Attraction

 "The message I got was always, 'God is great, you're a worm, try harder.' "
      - - a teen after leaving the church

"Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion..."
      - - Tradition #11 of Alcoholics Anonymous

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Once in a while, I go to the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and read the heart of the book, chapter 5, which talks about how the alcoholic cannot hope to change or get rid of his core problem (which is NOT alcohol, by the way; alcohol is only a symptom) without God being the Director of his or her life. It's an eye-opener for many people. It was for me the first time I heard those steps.

Even though the book does not specifically mention Jesus, the 12 steps of AA are a blueprint for having a personal relationship with God based on admitting our need, submitting to Him and repenting of an old lifestyle to embrace, day by day, "a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty." (chapter 5). This was Jesus' message to a T.

My quotes, above, contrast the current message the western church sends to people against the approach that AA takes toward bringing new people in to embrace their message. They are polar opposites. And that - in my opinion - is so very sad. Many people are revolted by the judgment and the bigotry that is so rampant in those who call themselves Christians and attend church on Sunday, yet use their beliefs as a weapon to exclude rather than as a magnet to attract. 

Free image by hince at Pixabay

But it was not always so. The early church lived their lives in such a way that people were drawn to the Saviour. They didn't pound people over the head with the Scriptures or judge them for their debauchery. They loved each other, supported each other, and cared for each other's needs. THAT in itself would attract people to the Lover of our souls. True, they did not participate in the practices of the people around them who were not followers of The Way. But they did not torch their temples, mutilate their artwork, or protest their bath-houses either. (That only came later, once someone made Christianity the state religion...) No, their policy was the same as AA's. Attract. Yes, they were to 'preach the gospel' but largely through their lives, by living a lifestyle of love, by healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, AND NOT by shoving a 20-something pound Bible down their throats. They lived life to the full, not by insisting on a bunch of rules and demanding perfection, but by listening to the Voice of Love.

Love accepts. Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Love perseveres. Love is loyal. Love believes the best of people. Love gives. Love cares. Love forgives. And since God is Love, God is all those things ... and more. 

My calling - if you can call it that - my passion, possibly even my ministry - is to wake the dead. Not the pagans. Not the 'unwashed' ... but believers. 

Listen to the Voice of Love. Receive His Love and pass it on: no conditions, no rules, no judgment! Accept. Believe. Give. Forgive. Care. Just as He did for you.

May God - who is Love - show that Love to you today ... in a new and fresh way.

The Dividing Line

For the last few decades, but especially the last four-plus years, I've watched it with growing alarm. Otherwise wonderful people, committed Christians, good-living, God-fearing individuals, are fighting and losing friendships and even relationships with family members - now even in public fora like social media - about things that (to my way of thinking) should not even be an issue.  Politics.  Doctrine.  Human rights. 

Seriously?  When Jesus said that He came to bring division in Luke 12:51, He wasn't talking about these kinds of obsessions. He was talking about the simplicity of the Good News.  He was talking about Himself, about the Scandalon (the stumbling stone) of the Gospel. He was predicting family members turning each other in (in other words, turning in believing family members), ratting on them to the authorities because of their own lack of belief in Him. 

As for those who are fellow-believers, Jesus prayed in John 17 that they would be united - that they would be as united with each other and with Him as He was with the other members of the Trinity. Not in the sense that we all believe the same way about the same things, but in the sense of loving and accepting each other the way we are, in spite of our differences in thought or method. 

He said nothing of external politics. He said nothing of believers hating and bullying one another over piffling little details that mean nothing. 

Photo "Girls Looking At Each Other" courtesy of Stuart Miles
at www.freedigitalphotos.net

The dividing lines that I've noticed lately have been whether this or that leader is the right one for our respective countries. Or whether women should or should not preach. Or whether someone is white or a person of colour and whether that matters. Or whether certain people should be allowed to fall in love with each other and get married. Or whether people do or do not have the right to identify as male or female, or other. Or whether climate change does or does not exist. Each side -by and large - uses scripture as a weapon against the other.

Again I say, SERIOUSLY??

Ever since the dawn of humanity, there have been differences of opinion. And there will continue to be differences of opinion. Trump, Trudeau, democracy, socialism, feminism, etc., etc. Pick a topic, and someone has at least one opinion about it.  I even know someone who has three opinions on just about everything, and who will argue with herself without even anyone there in the room with her! 

But all these differences of opinion -- especially if we are believers -- are opportunities to show love to each other rather than excuses to fight one another. Otherwise, we poison our own testimony. And the cause of Christ suffers.

The world sees us fighting one another, putting one another down publicly, making fun of each other, and so forth, and what is the first thing they think? "If that's what being a 'Christian' is, I want no part of it."  And they are perfectly justified in saying so. Some believers, wanting no part of what passes for Christianity today, have decided that even though they believe in Jesus, they no longer want to be considered Christian because of the negative image it conjures up.

ENOUGH!! 

I submit another, more deserving, dividing line: a line in the changing sand of the times, so to speak. And I dare each of us to cross it, and to pay attention to the changing times while we do it. That dividing line is LOVE.

Enough with beating each other up over things that won't matter in a hundred years. Enough with trying to look good by making other people look bad. Enough with the martyr mentality (oh look at me, I'm the only one who has it right and you're just making me suffer...). Enough with the siege mentality where it's 'them against us'. Or 'us against them' more accurately....whoever "them" is! Most likely, it's usually the current villain in the crusader-mindset of religious folks: anyone that doesn't look like, act like, or think like we do. 

Come on, admit it - we've all done it in one way or another. We find a way to set ourselves apart from other folks. This kind of practice has earned itself the term of "othering" - treating another group of people as "less than" us because of some sort of difference we feel uncomfortable with. So let's step over that line from "othering" to "ANothering" where we love one ANother, bear one ANother's burdens, meet one ANother's needs. It doesn't mean we have to be doormats, but it does mean that we need to accept one ANother the way each of us is. 

