Falling off the wagon

   Well, I’ve fallen off the wagon again. I guess I’ve been riding hanging onto the side, with one foot dragging on the ground for awhile. You can’t ride half astride when it comes to gossip and fault-finding. There’s no middle space where just a little judgment and verbalized negativity is ok. Snide remarks, rolling of the eyes, and passive aggression are just as potent as outright explosions of anger. They’re all destructive and remove us from the safe, God-driven wagon He has provided for us. He’s not the one who unceremoniously dumped us on the roadside in anger. We have chosen to get off and walk on our own as Judge, Manipulator, and Vindicator, following our own sense of justice to make sure our persecutor is not left unpunished.

   What a dangerous and destructive road we walk there on our own, while God’s Grace-filled wagon rolls on by our side, offering sanctuary and true justice.  “Repent and climb back aboard,” He offers. “It’s not too late. You’ve fallen off, but you can dust yourself off and rejoin us. Here is My hand reaching down to help you up. I am not condemning you or refusing to let you back aboard. My Son already paid for your Golden Ticket. You are the one choosing to walk, stumbling over potholes and chasing after illusions of satisfaction that end up making you miserable.  Come up by Me and lean against Me as I drive. Listen to the clip-clop of the horses and find My peace once again.  All shall be well.”

The Right Audience

   I just love how God works...how He sends comfirmation and encouragement when He knows we need it most. I was wondering recently, as the number of readers of my blog has reduced dramatically in the past few posts, if the blog God called me to start had served its purpose and its time was at an end. Or perhaps I was off-base and not listening very well...or not expressing things in a helpful way. Maybe I should stop trying to write these posts and move on.

   So this morning I was listening, as usual, to Andrew Wommack’s program, Gospel Truth*.  Guess on what topic he ended up spending half the program?  Yep, “pleasing God” and what that really means. I just burst out laughing. Another reminder to look to God for your affirmation and guidance. He always finds creative ways to encourage you when you’re floundering. The hand He extends to you not only lifts you out of the mire of confusion or circumstance, it strengthens you to persist in what He’s called you to do:  To run the race to its end with Him as both your track coach and cheerleader.

   If you’re doing what you’re doing for a readership or audience of one, makes sure it’s the right One, and you’ll find all the encouragement and confirmation you need.
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*www.awmi.net or via Roku channel or cable

Preparing the right gift

In this Advent season, as we prepare to celebrate both the first and second coming of our Lord, the continual search to please Him should be resounding in our hearts. What gift would He most enjoy for His Birthday present from us? When you love others deeply, you search for ways to delight them, to make them happy, to outdo them with kindness. The more Yeshua’s love pours out to Me, the more I want to love Him bigger. Don’t you?

When it’s the birthday of someone we love deeply, we don’t just quickly wrap a gift we’ve grabbed from the shelf at the last minute. We ponder and plan what would delight and surprise that person. We want to see his or her face light up in joy. Now, surprise is not an option for our Yeshua’s gift, since He already knows the future.  However, pleasure is.

Sometimes, when our children were young, we would write our birthday gifts to Jesus on slips of paper and put them in a wrapped box under the tree. We never opened this gift Christmas morning, but we knew He would do so, treasuring each one in His heart. Somehow that tradition faded away as we all got older. I wish we’d carried it on every year. This year I want to bring it back, even though our children have their own families now.

Let’s take time this Advent season to ask Yeshua what He would most like for His Birthday celebration this year. Is there someone you need to forgive? Someone lonely who would love your attention? Might Adonai be missing that time you used to devote to conversation with Him or just basking in His Presence? Is there someone He loves who would be blessed by a special gift? Would Yeshua love to hear you serenade Him with love songs?

Let’s draw in our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, as well as family members in the Spirit. Write love notes, wrap them in boxes with loving care and determine to fulfill any outward or inward acts of devotion they might contain. May He be showered with so many gifts this year that we hear the echo of His laughter from Heaven.

Note to Flock

”Fear not, little flock, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” —Luke 12:32

I have loved this verse since I was a child. Delighted to follow Jesus’ exhortation thrice recorded in the Gospels, *  I love being His little lamb, no matter how arthritic my limbs and wrinkled my face. And now, as I follow the trail of what gives Him pleasure in Scripture, I’ve run smack into this image once again. He not only cares tenderly for us daily, but He rejoices in giving us entrance into all the delights of His Kingdom (which are more than we can possibly imagine*). Not just eventually, one day in Heaven, but right now, as we choose daily  to look to Him as Shepherd and King.

We’re living in a different kingdom than many of those around us, as we walk this earth as His grateful, affectionate subjects. Every choice we make to please Him, to see the crinkles fan out from His spirit eyes, is a source of joy to Him. Foregoing the world's way of seeking pleasure, we seek His,  and thereby find our own.

“...Steep yourselves in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday, human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! Your Father wants to give you the very Kingdom itself!”  —Luke 12:32 The Message
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*“I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God [with faith and humility like a child] will not enter it at all. “ Luke 18:17  (See also Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:15)
**”But, as it is written, ‘Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey Him and who gratefully recognize the benefits He has bestowed.’].“ 1 Corinthians 2:9. (Isaiah 64:4)

The Pleasure of a Parent

   In my continued search for what pleases God (what makes Him happy, what brings a smile to His face), I was struck this morning by the parallel with our own parenting. (So many of these blog posts have come out of such insights.) Doesn’t it please your tender parent’s heart when your child trusts in and relies on you...when he or she looks to you for advice or comfort, knowing how greatly you care for them?

   Always we must ultimately direct them to their perfect Father in Heaven. However, He has allowed us the privilege of being His representative ‘with skin on.’ here on earth. Whether you remember these times from the distant past or are currently raising little ones, you can feel the consuming love and tenderness in your heart as those small arms reach out to you with trust and dependence. They know your heart toward them, never questioning your desire to be all they need at that moment. This heart of ours toward our children never changes, no matter their age.

   I believe God feels the same way about us. It pleases Him when we turn to and rely on Him for even the smallest of circumstances. No matter how youthful or grey our hair, our outstretched arms bring Him joy. His parent’s heart overflows toward us.

   Sometimes I think we’re reluctant to reach out to Him because we feel somehow we’re ‘bothering Him’ with insignificant concerns. But when we truly understand that it pleases Him when we trust in and rely on Him, praying without ceasing’ throughout our days, we can come to Him happily without restraint or reluctance.

   My mother rarely had the opportunity to go out to eat. In the days of my childhood, going out to eat was a rarity for most people. One time she was able to attend a special dinner with my father, who was a history teacher. Every summer he had to work at a second job to make ends meet. So this was a special evening for both of them as they attended a prepaid event.  The menu options were abundant, and it was rather like a cruise, in that you could have as many different items as you wished.  My mother, however, was reluctant to order more food because she didn’t want to keep bothering the waiter. She found out later, however, that the waiter was paid extra every time he had to go back to the kitchen for a customer!

   By no means am I comparing our Creator to a waiter, but the parallel still speaks truth to us:  Sometimes the bother in our eyes is, instead, a blessing to the Giver.

The Search for Pleasure, Part III

   In the last post we discovered that it gives God pleasure  when people come to know, believe in, and trust in Him. They then become His children. He loves the whole world, but the whole world is not comprised of His children. (John 1:12) It is we, His children, who give Him pleasure by our very existence.

  Today we stop on our journey and ponder Ephesians 5:9-10 (Amp)
“...for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord [and letting your lifestyles be examples of what is most acceptable to Him—your behavior expressing gratitude to God for your salvation.]”*

   So it seems that our journey, itself, is scriptural. That makes me happy. We must be moving in the right direction! Here’s another verse, from Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.”

