February 28, 2011

Belief and behavior

This makes sense to me:  Your belief system determines your behavior.  If I’m driving well over the speed limit and I see a police car zooming up behind me, because I believe I might get pulled over, my behavior will change.  I will slow down. 

There are areas where what I think I believe and what I actually believe (as borne out by my behavior) are two different things.  It’s like the difference between something that’s an actual priority in my life, and something that I wish was a priority.  I may say that exercise is important to me, but unless on my weekly calendar I have time set aside for it, and actually follow through, it isn’t a priority, really.  Just wishful thinking.

I had trouble with the questions Neil listed as far as finding out what motivates me…  I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to be thinking of goals I have, or things I wish I could do or have… 

Thinking of motivation in terms of priorities, though, works for me.  So if that helps you, there you go.  If you can make Neil’s questions work, awesome!

The point of it all is to think through places in my life where what I say I believe is at odds with what I do.  Not only do I need to change my behavior, I also need to search God’s word or ask help from someone older and wiser to find out what God’s heart is on the subject. 

And on the flip side of this, the more I’m in the Bible, and the more I know about God’s ways and who He is and how He works, the more consistently I will be able to overcome sin in my life.

Hebrews 4:12:  For the word of God is full of living power.  It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires.  It exposes us for what we really are.

February 27, 2011

Listening with compassion

Today’s is an interesting topic…  While I have no desire to become a counselor, I do want to be a friend who others feel confident telling their problems to, someone who will walk through problems with them.  (That doesn’t make me a counselor, does it?)

There’s a balance between truth and grace in walking someone through a tough time.  The grace involves lots of compassion – unconditional love, and listening in such a way that the other person feels like they have been heard and cared for.  And truth involves not just being the friend who tells them what they want to hear; it means saying the hard things, and finding a loving way to do so.

What Neil calls counseling, I might call friendship.  Proverbs talks about how iron sharpens iron, and compares that to a good friendship.  Sure, it’s easier to gloss over the hard things, or offer easy advice instead of the truth, but if I truly love a friend, I’m called to lay down my life (and my comfort) for them. 

Lord, may I love my friends enough to tell them the truth, but do so in such a loving way that they will be able to receive it.  And help me keep listening to hear Your voice, so it’s not my ideas, but Yours, that I will be speaking.

February 26, 2011

Balance

Most of us like choices.  Not many of us like it when things are decided for us…  Even if something is what we wanted to begin with, the fact that we weren’t able to exercise our right to choose makes us a little itchy…

I love that we’re free to choose to love God, and to walk in His Spirit.  I’ll compare it to relationships like this:  my family is mine, but I didn’t choose them.  I have to love them.  My husband, on the other hand, I chose to love, and I still choose.  Sure, my family is a part of me, but what joy there is in getting to choose to love!

And then we’ve got the balance between passive and hyperactive…  If we’re at either end of the spectrum, we’re not living a healthy life.  Being passive when it comes to spiritual things is like taking your husband (or wife) for granted.  Not cool.  Being passive doesn’t work.

Being too active – too busy – is just as bad.  I can’t focus on God if I’m running at 100 mph, no matter how important all those things I’m doing are.

So the goal is balance in all things, right?  Active, but not driven; content, but not passive.  Lord, may I find that balance today.

February 25, 2011

Forbidden stuff

“…so the whole garden’s yours.  Oh, except for that tree.”

“What tree?”

“That one, over there.  Don’t eat that fruit.”

“Which fruit is it?” 

(crunching sound)

Yes, forbidden fruit makes a great snack, even if it’s not all that good for us. 

I love Neil’s point about kids wanting to go immediately to the thing we tell them not to – they didn’t even know how wonderful that thing was until we told them not to do it!

All kidding aside, knowing something is wrong is not the same as being able to stop doing it.  If that were true, we wouldn’t have needed Jesus’ sacrifice.  Woven into the fabric of the universe is the concept of light and dark, good and evil, right and wrong.  It’s just that knowledge won’t save us.   Relationship will.

