The Gate to Life

Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matt. 7: 13-14).

 

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn. 14:6)

 

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If we do not enter Life/Zoe through the 'narrow gate,' we can take anything we want with us; we are not forced to choose between our own way and the way of the Christ of God.  We can stay on the path to destruction carrying with us all the baggage we cannot let go of:  bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred of others, greed, lust, etc.  But if we want to enter Life itself, the Life that 'came into the world and is the light of men,' we will have to put down all the impure things we want to hold onto in our spirit. 

 

When God created mankind, He 'breathed into his nostrils the breath/ruah of life, and man became a living being (not bios,but zoe:  energy, spirit, truth, enthusiasm, eternal life).  With Adam's distancing himself from God, his bios continued for a time, but his zoe began to diminish and fade.  His body continued; his soul decreased.  With the 'new Adam," Jesus Christ, the spirit in mankind is fully restored:  I came that they may have life/zoe, and have it more abundantly. 

 

When we encounter another person, we encounter at first his/her bios, physical life.  We may be drawn by a smile, a light in the eyes,  or even physical appearance, etc.  But it is not long before we enter into the spirit/ zoe of those we love.  And to really enter another person's spirit and remain there, we may have to surrender something of our own we have been holding onto, for often we cannot carry the baggage we choose into another's home.  How many parents have had to turn their adult children out of their house because the adult child has not been able to let go of unacceptable behavior -- drugs, alcohol, rage, etc -- the things that threaten to destroy everyone around them?

 

When we want to come to the Father, we must pass through the Gate and enter onto the Way -- Jesus Christ.  He is both the Door and the Path and the End -- the Life/Zoe we are seeking.  But to enter the Door, we must put down whatever cannot live in His Spirit, whatever is incompatible with His dwelling place: anger, bitterness, rage, unforgiveness, etc.  None of these things are allowed to enter into the Spirit of Jesus.  So, for the "Pearl of Great Price," we sell all that we have, that we are holding onto, and surrender them at the Doorway, so that we can enter into Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 

Many people encountered the physical presence of Jesus; very few comparatively entered into His Spirit and drank from it.  The same is true today:  many stand on the outside and judge the Man from Galilee, the son of Joseph, but others put down their judgment from the outside and humbly enter into the Spirit of Jesus.  Then and only then do we have the Eternal Life, the energy, the truth, the Zoe He came to give.

 



 



With God, It's Personal

When a child begins to walk, parents are thrilled beyond measure -- the drive to walk is exactly the same for each child, but each begins in his/her own way:  in his time, according to his/her own personality, fear, and confidence.  No two children approach the task at exactly the same time, the same way.  Most children -- but not all -- will begin by standing, holding onto the furniture, and maybe bouncing up and down, assessing what the next step will be.  Some babies will frown, concentrating on what to do next; some will grin as they see the expression on the parents' faces, knowing that already they have done something wonderful.  One of my brothers, however, did none of these things; my mother feared he was lagging developmentally -- until one day, he just slid off the bed and ran through the house, at about 18 months old. 

My youngest child began walking a little later than the other two -- probably because there was already a three-ring circus going on all around her, amusing her so much that she forgot to walk for awhile.  At any rate, when she stood up, she wanted someone to take her hand and walk her around and around the house.  She was dependent on that support for a long time, and she just loved walking holding the hand of an adult.  Unlike the other two, she did not attempt moving on her own between one source of support and another.  I remember when I was going into the hospital for surgery just at that point in her life; I worried about who would walk her around in my absence.  I need not have worried; my dear father was more than happy to walk her around as many times as she wanted to go.  Eventually, she had the confidence to let go and begin walking on her own. 

Most of the time, parents are the cheerleaders, sitting on the sidelines, saying, "Go! Go! Go!"  Or else, the child is positioned between two supports, and the parents are saying, "Come on, let go, come to Daddy/ Mommy!"  And when the child does let go and move a couple of steps on his/her own, the parents are clapping and cheering, hugging and kissing in encouragement.

That's how God is with us.  The smallest step we take toward him is rewarded with hugs and kisses, smiles and support.  We stand on the precipice for what seems forever, afraid to take the first step toward the abyss of trust -- but once we do, we find ourselves caught up in strong arms, welcomed and supported.  He knows our weakness, and He is there for each step we take.  If we need to hold His hand for months and months, as we learn to walk on our own, He does not mind, but patiently walks with us until we are ready to walk on our own.

And He knows that each one of us starts from a different place.  With God, it's always personal and "Up close."  He never says, "Your brother began walking at a much earlier age; what's wrong with you?"   Whoever we are, wherever we are, He says, "Come to Me; I will catch you."  The woman caught in adultery was caught in His arms; Matthew, the tax-collecter, was welcomed in His arms; John, the young teen, was drawn to His support and strength;  Mary, Martha, Peter, Judas -- all were welcome, and all treated as individuals. 

After Peter denied Jesus in fear and weakness, Jesus did not remove his office or his annointing, but re-instated Peter as the head of a church of sinners:  When you have been strengthened, turn and strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:31).  Unless Peter understood in his bones the weakness of man, he was not ready to feed the sheep.  But Peter wanted to know about John, who had remained at the foot of the cross:  "Lord, what about him?"  And Jesus told Peter plainly that it was none of his business what would happen to John --- each one of us is different, and will be treated differently.  Some of us need to remain in prayer until Jesus comes; some need to go to India and preach to the natives.  What each one of us needs to do is to trust God and to go where we are sent. 

Like babies learning to walk, we all need to walk in trust that God is present to catch us, to strengthen us, to reward us as we move forward.  Faith moves forward; fear turns back.  No two of us will make exactly the same journey in the same way -- but there is a remarkable similarity in the testimonies of those who do step out in faith, and their hymn of praise and thanksgiving can be found in every one of the psalms:

The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters,

He restores my soul....(Ps. 23).

 

I don't know anyone who has ever trusted in God and been disappointed, but I know plenty of people who have refused to trust in God and have eaten the fruit of bitterness all the days of their lives.

The Prayer of Jehoshaphat

North Korea is threatening to 'nuke' America; Iran will not rest until Israel is wiped from the face of the earth.  What are we to do in the face of such determined evil?  Fortunately, we have a pattern in the 2nd Book of Chronicles, with exactly the same situation:

Some men came and told Jehoshaphat [King of Judah], "A vast army is coming against you from Edom, for the other side of the sea.  It is already in Hazazon Tamar (that is, En Gedi.)"  Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.  The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. 

 

[Jehoshaphat stood up in the temple and prayed to God, who had given the land to the Israelites, who] have lived in it and built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, "If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.

 

"But now here are the men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them.  See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.  O our God, will you not judge them?  For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us.  We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." 

 

All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord (20:2-12).

 

As they stood there together, waiting upon the Lord, the Spirit came upon one of the men in the assembly, and he spoke to the king and to all the assembly:  This is what the Lord says to you: "Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.  For the battle is not yours, but God's...you will not have to fight this battle.  Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you....Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.  Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you" (vv. 15-17).

 

Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army....and the Lord gave them cause to rejoice over their enemies...The fear of the Lord came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.  And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

 

There are three essential elements to the prayer of Jehoshaphat:  (1) praise to the God of heaven and earth and remembrance of His past deeds toward Israel, recalling how God had led them safely through the desert to the land of promise;  (2) waiting to hear what the Lord would speak in this particular situation, not just assuming that they knew what to do; and (3) admitting that they did not know what to do, but that their eyes were upon the Lord.

