Random Blog Clay Feet: 2007-07
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Monday, July 30, 2007

Disilluionment

I have been noticing over the past few weeks how much God is teaching me about myself, about life and about reality through the traumatic experience that I was forced to pass through a few weeks ago that ripped apart part of my family. As I read My Utmost today that became very clear to me again. It seemed that this reading was written specifically for me and my heart needs to absorb it much more fully.

Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly severe in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they really are, and yet there is no cynicism, we have no stinging, bitter things to say. Many of the cruel things in life spring from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.

The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. It works in this way—if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being what he or she cannot give. There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why Our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone. (Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : July 30)

This first disillusionment spoken of here perfectly describes all too well the spirit of the person who wounded me recently. Of course, my great temptation was to respond in kind with a spirit of self-defensiveness and fault-finding. I struggled very hard to not indulge in that spirit but I was not completely successful I am sad to say. I realize that because of the symptoms that betray me – the symptoms of bitterness and suspicion. I certainly experienced disillusionment myself through this experience and to some extent that was necessary to correct my faulty thinking about what it means to trust and love those around me.

What became very clear to me in this passage was the underlying reason why this other person did what they did and continue to do toward me. Their former view of me was based on an idealistic expectation of what they wanted to think about me as “delightful and fine”. When they realized that I was not completely perfect and they were demanding of a human being what I could never give them, that disillusionment left them cynical and unkindly severe in their judgment of me; their opinion of me switched from delightful and fine to mean and dastardly. They realized somewhere inside themself that I could not satisfy the aching abyss of their heart and so they became very bitter and suspicious of me.

This was very painful and even confusing to me for some time until I began to understand what was really going on underneath and see the bigger picture. I still love this person very much and want to relate to them in a spirit of forgiveness and kindness. Right now, because our communication has been cut off by them, I can only pray for them and trust the goodness of God's heart to work in their life to mature them, bring about healing and draw them to Himself in love. I pray that God will give both them and myself a spirit of forgiveness and humility and compassion and reconciliation.

As for me, I have certainly experienced a great deal of disillusionment myself through this experience. Upon reading this passage today I realize that this disillusionment can be a very positive growing experience for me if I will learn to become more like Jesus in the way I relate in trust to other people. I have been learning very important things about this topic repeatedly listening to Clarissa Worley's sermons which have greatly helped to clarify these issues. This reading today solidly confirms many of those things even more and I feel God pressing me to more thoroughly absorb these truths so that I can reflect the attitude of Jesus more accurately.

There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why Our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man was so perfect that He despaired of no one.

I now see that I too need to receive the severe words of Jesus about my relationships. While my family needs to be high in my priority, if I allow trust for anyone in my heart that is not based on loyalty to Jesus first then I am set up for another disaster. I need to learn to trust my heart only to God and with those in whom I see the spirit of God actively accomplishing His will. But at the same time, my choice not to trust my heart to someone should never produce a spirit of suspicion or bitterness. I too need to remember that no human can satisfy the emptiness of my heart. Only Jesus can fill the void inside of me that demands attention and I need to correctly configure the doors and windows of my heart to only receive life from the Source of real life.

I choose to rest in confidence in God's grace and what He can and wants to do, not only for me but for those who have deeply hurt me. I am sure that I too have been a source of deep pain for others, either intentionally, or far more often quite unintentionally. To expect some human to fill my needs is to make them a false god for me. To lead someone else to look to me to fill their emptiness is to set myself up as a false god for them which will only result in judgments, recriminations and bitter disillusionment. “There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jesus, please come to these people in my life who are hurting so deeply right now with a spirit of bitterness and vindictiveness toward me and bring the light of Your truth and love to their hearts. Melt away their fear and defensiveness and show them the truth about You that they cannot feel right now. You are the God of reconciliation so I ask You and give You permission to do whatever it takes to bring honor to Your name in this situation. Teach me to always make loyalty to You first in all of my relationships and to receive life and satisfaction first and foremost from Your heart. I trust You in this matter and rest in Your plans for my family. You gave me assurance this morning of Your promise in Isa. 43:5,6 that You will bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Your heart is towards us and Your desire is to bond us together with cords of love that can never be broken. Glorify Your name in my life today and over the coming weeks and months. Thank-you for Your word and Your power to save and redeem. I praise You and rest in You.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Living in the Present

Today's reading in My Utmost stayed in my mind during the day and grew deeper as I thought about it and then talked about it with a friend. It ties in very much to what I have been learning and sometimes expressing about the relationship of the presence of God to our learning to live in the present moment in peace of mind. Let me explain more after reviewing what Oswald Chambers had to share.

We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process—that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.

God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present; but if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious. (Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest July 28)

The more I thought about this in relation to many of the things I have been learning over the past few years the more sense this made. From a sinful, human perspective we are used to living in a culture of goals and objectives and jobs that we intend to reach, achieve and accomplish. In the process of living this way and being motivated by society around us with this kind of thinking we come to believe that satisfaction and contentment will be realized when we reach our goals. How many times do we find ourselves saying things like, “When I get married...”, “When I graduate then...”, “When I get enough money...” and any other endless number of goals and desires we have for our life. But what we often overlook is that this kind of thinking usually robs us of the ability to face and enjoy the present moment as we experience it. We have this same kind of thinking in our religious lives that simply reflects our humanistic point of view of reality. We expect to do great things for God, put a lot of emphasis on the numbers of souls won (to our point of view), give great praise and notoriety to the accomplishments of missionaries and “successful” preachers, and the list goes on.

But it does not take too long in living life to begin to realize that reaching many of these goals often leaves us with a subtle or not so subtle feeling of disappointment when the immense feeling of satisfaction and release that we were inwardly expecting does not fully materialize. I think this phenomena explains a great deal of the problems that occur right after things like graduations, proms, and all sorts of other achievement-oriented events that are too often followed by drunkenness, immorality or other attempts to achieve pleasure and find satisfaction. This is often because after the accolades are over we come to the realization that we are still the same person and life must go on from here. What we have not really learned in all of our goal-oriented lifestyle is how to live well in the present moment, each moment, with joy and satisfaction and peace that produces a deep sense of thriving and ongoing excitement about being alive.

If I think about this from what God may see instead of our human viewpoint it seems to me like maybe God is not hardly interested at all in achieving goals and job-oriented living. That is because quantifying life into packets labeled as jobs or carefully segmented time periods of education etc. means that each one of these segments has an end. From heaven's perspective things that have an end can look an awful lot like death, which has no place in heaven's order of living. Therefore, in a sense, when we finish a job or four years of schooling or whatever other segmented goal we use to partition our lives with, we are in a way coming to the death of that part of our lives. Unfortunately too often at that point we are still no more practiced in how to really live life in the present at these preset times of “death” and so they become something like frustrating celebrations of futility.

We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

As I try to see life from heaven's perspective it makes much more sense that God is very interested in training us how to live in the present moment every moment with the right perspective and the right skills learned to live in healthy relationships with those around us. This is because we are designed to live forever, an eternity of being more and more fully alive with no endpoints – ever! So to prepare us for that very different kind of life-mentality God is trying to teach us what it looks like to live with a view of how to live a continuous-type of life instead of a goal-reaching kind of life that we label as “success”.

His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God.... His end is the process—that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.

I see now more clearly that God's desire for me is to learn how to be fully alive and live constantly in the awareness of His presence and His love for me. That is the real backdrop that empowers me to be able to remain calm and unperplexed no matter what is going on around me. It is learning to listen to the very quiet voice of God in my heart and mind with a spirit of instant obedience. This requires tuning out the other noisy interference that normally drowns out or numbs my ability to hear and feel His gentle promptings.

God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.

God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present; but if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.

This is the most important training that we have in this life because it is this skill that prepares us to live not only “successfully” in any sort of circumstance in this life but prepares us to become a very intimate and real part of the fully assembled body of Christ when it is fully revealed in the day of Judgment. For His body will be composed of those who have learned to live in the immediate present, drawing their identity and life from their sense of the presence of God in that immediate present and experiencing through their sacrifice of obedience the preciousness of life in the immediate present/Presence.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Pride and Joy

Pride is the counterfeit of joy.

Joy is knowing that I am valuable to someone else, that they cherish me and are glad to be with me no matter what is going on in my life.

