Month: July 2015

Trusting Him Deeper

Mary

A man plans his steps, but the Lord directs His way – Proverbs 16:9

The story of Joseph, father of Jesus contains many changes from what he may have thought is life would be like. (Matthew 1:18-2:23)

  • Joseph plans on marry a virgin, then divorcing an adulteress, ends up marrying her by direct command of the Holy Spirit.
  • Joseph and his family are sought for by wise men looking for the Messiah, which clues in a paranoid ruler to Jesus’s existence.
  • Joseph (most likely) plans on going home, but is warned to go to Egypt instead.
  • The paranoid ruler kills all male children in the city of Bethlehem 2 years old and under when he realizes the wise men aren’t returning.
  • Joseph (most likely) plans on going home, but realizes the danger will never be gone there, so he settles in Galilee, a city in Nazareth.

From an outside perspective, possibly even to Joseph as it was living it, it can look like it was completely circumstance driven that he had to travel so far to keep his family safe. He knew he was following the guidance of the Lord, but it still might have felt that circumstances and the enemy were limiting him and causing him to do what he might not have chosen otherwise.

When we feel that life is shoving us around, how do we then keep our trust focused soley on the Lord? How do we keep our doubts away from our minds when we feel that we can’t anticipate what tomorrow brings?

The first couple chapters of Matthew give us insight into the Lord’s plans.

  • Joseph plans on marry a virgin, then divorcing an adulteress, ends up marrying her by direct command of the Holy Spirit. Verse 22 says this was to fulfill the prophecy “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son… “
  • Joseph and his family are sought for by wise men looking for the Messiah, which clues in a paranoid ruler to Jesus’s existence. The wise men are looking for Him because of the prophecy, “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,… from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”
  • Joseph (most likely) plans on going home, but is warned to go to Egypt instead. This fulfilled the prophecy, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
  • The paranoid ruler kills all male children in the city of Bethlehem 2 years old and under when he realizes the wise men aren’t returning. The Jeremiah prophesied, “… Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
  • Joseph (most likely) plans on going home, but realizes the danger will never be gone there, so he settles in Galilee, a city in Nazareth. Jesus was foretold to be called a Nazarene.

None of the chaos or trouble or moving that Joseph had to do with His family was unknown to God, even hundreds of years before it happened.

God’s Power

God doesn’t know the future because he happened to luck out when looking into a crystal ball. God is beyond time and through time and isn’t ever thrown for a loop by what He sees. God’s power is beyond what we can know or experience. However, in His graciousness, He allows us to experience as much as we are willing to and seek for.

Our ability to trust more and more deeply on God hinges entirely on our true and unbiased awareness of who He is. If we truly see Him for His depth and power, His majesty and might, our minds can be more fully open to learn to lean on Him.

If we don’t know Him, we hold back. We doubt because we haven’t experienced the wonder and awe that comes from being the presence of the power the created the massive universe.

God is powerful and amazing and more than we can know. This article on Incourage by Ann Voskamp gives amazing insight into the power and majesty of our awe inspiring God.

Giving Up Is Enduring To the End

Mary

Endurance

[Endurance:] The ability to persevere in a task or calling. The Christian is called to endure in the face of trial or opposition, and his endurance brings spiritual rewards.[1]

One of the paradoxes of following Jesus, like needing to die to live and the last shall be first, is the idea that we must give up in order to endure to the end.

The view of doing things in your own strength is holding out by the skin of your teeth and brute force. We can sometimes conjure up an image of a worn out, muddy, exhausted person staggering into the throne room of God and hearing the words, “Welcome, child. You wore yourself out in My name, but kept moving anyway.” This is a false view based on the idea of completing this earthly life under your own power. If this is your goal, I don’t believe I am too far off in assuring you that you will be disappointed.

True endurance in a powerful Christian life, is about giving up. Not just to anyone, of course, but giving up to God. It’s about letting your own self die in Him and letting Him create an eternal and lasting connection with Him. Every time we take back what we gave up, we’re not enduring. Patience and love abound when we are standing in the throne room of God and are handing Him everything that we think is important.

Our flesh self thinks that by handing off what we love, we’re losing something. We feel afraid of lacking what is ours and not being able to go to what we know and are comfortable with. Once we experience the joy, the connection, the completeness and the providing protection of God, we realize this fear is completely wrong.

The things that we’re required to give up can sometimes refer to physical things, but in most cases it is actually referring to spiritual or mental things. Examples of things we might have to give up include: knowing how to respond to people and reach out to others in our life, knowing how to comfort ourselves when we’re disappointed, knowing how to praise God and when to do it, knowing how to react in situations that are fear or anger inducing, understanding how to set priorities, knowing how to sacrifice our time, knowing how to anticipate answers to our prayers.