   Giving ourselves completely over to Him pleases Him, including those areas we’ve been holding back.  At first, many of us are afraid of what He’ll ask of us.  However, we’re not entrusting our whole selves ( body, soul, and spirit) to another human. [Jesus knew better than to do that (John 2:24-25).] We’re entrusting ourselves to the One Who created us and loves us best, the one who knows every thought we have, every word we think, every fear we try to hide, and every desire of our heart. As I stated in “Used,” we are never expendable in His eyes. Our fears of what He’ll call us to are ungrounded. He understands them, but it makes Him happy when we overcome them with His help. “Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

   Let’s agree together to cast off those fears of offering ourselves completely to Him, through a greater trust in Him. Based on the Scriptures we’ve addressed so far, we’ll make Him doubly happy. Shall we go for triple in the days ahead?

   
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*In case you’re not familiar with the Amplified Bible, additions in parentheses are an expansion of the meaning of the original word in the Greek, like using synnyms to better understand the meaning. Sections in brackets are the tranlator’s ‘justified, clarifying’ additions as best understood by both the vocabulary and the larger context.

The Search Continues

If you didn’t read the previous blog post from Nov. 8 on Pleasing God, go back and read that first.  We are on a journey through the Scriptures searching for what makes God happy, since we love Him so very much.
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Psalm 149:4-5 Amp.
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation and adorn the wretched with victory. Let the saints be joyful in the glory and beauty [which God confers upon them]; let them sing for joy upon their beds.

I love this first Scripture in our search.  To please God, we just have to humbly be who we are! He takes pleasure in those who have responded to His love and good news, His evangel. I don’t believe the discovery of this as our first verse is a coincidence. We should be grounded first in the assurance that He takes delight in our very existence.  We should ‘sing for joy upon our beds’ as we ponder this wonderful truth.

Giving God Pleasure

    When We talk about pleasing God, we often picture ourselves making a right choice. We might even picture Him saying, “Right. (Smile) Good job. Check. You’re hitting 85% here. Keep up the good work.  Next?”    Through the years, however, I have come to see God not at a distance with His clipboard, but ‘close up and personal,’ as the saying goes.

   As often happens, I was recently struck in a new way by a Scripture from Psalm 147. . It begins with “The Lord takes pleasure in...”.  I have long considered my desire not just to dutifully obey God, but to make Him happy...to cause Him to smile tenderly and with intimate joy, maybe even to cause Him to throw His Head back amd laugh.  It seems rather like watching someone open and excitedly rejoice in a gift you’ve given him. The recipient’s face lights and the crinkles around his eyes show far beyond a simple thank you that you have hit the mark in blessing him.

   Sometimes, though, I realize that I have pushed Him back into His clipboard stance, where I’m again just trying to do things right and not upset Him. I find myself there without quite realizing how I got there.  He certainly wasn’t the one who moved away. I know that. Our goal should certainly be to not offend or grieve His Spirit. Absolutely. But going beyond obedience to overtly pursuing creative ways to bless Him, to cause His his eyes to light up in pure delight...priceless.
 
   This has prompted me this morning to pursue every Scripture which refers to pleasing God. Certainly I have read and noted them here and there. However, I’ve never searched for them all at once.  Andrew Wommack has been teaching on Lessoms from David, which include much about his pleasing God, but also about his greatly displeasing Him. We tend to think of our actions pleasing and displeasing God, but always God brings us back to the heart behind our actions, as well.

   At any rate, I am putting on my Sherlock hat and going in search of all the ways to make God smile. I hope you’ll join me. You can add your comments to the post and help us mine the depths of the treasure that is God’s inspired Word to us...God-breathed and life-giving.  And let’s see how many full-bore smiles we get to see along the way.
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[By the way, if you use a computer, versus a phone, to open this blog at www.TennyandI.blogspot.com, you can see the archives of the other 3 years of posts, the navigation tools, and places to follow the blog, if you’re interested. Some have asked me how, since my posts don’t always show up on their Facebook feed.]. Julie

Used

   An acquaintance once said, “ We should never speak of God using people. God doesn’t use people.” I understood what she was saying, at least for one connotation of the word. In common parlance, to be ‘used’ by someone carries a negative connotation:  used and discarded, thrown away, a selfish consumption without thought or care for the one ‘used.’  Left behind in a sorrowful heap, expendable. Perhaps even ‘used’ for a higher purpose...the sad but necessary expending of the one to save many.

   However, God’s ‘use’ of us never takes away value; it always adds it.  When we are willing to be ‘used’ by God, we find ourselves the recipient of great blessing.  When God blesses others through us, especially when sacrifice is involved, He brings increase to us in a myriad of ways.

   As with so many of God’s truths, His  economy is upside down from the world’s. When we’re used by God to bless others and expand His Kingdom, we come out with more, not less. He never ‘spends’ one person for another...or the one for the good of the many as if the one were expendable. He only spends us for great gain for both parties. The only exception is when He did so to Himself...the complete and utter sacrifice of Himself for our gain out of pure, unadulterated love.

   Perhaps being used by God would be better expressed: “Make me a blessing to others, Lord.”  Now this prayer might sometimes be answered in an uncomfortable way. Or it might take place in a way we barely know it’s happening. (Since I'm not big on suffering, those are definitely my preference.)

   Sometimes our gain is overtly seen in multiplied provision and favor.  Other times we see it in the growth and maturation of our character, in our strength and ability to choose what is right and kind and good the next time around. Sometimes we reap the harvest in previously strained relationships or in an inexplicable peace for which we've been searching.

   We often reap a greater trust in the orchestrator of our lives.  As conductor, He raises His arms and calls us to lay down our lives for our brother or sister. When that brother or sister has been a source of pain to us, the call to be a blessing gets dicey.  We have to slog through thick mud to do what He's asking. It reminds me of those nightmares where we're trying to save someone but can't make any progress towards him.  If we break free of that bog of self-justification, however, He blesses us for remembering that the roles of Vindicator and Judge are His and His alone. 

   Recently I had occasion to live this out when I was tempted to 'take my dolls and go home,' as the saying goes.  I wanted to withdraw my usual efforts at helping in a particular situation, letting the person who had 'misused' me flounder and feel the effects of my absence.  However, God would have none of it.  The withdrawal of helpfulness was not on His agenda for me at all. I felt quite justified in leaving this person to her own devices.  However, God reminded me that I was neither justifier nor vindicator.  I had given myself to Him as His Servant and Child, both of which involved obedience.  Being a blessing is so much easier when you like the people you're blessing, isn't it? But since I love Him and want to make Him happy, I slogged through the swamp.

   Regardless of whether or not we see our side of God's creative blessing in this life, we are promised that in Heaven we will indeed experience His reward.  If we're more focused on being a blessing than receiving one, the thought of 'being used' will delight us. We'll be continually excited about opportunities to bless. Especially so when we can partner with Him to lead people to the lighted window of His Home.

   To be used by God is to sometimes be carried along in the river of the of His Holy Spirit and sometimes be stuck in a few eddies, yet always knowing He is Trustworthy, Faithful and True and that we are precious in His sight. Never expendable. Never less valued than another. Never wasted or forsaken. Never broken without His keeping sight of every single shard of our soul, which His Potter hands will make into a work of art more wondrously beautiful than before.
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Matthew 5, 1John 3:16, Luke 14:14, James 1:12

Post-script:  Although we are not to 'strive,' in one sense, in another the term fits, as we set our hearts to swim upstream against the tide of our natural inclinations.  This morning I read the following in my Tozer devotional:
"The true believer is in a state of progression.  He seeks and strives, he wrestles and fights.  He is ever aiming at the prize....His obedience, though not perfect, is habitual."  --AW Tozer

Character, Pt. II...”You forgot me!”

