Romans 4:17

Last night at the Westgate prayer meeting Pastor Alec asked anyone who needed prayer for "the impossible" to come up and be prayed for, and he anointed us with oil as he prayed for each person (and there were a LOT of us around that altar!). It reminded me of one of my favorite passages of Scripture: Rom. 4:17, in which it's mentioning Abraham, "As it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations.' He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed - THE GOD WHO GIVES LIFE TO THE DEAD AND CALLS THINGS THAT ARE NOT AS THOUGH THEY WERE."

This fits in perfectly with last night's prayers. We are living in a crazy world and are often expected to do so much more than it seems possible for us to do. Sometimes we feel so overwhelmed and hopeless. We NEED a LIFE TRANSPLANT! (Am I alone in this? I doubt it!) And here Paul points out that our God GIVES life to the dead (both figurative and literal!) and calls things that are not as though they were. There are so MANY things I am NOT in my own flesh (I wouldn't even know where to start listing them!), and on my own, apart from God, I am (spiritually) dead. But when I accept His gift of eternal life through His death for me on the cross, I have life - both now and eternally! When I stay close in my walk with Jesus, partnering with Him as He so intends, he brings me to LIFE and can call things out of me that I never knew EXISTED!

Does anyone else want THIS kind of SUPERNATURAL life? If SO, call on the name of the Lord and you WILL be saved - given everlasting life - but you will also be given a new quality of life HERE and NOW! If you're tired and feeling lost and "not enough" - get to know and walk close to the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were!

Reflections on Gratitutde

Gratitude is the seed of joy. It is in a higher sphere than simple thanksgiving. Gratitude is more an ongoing attitude of humility & understood grace than it is a response to a particular situation, as is joy different & higher than happiness.

Happiness is a response to a sense of well-being from life operating & turning out as "planned" - under our control. It doesn't require God's gracious intervention to be happy when things go according to one's plans. But to have true joy means to live in an attitude of trusting God & gratitude for all He IS & has already done, trusting that He will continue to work in our lives, even when all appearances seem to show the opposite. It is an awareness of His (Supernatural) peace & well-being when all things start to "fall apart" from the way WE have planned them. This is why joy is called a "Fruit of the Spirit" & "happiness" is not.

It is at these very instances when our natural minds want to "jump ship" & many, sadly, do, but in doing so, miss out on the very vindication of their faith that they have longed for. Because if we hang on to our trust in God when we don't FEEL it, with gratitude, we come to experience the "peace that passes understanding" & our Lord's faithfulness displayed in our lives in a way we could never have imagined as part of our own small plans for ourselves. It also builds trust, humility, gratitude & a deeper understanding of God's grace & love better than any book or sermon ever could!

In his book The Screwtape Letters, the senior demon, Screwtape, in speaking to his nephew & underling demon, Wormwood, lectures him on the spiritual danger (from a demonic position, obviously) that occurs (so think of the opposite from God's perspective when he says): "Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, & asks why he has been forsaken, & still obeys." (Screwtape Letters, p. 40). This describes the believer that is experiencing what the "saints of old" referred to as "the dark night of the soul." It speaks of a period of time (that happens to all believers from time to time) in which we can't feel God's presence & see only bleakness around us. Yet, in the case of believers who have come to know & trust their Lord's ultimate goodness & wonderful plans for them, they can see no good around them yet still follow Him. This is when the enemy of our soul - Satan & his hordes - feel like their cause is most desperate & a reason for us to rejoice! God & His angels certainly are, & we will, too, if we keep going and do not give up!

A heart of gratitude, overflowing to worship, will increase our sense of hope & optimism based on the goodness of God, not what we see with our earthly eyes. An amazing road!

Shortcuts That Aren't

This world is obsessed with shortcuts.   We are compulsively driven to “save time,”  “work smarter, not harder,”  “be ahead of the curve,”  “get there faster,” and on and on. It is easy to veer off track.  I know that, where driving is concerned personally,  every time I’ve tried to take “a shortcut,” it has turned into a much LONGER cut as I’ve gotten dis-oriented and ultimately  lost. I'm sure this doesn't just apply to me & my directionally-challenged compadres.  I think it has happened to many Christians in our day.

