colors.
blackberries.
children.
smiles.
hugs.
laughter.
shooting stars.
finding whole sand dollars on the beach shore.
weddings.
rainbow fish.
fireflies.
foot prints.
dark chocolate.
piano music.
blue skies without clouds.
dreams.
fields full of flowers.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Don't settle for less
They tell you where you need to go.
They tell you when you need to leave.
They tell you what you need to know.
They tell you who you need to be.
But everything inside you knows
there's more than what you've heard.
There's so much more than empty
conversations filled with empty words.
You're on fire when He's near you.
You're on fire when He speaks.
You're on fire burning at these mysteries.
Give me one more time around.
Give me one more chance to see.
Give me everything you are.
Give me one more chance to be near you.
When everything inside me
looks like everything I hate,
You are the hope I have for change;
You are the only chance I'll take.
I'm on fire when you're near me.
I'm on fire when you speak.
I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.
(lyrics to Switchfoot's song, On Fire)
They tell you when you need to leave.
They tell you what you need to know.
They tell you who you need to be.
But everything inside you knows
there's more than what you've heard.
There's so much more than empty
conversations filled with empty words.
You're on fire when He's near you.
You're on fire when He speaks.
You're on fire burning at these mysteries.
Give me one more time around.
Give me one more chance to see.
Give me everything you are.
Give me one more chance to be near you.
When everything inside me
looks like everything I hate,
You are the hope I have for change;
You are the only chance I'll take.
I'm on fire when you're near me.
I'm on fire when you speak.
I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.
(lyrics to Switchfoot's song, On Fire)
Sunday, December 16, 2007
When I think about God...
I think about the mental picture that He gave me this summer...
A man. strong and handsome
A little girl wearing a flowy white sundress with ruffles and lace
He was the man. I was the little girl. We were walking along a beach shore, always hand in hand. The whole time, He was looking at me and smiling. He never stopped looking at me and He never stopped smiling. And we never stopped walking.
As we walked, we would see waves approaching. This is where He would pick me up and carry me. When the waves were gone, He would put me back down.
As we walked, we laughed and danced. At times, I would look away from Him, but the moment I looked back at Him, He still had a smile on His face. He said, "Loveable, you can only go as far away from me as my hand stretches".
He is my smile
A man. strong and handsome
A little girl wearing a flowy white sundress with ruffles and lace
He was the man. I was the little girl. We were walking along a beach shore, always hand in hand. The whole time, He was looking at me and smiling. He never stopped looking at me and He never stopped smiling. And we never stopped walking.
As we walked, we would see waves approaching. This is where He would pick me up and carry me. When the waves were gone, He would put me back down.
As we walked, we laughed and danced. At times, I would look away from Him, but the moment I looked back at Him, He still had a smile on His face. He said, "Loveable, you can only go as far away from me as my hand stretches".
He is my smile
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Good News
(this is kind of long)
Today, I just want to go somewhere... but where? will I go by myself?
I feel a deep longing for Jesus. I just really need Him. I need to be with Him. I need His help. I feel lost, ashamed, broken, lonely, needy... nothing new, really. This year, chaos feels almost normal. Sadly, sometimes it's to be expected. It's like I'm running from something and towards something else at the same time, but I don't know what from or what to... I think psychiatrists deal with people with minds like mine :) If people only knew...
See, that's the thing. I'm not sure people do know. Or does everyone else just walk around feeling chaotic all the time but nobody knows. Because that's messed up if it's true. But praise be to God for rescuing us from this detrimental state!
We don't have to be enslaved to chaos or lies or fear or depression. I don't get it at all, but one thing I do know is that God is bigger than anything I could ever make up and He is strong and He can fix me and make me whole. He knows how I was formed because He is the One who formed me. And His love for me is deep and rich and good. He understands how my mind works and He totally gets me! Completely!
Nothing I think surprises Him. I'm not messed up. He made me just the way that I am, and that, for His pleasure. and there is no shame in that, no shame. He's not sitting up on a throne somewhere pointing a finger at me and saying "I'm through with you". No, He believes in me and He has plans for me. He even puts obstacles in my path so that I'll pause and look up again and remember that looking at Him always makes life easier.
But, like a little child, I constantly have to be reminded of things, like that everything really is going to be okay, like I'm not stuck. There aren't inevitable things in life that are not capable of being subject to change. And God is bigger. He is bigger than my wildest hopes and dreams. He knows exactly how to get through to me and He will do everything it takes because He absolutely, totally, and completely loves me!