   This morning Kanga made herself heard.  “What about me?  I am concerned about Roo.  Where do I fit in?”
   How many of us are concerned for various reasons about our children, whether young, or grown with their own families? I dare say the answer is: most of the parents I’ve ever known. When friends pour out their hearts to me or offer up prayer requests, they’re most often about their children, no matter their age.
   This was the answer I received this morning: “The best way for Kanga to help Roo is to be Pooh.”
   Say what?? I had to laugh. However, when I thought about it, I understood what He was saying. We are not to become someone else. He loves who we are, our distinct personalities and eccentricities. But sometimes we grow from watching others’ relationship with Him, the way they draw close and entrust themselves and their families to Him completely, even when they don’t understand.  Because they DO understand that in comparison with Him, they are ‘bears of very little brain’...with fluff between their ears. They know that they are powerless to ‘fix things’ for their families (as Kanga is wont to do), but He is not.  They can simply hold out their paws and cling to His big carpenter’s hand and let the tears flow, waiting for His Shalom to descend in the quiet of the Wood.

Developing your character...

Recently I watched the new movie Christopher Robin at the theater and simply loved it.  Feeling overwhelmed and discouraged with my job, I entered the theater with a longing to experience simple and pure childlike joy...and was not disappointed. In fact, the movie stayed with me.

Earlier this year, I asked the Lord if there would be a Hundred Acre Wood in Heaven and, if so, could we walk in it together. His affirmative answer would not surprise you. Then yesterday morning, in my prayer time, I was Pooh to His Christopher Robin, holding His hand and walking without speaking.  Finally He said that He was glad I came to Him as Pooh; in fact He was delighted.  He explained to me that although He loves the Piglets, the Rabbits, the Tiggers, the Owls, and the Eeyores, they tend to come to Him for a particular reason. Piglet comes when he is afraid.  Rabbit is very busy and needs certain problems solved. Owl asks for help to appear intellectual in the eyes of the others. Tigger bounces over on occasion as he heads out on an adventure. Eeyore in his self-pity longs for a change in his circumstances.

However, Pooh just comes to be with Him.  He reaches up his paw and simply yearns to be in His Presence, not asking for anything in particular, just enjoying the quietness and peace of walking together in the stillness of the Wood.

Let’s all take time to be Poohs....but don’t be afraid to be a Piglet, or an Eeyore, or a Tigger, or a Rabbit, either. He loves and welcomes us in every state of Character in which we find ourselves.

Luke 18:16 
Matthew 18:3

“Don’t underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”

“Sometimes the smallest things take the most room in your heart.”   

“Any day spent with you is my favorite day.”

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. ‘Pooh?’ He whispered. ‘Yes, Piglet?’ ‘Nothing,’ said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. ‘I just wanted to be sure of you.’ “

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.”

Piglet: “ ‘Supposing a tree fell,down, Pooh, when we were underneath it.’
‘Supposing it didn’t, ‘ said Pooh after careful thought. Piglet was comforted by this.”

“Wherever they go and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on top of the forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing.”
—AA Milne

Sanctuary light

If you grew up in (or still worship in) a sacramental church, you may remember the sanctuary light, a candle lit to represent God’s Presence in the church. This morning I was reading from my Tozer devotional a reminder that we are God’s sanctuary,  and as such our hearts should be a pure and holy place for Him to dwell:   Build that invisible altar from within. Let the spirit of God produce the living, cleansing flame that marks your devotion to Christ, our Lord.

A wisp of a prayer from the recesses of my memory surfaced from the evening service called Vespers,  a sunset service of evening prayer. In fact, long ago bells in towns used to ring six times per day to call people to pray throughout the day. (You can read more about the Book of Hours or Prayers of the Hours, if you’re interested.  Or you might enjoy Davis Bunn’s fiction book, The Book of Hours, which includes some of this history.) Perhaps we might all benefit from reminders throughout the day to stop for a few moments and connect with our Heavenly Father. To put our current activities, responsibilities, and concerns into perspective. To stop, look up from our work, give Him a smile and let Him know how grateful we are. To affirm that our hearts are still devoted to Him.

Vespers is still practiced by many throughout the world. O Gracious Light is an ancient prayer from that service: O Gracious Light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in Heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! Now, as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing Your praises, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of Life, and to be glorified through all the worlds.


Remember the phrase, she’s carrying a torch for him (or vice versa)? The image evoked a flame in one’s heart which has continued to burn, despite the circumstances which might have easily snuffed it out. ADONAI’s flame of love for us never goes out, and neither should ours for Him. Is our heart cleansed so that His Presence can burn a sanctuary light within us? Do we carry His torch, which burns faithfully and ceaselessly throughout our days on this earth?

Some of us are in our sunset years. Do we carry the Vesper light? Or have we allowed it to dim through the challenges, disappointments, or weariness of life?  Have we become weary of fighting the good fight of the faith? If so, we need to devote more time to the One Who first lit that flame and can cause it to burn brightly. It should emit such a deep glow from within that it warms the cold hearts of others around us.  They should be drawn to its warmth and light. And we, ourselves, should be acolytes dedicated to its tending.

Moving in tandem

Sometimes the trees here in Vernonia are very still, waiting for the breeze to come and stir them. They never move of their own volition. In fact, it seems sometimes as if all of creation within my purview is holding its breath, listening and waiting  for the wind of His coming.

At this moment, one lone, tiny leaf has adhered itself to my shirt, and God immediately prompted me to remember, in the same way, to wait and ride along attached to Him. I sometimes picture myself riding on His sandal...or in the pocket of His robe...or on His shoulder, peeking out from under His hair. That way, when He moves, I move with Him. I don’t have to worry about waking up from the distractions of either busyness or a dreamlike inertia, only to see that He has moved forward and only His back is visible in the distance.

When you were small, did you ever attach yourself to a parent’s leg so that he or she had to walk stiff-legged in order to move across the room? It might have irritated your parents, or it might have made them laugh. Or you might have had a parent whom you’d never dare approach in such a way. Your Heavenly Father , however will always be laughing. He loves to have you seek ways to stay connected to Him. To move when He’s ready to move. To rustle and sway in the Wind of His Spirit. Or, He might just stand still, look down tenderly upon you, and swing you up into His arms. You can hear His laughter even better from up there.

Distillation

So many of you, my readers, minister to others in a variety of ways.  Some of you are in a position of direct teaching or preaching; some lead Bible studies, counsel, mentor, disciple, pray for inner and outer healing, or even take people into their homes.  Whatever ministry(ies) God has called you to, there is an instructive word He spoke out to me this morning:  distillation.

When God shows us something, it’s often over the course of time or experience...or in the context of other thoughts or messages.  When He calls us to share the heart of the message with others, the heart of it sometimes gets lost in our own convoluted thoughts. We want to tell the whole detailed story of the trails we followed and our stops along the way.  We want to share the whole, big picture, but instead, the burning truth of it gets buried, or even diluted in the extraneous.

This morning I was given a picture of both dilution (a watering down) and distillation, which produces the dripping concentrate. Despite all the thoughts and progressions which eventually produced the rich liquid we are to share, let’s not feel the need to take other people through the rabbit holes and circuitous travels of our minds which landed us there.  A friend once called it a ‘tightly wound’ message which people will remember and take to heart.  To switch analogies, one golden nugget to hold and turn over in one’s hand can be worth a wheelbarrow of unmined rock.

The Holy Spirit will take others on their own, mindful  journeys. Let’s joyfully share our most recent God-given teaching or insight via only its critical milestones, extending in our hands the nutrient-rich distillation for others to drink.

Musical transformations

As much as I love contemporary worship songs, I also still love many of the old hymns.  My only issue with them is that they were often written about God rather than to Him.  One of my favorites (I confess I have a lot of ‘favorites’) is Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven, based on Psalm 103, and written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1834. This morning I turned the lyrics into the first person, which immediately ramped up the level of intimacy. The lyrics in various hymnals sometimes vary slightly, but using the version I learned as a child, here’s my personalized adaptation.  Try it yourself, if you know the tune...or just speak the lyrics as a prayer.