And I think that Jesus would do the same. I know He did with me.

Kids kids

It was about 1994. My two children, barely aged 5 and 2, were running around the church sanctuary as the worship team was practicing the songs. I let them run because nobody else was there yet for the service, but as people started to file in, I began to tighten the reins.

"People are coming in," I told them. "Time to stop running and play quietly."

They listened - for as long as small children's attention span lasts. Especially when one of them has undiagnosed ADHD. 

So they started making noises and playing under the seat. Their giggles mingled with thumps their feet made on the underside of the pew as they lay on the floor. Occasionally one of them would run around and I would have to go and catch the offending one (usually the youngest) and cart them back. 

I was getting more and more frustrated as more and more adults turned toward me and glared.

Free Image courtesy of chriswolf at Pixabay.com

One of the greeters at the entryway was a large, jovial man named Blair.  He watched the kids and saw my frustration. As I was carting my toddler back for the fourth time (it felt like the tenth), Blair touched my arm. I stopped, still holding the child under my arm like a football. By this time, the oldest was coming closer to investigate.

Blair smiled at me. "I'm going to tell you something that my kids' Ukranian grandmother said to me when our children were their age," he announced, jerking his head toward my children. He looked me straight in the eye and said slowly, "Kids kids."

I stared back at him quizzically, confused by his statement. "Kids kids?" I queried. 

He chuckled. "She didn't speak English all that well. What she meant was that children are going to be children no matter where they are. And they are children for such a short time. So let them be children." 

He grinned as I slowly grasped his meaning. He was encouraging me as a mother - saying that it wasn't so horrible of me to let my kids play - because after all, they were children! To let them be children was the best gift I could give them.

That statement helped form my (and our) parenting decisions from that time onward. If they wanted to play at church, I'd take them into the foyer (or outside if I could) and let them play themselves out, rather than subject a teacher to them fidgeting and their excess of energy. 

If they wanted to go into Cubs instead of Brownies, into Cubs they went - and excelled! The oldest wanted to go into Scouts - so we supported her when the time came. And when she decided on her own that it wasn't for her, we supported that too. 

We encouraged each of them to plunge into whatever they wanted and we didn't force them into activities they had no interest in. As a result, they decided to take swimming classes together - something their mom had never had the courage to do! The oldest was in her junior high school band for a little over three years, learned to play the flute, and dropped out of senior high school band when she got a "creepy teacher" (who eventually was discovered to be too "friendly" toward some of his girl pupils...) and the youngest discovered she had a gift (among the other gifts she had) for using her hands. She developed an interest in carpentry and welding before she passed away in 2013 in a car crash. 

Each person has unique gifts and fills a special place in the world that only they can fill. And it all came into focus for me that day when a man named Blair took the time to encourage a young, harried mother. 

He also had another saying, which he said quite often: "It's nice to be nice."  And he lived by it.  Thank you, Blair. Thank you.

 

Forget it.

There is an expression and a teaching in most Christian circles which, I believe, has caused a lot more harm than the good that it tries to do. It is also based on a misunderstanding of human nature and of the omnipotence and divinity of God. 

That saying is, "Forgive and forget."

I'm all for forgiving, when forgiveness isn't a substitute for the real thing. It isn't excusing the person because he was mad or she was having a rough time. It isn't saying it was nothing. It isn't saying that what the person did was okay. And it is definitely NOT forgetting.

I was in my forties before I learned what forgiveness was. When I was growing up, nobody apologized for anything ... and if someone did, the one receiving the apology was expected to pooh-pooh it and make the one apologizing feel better by saying it wasn't anything. Plus, in our family, apologies didn't say, "I hurt you. That was wrong. I'm sorry, and I'll try not to do that again," and leave it at that. No, the apology started with the I'm sorry part, skipped the hurting and the wrong part, and then included an explanation of why the person did whatever it was that hurt them. Or (which often happened) the person didn't say anything at all and just did something nice for the person they hurt.

Photo from Pexels at
https://www.pexels.com/photo/baby-child-close-up-crying-47090/

Only recently have I learned that neither of these is the way to apologize. This is a way to justify the original hurtful action and sometimes even make it the other person's fault. Or in not apologizing, the "good deed" is a thinly disguised bribe, which looking back, seems like the ultimate in avoidance. That realization was hard to accept. Very hard. 

Just as hard to accept for some is that when the Bible talks about forgetting sins, it's not talking about US forgetting them, but it's talking about GOD forgetting them when He forgives. This is not because He is forgetful but because He chooses not to remember them. Let me repeat this for emphasis: forgetting sins is something that ONLY GOD can do. Expecting humans to do it is unfair because it is beyond our capability to remove a memory once it's been made, especially a traumatic one. It might be possible with a mild infraction, I'll grant that. But trauma? Nope. Not happening, because trauma hard-wires itself into our brains; it is a survival instinct to remember in great detail something that will hurt us in the future. 

I have talked before in this blog about what forgiveness actually is: a process that starts with feeling and admitting the hurt, calling it wrong, and choosing not to make the person pay for what he or she did. And sometimes it needs to be repeated (especially in cases of trauma / long-term abuse). Often. Healing is possible. It is. But remembering serves the purpose of being able, once we are healed from the hurt, of being able to walk someone else through that process of healing.

That being said, never has human forgiveness been about forgetting. It is literally physically and emotionally impossible for us to forget being traumatized, unless we lose that part of our brain by accident or disease. And neither of those options is anything we would want... neither brain injury nor dementia is pleasant. "God understands our frame. He remembers that we are only dust."

We can be grateful that God is not like us, and that He chooses not to remember our sins for the sake of close relationship with us. In fact, our sins were ALL forgiven AND forgotten (past, present, and future) thousands of years ago, as all of eternity hinges on the sacrifice of Jesus, which in the spiritual realm sent tsunamis of forgiveness in every direction and in every possible timeline from the moment of the Rebellion in Heaven onward. Not convinced? How about "... chosen in Him before the foundation of the world...."? How about "It is finished!" 