How does our relationship with God keep us from doing what’s wrong, and giving up a part of our freedom?  I’m thinking about what I tell my kids when we’re crossing the street together – hold hands, and stay close.  That’s how we stay safe.

A close relationship with God will mean that I’m spending time with Him, listening to His heart, walking near enough to know what He wants.  I can trust Him to keep me safe.  

February 24, 2011

Freedom

What does it mean to live in freedom?  I loved the question the kid in religion class asked him!  And I have a hunch that the kid was thinking more about rules about what was allowed and what was not allowed than about the big questions in life!  (At the Christian high school I went to, we weren’t allowed to have dances, officially…)

These are questions of external rules (legalism) vs. making decisions based on my conscience.  And I have a hunch we will revisit the topic of legalism in future days…

Neil had a great definition of freedom:  It means you are finally free to live a responsible, moral life…  We’re out of the realm of what might be okay and what might not be, and into the big questions.  What’s responsible?  What’s moral? 

There’s a line between kid and adult.  Remember high school?  Remember graduation?  It may not be in the same place for every person, but basically, the issue is this:  now that society considers you an adult (more or less), are you ready to act like one?  You don’t necessarily have the constraints of a family to mandate that you act responsibly, and you no longer have your parents to do so (at least, they should back off by this point).  Whatcha gonna do?

In the course of finding our way, many of us in those years made mistakes (and watched as friends went off the deep end), but eventually, we found our way toward responsible adulthood. 

Spiritually, we must come to the same place – where we are willing to set aside the choices that we might be allowed to make because of freedom, but ironically, lead to bondage.  

February 23, 2011

It’s about relationship

I had to laugh as Neil talked about a marriage based on rules…  (well, really, they’re more like guidelines…)  Engineers.  Life’s pretty black and white.  Thankfully, though, it sounds like he figured out how to do the marriage thing!  J

This I love about today’s reading, though:  sometimes we’re tempted to measure our spiritual life by someone else’s, but in reality, just like every relationship is different, my spiritual life won’t be just like yours.  That’s cool!

Like we’ve already said, there are certain things that will keep that relationship growing, just like all plants need water and sunlight.  And dirt.  We neglect those to our own harm. 

But in all else – how we express ourselves in worship, how we pray (I loved the phrase about prayer – it’s the language of your relationship), even how we think about God – we get our own flavor.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next few days hold.

February 22, 2011

The lamp and the farm

First, the lamp…  While Neil got a little wordy in the middle of the paragraph on tending the lamp, the heart of it (for me) was this:  The light dims when we stay away from God’s Word and the fellowship of believers.

If the flashlight I’m using on a dark path in an unfamiliar place (cue scary movie music) does that flicker thing and then goes out, I’m lost!  If it were a real scenario, of course, I’d know I was in trouble, right?  (cue screaming)

The irony is that when I don’t keep the light bright in the spiritual sense, usually I’m oblivious to the fact that I’m tripping merrily down a dangerous path.  With psychos and chainsaws.  Wait, no…

All kidding aside, I can do harm to myself when I let that light go off.  Pretty simple - stay in the word, show up at church (and stay in contact with godly friends).

The metaphor of the farm is, thankfully, less scary.  Being a city girl, I’ll admit I’ve never considered God’s kingdom in quite this way.  Somehow, though, it works…  The idea that what we are sowing in this life will be what we reap in the life to come is profound.  In what sense, I wonder, is that true? 

For sure, lives that I impact on behalf of Christ matter in eternity.  What else?  I’m curious to see if that’s something Neil unpacks for us later, or if it will just hang out there…

To be sure, though, God’s will is made known to us in His word.  I’m so thankful for that!  May we continue in earnest to know His word and to hear His voice through it.

February 21, 2011

No Freedom Fighters here

I must confess…  I fear off-kilter (and possibly well-meaning) demon chasing people much more than I fear spiritual warfare.  I’m pretty sure how to deal with the warfare, but the people who are off base, not so much…

I appreciate today’s reminder, though:  don’t focus so much on the enemy – that’s not the point.  Who our enemy is doesn’t define us.  When we give so much attention to the attacks of the enemy, it’s misplaced, and distracts us from God, who deserves all our attention.