 

I have a friend who is filing for divorce after 45 years of a semi-abusive relationship.  She is finally convinced that nothing will ever change, and that she does not want to live out the rest of her life in this situation.  As she moves forward, her friends are saying, "How will you live?  You don't have a plan; you are too old to get a job....etc."  It is true that she does not have a "plan," so to speak -- but she has sought counsel for years from people who pray and seek the Lord.  And without a single exception, every one of those people have advised her not to remain in this marriage--even bishops and priests have told her that she has no marriage.  Up until now, she has been afraid to leave because she does not know how she will survive.  But having no other options except continued misery, she has decided to move forward, trusting God to sustain her:  I do not know what to do, but my eyes are upon You. 

 

Every situation is different; none of us can really know what to do in some situations where we are continually threatened by evil and oppression.  But Jehoshapat's prayer is wonderful:  I will remember what God has done for me in the past; I will wait upon His answer; I will confess my own ignorance and helplessness in the situation, and my eyes will be upon Him. 

 

This kind of trust cannot fail, for God "hears the cry of the poor," and who is more poor than someone whose enemy has sworn to destroy them?  In Scripture, all pagan worship is based essentially on the idea that something we do will "work:" magic, sacrifice, food for the Deity, reason, mysticism, trances, or giving alms.  In Israel, on the other hand, worship begins with holy reverence (called 'fear of the Lord'), faith that the God of Israel will do in the present what He has done in the past, trust, love -- and waiting upon the Lord to act. 

 

I don't know if either America or Israel is still capable of worship and waiting upon the Lord -- but as individuals, we can all stand and pray the prayer of Jehoshaphat.

 



A 3-Dimensional God

When people are asked about the shape of their faith, most will respond in one of several ways:

• My relationship with God is mostly vertical -- it's between me and Him and it's no one else's business what I believe.  I pray; I go to church; it's all good. 
• My faith is mostly horizontal -- I don't pray much, but all God really expects is for us to live a loving life: kind, compassionate, considerate.
• My faith is mostly internal -- God helps me heal the wounds of my past, cope with the present, deal with pain, and accept myself.

Of course, anyone at all can figure out that while we always have to begin somewhere, we always have to 'go' somewhere also in our faith.  God is not 'one-dimensional,' but three-dimensional.  Jesus made this abundantly clear in the two greatest commandments: " Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole strength," and the second is like the first: " Love your neighbor as yourself."  If we are unable to love ourselves--i.e., heal our wounds, cope with our lives, deal with pain, etc. it is most unlikely that we will be able to love our neighbor. 

If we learn to love God in a vertical relationship -- prayer, praise, thanksgiving, worship, attentiveness to the Holy Spirit guiding us, etc. -- then He will most certainly direct us toward love of neighbor.  Our love for one another is the direct overflow of God's love in us, "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit."  Jesus was pretty clear about this in his parables of the unjust steward who had been forgiven his debt to the Master but who refused to forgive a fellow servant his debt.

If we begin on the horizontal level by reaching out to serve the needs of others as best we can, the love of God remains in us, strengthening and supporting our own internal healing.  We cope with our own lives even better if we assist others with their lives -- up to a point, that is.  I cannot forget the bitterness of a friend whose mother spent her life serving others outside the family but who neglected her own children at home.  She had a reputation for kindness and compassion in the community, but her own family suffered.   I have to wonder if this kindness was truly directed by the Spirit of God or by some other motives, although it is not for us to judge such things.

My point here is that our relationship with God, if it is true, will always be not 'one - dimensional,' but 3-dimensional if it is true.  We all begin in different places, but should end up in the same place.  The love of God leads us from glory to glory, because ultimately, it is the Spirit of Jesus who lives in us and directs all our actions.  And looking at Jesus, we clearly see His 3-dimensional relationship with the Father.  He often rose early and went off by Himself to pray; everything He said and did was from the Father and to the Father.  He was sustained and fed by the Spirit of His Father --- and the overflow of His life was abundant healing, salvation, mercy, truth, and justice for all those around Him and for the world itself.

A dynamic Christian life is never one-dimensional, although because of temperament and nature, we lean more in one direction than in another.  One of the Medjugore visionaries said, "I can say 15 rosaries, but don't ask me to meditate."  Another one said, "I can meditate all day, but I cannot say the rosary."  And St. Augustine said, "Pray as you can, not as you can't."  That's such good advice!

I don't think we can compare our own spirituality to that of another, nor can we judge another's approach to God.  God Himself is the Author of our faith, and He is able to bring to completion the work He has begun in us.  We need to trust Him to do everything in us that we are unable to do for ourselves.  The Author of the perfect rose is also the author and finisher of our souls.

My Peace I Give...

It is the destiny of every human being to be rooted and grounded in God.  This is what every man and woman on earth is searching for  -- the depths of truth, of justice, of holiness, of goodness and truth, and of beauty indescribable.  We are angry and frustrated when we cannot find that for which we are made, when our way to truth is blocked.

Sin -- our own and other's sins -- deprive us of the goodness we are meant to taste.  The road is cut off; the path is shut down, and we spend our lives wandering in a desert of desolation and unforgiveness.  We cannot find our way home.  We cry in anguish; our wound, according to Isaiah, incurable:

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness--

only wounds and welts

and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged

or soothed with oil (1:5-6).

 

But into our human condition of sorrow and grief, the Lord speaks:

 

Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

all you who remain of the house of Israel,

you whom I have uphld since you were conceived,

and have carried since your birth.

Even to your old age and gray hairs,

I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you (Is. 46:3-4)

 

And how has He rescued us from an "incurable wound," when our whole head is injured and our whole heart afflicted, when our way home is blocked by the darkness that has descended on every man? 

 

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 

Surely he [himself] took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

 

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all....

 

By knowledge of him, my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities (Is. 53, selections).

 

Jesus Himself has taken up our wounds and griefs; He Himself has entered the darkness of sin and evil and hell itself --- but that is not the end of the story.  Unlike us, who are overcome and cannot rise, who are buried by evil, He has the authority and the power to rise again to a life untouched by evil.  He came not to judge mankind, but to seek and to save what was lost forever.  He took upon his own back the blows that have fallen on us, and upon His own head the crown of thorns that has caused our "wounds and welts."  He entered the darkness that has overcome the whole world, and in the midst of that evil, He spoke a word:  Light, Be! 

 

In Him, the whole unredeemed chaos of our sorrow and grief ceases to exist, and a new creation is come.  Every culture has its stories, myths, fairy tales of redemption:  Orpheus and Eurydice, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc.  The woman / mankind is buried in a deep sleep, slavery, human condition from which she cannot be awakened except by a pure hero who takes on the struggle against the forces of evil, who searches the world over until he finds his beloved, to rescue her from the power of darkness.  And God, too, speaks to His beloved:

 

O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,

I will build you with stones of turquoise,

your foundations with sapphires.

I will make your battlements of rubies,

your gates of sparkling jewels,

and all your walls of precious stones.

All your sons will be taught by the Lord,

and great will be your children's peace (Is. 54:11-13).

 

And what is our part in our redemption?  Only thirst -- only desire: "Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat."  "Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live...Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near (Is. 55:3&6). 

 

All we have to do is to come to Him, to draw near to Him, to seek Him; He will do -- has already done -- all the rest.  The night before He died, Jesus said, "My peace I give to you...take heart, I have overcome the world."  There is no place else in the world we will ever find this promised peace, but in Jesus.  

