Cuppa Joe Bible Minute

Building a Kingdom

2012-01-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

I have to come clean and admit that I'm fully engaged in another Facebook game: Castleville. (Here's a shout out to all my friends in neighboring kingdoms who have been so kind as to visit me and give me shards of exploration crystals and have unwithered my crops. Hollah....)

The tag line on this highly addictive and relatively unproductive game is: Build a happy kingdom with your friends. How could I resist? I mean, who doesn't long to build a happy kingdom with friends? I want a kingdom, of which I am presumably in charge, and I want to have community. So it's perfect, right?

Sure, if all you have to do is complete random quests given to you by Rafael and Yvette by chopping down trees, crafting in your workshop, and destroying beasties who invade your happy kingdom. Then you are set.

However, as I've been contemplating deeper, more spiritual questions, the tag line of Castleville has been reverberating in my mind. As my family and friends have been through some tough church issues in the past few years, I find myself asking the question: what's church for? The realization I've come to is that for most of my adult life I've thought church is to build a happy kingdom with my friends.

It's not.

I heard a fantastic sermon at church this morning entitled: "Life at 2AM - Why are we here?" Our purpose in life is to glorify God, and when we do that in community we build HIS kingdom, not ours. And whether or not our friends are there, we love others and work together in unity to work toward HIS purposes, doing HIS will. It's not about us.

Church is not about building our kingdom with our friends. It sounds obvious, but is it how we react when things go badly? Is it manifested in our priorities in such a way that we live in a tension between our individual surrender to God's Spirit and our devoted participation in His body?

The temptation is great to work toward building a happy kingdom with my friends. But the bottom line is that my friends aren't always around and they often have very little to do with who God is asking me to do to build His kingdom.

Friends move away; God is always with us.

Friends disappoint us; God is always faithful.

Friends are sinners; God is holy and just.

This personal epiphany has opened my eyes to a new perspective and I'm hoping God will continue to show me how He wants to use me to build His eternal kingdom. I'd love company if you're in....

Towels

2011-11-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

Living in the Northwest, I often find that my bathroom towel never completely dries between showers. It may be partially because of our climate: damp, cool, and dreary most of the winter. It may also be partially because my towel hangs on a hook, whereas my husband's towel hangs fully stretched out on a bar of the shower door. (I know. The lack of symmetry in the design of our bathroom is a topic for another day.)

So, not surprisingly, it got me to thinking about things as I looked at the towels in our bathroom. There's something attractive about the idea of being completely stretched out and available to perform at optimum potential. If a towel is not fully dry, how can it do its job? And a towel perpetually folded upon itself doesn't dry properly and it starts to smell after a while. Moldy, moist, and not what you want to wrap around your dripping body after a shower.

I want to be like a towel that's stretched out and ready to perform. One that has the service of other people as a priority. I want to have everything unattractive in me taken out and whisked away into the atmosphere so I can be fresh and available.

A towel on a hook - a life that's imploding in self-absorption - not only has limited usefulness, but after a while, starts to smell. I don't want a life that's only worried about MY boundaries that have been crossed. MY desires met. MY feelings hurt.

If God is like a dry breeze that lifts the mold and mildew of my life so I can selflessly serve others, let the wind blow! Let me have a virtual heated towel rack in my bathroom of life! I catch of whiff of my selfishness from time to time and I want to toss the towel in the laundry basket and start with the fresh scent of Downy again. And I can with Jesus!

That's what redemption is all about.

A fresh start.

A do-over.

No more moldy odors or damp cotton to do a half-assed job. I want to be stretched out and ready to serve. Fresh and clean. Nothing to hide in the mildewy folds of my introspection.

Let the cleansing wind of the Holy Spirit blow into the towel racks of my life, Lord! I want to smell Downy fresh!

Confidence

2011-11-10T08:27:00.000-08:00

“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?'" (2 Kings 18:19)

This is a question I've been pondering a lot over the past year or so. On what am I basing this confidence of mine?

If it was on my looks, then middle-age is taking care of changing that.

If it's on my smarts, well, God Himself took that off the table by endowing me with only slightly above average intellect.

On doing the right thing? Good luck to those around me. I score 0 on the scales of compassion and service.

How about my accomplishments? Again, not much to brag about.

It would be pretty easy to look at me and say, "On what are you basing this confidence of yours?"

But what if, like Hezekiah, I'm basing my confidence on God's promises? What if I believed what God said is true regardless of what anyone else says about me or my chances of success in this world?

Because God says I'm loved.

I'm redeemed and forgiven.

And I was chosen to be adopted into His family.

And that He's got my back and is preparing a place for me to spend eternity with Him.

So in spite of my lack of credentials or achievements, in the face of colossal mistakes and epic fails, I am pretty confident. Not in me, of course, but in the God who chose me, loves me, and calls me to live for Him.

Naaman

2011-11-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

"Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed."

But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy." (2 Kings 5:10-11)

Am I missing out on something God wants to do in my life because I'm too focused on the expectations I've built up? Is my focus on the wrong thing so I don't see God's activity in my life? Do I want drama more than His Presence? And can I even clearly identify my need?

My expectations?

My hope?

Am I, like Naaman, expecting God to do something big in my life while I wait, idly, and simply complain?

That's not what I want, Lord! I want to respond by doing whatever you require of me; just show me what it is! Oh, that it would be as clear as it was for Naaman. But then, would I balk like he did? Probably.

As is true so often in Scripture - and in life - there is a tension that exists between what only God can do and what He asks me to do. How could I possible get those confused?

But I do.

Would you give me eyes to see the difference, Lord. And strength to act or submit, accordingly.

Work and Play

2011-10-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

I just got home from Paris.

Don't feel too badly for me. It wasn't as bad as it sounds.

We had good food, walked for miles, ate crêpes in the Tuileries Gardens, and took a fascinating tour of the Veuve Clicquot champagne cellars. All in all, a pretty rocking week.

But have you discovered that no matter how glorious the vacation, how amazing the scenery, and how fascinating the experience, once you know it's time to get home, you just can't wait?

What is that?

I have a theory.

It's time to be productive. It's how we were designed.

Take a look at this verse from the creation account:

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." (Genesis 2:15)

And this one from a wise, wise king:

"Then I realized that is it good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him - for this is his lot." (Ecclesiastes 5:18)

We were meant to live in a balance of work and pleasure. Labor and laughter. Toil and tranquility.

And often we don't realize we lack one because we're so imbalanced in the other.

I've recently taken on some tutoring responsibilities, getting my feet back into the world of education, and it wasn't until my days were filled with meaningful activities that I realized how much time I had been wasting! There is great satisfaction in doing a job and doing it well.

We were created with a rhythm and a tension. It's the concept behind God's emphasis over and over again on the Sabbath. Work your tails off for 6 days, then take a break, for crying out loud! A real break that changes pace, focus and priority. Then go back to what you were doing with God at the center of it.

Recalibration is good because it realigns our purposes and priorities. And in my opinion, there are fewer places better to do that than in Paris with a few girlfriends.

But now it's time to be productive again. Bring it on, Lord!

Scavenger Hunt

2011-08-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

My son's youth group did a scavenger hunt yesterday at church.

I didn't ask him the kinds of things they were supposed to look for but I have been thinking about my own hunt, as I scavenge (is that even a word?) through life looking for purpose. Looking for God's glory. For comfort. Love. Beauty.

Is there holiness in raising my face to the sun and letting it dry the tears that stream down my face, escaping my tightly squeezed eyelids?

Is there holiness in sitting at my desk, reaching for the words to describe God's truth, and being distracted by a huge spider that meanders, uninvited, along the baseboard, among electrical cords?

Is God's glory in snoring spouses?

Is there something divine in stitches from surgery and post-op meds that are instantly bitter on the tongue but stave off infection in the body?

My theology is challenged in the dichotomy of the divine and the mundane.

Yes, God is present in all of it. He made the sun's warmth. The unwelcome arachnid is His creation, too. (Ew!) He's in the nearness of noisy breathing. In the healing process. In my triumphs and in my epic fails.

He is everywhere and in everything.

And He wants to be found. To be seen. To be embraced and sought after.

This is my scavenger hunt list:

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

Reveal yourself to me, Lord. Show me your beauty and your glory in everything today. Amen.

Morning Stillness

2011-08-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

I sit and listen to the rhythmic whoosh of a sprinkler,

To the now-audible hmmmm of the refrigerator.

I gaze at still branches awaiting a scrambling critter or gentle breeze to stir,

And sip warm coffee, the color of summer skin.

I inhale deeply, peacefully, slowly.

Sigh.

Loved ones still sleep, unseen, unheard.

But I am fully, blissfully awake, embracing the potential of a new day.

Anticipation. Longing. Contentment.

All intermingled as I pause before the light is so bright.

And the noise is so loud.

While God is still near and I am fully present.

Poised, with open arms and heart.

Whoosh.

Sigh.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Sun in the trees

2011-08-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

"From where I lay I can see the sun,

rising through the trees.

Before I face this morning rush,

I get down on my knees.

I lift my eyes and I thank you

for this life you've granted me.

I pray that every day I live, your heart will be pleased."

(from All I Ever Wanted, by Margaret Becker)

I was thinking of this old favorite song of mine this morning, as I sat watching the sun peek through the trees on its way to light the sky for the day. I was reading about the land allotments in the book of Joshua and paused to stretch my problematic neck. (See previous post for details.)

I caught a momentary glimpse of bright orange as the rising sun peeked through the cedars in the back yard. In that split second, I sensed God saying to me, as He had to Paul centuries ago,

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

(2 Corinthians 12:9)

Recently, I've been struggling with an ongoing personal issue and, even though I was stretching for physical comfort in that moment, God met me with a much deeper comfort. A reminder that although it only seems we see the sun for a second, it's always there. Even though there may only be a spot - a single ray - of sunlight shining into our darkness, it's never blotted out completely.

God's light - His comfort, His truth, His love - is always rising to fill our lives.

Whether we see the effects dimly - diffused through leaves or morning fog - or if it's brilliantly spectacular in its hues and intensity, the sun - like God - is constant and unchanging. We'll catch glimpses; then it will seem to disappear because we've lost sight of it. But God will use His Word, His Spirit, and other people in our lives to remind us that He is there.

As I still sit and see the shadows and lighting shift among the trees, I'm reassured. I sense God's peace in my present situation as well as for life in general, as He reminds me that His grace IS sufficient for me. Whether I need to pull up my big girl panties and suck it up because life is hard, or I lay out my heart before Him in my need and pain, what He offers is enough.

2011-07-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

"These muscles are angry."

Words spoken by my chiropractor as she delved deeply into my shoulder tissue, stretching my neck while massaging tender places on the opposite side.

This, after I had taken a deep breath in, lying on my stomach, and let it out slowly, only to have her hands come down powerfully in the middle of my back, releasing an audible, unwitting "HUH!" from my lips.

Why would anyone submit to this treatment?!

Because whatever Dr. Denniston does is for my good. (Anyone see where I'm going with this?)

Most of us don't want God or other people poking and prodding in our lives, especially when it reveals something uncomfortable or downright sinful. Conversations with friends that push back on my bad theology or question my motivations and behaviors are unpleasant. God's Word shining its objective light into the dark recesses of my conscience can illuminate areas of my life that aren't holy. Sometimes it's unpleasant; sometimes it's painful.

But what's the goal of opening ourselves up to the scrutiny and treatment of those we trust? Hopefully our goal is wholeness and health. Nothing short of transformation.

Jesus told the religious leaders of His time: "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:8) That could not have been easy to hear, especially because the rebuke was so public. Jesus was exposing the wrong motivation of their hearts: they were all about themselves and not about God. Ouch.

So the reason I seek out the objective truth of God's Word and the authentic conversations of trusted friends is because I want that stuff out of me! I want and need help seeing my personal blind spots, even if it's uncomfortable. Even if it makes me angry and defensive at first. Because in the process of examining truth in the inmost parts (Psalm 51), I move forward in the transformation process of becoming more like Jesus. And in understanding Him more and more.