He's committed to me. He's not like people, who aren't permanent, but come and go as love becomes more difficult, more costly. He is willing to pay whatever the cost may be to make this relationship work. And His Name is Love.
He already paid the price it took, a price that can't be quantified; a deep price; a costly price; a price that cost Him everything. He could not have paid a higher price because there was and is no higher price. God is love and He demonstrated His own love for us in this, for me in this: that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not die but have life forever with Him. It's a forever deal, not a deal where He bails when we get hard to love. No! He's down in the pit with us, pushing us along, being the One who pulls us out and brings us to life. He is the One who sets captives free. He sets us free and gives us life. He teaches us life. We don't know how to live, but that's not the point. The point is Him.
The point is that He does know how to live. He does get it. He knows how to love because He is love. He is in us. Love is in us. So we can love.
We're really good at complicating matters, but God is really good at sorting things out. We're good at making messes, but He's good at cleaning them up. That's the Father we have. He's out advocate. He's our shield. He's always there for us, no matter what. He is the One we can completely lean on because He will hold us up. He's for real.
Other things look like they could hold us up. We even look at them and desire for them to hold us up, but that only leads to disappointment. I am realizing that this is true.
Nothing can support me but Christ.
People aren't constant. They aren't consistent. Relationships can be so unpredictable and you have to earn love and respect and friendship. People don't keep loving when you become hard to love, when you're wandering around, trying to figure out life and what you really need is security, but what you find is insecurity. So, you put your guard up and don't let people in and then slowly they stop letting you in and you find yourself alone, standing in the middle of a crowded room screaming, but nobody notices. What you thought would hold you up couldn't meet that expectation. That's the disappointment.
Then, you find one man in that room. You find Him when you stop and simply look at Him. And He looks at you as though He's been looking at you your whole life. And suddenly you are overtaken by a sense of peace that can't be described. You are so perplexed and so in love at the same time. You just want this man to hold you. And you think to yourself, "if He would just hold me, that would be everything I need". And He picks you up in His arms and you lay against His chest where you can feel His heartbeat and it takes your breath away. Because this man is real. And this man heard you when nobody else understood your need. He knew it without you even asking. All you did was look at Him and He whispered in your ear, "it's okay".
For the first time in your life, you knew it was true. You didn't understand it. You were still a person, living your life, but the chaos faded into the backdrop when you were with this man. You knew He would take care of you and meet all of your needs. He wasn't going anywhere, not without you. His face was the purest face you had ever seen. And when you were with Him, you were alive.
This is our God. He is in love with broken people and when those people encounter Him, they become whole. Brokenness is restored in His presence. Darkness vanishes. Love is real because He is real. And that is all that really matters. Him. We can know Him.
God is in love with us and we can be in love with Him. O the simplicity of that thought. And the best part is that it isn't a thought. It's a reality. It's your reality and mine. Chaos vanishes because God steps into the scene. As He invaded this messed up world, He brought peace that we had never known before and love and life and Shalom. That's the good news. That's the gospel. He is the good news. Amen.
Today, I just want to go somewhere... but where? will I go by myself?
I feel a deep longing for Jesus. I just really need Him. I need to be with Him. I need His help. I feel lost, ashamed, broken, lonely, needy... nothing new, really. This year, chaos feels almost normal. Sadly, sometimes it's to be expected. It's like I'm running from something and towards something else at the same time, but I don't know what from or what to... I think psychiatrists deal with people with minds like mine :) If people only knew...
See, that's the thing. I'm not sure people do know. Or does everyone else just walk around feeling chaotic all the time but nobody knows. Because that's messed up if it's true. But praise be to God for rescuing us from this detrimental state!
We don't have to be enslaved to chaos or lies or fear or depression. I don't get it at all, but one thing I do know is that God is bigger than anything I could ever make up and He is strong and He can fix me and make me whole. He knows how I was formed because He is the One who formed me. And His love for me is deep and rich and good. He understands how my mind works and He totally gets me! Completely!
Nothing I think surprises Him. I'm not messed up. He made me just the way that I am, and that, for His pleasure. and there is no shame in that, no shame. He's not sitting up on a throne somewhere pointing a finger at me and saying "I'm through with you". No, He believes in me and He has plans for me. He even puts obstacles in my path so that I'll pause and look up again and remember that looking at Him always makes life easier.
