Impossible grace

Have you ever heard someone say that God never gives us anything to do that is too much for us?  I have.  And I used to accept that statement without question.

But wait a second. The Bible is FULL of people to whom God gave impossible tasks - only to show that they couldn't do them and HE could - so that those watching would know that He was God!

Joshua. Gideon. Jehoshaphat.  King David (remember Goliath? all those impossible battles?) Nehemiah. Elijah. Moses. Hosea the prophet being told to marry a prostitute and keep taking her back when she went out sniffing after other men (now THAT's an impossible task!) The list is endless. And none of these people were able to do any of those things God asked unless and until they were empowered by Him. 

It's human nature, I'm afraid, to want to do it on our own.  It's what got the human race into trouble in the first place, I seem to recall.  A lot of people laud the ones who, out of sheer pluck and determination, persevere and succeed.  Many aspire to be like them, to achieve great things. But the ones who admire such people don't see how inadequate they feel, how much pressure they are under, just to keep up the facade.  Self-reliance isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I'm not saying not to try to accomplish things with the talents God has given us, nor am I saying not to hone those skills.  What I'm saying is that it's unrealistic for me to expect God never to give me anything that is beyond my grasp, because if He did, I would never learn to depend on Him.  

And I SO need to depend on Him, to reach beyond my own capabilities (my own flesh) and tap into His endless strength.  For, you see, that is another part of Grace: the ability to do in the supernatural power of God that which is impossible for mere humans to do.  I'm not necessarily talking about gob-stopping miracles here: healing the sick, raising the dead, etc., and I'm not talking about the select few, the elite who seem to have "more of God" than the average Joe or Jane Christian. (Oh, don't get me started on Christian superstars. That's a whole other post!)

I'm talking about the consistent, day-by-day God-given strength to put one foot in front of the other when life is HARD and everything in my being says to pull the covers up over my head.  I'm talking about praying for the right words to say to comfort or encourage a friend - and the words just come, exactly at the right time.  I'm talking about the courage and empowerment and discernment that God gives to accept people and circumstances that are beyond my control, to change in me what needs to be changed, and to know where the line is between the two. 

I don't have the ability to do those things myself.  I suppose I might be able to do some of it for a little while, and perhaps fool someone into thinking I was someone great.  But it would inevitably end in bitter and desolate defeat.  How do I know?  Because that's where I lived - in Religion-Land.  Following the rules, playing the game, trying to one-up the next guy, trying to appear holy.  It was a crock.  I was all bound up in what people thought, what people might think, that I didn't have any joy or freedom in my life.  

Letting go of my need to control the outcome was the first step in learning how to live.  REALLY live - FEEL alive, enjoy the moment.  I learned - slowly - how to depend on God and cease from my own efforts to get the results I wanted.  Instead, I had to learn to let Him lead, to do what He said with His enabling power, and to let HIM take care of the results.  

It works, too.  A bonus is how liberating that is: how the weight of the whole world, of trying to take responsibility for everyone else's consequences, lifted from my back.  

I still have times when I slip back into that cesspool of trying to do things, trying to live the life that Jesus talked about, without His direction and strength - "just this once."  I skirt the borders of Religion-Land and hear its familiar siren song.  I succumb to its heady allure - the praise of others.  And I inevitably fall flat on my face. 

Then I remember that it's impossible without His Grace.  Every moment.  Every day, all the time.  No letting up.  It's only possible by me leaning hard on Him - and Him living His life through me, lavishly and unreservedly giving me His undeserved, outrageous, impossible grace.

Assembling together

"Forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together,
 and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching." 
       - Hebrews 10:25 KJV

I've heard the above verse all my life used - usually - as a weapon to keep people coming to church, and I never questioned that application of it, until recently.  Before I start discussing it, I want to make absolutely clear that I am not advocating the abandonment of church attendance, just a more broad application of the meaning of the verse.

Of late, I've been more and more convinced that Hebrews 10:25 is not just about going to church every time the doors are open.

Here's why.  In the early days of Christendom, there weren't any church buildings ... and as I have searched the New Testament, I can find NO reference to people worshiping together or having set church gatherings on a Sunday or even a Saturday.  Especially with a prescribed "order of service" like we have today.  No, the church was being persecuted heavily and couldn't afford the luxury of gathering in large groups.  People met in each other's homes or in secluded spots, in twos and threes usually, so as to avoid detection by the authorities.  Once in a while, (and I doubt that it would be once a week or even once a month!) people would gather in groups larger than that, and it would be the Spirit who would tell them what was going to happen and when. 

