I Believe

There are several reasons I believe in Jesus as God's uniquely begotten Son through whom I have a relationship with God. It is true that I was taught to relate to God in this way by my parents, but I have had to come to my decision as an adult. There have been times I have had serious doubts and honestly there I times I still do. I can tell you that the biggest reason for the struggle is because knowing Christ (and even God Himself) always comes through the filters of my own natural experience which I feel is highly unreliable. But I continually return to this question, "How would the invisible God (and Christ) reveal Himself to me in the natural except through points of contact in the natural realm?" There really is no other way to understand and encounter God--it all comes through encountering Him revealing Himself to me IN MY BRAIN. I won't cover everything here as each point could expand into separate entries on their own, but there are several highlights that have become anchors to hold on to: I can't get away from the eye witness accounts as laid out in the New Testament. We're not talking about people who came up with a new philosophy for which they chose to die. People choose to die for all kinds of ideological assents, but Jesus' followers' experience was different. For Jesus followers, it was always first and foremost an eye witness encounter for which they chose to die, not just an idea. Seriously, why put your life on the line claiming something so outlandish as, "I cannot deny that I have seen, and touched and encountered the resurrected Jesus."? Saul also known as Paul's radically transforming change of mind toward Jesus from persecutor to martyr as a result of an encounter (actually multiple encounters) he had with the resurrected Jesus. The gospel message itself--God came in the person of Jesus to fix what we humans could not, to reestablish relationship with us. Jesus demonstrates what we could never understand, that God has always been for us and not against us. That God having no obligation was willing to identify with and endure our brokenness and suffering that He would through Jesus redeem and restore what we had lost. Fulfillment of Biblical prophecies through the life, death and resurrection (according to the eye-witness accounts). Fulfmillment of Biblical prophecies in our present day, ie: the restablishment of Israel as a nation. My own encounters with Christ: through uniquely answered prayer through divine coincidences through unusual foreknowledge I could not explain through miracles and healings through experiences of God's love which has almost always come through encounters with Jesus Himself (in ways I could not have cooked up on my own),  through continual progressive transformation through encountering God's heart as demonstrated in Jesus--finding more of a forgiving and gentle heart within myself as more healing and revelation occurs. When I consider who I know God to be as revealed in Jesus, I recognize I have no basis for understanding God in this way through any other path. Too much has happened in our world that would point to the contrary. For me, only a revelation of Jesus seems to make sense of it all--the good, the bad, the ugly and the glorious. I still have many unanswered questions. But I have finally come to a place of peace about it all realizing that if God is actually a person, then just like people, there is always more to learn. That's what growing in intimacy is all about. I'm no longer troubled by the questions in the same way I once was. You may not believe in Jesus. You may want to but have doubts and questions. That's ok. Just honestly tell the God you're not sure of that whom you genuinely want to know (if indeed the Creator exists and is knowable). There is a popularly quoted scripture which does a good job of summing up the heart of God whom the Bible represents. Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." The next portion of that Scripture is often not quoted-- "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Government of Another Kind

Does anyone find it noteworthy that Jesus spent no time addressing government and culturally sanctioned sin and violence of his day while simultaneously spending the majority of his ministry contending with the distortions and abuses of the religious leaders?

Seems so opposite to the way we the Church does things now.

Why is it so important to us to control our government and bend the will of our nation to God through laws?

Haven't we learned anything yet?

The law doesn't change hearts.

That's why Jesus came, to do for us through love and grace what the law was incapable of accomplishing through judgment and control.

The more we demand the government to force God's law on our nation, the greater the tendency to rebel. Ultimately we will suffer persecution for this. The sad thing is that we will smugly deceive ourselves into believing that we are being persecuted for righteousness sake.

We try so hard to legislate and condemn the lifestyle of others while we ourselves are still unable to bring our own lives in full submission to God's standard.

I believe we the Church will be judged for our hypocritical disregard of the way of Jesus who did not come to the world to condemn it but to save it through love, mercy and sacrifice.

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

As I was praying that God would give the US Supreme Court Justices wisdom and a heart to do whatever is right on yet another historical decision, it was is if my attention was redirected by God to pray for His people--myself included.

These Biblical phrases came to mind:

Judgment must begin in the house of God. 1 Peter 4:17

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN (see Daniel 5:24-28)

Which means,

God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

I pray that whatever decision is made by the Supreme Court that our attitude as ambassadors of our Savior will change from one of entitlement and judgment in the political and cultural arena to one of love and a willingness to suffer with joy for love and purity's sake that even one more might be saved.

