One Bad Apple

I was talking with my brother about a situation that had recently troubled me regarding the actions of one individual, and how I was tempted to walk away from all members of that group based on that individual's actions. I had recently realized how that was an overreaction on my part. In talking about it with my brother, I inadvertently quoted a song by either the Jackson 5 or the Osmonds (depending on who you're talking to) called "One Bad Apple." I said, "One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch." 

He responded by saying, "Yeah, as long as you don't let it sit there. Throw that thing away!"   

I nodded, making myself a promise to reflect some more on what was essentially an important life lesson: remove the toxic thing from your life so that you don't ruin your enjoyment of the rest of your life. Like when Jesus said, "if your eye offend you, pluck it out."  I don't think He was talking about self-mutilation, but about closing the door on something that was not healthy for you. 

Free image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

But also, just because one person did something that hurt you, don't assume that everyone who seems similar will be dangerous to you. That's living life in fear and allowing that one person to poison your future. Don't allow that to happen. Learn the lesson you were meant to learn from that experience, and after that, throw the rest away. Remember that even a spoiled apple has unspoiled seeds, that good things can come from bad events. It doesn't mean you go looking for the bad, or that you embrace that person again, but that you know that God is looking after you, lovingly caring for you. In remembering that, you can cast your cares and concerns onto Him and trust that He will be there, loving you, working everything together to make you more like Him (Romans 8:28-29). 

That was the 'sermon' that I preached to myself. It helped me become more willing to look for the good in things, and to not go to that place of viewing myself as a victim. Rather, I needed (and still need more and more) to trust myself to the care of God, to His grace and faithfulness, to know that He will allow into my life only that which will make me a better person. 

Finally, without belabouring the point, I needed to learn that there are a lot more good apples in my life than there are bad ones. I'm determined to keep it that way. :)

The Reason

I see the expression "Jesus is the reason for the season" posted a lot on social media and talked about in groups of friends who share the Christian faith. And I get it. I really do. When my family and I gather on the morning of December 25, the Christmas story is the first thing we focus on before anything else, and we sing Happy Birthday Jesus (or try to - see this link). 

But as we go through the years, we have come to question a lot of the trappings that go with the celebration of Christmas. We understand that December 25th was the date chosen in the early 4th century as "Christ-mass" or "celebration of Christ" by an emperor (Constantine) who wanted Christianity to be the "state religion," and who appropriated the festival of Saturnalia (celebrating the Roman god Saturn, the god of agriculture) to make the transition more palatable. Saturnalia is the pagan holiday, celebrated between December 17 and 24, from which we get our "Christian" tradition of giving gifts, feasting, erecting and decorating an evergreen tree, hanging garlands and wreaths, and using holly branches/berries in decorations.  The lengthening days just after the winter solstice (December 21) meant that many people in ancient times (including the Romans) lit lights (candles and lamps) to welcome the coming Sun.

Photo by Brent Keane from Pexels

Other traditions come from other religious beliefs: the Yule log come from the pagans of Europe, mistletoe comes from the Druids, ivy (used in Christmas decorations in England) is an ancient Roman symbol of the god Bacchus, the god of wine and pleasure, and the modern Santa Claus, thought to be a North American adaptation of the English Father Christmas, had his origins far earlier, in the supreme god Odin from Norse mythology, who is always depicted as an old bearded man in flowing robes. As we know, the Vikings influenced the development of early Anglo-Saxon culture in England.

In addition, the date itself is suspect. It is most likely that Jesus was not born on December 25, or even in the winter. (Yay for no snow!) He was probably born in the early spring, for that is when ancient Hebrew shepherds kept flocks of ewes and lambs outside of Bethlehem, a bedroom community not far from Jerusalem. The lambs were born in late February or early March, and remained with their mothers for the first few weeks in preparation for the Passover feast, so it is likely that Jesus was born in March or April.

Knowing all this means, for me, that I hold the traditions and trappings loosely and that I no longer associate them with the actual celebration of Jesus' birth. Because we have a statutory holiday devoted to the celebration of "Christmas," December 25 is a convenient time for me to remember that God became man, to commemorate His birth, and to spend time with family and friends. Yes, we decorate - but not a whole lot. Yes, we exchange gifts, but we try to make those gifts meaningful expressions of love instead of an obligation based on guilt or greed. Yes, we have a big meal - turkey with dressing and some sort of pie for dessert - but we choose to share that meal with at least one person who otherwise would be alone on a day that many associate with being among family and friends.

But Jesus is the Reason for the season only because we (as believers) choose to make it so. There seems to me to be a certain amount of arrogance in how Christians have judged those who celebrate December 25 without Jesus at the centre of it. We have chosen to celebrate Jesus' birthday at this time, but others - because they are not Christian - have every right to celebrate it however they wish. 

So it makes no difference to me whether people say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever, to wish each other well during this season. I look at the well wishes behind such words and I say back to them, "Same to you!" instead of trying to make them feel guilty for using the "wrong" words. At this time of year, when the nights are longest and the endless winter stretches out before us in such bleakness, it is good to remember that there are certain things which transcend circumstance and tie us together as human beings. We believers need not be obnoxious about our faith; that only drives people away. We can be kind, generous, and accepting, and attract people to Jesus rather than promote our own agendas (and in so doing, repel people). We can hold precious in our hearts the Babe who left such opulent richness to lay wrapped in rags, helpless, in a feeding trough.

And we can be grateful that He did this, knowing He would be rejected and crucified, to give us purpose. Himself. He IS The Reason - not for the season ... but for Living.

Waking Up

Winter's long sleep is reaching the twilight hour before the dawn, when we're not even sure if there is a change happening, except ... except ... the geese have returned.  The trees - still leafless and silent - are budding.  Female mourning doves are returning, and the males waiting for them have taken to billing and trying to chase them down one at a time. The daylight lingers just a little bit longer. Rain melts away snowbanks - imperceptibly at first, then more noticeably as the earth awakens.  The grass - if it shows at all - is still brown and wilted, but as if by magic, gradually appears green moss and the first stirrings of the lichen that will eventually bear the muted purple tones of heather.  

