All Problems are Spiritual

Luke 10:41-42, “But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

All problems are spiritual is certainly not a notion coming from my head. I can think of lots of problems that create spiritual crisis, but that don’t seem to originate spiritually, or at least have some spiritual solution. I think of cancer and the mentally ill. I think of the poor, and the orphan and widow. How are these spiritual problems? How is being wasteful and the resulting financial ruin a spiritual problem? How is a family that can’t coexist or a husband and wife in hate of one another just a spiritual problem? How is a heart attack or stroke a spiritual problem?

These are all spiritual problems because to see them as problems at all is to lack spiritual perspective. We want to go go go, do do do. But what is God’s perspective. Christ went hungry on more than one occasion, but always knew it was with purpose. Christ had a friend die, and knew in Lazarus case that he would raise him from the dead. Jesus was threatened with death before His appointed time, but always had the right words. His life was in danger at sea, but He knew God has a plan beyond that momentary tribulation. Christ knew the world and all it had to offer, good and bad, and still He overcame the world.

We have problems in the world, but if they weigh us down then they are a spiritual problem of perspective. “In this world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus is trying to tell us that our problems are only problems when we have the world’s perspective. He is trying to give us the perspective that they are not “our” problems at all, but that God has already addressed them in His grand plan for our good.

Full of worry? -- Get God’s perspective. Facing death? -- Get God’s perspective. All is well? -- Get God’s perspective.  Because what we perceive as a problem with… (you fill in the blank). Really is our own spiritual problem and lack of His perspective. We can be like Martha and tirelessly work to fix the problem; or we can be like Mary, and know that so long as we are with Christ then all is well. If He needs us to do something to address our "problem", then He will let us know what that something is. 

Living the Miracle

Matthew 8:24, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.”

The involvement that God chooses to take in my mundane and ordinary life continues to blow me away. Sure there are the lessons of character that come simultaneously from multiple directions. Often described as those moments when a Pastor seems to be reading your mail, or every teaching and every saint says the same thing all at once.

But I am talking about coming into this place where I am for the first time in my life truly gaining new perspective. I hope, and trust… no… know that it is His perspective. The perspective that “God causes ALL things to work together for good for those who love Him.” (Rom 8:28) Not that God answers all my prayers, because thank Him He does not. Not that there is a “solution” to ever problem, because “my solutions” can’t solve a thing. But that there is a peace in the midst of the storm. There is a knowing that where I am is where He is and where He is -- is glorious. I am beginning to taste the place where circumstances mean nothing and His presence in those circumstances is everything. 

The success in this is the silence. The success is the absence of worry. And in the absence of worry is the absence of complaining. And in the absence of complaining there is room for joy and peace. And in the joy and peace there is obedience. There is the ability, and even the command to sleep in the storm. In this trust of God there is the ability to walk on water should He call. 

Life may not be comfortable to my flesh, but living the miracle is that living water Christ spoke of. Growing in trust for Him, growing in faith that He is at work executing good plans for you and for me is refreshing. It inspires. It comforts. 

Stop living the dream and start living the miracle with me. Expecting God to involve Himself in your life. Expecting Christ to be revealed. Expecting to know Him more today than yesterday and more tomorrow than today. 

Fakes, Frauds, & Liars

John 8:45, “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”

Look around you. Fake Rolex's,  fake Gucci purses, fake personalities on fakebook. Are you single? Find a person dating online who actually looks like their picture, or is even within 5 years of the age when the photo was taken.

Do we post about who we want to be, or do we tell the world who we really are?

The candidates can debate, for Romneycare but opposed to Obamacare, no truth found in Benghazi or Fast & Furious and yet depending on the side of the isle you stand your candidate is Christ incarnate while the other is the devil. When in fact the truth does not exists in either. And so we vote on the lessor of two evils.

Corporations lie and conceal to make a buck. Individuals are no better. Did you really work 8 hours, or just get paid for it?

I love you means I want something. I care means there is something in this for me.

Do you really believe that crap you are spewing?

