Day 88 of 100 Days of Favor

 no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
    and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
    and their righteousness is from me, declares the Lord.” Isaiah 54:17

I've heard this scripture over and over and yet never heard the last part. My heritage is to that no weapon formed against me will succeed and that my righteousness is from God. Its when I know my righteousness is from God that no weapon formed against me will succeed! Its when I think I have to earn my righteousness that the accuser of the brethren can make accusations against me; "who do you think you are? You're not good enough to be a Christian". These are lies from the pit of hell but they are accurate IF I continue trying to earn my righteousness. Instead, its during these times of accusation I must confess with my mouth that I am the righteousness of God through Jesus's finished work at the cross!

Romans 4:2-5 says that those that work for their righteousness, those wages are not counted as grace but debt. Ouch....then it goes on to say that those who do not work for their righteousness but believe on Him who justifies the ungodly, those peoples faith is counted for righteousness. He is a God that justifies the ungodly...this then is grace! The unrighteous and ungodly being justified by faith! Before the law, Abraham was justified by his faith. God counted it for righteousness.....and all he did was believe.

I'm super excited to know that I am fully justified before God. Not by my works but by His perfect work at the cross! Never again will I give place to the accuser of men. His mouth is silenced by the true revelation of grace. Some say that grace is divine influence to do the will of God.....and it is that, but it is so much more than this. This definition simply places grace back in the place of helping us do more.....like its just something to help us keep the law! A true definition of grace might be; unmerited favor from a holy and perfect God toward me flowing in never ending rivers of love, joy, strength and peace!

Its from this place of forgiveness, strength, peace and joy that I want to please Him. Not because of punishment if I don't but because of His unending goodness that draws me to repentance. I want to do right because He loves me so much....its the only reason I want to do right. Otherwise my human nature runs toward the darkness continually. But His goodness brings me again and again to repentance.

I am now Christ conscious instead of sin conscious! Its a much better way to live. No more fear of what I might do wrong today. Instead I rejoice in His continual forgiveness....after all, He said it is finished!

a life time ago

I wrote my last post on April the 5th 2013. Seven days before my heart attack and 3 months ago. That seems like a lifetime ago.

So much has changed since then. My diet, weight, my health have all changed for the better. Almost no sugar, no fried foods....etc....I'm still working on it to be sure but gradually I am getting in better health.

But a quick word about the heart attack....during and after.

As you recall, I wrote about grace a few days before the heart attack. In fact, a few weeks prior to that post, God had revealed Himself and His grace in a powerful way with the words from Scripture..."it is finished". What those words meant was, there is no longer a sin issue because the sinless one has put an end to the requirement of the law. It meant I could be 100% certain of my standing with God through the finished work of Jesus on the cross regardless of how I felt about myself. No more fear of the afterlife because that was secure. I was in a state of perpetual joy over the thunderbolt of the revelation of grace in my life.

So fast forward to the heart attack, April 12th 2013 around 9:30PM. Lying in bed, thinking I had indigestion from the large meal at Red Lobster. Someone had given us a gift card and we made much use of it that night. I told myself the indigestion would go away and to just go to sleep. So I did but two hours later awoke with severe pain in my right arm and serious pressure on my upper chest. These symptoms got worse and I told my wife I didn't feel good.

Soon thereafter we made the decision to go the hospital just in case. I got up, got dressed and told my wife I'd wait downstairs whilst she finished getting dressed.

I went outside and stood in the driveway as she made her way downstairs. Soon the pain was extreme and in that moment I knew I was having a heart attack and in that very same moment standing in the street outside the house, I knew I could die any second. Oddly enough, instead of fear and panic overwhelming me, I felt at peace. As the Scripture says "The peace that passes all understanding shall KEEP your hearts and minds". I did not have peace, peace had me. It kept me. And I knew it was His grace that enabled me to have the peace that if I died that night, I would see Jesus face to face. And through the entire episode, I had no fear. Instead I had almost a sense of detachment, as if I was watching myself and knowing in the end, it would all work out so no need to get excited about it at all! Like the script had already been written and I knew the ending already.