And as I've discovered in chiropractic care, sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Adjusting one area that's out of alignment requires that our whole bodies make the shift and feel the brunt of the change. But there are devastating effects of vertebral subluxation if we allow the misalignment to continue. (Right, Dr. D?)

Lord, open my heart to the unerring truth of your Word, the clear and powerful conviction of your Holy Spirit, and the trusted words of friends who love me like you do. Would you do whatever it takes to align me with your will to reflect your glory to the world around me. Amen.

Thoughts on Paul's example

2011-07-12T08:10:00.001-07:00

I'm reading through Philippians and Colossians this summer with some gals on facebook. This week we're reading Philippians 4 and this morning I was struck by the repetition of Paul's bold invitation to follow his example in following Christ. Here, he says it in verse 9:

"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you".

In verse 17 of Chapter 3 he said:

"Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you".

What would that look like in the lives of those I've discipled over the years, if they followed my example and put into practice not only what they've learned, received, and heard from me, but also what they've seen? Definitely better some days than others. And Paul was so intentional about having those people in his life, wasn't he? Constantly multiplying himself by investing in younger men to further the kingdom.

Have you been the beneficiary of that kind of relationship? Have you had the blessing of being that example to someone else? It's quite a challenge, but also very satisfying. It requires that we spend a lot of time with God, allowing Him to make us into an example that can be followed. And an example that always points back to Jesus. Lord, let it be so.

Jesus Christ Superstar

2011-06-30T11:35:00.001-07:00

So our family and some friends saw a local production of Jesus Christ Superstar last night. Having never seen the production, I had been warned that it might be offensive, and some actually used the word blasphemous. I am publicly admitting today that I am either theatrically ignorant or more religiously tolerant than I thought. Or both.

In bullet points (because it's how I think and see the world) here are my observations:

• No one approaches the subject of Jesus' life without bringing a certain bias, and Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice are no exception. They are entitled to express their bias with their own creative and brilliant methods.

• The music of the 70's rocked!

• There is no biblical evidence for portraying Mary Magdalene as a woman with a sordid sexual past, but there it was. Again, I refer to my first point: you're the genius in theater - you get to portray the characters any way you like. Weber and Rice were certainly not the first, nor will they be the last to think of Mary as a former whore.

• Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code) probably loved this play. The whole Mary/Jesus love connection...I'm just sayin'.

• Jesus and Judas did die the same week. Fascinating premise to chronicle what that last week would have been like between them. (Also wondering how that era produced such high tenors that could melt your face with their singing. Who knew that's what Jesus and Judas had in common?)

• Staging the tongue in cheek numbers (think Herod in a spa and Judas in the all-sequined afterlife) just that way seemed apt in light of how off everyone was in their assessment of Jesus' purpose. Had Jesus jumped down off the cross to appease the crowd's thirst for sensationalism, everyone would have believed; but they would have believed in an incomplete Jesus. Bottom line: He had to die and rise to actually conquer sin and death. It wasn't the show-stopping number everyone anticipated. It was so much more. I miss it too, sometimes. "Prove you're who you say you are", I demand. As if this life is about me.

• I don't believe Jesus told the lepers, the lame, the poor, and the blind to heal themselves, as He did in the play, but I do believe He may have felt tempted to, if we're to believe Hebrews 4:15, which tells us that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin."

• The song Jesus sang in the Garden of Gethsemane scene depicts every bit of anguish and desperation that I picture when I read the gospels. Gorgeous lyrics, heartbreaking delivery. What must that night have been like? Did it feel like Jesus was drinking poison to obey? How does that figure in with the description in Hebrews 12 that says Jesus endured the cross "for the joy set before him"? And what would it be like for me to have my mind so focused on an eternal perspective - so consumed with love for my Savior - that joy could be mingled with anguish? I think I've experienced that to some degree in my life at times, but nothing like Jesus.

So I think the 1973 movie might have to move up on my netflix list. Those rockin' disciples and their songs are going to be haunting me for a while.

Weighing In: Mandatory Retirement

2011-06-19T06:37:00.001-07:00

It's time for Numbers in my trek through the Bible. For many, it's a book for skimming. And while there's a place for that, I'm noticing some fascinating details in this book of many details this time around.

And instead of my usual researching and pondering to find the answers to my periodic "huh?", I'm going to pose the questions to you, since I'm going to bet you skimmed this part the last time you read the 7th and 8th chapters of the book of Numbers.

Numbers 7 describes each tribe of Israel giving an offering for the newly consecrated Tent of Meeting. This is what each of the 12 tribes brings:

¹² The one who brought his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah.

¹³ His offering was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels,^[b] both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with the finest flour mixed with olive oil as a grain offering; ¹⁴ one gold dish weighing ten shekels, filled with incense; ¹⁵ one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering; ¹⁶ one male goat for a sin offering; ¹⁷ and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.

Each of the other tribes then brings exactly the same thing as an offering. So, here's my question:

Where did these wandering Jews in the desert get all this gold and silver when they ran for their lives in the middle of the night of Passover?

I think I have the answer to this, which highlights God's attention to detail, but I'll let you weigh in on this. (Get it? Weigh in? Anyway...)

Second "huh?" moment is in chapter 8:

²³ The LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, ²⁵ but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. ²⁶ They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.”

Mandatory retirement age is in the Bible! What? The Levites have to retire from duty on the tabernacle when they turn 50. Why do you suppose that is?

I'm going to be pondering the nature of work, the structure of society, and God's principles for His people as I let this one simmer. And I look forward to your insight, as well.

Evil

2011-06-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to see a French film with a friend at the Seattle International Film Festival. It was called The Clink of Ice. The premise was fascinating. A writer named Charles has cancer and lives alone in an isolated house with his housekeeper (and his young Russian lover for a while, but that's incidental). His wife and son have left him and he drinks wine all day long. One day a man comes to the house and introduces himself as his cancer. The movie then follows Charles as his relationship with the incarnation of his cancer evolves and forces him to reevaluate many aspects of his life. It's not pretty.

Eventually, the housekeeper also develops cancer and so the house now has a dynamic of four instead of two. Charles and Louisa (the housekeeper). Charles and his cancer. Louisa and her cancer. And brain cancer with breast cancer.

Why am I telling you all this?

What has stuck with me since I saw the movie were lines that Charles' cancer kept repeating: Evil always wins. Evil will always be here. His message seemed to be that no matter how many regrets you have in life - no matter how much more time you'd like to have to live your dreams and make things right - cancer doesn't care. It is, in fact, one of life's great equalizers.

And last week, as part of my family and I sat in on the trial for my sister-in-law's murderer, I went back to the lines of the movie and wondered: is it true?

Does evil win?

What do we do with the apparent injustice and depravity all around us?

Are we powerless against the forces of evil in this world? It's scary and disgusting out there.

Where is God when tragedy strikes?

I am happy to report that, even through my tears, God's truth penetrated my doubt. The truth of Scripture and the resonant truth of experience. Here are a few examples of what the Bible says about this:

"...the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)

"It is mine to avenge; I will repay...There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:35, 39)

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 4:27)

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Ephesians 6:10-13)

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world by evil desires." (2 Peter 1:3-4)

"...If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?...For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-32, 38-39)

"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments." (Revelation 19:1-2)

"...and hope does not disappoint us..." (Romans 5:5)

And there's much, much more. Our God is sovereign and victorious over evil. Read the book of Revelation. He wins, my friends. He wins. Even when the darkness seems profound, He is there, comforting and working out the details of our lives to bring Him glory and make us into the image of Christ.

As for experience, I know that my Redeemer lives because His Spirit is alive and active in me every day. I sense His promptings, His conviction, His inexplicable peace, and His assurance that He will never leave me or forsake me. I am a stronger, more loving person than I am capable of being. He holds me together when I would fall apart on my own. He loves me completely and holds me when I feel utterly alone. He's done it countless times in the past week alone.

Evil most certainly does not win.

Our Lord God Almighty reigns. And He has already won the victory. We just haven't seen all the acts of the play yet.

Yes, evil will always be here with us while we live on this earth. But when we have a relationship with the God of the universe through Jesus, we are more than victorious over the evil. He is our peace. He is our comfort. He is our advocate.

Cancer will never have the last word over an empty grave.

Jesus already beat death and sin.

They just don't know it yet.

Dilemma

2011-05-25T07:33:00.001-07:00

Many mornings I'll open my Bible to where I last left off and determine that I will read until God stops me. Sometimes that turns into reading until somebody in the house wakes up. Sometimes it turns into reading until my coffee is cold. And sometimes it turns into reading until my stomach starts growling. I consider all of those things to fall under the category of "until God stops me".

This morning I sat in my customary Bible-reading chair, coffee cup warm and good intentions in hand. I read exactly 4 verses when God really did stop me. This was the passage:

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:12-14)

At an earlier reading of this passage I had written in the margin: "How can I make God happy as one of the 99?" And my thoughts went immediately to the story of the prodigal son and his older, somewhat cantankerous brother. Read the finale of that story and see if you notice a connection between the two:

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25-32)

I've always related to the older brother in this parable and to the sheep that didn't wander. I don't have a dramatic or scandalous past that evokes gasps and wide eyes as I recount it. (As my mother reads this, she'll be happy to know that.) But as I contemplated how to make God happy as an obedient child who doesn't wander off in wicked escapades, He revealed to me this sobering thought:

I was lost and I still wander.

There was a time when I was outside God's family. When I was, as Colossians and Ephesians describe so clearly, an enemy of God, an object of wrath, alone, without hope or God in the world.

He brought me near through the sacrificial death of Jesus. And that was when God rejoiced over me coming into His family. That's when I came back into the family I was created to be a part of.

Then God reminded me (as He has been trying to teach me this over and over again recently) that I still wander. I still follow the wicked inclinations of my heart by putting myself and my comfort above the needs of others. By leaving the intentional time in God's presence to pursue useless and fruitless activities. By tilling the soil of my soul for seeds of resentment and bitterness and judgment against the people in my life. Oh, I still wander alright. And every time I come back He is happy! Do you know why God is happy when we come back to Him?

Because He wants us near Him!

He created us for profound, intimate, continual, and eternal relationship with Him and it breaks His heart when we stray. So I can make God happy as one of the 99 sheep by staying close to Him. And by investing in the lives of those who are not. That's the beauty of community.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Or as John Piper says, to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. There is satisfaction and joy for us and God when we are close.

So when I wander and the Holy Spirit convicts me of it, all that's necessary is a repentant heart. Then the forgiveness Jesus purchased for me on the cross propels me back into the arms of the Good Shepherd. Once again, one of the ninety-nine. Close to the Father. As I was meant to be.

Invitations (Excerpt)

2011-05-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

Don’t you love getting an invitation? Parties, graduations, weddings, retirements. It’s an honor to be invited somewhere. And it feels good to know that our presence is requested. Someone wants to share an event with us, whether it’s a celebration or a remembrance. But sometimes an invitation has implications beneath the surface and sometimes we bring our own bias. We may wonder who else is invited? What will I wear? Will there be food? What if so-and-so is there? Awkward… But overall, an invitation that comes is usually a pleasant surprise.

Hollywood is known for its glamour and spectacular parties. The Vanity Fair Oscar party is arguably the most coveted invitation of the year, costing the host over one million dollars to put on. The reason for all this hoopla is simple: the harder the party is to get into, the more people will clamor to be invited.

Especially at this time of year, we receive all kinds of invitations: graduations, weddings, retirement, birthday parties. Do you think there’s a difference in being invited to the Vanity Fair Oscar party and Lily’s Strawberry Shortcake 3^rd Birthday party? Um. Yeah. Whether we want to admit it or not, the importance and/or rarity of the event will have great influence on our response. Neighborhood kid birthday party vs. once-in-a-lifetime red carpet event. Hmmm… tough choice, huh?

There are other kinds of invitations in life, too, aren’t there? Isn’t a marriage proposal a kind of invitation – an invitation from a man to a woman to share his name and a life together? A casual invitation to coffee or lunch can mean a lot to a lonely person. Ultimately an invitation is about relationship. Whether the event is to celebrate relationships – like a wedding – or just including people by being together, marking milestones in life is better when it can be shared in the context of relationship.