Pride is a measurement of the emptiness that I feel inside. When I do not feel that I am valuable to someone else then I produce pride to fill the void. That pride can either be in the form of self-pity or of arrogance – both are forms of the same thing. The real problem is the lack of a sense of real value inside and that can only be filled effectively from the outside. When I try to fill it from myself it is pride.

Pride is an indicator of how much I believe Satan's lies about how much God values me. It is like a barometer of how much I believe in my heart the truth of God's real feelings about me. To the very same degree that I believe God does not care about me will be the amount of pride that I supply to fill the cavity. But since pride never really satisfies inner emptiness, life turns into an ever-increasing obsession of frenzied attempts to fill the ever-intensifying hunger for feeling valued and loved. Pride is a powerful addiction that only deepens the hunger that it seeks to satisfy.

Joy is the antidote for pride. Instead of attacking pride, which tends only to reinforce it, joy (someone who values me and enjoys me no matter what) supplies the very thing that my heart was designed to thrive on, the fuel that my soul was originally intended to use for thriving. The more joy I experience in my heart the less need I feel for pride. Pride simply melts away in the presence of joy like a snowman on a summer day. Condemnation does not help remove pride but joy smiles in the face of pride and pride finds no foothold to remain.

Rebellion is a close cousin of pride and likewise can be melted by true joy. For real joy at its core is filled with love and compassion which is the very essence of God Himself. Initially, I believe, rebellion in our lives begins with a sense of injustice against abuses that should not be in our lives. We rebel and push back against pain, against neglect, against abuse and wrongs committed against us that we were never designed to live under. There is something to be said in favor of rebelling against wrong and abuse. But then the abusers come and condemn our hearts for resisting their evil and present to us a distorted picture of God thundering against us with threats and intimidations. Our protests against wrongs and abuse are labeled as wicked rebellion and we are sometimes blasted with scripture to reinforce their control over us. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” (1Samuel 15:23)

This kind of abuse of scripture only adds to the problem, and instead of reducing the feelings of rebellion it leads one into another whole level of rebellion against authority that becomes a much deeper problem that must be dealt with later on in life. It sets one up for all kinds of conflict and confusion that would easily have be avoided if it had not been for the spiritual abuse committed against a young child trying to learn how to relate to others and reconcile their emotions with what was going on around them. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. And just so, one man's stubbornness is another man standing firm for what is “right”.

What we really need is the oil of joy to bring healing, hope and life back into our wounded souls. Like the story of the Good Samaritan ministering oil to the beaten man by the road, we need our hearts to be soothed with the wine and oil of the Holy Spirit to begin our recovery and train us to become wounded healers ourself.

God, I want to be much more filled with the strength of Your joy. You have promised that You will never leave me, that You will always be with me. Cause me to really know this at the heart level and to be transformed by the renewing of my mind into the joy-filled man You designed me to be. Fill me with Your river of grace and make me a minister of joy and love to others who are wounded like me – for Your names sake.

Prepositional Salvation and Imitative Growth

As I read through Romans 5 and 6 the thought occurs to me that maybe Paul's presentation of salvation here could be called “prepositional salvation”, because the way he presents it is so linked to the preposition “through”. The word “through” denotes movement. I think of the analogy taught us in grade school to understand what constituted a preposition – anything a plane can do to a cloud. Our lives are in constant movement – that is implicit in the very idea of being alive. Our cells are growing, our heart is beating and circulating blood, our thoughts are active, our spirit is stirring and our emotions move from one to another.

In all of this movement the decisions that are made, the choices as to where we will move next in every arena of our life determine the shape of our future character and personality and the identity that we are taking upon ourselves. We cannot escape the beginning fact that we have unavoidably been shaped through our history, both in being a part of humanity and in our own personal history, by sin and its death-producing effects on us. But while we cannot literally change the facts of our history, we can become free from the strangling, controlling effects of it by allowing God to bring healing and truth and new perspective to our interpretations of it at our heart level.

Sin by definition is transgression of the law (the likeness of God Who is the model we were designed after). That means that we are moving crosswise to what God is like and to our original design, cutting across the principles of reality, contrary to how we were designed to live which produces resistance to God's Spirit and conflict in all areas of our life.

  • Sin entered the world through one man, Adam. (5:12)

  • Through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. (5:19)

  • Death entered through sin and spread to all humanity, regardless of whether their sin was just like Adam's or not. (5:12)

  • Judgment arose through the one who sinned and resulted in condemnation which all of us experience as a consequence of sin. (5:16)

  • Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. (5:18)

  • Death reigned (and all of its related emotions) through the one. (5:17)

So far we have a hopelessly bleak picture of our situation with no promise of improvement or help. But God, who is rich in mercy and love, will not allow us to remain trapped under our slavery to the cruel slavemaster of death. So He brought His own Son to the situation through whom He created this “prepositional salvation” to bring us hope and deliverance and life.

  • While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. (5:10,11)

  • Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (5:9)

  • Through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. (5:18)

  • Through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. (5:19)

  • We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:1)

  • We have obtained our introduction by faith through Jesus Christ into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

  • The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (5:5)

  • We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:11)

  • The free gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (5:16,17)

  • Grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (5:21)

These are the two options that we have in the movement of our life. The direction of our movement is decided by our power of choice and determines which end we experience, eternal death or eternal, abundant life. These chapters (Romans 5 & 6) also describe the activity of this power of choice and how we can relate to the redemption provided for us by God. We can choose to accept or reject the salvation provided for us.

These are the elements that we have the option to choose if we want life:

  • If we choose to accept having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (5:9)

  • God has provided the reconciliation, but we must choose to accept it. When we do, we have been reconciled and shall be saved by His life. (5:10)

  • When we choose to accept this free gift from God we will choose to be baptized into Jesus' death – we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. (6:4)

  • Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (6:6,7)

  • As Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (6:4)

  • If we have chosen to become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6:5)

  • Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (6:11)

Paul then gets to the core of the issue of choice. He explains the unavoidable principle of ownership under which we all live whether we want to believe it or not. We cannot escape our condition of being owned as slaves – we can blame Adam for that, but in redemption God has provided an amazing option for us – we can choose to become “slaves” of the Author of freedom. By willingly becoming a slave Himself and receiving the consequences of sin that we should experience, He has provided an option for us to become slaves of God, the very Source of love and freedom and the original Model upon which we were designed.

The way that I choose which owner will control my life and my destiny is by the act and choice of presenting myself to that owner/power. “When you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.” (6:16) There simply is no other option. I will choose to do one or the other every day and the results will become evident in my life – that is inherent in the condition of being a human being.

This choice is much more than simply an intellectual assent to an idea or a subscription to a set of beliefs or a creed. Those are not the choices Paul is talking about at all here. That is from the distorted teachings of “religion” and the ideas of man-made spirituality. Paul is talking about the choices we make from our deepest soul at the heart level. He is talking about obedience from the heart. (6:17)

This brought me to a verse that I have had marked with a question mark for some time now and this morning I decided to investigate it more thoroughly to uncover the real meaning that has been eluding me for so long. The verse says “you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed...” I have heard some expostulations on this phrase “form of teaching”, but I was not at all comfortable with the ideas that were being reinforced by their arguments. It seemed to me more of an excuse for supporting one style of belief or one denomination or ministry in opposition to another. But these ideas do not seem consistent with the flavor of the gospel that I have been tasting through my study of these passages. So I decided to check out the original words and see what the real meaning was behind them to see if that might shed light on what Paul was really trying to convey instead of just looking at the surface meaning of the English words chosen by some translators.

What I found confirmed my suspicions and brought me encouragement and enlightenment. It also resonated with what I have been learning about how the brain works and especially how our right brain learns.

I have come to believe that our right brain is the primary seat of what the Bible refers to as our heart (although new research is finding that our literal, physical heart also may be very involved in these feelings, emotions and thoughts more than we ever thought possible). Our right brain does not learn from language and words but primarily by imitation, by observing others behavior and spirit in various circumstances and then copying that when we find ourselves in similar circumstances. This is almost exclusively how very young children learn about life and perceive their identity.

