Shake the Dust

This year God has spoken to me a lot about hospitality. He has reminded me of the intrinsic dignity of all people (all of us being created in his image--Genesis 1:26), of the way he loves and sees people (John 3:16), and the weight of the LOVE and hospitality we are entrusted with as Christians (Leviticus 19:34, 1Peter 4:9, Hebrews 13:1-2). 

Over and over he has reminded me that the people we interact with and the people he puts in our way, the dejected, the pained, the broken, the annoying, the liars, the harassed, the needy, they ALREADY have dignity. We don't give them dignity when we love them, we attempt to show them the dignity He has already given them. In reading the story of Mary and Martha most recently, he reminded me that people are more important than plans, they're more important than details, they're more important than social media (Luke 10:38-42). 

Even the little people he has given me in the past two years, they are SO MUCH more important than ALL of the other things I find to do.  More important than the dishes, the laundry, my Facebook feed, TV shows, movies. Our life should be about the people around us. Above anything else, he reminded me over and over that people matter, and that my life was increasingly lazy when it came to people, and intentionally loving them.

In my times walking away from Christ, there was a poem that always got to me. It reminded me that life was more than the things we do or our situation. It reminded me that our lives each meant more than the every little detail of our day. And it speaks to people to remind them of their worth. The author isn't a Christian author, and it isn't a Christian poem. But it is a poem meant to reach out to the outcast, the dejected, the people on the outside... the exact people we are supposed to love. It encourages the hearer to embrace the story you live, and have the courage to keep living. It seeks to remind people of their worth and dignity. If you are interested, you can listen to it here or you can read it (if you are like me and you can't focus on listening) here. The problem with it, of course, is that the point of life from a perspective like this is only to do it. To keep living your life just because the poet is telling you to. In a Christian life, it is because God is your joy and your peace, and you can live beyond what has happened in your life because He has saved you and overcome. You can push on because your life isn't about you, if becomes about Him. 

For a couple of years, I've allowed dust to settle in my life. I have grown comfortable with the life I live, I've allowed myself to grow stagnant in my relationship with God, and seeking him in my prayer life and in my quiet time. I've let dust settle on my relationships with friends, family, and most of all with my little ones. As the New Year begins, I feel like God is calling me to this. To Shake the Dust from my relationship with him, to shake the dust from my prayer life, to shake the dust from the relationships with the people around me, so that I can live a life about Him, and run fully along the path he has marked for me. So my phrase for the year is "Shake the Dust". In all I do, I want to push forward, and not let dust settle because of inaction or laziness. :]

Thoughts on lust.

I think this is the hardest thing for me to speak out about. I mean, I have a really strong conviction against it, I have really strong feelings about those around me engaging in it, but I also realize the widely accepted ideas it holds in a worldly pretense. I know that when I speak out against lust, I could get some flak for it. I could get some real heat from people about it. And I could be called a hypocrite for it.

I don’t even really know how to articulate exactly what I want to say, but I know it is mostly a warning for women. That’s not to say that men don’t need to hear it, too. But I think they hear it a lot more than women.

Okay, I’ll start where my feelings about this spurred. We were sitting together at a BBQ, and one of the guys asked a girl “hey, are you going to see Magic Mike?” to which she responded (extremely appropriately) “Uh, I think that would be really disrespectful to [her fiancé]”. In my mind, I see that as the most appropriate form of answer to this question. It is incredibly disrespectful to him, and to our God. Now, I have been on pinterest, facebook, various social networking sites where ladies are all up in craziness about Magic Mike, the movie about male strippers.

And just to be truthful, I haven’t seen the movie, I don’t plan to, but I know the hype and the reasons that women want to/are encouraged to see it.

Lust.

The problem with this is that some of the ladies I have seen making remarks and plans to see the movie, for the lustful reasons, are professed followers of Christ. And I see something very wrong with that. I think back to the ideas we have about self image, the problems we have with society objectifying women, and pain it has caused many of these women because they aren’t perfect (as no one in the world is). And I wonder to myself why these women would so readily objectify men in the same way.

And I think back to the ideals we have discussed about purity, and purity of heart that Christ calls us to. I read things in our word that shows our King’s disdain for lust, for sexual impurity, and I wonder how these women have decided to look the other way when they are called away from this sin.