What kinds of invitations does God proffer in our lives? Here are three examples:

1. Seek Me. Because God places such importance on relationships, one of His primary invitations to His people throughout the Bible is to seek Him. And His promise is that we will find Him. When the Israelites had been disobedient and God allowed the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to take them as exiles and prisoners into a foreign land, He sent this encouraging invitation through the prophet Jeremiah to the confused, distraught people: This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:10-14) He gave the same invitation through the prophet Amos earlier when He said: ⁴This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; ⁵ do not seek Bethel,  do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba.  For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”  ⁶Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. (Amos 5:4-6) In both cases, to two different groups of people, God issues the same invitation that He offers to us: Come and seek me. He wants to be found because He wants to have relationship with us. Jesus also issued this invitation to those who would follow Him when He said: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8) It’s a little like a game of hide and seek with a small child who calls out from his hiding place in the closet, “I’m in here!”, making it easy to find Him. That’s our God: He longs to be found and known and He invites us over and over to look for Him so He can have relationship with us.

2. Rest In Me – Jesus offers this invitation in the gospel of Matthew: ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Doesn’t that sound nice? Rest for your soul. Who doesn’t get soul weary from time to time? Who doesn’t feel the burden of life when the pressure mounts and the deadlines are looming large? When relationships are tense and we feel inadequate for the tasks ahead of us? Jesus gives us the invitation to come to Him with all of that. To exchange the self-propelled efforts to manage our lives for the total surrender of our wills to His ways. The reason that Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light is b/c He’s already done everything necessary for us to walk in obedience and joy. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says this: ³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴ Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. In other words, Jesus has done everything necessary for us to live lives as we were created to live them through His obedient, perfect sacrifice on the cross! Our efforts to just improve ourselves instead of allow Him to transform us are what causes so much of our frustrations. Truth be known, many of us are carrying burdens in life that God never asked us to carry and He wants us to give them to Him. Then we can experience “soul rest”.

3. Follow Me – This invitation may be the hardest to swallow – and certainly the hardest to fully accept. ²³And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let himdeny himself andtake up his crossdaily and follow me. ²⁴Forwhoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. ²⁵For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶Forwhoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamedwhen he comes inhis glory and the glory of the Father and ofthe holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26) This invitation seems to be filled with paradoxes. As if an invite to a birthday party came in the mail and said, “if you’d like to keep your coat, then give it away at the door.” But if I'm going to a party and can't trust that I'll remember where my coat is, the best thing to do is to trust it to the person at the coat check so it'll be safe and waiting for me at the end of the night. And the logic of this cross analogy has to do with the ancient tradition of taking up a cross. When a condemned man was going to be crucified under Roman rule in the time of the disciples, he was required to carry the beam of the cross to the place of execution. Jesus and his disciples would have seen this happen and Jesus Himself was going to carry the beam of HIS cross to Golgotha. It symbolizes the fact that we are to consider ourselves dead to our former way of life and should live as if that’s true. We are no longer slaves to sin, but Christ has bought our freedom through His trip to the cross and resurrection, so we live for Him now. (Galatians 2:20 “I have beencrucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who livesin me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me andgave himself for me.”) This invitation refers to a complete transfer of allegiance. I no longer live for myself; I’m to deny myself. That is the natural, carnal urges that used to have power over me. When I let go of my life I receive the life God has for me. The one I was created to live. That’s what He’s inviting us to. As C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, “…mere improvement is not redemption”. Jesus did not die and rise from the grave to make us better versions of our former selves. He died to redeem us from our old life – to buy us back from a life of slavery to sin and death so we could be new creations, becoming more and more like Him in the process of sanctification.

So what kind of invitations have you received from God recently? What are you sensing that He may be inviting you? Is He inviting you to just look for Him to see if He’s real? Is He inviting you to lay down some burdens that have been too much? Or are you receiving a more challenging invitation? My challenge to you is to be still and ask God to reveal the kind of invitation He’s got for you.

Navigating Emotions

2011-04-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Are your emotions a distraction or a destination?

Do you find yourself not knowing what to do with emotions that overwhelm you without invitation or obvious provocation? Do you find yourself saying, "I don’t understand why I'm so mad for no apparent reason." Or, "Why am I feeling sad today?" Maybe it's hard to articulate what emotion you're feeling. If this is you, it may feel as if you're bobbing around in the stormy sea of emotions with no way to navigate or anchor yourself to find the truth of your situation because your emotions have you gasping for breath and trying to just stay functional amid the waves.

On the flip side, you may be so focused on an emotion or some sort of sensation as an end in itself that life seems pointless unless you are engulfed in some emotion or another. And it's not limited to just emotions, either. You may be driven by adrenaline, or drama in relationships, or a desperate need for attention, or the pleasure of buying something new, or having a massage, or reading a gripping romance novel. Feeling something is better than feeling nothing at all so the sensation becomes the goal. Or feeling something good that you can control is preferable to feeling something bad that you don’t want to deal with.

Here's an example of what life can look like when our take over:

Hope is Emo

So whether your feelings tend to be a distraction from the goals and purposes God has for you or if chasing some sort of emotion is a destination in and of itself, the Bible has something to say about how to navigate them and get God's perspective.

In 1 Kings 18, the prophet Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a spiritual showdown on Mount Carmel. He gathers all the people of Israel, the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (cults of the time) and the challenge is laid out: Place a bull on a wood altar as an offering to each God and see which god answers by fire. Both altars and sacrifices are prepared and the prophets of Baal scream and dance and cut themselves all day long to no avail. Baal is conspicuously absent. Then Elijah has the men douse his offering and altar with water and Bam! The God of Israel ocnsumes the offering, the wood and all the water! The Elijah seizes and kills the prophets of Baal and runs for his life since Jezebel, the queen of Israel, wants to kill him.

In 1 Kings 19 we find a prophet who is worn out and depressed.

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. ⁹ There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:1-18)

What we see here is an example of depression brought on by circumstances, and the way Elijah and God work this out can teach us something about what I believe God wants us to know about our emotions and circumstances.

1. Never underestimate spiritual and physical aspects of your situation. Elijah had just been used by God in a mighty and dramatic way. And after the false prophets had been killed, 1 kings 18:46 says, “the power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.” Mt. Carmel is a 1500 ft. plateau in the desert and Jezreel was a good 20 miles away. Then, when he heard Jezebel was after him he ran for his life another 100 miles. The power of the Lord was on him AND he was exhausted. Whether or not we’re proactively caring for ourselves spiritually, physically and emotionally, sometimes we get tired from living life. That’s when we need to be especially aware of our emotions. Look at how Elijah wants to deal with what he’s feeling in verse 4: he prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life.” I’m so tired I could die. I’m sad. I’m overwhelmed. I’m being chased and I’m scared. We can do the same thing. Is this overwhelming emotion in response to lack of sleep? Bad nutrition? Not enough exercise? If we don’t care for the temple of the Holy Spirit, there will be consequences and some of them are emotional. For Elijah, it was the Lord who responded by addressing these physical needs before anything deeper. This leads us to our second observation...

2. We must go to God with our feelings. Elijah did and that’s key. I don’t know what’s going on here, Lord, but I’m done. I can’t process all this, I’m in despair, nothing makes sense, I’m feeling something but I don’t know what. Help. In addition to Elijah’s situation, the psalms are full of emotional pleas like this. Tears flood my bed at night. My heart is in anguish. Oh, how I rejoice in you! The spectrum of emotions is written in psalms. God is the author of our emotions and getting His perspective is crucial to dealing with them. And He is the only one in our lives who will completely understand us and never tire of us coming to Him and sharing our feelings. Once we go to God, we can expect Him to respond. Then we need to...

3. Listen to truth. Let’s compare Elijah’s take on his situation to God’s. In verses 13-18 Elijah is sure he’s the only one left who’s faithful to God so he’s feeling lonely and overwhelmed. A little righteous indignation, maybe. Frustration, I bet. Fear, for sure, knowing Jezebel is after him. And based on HIS perspective that’s understandable. Even after he’s rested and had food and water. But then God shows him what’s REALLY true and it allows Elijah to not only cope with his situation and emotions, but he goes on to anoint his protégé so they can both continue God’s work in Israel. How many times did I say to my mom as a kid, “nobody likes me”. If that was true I had every reason to cry. But the truth was that I had probably just made somebody mad by bossing them around and they didn’t want to play anymore! That’s a lot different than complete rejection by every kid in the neighborhood.

So we need to take into account our physical circumstances – not as an excuse, but as explanation – go to God with our feelings – honestly and as raw as that may be – and we need to listen to what’s true instead of continuing to believe whatever lie is taking root in our minds concerning our emotions. Accurately assessing our emotions and taking them to God is crucial in making them obedient to us and not the other way around.

Here’s a very handy verse for aligning ourselves to God’s perspective so our emotions are where they should be:

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5)

We must know and choose to believe the truth about who we are and who God is if we hope to live with emotions, but not controlled by them.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) And He also said that if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. Knowing Jesus is the only way to be free from anything else that threatens to control us in life, including the weight and power of our emotions. We can try and try to be better people, but the bottom line is that we all fall short and only Jesus makes a way for us to stand before God and receive what we need to have full lives. A relationship with Jesus is the beginning, middle and end of our lives. As God, He is the author of our emotions and as a human, He can sympathize fully with them.

So… we stay on track, navigating our emotions by sticking close to Jesus and knowing the truth of who He is and who we are. In addition, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to remind us of truth so we can navigate life. In John 14 and 16 Jesus spends time telling us what the Holy Spirit’s job is and part of that is to tell us truth. So when we feel overwhelmed by emotions or we see the negative consequences of letting our emotions dictate our behavior, the Holy Spirit will remind us of the truth of our circumstances.

Elijah looked at his circumstances and God dealt with them physically, but Elijah also poured his heart out to God and God responded with real truth. That can happen for us too. It’s not a formula to make sure we don’t have emotions; it's a GPS to find our way to true north – God’s Presence – and navigate around emotions so we don’t get off track from what God is calling us to. What’s this GPS? An acronym, you say? Why, yes, thank you. I happen to have one.

What if the way to navigate our out of control emotions could be guided by this principle?

God’s

Perspective is

Sovereign

In everything – not just our emotions – having God’s perspective by knowing His Son Jesus and the truth of Scripture and our circumstances as revealed by the Holy Spirit will guide us to a place in life where our emotions hold their proper place. We will be able to feel things without living in a constant state of being overwhelmed, and we can deal with our sadness, doubts, boredom and fear by going to the One who made us and who never gets tired of listening to us process what life throws at us. Since God’s Perspective is Sovereign, and so is He, we can trust Him to tell us the truth of our situation and to lead us toward emotional health.

God is the author of our feelings and He wants us to feel them; He just doesn’t want them to control us – that’s what HE wants to do. He made us in His image, which includes emotions so it’s part of our identity, but only a part.

Vincent Van Gogh once said, “Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.”

And this from a Swedish man named Jonatan Mårtensson: “Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf.”

Battling Sloth

2011-04-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

Many of us have heard lessons on the story of Mary and Martha when Jesus comes to dine at their house, and most people I know relate to Martha. She's the busy one. The one who resented her sister sitting at Jesus' feet and listening, nobly, to His teaching while she slaved over a meal for guests. "Martha, Martha", the Lord chides her affectionately. "Get over it," He seems to say. Not really, but you know. Martha's busy, but Mary is with Jesus. Being with Jesus is what matters, so don't get your knickers in a twist about the dirty dishes.

I don't get it.

I've never been a Martha. Never wanted to be. I've never been accused of being too busy or avoiding social settings by bussing tables or doing dishes. Nope. I want to sit down, be comfortable, eating and drinking and making merry, thank you very much. I used to think that I, like Mary, had chosen the one important thing: sitting. But, you see, that wasn't Jesus' point at all.

I've come to realize recently that I've been using my pride to disguise my sloth as "mary-ness". I've spent considerable time thinking that I'm rather spiritual in my pursuits and that I should let the less erudite among us take up the serving slack while I illuminate Scripture and enlighten the masses. Could you refill my coffee, please, while you're at it?

Nice.

But you know what God has shown me?

Laziness is a sin.