But, like a little child, I constantly have to be reminded of things, like that everything really is going to be okay, like I'm not stuck. There aren't inevitable things in life that are not capable of being subject to change. And God is bigger. He is bigger than my wildest hopes and dreams. He knows exactly how to get through to me and He will do everything it takes because He absolutely, totally, and completely loves me!
He's committed to me. He's not like people, who aren't permanent, but come and go as love becomes more difficult, more costly. He is willing to pay whatever the cost may be to make this relationship work. And His Name is Love.
He already paid the price it took, a price that can't be quantified; a deep price; a costly price; a price that cost Him everything. He could not have paid a higher price because there was and is no higher price. God is love and He demonstrated His own love for us in this, for me in this: that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not die but have life forever with Him. It's a forever deal, not a deal where He bails when we get hard to love. No! He's down in the pit with us, pushing us along, being the One who pulls us out and brings us to life. He is the One who sets captives free. He sets us free and gives us life. He teaches us life. We don't know how to live, but that's not the point. The point is Him.
The point is that He does know how to live. He does get it. He knows how to love because He is love. He is in us. Love is in us. So we can love.
We're really good at complicating matters, but God is really good at sorting things out. We're good at making messes, but He's good at cleaning them up. That's the Father we have. He's out advocate. He's our shield. He's always there for us, no matter what. He is the One we can completely lean on because He will hold us up. He's for real.
Other things look like they could hold us up. We even look at them and desire for them to hold us up, but that only leads to disappointment. I am realizing that this is true.
Nothing can support me but Christ.
People aren't constant. They aren't consistent. Relationships can be so unpredictable and you have to earn love and respect and friendship. People don't keep loving when you become hard to love, when you're wandering around, trying to figure out life and what you really need is security, but what you find is insecurity. So, you put your guard up and don't let people in and then slowly they stop letting you in and you find yourself alone, standing in the middle of a crowded room screaming, but nobody notices. What you thought would hold you up couldn't meet that expectation. That's the disappointment.
Then, you find one man in that room. You find Him when you stop and simply look at Him. And He looks at you as though He's been looking at you your whole life. And suddenly you are overtaken by a sense of peace that can't be described. You are so perplexed and so in love at the same time. You just want this man to hold you. And you think to yourself, "if He would just hold me, that would be everything I need". And He picks you up in His arms and you lay against His chest where you can feel His heartbeat and it takes your breath away. Because this man is real. And this man heard you when nobody else understood your need. He knew it without you even asking. All you did was look at Him and He whispered in your ear, "it's okay".
For the first time in your life, you knew it was true. You didn't understand it. You were still a person, living your life, but the chaos faded into the backdrop when you were with this man. You knew He would take care of you and meet all of your needs. He wasn't going anywhere, not without you. His face was the purest face you had ever seen. And when you were with Him, you were alive.
This is our God. He is in love with broken people and when those people encounter Him, they become whole. Brokenness is restored in His presence. Darkness vanishes. Love is real because He is real. And that is all that really matters. Him. We can know Him.
God is in love with us and we can be in love with Him. O the simplicity of that thought. And the best part is that it isn't a thought. It's a reality. It's your reality and mine. Chaos vanishes because God steps into the scene. As He invaded this messed up world, He brought peace that we had never known before and love and life and Shalom. That's the good news. That's the gospel. He is the good news. Amen.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thoughts about Sheep and Children
God uses the analogy, Shepherd, to describe Himself and sheep to describe us. And there is so much depth to this thought.
Shepherds are cartakers or sheep. They look after them. They protect them from danger and harm. They even fight beasts to rescue them. Shepherds are studs! They are strong, fearless, and always attentive to the ones under their care.
The sheep belong to them. When the sheep go astray, the shepherd goes to them, picks them up and brings them back to a place of safe pasture. What's interesting about sheep is that they are defenseless. They don't even know how to growl. So if anything tries to harm them, they can't defend themselves. They need their shepherd. Without him they are doomed to be eaten by a wild animal.
Children are the same way. They aren't strong enough to fight back if someone tries to harm them. They need someone to figt for them, to protect them. Yet God urges us to be like little children, and says that His power is made perfect in weakness.
I think it is interesting that God created us with needs. Children seem to have a lot of needs, but when they grow up, they still have needs. All people have needs to be loved and valued, for security and protection, for food and water. In short, people have God needs, needs that only He can meet. He designed us that way. God wants us to be born in need of Him and to never outgrow this need. If we need Him, He can be the one who meets our needs. He can be our provider, helper and Father. And we can be His kids.