Photo "Blooming Snowdrops In The Spring"
courtesy of radnatt at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Those who know me best know that I hate winter: the cold, the piercing damp wind, the lack of light, the ice and slippery footing, the bulky clothing, and how it feels like it never seems to end. Every year, though my head knows it will, my heart wonders if it will EVER end. 

This morning, a snowbank, which had stubbornly persisted the last two months outside our picture window, was suddenly gone after a soaking drizzle kept at it all night.  Beneath it, I was surprised to see tiny one-inch sprigs of green: thin sword-like leaves bearing, in a place or two, another layer of foliage that had a tinge of purple to it, a promise of a bud soon to form. "Crocus," I breathed, noting my own sudden, internal sprig of ... what was it? happiness?  Hope? I couldn't quite tell which it was... 

A few feet away, like tiny rolled up cones of forest green paper, tulip plants were sprouting from beneath the mixture of soil and wet maple leaves from last fall, half-decomposed maple leaves I had forgotten were there until the snowbank was gone. They were about three inches above the soil, so I realized that they had been slowly growing beneath the snowbank - and with the rain, the snowbank slowly rolled back like a heavy velvet curtain at a live theater performance.  

I stayed at my position in the window, kneeling on an armchair with my nose pressed up against the glass, for a few minutes.  I drank in the sight, reveling in the tiny slivers of color, until my knees told the rest of me that it was time to get back on my feet.  Yet, a few times throughout the day, I have returned to my perch to check and see whether the buds have shown any sign of maturing.  My soul needs this gentle, delicate whisper of promise, a distant echo of God's own rich voice.  Too long my soul has just been "hanging on" waiting for better times, for more daylight moments in which to soak in nourishment as the leaves soak in the sun's rays. It is as if my soul has joined the Earth in its trip around the sun; it is now in a better position to benefit from the warmth that was always there all along. 

I, like the Earth, the plants, the birds, the trees, and the grass, am waking up. Winter is finally giving way - even if only a little - to the persistent hopefulness of spring.  The longer, darker nights are shortening.  I am more aware of the Light. It is good; He is good.

Summer Fall Winter Spring

In a temperate climate (one with four seasons), we take summer for granted. Where I live, it lasts a relatively short time - full of hot and humid days, hot and humid nights, broken only by rain ranging from gentle to torrential. In the fall, the temperatures begin to descend, the humidity gradually departs accompanied by still more rain, the migratory birds leave in groups, and the plants prepare for hibernation.  In the winter, which (here) lasts the longest of all of the seasons, the temperatures plummet and rain falls in the form of snow - sometimes little, sometimes much - and most people (and animals) hole up until it passes. And in the spring, which starts later than the calendar says it does, temperatures creep upward, the snow and ice melt, birds return, and there is a hint (growing ever stronger) of fresh green grass as the stiff ground yields under our feet.

Throughout the seasons stand the deciduous trees - graceful or gnarled, tall or squat, their beauty is unsurpassed. They are the first to signal the changes in season - in summer, their seeds have fallen and their leaf colour deepens, and their canopies grow large and shade those who wish to seek the shade; in fall, they produce less chlorophyll and their hidden colours emerge before the leaves dry out and fall; in winter, they patiently wait, sap frozen in a state of suspended animation, and long before the first blade of grass, the sap starts to flow and their branches are pregnant with new life.  

Photo "Autumn Gold" provided by
Simon Howden at www.freedigitalphotos.net

So like the stages of life.  It seems that in our prime, when we are flourishing and thriving, we provide automatic shelter for those who need help - until they don't anymore, and our little ones, the ones we protected for so long, fly away.  Then, the colours of our life emerge as we stop trying to rely on ourselves and just relax and let go - the beauty is indescribable and yet, we are so often unaware of it.  Eventually, the moment comes when we let go completely, and fly away ourselves.  What is left behind is a cold reality for those left behind - the grief of winter, where nothing moves except the frigid winds of loneliness and despair.  Sometimes, all that can be hoped for is to endure - endure until the spring comes ... for it always comes, even though the winter seems the longest. 

And then comes the shift in the wind, the warming of the earth, the imperceptible lengthening of the days.  And it is the trees - bless them, they have not died as it appeared - which burgeon with hope, and in the very spot vacated by the leaves that departed months ago, new shoots form, unseen except for the swelling promise: buds from which will eventually burst new leaves and seeds for the next generation. 

Photo "Maple Seeds" courtesy of
Carlos Porto at www.freedigitalphotos.net

Those who have died have flown, and in fact, nourish the new growth of those who come after - a never-ending cycle of birth, growth, life, maturity, death, grief, and rebirth, - all showing us that it is not an end when circumstances change.  There is only change.  Though change is hard to endure, it is one of the unchanging things about life.

The sap still lives; the sun still gives light and (though it does not seem so in winter) warmth to sustain us.  And in the very spot where once there was loss, there will be that spark of life, even though it might look like it is dead and hopeless now.  There is hope.  Life is eternal.  The container, the manifestation of life may disappear, but it does not mean that life ceases to exist.  It only means that it has changed form.  And someday too, we will join in the dance and learn for ourselves what it is to change form, to fly away and in so doing, nurture those yet to come.

He GETS me!

You know those occasions (like Christmas or birthdays or maybe even Father's / Mother's Day or anniversaries) when you get gifts? You hint around at what you would like to get - things you need but you don't really think to get for yourself because you're too busy meeting everyone else's needs. Then the day comes, and you start opening your gifts, and find out that some people got the hints - and you are grateful - but then there is this one gift that you never would have expected, but the moment you lay eyes on it, you know that the giver SO totally "gets" you. 

The last time that happened to me, I had hinted (and sometimes even told) what I was looking for - and I got that (and I was grateful!) But I got more. Someone thought about me, about what I like to do (write!), and gave me a gift that touched my heart. It didn't cost much (didn't have to!) but the thought and love behind it was so evident. 