My laziness comes from a deep-seated selfishness and a potent priority for my own comfort. Not from a desire for fellowship and a hunger for God's truth to be revealed. It is counterintuitive to my nature to serve others. And there's nothing in that to take pride in, believe me.

But there is hope for me, my friends.

This past weekend I visited my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. My husband's parents were there, as well. Over the course of the past several weeks, I've been repeating a mantra to myself that I continued on the other side of the country: "Don't be lazy. Don't be lazy." Like a highly hormonal teenager fights lust, or the way an alcoholic fights the temptation to drink, I've been leaning into God for the strength to not give into my slothful tendencies so He can develop mature character in me.

This weekend He revealed plenty of opportunities for me to serve. And He revealed lots of times I was tempted to make a decision based on what was best for me. It felt like a sort of tug-of-war inside me. But what I discovered when I was honest about my desires and confessed my selfishness over and over was that His Spirit prompted me to do the dishes. Or hold the baby. Or unload groceries. Or pour a glass of milk. Or make some coffee. Gestures that never would have occurred to me on my own were revealed as an opportunity to trust God to make me into the kind of woman He wants me to be. And most exciting of all - there was joy and satisfaction in it!

So while I was dismayed by the realization that I am, in fact, slothful and selfish by nature, I also realized that God loves me anyway and wants to change me. Thanks be to God! I can't do that myself. If left to my own devices, I will always choose my own comfort and ease. My comfort is my idol. And God wants to change that. As discouraging as it is initially to name my sin and see it for what it is, it's equally encouraging to see God working in me, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, to eradicate my old nature and replace it with His.

And I want to change. I want it desperately. So I will choose to serve others and walk into the life He has for me by obedience. And I will trust Him to do what only He can do in my life to make me into the person He created me to be when He knit me together in my mother's womb. And when I fail, I will call it what it is. Sloth. Selfishness. Pride. And I will be reminded that it is only by God's grace that I can call Him Abba, Father. I'm not such a great prize, but He is. And He has redeemed even my most despicable moments and moods for His glory.

Wrath and Grace

2011-03-28T11:40:00.001-07:00

I’ve been thinking about God’s character in new ways lately as I try to navigate the symbolic waters of Ezekiel with the Holy Spirit’s help. It’s slow going, but I’m seeing things from a completely different perspective this time around.

Ezekiel was called to tell the exiles that things were about to go from bad to worse in their lives. The first two waves of captives were not going home anytime soon, and destruction was imminent for the city of Jerusalem, the crowning jewel and capital of the Jewish nation of Judah.

Ezekiel wasn’t the only one to receive this message to pass along from God, but his visions and prophetic utterances were particularly harsh and vivid. Take a look at one example:

²⁸ "And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says about the Ammonites and their insults:
" 'A sword, a sword,
drawn for the slaughter,
polished to consume
and to flash like lightning!

²⁹ Despite false visions concerning you
and lying divinations about you,
it will be laid on the necks
of the wicked who are to be slain,
whose day has come,
whose time of punishment has reached its climax.

³⁰ Return the sword to its scabbard.
In the place where you were created,
in the land of your ancestry, ?
I will judge you.

³¹ I will pour out my wrath upon you
and breathe out my fiery anger against you;
I will hand you over to brutal men,
men skilled in destruction.

³² You will be fuel for the fire,
your blood will be shed in your land,
you will be remembered no more;
for I the LORD have spoken.' " (Ezekiel 21:28-32)

Swords drawn for slaughter. Blood being shed. Brutal men skilled in destruction. Doesn’t it sound more like Rambo should make an appearance? Yet God states over and over again, “I the LORD have spoken”. This is the Bible, not Hollywood.

So how do we reconcile these images with the gentle and humble character of Jesus? Has one aspect of God’s character given way to its antithesis? Was God’s wrath all spent on Jesus when He died on the cross so that it no longer exists?

While it is true that Jesus absorbed the just wrath of God and paid the punishment that our sins deserved, God’s wrath did not disappear. He has not changed.

Lest we think that the wrath of God is only a theme in the Old Testament, take a look at how the apostle Paul begins his letter to the Roman Christians, as he introduces his themes and logic around the gospel:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” (Romans 1:18-19)

John MacArthur Jr. describes this New Testament wrath by saying,

The gospel message begins with a statement about the wrath of God. Frankly that’s diametrically opposed to most of our evangelistic technique. Most of our contemporary evangelism purposely avoids that theme. We talk about love and we talk about happiness and we talk about abundant living and we talk about forgiveness and we talk about joy, we talk about peace. And we offer people all of those things and ask them if they wouldn’t like to have all of those things. But we really very rarely talk about judgment.¹

Because God is still perfectly holy, sin invokes His anger. His holy character demands that response. But because He is also loving and merciful, He provided Jesus as the propitiation for our sin; He satisfied completely the need for justice and appeased the wrath of a holy God toward His creation.

Jesus showed us the perfect manifestation of God’s love. God’s wrath doesn’t diminish the truth of Jesus’ invitation to those who are hurting or tired in Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In the same way that a child can be afraid of a parent’s anger in disobedience while still longing for compassion and affection when hurt, we can recognize God’s abhorrence of sin while running to Him in times of trouble for comfort.

And understanding God’s wrath is crucial to fully grasping the full impact of His grace and love. As a diamond sparkles more brightly on black velvet, so God’s grace toward us is highlighted when we understand the magnitude of wrath that has passed over us because of Jesus. The Hebrews in Egypt put the blood of the lamb over their doors so God’s angel of death would spare them. We, too, have the blood of the lamb to turn away the punishment of death for our own sin.

To be clear, God’s wrath toward sin is not parental disappointment at our imperfection. Make no mistake: Jesus’ death and resurrection were completely sufficient to pay the penalty for our sin. We are not responsible for our own forgiveness or for washing away our own mistakes so we can be cleaned up before our Father in Heaven. We are only forgiven because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.

We are called, however, to participate fully and passionately in the sanctification process – that lifelong endeavor to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. (Ephesians 4:1) Our responsibility is to make every effort to examine our hearts for displeasing roots of sin (Galatians 6:4) and to proactively pursue character qualities that will bring us closer in line with God’s image (2 Peter 1:5-9). His Spirit does the work; we place ourselves in a position to be changed.

So where is God’s wrath these days? Why don’t we see cities engulfed in burning sulfur or massive plagues wiping out entire populations? Do we still need to live in fear of God’s judgment each day?

What if we’re living under a sort of stay of execution? A temporary reprieve from the full outpouring of God’s wrath, if you will. There is some evidence for this:

⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
¹⁴So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. (2 Peter 3:8-15)

What if God’s wrath is being stored up for a future time when the enemies of God will feel its full force? What if by waiting to pour out the intensity of His anger over the sin of the generations He is buying us time to repent and come to understand Him more fully? Not only do we understand His love and grace more completely by juxtaposing them against His judgment and hate, but we also can grasp with a new understanding the depth of His love that enables Him to hold back such wrath. I can only fall on my face and worship in gratitude the God who holds back such power to destroy out of some unfathomable love for me.

Is it possible that we are living in some kind of a “peace and mercy sandwich” in God’s celestial timing? Wrath of the Old Testament as one piece of bread. Wrath of the coming age as the other. And we are enjoying the middle season of peace and grace. It may be a cheesy image, but I kind of like it.

For we know that God’s wrath will make an appearance once more. Look at the image given to the apostle Jo
hn in the book of Revelation:

³When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" ⁴Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword…
⁷When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" ⁸I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" ¹¹Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
¹²I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. ¹⁴The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:3-4; 7-17)

The day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? When Jesus returns there will be famine and plague and destruction, like there was in the days of Ezekiel. Is it because God will have discovered new wrath? Will something in the interim have stirred Him up once again to need to pour out vengeance as He once did? No, His anger at injustice is perfectly consistent. It never left. But Jesus stands as our intermediary, absorbing the wrath on our behalf.

So what does all this have to do with us, as we pursue understanding of God’s character and His will? Is there a personal application in here at all?

The point in revealing aspects of God’s character from the Old and New Testaments is not to instill fear of God’s anger in us. The point is to see that God’s inherent nature does not change.

He may choose to respond differently in various seasons of His plan, but His character is the same for all eternity. Perfect love. Perfect wrath. Perfect holiness. Perfect compassion.

We can rely fully on the conviction of the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in our lives that must be addressed. And we can rely fully on the power of the Holy Spirit to cultivate in us a character that pleases God. And we must rely fully on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the cross to open the way for us to have relationship with our Father. We’re not capable of that on our own. Nor are we capable of cleaning up our acts and making God love us more. Fear of God’s wrath is not motivation for behavior modification in the Christian.

Understanding God’s character is, however, motivation for a more in-depth understanding of the God we serve and for heartfelt worship and obedience because He is who He is. Look at what the writer of Hebrews told readers:

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." ²⁷The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our "God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:25-29)

A more complete understanding of who God is – in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, through Jesus – is essential to living the Christian life. Both the appreciation of what we’re spared by God’s grace and the urgency of sharing the love of the gospel with those who don’t know God lead us to press more deeply into God, depending on His power and love to change lives, including our own. It is the ultimate in paradoxes to know, love and serve a God who has the power to shake mountains and destroy entire nations while still possessing the capacity to love beyond comprehension and save those who are unworthy.

The ultimate goal in understanding the full range of God’s attributes is stated best in the words of Isaiah:

"Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me" (Isaiah 46:9).

The more we understand about the God who saved us, the more motivated we are to worship Him. That is the ambition of the Christian’s life. To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever, as the Westminster Catechism describes. That includes all aspects of God’s character.

¹ http://www.biblebb.com/files/mac/45-9.htm

Masks: Excerpt

2011-03-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Why do we wear masks? In general, in most cultures, throughout the ages, people have worn masks primarily for 2 reasons: protection and entertainment.

Ancient Roman tournament soldiers wore masks on their helmets to protect themselves against physical dangers during the fight. Doctors, nurses, dentists, and others in the medical field wear masks to protect themselves from breathing in airborne germs that cause disease. Firefighters wear gas masks to avoid inhaling poisonous smoke and gases. My son wears a face mask when he goes snowboarding to keep his face warm. All of these are means of protecting the face and body from harm. And throughout history the protection factor has bled into the spiritual or superstitious elements of culture when people make protective masks in the form of some evil or grotesque form to ward off evil influences as well as physical danger.

But masks have also been worn for entertainment purposes for generations. As far back as the 6^th century in Greece, actors have been wearing masks to hide the actor’s identity and portray emotions. In the oversized Greek amphitheaters it was hard to see the actors’ faces, so large and exaggerated masks were used to let the audience know which character was speaking.

In 14^th century Japan, Noh theatre was popular, with some common archetypes emerging that are still in use today. To this day one can find examples of Noh theatre being performed and Noh masks are rarely even available to collectors, they’re so rare and valuable.

In many cultures masks are used to disguise emotions and present a specific identity to an audience so the pressure is taken off the individual to portray that emotion. If I’m wearing a mask that is a permanent grin, I no longer need to convince the audience that I’m happy – they see me on stage and know, “Oh, she’s the happy one.” It creates simple, one-dimensional characters that were practical in theatre productions that had more characters than actors, so one actor might need to portray several characters. Easier to hold up or wear a different mask instead of changing everything – costume, voice, etc.

So practically speaking, masks can protect us or create a false persona that we present to others. The same is true for us figuratively speaking, isn’t it? We wear masks to protect ourselves and we wear masks to present a certain aspect of ourselves and hide others. When is it appropriate to play a role and when are we being emotionally dishonest? What are the masks we wear in relationships? The prepared, safe, rigid, or careful portrayals of ourselves. In what ways do we pretend to be something or someone we’re not? And why do we do it? What are we protecting ourselves from? What are we afraid of? Most importantly, if it’s not the wisest or healthiest way to interact with each other, how can we change?

Because we can't even begin to contemplate removing our protective masks from each other without a firm foundation of our identity in God's truth, let's start with what God says about Himself and about us in His Word.