All around us are fakes, frauds, and liars. Worse... within us is a fake, a fraud, and a liar.

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

Father help me to know The Truth, help me to follow the truth, help me to admit the truth… that I am nothing more than a common sinner without Christ. 

Don't Look Back

Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfected of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I could go a dozen different directions with this passage of scripture, but what is on my mind is something that my boss told me yesterday. He said, “When you can raise the dead, you can live in the past.”

My wife would say, count your blessing, not what you don’t have.

Tying these thoughts together is what the author of Hebrews said. Jesus did not get entangled in His past, He did not allow His former glory at the right hand of God to detract or otherwise affect His task at hand. He left a place of being worshiped in heaven to come to earth and live within the same frail human experience of us all. Christ looked ahead, to the joy before Him, to fulfill His destiny. Yes He would sit at the right hand of God again, but He while in the midst of the trial called human life, and in the midst of saving mankind in death on the cross He never looked back missing the right hand of God from where He came. He did not want to go to the cross. The writer says, He “despised the shame.” But He never looked back to His former glory and cursed today. He never looked back even to yesterday. He just kept looking forward.

We too are required to look forward. But to do so, to fix our eyes on Jesus is not as simple as saying I am going to do that. On the contrary we have to consciously “lay aside every encumbrance” in surrender. We lay aside in forgiveness any bad parenting, or bullying, or other abuse our past presented. We lay aside bad habits that inhibit the fruit of the spirit or cloud our faithfulness or faith. We deal with the past when the past keeps us from looking forward, but once it’s dealt with we never look back.

I think of Lott’s wife who looked back leaving Sodom and Gomorrah, missing the entanglement and the sin she was turned to a pillar of salt. I think of Proverbs 26:11, “Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” Life is all folly. There is nothing in anyone’s past that is pure perfection. I for one have got to stop looking back, and look forward. I need to look to Christ standing on the finish line and run the endurance race of life. I need to count today’s blessing, not miss yesterday’s blessings, and not worry about tomorrow blessings.

But most of all I simply need to stop looking back. 

Show me...

Mark 8:17-19, “And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? ‘Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?’ And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?”

I had one of these moments with God yesterday where I was just like the disciples, looking at a problem and wondering how "I" can solve it. As always the problem and the area that God uses most to show me my own lack of faith in Him is money. 

As I look ahead to next month, work my spreadsheets, plan financially for an ever varying income I see clearly that November has a 99% chance of coming up short, and this gives me great anxiety. And even though that God has time and time and time and time again proven He has a plan. Even though coming up short has never been coming up destitute I still worry, fret, and become fearful and selfish in my prayers. Yesterday being no different. 

As I drove home, I was in my mind showing God my spreadsheet. It was then it hit me what to pray. I prayed, “God I know that you know what I know… but I need to know what you know. Show me your plan. Show me your provision. Just plain show me you.”

And that is what it is really about. Seeing Christ in the situation. Is He asleep in the storm? Is He asking for me to ask Him for another miracle like the breaking of the bread and the feeding of the 5000? I need to see what He is doing in the situation. 

And this lesson was driven home this morning in one of my nameless men’s gatherings. Jim shared how a challenge with an individual made him need to see what Christ was doing in the situation. In the natural Jim wanted to slice and dice his verbal assailant, but in an act of emulating Christ the assailant was brought to tears of remorse in the midst of true love. Another individual sees this same test to see Christ in action with his mother. Another Pastor repeatedly experiences this same need to “see” with his church. And then Jason described us all. He said, “Once you see the train of God’s glory pass by you, you will spend the rest of your life trying to see more.” Once you see God move in a situation then we long to see Him move in every situation. 

And that is where I am today. Needing to see more of the train of His glory, needing to see His face, needing to see His perspective and plan. Show me Your face Lord. There, looking into His face I will see clearly. 

Desires of Your Heart

Psalms 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

I have a document I keep on my computer, and I call it the Desires of My Heart. I created because of the scripture referenced, but also because of Ephesians 3:20, which says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” As a result this list is full of things that I can think for, and that I have asked for.