A Living Presence

Brother Lawrence was a lay brother in a Discalced Carmelite Monastery in the 17th century.  Since he had no education, he served a menial role within the monastery, as a cook and a sandal maker.  At first, Brother Lawrence's prayer life was one of low self esteem and fear.  He thought about his own sins and judgment, heaven and hell, etc -- but these thoughts made him sad and weary.  But gradually, Brother Lawrence developed a spirituality that focused entirely not on his own thoughts, but on the practice of the Presence of God.  There he found peace and consolation, instead of continual and consuming anxiety:

When I accepted the fact that I might spend my life suffering from these troubles and anxieties...I found myself changed all at once.  And my soul, until that time always in turmoil, experienced a deep inner peace as if it had found its center and place of rest (Brother Lawrence: Practice of the Presence of God).

 

In the kitchen, cooking the meals, and in the workshop, making sandals, Brother Lawrence found so much joy that he became known as a spiritual master, a mystic.  He gave up all other prayers and devotions in favor of simply remaining in the Presence of God.  He spoke of a continual conversation of the soul with God that gave him so much contentment that sometimes he had to act silly just to contain the joy he had.

 

What simplicity!  I remember once our Pastor saying that he talks things over with God while he is driving:  "What do you think about that?" he asks God.  "He doesn't always answer me right away," said Father Mike.  "Sometimes He has to think about it for awhile."

 

It seems to me that this spirituality is within reach of anyone who wants communion with God.  If we could drop the Thee's and Thou's and just talk to a Friend who is with us in the car or the kitchen while we are driving or cooking, we might be surprised at how "friendly" God really is.  That's what I loved about reading The Shack.  The Father was a Black woman cooking meals for all who came in; the Son was in the carpenter's workshop; and the Spirit was an ethereal Asian woman whose beauty and luminescence could not be directly seen, but only caught out of the corner of one's eye.  But all Three were a constant Presence of Joy in everyday life. 

 

Brother Lawrence's experience is exactly what it is like to step out of our world (of fear and anxiety and pressure to perform) into God's world of rest, joy, beauty, and laughter. Our world consumes us; His restores us and frees our spirits to dance and sing and be giddy -- even silly.  I know which world I want to live in!

 



Father!

I am a God of both intricate detail and overflowing abundance.  When you entrust the details of your life to Me, you are surprised by how thoroughly I answer your petitions.  I take pleasure in hearing your prayers, so feel free to bring Me all your requests.  The more you pray, the more answers you can receive.  Best of all, your faith is strengthened as you see how precisely I respond to your specific prayers. 

 

Because I am infinite in all My ways, you need not fear that I will run out of resources.  Abundance is at the very heart of who I AM.  Come to Me in joyful expectation of receiving all you need ---and sometimes much more!  I delight in showering blessings on My beloved children.  Come to Me with open hands and heart, ready to receive all I have for you.

----from Jesus Calling, March 23

 

Jesus told us that His sheep would hear and recognize His voice when He speaks.  Today, as I read this entry, it caught my attention, though I am a day behind in my reading, I recognized the Voice of God speaking to me.  And the reason I recognized it is that my experience verified the truth of the words on the page.  Once again, the words are 'living,'  not dead words. 

 

When I first began praying in spirit and in truth, I began keeping a prayer journal.  For all my life, I have been praying, but not 'in spirit and in truth."  In fact, I remember once someone telling me that I should ask for healing for my father, who had been legally blind for about 30 years, and who suffered daily from painful blisters on his eyes, blisters that would break and 'weep" constantly.  I remember telling that person that I could not pray for that, because if God did not answer my prayer, then I would lose the little faith I had. 

 

Looking back now, I realize that what I was calling "faith" was no faith at all, because at that time, I did not know God at all.  I had what Scripture calls "a form of religion, but denying its power," even though I knew for certain that God was working in my life.  What I was lacking was the knowledge, or real experience, of a free-flowing exchange between the Father and myself -- the kind of exchange depicted in the words from Jesus Calling above.  That's what I was afraid to believe.

 

But one of the first changes the Holy Spirit effected in me was that He led me to begin writing down my prayers.  The reason this was so important was that previously, I would pray and then immediately forget that I had prayed for something specific.  So when God graciously bent down to hear and answer me, it occurred in a vacuum of memory.  Now, though, I could look back months later and say, "O my God, that is exactly how I prayed!"  My faith began to grow as I saw how my prayers were so specifically answered.  And as my faith grew, I came to know the God Who I was praying to--the One Who Speaks the words above:  I love to hear and answer your specific prayers.

 

That was the God I could not previously believe in--the personal, loving, receptive God who bends low to hear and answer the cries of His children.  This is now what breaks my heart when people say that God is not a "Person."  If He is not a Person, then who are we when we hear and respond to the cries of our own children?  Are we just pure spirits without hearts that break at the suffering of others?  If God is not a Person with a heart that suffers with each of us, then I am not interested in God at all. 

 

But of course, at one time in my life, I did not really know this at a 'gut' level, though I would have assented to the truth at an intellectual level.  It took the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth to me -- the Truth of Who God is, of Who Jesus Christ is on a personal level.  James says this about Scripture:  He chose to give us birth through the word of truth...therefore, humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  This is why we call God "Father," because he brought us to a new birth through the word of truth, and His 'seed' of eternal life is now in us and growing in us.

 

The Book of James says this:  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  This is always what I was afraid to do, before my own experience of 'new birth,' which brought both Scripture and Jesus alive to me as Truth, not just "ideals."  The whole book of James is very specific, in my opinion; it is really a book of solid faith, not just theory.  It is a book worth reading very slowly and prayerfully, seeking the Truth that God Himself wants to give us.

 

I always tell people--including my students -- not to believe anything because I say it, but to seek for themselves whether what I am saying is true or not.  The only way we know something to be true is to try it -- eat it -- for ourselves.  This is what reading the Bible and keeping a journal did for me 35 years ago.  I came to know the Truth for myself, not because it was passed down to me by others.

 

I don't know why so many of us are afraid to take that journey for ourselves, except that the 'god of this world has blinded our minds.' as Scripture says.  But once we turn to Jesus and ask Him for Truth, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16) and we begin to be transformed from 'glory to glory:' For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

 

And the gift of Jesus Christ to us is knowledge of God the Father of heaven and of earth -- His own Father, Whom He loved and loves with all His heart, and Whom he died that we also might know!

 

Someone once told me that it is harder to live for the Truth than to die for it.  Maybe; I don't know about that.  All I do know is that Jesus both lived and died that we might know the Truth, and that the Truth would set us free!

Deliverance!

At this season, so important to Jews for the Passover and to Christians, for Easter, it would be a true blessing for all of us to crawl from the "narrow spaces" (Hebrew translation for Egypt) to be

"resurrected" for lives of goodness and holiness  -- from a response to the One Family, Many Faiths blog by Y. Warren.

 

1. YMarch 22, 2013 at 8:26 AM How does the Spirit of God speak to you?
   The Sacred Spirit takes over my consciousness in dreams and random thoughts throughout the day.
   
   When do you tend to 'hear' Him?
   The Sacred Spirit pulls my mind away from conscious thought and into reflection throughout the day, but seems to be more active in my dreams and just as I come awake in the morning, while I'm still in the "twilight" state.
   
