Serve Somebody

     There used to be a heavy vine of poison ivy that snaked its way up a tall black locust tree in our backyard. It was almost as thick as my wrist, and with little furry feelers reaching out for purchase. Just a little creepy. I thought about pulling it down, but I'd had a horrible experience with poison ivy the year before and I knew better. So I just wacked at the vine close to the dirt and cut it off from its' roots.

     The Church gets a little twisted up about sin. Like sin is the big boogey monster that lives under the bed. Like it has power. 

     Sin is really nothing more than fruit. And, like fruit, it isn't the first thing that happened on the scene. It is the product of obedience. Somewhere along the line, we chose who to serve. We are constantly choosing to obey something, whether it be God, Satan or our flesh. And we are left with the fruit of our choosing.

     Addiction is not a disease. It is the product of many choices. We become dependent on the effect of the choice. What do you want to be addicted to? Either way, one will end up giving you power and the other taking it away.

     I could have pulled the vine down and destroyed it all at once. Poison ivy is icky, so I just let it die a slow and agonizing death after separating it from its' source of life. I didn't need to touch it. We don't have to touch sin to kill it. That's the Holy Spirit's job. Just choose Who to obey.

    

Made for Worship

Worship isn't music. Music is a tool that helps us access intimate conversation with God. I've heard other Christians say that they worship other ways, and that's cool, but I wonder if they are still accessing that intimate conversation. Many believers stop with just salvation and the Cross, and constantly revisit that place of conversion, sin and sacrifice. We are always supposed to keep the Cross before us, but there is more to being His Sons and Daughters than self-flagellation. Paul infers that there is more beyond this in Hebrews 6;    1Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of instructionabout washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

      I think one of the earmarks of maturity as a believer is intimacy with Him. We are supposed to be the Bride, right? Intimacy is just being able to see deeply into the heart of the other. Jesus desires access to our hearts, and it excites Him when we want Him as passionately. I love how Stephany Frizzell talks about worship in this clip;

And I love this song...

Love Made Perfect

John 4:16 And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 This is how love is made perfect in us: that we can be without fear on the day God judges us, because in this world we are like him. 18 Where God's love is, there is no fear, because God's perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears. 19 We love because God first loved us.
      I was so afraid of Judgement Day when I was a child. I was afraid of going to sleep before I repented of all my sins. I was afraid of dying suddenly, because what if I couldn't confess my sin before I kicked the can? Ultimately, I was afraid of God looking closely at my heart, because I believed that I was unworthy of His love. I believed that He only loved me because He had to; that I was unlovely and unworthy.
     It took many years of searching and depression before I discovered that I had believed a lie. I didn't need to fear Judgement Day because Jesus' righteousness had become my own. I was not going to be punished. Even more importantly, He thinks I'm lovely, and worthy, interesting, funny. He's pretty infatuated with me. ;) How do I know that? Because we can't love God. God is love. So if we are in love with God, it's because He was in love with us first. :D
     Fear is the antithesis of love. Fear of vulnerability ruins relationships, or just prevents them from becoming all they were meant to be. Relationships are gifts from God, meant to express something about Him. We make everything about gender or sex. Relationships express Who He is. Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers, Friends, Husbands, Wives. Each shows us a glimpse of Him.
     Love is not a passing fancy. Infatuation is largely hormonal. Love is abiding, eternal, deep, passionate, nurturing, sacrificial. The more I see and experience of His love, the more I am able to love Him and love others. My ability stems from His outpouring. Love made perfect in me.

God Preservation

Psalm 16:1 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.


How we respond to bad news or calamity is a great barometer of our psychological and spiritual health. This past week my husband and I received some bad news that affects possibilities for future choices. When my husband told me the news, my heart plummeted. Before my descent into the depths of despair, I started to remind myself of who I was and Who God is. It took a couple of hours to recover, but I regained hope and I believe that His plans for me are better than I thought they were. We will be ok, my family will flourish and our financial and spiritual prospects are unimaginably great. There are moments when I grab my son and squeeze him and say, "I've got you!", at which he giggles. When news hits you like a baseball bat to the knees, remember that He's got you. 

The Church is NOT a building

Acts 17:24 "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands."


David was the guy that had the grand idea of building God a house. God didn't want a house; He preferred tents. Tents are mobile; you can pack them up and go. God is always moving, so a tent just suited Him. He loved David's heart, so He allowed David to have his way. That particular temple, Solomon's temple, was attacked and destroyed, rebuilt and then trashed for hundreds of years. Today the site is still a topic of dispute.


