For His Glory

I cannot make myself more known to God.  I simply cannot.  Psalm 139 says He knew me before my bones were even knit together.

And there are songs and verses and poetry and prayers that tell me to get closer to Him and I say, “God, You live in me.  How is it possible for You to be closer to me than THAT?”

God has made us in His image, in His likeness (There’s Word for that!)  We, God and me, are spirit beings.  We live in a body and according to what Jesus said, when His word abides in me, God comes and lives in me.  And stays.  What can be closer than that?

Awareness of the closeness.

I remember the day I put those lilies in the vase.  It was a sense experience.  I leaned in to get the fragrance.  I looked closely to see the inner part and backed up to see them better.  I made a concerted effort to be more aware of the complete lily, celebrating and admiring the handiwork of God, His love for variety, His design for that particular flower put in at creation, His knowledge of how many bees and how many butterflies would interact with those two lilies.  God fascinates me.  And, I think, as a flawed human in love with Perfect God, that my awareness of Him is the only way I can truly be closer to Him.  

I live with electricity and walk through my house flipping switches, turning knobs, and giving no thought to the process so long as I get the results I want.  I do not focus on what skill and intelligence and amazing aspects had to go into the result when I flip a switch.  In those rare (thankfully!) occurrences when I flip a switch and nothing happens, I only think of who I need to ask about the problem. I don’t want a relationship with the person on the other end of the phone. I just want them to fix my problem. 

I often see Christians in the same relationship with God as I have with the person on my electric company’s problem reporting system.  They know God is “there” and they’re comfortable that they have escaped hell, and they hope He will fix their mess, but closeness? The closeness that in a marriage brings pillow talk giggling and finishing each other’s sentences?  Very often, we Christians are not aware of, or even desiring, the closeness that is possible and that God longs for.  

Do you remember your first love when spending time with that person was the reason you got up in the morning, and being apart was utterly miserable? And if you were blessed for that love to mature beyond simple lust into a mature lasting relationship, think of how the laughter has changed into shared memories and continues with shared moments.  You are so aware when your life companion is in the house, and their habits become so familiar to you that it’s not even called prediction when you know what’s going to happen next, and you discover your love is deeper than you even knew to expect when the relationship was new. Your awareness of them has created an intimate relationship that requires no work to maintain, only the focus and value of the love in order to continue.

God fascinates me. I know I already said that.  It is an amazing revelation to me that God who is my Creator, who was never Himself created, has made Himself known to me through His Word and His Spirit that lives inside me.  God, Who could have treated me any way He wanted to, because He is Holy and I was not, left His Word to tell me He values me so much that He became flesh and was sacrificed, brutalized, decimated and raised again so that I can call Him “Father”, so that I can know Him as God.  A living, life-giving, compassionate protector, defender and Savior He is.  And He put everything in place so that I can “get closer” to Him.  He is unsearchable in His greatness, but I will continue to move closer by keeping my focus on the One who has always, before my birth even, kept His focus on me.

He has chosen to live in me.  And you if you are born again from above.  May we both focus and be constantly aware of the incredible presence of God who lives in us. 

 

Dateline 590 BC. Adapted from the original source in Second Book of the Kings

“During the last months of an intense famine that had women going to the King to settle the dispute over the unfairness of a broken deal between two women regarding boiling and eating their infants, it appears that the disaster has now been averted by the brave actions of four men who weren’t even allowed inside the city gates that protected the very people who ostracised them.

Ironically, the four men who were reported leprous were in no worse circumstance than anyone else in the city.  Although their symptoms identified them as “losers” and unwelcome among the general population, the priests and other people of wealth and prosperity were living in no better situations than they.  While the four were seated outside, alone with only those like them, they watched animal dung become a gourmet snack and people paying high prices to get the privilege.  No meal or flour or any other options survived the famine that devastated the city and left all people equal, regardless of their former differences.

