They say only drink when you’re happy, but she uses her glass to take her way from Him.
One drink, it’ll taste better.
Two drinks, she’ll be fine.
Three drinks goes her judgment
Four drinks and she’s dialing.
Drunk is the stumble back to her heart.
Hate doesn’t exist without love and love is what she can’t make die.
What’s the point in life when you had what you couldn’t lose and lost it?
Question anesthetic became the truth serum and she’s a mess of herself.
One drink too many and she’s at His feet in Heaven’s version of a drunk dial.
When you don’t know where you’re going, you go where you know, and all she knows is Him.
She doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t want Him to know she’s there. Hand up to hide her breath, He’s on the other side of her doubt.
He’s quiet and she knows He knows. This is their ritual.
He doesn’t hang up. It’s the only way she comes to Him.
They say that He doesn’t want a drunk, but He’ll take her any way He can get her.
Her thoughts are stumbling, but she can still hum with the echo.
They say He wants her like she used to be, but He wants her like she is.
You can forget the words and remember the tune.
They say she’s never been further, but she’s right-here far away, not far-away right here.
She’s really lost, not pretend found. Closer than ever. Ugly truth becomes her.
A truth only a Father can love.
He’s the silence in the thunder when the storm rips her open. She runs when she’s sober, goes home when she’s drunk.
Passed out, she reaches for Him like a pillow.
They only want her clean.
Stripped down, she curls up in Him like a blanket.
I had a dark childhood. I’ve lived and died a thousand times in this skin. But, by some miracle, I have always known that when I reach my hand up, His hand is there to take it. I have always been after the inner tug to the Something More. I can say with certainty that in spite of the brunt of life I had been served, I was meant for something more.
Knowing the damage that sexual abuse causes, I look at my children and something inside me leaps. They are unscathed by what scathed me. They are innocent and have no idea what kind of evil lurks in the dark spaces. I do everything I can to keep the predator of the innocent away from them.
I know what signs to look for. A predator tries to wedge in between the parent and the child. The predator befriends the family and waits to catch the little one alone. Innocence makes you trust. It’s all a game full of secrets and chances to be big. “You’re very mature for your age,” the predator hisses.
A cunning predator knows the right words. ”Your parents are just trying to control you.”
I know what signs to look for. A child is a streak of giggles across the room while the mother runs after her with her clothes. Reckless naked abandon and the parents laugh as the little legs scamper in play. It’s only when the child is ashamed of the nakedness and curious about things beyond their level of development that there is a problem. When shame replaces innocence and fear replaces play, the parent is gripped by a knowing they must push aside or confront. It’s a knowing that asks, “Who made you ashamed?”
Victims of sexual abuse blame themselves. They can think back to all the times that they were not careful, the times they ran around naked, and they think they brought it on themselves. The child remembers all the times they left themselves vulnerable. All the naked tumbles and what used to be innocent had become indecent. And they stop playing.
They hide from their parent out of distrust and feeling dirty. “I’ll wash myself. Leave! I’m naked.”
When we read the words of God in the Bible, they’re just printed words. The words are given life by what we believe. We animate them with what we know.
A predator came into the garden and caught Eve alone. He wedged himself between Eve and her Father. He made her believe that her Father was just trying to control her. “Do you want to be a grownup, Eve?”
“God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen3:5
Until then, she and Adam were a streak of giggles. They were innocent in reckless naked abandon. Their legs danced in play. But, when they ate, their eyes were opened and their memory was tainted in shame. They grabbed leaves to cover their nakedness and hid from their Father.
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Gen3:8)
God called out to them. ”Where are you?” (Gen3:9)
They called out from their hiding place, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” (Gen3:10)
When shame replaces innocence and fear replaces play, the parent is gripped by a knowing they must push aside or confront. It’s a knowing that asks,
“Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen3:11)
The predator is a deceiver. He wedges himself between you and your Father. He tries to catch you alone because he is the molester of God’s children. He tries to make you feel ashamed of your freedom. He tries to take away your innocence. Every time you fall down, he humiliates you. He makes you doubt your Father and rely on him to take his condemning words back. He grooms you before he violates you. He vandalizes your trust in the Father so that you have nowhere to turn. He wants you to believe that you are damaged and alone. He wants to make a ghost town of your purity.