The drive to the hospital took somewhere around 24 hours to make....really it was 10 minutes or less but it felt far longer....the pain was intense and I wanted it to be over quicly....but once there, they took outstanding care of me....for which I am eternally grateful....and there is another miracle surrounding the hospital bill as well which is a topic for another post...suffice to say, without insurance I owe nothing to YRMC!

I guess the purpose of this post is to capture my perspective about my life before and after grace. My life prior to the revelation of grace seems far removed from my current existence. It seems somehow foreign. Alien even....and more importantly, full of doubt, full of fear, full of worry and anxiety.

As a Christian, those things were not supposed to be part of my life and yet they were. Yes I believed in God and in Jesus but to be 100% honest, the life the Bible promised was not what I was living......I was however, searching for that life and I believe the prayer I was praying...."God, open yourself to me, show me grace, show me your Good News was answered that day when grace came down.....I cannot imagine life without grace. Everything seems less frightening now. Uncertainty, difficulty, disappointments, all seem to fade somehow in the light of grace. And its true, the Kingdom really is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I'm not always righteous, nor am I always peaceful and I don't always walk in joy....BUT and its a BIG BUT....those things are always close. Where before they were something I needed to search for and sometimes I never found them.....but now, they are but a breath away....regardless of what I feel like, I know I can simply appropriate them in this present moment and they are mine!

I  can't explain it. It was revelation. It is revelation.....it will be revelation....in the sense that its ongoing. There was no moment of revelation....instead there is revelation. Now, in this present moment. Revelation of His unending and unbelievable goodness. Each new breath is a revelation of His favor. I get now why the Scripture says "in Him I live and move and have my being." Because without Him I can do nothing. Yes I can work and I can strive and I can accomplish different things....but even that is because of His favor. So better to acknowledge it and rest in it.

I'm rambling and it makes no sense. I get that. Its hard to explain.  Its so deep and yet so simple. Grace. A waterfall of His mercy and goodness. I can simply stand under its flow and enjoy all His benefits.

I'm gonna post a bit more often now. There are a few topics I want to get on paper so to speak so I can preserve them while their fresh in my mind...

1. Peace (shalom)
2. Rest (the Sabbath)
3. Communion (as often as you do it)
4. Sin and sacrifice
5. Kings and priests vs slaves
6. Speaking vs doing which ties in with Kings and priests
7. And a few other things as they come up.

Grace....greasy and otherwise.....

Grace....its easy to dismiss grace as the get out of jail free card.....most of us Christians have spent much time disparaging those that need constant grace, forgetting to look in the mirror of the Word to make sure we have our own measure of grace in place.

The truth is, if not for grace, we would all be screwed. Yes, that is the technical term for it. Sin came by one man to all, grace came by one man to all. Easy to say, simple for God to do, hard for us to grasp fully what that means. 

These past few years, I am learning what grace is. It is the classical interpretation, "unmerited favor from God" but its so much more than this. This sounds religious. And Jesus had some unkind things to say about religion. Religion keeps man from God under the guise of pointing man to God by creating rules through which man must approach God. Instead, grace opens the path for man to approach God freely and in his own way. Yes, Jesus is the only way to God, but how we get to Jesus is up to us and grace throws wide the door to the throne room and invites all who are weary, dirty, tired, poor, sick, and burdened with life to enter His presence and celebrate life. There is no caveat....just invitation.  

Grace makes it possible for me to lay aside my desire to sin. Not just the sin itself, but the desire. As I revel in His grace, my desire for sin diminishes, as I rely on myself, my desire for sin increases. Grace is not greasy, its just the opposite. Grace covers all but births within me the desire to have less to cover. Grace says, "I'll cover your sin, but there's a better way". 

I see on the landscape of religion, ways to exclude, boundaries keeping people out. Yet the Good News of the Kingdom was so great that people died getting it to other people. The religion I have known is not good enough, not exciting enough to lay down my life for. Rules and regulations through which I approach God is simply not the Good News. 

If those of us calling ourselves Christians presented the real Good News (provided we understand it properly) perhaps those we are presenting to would receive it with more joy. 