I love the image of a spiritual Freedom Fighter.  I’m picturing a dramatic costume, and a cape.  (No capes!)  And Neil hits the nail on the head:  It’s truth which sets you free, not the knowledge of error.  There’s a lot to that statement! 

For today, Lord, may I have Your perspective on the spiritual forces at work in my life.  May I bring light to dispel darkness…

February 20, 2011

Letters to God

A couple of things hit me as I read today’s entry…

First, I love that in the first letter, the young woman was so free to express her feelings.  They were really hard to read, because I felt for her – who of us hasn’t felt abandoned?  And writing those things out gives us a measure of freedom from them. 

But she didn’t stop there.  She pursued emotional health, and how awesome was it to hear the response she had written herself?

The second thing I saw was that that while the first letter was based on what she felt, the second was what she knew.  So often in me those two things are at war, but at the end of the day, God is who He says He is.  That truth is life-changing.

I’m so thankful for a God who’s always there for me.

February 19, 2011

Honest about sin

I don’t like to look at my mistakes.  Maybe it’s pride, or just that uncomfortable feeling of regret and embarrassment.  But I have a tough time facing my faults.

And I really appreciated what Neil had to say today about ignoring the little things…  I may be generally doing okay, and I know God isn’t keeping a list of my wrongdoings, but having a tender conscience is so incredibly important.

Yesterday’s definition of sin was this:  that learned independence that continues to promote rebellion against God.

When I let the small things of sin go, it leads to me think that some things aren’t a big deal to God, when in fact the issue is whether or not I’m willing to submit my whole life to Him.  Like the proverbial frog in the hot water, I deaden my sensitivity to sin the more I do it and don’t own up to it.  If I don’t get honest, I’m setting myself up for The Big One, or at least a catastrophe of some scale.

Thankfully, though, the reverse is true…  When Jesus tells the story of the three servants who were given money to invest for their master (Matthew 25:14-30), the principle is this:  if you’re faithful in the small things, you’ll be faithful in the big ones. 

All that said, I really don’t like earthquakes.  And I’m sure I really wouldn’t like the kind that comes from sin building up, either.  Good motivation to get over myself and look at my sin each day.

February 18, 2011

The battle is on

Leave it to Neil to figure these things out…  I picture him taking apart that verse (and dissecting the human anatomy) just like he’s troubleshooting a circuit board.

So the battle is on (cue dramatic music)…  It’s my spirit vs. my flesh; the eternal part of me vs. the part that will die someday.  And the battleground is…  (wait for it) …my mind.

My mind is the control center where, based on the information I have, I make all my decisions.  So it makes sense to me that if I flood it with truth – reading God’s word, listening to His Spirit, hearing sermons, etc. – the intel in my head will lead me to make better decisions.  That’s how I learn the discipline of grabbing an errant thought and shoving it in the recycle bin.

It’s not on account of me, but because of the power of Christ in me, that this is a winnable war.  And I’m so thankful for that today.

February 17, 2011

The struggle

While the question is about what I do, the reality is about who I am… 

Paul writes about the struggle we all face – we do what we don’t want to do; we all grapple with temptation and sin.  Some days we win, and some days we lose. 

The lie is that we are that sin; the lie is that we will never overcome. 

The truth is that the sin is a totally separate thing from who we are, and that makes all the difference.  Neil says it this way:   I am not sin and I am not a sinner.  I am a saint struggling with sin which causes me to do what I don’t want to do.

When I finally get a hold of that truth, I no longer feel unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness.  Those feelings become a cycle of failure.  I think I need to be done with them.

It’s as much my responsibility to maintain right thinking as it is to maintain right behavior. 

My prayer for today is this:  Lord, may I have both the discipline to keep my thinking in line with your word, and my actions as well.

February 16, 2011

Oooh, I’m ticked! 

It makes total sense that the way I see God is through the lens of my experience with my own parents.  That’s been the case in my life, and I’ve seen it play out in the lives of many people I’m close to.   

