Jesus Was Full Of It
Scripture tells us that Jesus was full of it. He was full of “it”, but not in the sense of the expression that we may be familiar with.
John tells us in John 1 that Jesus was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, He came from the Father and He was full of… “grace and truth”.
So what does that mean? Well, as much as I understand about this I think it’s something we need to get a handle on for a number of reasons. It has huge implications for our lives.
Jesus came full of truth because mankind was imprisoned by lies. The spiritual strangler fig of the father of lies had been effectively sowed in the heart of the human race. Sin had taken root and was choking the life out of all of us. Truth is the antidote to the lies of our spiritual enemy that steal, kill and destroy the life God has for us.
Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. It is Truth that will set us free. Jesus also said He will send us the Spirit of Truth to guide us in all truth. And John tells us that Jesus came full of truth.
If we don’t get hold of God’s truth we stay imprisoned to the lies of the enemy: lies about ourselves, lies about others, lies about God.
A truth about the state of mankind when Jesus came was that we were bound by a curse. The curse of sin meant that we were alienated from God and not part of the family of God. We were destined to die separated from God – our sin meant we were not participants in the promises and blessing of God. The truth was, we deserved to die.
However, Jesus came full of grace as well as truth.
So what is “grace”? Grace is often referred to as “getting what you don’t deserve”, or the “unmerited favour of God”. It’s a special favour, an act of kindness and courtesy, a pardon and a special privilege.
The grace of God extended mercy to mankind. We didn’t deserve God’s favour, we were rebellious, full of sin, and enemies of God – full of ourselves, not full of God. Jesus came full of grace – full of God’s favour toward us in spite of our rejection of Him.
Jesus came offering God’s undeserved favour to us as well as the antidote to our predicament. We deserved to die because of our sin, but the grace of God gave us life instead. And then He empowered us with truth to live in the freedom of His love.
If Jesus came full of grace and truth, I believe we need to be full of grace and truth as well. There are so many applications of this, but here is where the rubber hits the road for me…
The truth is, someone may have done me wrong: hurt me, disrespected me, offended me, rejected me, etc. Will I choose to extend grace to them? Will I offer love and forgiveness in the midst of the truth of the situation?
Sure, the truth may be that they were totally wrong. They should not have treated me that way. It was ugly and nasty, and everything in me wants to write them off. I want to yell, “Screw you!”, and walk away from them. Or worse, I want to do something that will hurt them the way they have hurt me.
Have you ever felt like that?
It’s in these kinds of situations we can be full of the grace of God as well. We can extend His pardon, His forgiveness, His mercy, His love, His kindness, His favour – His grace.
I find this hard to do. I find walking in the truth is easier for me, walking in grace is far more difficult. However, if we are going to be truly Christ like, we need to be full of grace and truth.
Lord Jesus, please help us by the power of your Spirit to be full of grace and truth. May we be full of You.
John 1:14, 17
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth… For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
John 8:31, 32
“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”
What’s Your Spiritual Work Ethic?
“Are you finished?”
“Yup.”
“Did you give it your best effort?”
“Yup.”
“Ok, so if I check your work I’m going to be really impressed with the quality of it?”
“Yup.”
Have you had a conversation like this with one of your children when you’ve asked them to do a job for you? What was your experience when you checked on their work? Was it exceptional, or was it done to a standard that was not quite up to the excellence to which you were exhorting them?
My father taught me an old adage, “If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing to the best of your ability.”
I heard that over and over again when I was a teenager. I’m pretty sure it’s because my standard for work excellence was not that of my father, and he was attempting to encourage me to raise my standards.
Really what dad was saying was, “C’mon son, you can do better than that. You have the ability to do better work than that. You have more effort that you can give me. I want to ensure that you work wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly. If you don’t learn to work wholeheartedly you will end up living a life of mediocrity.”
I thank God I had a dad that regularly kicked my butt (figuratively), and told me that I can do better work than what I just did. He wouldn’t let me take the easy way out. He held me accountable to doing work to the best of my ability.
A high character value in our family was work ethic. My father instilled in me the value of a good work ethic, and I attempted to instill the same thing in our sons. I believe that a strong work ethic is a Godly character quality.
Scripture exhorts us to pursue Godliness and spiritual discipline. We are exhorted in whatever we do, to work at it with all our hearts like we’re working for the Lord, not for men. God tells us He is looking for men whose hearts are wholly His – not “half” His – “wholly” His.
I remember when I played competitive team sports, whether it be football, track or wrestling, my coaches would always challenge my effort to ensure I was giving my best;
“Really, is that the best you’ve got?! C’mon, I want more! I want more effort! I don’t think you are giving me your best!”
There was no way that I could become the best I could be if I did not have a coach who pushed me beyond what I thought was my best to discover that I, indeed, had more to offer. Beyond what I thought was possible, was a capability, a strength, an ability, an effort that my coach saw, but at the time I did not see.
I had to learn to trust the perspective of my coach, and my dad to believe that there was more I could give. That what I thought was my best, was not my best. I had more to give…
I believe the Lord treats us similarly. I believe He looks upon my weak effort at times and says,
“Really, is that the best you are going to give me?”
Sure, He loves me. Sure, He delights in me. But that doesn’t mean He does not hold me to a high standard and pushes me to give and accomplish more.
Men, God treats us like men. He sees what you are capable of. He sees the effort that you can give. He sees the strength that He has woven into your will, your heart and your being. He sees the lack of effort you are giving Him at times and exhorts you to give Him more.
All He wants is all you’ve got.
So, whatever you are in the midst of; whatever He has put into your hands; whatever may be a struggle for you right now – your work, your marriage, your parenting, your finances, your personal time with God – I encourage you to ask yourself:
“What is my spiritual work ethic? Am I giving God my best effort?
He deserves our best.
Isaiah 43:22
“Yet you have not called upon me O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me O Israel.”
Colossians 3:23, 24
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Deuteronomy 6:5
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
2 Timothy 2:15
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.”
The Walking Dead
Before we knew what was happening, we were in it. They were everywhere.
We rounded the corner, traffic began to slow down, and then it ground to a halt. As I scanned the road ahead of us looking for any clue as to the cause of the stoppage, the reality of our situation began to dawn on me.
What looked like small groups of poorly dressed pedestrians on the sidewalk turned into large groups of scruffy people stepping into traffic. And then like the rising waters of an unforeseen tsunami the people flowed in amongst the vehicles completely enveloping more and more motorists who were unfortunately right here, right now.
We were definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It then all became very clear. I now understood who these ragged hordes were. Hundreds of men, women, children, young and old slowly limped past our vehicle all uttering the same woeful cry, “Brains!”
They were the walking dead.
Anne and I on a beautiful summer’s day, on the way to celebrate our anniversary with the top down in the jeep, now found ourselves in the midst of Vancouver’s Zombie Walk. They were everywhere. All different kinds of people, even whole families with kids in strollers, were all decked out with torn and dirty clothes, deathly looking makeup and blood. Lots of blood. I had never seen a spectacle like this before.
What bothered me was the fact that there was no police presence for traffic control. Somebody could get hurt here. I phoned 911 and asked for the police. I informed the officer that Denman St. was at a standstill due to the fact that hundreds of zombies were wondering amongst traffic.
“Real Zombies?” he asked incredulously.
“No, the Zombie Walk is on.” I clarified.
Have you noticed the fixation our culture seems to have with zombies? Movies, TV shows, books, and, as in Vancouver, Zombie Walks that take place all over the world as some kind of a unique celebration of sorts. A few years ago our youngest son was showing great interest in reading a book I was unfamiliar with. When I checked it out I discovered it was entitled, “How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse”.
I don’t get it.
Sure, I enjoyed the movie I Am Legend, but zombies just seem to be everywhere in pop culture. I haven’t watched the TV shows, or read any books. I haven’t gotten caught up in the infatuation with the walking dead – I haven’t understood what all the fuss was about. However, I saw things in a different light recently when I heard a message that included this statement,
“Jesus didn’t come into the world to make bad people good, He came to make dead people alive.”
The speaker went on to use Zombies as a metaphor for the human race. Without Christ we are the walking dead, humans infected with a deadly virus called “sin” that robs us of true life. We experience a type of life that is not real life. It is not the life for which we were created. We are the living dead looking for true life.
The antidote for the virus that robs us of life is the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ transfused into our hearts through the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit heals us from the ravages of sin. We are born again out of death into life. We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of life.
The walking dead are made alive by the death and resurrection of Christ. The blood of Christ cleanses us from sin.
Zombies: such were you and I before we experienced the life of Christ.
The virus known as sin had infected us so that we were the walking dead, devoid of the life of God. Jesus paid the price to set us free from sin to make us alive in Him. The law of sin and death constrained mankind to a living death. The blood of Christ sets us free from the law of sin and death.