It's interesting to think about how kids don't worry. They don't worry about their needs being met. They don't worry about paying bills. They just live. They know who they belong to and they have security in that. (sadly, this doesn't apply to all children in the world) Kids don't really do anything productive. Rather, they often do more things that might seem destructive, like make messes. Yet God calls them blessed.
When kids color pictures, they don't even color in the lines, but those pictures are precious to their fathers. Likewise, God doesn't expect us to "color in the lines" and work all the time. If we simply sit in His lap, it gives Him great pleasure. He just loves us. We are His kids, His little sheep.
In the Bible, God says about sheep that He carries them close to His heart. Though all they do is have needs and wander around, He treasures them. He calls us to be childlike, not because grown-ups don't have needs, but because children know that they have needs and they look unashamed at their father to meet them.
Shepherds are cartakers or sheep. They look after them. They protect them from danger and harm. They even fight beasts to rescue them. Shepherds are studs! They are strong, fearless, and always attentive to the ones under their care.
The sheep belong to them. When the sheep go astray, the shepherd goes to them, picks them up and brings them back to a place of safe pasture. What's interesting about sheep is that they are defenseless. They don't even know how to growl. So if anything tries to harm them, they can't defend themselves. They need their shepherd. Without him they are doomed to be eaten by a wild animal.
Children are the same way. They aren't strong enough to fight back if someone tries to harm them. They need someone to figt for them, to protect them. Yet God urges us to be like little children, and says that His power is made perfect in weakness.
I think it is interesting that God created us with needs. Children seem to have a lot of needs, but when they grow up, they still have needs. All people have needs to be loved and valued, for security and protection, for food and water. In short, people have God needs, needs that only He can meet. He designed us that way. God wants us to be born in need of Him and to never outgrow this need. If we need Him, He can be the one who meets our needs. He can be our provider, helper and Father. And we can be His kids.
It's interesting to think about how kids don't worry. They don't worry about their needs being met. They don't worry about paying bills. They just live. They know who they belong to and they have security in that. (sadly, this doesn't apply to all children in the world) Kids don't really do anything productive. Rather, they often do more things that might seem destructive, like make messes. Yet God calls them blessed.
When kids color pictures, they don't even color in the lines, but those pictures are precious to their fathers. Likewise, God doesn't expect us to "color in the lines" and work all the time. If we simply sit in His lap, it gives Him great pleasure. He just loves us. We are His kids, His little sheep.
In the Bible, God says about sheep that He carries them close to His heart. Though all they do is have needs and wander around, He treasures them. He calls us to be childlike, not because grown-ups don't have needs, but because children know that they have needs and they look unashamed at their father to meet them.
Friday, July 20, 2007
God's Heart for All People
Jesus’ heart is all about God. It’s about advancing His Kingdom, healing the broken and sick, freeing the prisoners, hope for the hopeless. It’s about orphans and widows being taken care of. It’s about people worshipping God in a thousand tongues and languages. It’s about people falling in love with Him.
It’s about an adventure. It’s about life. It’s about depressed people no longer being depressed! It’s about blind people seeing and praising God. It’s about satan being defeated and all of his works being destroyed. It’s about God and His indescribable love. It’s about Heaven on earth because His Kingdom is here.
It’s about justice for the oppressed. It’s about seeing murderers come to repentance. It’s about dreaming big and seeing those dreams become realities. It’s about restoration, restoring what’s been broken, reconciliation, bringing people back to God. It’s about people in Darfur being relieved from their suffering. It’s about His humility and strength to obey even when it was hard because His focus was so firmly fixed on His Father that His struggles weren’t a threat.
It’s about passion and purpose and freedom. It’s about power and authority and a waging war in the spiritual realm that is so much more intense than anything we see with our physical eyes. And God wins!
Love God. Love people. That’s the face of revival. I believe revival starts small, one person at a time. It begins when we, like Jesus, start doing exactly what we see our Father doing. John 9 starts with “As He went along, He saw…” Jesus lived life walking with His Father and as He went He saw people and He ministered to them.
So, what does that look like for us? It looks like loving our elderly neighbors. It looks like seeing the waiter at the restaurant… not just physically acknowledging that they are there, but actually seeing them and being kind to them. It looks like being patient in line at the grocery store. It looks like speaking graciously about those in the institutionalized church.
It means seeing people; seeing hurt and pain and being broken over it. It means genuinely listening to an angry person gripe about their day. It means being joyful always so as to brighten others’ days. It believes in people who don’t look like they have it all together and sees potential in them. It never looks at people like obstacles or lost causes.