For the curious among you - it was a bound journal.  I hadn't used one in ages ... and here it was - beautifully bound and decorated, and inside there were what looked like calligraphy designs on the corners of the pages. With the journal was a set of fine-tipped pens with coloured ink. That very night, I started writing in my journal - the beginning of a personal chronicle of a spiritual journey. 

More and more I am seeing spiritual parallels as I ponder the goodness and love of God. Scriptures I have known all of my adult life pop into my head with fresh meaning:

"He has made us accepted in the Beloved [One]." 
"He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think..." 
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world..."
"He has [already] given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness..."
"We love Him because He first loved us." 
"I have engraved you on the palms of My hands..." 
"Nothing shall separate us from the love of God...no created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is [embodied in] Christ Jesus..."
"No one will be able to pluck [you] out of My hand..."
"God is love."
"For God SO loved he world that He gave His only begotten Son..."
"In this is love - not that we loved Him but that He first loved us, and gave His life..."
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself."

You get the idea. These truths are personalized gifts from Someone who so totally GETS US. He understands our deepest needs and desires, and has already provided for every possibility that will ever exist.  EVERY possibility.  Sin, failure, rejection, rebellion, you name it, He's got it covered. ALL of it. All of your stuff, all of my stuff, forever. Forever. To infinity plus one times infinity! 

The old notion of god as the guy with the club in his hand waiting to punish us if we step out of line is disappearing. In his place is God who is love, reconciling the world to Himself AS JESUS, showing us how much He loves, the lengths to which He would go to get our attention and help us understand how much He has loved us the whole time. He GETS us - He made us and then He became one of us to let us KNOW that He gets us. The more I concentrate on this God, the more the railings and thrashings of those who claim to be His ... just don't make sense.  

Photo "Hand Of Child And Father"
courtesy of winnond at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Could it be that God cares far less about who is running the countries of the world and far more about Who we run to - not out of fear but out of a realization of how much, how deeply He loves us?? has ALWAYS loved us? even before the world began, knowing that humans wouldn't "get" Him, STILL choosing to say, "Let there be light"?? He's a relational God. He wants to be in a love relationship with His creation. He always HAS.

There's a thought. Down through history, there have been people who have grasped this truth of God being relational. Abram knew it - from the moment God spoke to him and told him to leave his roots behind - Abram knew (or perhaps learned shortly thereafter) that God was after relationship - and he was called "the friend of God." Why? because he obeyed? No, not primarily - it was because he 'believed God' (not that he believed God did this or that, but rather that God WAS (is) everything that the human heart desires.)  King David knew it - even with his warmongering attitude (which God called him out on, remember the temple?) - he totally "got" that God loved him, and that He could be talked to, trusted, and loved in return. Because he "got" that, he was called "a man after God's own heart."  Not because he went around killing Philistines or whoever, but because he understood that God loved him, and he had a love relationship with his Creator as a result. 

One day, Jesus told His listeners what the greatest commandment IN THE LAW was - to love God with all one's heart, mind, soul and strength (and the second - as a bonus - was to love one's neighbour as oneself.)  That was the greatest in the LAW. But He also said that He came to fill up the Law ... not to destroy it but to make it unnecessary ... because He would overflow us, to take away the stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh, as when Aslan breathed on the stone statues in the witch's garden and brought them back to life. Again, He also said, "A new commandment I give to you - that you love one another as I have loved you." (emphasis mine).  

Okay, let's look at that. Back up the truck past the commandment (which everyone focuses on) to the way in which He helps us keep it ... "as I have loved you." Put another way, He is saying... "Let Me love you, totally, completely, unconditionally, and once you do, you will [automatically] love one another out of your overflowing love for Me."  Doesn't that resonate, vibrate in your hearts as it does mine? As John (the beloved disciple) said, "...His commandments are not burdensome." (1 Jn 5:13). Now, the only way I know of that the statement, "His commandments are not burdensome" would be true would be if we WANT to do them .. and the only motivation that I can think of that would make me WANT to obey a commandment (because I HATE being told what to do) is if I have experienced His love and goodness for myself - not just a mental assent but a heart-revelation.  

None of this "Well, we're supposed to love so we'll just grit our teeth and do it..." stuff. Contrary to popular Christian myth, love - although it may involve an act of the will - is not primarily so.  Love is a FEELING. (How many of us would have said "Yes" when our spouse proposed marriage if there were no feeling at all? if we had to grit our teeth and let him put the ring on?)

Yikes. There's a radical thought: Jesus as Someone proposing marriage - but that is exactly what He does. It's to that kind of love-relationship that He has called our spirits - the unseen part of us that makes us who we are, that part of us that will leave our bodies when we die. And yet He wants us to open our hearts, our spirits to Him and let Him love us. Now. Eternity is NOW. It's NEVER "later." 

These are some of the thoughts I have been having as I ponder His love for myself.  I challenge you to spend some time today considering the depth, the passion of His unconditional love. Just try it.

Greater Things

I was reading an email earlier this month and I stumbled over the sentence, "People cannot progress beyond their leaders." 

Huh?

I started seriously thinking about that, pondering it. I think the person meant that students can't learn more than their teachers know (if the only source of learning is the teacher.) 

Even though the person who said it certainly did not mean it in the following way, there is a sense in which that kind of statement limits the power of God. 

Jesus told His disciples that they would do the works that He did, and even greater things, because He was going to His Father. (John 14:12)

He had only been there for three years or so, working miracles left, right, and centre by the power of the Spirit, and He wanted them to know what to expect after He left. Answer: MORE!!

It's been just shy of 2000 years since He did those works, and yes, His followers have healed so many sick, raised so many dead, cleansed so many lepers and cast out so many demons that it would be impossible to count. The works are greater in number, exponentially! 

They've been greater in geography too: now people all over the world have been saved, delivered, healed, cleansed, and given new life, not just in the old Roman Empire but in places the original disciples never even heard of. 

Illustration "Giving To The Poor" by
David Castillo Dominici at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

They've been greater in visibility. Modern technology has made it possible to see thousands of people gathered and dozens, even hundreds at a time having their lives transformed by the power of God. 