The question killed me:  If you performed better, would God love you more?  Of course I know the right answer, but does the way I live my life bear that out?  I’ve already confessed that I struggle with really grasping that God loves me, not for what I do, but for who I am.  Crazy.

And I’ve always just figured that it’s one more thing I fall short in (really understanding the nature of God’s love for me).  It’s one more thing I need to strive for, and I’m lacking because I still struggle.  My wrong thinking is because of my immaturity.

And then Neil comes along and says that it’s a strategy of the enemy?  I’ve been fed lies?  Here I was, taking the blame!  And feeling less loved!  Yeah, I’m pretty ticked.

There’s always something new to learn.  Neil’s prayer hits the nail on the head:  God, correct me where my concepts are wrong so I can know You in complete truth.

February 15, 2011

Accusation

Three quick things to pull out from today’s reading…

First, Neil says, In Christ, we are important, we are qualified, we are justified.  How can this be true?  Because it’s not about us.  It’s about Him.  I need to write that down somewhere and read it the next time I’m feeling insignificant. 

Second, the pattern of temptation and then accusation – wow!  The enemy is like a really mean big brother!  Hearing and remembering the pattern, then, will help us put him in his place the next time he tries it with us. 

Because, third, he can’t do anything to us – he’s not our judge.  He’s just the tattle-tale.  The One who will judge has already ruled me not guilty on behalf of His Son.  That means that even when the condemnation stings because it’s full of half-truths, I don’t have to fall for it.  I know what God thinks about me.

February 14, 2011

The Father’s love

(Happy Valentine’s Day!)

Whether or not you had great parents while you were growing up, the idea of a loving parent is something we can wrap our heads around.  Even if your mom and/or dad didn’t give you the love you needed, probably you know someone who is your example of a great parent.  God’s really good about putting those people in our lives…

So much of my relationship with God makes more sense to me now that I’m a parent.  It’s kind of funny – my kids are still young enough that they think I know everything.  (!)  To them, it’s great comfort that whatever the situation is, Mom can handle it.  I see how comforting it is to me to know that my heavenly Father has things well in hand, no matter how out of control they feel for me. 

I love my kids simply because they are mine.  Sure, they are amazing and wonderful – and yours are, too, right? – but that’s not why I love them.  There’s no length I wouldn’t go to in order to keep them safe and make them feel loved. 

God the Father feels that way about me.  (and you, too.)

I have to adjust my thinking.  I tend to see God’s love through my eyes – I’m the child, and I just don’t get it.  Like Karl in the story, I honestly struggle with insecurity at times.  I’ve been known to try to hide, or to hide my deep, dark feelings from God. 

And in the end, His love draws me back, and teaches me, and heals me.   

February 13, 2011

The road

In terms of understanding the spiritual realm and how it affects us as we live our lives, today’s entry is pretty foundational.  Evil spirits can harass us, but they can’t touch us, and they can’t do anything, really, other than distract us.

We’ve already talked about how being tempted isn’t sin, but willingly walking toward and entering into the temptation is sin.  There’s a point at which we decide whether or not to follow the temptation, therefore, no one else is making us sin.  Sure, the more times we do that particular sin, the less we think about it, but even so, we have a choice.  No one controls us.  Or, as my kids would put it, I’m the boss of me.

All the enemy can do is distract and plant doubt by telling us lies.  Some of the ones I’m familiar with go like this…  You’re not good enough.  You’ve messed up so many times in your life that God can’t use you.  You have nothing meaningful to offer. 

There are lots more, but the thing is that these aren’t very original, are they? 

There’s something about bringing dark things into the light that makes them lose their power.  If the next time I hear “You’ve messed up; God can’t use you anymore,” I think about this post, think about the road with houses, and realize it’s just a line from the enemy, I’ll be able to put it in perspective.  Sure, it still stings, but I know where it’s coming from, and it has no power over me. 

When Christ conquered death on the cross, He broke the power of the enemy for all time.  Because we belong to Him, He covers us.  I don’t have to live in fear.  I’m so grateful for His grace in my life.