But look what God did for Adam and Eve. Their world had changed. They now knew what they shouldn’t have known. They stood before Him in tears as their flimsy coverings were not enough to hide what shamed them. But, God did not leave them embarrassed and vulnerable. He made them better clothes.
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Gen3:20)
They should not have even known they needed clothes, but God did not torment them with what they could not change. He found them exactly where they were and provided what they should not have needed. He wanted them to feel decent again. Maybe if they feel decent, they won’t be afraid to be with Him.
God doesn’t give up on you and leave you to suffer your own damage. He takes care of you, even when it was you who caused the destruction.
Every once in a while, if you’re paying attention, you will pass a particular window. You don’t know it’s different until you’re right up on it. It’s something familiar, but somewhere you’ve never been. It’s a window to a view that you are not typically privy to. What you see has the power to keep your thoughts, questions, or even subconscious ideas from going off on their own.
To some people, I am a woman they once knew who sinned and disappeared. But, I didn’t really disappear, I’m still here. I’m actually geographically closer to all of them than I was when I sinned. But,that’s beside the point. I am this woman who sinned so big that they either pretend to not know me when they see me, or they find a way to make sure that I know I disgust them.
Or, at least that’s the way it was during the first three years after. Now they don’t know me. And I either never see any of them or I don’t recognize them when I do. I don’t know them either. We’re all different people now.
So here we are with a lot of distance between then and now, me and them, but I still think about them once in a while. Memory is a funny thing and I know this. I know that if our parting words left me with a negative feeling, it will taint the older memories and rob them of their purity. I really have to fight the demonizing of all of my memories with them. It is the human mind’s way of surviving their loss and nurturing my self-worth. It’s psychology.
So, I set myself up to fail at making demons of people who are done with me. I have a coffee mug that an old friend gave me for Valentine’s Day. It’s probably twelve-years-old and is chipped in a few places. Most people, when they have a falling out with a friend, will get rid of the things that remind them of the other person. But, I kept this mug. It keeps the facts as they are and not as my mind would make them. When I drink out of that mug, and it’s in the regular mug rotation, I think of who we were together when she gave it to me. My mind has already started to make her fade into a loss I can survive, but the mug reminds me of the innocence we used to have.
So, back to the window…
I was speaking at a conference last weekend when I met someone I had, until then, only talked to through emails. I immediately liked her. She had this dance in her eyes that let me know her sense of humor and my sense of humor were going to be great friends.
I’m not sure how it happened, but our conversation went from funny one-offs to her telling me a serious story about a woman who hurt her deeply. It was a woman whose sin looked a bit like mine. As I watched her talk, her idiosyncrasies started to look exactly like one of my old friends. Her pauses, the way her forehead moved with her emotion…. And then this window made itself known.
Everything she was saying was the same thing that people say about me. The pain, the betrayal, and even putting words to the unknown. Remember how I said that people’s minds alter information to increase the survival of their heart? She was on the others side of my story, telling me about her pain. I was who I am to my old friends and who I was to her at the same time. Who I was to her was sipping a glass of wine with her, who I am to them was peeking through the window as they had a conversation about me.
I think we both were peering through a window to see a view we’re not usually privy to.
...why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?-1 Corinthians 10:29 ESV
It’s human nature to worry about what others think of you. You want to fit in, to be above question, and to prove your value. Conformity is a big issue in sociology. It is vital to survival at nature’s core. Prejudice and discrimination are bred from the threat of those who are different. A wild animal is less likely to harm one of its own kind. It’s the animals who are different that have to establish their place on the food chain. You either eat or be eaten.