Jesus also told His followers that the Holy Spirit would lead them. He'd teach them to remember Jesus' words when they needed to remember them. He'd direct them which people to talk to, and what to say and do when they got there (no matter how small; remember, He's the architect, so a bolt is just as important as a beam...) The Holy Spirit would show them which people would be responsive to the message, and which people needed to have a seed of hope or faith planted. Living life in the Spirit would grant His followers (including US!!) the same access to the power and direction of God that Jesus did when He was here on earth. 

The same power. The same access. The same. 
Wow!!

This is one reason why, if teachers teach the students how to listen to the Spirit, the students can indeed go beyond what the teacher knows. It's no fault of the teacher and it is no virtue of the student; it is just a function of the Holy Spirit to go beyond what we can imagine.

After all, with Him, all things are possible. 
 (Now where have I heard that before??)

Battle Cry

I know someone, someone very close to me, who all her life has felt abused by the church. She loves the Lord, and she talks to Him and hears from Him on a regular basis, but when she considers going to an assembly, she shudders and her stress level skyrockets. 

The reason is the people. People have certain set standards of behavior that they impose upon her. They judge her for various reasons, none of which have anything to do with the gospel or with grace or love. 

She's been bullied and belittled in front of others. She's been given the "eagle eye" by those who have taken it upon themselves to be her judge and jury. She's been manipulated by guilt and shamed into doing things that she didn't agree with. She has concluded that church-goers are - by and large - a bunch of self-serving, bigoted, small-minded control freaks. 

I can't argue, much as I would like, because I know people like that - to be fair to us Christians, both in and out of the church. 

But here, in this forum, I'm talking to believers.

Jesus wasn't ... ISN'T ... anything like these people who criticize and judge, who try to impose their values on those who don't measure up to their standards. 

I like what one believer did when a group of anti-abortionists (I'd say pro-lifers but there wasn't anything pro or life about what they were doing) staged a protest in front of a clinic, shouting inflammatory things at women who were entering. This guy trimmed his beard, dressed up in a white robe with a purple sash, stood about thirty feet from the protesters, and carried a sign that said, "I'm not with them."  

I'm not exactly sure why folks have to think that because they're in a war, that the enemy is the world and its anti-God system (but not only that, the enemy is also every other Christian that doesn't subscribe to their particular code of behavior.) They write their politicians, they sign petitions and put graphic content on Facebook or into flyers and posters where little children can see it and be traumatized by it, and in their meetings they rant and rave, they stomp and shout ... and this is supposed to ATTRACT people to Jesus??? It sends people in the opposite direction! When they ostracize and bully new believers who are like the tender, bruised reed spoken of by Isaiah, they participate in the extinction of the church to which they adhere. 

"We do not wrestle against flesh and blood," Paul wrote, "but against [spiritual] powers..." The world's methods (such as political involvement or carrying placards) and the world's reactions (such as shaming and manipulation) JUST DON'T WORK in the church or when used BY the church. Or rather, they don't produce the results we are aiming for. We are aiming for as many people as possible to embrace the gospel. That is the only way to change society: one heart at a time. All those other methods we're so drawn to - because they give us the illusion that we have control over other people's behavior - don't do anything to further that goal. Acceptance does. Grace does. Forgiveness does.

The Captain of the Lord's Hosts (Jesus) is all about LOVE. His modus operandum is GRACE. And believe it or not, the only warfare that we are called to do is not about pushing back the darkness or taking back what the devil stole, or any of that stuff. That's not love, that's theatrics based on the lie that we have any power within ourselves. The power belongs to HIM. 

Yes ... yes we are in a battle. But traditional battle tactics are useless. 

Our battle cry is not in fierceness or intimidation. No... it consists of one thing and one thing only. It is a battle cry of LOVE. 

We humans are spiritual tuning forks. God's music is love: pure, intense, blazing love that is lavished upon us and into us by the Holy Spirit because of Jesus. When we resonate with that love, when we worship Him out of that love which He has given us in the first place, THAT is our warfare. It is unstoppable, indescribably powerful because it is in line with His nature. 

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

Worship - not because it is mandated or legislated but because we are responding to His love - is the ultimate weapon, the only weapon that we need. Walking in His love, in a constant attitude of worship and listening to His promptings, is incredibly powerful. 

In worship, in love, is the ultimate delegated authority, the kind of authority that Jesus gave to His disciples just before He left - the power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. Not to PRAY (read here: beg, plead, as if God would be doing you a HUGE favour if He'd "just" do this, as if He needed convincing, as if He wasn't good...) that God would heal the sick, but to activate the power of Jesus by actually SPEAKING to that dis-ease in the love of Jesus (repeat, the LOVE of Jesus for that person) and watch in wonder while  that horrible thing leaves. 

There is a reason why the authorities in Paul's day said that the Christians had turned the world upside down. They never organized one march against Rome. They never protested against the stoning or beheading of Christians. No. They turned loose the power of God's love, worshiping Him and loving people as He does, and the results were miraculous, one or two (or ten, or twenty) heart(s) at a time. People with incurable diseases were healed. Those with mental anguish, who were consumed with fear and anger and hatred, were set free by the power of His love. 

And that's why they listened to the believers' message. That's why the world got turned upside down. That's why God added to the church DAILY. People WANTED that. They were ATTRACTED to that.

When I hear Christian people speaking in spiteful tones about this or that group, this or that practice, planning their battle strategies, I cry inside. I believe that that weeping is my spirit resonating with His Spirit as He grieves for those who could be so much happier and freer. They'd be so much more peaceful and joyful if they just accepted and reveled in His love and shared that love with those who need it, while respecting their decisions and not judging them.

This is the battle cry - His love. That's all we need; that's all anyone needs.

Eustace's transformation

Eustace, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis) is transformed into a dragon through his own selfishness and greed while he is in the care of King Caspian, and brother and sister Edmund and Lucy Pevensey. 

After several adventures, during which he learns a lot about himself, he is wounded in the foreleg by a knight who doesn't know he's really a human. 