Grace and truth, the entirety of the Good News message. While we were sinners, Christ died for us so that we who were dead in our sin, could live again.....the price paid for all mankind, once and for all. No one left out....and no further action needed. Because of this, we can live life fully alive in the Kingdom. Our choice. We choose to live in the Kingdom or we choose to live in hell. The Kingdom according to Jesus is in the hearts of men. If the Kingdom is in the hearts of men, which means we have the choice of where to live this present life. Surely any choice we make to live below Kingdom standards is choosing to live in the gates of hell. 

God's ways are not our ways. What makes sense to us is just foolishness to him. What is foolishness to us is very often the way of the Kingdom.....it makes sense for me to have to perform something to live in the Kingdom and yet He says "nope....just live, My gift to you, enjoy". 

I choose the Kingdom....

nevertheless.....

Lazarus is dead, Jesus is off on a ministry trip, or so He says. Mary and Martha, the beloved sisters are inconsolable. Messengers sent to fetch Jesus to heal Lazarus before he dies return empty handed. Time passes. An inappropriate amount of time. Jesus is late. Rudely so. 

Lazarus, the bread winner, the fixer, the life of the party, the adult male from whom the families sustenance is supposed to flow.....dead. 

The one man who could've prevented the untimely death inexplicably delays his arrival. Even after he knows Lazarus is dead, he delays. Confusion abounds. Murmuring ensues. Dark shadows of doubt creep closer. Distrust and anger. Hurt feelings. All part of the families' emotions now. Death is final. 

Finally Jesus arrives. Four days late. Mary, to hurt to respond stays in the house. Martha runs to meet Him in the way. Her words, not mine. "Jesus, if you would have been here, Lazarus would not have died. Nevertheless, I know God will give you whatever you ask". 

Nevertheless? Really? Is this something you say when death is final? When the healer is late. When the dreams are dead and buried? 

The first part I get. "If you would have been here, our beloved Lazarus, our brother, our provider, our fixer, our life of the party would not have died". I get this. In fact, I've often said the same exact thing. "Jesus, if you would have shown up a few days earlier, or if you would have done this or that, these dreams of mine would still be alive". Never have I followed it with "nevertheless". This has never occurred to me to say. The dreams died. I've had a five year funeral, grieved and now looking to replace the dreams with something more "realistic", less lofty, less "God given". Something I can achieve on my own without help. 

Nevertheless. A powerful word. Jesus told Martha, "He shall rise again" Martha of course knew this would happen in the resurrection of the dead. But Jesus was the resurrection, only she didn't recognize Him as such. Moved by compassion and her faith, Jesus did the only thing He could, He transcended time and space and asked God to bring the resurrection she was expecting in the future into the present. Lazarus lived again! The same man, the same provider, the same life of the party, the same fixer, the same brother lived again! Only this time with a tale to tell of His goodness. 

"Nevertheless, whatever you ask of God He will give it to you". Whatever God gives is much better than what we expect. Dreams dead? Nevertheless, ask God. Receive whatever He gives. 

I've been Mary, to hurt to respond. I am becoming Martha who is willing to say, nevertheless.....and then accept it as better than whatever it was that died. And I will live to tell the tale.  

Tyranny of Love III

A long time since I have written. Since my last post, I've given a lot of thought to John 3:16. "For God so loved that He gave His only Son".

I'm not entirely sure how He had what it took to sacrifice His only son. I know I would rather sacrifice myself for my child than for her to suffer. The Christian tradition says that Jesus was the son of God and yet it also says that Jesus was God in the flesh. Is it possible that God sacrificed himself for us? It does appear that way. In many places scripture says that God became flesh. That He took on the facade of flesh to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

Scripture also says that through one man death came into the world to all men(Adam) and that through one man (Jesus) life came to all men. Does this mean all men have access into the life He promised. It sure looks like it!

The big deal here is this; God loved His creation with such overwhelming love, He did the unthinkable. He gave Himself as the payment for our sin. How He did this is above my pay grade. I'm just glad He did.

A love this strong can only be described as obsessive, wild, furious, crazy, head over heels. It is what drives a man to abandon all semblance of normalcy and act completely outside themselves to win the object of their affection. It drives a man to jump in front of a speeding car to save their kid in the street, it will drive a solider to jump on a grenade to save the lives of his brothers in arms, it drove Him to the cross.....it is abnormal.