But even though we as humans cannot forgive AND forget, we can be free of the nasty side-effects of holding a grudge... as hard as that is sometimes and as good as holding a grudge can feel (it feeds our pride and justifies our behavior toward that person or people who are LIKE that person). We can be free, I say. We can choose to begin to forgive. Let me explain what I mean.

Forgiveness is a choice, but it is also a process. We needn't beat ourselves up for not being able to let go of the hurt the first time we make that choice. It might take many times, depending on the depth of the hurt and how long it lasted. But forgiveness works best by going through the process I mentioned earlier: (1) not denying that you were hurt, (2) allowing yourself to feel that hurt, and exploring how it has affected you in the present day, (3) placing the blame on the person or people who hurt you and not on yourself, and (4) [and this could take some time], realizing that the person can never repay you what they took from you (for example, your innocence or your sense of safety), so it is time to not try to make them pay, time to stop wishing that they'd apologize or change.  THAT is forgiveness. It doesn't make what the person did all right (because it was wrong), but it does free you to move on with your life. 

And never mind that you can't forget. That's not your job anyway. It's God's.

Light in darkness

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about John chapter one, and more specifically about the references in the first few verses to Light and darkness. It says in that chapter that the Light shines in the darkness.  Now, to me, in my human understanding, that means that the darkness exists but that when the Light shines, the darkness flees.  That's not what the passage says. It says that the Light shines IN the darkness, ... and that the darkness (does not flee, but) does not comprehend the Light. 

Whoa. That takes a person aback, doesn't it?  It doesn't make sense to us because we go into a dark room, we turn on a light, and the darkness goes away - that's what darkness is, isn't it? the absence of Light?  

Not here in this passage. John is talking about a kind of darkness that it doesn't matter how bright the light, it does NOT go away, nor does the darkness have any concept of Light.  Well, what kind of darkness cannot understand Light?  

There is only one answer that is possible: blindness.  

Suddenly all makes sense.  Jesus said to the Pharisees, "... because you say, 'We see,' your blindness remains." (John 9:41) 

And herein lies the darkness, dear friends.  The darkness consists of insisting that everything is fine, actually believing that it is so, while all the while stumbling around in darkness, in blindness, not even aware that there is so much more: so much more freedom, so much more love, so much more Life than we ever thought possible. Yet all the while, blazing white Light is all around, piercing through everything, illuminating Life all around us, shooting rainbows and moonlight in our paths, and yet unseen by the blind who will not see. 

The darkest of all blindness is the one in which the blind one has convinced himself that he can see.  It is religion, religious ritual and self-righteousness, hypocrisy and wallowing in fear that God will take out His big cudgel and squash us like bugs. But ... God is not like that.  That's why Jesus came!! The Word says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself..." (2 Cor. 5:19).  

And Jesus stands and proclaims that the Spirit of God is upon Him to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are oppressed. (Luke 4:18).  In reality, those who are blind in the way that John 1 reveals are poor, and captive, and oppressed - by virtue of their own -- OUR own -- blindness!  Jesus came to prove God's love to us in a way we could understand, and we killed Him for it in our darkness - our lack of comprehension.  But when we first turn to Him and ask Him to remove our blindness, He does - and we can see the Love that was there all along, and the Light that has brightened our path if we but knew it! This Light is transformative, redemptive, and irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). 

Photo "Sun In The Sky" courtesy of graur razvan at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

When we are in darkness, in blindness, we can do absolutely nothing to rid ourselves of this sad state; HE is the only One who opens blind eyes.  We only ask.  He does it - He does it because He wants to do it, and has been waiting for us to ask Him!  

This makes salvation and even faith itself (Eph. 2:8d) something that He does on our behalf, and rightly so - because if we could, we would boast about how much we did, how much we believed.  It is HIS faith!!  Galatians 2:20 says in the original Greek, "...and the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."  Not IN, but OF.  That means that it is JESUS' faith and we can have confidence in His faith because it does NOT waver!! 

Can we see how much this frees us to live in happy gratitude?  Can we? The pressure is off! the love of God is unconditional, the grace of God is free, and the faith of Jesus in His Father is rock-solid! Hahahahahahahaha!! What glorious liberty!  what amazing love!  how bright the Light is!!  How delirious the joy that comes from total and complete acceptance in the Beloved One! 

Can I make it any more plain? This is GOOD news!! This is what the apostles were ready to die for!  No adding to it; that only takes away from it!  No reservations - that leads to bondage!  Pray God that He will open our eyes to see the wonder of His full, free, intense, passionate, scandalous love for us!

Author and Finisher

In my last post, "Sacred Cows," I talked about how we compartmentalize and become very protective of those things in our lives that we consider "ours" ... when God's plan is to smash down the dividing walls that separate our relationship with Him from the rest of our lives. 

If, by reading that post, anyone might have thought how vigilant WE need to be, how we need to repent and confess our sinfulness to God, etc., let me be clear. 

Yes, knowing about where we may have been missing the mark can be helpful because at least now we are aware and can listen to and recognize His voice a bit better. But it is GOD who began this new creation. He is the Author of our New Life. And it is HE who will direct the path of our lives so that we bump right smack dab into Him, time and time again. HE will finish the work He started. 

The only thing we need to open our eyes to .... is Him. His passionate Love. His boundless Grace. His endless Patience. His supreme Sufficiency. 

Photo "Daily Planner With Pen" by
BrandonSigma at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

HE wrote the Book. Not only the Book we hold in our hands but also the Book of our lives. HE knows how it turns out. HE made provision for it, for us, for every possible outcome or circumstance. Nothing we have done or ever will do, will EVER take Him by surprise. Nothing we have done or ever will do, will change His constant, unconditional love for us - it won't make Him love us any less ... or any more ... than He always has for all eternity - past, present and future. 