It’s a survival tool and humans can be animalistic when their survival is threatened. Whether it is acknowledged or not, if someone is different, something inside of us tells us they are a threat.
People believe that their way is right. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be there. They would still be searching. Nobody is completely right. We should all be searching. A hound dog on a hot trail that never ends. There is no way to have this all figured out. Even if you stack your knowledge upon all of the accumulated knowledge from the beginning of time, you would still not have enough to stop searching.
In this journey of gaining knowledge, the further you get, the further you have to go. You either enter the infinite or you don’t. Those who think they have it all figured out have not been swept off their feet, robbed of their finalities, or had a glimpse of the infinite. They have only one step to take, belief. Real belief. There is nothing more effective than to have to watch the things you once had faith in shatter. Everything but the primary level of faith is reduced to tradition. After that, it’s a whirlwind of immeasurable openness and endless territory.
Your liberty is not limited by someone else’s conscience.
God blesses everything you give thanks for.
Foreverything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.-1 Timothy 4:4
That’s sixth-day-Genesis talk. God looked over all that He had made and He called it ‘good’. If you’re thanking God, then you’re praying.
The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.-Romans 14:6
Everything made by God is good. You make it bad by the way you treat it. This is why you can’t look at someone else and use your own conscience to guide him. He is guided by his own conscience. This calls for respect for differences, not division.
It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. -1 Corinthians 10:27 MSG
It’s ‘bad spirituality to cross-examine’ people as though a single one existed without God with them. When you see another, you should see God. They might not see Him, but you should. If you can’t see God in another, then you can’t love them. You have a plank in your eye. You’ll blind them trying to get the splinter out of theirs.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.-Matthew 5:8
The ‘pure in heart’ can see God.
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure…-Titus 1:15
“Crisis always reveal a person’s true character.”- Oswald Chambers
It’s completely normal to start panicking when the house of cards falls down. You were so proud of yourself with all that balance and mad skills of engineering and near catastrophe avoidance. Enough success can make anyone hone their slick moves in the dance of ‘Yay!’.
But when the cards fall and the mess is made, we kick the table and remove our party hats. Back to being a ‘nobody’ and questioning our purpose. It’s the moment of failure when you realize that your faith was in yourself and now you don’t know how to get back to the faith that was pure.
The only pure faith is that which is in Jesus and all He is.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.-1 Corinthians 3:11
God sends the storm to show you what you’re made of. He does it on purpose. He’s not trying to crush you, He’s trying to show you where you’re looking. If you’re not looking at Him, you need to know it and this is the best way to do it. All He’s trying to do is get you to see Him, to see your need for Jesus, and to get you to stop relying on how good you are at doing what He called you to do. If you’ve been called to do something, thinking you can do it, He’s going to let you know how incapable you are.
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.-Romans 11:32
He makes sure you know what failure is. He does this so you know His mercy. It’s the only way to get you to stop relying on yourself to be who you’re supposed to be.
…it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.-1 Corinthians 3:13
If you’re relying on yourself, then all pieces of ‘you’ that are giving you strength will be burned up. There is nothing like a little dose of humility to keep you strong.
Failure is not proof that you were not or are no longer a Christian. See this is where the revelation of where your faith takes place. Faith in the ability to not fail will be met with the destruction of that faith.
How do you forgive yourself? See what God is trying to show you.
How do you ‘love’ the one who failed? See what God is trying to show you and them.
He’s bringing you out of superficial faith in Jesus and making it perfectly clear. Your need for Him and your inadequacy are all revealed while your faith is realigned to where it should be.