He flies away, blinded by pain, and lands on an island where there was a clear lake. There, on the shores of the lake, he meets Aslan - the lion who is the saviour of Narnia.

Here is his story in his own words:

Photo "Lion" courtesy of tiverylucky at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

"The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. but the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I dont know if he said any words out loud or not.

I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and , instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bath.

But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bath.

Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.

The the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke - 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.

Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I was smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.

After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me - (with his paws?) - Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. and then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream."

I love this account because it shows that self-effort and religious rituals do absolutely NOTHING to rescue us. But Jesus (who is Aslan in Narnia) does it all. ALL of it. 

Thank God.  Thank GOD.

Narnia in winter

I'm not sure if you've read the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, a series of seven novelettes written for children, but completely compelling for adults. These are allegories, meant to picture the story of man's paradise lost, the Saviour's redemptive work, stories of faith and perseverance, and the final triumph of the kingdom of Heaven. 

In his most well-known book of the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Narnia (the kingdom, of which Aslan the lion is the king) starts out buried in snow - a concept I can easily understand because I live in one of the Canadian Maritime provinces!! 

In the story, it has been winter for many years in Narnia. Hope has all but died out that there will ever be any change. The white witch has ruled for many years, enslaving the creatures who live there, turning those who defied her to stone, and ruling the rest through fear. Her informants are everywhere; she sends patrols out to keep the residents in line, and to make sure that there are no humans in Narnia because she has heard the prophecy. The prophecy is that when the humans become involved in Narnia, winter will end and so - eventually - will she. Then - Lucy Pevensy steps through the portal into Narnia, and tells her siblings, and they too cross the threshold into another world.

One of the great things about allegory is that there are so many different applications to the truth it can represent. 

Photo "Kingdom Of Cold" courtesy of
evgeni dinev at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

I have been acutely feeling the icy cold of the witch's power, and it has been distressing me, making me to want to rise up and rebel, to call out for Aslan to come and rescue us, to break the witch's power. 

To me, the witch and her icy kingdom represent the frozen grip of religion and all the bondage that it brings. "Touch not, taste not, handle not..." Rules, regulations, exceptions, limitations and especially additions. Additions of conditions, the gospel of "Jesus AND." The "Jesus AND" doctrine has been around the church almost since its inception. People who believed like this were called "Judaizers" - those who believed that you had to be saved AND follow the law of Moses. The whole book of Galatians was written to counter this lie. 

This is ... the same lie mixed with truth that Eve began to believe even before the serpent deceived her. Surely you must have seen that before - the religion she had begun to create in her own mind, the one that added to what God had told her husband Adam. God had told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, that in the day that he or his wife ate the fruit, they would die.  One simple commandment and the truth about the death they would die even while still physically alive.

But that one commandment wasn't good enough for Eve. No, she had to be religious about it. She had to create rules around how to act around the tree. She began to believe that the tree with its fruit was dangerous in itself, that God's commandment included not even touching the fruit, not even touching the tree. This was the enemy's tool to deceive her. For, you see, he was crawling all over that tree - and he was still alive. 

And that happened in a place that was perfect. Perfect. Don't think it isn't happening in the church. As a matter of fact, it's RAMPANT in the church. It panders to the tendency that humans have to want to control their own destiny; we don't like being powerless. However, without Jesus, that's exactly what we are. Going back to trying to hold up the weight of the world and fend off the devil by ourselves is not the kind of abundant life that Jesus talked about. It's bondage. It's dead and cold, stiff and uninviting, full of fear and dread and depression. The snow might be pretty - but a pretty prison is still a prison.

THAT is the winter I have been feeling - the icy tendrils of religion all around me, blinding people with how "beautiful" it is - because, don't you know, we humans love liturgy. We love structure. We love being able to slot this into this hole and that into that hole. Living life by rules (though it may be difficult at times) seems easier - more predictable, and sadly, more preferable - than living life the way Jesus intended: under the perfect liberty of His Love.

It's easier to live life with a playbook - but it's a living death. It's duty, dread, and depression - every day. And living in that kind of fear, we die a little more inside every day - and not in a good way.

It's HIS grace, HIS love that makes it possible for us to be in relationship with Him. ALL our sin is dealt with (past, present, future) and all He wants is for us to let Him know us - a progressive intimacy. Love bubbles up and melts the ice.

How tragic is it to miss the mark, to fall from Grace so far that we would willingly trade our God-given freedom for the rituals and rigors of regimented living? 

Come rescue us, Aslan. (Save us from ourselves, Jesus.) End the white witch's reign. (Put the spirit of Jezebel to death.) Melt the ice and make the flowers bloom again.

Soon. Very, VERY soon.

Love Wins

I was reading a fellow-blogger's post this morning and it brought tears to my eyes to see God's love in action because she included a video that demonstrated how it works so very well. (Click the link I've embedded in the bold print in the first line of this paragraph to read her post and watch the video.) 

Truth be told, just like my blogger friend, I am tired of "settling" for a version of God that says, "He is Love BUT..." And of course, after the BUT there are a whole host of exceptions that are supposed to prove the rule. They don't. 

Photo "Fountain" courtesy of dan at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

Either God is love or He isn't. Either He wants the best for me or He doesn't. It's that simple. It's that clear-cut. I open my heart before you today, having seen some pretty awful stuff in my life. Child abuse, peer bullying, abuse of authority in school, the workplace, and the church, addiction, grief, and the constant self-questioning and God-questioning that comes in irrational, vicious shouts from my own monkey-brain. 

Yet I believe, even in spite of all of that, that God is love, that God loves me. That He loves everyone. That Jesus is the perfect representation of who God is.

No ifs. No buts. Unconditional love. No darkness, no shadow of turning, as James puts it. No holds barred. Passionate, pure, unadulterated love, completely independent of my response.

And love wins. 

It wins when I sit in the dark on a winter's morning and wonder how I'll get up off the edge of the bed and get going on the day. It wins when I see the ones I love in physical and psychological pain. It wins when I fear what the next person will say or think. It wins when my heart breaks in grief. Love wins when the doctor says there's no hope. It just does. 

