No more posts until Nov. 7

I will be "out of the office" until Nov. 7, but will continue pondering the mysteries of the universe until I return:)

The Greatest Distance

Perhaps the greatest distance any of us has to travel is that long trek betwen the head and the heart (Katherine Marshall, The Helper)

Knowing of the love of God from teaching or from Scripture is head knowledge.  Yet, before it warms our hearts and touches our emotions, something else has to happen.  The love of God given to us in Jesus Christ is something that we have to experience--and only the Holy Spirit can give us that experience.

A few days after the Resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter, James, and John as they were fishing at the seashore.  He prepared a meal for them, as they had been fishing all night.  And when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"  "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you," replied Peter.  Three times, Jesus asked, each time saying, "Feed my sheep."

After his Thursday night denial of Jesus before the crucifixion, Peter's feelings must have been those of guilt and inner turmoil----how could he ever again say that he loved Jesus, after what he had done?

But Jesus forced the words out of him, saying "feed my sheep" in response.  I think what Jesus was doing was replacing the negative emotions carved so deeply into Peter's heart with another, even deeper experience.  It has been said that we do not always say what we believe, but we always believe what we say.  If we say it, from that time on, we tend to believe and to defend what we have said.  Peter had said, in effect, that he did not love the Lord---but now he is saying that he does.

And Jesus give him a way to demonstrate his love from that moment forward---feed my sheep.  "As I have fed you, you feed them," if I can paraphrase.  It is easy to say that we love God; it is much harder to demonstrate it.  But Jesus identified himself with the sheep; if we feed them, we feed Him; if we love them, we love Him.

This is something we don't have to over-think, rationalize, theorize about.  The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  If we love our neighbor, we love God.  If we don't love our neighbor, we don't love God.  End of story.    So we don't really need to examine our philosophy too much if we continue to examine our hearts and our actions toward those around us.

Kindle in us the fire of your love, O Lord!

more on Faith

If faith is simply our give-and-take relationship with God through the action of the Holy Spirit, then seeking faith simply means that we go to Jesus and say, "Lord, speak to me about this situation.  What do you want to tell me about this?  Pull aside the veil of flesh and give me a look into the world of spirit.  Let me see this situation through your eyes.  What is your viewpoint?  I wait for your insight on this."

At this point, according to Katherine Marshall's The Helper, we are not asking for a change in circumstances, just for inward revelation.  Then we wait and listen and watch.

When that insight is given---Jesus' very personal word to me----then faith automatically follows.  And in the wake of that quiet knowing, external events change.

I love, love, love this approach to prayer and faith.  So many of us "try to believe," try to hope, try to trust----but what we are trying to believe, hope, and trust in is our own understanding of the situation, our own pronouncement, or judgment, of the way things should work.  Once the Holy Spirit begins to quietly impress on our minds and hearts the understanding and the will of God, we no longer have to try to believe or trust----having God's judgment of the situation in our hearts brings a quiet peace and trust.

Proverbs 3: 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
                                and lean not on your own understanding;
                                in all your ways, acknowledge Him,
                                and He will direct your paths.

Faith, then, means waiting, listening, trusting, until we receive the Word of the Lord for this situation.  It is based on our on-going conversation with the Most High; it means hearing His voice and trusting that He cannot lead us astray.  Abraham did not walk in his own understanding of where he should be going, but waited daily to hear the direction of God.  His own understanding often led him astray, but in each case, God gently brought him back, not leaving him to his own viewpoint.

It is hard to follow in Abraham's footsteps, as we are impatient to "do" something to remedy the situation---but our doing often makes things worse because we "do" in our own understanding.  Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) says this:  Our degree of panic is the degree of our lack of personal spiritual experience.  Put another way, we might say that our degree of panic is the measure of our lack of faith, or listening, for God's understanding of our situation.

The Friends of God

Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

In reflecting on the story of Abraham, Paul came to the conclusion that Abraham received the promises of God not by works nor by obeying the law, but by faith, and therefore he is the father of those who trust God---our 'father in faith.'  I remember hearing about faith for years and wondering how one "gets' faith, as though it were something to be obtained by some kind of effort on our part.

Looking back now, I begin to realize that faith is simply relationship with God who loves us.  We "get" it in the same way we "get" all of our relationships---simply by spending time with God.  That is why Abraham believed God---he spent a lot of time in the Presence of God.  He walked with God, sat with God, stood with God.  In fact, when God determined to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He said to Himself,  " Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, now that he is to become a great and populous nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?