What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What makes the walking dead come alive? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Colossians 2:13, 14
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Ephesians 2:4, 5
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 1:7, 8
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,
Hebrews 9:14
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
The Rules Don’t Apply To Me
We walked slowly down the path from the dining hall toward the main lodge where the classroom was located. Surrounded by 19 acres of beautiful west coast temperate rain forest, this former kids camp was a beautiful location for a Bible School.
I was chatting with one of our instructors while strolling back from a great meal. He was one of my favourite teachers. He was wise, he was extremely knowledgeable, he was personable, he was a great communicator and I knew he cared about me. I was a passionate young man eager to learn all I could about God’s Word and its application to my life and that to which God was calling me.
I was hanging on his every word. His perspective on the Kingdom of God I found to be exhilarating. I wanted to be the greatest follower of Jesus I could be. I wanted to be great in the Kingdom of God.
And that was a bit of a problem because I didn’t quite understand what it meant to be a servant. I didn’t quite get the fact that I was meant to be spent for the benefit of others. I was caught up in the triumphalism of the Kingdom. I would later learn that the door to my future in Jesus was in the shape of a coffin as He beckoned me to come and die.
This day I was caught up in the glory and the grandeur of God and His plan for us. At least I was until my teacher dropped the bomb…
“Dave, is that your desk in the alcove by the classroom?”
“Yes, I put it up there to set up a special place for me to really focus on my studies.”
“Don’t the other students share desks down in the library?”
“Yes, but I had access to my own desk from home so I put it up there to make my own unique space.”
And then came the bomb…
“Dave, the mindset that led you to put your desk there is that which led David to sin with Bathsheba.”
After I took a few seconds to recover from the explosion of his words I asked him to explain. He helped me to see how David thought he was above the rules. He stayed home at the time when “kings went to war”. When he should have been out with the men fighting for Israel he stayed home with the women – and that’s when he spied out Bathsheba. He was king, he could do what he wanted.
David thought the rules didn’t apply to him, and that’s what I was doing. Sure, it’s innocuous enough, my desk set up in a cute little alcove surrounded with motivational posters and quotes on the wall. When the other students would leave the classroom to go into the lodge they would all parade past my desk set up and see what an awesome space I had created for myself. All of them had to study in the library with shared desks. But not me – I was special.
And that’s just it: I thought I was special. The rules didn’t apply to me. I was above the rules. And it’s that kind of thinking that, if left unrepented of, leads to all manner of sin.
It’s amazing to think the “big ugly” sins we think we would never be capable of committing begin with a subtle mindset that the rules don’t apply to me. My bible school instructor’s confrontation was a loving rebuke to help me address a natural tendency I had to push the rules, to think I was special.
So, acting on his exhortation, I moved my desk downstairs to the library. I didn’t put up any of my personalized motivational posters. I made my desk available to all the students. Since that time I have been on a journey to beat back the belief that somehow I’m above the rules.
Do you think the rules don’t apply to you? Ask the Lord to help you see where you think you’re above the rules, then deal with it. That mindset is the root of much sin.
1 Samuel 11:1-4
“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.”
Galatians 5:9
“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
Philippians 2:3, 4
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Secret Agent Man
The crowd was waiting in highly charged anticipation for the arrival of the special guest. Scores of people were expecting something special – someone special. They hadn’t had a visitor like this before. His appearance had been promoted for quite some time prior to the date of his coming.
They had many guest presenters before, but never like this. When he arrived the lights were dimmed and the music began to play. The theme song to Mission Impossible was the catalyst to supercharge the atmosphere with excitement. They could barely contain themselves.
He slowly made his way through the crowd in a black suit, dark sunglasses, black leather gloves and a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. He definitely had an air of mystery about him. The crowd went crazy when he was introduced. So, who was he really? Or more accurately, what was he?
He was a Secret Agent.
It was Missions Week at Kelowna Christian School. The crowd was a classroom of grade 1 and grade 2 students. My sons were two of those students. And who was the guest speaker? Well, that guest speaker was me.
I was the Secret Agent.
Let me explain…
When the school administration announced that Missions Week was coming up I inquired what exactly that meant. I was informed that missionaries would be coming to the school to speak to the students about missions. The school wanted to expose the students to the world of international missions and create the opportunity for the kids to catch an interest in and passion for missions.
I was told Missions Week can often be the time when some students begin to feel called to “full-time ministry”.
Great, I don’t have a problem with that. However, it’s important we understand that we are all called to full-time ministry. Full-time ministry is not a unique call given to a select few super Christians. Jesus didn’t call anyone to give Him part of their life. He has called each of us to give Him our whole life.
We’re all called to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God – the Government of God. God’s rule extends into all aspects of society. Locally or globally we are representatives of God’s rule and reign: God’s way of living. God’s Government is meant to be lived out by all of God’s people in every area of our culture and society: education, business, justice/law, arts/culture, health/wellness, media, the charitable sector, government, etc.
Our mission is to facilitate God’s Kingdom coming and God’s will being done in us and through us in everything we do. It’s how we are called to do life. I wanted to somehow help the students understand this truth.
So, believing as an entrepreneur I was called into full-time marketplace ministry, I asked the school principal if I could speak at Missions Week. I wanted the students to understand about marketplace ministry. I wanted them to know that we are all called to be full-time ministers of the Kingdom.
Enter the idea of a Secret Agent. I decided to introduce myself as a Secret Agent as a metaphor for the truth I wanted to convey. I believe we are all “secret agents” of sorts. You see, a secret agent is on a covert mission. In order to participate in the covert mission they need a “cover” of sorts to enable them to blend in to society and fulfill their mission.
You and I are on a mission from God. We are on a mission to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done in us and through us in everything we do. This is why we work, this is why we go to work. If you go to work just to ‘make money’ you are missing the point.
We work to see God’s kingdom come and His will done in us and through us. The work we do is our cover. We are ‘disguised’ as teachers, business people, mechanics, lawyers, gardeners, painters, programmers and myriad other occupations. Our ‘cover’ enables us to engage in our mission.
Your work is your cover for your real mission: an ambassador of God’s Kingdom.
You are a Secret Agent.
Colossians 2:23
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,”
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
2 Corinthians 5:20
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Matthew 16:24
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”
God Still Parts Waters
HELP!!!!!!!!!
Have you ever prayed that 4-letter prayer? It is a deep, guttural prayer that comes out of the pit of your stomach motivated by an overwhelming, paralyzing fear.
We were standing at the edge of an economic Red Sea. I could hear the sound of Pharaoh’s financial chariots bearing down on us. I had no job, and no prospects. I was terrified.
Anne and I and our 2 “toddler” sons had left Winnipeg to move back to BC. I’d been working with the Winnipeg Jets, who were going to Phoenix. We believed the Lord was leading us back to BC.
I had spent a lot of time during my last year with the hockey club cultivating an employment opportunity with a Kelowna organization. They had indicated they wanted to hire me to start a program I had presented to them. There were a few details to work out, but they were excited to bring me on.
So, with faith in our hearts that the Lord was calling us to Kelowna, and the assurance of this organization that they were intending to hire me, we sold our home and shipped all our belongings to Kelowna. We headed to Langley for a few weeks to stay with Anne’s parents prior to the anticipated date for the start of my new job.
Then the day came of the dreaded phone call.
We had been at Anne’s parent’s farm for 4 weeks when I got the call that the deal was off. What? Did I just hear you correctly? We have been talking about this for a year…everything was planned…everything was about to fall into place…
I was gutted. I was winded. I was devastated. How could God let this happen? We were following Him. He was supposed to provide.
I went for a desperate prayer walk with the Lord and prayed that gut honest 4-letter prayer – HELP! I felt like we were the Israelites who had been led out of Egypt only to be trapped at the Red Sea, waiting to be slaughtered by Pharaoh’s financial forces. The economics of reality were about to drown us.
In the midst of my fear laden, anxiety ridden, terrorized state, the Lord asked me a very simple question. He gently whispered to me,
“Do you believe I still part waters?”
I was taken aback. What? What does that mean? I hadn’t initially seen out situation through the lens of the Israelites escape from Egypt, but the similarity of our situation began to dawn on me as I chewed over what the Lord has said to me. We believed the Lord was leading us to a new land. We had moved a great distance to take hold of that which we believed the Lord had promised us.
But now there was something in our way we had not anticipated. We were trapped by something we didn’t know how to get around. I realized I had no option. I had to believe that God can still part waters, or we were dead.
I confessed, “Lord, if you don’t part the waters I don’t know what we’ll do.”
It was at that point I felt the Lord tell me to start my own company. Are you kidding? I have no idea how to start or run a business. I don’t even know how to spell “entrepreneur”.
Unbeknownst to me, this was the beginning of an amazing entrepreneurial journey the Lord has called me on. He completely changed the trajectory of our lives. This was the beginning of discovering my new found glory.
And it started with a shattered opportunity.