It was HE who conceived the plan of salvation, in Eternity Past, before He even spoke the words, "Let there be light." It was HE who chose us in Him (Jesus, Himself) before the foundation of the world, planned for us (through Jesus) to be holy and without blame before Him (Eph. 1:4,5). At the Cross (and from Ages before the world began) God made Jesus, the Sinless One, to be our sin (ALL our sin: past, present and future) so that He could restore to us the glory we lost in Eden - the righteousness of God - in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Not to condemn us to a life of slavery (touch not, taste not, handle not - Col. 2:21) but to free us from it (Gal. 5:1). Forgiveness is ours; we don't need to ask for it - it is OURS! He has broken down the walls between us and Him, and will continue to break them down within us so that EVERY aspect of our lives feels the warmth of His presence.

And we? we get to go along for the Ride. He is the conductor, He is the train, and He is the fuel; we are passengers. There is nothing that we can do to guarantee our arrival at destination (that's already been done for us too, see Phil. 1:6). Everything has been planned for, set up, started, is being maintained just fine, and will finish because HE has willed it so. 

We can relax. We can rest in His amazing, all-pervasive love. We can open ourselves to Him, knowing that only a great and supreme Love would reach down and translate us from darkness to light BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO. That's how much He loves. That's how much He plans for us, stays with us, and lavishes His Holy Spirit within each of us. 

There is nothing to prove. 
HE has done it all; HE will finish it all. 
Period.

Rooftop Vision

Sometimes I let my spirit rest in God's, and He takes me places. I just think about one word - say, Grace - and then, like an eagle, I launch off the side of my comfortable cliff, away from the nest. After a few flaps, I catch a warm updraft and I just hover for a while to see where He will take me. 

Today, He took me to a rooftop in Joppa where a man named Peter was having a vision that would change the scope of the 1st-century church (Acts 10). 

Photo "Village Beside Mountain"
coutresy of arkorn at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Three times (in Biblical symbolism, three means completion) a tablecloth is lowered from Heaven with all kinds of "unclean" animals on it: pig, lobster, camel, rabbit, raven, seagull, and more. (see the full list in Leviticus 11). A voice comes from Heaven, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." 

"No, Lord," Peter protests. "Nothing unclean has ever entered my mouth." The Voice responds, "What God has cleansed, do not call common or unclean." 

Peter learns, through the course of events, that the Master is talking about His desire to take the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles, and he is convinced to go with Cornelius' men to proclaim the Good News to those with whom he would never have even dared eat before. 

His world was changing. It would never be the same.

I'd read the story so many times before. It was and is familiar to me and I thought that it was a great historical account that signaled the opening of a door into a new world, the fulfillment of God's promise to Abram, "In you all the families of the world shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3). 

"Why here? What is it that You want me to see?" 

"A new creation." (2 Cor 5:17). 

"Yes, Lord, when I was born again, You made me into a new creation."

"I cleansed you. Past, present and future, you are clean."

"Yes, I know.... Yes, thank You Father.... "

"So ... YOU are included. I wasn't just talking about food or race or customs when I showed Peter the sheet. Don't call yourself common or unclean. I see you as clean because of Calvary; that is the beginning and the end of it."  

....... "Oh." 

"Rest here. Know My love."

Type A Torture

First-year business students study the difference between the Type A and Type B kinds of managers. Type B managers include their employees in decision-making, encourage growth and creativity, and develop relationships with their employees. They do this, not to have something to hold over their employees or even to make them more productive, but to learn what things are important to them, to learn what tools they need to do their jobs and to feel safe while doing them. Employees will just about walk through fire for a Type B manager.  They'll go above and beyond the call of duty because they know that their manager cares about them and will support them no matter what.

Type A managers, on the other hand, are more goal-oriented. They push their employees for results and they're frequently saying that whatever the person is producing is not enough, that they need to do more, produce more, go faster, work better. They're all about following the rules and cracking the whip, and more often than not, throwing their employees under the bus if they mess up. That sort of approach may get results, (fear works) but employees are not likely to go the extra mile for a Type A manager and will only do the bare minimum. 

Once in a while, a Type A manager will say that he or she is "for" the employee, but it's a means to an end. They say "thank you" because those words are proven to give the message to employees that they are appreciated and the studies all say that people who feel appreciated are more likely to do things for you. They will even say that they "care" - but it's all for the greater purpose of increasing the efficiency of the unit, or the division, or the company. 

There are Type A managers in just about every organization and the church is no exception. I can't count the number of times that that horrible word "should" has been used like a club on people's heads to batter people with guilt and shame. And it's incredibly easy to do. SO incredibly easy. All one has to do is hold up some sort of standard of perfection, and then get insecure people who don't know their own worth to react, jump when one says jump, "repent" and vow to do better. I've seen it over and over and over again. The sad part is, the message people get is that they have to produce that desired end result and THEN God will come through. Or accept them. Or let them get into Heaven.

It's sickening. 

God knew we could not keep the law or be holy or be perfect; that's why Jesus came!! Adding in the requirement to keep the law after knowing the benefits of Grace is a little doctrine the apostle Paul fought all his life - it's called Judaizing (not to be confused with Judaism). And it is right out of the Pit of hell. The entire book of Galatians is written to counter this most dangerous of religious beliefs. Paul got into the biggest "Christian argument" of his life with someone who was heading down that path - the apostle Peter! "I withstood him to his face," Paul writes of that experience. 

I'm not saying by all of this that we shouldn't be living holy lives or that we shouldn't be spreading the gospel. Far from it!! However, let's be clear about how this happens.

WE don't do it. HE does. 

Let's look at some basic, wonderful truth and use it to counter the guilt-and-shame trips we've been taken on for years. 

Photo "Jesus Christ Over Rio De Janeiro" by
xura at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, He regenerates every person who believes (puts their whole weight) on Him. In other words, He recreates us into brand new creations. The old has [already] passed away; the new has [already] come! (2 Cor 5:17) Every sin we have ever committed or ever will commit is ALREADY forgiven!! (John 5:24, Colossians 1:22, Hebrews 10:12-14). 