   How does He guide you?
   The Sacred Spirit guides me through dialog with and example of other people who seem to be seeking peace through dialog and responsible compassion in their lives

 
1. AnonymousMarch 23, 2013 at 2:08 AM Most of the time it came as a thought that I knew was not from me. There was a couple of times it was an audible voice, but I did not see anything. Several times it was through scripture, and other people. That's what I love about the Lord He meets you where you are  ******************************************************************    

Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor  (Luke 7:22).

 

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,

the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them --

the Lord, who remains faithful forever.

He upholds the cause of the oppressed

and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets prisoners free,

the Lord gives sight to the blind,

the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,

the Lord loves the righteous.

the Lord watches over the alien

and sustains the fatherless and the widow,

but he frustrates the ways of the wicked (Ps. 146).



 

It seems to me that the most characteristic feature about the way God works with every one of us is that He is constantly drawing us out of our "narrow spaces" (the Hebrew translation for Egypt) into what Psalm 18 calls "a spacious place:" He rescued me because he delighted in me (v.19).

 

I talk to people all the time who remind me of my own "narrow spaces," from which God has graciously and repeatedly delivered me.  It seems that the world, human error/sin, and the devil, if you will, are constantly closing in around us, threatening to drown us in a sea of trouble and oppression.  I love Ps. 18 because it so graphically describes the narrow spaces of our own minds, hearts, physical conditions, etc. from which the Spirit of God is forever attempting to deliver us:

 

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

he drew me out of deep waters.

He resecued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster,

but the Lord was my support.

He brought me into a spacious place;

He rescued me because He delighted in me.

 

And how does the Spirit of God do this for us?  The Book of Job puts it well:  It is the Spirit in a man, the breath (ruah) of the Almighty, that gives him understanding...For God does speak -- now one way, now another---though man may not perceive it.  In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword...(Job 32 & 33).

 

I think if all of us could be more aware of how, when, and why God speaks to us, the prayer of the person who responded to One Family, Many Faiths would be answered:  all of us could crawl from our "narrow spaces" into the light of resurrection on a daily basis.  

 



 

 

Hearing the Voice of God

 We can have confidence in what we are experiencing because it has already been revealed in Scripture. ( -- from yesterday's entry)

 

I realize that there is some kind of glitch in blogspot that prevents people from responding to the blogs.  Up until very recently, I have not been able to respond to people who responded, because I was told that I did not 'have access to this site.'  But the last time I tried, a couple of months ago, I was successful in posting a response.  I know 'they,' whoever 'they' are, have been working to improve blogspot.

 

So today, I am going to pose a question for reflection.  Whoever wants to respond may do so:

 

How does the Spirit of God speak to you?

When do you tend to 'hear' Him?

How does He guide you?

 

This is the same question posed three different ways, so anyone is free to answer just one or all three.  I wish there were a way to have answers posted as part of the blog itself instead of just as a response, but we'll see how this works.  If anyone wants to reflect in the e-mail format, I'll cut and paste the responses tomorrow.                       nolangayle@gmail.com



 



The Uses of Scripture

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews, and all of you who are in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.  These men are not drunk, as you suppose.  It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy;

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreasm.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy" (Acts 1:14-16).

 

One of the many uses of Scripture is to give us the explanation and understanding of what God is doing in our lives.  So many times, God is moving, but we have no way to understand what is happening to us.  Without Scripture, we would be lost; we would feel adrift in the sea without a rudder or direction.  But past experience, knowing our spiritual history, is a light on the present and a guide to the future. 

 

When Peter stood up that Pentecost Sunday, he said, "this is what was spoken...."  God is He who acts -- in the past,in the present, and in the future.  But He speaks ahead of time to foretell what He is doing so that when it happens, we may know that it is His hand, His Spirit, at work in us.  We can have confidence in what we are experiencing because it has already been revealed in Scripture.

 

When I first experienced 'the baptism of the Holy Spirit' in my doctor's office, I did not understand the experience at all, though I knew beyond any doubt that God had moved powerfully and surely in my life.  I had never before experienced such deep and interior joy and peace and confidence -- but, not having read much Scripture, I could not have told anyone what was happening to me.  A few months later, I once again experienced the power and Presence of God after someone in the hospital prayed for me -- and this time, God's gracious Presence led me to pick up a Bible lying close by.  The pages opened almost by themselves to the Acts of the Apostles, and I began reading there -- though I could not have told anyone why at the time.  I knew something was completely different with me at the time, but I did not understand why.  I had gone in one moment from being fearful, worried, and entirely consumed with my own problems to being confident, prayerful, and concerned about others.  The former me was afraid to say the name "Jesus" out loud, for fear of what others might think--that I was a fanatic, for example---to someone who confidently told others that Jesus loved them and that God would do for them what He had done for me. 

 

Who was this new and very strange person that I had become overnight?  The Acts of the Apostles told me:  This is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel.....  I doubt that ten years of 'discipline' and practice could have done for me on the inside what happened to me when my doctor and then a young girl both prayed over me.  Once I saw that Scripture could explain what I was experiencing, I could not get enough of it.  I read non-stop for the next few weeks, and I have not stopped reading and discovering since 1977. 

 

In the same way, a woman who I had never before seen appeared one night in our small prayer group.  During the prayer and worship segment of the meeting, I 'saw' or experienced somehow the power and Presence of God fall on her.  When I asked her about the experience, she said, "I felt something, but did not know what it was."  The Lord spoke to me and said, "Stay close and teach her."  I later discovered that for several months, she had been looking for someone who could explain to her what she was experiencing in her life.  Because by this time I was reading -- devouring-- Scripture, I could explain to her what was going on. 

 

The Holy Spirit is not dependent on our upbringing, knowledge, or previous experience.  He blows where He wills and does whatever He chooses -- and fortunately, we have been told ahead of time that He will descend upon all those who listen to God and are drawn to Him.  Once we discover that Scripture is not times past, but times present and future, it becomes our story, our own history with God.  And then we are hooked; the pages come alive when we see that the very same Lord and God who delivered the slaves from Egypt is now delivering us 'from the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers."  And we are glad indeed!

 

To those who have not experienced the Spirit of God moving in their lives, the Scriptures remain closed, a dusty book of past history.  But Hebrews tells us: the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (4:12). 

 

Once the 'sword of the Spirit' becomes living and active in our lives, we experience some kind of surgical procedure that makes us whole new creatures in Christ Jesus; the old has gone, and the new has come.  Thank God we are not limited forever to whatever we inherited or was done to us in the past, for all of us have been slaves in Egypt until we are delivered by the Spirit and the Word of the Lord.

The Prayer of Jabez

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." So God granted him what he requested (I Chron.4:9-10).

 

Back in 2001, the small book, The Prayer of Jabez, by Bruce Wilkerson, had sold over 3 million copies.  Everyone seemed to respond to the simple prayer of Jabez buried in the First Book of Chronicles.  I think there is much to be said about Jabez' prayer, if we pray it from our hearts and not simply from our heads.

 

The passage that immediately precedes the prayer of Jabez is this:  Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez [literally, "He will cause pain"], saying, "Because I bore him in pain."  Imagine growing up as a child hearing, "He will cause pain" every time someone said your name. It is like hearing a curse every time your name is pronounced.  It is hard for us to conceive of such a situation beause our names do not mean anything unless we are called "Pearl," "Summer," "Bugger," or "Mosquito" -- a name that has connotations to everyone who hears it.  I once taught a student named "Caprice," and I often wondered if she identified her personality with her name, or if she accepted the name without any implication at all. 