Are you facing a Red Sea of sorts? Are you staring into a pile of broken dreams wondering what on earth is going on? Do you feel abandoned by God when you stepped into the very thing you believed He had promised you?
I am here to tell you that God still parts waters. God will make a way. As you cry out to Him, surrender your expectations and ask Him for direction He will make a way through.
God still parts waters. He did it for the Israelites, He did it for us, and He can do it for you.
Exodus 14: 13, 14
“Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.’”
Psalm 32:8
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Isaiah 30:21
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”
Keep Moving Forward
They spotted me.
I could hear their commander barking out orders,
“Bravo Charlie – bogie 10:00, move, move, move! Surround and terminate!”
What the…what’s going on?! My two fellow combatants immediately ran away. They were not up to a fight with these guys.
Before I knew it, I was all alone.
Being alone was bad enough, but by the time I thought through what had happened, what was happening, and what was about to happen, it was too late. I had not moved from the position in which I was originally spotted. They not only knew my location, but they had moved with such precision they now surrounded me.
I was behind a very large west coast cedar tree, which provided me with some cover, but any lateral movement made me wide open to their expert marksmen. So I did what any cocky early twenties weekend warrior would do – I froze with fear. I know, I know, I should have wheeled out from behind the tree with guns blazing, but I didn’t.
I’d like to say that I fought bravely and died quickly. But it would be more accurate to say that I thought slowly and died quickly. These guys we were fighting against knew how to keep moving forward as a unit, and we didn’t. I got caught alone; I got caught standing still.
And now I was dead. They simply confirmed their kill and kept moving forward.
It was the early 80’s and a group of my friends and I were playing this newly created war game known as Paint Ball. We were in the woods of BC and just happened to be pitted against the reigning BC Champs. These guys were serious weekend warriors. Truth be told, they were a little odd, but they knew how to fight together.
They sure dispatched us with expert precision.
I learned a valuable lesson that day: if you want to live, keep moving forward. And I learned that sometimes to move forward you need to move sideways and even backwards.
If I had kept moving, together with the rest of my fighting friends, I would have lived to fight another day. Or at least I would have lived for more of the day.
Moving = life. Standing still = death.
I believe this is not only a principle for success at Paint Ball, but it is a principle for spiritual success as well.
If we are not intent on moving forward in Jesus; if we do not keep “pressing on toward the goal” as Paul says, we will find our faith declining. If we think we can rely on “yesterday’s manna” we cannot sustain a vibrant spiritual health.
I thought I was safe where I was comfortable in a good hiding spot, but the enemy soon found me, surrounded me, and killed me.
If we choose to say in a safe, comfortable place in regard to our relationship with Jesus, or in regard to how we are choosing or not choosing to serve Him and serve others, we will begin to die. Faith is like a muscle, if it is not exercised it atrophies (shrinks) and gets weaker and weaker until it has no strength left.
Our faith must be exercised to be vibrant and growing – we must choose to keep moving forward in Jesus. We must choose to walk in communion with Him, listening to and obeying His leading in our lives even when it may be intimidating, or perhaps terrifying.
If you think you can sit still in a comfortable place of hiding and continue to grow, you are fooling yourself. Your spiritual enemies have already begun to surround you to take you out and take you down.
If we are going to experience the victory and life Jesus has for us we must keep moving forward. We must continue to seek Him. We must continue to walk in community with our fellow freedom fighters – the Church. We must continue to appropriate His Truth in our lives. We must continue to serve. We must continue to love. We must continue to give.
Press on to take hold of that for which Jesus took hold of you.
Keep moving forward.
Philippians 3:13, 14
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Hebrews 12:1
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”
Hebrews 10:35, 36
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
What Are You Prepared To Do?
“You said you wanted to know how to get Capone. Do you really want to get him? You see what I’m saying? What are you prepared to do?”
“Everything within the law.”, replied Ness.
“And then what are you prepared to do?…You must be prepared to go all the way because they won’t give up the fight until one of you is dead.”
And so the conversation goes between rookie Federal Agent Elliot Ness and his street smart veteran police officer recruit in the movie The Untouchables. The Untouchables portrays the real life struggle of Elliot Ness to put notorious criminal Al Capone behind bars.
Ness was born on April 19, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. He joined the Bureau of Prohibition in 1927 at the age of 24 and assembled a team of Prohibition enforcement personnel known as “The Untouchables” to combat the bootlegging activities of gangster Al Capone. Ness is the man recognized for destroying the liquor empire operated by Al Capone, including his arrest and conviction of tax evasion. Ness was instrumental in breaking the power Capone had over the city of Chicago.
The Untouchables movie depicts Elliot Ness as a young, idealistic agent of the US Treasury Department who really had no idea how to bring down Capone. His right hand man – the veteran Chicago cop portrayed by Sean Connery – knows what he’s up against.
And so, when he asks Elliot Ness, “What are you prepared to do?” it is with an understanding of what they are facing. He understands the nature of the battle in which they are about to engage. He knows when they open this door they have to be 110% committed to go all the way. This battle will not be won half-heartedly. Victory will only be accomplished if they are wholehearted in their commitment to this overwhelming challenge.
So what challenge are you facing? Is it daunting? Is it overwhelming? Is it terrifying?
Are you filled with faith, or are you full of doubt? Are you energized and engaged or are you at your wits end and the end of your rope?
“You must be prepared to go all the way because they won’t give up the fight until one of you is dead.” – this is actually a fairly accurate reflection of the nature of the opposition you and I face every day. Jesus told us that we have a spiritual enemy who is out to steal, kill and destroy. Our enemy’s objective is our spiritual death, and total carnage in our lives here on earth.
This would be utterly overwhelming if we were on our own. Sadly, many men choose to live alone and fall prey to the ruthlessness of our spiritual opposition. However, we’re not alone. Regardless of where you’re at, Jesus is up for the challenge. And, He said He would never leave or forsake us.
He’s already triumphed over our enemies by the cross. The spiritual opposition set against us has been defeated by Jesus’ death and resurrection. However, we must get hold of what He’s accomplished on our behalf. In Christ, in His authority, we have victory of the spiritual opposition sent to destroy us and those we love.
We must understand that living in the authority of Christ only comes by surrendering to the authority of Christ; by taking up our cross and following Him.
So, what are you prepared to do to get hold of the life of Christ? What are you prepared to do to get hold of the victory of Christ? What are you prepared to do to get hold of the authority, the healing, the deliverance, and the transformation of Christ?
Will you surrender and worship Jesus when it’s difficult? Will you walk in openness, authenticity and accountability within community? Will you meditate on Truth and reject the lies of the enemy? Will you pray? Will you be ruthless with sin in your life? Will you submit yourself to the input of others who can see your blind spots? Will you live a life of repentance? Will you serve and love others? Will you keep saying “yes” to Jesus?
What are you prepared to do?
Philippians 3:12-14
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:8
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (The Message)
“You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.”
Colossians 2:15
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Saviour AND Lord
Have you made the transition?
It’s one we all have to make. If we’re ever going to mature in our faith we have to make this shift in the nature of our relationship with Jesus.
When we first come to Christ we typically meet Him as our Saviour. He is saving us from our sins. We are trading our rags for His riches; our death for His life; our brokenness for His wholeness; our wounds for His healing; our weakness for His strength; our failures for His victory; our sorrow for His joy; our sin for His forgiveness; our loneliness for His family; our guilt and shame for His love and delight.
Classic evangelism is about “salvation” – getting people “saved”. This has to do with meeting and receiving Jesus as Saviour.
We all need to be saved. We are all lost without Jesus. Salvation is the beginning. However, we cannot stay there…
I believe Jesus wants us to know Him as both Saviour AND Lord.
Salvation is the gift of God – it is free because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our salvation transitions us from being citizens of the Kingdom of Darkness to becoming citizens of the Kingdom of Light. Our citizenship is changed: we become children of the Father in the family of God.
Once saved, we have to choose to live differently. We have to choose to surrender to Jesus as Lord. He said if we love Him we will obey His commands. Our prayer becomes, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
Knowing and walking with Jesus as Lord is choosing God’s will, God’s way. Surrender and obedience to God marks the life of someone who knows Jesus as Lord.
Salvation is free, but the Kingdom costs us our life. In order for us to appropriate the Kingdom – the Government of God – we must surrender to God. We must get off the throne of our lives and ask Jesus to take His place as Lord. We are no longer Lord, He is.
If we only know Jesus as Saviour our faith can be very selfish – what can Jesus do for me? When we grow to know Him as Lord our faith becomes very selfless – how can I serve Jesus? Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey His commands. He then said that He commands us to love one another.
The hallmark of a follower of Jesus who knows Him as Lord is a tangible, selfless love for others.
Men who only know Jesus as Saviour are always asking Him to take away the difficulties of life. Men who know Jesus as Lord invite Jesus into the difficulties. “Lord, I would love you to take this away, but not my will, yours be done. What is your will for me and for others through me in this situation?”