While well-intentioned:  we want to do more for Christ and His Kingdom, to use our talents, to meet the myriad of needs we see around us, to address and stand for the many voiceless in our world, to right wrongs,  turn around the “upsidedownness” that this world’s system has inflicted on us. Good causes, and definitely necessary, but in the process we often lose sight of the forest for the trees. I know. I'm speaking first for myself.

One day I woke up and realized that all my “doing,” however I thought was born of a desire to please the Lord and help this world around me had turned into “shortcuts” to nowhere.  I became aware of a sense of loss:  where I should have felt fulfilled in doing “the right thing,”  there was emptiness,  where there should have been joy, there was instead apprehension.  Does God even LIKE me, much less approve of me? I didn't feel it.  After more than 40 years of “serving Christ” I came to the stark conclusion that somewhere along the way, I have “veered off course,” been deceived by a spiritual shortcut and ended up more like Jacob of the Old Testament:  surviving and scheming, making my OWN way in the name of God,  becoming so arrogant as thinking it didn’t matter if I read His Word because I KNOW a lot of it from having learned it so long ago.  I had slipped into unintentional hypocrisy, telling others that Jesus didn’t want them to “do it alone but in His power” while plowing through often myself with a sense that “when you first learn to drive, you have to pay attention to everything, but after a while, it all becomes automatic” and so does our life of faith, becoming not faith at all but drudgery without joy.

This is a confession.  But as I awoke to this revelation about myself, I remembered Jacob’s restoration as he wrestled with the “angel” (or a pre-incarnate Jesus, some theologians say).  And as I felt despair and cried out, “Jesus – do you even acknowledge me as yours – and why WOULD you?”  I sensed His still, small voice saying, “I wouldn’t be pursuing and wrestling with you if I were through with you.  It isn’t how I work.  It isn’t who I AM.  I have shown you these things about yourself BECAUSE I love you and want you to be filled with ME.  Only as you DIE to yourself can you be the carrier of MY will and BECOME the complete YOU that I have always intended you to be.  But the goal is NOT to become you, but to lose yourself in ME. 

This is the GREAT PARADOX of MY WAY.  This is why it is only IN Me that one can find their way TO Me. It is IMPOSSIBLE to REASON one’s way to God.  When you do,  it gets all jumbled up because man’s reason is not God's way, but in the end leads to death. My way leads to life and joy through My Holy Spirit.  But ONLY as you continually learn of me through my Word, and OBEY it in small, trusting steps that NEVER end.  You never get to the point where you “go it alone” – that is when you veer off into the wisdom of man.  

"Come back to simple, humble dependence on Me.  THEN you will experience my joy for you and your sense of my presence and pleasure.  This Word is not for you alone but for MANY of my children.  Stop relating to this world in a reactionary way.  There are many evils and wrongs going on and there always will be.  Stick close to me and you will see – individually – how you fit into My plan of Redemption.  

" You – my Body -  ARE My Ambassadors, my partners in reaching out to the world with My love.  But not by REACTING; rather by LISTENING.  I know that being still is the hardest thing that ANY of you can do.  But otherwise it will be you, not ME, that the world will see, and the end will make no difference.  People will continue in anger and fear, which is what I want to RESCUE you all from.  Sit, like Mary, at my feet. “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.” (Mt. 11:29.)  THEN (and ONLY then), when you get up, you will have the strength, boldness and courage to do greater things than I did, because of My Spirit directing you and giving you MY resources inside you, which, like springs of living water will flow out of you and not dry up.”

Amen, Lord.  Thank you and I pray – for myself and for EVERY believer – that we would take this admonition seriously and walk humbly & obediently with our God, and in doing so,  see this world set ablaze with His love and power, not our weakness which is what has often been seen and as it should be, rejected by the world as it is NOT Christ, and which ends up, as Paul warns Timothy (in 2 Tim. 3:5) “ – having a form of godliness but denying its power.”  That’s why we must stay close to Him and not get “ahead” of Him – as it comes “naturally” to us.  But “natural” is just another word for our fleshly nature, which will do NONE of us – or the world around us – any good.  It is the “wood, hay and stubble” that will eventually be burned up.  Let us  (and I speak first to myself) stay in step with Jesus in order to be found in Him and walk in HIS power and love.  THEN we will not be dazed and confused by “shortcuts.”