 

Most of us at some time or another do cause pain to others because we want to "enlarge our physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual territory."  If someone is blocking us, holding us back, or just not accepting who we are, we become aggressors, trying to gain some kind of foothold in life.  "I'll show them," we think to ourselves; "I'll become the richest, the smartest, the most powerful.....in the world.  Then they'll be sorry they put me down, didn't respect me, or insulted me."

 

But the prayer of Jabez shows his goodness and his humility.  He recognizes that it is Yahweh alone who increases our 'territory' and gives us a foothold in life.  He does not take up a weapon against those who curse him, taunt him (just by saying "He will cause pain), but turns to God, his Savior, his Protector, his enlarger:  Oh, that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.  Jabez puts his given name, his history, and his entire future in the hands of God and trusts God to reverse the curse given to him by his own mother:  He will cause pain.

 

"No,' says Jabez, 'with the help of my God, I will not cause pain.  He will enlarge my territory by His own hand; I do not need to take up weapons to defend or establish myself."  Psalm 25 tells us this:

 

Good and upright is the Lord;

Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.

The humble He guides in justice,

And the humble He teaches His way.

 

Who is the man who fears the Lord?

Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.

He himself shall dwell in prosperity,

And his descendants shall inherit the earth.

 

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,

and He will show them His covenant.

My eyes are ever toward the Lord,

For He shall pluck my feet out of the net....

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,

For I wait for you.

 

I think this is the prayer of Jabez with which the Lord was pleased -- asking for guidance and support for integrity and uprightness, trusting that God Himself would give Jabez all that he needed -- the desires of his heart (Ps. 37).  If each one of us would pray daily that the hand of God would be with us 'that we might not cause pain,' the kingdom of God would be in our midst very soon.



Streams of Water

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.  Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."  What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?  What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as the body of laws I am setting before you today?  (Deut. 4:5-8).

 

Blessed is the man

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law, he meditates day and night.

 

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers (Ps.1:1-3).

 

*******************************************************************************

I just love it when science catches up to the wisdom of old as given in the Bible.  The nation of Israel was given revelation of just laws and decrees not given to other nations.  They were supposed to be 'the head, and not the tail,' the leader of justice in the pagan world.  What God taught them was supposed to lead to the abundant life in a land flowing with milk and honey, where they could dwell safely without fear from their enemies on all side -- an absolutely unheard-of-achievement in a world ruled by absolute power and dominion, fear and conquest.

 

When Joshua took over leadership of the nation after Moses, the Lord said to him, Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it night and day, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful....for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go (Jos. 1:8-9).

 

As Moses instructed the people before his death, he told them that after they had settled in the land, they would want a king, like the nations around them:  When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, ....It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life....and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.  Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over the kingdom in Israel (Deut. 17:18-20).

 

In today's paper, Dr. Oz writes about the new surge in meditative practice, "fueled by the incredible new information about how meditation helps make you smarter -- and wiser -- and keeps you that way.   (Is this not exactly what God had been telling His people for 4000 years now?)  Dr. Oz says that meditation will strengthen our focus and improve our health -- i.e., "his leaf does not wither," from Psalm 1.  He reports that when people meditate for 30 minutes a day for 8 weeks, they have "more gray matter in the areas of the brain that handle learning, memory, emotional regulation and the ability to take a clear look at what's going on."  These people can handle multi-tasking and pay more attention to incoming sensations -- but here's the most surprising finding to me:  Meditation makes genes that produce inflammation-triggering proteins less active.

 

Dr. Oz says that regular meditators in their 40s and 50s have areas in their cerebral cortex that are as thick as 20-to-30 year olds.  His conclusion:  Meditation keeps your reaction time, thinking, retention, and memory younger.  (Whatever he does prospers -- Ps.1.)

 

What other nation and people is so wise and understanding as [the one that listens to revelation and does the law of the Lord?]  If rulers had been instructed according to the words of Moses from the beginning, we would never have had kings and princes who considered themselves above the law and above the people; we would have had wisdom all the days of our lives, and we could have lived peacefully with one another.

 

Given this information, I wonder if it might be a good practice to copy out portions of Scripture for ourselves every day so that the words would not depart from our mouths.  Even better, what if we taught our children this practice from the beginning and did it with them?  "Whatever he does prospers" -- who would not desire this outcome promised by God Himself.?

 

 

 



Knowledge by Embrace

I think it is safe to say that the entire world -- every human being -- wants to know God, wants to be united with its Source, wants to go home to the place of its origin.  I think we are made to seek until we find what we were made for.  When we find love, we say to ourselves, like Adam when seeing Eve for the first time:  This is what I've been searching for my whole life; this is 'home.'  This is where I belong; this is what I was made for -- union with my other half.  Before now, I was half; now I am whole.

When the Son of God appeared on earth, He appealed to those who were seeking Love, Truth, and Beauty.  The Scriptures up to that time had hinted at the Revelation of God, but had also hidden the  Face of God -- just as He had spoken to Moses in the Book of Exodus:

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, [Yahweh] in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compasion on whom I will have compassion.  But...you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live...

 

There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.  When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen (Ex. 33:19-23).

 

  In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people just before they enter the Promised Land:

 

Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of [the Anakites in the land]. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in in the desert.  There you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.  In spite of this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go (1:29-33).

 

How can we know God?  It is not by searching the Scriptures, though they will indeed reveal to us His "back," so to speak, as His glory passes by in front of us.  We know Him by His embrace of us, as He carries us "all the way" in fire by night and cloud by day, as He 'searches out places for us to camp" on our journey and as He "shows us the way we should go."

 

John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples:  Behold, the Lamb of God!  These men knew the expression, "The Lamb of God."  From childhood, they had celebrated Passover with their families and knew that the lamb was sacrificed each year that they and their families could be freed from slavery in Egypt and could be led to the Land of Promise, where they could settle down, grow crops for themselves and live in peace, as free men and women of God.

 

Immediately, Andrew and the other disciple left John and began to follow Jesus -- no theology, no explanations, no analysis -- just the words, "Behold the Lamb of God."  When Jesus turned around and saw the two men, He asked, "What do you want?"  Their answer was surprising:  "Rabbi, where are you staying?"  And Jesus did not tell them the answer to their question.  Instead, He replied: "Come and see."  And they went and spent the day with Him. 

 

By the end of that day, Andrew knew that this was the Promised One to the land of Israel.  He was able to say to his brother, Simon, "We have found the Messiah."  No theology, no explanations, no analysis -- just an embrace, just knowing by love that he had found the very thing centuries of Jews had been waiting for, just knowing that he was 'home' at last.

 

To each one of us, Jesus says, "Come and See; come and taste, come and experience.  Come!"  No theology, no explanations, no analysis is necessary -- just come to Me, and you will know for the first time what Adam experienced with Eve:  Ah, at last--this is what I have been yearning for, searching for throughout the whole world and my whole life.  This is my other half; this is what I was made to see and to be joined with -- this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and the two shall be one.

 

We know God only when we are embraced by Him, when we go to see where He is staying, when we enter His dwelling place.  We pass through a cloud of unknowing to perfect knowledge, just as when we fall in love.  We know not through analysis or explanation, but through love.  We cannot explain what we know, because it is not known through the mind, but through the heart.  We are united with Truth, with Beauty, with Goodness, and we are content.