Men who have chosen to surrender to Jesus as Lord seek to know God’s will so they can walk with Him in that. Men who only know Jesus as Saviour communicate their will to God and ask Him to provide for their needs.
There is certainly no issue with asking the Lord to provide for our needs, but if that is all we are doing we are missing more of what God wants to do in us and through us to others.
The process of making Jesus Lord always involves difficulty, because He wants to know if you are willing to surrender your will to His. Are you willing to bring your hopes, dreams and expectations to the cross and lay them at Jesus’ feet? Or, are you simply willing to bring your troubles, trials, and failures to the cross so Jesus can take them away?
When we let Him know that we want to make Him Lord he invites us to join Him at the cross and surrender our “rights” to Him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,
“When Christ calls a man He bids him come and die.”
We can only truly experience the life of Christ when we have died to ourselves.
Do you know Jesus as Lord, or do you simply know Him as Saviour? True life is found only when we know Him as both Saviour AND Lord.
Ephesians 2:8, 9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Acts 4:12
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
John 14:15
“If you love me, keep my commands.”
John 13:34
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Matthew 16:24
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”
Fountain of Life
I made a fountain!
We have recently invested a fair bit into a new patio at the back of our house. An excavator dug out the former, decades old concrete patio that was falling apart and slowly sliding down the hill side toward the lake. We have replaced it with a beautiful new patio made of concrete flagstone pavers.
In one corner of the patio I planned to build a fountain. My plan was not to hire someone to build it, like we did for every other aspect of the patio. No, I wanted to do this myself.
For many of you men reading this you are thinking, “No big deal.” However, for me this was kind-of-a big deal. I’m not really a handy man. In fact, Anne says they only thing that makes me handy is that I live close by. OK, maybe not, but I am not the most skilled with my hands.
I wanted to build this fountain as a spiritual metaphor of me – and of all of us really.
When we moved into our home in the year 2000, the previous owners left a beat up old concrete urn. It is large, awkward and very heavy. It cannot be moved by one man. It stands about 3 feet high, and is about 3 feet in circumference.
We never really knew what to do with it, or where to put it. We moved it from here to there in the yard and planted some flowers in it, but it just didn’t seem to fit.
When we were planning our new patio I had vision for what I could do with it. It would become the centerpiece of my fountain. I designed it as a vanishing fountain, where the water overflows from it spilling out onto rocks of various sizes that are flush with the surface of the patio pavers. It is simple enough to look at, but all the secret sauce is under ground.
I had to cut out the pavers in a 6 foot square, dig out the 36 square feet to create a basin, bury a container for the pump over 2 feet deep, then hook up all the various piping and valves to carry the water from the pump up into the urn. However the entire area needed to be covered with a cushioning material, then a water proof rubber liner before the pump and piping could be inserted and assembled.
The urn itself needed to have its cracks filled and sealed so it would be water tight. As I mentioned, it is a beat up old urn. It was chipped, faded, cracked, with most of the paint worn off of it. It looks like is should be thrown out.
And herein lies the spiritual metaphor: that urn is a picture of me and you. We were beat up old cracked vessels, empty and not much good for anything until Jesus offered to fill us with His living water. Jesus has filled us with a well-spring of living water that overflows our lives – new life springs up from within us.
In order for my fountain to work it needs two critical components: 1. It needs water. 2. It needs power. If the pump is not plugged in there is no water springing up from within the battered old urn – even though there may be water in the pump basin. And if the pump is plugged in but there is no water in the basis there will be no water overflowing from the urn.
So what does this mean for us? Well, no matter how you slice it we are battered and broken urns. Jesus has offered us new life – a well-spring of living water flowing out from our inner most being. However, we need to stay plugged into Him in order for the water of life to flow out of us.
Are you plugged into Jesus and experiencing His living waters springing up? If you feel dry, plug into Him and ask Him to fill you with His living water. He has promised to do so for those who ask.
You my friend are a fountain of life – Jesus’ life in and through you – believe in Him.
John 7:38
“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
John 4: 13, 14
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
John 4:10
“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’”
Proverbs 4:23
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
God-Confidence, Not Self-Confidence
“I feel like everything I touch is falling apart.”
We were sitting in a restaurant having breakfast together. I was pouring out to a friend how it felt like my life was a disaster. All the things that used to be good were now going bad. It felt like I was cursed or something.
At one time it felt like I had the Midas touch – everything I touched seemed to turn to gold. Now it was all turning to… manure. My work, my marriage, my ministry in the church, my relationships were all souring. What was going on?
My world was crumbling…
Another friend told me he had a dream about me. His dream was of a building that was in the process of being torn down. Piece by piece it was being dismantled by a giant excavator. The rubble was littered all over the ground at the base of the building.
He got the sense that the building was a picture of my life.
The problem with the building was that its foundation was flawed. The Master Builder wanted to make the building more significant, but the flawed foundation would not be able to sustain the planned structure. So, because the Master Builder had a greater vision for the building, He was dismantling it. His plan was to form a stronger foundation that could carry the weight of the larger building He was going to build.
Dismantling is never a pleasant process, especially when you are not aware what the plan of the Master Builder is. It feels like punishment. It feels like God has abandoned you. It feels like the life God promised you is a lie. When you are in the midst of Godly dismantling you need the Godly input of people who know God and love you.
One such friend said something that was a turning point for me:
“I think God is shifting you from self-confidence to God confidence.”
What does that mean? Lord, I need your help to understand what this means…
So the Lord took me on a journey of surrender to discover His strength and His confidence, not my strength and my confidence. I had a great deal of self-confidence, but that is not what God has called us to. God has created us and called us to discover His strength, His hope, His love, His joy, His peace, His faith, His freedom, and His life that is way beyond our own resources.
It’s not about self-confidence, it’s about God-confidence.
We have not been created to live in our own strength. The way of this world is to discover your own strength. Self-confident people are lauded as role models for others to emulate. Yes, God has created you with unique gifts, talents, abilities, interests and desires. You have a uniqueness the world needs. You need to discover your uniqueness and live boldly in who you are.
However, your true uniqueness as a created being can only be truly discovered in communion with your Creator. Your God-given strength can only be revealed in relationship with God. As you surrender yourself to Him, you shift from depending on your own strength to His; your own wisdom to His; your own resources to His.
As you surrender to God the foundation of your life will be rebuilt. It is transformed from the shifting sand of human wisdom and lies meant to keep us from God’s life, to the bedrock of God’s Truth. On the foundation of God’s Truth you can withstand the storms of this life.
There is only one way to live in God-confidence: surrender to Him. Not your will, but His. Not your desires, but His. Not your wisdom, but His. Not your life, but His. Not your plans, but His.
If you are feeling like your life is crumbling it may be that the Master Builder is calling you to surrender to Him. He is inviting you to discover His confidence. He is offering you a trade – self-confidence for God-confidence.
That’s a good trade. It has made all the difference in my life.
Philippians 3:3, 4, 7, 8
“For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh – though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more… But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
Isaiah 31:1
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord.”
Jeremiah 17: 7, 8
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Is It OK To Pray?
We gazed intently into the dark waters looking for what was ascending toward us. Fear, dread and hope mixed together to create a unique sense of anticipation about what we were about to experience.
We were nearing the end of our efforts. We had tried again and again with no success. Would this be the attempt that would lead to success and freedom from that which had held us captive? Would our frustration, fear and dread finally yield to exhilaration and joy?
This attempt was our final option – we had exhausted all other avenues. If this didn’t work we would either have to go back and keep repeating what had previously not led to success, or we could cut our losses. This could be an expensive lesson in regard to what we would not do next time.
As we strained to discern an indication our efforts had been successful, our fear and dread suddenly turned to euphoria. Our efforts had paid off! We had overcome the odds set against us. We prevailed.
We got our anchor unstuck!
Four men on a 40’ boat. We dropped anchor in a beautiful cove off Gambier Island amidst a number of other anchored vessels. What we did not know was that the bottom of the bay was littered with logging debris and was a bit notorious for snagging anchors.
If you snag an anchor you have a couple of choices. You can attempt to pull the anchor in numerous directions other than the one in which the current and wind have been pushing you. We did this in four directions with no success. It wasn’t budging. In fact, in our efforts to free the anchor we crumpled the anchor pulpit.
We decided to do something prior to our successful attempt to unsnag the anchor. We hadn’t done this on any of the previous attempts. We should have thought of it earlier, but we didn’t.
After much frustration we said, “Hey, let’s pray about this.”
So, we gathered together and simply asked the Lord to help us get unstuck. We were experiencing no success with our human efforts, so we asked the Lord for His assistance.
As we were cruising back to safe harbour with the anchor now securely affixed to our crumpled anchor pulpit, one of the men said, “I don’t think I would have prayed about that. I would have just done what I thought needed to be done and thanked God if I was successful.”