Let’s begin with our main character in the dramedy called life. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not us. J It’s God. There’s a word used to describe this idea that because God is eternal – He has always existed – and He is preeminent – superior and surpassing all others – all of history is HIS story. The word is metanarrative, or the big story that tells the story. God’s creation and redemption of humanity is the story of the Bible. And the story of life. God started it and God determines when it ends. We enter HIS story, not the other way around. We like to think of things in terms of when Christ came into our lives – or when HE entered OUR story. A subtle but important shift happens when we realize and remember that we entered the story that had already begun and that will continue long after we’re gone. And in that story – a story in which we have a role, to be sure – God is the main character.

So what does God say about Himself? Our theology is very important because it determines so much of our worldview, including how we see and interact in relationships. So theology, or the study of God, matters. And since the Bible is God’s Word to us about Himself and us, let’s look there for some theological foundations.

1. God is a relationship. The Trinity is introduced in Genesis 1:26 – “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” From before the moment mankind was introduced, God’s relationship with Himself was complete. Father, Son and Holy Spirit co-existed eternally when mankind was introduced.

2. God values relationship. In countless Bible stories, God takes the initiative to communicate with His creation. He made covenants with Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. He saved a whole family with Noah when the earth was flooded. He gave Joseph sons in captivity in Egypt. He let Moses take his brother with him to speak to Pharaoh. Paul had Timothy and Silas. Ours is a relational God.

3. God is love. “…as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him…” (Psalm 103:11) “God is love.” (1 John 4:16) God is love, values love, and makes love possible. The Bible is replete with commands to love, examples of love, and stories of love. Jesus Himself said that the 2 most important commands were to LOVE the Lord our God with all our strength, mind and soul and to LOVE our neighbors as ourselves. Everything else hinges on these 2 LOVE commands, He says. And it is only possible to love others when we understand the God of love and rely on Him to teach us how to love each other.

4. God is holy. “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy…therefore be holy, because I am holy.” (Lev. 11:44-45) “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev. 4:8) Holiness is a characteristic that only God possesses. He is completely other. He is separate from us and perfect in this attribute. In all the Throne Room Scenes in Scripture, God is high and lifted up, above and superior to His creation in every way. And because He is holy, He can judge perfectly the attitudes of our hearts and the actions in our lives.

5. God is truth and light. “You are resplendent with light…” (Psalm 76:4)“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) Like Impressionistic art, God’s light often casts shadows that reveal sin or secrets. He desires truth in our inmost parts and in Him there is no darkness. Therefore our lives and relationships should be characterized by truth and light as well. And we learn and assimilate those as values in our lives by looking to Him as our perfect example and as the only source of those attributes in our lives.

Why does this all matter? Why does it matter what we believe about God? And what does it have to do with relationships?

A wrong view of God taints everything in our lives. If we don’t believe God is holy, there will be no motivation to eradicate sin from our lives. It won’t matter and we will perpetuate a distant, dishonest relationship with God because we won’t deal with our sin. If we don’t believe that HIS brand of love is the only way to have relationships, we will spend our lives spinning our wheels in friendships, marriages, etc. trying to figure out what went wrong and fighting for our rights instead of loving and serving the way we were created to. And if we don’t believe that God really wants us to be completely honest with Him, ourselves and each other, we’ll continue to live in denial of our character and relationship issues, never addressing the things He wants most to change in us. In short, we are stuck with an incomplete or erroneous world view and we will never connect with God and have the full and abundant lives in the way He designed us to.

So, what’s true about us? Not what do we believe about ourselves, but what is eternally, universally true about us as God’s creations?

1. We are unique and wonderful. (Psalm 139) Scripture tells us that we are knit together in our mother’s womb and we are fashioned specifically and beautifully according to God’s plan. Anyone who has struggled with infertility or known someone who has been very careful and gotten pregnant anyway, realizes that God alone is in control of that process. When the magic happens that creates a child, it is a miracle every time. My husband comes from a family of 11 kids and several of his siblings also have large families. When we first got married we talked about having 2 or 3. Our son Charlie came easily and quickly when we started the process of having a family. And since then, I describe us as every teenager’s dream: lots of unprotected sex and no consequences. We’ve each been to doctors who have said to wait and it would happen. It never has. To me, that makes every chromosome and blood cell that came together in our son’s body while he was still in me even more amazing. From conception we were meant to be and God had a plan for us even then. We got here on purpose.

2. We are chosen and we belong to God. (1 Peter 2:9) There are multiple places in the Bible where there is a contrast between what we were before we came to God and what we are once we enter that relationship. We were objects of wrath and enemies of God. Now we are objects of mercy and friends of God. (Colossians 1:21; 1 Pet. 2:10) We were in darkness; now we’re in light. (Eph. 5:8) We were alone; now we’re part of God’s family. And this is not because of anything we’ve done. Only because of what Jesus did – sacrificed His perfect life for us to pay for our sin and usher us into God’s Presence, assuring our place in eternity. We are His children.

3. We are loved. (1 John 3:1) Just like any of us who are parents love our children just because they’re ours, God loves us just because we’re His. He chose us, adopted us and loves us unconditionally simply because He wants to. And His affections aren’t capricious so He will continue to love us regardless of our attitudes and behaviors. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more and there is nothing we can do that will make Him love us less. It is complete and secure.

4. We are redeemed. (Galatians 3:12-14; Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 1:7, 14) This is done. And all original Greek forms of this work carry with them the connotation of being released. Delivered. It indicates the payment or ransom given to free a slave. We could never have paid for our own sin and worked our way into God’s favor. We don’t have to. It is done. Completed by Jesus, who chose submission and obedience so that we could be free from the burden of our sin and free to live, walk and breathe fully and freely the life and identity He created us to live.

God has done everything to bring us into right relationship with Him. We have done nothing. He is perfect. We are completely in His debt.

So…if there’s nothing we can do to pay Him back or make Him love us more or less, what is standing in the way of us living our lives as we were meant to?

We will live out the identity we believe most strongly. If I believe my identity, worth, and significance is in my reputation or being competent, I will wear a mask to hide my insecurities or weaknesses from others and try with all my strength to put forward the mask that depicts a put-together woman. If I believe my identity, worth, and significance is in my appearance, I will criticize and judge others who threaten my position as “the pretty one”, wearing a mask that is beautiful but cold and suspicious. If I believe my identity lies in the strength of my friendships or the image of my family or home, my mask will change accordingly.

We are daughters of a king and have inestimable value in His sight. Just because we’re His. Because of Jesus I can come to God’s throne with confidence and approach Him as my Father. From there, He reveals Himself and His plan for me so I can hear and surrender and be transformed.

When my son Charlie was a toddler, I used to ask him, “Charlie, do I love you because you’re handsome?” “Do I love you because you’re smart?” “Do I love you because you have blue eyes?” The answer to all these questions was, of course, “no”. Then I’d ask him, “Why do I love you?” He would answer sheepishly, “You love me because I’m Charlie”.

Now that Charlie is 14, I still ask the questions once in a while. When his report card comes I ask, "Do I love you just because you're smart?" He still has the blue eyes and good looks to love, and now we also have a burgeoning teenage attitude. Good times. He’s getting good grades, he’s passionate about snowboarding, running and mountain biking. And really, he’s a very good kid.

When Charlie was about two months into his treatment for leukemia, it was very important for me to reiterate the game we played when he was a toddler – to remind him that I didn’t love him for any external qualities he possessed. Because in this phase he didn’t look like Charlie, he didn’t smell like Charlie with all the chemo pulsing through his system, and he was having trouble in school because he missed so much being sick and because the chemo was doing a number on certain parts of his brain. And he didn’t act like Charlie, either, because steroids will jack you up. So it was very important for both of us to be reminded that I love Charlie simply because He’s mine. Period.

That’s the message I believe God wants us to hear loud and clear before we can even contemplate removing our masks with each other. There are times we don’t look or act the way He designed us to, but He loves us because we’re His. Everything else comes from that. So hear your Father when He says to you today:

I love you because you’re mine.

Diagnosis or Cure?

2011-02-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I had the auspicious pleasure of hearing my doctor inform me that I had an ear infection. Do adults even get those?! I remember holding my son in my arms as a toddler after the surgeon had put tubes in his ears for the countless ear infections he had had, but I always thought that was an affliction one outgrew.

Apparently not.

Thankfully, I left the doctor's office with new knowledge and a prescription for Z-Pak, my new favorite antibiotic cocktail. Ear pain gone; life back to normal. Diagnosis and cure in one fell swoop.

In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, God outlines the priestly duties for Aaron and his sons, who are not only designated as intermediaries for God's people in the department of sin atonement, but are also instructed to carry out butcher duties for the sacrificial animals and to provide extensive diagnosis of diseases, like a community doctor. Priest, butcher and doctor are not what I would consider complementary professions, but there you have it in Scripture. Take a look at just a few examples of the medical knowledge necessary for Aaron and his sons to perform their God-given duties:

The priest is to examine him, and if the rash has spread in the skin, he shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious disease.

⁹ “When anyone has an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to the priest. ¹⁰ The priest is to examine him, and if there is a white swelling in the skin that has turned the hair white and if there is raw flesh in the swelling, ¹¹ it is a chronic skin disease and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He is not to put him in isolation, because he is already unclean. (Leviticus 13:8-11)

¹⁸ “When someone has a boil on his skin and it heals, ¹⁹and in the place where the boil was, a white swelling or reddish-white spot appears, he must present himself to the priest. ²⁰ The priest is to examine it, and if it appears to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is an infectious skin disease that has broken out where the boil was. (Leviticus 13:18-20)

²⁴ “When someone has a burn on his skin and a reddish-white or white spot appears in the raw flesh of the burn, ²⁵the priest is to examine the spot, and if the hair in it has turned white, and it appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious disease that has broken out in the burn. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious skin disease. (Leviticus 13:24-25)

The priest shall pronounce him unclean. Yep. You're sick alright. Now get outta town. That was the pronouncement. Then come back in a week and we'll see if you're better or worse. Would any of us keep going to a doctor like that?!

A few chapters later we see that the priests have a formula for pronouncing the formerly diseased person clean. Like with animal food choices earlier in the book, God has carefully outlined preemptive regulations to keep His children healthy. He has designated some animals clean and some animals unclean. Certain animals are pronounced "unclean" because of how they digest food or where they live. Kosher guidelines, like all other parts of God's law, were designed to protect God's people. In the same way, after a skin disease has gone away, the priests have guidelines for pronouncing that person clean - able to rejoin society and come back into God's presence.

But there's no cure.

God outlines a formula to prevent disease. He gives extensive information to the priests for diagnosing disease. But He alone is the Healer.

Enter Jesus.

Those with skin diseases, fevers, blood disorders, evil spirits, blindness, paralysis, shriveled limbs, and dropsy (Dr. Luke liked to make sure we knew the details of the disease.) came to Jesus for healing. Sometimes He went to them instead. Either way, He looked at the "unclean" affliction that had been pronounced and reached out in compassion, with healing. Other biblical characters had brought people back to life occasionally. And in the book of Acts we see the disciples performing all kinds of inexplicable events. Miracles aren't unique to the gospels. But Jesus was different because He completely obliterated the line between clean and unclean by bringing absolute healing in body, mind and spirit.

The law forbidding an unclean person the human contact we all need didn't apply to Jesus because as God Himself, His absolute holiness couldn't be compromised. So Jesus could touch those who were isolated when He healed them, thereby giving them acceptance as well as health.

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
^{⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,} he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
^{⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,} each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

These words of the prophet Isaiah refer to Jesus, our Healer. Look at what the apostle Peter wrote about Jesus hundreds of years later:

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:23-25)

We have been healed by Jesus once and for all! The implications of this piece of history and theology are astounding!

We are no longer slaves to sin.

We are freed from the penalty of our sinful nature because of Christ's sacrifice.

We are forgiven.

We are redeemed - we have been bought from darkness and brought into light.

Our eternal destiny is secure in Heaven.

We belong to God.

Thanks be to God! Whether we have been physically healed of some disease or affliction, or we've been freed from emotional brokenness or addiction, God is the ultimate Healer. Even those of us who are still suffering from the very things we beg God to take away can find solace in the fact that we don't have to live under the weight of the suffering. Our healing - in the most profound sense of the word - has already taken place when we put our trust in Jesus' death and resurrection. And that perspective can be liberating if we let it sink in.