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. -1 Corinthians 3:14
The reward is that you get to keep what was built right. You get to keep what wasn’t false.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”-Jesus in Matthew 7:24-25
The ‘words’ that Jesus is talking about come right before that verse. They are:
judge the same way you want to be judged (verse 1-2)
get the chunk of wood out of your own eye so you can see to remove the splinter from someone elses (verse 3-5)
don’t waist your time on people out for their own gain (verse 6)
rely on Jesus for what you need to fulfill what He asks (verse 7-11)
do to others what you want done to you (verse 12)
get life only from Jesus, not from how great you are (verse 13-14)
beware of people who preach religion without the grace of Jesus. you know them by their love (verse 15-20 and John 13:34-35)
be aware that not everybody who claims to know Jesus and does great things in His name are actually known by Him (verse 21-23)
This is what ‘a wise man’ builds his life on. Jesus is the rock. If you build your life of faith on those words, then, when the storms of life come, you will still have something left. That’s your reward.
“And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” -Jesus in Matthew 7:26-27
He’s not concerned with pushing you out, He wants you to get it right. He’s going to strum the strings that are out of tune, not to shame you, but to show you where you need some tuning.
If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.-1 Corinthians 3:15
Failure is an out of tune string. How will you know it’s out of tune unless you play it?
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? -1 Corinthians 3:16
He LOVES you! He’s making His home in you. He’s making you able to stand when life tries to knock you down.
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.-1 Corinthians 3:17
He won’t let anyone destroy you. He’ll destroy them first. If you condemn another and destroy their faith you become an enemy to God. Remember, faith is not in self, it is in Jesus. Remind them of Jesus, not themselves.
God is the protector of all He owns, ready to fight for you when you’re under attack.
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.”-Isaiah 27:2-4 NIV
But, He doesn’t want to fight. He wants you ALL. Both the wise and unwise. The attacked and the attacker. God’s love goes far beyond the mistakes of humans.
“Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.” -Isaiah 27:5 NIV
God loves you and because of that, He makes sure that you are not a crippled mess of half-baked religion and misguided faith. Sooner or later, we’ll learn the Truth no matter what we do. Everything is His, everything marked with the stamp of ‘Redemption’. Use your light of faith, your ‘saltiness’ to bring out the God flavors. You belong to Him. Take your lessons and grow into the art of beauty and let love drip from the fruit of your life.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ”He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again,”The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether …the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, andChrist is God’s.-1 Corinthians 3:18-23
Posted: September 11th, 2011 |
Filed under:life | Tags:grace |
Comments Off
grace is forgiveness, but not just forgiveness.
grace is empowering and powerful, but it’s not just power.
grace costs everything and it’s free.
grace is freeing, but it’s not cheap.
grace is favor.
favor is
approval
preference
bias
partiality
Grace is God saying: I approve you, I prefer you, I am biased toward you, I am partial to you.
God pours His grace out because He wants you. He made an excuse for you. He set things up so that you could win.
You ask Him to forgive you and He’s an infinite number of steps ahead of you.
While sin cripples you, grace gives you the power to run without the handicap.
You have to deny your own common sense and sense of justice, thereby denying yourself, to really grasp just a hint of the complexity of grace.
When you know that you can’t lose, then you’ll play the game because you enjoy it. There is no pressure, there is no competition, there is no getting kicked out, and there is only one MVP. Jesus in on your team.
He died to keep you there. There is no way He’s letting you go. He wants you to play.
Now go get back out there.
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.-Proverbs 17:22
Posted: September 9th, 2011 |
Filed under:life | Tags:grace |
Comments Off
I heard a story about a pastor who is teaching a series on Galatians. Galatians is all about grace. It’s a thin line of faith. It’s a narrow walk of trust not a narrow walk of rules. Galatians spells out, among others, a message that following a set of rules is a rejection of grace. As one man puts it (can’t remember his name) “No grace for you.” You cannot achieve, by your actions, what only Jesus and His grace can give.
This pastor is experiencing the biggest lash out of his career. People are angry about grace and worried about what that message teaches their children. “You’re making it sound like my kids can do whatever they want,” they say. But, he’s preaching scriptures, not his own thoughts. Our own thoughts want to balance grace with the law, but that only neutralizes grace and ends up being watered down to lukewarm God-spit.
