the problem with performance-living. Every day demanded perfection, which of course wasn’t possible so every day ended in frustration and confession and pledges to try harder. But you now what? No child would learn to play piano, baseball, or ride a bike if they had to be perfect at it on the first day. God intended life to be an adventure, not were we get it all right today, but where we simply make progress in learning to walk alongside him and see the world through his eyes. Then we’ll know how to live and that will spill over in helping others.
I love how he is setting me free on the inside to be more aware of what’s unfolding around me and have a sense about how I might be loving, kind, or helpful to others. It’s not a demand of his; it’s an adventure of mine to learn a bit more each day what an amazing world he created and how I can be in it to bring hope and healing rather than more destruction.
Nope, I’m not perfect, but I am making progress and I honestly think that’s all he desires for me.
- Wayne Jacobsen
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Why does God plough so deep?
Truly this explains much of the processing through which God’s elect has been passing, for the Lord purposes to bring forth a crop, full fruitage, even to an hundredfold, therefore there have been these tremendous crushing experiences which have broken up the hard clods of our pre-conceived ideas and opinion, the rocks of our stubborn self-will, and the inbedded roots of our own fleshly desires and ways, and the carnal traditions of religion which resisted the inworking of truth. Deeper and deeper have dug the plowshares of the Spirit, breaking up the fallow ground, grinding, smashing, tearing, loosening, breaking up the self-life until all is subdued before Him, until nothing remains but the fine soil for the seed to grow in. The plowman has not been plowing in us all this time just for the sake of plowing, but the preparation is that there might be the sowing of HIS LIFE, that there might be brought forth a harvest of the same kind. That’s what the Garden of God is all about! The Christ-life is being sown, and this means the growing up of a whole new species, a new creation which shall ultimately come forth in the image and likeness of God, to the praise of His glory. Many of the Lord’s precious apprehended ones have wondered why we were plowed so deeply, why God allows us to be broken up to the deepest recesses of our beings, until every way within us has been tried, but it is that HIS LIFE MIGHT FASTEN ITS ROOTS DEEP WITHIN US, so that from deep within, from our very nature, would spring forth the fruitage of Himself.
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