His honesty sparked a conversation about how we can simply pound through situations without praying. We often don’t invite the Lord into the challenges we’re facing. Not because we want to exclude the Lord, but simply because we don’t really think of asking for help. We just try to figure it out.
We often wonder, “Does God even care about this?”
Even as I am writing this article my i-phone is non-functional. I am doing everything I can to update the software, reboot and refresh the system, talk to Apple to figure out what is going on, search for how I wipe out and restart my system, but have I prayed? No. Why not?!
I’m just trying to figure it out.
Does God care? He cares about us and, therefore, cares about the things that impact us. Is he bothered if we invite Him into these kind of situations? I don’t think so.
However, He is not a vending machine God – press D3 for what we want when we want it. He sees far more than we see. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He wants us to live life in Him, communing with Him, seeing from His perspective; from a broader, Godly, Kingdom perspective.
So, in the midst of your simple challenges, like our anchor scenario, it’s totally appropriate to ask the Lord to help you see things from His perspective, to ask for wisdom and strength to do what needs to be done, and to ask for His divine intervention.
We can cast our cares on Him because he cares for us.
Is it ok to pray? Absolutely – far more often than you may think.
1 Peter 5:7
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
James 4:2b, 3
“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
Ephesians 6:18
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
How Do You Handle Conflict?
Do you avoid conflict? Do you create it?
We all handle conflict a little differently. Some of us try to avoid it at all costs. Some of us make a habit of it. Some of us work through conflict.
Do you think that an absence of conflict is a sign of a good relationship? Many of us do. If we don’t have any conflict then we must have a good relationship – right? Well, I really don’t think so.
I recently spent some time with an international management consultant who uses a very interesting litmus test for the health of a business. He is often sent in to assess the value of a company that his client wants to acquire. This is one of the key assessments he uses to make a recommendation in regard to whether or not his client should buy the company:
Does their leadership team know how to work through conflict?
The reality is, people in close relationships will not always agree. We will disagree. Not only will we disagree, but we will have conflict on occasion. Because we are flawed, we will do and say things that hurt each other.
The question becomes, how will we deal with the conflict?
When in conflict we have 3 choices: Attack, Avoid or Attend to the issue.
I have the capacity to engage in all 3 options, but my primal reaction is to avoid and attack. However, I do it in a very unique way. I can fall back into a core lie I first believed decades ago. I am free from it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to keep battling it when I am in conflict.
So, when someone hurts me I am tempted to disengage and believe the lie that, “I don’t need you”. I can respond with, “Fine, I don’t need you anyway” and withdraw from the relationship. No, I’m not angry, I’m not resentful – I just don’t need you. We’re done.
It’s avoidance and a passive attack. It’s a horrible conflict coping mechanism I have to deal with when someone hurts me.
I am tempted to do this with both friends and family. It’s terrible. But more than that, it’s sinful. It’s also cowardly. You hurt me, fine – I don’t need you anyway. I can shut people out. This sinful coping mechanism will keep me isolated and alone, never getting close to anyone.
My life will be devoid of close relationships if I don’t choose to attend to the issue and believe the Truth not the lies, receive the grace of God and extend it to others, forgive, and then courageously have the conversation that needs to be had. Avoiding and attacking will not solve anything.
I am somehow wired to feel things deeply, so when people hurt me I feel it. I wish I didn’t feel things as deeply as I do, but that’s who I am. I have a tendency to be overly sensitive and let things impact me in a way they don’t perhaps need to. And, it takes work for me to extend grace and believe the best about people.
I can’t really change my sensitivity, but I can change how I react to being hurt.
I have to choose not to avoid the conflict. I have to choose grace toward those who hurt me, I have to choose forgiveness, I have to choose not to believe the lie that I don’t need anyone, and I need to choose to work through it, to have the conversation.
We cannot avoid being hurt, we cannot avoid conflict, but we can choose how we respond to it. We can choose to courageously have the conversation that needs to be had and extend grace and forgiveness to others. We can also choose to humbly own and apologize for our hurtful actions and sinful choices.
We can learn to choose not to attack, and not to avoid, but to be courageous enough to attend to the situation and work through the hurt to resolve the conflict and the relationship.
So, are you aware of how you handle conflict? What will you choose: Avoid, Attack or Attend to the issue?
Colossians 3:12-14
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Proverbs 10:12
“Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.”
Ephesians 4:26, 27, 32
“’In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Hardship or Opportunity?
The sound was like a 2×4 breaking in two. It reverberated across the entire soccer pitch commanding the attention of players and spectators alike. The game came to an abrupt halt.
I lay on the ground writhing in pain aghast at what my leg looked like. My right lower leg was bent at a right angle. My tibia was completely snapped in half and my fibula was snapped into thirds by two breaks. Three clean breaks meant that my lower shin and foot flopped around like a rag doll as I rolled around on the ground in agony.
When I hit the ground I clearly heard the Lord say to me, “I did this. I’m with you.”
It was third year university and I was playing soccer. It’s tough to say what really happened other than it appears when I attempted to clear the ball out of our zone an opposing player put his foot on the other side of the ball. All the force of my kick went back into my leg and it shattered.
The break was so violent it nearly severed the nerve to my foot. The broken bones along with the nervous damage made for some intense pain. The bones were very unstable and had to be set three times. My leg was casted for 2 months when we discovered it was healing crooked.
The orthopedic surgeon then rebroke my leg, took a bone graft from my hip, and bolted a surgical steel plate up the length of my shin. The plate was left in for 2 years then taken out. I had to stay off it for another year. In all the process took about 3 years. My leg works great now though.
The most painful part of the ordeal ended up not being the breaks, it was the nervous damage caused by the breaks. Have you ever really smacked your funny bone and experienced the intense nervous pain in your hand and arm? That was what my foot felt like.
It was very tough.
In the midst of the pain and discomfort I remember crying out to the Lord that I didn’t want to miss what He wanted to say to me and do in my life. He told me to calm down and know that I couldn’t miss what He was doing as long as I Ieaned into Him and rested in Him.
He had invited me into a hardship that was an opportunity to grow in Him; to know Him in new ways. He did something in my heart that could not have happened any other way. He was tenderizing my heart and teaching me to trust in Him and not in my own strength.
I had a choice: would I see this solely as a hardship, or would I see it as an opportunity to know Him?
I believe this is one of life’s key choices: will we see difficulties, trouble, sorrow, loss, sickness, and pain simply as hardship we want to get out of, or will we see it as opportunity to know the Lord?
Do we ask the Lord to get us out, or do we ask the Lord to help us find Him in it?
Anne has a very close friend who for decades has suffered through a life threatening sickness that has caused her much pain, discomfort and inconvenience – exceedingly more difficult than my simple broken leg. Has she sought healing? Yes. However, the Lord has not healed her yet. Is she bitter and angry in her hardship? No. She has discovered Jesus in the midst of it.
She has transitioned from hardship to opportunity. She is a powerful testimony to a heart yielded to God, walking in the intimacy of His grace in the midst of the pain.
Are you facing an emotional, spiritual, or physical hardship? Are you getting lost in anger or resentment, or hopelessness, or sadness? I would encourage you to shift your perspective to see this as an opportunity to discover Jesus and His grace and love.
It is oftentimes in the midst of our deepest hardship where we discover the sweetest intimacy with Jesus. Hardship is our opportunity to know Him.
Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:38, 39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:17
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
A God-Shaped Vacuum
Shag carpets. Do you remember them? We had them throughout our house when I was growing up. We had red shag carpet in the family room, with white furniture.
Have ever raked carpets? One of my jobs was to rake the rugs. We had a specific shag rake for the job. The shag was so long I would rake the strands of carpet like I was combing hair. It seems crazy now, but back then it was the thing to do.
Sadly, what was typically under the carpets was beautiful hardwood floors. In the 70’s everyone seemed to be putting wall-to-wall carpeting over their hardwood floors. Crazy.
I wouldn’t doubt if this was the beginning of the golden age of vacuums. Vacuum sales was big business: Kirby, Hoover, Electrolux, and Bissel were some of the big brands. We had a Kirby. It was a very heavy vacuum for a skinny 89 pound 13 year old. I got very adept at using my foot to assist my arm in pushing it forward.
Once a week every Thursday night I had to vacuum the carpets. Man could that Kirby suck. Anything that got remotely close to the intake would be sucked up into the bag never to be seen again…
It was around this time I got introduced to the term “a God-shaped vacuum”. This was a common term used in 70’s evangelizing to describe the inherent desire in all of mankind to know God. We have been created by God with a void that only He can fill. We try to fill this void with the things of this world, but nothing satisfies – only God Himself can satisfy.
The term “a God-shaped vacuum” is widely attributed to Blaise Pascal, the famous mathematician. However, he never said it. I think the term is a brilliant wordsmithing of this section of his book entitled “Pensees”:
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself”
“This infinite abyss can be filled only with…God Himself.”