This means (stay with me) that once we are Christians, God sees us just the same way, with the same degree of righteousness, as He sees Jesus. He has made Jesus to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, so that we could be made the righteousness of God IN HIM. (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

We are holy automatically because He is (the real meaning of 1 Peter 1:16 is "You will be holy because I am holy...") - there is no need to TRY to be holy (we will FAIL if we TRY. Human effort will ALWAYS fail!) This is a walk of FAITH, not a walk of EFFORT. The more we realize what He has already provided for us (and Love tops the list by far!), the more we are aware of just how much was accomplished for us at the Cross, just how free we really are because of His love, the more grateful to Him we will become and the more naturally His character will shine through us as we walk in that glorious truth!

Can't we see that we've gotten it backwards and upside-down this entire time? Asking God for what was already ours to begin with, begging God to forgive us for things that have already been forgiven to the max long ago, even striving (in our own strength, no less) to do things that He has already provided the power to do through us just through knowing Him more deeply and becoming more aware of His love for us? How much bondage the church has suffered! how much "Type A torture" we have been through needlessly! 

You know what? Given the choice between life or death, I think most of us would choose life. But I'll tell you something that dawned on me a few years back: it takes half a second to die for your faith. A bullet through the brain or the heart and death is instantaneous. A scimitar (curved sword) in the hands of a skilled swordsman can behead a person in under a second. No, it's not "hard" to die for your faith. It might not be a pleasant prospect (the act of dying that is) but death only takes a moment.

But this is the challenge: it takes a lifetime of moment-by-moment realization of His love for us to live out our faith - not in shame or guilt for how we're not doing it right, or fervently enough, or loud enough, or whatever the Type A folks say we're not doing right. The Christian life was meant to be joyous and free - Jesus said that He'd come to give us life, and not just life, but life more abundantly. (John 10:10) Living in the constant knowledge that I am accepted in Him, that He loves me unconditionally, that all of my sin and baggage and sickness is demolished in the Cross - that is truly living. Truly living is nothing more than living Him.

This is why Paul said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) That's all the Christian life is. It's Jesus. It's Him constantly loving us, constantly empowering us, constantly directing our paths. It's Him, always and ever ONLY Him. Because He is all we need. 

He. Is. All. We. Need. And He loves us.
Joy trumps torture.

Vantage Point

"...the just shall live by faith..." - Romans 1:17

I've only traveled by air a handful of times in my life. Every time I do, I am struck by a number of things, one of which is the difference there is between the view from the ground and the view from the plane while it is flying at thousands of feet from the ground. 

It can be raining, or cloudy, or just plain nasty outside, but once I feel that surge of power and the plane lifts off, I watch out my window (and yes, I always get a window seat!) and see the vista change before my eyes. The rain stops pelting the window, turns to smaller and smaller mist as we rise higher through the clouds, and then it happens. The plane rises above the clouds, and the sun - which has been there the whole time, shines brightly.

I think that I've spent a lot of my Christian life sitting in the plane but either still waiting to take off or circling above the airport but not above the clouds. 

Photo "Clouds And Sky Blue, Viewed From An Airplane
 Window" courtesy of kangshutters at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

The light and light of God's grace has been there the whole time, but I was living by sight. For many years, all I saw were the clouds of my own failures and insufficiency, not the sunlight of His grace and how it is much more than enough - and always has been - because of the sufficiency of Jesus. 

I am forgiven. ALREADY forgiven. I am free. ALREADY free. I am holy. ALREADY holy. Not because of my own accomplishments, but because of HIS. My perspective has often been too earth-bound, too sight-bound. The life of faith is the life above the clouds. The vantage point has changed. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. I am seated in heavenly places with Him. He has made me holy. He has made me as pure as His own dear Son. He delights in me because that has been His desire from the beginning.

This isn't just words. It is what the Bible calls "living by faith" - stepping out on the waves knowing that He is all I will ever need, that He has already made the way, that He has gone before, that He is the Master of the wind. It's buckling up the seatbelt and looking out the window, trusting the Pilot has already taken me with Him (not just in the sweet bye and bye, but NOW, HERE!) above the clouds. The rain may fall but it is not who I am. The underside of the clouds may be gray, but He is still holding me up.

The sin that sometimes creeps in ... is not who I am anymore. The deed to my slavery has been stamped in indelible blood - "Paid In Full" - and there is absolutely NO condemnation. NONE. Past, present, AND future!  It therefore makes no sense to condemn myself when He has already declared me not guilty, now, doesn't it? "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies. [In other words, God has declared us righteous!] Who condemns us? Jesus Christ died for us, and is even now at God's right hand, interceding for us. [In other words, Jesus died for us - and prays for us constantly - He certainly doesn't condemn us!]" (Rom 8:33-34). 

So what happens when I sin as a Christian? I thank God that I don't have to go groveling and begging His forgiveness - that sin question has already been settled the moment He made me into a new creation! No, I just acknowledge my error in thinking, my drop in perspective (dipping below the clouds for a while.) And then, I thank Him for His forgiveness (which has already covered me!) and continue to walk in His favour and His overwhelmingly passionate love for me, up where He is - in the heavenlies. 

The life of faith is simply a vantage point where God has made me just - or holy - and my belief in all He has already accomplished for me just leads me to gratefully worship Him and want to live my life in His love and power. He's made that possible by His once-for-all sacrifice - it's all Him - and ... it's so beautiful up above the clouds with Him in my spirit. Why would I want anything less?

What if? EVEN if.

The question "What if?" has been a prominent feature in my life. It's been a source of great stress and discomfort, and it could be followed by any number of possibilities based on fear. "What if they don't like me?" "What if I don't get the job?" "What if they say no?" "What if I don't get into that school?"  "What if they laugh at me?" ... the list is endless.  