And yet, most of us pass off the story of His love on the cross as a nice Bible story when in fact its the tipping point of eternity. Its the one thing, the one act, the one Person we should most pay attention to and more importantly, live as though we actually believed its message.

What is the message? Simple....Love, His love, conquers all. There is no need for anything else, man made or otherwise. In fact, anything that distracts from that message is opposed to that message. This message is the narrow gate Jesus referred to. The broad gate mentioned is everything else that distracts us from His love. We are so preoccupied with what we perceive as our life, we forget His. And in forgetting, we die. We were designed to live in the fullness of His love which energizes us and gives us purpose and direction. As the ancient saint said, "The glory of God is man fully alive".

Tyranny of Love part 2...In The Beginning

Its been a couple of weeks since I started this study about love.....I confess I started and then thought to myself, "who are you to write about this? The world's greatest writers and thinkers have written for centuries about love and the answer is still not settled". So I didn't write.....but that is the wrong answer...who cares what they thought? Its my journey. They may provide guidance along the way but its still my path to walk....so here goes...

A person's world view must frame how they approach subjects like this....my world view is Christian in the sense that I grew up in a Christian home and spent all my formative years learning about God and the Bible. I did not however, learn about love. I learned the do's and don'ts as well as punishment and rewards....these are all valid things but NOT the essence of what Christ taught.....do's and don'ts can be legislated and enforced with punishment and incentivized with rewards but they are best when love flows and they become natural instead of forced.So this is the basic frame work through which I see the world.....lets dig a little deeper now. 

Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People said that one should begin with the end in mind. In other words, do today what will bring desired results tomorrow. I intend to change that up a bit and begin with the beginning in mind. 

One must make some assumptions about the beginning. Leaps of faith if you will. There are only two: 1. There is no God and the world we live in is a freak accident. This is a belief system that requires the same level of faith atheists accuse the simpleton believers of having in a God and the hereafter. Basically a religion with man as the object of worship. And to some degree, I can see why man in his finite wisdom chooses to worship and love man or perhaps more accurately, mankind. After all, man is an incredibly complex and creative wonderful being. Almost god like in our creativity. Whats not to worship? 

These humanity worshipers dream of utopia where all humans live in harmony, peace and love united by our common respect and honor for each other and our differences. Tolerance I think they call it. But man keeps defying these Utopian dreams with their ugly actions...war and violence erupt much more frequently than peace and harmony and so the dreamers use creative and often times coercive means to achieve their dreams. Rules and regulations, submission to the Utopian dreamers because they know best. Physical force and physical laws to achieve what really is a spiritual goal. I hate to say it but its a futile dream. This train of thought is a rabbit hole from which there is no escape. Its hard to have a discussion of love with this context as a foundation.  

Number 2 and where I believe the only rational discussion of love can originate from.  Lets begin with the assumption that God exists. Lets not argue about the why or how He exists, only that He does. Lets further make assumptions the Bible is correct when it says that God created the universe. Lets not argue about how long that took or if 6 days mean 6 actual days or if they represented a longer period of time. I really don't care. I'm good with both viewpoints. They are irrelevant to the larger reason of WHY God created the universe. 

So with the beginning in mind.... lets proceed with a basic framework within which to work. To save some time, I am going to bullet point them without to much explanation.