There must be 100 items on it, and since 2008 when I wrote most of it about 21 items have been fulfilled. But I say this not to write some ask and receive message, but because I was reminded of it over the weekend.

I had gone to Wortham, Texas this past weekend to ride my horse and run my dog in an AKC field trial. There is a lot of time to ride, to watch, to think, to pray. I went alone so 10 hours was solitude spent in the truck. And believe it or not, I would have preferred my wife to have been able to come, but I am very comfortable alone like that. As I drove I passed some really nice ranches, and as I would pass the ranches I find myself wishing I had one. I would then think of the impossibility of it, and I would think of the expenses I couldn't afford even if I were given one. But then I remembered my list.

There is a ranch on that list, and my wonderings drifted to heaven… wondering if that item would ever truly be fulfilled I thought… God, did you read my list? Father, do you want me to have a ranch?

No sooner do I get lost in selfish prayer, and I am reminded that this whole experience on earth is temporary. I am reminded that we serve the God of the Universe and if He so desired could give me a ranch that comprised an entire planet. I was reminded that my assignment while still here is to know Him more. And I was reminded of a prayer… my ultimate wish if you will, and the greatest prayer I have ever prayed.

I prayed years ago, “Father please allow me to know Christ, and for Him to embrace me as a friend, and for Him to introduce me to You, and that you would embrace me as a son.” This I have experience over and over again. And this experience is better than any ranch, or thing could provide. Having experience God as Father, and having been embraced as a son whose eyes are being opened to His kingdom abiding in and around us I no longer pray that prayer. But rather I pray, “Father please allow me to know Christ as a brother and for You to embrace me as a favored son.”

That is the prayer He is at work answer in me every day of my life. Calling me to surrender, allowing me to share in infinitesimally small parts of Christ’s life. All the while cheering, and laughing, and rejoicing in every spiritual success… in every act of exact obedience. Never disappointed with the stumbles, but always there picking me up with a smile, smiling because I asked for it.

And with His expression of love the desire for a ranch fades into obscurity. Concerns about eternity and obtaining there find an equal fate. In the fellowship, in His love nothing else matters because the desires of my heart a pure and true. If only momentarily, that desire is to fellowship with Him. That is the desire of His heart, and for whatever reason He has allowed it to be the desire of mine.

The Gospel Message

Matthew 4:23, “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom…”

I believe that among Christians there is a great misunderstanding about what “the gospel” is. Most scholars, theologians, and even lay people know the term means “good news,” but what the good news is, is where the confusion comes in. Checking church doctrine across denominational lines you will find most Christian institutions define the gospel message as salvation through Christ. Oh they may get fancy with their descriptions and call it saved by faith through grace, or Jesus died for our sins. All of which is true, but that is NOT the gospel.

The gospel Jesus proclaimed is the kingdom of God is at hand. Salvation is an entrance to that kingdom, but salvation is not the good news Jesus came with.

Think about it. When Jesus sent the disciples out what did He tell them to say? Matthew 10 tells us it was, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew as a devout Jew would not say or write “God” so he substituted heaven, but the term kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are one in the same.) Jesus did not say go and declare salvation through me. He did not say go and preach, ‘love one another.’ On the contrary He was very clear… “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is close, it is here. That was Christ's message. His good news is the kingdom of God is at hand and you are about to have individual access to it.

Think about the parables. What were they about? They were about the “kingdom of God.” So many of them start the kingdom of God is like… Why? So that post salvation when you experience the kingdom you will have a reference. Jesus was saying this is what the experience is when you are in the kingdom of God.

Some might argue, and I use to even think that by Jesus saying the kingdom of God is at hand that He was referencing Himself. But I do not believe so anymore. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." These were references to the gates into Jerusalem, and He was saying, ‘I am the way into the kingdom of heaven.’ Even more, this kingdom of heaven, this good news was not about some experience post mortality. It is about today. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," was not a hope for tomorrow, but a command for today. An invitation to kingdom awareness. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God coming upon us. He said that the kingdom has to be received and entered. Over and over and over He talks about the kingdom of God.