February 11, 2011

Faith

When we start to talk about faith, I think about the words we use:  I want to grow in my faith, or I wish I had more faith.  Maybe:  I don’t have enough faith to believe that miracle (or whatever) can happen…

What we get from Neil today kind of turns that thinking on its head.  My faith isn’t so much about what I contribute as it is about the thing or person I have faith in. 

The illustration of having faith in someone who has failed me made sense – I wasn’t the problem, yet I was the one to suffer the loss.  And comparing that with the constancy of the solar system and the fact that gravity won’t suddenly go away – God is even more faith-worthy than the physical laws of the universe!

So the part of faith that does have to do with me is the extent to which I will trust God.  In relationships, we have control over how much of our heart we give to another person, even in a friendship.  We can be all in, or we can keep one foot out the door.  Because He is exactly who He says He is, God is worthy of all my faith.  He may go against my expectations of Him, but He will never be untrue to Himself.

My prayer today is that I keep sight of who He is, knowing that changes everything.

February 11, 2011

More on spiritual blindness

From your comments yesterday, it sounded like you had the same takeaway as I did:  as we pray for those who don’t yet know Christ, asking for the removal of spiritual blindness is key. 

While there are no magic formulas, it’s so important to understand the spiritual dynamic, and address it.  That family member I’ve been praying over for years needs freedom from deception.  The person I don’t know in my neighborhood that I pray for as I want our church (and me) to be an influence in our community needs freedom from deception.

I love what Neil has to say:  When we pray we are not trying to persuade God to join us in our service for Him; prayer is the activity of joining God in his ministry.

God already has in mind what He wants to do; prayer is a matter of me hearing what that is, and then agreeing with it.  Spiritual battle is done when I pray in agreement.  

February 10, 2011

Praying for spiritual blindness

Prayer is the secret weapon in reaching people for Christ.  Ok, Neil calls it a primary weapon, but we’re all about the superheroes at our house…

How often do we pray for the lost in an abstract way?  Or how often do I pray for someone who’s unsaved, but in a general way?  This is so specific – that blindness would be gone.  The truth sets people free. 

One thing I love about prayer is that it puts me in touch with the fact that while I may really want something to happen, I am powerless.  But when I pray the same thing that God is thinking – and His Holy Spirit helps that happen – He takes over. 

So, sure, it’s necessary to plan for how to reach out to people who don’t know Christ.  But all of our best efforts will fall short if we forget prayer. 

And the same goes for strategies for teaching people, specifically at church, in Sunday morning service, in care groups, wherever – our plans aren’t nearly as important in effecting change in people’s lives as the prayer that goes on beforehand. 

So let’s get prayin’…

February 9, 2011

Axing anxiety  (sorry for the needless alliteration) 

Aren’t you glad Neil is such a black-and-white thinker?  Leave it to him to write us a formula to make us not worry!  Wow!

Okay, now that we’ve roasted him just a little, I’m wondering if the list he’s given really works. 

First, you have to want to get rid of your worry.  I’ve learned that there are worriers who are really attached to their worry.  They have an argument to counter any logic you might offer to help them, and it seems like they are just determined to be really, really miserable.  What’s the axiom?  Beware of helping someone who doesn’t want to be helped.

Now, for the rest of us who actually don’t like worry (or who maybe did, but are ready and willing for a change), what a great place to start. 

Even the abstract thinker I am, I have found myself in the midst of a worry-storm, and my method was this:  What’s the worst that can happen here?  Can I live with that?  If so, then I don’t really need to stay up at night…

Less than a year after we moved into our house, I was in a car accident, and consequently sued by the other driver.  We were told (and I don’t even know if we found out for sure) that we did not carry the kind of insurance that would cover us from losing our house, should things get to that point. 

That point about separating facts from assumptions (or erroneous information) would have been a good one for us, right?

It was a little overwhelming, not to mention a huge emotional drain to be sued (if you have been sued, you know what I’m talking about).  But the point I got to was this:  What can they take from us?  Our house?  Okay, we’ve lived in apartments until now, and even though God gave us this house, He will take care of us.  It’s okay, and wherever we end up, we won’t be homeless. 