Giving up begins in our thoughts and our hearts, like most of our spiritual growth. It begins by our becoming aware of our own self-talk, of what we are saying, and of what we are clinging to. Giving up, to be successful and helpful, must include two things: acknowledgement that we don’t know how to do act or think, and willingness to learn a new way. That, of course, is easier said than done. There are several things that stand in the way of being able to do this.

Acknowledgement that We Don’t Know How to Act or Think

The biggest obstacle that keeps us from giving up when we need to is pride. We think that for some reason, we have what we need to do it, therefore, thanks, but no thanks, I’ll do it myself. Unless you know for sure that you’ve been taught by the Holy Spirit, either in your heart and mind or though wise counsel, than you are probably doing it wrong. Maybe you’re not doing it entirely wrong, but there is probably an important part of it that the Lord needs to correct.

The reasons that we have for our unwillingness to give up are usually based out of our own understanding: “I’ve been a Christian this long, I should have figured it out by now,” or “I’ve heard so many sermons on this, I feel like an expert,” or the deadly, “True Christians should just know this.” It can also be about how we appear: “Nobody else seems to need instruction, I don’t want to look weak or stupid,” or “The Lord probably just expects me to know this; I don’t want to keep pestering Him about it.”

Pride will keep us from enduring to the end faster than almost anything. Giving up is always difficult, given the depth of pride in most of our hearts. The more we practice giving up, the easier it becomes to recognize when we need to do it.

Willingness to learn a new way.

This step is very difficult. After the battle of fighting ourselves to give up, we often feel like that should be the end, but instead, it’s only the beginning of another one. Once we’ve acknowledge that we need to learn something, we have to be willing to do something new.

Willingness

This breaks down further into two more specific steps: willingness and something new. Willingness is vital because we can often get stuck in the quicksand of helplessness. “Well, I just don’t know how to handle this. That probably means there’s nothing I can do. I should probably just wait till the Lord sends someone to tell me how to solve my problems.” Or another one that gets us stuck in place is, “I should probably just sit here and pray about things until God solves my problems.”

The willingness is the understanding that the mistakes not only shouldn’t be repeated, but that they don’t hold us back and don’t define our future. Willingness is saying, “I know God is capable of teaching me and I’m open to the idea of doing things differently.

Something new

After being willing, the pitfall often becomes that we immediately return to doing what we know. After the deep emotional catharsis of feeling the power of the Lord in calling us to change and the deep uprooting of old mentalities that happens as we become willing to learn, often leaves us in the land of self-congratulations on our willingness and we still just sit. If the Lord calls us to do something new, that means that something must be either added or taken away. If you’ve gone through the first two steps and few days, weeks, or months later, you can’t identify anything that’s different, this is the land you got stuck in.

This is the step of faith. This is the leap that goes from what we know into the dark abyss called “I Don’t Have A Clue.” This is the land of experimenting and trying and sometimes failing. We so often think that if we’ve hear the Lord and are learning from Him that we should never have a hiccup in the process. That may be true if we have perfect spiritual healing and never have a relapse of self and always act in love, but that happens to absolutely no one. Also, the leaps God give us are what we can handle today and we probably still have several leaps to go and several things still to give up. Becoming complete is a long process; we have to be patient with ourselves and with God during the process.

What We Surrender To Is What We Achieve

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;[2]

The reason that understanding giving up is so important is that we have to know who we’re surrendering to. During war, surrender is about a transfer of power between two warring parties. Surrendering is admitting that one group can take power over another. This is why giving up is so important when we’re walking with Christ. He will never demand that we give ourselves to Him; the entire work on the cross and the sacrifice He gave is so that we can choose Him. Therefore, when we surrender, we are telling Him that we accept His work, we’re not going to fight Him, and we give Him the power over us. This is what we’re telling Him each and every time we surrender, each and every moment that we walk with Him. If we are going to stay by His side till the end, we must continually give Him the power. Walking in our own power results in a battle again. Our natural self is an enemy to God and it will be forever. Only the grace and power of God has the power to bring us back into His presence, and that only activates by giving up to endure with Him.

9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.[3]

References

[1] Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.

[2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jn 8:31). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Ga 6:9). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Let Freedom Ring in Our Hearts

Mary

Christ has come “7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:7 [NRSV])

Let Freedom Ring

As we celebrate the freedom of our bodies by means of a culture that’s based on the importance of individual choice, it’s important to remember what true freedom means and the source of the that freedome.