Because He is there. He loves. He cares. He wins. Every time.

Sometimes I don't have the faith it takes to move the mountains in my life. Then I realize it's absolutely not about how much faith I have or don't have, but where I put it: in Him. I don't need to embrace Him (although I do, and I love to) because He is already embracing me. He's got me. He's got my back (and every other part of me). I don't need to stress out. He's there, and He loves me. His love doesn't depend on my performance. It doesn't work like that. He delights in me. I make Him sing! (Zephaniah 3:17)

Can I relax in that? Dare I believe that He is that good? If I did, what would that look like? Perhaps it would look like my friend's favorite video. Perhaps it would be slightly different - but I can guarantee that people's lives would be irreversibly impacted, starting with mine. 

I'm only beginning to grasp the unconditional love of God; the more I do, the more I am persuaded that His love doesn't look anything like what we've become accustomed to in the western church. And because of this meditation I've been doing on Him being love, the more I am inclined to think that we've gotten the Christian life backward. We don't obey to receive His blessing at all.  He blesses us because He loves us far beyond our capability to receive ... and it is from the overflow of that love that we can't help but want to share the good news that is Him - the good news of Love coming down - the good news that there is nothing or no-one that can withstand Him. 

Because He is Love. And Love wins.

The care of God

For the last seven years, I've come to know a lot of people who are in a process they call recovery. The thing they are in recovery from is some sort of addiction: whether to alcohol, drugs, prescription pills, gambling, shopping or trying to control other people's behavior through either intimidation or care-taking. 

They all follow - to some degree or other - a program of recovery called the Twelve Steps. I won't recite them - other sites have done a much better job at it than I can, but at its core, the 12-step program of recovery is a blueprint for people who have been burnt by religion and who don't know how (but who know they need it or they will die) to develop a relationship with God. 

The backbone of the 12-step program is in the third step; it is the hingepin on which all the other steps turn. The first two steps naturally lead to the third. After the addict has come to (1) admit that he or she can't fight the addiction, and after he or she has (2) conceded to the existence of a power greater than himself or herself, and that only that power can restore his or her sanity, the third step is to "[give] our will and our lives over to the care of God ... praying only for a knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." 

For a lot of people that's scary stuff, because they've been taught all their lives that God is some big ogre that loves nothing more than to squash them like bugs or strike them with thunderbolts of damnation. They've been taught this by (unfortunately) their previous experiences with people who claim to be experts on spiritual matters.

I was talking to one such person this morning, who - through desperation and the firm knowledge that there was nothing he could do to beat the monster within - finally took that plunge and turned his will and his life over to the care of God. What he had found so intimidating was turning his life over to God, the very one he had been taught was that celestial sadist who caused - or at least allowed - all of the bad stuff in his life to happen. But then he noticed that this was not what Step 3 said!! Instead, it was all about turning one's will and one's life over to THE CARE OF GOD. 

Photo "Loving Father And His Baby" provided by
David Castillo Dominici at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

In essence, he had to fire the god he had been taught to believe in as a child. He had to realize that his childhood god was small and petty and nit-picky, vindictive and cruel. Instead, he came to believe in the Real God, the One who LOVED him, the one who CARED. The One Whose real character Jesus came to demonstrate. The One who dotes on us, who leans in close to smell that "baby smell" as we sleep, the One who delights in us, the One who thrills in His heart when we speak His name, the One who - as one author once said - "would rather die than live without us." (Paul Ellis) And that's precisely what He did - He died because He didn't want to live without us.

It's THIS God that this man believes in. It's THIS God that he trusts. And THIS God - the TRUE God - is becoming more and more dear to this man as time goes on.

Every day now for the last five and a half years or so, he has prayed this prayer, or one very much like it: "God, I gratefully turn my will and my life over to Your care, today. This 24-hour period is Yours, and whatever happens in it, I pray that You would take care of it, let me know what it is I can do as I go through it, and give me the strength to do whatever You lead me to do, just for today." 

I asked him about that word gratefully. (It's not specifically mentioned in the Third Step.) I wondered about that - out loud - to him. And he told me, "It's about that 24-hour period. It's today. I can gratefully give Him 24 hours. I can't speak for the rest of my life or into next week or even tomorrow. Whatever happens in that one day, whether it means that I scrub toilets or drive someone to an appointment or even breathe my last breath, I know that it will be God's will for me. And I can be grateful because I KNOW that He will take care of it. He's got this, He'll do this for me, He's already provided me the strength and all I do is walk in it. I know because He's done it for me before, and today He'll do it again. And I know that without His loving care for me, I would be sunk, without hope. So I am grateful for the answer to that prayer being carried out in my life for today. Because it's all I have." 

I know a lot of theology and all that stuff. But his simple answer simply floored me. There was a lot in it, and there still is. 

The care of God. 

God cares. 

He's not waiting with a club to thump me if I get it wrong; He looks after me and cares for me because I am His child (because and ONLY because of Jesus!). As a matter of fact, He has provided everything I'll need for each day, for each and EVERY day, to live in love, in peace, in freedom, in gratitude, in ... in joy!  

That's something worth thinking on ... something worth being grateful for.

Freed from Fear

The last couple of days I've been thinking about fear, learning about fear responses at university and how long-lasting they can be, and hearing about fear and how there are some who believe that unless we (and I heard someone say this so I'm not making it up) are scared of Jesus, we are worshiping the wrong God. 

Say what??

I've been going over how Jesus talked to the people - not to the religious folks because they are a different breed altogether - but the regular folks. And His disciples. 

Know what He said to them? A lot?

"Fear not."  "Don't be afraid." "You are loved." "You are worth more than many sparrows." Want to read them? just start reading the gospels. They are there.

This same theme continues throughout the New Testament. "Don't be anxious [read: fearful] for anything, but in everything ... let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6,7). "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear, for fear expects punishment." (1 Jn. 4:18). 