If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other.-Galatians 5:11 MSG
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. -Revelation 3:16
Grace makes people angry. People who have invested so much of themselves to getting it right are turned off by the thought that the less moral can get in with Jesus, too. They’re angry because they’re learning that they’ve been on the wrong track this entire time. I’m thinking, then, that this pastor should have been preaching grace a lot sooner. The Gospel divides people. It divides the sheep from the wolves.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”-Jesus in John 10:1-5 ESV
If you do not enter the church through Jesus and His grace, then you are a soul thief. You got in for some other reason and you are leading people astray. You do not like the implications of grace for life or for sinners. You push sinners out and try to keep your little community free from the ‘ragamuffins’. You are a robber. You keep the gate shut and locked. You do not offer or experience freedom. You are oppressive.
If you do enter through Jesus and His grace, then you are one of His. You open Jesus, who is the gate, and leave it open. You let everyone walk around freely. You follow Jesus because you know His voice. All those who don’t follow were never His in the first place.
You know your leaders by their relationship to the Gate. Is it locked or is it open? Can people get to the cross of grace or have you put stipulations in the way? There are those who will not understand this because they do not recognize the voice of Jesus.
The Gospel divides people, like a sword. It’s the best news to the least worthy. I would rather be in company with the least worthy than the self-righteous.
To this pastor and anybody else in the same boat: Stick with it. Use your platform to call men and women to the grace of Jesus. Let the others go. If they come back, at least they know what they’re coming back to. It might be their first taste of salvation and freedom from slavery. Remember, there is such a thing as spiritual Stockholm Syndrome.
A hired hand runs when the wolf comes. This pastor is not running. He’s following the Masters voice.
“When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors!”-Matthew 10:23 MSG
Posted: September 6th, 2011 |
Filed under:life | Tags:grace, hope |
Comments Off
A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire.-Proverbs 15:1
I got covered in word vomit the other day. Like any upchuck episode, it came on suddenly and I couldn’t think to back away before I was left in shock and my outlook was ruined.
What do you do when someone tells you things they shouldn’t be saying? I make a point to stay out of drama. Ignorance is bliss. In all of the times I can produce words with ease, this was a time I responded with a stutter. “This is news to me. I’m in shock from you telling me.”
I wanted to be gentle, but also let the other know what just happened. They just got sick on me and I was dirtier for it.
Word vomit is contagious. The sudden outburst of emotion catches.
Knowledge flows like spring water from the wise; fools are leaky faucets, dripping nonsense. -Proverbs 15:2
The tongue reveals the fool. I’ve been that fool and I know how it feels to want to take the words back. I’ve practiced silence and it feels so much better. No pangs of regret. Time reveals the truth and I’ve learned to not fill that time with the words of nonsense. If you must speak, speak as though the situation is on the road to healing and the person with the leaky faucet just doesn’t know it yet.
It’s not, “I hope it straightens up.” It’s, “This will work out and maybe the road to healing can be helped by you?”
God doesn’t miss a thing— he’s alert to good and evil alike. -Proverbs 15:3
The tongue is the hardest thing to control. But you must control it. If you’re angry about the fire, then stop fanning the flames. A kind word… a gentle response… this is what is needed in an unstable situation. Be the stability with the “God works out all things according to his purpose” frame of mind.
Wisdom is found from the end looking back. Scrambling to be heard, to get people on your side, to taint or even just reveal the flaws of the other side is not an act of wisdom. If, in the end, you’re all on the same side, then what do your words look like then? More reasons to apologize. I’m sure we’ll all have enough apologizing to do when this life is said and done. Don’t make it messier. Life is messy as it is.
Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim.-Proverbs 15:4
I backed away from the word vomit and gathered myself enough to wipe it off. I walked away with a fresh reminder that words should be few, especially when you’re angry. It doesn’t matter if what was said is true, it’s an ugly thing to witness someone get sick on their words.