I praise You, Lord, the King of Heaven
To Your feet my tribute bring
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven
Evermore Your Praise I Sing
Alleluia, Alelluia, I praise You, my everlasting King

I praise You for Your grace and favor
To Your people in distress
I praise You still the same as ever
Slow to chide and swift to bless
Alleluia, Alleluia, glorious in Your faithfulness 

Fatherlike, You tend and spare us
Well our feeble frame You know
In Your hands You gently bear us
Rescue us from all our foes
Alleluia, Alleluia, widely yet Your mercy flows



Angels help us to adore You
They behold You face to face
Sun and moon bow down before You
Dwellers all in time and space
Alleluia, Alleluia, we praise You, Lord, the God of grace

Sometimes I find myself singing or humming secular songs whose lyrics are untrue, misleading, or deceptive.  So through the years, I’ve made my own versions.  For example, we used to live near the port in Cape Canaveral, from which the cruise ships departed.  Multiple times per week I’d hear “When You Wish  Upon a Star” emanating from the Disney ships. The tune got stuck in my head, and I ended up hollering to myself, “Why are you singing that song?!!!”  So I created this one. Go ahead and sing along:

When you pray to God above
You will meet a heart of love
When you pray to God above He’ll answer you

If your heart is in your prayers
You will  never need despair
When you pray to God above He’ll answer you

God is kind; He brings to those who love [Him]
The fulfillment of their deepest longings 

When you prayer to God above
You will meet a heart of love

When you pray to God above He’ll answer you

I also sing secular love songs to the Lord. Sometimes they don’t even need much adaptation. Like
Unforgettable or The Very Thought of You or, I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You... . See how many you can find and share them in the comments section for this post.

Julie

Woodland Ballet

It is deliciously cool, and I am tucked under the fleece blanket on the deck, watching the trees dancing to the music of my Pandora station (Katherine Jenkins, with a touch of Jackie Evancho, Andrea Boceelli, and Celtic Woman). Evergreen and deciduous, large and small, close and distant, the trees move with their own form and speed, yet in unity under the direction of their Conductor.  The light plays with the shadows at different levels of the hillside, as the sun moves toward its setting.

I run to get my iPad and try to capture the breath-taking performance before me. I want to share it. But my camera can’t capture its glory. Not even remotely.  I adjust the angle for the light, switch positions, but no; this amazing concert cannot be recorded.  Some things cannot be shared, no matter how much we want to. We want to run tell someone else to run outside and watch, but by the time they do, they’ll miss it. And some are halfway round the world. There’s nothing for it but to rejoice in its spectacular beauty and applaud at the finish.  To say, “Well done, Lord!  If I’m the only one who saw this performance, I want You to know I am in awe of Your creativity, Your lavish display for an audience of one. Bravo! Bravissimo! Will there be an encore tomorrow? Yet I know You rarely repeat Yourself.  With You, there’s always something new in the offing. I can’t wait.

The scent of earth

Rarely but here in the Northwest do I smell the same scent of earth: the damp ground, the perfume of flowers, the aroma of ferns, the undefinable mix that breathes freshness into the air around me. I miss it when I’m away but have difficulty expressing to others exactly what I’m talking about. The memory is like a vapor. I only know when I return and say, “Ah, yes...I’ve missed this!”

When I was young, we used to travel to our grandparents’ cabin in the Adirondacks, where a walk to the spring yielded fresh drinking water for our stay. We would fill up our jugs and lug them back to our ‘camp.’  I remember there, too, the scent of birches and evergreens and the spring-fed lake which would shock us with it’s cold welcome. Once we adjusted to the temperature and lay back into the water, our hair felt like cornsilk as we swished it about.

When we remember something, it’s not always like being there.  We try to re-member everything so we can dwell in that place once again. But it eludes us. The memory provides us a snapshot of both sight and emotion, but we usually can’t recapture the actual beauty of the experience.

Sometimes our experiences with God are like that.  We know there was power, there was deep joy, there was indescribable peace, and we were enveloped in overwhelming love.  But we see it as a snapshot from the past, rather than being in the midst of it once again.  We sometimes even wonder if it really happened, or if we only imagined it.

After decades of these experiences, however, we cease to wonder, and instead develop a profound faith in God’s tender love and faithfulness. The scent of His Presence lingers. We only have to close our eyes and we are there once more.  We don’t remember Him from a distance in time. Instead He is ‘re-membered’ at that very moment and in that very place where we whisper to Him.

Being with others of kindred heart and spirit gathered together, however, will often magnify this ‘re-membering.’ He has set this up on purpose, I believe, to draw us together in encouragement, in joy, in thanksgiving, and also in times of sorrow, grief, persecution and struggle. His Body is ‘re-membered’ (the members put together in a wholeness in which His life is found). His scent contains both earth (His Creation) and Heaven. If we find ourselves making other choices for our time, week after week, we are missing out on one of the greatest blessings He has for us.  And the memory of what it is like to be in the midst of His glorious presence will become like a faded photograph. We may fold up the album and tuck it away on the shelf and later wonder how we ended up so bereft of that indescribable fragrance in our lives, both the receiving and the emitting of it to others.

If you are not part of a fellowship where He delights to show up, offer your gifts to help it become so. Or if they are not willing, find one where His fragrance can be found, though it be the smallest of mangers.
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“Where Sky and water meet, where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep, to find all you seek...”
—CS Lewis, The Last Battle

Loaded

I love the King James translation of Psalm 68:19:  “Blessed Be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah” (Selah: Pause and calmly think of that.)

Are you feeling ‘ loaded’ or disappointed? Are you rejoicing in thankfulness or feeling disallusioned? If it’s the latter in both cases, try writing down, as Anne Voskamp (One Thousand Gifts) did, every single thing for which you’re thankful. She started by challenging her deeply depressed self to list 100. What started as a seemingly impossible task changed her life.

For my fellow White Christmas fans, remember Bing Crosby singing “Count Your Blessings instead of sheep?” Sometimes our worries or dashed hopes overshadow even the smallest good in our lives. It may sound prosaic to talk about counting your blessings...like something out of an old greeting card. However, God’s Word never fails to bring life if we come to it with openness.  “Give thanks in all circumstances” is not a last ditch suggestion; it’s a command that God knows will cause life to spring up in the midst of every form of struggle, whether a mere skirmish or a life-and-death battle.

Scour the Scriptures for the terms ‘thanks,’ thanksgiving’ and ‘thankfulness’ and you will unearth treasure.  Start or renew the practice of a journal just for thankfulness. Include the Scriptures you discover, as well as an ongoing list of things for which you thank God, Things visible and invisible. Look up and see all He is daily pouring upon you, including His beaming countenance. Partner with a friend and share what God opens your eyes to see, and I’ll do the same. Let’s bubble over with such grateful hearts, despite our pains and struggles, that we hear His delighted laughter echoing from Heaven.
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*1 Thessalonians 5:18
“The people of God ought to be the happiest people in all the wide world. People should be coming to us constantly and asking the source of our joy and delight...God is our Father, Christ is our Brother, the Holy Spirit our Advocate and Comforter...”     —AW Tozer

Spiritual jet lag

Do you ever feel as if you have spiritual jet lag?  Everything seems off kilter and ‘out-of-timing,’ like a car that needs a tuneup?  Your pistons are firing, but not in coordination? You don’t seem to be getting anywhere?

Sometimes you feel that God just answered a burning question, but you missed it. It’s like a whisper that just flew past your ear. You’re out of step with Him, and you know the problem isn’t His.  You know those nightmares where you’re running to help someone (or away from danger), but it’s like you’re mired in a Scottish bog?