"Happy Jumping Child" photo courtesy of
chrisroll at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

I think that people are so afraid of believing how great God's grace is because they want to feel like they have control over their own lives. They want to believe that they can affect their own outcomes by what they do. While this is true in some situations of cause-and-effect, it is completely backward from the way of grace. The way of Jesus-AND says, "Repent / live right so that God will be good to you" .... and the way of grace says, "The goodness of God leads you to repentance / live right." 

The love and grace of God is so great!! He made a way through Jesus so that we didn't HAVE to be afraid! 

Let me ask you something. Do you think that the little children were afraid of Jesus? Do you think they cowered in fear away from Him? Of course not!! He was (and is) loving and joyous and fun! He exudes peace! What's not to love? Where He is, fear flees, because HE is that perfect love. It's HIM. HE does it. 

We humans want to think that we can do something to influence or manipulate the way things turn out. That's human thinking. God took the initiative. This is HIS baby, HIS salvation. He gives it to whomever He pleases and He takes responsibility for finding new and unique ways to let us know - on a regular basis - how much He loves us. 

If, that is, we are willing to listen. He loves us whether we realize it or not. He cares for our needs whether we are aware of it or not. He does it because that's who He is. And the more we realize how deeply He loves us, the less fear will have a hold on us. 

How freeing that is!! How freeing it is to know, know, KNOW that He loves us - every moment of every day, and He accepts us fully and freely because of what Jesus did! 

It is not dependent on what we do. The cart (instead of being in front of the horse) is behind the horse! What I mean is that we aren't doing things for Him anymore so that He'll be nice to us, but we realize how much He loves us and has given us forgiveness and freedom ... and we WANT to do things for Him without expecting anything from Him in return because He's already done it all!! 

That's grace-based living. That - in a glorious nutshell - is the gospel. 

. 

The serpent in the pew

Recently I was at a gathering where a list of 'ungodly' behaviors was read out. Among them were such things as gossip and slander and witchcraft, among others. The person reading the list said, "Of course we know there's no witchcraft in the church..." and went on to discuss the idea that there are no little sins and big sins to God. They're all sins. 

Hmm. Yes, yes all sin is sin in God's eyes. There is no difference. Gossip and murder are on a par. Lying and idolatry are all the same to Him.

But dismissing a particular sin because it's not obvious or doesn't fit the current definition of what the world thinks something is? 

I received a teaching on this particular practice (of witchcraft) a few years back. Basically the teaching went back to the original root words that make up the term for witchcraft. It is a compound word meaning control, manipulation and intimidation. WELL then! I believe we have a serpent in the pew, because I can't count the number of times I (and others in the church) have used manipulation and intimidation to control other people in the same family ... the family of God. 

It starts with the word "should." (Oh how I HATE that word!) We SHOULD be living holy lives. Our lives (i.e., the end product of our lives) SHOULD be this or that way (we do this with everything, even things like what folks should eat, wear, listen to, etc.) 

Photo "Blue Butterfly" by
dan at
www.freedigitalimages.net

And then it morphs. Our own pet beliefs (which have nothing to do with the Gospel) start infringing on it, and we start thinking that they are part and parcel of "the whole counsel of God." This particular person SHOULD be letting me do what I feel I am called to do, and I SHOULD have the right to influence this or that person's behavior because it's obviously flawed (because it's not the way I would do it). 

It's like this. The desire to control other people comes from an inborn need to feel safe and comfortable. The problem arises when we think we can do something to cause that change - enter manipulation (for example, guilt trips). And intimidation (for example, [adult] temper tantrums). The end result of this is that we get to thinking that it's our responsibility to change others. So we use those tools (er, weapons) and try to do the job that only the Holy Spirit is qualified to do. 

That's witchcraft.  That's the serpent.

Knowing that there is such a thing can help us identify it in ourselves and agree with God that it is not something we want in our lives. Not because we need to "toe the party line" but because Jesus has given it all for us, and through His death God declares us NOT GUILTY. That (and that alone) kills the serpent. We are transformed.

We are made free.

Through gratitude, then, we offer our lives up to Him to do with as He wills, to worship and adore Him in spite of our own perception of our failings. Others' failings will not matter. Our focus is Him. And no matter what the problem is, HE is the answer. Even if it's the serpent in the pew.

Wanting from within

Aesop wrote a fable about a man walking down the road with a cloak on, over his clothes. Meanwhile, the sun and the wind were arguing about which was more powerful (well, mostly the wind. Which is a whole other post!)

So the sun suggested a contest. "Whichever of us can get the man to remove his cloak is the most powerful." The wind agreed. "You go first," the sun said.

So the wind blew and blew. The man pulled his cloak around him tighter. Not wanting to appear to have lost, the wind blew harder. The man braced himself against the force of the wind, and held even more tightly to his cloak. 

Then it was the sun's turn as the wind gave up. The sun remained where he was, and shone brilliantly, heating the air - and the man - with his rays. Soon the man began to mop his forehead. He loosened his cloak and finally stopped and removed it, draping it over his arm before continuing on - with a smile. 

Photo "Silhouette Of People On Hill" courtesy of
moggara12 at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

The moral of the story was that one can accomplish more with kindness than with force. I'd go a step further and apply this fable to the modern church. And by modern I mean anything after 900 AD.

The wind in this fable is the tendency to judge, to make someone conform to a strict moral code and then punish that person when he or she doesn't toe the line. This is most often attempted by the manipulative act known as shaming. (Yeah, you've had it happen to you. And like me, you've probably done it to others too, and felt completely justified in doing so ...) The problem with shaming is that it NEVER works. Instead, it causes the person to withdraw or move away, to try to appease and become a chameleon (not being real is never a good idea), or to confront or take out their anger and hurt on that person or group. I could do a whole post on this too. But not today. :)

The sun, by contrast, is the love and grace of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the compassion of Jesus. This is an internal motivator. 