The only reference that I can see to the "once a week" idea is this: Paul mentioned one time to believers in one of the churches he wrote to, instructions to set aside some money on the first day of the week in order to be able to meet the needs of those in their circle or perhaps missionaries who needed support and financial aid.  He said nothing about gathering together at that time, just of setting money aside.  

Great photo.  Found HERE

I'll be brutally honest here.  While God has used this and that person or this and that sermon or song done in a church service in order to do His work in me, the vast majority of my spiritual growth is done OUTSIDE the walls - sometimes alone, sometimes in connection and fellowship with one or two close friends as we share together the good things God is teaching us.  I've experienced more "church" (in the original sense of the word) over coffee or a meal, or even in a non-church setting such as a 12-step group, than I would have had in a church building with all the bells and whistles of today's accepted format in the company of a hundred or so people with whom I have nothing in common except ummmm, Hebrews 10:25 and the collective guilt over NOT going and "doing the right thing."  You know the format I'm talking about; first there's singing, then offering and announcements, then sermon, then singing again, with an emphasis on following the directions of the person who has the microphone - instead of the One who gave it all for us, and calls us to intimacy with Him. 

Of course you understand that I'm making generalizations here.  (Please see my first paragraph).

I rather think that we've also forgotten the "so much the more" part - if gathering together in twos and threes, sometimes as many as five or six people, is what the early church did - I can see how it would be possible and even edifying to meet more frequently, not to posture or to trot our our spirituality, but to show each other the love of Christ.  How it would be beneficial to build relationships (not to just face front with dozens of others and listen to one or two people talk), get to know each other, share things with each other that are happening in our lives, be there for each other, pray for (and with) each other, and laugh and cry with each other. 



That kind of love-in-action would be worth assembling together "so much the more."

No Holds Barred

Yesterday afternoon I watched a 1993 Disney remake of their 1963 movie, "The Incredible Journey" ... called "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey". Of course both movies are adaptations of Sheila Burnford's book, The Incredible Journey.

It was an incredibly powerful experience, since I hadn't seen the movie in about 10 years.  

To recap the plot, a newly blended family drops its three pets (two dogs and a cat) off in the Sierra Madres with a friend while they go off to San Fransisco so that the husband can work at a temporary job.  The animals believe something is wrong, and set out for "home" - the only home they know - and go through all kinds of perilous adventures along the way, in order to get there, where their family waits for them.

In the 1993 version, Chance, a young, energetic pit bull terrier, narrates the story.  He and Sassy, a pampered but good-hearted Himalayan cat (think a long-haired cat with Siamese markings) and an old and faithful Golden Retriever named Shadow, try to get back to young Jamie, middle child Hope, and eldest Peter, their masters respectively. Their experiences, their conversations, come to life in the voice talents of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Amenche. The animal friends face hunger, rough terrain and various wildlife including a skunk, a porcupine, a mother bear, and a cougar as they cross the mountain range. They cross hundreds of miles, bonding and building character, all to get back home.  

Watching that familiar story unfold again, as always I was struck with the lengths they go through to get back to where old Shadow is convinced that "Peter needs me." His faith and his perseverance are contagious, and he keeps the younger animals focused on their one goal:  Home.  

Shadow limping over the crest of the hill toward his Peter

When Shadow rounds the last hill and sees his Peter for the first time in weeks, his heart says, "Peter." His heart's voice is full of love. This is my favorite moment in the film.  The old dog only has eyes for the boy.  Everything in his soul is in that one name.  He loves, lives for Peter.  And Peter loves him right back.  

I've always seen that movie as symbolic of the journey we are making back home to our Father, and that particular scene as being our joy at finally reaching Home (and His at our arrival).  But yesterday, I saw it from a slightly different perspective.  

Abandoned by us, rejected by us in everyday living and busy-ness, yet flying in the face of the circumstances and braving every terror out of sheer love, Jesus continues to believe in us and will never, never stop until He is with us in fellowship in the way that He wants.  He longs to meet our every need and live in intimate relationship with us, and will stop at nothing - no holds barred - to knit our hearts together with His.  His whole heart .... is us.  We are the joy set before Him.  And He will never, NEVER give up on us.  Not because of how much we strive to be with Him - but because of how much He loves us.  

Nothing could be more powerful than that.

Can I get an Amen?

I've been looking at the Scriptures lately to see if I can find any justification for the use of the subject of this post. Or the use of any kind of feedback-eliciting question or statement.  

I can't find any.