Every man, every woman has been created to be in relationship with God, our Creator, our Father. We have been hard-wired to know Him. The essence of who we are will always be incomplete without Him. The very purpose of our creation is to be in relationship with God, so it is no wonder we feel less than whole, we feel incomplete, we feel empty, we feel a void if we are not in relationship with Him.
Pascal described this incompleteness as a craving; a helplessness; an infinite abyss; an empty print or trace of the true happiness we once had before sin created a chasm, a schism between mankind and God. Would it not make sense that creation would feel hopelessly incomplete without relationship with the Creator?
I believe the God-shaped vacuum in each of us never stops desiring God. Certainly when we are born again we become a new creation by the profound work of the Holy Spirit – our dry and thirsty soul is overwhelmed by the love of God. We come alive in a way have never been before.
However, I believe we continue to crave more of God. We hunger and thirst for more of Him, and we always will this side of heaven. When we choose to walk independently apart from God and do not feed on His Word and drink deeply of His life and love, we feel the depth of our being longing for more of the infinite. Nothing but God Himself can satisfy.
Do you look for life in the things of this world? Has success, or stuff, or sex, or innumerable other stimulants caught your heart? There is a God-shaped vacuum inside of you that refuses to be filled by nothing but God Himself.
Psalm 63:1
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”
Ephesians 2:13
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Romans 6:22, 23 (The Message)
“But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”
John 15:5-7 (The Message)
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.”
Linger Longer
Ahhh yes, nothing to do but relax. Take it easy, kick back, and do nothing…
We had booked some time away in March at a very cool and quaint resort on Vancouver Island called Yellow Point Lodge. Anne’s family has had a special connection with this property for 3 generations. Anne loves the fact that this extraordinary place is steeped in family history.
We rented one of their little cabins nestled amidst the arbutus trees on a cliff over-looking the ocean. When I say “little” I mean a tiny bathroom, couch and comfy chair, bed and wood stove and that’s it. Perfect for doing nothing but reading, writing and napping. Which Anne was quite pleased with, but me, I don’t do well with “nothing”.
How do you “do” nothing?
On rainy days we sat inside drinking in the glorious display of God’s creation right outside our front window, as we warmed ourselves in the slightly smoky heat of the wood stove. On sunny says we explored the vast property walking its nature trails meandering throughout the immense temperate West Coast rain forest. We also strolled along the amazingly sculpted sandstone shoreline, and brilliantly white crushed shell beaches that rim the oceanside of the property.
On one sunny afternoon I wandered out to a lunarscape-esque sandstone point around the bay from our cabin. I sat there relaxing as best I could, simply gazing out at the ocean and the gulf islands archipelago east of the property, while trying to still myself to listen to the Lord.
All the while I say gazing and stilling myself it felt like my inner engine was idling at high RPMs. I was itching to move, to explore, to discover, to move on – to “do”. I had to fight the urge to move on. Yes, I wanted to be still and listen to the Lord, to commune silently with Him, but it was proving to be more difficult than I thought.
I was about to move one when I felt the Lord simply whisper,
“Linger longer.”
Ok, I can do that. So I stayed and asked the Lord what He wanted to say to me. “What do you want to show me Lord?” I gazed out to sea secretly hoping the Lord might put on an amazing killer whale show of some kind.
Nope. Nothing special…
Well, nothing special except, of course, for the spectacularly glorious beauty of God’s West Coast creation, the awesome nature of the sun’s rays that were warming my skin and the fact that I am beloved by my Heavenly Father who made all this to demonstrate His love and incredible power and creativity. Not to mention what Jesus has done to adopt me into the family of God and set me free to experience the life, freedom, hope, love and relationship I was created for before mankind fell into the bondage of sin and death.
No, nothing too special about this little time with my Father amidst His creation.
Are you kidding me?! The whole scenario is awesome and amazing if only I have the eyes to see it. I need to learn to “gaze” deeper into what surrounds me. I think the more we look, the more we will see. I think the more we learn gaze into the glory of God, the more we will discover Him.
If we will choose to Linger Longer we will deepen our relationship with God. I am learning to remind myself to Linger Longer when I find myself wanting to move on to some sort of activity when I have chosen to stop and be still.
Why Linger Longer? Am I hoping God will do something amazing to transform my life into the next stage of awesome? Or, am I simply hoping to somehow connect with my Father in a holy moment, to somehow gaze on the beauty of the Lord – to seek Him.
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
May we be men, like King David, who know how to Linger Longer and gaze on the beauty of the Lord.
Psalm 27:4, 8
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Psalm 84:10
“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”
Psalm 63:1
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”
Pop or Water?
Coke is a brand that is recognized by 94% of the world’s population. It is sold in over 200 countries. As a brand it is worth more than $74 billion dollars – that’s more than Budweiser, Pepsi, Starbucks and Red Bull combined. Total annual sales of Coca-Cola’s beverages is over $35 billion annually, making it the 84th largest economy in the world.
There are 1.7 billion servings of Coke consumed every day. Americans drink an overage of 399 servings of Coke per person each year. Mexicans drink an average of 665 servings of Coke per person annually.
One can of Coke contains 39 grams of sugar and 140 calories. Excessive consumption of Coke can lead to diabetes, heart disease, obesity, tooth decay, decreased sperm count, decreased bone calcium levels and numerous other health issues. One can of Coke each day increases the risk of blood sugar level problems by 25%.
Studies on the negative health effects of Coke, and other similar carbonated beverages – pop, are myriad. One thing is certain: the risk of negative health effects are far greater from drinking pop than from drinking clean water.
Our bodies are approximately 60% water. We need water to survive and to thrive. Without water we die. We can live for weeks without food, we can only live for days without water. Even slight dehydration can impact brain function, bodily functions and physical performance. Water is a critical compound for our health and well-being.
We do not need pop to survive and thrive.
The stark contrast between these two beverages is dramatic. One could arguably say that water is life, pop is death. Certainly solely consuming pop and no water will lead to health defects that will shorten your life expectancy.
I believe this is the fundamental life choice we face: will we choose to consume the Living Water we need to survive and thrive, or will we consume the things of the world that may taste good and give us momentary pleasure, but will ultimately lead to our spiritual death?
So, what do you imbibe? Are you drinking the Living Water that Jesus has offered us, or are you imbibing the things of the world that give you momentary pleasure, but are killing you? Do you look to Jesus and His Word for life, or do you look elsewhere?
Do you believe that Jesus is your only source of life, or do you believe you can find life elsewhere?
Many years ago when I was in the midst of the Lord’s refining fires I was sitting alone in the dark one night just wanting everything to change. I wanted my life to get better. I began to think that the best thing I could do was run away. I’d just get in my car and drive away. I could leave all my troubles behind.
Of course, this was a ridiculous plan, but I really thought running away would make things better. But as I was fantasizing about what that could look like the Lord whispered a life-altering insight into my heart,
“You still believe you can find life apart from Me.”
I believed that running away from my life and its difficulties would lead to life. I had not firmly settled the issue that life is found in only one place – Jesus. If I was not running to Jesus I was running away from Him.
When you are hurting, when you are discouraged, when you are scared, when you are overwhelmed, when you are anxious, when you are hopeless do you run to Jesus and drink deeply from the life He offers us, or do you go to the things of this world for life?
This situation is described in Jeremiah 2:13
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
God invites us to drink deeply of the Living Water He offers us, but we oftentimes choose to drink the “pop” of this world that will ultimately kill us. Jesus is our only source of life.
Pop or water – what will you choose?
John 4:14
“but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jeremiah 17:13
Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
John 7:38
“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
Isaiah 55: 1, 2
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
We Would See Jesus
I’m seeing something about myself that’s not good, but it’s necessary that I see it. The Lord, in His abundant grace, mercy and love is pulling back the veil of my heart to show me what lurks in the shadows.
He’s doing this so that I might get free of it and walk with Him in new freedom.
What am I seeing?
I’m discovering – I say “discovering” because I’m still in the midst of this journey – I’m ‘discovering’ that I seek God primarily for what He can do for, to and through me. I have to say that again slowly to myself to try to understand this; “I primarily seek God for what He can do for, to and through me.”
So what’s wrong with that?
Well, at first glance it doesn’t look too bad. At least it didn’t look too bad to me. I seek God to understand what He wants me to do – to learn more about the work in which He’s inviting me to partner with Him. What He wants to do ‘through’ me. I ask Him to work through me to somehow touch the lives of people for His glory. Sounds pretty good to me…
I also seek Him for what He wants to do ‘for’ me. I want to rely on the Lord’s strength, to not do things on my own. I ask the Lord to move on my behalf, to open doors that are closed, to grant favour where needed to do what I believe He has called me to do, to grant me influence to again do what He’s asking me to do for the benefit of others. Ok, sounds pretty good to me…
I also seek Him for what He wants to do ‘to’ me: Your Kingdom come and Your will be done in me and through me Lord. Change my heart God. Free me from that which hinders me from serving you. Fill me with the Holy Spirit; less of me and more of you…sounds pretty good to me.