1. God created the universe and everything in it. 
2. God created man in His own image. Essentially the nature and DNA of God flows in man's veins. Therefore we have characteristics and attributes of God just like children have characteristics and attributes of their parents without being their parents. This is something atheists forget. They are not their "parent". 
3. God created man different than the animals. Man was created with free will. This free will was to be exercised in his relationship with God. Free to choose to love or not to love. That's what we all want isn't it? Some that loves us because they choose to, not because they have to. 
4. God created man in order to have relationship with him. This seems odd because it implies that God was lonely and wants to be around creatures that has his same attributes and characteristics.....a peer group if you will. Someone or many someones to hang out with and do cool things with. This is why the Bible says that man was created a little lower than God. He couldn't create more gods but he could create a creature with most of his characteristics and attributes. This implies that we humans were at least originally created with many godlike powers. I believe we retain many of these yet are blinded to them due to sin and our focus on lessor things. 
5. He had the host of heaven to hang out with but they were not His peers. They were created beings whose job it was to serve the King of Heaven. 
6. A portion of those created beings whose job it was to serve the King of Heaven rebelled and were cast away from heaven. Their leader, Lucifer hates God's crowning creation, man. Why you ask, because man represents everything Lucifer is not. The center of God's attention and love. This means the agenda of Lucifer is driven by jealousy. Therefore his ultimate goal is to destroy the crown jewel of creation, mankind. 
7. The physical world we live in is the battle ground for the cosmic battle between the rage and hatred of Lucifer that seeks to take as many of God's beloved with him to the pit of hell where he was banished by any means necessary including diverse and false religions and the all powerful, overwhelming love God has for His beloved creation, man. 
8. Man choose to sin. To listen to the seduction of Lucifer instead of the wisdom of God. Because life is in the blood and genetics is passed from parent to child, the sin that infused man in the Garden now lives in the blood of all mankind. 
9. Man's choice requires death. This seems harsh but since God is perfect and no imperfection can be in His presence, death is the only option. Yet God in his desperate love for mankind, decided to make a way for mankind to be free from sin. He began with law. Keep the law and you will be perfect. Again, allowing man free choice to keep or not keep the law. 
10. Mankind could not keep the law because sin drives man to sin more. Its sin's nature. To be worse and worse. It's a disease of the blood. And that requires sacrifice. 

This is the basic frame work from which the remainder of the discussions regarding my random thoughts will flow. Next will be how sacrifice came into being and why. Its an incredible story. And leads directly to love. 

Tyranny Of Love Part 1

I am starting a new study about love. Many have traveled this road before me and written more eloquently than I will. Thats ok. Each must journey and each must learn for themselves. The journey is what is important.

Today I will be jotting down random thoughts....these are just place holders for a later attempt to coalesce these thoughts into something that makes sense and captures the essence of the random thoughts I've been having regarding the issue of love.

So here goes:

The Beatles may have had it right but wrong at the same time. They sang that all you need is love...and they are correct. But what kind of love? How does love live? How does love talk? Does love have rights? Responsibilities? Where does love draw the line? Is there a line? If yes, why, if no, why not.

Is love a group thing or is it only individual. If a group, how big? Who do we invite? Exclude? Why or why not?

Is the idea of "all we need is love" Utopian? Can it be realized? If yes, how? If not, what to do instead.

Whose in charge if all we need or have is love? Do we need a leader? If yes, what are the limits of authority? If no, how in the world will it all make sense.

Is there an example we can look at for the Utopian love ideal? Is the example credible? Why or why not.

Does religion play a role? If so, which one? (Side note: I have yet to find a religion that on a macro scale actually practices most of what they preach).

Is love convenient? Does it have guilt? What about trust and fear? Where do these fit in? Is fear the opposite of love?



See...random thoughts.

Some more:

Pride
Position
Possessions

How does love treat these?

What about these?

Time
Talent
Treasure

Hang on or turn loose?

1 Corinthians Ch 13 and verse 1 of chapter 14.....Let love be your highest goal....compounded  by the declarations that without love, all my skills and abilities are just noise. The promise of seeing clearly in the future instead of through a dirty window now speaks to me of a love that transcends my limited knowledge. No strike that...it does not transcend my knowledge....it will transcend my EXPERIENCE of love.....

Light Bulb.....its not my knowledge that is lacking, its my experience that is lacking. Love is an experience that lasts longer than the moment....its......I just ran out of words.....have to get back to this one.

Some said that Love makes no demands....I think this is rubbish....love demands total abandonment....else its just "like" and not love. Love wants to dominate....obliterate anything in its path to world domination.

injustice, division, hate, fear, manipulation, war, poverty....some big picture things opposing love. Odd thought about love wanting total world domination. Is it losing? Sure seems that way.

Wow, this is bigger than I originally thought....

Love is a tyrant.