I’ve discovered that the best thing to do in this situation is to sit still. You know the advice they give you about being lost in a forest or a cave? Don’t try to find your way out. Stay put and rescuers will come. If you keep moving to try and rescue yourself, you will probably bury yourself deeper, where it’s less likely they’ll find you.

In one of the Mitford books, Father Tim and Cynthia experience this very situation in a cave, where they end up miles away from the cave entrance.  It is not only fear that prompts them to keep moving, but pride...the sense that they have been reckless and stupid in entering the cave in the first place and now have caused havoc in the lives of those who must search for them.  We tend to want to get ourselves out of our own fixes and to not even admit we were ever in need of rescuing in the first place.

However, the best thing we can do is admit to our Father that we have gotten completely lost and
can’t find our bearings.  He’s quite fond of humility, but less so of pride.  In fact, He says He hates it. Getting lost doesn’t always mean not knowing where we are. Sometimes it means we’re thoroughly confused or have lost our vital connection with His Spirit. We’re spinning round in circles wondering what happened.  Regardless, sitting still and waiting for and on Him is the best remedy.  Don’t worry, you’re not lost. He knows exactly where you are and is already on His way. In fact, if you listen, you’ll hear His footfall in your heart.
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“There’s no shadow You won’t light up, mountain You won’t climb up comin’after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down, lie You won’t tear down comin’ after me”
—Cory Asbury, Reckless Love

No darkness at all

 “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all...” 1 John 1:15

Creeping into our post-Christian culture are eastern religious terms like Karma and Yin & Yang.  Popular New Age (actually 'old age') teachings declare the necessary 'balance' between darkness and light.  Remember Jim Henson's movie, The Dark Crystal?   In this tale, there were evil creatures and good creatures, and the happy solution in the climax involved the two merging into single beings, composed of both elements.  If you know me at all, you know I loved The Muppets. However, Henson was an avowed New-Ager. He declared his intention, in partnership with Ted Turner, to inculcate the children of our world with the tenants of his philosophies in order to develop a higher order of human beings who would be at peace with one another in a more perfect world. A lovely thought which nearly every other religion holds up as a goal achieved by man’s climbing the rungs of
a ladder of self-improvement until he attains ‘heaven’ or its equivalent. Unfortunately, the millennia have proven otherwise.

A variety of other groups predicate their ideals on the concept of darkness and light (evil and good), bringing wholeness through a union of the two, including Mormonism and Masonry at their elite levels.  My apologies to my Star Wars friends, but Lucas presents the same philosophy within The Force.  Listen again to aged Luke near the end of the newest production, as he explains the Force's power.  It is not defined as simply a battle between good and evil but of evil as a necessary part of the whole.

We say these are just entertaining movies, but E.B. White declared, "Whoever tells the stories, owns the culture." You would be surprised at the number of my students who, after reading The Lightening Thief series, believed the Greek gods were really wandering the earth involved in the affairs of mankind.  We have certainly seen this over the decades in the way television gradually changed (and is changing) the mores of our nation, defining a new normal as something which would have been thought unthinkable in its early years.  We the Church hold a substantial responsibility for allowing this to happen with very little protest.

As Christians, we must not banter about terms like karma, as if they were not wholly contradictory to our stated beliefs.  If we are saved by grace and not by works, then we should not be placing ourselves back under the law.  "We foolish Christians, who has bewitched us?"**  Yes, the Bible speaks of the concept of sowing and reaping. However, Yeshua's great sacrifice for us covers us in a grace that doesn't demand we reap permanent death or suffering from our sins. We do often experience the consequence of them in our daily life.  And the Father does, indeed, desire us to exhibit the fruit of His Spirit in the way we treat others; yet this does not subject us to the oriental law of karma. Do we really want to step out from under the Umbrella of Grace He graciously holds over us? Then let's not declare it.

Years ago I was praying for a friend for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  We were getting nowhere fast, despite her having gone through the renunciation process for anything involving the occult.  God always answers someone’s sincere prayer for the Holy Spirit, with its accompanying sign of a prayer language.  This gift is for everyone.*** So I knew there was some reason God was withholding the Baptism to protect her from opening herself up, not to the Holy Spirit, but to the Enemy of her soul. When I asked her if there was something she could think of, some philosophy, for example, to which she was clinging, she knew immediately what it was. She had always been fascinated with the concept of reincarnation. After she became a Christian, it still hung in the background of her mind. She couldn't quite let go of its fascination, despite the fact that it represented an eternity of struggle
through various lives, trying to attain a perfection she would never be able to accomplish.
Reincarnation is the total antithesis of Christianity, the only religion in the world based on pure Grace, the agonizing Sacrifice of another in our place so that we we are carried up the ladder, so to speak, on the shoulders of  a merciful God. That night she went back home and talked with the Father about it, repented, and renounced it. The following day we prayed once again and she immediately received her prayer language.

As believers, we should also not be ‘knocking on wood,’ a practice which dates back to the belief that the goddess Gaia resided in the trees (a form of pantheism). Nor should we cross our fingers or search our horoscope to determine our course, or define ourselves by any ‘sign’ other than the cross.  We either desire our future to be directed and guided by our Heavenly Father's loving hand, or we choose to place ourselves under the influence of every possible 'force' out there, all of which are used as doorways for the machinations of the enemy of our souls. 

Mindfulness is the new term being bandied about.  I think it's wonderful, if we are talking about mindfulness of God and of what we are thinking and speaking into our own lives and also the lives of others.  Let's, then, be as mindful as possible...and as 'spiritful,' also.

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**You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law,or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?      Galations 3:1-3

***If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13

Delusional?

     Some friends have said (not in my presence, of course), “Yes, she’s highly educated and obviously intelligent, but somehow she’s still been deluded into believing a fairy tale all these years. If it makes her happy, ok...but how can so many seemingly intelligent people believe such foolishness?”   Like Paul, I would say “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty."* .  Once you’ve become an ‘eyewitness’ to the very Presence of God, all intellectual arguments disappear in the Reality of the I AM.

   Some friends I’ve known have walked away from an encounter with Him and convinced themselves that in their earlier years they were simply caught up in an ‘emotional experience' which met a need at that time. Supernatural encounters with God can be a flash in the pan and in retrospect seem unreal to us, if they aren't implanted in the greater ground of the Word and His Body, the fellowship of believers. God’s presence is so Super Natural that it sometimes seems like a dream. However, when we stay close to Him and other believers, we experience that ‘dream’ on a regular basis and our lives are transformed in the process.

  Most certainly, an 'emotional experience' would not have sustained me during the last 40 years.  Only continual fellowship with the One who first made Himself known to me, along with the support of those who have also met Him in a very personal way, have grounded and rooted me in Him.  We
cannot assume that because people have a powerful encounter with their Creator, they will go on to grow and rejoice through an ongoing walk with Him. People need nurturing, mentoring, discipleship, encouragement, via regular communication.  Otherwise, they are often robbed of their awareness of His reality and presence.  It is often relegated to a time of psychological delusion during a period of insecurity.

   Unless someone is truly mentally ill, a lifetime of living out a delusion is unlikely to happen.  Certainly people have been sucked into various cults over a lifetime; however their fruit, or lack thereof, will serve as a ‘tell’. The problem is, those who haven't experienced His unarguable reality must find another explanation for what they witness in sold-out, sincere Christians who bear abundant fruit.  They certainly find explanations for the superficial ones.  Television and movies depict most Christians at best as hypocritical or greedy and at worst as sick, demented abusers of their fellow man.

   May we exude such Light, accompanied by such tender mercy, that no other explanation is possible but the reality of the One from Whom it streams...

*2 Peter 1:16

Casting or dropping?