The Holy Spirit's power is limitless and sovereign in its application. When we submit ourselves to His guidance and ask God to reveal His perspective on our lives, we can see beyond physical or emotional limitations to the boundless glory of the freedom of our souls.

⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed... (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

Yes, we may suffer, but we have already been healed.

If sin is the incurable disease whose diagnosis was made at Adam and Eve's first bite of fruit, then we can rejoice in the cure: Jesus' perfect life and sacrifice to raise us up with Him in glorious resurrection.

By His wounds we have been healed. Amen.

Stewardship Thoughts

2011-02-24T08:37:00.001-08:00

A broken glass in the recycle bin.

Empty, crushed soda cans and Gatorade bottles in the corners.

Dirty cereal bowls piled in the kitchen sink.

Unidentified stains on the ottoman.

Poker chips and playing cards strewn about a sticky tile floor.

Rhythmically breathing, amorphous silhouettes on the couch and carpet.

The aftermath of a teenage sleepover.

I don't mind the loud music or the raucous laughter over video game wipeouts. I don't mind feeding these boys bushels of cereal, Oreos, and full-course meals. My son has some great friends. I want them to have full use of all the comforts of our home so I can know and spend time with the people who have ever increasing influence over my only child. I want them to use what we have.

I don't want them to wreck what we have.

The concept is called stewardship and it's one that God expects His children to understand and implement. It's the idea of using what God gives us with wisdom and with respect for the Giver. It has to do with our stuff. It has to do with our talents. Our time. Our relationships and emotions. It's everything God has given us. And because there's nothing He didn't give us, it's simply everything.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17)

If someone gives me something that belongs to them, and I'm given the privilege and responsibility of it for a season, I had better take good care of it because I have a connection to the one who gave it to me. The same goes for the good gifts God has given me. I give back a portion of the money He's provided in tithing and figure out what my spiritual gifts and talents are to know how better to serve Him. I steward everything because God wired me uniquely with the capability to serve Him by teaching or running a business or creating inspiring art or administrating projects or caring for children or building houses. I didn't do any of it. Even the ability to learn a new skill came from the brain He gave me.

So looking at the wake of destruction the teens have wrought, I have to ask myself if there's anything in my life that looks like my family room and kitchen - internally and figuratively speaking. Is there anything I'm wasting? As a human being I have limited potential, but am I using what I have to give God glory because I love and fear Him? Or am I treating with contempt the gifts He's given and frittering away my time and resources out of a sense of entitlement or complacency?

I'm sure the 14-year-old boys on my couch are going to love this lesson when they wake up.....

Identity: Appearance

2011-02-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the Fernando character from Saturday Night Live, in the 80's? He was a character Billy Crystal brought to life, and his favorite line was, “It is better to look good than to feel good. And dahling, you look MAHvelous!”

Is it?

Women spend countless dollars trying to do both, but fashion often wins over comfort, right? For example, stilettos, spanx, plastic surgery, make-up, hair color, veneers and bleaching for our teeth, certain clothing (which ironically ends up doing neither, when you have bra straps showing, tight skirts that need constant adjustment, etc.), money on handbags and clothes and sunglasses so that we’re taller, thinner, sexier, more elegant or younger. And do we feel better? In other words, does it work? Is it really true that it’s better to look good than to feel good? It must be or we wouldn’t work so hard to look so good and feel so bad!

So it may be true, but as in so many things in life, the real question should be “is it right?”

Because when we spend time, money and energy trying to appear a certain way to people, what message are we sending? Aren’t we begging the world to believe that we are what we look like? If I were to cover all my grey hair, am I not trying to send a visual message of youth and vitality, which is culturally attractive and highly valued? And by carrying my laptop in a Coach briefcase, am I not saying, “Please believe that I’m competent and successful at what I do?” And lest we bring up the argument that name brands are really about the quality of the product, let’s look at how huge the market for knock-offs is. The estimated counterfeit goods market is a $450 billion a year, global business. (Liza Casabona, “Fighting Knockoffs By Protecting A Brand,” WWD Women’s Wear Daily, February 1, 2006) If statistics like that don’t prove the point that we’re going for the image, I don’t know what will. Doesn’t the very existence of that industry make the point that it’s only the appearance that matters?

And why? It’s been said that women dress for other women. We assess one another. We compete with one another on various levels. We compare ourselves to each other. In Susan Shapiro Barash’s book Tripping the Prom Queen, The Truth About Women and Rivalry, she examines the ways in which women compete. Her premise is that we compete and compare because there’s not enough to go around. Listen to this excerpt from her book, written in 2006:

“The U.S. Census informs us that 64 million women are in the workplace today. Clearly, we’ve finally moved into what was once considered a man’s domain. Yet we’re still earning only seventy-six cents to every man’s dollar. On some level, we know we haven’t yet arrived at full equality, and b/c we’re competing primarily with other women, our sisters seem to be responsible for our straitened circumstances. When you compete for a limited slice of the pie, you naturally tend to focus all your anger on your rivals. But who’s really responsible for restricting the pie supply?

My own sense is that we’ll never overcome the tendency to compete with one another until we focus not on the contest for limited goods but on the larger goal: making more good things available to everyone. Economically, we need better-paying jobs, improved childcare options, and more opportunities for women to advance. Socially, we need more men raised by mothers who believe that women are their equals, more men who are looking for strong women and lasting relationships. Personally, we need to find ways of broadening our standards of attractiveness, so we don’t feel the need to enter ourselves in the perpetual beauty contests that seem to be a key feature of many women’s lives. Winning these measures will lessen the pressure to continually rate our age, our looks, and our fashion savvy against those of every other woman in the room.”

So, Ms Barash thinks that if we have more opportunities, change how men view and treat women, and overhaul the cultural bias of beauty, then we won’t be jealous of and compare ourselves to each other anymore. And then we’ll all be happy in our own skin.

Can I suggest an alternative?

Sin.

Don’t I compare myself to others and work so hard at my appearance because I’m insecure or proud or selfish? And doesn’t that come from a wrong view of my value and placing appearance as a higher priority than the content of my character and the state of my heart?

If I was filled with God’s love and confidence in who He created me to be, wouldn’t I find less to criticize in other women?

If I weren’t consumed with my own needs and desires, wouldn’t I be less concerned with the clothes I’m wearing or being as thin as the starlets on the red carpet?

I am not advocating that Christian women be immediately recognizable as the least attractive women in a room, but there is a limit to what is healthy attention to our outer appearance. There are people living in houses they can’t afford, driving cars they can’t afford, and wearing clothes they can’t afford because they don’t want others to form an opinion of them based on what they can afford.

Can I have a “true confession” moment?

Several years ago, when we were looking for a new car, I found one I loved. It was the standard by which all other cars were to be judged in the future. We got a deal, and it was a couple of models old, so I found myself driving a champagne-colored Mercedes E350 with a delicious cream interior. Trouble was, I had teenage boys getting in and out of that car and we live on a hill that gets slippery with the slightest bit of snow. After a short time I realized that what I was driving did not match my reality and we did the car shopping thing once again.

And I grieved.

I wanted to be a rich, elegant, classy lady in the Benz, when the truth is I’m a middle-class housewife with a son who has a penchant for dirty, off-road activities. My outer vehicle appearance had to match reality. Who am I?

I am a grey Subaru Outback.

Here’s something interesting that the apostle Paul has to say about comparisons:

“We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves to themselves, the are not wise.” (2 Corinthians 10:12)

The context includes people who are bragging about their work in ministry. But the concept can be applied to almost any area of life, as I see it. Comparing ourselves to anyone or anything other than God’s holy and perfect standards for our lives is not wise,whether it's a spiritual comparison, a comparison of physical beauty, or comparing the car we drive.

Why is it unwise to compare ourselves to each other? There are three reasons that come to mind immediately. See if they resonate with you.

1. We can’t win. There’s always someone prettier, funnier, smarter, more successful, or better at whatever we attempt. So unless we’re willing to spend our entire lives keeping score, we may as well give up the competition now. And like I’ve learned in marriage, you can either keep score or you can be happy. In this case you could also say, you can keep score or you can be free. You can’t do both.

2. We isolate ourselves. If you’re my competition, it’s disingenuous for me to have intimacy in our relationship. I must keep you at a distance, and then I lose the potential for friendship and growth that I could have if I wasn’t entered in the contest against you. Instead of support and encouragement from one another, we are left alone to feel like freaks or work our behinds off trying to win some imaginary life contest.

3. We use relative standards that aren’t absolute. When we compare ourselves – in appearance or otherwise – to each other, we’re ignoring huge mandates in Scripture that tell us how to live and have relationship. And culturally, those standards outside of Scripture keep changing. How many of us have wished to have been alive when Rubens was painting women? J Those buxom, shapely women of the 16^th century had it going on! And the beauty standard in Mauritania is the bigger the better! Time and location determine the standard of external beauty, whereas God determines our value internally.

So instead of comparing ourselves to arbitrary standards and each other, what if we relied on what God says? Not only about our appearance, but about our inner beauty?

Here are some passages of Scripture that speak to this dichotomy of the world's view and God's. See which of these truths needs to be more central in your life.

“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’” (1 Samuel 16:7)

“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.” (1 Peter 3:1-5)

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:28-34)

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.” (Proverbs 11:22)

“For you created my inmost being;  

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  

your works are wonderful,  

I know that full well.  

My frame was not hidden from you  

when I was made in the secret place,  

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16)

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;  

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)

So instead of worrying about or placing our value in outward things like accessories or being thin, or having flawless skin, what are the things we can concentrate on that truly define us? How can we make the switch and stay committed to God’s values? Here are some points that may help us keep the right perspective:

1. God created us perfectly, just the way He wanted to. (Psalm 139) Genetics, birthmarks, saddle bags, crazy hair and eye color are all part of the DNA He designed for us and it’s all good. We can work with what we’ve got, but our bodies are our bodies. The days they work as they should is a day to be celebrated and to thank God, not focus on the parts or functions that don’t please us. Millions of cells have to operate in miraculous perfection for us to take a breath and open our eyes in the morning. We are magnificent creations! And the older we are, the more we appreciate that!

2. Our identity is determined by Who created us, not the details of the creation. God is our Maker. We are made in His image of beauty, holiness, and love. It is those inner qualities that make us unique and lovely. I am beautiful because I belong to God and He created me to live and grow in His image. I am my beloved’s and He is mine. (Song of Songs 6:3)

3. I am God’s temple and His workmanship. Because the Holy Spirit lives in me and Christ bought my life with His, my responsibility is to live my life to the fullest with the priorities that God gave me. I’m to be healthy and balanced in my physical body. I’m to keep toxic things from entering my body. I’m to engage in pure relationships and to use my energy to serve God and please Him in everything I do. My life is a living sacrifice. (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph 2:10, Rom 12:1)

When we compare ourselves to ourselves we are not wise. I will never, ever, ever look like Heidi Klum. I could dye my hair, stop eating and exercise until the cows come home, have plastic surgery and buy all the right designer clothes. But in the very best case scenario, I am an imitation. God didn’t make me to look like her, did He? Or to have her talents, her family, her career, etc. I’m me. I was waiting for a friend in a medical office one day a few years ago and I was reading a magazine interview with Heidi Klum. Someone had written in asking if it was possible to look like her after having her own baby. I loved her answer. She said something like, be realistic. What did you look like before you got pregnant? Even she must know how genetically gifted she is to have had as many children as she’s had and still to be able to wear lingerie in public for a living. Dang!

This idea of looking to our appearance for our identity goes deeper than just our clothing or our physical bodies. You get that right? It’s about the effort we make to convince people of something by outward appearance that goes against the internal values God has for us to live out. It’s about faking competence instead of working hard. It’s about not revealing true feelings for fear of appearing overly emotional. It’s about internal dialog that tears others down because we see their outward appearance and judge their hearts.

It’s about completely realigning our priorities by embracing our identities in Christ.

Only when I am secure in who I was made to be can I release the pressure I put on myself and others to appear a certain way.

It may, in fact be better to look good than to feel good. But I believe God would have us be good – be good to each other, be good in our own skin b/c we’re loved and valued, and be good at living our lives with a focus on our hearts so that we please Him in everything we do.