It is reported that the four men had a discussion among themselves and arrived at the conclusion that they had three options.  Sit outside the city, where they were until they died or go into the city where the famine was, and that would surely kill them as well, or go out to the enemy Syrian army camp and ask for mercy.  Only one option gave them the opportunity to act. The four men rose up and walked out toward the camp of the enemy hoping they would be granted respite from their starvation and acceptance in spite of their issues.

Interesting in these circumstances is the faith or lack of it in the Israeli God, Jehovah.  It appears that the king and his men believed God existed, but during a prophecy spoken by the prophet Elisha, that the circumstances involved in the famine would all be changed within 24 hours, the king placed no confidence in the change, and one of the kings’ closest companions held the prophecy in derision by calling it “impossible”.  According to the original source, the prophet then told the unbelieving man that he would see the miraculous change but would not benefit from it.

The conclusion of the famine was a direct result of the four people who society considered “less than” rising up in desperate times, with scant hope and moving forward to see what might happen as they marched toward an unknown destiny.  Although they are without doubt the heroes used by God to rescue His people, we do not know their names.  We only know that they encountered full tents, emptied of people, wealth, food, and material goods, enough to share with everyone in the city, and in their sharing of the good news, the economy and life for the city residents returned to normal.   We know no more of the leprous men than that, for the account concludes without identifying them or relating their outcome.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Jeremiah tells us two more important facts.  The king’s man who disdained the word sent by God saw the situation changed, as Elisha said he would, but was trampled to death by the people heading out of their desperation, so the doubter became the casualty of the truth.

The intriguing testimony is that this was made possible by less important men obeying a prompt to “go” and the God who made a sound that caused their enemy to flee, proving that the wealth of the sinner was reserved for the righteous.”

*****

Is it possible that history repeats itself thousands of years later?  Wars and women killing their children for their personal benefit,  a failure in society to honor the living God. Could this have been the headline at that time?

If so, what should be our prayer? “God, one more time.  Please make a sound. Make a noise that will drive out our enemies.  Make another sound like Pentecost. ”

 

 

Teenage children had to make their mother’s funeral arrangements. She overdosed…and I’m likely partially to blame.

How is that possible? Because I am part of the Church that Jesus said He would build, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. They just did. And I, as a carrier of Jesus, a person given God’s power and God’s authority, to be His ambassador and an able minister, I have to bear some of the responsibility.

But, you might say, everyone has free will. Is that not THE most convenient response, while also being true???

Moses was THAT guy. That one guy who came into the world at an ugly time, got discovered by a princess, raised in a palace of the man who had given the order to have all those babies killed.  God had a plan for Moses. Moses thought he knew it. Decided to do something to make God’s plan happen.  Blew it. Big time. Ran for his life. Ran away from God for forty years and was making his way through the desert where he was hiding out taking care of sheep.  Going his own way, leaving God alone and learning about just how big a mistake he had made. Me and Moses, both knowing that surely God had found someone else more qualified to do what He had wanted us to do.  I look back, and I understand that Moses. In another dimension, in another time…I walked that desert.  Yes, if Moses heard my story of my three decades of mess ups, I think he would have nodded. He would understand me.

Moses wasn’t the only one who had a misguided opinion of how God thinks. While Moses was born a Hebrew baby brought up in the palace of an Egyptian, I was a Christian “baby” brought up in the house of religion. Strict religion. Unkind religion. The kind of religion that tells a person God loves them unconditionally and then after the altar call, those same people tell that new baby how unworthy they are,  the rules they have to live by, and God’s wrath when they mess up.  They present the schizophrenic God who may put sickness on you or your children to teach you to walk the straight and narrow, your car may break down because you didn’t tithe, but somehow it’s very important that you accept that God does all this because He loves you. It’s no wonder the shame and the guilt caused Moses and me to keep walking.  We’re not the only ones….