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (Job 31:1) 

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Col. 3:5) 

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (2 Tim. 2:22) 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; (1Thes. 4:3-5) 

And I could say that I don’t get it. I could act as though I have never been there, as though in high school I never made those excuses that everyone was doing it, and looking wasn’t so bad, and those weird –isms saying that it’s okay to “look at the menu”. Wrong. So wrong. First, from our own Christ’s mouth:

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt. 5:28) 

Don’t be deceived that because it says woman that women are excluded from this call away from lust. We are equally made with our brothers in Christ, and the sin is equal to us as well.

Having been married now, I understand and know that these are all lies, and that the things we put into our minds and hearts we will reap the pain for later. The things we see, the lusts we indulge in, will forever mold the relationship we have with our husbands (if marriage is something God gives us), with our brothers in Christ, and with our God. In 1 Corinthians it talks about how sexual immorality is committed inside of the body, and is different from other sin.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Cor. 6:18)

This is so true. Unfortunately I didn’t get the pain, the self-consciousness, the hurt that can come from these small actions in future relationships... until it was already there. I pray you'll understand it before it effects those things.

Things I Worry About...

I have a weight on my heart that I didn’t realize was there. And I didn’t understand why. I couldn’t place when it got there, and I couldn’t understand what the purpose of it was.

But I was thinking hard at CG last night, because of prayer requests, and praises, and the things on our hearts in the past weeks regarding abiding when things don’t go right. And I was contemplating the reasons for sickness, the purpose of the miracles that God works in the lives of those suffering from illness, accidents, pain, disease, etc. I am part of a lot of prayer groups on facebook, and my husband and I have talked multiple times about how most of the prayers we hear, most of the requests we make, and most of the things on the Sunday bulletin are lists upon lists of medical issues, physical afflictions, or awful accidents that we are petitioning that He heal.

Our King is the great physician.

He is the Master and Creator of the things that we see, the bodies we live in, and the maintainer of each and every system in our body. He can do what doctors can’t and He can produce healing for those who love Him.

But what happens when He doesn’t?

And what happens when the cancer doesn’t go away, or the awful accident that happens actually brings death or paralysis, or the health problems just don’t stop and keep coming on and the suffering doesn’t cease?

What happens then?

And this might look like a post on the problem of pain. I’m not sure it is. Maybe it will turn out that way, maybe not. But to me, it’s mostly about our King’s promises, and His purposes, and the things we assume about them.

So, obviously the NT is racked with miracles. You can find Jesus healing afflictions left and right, showing His amazing power and glory to those around Him and telling them to “go, and sin no more”. Our God is a powerful and merciful God to heal. But to what point and purpose? Those people, though they were healed by our miraculous and wonderful Savior, they are all physically dead now. The healing didn’t give them immortal bodies. They died.

Now, I’m getting a little down and depressing I’m sure, but stay trekking with me here. These people were not healed for the purpose of their healing. They were not healed because God wanted them to be healthy and happy and successful. Our merciful and wonderful God healed people so that we would glorify Him.

This is why we were created, to GLORIFY OUR GOD. In Genesis, God creates man and woman in his own image (1:27) and then immediately tells them to multiply his image over all of the earth (1:28). In Isaiah it expounds on this with God saying “everyone who is called by my name, who I created for my glory…” All throughout the OT God has mercy for his name’s sake. Not for us, but for His glory (Isaiah 48:9, Ezekiel 20:44).

So, this morning I was skimming around and saw a post. And I was reading a reference it made to Daniel 3, where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved by God for his Glory in the face of Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath. This is such an amazing story, because we reference our trials as a fire so often, and in this instance God literally saved these faithful men from the fire, bringing them away un-singed and unharmed. I think the really remarkable part of this story is that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego don’t only say that God can save them (which they do, in 3:17), but that even if he does not they will not bow before Nebuchadnezzar’s idol.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were resolved to God’s will. They understood that God’s glory would be shown, and His will may be that they die. They understood that He never promised that they wouldn’t be burned. They understood that He never promised they would be delivered from the fire. But because He is God, the one and only true God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, He would be glorified. And so they glorified Him in their acceptance of whatever He had chosen for them. Not because He would save them (they said He “is able” not that He was going to), but because they knew His power and they knew He was worthy of their obedience, despite what might happen to them.