Angry, backbiting words are not inspiration from God. It’s all you. Silence should be the choice when yours is the only voice you can hear.
Take a deep breath and be kind. Situations get worked out when the vomiting stops.
Posted: August 29th, 2011 |
Filed under:life | Tags:grace, purpose |
Comments Off
I have Tom Petty in my ears and ideas behind my eyes. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the vision that has been in my head for the last few years. I’m standing in front of a group of people who are there to hear me say something and I’m looking through all of the faces to find mine.
I remember sitting by myself at a Women’s Conference several years ago. It was my mom’s church group and the women in her church looked forward to this conference every year. It wasn’t my kind of thing at all, but I was cracked open by my own sin and the magnitude of my own wounds was eating me alive. She was so excited to have me with her. Like a mother lioness, she let me hide in her shadow while I was too wounded and scared to be out in the jungle where I belonged.
I sat in the chair and silently begged God to find me. I looked for Him in the worship. I listened for Him in the speaker. I closed my eyes and tried to feel Him. But He was nowhere near me. I watched women cry happy tears with each other. I watched them go through the appropriate moves of Christian gatherings like I was watching an off-Broadway play I had seen million times. The sounds were hollow as they echoed through the deep cave of my despair.
I was a spectator wondering what it was that made them think they felt God when I could not feel Him at all. A woman tried to come pray with me (because that’s part of the closing of the service), but I was so consumed with pain, emptiness, and confusion that I couldn’t stomach someone saying my name to a Holy God. My name was a curse word and I knew it.
I was an unworthy impostor. My lip gloss and mascara were deceptive. You can put jewelry and heels on a pig, but she’s still a pig. My chest aches with the memory.
When it was over, I walked close enough to my mother to smell her as we made our way back to our cottage. A woman stopped me and told me that I looked familiar. I get that a lot and she wasn’t familiar to me, so I tried to dismiss her. She pressed for my name and when I told her, she backed away and said, “Oh, I’m sorry.” As she turned away, I asked her what her name was. When she told me, I felt like I had been slapped. She did know who I was. More importantly, she knew what I had done and she was sorry she asked.
I went back to my cabin, trying to hold back the stinging tears, and crawled in my bed to disappear.
God found me over the few years that followed and He carried me close to His chest until I could walk again. He taught me about His grace, His gift, and He let me in on some of His most illusive mysteries. Providence makes everything make sense.
Since then, every time I put my words out there in the space of life, I tell myself that I, (the me back then), will find them. Every time I stand up to speak, I’m speaking so that I, (the me back then), can hear it. That’s why I look for me when I’m scanning the faces. I’m drawn to the dark spaces where hearts are isolated in the reality of seeing their worst and the hopelessness that comes with knowing.
I have found that it is the bystanders of the crashes that want to help, but don’t know how. They see their friend trapped in wreckage and are on the hunt for someone with the jaws of life to free them from the steel lies that are twisted around them. The twisted steel of reality without God, trapping them like a beautiful captured prize of a horrible spirit cannibal. That’s how many people find my words. Someone sent my letters to them.
I kept waiting for something to come up. Waiting for an available slot on an agenda formed to dismantle the dam of unbelief to let loose the flood of grace. Waiting for someone bigger than me to put a grace event together and invite me to take part. In all of the waiting, it occurred to me that if I have a vision, then maybe it is because I am the one who needs to assemble the agenda.
And so it begins. I am planning a conference called, “Sifted As Wheat”. I plan to hold it in the Spring of 2013. I’ve left room for plans and for some kind of miraculous coming together of ideas and met needs to make this possible. I don’t know how small or big it will be, but I know that every part of me soars at the thought of people coming together to learn how to accept and give grace. I want sessions to geared around navigating the aftermath of sin. Truth gives hope, it sets people free. The need is overwhelming. I’ll be working out all of the details and keep you posted on the new facebook page for the conference. Please connect with me there to show your support and to keep up on the progress. I can always use your encouragement, your prayers, your ideas, and your stories.