It really annoys me to hear so many preachers get up front and talk about something they've been working on all week, and not get the enthusiastic response they expected from their parishoners, so instead of understanding that some people might not be ready, or that maybe the message that God told them to preach was for their OWN benefit, what they do is ask people if they're asleep, or tell them how they SHOULD be responding.  

Hm.  Point of order here.  

Who CARES how they respond?  Did Jesus try to stir up a crowd by telling them how to respond to His messages?  Uhhh, NO. Matter of fact, people walked away from His messages.  They responded the opposite of the way they SHOULD have. And it had nothing to do with His eloquence or worthiness.  It was the choice of the person listening, what to do with what He said. 

One guy even fell asleep during one of Paul's sermons.  Fell out of a barn loft and got himself killed too.  Paul just went down, raised him from the dead in Jesus' name, and went back to teaching. 

"Can I get an Amen?" means - at its core - that the speaker is insecure about his/her ability to communicate - or angry and frustrated that people aren't on the same page as he or she is.  Or afraid that people will reject him/her. But what the listeners hear is: "You guys are STUPID if you don't get this..." (or not good Christians, or even backslidden...) 

Here's what silence from the pew usually means, instead of what the speaker FEARS it means:

(1) Yes, I know that. Now tell me something I DON'T know.
(2) I'm not ready to hear that yet.  I'm not even sure if I agree with it. Maybe I need to go home and study more on it.
(3) I wish that guy would stop repeating himself and get ON with it. I'm not stupid.  (Or stop shouting: I'm not deaf.)
(4) I'm just not the jump-around immediate-response kind of person.  I get the message, I just need to think more about it.

It could even mean this:
(5) Wow.  I never thought about it (could be something the speaker said ten minutes ago) that way.  God is really speaking to me and I can't be bothered with what the person up front is saying right now. 

HERE's where I got this photo

There could be any NUMBER of reasons why a parishoner doesn't produce the expected response to a message.  We're not marionettes.  We're people.  

So to those folks who have a burning message on their hearts to share: 

Say what God laid on your heart to say and ONLY what He has laid on your heart to say.  Resist the temptation to talk about your pet theme. 

Say it ONCE (we don't need to hear it five times in five different ways, or in increasing volume as if we're hard of hearing).  And then ... sit down.  You don't have to fill your half-hour slot (or 22 minutes, as I heard one pastor say).  If it takes ten minutes, it takes ten minutes.  Maybe that would leave God more time to work AFTERward, without laying on people the added distraction of wondering if they will have enough time in their schedules for time at the altar before their child (or spouse) will need to be fed. 

You are ministering TO GOD.  If the people within earshot "get it" - so much the better.  But your audience is an audience of One - always was, always will be. 

You don't need to be successful and to have people hang on your every word.  You only need to be faithful.  Just listen to Him, not to your own insecurities.

And finally, you don't have to be the Holy Spirit.  That's HIS job.  Not yours.  He doesn't need your help.  He will do what only HE CAN do ... because only HE can see the heart.

Let Him do His work unhindered. Please.

All God - Awe Some

The story flowed out, at first a trickle, growing into a torrent from her lips.  

Detail after detail spilled forth, all the more amazing to me by the realization that these things actually happened to someone I never would have dreamed would go through them.  And they happened without me even being aware. 

Found this diagram HERE

As the tale unfolded, I could see the hand of God in all of the events that transpired - whether withholding, directing, or suppressing, each in turn and with a multiplicity of people (tuned into Him or not), circumstances, and organizations under His control.  How He allowed things to get to a desperate point and used things, people and events that only He knew how to orchestrate ... to work a miracle.  A bona fide, life-saving miracle.  Using ordinary people, doing extraordinary things, under His direction, His choreography.  

The magnitude of it, of the enormous implication of even one tiny detail being out of place or timed improperly, simply astounded me. 

It still does. 

That's how God works.  He works His wonders patiently, intricately, picking up the most minute of threads and weaving them into beautifully detailed patterns - and at the same time, He allows us to participate in His plan (He decides when, how, and how much) - just so that we can experience the awesomeness that is Him.  I am humbled, awed, by the all-sufficiency and generosity of the Only One who knows the end from the beginning.  

And grateful.  So very grateful.  God literally gave my friend back to me, plucked her out of the jaws of the destroyer, and saw fit to allow me to play a part in that process so that I could see Him work - up close and personal.  

And the joy of that is not just the miracle in my friend's life (which is HUGE), but also in my own life. I realized that He is not finished with me, either, and that everything that He has started in me, He'll finish.  And that I can take absolutely no credit for anything that He does through me: it's all Him.  It's ALL Him.  Only He can work things out so perfectly. 

I'm so very glad He did.