After that, the whole thing stopped being consuming.  And in time, the lawsuit was settled with our car insurance company. 

What happened was that we went through a mutant version of Neil’s steps, and we did find peace.  After we’ve done all we can (and we have the list to prove it!), trusting God is the hardest part.  And yet, it’s the simplest, and the one He’s waiting to help us with.

And BTW, sorry the post on crosswalk.com was so hard to read the other day!  I’ll admit – I have the book, and mine didn’t get reformatted.  We should let Neil know lists mess us up…   J

February 8, 2011

New wineskins

What is spiritual?  What’s the essence of what makes something meaningful to God, and therefore, to us? 

Does He need a church that looks like a church?  For that matter, does He need a building at all? 

Does He like hymns?  (I think He used to…)  Does He get tired of a worship song if we sing it all the time, or is He just pleased when we put our heart into it, no matter how softly or loudly we sing? 

Does He like it when we dress up and put on our Sunday best to go to church, or does He find that stuffy?  Is it disrespectful to Him when we come in shorts and flip-flops, or does He appreciate the fact that we’re real about who we are?

And lest we pat ourselves on the back for being so progressive, let’s keep in mind – even if we don’t have teenage kids, it’s entirely possible that whatever we think is cool is, in reality, oh-so-very-not cool.  Or at least, not anymore. 

To me, the matter is this:  am I content with my ideas of church to the point where I don’t want them to change because it would make me uncomfortable?  Or am I willing to feel that discomfort for the sake of a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my church?

My prayer for today, for this year, is that my heart would stay soft; that I would have a passion to know what the next new wineskin should be so I don’t miss out on what God has in mind.  

February 7, 2011

Pushing the limits

Have you ever taken one of those personality tests?  You’re a lion or a golden retriever; you’re a letter of the alphabet from a DISC profile (anyone guess which I am?  …the one that doesn’t remember the categories, of course!); you’re random or you’re a linear thinker…  Any of those sound familiar?

And one helpful section, at least on the DISC test, is the part where they talk about your personality traits.  They diplomatically phrase things like this:  Here’s your wonderful trait.  It’s all good, but some people may perceive you like this…  And you should be careful, because taken too far, that thing that’s fine and dandy can turn into this [insert bad thing]!  Note:  don’t feed it after midnight.

Because I’m a risk-taker by nature, I’m pretty familiar with the concept of taking things too far.  I’ve been practicing it all my life.  DISC stuff has told me that without risk-takers, new things don’t happen.  But I also know from experience that it really hurts when you’ve climbed too high in that tree and fall, or when you venture out into something you’re passionate about and you fail. 

In other words, risk:  Good.  Usually. 

Taking things too far:  Bad. 

Are you a risk-taker?  Do you tend to push the limits?  If you don’t happen to be, did you find yourself somewhere on that list?  Please weigh in.

February 6, 2011

Temptation

Is this really true?  At the core of every temptation is a legitimate need of mine, and the crux of the matter is how I’m going to get that need met? 

I might be tempted to lie, but the underlying need might be approval.  Maybe I’m exaggerating to make myself look good, or to get out of an uncomfortable situation. 

It’s no fun to be thought less of, or worse yet, rejected, but to be sure, I will only find true security in knowing that God approves of me.  And suffering the consequences of a bad choice might seem harder than lying, but I can trust God for His forgiveness, and His grace to walk through the consequences, whatever they may be, and come out with a character that’s been refined in the process.

Instead of taking care of my need for approval on my own, therefore yielding to the temptation, I can ask myself, How can I let God meet this need? 

I was hard pressed to come up with a kind of temptation that didn’t stem from some actual human need; how about you? 

And sometimes when I’m faced with a temptation, I’m not sure how to respond.  I don’t always have the willpower to walk away (bag of potato chips, I’m talking to you!).  But this I can do:  I can ask myself, What is really going on inside me?  What is the need that I have?  And then I can bring myself back to this:  God, I trust you to meet this need.  

February 5, 2011

Dearly loved children

Romans 8:16 is one of my favorite verses.  Here it is in the New Living:

For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children.