A Day Without Prayer

For some time now, I have been increasingly pre-occupied with the concern of my family reunion coming up in August.  We are gathering in some remote spot in Oregon that cannot be flown to directly.  We can fly to Portland, Redmond, or Seattle, Washington, and then rent a car and drive to the reunion site.  Probably we will have to rent a hotel room the night before driving to the resort, as all flights from Mississippi to Portland arrive late in the day. 

As I have checked flights over the past month, I have found them extremely expensive -- $600-$800 each -- for five people.  So I have been worrying about how to afford getting all of us to the family reunion.  Yesterday morning, as I began my prayer time, I thought about the advice from travel experts to book flights on a Tuesday, so I thought I'd start the day by searching for less expensive flights and then pray afterwards. 

After an hour or so on the computer, with no success in my quest, I then decided it was a gorgeous day and that I'd go work out in the yard early, and pray later.  You know the rest of the story.  As the day went on, I found myself more "anxious about many things," and for some reason, very sad -- a most unusual feeling for me.  I just felt sad and worried all day, but I could not really pinpoint why -- until I realized that I had gone all day without praying.

When my children were growing up, one of them would often say to me, "Mom, tell [a sibling] never to do that again!"  And I would always laugh and say, "___________, never to do that again!"  Well, yesterday, by the end of the day, I was telling myself  "never to do that again."  This morning, I could not wait to begin my time of prayer. 

All of Scripture extols the Living Word of the Lord and what it does for those who digest it on a daily basis.  Here is one example from Psalm 18:

The word of the Lord is flawless.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him....

It is God who arms me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

He enables me to stand upon the heights.

He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You give me your shield of victory,

and your right hand sustains me;

you stoop down to make me great.

You broaden the path beneath me,in

so that my ankles do not turn....(vv.30-36)

 

And Ephesians Chapter 6 tells us this:  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand....

 

Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all ocasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

 

Yesterday, I went out to face the world without any armor or interior strength at all.  In a way, I'm glad I reminded myself of why I pray -- and felt what the rest of the non-praying world feels every day.  But today, I've got my belt, my breastplate, my shoes, my shield, my helmet, and my sword, and the God of peace will rule over my heart and my head all day.  I'm never doing that again!

 

 

 





The Responsive Life

What if our prayer was a response to God instead of something we ourselves initiated?  (Actually, it is, though we seldom realize it.)

What if our lives were a response to God, instead of a list of things to do?  What if we got up each morning listening to direction instead of saying, "I need to do....."?

I think this is the way Jesus lived His life.  He said, "The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does" (Jn. 5:19).

Last Thursday, I went to hear James Meredith speak.  Meredith integrated the U. of Miss. in 1961, with the help of John F. Kennedy and the federal marshalls, who walked him to every class and to his dorm for 4 years. Now, Meredith has a new mission from God, and it is one I wish every person in America would listen to.  He wants not only access to education for black children, but success, something the government cannot do.  He has a plan for elders in the black churches to shepherd every child born within two miles of the church.  It is a simple but great idea, and that is all he will talk about today.

Meredith will not talk about 'things that happened 50 years ago,' in his words.  He says that, for  years, whenever anyone would give him an accolade about courage or determination, etc., he would think to himself: If this fool thinks that I did this, I'm not going to convince him otherwise; I'll just say, 'Thank you.'

Now, however, he refuses the compliment.  He affirms that what he did was his destiny, his mission from God.  From early on, he was told by his parents and the elders of the church that he would be the one to restore dignity to his people, that he had been sent for this reason.  He says, "I did not do this; I was never afraid.  I was a dead man; I had no life other than the one God gave me."

Meredith clearly understands that his life was given by God for a purpose, and that God did the work in him and through him.  He just walked the path he was shown to walk.  He led the 'responsive' life.

I too want to walk the path laid out for me by God Himself.  I do not want to do great things, but only to respond to the work God does in me, for me, and through me.  He knows far better than I do what can be done and what cannot be done through this person He made, and He will not fail to carry out all that He desires to do in me.

Open my ears, Lord, that I might hear Your Voice and respond today!

Transformation in Christ

The early martyrs of the church did not lay down their lives for an ideal, or for an idea or belief.  They surrendered their lives because of the transformation that had taken place in them once Jesus moved into their hearts.  They knew beyond a shadow of doubt that they had been transformed:

from sadness to joy;

from fear to faith ;

from worry to confidence;

from mourning to dancing.

 

They could not deny who they were in Christ Jesus; they were no longer "Adam," (the natural man), but now sons and daughters of the Most High God, Who daily poured Himself into their lives. The natural life paled in comparison to the "Gift of God," the 'living water' Jesus spoke of  the the woman at the well.  They could not surrender what they had been given in the Spirit.

 

I heard on the radio a few days ago of a Muslim woman in India who had been working alongside her friend of 15 years for the same amount of time.  Suddenly, she began to notice a change in her friend, a new peace and joy that had never before been there.  When she would talk about hating something or someone, her friend would say, "Hate will destroy you from the inside; it's better to pray for those who do evil to us."  Finally, this Muslim woman said to her friend, "You are different; what have you done?"  Her friend said, "I am no longer a Muslim; I have given my life to Jesus Christ." 

 

The change in her was obvious, though she had not preached or said a word about the transformation that came over her. 

 

From the beginning, we were designed by God to sit 'at His right hand,' in the position of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  We are designed to receive all that God is -- in His image and likeness:  His peace, His knowledge, His joy, His kindess, His truth -- He wants to give everything to us.  We do not have to struggle or earn points; we just have to be sitting in the place of Jesus Christ to receive the glory of God.

 

What does God want of us?  Jesus, His Son, wants to take us by the hand and lead us into His Father's house, to His very own place.  "Sit here," He wants to say to us; 'receive all that my Father has to give you.  You are the Beloved." 

 

"It's not that easy," some will say; "we have to work and earn our reward."  Don't they know Unless the Lord build the house, the workers labor in vain?  Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of our faith; He himself will do the work in us to transform us into the son/daughter of God.  In the meantime, His joy is His gift; He gives us His very own peace and leads us from glory to glory.

 

What is required of us is exactly what was required of the Apostles:  we must daily walk with Jesus and listen to Him.  Let Him teach us.  He said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you" (Acts 1:8).  All of the Apostles (except John) and many of the early Christians and the Fathers of the Church (the next generation) underwent martyrdom -- and did so with joy.  As Paul said, "for me, to die is gain."  They were not masochists; they were following the joy given to them by Christ, even at the cost of their lives.

If we are not following joy, if we are not receiving our daily portion of peace, we do not know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection.  We need to stay in prayer until we are endued with power from on high, until we are transformed from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet with the Gift of God. 

Seeking His Face

Martha, Martha, you are anxious (and worried and upset) about many things, but one thing only is necessary.  Mary has chosen the better part, and it shall not be taken from her.

 

To you, O my heart, He has said, "Seek My Face!"

Your face, Lord, I will seek.

Do not hide Your Face from me,

Do not turn your servant away in anger;

You have been my helper (Ps. 27: 8-9).

 

Could we imagine for one moment that we have left behind the earth and gone to heaven -- or, to put it another way -- can we imagine our death?  We know that our spirits will return to God when they leave these mortal bodies, so that is what I want to imagine happening at this moment.