   I have always loved Peter’s admonition regarding worries, anxieties, and cares: “casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” [1Peter 5:7, Amplified]

I don’t know why I never noticed before, however, that this Scripture is a continuation of verse 6, with a comma at the end: “Therefore, humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the Mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,”.  I knew this Scripture by heart, too. I just never connected them as one sentence.

So, in essence, in order to truly ‘cast your care,’ as Dave Meyer is found of quoting, you must be in a position of true humility, knowing you are incapable of solving or fixing even the least of your concerns on your own. Or using another analogy, if we think God is our copilot to help us in those times of crisis for assistance or support, and that we can handle things as pilot the rest of the time, we must change seats, as the expression goes.  Our humility must stem from a daily, root awareness of how much we need Him and how ready He is to be involved in all aspects of our lives..

We truck about on our own, get ourselves into a pickle (or find ourselves in one due to outside circumstances) and then realize we need His assistance. What if you had an acquaintance whom you called a friend, yet you never talked to her except in emergencies?  What kind of friendship would that be?  Rather than a friend, she’d be more like a ‘roadside assistance’ plan.

The invitation to ‘cast our cares’ is intricately woven into our daily relationship with a loving Father
whom we recognize as not only strong in our weakness but also desirous of ongoing daily dialogue with us. He’s merciful enough to not turn His back on our roadside calls for help, but this is not how
He wants our relationship with Him to be.  And, truly, the latter will never bring transformation and
sanctification in our lives.  We’ll just keep hopping from emergency to emergency with no real change in who we are or how we live.  We also have to heed Yeshua's warning in Matthew 7, "I never knew you."

This is not news to many of my readers. However, like the Drifting Out of Lane post, even devoted followers of ADONAI may find themselves slipping out of intimate relationship and into this danger zone, too busy doing God's work to spend significant time with the One for Whom they're working.  Many a minister (whether ordained or lay) has self-combusted in this way.

Ask the Father to do as David asked in his 139th psalm:  "Search me, O God, and know my heart..try me and know my thoughts...."  Ask Him for the results of your lab report in humility, purity, tenderheartedness, faith, trust; and, most of all, in the transformation that comes from daily disappearing into All He Is: the Great I AM.  Cares tend to become impotent in that encounter. Meditate for a moment on the word ‘carefree.’ Or ‘care-free.’ If we are to be truly free from worry and anxiety, we must ‘cast’ our cares onto His strong shoulders. He has  invited and encouraged us to do so. We musn’t just drop them on the ground for the moment to rest as we have a short chat with Him, later picking them up and slinging them over our own shoulders once again, or even leaving them by the roadside. Flinging them to Him with every bit of strength we have is an act of our will and our ongoing deep trust and faith in Him. It shouts, “I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him...! ” “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine...”!**
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*2 Timothy 1:12
**Song of Solomon 6:3
“The one who is caught by [love] is bound by the strongest of bonds—and yet it is a pleasant burden....Nothinng makes you so much God’s, nor God so much yours, as this sweet bond. The one who has found this way will seek no other.”  —A.W. Tozer

A Whisper of His Presence

One day you're just looking at the light playing on the grass or the leaves of the trees fluttering in the breeze, and you hear God whisper His Presence to you.  When I was young (elementary school age) I remember drawing my finger through the dusting of snow on a low wall by the school, as I walked to early church.  There wasn't another soul about.  I loved the early service in the little chapel beneath the main sanctuary, its altar area hewn from stone which, when cut, had revealed fingers of iridescent color within it. There was a peace and a sense of holiness there...and the palpable presence of God.  At that time, I hadn't what I would now call a personal relationship with Him; yet, I was very aware of His reality and believed in His goodness.  I truly did sense His goodness, not just an impersonal force.
   I felt Him there, arms wide open to me.  Later, however, I wandered from those arms into the intellectual snobbery and arrogance of the college culture. Obtaining the success and relationship which I had been sure would satisfy, I remember feeling a great emptiness and crying out for something more. As it turned out, it wasn’t something, it was Some One. The One Who had whispered to me from the very beginning.
   Now, after over 40 years in His tender care, I’ve never looked back, never even wanted to. It would be like choosing to go back into a dark closet after being in an open field with the sunlight streaming over me and a gentle breeze caressing my face.  Like going back into a dark cloud cloaked in the appearance of light.
   I’ll never stop being grateful to Him,  not only for opening the door and freeing me from my own lost self, but also for showing me the illusory nature of satisfaction in my own self-enthronement.
His peace is deep in my bones, His Person and ministry both that of father and mother to me, His Shepherd nature a balm to my soul.

Squirrel!

I am currently listening to my favorite contemporary series (Jan Karon’s Mitford) on Audible as I drive.  In A New Song, Barnabus (the dog) runs away after a squirrel, whipping the leash from Father Tim’s hand, and scuttles under an iron gate into a forbidden, wild garden.  Despite his master’s insistent calls and commands to return, Barnabas heedlessly pursues his prey.

This morning I was feeling a lot like Barnabus, who finally came slinking back, eyes and head downcast, to sit at his master’s feet.  He knew he had done wrong (again), despite his love and devotion toward Fr. Tim, and had caused him grief and pain. (You can read what happened in the garden as Tim found it necessary to pursue him, uninvited and unwelcome, into that place.)

Sometimes we pursue our squirrels of gossip, retribution, judgment, rebellion, and even passive aggressiveness, into forbidden territory, heedless of our master’s warning, “Come back!  Do NOT go there! Heel! (Stay by My side!). Consumed by our emotions of the moment, we allow our flesh to reign supreme, despite the insistent call of the Spirit.  We put our hands over our ears like children, bobbing our heads from side to side saying,  “I can’t HEAR you...I can’t hear you...”

Then it’s morning prayer time, and our sorrow at our behavior catches up with us in the quiet of His Presence. He doesn’t have to say anything...like our human parents who sometimes sat us down and didn’t at first speak, yet the sadness in their eyes communicated more than a reprimand.  Thankfully, if we were blessed with loving parents, we knew their love was greater than any act of disobedience, and they only wanted us to become the people God planned and created us to be.  Even without the gift of loving and wise human parents, our Father is all that and more.

If we return to His side, repentant, He will say, “I forgive you. I love you. Let’s try this again” ...even if You had the same conversation with Him the day before...and the day before that.  Keep coming back, sincerely desirous of changing.  Embarrassed, maybe, but continually committed to heeling all your days.  You will not only find yourself changing, but you will also find that heeling brings healing, as well.

Concatenation

Life in union with God, I’ve discovered, is a continual process of laying down. Not just lying down (since these words are often confused),  but of releasing what we clutch within our heart and placing it at His feet for Him to decide whether or not to raise it up. He promises us ‘beauty for ashes.’ Clutched tenaciously in our hand, things turn to dust, or even worse, to poison.  Sometimes we lay them down but hover near, ready to take them back up should He appear to be leaving them there on the ground.  Things like hurt, fear, woundedness, rejection, ill-treatment, and the resulting sense of unfairness and injustice, bitterness, resentment....and overall, our own will. 

Jesus modeled both this laying down and the corresponding ‘lying down’ before the Father’s will, when he wrestled in the garden...to the extent that it almost killed Him right there. (Matt. 26:38). We have no real comprehension of the extent of the battle that He fought there. However, we get the tiniest taste of it in our own lives when it seems to take everything we have to lay down our own unforgiveness, rebellion, or willfulness after deep hurt and betrayal, most especially when it's perpetrated by those close to us.

When you meet someone who seems to exude beauty and grace wherever he or she goes, you can be sure she has gone through the fire. You may be tempted to think she has had an easy life, because she appears to glow with joy. Think again. God creates beauty in those who love and trust Him enough to do as He wills with their lives, despite, and even through, deep suffering. He tells us He’ll give us “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that we might be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified” [Isaiah 61:3]. * His promises are fulfilled when we are willing to let Him make a concatenation of every trial and circumstance.