The original words translated as “form of teaching” or “doctrine” convey the idea of imitating a model, a demonstration of what someone “looks like”. The word “form” in the Greek is “tupos” which has the following definition from Strong's dictionary: “a die (as struck), i.e. (by implication) a stamp or scar; by analogy, a shape, i.e. a statue, (figuratively) style or resemblance; specially, a sampler ("type"), i.e. a model (for imitation) or instance (for warning):--en-(ex-)ample, fashion, figure, form, manner, pattern, print.” The root word behind this word injects the idea of repetition as well.

The Greek word translated into “teaching” or “doctrine” is the word “didache” which means “instruction (the act or the matter)”. Because Paul specifically is talking about obedience from the “heart”, the primary focus and method of this teaching would be necessarily that of example more than just intellectual instruction since the right brain cannot comprehend language-based information. Example for imitation is the only method that is truly effective in maturing people in real growth. It happens when they learn truth not just verbally, but primarily watch it lived out in the life of others who demonstrate in daily life and sometimes under intense circumstances what it looks like to live as a mature person who is truly alive and thriving. The obedience based on grace and from the heart is something we must learn by imitation much more than by instruction.

So what I see as a better interpretation of this phrase is, “you became obedient from the heart by choosing to imitate what was repeatedly modeled to you in our lives that correlated to the things we were teaching you.” That, to me, is a much more consistent understanding of this verse that fits perfectly with the context of everything else that I am finding through the intense study of these chapters that I have been enjoying over the past few months. It also highlights the great need we have for real community where those who want to grow in truth and grace have access to observe and live in close connection with those who are more mature and know how to really live from their hearts with joy. I know I certainly need that kind of mentoring and have desired it for many years. I am still praying for God to assemble more of these kind of relationships in my life.

(next in series)

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The Gift is not like...

But the free gift is not like the transgression. (Romans 5:15)

I am struggling to understand the real meaning of this, so I need to compile a comparison of the similarities and differences to flush out what he is really trying to say here. The chart is extracted from Romans 5:12-21.

Through one man sin entered into the world

Through sin death entered and spread to all men because all sinned

Sin was in the world before “the Law”

Sin is not imputed when there is no Law

Death reigned over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam

Adam is a type of Jesus

By the transgression of one many died

The grace of God abounds to the many by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ

Judgment arose from one who sinned

The free gift arose from many transgressions

– Resulting in condemnation

– Resulting in justification

By the transgression of one death reigned through the one

Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ

Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men

Through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men

Through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners

Through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase

Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more

Sin reigned in death

Grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

My mind must not be perceiving correctly here and must be missing something. Even after lining up all these things side by side it seems to me like they are more parallel than different. I am sure that it has a lot to do with my culture and its effect on how I perceive the concept of “contrast” and “comparison” in contrast to the culture that formed the mind of the Hebrews that is confusing me. When I look at this chart it strikes me as being very parallel instead of being different. Of course the parallels are from opposite extremes, but they seem to be opposite parallels if that makes sense. So I am still musing over what is meant by “the free gift is not like the transgression” and “the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned”.

Maybe I need more time and more insight from others. I suppose I could go research a commentary but that is about the last thing I want to do. It feels like being programmed to simply reflect someone else's thoughts and beliefs instead of discovering truth myself. But on the other hand it could offer some suggested ways of viewing things that I have not yet thought of, so in that way it might prove useful.

Any input?

(next in series)

Friday, July 20, 2007

Thoughts on Gratitude and "Through"

Gratitude is the act of taking ownership of a blessing. It is the final step in receiving something or someone into our heart and integrating it into our life. If we want to know the kind of person we are becoming we should take an honest look at what we are really grateful for. Even if we live in a mostly ungrateful state of mind there are things in our life that we use to numb our pain or escape from reality. We will begin to see this in what we honestly value and appreciate.

I notice the tendency in my own prayers that I can ask and beg and plead but often fall short taking the step of accepting in faith and giving thanks by faith. But that reluctance betrays a very subtle spirit of unbelief that leaves me short of fully experiencing the power of God and resting in the blessings and promises that I hear so much about. But when I remember to step over the edge of what I can see and feel and by faith and on the basis of His Word begin to consciously thank Him for the realities of the grace and blessings that I see there but do not yet feel inside, I usually begin to sense an immediate change in my spirit. If I persist in staying in that position of gratitude in God's presence and press my mind to continue to do what feels so uncomfortable at the moment or sometimes so illogical, my feelings begin to come more and more into alignment with God's Word and my perception of reality begins to rise out of the fog of confusion and depression into the light of God's view of reality.

This is certainly not natural for me and is nearly always quite uncomfortable, especially at first. I am not naturally as grateful as some others that I see around me. Of course it is quite possible that some of those I think are naturally grateful are just pushing themselves into that position with as much difficulty as I have but I cannot see the internal struggle in their mind, I don't know. All I know is what goes on inside of me and what God is teaching me personally. I guess that's what the word “witness” is all about.

As I again read Romans 5 this morning I noticed how frequent the word “through” appears in this chapter. It is almost like Paul decided to see how many times he could use this word in one section in his urgency to get us to perceive true reality. Everything we are, the condition we find ourself in both in sin and in grace comes to us “through” one of two Adams or representatives of the human race. It is impossible for us to be outside of that situation or to be independent. What Paul is trying to get through the fog of our confusion and self-focus is that a new reality exists through Jesus that already belongs to every one of us whether we choose to live in it and benefit from it or not.

Through Jesus Christ –

  • we have peace with God

  • we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand

  • we have the love of God poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit

  • we were reconciled to God while we were yet sinners

  • we shall be saved from wrath

  • we were reconciled to God while we were enemies

  • we shall be saved by His life

  • we exult in God

  • we have now received the reconciliation

  • those who choose to receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life

  • one act of righteousness resulted in justification of life to all men

  • through His obedience many will be made righteous

  • grace will reign through righteous to eternal life

This list can look like so much religious jargon that can cause our eyes to glaze over with hardness from our heart, or it can be a resource of endless revelations of the reality in which every one of us lives that we can open our heart to receive with increasing gratitude, because gratitude really is the act of taking ownership. And what we choose to value reveals the direction our life is taking and the shape our character is forming.

Gratitude is both a reflection of what I already value, whether good or bad for me, and a choice of what I decide to value before I have the inward feelings of appreciation. My value choices in the past – and the choices of those who have shaped my life – have created the condition in which I currently find myself now. But the choices that I make now are just as powerful to determine what I am going to look like soon in the future. I do not have to remain in the trap of the lies that say I am stuck and I am a victim without any hope. The Bible presents the facts of a new reality that already exists if I will choose to live in it by absorbing it into myself through the doorway of gratitude.

As I was contemplating these ideas this morning the connection occurred to me of why our body language uses our hands to express this idea. One of the most prominent natural body language expressions of the spirit of gratitude is holding out my hands in a gesture of receiving. If someone were to come up to me and offer to give me a lovely gift and I just stood there refusing to hold out my hands to accept it, very likely I would miss out on that gift, because the message received by the other person regardless of their own unselfish motives would be that I am refusing their offer and rejecting their kindness. I certainly do not want to make this a monologue on the pros and cons of the holding up of our hands in worship or the various arguments surrounding that subject. I do believe that the closer I come to feeling free in my spirit and learn to rest “in Christ” the more natural will be my responses and I will not need to force myself to artificially produce the outward expressions. The externals of my life must always be viewed as the symptoms of the condition of my heart, not the core problems. “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

(next in series)

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Breaking the spirit

Part of today's reading from My Utmost.

It is possibly an emancipation to the other person if he does not obey. If one man says to another—‘You must,’ and ‘You shall,’ he breaks the human spirit and unfits it for God. A man is a slave for obeying unless behind his obedience there is a recognition of a holy God. Many a soul begins to come to God when he flings off being religious, because there is only one Master of the human heart, and that is not religion but Jesus Christ. But woe be to me if when I see Him I say—‘I will not.’ He will never insist that I do, but I have begun to sign the death-warrant of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say—‘I will not,’ He will never insist; but I am backing away from the re-creating power of His Redemption. It is a matter of indifference to God’s grace how abominable I am if I come to the light; but woe be to me if I refuse the light (see John 3:19-21). MUHH 7/18

This is a startling description of how I remember my own life in many ways. I was told “you must,” and “you will” for many years by many different authorities and my resistance to that produced a spirit of rebellion in me that still has deep roots. I can certainly affirm that this kind of “training” is designed to break the human spirit and definitely unfits it for God. It creates a slave mentality toward God and causes the mind to view God as a stern task-master looking for reasons to punish. I have spent years trying to fling off being religious and I have sometimes found it to be very necessary in my process of coming to God. At the same time I have attempted to not abandon the church completely while struggling to come to terms with reality. I am coming to learn about the true God who works at the heart level and is the only One worthy of entrusting my heart to fully. As my picture of Him slowly changes my trust increases and my love begins to awaken.

