Revive Us! April 24, 2009

2 Kings 4:1-7 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

How do you raise a generation who fears God and seeks holiness? How do you teach that humility precedes holiness to a people of such independence and pride? How do you seek to have broken vessels filled with the spirit of God. The task is daunting and at times seems unattainable. I know this, it cannot be done by the ideas of man. It will not happen because we have some cool new way of presenting God. It will not happen by implementing some new program. When the widow went to Elisha, she had nothing to stop the creditors from taking her sons into slavery but some olive oil. I can tell you this, if someone told me that the mortgage company was coming to take my little one, olive oil would not be a comforting thought. I would probably panic, had a prophet given me those instructions! However, as a youth worker, I see the enemy taking our kids onto slavery on a weekly basis. As ministers, parents, leaders, we having nothing in and of ourselves that could snatch them back from becoming slaves to the enemy of our souls. However, we do have the oil of the Spirit of God. I am praying and asking The holy spirit to be released in a powerful way among the teens that I work with. I am asking for deliverance from bondage, freedom from fears and a group of teens who can say that they have seen God. I am not interested in a youth group full of kids who can play church, talking the talk and faking holiness, I want to see the fire of God resonating from them as they seek His face. Messy? Yes, but nothing worth having comes easily or without cost! What about you, have you come to the place where you have exhausted your man made efforts to see change in a situation? It’s time to seek the face of God…not just his hand and what He can do for us, but His face! That is my heart right now! I pray that you too will begin to come to the end of human resources so that all you can do it seek Him.

David… a king. August 26, 2007

I absolutely love the old testament, it is rich with depth and meaning. I used to hate reading the OT because I thought it was irrelevant and  made God seem scary.  Anyway, I am chasing the wrong thought process so I will get back to my point. I am reading about the life of David.  Every time I really start looking at his life, I am humbled and so grateful that I serve a God like ours. To realize that I know and love the same God that David loved and served is amazing. I love what the word calls him: a man after God’s own heart.  Did you know that David means beloved?? I did not know that. Such amazing foreshadowing in the life of David. Oh, how I want to be known as a woman after God’s heart. Unafraid to delve into uncharted territories spiritually with Him. To KNOW the God that I serve, so well, that I am completely unafraid to be entirely honest with Him. I mean, He knows what’s in my heart better that I do anyway, why try to hide?   To KNOW that I am His BELOVED! Not just in my head, but in a way that completely changes the way I view everything! A life transforming knowledge of the person of God and who I am to Him.

The thing that stands out to me today is the fact that David was a bit of a screw up. I mean, he did not come from an affluent family with money, He was a shepherd. He obviously had a problem with lust. He was an angry joker not to mention a murderer and adulterer.  So, what made Him a man after God’s own heart?  Well, we cannot ignore what I Samuel 16:7b says:

    “ I don’t make decisions the way that you do! Men judge by outward appearance, but I look at a man’s thoughts and intentions.”

 

It seems that Psalms in it’s entirety shows a lot of what David’s thoughts were like. He was transparent before  God. What he felt, what he thought, he shared that with His God. When he was angry he said it. When he was full of self-pity and wanted all his enemies to die, he said it. When he was depressed and just wanted to die himself, he shared that too!

This is something that was very hard for me to learn to do. I grew up thinking that I was not a good Christian if I had “negative” emotions. If I was depressed or angry then I must have done something to cause a separation between God and myself. Yes, I know sin can cause a separation, but a feeling is not a sin.  It is how I choose to respond to that feeling that has the potential to become a sin.

I really want to cultivate the kind of heart that David had when he made a mistake. He was quick to repent. He did not wallow in self deprecation in order to satiate a God who wanted compensation for sinful behavior. He just repented and moved on with His relationship with his God. How many times do we mess up and then feel some need to make up for it? (as if we ever could!) For me, I tend to have this unconscious “waiting” period before I am allowed back in the good graces of God. Like He may be too irritated to look at me so I better just lay low for a while because He certainly cannot use me or bless me right now! Sounds like a child doesn’t it?

I love that David was full of mistakes and yet was confident that God was more full of Grace to cover those mistakes, plentiful as they were!  He knew that God was there just waiting for him to turn around.  He knew that a broken and a contrite spirit God will not despise!
Oh, Jesus, I want to be that confident. At times I feel that I am but remind me of your infinite grace and mercy! Teach me to see you for who you are! Help me to know that you are there even when I make mistakes. You love me the same! That is amazing to me!

