Pearl of Great Price

I’ve come to believe that in the core of who I am, the ‘me’ that God originally made is still incredibly special and wonderful. I am fearfully and wonderfully made says the Psalmist—despite the fact that I have fallen short of God’s glory, His original plan for my life. God’s original intent was for me to be incredibly special and unique AND attached to God. Somewhere along the line that attachment was severed and my specialness lost its luster. So much so that there is nothing I can do on my own to fix the problem or work my way back into relationship with God. 

Thus enters Jesus, God’s uniquely begotten Son.

What Jesus has done for me and is continually doing is restoring me to the original ‘me’ that God intended which in essence actually becomes a ‘we’ as my spirit has become one with His Spirit.

I may not deserve His love, but I am worth it! God has and will always value each of us individually. 

How much value do we possess?

Let’s put it this way—if you were to lose something that was precious to you, we would know how much value it has based on how much you would be willing to pay to get it back!

How much was God willing to pay for you?

Freedom

Our greatest loss as Christians will not be the loss of religious freedom. The truth is nobody can take away your freedom to worship.

Nobody!

Rather our greatest loss will be that we would come to believe that such a loss is even possible and so surrender our freedom.

Resist capitulating to status quo, human laws and godless reasoning. Our Christian brothers and sisters are persecuted and slaughtered every day for their submission and love of Yeshua. We can be assured they're experiencing more freedom than those of us who barely face persecution.

Submit to God, know the truth and be truly free.

________________

Scriptures to Pray About

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 8:31-32

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:1 -AND- 5:22-25

Averted Calamity

"And God relented from the calamity that He said He would do... "

Exodus 32:14, Jonah 3:10, Jeremiah 18:8

Such an intriguing phrase that was repeated enough throughout Biblical history that may in fact imply a Divine habit!

Peter said God is not willing that any perish (eternally) but that all should come to repentance. Jesus reminded us that God desires mercy not sacrifice. Jesus challenged us to go and learn what this means and said He came to save not the righteous but sinners.

I would imagine the best way to go and learn the meaning of this phrase would be for me to go and make a habit of showing mercy rather than insisting on getting what is justly owed to me.

I think there is still so much I do not fully grasp concerning the ways God's mercy continually overrides justice. I'm far less sure that God is as predictable as I had once thought in favor of scandalous grace.

May I be just as unpredictably scandalous.

Divine Memo

There are some in our world who have missed the Divine memo concerning God's love and forgiveness through our Savior Jesus. They are stuck on an old track of fear, judgment and wrath not reaIizing they themselves may be judged by their own merciless standard one day. I do not blame them. In fact, I feel sorry for them that they do not comprehend love, joy and peace.

My prayer is that God will grant me supernatural courage, peace and love that I may bless these ones in His name should such a one come knocking on my door, with their sacred text or even a weapon in hand!

Be merciful that your Father in Heaven may be merciful to you. Pray for your enemies and bless them. Bless and do not curse them.

Graven Images

Even a Biblical view of God can be idolatrous if it does not allow for God Himself to correct our so-called Biblical interpretation of who we believe Him to be. Never fall into the trap of believing you've got Him completely figured out.

God is not just an idea. He's a Someone.

God may be the same today, yesterday and forever but my understanding of who I hold Him to be in my heart continually expands and grows as I encounter Him in ways I never did before.

Blessings & Curses

A while ago I had a jarring reality-check,

"You keep wanting your President and other leaders to do well yet in your judgmental disgust at their failings you regularly curse them from your heart. How could you ever expect them to improve if you continually curse them?

Forgive them.

Bless them.

Trust me."

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity (1 Tim 2:1-2)... Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them (Rom 12:14).

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.