Although I cannot honestly say that there have not been numerous times I have said “I will not” to the Holy Spirit, I have tried to keep my heart open to His leading and responsive to His drawing. I am learning that knowing God requires that I develop greater sensitivity and carefulness to not resist but to more instantly obey.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV) Leaning on my own understanding means that I want to know all the reasons why first so that I can decide to obey and have logical reasons for what I do. While there are good reasons for everything God asks me to do, if I insist on knowing the reasons first before obeying I place myself on very dangerous ground. It is like a young child wanting to know why he should leave the middle of the street before obeying.

But there seems to be a tension between these two things. How does one not break the human spirit and make it unfit for God while at the same time training the mind for implicit obedience? The two must not be contradictory but they seem to be at first glance.

Anyone wise have some comments?

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Exulting in Hope

Romans 5:1-11 is full of deep truths that I am just beginning to see. There are so many things starting to emerge that I need to spend some time here unearthing them. Several points came to my attention as I mused over these verses this morning.

I noticed some linked repetitions that usually cue me in on something important to look for. The very first one is “having been justified”. It's first occurrence is in verse one where it says “having been justified by faith, we have peace....” Then in verse nine it says “having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

Another repetition is the word “exult” (in this version). It shows up three ways in this section:

verse two says, “we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

verse three says, “we also exult in our tribulations...”

verse eleven says, “we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ...”

These two patterns already deliver an enormous amount of research potential that piques my interest. But first of all I want to take a look at the very first question that came to my mind from verse one. I have reason to believe from previous study that the faith here referred to is not necessarily, or at least exclusively, our faith in Jesus. The strong emphasis that has typically been put on being justified by (our) faith has led us to believe that faith is the ingredient that we must bring to the gospel formula to make it work for us. This has produced untold amounts of discouragement in many who felt they just couldn't work up enough faith to make it happen for them. Much of our evangelism focuses on urging people to “have faith” or even attempts to provide faith for others in hopes that it will jump-start the formula in their life.

I believe quite strongly that the faith here referred to may be the faith that Jesus and the Father has in us to respond to the arrangement of redemption they have already put in place for us. This is the focal point of the previous verse that has such a powerful message implicit within it. Jesus was delivered over – given up, just like the people described in chapter one were given over by God to the consequences of their choices – because of our transgressions.

The real bombshell, at least for me, is when it says that Jesus was raised because of our justification. That means that the Godhead had some arrangement or agreement that if Christ's death could not bring about our justification then Jesus would not be raised from the dead. That is an expression of enormous faith on the part of God and Jesus to take that big of a risk of failure to create this arrangement of redemption for us while we were still enemies hostile toward Him.

If the faith referred to in 5:1 is our faith in Jesus and we are justified by our faith, then since our faith did not yet exist (for several reasons), then in actuality Jesus could not have been raised from the dead, because we were not yet justified due to our lack of faith. One reason we did not yet have faith is because we were not yet born. Another reason is that even after we were born we were born as enemies of God with innate hostility toward Him and needed to experience a conversion to come into alignment with Him. Verses 6,8 & 10 make it very clear that we were not in a condition of saving faith when Jesus died and was resurrected for our salvation. So I believe there is very strong evidence here for this justifying faith in verse one to be the faith of Jesus Himself.

In this verse the results of this faith and justification is peace with God. Again, the previous verse talks about transgressions as the reason for Jesus' death. The word “trans-gress” needs to be unpacked so as to be better understood here. “Trans” means crosswise to something, across or to go beyond the limits of something. “Gress” is part of many words that denotes movement: egress, progress etc. Basically to transgress means to move crosswise to the will of God. When the Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law, since the law is simply a simplistic revelation of God's character, then sin is moving crosswise to what God is like. We find ourselves at cross-purposes with God, resisting God's ways and desires, and definitely not at peace with God.

But according to 4:25 Jesus was resurrected because we were justified before God. That would certainly seem to me to include having peace with God. If a person is justified the very cause for them not to have peace would have been removed. 5:1 says that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God, at least as far as God's opinion seems to be concerned, is already a done deal, along with our justification. I believe that all of this is what Paul refers to in verse two as our “introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

On God's side of our relationship with Him we see great faith in us and redemption which has already provided our justification and peace with God. Jesus has supplied all the faith necessary as an introduction into His grace, placing us, while still His enemies, in a place where we can exult or rejoice in hope of the glory of God. God wants us to share in His glory. His glory is to demonstrate selfless love and grace and to transform sinners into perfect reflections of His own character and be filled with joy and peace. Every person on earth has been placed into this position as an introduction to what God wants to expand dramatically in their lives if they give Him further permission.

So what is our part in all of this? We already know that many people will not be saved. What is the difference between the lost and the saved if everyone has been justified and has been given peace with God? What's the catch?

The transition point resides in the word “reconciled” which shows up in verses ten and eleven. And even there it starts out by making a strong declaration that, as far as God is concerned, as far as His opinion about us goes, we were reconciled to God “while we were enemies”.

I looked up the word reconcile on Dictionary.com and found some very relevant definitions that I think express what God is trying to do.

2.

to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable: to reconcile hostile persons.

3.

to compose or settle (a quarrel, dispute, etc.).

4.

to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent:

From God's viewpoint, when Jesus took upon Himself all the the results of sin when it is exposed to the presence of God's perfect holiness and died as a result, God considers the issues that separated us from Him as settled in Christ. There is no more dispute, the human race, as far as He is concerned, has been brought into harmony – compatibility – with Him. So how do we account for all of the disharmony and incompatibility with God that we see so evident all around us still?

First of all we need to get it solidly settled as irrevocable fact that it is not because of God's thoughts about us that we are still living in such a mess. God's thoughts toward us are only thoughts of peace. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NRSV) If we try to move beyond this point without anchoring it securely in place we will become very confused by the rest of the plan of salvation. Reconciliation is a done deal as far as God is concerned. But that does not mean that everyone who has been offered it will accept it and take ownership of it.

The last half of verse ten and then verse eleven I believe indicate a choice made on the part of those who choose to participate in this “done deal” by believing it and accepting it for themselves. “...having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

When we understand the true nature of the gift that is already in place on God's side and then choose to accept the gift for ourself personally by receiving the reconciliation, we are then “in Christ” and are fully identified with everything that happens to Him, past present and future. We are justified in His death, we are saved by His life and we are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3) Ephesians 1 is a grand expose´ of the incredible blessings that we can now enjoy and employ in our position as being “in Christ”.

There is much more to be explored here but I want to save that for another day. Until then I want to ponder and absorb the reality of my privileges of being in covenant relationship with Jesus and take much more advantage of the power and privileges available to me as a justified, reconciled child of God exulting in hope, in tribulations and in God.

(next in series)

Monday, July 16, 2007

Debt-Collecting

After listening to the sermon on Forgiveness by Clarissa Worley enough times to lose count, I just realized while listening to it yet again one of the reasons that it is important to believe in the universal forgiveness of all sins by Jesus' death. This is a very sticky subject, but it is so mostly because we have such a very confused concept of what forgiveness really is and what it is not.

Clarissa explains that the opposite of forgiveness is “debt-collecting”. Anything and everything that wounds us in any way whatsoever creates a debt owed to us. It is not just a “legal” issue; it is really a principle just as pervasive and unavoidable as gravity. When we are offended by someone whether it was intentional or not, even if they are totally unaware that they ever offended us, we now hold something like a lien to a debt owed us by that person. The debt will never just go away by ignoring it or pretending it never happened. Our mind and heart cannot work in that way at their deepest level. The debt has to be satisfied one way or another.

The original word in the Bible that was translated “debt” in the Lord's prayer actually conveys the concept of someone chained to us that we drag around in bondage to us. In our minds and hearts they become our debt-slave until we feel they have repaid us what we are owed.