Yes Christ died for our sins and believing in Him is salvation by faith through grace. But it is most importantly the entrance to the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is that place of awareness of Him. It is awareness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From inside the kingdom the commandment of love flows out. Did you know that Jesus referenced the kingdom of God nearly 100 times more than He did love? Salvation is mentioned 100 times less that the kingdom as well. Power and miracles too, 100 times less than the kingdom. All of which are important. All of which are part of the Christian experience. But the gospel, the good news is that you have access to the kingdom of God today, right here, right now.

What it is, how it works, that part… it’s the mystery for you to discover. Just ask to enter, and see where your spiritual life goes. 

I can tell you this. The kingdom of God is not a republic, a democracy, or any other form of top down or bottom up organization concocted by man. The kingdom of God is a center out organism. It is God is, and everything else exists in Him and because of Him. His kingdom boundary is where He ends, as if He had an end, which He does not. To be in His kingdom is to be in Him, and to know you are in Him, and He is in you. It is the place where your soul is at home.

Pure and Spotless

Revelation 19:9, “Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb…”

Perhaps if you have grown up outside the evangelical, full gospel, charismatic churches you may not be familiar with a saying that says Jesus is coming back for a pure and spotless bride. And it is said in reference to the church collective. But for whatever reason the thought I had driving home from Iwo Jima the other day was that if we are the bride that Jesus is coming back for, and we are supposed to in any way be pure (in action) or spotless in terms of sin, then we are all screwed. Who can in any way say that they can go through an entire day without sin? Oh it’s easy not to steal, murder, commit adultery, but what about lies, pride, greed, and lust. Just being alive and those are a daily possibility. And so because we are sinners… past, present, and future, we are incredibly reliant on God grace, His unmerited favor, and not just favor but mercy. His compassion and forgiveness even in the face of indisputable evidence or our continued guilt.

All of which led me to question the thought of pure and spotless bride. Where does it say Jesus is coming back for a pure and spotless bride? The answer is nowhere. I guess the “doctrine” originates in Ephesian 5 where the church is compared to the wife, and Jesus is compared to the husband. There the church is sanctified and cleanse by Christ so that there is no spot or wrinkle, but this is cleaning is accomplished by a washing. The washing is the blood of Christ shed on the cross, not our own efforts of abilities. 

And where did this whole idea come from that says the church is the bride to begin with? I guess that if the church is the bride then as she “has made herself ready” according to Revelation 19:7 then perhaps somehow our efforts and abilities do factor into our spotlessness. But I don’t really see where scripture says we the church collective is the bride of Christ.

We know with spiritual certainty that Jesus is the bridegroom, but us as the bride is unclear, or worse untrue. After all John the Baptist called himself a “friend of the Bridegroom.” (John 3:29). In the parable of the wedding feast those of us who are saved are the guest to the wedding, not the bride. (Matt 22). In the parable of the virgins, we are the virgins, not the bride. And even in Revelation 19, we are the multitude and not the bride. And we are the blessed ones “invited to the marriage.”

So what is the point of all this other than to question doctrines of men?

The point is that if you are trying, waiting, wanting to be pure and spotless; if you think God is waiting for you to become pure and spotless then you are deceived. It is not possible while your soul is wrapped in an earth suit called a body. But what is possible is to live full out, in constant relationship to Him. Focus on Christ.

My friend Jim Spivey has used this analogy several times in the last week. He says a good lawn does not come from pulling the weeds. A good lawn comes from fertilizing the grass. Pulling weeks only damages the surrounding soil and spreads the weeds. He wrote on Wednesday, “when you are spending a lot of time and energy pointing at others' unsightly weeds on their lawns, demanding that they pick them and right quick, you are only exposing the degree to which you don't understand or accept your own and His nature.  He is really not asking you to "present perfection," which requires that you HIDE your nature.  He is asking you to know and accept your nature, while learning to take care of your own garden and lawn the way He takes care of you – to choose your thoughts, feelings, and actions based on your alignment with and commitment to His Way, as often as you can – to choose life instead of death, blessing instead of curse.  Before over-extending yourself trying to get others to STOP their behaviors that don't work for you, you must be sure to look at the extent to which you are STARTING and CONTINUING in the ways that do work for you and yours, according to His (not your) design.  You can focus on bringing life and spreading God's love wherever you go, instead of wasting your and others' precious time spreading things you think you know.”