But Moses saw a bush. Nothing unusual about a bush burning in the desert. But there was something about that bush. It just kept on burning. Something about that moment made Moses turn aside.  Then God spoke to Moses. I’m not sure Moses was expecting God to speak to Him, otherwise God wouldn’t have had to tell Moses to take his shoes off. Had Moses thought he was going to hear God, he would have taken them off himself. I understand this.

So God spoke and Moses freaked.  No matter how much time had passed, Moses was still sure his past mistakes meant that he was unqualified. The pain of the past shame of “blowing it” sticks like springtime pollen to a windshield.  Moses was still carrying that around, still putting his self-assessment above God’s intentions. I nod at that one, too.

About midnight, in October of 2001, a month after my sense of security, along with millions of other Americans, was shattered in a terrorist attack, I stood on a porch in Louisville, KY. I had less than $50 and a 5 year old. I was moving rapidly toward my fifth decade and although trained with a good resume, I couldn’t find a job.  As I looked up at the sky, I saw brilliant stars in abundance, something not easily seen on a porch in downtown Louisville.  And for the first time in decades, I approached God. “What am I going to do now?” I asked Him.

Here’s where Moses and I took a little different path. At that moment, I was so shocked by what I heard in my heart that I couldn’t question. I heard God’s answer and it didn’t dawn on me until later that I wasn’t qualified. I heard Him say, “You will tell women how much I love them” and I simply said, “Okay, but what am I going to do NOW?”

Within 24 hours I was settled in what has now been my home for nearly 2 decades. I was working within a week after that.  And it was then I realized, God didn’t criticize me. Once I asked Him to get involved, He didn’t tell me I was unworthy because I had walked away and lived independent of Him. He simply told me to tell women how much He loves them.  And moved into His chosen role as Provider.

And in that commission, part of the “Great” one, was the answer to my own struggles. In order to tell women how much God loves them, I had to first learn it for myself.  Daily I ask Him, “Show me more. Show me more of the largeness that is You. Show me what that greatness of power looks like. I accept those things you are able to do that is exceedingly, abundantly more than I can ask or think according to Your power at work in me. Show me what God in me looks like. Show me how much You love me.”

Here’s where I am now.  I’m looking back at Moses’ life as I look forward in mine.  I’m not planning on hitting any rocks. My acceptance of Jesus has assured I won’t miss the promised land, and my days aren’t nearly as frustrating as Moses’, because I don’t have millions of God’s people looking to me for direction. I do want to have the glowing face experience, I think.  The Holy Spirit now lives in me, so hopefully I’m glowing from the inside out.

But, on the other hand, I’m not going to climb a mountain on my last day here.  Modern technology has softened us, but I do plan to meet God in the high places and tell women how much He loves them in the low.

And some day, I plan on giving Moses a high five and saying, “We made it” and look down and see that we are both without shoes…on Holy ground.

God, as God, chose how He would be toward us. He is God. He could have treated us however He wanted.God chose how we were created, how long the earth will sustain itself. God could have forced His will upon any of us. He is GOD.

Ours is not the first rebellion. We aren’t the first of His creation to think we can choose how to treat God, even choose to override His right to rule. No, some of the angels were first. Their history is that God cast them out of heaven. satan was not always the way he is. He began as an angel of worship. The result of his rebellion is separation from God.

As I walk in the mornings and pray, I begin to think on things. The Holy Spirit usually gives me one “thing” to think on. Today, it is the stone outside the tomb of Lazarus. I’m processing it as I write, so you’re privy to my thought processes. (If that’s scary to you, imagine living in my head ..)

What about this … why didn’t Jesus just roll that stone away? If He could restore life to Lazarus inside, we know He had the power to move a stone. He created stones. One word from Jesus would have moved it, crushed it, turned it into powder..

Jesus walked the earth as a man, although He was fully God. He limited Himself to the things humans do, except those things humans do in faith. Each person, even in the presence of Jesus, had to do their own believing. Believing didn’t have to be perfect, but it had to be present in some form. In this instance, it was in the form of humans rolling away the stone when Jesus spoke.