God doesn’t promise we won’t get hurt. He doesn’t promise we won’t get burned when the fire comes. He promises eternal life with Him, He promises to be there, but says the world will hate us because we are of Him (Matthew 10:22, John 15:18). He tells us to be not afraid “of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Doesn’t that sound exactly like what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did?

I have always worried that God wouldn’t heal those around us. Not for the healing, but because faith is tricky. If my prayers are unanswered, will I continue to follow Him? Will I continue to have the faith to proclaim His amazing name? Further, if the healing does come, will I continue to be faithful and obedient, holding close to Him and to His promises when things are blessed and not painful? Or will I forget about Him?

Before I decided to follow Him I prayed in that way. My faith was tied to the outcome of my prayers. And I worry for those around me who depend on that. Because our God is mighty to save, but He knows better than I what will glorify Him most.

And now I worry for those around me who aren’t following. Will their prayers be answered, and if they are, will they glorify God because of His mercy and His provision? Or will they continue on their path away? And more, if their prayers go unanswered, will they feel betrayed by our God, will they rebel?

I think that all disappears with us realizing our purpose, and the purpose of those miracles. When we realize that His purposes are not always the same as ours, and His understanding is far greater than ours, we don't wane in our faith.

 It is my prayer that anyone who reads this will see His purposes, His knowledge, His understanding and His glory and worthiness, and glorify God despite, and in the midst of trials.

Wow!

“Consider the call from the Throne above, ‘Go ye,’ and from round about, ‘Come over and help us,’ and even the call from the damned souls below, ‘Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place.’ Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish.”

-Jim Elliot

Breaking Before a Holy King

I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, 100%.

I've been reflecting on my own sin lately. The things I don't see in myself that God is revealing to me. I think having a baby has really been the catalyst to this, as I want to be a mom that seeks after God before anything else. Oh yeah, I'm pregnant--for anyone who didn't already know. :]

Repentance, after my initial repentance, was a foreign thing to me. My blind spots were easily staying blind because I didn't see any big sin, so there must not be any sin. Which, of course, is never true. After repenting from all that Christ initially saved me from, it was easy to overlook my pride, my attitude, my unwillingness to love others, because they didn't seem that bad. They were easily stuffed away and forgotten about. But God has been constantly tugging at my heart, reminding me that, while I know I'm not perfect, he calls me to action to rid myself of those things that are imperfect! 

Matthew 21:42-44 really illustrates our need to be broken before God, realizing our sin and not just letting it fall to the side and forgetting about it. 42 and 43 talk about how Christ is the stone that the builders rejected, but that this stone has become the cornerstone. In other words, he is the rejected stone that has become the most integral stone in the building. But in 44 it says "and the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." 

I always thought that the broken person and the crushed person were both unbelievers. I mean, surely God wouldn't want us to be broken on Christ? But I was wrong. Most commentators say that the broken person is referring to a believer, and the crushed person is referring to an unbeliever. That is to say, a believer will stumble on Christ, and will be broken to pieces by Christ. 

Ouch. Not fun. 

But in so many ways, true. I mean, we come to him broken, unable to handle the world, the forces against us, and the law that weighs so heavily on our backs. And he renews and restores us. That part is easy to see. What I had forgotten is that it isn't a one time thing, but that this works in cycles. I am constantly putting to death the things of the flesh, which is never, ever easy... and it always looks like this same brokenness. 

A lot of us like to think that when we decide to believe that Jesus died for us, that's all that there is to do. Believe. But if you believe, doesn't that make you want to do more? If you truly believe there is this amazing savior who loves you unconditionally, constantly forgives you, and is making you new, there would be a change. You have the Holy Spirit living INSIDE of you. 

If I walked up to anyone and told them that something miraculous happened to me, and that now I am the best basketball player who ever lived... do you think they would buy that if I continued to barely be able to make the ball into the hoop? Absolutely not. 