It means being quiet when others don’t understand and not feeling like you have to justify. We never stop living life to follow Christ. We simply let our circumstances be gateways for God to let His love flow through. An extreme life of power and love is available but it’s in the context of real life. Our job is to love recklessly. And this love covers over a multitude of sins. Love is what Jesus used to ultimately defeat satan and love is what He has called us to use to destroy his works now.
It’s about an adventure. It’s about life. It’s about depressed people no longer being depressed! It’s about blind people seeing and praising God. It’s about satan being defeated and all of his works being destroyed. It’s about God and His indescribable love. It’s about Heaven on earth because His Kingdom is here.
It’s about justice for the oppressed. It’s about seeing murderers come to repentance. It’s about dreaming big and seeing those dreams become realities. It’s about restoration, restoring what’s been broken, reconciliation, bringing people back to God. It’s about people in Darfur being relieved from their suffering. It’s about His humility and strength to obey even when it was hard because His focus was so firmly fixed on His Father that His struggles weren’t a threat.
It’s about passion and purpose and freedom. It’s about power and authority and a waging war in the spiritual realm that is so much more intense than anything we see with our physical eyes. And God wins!
Love God. Love people. That’s the face of revival. I believe revival starts small, one person at a time. It begins when we, like Jesus, start doing exactly what we see our Father doing. John 9 starts with “As He went along, He saw…” Jesus lived life walking with His Father and as He went He saw people and He ministered to them.
So, what does that look like for us? It looks like loving our elderly neighbors. It looks like seeing the waiter at the restaurant… not just physically acknowledging that they are there, but actually seeing them and being kind to them. It looks like being patient in line at the grocery store. It looks like speaking graciously about those in the institutionalized church.
It means seeing people; seeing hurt and pain and being broken over it. It means genuinely listening to an angry person gripe about their day. It means being joyful always so as to brighten others’ days. It believes in people who don’t look like they have it all together and sees potential in them. It never looks at people like obstacles or lost causes.
It means being quiet when others don’t understand and not feeling like you have to justify. We never stop living life to follow Christ. We simply let our circumstances be gateways for God to let His love flow through. An extreme life of power and love is available but it’s in the context of real life. Our job is to love recklessly. And this love covers over a multitude of sins. Love is what Jesus used to ultimately defeat satan and love is what He has called us to use to destroy his works now.
A Word of Caution
Last year, before I had any sort of grasp on the spiritual realm or the fact that God speaks directly to people, God put a vision in my heart for our purpose as believers. That vision was to love Him, love everyone we come in contact with, and lead others to do the same. Since then, God has taught me about the spiritual realm where God equips His kids for ministry by empowering us with His Holy Spirit.
I now know that He speaks and yet He is still speaking that same simple purpose to me. Why is that? It’s all a difference in perception… Before I learned my true identity as a daughter of a loving Father, I had a head knowledge that sounded out loud like I knew what was up. In fact, it sounded in the physical realm exactly the same! Yet in my mind, how the Church was intended to go about achieving that purpose was completely different before I learned who God really was and who we really are.
I used to think that we were supposed to love God because loving Him was a way that we could “do something” to please Him. Come to find out, we are already pleasing to God! Yet, my purpose remains to love Him. If it isn’t about pleasing Him, then what is it about?
It’s about living life with God, being His friend, being His kid, receiving His love and loving Him back. All other causes are futile. Everything else is trivial and the means of going about this purpose are limitless.
The difference in my thinking before and after was not in what I was thinking but rather, how I was thinking about it. God doesn’t want us to just know all the answers. He wants us to know Him. He wants His Truth to so penetrate our souls that we are changed! The Bible in every Christian church is the same, but the difference is whether it is simply read as words on a page or as words from God Himself. It makes a difference. The same verses can take on different meanings with or without God’s interpretation. Without God’s interpretation we look at the words on the page and try to make sense of them… that is our physical nature kicking in.
Sometimes we do this by relating them to things we know. For example, we see the word, “church” in the Bible and in our minds we think of the local church down the street. We take what is tangible and interpret the Bible accordingly. However, with the Holy Spirit, God enables us to see impossibilities as realities and to accept things that we don’t understand at face value. Sometimes, He even gives us spiritual understanding of concepts that are not understandable in the physical realm. So, though I had many of the same thoughts in my mind before I understood the Holy Spirit’s role as I do now, my life looks completely different. I see things differently.