What was the purpose of the stone in front of the tomb? Several. To separate the dead from the living, to barricade those who walked past the dead from encountering the sights and smells of decay. To keep animals from destroying and stealing the body. Probably lots of other reasons as well.

And likely some of those men who moved the stone were thinking, “This I have to see” or just wanted to be a part of the group. We don’t know, but we know human nature so it’s possible some weren’t expecting, but they obeyed in spite of what they felt. They responded to the command of Jesus.

And then Jesus spoke, and he who had been dead four days, who, even his sister said, “Lord, he stinks”, walked to the opening those men had made. The power and glory of God were revealed because men rolled away the stone.

The accomplishments of God, those supernatural acts of compassion and power that are evidence of God’s existence and God’s intention and involvement, then and now, start with our obedience. The power in those men’s obedience was a life giving opportunity for God to do what He always intended to do ..restore life. John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came “to give life and to give it more abundantly.”

Are there stones in our lives that are keeping dead things dead, standing between us and the life that God has for us, a life full and restored, so amazingly so, that in Lazarus’ case, religious leaders wanted to kill him again because his life testified of God’s power? Jesus hasn’t changed. His power hasn’t been diminished, only unseen, because we His people haven’t always followed the first step. “Roll away the stone”.

Don’t see the stone? Go where Jesus is and ask Him to point it out. Life more abundant is waiting behind the rock.

Presidents get accused of it. Courts get accused of it. Policemen get accused of it. But Christians? Likely not, but perhaps we should …

Proverbs 18:21 says “Life and death are in the power of the tongue … ”

Do we even realize what that means? Every word we speak has power to give life or death to someone. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally.

Before we start with the eye rolls, let’s look at some of the adults we know. Maybe we will even look in our mirrors at the way we or others have been impacted by words.

That fourth grade teacher who said, “You’ll never amount to anything”.

That parent who said, “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you be more like your sister?”

That spouse who said as he was leaving, “I don’t love you any more.”

That adult child who said, “You were never a success.”

The words that we speak and the words that have been spoken to us linger on in our lives for decades. We begin to see ourselves as rejected, less than. Never as good as others, never feeling like we can succeed. Those words break our hearts. They leave us thinking “what’s the point of trying? This is who I am.”

We become what we think about ourselves and what we allow others’ thoughts to do to us. Years pass, then decades. We can often look back and see that we have achieved exactly what has been spoken over us. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23;7.

Think about the words you say, about yourself and to others. Realize the impact words have had on you and ask yourself if you want to do that to the people you are in relationship with, whether that relationship is with your restaurant server or your child. Words are seeds that produce plants. We don’t get to decide if they will grow. We only get to decide what they will produce. Words are like dandelions. They will continue to pop up and their roots go deep.

Is there hope for the broken heart and wounded soul that we have as a result of years of death spoken to us, by us, or over us? Indeed, the answer is a resounding yes. Find our what your God has to say about you. Find our that He rejoices over you. He does not reject you. He promised He would never even get angry at you. He loves us unconditionally. Jesus came to heal broken hearts. He took our sins,  and came to heal us and deliver us from all our destruction, even word destruction. There is no part of us that Jesus cannot and will not heal. He Himself said in John 6:63 “The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.” There is healing for “death” words, and it is the word of God.

If you need a quick list of the promises of God and what He says about you, I recommend you visit http://www.terradezministries.com. There you will find a “confession card” that you can quickly use to counter all the lies, the death that either you or others have spoken over you. It’s beautiful and life-changing. It begins with “I’m a party waiting to happen” and an entire list of things God says about you and includes the Scriptures so you can see for yourself where He said them!

Be healed. Be informed. Be bold. Be loved. As “death” couldn’t hold Jesus, when we as God’s daughters discover the truth of who we are in Christ, those old words of “death” can’t hold us either.

 

 

As she made her way to the well, once again knowing she would be there alone, she knew it was best to go in the heat of the day, so the only condemnation she would be faced with would be her own.