Have a pure heart, and having a pure heart is admitting you are full of crap. Having a pure heart is knowing that aside from Christ you will never be pure or spotless.

Green Pastures

Psalm 23 , “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guide me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Taylor at my Iwo Jima meeting this week brought this scripture into life for the moment. He pointed out that we in this US tend to think of green pastures as hay meadows covered in lush grass with children running through them. But in the Middle East where David was when he wrote this Psalm is more desert environment. And so Taylor learned that in certain places when the wind is right and the breeze is coming off the Mediterranean that a short grass will grow creating a green meadow that only last for a couple of hours. He went on further to say that the shepherds in this area sense when that is going to happen and will move their sheep into an otherwise barren area waiting for this two hour grass to grow. He concluded that this is what Christ does. He leads us to the areas that appear barren and makes us lie down, waiting on the green pasture that ultimately is limited. And that is so true.

How else can God’s goodness and lovingkindness follow us ALL the days of our lives? That goodness follows us to the barren ground to wait on the two hours of grass. His goodness is there as He teaches us righteousness. It is there as He conforms and restores our soul the image of Christ and His original intent. His lovingkindness never leaves us in the valley of the shadow of death, or in the presence of our enemies. We have truly have nothing to worry about.

This does not mean storms never come. It does not mean troubled valleys are not part of life. But is does mean that in those valleys and storms we can be worry free if we will only be aware of his goodness and His lovingkindness which is Christ. 

Practice makes Perfect

Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”

Over the past week to week and a half the Holy Spirit has brought be back through some lessons learned so to speak. Showing me once again the scriptures and the practices that He taught me in the many lessons of surrender. I wondered aloud and in my spirit, why?

I know these lessons, does He want me to write them for others? Are these things merely appearing in my path as blog fodder?

And as soon as I can have these thoughts, which are really the awareness that God is moving; I have half my month’s production at work blow up. Three of the six mortgages providing me commissioned paychecks for the month of November evaporate into thin air with a variety of issues. This did not immediately give me the thought of trusting God. In fact, even though the Spirit of God was telling I was about to go through yet another lesson of trusting God, of surrendering my cares and concerns to Him, I still was shocked that my loans fell apart. I keep waiting for the return of the financial blessings, I keep thinking today is the day it’s going to happen, and the Holy Spirit was saying He needs to perfect a lesson of reliance in me. He was saying We are going to go backwards and revisit basic coming to Me. He was reminding me that prayer is awareness of relationship, not a presentation of a grocery or laundry list. And so lacking the realization at the time I went my Iwo Jima meeting out of exhaustion. I went to get away from the problems.

There sitting in a group of 12 incredible men my phone starts buzzing. Texts are pouring in from a client, a Realtor  and my processor… a fourth deal is blowing up. I am totally checked out at this point. One of two people has shared something that I completely ignored, and there was a minute or two of silence. As if he couldn't sit in silence George, the poster child of PTSD and lifelong dependent of the psychotherapy world chimes in. He begins by telling us that he went to his therapists this week with nothing to talk about, nothing particular to work on. And in my pain and confusion of what I interpret as the never ending financial challenge that is my life I asked George, “ Isn't that supposed to be the result of therapy, that someday you don’t need it?” All the while thinking... "God don't we get to the place where we don't have to revisit the same challenges and lessons over and over again?"

And as quickly as I chimed in I checked back out, lost in the thoughts of when will I have some financial peace. Why me? Why poor pitiful me? Only to hear momentarily George say that what he ended up talking to his therapist about was being shown a playboy centerfold at age 8 by his stepfather, and how tragic that was, and how it screwed him up. Inside I went ballistic.