It is at this point that we have a very serious choice to make. One option that we usually choose is to try to collect on the debt. We can use all sorts of methods and schemes and manipulations to extract enough from the other person to pay the debt that deep inside we know we are owed. And if we cannot reach the other person to collect from them due to any number of reasons including death, we will try to collect the debt from anyone available to us. In fact, even if the person is still available we will begin to collect debt from more and more people until we come to the place where we are trying to collect from everyone around us even if they did not create the debt. It is just the way our minds work.

Do we have a right to collect debt? Is there a real and legitimate reason, an injury which gives us the right to collect? Yes there is – absolutely! And many of us are doing exactly that and with gusto. But there is another factor that we don't often realize that sabotages our ability to satisfy the debt. For some reason that I don't yet understand but is very real nevertheless, it is impossible for us to actually collect enough to be truly satisfied and feel free of the original pain that was caused to our heart. We are simply incapable of actually settling the score and balancing the scale to return us to our original condition we enjoyed before the wounding. It is an unavoidable truth that we can never experience healing or freedom by collecting on a debt from the debtor no matter how long and hard we try or how successful we are at making the other person feel at least as bad as we do.

So what is the alternative to this frustrating and dead-end obsession that we have with debt-collecting? How can we find relief and freedom and wholeness again if it cannot be had through punishing those who have hurt us as we so naturally desire to do?

This is where it is so necessary to understand the essence of redemption and what God has provided for all of us in the death of Jesus Christ. For it is not just a religious abstract ideal or theory that is found in this event in history but it is the only possible way for us to ever become free of all the weight and pain of the debts in our lives, not only what other people owe us but what we owe others.

All debt has to be satisfied. That is part of the underlying principle that makes the universe tick and function in reality. Debt can never just be excused or ignored, it has to be satisfied and in our deepest soul we are wired to sense that intuitively. But it is just as true that we are incapable of accomplishing that satisfaction through our own methods and attempts even though we feel that we can if we were given enough time and harassment toward those who have hurt us. There is only one possible way for the debt to be satisfied completely and God accomplished that in the death of Jesus.

What Jesus experienced during the last hours of His life before and during His crucifixion was far, far more than the external physical torture and suffering that we usually focus on as bad as that was. The really significant and most important part of His suffering was the emotional, mental and heart anguish that was artificially taken upon Himself for the sins of the whole world.

We say these words but we have to really go deeper to understand what they truly mean to be affected by them. One way I remind myself of what He really experienced is to think specifically of the feelings that I have, the pain and inner turmoil and bitterness that I experience when I have been wounded in my spirit for any reason. Add to that the growing weight of guilt and condemnation that I feel when I know I have wounded someone else when I don't confess it and become free. I think of all the dysfunction and anger and resentment from all the years of abuse and neglect, all the frustration and lost opportunities that I have experienced because of my or others decisions that were wrong and selfish. Add to that all the incidental effects of pain that I experience just because I live in a messed up world that sometimes seems to be a diabolical plot to make me as miserable as possible from mosquito bites to long, torturing prolonged years dying of cancer or aids. Then multiply that by all the people who have ever or who will ever live on this planet and concentrate it into one human mind and body and you will begin to sense the real torture that Jesus freely took upon Himself and fully experienced without any dulling of His senses or tempering of the intensity. That is the real cause of death that crushed out the life of the Savior of the world.

So why did He do that? How does that relate to this principle of debt that must be satisfied in some way? It has everything to do with it. In fully experiencing the specific consequences of all the debts ever incurred throughout all of history without ever creating a liability of debt Himself, Jesus became something like a lightening-rod that could successfully satisfy any and all debt that anyone would choose to give to them of their own free will. And although He will never force anyone to give Him their debts or the debts that others owe them, He provided the one and only doorway of escape for any who would believe in Him to escape the death-producing results of living under the condemnation produced by debts. When we choose to make Him responsible for the debt that someone owes to us and believe in the payment that He already experienced, we trigger another eternal principle that releases us from the debts that we owe to God, our only source of life. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

But there is yet another facet of this that I find very interesting that began to make more sense to me today. It has to do with the ongoing theological argument about whether all sins were forgiven by Jesus on the cross or just the sins that people ask forgiveness for. There are many people who just cannot imagine the righteousness in forgiving people who do not even want forgiveness, who are hell-bent on being as wicked as possible and hurting as many as possible in the process. How could God forgive someone like Hitler or Stalin or __________ (you fill in the blank)? Aren't there people who are just too wicked to be forgiven? There must be! At least that's what we indignantly insist in our minds.

And what about the problem of people assuming that “pre-forgiveness” is a license to sin even more and cause more havoc in their selfishness and perversions? There are plenty of examples of this around to recite. Wouldn't it be very unwise of God to forgive people ahead of time? Doesn't that just encourage more sin instead of limiting it?

Inherent in that logic, however, lurks the idea that some of our incentive to stop sinning is the condemnation and guilt hanging over our heads that we believe goads us toward repentance and seeking God's forgiveness to be freed from that condemnation. Just listen to nearly any preacher today and you may hear some expression of this concept. It is generally accepted and taught as “gospel truth” and woven strongly into our theology of a “carrot and stick” kind of God who threatens us with condemnation and punishment on one hand and offers rewards and blessings on the other to move us toward – well, toward whatever goal that particular brand of religion has in mind for God. If this is what we believe about God then the idea of global forgiveness does not fit well into our evangelistic methods and we look for more palatable alternative beliefs that support our well-honed practices and traditions. But this is not what the Bible teaches.

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2 NIV)

In light of this, let's go back to the issue of debt-collecting and how we relate to those who have offended us as well as the words of Jesus in the Lord's prayer. The alternative to collecting debt from others is, in essence, to collect it from Jesus who has paid in full any debts that others owe to us. If someone has wounded us or offended us in any way, no matter how big or small, Jesus stands in and offers to pay us whatever is needed to satisfy that debt on their behalf. And being our God and Creator He has the supernatural ability to actually bring about the very satisfaction that our heart craves in our attempts to settle the debts. “Forgive” actually means what is looks like when you break it down and reverse it – “give for”. Jesus offers to give us what is owed for that other party who owes us a heart-debt, and He alone is able to do it in a way that gives us release from the internal craving for revenge.

If I come to realize that the debts owed to me can never be satisfied through my attempts to collect on them and that those attempts will only lead me deeper and deeper into bitterness and turmoil of heart, I can decide to forgive those debts by basically collecting them from Jesus Who indeed did pay the price for them.

But what happens when I am offended and hold a lien on someone who will not ultimately be saved? What if that person never desires forgiveness from God or from me and may never do so? And what if I believe, as many do, that their sins cannot be forgiven by God until they truly repent and ask God for forgiveness? Does that mean that Jesus did not experience the pain of their sins because they are going to experience it themselves in hell? Did Jesus only experience the debts of those who are going to be saved?

If we hold to that kind of theology then we create a real dilemma for ourselves. If we believe that God has not forgiven them because they have not yet repented (and may never repent), then their debt toward me was not paid by Jesus and consequently I may not be able to collect the debt they owe me from Jesus. In that case I will be unable to forgive them because God has not forgiven them and I am stuck chained to someone who owes me a debt dragging them around as a debtor-slave to me for the rest of my life.

Oh, that doesn't sound so good, so let's say I forgive them so I won't be dragged down by them as my debtors. That's nice, but now you find yourself in an equally awkward position of presenting yourself as more righteous and forgiving than God is willing to be. God won't forgive them until they repent but you will? Something is way out of whack here.

No, the real problem is not God forgiving the sins of the whole world as the Bible clearly teaches, but the problem is our very shallow, almost artificial concept of forgiveness itself. Since the clear alternative to debt-collecting is forgiveness, then what is involved in forgiveness?

First of all, forgiveness is not ignoring the debt or trying to minimize it in any way. Neither is forgiveness some compromise of partial debt-collection and some other mental gymnastic. Forgiveness is not an alternative to full satisfaction of the debt either. Forgiveness does not side-step or neutralize the universal principle of justice that demands satisfaction of every single debt owed to every single soul.