A Severe Mercy

       I read a book when I was a new believer, entitled A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken. He was a man in love with his wife who (the cliff notes version) became a Christian after years of spiritual seeking, leaving Sheldon – not a believer - feeling left out and jealous of God for interjecting Himself between himself and his wife. To make matters worse, his wife suddenly died, leaving Sheldon angry as well as jealous, feeling as though God had “taken her twice,” not unlike a stalker who proclaims, “If I can't have her, neither can you!”

       It took a long time – and I recommend you read the book for yourself to fill in the many details – but Vanauken himself eventually entered a relationship with Jesus Christ. After much reflection, he concluded that the death of his wife all those years before was part of what it took for God to bring him to the culmination of his search for life and meaning: to Christ Himself. An ultimate mercy, he described it as, though as noted by the title of the book, a severe mercy nonetheless. He admitted that with his wife in his life, he probably would not have been brought to the realization of any greater need for God. With her taken out of the picture, however devastating as it was for him at the time, it forced him to go from good to best.

       Isn't that how it usually goes with us humans? I mean, when things are going well, it's easy to be so comfortable with our lives that we don't let our minds go further as to our need for more? I've found no clearer evidence of this in my own life – and in others I've observed as well - than when we have remained in a job that started out wonderfully but had gotten stale and gone south for any number of reasons. That ominous overshadowing of the not-so-great unknown clouds our rational sense. Instead of moving on then – or even starting the search for something better, we stay put in our misery because of the “known” misery (or evil) supersedes the dreaded and mysterious “unknown.”

       Yet what I am learning in this life – albeit admittedly slowly – is that, for the believer in Christ, life is a long journey (it feels at times, though ultimately quite brief as any 80+ year old will tell you!) toward trust leading to freedom in a way that unbelievers cannot claim. Not because of any innate superiority on our part, but because it is only as we walk humbly with our God and follow His directions (which is by no means a linear experience), giving up self-will and trusting when everything we think and expect turns upside down, that we begin to accept His “severe mercies” in our lives as mercies indeed, and in doing so, awaken slowly to fragments of freedom that represent our true selves, seen now only through a glass dimly but one day will be complete as we see Him face to face.