 

Since I'm guessing that most people would have some concerns about heaven/hell/punishment/reward, I'm asking that we set aside those questions and not deal with them here.  Let us assume that we have arrived in heaven, newly sprung from our earthly lives and concerns.  For example, I will take my own life:  at that moment, I can no longer clean my house, worry about the toilets and the kitchen floor that I left uncleaned; I cannot worry about this blog left unwritten for the day, or about the classes I left untaught.  All those things have been left behind, and I have no control over them -- there is nothing left for me to do concerning my earthly concerns and missions. 

 

What do we do now?  If we can answer that question, we have some idea of the Sabbeth, the perpetual sign of the covenant between the Jews and Yahweh.  The book of Hebrews says this:

There remains, then, a Sabbeth-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work (4:9).  A Sabbeth-rest as described by Paul does not necessarily mean we cease all work, just as I am sure Jesus did not necessarily want Martha to stop preparing the dinner.  But He did not want her to be 'anxious' about her work; He wanted her to 'seek His face' without fear and anxiety in whatever she was doing. 

 

Because I write this blog each morning, and because I never know before I pray what I am going to write, occasionally I notice a little anxiousness creeping into my prayer -- maybe there will be nothing to say, after all.  Though I am sure I write because I am supposed to write, though I am sure that the Lord directs me in my writing, still the writing itself cannot become the idol -- the important thing.  I cannot pray for the sake of the writing; I must pray only to seek His Face, even if no writing ever again occurs as a result.  I must trust Him enough to rest from my own 'work' and concerns and just enjoy His presence.

 

While He was on earth, Jesus pulled His disciples away from their mission on occasion to "come apart and rest for awhile:"  Don't think about the work; think about our relationship, our communion -- Seek My Face.  While we are in heaven, we will probably still think about those we have left behind, but now we know that we can do nothing for them -- we will have to seek the Face of God on their behalf.  We will have to read His mind, revel in His thoughts toward those we love.

 

Here is Jesus Calling for March 8  (discovered after my morning prayer, when the Lord called me into His Presence and told me clearly to 'take a Sabbeth'):

 

Save your best striving for seeking My Face.  I am constantly communicating with you.  To find Me and hear My voice, you must seek Me above all else.  Anything that you desire more than Me becomes an idol.  When you are determined to get your own way, you blot Me out of your consciousness.  Instead of single-mindedly pursuing some goal, talk with me about it.  Let the Light of My Presence shine on this pursuit, so that you can see it from My perspective.  If the goal fits into My plans for you, I will help you reach it.  If it is contrary to My will for you, I will gradually change the desire of your heart.  Seek Me first and foremost; then the rest of your life will fall into place, piece by piece.

 

Is there not a great luminosity to this command -- "Seek My Face"?  Is there not a great comfort to the words, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, give thanks"?  What more could we desire than to see His Face and read His thoughts about all of our earthly concerns?  If these were not important to Him, He would have remained in heaven -- but He came to "take up all the causes of my life."  Can we trust that His ways are higher and better than ours?  



 



But God....

Three years ago today, a surgeon sent me home to die.  After reviewing the results of my PET scan, he concluded that I had cancer in both lungs and there was nothing he could do.  "Chemotherapy is not effective with this kind of cancer," he told me, "and it has spread to both lungs.  There is nothing I can do."

But God had another idea.  I had seen the surgeon on a Friday afternoon, and he sent me home.  Nevertheless, I had perfect peace.  My husband and I shed a few tears when we got home, and held each other, but my peace was not disturbed -- even though I knew I was going to die. 

A few weeks previously, on February 22, my doctor had told me I had cancer.  But God had prepared me for this diagnosis at the end of January, even before I had had a CAT scan. ( That's another story.)  The reading from God Calling for Feb. 22 was this:

You must trust Me wholly.  This lesson has to be learned  You shall be helped, you shall be led, guided, continually.  The children of Israel would log before have entered the Promised Land--only their doubts and fears continually drove them back into the wilderness.  Remember always, doubts delay.  Are you trusting all to Me or not?

I have told you how to live and you must do it.  My children, I love you.  Trust My tender Love.  It will never fail you, but you must learn not to fail it.

Oh! could you see, you would understand.  You have much to learn in turning out fear and being at peace.  All your doubts arrest My work.  You must not doubt.  I died to save you from sin and doubt and worry.  You must believe in Me absolutely.

 

And part of the reading for the next day, "The Secret of Healing," was this:  Never forget that real healing of body, mind, and spirit comes from within, from the close loving contact your spirit with My Spirit.

 

It was not hard to trust God in this situation, because He had already done all the necessary work in my spirit ahead of time.  The next few days, I hardly thought at all about having cancer; it just seemed that I didn't need to worry about it.  I had already, since the end of January, begun cleaning things out of the attic in preparation for my death so that my kids would have less clutter to deal with.  But other than that, my life went on as usual.

 

Then, on Tuesday afternoon, following my visit to the surgeon on the previous Friday, he called me.  He told me that my pulmonologist did not believe that I had cancer in the left lung, despite the reading on the PET scan, but regardless, the pulmonologist wanted the right lung attended to.  So the surgeon agreed to operate on both lungs.  That Thursday, I underwent surgery, spent six weeks in recovery and here I am today.

 

The doctor said I would die...But God had another idea.....He told my pulmonologist something else.  How grateful I am!  And He protected my heart and mind with His perfect peace while He was working out His plans for me.  How grateful I am!  Today, I go for my 3rd year follow-up scan.  No matter what happens today or tomorrow, I am humbly grateful and joyful that God's plans for me can only be good and not evil (Jer. 31:11).  

Driver's ED

"Move over," says Jesus to me, "let me drive this vehicle.  You keep running into things and making me nervous.  You're talking to Me as you drive, but you don't know where you are going and you keep taking your eyes off the road as you get distracted by things on the sidelines.  Pulling you out of the ditches of your life is getting pretty old here, though I am willing to keep doing it."

"No, no, Lord; I really think I've got it this time.  I know I've messed up before, but now I'm on the right road (I can feel it), and with You sitting in the back seat giving directions, I'm pretty sure I know how to drive now."

"Okay," He tells me.  "Go ahead."

On the old familiar roads, I've kind of figured out how to navigate around the roadblocks by just ignoring them.  It's the new roads, the new relationships that throw me.  I try to drive carefully, but since I don't know what to expect, I find myself running off the road once again.  Still, I like being in control of my own life; I enjoy driving, even when I repeatedly crash into other cars and street signs.
"Ha!" I say to myself; "they shouldn't have been in my way.  Don't they know enough to move?"

"It's not my fault, Lord. I was minding my own business, and they ran into me!"

"Get in the back seat," He says.  "Let Me drive."

I'm really thinking about it.  Hopefully, I won't kill anyone before then.

The Ultimate Parable

Every time I use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, I am both amazed and awed.  I would love to know the history of how this work came into existence.  Who on earth was inspired to begin such a monumental task, and how on earth did he ever believe that it could be done?  I am profoundly grateful that someone did not think this task was impossible, and that he was willing to undertake it.  And I say a prayer of thanksgiving every time I use the reference.

But there is another way of finding things in the Bible, a way for which I have also come to be grateful over the years.  As a child, my family owned some great 12 - volume set of encyclopedias, and whenever I had to look up something for school, I would pull the appropriate volume off the shelf and begin searching for the subject I needed.  As I got close to the target, I would slow down and begin to peruse everything close to the the target word.  It was so much fun 'getting to' my destination, because reading everything close to it was a revelation of things I had not previously learned.  It was as if I had opened a door to a world previously unknown, and it was a magical world to be explored. 