Are you kidding me, the tragedy of the century is being shown a Playboy? Earlier than that I was manipulated into an actual sex act. I went on to vent that why do we sit around and blame, and find excuses about all kinds of crap. It happens, it happened to me, I am not what happened, I am the decisions I make today. In many ways I was saying, George you don’t have problems… I have problems… but I don’t have problems because there are many more that have much bigger problems than I do.

I asked George, “Do you think my son is being screwed up because his mother has moved him from home to home and school to school 5 times before he is eight?” Do you think it is screwing him up to have her move in with boyfriend after boyfriend?”

His face showed complete concern, compassion, and love for the pain I was expressing and his reply was a simple, “yes.”

And it hit me… In that moment I realized what the lost loans, the revisited lessons were about. They were about trusting God, and I said, “There is not a damn thing I can do about how my son’s mother raises him, all I can do is trust God and be the best example I can be when I have him.” I went on to share what I was seeing spiritually. And at the end someone said, “whenever I find myself going back to old patterns it prevents me from being loved.”

That was it. I was in what I perceived as an old pattern. And the “old pattern” the lost loans that I had counted before they closed made me wonder why God did not love me. The trial made me wonder what sin was preventing God’s blessing. But reality is that I was preventing myself from seeing God’s love in the lesson. I was not trusting that He will provide in November, just like he has provided for me these 576 months preceding. His plan is for a future in eternity.

The crisis is just part of the lesson in learning to trust God. It is just another opportunity to surrender something more over to Him. The crisis is not the cross that Christ says we must take up, it is the preparation. After we have surrendered completely over to Him, then we can gladly take up the cross. In the meantime He loves me in the storm and out of the storm. I simply have to be aware and rest in that.

Come

Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

Oswald Chambers inspired this post with his comments on this passage from “Utmost for His Highest.” Without even reading what he wrote the passage hit me like a ton of bricks in its importance to my life. Jesus says, “Come to me…”

How many times I have felt that calling, or at least had a wanting to go and yet did not. Come to Me Christ says, and we hesitate, we make excuses.

Come to Me… and thought of past sin fills our heart, and we don’t go in shame. Instead we strive against the wind. We run uphill to our exhaustion instead of disconnecting, disengaging, and spiritually running to Him. We burden ourselves with the fight until we are heavy-laden, and even then Christ says, “Come to Me…” Knowing that in our coming we will find the rest we have striven to achieve on our own.

Oswald wrote, “In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, ‘Just as I am, I come.’ As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet ALL He is telling you to do is ‘Come…’”

There will come a great spiritual awakening to you when we just go to Christ without agenda, and when we go in spite of ourselves and our human frailties. It is an awakening of the awareness of Him in us, the awareness of the Kingdom of God; and it happens when we freely go, “just as we are” to Him in any moment… in every moment.

Oswald continued, “How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, ‘I’ve really received what I wanted this time!’ And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him.”

We go to God in need or habit, or for a multitude of reasons outside of His calling us. And nearly every time time God is saying come be with Me. Come be aware of my presence. Leave your request at home for He already knows what you need. Leave you sins at home, He already saw them and knows your character far deeper than you will ever understand… just come. Saul needed David to play his harp to quiet his soul, but Jesus is saying just come to Me, right here, right now and be aware of my presence and in that awareness your soul will quiet. In that awareness there is peace. The peace the bible talks about that is beyond all comprehension.

We say, God give me millions and I will give it away for your work. We say God fix our spouse and then we can better serve you. We come up with every worldly solution in the possible to fix our spiritual brokenness and Christ is saying the only need, the only answer is come be in His presence.

He says, I don’t need your effort; you need My presence… so come.

And I will say this again with no disrespect to any institution of church or minister. There is a presence of God that is available 24/7 if we will just come. You do not need a Christian play list or perfect worship. You do not need a service or congregation. You do not need a preacher or a message. You simply need to come and the most magnificent manifested presence of God is available every day because He and His kingdom reside in you. Trust His mercy. Trust His grace, and come. 