Is any of this bad? No. Is it wrong for me to seek God this way? No. Am I missing something? Yes.
So what am I missing?
I realize I’m seeking Him for me, not for Him. My love for Him is a selfish love.
I want to learn to seek Him for Him. He’s the pearl of great price. He’s the treasure. He’s the goal. He’s love. He’s life. He’s the destination, the objective.
What would my relationship with my wife be like it I only pursued her for what she could do for, to and through me? Not good! I try to pursue her to delight in her. To enjoy who she is – period. Not because of what she can do for me.
Years ago I read a book called We Would See Jesus by Roy and Revel Hession. I’m now rereading it. One particular aspect of the book – its core message – profoundly impacted me at the time. Sadly, my grasp of that truth has slowly eroded over the years. Here is the truth,
“’What is the purpose of life?’ it is to know, and to love and to walk with God; that is to see God.”
The famous Westminster Confession answered the question, “What is the chief end of man?”:
“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”
I have focussed on the doing, on the working, on the service, on the accomplishing for God. In doing so I’ve missed an aspect of knowing God. Yes, I know God to a certain degree, but there is something more to knowing Him for Him, not for what He can do to, for and through me.
Lord, I don’t totally understand, but would You please shift my heart, help me to know You, to see You, to love You, for You. I want to learn to delight in You – period. To enjoy You – period. To love You – period.
Lord, please help all of us to seek You for You. Would you birth a hunger in us for You – period.
We would see Jesus.
Psalm 27:4
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”
Psalm 42:1, 2
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
Philippians 3:8
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ”
Does Joy Have a Price?
“What is your primary emotion?”
Interesting question.
“What exactly do you mean?”, I asked.
“Well, in day to day life, what do you feel most often?”, my friend clarified.
Ok, that’s what I thought. Hmm, what would it be? There are 5 basic emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger and disgust. All of which were poignantly illustrated in the movie Inside Out.
I’d have to go with joy. The more I thought about it I realized that I know my Father loves me. I know God delights in me. I know that He has promised never to leave me or forsake me. I know He has promised to provide for all my needs. I know that every good and perfect gift is provided by my Father of Lights. I know that I am the joy of the Lord.
He is a good father and I am loved by Him.
I don’t live in fear. I don’t live in sadness. I don’t live in anger or disgust. Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t experience those emotions, if I didn’t I wouldn’t be human. I experience them frequently – some much more than others. But those aren’t my ‘primary’ emotions.
I shared my thoughts with my friend.
“So what about you?”
My friend then shared she had begun to realize that her primary emotions were fear and sadness. Sure she experienced joy from time to time, but that wasn’t her day to day experience. And, her revelation was getting even deeper…
My friend realized that she believed joy has a price tag. If she did experience joy, she would have to pay for it later. Joy isn’t free, it will cost you.
Wow.
That does not sound good. Why would you ever want to be happy if you knew it was going to cost you, if you knew it was going to come back and bite you? That sounds like an amazingly twisted lie meant to steal all the joy the Lord has for my friend.
Our emotions are both voluntary and involuntary. We can experience emotions involuntarily: meaning that in the midst of whatever state you are in you can suddenly experience any of the 5 emotions by something occurring beyond your control. You receive some great news – joy; you receive some bad news – sadness; you narrowly escape a car accident – fear; someone does something unjust to you – anger; you drink sour milk – disgust; these emotions well up inside you on an involuntary basis.
In addition, we can choose each of these emotions – and indeed we should choose each of them. Scripture is filled with exhortations to choose these emotions: we are encouraged to rejoice in the Lord; the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; share in others people’s sadness; be angry and disgusted with sin; amongst many others.
However, is there a primary emotion we can choose to live in?
Yes, I believe there is. I believe we can primarily live in joy. This side of heaven we will experience all 5 basic emotions, but we can still primarily live in joy.
Jesus for the joy set before Him endured the cross. What was the joy set before Jesus? You and me! The joy that drove Jesus forward was knowing that through His death and resurrection mankind would be able to live in right relationship with our Heavenly Father as beloved sons and daughters of God.
You and I are the joy of the Lord. He delights in us. He rejoices over us with singing. We have been called to live in the joy of the Lord because we are His joy.
So, does joy have a price? Yes it does, and it has been paid by Jesus. Jesus gave His life to ransom us from the domain of darkness so we need no longer live in constant fear, sadness, anger or disgust. We can live in joy because of what He has done.
We can freely live in joy by believing the Truth of what Jesus has done for us. We can choose joy. Indeed, if we are to truly experience God’s heart for us, we must choose joy.
Joy has a price, but it’s been paid by Jesus. Choose joy.
John 15:9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Philippians 4:4
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Psalm 33:21
“In him our hearts rejoice for we trust in his holy name.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16
“Be joyful always.”
Be Still That You May Know Him
The clouds are low and the rain constant; the wind is still and the ocean calm.
For the most part the rain was captured in the upper branches of the cedars and Douglas Firs, but large drops would break through the canopy at irregular intervals to crash onto the leaves of the low level shrubbery just outside our front window. The small branches would flex under the weight of the drop, then rebound back up to their original position as the water droplets slid off.
If you’re really quiet you can hear the pitter patter of the rain on the roof’s cedar shakes, as well as the gentle waves of the pacific lapping against the shore just below the picture windows at the front of the cabin. My wife and I are staying a number of days in a tiny one room cabin on the ocean’s edge amidst a glorious temperate rainforest on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
The air inside the cottage is slightly seasoned with the smoky fragrance of the wood stove taking the chill out of the moist, cool March air. The odd super-charged crackle from the fire is the loudest sound we hear at the moment.
We are here to rest. We are here to slow down. We are here to be quiet. We are here to be still.
None of which I do very well.
I find myself wondering, “What will I ‘do’ during our time here?” Well, maybe nothing. “Yes, but I don’t ‘do’ nothing well.” That’s because you can’t really “do” nothing – nothing is the absence of “doing”. Isn’t it?
I’m in uncharted waters here.
Lord, please help me. I know you exhort us to ‘Be still and know that You are God.’ There is something we discover about You in the stillness. You are found in unique ways when we choose to slow down, rest, be quiet and be still.
It’s hard.
It’s almost like I am out of control and must trust that You will speak to me, commune with me, interact with me according to Your initiative. My part is simply to surrender the demands of my world to You, to step off the treadmill, breathe, be and listen.
To ‘be’ silent – not just ‘do’ silent.
I find it very hard to ‘do’ silent, let alone ‘be’ silent. Doing silent is simply not talking. Being silent is actually creating an inner silence. It’s calling a time out in the emotional and cognitive rugby game going on in my mind and heart.
Being still is a whole other challenge. ‘Doing’ still is tough enough – not moving around much. Changing the pace of my movement – of my life – is difficult, “Ok, consciously shift from high gear to low gear. Slow down. Now, shift from slow to stop.”
What? “Stop” is counterproductive. Or perhaps “stop” is counter intuitive?
If we “stop” and are silent can we actually be and do more? Perhaps as we choose to be still and be silent we are infused with the heart and presence of God that cannot occur any other way? In the stillness and silence do we find God anew?
I trust this to be true.
In Psalm 46:10 when the Lord exhorts of to, “Be still and know that I am God.”, it is in the midst of the tumult. The psalm begins with the promise that,
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountain fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam and the mountain quake with their surging.” Psalm 46:1-3
That doesn’t sound very “still” and “silent” does it?
However, in the midst of the cacophony of the crisis the Lord promises that, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” Psalm 46:7
Not only that, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” Psalm 46:5
Even in the midst of the cacophony of crisis the Lord invites us to be still and discover Him in a new way. Let’s fix the eyes of our hearts on the truth that He is with us, He is our help, He is our fortress, He is our joy, and we can choose stillness and silence in the tumult and know Him.
May we all know how to be still and be silent, that we may know Him.
My Heart Christ’s Home
Robert Boyd Munger wrote a tract that deeply impacted me as a teenager. My Heart – Christ’s Home has stuck with me for decades. The picture he paints is of Christ coming into our home as a guest. Jesus begins to make Himself at home as per our invitation. We soon begin to realize the changes that need to take place in our lives as Jesus goes through each room in our home/heart…
The library represents our thoughts and intentions. As “Christian” indicates, “There was a lot of trash and literature on the table that a Christian had no business reading, and as for the pictures on the wall – the imaginations and thoughts of the mind – some of these were shameful.”
Jesus encourages him to clean out this room. Throw out all that which is not Truth. Fill the shelves with scripture and meditate on Truth day and night. Take the worldly images off the walls and replace it with a portrait of Jesus – focus your attention on Christ.