Then, dahling, you will look mahvelous!

Twelve Stones

2011-02-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

I have to tell you about a great book I've just read.

My friend wrote a memoir of her life and how God revealed Himself to her through remarkable circumstances.

It's called Twelve Stones and the author is Barbara Carole.

Recently I had Barbara to my home with five other women who had also read her book and we had the most vibrant and challenging conversations. We discussed how God meets us in our darkest seasons, how He brings people into our lives to teach us about Him and about ourselves, the value of being honest with our struggles before God and with each other, and different church traditions and what they offer those who are seeking God.

If you know people who are looking for spiritual connections in life or who are seeking God, but may not even be able to articulate the details of their journey, I would highly recommend this book. Although all the events in the book are true, it reads like a compelling novel. Intellect, experience, emotion, and heartache all lead Barbara to "the Source of love", God Himself.

Personally, I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know the author every bit as much as reading her story. Her faith is real and her heart is genuine. And I am always a fan of those who seek God and tell their stories authentically and articulately.

Barbara does both in Twelves Stones.

Read more about Barbara and her miraculous journey here:

http://www.barbaracarole.com/

"Your Majesty"

2011-01-28T11:07:00.001-08:00

As I've been involved in a Bible study that's focused currently on God's holiness, I find there are examples of the concepts I'm learning everywhere. Does that happen to you, too? I see God's holiness all day long! But we've also had discussions about how to reconcile God's "otherness" - the separation of His holy character from ours - with the intimate knowledge and love He has for His children.

Is He to be feared or loved?

Can one do both?

How are we to approach this mighty and loving God and Father?

Recently my husband and I went to see The King's Speech with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. And in it there is one particular scene that has clarified this dichotomy for me in a powerful way. (If you haven't seen the movie, I promise I'm not giving anything away from the plot here.)

Moments after King George VI (formerly referred to as Bertie) has gone through the ceremonial Accession Council, wearing his full royal regalia, he greets his wife and daughters, who are playing in a hallway. There is a pregnant pause with significant looks communicating deep emotion between spouses who are now king and queen of the nation.

Then King George looks down at his daughters, who stop playing to look at him. The older sister, Elizabeth, leans toward her younger sister and whispers, "Curtsy". Both girls formally take hold of their identical dresses, nod their heads as they curtsy, and pronounce quietly and solemnly, "Your majesty".

With only slight hesitation, the king takes both girls in his arms and kisses them affectionately on the forehead, thereby firmly establishing his role as father as well as king.

This is our God!

He is high and lifted up. Sovereign on His throne in heaven as the angels sing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God Almighty. The earth is full of His glory!"

AND....

He searches and knows the depths of our hearts and minds for He created us in our mother's womb.

Our response to seeing Him in His holiness is to fall on our faces before such power and majesty.

His response is to accept our worship - for He alone is worthy - and to lift us up and love us as a Father loves His children.

He is my King.

He is my Father.

Thanks be to God!

Identity - Relationships

2011-01-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

Premise: The quality of relationships in my life depends on my understanding and living out the identity I have in Christ.

As Galinda says of Elphaba in “Wicked”… “She had a mother. She had a father. As so many do…” Strictly biologically speaking, we are all daughters, born of the union of sperm and egg, entering this world at a time not of our choosing, into a family not of our choosing. You may have grown up with all kinds of issues with your parents – there may have been abuse, neglect, divorce, sickness, or just ordinary personality differences that made life in your house a particular challenge. Some of you may have spent your formative years in familial utopia, with parents who stayed married and didn’t get sick and die when you were young. You may have always known emotional and financial stability and enjoyed good communication with your parents. And every combination of these scenarios probably exists in this room. That’s life. God, in His sovereign wisdom, places us in the family He chooses for us and we grow up with the parents He ordained. That makes us, practically speaking, daughters.

I remember distinctly the day I officially became an adult daughter to my father. It happened in one conversation on the front porch of a house we were moving into. I was in my 30’s – late by many standards, I know. My dad had been frustrated at various parts of the day, including the fact that I was not completely packed and ready to move when he arrived that morning. Doubling his frustration was the fact that when we arrived at the new house, the former owner hadn’t moved out completely yet. Awkward. So, he sighed. A lot. And exhibited other behavior that let me know, without letting me know, that this did not work for him. So, like any mature, married adult with a child and a mortgage, I began to cry. Because my father wasn’t pleased with me. But instead of just crying, I told him that I was frustrated, too, and that I would love his help, but if he was going to act the way he was acting, I’d rather he left and I would figure out a way to do all of it myself. His demeanor changed immediately and that one conversation not only changed the day, it changed our relationship. Like I said, I became an adult to him that day.

The reason I’m telling you this story is because I believe it’s part of the process God wants to take us through to have a clear understanding of the importance of our relationship to Him and the relative importance of every other relationship. Let me show you something in Scripture. Look at these verses from Matthew 10. Here, Jesus is giving some perspective on relationships.

³⁴ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,  

a daughter against her mother,  

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—  

³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

³⁷ “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Why would Jesus make it sound as though we’re NOT to value relationships when so much of Scripture seems to put a high value on them? God is relationship. Why would He say that His purpose in coming was to bring a sword and that we’re not worthy of Him if we love our own parents too much? Is there something we’re not understanding? I have a feeling there is. And I have a suggestion in light of this topic.

What if Jesus wants us to so clearly and unmistakably identify with Him alone that even our parents and siblings - our very family of origin - will be less of an identification for us than He is? What if a relationship with Him – fully comprehending and surrendering to who He says we are – will transform our view of ourselves so radically that no other relationship will ever have such a strong influence in our lives again? And what if that’s meant to be a good thing? A liberating and empowering thing? But it’s not easy. It’s a constant battle between our old values and priorities and what Jesus is calling us to. So it doesn’t feel like peace, but a struggle.

Jesus is referencing verses in the Old Testament book of Micah that His listeners may have been familiar with. It’s referring to a time when God’s prophet is encouraging the people not to trust their neighbors or their families – just turn to and listen to God. And Jesus is saying something similar, I believe. Don’t allow yourselves to be defined by where you were born or who raised you. Let me completely redefine you in a way that only I can do because I created you.

Let’s look at a passage in the book of Ezekiel. It’s one of the most vivid books of the Bible in terms of imagery that God uses to capture the message Ezekiel has been commissioned to deliver. These verses in chapter 16 have to do with God choosing and loving the nation of Israel. And when God talks about His chosen people, we can draw analogies to our own lives since we are His chosen people because of what Jesus did. This is a picture of how God gives value and significance – and identity – to His own.

^“4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. ⁵ No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

⁶ “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”⁷ I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

⁸ “‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.

⁹ “‘I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. ¹⁰ I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, ¹² and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. ¹⁴ And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezekiel 16:4-14)

God cared for His people. He cleansed them. He gave them love and beauty and value. He gave them life. They were lost and like everyone else, just trying to survive and make a name for themselves. But God made them unique and brought them into relationship with the Creator of the Universe. He does it for us, too. And just like the nation of Israel, we forget who we were created to be and who we were created for. And we take what He’s given us and pour it into other relationships before the one we have with Him. And then we depend on other people to give us value and beauty and significance and identity.

And just like we are daughters to our parents in a biological and practical sense, we are daughters and creations of our heavenly Father, and that identity must trump all others.

Let’s look again at parts of this passage in Ezekiel and see what God did for the Israelites in their wilderness and what God has done for us through Jesus.

1. God gives us life. This passage describes vividly the way God saved and gave life to His people, Israel. “⁶I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’” God completed the picture by sending a perfect sacrifice for our sin, as we lay dying and kicking in our wilderness. All of us, before our eyes are opened to the real gospel truth that we are sinners and enemies of God, try, in our own inadequate ways, to live our lives for ourselves. And we are just kicking about in our own blood. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) God gives us life.

2. God gives us love. In addition to saving Israel from destruction, God instituted a redeeming covenant of love as her identity. Look how it’s described by Ezekiel: “⁸Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine”. You became mine. Covenant love. God took the initiative to love His people out of the abundance of His goodness, not because the nation of Israel – or we – deserve it or did anything to earn it. And He made the covenant complete by sacrificing His only Son to redeem us once and for all from sin and death. 1 John 3:1says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” When we are ready, in His perfect timing, God reveals Himself to us and brings people into our lives to refine us and give us opportunities to learn to love like He does. But we can only do that because of the way He loves. God gives us life and He gives us love.

3. God gives us beauty and value. The nextfew verses of this chapter in Ezekiel give us a lovely picture of the inestimable worth and incomparable beauty we have as daughters of God. ⁹ “‘I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. ¹⁰ I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, ¹² and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. ¹⁴ And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD. God covers our nakedness, giving us warmth and love in relationship, and then He gives us beautiful clothes to wear and jewels of great value. Costly garments and fine linen and embroidered cloth. Gold and silver and a beautiful crown. What lovely symbols of beauty and value for women who belong to a king! Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they had been bought at a price - Jesus. Jesus Himself told His disciples that they were worth more than many sparrows and that God knew them so intimately that even the hairs of their heads were numbered. Peter encouraged the women of his congregation not to depend on their outward beauty of clothing and jewelry to be beautiful. God alone has given us this beauty and inherent value because we belong to Him – not because of any outward adornment. In the context of the life and love God gives us, He gives us beauty and value.

So as daughters of a king who loves us and created us, we have a very solid identity. We have been given new life. We are loved perfectly. And we have profound beauty and value. All because of our relationship with God. And that relationship defines us more than any other. If we look at some of the other words in our identity puzzle – words like sister or friend – there are both practical and spiritual levels to them. If you are in a covenant relationship with Christ and are trusting Him alone for your strength and salvation, you are my sister. If you have siblings, you are also a sister. Several of you in here have relationships with each other that challenge and encourage – you are friends. The Bible also says we are friends with God because of Christ. But even the healthiest and most solid and noble relationships are imperfect because they’re between sinners. Those relationships will bring us great joy and heart-breaking disappointment. So will our relationship with God, if we’re honest with ourselves.

The difference is that our relationship with God, through Jesus, has only one sinner in it.

Me.

Because of Jesus I can come to God’s throne with confidence and approach Him as my Father. And that is the only identity that will never change. It’s who we are and what we live for. He’s the One who determines our priorities, soothes our broken hearts and allows us to soar with the eagles.

So how does that play out, practically speaking, in our lives?

• We examine our hearts. Psalm 139 ends with some dangerous, but liberating verses:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:23-24)

As we spend time seeking God’s truth and listening to His voice, He will reveal relationships that have too high a priority in our lives or ways in which we are using the life, love, beauty, and value He’s given us to build the wrong relationships. He will be clear and He will speak loving truth. We just need to be still and listen.

• We repent and surrender. Once God reveals Himself and His directives for our lives, we must respond. I recently had this experience as God revealed to me that I was placing too much emphasis on my relationship with my husband. He had become an idol to me as I was spending more of my time, emotion, and energy trying to win his approval and less of my time trying to pour into my relationship with God and the people He’d put into my life to teach them about Him. He reassured me that His love for me was secure and that His was the only relationship that mattered. Once I returned my primary focus to Him, the rest of my relationships began to fall into place.

• We learn and remind ourselves of truth. Once we’ve asked God to reveal the imbalance in our relationships and we turn from our wrong thinking and behaviors, we must be diligent in learning and remembering what God says is true. This happens by reading Scripture and listening to God on a consistent basis. He tells us and reminds us of who we are and how to cultivate relationships that bring Him glory. The sheet for tonight has several verses for a good start and your folders have many, many more.

Ultimately, as we serve a God of relationship who desires truth in our inmost parts, we can trust Him to reveal to us what we need to love Him better and improve our other relationships as well.

Listen to the words of C. S. Lewis as it relates to this topic:

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” (Letters of C. S. Lewis, 1966)

If we seek Him first, not forsaking our first love, He will add depth and joy to our other relationships as well because we can build those relationships out of the surplus of the God-confidence we have in our identities. I am free to give and not take when I’m sure of who I am. On the other hand, when we strive primarily after other relationships, allowing them to tell us who we are and what we’re worth, no one wins. There is no substitute for the foundation God has given us in Jesus Christ. We have been given life. We have been given love. And we have been given beauty and value. These can’t come from any other source but God. That’s why as we look for our identities, we need to stay focused on the ones that are true for eternity: We are accepted. Holy. Redeemed. Loved. Valued. Chosen.