Today

Psalms 118:24, “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

I have a friend reliving what seems like my life from the past. He is a victim of an adultery that evaporated 25+ years of marriage, separating him from two boys he loves very much, leaving him very much stuck in the depression phase of grief; all in the midst of an economic down turn. As a fellow mortgage loan officer, I know all too well that business is hard enough to come by, and almost impossible when your head is not in the game – consumed with near homelessness, too broke to eat let alone entertain his children on their visitation, his mind swirls every down ward, and his brain has convinced him he is the turd about to disappear in the toilet bowl of life.

I give him tough love. I give him unwanted and probably bad advice. I hurt for him tremendously, and am very concerned. He has no family able to help. His father is dead, his mother is in a “retirement” home, and his sister has disowned him. But God.

To my friend and to everyone hurting from past or present this is what the Lord says, “This is the day the Lord has made…” Today God made especially for you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and that plan is for good. Today He wants to bless you, not with money but with Him and His presence. Today He wants to meet you in your tasks. If you are like my friend and I, today He wants to meet you doing mortgages. But no matter your job God wants to meet you while you do your eight hours. Work as if He’s watching, and you will find out that… He is watching, and even working beside you.

Stop worrying about tomorrow. Today the Lord made. I don’t care if today you are finalizing a divorce in court, I don’t care if you have lost child, parent, or spouse, or job, or innocence. Today the Lord has made, and He made it to first and foremost experience His presence in it, and secondly to work for your good, to work in conforming you soul to the character of Christ. Jump in and grab a big bite of today with this on your heart. Today… TODAY… TODAY the Lord has made. He cares, and He is there waiting for you to simply be aware.

And if you are worried about tomorrow, don’t. Because tomorrow is also Today, and the Lord made it too. 

Family Projections

Luke 14:26, “If anyone come to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”

This morning I had the pleasure is watching Jim Spivey with a small group, and as always I gained yet a clearer perspective of the kingdom of God in action. Jim was talking to a full grown man in need of a new relationship with his mother. And perhaps not a new relationship with her, but more of an honesty with himself so that he can be real with her. Truthfully I don’t know the issue, but the important part is what Jim had to say.

Jim said something to the effect of, ‘we allow our minds to project onto God our images of our mother or father and it limits our relationship to Him. Like a parent, we hear Him but ignore Him, or don’t like what He says, or project some imperfection onto Him to nullify His speaking.’ Of  course Jim is more eloquent than my paraphrase, but he went onto say that ‘this projection is a ‘normal’ response of the brain but so much of what Jesus did and said was to disconnect us from our brain (flesh) and connect us to the Spirit.’

Take today’s passage. Jesus was not commanding us to hate, but in many ways the scripture says how dare you project you earthly Dad’s imperfections onto the perfection of the Father? It also describes the disparity, the distance and distinction, that our love for God should exceed any earthly relationship. And in doing so gives us the proper perspective of loving down instead of up. Having our love originate in heaven and come down rather than originate on earth and go up.

Jim went on to advise the gentleman and the group, ‘that if you will get closer to God, love Him whole heartedly then you will be able to see your mother from God’s perspective rather than see God from the projection of your perspective of your mother.’ This is brilliant advice for us all in every relationship. But I wanted to take this truth a little further and relate it those of us who are parents.

Jesus said that our love for God should be exponentially greater than our love of our children. To use Jim’s kingdom perspective, our love for our children should only come from being wholly committed and in love with God so that we see them as His children and not our own. In this we can love them with purity and our actions and interactions may be entirely different. For example, children spoiled by their parents project onto God that He will spoil them, that God can be manipulated and convinced; and when they become parents they may very well pass on the spoiling tendency. Whereas as God would never spoil, though He is always blessing. Likewise these same children/adults throw temper tantrums when God does do things the way they want them

The lesson here is that if we as parents will seek and love God with our whole hearts then we are more likely to reflect Him to our children and enable them to see Him more clearly rather than project our behaviors and frailties onto Him. Same thing applies to all relationships, in and out of the family.

