Love and expectations

I have been reading a great book for the past year. "Repenting of Religion". In fact, I have been reading it with a number of friends. It talks about learning to love without judgement. A beautiful idea, entirely biblical. And hard to do..... really hard. And then, naturally, you start to expect it from others. After all, its the right thing to do. We just cant expect anything from anyone. We will get hurt and disappointed, and risk the hardening of our hearts. No expectations...... we simply need to learn to love freely and without judgement.

It sounds so simple.

It sounds so simple.

Its time to start writing again....

just be available

Its so late, and I am so tired. But..... I received a call from a friend tonight. Very encouraging. He had called me the previous night, in a time of need, and the Lord used my words to bring him some genuine encouragement. No big deal, He does that with people every day. The funny thing is, I was kind of struggling myself, and had been praying while I worked, and worshipping with an old scripture song that says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases...." All I did was share that same passage with my friend, and then prayed with him about the situation he was facing. No great "word of the Lord".... I just shared what I had received. I wasnt feeling particularly spiritual or "anointed", but the Lord showed up for my friend, and powerfully answered our prayers for the situation he was dealing with the next day. I was just available. And I think thats one of the main things He is looking for. Availability. I am just so doggone preoccupied most of the time though.... Help Lord. I know you will.

Seek ye first...

I had a really interesting time in the prayer room today. God never ceases to amaze me. He really takes an interest in simple run-of-the-mill human beings. That is indescribably incredible. More later.

this grace thing

I just had breakfast with a good friend. For the past couple of months, we have been reading some things that have been causing us to work back through our understanding of grace. Not our intellectual understanding, but our heart understanding. Walking this out is simple, and yet profoundly difficult. It goes against our very nature, which is to want to depend on ourselves for our own righteousness before God. We started to pray together, and as I was praying, I felt like the Holy Spirit revealed my heart to me. I stopped suddenly, looked at him in wild-eyed intensity, and said, "I cant need it!" I cant "need" to be free and pure in my walk before the Lord. I cant "need" that freedom in order to feel like I am accepted by Him. To the extent that I "need" it, I am still walking in my own righteousness; I am still trying to earn His love. I need to want it, I want to want it, but I need to be free from the "need" for it. What I "need" is fully supplied in the grace and mercy of God. When I am fully satisfied in what He has provided, then I am free to walk in the love that flows from gratitude in the knowledge of His goodness and beauty. Then I can experience what Paul describes as "the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." Faith working through love, righteous living as an expression of thankful worship. An acceptable offering.

Make sense?

Lord, give me clear and simple understanding of your ways.....

It works...

Fasting and prayer.... it really works. We are called to war, and these are two of our main weapons.

We are called to war...

more evidence

I was thinking about my children today. I do that often. Many times, every day, each one. Nothing is more important to me in this life than for them to be healthy and happy and fulfilled. I was driving down the highway, listening to my "good buddy" Greg Boyd talk about the cross. He was explaining what was happening when Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world. In illustration, he talked about how he would gladly lay down his own life for any of his three children. He said that if any one of them were to get cancer, he would take that cancer into himself if it would mean that they would be healed. And if they all three got cancer, he would take on all of their cancers at once, to see them healthy and whole. And I thought to myself... I would do that. I would do that in a heartbeat. There wouldnt be a moment's hesitation. I am not bragging. I am not trying to say how wonderful or holy I am. Its just a fact that I would do anything possible to see my children experience and enjoy all the incredible gifts of love that God has for them. As I thought about it, my heart filled with wonder at Him. He is the only explanation for that kind of love. I am not some wonderful, exceptional person. Far from it. I am about as average as you can get, and by nature, very self-absorbed. But I would do anything for those kids, and the reality of God and His incomprehensible love is the only explanation for that love in my heart.

(well..... they ARE pretty awesome kids, but I am not that awesome to love them that way with out some supernatural help.)

God is good.... in all His ways.... and we are blessed beyond our understanding.

Thank you Lord....

hearts revealed

Luke 2:34-35
And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed-- and a sword will pierce even your own soul-- to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. "

Interesting. One of the first things said about Jesus after his birth is that "thoughts from many hearts will be revealed." Its so easy to concentrate on behaviour. Outward appearances. We can put on a good show even with a dark heart. We can even fool ourselves. We can avoid all the obvious sins, the ones people can see. But God is after something deeper. He wants to give us a pure heart. He wants His love to go to the very depths of our being. He wants our behaviour to simply reflect the inner transformation that His Spirit is working in us. And He has promised to complete that process, He has said He will complete the work He has begun in us. I want to cooperate with Him in that, but even when I dont, He is still working to free me from whatever hinders that cooperation. He will have His way in me, and all I can do is respond with worshipful gratitude. Its grace, from beginning to end.

Thank you....

amazing....

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness." A very simple passage of scripture. But... that is one of the most awesome statements ever written. This is our only hope, that His mercies never end. New every morning. Forever and ever. Incredible. Wonderful.

Thank you...

The battle rages on....