Grace and Holiness August 15, 2007

For many years I have struggled to reconcile the ideas of Grace and holiness. I am by nature a black and white personality. I see everything through this lens including the issue of grace and holiness. For many years I had no concept whatsoever of what grace looks like and how to accept it. I lived as if it was up me and my ability to earn the favor and grace of God. Like I owed it to him to be the best I could be. I also believed that I was to look like the perfect Christian in order to somehow protect God’s reputation. I am to be a “light in the dark” after all, right? So how do we reconcile these seemingly opposing ideas?

 

Well, for me it began with who I believed God to be. See, I was very much unaware of the fact that I believed he was an angry , punishing God who was waiting for me to prove my unworthiness as one of his followers. I believed unknowingly that I was responsible for not only my own salvation but the salvation of those who were around me. I lived in constant fear of losing my salvation due to my own inability to live a perfect, sinless life. Now, I am sure that reading that statement you are thinking, well duh! Only Jesus was able to do that right?? Well, I bet that if you really thought about it, there are areas in your own life that you are trying to live up to an unreasonable standard that you have placed on yourself… am I right? I bet you are you own worse critic. Well, I know of a lot of people who live as if they are expected to be perfect. What I am coming to realize though is that Yes, God is holy and we are called to be holy as he is, however, He calls us to be holy because he is our loving groom who wants nothing to hinder us from loving Him with out shame and guilt. See, if we can wrap our minds around the fact that He is holy and that because of this, no unholy thing can survive His presence… and He longs for us to be in His presence, because we are in love with him, not because we want to earn his love. We already have all of His love. He knew us all while we were or are at our worst and still sent His son to die in our place so that we could be with Him. Before we ever did a single “good” thing, He already loved us. That is so powerful. Can you wrap your mind around this concept? The Bible says that His burden is easy , his yoke is light. In comparison, the Pharisees imposed a man made burden of legalism or works based thinking. To quote from one of my favorite books, “Purifying the prophetic” by R. Loren Sanford.:

 

“It is time to lay it all down. The Striving. The human effort. The legalism. Freely we have received. Now let us freely give. Let us recover the Gospel, received by grace in the wonderful river of the Father’s love and then selflessly shared. It is all there in the cross and the blood! We need only to plumb the depths of it.”

 

Now about holiness. We are called to be holy if we are Christians. We are to be set apart. However what many people fail to realize is the fact that it is a process. It is called sanctification which is essentially being made into the image of Christ. We are not saved and then immediately we are sin-free. If fact, the closer I am to Jesus, the more keenly I am aware of my own lack of holiness. He is a Holy God. When I am looking at myself in the light of who He is, I will fall short…very short! However, gold is still gold even if mixed up with other alloys. I am still loved and still accepted by Him, because of Jesus. He is my righteousness. This goes back to gazing on who He is. We must know who he really is and who we are in Him. We must meditate on this truth, to become like Him. I have spent a lot of time and hard work, trying to learn the truth of who He is. He is not like my father, or my mother. He is not like any person that I know. He is perfect. He loves me despite my inadequacies. He is making me more like Him every day.

 

Because I tend to be an either or person, I have to constantly remind myself that it is not by my own strength that I can live a holy life. My responsibility is to “remain in Him” , to gaze upon His holiness so that He can transform me. I will never be perfect on this side of Heaven, but I can and should be constantly changing to be more like him. By gazing at Him, I will become more holy. My heart will change. It will become more like His heart. Then my “actions” will come out of the overflow of my love for Him instead of a feeling of fear of punishment or some striving to earn his love.

 

There is a song which I love by Misty Edwards called “Come break the Chains” that says this:

 

“Come break the Chains, that hinder love, all that remains of yesteryear, come break the chains that pull me down, Come break the chains and draw me near. Let your fire burn, consuming me, come let your jealous flame come take away everything, let your fire burn, consuming me, let your jealous flame come and write your name on my heart till all that remains is the light of your countenance and I will be satisfied when I awaken as a lover of You.”

 

This is my prayer, and I hope that you will make it your own in your journey to find balance in this area!