Life and Death - An Extraordinary Journey

      A good friend of mine is losing her war with Pancreatic Cancer.  She has been a dear friend of mine for 31 years, and it is nearly inconceivable to think of life going on as usual without her being part of it. But that's how life is. In spite of how we much we humans want to think of ourselves as strong, unstoppable and impervious to  death and disaster,  when we are quiet and honest with ourselves and look around ourselves, we know that we, too, will one day lose that battle and face the One who we have either loved and adored or run from our entire lives in denial of accountability that does no ultimate good.
      For those who have recognized our true nature and surrendered our wills, humbling our hearts to His mercy, receiving grace at the foot of the cross of Jesus, there is no fear, because we know that death has no sting.  For Jesus-lovers, there is only a change of location. The invisible veil that has kept our eyes from seeing the One we love and have followed is removed and we see Him face to face. There is a joyful expectation like that of a  reunion with a close friend who lives far away and out of visual line of sight whom we are in contact with via text messages, emails and other modes.  They are never far and always in our hearts though we may not see them in person. So it is with Jesus. While on this earth we have access to His heart at every moment of our lives, though not by sight. When that veil is removed, we get to be with Him in totality and permanence!  The Apostle Paul spoke about our lives (in 2 Corinthians 5) as a groaning, our lives in these earthly "tents" as longing to be "clothed in our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (v. 4). He continues:  "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We live by faith and not by sight.  We are confident, I say,  and we prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." (v. 6)
       How many of us have this desire?  I know from personal experience, my feelings sometimes waver on this.  Mostly because I get so comfortable in this "tent."  But as Christians, we are reminded repeatedly in Scripture that this world is NOT our home.  I think that this is one of the areas that Satan deceives Christians the most. He keeps OUT of our minds the fact that we are meant to be eternal beings, and keeps us bogged down, instead, by the weights of this world.  We forget - I know this is true for me too often - that our purpose is LARGER than this world.  We get tunnel vision.  I believe that this tactic of our enemy's has brought our world to the condition it is currently finding itself in.  But when we turn our eyes back to Jesus - the author and finisher of our faith, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega, the Captain of our Souls and the Army of Heaven, who came down to SAVE all of us from lives of quiet desperation to permanent liberation - through the unlikely method of humbling ourselves and accepting who we are:  sinners who cannot save ourselves and are deserving of death for our rebellious nature, yet ones who are eternally loved because of who our Savior is, not who we are.  It is an incredible paradox:  when we see the worst of ourselves, we put ourselves in a position to accept the best our Creator and Savior has to give us, which includes showing us what our lives are meant to be - for a purpose GREATER than our small selves, having eternal significance!  Paul says (later in the same chapter, v. 18) that as we accept Christ, He gives us the ministry of reconciliation, as ambassadors of Christ to this sad and broken world.  This IS the glorious purpose of the Church, of which we ARE the Body - and BRIDE - of Christ in this world.
      This being the case, it almost makes the end of our lives seem like an end to our purpose and therefore a tragedy.  But Paul recognized an important balance that keeps us humble and recognizing our humanity as well as our  destiny, which is ultimate freedom.  We are creatures, NOT the Creator.  We have an incredible purpose, yet one day that purpose will be - not ended but translated.  We will then begin a new work, for which we have been prepared if we were listening and obedient in this life of training.  Our eternal rest doesn't mean we will be sitting on a cloud forever, strumming a harp.  Jesus speaks of our faithfulness on THIS proving ground being a jumping off point for our REAL and TRUE vocation, which we will only get to know when we GET to that permanent home!  
      I don't know about you, but that fills my heart with excitement, along with reverent awe, not to waste a single day here but rather to live each one in a spirit of humility, attention to God's still, small voice of instruction and direction, worship and obedient faithfulness with excited expectation of being a partner with the One who knows and has planned everything in perfect wisdom and love.  What about our past, wasted days?  God knows that we are dust.  And when we have trusted in Him and the name of His Son our Lord Jesus,  His Word says that we are are "new creatures" (2 Cor. 5:17).  He doesn't want us to waste our lives  in regret and recriminations.  That's what Satan would like us to do, to render us impotent and useless for God's glorious purpose for us.  It's also part of the pride that was paramount to his own destruction. Because even thinking of ourselves as useless is putting our own selves in the forefront, rather than humbly accepting Christ's grace and mercy in our lives to help us in our time of need.  Yet we are called to come boldly to the throne of grace for that very purpose (Hebrews 4:16), which takes away that prideful excuse.
        In a way, my friend is blessed with a gift.  She knows she has a finite time here to "wrap things us" and prepare for her glorious reunion, while most of us will have no idea - today might be ours. This could be my last post - only God knows!  But if so, I hope that those who read it will also be reminded of your glorious future and live in expectation rather than fear of it.

Blasting the Darkness, or Who Needs Halloween?

       Last night I had the opportunity to go out to dinner and catch up with a dear friend .  Also a follower of Jesus, we spoke about how the darkness of this world is affecting us and others we know who we think of as strong-standing believers.  We each spoke of our struggles with discouragement, feeling overwhelmed by the happenings in the world around us, coupled with crazy busy-ness and exhaustion that makes it difficult to find (or make) time for concerted periods of prayer & Bible reading or study - either independently or with others.  

       In talking about it out loud like that, we were able to recognize how our Enemy Down Under (south of Australia, Satan by name) is working overtime in the lives and hearts of BELIEVERS to leave us (feeling) defenseless, afraid, depressed and ineffectual for the work God has put us here at THIS time in history, to do.  