The Dining Room is the place of appetites and desires. Christian has spent much time here satisfying his wants. Sadly though, that which He has been feeding upon are the things of the world. When he offers this food to Jesus he realizes that Jesus is unwilling to consume it with Him.
Jesus tells him, “I have meat to eat that you know not of…If you want food that really satisfies, seek the will of the Father, not your own pleasures, not your own desires, not your own satisfactions, but seek to please me. That food will satisfy you.”
The living room is where Jesus suggests that he and Christian meet. Jesus promised, “I will be here early every morning. Meet me here, and we will start the day together.”
Morning after morning Christian would meet with Jesus in the living room where Jesus would unfold the Truth of His Word in a transformational way. These were rich times together. Sadly though, little by little the times began to be shortened under the pressures of life, until Christian began to miss days.
As he was rushing off to work one day he realized that Jesus had been faithfully waiting to meet with him every day, even though he had not shown up.
“Don’t let Christ wait alone in the living room of your heart, but every day find time, when, with your Bible and in prayer, you may have fellowship with Him.”
Jesus asks to see his workshop. “Well, this is quite well furnished. What are you producing with your life for the Kingdom of God? He looked at one or two little toys that I had thrown together on the bench. He held one up to me and said, “Are these little toys all that you are producing in your Christian life?”
Christian realized there was more Jesus had for him to produce. He surrendered to the master’s leadership. “Stepping around behind me and putting His great, strong hands under mine, holding the tools in His skilled fingers, He began to work through me. The more I relaxed and trusted Him, the more He was able to do with my life.”
The rec room is where Christian had certain associations and friendships, activities, and amusements that he wanted to keep for himself. Jesus wanted to do everything with Christian. Christian realized that he was deliberately leaving Jesus out of certain associations, doing things and going places that he knew Jesus would not enjoy.
He realized he was miserable without Jesus. Jesus then brought new friends into his life, new satisfactions, and new and lasting joys.
In the hall closet Christian kept a few things he didn’t want Jesus to know about. He kept it locked. However, Jesus could smell the stench from the closet and wanted to clean it out. Slowly and reluctantly Christian surrendered the key to his closet when he realized keeping it from Christ would impact their relationship.
“When one comes to know and love Christ, the worst thing that can happen is to sense His companionship withdrawing. I had to surrender. I’ll give You the key.”
Christ wonderfully cleaned out his closet and painted it – the dead things were gone.
“A thought came to me. ‘Lord, is there any chance that You would take over the management of the whole house and operate it for me as You did that closet? Would You take the responsibility to keep my life what it ought to be?’”
Jesus replied, “Certainly, that is what I want to do. You cannot be a victorious Christian in your own strength. Let me do it through you and for you.”
Christian dropped to his knees and gave Jesus legal title to his heart – his home. No more would Jesus be his guest. “Here it is, all that I am and have, forever. Now you run the house. I’ll just remain with You as a servant and friend.”
May we all truly make our heart Christ’s home.
Grace Grease Beats Offense
“Hey Dave, can I talk to you for a minute?”, he inquired.
“Sure, what’s up?”, I replied.
He led me to a private office and motioned for me to enter in. He closed the door behind us. A sense of dreadful bewilderment began to overtake me…
“There’s something I’ve wanted to talk to you about for a while…”, he then began to explain how I had offended him.
It was 1985, Anne and I had been married for 1 month and we were now spending our first year of marriage living communally at Bible School. We had our own room, but we shared a bathroom with 3 other couples. All our meals we taken in a dining hall where we sat at long tables of 12 people on benches.
There were singles, newlyweds, and families with children ranging in age from new born to teenagers. There were lots of children or all ages, but there seemed to be a particularly large number of pre-school aged children. And, many of the students were from England.
I discovered that even though we share a common language and heritage, Canadians and the British are fairly different. We were a unique mix of ages, nationalities, personalities, and every other variety of human difference and distinction. In many ways we were a pressure cooker where it was inevitable things were going to start heating up and popping.
Apparently my new found English friend did not like the way I was enthusiastically asking questions in class. His primary “offense” was simply that I asked too many questions. I should be quiet in class.
Hey, I was excited to be at Bible School and I was eager to learn, so I have no doubt I asked a few questions to learn as much as I could. When I don’t understand something I make sure I get clarification.
So my English classmate unloaded his frustration on me, stated that he realized he shouldn’t be offended with me, apologized and then simply said, “Ok?”.
No, not ok! Now I have a problem with you. Now every time I ask a question I feel bad – I’m wondering who else is getting offended by me asking a question.
Over the course of our year at Bible School I had other people come to me the same way to confess their offense and ask my forgiveness. Every time it made things worse. Through this experience I learned how not to handle offense.
If someone is rubbing you the wrong way, if they are “offending” you, it’s not their problem – it’s yours. Sure, if their behaviour is sinful, illegal or hurting people then it needs to be addressed. However, if it’s their style, personality, or some idiosyncrasy that gets under your skin then you need to apply some Grace Grease.
Take your “offense” to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you for your lack of grace. Ask Him to help you to have grace and love for the person rubbing you the wrong way. Then choose to put on some Grace Grease toward that person so the friction you feel slips right off. Have grace for them. Love them “in-spite of” their uniqueness.
Then, put your grace and love in action and do something to bless them. Give them a card or a gift, or invite them out for coffee – put legs to your decision to have grace for them. Show some practical love.
Don’t confess your offense to the person – that will make things worse. Believe me, I have lots of experience with this.
For example, was it wrong for me to ask questions in class? No. Did I ask too many? Perhaps. If it was a distraction then the teacher can address it, or a fellow student could simply chat with me after class and lovingly share their concern. Have the conversation before it becomes an offense.
If you are harbouring an offense toward someone, I suggest you confess your offense to the Lord. Then, put on some Grace Grease toward that person and do something practical to demonstrate your love for them.
Grace Grease beats offense every time. Nine times out of ten it’s your problem, not theirs.
Colossians 3:12-14
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Proverbs 19:11
“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”
Proverbs 17:9
“Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”
Hebrews 12:15
“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
Don’t Kid Yourself
I was wrecked. I was broken. I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed by what was going on. This would be a defining season in my life.
Your Road to Glory
“I want to start writing”, she offered with a mix of insecurity, fear and courageous resolve.
Wow. Very cool.
“Any idea what kind of writing?”, we inquired.
“Not really, creative writing – poetry I think.”, she tentatively replied.
And that was the beginning of it…
Over 8 years ago good friends of ours sat with us on our deck in the shade of a glorious maple tree in the sunbathed warmth of a beautiful Okanagan summer’s eve. In the safety and comfort of that moment our friend opened up her heart. She offered a desire that was brewing deep in her soul.
Even though she was a trained professional in a totally different discipline, who had dedicated years of her life to raising her children, she now felt a unique passion percolating. You could tell by the way she offered this seedling of hope that the desire was indeed very fragile. Still, in the midst of her vulnerability there was a conviction. She had uncovered this embryonic desire and would do her best to nurture and nourish it.
We have journeyed with our friend in the years since that magical and mystical moment. We have watched her struggle, and watched her persevere. We have seen the joys, and we have seen the heartaches. We have marveled at her courage and her commitment. When we invited her and her husband for dinner she would often ask if she could share a poem.
Yes, of course!
We were there when she began to exercise her creative muscle. We saw her strength and confidence grow over the years. She took courses. She went to conferences. She did writing retreats. She definitely exercised her creative capacity. We celebrated as her strength, confidence, boldness, courage and capability grew and grew and grew.
All the while she battled insecurities, fears, lies and self-limiting beliefs.
“Who am I to think I can do this? Who am it to think I have something wonderful to offer?”
As Marianne Williamson in Return to Love so eloquently stated…
“We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Our friend dared to believe that she had a glory yet to be revealed. She dared to believe that the Creator of the Universe had more of His glory He wanted to reveal through her. She dared to believe that as she persevered, as she wrestled, as she pursued, as she trained, as she practiced, as she succeeded and as she failed, that the Lord would be faithful to reveal more of the glory he had for her to give away for the benefit of others.
She dared to believe that her playing small did not serve the world.
We have enjoyed private recitations around the dining room table. We have attended performances at a wide variety of venues. We have heard stories of how she is using poetry to minister to people living on the streets. We have read reports of her Pop-Up Poetry initiatives. And now, the piece-de-resistance, we recently attended her first opera! She is officially now a “Librettist”.
The night of the opera I was in tears recalling the journey we have had the privilege of sharing with her.
Our friend is a wonderful example of the journey our Father invites us on to discover the greater glory He wants to reveal through us for the benefit of others. It starts with a subtle desire. And then we have a choice: will we nurture and nourish that desire, or will we let fear and insecurity extinguish the ember?
Walk your road to glory. Your playing small does not serve the world.
John 15:8
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
John 17:22
“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—“
Matthew 5:16
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”