God’s Words never changed. It’s His revelation that He brings to them that makes the difference. It’s not that God is speaking different Truth to everybody. The Truth is always the same. It’s that He is enabling some people to receive it.
I say this as a word of caution to believers. Some things that you hear sound right or are even “based on scripture”, but test them to make sure they line up with who God is. Yes, it is true that our purpose is to love God and love people, but no, it is not true that we have to do this to please God. Ask God for discernment in knowing what is from Him and what is not from Him. He will give it to you.
I now know that He speaks and yet He is still speaking that same simple purpose to me. Why is that? It’s all a difference in perception… Before I learned my true identity as a daughter of a loving Father, I had a head knowledge that sounded out loud like I knew what was up. In fact, it sounded in the physical realm exactly the same! Yet in my mind, how the Church was intended to go about achieving that purpose was completely different before I learned who God really was and who we really are.
I used to think that we were supposed to love God because loving Him was a way that we could “do something” to please Him. Come to find out, we are already pleasing to God! Yet, my purpose remains to love Him. If it isn’t about pleasing Him, then what is it about?
It’s about living life with God, being His friend, being His kid, receiving His love and loving Him back. All other causes are futile. Everything else is trivial and the means of going about this purpose are limitless.
The difference in my thinking before and after was not in what I was thinking but rather, how I was thinking about it. God doesn’t want us to just know all the answers. He wants us to know Him. He wants His Truth to so penetrate our souls that we are changed! The Bible in every Christian church is the same, but the difference is whether it is simply read as words on a page or as words from God Himself. It makes a difference. The same verses can take on different meanings with or without God’s interpretation. Without God’s interpretation we look at the words on the page and try to make sense of them… that is our physical nature kicking in.
Sometimes we do this by relating them to things we know. For example, we see the word, “church” in the Bible and in our minds we think of the local church down the street. We take what is tangible and interpret the Bible accordingly. However, with the Holy Spirit, God enables us to see impossibilities as realities and to accept things that we don’t understand at face value. Sometimes, He even gives us spiritual understanding of concepts that are not understandable in the physical realm. So, though I had many of the same thoughts in my mind before I understood the Holy Spirit’s role as I do now, my life looks completely different. I see things differently.
God’s Words never changed. It’s His revelation that He brings to them that makes the difference. It’s not that God is speaking different Truth to everybody. The Truth is always the same. It’s that He is enabling some people to receive it.
I say this as a word of caution to believers. Some things that you hear sound right or are even “based on scripture”, but test them to make sure they line up with who God is. Yes, it is true that our purpose is to love God and love people, but no, it is not true that we have to do this to please God. Ask God for discernment in knowing what is from Him and what is not from Him. He will give it to you.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Hope
Now these three remain, faith, hope and love…
It is a lie that some things will just be the way they are. Messed up parents don’t have to produce messed up kids. Children from broken homes don’t have to grow up and get divorced. No matter how high the odds are against someone, our God is bigger. God raised people from the dead! Surely He can overcome obstacles thrown at us.
We need to stop believing the lie that we will have certain struggles forever. I don’t have to be claustraphobic forever. Blind people don’t have to be blind forever. There is hope. Jesus came to restore what was broken. He doesn’t want people to be blind forever. He wants people to see. He doesn’t want people to be depressed forever, no matter what science might argue otherwise. God invented science! He is bigger. Do we believe that?
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Jesus healed people in the Bible and He never changes, so He heals people today too. We don’t have to be stuck. We don’t have to just settle. God wants to free us completely. God wants everyone to be healed, not just some people. It doesn’t matter whether we understand why some people aren’t healed as long as we believe that God wants everyone to be healed.
Maybe this isn’t a logical explanation, but what does logic have to do with is? We don’t have to understand everything that we believe. The Bible says that God is a healer. He is a redeemer. He is a Father. He is joy. He doesn’t get mad at people. This is Truth. Let’s believe Truth. Believing inevitabilites and statistics doesn’t leave room for hope.
Some people may argue that God’s will is for some people to remain sick or to struggle. While good may result, because God can bring good out of any situation, that doesn’t mean He desires for that person not to be healed. Bondage in any form is not God’s will for your life. And fear is not from God. He didn’t create people to be afraid. His Word says that He has not given us a spirit of fear but a Spirit of power, love and a sound mind. If we don’t want to be afraid, we don’t have to be. That is not who we are. We like to put ourselves in bondage that we don’t have to be in; God already set us free from all of it!