Forgiveness is a choice to move complete responsibility for a debt from one person to another without watering down the potency of that responsibility. Forgiveness first of all releases the debtor from any and all further attempts of any kind to collect from them the debt they incurred against us and takes full responsibility for all the pain and suffering that we have experienced back onto ourself. Until we take full ownership of all the pain from the debt we cannot do anything else with it; we still consider the debtor as the owner and instigator of our pain. That places enormous authority and power over our lives in their hands. Is that how we really want to live? If we still hold the other person responsible in the slightest way we nullify forgiveness completely. We have to take full ownership of the results caused within us of the debt incurred against us without holding it against them anymore.

When that step is consciously taken and absorbed then the next step can be initiated. That next step is to take all of that pain in full and consciously choose to give full responsibility for it to Jesus Christ who already has experienced that pain in full in our behalf. He has not just experienced a generic version of our pain but has specifically experienced the very exact pain from our very circumstances down to the very last detail that we are experiencing. When we realize that this is the reality of what forgiveness and redemption means we begin to also realize how very redundant and foolish it is for us to be unwilling to forgive and thereby hang on to all of that pain when Jesus has already experienced it so we could be freed from it.

And what happens in place of the pain that we give Him? Well, a most amazing transaction takes place. God places into our soul and heart and experience the peace and joy and freedom that was what Jesus should have received due to living a perfect life free from all debt and sin. Instead of Jesus enjoying the comfort and pleasure of those gifts He chose to forego them so that we could experience them in His place just as He experienced the results of our debts and those indebted to us in our place. That is the amazing “good news” that is called the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God, I am amazed myself at what You have been sharing with me just during this writing process today. I have never understood this very much before and it is becoming clearer to me. The more I learn about Your ways the easier it is to respond to Your love and grace. It really is Your kindness that leads me to repentance, not Your supposed threats or any other negative lies about You that have been perpetuated in Your name. Thank-you for Your Word, for Your faithfulness and goodness and truth. Teach me to forgive from my heart and release my debt-collecting compulsions to be satisfied by Your loving provision for me and for all those who owe me by Your payment on the cross. Fill me instead with Your peace and joy and grace. Do this for Your name's sake.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

4 Groups in Romans

I see 4 classes of people in Romans 1-5. (These actually correlate to 4 horses in the book of Revelation)

The first group are people who rejected the instinctive law of God within their conscience resulting in a continuous degradation deeper and deeper into open sin.

The second group of people are religious people who trust in their knowledge about religion and compare themselves with the open sinners through judgment in order to make themselves appear righteous.

Third group are those who do not know much about God, are not part of the religious establishment but who listen and follow their conscience quietly led by the Spirit of God unknown to them.

The fourth group are those gathered from all the previous groups who have accepted the reconciliation to God provided by Jesus, trusting in His righteousness fully and not at all in their own, and who seek for God's glory. Their focus is on God and what He does and believe in His abilities to do what He says He can do in our lives. Like Abraham they hope even when there is no apparent reason to hope, they praise God for who He is and not just for His obvious blessings – they live a life of faith that is a response to the faith God has in them. Instead of condemning others in judgment over them they celebrate what God can do for them. Instead of pious boasting about their own “righteous” lives they glorify God for His righteousness, goodness, faithfulness, grace and mercy. As they believe in God's ability to do the seemingly impossible they themselves come to be considered righteous in the eyes of heaven. As a result this righteousness in their hearts accepted by faith starts appearing in their life in the externals. They find themselves at peace with God, something that the first three groups do not experience. (see 1:18-22, 2:3-6, 2:15, 5:1)

(next in series)

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Concealing Sin

Romans 4:7 ...whose sins have been covered (epikalupto).

To conceal, i.e. (figuratively) forgive:--cover.

Sync with God.

I cannot forgive my own sins without first letting God forgive them.

To forgive, from the Greek, means to conceal and cover. If I conceal my sins before I accept the forgiveness of God then I incorporate them into myself as part of my identity. Then they will show up when the light comes unavoidably and I cannot separate myself from them and then I experience hell.

Sin has to be forgiven to be neutralized. Jesus neutralized all sin on the cross by experiencing the full force of the effects of desynchronization from God. But each person must accept that neutralization provide for us or else they will experience the results of pain and death that are the natural and unavoidable results of sin when truth and light increase in intensity.

Everything will come to the light sooner or later. The only choice we really have is whether we will submit to agreeing with the light and synchronizing with truth now or denying and concealing our sin and having it exposed later after sin has destroyed our capacity to let go of it.

When we conceal our sin without confession and repentance we are attempting to forgive our own sin without synchronizing with God and the redemption He has provided. We are trying to forgive our sin apart from accepting Jesus' death and suffering for our sin. In reality we are trying to be our own savior. It is a lethal trap that will result in our experiencing the same suffering and death that Jesus already experienced on our behalf so that we would not have to experience it.

Why do we try to conceal our sins and trust ourself? There are many reasons put out there but if they are condensed down to their roots I believe it is because of the lies and deceptions that we firmly believe about God. We are immersed and surrounded with false ideas and beliefs about God, about salvation, about spirituality and especially about religion. Anything that detracts from the truth about God's consistent and never-ending kindness, compassion and love will introduce the element of fear which will lead us to draw away from God instead of turning toward Him.

What is very interesting is that the same thing that doesn't work for us when we attempt to do it ourself is the very thing that God desires to do for us. While it is impossible for me to permanently cover up my own sins and succeed at becoming my own savior, God promises to do that very thing if I will agree with His revelations about myself and trust Him implicitly with my guilt. Forgiveness means to cover and to conceal. If I try to cover and conceal my sins myself, I only stay out of sync with reality and set myself up to experience the painful and ultimately fatal results of sin in myself. But when God forgives me through Jesus Christ, He then covers and conceals my sins in Christ and nothing can really expose them again. My heart is protected from my accusers even though they may continue to hound me about my past. The responsibility for those sins has been taken over by Jesus and He will never allow them to oppress my heart again. The only thing that can bring them back onto my head is if I reject totally the redemption provided for me and turn back to believing the lies about God, and once again start trusting in myself and resist the Spirit of God permanently. (see 2 Peter 2:15-22)

When I confess my sins (agree with the Holy Spirit's conviction inside my heart of what reality is), I allow the light of truth (about God) to expose them and begin to see how much I am unlike Him. The light of truth is not so much the truth about how bad I am (or a list of doctrines or facts) as it is the truth of how lovely, good, kind and perfect God is. The truth about me is only exposed – can only be seen proportionally – to the degree that I perceive the beauty and perfection of God's goodness and kindness. It is the kindness of God that leads me to repentance (Rom. 2:4). God is not threatening me with judgment to get me to repent (John 3:17). He is revealing His loveliness, His passion for intimacy with me, His desire for my friendship and companionship with Him for eternity. His kindness and total lack of bitterness, resentment, threats or ill-will toward me is what awakens and empowers me to stop concealing my sin in fear. Perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

God does not use fear to lead me to repentance. Men use fear in their distortion of religion to intimidate others and themselves into supposed repentance. But this is all an illusion of true spirituality designed by the master of fear himself, Satan the accuser. Fear inherently torments us (1 John 4:18). When we believe we have to use fear to bring us to repentance we subscribe to a twisted picture of God who wants to torment us until we cave in and repent. This is part of the Big Lie that God is on trial for right now. God is not the ultimate torturer who is extracting confessions from suspects in His kingdom or venting His anger on rejectors of His mercy. That is the work of diabolical despots who reflect the character of Satan. God only uses the attraction of love to draw hearts to Himself. To do anything else would be to undermine in the hearts of the redeemed the very motives necessary for devotion and loyalty to preserve freedom from a re-occurrence of sin for the rest of eternity.

God loves the world so much that He gave Himself in the life of His Son Who took upon Himself all the pain and effects of every single sin every committed, so that anyone who believed that God was right and that He loved them, if they trusted His arrangement to take away from them the results of their specific sins, they could escape the awful consequences of being out of sync with the Source of life itself and will enjoy eternity living in the presence of love and joy and peace without any fear. (John 3:16 paraphrased)

For all of my life this text has meant very little to me because of the shallowness of its use and abuse. It was just a string of words that many people memorized, glazed over with many layers of religious piety without any depth of meaning. I wanted to understand its true meaning but have spent years chipping away at the layers of religious lacquer preventing it from coming alive. As I contemplated about forgiveness this morning and dialogged with God while I wrote down what came to my mind, I didn't realize I would end up at that text. Now it is taking on more meaning and life for me.