The good women, with good marriages, good men and good lives would be at home that time of the day, doing whatever it was they did, those women whose lives may not be perfect either, but who were loved and admired, by their man and their community, and who had already made their trip for water early in the day, surrounded by other contented women just like themselves.

But not this woman. This woman walked to the well encumbered by, and surrounded with, her own history. Her alone-ness. Her rejections. Her memories, maybe initially some good ones. Maybe she remembered the first bloom of love before the reality hit and she was reminded that she had been rejected, over and over again, in love and commitment. She, if she was like us, wondered what it was about her that kept her from being worthy.

She had never learned to live alone in the confidence that it was okay to be alone. Her culture told her that wasn’t true. It takes great courage to go against culture when forming our opinions about ourselves. She had moved on from the first rejection and went forward, at first hopefully, that her next experience would bring a lasting love and acceptance. Was it the second time when hope started to diminish, the fifth when hope died? We don’t know.

What we know is that she gave up the demands that she be married. She settled for less, as a live in lover, rather than face each day waking up in shame alone and each night sleeping the same way. What she had left that she could count on, what provided for her, for her basic human need, was her water pot. Without it she couldn’t carry the life-giving water that satisfied the craving and the need we all have, and the thing we cannot live without.

What the narrator doesn’t tell us, but had to be true, was that this woman walked to the well in the center of the town with a broken heart. How do we know? We know because she was defensive. When she encountered Jesus, she asked Him why He was talking to her. She asked Him why He would want water from her. She was not only a Samaritan, a natural enemy of the Jews, both culturally and religiously, but she knew what she thought Jesus didn’t know. She was convinced that she wasn’t worthy to be considered for a conversation, or even to serve a cup of cold water. She just wasn’t worthy, in her own eyes, and, she thought if He knew, she wouldn’t be in His either.

As the conversation went on, Jesus, who had made a great effort to encounter this woman, brought her to the place where she had to reveal the brokenness and the shame when she said to Him, “I have no husband”. Remember that in that culture, a woman who was not a widow but had no husband, was less than. Women, for the most part, in Western culture still feel that way. We still compare our lives of “have not’s” to those who “have” … and we deem ourselves less than.

I know what I’m about to type may make me unpopular. I’m okay with that. But, I don’t want to wound. I just want to make this plain, in as much love and gentleness as I can. Living with someone outside the covenant of marriage is really just a continuous series of one night stands between the same two people.  It is a settling on the part of both parties for an imitation of commitment. It is a self-acceptance of a “less than” situation, evidence that we believe we are not ever going to do better, but this is better than being alone. It is a band-aid for a broken heart for one; perhaps only a convenience for the other.

And in this historical, true narrative from John Chapter 4, we see this woman set free from her past and her present shame once she encountered Jesus. How was she made free? Because when she asked Jesus for the living water, first Jesus let her know this: That He knew when He encountered her that she had no husband, that she had given up her hopes and settled for a relationship without the covenant promises of marriage. And still He spoke with her. Still He revealed His identity to her. Still He revealed His purpose and offered her opportunity to serve Him, to trade what she had for what He came to give her.

In our narrative, what happened when Jesus kindly confronted the woman with the truth of her situation, when He said “You’ve been married five times and the man you’re living with now is not your husband”?

She left her water pot and ran back to tell the others in the city that Jesus was the Christ. For her, we can only wonder the emotions that motivated her. What we know is that as ashamed as she had been coming to the well, assuring her solitude in her timing, she was as much eager to run toward people with the news that she had encountered the Christ.

The truth in an encounter with Jesus is still the same. Jesus read the scroll in front of the religious people, those same people who hated the Samaritans. “He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, … ” Isaiah 61:1

If healing of the broken-hearted was important enough to God Himself that it was a stated purpose of Jesus, we can stop being defensive. We can stop living in shame. We can acknowledge, laying aside all our toughness and determination to survive “in spite of”, and we can tell Jesus, “Please, heal my broken heart”.

The Healer has come.