The biblical definition of hope is the positive anticipation of something good happening. In every area of your life, you should have a positive anticipation or expectation of something good happening. If you don’t, then the anticipation or expectation that you do have is not from the Lord, because He is Love and Love hopes all things.
A synonym of hope, is expect. To trust means to expect with confidence, meaning with expectation of obtainment. God tells us to pray expectantly when He says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). When we expect good gifts from Our Father, we receive good gifts from Him. He wants to give them to us.
Hope goes hand in hand with faith in that it can remain even against great odds. Hope assumes that things don’t have to be the way they have always been or are destined to become. Jesus Christ is referred to as “our Hope” (1 Tim. 1:1) and our Hope does not dissapoint.
Abraham learned this when “against all hope, in hope he believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been told him, ‘so shall your offspring be’” (Romans 4:18). Statistically speaking, his wife would have had a 0% chance of becoming pregnant at her age. Yet, hope told Abraham otherwise. The outcome of his hope was that his wife did in fact have a son.
Hope is the key to miracles, because miracles are “the impossible” but hope says the impossible is possible. Thus, we see impossible things become realities as we put our hope in God. God even reveals to us through Paul in the book of Colossians that “Christ in [us] is the hope of glory”. As we hope in God, we are trusting Him, putting ourselves in a dependent position. We are recognizing that He is the source of everything good. Then, like little children, we are in a position to receive the good things that He has to offer.
The writer of Hebrews writes that, “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). So, in light of this Truth, “let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
It is a lie that some things will just be the way they are. Messed up parents don’t have to produce messed up kids. Children from broken homes don’t have to grow up and get divorced. No matter how high the odds are against someone, our God is bigger. God raised people from the dead! Surely He can overcome obstacles thrown at us.
We need to stop believing the lie that we will have certain struggles forever. I don’t have to be claustraphobic forever. Blind people don’t have to be blind forever. There is hope. Jesus came to restore what was broken. He doesn’t want people to be blind forever. He wants people to see. He doesn’t want people to be depressed forever, no matter what science might argue otherwise. God invented science! He is bigger. Do we believe that?
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Jesus healed people in the Bible and He never changes, so He heals people today too. We don’t have to be stuck. We don’t have to just settle. God wants to free us completely. God wants everyone to be healed, not just some people. It doesn’t matter whether we understand why some people aren’t healed as long as we believe that God wants everyone to be healed.
Maybe this isn’t a logical explanation, but what does logic have to do with is? We don’t have to understand everything that we believe. The Bible says that God is a healer. He is a redeemer. He is a Father. He is joy. He doesn’t get mad at people. This is Truth. Let’s believe Truth. Believing inevitabilites and statistics doesn’t leave room for hope.
Some people may argue that God’s will is for some people to remain sick or to struggle. While good may result, because God can bring good out of any situation, that doesn’t mean He desires for that person not to be healed. Bondage in any form is not God’s will for your life. And fear is not from God. He didn’t create people to be afraid. His Word says that He has not given us a spirit of fear but a Spirit of power, love and a sound mind. If we don’t want to be afraid, we don’t have to be. That is not who we are. We like to put ourselves in bondage that we don’t have to be in; God already set us free from all of it!
The biblical definition of hope is the positive anticipation of something good happening. In every area of your life, you should have a positive anticipation or expectation of something good happening. If you don’t, then the anticipation or expectation that you do have is not from the Lord, because He is Love and Love hopes all things.
A synonym of hope, is expect. To trust means to expect with confidence, meaning with expectation of obtainment. God tells us to pray expectantly when He says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). When we expect good gifts from Our Father, we receive good gifts from Him. He wants to give them to us.
Hope goes hand in hand with faith in that it can remain even against great odds. Hope assumes that things don’t have to be the way they have always been or are destined to become. Jesus Christ is referred to as “our Hope” (1 Tim. 1:1) and our Hope does not dissapoint.
Abraham learned this when “against all hope, in hope he believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been told him, ‘so shall your offspring be’” (Romans 4:18). Statistically speaking, his wife would have had a 0% chance of becoming pregnant at her age. Yet, hope told Abraham otherwise. The outcome of his hope was that his wife did in fact have a son.
Hope is the key to miracles, because miracles are “the impossible” but hope says the impossible is possible. Thus, we see impossible things become realities as we put our hope in God. God even reveals to us through Paul in the book of Colossians that “Christ in [us] is the hope of glory”. As we hope in God, we are trusting Him, putting ourselves in a dependent position. We are recognizing that He is the source of everything good. Then, like little children, we are in a position to receive the good things that He has to offer.