Jesus began the process of introducing the idea that God should not be housed in a building. The religious leaders of the day were incensed that this man of Galilee had the audacity to disrespect hundreds of years of tradition. One of their accusations were influential in his crucifixion: Mark 14:58 "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.' "  Jesus was frustrated that their traditions and structure had entirely obliterated the original intent of God. Mark 7:6 And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written : 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 7 'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.' 8 "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." 


Fast forward to the present, and here we are in the same place. The building is revered, and the precepts of men are elevated as doctrine. Why do we like buildings so much? Well, buildings are awesome. They provide safety, security, stability, strength, shelter.They can be beautiful. You can design them into an image of what you think God is like. Look at each era and decade, and you can get insight into the builder. Hmmm. I wonder if that's a problem...


The larger problem of the building is that it becomes an idea, a structure in the minds of a culture. When the Church is a structure in the minds of a culture, it becomes easy for the culture to make broad-based generalizations approving or disapproving of the 'Church'. And nobody is there to pick up the slack. How can a building assume responsibility? A building is unmovable. A structure is a product of design, intended to remain true to the design. 


God moves. His favorite way of moving is through His children. Jesus' purpose was to tear down the old structure, and rebuild a vibrant, moving, living being. A wife. The Church. It didn't take too long after His death and resurrection that the Church began confining herself with structure yet again. Doctrine is a two part entity; revelation from God combined with human interpretation. What happens when God wants to take His Church into a new area of growth? A new place of maturity? What happens to doctrine? According to the Paul and the New Testament church, the Holy Spirit led through prophecy. Prophecy, conjoined with the other gifts, leads the Church into new phases of intimacy with Jesus and thereby affects outreach. Unfortunately the Cessationist doctrine circumvents prophecy. If all gifts have ceased, then leadership is governed only by Scripture and doctrine, but without the full influence of the Holy Spirit. Until the Lord has open individuals and groups ready to be open to truth, the Church remains fettered. By herself.


The biggest earmark of the Church is supposed to be her love. John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  We don't, do we? We criticize and backbite, we criticize those that criticize. We are not welcoming, we cannot resist casting the first stone. That's our modus operandi. It is our Structure; the Building we reside in. It is what the world sees when they look at us. 


The Church does not need to leave the Building, she needs to stop being a Building. We are a beautiful, moving, vibrant Bride. We are responsible for ourselves, our words and our relationships with each other and with the world. It's time to embrace our identity and mature, and stop kicking the immature in the groin. They are immature because they haven't been fathered. They must begin as servants and become Sons. Sonship is positional, not a gender. Isn't that cool? We are sons and a Bride. ;)

Anticipation

Psalm 27:8 My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming." NLT


My favorite place doesn't exist. My favorite place is quiet and serene, and I can spend at least an hour just soaking in His Presence, inventing songs, playing the piano, and listening to the wind of His voice. I say it doesn't exist because I can't seem to find it. My kids are noisy and I homeschool, which means they are with me all the time. My year-old son doesn't like to sleep through the night so I wake up late, and the first things I hear in the morning is not the wind of His voice, it is Micaiah asking for chocolate milk. I'm an introvert with no alone time.
A wonderful friend of mine let me off the hook today. She said that it is unlikely that I get to have the perfect night with my husband daily, so I have to get little bits where I can. She gave me this verse which perfectly stated how I felt; '"Lord, I am coming"'. 
A wise man once said, "Your spirit opens to what you set your mind upon." So I may not get my perfect worshipful oasis, but I set my mind on Him. I say little prayers, like love notes in my head. I listen to great teaching while I do housework...or amazing worship. Teaching expands my mind, and worship softens my heart. Just focusing on His words, His thoughts and His song prepares the way for those chance special times. Anticipating...


Song of Solomon 5:4 My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him.

According to His mercy

Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

We have a global culture based on behavior and performance. Even my worth as a mom is supposedly based on what I get done and how I do it. Even if you don't have a moral code dictated by religion, you come up with one anyway just to feel virtuous. Save the whales, save the trees, be kind to poor people...be fit.

 I'm so excited that when Jesus looks at me, He sees my worth outside of my performance. There is something in me that was valuable enough to die for. When I worry about my failure to achieve everything on my checklist, I remember that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are thrilled to walk with me through the process of sanctification and maturity. There are promises on the other side for me. And it isn't dependent on my getting the laundry done. :)