       After we parted, three separate Scriptures "appeared" in my head (technically the third showed up later):

1)  "You are my hiding place;  you will protect me from trouble
       And surround me with songs of deliverance."    Ps. 32:7  (NLT)
     Sometimes in our lives even the strongest-standing followers of Jesus get weak in the knees (look at Elijah, cowering in a cave after a MAJOR victory over false prophets, in 1 Kings 19).  We hide and cower, and sometimes get so overwhelmed by fear and anxiety that we just want to curl up in a ball in our beds and never leave!  But as with Elijah,  God is even THERE with us!  He does not condemn, and lets us know that even in the midst of the storms of our lives, He IS our hiding place.  He protects and shields us in the midst of trouble.  And He surrounds us with songs of deliverance, which then gives us the courage to move us OUT of our place of fear and anxiety into the deep peace and freedom that Jesus offers us.

2)  "Praise be to the Lord, my Rock, 
       who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
      He is my loving God and my fortress,
        my stronghold and my deliverer, 
        my shield, in whom I take refuge,
        who subdues peoples under me."    Ps. 144:1 - 2   (NIV)
       It may sound strange thinking of God training us for war, side by side with His being our fortress, shield and deliverer, but the context is the same.  It is when we are under siege that we most need these things.  As Paul said, we are involved in full-scale war, but our battle 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." (Eph. 6:12).  And we need to be prepared and trained for it, both offensively and defensively.  We need to put on the "full armor of God," including the belt of truth that protects us from the lies of this world that is only about feelings, which easily deceive, the breastplate of [God's] righteousness, which protects your heart when negative feelings threaten to overwhelm,  the shoes fitted to take you where the lost need to hear what you have to share about God's peace and how to acquire it, the shield of faith to extinguish all the "fiery darts" that the Evil One will throw at you to get you to become distracted, ineffectual and discouraged, the helmet of salvation, which reminds you of who and whose you are and what your purpose is in Him, and the sword of the Spirit, our offensive weapon, the word of God (the Bible), which Jesus used to correct and knock out the lies of the enemy with TRUTH, which doesn't change based on popular opinion or political correctness of the moment.  

3) "How long will you waver between two opinions?  If the Lord is God, 
      follow him  but if Baal [representing Satan] is God, follow  him."                                                             1 Kings 18: 24
       We need to be FIRM in what we say we believe, so as not to be tossed around by every wind of "new" teachings, which are never new and often false.  God doesn't change.  If we stand with Him, neither will our principles, values and Kingdom-based standards.  We will be less likely to allow ourselves to be swayed by lies and deceptive speech, or what others say about us.  And we will be less affected or for less time than we were before by things that once took us down to devastation:  bad news,  circumstances, or whatever it might be.  When we KNOW the One who HOLDS our future, we will grow in trust, and in so doing, in confidence and assurance of God's love for us, which will soon overflow into the lives of others.  

       Satan is doing his best to destroy the world around us, and he knows that if he can render the CHURCH ineffective and depressed, discouraged and fearful,  we will not be able to shine the light that we contain:  Christ in us, the hope of glory, and sadly that has already frequently overtaken us in our brokenness.  But all is far from lost with us for two reasons: 

1) Precisely because we ARE broken, we have more to share with OTHER broken individuals. Who could, after all, relate to someone who thought themselves intact? Who IS?  Were you aware that in biblical days perfume was sold in boxes, and in order to be used, they had to be broken before the scent could come forth and be enjoyed?  We are like the boxes, needing to be broken in order for the perfume to flow and bring out the scent of life in order to extinguish the stench of death of which our culture has so enthusiastically taken hold.  Our "cracked pots," as it were, turn out to be the most effective vehicles for sharing our treasure!  