I pray that we begin to radically encounter our Heavenly Father as times change. He really does love us just the way we are but loves us too much to let us remain complacent, untested and smug.

My limited and fallible sense is that a time of testing is coming for those of us who claim to represent the kingdom of God. Our deeds have been found wanting and God wants to purify and strengthen us in the coming season. The end of the harvest is approaching and He requires our love and sacrifice for the night comes when no one will be able to work.

May I Be Excused?

Does you think it noteworthy that Jesus never reprimanded the disciples' inability to bring about healing in someone's life by saying, "Truly, I say unto you, the reason this one has not been healed is because it is not the Father's will."?

However, he did lovingly reprimand them for other reasons for their ineffective ministry.

Yeah, it frustrates me, too, that he didn't explicitly leave that option as an excuse. Now I'm constantly wondering, "Is it my lack of faith as his vessel of healing or is it my lack of ability to discern his will/strategy?"

Either way I'm forced back in dependence on Jesus saying, "Lord, do you want to heal and set this person free or am I missing something?" I'm pretty sure I won't like his answer which will most certainly address some area of my heart needing an adjustment.

Annoying that I can't rely on my own understanding based on a set of neatly layed out rules instead of relying on the Lord. It would be far easier for me to deflect my responsibility than to face my own shortcomings and congratulate myself for a job undone instead.

Let it Go

I think God's character is often maligned because we really underestimate the importance of meekness. He could come in heavy-handed to restrict our choices to harm, thereby restricting our freedom to live and love to the fullest.

But he doesn't.

And I blame Him for giving us that freedom, especially when someone uses it to take that same freedom away from me. Yet even in the case of God, using power to rigidly control is still tyranny.

God is just and will hold us accountable for how we use our freedom, but He is not a tyrant and neither is he distant and untouched by our suffering.

Jesus is Immanuel--God with us. 

And He is saying, "Trust me, let go."

"Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden. Learn from me for I am MEEK and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  --Matt 11:28-29

Inalienable Rights

We believe that all human beings have been given certain inalienable rights by our Creator.

Included in these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As citizens of America (and other democracies) we hold to this ideal as laid out in the Declaration of Independence or other social contracts. Probably the most controversial of these is liberty. The right to freely choose.

I believe God has given us the right to liberty, meaning that He will not prevent us from making choices--even bad choices, selfish choices, even harmful choices. God's love allows us to freely choose and when we chose badly, God's love saves us from the bondage of bad choice-making if we will look to Jesus--God who gave up His own rights as a human being.

Since we are free, let's not use our freedom to become subject to the yoke of slavery of control, manipulation and harm to get what we want. Let's be like our Father in Heaven who paid a high price so that all would freely and selflessly love.

This is the best yet also the most difficult choice to make. I choose wrongly quite often. In facing my own selfishness all I can do is throw myself on God's mercy and continually and as often as possible show others the same mercy I long for myself, especially when their choices are not in line with my preferences and infringe on my ability to choose. The most difficult are those times when I'm convinced I'm right and have God on my side.

Or do I?

For any believer in the God of our inalienable rights, choosing to grant someone else the right to liberty somehow seems less desirable than choosing to fight for my own.

All I Really Want

So often when we're having difficulty perceiving God's specific will for our lives it's because we're not clear or honest about what WE really want first.

It's important to be honest about what we really want so that when we approach God for direction we're not deceived into automatically embracing our unacknowledged desires which may attempt to masquerade as God's will. How can we hope to know God's will if we're not willing to admit what we're after. This is a form of double-mindedness (see James 1:5-8).

Once we're clear about what we want we can surrender that desire to God and trust Him with confidence that He will give us wisdom and direction regarding the matter we're seeking direction about.

Communicating what we want isn't an automatic guarantee that God will grant permission to pursue it, but in many cases if it's good then liberty and even favor, blessing, and grace will be granted. There is truly much more freedom with God than we could probably imagine. In fact it's precisely because we lack a sanctified imagination that we feel so restricted by God.

Understanding this also protects us from the mistake of getting trapped into a situation God is simply granting permission to pursue because it was what we wanted yet not necessarily what He would have required of us to do.

Being clear about what we want and submitting these to our Father protects us also from moving out and fighting the wrong battles as we begin to understand the motivations of why we want to fight the battle in the first place.

Opening up to God provides God an opportunity to dialogue with us not only about whether we should or shouldn't but also understanding our motives for why we want to.