And there's never an answer. The question hangs out there and begs fear to jump all over it and create all kinds of worst-case scenarios. And I have been blessed (although sometimes it doesn't FEEL like a blessing) a vivid imagination. 

The What If question even carries through to my spiritual life. "What if I don't pray fervently enough?" "What if I fail?" "What if I let Him down?" 

It dawned on me this evening that my performance, my success, is not the point. I put so much pressure on myself and it's (unfortunately) been drummed into me by the church as much as any other institution. I keep acting as though love is conditional, grace can only go so far, and my destiny can be influenced by how good I am at doing all those things I have been conditioned to do in order to get God to notice me: pray, meditate, fast, read the Word, go to church, attend Bible study, etc., etc., ... 

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with those things. I am saying that if I am depending on my adherence to some standard set by someone else of what my behavior should be (there's that "S word" again) I will end up chasing my tail and winding up in defeat because I have forgotten that He is my source, He gives grace beyond measure, and He is the One on whom salvation rests (not me, thank God!!)

Photo "Sun In The Sky" courtesy of
graur razvan ionut at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Instead of asking "What if I fail?" or "What if I'm not saying the right words?" or whatever the question of the moment is, I wonder what would happen if I replaced my WHAT with an EVEN. ... 

An EVEN would prompt me to finish the sentence instead of dreaming up those worst-case scenarios. Here's an example. Take the question, "What if I fail?"  Hmmm.  That becomes "EVEN if I fail..."   "Even if I fail, He never does."  "Even if I don't say it right, God knows my heart and He cares about me."  "Even if I let Him down ... He's never let ME down."  "Even if I let go of Him, He still has hold of me. He stays faithful even if I've lost faith." 

His constancy is something I depend upon. It is my life.

It doesn't mean that I don't try; it means that my focus has shifted from my efforts to His sufficiency. It causes me to be grateful, not boastful when I "succeed" or despondent when I "fail." All that performance-based, rules-based living is nothing but a religious trap. 

I can be confident in His love. It's the one thing He keeps saying to me over and over again. "I love you." Even if my own love back to Him pales in comparison (and let's face it, we can never ever match His love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, patience, you name it! Even if my love pales in comparison (and it does) ... His love is strong, passionate, enduring, and all-encompassing.

And it gives me something that all the "What ifs" in the world don't give me. It gives me joy - His joy - which, after all, infuses me deep inside with His supernatural strength.

David's Dead Dog - or - Ripples of Grace

He was damaged goods - the only survivor of a failed empire. In the great escape when his grandfather and father died in battle and the new king came to power, his governess dropped Mephibosheth, and he was injured - crippled for life. He was only five years old at the time. His older brothers were all killed in the people's zeal to eradicate all traces of his grandfather's kingdom.

Servants carried him to safety and he lived a quiet, unassuming life, far from the public eye. He stayed out of harm's way as the battles for the control of his country raged near and far. He contributed nothing to the war effort - he could not. His life depended on staying safely anonymous. 

And he thought he did. 

Then, the tables turned - he received a summons to appear before the king. "This is it," he must have thought. "I'm dead meat." 

But the king did something totally unexpected, way over the top. "Your father was my best friend. I want to make sure you never want for anything. So I am restoring your grandfather's land back to you. It's yours," King David told him. "Your grandfather's servant Ziba will look after it for you, it's all arranged. And as often as you like, every day if you want, you can eat with me and my sons at my own table in the palace." 

David was within his rights to have Mephibosheth - and his son Mica - killed. Yet because of Mephibosheth's father, Jonathan, David chose to be generous to this young man. You can read the story for yourself in 2 Samuel 9.

"Who am I," Mephibosheth marveled, "that you would look at a dead dog like me?" He was keenly aware that he was a cripple. He KNEW that he could contribute nothing to the king's wealth or power, that he was actually a drain on the king's resources. 

Photo "Nicely Arranged Table" courtesy of marin at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

But David was true to his word - he restored all of Saul's lands and appointed Ziba and his sons to look after it, and Mephibosheth? 

Mephibosheth ate - sumptuous fare beyond what he could imagine- every day in the private residence of the king. He was waited on hand ... and foot. He became a treasured part of the family. 

And he knew it. Never again did he ever have to ask King David if it was okay for him to walk into the palace. He just walked in. The right was already his. It was a done deal.

And he never - ever - forgot what the king did for him. He never took it for granted. He had a new life. He had a new start. His son Mica had a future. Gratitude was his daily companion. He grew to love the king.

Gratitude, love, and devotion are always the natural response to grace.

And even when David messed up big time, and eventually had to go on the run again (this time from his own son) Mephibosheth remained faithful, loyal to his benefactor. In fact, he made a vow that he would not cut his hair until the king returned to his home from being in exile. 

In the meantime, Mephibosheth's servant Ziba lied to David, saying that his master had designs on the throne. David believed him and gave Saul's lands to Ziba. But Mephibosheth stayed at the palace. He had been given that right, and it was never taken away.

After Absalom's death and David's return to the palace, Mephibosheth was able to tell the king the truth - that he had never wanted to return to the monarchy - that Ziba had lied.

David didn't go back on his word to Ziva - he just said that now Ziba and Mephibosheth would be co-owners of the property (remember that in those days, land was wealth...)

But this time it was Mephibosheth's turn to surprise David. "Let him have it all," he said. "I just want to stay with you."

"I just want to stay with you. Yes, Ziba wronged me, spread lies about me, and stole the inheritance you gave to me, away from me. But as long as you and I are together, my king - that's all I really want."

If we'd been able to ask Mephibosheth how he was able to let go, why he was so devoted to the king, I'm sure he would have said, with a shrug, "He rescued me." In other words, "He had every right to have me killed but he showed me mercy instead. I already have everything I need with him; why would I hold onto something else? I hold no ill will toward Ziba - I just want to be with the one who chose me." 