He never stands above us with His arms folded, waiting to see if we’ll pass the test. He stoops down, wipes the tears from our eyes with His thumb, and cradles us in our sorrow, saying, “Let me make something beautiful out of this for you...and for others. I know your every pain,  grief, and struggle, as you sit there in the ashes of your hopes and expectations. Give it all to me, even your right to be angry and hurt, and see what I will do.”

But even if He doesn’t choose to act in the way we hope and expect He will, nevertheless we remain at His feet. Nevertheless, we choose His will over ours. Nevertheless, we stay devoted to Him and thankful for His truly amazing grace. This is nitty gritty Worship.

As Job once said, “Even if He kills me, yet I will trust Him” (Job 13:15). Or as Paul stated, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”  (2 Timothy 1:12).  Or as Habakkuk affirmed, 17 Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! 19 The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! (Habakkuk 3:17-19} 

Or as Jesus, dripping blood from the burst blood vessels in His forehead, spoke in a struggling whisper of affirmation: “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done” [Luke 22:42].  And, oh, what beauty He wrought for all of us. May we receive His strength to declare the same in every circumstance we face.


*concatenation:  "a series of interconnected or interdependent things or events."

"An Unutterable Beatitude"

"Where the Holy Spirit is permitted to exercise His full sway in a redeemed heart, the progression is likely to be as follows:  First, voluble praise, in speech, prayer or witness.  Then, when the crescendo rises beyond the ability of studied speech to express, comes song. When song breaks down under the weight of Glory, then comes silence, where the soul, held in deep fascination, feels itself blessed with an unutterable beatitude."   --A.W. Tozer

This has been my experience, as well as others I know who have been blessed to worship "where the Holy Spirit is permitted to exercise His full sway." (See the post He is not a Tame Lion.)  If you find yourself dry as a bone, perhaps you have not had this opportunity, at least recently.  Seek it...seek Him, as 'in a dry, weary land without water.'  The Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit, is Manna to the soul, spirit, and even to the body.  Put on your Bride sneakers and run after Him, and you'll find yourself very still in the midst of an unutterable beatitude.

Terrified

My sisters and I (plus one adopted sister) were at a timeshare together one year, having a perfectly delightful time.  Late at night I became gradually aware of shouting and pleading and other outcries from the stairwell outside our door.  Earlier that evening we had met a ‘nice’ couple at a restaurant. It turned out they were staying right across the hall from us. As my fuzzy brain began to discern the wife was being abused right outside my door, terror overcame me.  The extent of the evil hovering just outside was palpable.  I knew I should rush out and stop this man and protect this woman. Yet I was frozen in fear. I was just glad our door was locked so that evil couldn’t attack me or my sisters.

If you had asked me previous to this experience what I would do if I heard some crying for help outside my house, I would have in no uncertain terms told you I would immediately rush to her aid, if only by calling the police (which might, unfortunately, be too late).  However, I did none of these things. I couldn’t even remember the name of the development in which we were staying or its address.  I was paralyzed with fear and found myself in total self-preservation mode. One of my sisters also awoke and came down and we sat huddled together in terror that seemed totally disproportionate to the event, as insidious as is all spousal or child abuse. You would have thought Nazi officers were about to break through our door. Even the next morning, as we headed home, there was a heavy spirit hanging over us. We neither laughed nor joked until we finally started praying together and singing praise songs on our journey.

When Jesus fell prostrate to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane and sweat blood through his
forehead, all the powers of evil were trying to keep Him from carrying through with what the Enemy
knew would totally defeat him and save us for all eternity.  I can’t even conceive of what that was like.  But I had the tiniest, minuscule taste of it and of my own weakness and selfishness in the face of the desperate need of another. That Yeshua persevered through it without turning back, despite unimaginable opposition, fear, sorrow, depression and grief....bearing all our sins for all time and combatting overwhelming evil, makes me fall at His feet in gratefulness and heart-wrenching love. To blithely take His sacrifice for granted with spoken religious platitudes and self-absorbed lifestyles is to cheapen what it took for Him to stand back up in the garden and walk that horrific road for us

I no longer (or at least less frequently)  judge those I hear about who haven’t done what they should to help others. I hope and pray for the fortitude and grace from God to act differently next time I face
a similar situation. Even Peter the Rock vowed his own strength would be sufficient and then failed miserably in the test.  His three-fold affirmation of love following his three-fold denial of Yeshua was not a new vow but rather a confession of the state of his heart. Humbling yields an awareness of our own inadequacies and at the same time a greater appreciation for how willing ADONAI is not only to forgive, but also to lift us up and give us His own strength for the tests coming our way. He knew Peter would not fulfill His vow, but afterward He lifted him up from his failure and made him head of His Body, because He knew his heart.  What hope this should give us after our own broken vows,
most of which we should never have made in the first place. We should vow neither in judgment of others nor in presupposition of our own strength of character. Let our Yes be yes  and our No be no,
yet with complete awareness of our own fallability. May we rely on His  heart’s desire to  carry out His saving action through us in every situation; to make us right, just, and effective in the face of another’s need, knowing that we are all sometimes as Paul confessed: desiring to do one thing yet doing another.
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“Then Peter declared, ‘Though they all are offended and stumble and fall away because of you, I will never do so.’ “   —Matthew 26:33
 “Then all the disciples deserted him and, fleeing, escaped.”  —Matthew 26:56
“Just let your ‘yes’ be  a simple yes and your ‘no’  be a simple no. Anything more than this has its origin in evil.” —Matthew  5:37
“I don’t understand my own behavior: I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.”  —Romans 7:15

Lawlessness

   You don’t have to watch the News to see the increasing lawlessness in our society. You can witness it firsthand any time you drive your car. I’ve lost track of the number of times drivers have seriously endangered my life or the lives of those driving nearby. It’s now a daily occurrence. At within ‘five-over’  in the right lane, I am regularly tailgated to the point where I can vividly see the driver’s face but not the front of his or her car. Cars zoom across three lanes, squeeze themselves within an inch of my life and squeeze back across two lanes to the far left again.  All to end up sitting with me at a red light, unless they run it long after it has turned red.

   It used to be the occasional driver who drove like a maniac.  Now it’s the regular modus operandi of our populace, including mothers with their children sitting next to them in the front seat.  I feel like the tortoise who’s spun around in circles as the rabbit whizzes by him, just because I’m trying to obey the law.

   I’ve been told by international travelers that there are a number of countries whose drivers systematically ignore the stoplights, and everyone has to fight to move through the intersection...’survival of the most aggressive and reckless.’  I think I would get an ulcer if I had to do that every day.  (When I was in NYC, I felt like that as a pedestrian.)

   This morning I was reading in Matthew 24 about what Jesus said it would be like ‘at the end of the age’: “And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity...but he who endures to the end will be saved.”

   When my emotions rise in intense anger on the road of life at the lawlessness around me, God reminds me that I am in a different kingdom than many of those around me. In fact, I have to recite that to myself to still my own resulting feelings of road rage:  “I’m in a different kingdom, I’m in a different kingdom, I’m in a different kingdom....ADONAI is my King.”  He also reminds me to turn my anger into sincere prayer for the reckless drivers around me (and even for myself for my own occasional reckless actions).

   As we all know, it is not just on the road that we see increasing lawlessness. In Portland, there are
groups who have to decide what the day’s protest and disruption will be...rather like today’s special menu item. And there are those elsewhere who have stated they will keep killing police officers until they get what they say they deserve.  Hmmm, gives one pause about the answer to that demand, doesn’t it?