2) God is NOT finished with us yet!  In spite of how we FEEL about ourselves or what our circumstances may dictate, He HAS placed us on this planet at this time in history in order to achieve  a specific work that God has planned for us to accomplish in HIS strength, and He will not stop working in us until that mission is complete!  I love the story I heard about Ruth Bell Graham, famed evangelist Billy Graham's wife.  As they passed a construction zone once, they came across a sign that read, "Construction Complete - thanks for your patience."  Immediately she remarked, "That's what I want on my tombstone!"  Our story  - and purpose - will not be complete until the day we graduate into the eternal and spiritual realm and take our places with Christ!

       So meanwhile, we stay connected:  with our HEAD & bridegroom, Jesus Christ,  His word, our "Owner's manual" (source of objective truth and road map to keep us heading in  the right direction - always closer always to HIM), and to each other, because we were never meant to be lone rangers.  Cut off from other believers, we can easily be swallowed up in frustration, pain, anxiety and despair.  We lose sight of truth and believe the latest lies our culture and enemy wants to foist on us. We get sucked into the dark vortex of self, losing touch with those for whom Christ placed us here to love and serve.  And we lose out on priceless opportunities to hear truth, receive much-needed instruction on how to deal with this world in God's way, and receive love, prayers and a sense of belonging like nowhere else!  

       In such a scary world, who needs Halloween?  But we have a more powerful weapon to beat all that so heartily tries to beat us down everyday!  We have "dual citizenship" if we belong to Christ, and have access to HIM  24/7!  This world runs after superheroes with limited powers "beyond mortal men."  But they are not REAL.  We, on the other hand, have COMPLETE ACCESS to the very REAL GOD who CREATED this world and holds all power in His hands, who KNOWS all, can HEAL all, and most importantly, LOVES all.  Imagine how this world would change if we DEMONSTRATED what a connection with Him could look like!  Let's see together and strengthen one another in THAT hope, starting TODAY!


     
     
      

RESTLESS

     Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) prayed, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
       I think our (U.S.) culture and WORLD has seen enough of this restlessness: of all the things we try after rejecting or losing sight of the truth that ONLY JESUS offers REST for our burdens, STRENGTH for our weakness, HEALING for our brokenness. We think we know better in our culture of Political Correctness and Death, but what has it gotten us? Higher rates of death as a result of high blood pressure, obesity, drug addiction, sexually-transmitted diseases. We have become a culture that says ANYTHING goes, and it HAS: our MORALITY, our sense of RIGHT and WRONG, our ability to DISCERN TRUTH over FALSEHOOD!

        In our rush to not wanting to "offend" anyone, we have brushed aside every  kind of personal and spiritual/emotional boundary that God gave to protect ourselves and our nation from spiritual and emotional suicide.  We are  indeed restless, but have forgotten what we are restless for.
We have become a nation lost in "recovery" but think that that consists of talking about our addictions, hurts and lostness endlessly, rather than of seriously searching for a - the -  ultimate cure to our restlessness and (inner as well as outer) strife - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of the Bible - whom we have casually - if not malevalently tossed aside, but who is yet constantly calling us back to Himself - back to true love (as opposed to lust and superficial feelings, which is what we major in as a society). C.S. Lewis once said that we don't want more love but less. By this he defined "more love" as the sculptor working his creation until it is what s/he sees it to ultimately become, not a thumbnail sketch, but the statue of DAVID! If that creation were to speak, it would often cry out, "OUCH!" as it was being molded carefully into the masterpiece it was intended to be.

        We want to be - or say we are - those "masterpieces" - but with the painless work that creates a thumbnail sketch! More love is the masterpiece that requires a LOT of painful & uncomfortable work, which we reject and disdain. But that is the kind of love that God gives: not the superficial, five minute, "how to be happy in 3 steps" approach of our culture, but the painful stretching, the uncomfortable molding of our character that produces true rest and recovery! I'm speaking to myself as well - believe me! As Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me... I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3: 12 - 14).

       Until we have this character in ever-increasing degrees, how will we be able to offer hope to others in this lost and dying world? That doesn't mean we have to be perfect before we influence!  No!  Just that we are increasingly willing to cooperate with His Spirit so that there would be "less of us and more of Jesus" for the world around us to see our difference in order to ask how to find that peace they see in us, so that we may share how they too can be relieved of their restlessness.