That's how grace works - from the top down - from the inside out. It creates ripples that touch everything and everyone with whom we come in contact. It remakes us. It transforms who we are, how we think about ourselves, and inevitably how we think about the people in our lives.

Life eternal - and grace so big - what's not to love about that?

More

For as far back as I can remember, I've heard people pray for, beg for, plead for, even demand revival. I have even participated in such prayer. The longing of those in the church has been for a widescale revival like those ones in the past - the ones involving the Wesley brothers, or Charles Finney, or more modern ones like Pensacola. Folks pray, "Do it again, God!" ... and I hear their hearts.

I'm going to risk a lot of flak here but ... I don't pray like that anymore. I don't even pray for revival - at least, not in that sense. 

Every revival in history has been preceded by a period of such intense dryness that even some members of the church have given up - rightly calling what remains - the lifeless shell of organized religion - "Ichabod" - the glory has departed. 

Without fail, every revival in history has come about because there was at least one person, and no more than a handful of people, who started seeking God earnestly and asking Him one question: "Is this all there is? Is there more to the Christian life than what I've been taught?" 

I know one such person. And this person would agree that seeking God's reality, His personal presence, His heart, is what brings the dry bones back to life and ignites the fire of new life - or should I say REnewed life. 

For revival, you see, is not what most people think it is. People think of revival as being more people coming into the church and becoming Christians. 

IT ISN'T. 

Revival is coming to life AGAIN.  Otherwise it would just be VIVAL. 

Yes. Yes, revival is for the CHURCH. Believers begin to ask that question of God - they DARE to ask Him - "Is there more?" 

All those dry, dusty rules, traditions of men, that people have clung to for generations - is that all there is? All those efforts, praying, trying to make God do what we want Him to do by toeing the line and racking up brownie points (only to fall flat on our faces and hit our knees, but the heavens seem to be made of brass) ... all that going through the motions and singing this song, then that song, then the offering, then the sermon, then the closing finale ... 

Seriously God? is that all there is? 

All those hours upon hours of "doing devotions" ... grasping every little crumb that might fall to the floor for me ... is that how big You are God? really? All that time I've spent berating myself because I didn't measure up, promising to do better, begging You to show up in my life .... and .... nothing!! What is the deal, God? Are You there? DO You love me? Is Your presence and blessing in my life dependent on whether You are pleased with my lifestyle, my choices? if it is, then that's pretty pathetic because I know I can NEVER do enough to please You - You are satisfied with no less than perfection! 

So what is the deal, God? What is it I'm missing? What MORE is there?? 

[Notice - my readers - I switched from talking about US and HIM, and made it into a conversation between me and God - I used ME and YOU. I did that on purpose, to show that it HAS to be personal to be real. Let me continue.]

And then You start to reveal Yourself. Slowly, I realize something absolutely earth-shattering, just as it was the very first day of Grace, the day the earth split and the graves were opened, the day Jesus died for me. 

"More" has been there all along. I just never realized it! Your grace, by which I am saved and through which I entered this relationship, isn't just a "get out of jail free" card. It's a continual "not guilty" verdict, not just for the heinous acts of the past but also for every single time I ever do any less than perfect ... for the rest of my life. And this is all because of the all-sufficiency of Jesus' once-for-all sacrifice. For everyone who believes. For me.

Photo "Happy Jumping Child" by
chrisroll at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Why? Why would You do that for me? How could You love me that much? If this rabbit-hole goes as deep as it looks like it goes, then You love me as much as You love Jesus!! You call me Your daughter! You have set Your (fiery, passionate) love upon me! I am (not just I have, but I am) Your righteousness because of Jesus! How high, how deep and how wide a love is that!?! 

Such gratitude! I am made whole, complete in You, forgiven, restored, accepted, loved! 

Along with those who have realized this greatest gift of "More" in its fulness, I can't help but rhapsodize about You! Thank You for putting those people into my life - I get together with them because it's the most natural thing in the world to me, not because I am "expected" to. 

We share with each other often about all the wonderful things You are, all the great and glorious things You are doing in our lives. We lift each other up. We lift YOU up. We worship You in the beauty of holiness, made right and righteous in Your sight, completely accepted in the Beloved One.

This is the core of revival; nothing more, nothing less. The joy and excitement that we have because of You spills out into our everyday lives. We exude You, we "ooze" the Spirit and people naturally come up to us - even if we're alone - and start asking us to pray for them. Or they become very uncomfortable in their own existence and want this "more" for themselves too. 

And You give it. Your Grace, Your Love is just that big. Bigger than we can possibly imagine.

And more. Much more.

Unveiled

Lately I've been trying to fathom why it is that many unbelievers run screaming in the opposite direction when believers start talking about God. And especially about Jesus. At first glance it would seem to be self-evident - their hearts are unregenerate, after all, and they don't understand spiritual things.

However, I suspect it might be more than that. I suspect that they've been burned by believers whose entire reason for being seems to be following the rules and making sure that everyone else follows them too. Such believers consider themselves to be 'passionate' or perhaps even 'prophetic' or 'apostolic' ... with a message to convey regardless of how it's delivered. Such folks are often heard commenting on current events by saying that "disease X" is God's punishment for lawlessness, that a particular group of people is an abomination to God, or that a person or persons whose behavior has been reprehensible will "get theirs." This demonstrates a view of God that is very ummm ... Odin-like, shall I say. Lightning-bolts and all that. 

To the unbeliever, by the way, that's just plain weird ... and scary beyond all reason.

Holding views like this can feel very good to believers, even "right" ... because humans have an extremely well-developed sense of what's "fair." We want evil to be punished and good to prevail. We want things to fit into nice little pigeon-holes. This is right. That is wrong. There is no gray.

The problem is, there's a LOT of gray. 

I'm not saying there are no absolutes. What I'm saying is that there are fewer absolutes than we think. And something that WE might consider to be 'wrong' may just be 'different.' 