Being honest about what we want is operating in relationship with our Father as Jesus taught us, with the faith of a child. Children are really good at being honest about what they want. And good children fully trust their parents with the knowledge of what they want. It's operating from a place of vulnerability, transparency and trust.

So God, what I want is to keep kidding myself into believing that all I really want is to do your will. And we both know that's not entirely true. It may be true that I am striving to do your will but the truth is that sometimes what you want is not always my first natural choice.
Here's the model from Jesus:

Honesty: Father if possible take this cup from me, 

Surrender: but not my will but yours be done.

Now This!

I'm not into generating fear.

There is a lot of fear mongering taking place on the news, on the web and even from the pulpit! However I am very much in favor of assessing our present situation and setting expectations for the future appropriately AND helping people understand God's goodness, love and sovereignty and to have hope even if the worst were to happen so that unbelief, fear and despair has no place in
our hearts.

I have peace not because of certainty that the worst won't happen but because of certainty that the best is yet to come when the worst has had its final day!

It disturbs me how some seemed to have bought into the idea that certain disasters could never befall us on our own national soil even though these terrible things are already happening to good people around the world. Jesus said "all these things must happen and then the end will come."

I really don't know if the worst worst will happen at this time. But just to reframe things, perhaps the worst is already happening and we're so caught up in our "happy" lives we don't know how miserably desperate the world and our country really is. We have become numb to it all and anesthetize ourselves with various coping behaviors including watching fear mongering news which essentially helps us believe, "It's not so bad now because it could always be worse."

Friends, even if another difficult thing never visits our land aren't the atrocities already occurring in terms of gang violence, rape, abortions, sex and physical abuse, racism, human trafficking, murder, drug wars as well as the World Wars and "conflicts" which have already occurred bad enough? How bad do we need it to be before we wake up and realize disaster is already upon us! We are in desperate need for God's deliverance and salvation and frankly I hope and believe out of God's great LOVE He will soon bring it to an end. But know this, that God's final resolution may look like the "all these things" Jesus was talking about. Other than Jesus' first coming on the earth, it would be God's most definitive and loving act this world had ever experienced on a global scale. It is the day when He will finally say, "Enough!"

Some may call this fear mongering and it would be--except that my focus is on the hope for a better day than the one we're already facing today.
 

Fierce Determination

There comes a point in every boy's life when he crosses into the deep waters of becoming a man. During his childhood and adolescence he watches his father model strength, character, discipline, love and joy. He benefits by grace all of the noble qualities his father possesses. 

Yet also, by grace his father begins to recognize that critical time in his son's life when the boy must step into and develop those qualities within himself. His father then will begin to shift from a place of modeling to a place of discipline. It would be entirely unloving and negligent for his father to do anything less for his son.

The boy has been given a body which has the incredible ability to increase exponentially in power, strength and creativity. That is grace. As the boy grows however, he may choose to remain immobile on the couch. He may mature in some ways but will not develop his full potential. A good father will correct and discipline his son and a wise son will embrace and step into the grace of a disciplined life.

The process in our spiritual life is the same.

By grace we have been saved and this is not of ourselves but truly is a gift from God through what was accomplished on our behalf on the cross. It is not by our own efforts that we are saved lest we get proud and think we have accomplished something without God. By grace we are also made mature in purity and love and holiness. By grace God fully intends for us as our loving and attentive father to willingly step into and develop those qualities of which He has paid a great price for us to have. I have to admit, for too long I insisted on laying passively on the couch refusing to grow into the strength God intends for me to have. I am discovering that God is fiercely determined that I would be sanctified and chastened until I am fully changed into that which He made me to be--because of His great love for me.

Am I ready? Will I kick and scream that my life is not comfortable enough? Will I resent my Father's discipline? Or will I embrace with fierce determination adversity and testing as an opportunity to step into the glory my Father has waiting for those who overcome and persevere to the end.

Hebrews 12:11

Tombs & Wombs

You were a caterpillar. You are becoming a butterfly. The becoming won't be easy because the caterpillar must die in order for the butterfly to emerge. For the caterpillar the cocoon is a tomb. For the butterfly the cocoon is a womb. It is difficult for you to imagine what it means to be a butterfly. It is difficult for you to understand what it means to become. It is terrifying to think that in becoming you must die. All I can offer to you is a promise--

There is no sacrifice you can make that can compare to the glory, joy and fulfillment that is to be revealed when that butterfly emerges from the tomb.

Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:3