The same is true of the dictionary:  whenever I needed to look up a word, I would go slowly and read words that were close to my target, discovering things I had not previously known.  I would look at the illustrations close by and read their explanations.  Before television was interesting enough to fascinate me, the encyclopedia and the dictionary were worlds to explore.  The electronic age has put much at our fingertips, but it has also eliminated the journey to find what we are looking for. 

Whenever I need to locate something in the Bible today, I can use Strong's Concordance and go immediately to the spot, or, knowing the approximate location of what I need, I can go there and begin a search by paging through things close by.  If I am not the under pressure of a time limit, this is often my preferred search method, because I find so many wonderful and delightful passages while I am looking for the one I want.  And here's the "kicker" in this method:  I cannot tell you how many times the Holy Spirit has shown His pinpoint spotlight on one particular passage while I am searching for another one.  This is for you! is the Voice of the Spirit and the witness in my heart as the words seem to leap off the page.  I was looking for something else, but the Spirit uses the search to show me what I actually need to hear, know, and take to heart at that moment.

Anyone who has ever had that experience knows what I am talking about.  Suddenly, the search comes to a halt, as the Spirit of God begins moving in my heart and mind.  My heart is pierced with the truth that I cannot deny, and my soul weeps at the entrance of Truth.  I recognize the Voice of the Most High, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, and I recognize the Truth of the the One Who "reveals everything I have ever done," in the words of the the woman at the well.  It is a moment when the Holy One confronts my soul; I know Him and He knows me.

This moment of conviction by the Holy Spirit is one of the sweetest moments in my entire history.  It cannot be manufactured, generated by myself, or faked.  I stand before Absolute Truth, and He sees me, just as He saw Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.  I know Him, and He knows me.  Jesus said that when the Comforter comes, "He will convict the world of sin, because they do not know Me."  [To 'know' means to experience, to embrace, to take in, to be united with, to believe and trust in -- not to know in the sense of abstract reasoning.]

To the extent that Jesus does not rule our thoughts, words, and actions, we are in sin -- but our sin is such a part of us that we think it is 'normal,' not sinful.  It takes the Holy Spirit's action to convict us of sin, for us to see it as sin, and He often uses the words of Scripture to reveal to us the mind of God, so that we no longer see things from the natural man, but from the perspective of the man of God, Jesus Christ. 

When we open the pages of Scripture, we think we are "looking things up."  But it is a dangerous journey to undertake if we do not want to be confronted by the Living Christ and the Spirit of the Most High God who is at the same time looking for us.

Reporting for Work

I report for work each morning around 4:30, give or take an hour each way -- my Boss is very understanding.  When I show up, He says, "Grab a cup of coffee and sit down; let's talk."  Sometimes we begin with my telling Him what's on my mind, and sometimes, by His telling me what's on His.  We sit together until there is a communion of spirit, until there is no need for words anymore, until we are both on the same page.  Sometimes He shows me something one of His employees has written, something He knows will encourage and strengthen me, or bring me peace.  He is constantly enlighening my understanding, and pouring His own peace into my heart.

Today, He reminds me:

Refuse to worry!  In this world, there will always be something enticing you to worry.  That is the nature of a fallen, fractured planet: things are not as they should be.  So the temptation to be anxious is constantly with you, trying to worm its way into your mind.  The best defense is continual communication with Me, richly seasoned with thanksgiving.  Awareness of My Presence fills your mind with Light and Peace, leaving no room for fear.  This awareness lifts you up above your circumstances, enabling you to see problems from My perspective.  Live close to Me! Together we can keep the wolves of worry at bay (Jesus Calling: March 4).

 

I ask Him to take my children and friends into His place of business and to direct them as they work, and I ask Him to show me what I need to be doing for the day.  "Stay in touch," He says; "the information will come to you on a need-to-know basis.  Here's my Blackberry/Spirit; you can always reach Me on this."

 

I get up and go about my business with a smile; the Boss is here, and He is able to make all things work together unto my good (Romans 8:28).

 



An eye-opening experience

Yesterday, almost as an afterthought, I wrote that it would be an eye-opening experience to interview people who have heard God speaking to them, one way or another.  Then, later in the day, at a book-signing, I met a woman who told me a chilling story about the very thing I had written -- God  speaking and directing her after Katrina.  It was hard for me to hear her soft voice in the noisy environment, so I am not sure I have all the details correct, but in essence, the story was as follows: 

This woman had lived in Lakeview before Katrina hit.  Anyone living in New Orleans knows about the levee break in Lakeview and Lake Pontchartrain moving into the streets of that area and then into all of New Orleans itself.  The water covered entirely all of the Lakeview houses; many people took refuge on the roofs and were saved if they lived in two-story homes.  Those who had one-story homes were not so fortunate. 

After Katrina, this woman had gone back several times to rescue and retrieve whatever possessions she could find.  Some things were found scattered around the house, on the ground and in the neighborhood, left as the waters retreated three weeks later.  But of course, most things had been carried off forever by the waters of Lake Pontchartrain.  This woman told me that she had promised herself if she had not found anything else after searching for two straight weeks, that she would give up and allow the house to be torn down. On the last day of her two-week search without finding anything else, she tried to leave the house and go to work.  But every time she reached her car, something pulled her back into the house.  She did not know what she was looking for, and every time she returned to the house and looked again, she found nothing.  She told herself, "There's nothing here," and she would once again head to her car.  "Go back into the house," she was told again.  And again, she returned and found nothing.  Finally, she called her boss to report that she would be late for work.  "Take as much time as you need," her boss replied. 

On about the 5th or 6th time of going back and finding nothing, she noticed buried in the silver-grey carpet of the upstairs bedroom something that looked like a coke-can pop ring.  Bending down to pick it up, she discovered the tiny silver ring that had been given to her by her grandmother many years before.  She had actually forgotten about the ring since it had been so many years since she had received it -- but there it was, and miraculously, she had found it in a carpet the same color.

This time, she was able to leave the house and drive off without being pulled back by a force she did not understand.  Her mission had been completed.  The woman who told me this story was wearing her grandmother's ring along with her wedding and engagement rings.  The experience had moved her and brought her closer to her grandmother on the other side of this world.

As I have written for the past two days, God does speak to us in various ways.  Proverbs has so many ways of saying this:

...the Lord detests a perverse man

but takes the upright into his confidence.

 

The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked,

but he blesses the home of the righteous...(3:32-33).

 

Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;

love her, and she will watch over you....

 

Listen...accept what I say,

and the years of your life will be many.

I will guide you in the way of wisdom

and lead you along straight paths.

When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;

when you run, you will not stumble.

Hold on to instruction; do not let it go;

guard it well, for it is your life (4:6-13).

 

It is so good to know that we can be guided by the voice of the Lord, that we can be taught by the Spirit of Truth, and that we will not be mis-led or mis-directed!  It is so good to know that the Lord is able to speak even in our darkness, blindness, and misunderstanding.  If we lean on Him, He will direct us and will not suffer us to fall into a pit.Jesus said, "Broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter onto it, but stive to enter through the narrow door."  There are many spirits let loose in the world, but fortunately, we know the One we can trust to lead us to eternal life.  If the Lord cares enough to direct us to find our grandmother's ring, surely He cares enough to show us the path to eternal life!