Posted: August 24th, 2011 |
Filed under:book, life | Tags:grace, love wins |
Comments Off
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” -Jesus; Luke 12:1 ESV
The ‘leaven’ referred to here is the Old Testament way to salvation. It is corrupt doctrine. It becomes corrupt when it is mixed with the message of the Gospel in a way that perpetuates the list of rules as a requirement to receive the grace of the Gospel.
Jesus calls it ‘hypocrisy’ because it is a man-made mixture of how to live a godly life. It is a citizenship to two different kingdoms. It’s serving two different masters. It’s hypocrisy because it’s already clear that no one can follow the rules. The rules remove the heart of the purpose for them. Jesus and His grace changes the heart and the rules become peripheral.
People want to hear ways that they can make themselves more holy. They want a definitive list of things they can do so that they can say they are set apart by appearance and practice. It’s a way for them to be like God, choosing good because they know the difference.
“You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”-the serpent in Genesis 3:4 ESV
“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.”-God in Genesis 3:22 ESV
People can launder their appearance with a list of perfectly good attributes and unarguably valid points. But, the heart is missing. They can be like God, choosing good to be more God-like, but there is no beat in their chest or life in their blood. Have you ever known someone to call him or herself a Christian and completely tear another apart or leave someone behind? They even give credit to their Christianity for their lack of compassion and empathy. Haven’t you wondered, “Have you no heart?”
It’s a mutilated Gospel for the one who thinks that denying the overwhelming urge to love a ‘sinner’ is the part of ‘self’ that must be denied. They actually believe they are honoring God by sacrificing their heart. Don’t you remember? The sacrifice has been made! You can love freely now!
“…use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.”-Galatians 5:13 MSG
“For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?” -Galatians 5:15 MSG
The outside world, the ones to whom you have been commissioned to prove God’s love, wants no part of a religion that has no heart.
Rules, sacrifices, and rituals cannot get to the heart, not the heart of man or the heart of God.
Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made. -Hebrews 9:9-10 MSG
The same passage in a different translation says this:
According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offeredthat cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.-Hebrews 9:9-10 ESV
“…until the time of reformation.” Hebrews 9:10 is the only one mention I could find of “reformation” in scripture. There is only one scripture, that I could find, that tells you what it means and the intended purpose, which is the heart, of the Law. It is here:
“Andif by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.”Leviticus 26:23-24 ESV (emphasis mine)
Young’s Literal Translation words my emphasized portion as “instructed by me”. If, by following the law, you are not instructed by God, then you have missed the mark. The meaning of sin is “missing the mark.” (Vines Concise Dictionary).
Jesus is the mark. The Holy Spirit instructs you, personally. Throw the laundry list out. If people want to use grace as an excuse to sin, then the Holy Spirit will twist them apart on the inside. That is what this scripture means:
“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”-1 John 3:9 ESV
The ‘seed’ is the Holy Spirit. Making “a practice of sin” is not the same thing as “committing a sin”. Those who are Christians will sin and the Holy Spirit will crush them until they cannot continue. The will of man is crushed, to breaking, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If you see a man who has sinned and is being crushed, it is not because the Holy Spirit has left him, it will not, it is because He overwhelmingly evident in him. You don’t have to point out the obvious. The Holy Spirit is a better lover than you are, which makes Him a better corrector than you could ever be.
You will be harassed for preaching and believing in the sovereignty of God, grace, and the authority of Love. Not by the outsiders, but by the insiders.
Be cautious with those who preach a watered down Gospel. Be on the lookout for those take up issue with “too much love” or “too heavy on grace.” Ignore their tirades and consider yourselves in good company. You can see which kingdom they’re under by which flag they choose to raise.
If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other.-Paul; Galatians 5:11 MSG