Unfortunately this is not something that can be learned in a scholastic sense. There is not a right or wrong way defined in black and white, there is only relationship with God that is controlled completely by the individuals desire to have it. Seek and ye shall find the scripture says, knock and it will be opened up to you are His command. Whole heartedly desire this relationship and God will make it happen.

For those who had bad parents (I’m very fortunate to not be one.) I have to say that God is nothing like your parents. For that matter, God is nothing like my good parents. Just seek Him, obey Christ and seek first the kingdom of God, and He (in His timing) will remove those misconceptions you project onto Him.

The Emotions of Grief

Romans 8:9, “However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you…”

John 16:22, “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

My brother-in-law has been gone 6 weeks now and my sister and parents very much remain in their grieving, and rightfully so as 30 years is hardly erased in 6 weeks. But I want to use the example to combine to two passages above and show how the cycle and emotions of grief affect us all in our normal life, even removed from the tragedy of the death of a loved one.

The cycle or stages or emotions of grief are denial, anger, depression, negotiation, and acceptance. They occur not necessarily in that order, and there is no set length of time that a person can exists in any stage. Interestingly enough, grief can be caused by any unpleasantry of life. Clearly the loss of life causes loved ones grief, but abuse and bulling cause it too. Divorce causes it. Financial or social trauma can cause it. The loss of a job can cause it. And so if we can begin to see that grief and its emotions can appear in our lives for any manner of reason we can then begin to self-diagnosis it, and begin to move away from the flesh, and return to the Spirit which is the state of peace and joy. Additionally if we find ourselves in a position to positively influence someone grieving, then we can perhaps jump in it with them, and help them to see where they are.

At the end of the day, the emotions of grief… the denial, the anger, the depression, the negotiating with God are all a lie even though all of humanity responds similarly. Sure there are physiological causes of depression like low serotonin, and some (like a murder victims family) find justification for their anger, but from a spiritual perspective these emotions are lies. They represent our spiritual battle against our flesh, and they also represent an area, or areas, where we are failing to trust God. This is in no way to say that medications designed to treat the extremes in these feelings are sinful, or prevent relationship to God or trust in His Spirit. On the contrary I say this to only address the spiritual side of the equation and not the physical side.

For me, my childhood abuse led to 25 years of being caught in the anger cycle of grief. Other experiences have led to years of denial, or depression, of fruitless attempts to negotiate a different future with God. The emotions of grief kept me from finding the place of forgiveness. They built the walls that separated me from parts of humanity. They also fueled certain needs to control. But the truth is (and always is) acceptance.

For my brother in law, death at 50 is a tragedy in human terms, but reality is we will “see” him again, just like we will see Christ. The truth is not the anger or depression or denial. The truth is God knows better than we do; and though His timing does not look perfect, I am certain that it is. Even for all the tragedy that can launch us into the spinning cycle of grief God has a plan for good. This we must have faith for, this we must believe… acceptance is the only truth and everything else moves us away from who we are in Christ.

T. Austin-Sparks said this, “Perhaps the major problem of most of the Lord’s people is to keep that line of division between what we are in ourselves and what Christ is in us. The great line of attack on the part of the enemy is to bring what we are ourselves continually up into view and occupy us with that, and by so doing obscure Christ. The great object of the Holy Spirit in His opposing of Satan is to bring Christ into view and to occupy us with Him to the obscuring of ourselves. That is where the great difficulty arises for most of the Lord’s people. There is always this beat back, this drive back to get us occupied with ourselves, as to what we are, to keep us from being occupied with Christ and what He is; in some way to get that gap, that gulf, that separation filled up, and the line of demarcation obliterated, so that there is confusion.”

If we stay in grief, focused inward at our own loss or tragedy, then we can't look outward to Christ. We must come to acceptance so that we can “bring Christ into view” as so that we are able to love instead of hate, have joy instead of depression, and peace instead of denial or a need to negotiate with God. God is not negotiated with. He is obeyed, He is loved, and He freely returns love, grace, and mercy without negotiation.

Examine your life today and see where the emotions of grief continue to run it. Choose acceptance so that your heart can rejoice.