   But what do we all deserve? Suddenly my anger turns to self-conviction.  Are there areas of my own life where I’ve chosen to flout the authority over me? Am I participating in lawlessness in its subtler forms? Because I think I know better, do I ignore instructions from my boss or try to create a quiet rebellion among my coworkers, rather than speaking my concerns forthrightly and respectfully? Am I honest in all my dealings, financial and otherwise? Do I ‘fudge’ on my taxes to get a better return?  Lawlessness can take many forms, and we, as Christians, are called to the highest level of integrity by our Boss, whom we honor and obey out of affectionate reverence, respect, and love.

   Let’s ask him to show us any areas of our lives where our actions do not reflect His will. He is kind to not overwhelm us, but rather to show us, a little at a time, areas in need of sanctification. And let’s not forget to turn our anger and frustration with others into prayer for their own encounter with and transformation by the Lover of their souls.
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“I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart”. —Psalm 40:8

“There is a kind of universal reaction which becomes an acceptable philosophy; that ‘if this is what is wrong with everybody, then. nobody need worry about it’....The Holy Spirit never meant to give anyone a sense of comfort in universal depravity.”  —Tozer

We aren’t heavy...He’s our Father

   My younger readers (as in, not senior citizens) probably won’t get the joke here, so I’ll let you know there’s a song from the late 60’s called “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”  It’s been awhile since God made me laugh. I guess it’s part of my realignment (see New Years Chiropractic post). No one is funnier than God, and I miss His jokes when I don’t hear them.

   I was lamenting to God my burdensome nature of repeating the same cycle of sin in a particular area.  It seemed He always has to do the ‘heavy-lifting’ in my life for anything to change, despite my
best intentions. Brother Lawrence once said, “O Lord, this is what you may expect of me if you leave me to myself.”  Not that God did leave me to myself, per se. He prompted me before I spoke that critical word about an associate; I just ignored the prompting...repeatedly.  Daily repenting and heading into the day, I determined to put duct tape over my mouth but found it wasn’t quite as strong as touted, even with those fibers woven through it.

   Finally admitting complete defeat, I lay myself down in despair of ever changing. That’s when He told me, “It’s ok...you aren’t heavy; I’m your Father.”  Breaking into a loud guffaw followed by repeated outbreaks of laughter, I realized that He had used humor, once again, to break through my attempts at serious, teeth-gritting self-sufficiency.

   In this  partnership we have, He does all the heavy-lifting, His yoke easy and His burden light. It’s only an illusion on our part that we are holding up our end. Just as our fathers once let us ‘help’ them with a heavy object and we proudly assisted, thinking our strength was contributing to their success. As our fathers hopefully did, He is looking at us in tender love, encouraging us to give our very best in this partnership with the Creator of the universe. He doesn’t condescend or demean our efforts. Yet when our meager strength gives out and we fall down exhausted in our tracks trying to be good, He bends down and lifts us up and whispers, “It’s ok, I have you; you’re not heavy...”

 

“He is not a tame lion...”

   My fellow Narnia fans will recognize the above quote.  I was reminded of it as I read this morning’s entry from my A.W. Tozer devotional:  “Illumined hearts are sure to agree at the point where the light falls.  Our only real danger is that we may grieve the blessed Spirit into silence and so be left at the mercy of our intellects....We’ll have the bush pruned and trimmed and properly cultivated, but in the bush there will be no fire.”

   Sometimes no matter how powerfully our churches may have been birthed from fire, our tendency is to eventually ‘bulletinize’ our worship times into submission.  Otherwise, they can become much too messy, too unpredictable, too much out of our control and careful planning. We may even say we’re open and flexible to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but when push comes to shove (or an order of service turns to Power), we are reluctant to live what we promised.

   How will this ‘outbreak’ of God’s manifest Presence affect the schedule? Will some be offended? Will some leave and never come back? What about the usual order of things on which we’ve come to depend? What about our lunch date after church? What if some people 'become emotional' in response to what the Holy Spirit is working in them? What if time begins to lose it’s structure in response to the appearance of the One who created it? What if the only thing He’s calling us into at the moment is silence before His palpable Presence?  Will this drive someone (the pastor, the music worship leader, a parishioner) to feel compelled to fill the ‘void’...the Spirit-filled silence which is actually the antithesis of ‘void’?

   I am blessed to be part of a tiny congregation meeting in a manger of a building, where the best part
of our ‘service,’ in my eyes, involves sitting, standing, kneeling, lying...in the Presence of God, bathed only in quiet, anointed, instrumental music...where often no one speaks aloud unless praying for another at the altar.  Sometimes not a word is spoken. God appears to like this, because He manifests Himself both powerfully and tenderly, in ways I’ve rarely experienced elsewhere. We couldn’t be worshiping Him in a more humble setting. But in a similar fashion, isn’t the humblest setting of our hearts the place He delights to dwell?

   Many believers and unbelievers alike have yet to experience the manifest Presence of God. Their belief (or unbelief) comes from intellectual assent. This foundation can crack with the winds of circumstance and the prevailing philosophies of our culture. Yet once any of us actually ‘meet’ the Lion of Judah through His manifest, oh-so-real Holy Spirit, we are stopped in our tracks.  There is no denying His existence or His love for us.

   Let Aslan move wherever and however He desires, in the biggest to the smallest congregations and see what He will do. Be fearless and let go of the reins. Stop the program...get off the scheduled train and wait on Him. He will not disappoint, and we and our churches will never be the same.
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“Farther up and further in...!”
—The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis

Drifting out of Lane

After my faithful Prius was flooded in a storm, I spent days attempting to resurrect it. Finally, I admitted defeat to the Insurance company and purchased a newer Toyota Corolla.  Although we weren’t planning on taking on car payments at this time, we were grateful God led us to an otherwise inexplicably good deal. [Even the salesman, a wonderful Christian man, wasn’t sure how it had been priced the way it was.]

With one of the standard features, you can set up a warning, should you start drifting out of your lane.  [It also has an emergency stop feature if you get too close to another car.] It’s easy to get distracted when you’re driving, as we all know. If you’re driving at night after a long day or on a long trip, it’s also common to get sleepy.  I’m delighted to have these warnings available on my car.

I wish it were so in the rest of our lives. What if we had built-in antennae which beeped when we started drifting away from God?  It’s not the radical turns but the slow drifts that are the problem for most of us. Our minds are elsewhere, not focused on the road. Perhaps we’re fiddling with the entertainment possibilities, or we’re picturing in our mind’s eye what our next step should be to find success at work. Maybe we’re pondering pursuing a relationship (possibly one God’s Word has warned us about). There are a myriad of physical, mental, and spiritual distractions which can draw us off the road God designed to truly fulfill us and accomplish the purposes and plans He has for us.

The good news is that He does, indeed, give us spiritual antennae....the Voice of His Holy Spirit within us.  He lovingly prompts and warns, guides and directs.  The problem comes when we choose to ignore those inner promptings.  If the warnings are directly stated in His written word, we’re just
being rebellious in order to get what we think we want.  However, there are so many situations in our lives that are not as clear cut.  We sense there’s danger, but the area is grey enough for us to keep moving in that direction anyway, because that’s where our ‘flesh’ wants to go. Or perhaps the intellectual appeal is great or our own logic so compelling that we find ourselves in a whole other lane than we planned.

That lane is a comfortable one because it is the road most travelled, if I can borrow a turn of phrase from Frost. Everyone seems to be going that way. It is not strange and challenging territory. No one is staring at us wondering what in the world we’re doing and why. GPS is happy with us. She doesn’t keep telling us to make a legal U-turn and go back the other way.

Staying in God’s lane will ultimately and absolutely prove the best road, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy one to travel. There seem to be more potholes and things lying in the road that must be avoided. In fact, sometimes the way ahead has only one lane, and it is foggy up ahead.  Don’t worry. Be assured that when we set our destination in line with His, He will send His own special form of alert when we’re starting to drift.  We just have to heed it quickly to avoid a crash.