God doesn't shame us. He accepts us. He has made us "accepted in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:6). He loves us ... and this great love (that is the cause of Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf) makes it possible for Him to call us His children! (1 John 3:1)

In fact, His grace goes so very deep that Paul, after exploring how deep it is in Romans 5:8-11, addresses in Romans 6:1 the one fear I have heard so often expressed by "people of the wind" - how it's possible (and they can't accept this possibility in their works-based theology) to abuse God's grace by continuing in sin!! But Paul has just finished chapter 5 by implying that such a presumptuous lifestyle would be possible, given the depths of God's grace: "...where sin abounded, grace did much more abound..." (5:20)! His response to that hypothetical question is immediate. In chapter 6:2 (in that confusing Pauline language because well, he's Paul and he used to be a Pharisee, what can I say!!) he responds, "Of course not!! Why would you want to?" (Judy's paraphrase there...)

And that is just the point. Why would you WANT to?  Wanting to is the whole point, the whole reason why God made a way in Jesus to escape the consequences of our own inability to rescue ourselves. He wanted us to want Him. Not because He was holding our feet to the fire - that would be such bondage!! Grace - because God is the most - had to be the most anyone could imagine and then way beyond! This is the whole idea behind the scripture, "...the love of Christ constrains us." (2 Cor 5:14) That word "constrains" means "motivates from within" or "strains from inside or alongside." And that isn't something we drum up, working ourselves into a frenzied lather like the prophets of Baal did on Mount Carmel, trying to impress God with how holy we are. "In this is Love. Not that we love Him, but that HE LOVED US and sent His Son to be the propitiation [the wrath-taker] for our sins." (1 John 4:10). 

He did it. HE did it!! 

This full and free grace frees us. Completely! It buys us back (at SUCH great cost!!) from the slave-trader and makes us completely right with God, no holds barred, and declares that we are no longer slaves. Why would we want to go back to that kind of life, trying to keep with our own efforts what we could never have paid for in the first place? 

Wouldn't it be so much better to let the Sun shine in?

In Heavenly Places

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Eph. 2: 4 - 9 (NASB)

I remember reading Mark Twain's book The Prince and the Pauper (1881) when I was a young teen. It made such an impression on me, especially one of the secondary plots of the story.

For those that don't know the story, young king Edward VI (Henry VIII's son) is one of the main characters in this book (the prince) and a boy born in squalor, spending his life stealing money and food for his alcoholic father and dodging his blows when he didn't bring in enough, is the other (the pauper). Prince Edward sees this young boy (Tom) outside his gate and takes him in, cleans him up and realizes that this child is his double! They trade places "temporarily" - the prince to see what adventure lies outside the gate and the pauper to see what comforts lie within. 

While outside the gate, Edward takes a man into his confidence, Miles Hendon, a man who starts out believing the boy has gone crazy, but who humours his delusions that he is the heir to the throne, to the point of becoming like a manservant to him. He protects the boy from the pauper's father and from the elements of the society which surely would have killed the naive prince. Edward rewards him by granting Miles' request, a privilege Edward did not allow him previously, the right to "sit in his majesty's presence." 

Henry VIII dies and plans are made to place Tom (the pauper) on the throne.

Edward (with Miles' help) manages to return to the palace, interrupt the coronation, prove his identity and assume the throne, naming Tom a ward of the palace. Miles, having been detained by the palace guard, is unaware that Edward has returned to his rightful place. Miles manages to evade the palace guards and attend the last part of the coronation. He fights his way through the crowd and sees the new king in his splendor. He recognizes the boy he had come to know. 

In desperation, he does the only thing he can think to do. He rushes up to the foot of the throne, and sits cross-legged on the floor in full view of the new king and all who are present. There is an audible gasp from the crowd. The guards move in to drag him away, but Edward stops them and says that this man has been granted the right to sit in his presence and has often protected him. 

That scene in the throne room - for me - was the highlight of the story. 

Photo "Father and Daughter"
by photostock at
www.freedigitalphotos.net

To have the right to sit in the presence of the King is a privilege that God has granted to us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, because of His great love for us (Ephesians 1). Not only does He allow us to sit in His presence, but He brings us to sit with Him in His throne, free of condemnation, safe from all who would seek to destroy us. 

His grace toward us is so complete and so permanent that He states that He HAS saved us. It's already been done! Ages ago!! We are NOW sitting in His throne with Him; this is not some pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye promise. Eternal life, the new creation, the reborn existence, begins at the moment we accept all that He has done as enough for us; nothing more can be added to it. Nothing.

We are fully accepted. Fully. 

Being in His throne with Him doesn't give us the right to judge another; that is God's prerogative and not ours. Not even Jesus has that right (John 12: 47 - 49). 

The more we realize how completely accepted by the Father we are, accepted in such a deep way, being loved that much with absolutely no condemnation, the more we comprehend the key to living the life of faith, that abundant life that Jesus promised in John 10:10 and which many of us have given up hoping is possible. A lot of very good things can come in and take the place of what is most important. Those good things can themselves become a form of slavery and detract from the good news of the Way Jesus died to provide.

That Way doesn't come by turning over a new leaf; it comes by Grace.
It doesn't come by behavior modification; it comes by Grace. 
It doesn't come by moral codes and church constitutions; it comes by Grace.
It doesn't happen through being busy in the Lord's work; it comes by Grace. 
It doesn't come by Jericho marches; it comes by Grace.
It doesn't even come by Bible-reading or prayer; it comes by Grace. 

The cart - as usual - is before the horse in the minds of many believers. Focusing on what our lives "should" look like, we try to produce those results without resting in the Grace of God. 

It's a recipe for bondage and burnout. Plus, it's (in effect) saying to God that Jesus' sacrifice wasn't enough. 

Let that sink in for a minute.

I'm not saying that we live in lawlessness and anarchy. Far from it! However, if we get it into our heads that keeping ourselves in the love of God means keeping the commandments, we've missed out on what Jesus died to give us freely.

So I close with a couple of verses from Galatians. And I pray that you and I will take it to heart - every day - with the highest Way (the Way of Grace) in mind.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold, I Paul say to you that if you receive circumcision [substitute here: "if you follow the rules and regulations"] Christ will be of no benefit to you..." - Galatians 5: 1, 2