I do not want to cover up any of my sins and try to conceal them from God or live in denial. I want to be transparent and open about anything He convicts me of that needs to be released so that I can be synchronized with reality and receive His forgiveness and character in its place.

God, I crave a deeper, broader revelation of the truth about Your character, Your feelings and thoughts toward me, Your ways of relating to us. My heart is still in deep darkness even though my mind has seen much light and tries to believe it. I have to trust You to continue Your transformation of my heart to be more and more synchronized with Your heart and Your ways. Bring healing to the pain and the lies that still torment me and sabotage my relationship with You and with others. Help me to truly embrace the truth of Your everlasting kindness and unchanging love with my heart and soul and mind. Make me a messenger of the truth about You so that love can be awakened in others who are likewise suffering under similar delusions about You. Cause me to be a faithful friend of the Bridegroom.

(next in series)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Delicate

The thought keeps coming up again and again over the past months and recent years about the delicacy of God. It is not something that fits well with our normal view of religion or theology, but I have a growing conviction that it is far more important than I have given it credibility. It is something I need to stop and think about with more focus and intentionality.

One of the best and clearest examples of this is the experience of Elijah on the Mount of God after running away from Jezebel in disgrace. I believe Elijah had fine-tuned his ability and sensitivity over his lifetime of listening to the very gentle promptings of the Spirit of God – the still, small voice. He just forgot temporarily and was taken advantage of by the accuser who was able to intimidate him with fear temporarily. So God had to take him back to the lesson board and remind him of the most important element of communication with God.

When the Bible says that God spoke to someone, I will give that they may have heard an audible voice speaking to them with sharp clarity. But I also wonder if many times it was not so much an unmistakable voice that was clearly from the right supernatural source as it was a condition of extreme sensitivity on the part of the person who had learned so well to walk with God that they could sense Him impressions and feel the messages from His heart in the quietness of their soul without an external voice using human words. They might have developed an intimacy with God whereby He did not have to always condense His desires into human words but could directly communicate to their hearts and let their minds (left brains) translate them into human terminology.

The reason this is so difficult to even discuss or contemplate is that it is so out of tune with what we typically want to believe about God. We generally want to think of God in terms of power, advantage, blessings for our benefit, great external accomplishments and feats that defeat our/His enemies. These are the primary colors that we want to see God painted in and the beauty, tenderness, kindness, patience etc. of God we usually relegate to a secondary place in our views of Him. But I am coming to think this is all backwards and because of this tendency we find it very difficult to understand God very well, we find it very difficult to hear God very clearly, and we find it very difficult to interpret correctly the actions of God particularly when they appear to reinforce our cherished beliefs about His power and His motives.

But to even try to ponder and explore this side of God presents a real problem for us – and maybe especially for me. For the very nature of the way I think is so foreign to this concept that when I try to approach it it seems to hide and elude my concentration on it. I have the same problem when I try to relate to very sensitive people; I find that sooner or later they have been hiding much about themselves from me because they are really afraid of me even though I could not discern it. They often pull away from me and leave me guessing and wondering once again what I have done wrong to offend.

Now I don't have any illusions that God is hiding from me because of fear, but like a very delicate snowflake that is glistening with unimaginable beauty, when I approach it the very warmth of my presence and the unintended effects of my warm breath cause its beauty to melt away before I have time or opportunity to really appreciate its beauty and delicacy. That is the feeling I get each time I begin to approach this subject, this truth about God.

But that does not mean I have to give up in despair. I believe God's desire for all of us is to come into such a relationship with each one of us and bring us to the place where we will be able to dialog heart to heart with such an openness and sensitivity that we will never need to resort to words if we choose not to. And our sympathies and feelings and desires will be so aligned and reflective of His that we will have simply become perfect and unique reflections of some aspect of His feelings, thoughts and personality, though not a complete replication. I believe that it takes all of the Body of Christ, all of the people united that He is preparing who are willing to be transformed into reflections of part of Him – all of them together who will reflect more completely the wholeness of God. That is why we cannot grow very well outside of a living, vibrant community of genuine believers, because that is the context where we must be stimulated and protected while we grow up in maturity and reflection of God.

I have been working in my garden lately and have been frustrated at how very delicate some of the plants and vines are. My intentions are all very well and good as I work with them but the results sometimes have been catastrophic. I have been putting straw underneath the long growing vines to keep the fruit from lying on the dirt and getting moldy. But in moving the vines to get the straw under them they very easily kink or break causing the vines to wither and sometimes die completely within a few days. They are so delicate and sensitive that it is nearly impossible to do what I need to do without causing even more damage than what I am trying to prevent.

Obviously it would have been much wiser to lay the straw down much earlier before the plants grew so large so I would not have to move them now. But that is wisdom that will have to wait for another growing season to be of use now. What is more exasperating is that there is no shortage of weed vines that have no problem whatsoever in being moved, tampered with, yanked around etc. without complaining or dying. Why couldn't the good fruit-bearing vines be as healthy as the weeds? I know, every gardener since father Adam has been asking that question. But I strongly suspect there are a lot of spiritual lessons embedded intentionally by God in these things of nature for me to learn in my dealings with others and also with Him.

I can see that this subject of the delicacy of God is not emerging very well in this writing. I am also realizing that it is a subject very important but so complex and sensitive that it will take much more than this writing to begin to explore it. However, I still feel it is far too underrated in its significance and I want to pursue it and experience it much more intentionally. Even though my words and my relationships are all too much like my clumsy fingers attempting to move delicate vines and causing a lot of damage in the process, I have to trust God's grace to heal the damage and guide me into having more skill, insight and sensitivity so that I can be much more like Him in patience, kindness and grace.

I can see that this is a side of God that is probably much more revealing about His true nature than most of the ones I have been exposed to all of my life and I want to move in this direction. Even though most people around me don't sometimes appear as interested in this as much, it may be just because of the numbness of my perceptions more than the reality of their intentions. It is the Spirit of God that is coordinating the creation of His Body and it is His job to do the secret heart-work necessary for each of us to be more skilled and willing to live in the delicate, sensitive atmosphere that is a reality when living in closeness to God. In the meantime we live under the umbrella of grace where God protects us from the myriads of catastrophes that our ineptness causes in our hearts. I want to become more sensitive, more gentle, more relaxed and observant and caring. That is a work that I will have to trust the Holy Spirit to accomplish within me for I do not have the ability or even the desire sometimes needed to arrive at that condition.

God, show me more about this side of You that has been hidden from my dull senses for so long. Grow new capacities within me that will enable me to hear You more clearly and sense Your feelings and thoughts more instantly. Polish my mirror so that I will better reflect the truth about You to others. Repair my nerve damage that limits my motor skills and feeling receptors and awaken new thoughts and desires in me that I have never known before. Make me an experiment of Your grace that will amaze even the angels that stand around Your throne and think they have seen everything. Yes, You have promised to do it and You are faithful to finish what You have started. I trust You to fulfill Your Word in my heart and life and rest in Your love and protection and good plans for me.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Justification

Justified.

I am starting to unpack that word and get an idea of what is underneath it.

The base of the word is just, which is also a word that needs a lot of unpacking before I can understand justified.

What does just mean? A good, but partial definition is fair. But what is fairness?

Fair is when circumstances or people are impartial, when decisions are made that are not influenced in the slightest by selfishness on the part of the one making the decisions. A judge is expected to be just and fair and impartial meaning he cannot be biased in favor of one party over another through their influence or pressure on him. Ideally a just judge would love both parties absolutely equally and want the very best for both of them without any prejudice or bias whatsoever. That would be the exemplary ideal of justice.

So with this in mind let me go back to the word justify. When I am wronged by someone, hurt inside, lied about, wounded in my spirit, violated in any way, I am strongly tempted to believe that I am justified in doing or saying something that will discredit – nullify to some extent – what they have done to me. I feel that justice demands an equalizing of the “balances” somehow. So I may feel justified in hurting them in some way, or at least wanting them to experience to some degree what they have caused me to experience. In my mind that seems like fairness.