In another place in the Bible, God says, "I do nothing without telling my prophets ahead of time."  (I don't recall the reference.)  And in the New Testament, Jesus says, "I no longer call you servants, but friends, because a servant does not know what his master is doing."  We tend to keep up with our friends; if we do not know what they are doing, even though we may not have spoken in awhile, the friendship tends to dissolve.  Obviously, God honors His relationship with us as friends.   He confides in His friends; He continues to walk with His friends and does not leave or abandon them -- and He tells them what He is doing.

So now we know that faith-- or relationship with God--- is the one thing in our lives capable of bridging the chasm between the visible and the invisible worlds.  Faith is the eyes and ears of the spirit, that see and hear what is not accessible to those without faith, or relationship, with God. 

Faith is real; more "real" than the things we actually see around us, because those things are passing away, but God's reality stands forever.  Revelation of what God sees and hears comes through the Spirit of Jesus still present in this world.  He did not go back to heaven to watch from afar---He still walks with us, talks with us, breathes in us, loves in us, and reveals the Father to us:

 

No one comes to the Father but by me (Jn.6:65).

No one has ever seen God, but God, the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has revealed Him (Jn. 1: 18).

For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God; He does not ration his gift of the Spirit (Jn.3:34).

The father who sent me has testified on my behalf.  But you have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent (Jn.5:37).

The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life (Jn. 6:63).

So faith is not "trying to believe," but it is simply hearing, seeing, receiving into our hearts the very words of God, given to us in THE WORD of God, Jesus Christ.  Isaiah says, If they do not speak according to this word, what kind of wisdom will they have?  If we do not spend time with God, we will not hear the words of God; we will not "see" what He is doing; we will not have faith, no matter what other words or wisdom we obtain. 

If Jesus had not come in the flesh, we would think it impossible to be friends with God, but since He sat down to eat with His friends, since He slept in their boat, since He healed their mothers, sisters, and uncles, and since He taught them in the flesh, we have to believe that He wanted friendship with the rest of us too.

At Home With God

Is there anywhere where you are not at home with God? 

Let God press through in that particular circumstance until you gain Him,

and life becomes the simple life of a child.

(--Oswald Chambers: My Utmost For His Highest)

Jesus took on our flesh that we might take on His divinity.  He took up our human nature that we could be "naked and unashamed" before God.  If there is anything in us that is not comfortable in the Presence of God, that is the "sticking point" in our relationship with Him.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back again into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry "Abba, Father!" (Romans 8:15).

If we read the writings of all the saints, we find them entirely and confidently "at home" with God.  They speak of Him and to Him with great confidence and no fear, only a holy reverence and awe.  John the Apostle, who was probably about 17 when he met Jesus, always wrote about himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved"----a kind of awe-some reverence and unbelief that he had been the object of such great love.  Because of his youth, John, of all the Apostles, probably had the least "agenda" and the least life-experience.  He was a sponge, soaking up the words of the Master. 

The other Apostles had great love for the Lord, but had also been somewhat formed by their previous experiences.  Jesus had to teach them to "become as little children" in His Presence, learning, learning, learning.  Peter was a "man," zealous to defend his Lord---little realizing how little strength he really had in his own power. 

We, too, because of our life experiences, tend to fashion our own worlds---but those worlds are not always compatible with the simple life of a child, who receives everything from its parents in perfect trust and confidence.  We want to walk in our own strength---until we discover how little strength we actually do have. 

Everything in us must come to feel at home with God.  If there is any area where we believe we can "go it alone," in our own strength, we need to allow God to penetrate that area until He softens and gentles it.  We need to give Him permission to work out those areas within us that hide from Him and resist His influence.  We need to become simple children---learning, learning, learning from Him always.

fragmentation/de-fragmentation

I understand almost nothing about computers----I just want them to work and get frustrated when they do not.  Nor do I have the vaguest clue as to what I should do when they do not work.

For months, I have been getting a message from someone in cyber-space, telling me that I was using an outdated server that g-mail no longer supports and therefore, that some features of g-mail might not work.  I had successfully ignored the message for some time, and suffered no consequences, except that I was not allowed to comment on the blogs of my friends, nor even respond to comments on my own blog---a small price to pay.