We believe the Bible. We read the same Word ... and yet its meaning is different for each one depending on who and what we believe God is. If we believe God to be a vindictive, judging, punishing, and lightning-bolt-throwing god, then we are going to read Scripture differently than if we believe Him to be loving, merciful, gracious, and forgiving. And our whole take on life will look like what we believe Him to be. 

Photo "Sun In The Sky" provided courtesy of
graur razvan ionut at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

This is what Paul was trying to get at when he said in 2 Corinthians 3 that when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts. And that when someone turns to the Lord, that veil is taken away. 

The veil is that mind-set of the avenging god, the one who must be appeased, the one of whom we must be afraid or he'll come down from on high and club us ... that one (we know this one so well; he thrives on our insecurities) who demands perfection and who is angry all the time because we never. measure. up. 

But Jesus. 

Jesus is different. Jesus isn't that vengeful god; He is merciful. Loving. Tender-hearted. Compassionate. And He opened the way to relationship with the Father the way it was meant to be - not in fearful cringing but in open-faced adoration, like a child lifting up its hands to a loving, gentle Daddy and saying, "Uppie!" 

In intimate relationship with Him, in gratitude for His love and forgiveness, that's how the veil comes off. The glory of the old covenant is outshone by the new. Love trumps hate. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Compassion dissolves condemnation. Forgiveness demolishes fear. 

We are unveiled by His love. Individually. We are allowed to gaze into His face - one on one - and be transformed by His grace. This is not because of anything we did or do, or because of any rule we obeyed or obey. It's because of His initiative. It's entirely His doing. 

We don't get to boast. We get to be loved. 

We don't change. We ARE changed ... by His Spirit and ONLY as we "behold Him" without the veil, without the veil of religious thinking - the same religious thinking that feels it has to defend His honor and charge in, commando-style, to take the world by force and MAKE it bow to Him. 

That's not God's style. Jesus has already given us everything we need. He's already removed the veil. 

So believe it - and behold Him.

Unveiled.

New glasses

About fifteen years ago, my eyesight, which had always been excellent, started to deteriorate. I started getting headaches from eye strain. I hated going out after dark because the headlights hurt my eyes.

I really didn't understand that my eyesight was the problem. I just knew that I didn't want to read or travel or do anything I enjoyed doing, and didn't quite know why. 

My husband put it together - he'd had glasses since he was in grade three. He suggested I see an optometrist.

The rest was history. I had an astigmatism, which later (about six years later) developed into the need to wear bifocals. 

After I got used to my new glasses, it was amazing to me how much I had been missing as time wore on, how slowly and insidiously my world had gotten more and more small. I had to put more and more effort into doing the things that came so naturally to me after I got my glasses: read, drive, enjoy a sunny day, look up at the stars... and the list went on. Suddenly, it was as though I'd been given my life back - I wondered why I hadn't gone to the eye doctor much sooner.

Now, I can't imagine my life without my glasses. It's unthinkable for me to get up and leave the house without putting them on. They help me see the world, they protect me from the biting wind, they keep me from getting eye strain headaches.

Why am I talking about this? 

I see a spiritual parallel here. I needed glasses but I was unaware of it. I was trying to do things that became more and more impossible for me to do, and the harder I tried, the worse I felt. 

Once I looked through the new lenses, all became clear. I didn't have to strive and strain anymore. 

In this parallel, my state before going to get glasses was how I spent most of my Christian life. Like those around me and like my leaders, I was trying to produce those end results I kept hearing about - love your neighbour, read the Bible, pray, live in victory, share your faith - and the more I strained and tried, the less I could see clearly. 

Trying to manufacture the life I had heard about and read about - the victorious life that I was taught came through obedience - only ended up with me being frustrated, discouraged and eventually resentful. "Is this all there is?" I wondered to myself. 

Oh, there were times I lived in what I called "victory." Basically that looked like grit-your-teeth obedience with no divine power to carry that out. And I did have some successes. But they were temporary, and I would eventually crash and burn. And then I would blame myself for not "doing it right." 

Photo "Brunette With Folded Arms Posing
Cheerfully" courtesy of stockimages at
www.freedigitalimages.net

What a headache.


It wasn't until I began to realize the depths of the grace that Jesus died to give me that I started to walk into freedom. Unconditional love. Unconditional. Without conditions. That meant - and the glasses went on - that I didn't have to strive! I didn't HAVE to knock myself out in failure after failure after failure, wondering where the joy and all that 'abundant life' was. I was focusing on the end result, the things I was told all of my Christian life that I needed to DO. 

Instead, all I needed to do was put on the glasses of grace - to focus on Jesus, on His love, on His grace, and - as simplistic as that sounds - THERE was where the abundant life started. He loved me. He LOVES me! And I just fell in love with Him, and keep falling in love with Him more and more, the more I realize how deeply He loves me. That's it, that's all. Again and again and again. Deeper every. single. time.

Out of that love (that came from Him in the first place) flows all the other things I had missed and wondered where they were. And oh yes, listening to His voice (because I love to hear it) and doing what He says when He says it. But that's no longer my focus. My focus is HIM. All it ever needed to be was HIM, all along.

It boggles my mind that for so many years I missed something so incredibly simple. 

And now, living in grace and growing more and more in love with the One who IS grace, it amazes me how people miss it! And then I remember that that was me, not all that long ago. 

And sometimes it still is me. But it's like ... it's like when I am tired on a Saturday morning and come out of the bedroom and start puttering around with some household chores ... and then I wonder why my head is starting to hurt. My hand goes up to rub my head ... and then I realize that I'm not wearing my glasses. I forgot to put them on. 

So I put them on and soon the headache is gone. I don't waste time beating myself up that I forgot them. I just put them on. And I can see without straining. That's it.

That's how grace works too. It's always there, so much so that I forget it's there, it's such a part of my everyday. Like my glasses. 

Like Jesus. 
How cool is that?