We believe that it is fair that when one person hurts another the offender should receive equal treatment to what they have done to others. In our natural thinking that is the essence of fairness. In fact, that is what theoretically the legal system is expected to be all about. We instinctively believe in the principle of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. This concept of fairness lies at the very deepest level of our psyche. We incorporate it into our laws and believe that Divine law also operates somehow in this manner. Otherwise we would have to conclude that God is not fair and many of us do not want to admit to such feelings. Others openly admit that they feel God is unfair and charge Him with injustice in the way He deals with us.

If God is not just He must be biased in some way which would make Him unfit to be an impartial judge of others. Following this line of thinking we have to conclude that God, to be just, must not only be impartial in His judgment but administer justice (think punishment), which in our thinking means arbitrarily inflicting pain on all offenders to the same degree that they have hurt others. After all, that is the basis upon which our judicial system operates, though highly uneven and imperfect at best. We put people into prison or fine them to create social or economic pain because we believe they have caused pain to others through their infractions of our rules.

This is what the Bible calls living under the Law. This system is based on the motivation of fear and deterrence to produce right living. We somehow believe that unless people are afraid of the consequences of wrong behavior they will not stop their evil ways and will only become worse. We think that fear is much stronger than love or grace and so, living under the law, we choose the path of judging to motivate others to live in the right way.

When we choose to indulge in administering justice ourself by trying to evaluate how much another person has injured us or someone else, and then attempting to inflict punishment through pain, shame or some other form of retaliation on them, we have made ourself a judge. In so doing we are inadvertently making some very big claims about ourself.

First of all, we believe that our perceptions and information is enough to discern the heart and the wrong motives of the person we are judging and we base our decisions on what we believe to be true about them. The problem is, it is actually impossible for us to see inside their hearts. We cannot know their background and view of reality from the context of their experience. So in place of that we use the only frame of reference we have available to us – our own perceptions, feelings, background and motives based on what we feel we might have done in a similar situation.

We then project all of this onto the situation and the other person to determine what we decide was their motives and intents. Based on the outcome of this formula we categorize them into one of our familiar labels that we have made for others or have learned from society around us. We then decide how they should be punished by suffering for the damage and pain that they have caused us and others by their violations against us, preferably as much or more than the suffering we have experienced. Using this formula to arrive at our decisions is what we call justification for the way we treat them. We feel justified in our statements about them, our anger toward them, our hatred or hard feelings or attempts to discredit their reputation or hurt them in some way.

When it is spelled out clearly like this it is a little easier to see that there are some serious flaws in this kind of reasoning. But those flaws do not prevent us from daily, if not almost continually, indulging in this kind of activity and thinking. It is so common that we believe it is just a part of normal life and cannot be avoided. We realize sometimes that we make mistakes in judgment about others, but we excuse that by trying to refine our formulas that we use to judge them and get better and more information so that our judgments will be more accurate next time. That is part of what drives the media craze in society today. We want to know as much as possible (mostly about negative information about others, particularly in high positions of power and influence) so that we can arrive at some kind of judgment about them. Even if we are not in a position to administer what we believe is justice, we fill our imaginations and conversation with ideas about what we believe should be done about them or to them to correct the injustice that we believe is being inflicted on us or others. (The more I think about this just writing it down the more frighteningly large this problem emerges in my consciousness.) We feel justified in slandering them, discrediting them, exposing them etc. in our belief that they can somehow be stopped from further injustice or wrongdoing by our intimidation through slander in some way. We are engaging in an evil for evil relationship with them (even if we don't have a relationship with them) in an attempt to somehow force them to reform, repent or at least regret what they are doing and maybe change their ways and start living more righteously. This is living under the Law. This is what Jesus was talking about when He said we should not judge if we do not want to be judged.

But we don't really understand this subject very much at all. I know I have never understood it or really thought about it clearly. It has always seemed more like another rule that I was supposed to keep that really didn't make a lot of sense to me but somehow I was supposed to obey. After listening to Clarissa Worley's sermon on judging about 5 times in the last 2 weeks it is finally starting to sink in what this is really about. And it is very unnerving when I realize how immersed I am along with everyone around me in this kind of thinking and activity. I am just starting to perceive the tip of the iceberg of this problem and to realize how pervasive this is and how much we damage each other because of this one thing. My own recent experience of being accused publicly and the deep pain that it caused my family has heightened my awareness of this issue and is stimulating me to begin to realize how much I may be doing the same thing to others myself without realizing it.

Judging means that I project my context, my background, experience and perceptions onto the actions and words of another and making a decision about their motives based on that. Since only God is really able to read the heart and the motives of anyone, for me or anyone else to engage in this kind of activity is to believe that we have god-like capabilities. We are setting ourselves up as the judge, no matter how small the matter may be, and are really saying we can do as good a job, if not better, than God can do. Since we often subtly believe that God is not taking action soon enough to deal with a situation or person, we are all too eager to step in and take “corrective action” to prevent further pain and damage that we believe the other person may cause. We believe that in judging them that we can motivate them to change and maybe even repent and turn from what we firmly believe is their evil intents. In doing this we are not only replacing God as judge but we are also trying to replace the Holy Spirit as their convictor. This sounds very serious when presented in this light but we don't usually think of it this way when we feel compelled to expose the sins or faults of some person we feel has wounded us or we believe is a threat to others.

The real fact is that when we see something in someone else's life that triggers strong, intense negative feelings in us it is always because there is something in our own soul that painfully resonates with what we are perceiving as a problem and indicates a pain that we have not yet dealt with inside ourself. But because we are often unwilling to face the issue in our own life and admit responsibility to seek for healing in our own soul, or maybe because we harbor feelings of resentment and unforgiveness deep in our heart that we are unwilling to admit, we take those strong reactions and push them outside of ourselves, label them with a slightly different label so that they will not be identified in our own life, and then project them on the person who “caused” us to feel these feelings. We want to gloss over and keep hidden our own unresolved pain or faults and we use judgment of others to draw away any attention that might occur to expose our own issues, even to our own mind.

So is it ever possible for us to be a fair judge? Do we have the qualifications to be a judge? That would require that we be totally selfless and impartial in our spirit as well as able to clearly discern what is in the heart and motives of others. We also have to be able to take into account everything that ever happened to that person and be able to see reality as they perceive it so that we can understand the context of their words and actions. None of us are capable of doing any of these things.

Jesus Christ came to this earth to deliver us from the terrible effects of judgment. He made it absolutely clear that He did not come to condemn the world but to save. He refused to engage in judgment while He lived on earth even though He was the only person who had all the capabilities to do so. For if He had exercised judgment we would have been destroyed by the revelation. Jesus did not come to judge but to bring the atmosphere of grace to this world so that we could heal and be restored into fellowship with the Father. He went even farther than that by taking on all of the pain and suffering of all the judgment brought about by all of our sins and allowed it to crush out His very life on the cross. He did that so that we would not need to live under the Law but in the liberating atmosphere of grace and freedom where we could mature and grow up into the likeness of God for which we were created.

When we judge each other we remove that protective shield of grace and place the Law over others and ourselves. When we do that we bring in death-producing elements into our lives and become the enemy of Christ. Satan's name means “the accuser”, and when we participate in judgment we join him in his diabolical activity of accusing those for whom Jesus gave His life. As Paul says in Romans 2:1 “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.”

The only option we have if we really want to be Christ-followers is to suspend all judgment – period. There is never a time or situation when it is right to judge another person. It matters not how many around us indulge in this practice or badly we are hurting from someone else's words or actions against us. If we indulge in retaliation and judgment we always only end up putting ourself under condemnation. It is unavoidable. And in doing so we remove ourself from the protective covering of grace that Jesus provided to protect us.

(John 5:22-24) The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. (NRSV)

I choose to enter into a covenant with God to suspend all judging. I know I cannot do this naturally, but I depend on the Holy Spirit to empower me, convict me and possess me to live this way. I want to stop all judging in my life for I do not want to be judged. I choose to follow the example of Jesus who refused to judge anyone even though He was entrusted with all judgment by God the Father. I want to honor God by not passing judgment on anyone but leaving all judgment to Jesus who alone has been given that responsibility. I choose to believe in His word and in His kindness and perfect character so that I can experience eternal life; so that I do not come under judgment but can pass from death into real life. So help me God.

(next in series)