Merriam-Webster defines freedom (the quality or state of being free) as: [1]

a :  the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b :  liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another :  independence
c :  the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous <freedom from care>
d :  ease, facility <spoke the language with freedom>
e :  the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken <answered with freedom>
f :  improper familiarity
g :  boldness of conception or execution
h :  unrestricted use <gave him the freedom of their home>

The Promise of Freedom

In a Messianic prophecy in Isaiah, he says, “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.”[2] Often this, along with many other prophecies about Jesus were interpreted literally. Jesus himself, tried to clear this up. He was here for spiritual freedom.

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. 38 I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”[3]

Living in Freedom

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.[4]

As we walk daily with Christ, we should be seeing a depth of freedom in our walk that continues to grow. What does spiritual freedom look like as you live it out daily with him?

1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. [5]

Galatians gives us a clue in the phrase, “do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” We can, therefore, fall back into the sin that enslaved us and the burden of not allowing Christ to be the center. Jesus wants to be the source of our freedom.

34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.[6]

Paul talks about freedom in his writings many times as well. In Romans, he says, ”14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” [7] Dominion means, “the power to rule”,[8] or, in other words, the power to boss you around.

For an analogy, think of ruled and bossed around in the sense of going to school. When we were in school, there were rules we had to obey. There were places we had to be by certain times and assignments and homework that had to be turned in by a certain time. These things were determined by a litany of adults including teachers and school administrators. In our analogy, the dominion of sin is now what’s telling us where to be, what’s due when, and demanding that we show up when it says to show up so that we will live in eternal separation from God.

When Christ came in, he gave us the right to walk out of the school building and never go back in. We are never required to turn in another assignment or to finish up anything that any of the requirements that were placed on us under the leadership of sin.

Christ gave us something in return. It wasn’t another set of rules and regulations, though. He didn’t rebuild the law of sin and death, version 2.0. Instead, he set up a new standard, one that brings life. This standard is: choice. We choose Him; we choose life and obedience. We choose to submit ourselves to Him, even to the point of enslavement to God, as Paul says.

17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. [9]

The Complication of Choice

It’s tempting to take our definitions of right and wrong and turn them into black and white codices for how people should behave. We can see how the choices we’ve made have been beneficial and, therefore, we want all the people around us to have the same benefits. In addition, we can more easily relate to others who have prioritized their lives in a similar way to us and who have had similar experiences to us.

The more we live this way, however, the more we damage the very root of the freedom that Christ brings. Everything about coming to Christ hinges on us making choices. If we expect others to have made or to make the exact same choices we do, we can often inhibit their growth process in Christ. They must choose Christ because of their choice, not because of your choice.

The Risk of Choice

Choice is one of the most powerful freedoms that exists. This is also what makes choice so dangerous. We can choose poorly just as easily as we can choose wisely. When we are making the choice, only rarely do we think we are making a poor choice. Hindsight is a great teacher. It is much easier to see unwise choices in others.

Because we can see consequences to others choices sometimes more quickly than they can, we often want to try to tell them how to live. This can be very dangerous to us and to our relationship. It is dangerous to us because we begin to view our life and our choices as the standard that others must be striving to achieve. It is dangerous to others because as soon as you let others convince you to make choices for you, you’ve handed over the power of one of your greatest assets to them.

This isn’t to say that we never try to help another person or talk to them about what they’re doing. In fact, the scriptures indicates specifically otherwise. In Matthew 15, Jesus talks about immediately addressing sin issues and the power of God that comes between people who are deeply concerned about working out troubles.[10] Paul talks about gently rebuking those who are sinning as a way to help fulfill the law of Christ.[11]

The point of these two passages of scripture are to indicate that we are to help each other reach deeper into the heart of God and be more like Jesus. The influence that we’re trying to avoid is reaching out to try to make others look more like us.

Freedom in the Context of Daily Life

We know that Jesus has set us free from sin and death. As Christians who are deepening our walk with Christ, we should be watching to see that the law of sin and death is falling away from us. But, in all the complexity of life, how do we know if it is?

In order to know this, we must know who we are in Christ. Oftentimes, a situation is confusing to us because we can’t see who we are trying to become in Christ. When that happens, we don’t know what to say yes to and what to say no to. As we know who Christ is making us to be, both in the general sense of Biblical promises for what he’s given and individually for our gifts and our talents, the fog of life begins to life and we can clearly see what’s beneficial for us.[12]

References

[1] “Freedom.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 5 July 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freedom>.

[2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Is 61:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jn 8:31–38). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[4] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (2 Co 3:17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[5] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Ga 5:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[6] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jn 8:34–36). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[7] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Ro 6:14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[8] “Dominion.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 5 July 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dominion>.

[9] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Ro 6:17–18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[10] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Mt 18:15–20). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[11] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Ga 6:1–5). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[12] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (1 Co 6:12–14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.