If I say that I have the Spirit of God inside of me, don't you think we should expect some changes to move us? I would continue to look differently, as Christ breaks me down and builds me back up, as I fall and he breaks my pride, my attitude, my unwillingness to love others, and changes my heart... I would look different. I would live differently.

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not dispise."  

-Psalm 51: 1 & 17

<3

Underserving

Today is a day of questions. I have heard so many questions from so many people in my time of following our King that are legitimate questions. But the one that baffles me most is when the enemy tells them the lie that they have done too much, gone too far, for the grace of the King to extend to them.

This simply isn't true.

In my circle of people, the good news is a means of understanding that we are so undeserving, so broken, so imperfect, so sinful, so dirty and awful, that there is absolutely no way for us to make our own way to Him. We can't do anything to get there. We can't make our lives pretty enough, good enough, helpful enough, loving enough to even get close to the mark of perfect He has set. We are inadequate. We are undeserving of Glory.

And it seems that those who ask the question, "have I gone too far for Him to accept me now?" They get it. They understand that they have fallen short, that they have gone far enough to be undeserving. The problem with this thinking is that they, often times, see their lives, their sin, their undeservingness (is that even a word? Probably not, but whatever), as more dispicable than that of others. This is also untrue.

Sin is a funny word. So many people view it as the "bad" we do. It typically is associated with lying, cheating, stealing, killing, etc. But the word used in the Bible, literally translated from the Greek means "to miss the mark". As a human being, we are imperfect creatures. Everything we do is marred by our imperfection. There is no "good" deed. That is to say, if I give food to a starving family, there is some part of me (however small, miniscule it might or might not be) that does it for the wrong reasons. There is no unselfish act, which makes all actions imperfect. We have missed the mark, in everything we do.

That being said, there are no people who are more or less undeserving. There are no people who are worse, in terms of our amazing King. He sees us all as equally undeserving, but also valuable. Seeing us, as broken and undeserving as we are, he died for us. Knowing that all he would gain was people who have been his enemies, he died for us.

And herein lies the truth: there is nothing too far from God, that he cannot rescue.

I talked about Hosea a few posts back. He was the prophet that married a prostitute named Gomer. Just to refresh, here is what God says Gomer should get.:

"Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,
   for she is not my wife,
   and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
   and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
³ Otherwise I will strip her naked
   and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
   turn her into a parched land,
   and slay her with thirst.
⁴ I will not show my love to her children,
   because they are the children of adultery.
⁵ Their mother has been unfaithful
   and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
   who give me my food and my water,
   my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
⁶ Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
   I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
⁷ She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
   she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
   ‘I will go back to my husband as at first,
   for then I was better off than now.’
⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one
   who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
   which they used for Baal.
 ⁹ “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
   and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
   intended to cover her naked body.
¹⁰ So now I will expose her lewdness
   before the eyes of her lovers;
   no one will take her out of my hands.
¹¹ I will stop all her celebrations:
   her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
   her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
¹² I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
   which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will make them a thicket,
   and wild animals will devour them.
¹³ I will punish her for the days
   she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
   and went after her lovers,
   but me she forgot,”
            declares the LORD.

Gomer is in for some awful things. She should be stripped and shown for who she is, her adultery exposed, her head shaved, the whole 9 yards. But the word that comes after this rant, this list of awfulness that she deserves, He says the word "therefore". And I ranted last time about this word. It is such an awesome word. It insinuates that what comes next is a direct result of everything she has done and deserves. But what comes after the "therefore" is not punishment, it is LOVE. God says: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her... and speak tenderly to her... and I will betroth you to me forever." (Hosea 2:14-20)

This is by and far the result of an amazing God who loves us, despite our worst. This is what we get for what we deserve. A God who desires us, who wants to allure us and betroth us to Him, forever. This is not an unforgiving God, this is not a God that hates us, this is a God who has mercy on us, even after our sinfulness.

<3

Things that people say make me sad.

I hate when people think that believing in God is enough.
Like believing in something can save you. Like thinking something is there makes it of some use.

"You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror." James 2:29

Stop pretending like your belief is such a huge deal if you aren't going to MOVE about it, if you aren't going to let it affect your life. If you aren't going to CHANGE.