The writer of Hebrews writes that, “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). So, in light of this Truth, “let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Thoughts about church
Church is the body of Christ, people, living life together in community.
Our American definition of "church" is different from this. Our definition is really more like that of teaching. I think going to Breakaway and going to church is the same thing- going to a place to listen to teaching with other people, believers and non believers.
I think it's more an issue of terminology than whether we're right about church. What we think church is should have a different name. Our "church" is not necessarily a bad thing but it's not church in a biblical sense.
This is a concept that most people don't understand because we have taken our definition of church, inserted it into the word "church" in the Bible and interpreted the Bible accordingly. Thus, we have interpreted God's Word to fit our definition and our definition of Christianity follows in that framework. So, to us, it all makes sense. Instead, we should look at God's Word without preconceived ideas in mind, interpreting it based on what it says rather than based on what we've been taught of what we believe.
With this in mind, when the Bible says that the church lived life in community (not hung out once or twice a week) where they prayed constantly and put Christ first, that was the early church. And awesome things happened. "Church" simply isn't the right word for what we use it for.
Instead of something we associate with, church, defined as the called out ones, is what we are. Going to church isn't wrong or bad. It's just not the point. It's not complete. There is so much more.
The problem with the American idea of church is that we are settling for less that what God intended for us. Church is a lifestyle. Church is where God can use His Body to jointly advance His Kingdom.
Now, advancing His Kingdom is a whole other issue in itself. It doesn't mean evangelism, though that can be part of it. It means loving. It means the ministry of reconciliation, connecting people to their Source, resulting in life. It's not futuristic. It's present, here and now! God created us to live simple lives in community, not with community, where we love Him, we love each other and we love all people as a result of Him pouring out from within us. That's it. It's simple.
Really, because loving people is a way to love God, it all even more simply comes down to receiving God's love and loving Him back. All of life comes back to this. When life is simple we can focus better. We can focus on God instead of whether we're doing things "right" or our "ministries". We are free to simply live, to walk with God and know Him. Then we fall in love all the more.
The new question becomes, what does church look like? The answer to this question is different for everyone. To know what it looks like for you, just ask God. He’ll tell you. He probably won’t show you everything at once because you wouldn’t believe it, but He’ll show you in time.
Our American definition of "church" is different from this. Our definition is really more like that of teaching. I think going to Breakaway and going to church is the same thing- going to a place to listen to teaching with other people, believers and non believers.
I think it's more an issue of terminology than whether we're right about church. What we think church is should have a different name. Our "church" is not necessarily a bad thing but it's not church in a biblical sense.
This is a concept that most people don't understand because we have taken our definition of church, inserted it into the word "church" in the Bible and interpreted the Bible accordingly. Thus, we have interpreted God's Word to fit our definition and our definition of Christianity follows in that framework. So, to us, it all makes sense. Instead, we should look at God's Word without preconceived ideas in mind, interpreting it based on what it says rather than based on what we've been taught of what we believe.
With this in mind, when the Bible says that the church lived life in community (not hung out once or twice a week) where they prayed constantly and put Christ first, that was the early church. And awesome things happened. "Church" simply isn't the right word for what we use it for.
Instead of something we associate with, church, defined as the called out ones, is what we are. Going to church isn't wrong or bad. It's just not the point. It's not complete. There is so much more.
The problem with the American idea of church is that we are settling for less that what God intended for us. Church is a lifestyle. Church is where God can use His Body to jointly advance His Kingdom.
Now, advancing His Kingdom is a whole other issue in itself. It doesn't mean evangelism, though that can be part of it. It means loving. It means the ministry of reconciliation, connecting people to their Source, resulting in life. It's not futuristic. It's present, here and now! God created us to live simple lives in community, not with community, where we love Him, we love each other and we love all people as a result of Him pouring out from within us. That's it. It's simple.
Really, because loving people is a way to love God, it all even more simply comes down to receiving God's love and loving Him back. All of life comes back to this. When life is simple we can focus better. We can focus on God instead of whether we're doing things "right" or our "ministries". We are free to simply live, to walk with God and know Him. Then we fall in love all the more.
The new question becomes, what does church look like? The answer to this question is different for everyone. To know what it looks like for you, just ask God. He’ll tell you. He probably won’t show you everything at once because you wouldn’t believe it, but He’ll show you in time.
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