In short, we are daughters of a king. That is our identity. So let’s remind ourselves and each other at every opportunity of the truth of who we are. We have been given life, love, beauty and value to live the lives He’s called us to live for Him. He is the King of kings and we are His daughters. You know what that makes you, don’t you? A princess! Yes! So wear that crown of jewels loud and proud! It represents your life in Christ. The love of your Father, the King. And the beauty and value He has given you because you are His. No other identity matters.

Candy Hoarder

2011-01-05T15:21:00.001-08:00

I had a rather unattractive character flaw revealed to me this week.

After dinner, my husband was rooting around in what we call the "snack drawer". It's where we keep our stash of Oreos and Cheez-its, etc. It's the drawer all my teenage son's friends gravitate toward when they come over - especially the ones with conscientious parents who don't buy those things. I'm corrupting

them.

Anyway, he found the candy I had put there from my Christmas stocking. Reese's cups, Butterfingers, Twix, and Snickers. Yum. Per my very specific request, they were dropped off by Santa on Christmas Eve, and now that the Christmas decor is put away, I put the contents of my stocking in the snack drawer.

When my husband discovered them, he asked who wanted which candy for dessert.

"Uhhh...That's my stocking candy," I pointed out.

"All of this?" he asked, as if he didn't remember buying it and placing it in my stocking himself.

"Yeah. MY candy."

"Ok. I'll have Oreos," he replied.

Later, when I noticed his mood had changed considerably, I asked him if he was mad that I wouldn't share my candy. His response?

"I just can't believe how quickly such nastiness comes out of your mouth."

Ouch.

A short time later God spoke as clearly to me as He has ever done, telling me that the candy was like the gifts He gives to me. They're from Him (like the candy was from Tony) and in my selfishness, I don't want to share. I couldn't believe it! Tony went to work and earned the money and went to the store and bought the candy and put it in my stocking. And I claimed it as MINE? Really?

In what ways do I do that with what God's given me? With my possessions? With my time? With my talents? Everything I have is from Him! It should inspire me to give generously and to lay all my plans before my Father and hold all things loosely.

But I don't.

So I repented in tears on the edge of our tub and then went to the drawer to get the Twix bars that were there, which are my husband's favorite. I placed them under the pillow on his side of the bed with a note that said, "I'm sorry. Will U 4-give me?"

When he discovered them that night, he laughed and took me in his arms and said that, yes, he would forgive me.

That's grace.

Fully Equipped

2010-12-31T08:29:00.001-08:00

I recently traded in my car for a new one. We live on a fairly steep incline and my son and his friends snowboard and mountain bike, so my creamy sedan was just not cutting it. Wet, muddy teenage boys are now welcome in my all-wheel drive vehicle.

As we shopped for cars, we were intrigued by the many features that were available for safety and comfort. Air bags are now standard. Stereo quality varies. Some have navigation systems and some are bluetooth ready. The question becomes: which equipment am I willing to pay extra for?

After a while, I was tempted to believe that I deserved or needed certain features. What if I get lost? Shouldn't I have a GPS for safety? When I have to leave my car outside overnight, shouldn't I be able to rely on a speedy and efficient way to heat my posterior? And if fresh air is so good for me, doesn't it make sense to let more of it in through the sun roof? Please. It's not like we get a lot of those sunny days here to let in through the roof anyway...

Do you know what that attitude is called? It's called entitlement. If you listen to talk radio or have teenagers, you might be familiar with this concept. It's the idea that, by virtue of my very existence, I am entitled to certain rights, possessions, or comfort. We hope our kids grow out of it and it's not a biblical value. But it is in our human, carnal nature to want more. And to think we should get it. And if we're Christians, we sometimes think God owes us.

He doesn't.

Look at this passage from Paul's letter to the Corinthian Christians, as he describes what we've already been given:

"...in him you have been enriched in every way -- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge -- because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." (1 Corinthians 1:5-9)

Huh. We have been enriched in every way. We do not lack any spiritual gift. In other words, spiritually speaking, we are fully loaded. Every and any are pretty absolute words. And, lest we forget, these blessings are brought to you by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. At no cost to us. It cost Him His life.

So what difference does that make in the life of a believer? How does it change our attitudes and behaviors to know that we are fully equipped to live the life He's called us to live?

For one, I think we can walk with a profound sense of freedom and confidence. We are complete. Our security and identity rests in our God, who cannot be shaken and to whom all creation belongs and submits. He will make us and keep us strong. He will empower us to speak words of truth and encouragement.

Secondly, I hope it tweaks our priorities as we remember that we have already been given more than we deserve and our focus should be on pleasing, thanking, and living in wholehearted devotion to the One who gave it to us.

Lastly, we can remember that if we don't have it, we don't need it. God is sovereign and generous in His loving provision.

As we begin a new year, we can be encouraged by the fact that God has indeed "blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ". (Ephesians 1:3) We are complete and fully equipped to live for Him. Lord, let it be so. Amen.

Faithflight - Identity

2010-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

The movie The Bourne Identity opens with the scene of a man in a wetsuit floating in the middle of the ocean, a red light attached to him, blinking in the darkness. No one, including the man himself, knows who he is or how he got there, but once he’s pulled into a fishing boat and given some money and clothes on shore in France, the quest for his identity begins. Flashbacks of random scenes and intuitive reactions interrupt his amnesia, but he really only catches a glimpse of his complicated situation when he finds himself in a bank in Switzerland staring at a safety deposit box full of all kinds of currency and multiple passports, all with his picture and different names and nationalities. Is he Russian? Portuguese? American? British? And how will he learn his own story?

In many ways we are all like Jason Bourne. Going through life with glimpses of who God created us to be, but also faced with confusing information from the world around us. Sometimes that information clarifies our identity. Sometimes it becomes a distraction.

But the truth is that we were created uniquely and beautifully for the glory of our Father and Creator. And the closer we live to that identity, the freer we are to help others discover their identities and to walking in the truth and fullness that God designed for us.

But what is that identity? If we have responded to God’s invitation to a relationship through His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible has some very encouraging and clear things to say about who we are.

• We are His children. 1 John 3:1 says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” We are adopted as children into the family of our Heavenly Father when we enter into a relationship with Christ. We are siblings with one perfect Father and there is confidence that comes in that sense of belonging.

• We are a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are an entirely new creation – the old has gone the new has come. Identity exchange! We are not merely upgrades of our pre-Christians selves; we are completely other! We can lean on that when the enemy of our souls tries to convince us that we are still stuck in the past.

• We are heirs of eternal riches. Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…”This is for now! Just like we don’t have to wait for eternal life to begin at our death, the riches and blessing of God’s kingdom can be enjoyed while we’re still living!

• We are fully equipped to live life for God. 2 Peter 1:3 – “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” The only thing standing in the way of us living our lives fully for God is us. If we can grab hold of the identity God has for us, and press into Him and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is no limit to what we can accomplish for Him!

• We are chosen and holy, and we belong to God. 1 Peter 2:9-10 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Need I say more? This is who we are!

• We are precious, honored, loved, and created or God’s glory. God told the prophet Isaiah that His people are His. Precious and honored in His sight. That He loves us and that we are called by His name, created for His glory. (Isaiah 43:1,4,7)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t always live my life as if I belong to God, as a precious heir of heavenly things. Like I’m chosen, called out of darkness and into light, created for God’s glory. I’m not sure what identity I live out from day to day, but it falls short of this one.

I want to examine an Old Testament example of identity exchange. The story in the book of Hosea. You may know the story: God tells Hosea to marry an adulterous wife (the ESV calls her “a wife of whoredom”) and to raise children with her. Gomer was a whore when Hosea married her and she continues her promiscuous ways while they are married. God’s point is to make an example of Gomer to show the Israelites how they are breaking His heart in turning away from Him and clinging to idols and disobedience.

In the course of their marriage there are children born. Because they are children of this adulterous woman who can’t remain faithful to Hosea, God tells Hosea to name them Jezreel (Hebrew for “God sows” and significant because of battles where blood had been shed and God would avenge the northern kingdom), “Not loved”, and “Not my people”. But even then, God tells Hosea that He will change the name of his children to reflect their new identities: They will be loved, redeemed, and receive mercy. Just like the people of Israel. There is hope and redemption for those who come to God and accept what He says is true about them. Just like for us.

Take a look at Hosea chapter 2 for a moment with me.

⁷She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;

she will look for them but not find them.

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband as at first,

for then I was better off than now.’

⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,

who lavished on her the silver and gold—

which they used for Baal.

⁹ “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready.  I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body. ¹⁰ So now I will expose her lewdness  before the eyes of her lovers;  no one will take her out of my hands.  ¹¹ I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.  ¹² I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers;  I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.  ¹³ I will punish her for the days  she burned incense to the Baals;  she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the LORD.

¹⁴ “Therefore I am now going to allure her;   I will lead her into the wilderness   and speak tenderly to her.  ¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,  and will make the Valley of Achora door of hope.  There she will respondas in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁶ “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’;  you will no longer call me ‘my master.’  ¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;   no longer will their names be invoked.  ¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground.  Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.  ¹⁹ I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you inrighteousness and justice, in love and compassion.  ²⁰ I will betroth you infaithfulness,  and you will acknowledge the LORD. ²¹ “In that day I will respond,” declares the LORD—  “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;  ²² and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,  and they will respond to Jezreel.  ²³ I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’  I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (Hosea 2:9-23)

Not only do Gomer’s children get names according to the identities God has for them; Gomer’s identity is meant to change as well. From a promiscuous woman chasing after the affection and affirmation she craves to a woman betrothed in faithfulness, wooed and romanced by the God of the universe, she exemplifies what God wants to do in all of us. But until Gomer – and until we – acknowledge God and accept the identity He has for us, she – and we – will keep chasing other things to give us a feeling of security and identity that will never last.

This is a message for us. We will live out the identity we believe most strongly. Gomer lived as a whore because she believed that’s all she deserved or wanted out of life. We may live as if all we need is a successful career. Or to be proud of our children’s athletic or academic accomplishments. Or to be highly organized. Or to have the perfect body. A house that Martha Stewart would envy. Or to be active in church leadership. You name it. We cling to it.

Instead, we are meant to walk fully in the knowledge that we are secure in our identities because we belong to God, regardless of our relationships or activities. The rest is a delightful outpouring of the gifts and blessings that God gives us in order to bring Him glory and advance His kingdom purposes. But if we cling too tightly to our false identities we have to ask ourselves questions like:

- If my career is everything to me and I lose my job, do I have less value? Have I lost everything?

- If my children and their accomplishments define me and they fail, do I have less value? Have I lost everything?

- If my house is a wreck, or people don’t like me, or I don’t teach Sunday School well, or if I let people down, do I have less value? Have I lost everything?

The answer has to be a resounding “no”. These things are temporal and out of our control. They affect us, but they don’t define us.

On the other hand, if it’s not true that I am a chosen, holy, loved, precious child of God, betrothed in faithfulness and called by name, created for the glory of my Father, does my value change? Have I lost everything? Yes. Because it is everything and it is eternal.

When my son was in elementary school, one of his friends had a grandmother die of tuberculosis. Since WW II she had been living with 25% lung capacity. How difficult to breathe in the scent of spring lilacs or a baby’s head. How dissatisfying to laugh until you can’t catch your breath, when catching your breath is a daily challenge.

Living outside a full understanding of our identities in Christ is like living with less than full lung capacity. Jesus came so that we would have full and abundant lives in Him. That is only possible if we fully understand and embrace who we were created to be. Uniquely and beautifully knit together in our mother’s womb, we are called by His name to live, breathe and walk fully in the identity – with the name – He has called us.

That’s what this FaithFlight series is going to be about: Letting go of the identities that suffocate and paralyze us, and learning to embrace the only identity that matters and will last for eternity. That of precious and holy daughter of the King.