This world we live in looks like a pretty friendly place. And actually, thats what it was created to be. But its not, and we need to have our eyes opened to see that. Its a war zone. Its a battlefield. We are told that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." That should be a sobering statement to us. That phrase should have a major impact on the way we look at our lives each day. The scripture says a lot of things about this world we live in. Most are not good. Yet, many of us who would call ourselves followers of Jesus appear to love this world with a great passion. We want to enjoy it to the fullest. We get lost in our headlong pursuit of the pleasures this life has to offer. In the midst of that, we lose sight of the calling that Jesus has set before us. He wants us to stand against this world system. He wants us to "lay down our lives" to demonstrate the wonders of His love, and the greater reality of His kingdom. James wrote a challenging statement:

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

I dont want to say too much about this, as it could sound judgemental and self-righteous, but this a passage of scripture that western "christianity" almost wholly ignores. Or worse yet, we take it and use it to create a legalistic, fear-driven religious system that is ultimately just as selfish and carnal as loving this world. We humans..... we think we are so smart. Most of the time we are clueless. We dont know that we dont know. I am more grateful every day for the wonderful, gracious mercy of God.

Lord, let me see clearly, every day. Let me see this world the way you see it. Let me love people the way you love them, and hate the kingdom of this world that enslaves them. Let me see what it means to be like Abraham, a friend of God, rather than a friend of this world. And let me do it in the spirit of Jesus, with a heart full of mercy and grace.

Bedtime....

Someone put something in my coffee... 

He's crazy I tell ya..... 

I want it to own me

I know so much. I can talk philosophy and theology for hours. I truly enjoy it, and believe it is usually productive. But my heart longs for more. I want the things I know, and truly believe to become so real to me that they own me. I can see a place where the things I believe in my mind, can grip my heart in a much deeper way, and I am longing for that more each day. I want to get so close to Jesus, that I hear the thoughts of his heart everywhere I go. Lord, increase my hunger, and satisfy it, I pray.

I used to be so smart....

This is a funny season of life. I am realizing how little I know, and how really uninformed I am. I have always been highly opinionated, in a congenial, loveable sort of way, but that seems to be changing. My opinions seem very unimportant these days. We live in a very complex world. I look at a given situation, and after a little thought, arrive at a conclusion about what is going on there. The truth is, I rarely have enough information to make an intelligent analysis. Its not that I am a dummy. I have an above average IQ, and a good mind, but most of the time, I just dont have all the facts. I am not talking about mundane things, like what is the best restaurant in town. We all have opinions about that sort of thing. I am talking about the bigger issues. Politics, moral issues, religious questions. The heady stuff. And how about other peoples issues? How often have I watched another person deal with a particular situation in their life, and then sat back and evaluated how right or wrong or wise or foolish their decisions were. Who am I, to think that I have anyone elses answers to these things. I know what I know, but there is so much that I dont know. Some would even question the idea that "I know what I know." I understand that position, but in some things, I know what I know. I know there is a God. I know He is absolutely good. I know that He revealed Himself in Jesus. I know that He will ultimately reconcile all the conflict and pain in the world. I know He will ultimately have His way, and that His way is good. But, between here and there, I am not sure how fully I really understand any of the situations I face. The scriptural commands to "judge not" are making more sense all the time. True judgement requires full understanding of all the contributing factors to a given situation. How often do I have that "full understanding"? Not very often. So.... at its best, my judgement is usually clouded with ignorance. This whole thing sounds a little melancholy, but it is actually a place of peace. I dont have to go around evaluating everybody and everything all the time. I am not in charge. I am not ultimately responsible. He has given me one job, one command. He calls me to love. Freely, extravagantly, sacrificially. Every now and then, he will call me to confront evil. But, most of the time, He simply calls me to demonstrate in a fresh new way the same love that He expressed when He went to the cross. Thats my job, to lay down my life for my friends. He can take care of the judging, and He will do it perfectly.

wrestling

It seems harder than ever to discern truth from error. Heck, half the world thinks the distinction itself is a mistake. So, you end up feeling guilty, or perhaps uninformed if you WANT to try and figure that out. Anything goes, they say, except one thing. You cant say that "anything goes" is wrong. That one idea will get you in a world of trouble these days. You're ignorant, a neanderthal. Oh, I'm not talking about the general world we live in. I don't expect them to understand, or see the same right/wrong distinctions necessarily. Its the church, the people who claim to be followers of Jesus. A growing number have become so intellectually sophisticated that they have to come up with all sorts of symbolic understandings of His word to avoid the embarrassment of being laughed at by the educated people of this world. "To the Greeks it is foolishness..."

Lord, help us to be humble enough to simply believe.

faith

Faith is all encompassing, a way of life. Its not a tool you pull out when you need it. The life God created us for is fully rooted and grounded in a trust in Him. Sometimes it is passive, a place of peace and rest. Sometimes its aggressive, a choice to actively turn away from fear and unbelief in the face of difficulty or danger. Modern concepts of faith are often shallow, and consequently leave us floundering in tough times.

Lord, help us understand what it really means to walk by faith.

Stress

Running your own business is not all its cracked up to be...

bondage

Its so easy to become enslaved, and so hard to break free. We cant do it ourselves, but we do have to seek the One who has the power to deliver. Even that requires Help, but He is willing and able. He met me this morning. It was real, and touched my soul. He is faithful. I want to know Him more than anything, but I am weak beyond words. Help Lord. Help me to show up every day. Help me to turn to you every time I hear the whisper of your Spirit calling...

getting started...

Okay....gonna try this again. My first post got lost in the ozone. Fortunately, I didnt say anything profound, so no big deal. Anyway, I just wanted to get this started today, so I would have a place to come to muse and vent and probably ramble....

We will see what comes.