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.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Friday, June 15, 2018
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.
*************
“Where Sky and water meet, where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep, to find all you seek...”
—CS Lewis, The Last Battle
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.
*************
“Where Sky and water meet, where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep, to find all you seek...”
—CS Lewis, The Last Battle
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
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.
**********
*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
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.
**********
*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
Thursday, June 7, 2018
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.
***************
“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
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.
***************
“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
Friday, June 1, 2018
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.
******************************************************************************
**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
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
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
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
Sunday, May 20, 2018
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...”!**
****************
*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
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...”!**
****************
*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
Saturday, May 19, 2018
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.
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.
Friday, May 18, 2018
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.
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.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
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."
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."
Saturday, March 10, 2018
"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.
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.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
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.
***********************
“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
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