Finally, however, the persistent message began to make me wonder what I was missing by not "updating" my server to the latest technology, the biggest, and the best, that Explorer 8 had to offer, and I ultimately caved in to the offer to bring me into the 21st century.  (In high school, my favorite teacher, Mr. Ryan, used to say, "If you throw enough mud against the side of the barn, some of it is bound to stick."  Now I understand his home-spun wisdom.)

You probably already know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say:  I pushed all the buttons that would convert my computer to something bigger and better----and as a result, my computer now runs more slowly, balks at my simple commands, and occasionally shuts itself down altogether in the middle of something important.  To my knowledge, I have gained no advantage in exchange for the inconvenience.  There is nothing greater I can do now than what I could do before; it's just more slow and more cumbersome and more frustrating now to complete the same tasks.

I know that now my computer probably needs to be "de-fragmented," whatever that means, and that I will probably have to take it to an expert to have it serviced.  From the term "de-fragmented," I have to assume that whatever just happened "fragmented" my computer, making it less efficient than it was before the "update."

All of which has made me reflect on how sin operates on our spirits---we are moving along with the joy and innocence of childhood, when we begin to receive messages that tempt us to "update," to "become more relevant," to experiment with "something better" than we now have---we can have the whole world of technology, fun, pleasure, power at our fingertips; we can be "in control;" we can be "like gods!"

At first, we are hesitant; we wonder, "What's the cost?"  "Can this harm me?"  "Is it dangerous?"

"Of course not," says the hidden voice from beyond; everyone is doing it---no harm; no problem.  It's just an "upgrade."  And when we eventually yield, against our better judgment, we find ourselves fragmented, less efficient, less able to focus, to perform the usual tasks.  Our energy is going to repair the damage instead of going forward.  We are fragmented.

"Blessed are the pure of heart," said Jesus, "for they shall see God."

But sin fragments us; we are no longer pure of heart; we can no longer see God. 
Our souls need de-fragmenting; we need cleansing from the impurities that have entered with our permission; we need a Technician whose clear vision and understanding can restore proper functioning to our lives.

Blessed be God; it has been given to us in Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The Promise of Joy

I have told you these things that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (Jn. 15:11)

St. Dominic Savio, the young boy, said to his friends:  Joy is the unmistakable sign of the presence of God in us.  I used to keep a picture of an old peasant Russian woman whose face was radiant with joy.  The caption on the picture was this:  If you want to steal my joy, come and get it in the hands of God.

Joy is known as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, because we cannot manufacture it for ourselves; it is the result of the Spirit of God dwelling in us.  Joy is not the circumstance of life flowing smoothly for us; it is the result of Christ's promise:  In this world, you will have trouble, but be of good heart---I have overcome the world.  The Holy Spirit gives us joy in whatever circumstances we have.

The Acts of the Apostles is full of two reports--the multiple problems faced by the early church and the overflowing joy of the early church.  Peter and John were arrested after Peter's second sermon; a group of apostles were jailed and flogged; Stephen was stoned to death; Christians were hunted down and driven from their homes; James was beheaded; Peter was imprisoned by Herod.....

Yet, we find statements such as these:  They partook of their food with gladness; they were constantly praising God; and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

No wonder Jesus had warned them before His ascension into heaven not to leave Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high!  Man's determination can never produce the joy that overcomes persecution.

Jesus said that the reason He came was to destroy the work of Satan, the thief who comes to maim and destroy.  While on earth, he continually released men and women from the bondage of Satan.  The Lord of Life obviously did not delight in pain, sickness, insanity----he went about healing "all those who were in the grip of the devil."  Imagine the joy He left in His wake!

Katherine Marshall's Prayer:  Lord, you and I know that I am facing some difficult circumstances in my life, especially my concern about __________.  As I ask for your perspective and Your thought on this problem, I begin to see that worry and fretting and thinking about all the negatives is not being the realistic pragmatist I had thought.  In fact, You are telling me that when I wallow in "what-ifs" and discouragement and self-pity, I am ignoring You altogether.

As I turn to you, Lord, at this moment and spread this grief-problem out before You, I hear You say, "There's nothing here I can't handle.  Why are you so troubled?"  Your joy shines through these words, Lord.  Let your joy be mine, too.  I open my heart to it.  Amen.