It’s on such a deeply personal level that our Father deals with us.  Not only has He laid out in His word that we are accepted and loved, He has His Spirit whisper those things to us, deep in our hearts.  Wow.

And lest we see Lydia as waaaay over there (in terms of experience, and her conclusions), let’s just check in…  What awful thing have you done recently?  What things did you allow yourself to feel or say about who you are afterwards?  If you’re like me, you’ve got a long way to go in terms of not condemning yourself…

Our sin points to our need for Him; in our weakness, He is made strong.  In our surrender, we give up the idea that we can do it on our own, so even when we blow it – on a big scale or a little one – He brings about His purposes in us. 

May we hear His Spirit whispering those things to us today…

February 4, 2011

Thank goodness for squishy hearts

We’re still on the topic of how our nature – our spirit, the part that makes us, well, us, and that will live forever – changes from darkness to light when we’re saved.  We’ve already got the qualifications; Neil says we just have to learn to walk in harmony with our new nature.  Great word picture.

And the significance of this fact is pretty amazing.  It’s that we don’t have to try to act like Jesus; we can be like Jesus.  That’s huge! 

Probably we all know that we don’t have to earn our way to salvation, although I’m told that if you were raised in the Catholic church, that’s a tough one to break.  The Pharisees were the spiritual guys back in Jesus’ day, and they were all about earning their way.  It didn’t work out so well for them.  They got rebuked a lot.

When the day comes that God looks at the heart of every person, He will take the measuring stick of Jesus and hold it up to see how we all did.  For those who rejected Him, that measure will condemn them.  But for those who love Him, He will look to the new nature because of what Jesus did, and His measure (His grace) will already be in us – no need to get out the big stick.  Very cool.

So…  Why all the talk about our identity? 

Let’s imagine that instead of being born in the United States (or fill in your native country here), you were born in an obscure country far away.  Your citizenship is there, and that’s what is written on your birth certificate and passport.  You live here now (we’ll say you moved here as a young child), but at a specified time in the future, you will move back there. 

Would you spend as much time as you could reveling in the excesses of the American culture?  Or would you spend time researching your homeland?  You’d probably want to know the customs, what the food’s like, maybe even learn the language.  You live here, but your identity is there.  That’s going to have an impact on how you live.

Well, I think I’ve oversimplified it enough, but here’s the bottom line…  God’s Spirit brings His word to life as we learn it, so that it goes beyond knowledge and changes the way we live.  Who we are determines what we do.

And if you’re still looking for an explanation of the squishy heart, it was a phrase from yesterday’s comments that was too good to go unrepeated.

February 3, 2011

Nature lovers…

Today’s entry piggybacks a bit on yesterday’s, but it’s less controversial.  I think.  Neil, in his (God love him!) engineer way of explaining things, talks about our old nature being switched out for a new one, since we won’t be able to fit both. 

The idea that salvation is as much about me becoming something new, here and now, as it is about where I will go when I die is kind of awesome.  When we become believers, our spirit is changed into something new and amazing and beautiful (I would love to see that!), and it’s the same spirit that will spend eternity before God’s throne. 

And since that’s the case, why would I be interested in finding new and creative ways to sin?  Because of Christ’s life in me, I want what He wants.  Well, increasingly, anyway. 

My part is to surrender totally.  One of my favorite songs at this moment has a truly great title:  All In.  (It’s by Lifehouse, in case that would have been bugging you)  God, what do you want?  I’m all in.

And if you’re curious about yesterday’s controversy, feel free to stroll through the comments.  No blog followers were harmed in the making of that post…  Or the comments that followed…

February 2, 2011

So I don’t have two dogs?

Paragraph one was easy for me to understand – I can be fooled into thinking I can’t do what’s right, so Satan doesn’t have to try any harder to mess me up.  I do that part for myself.  I need to understand who I am as a saved person.

I appreciated this:  God’s work…in changing sinners to saints is His greatest accomplishment on earth.  Isn’t that the truth!  For me, believing in the miracles described in the Bible are kind of easy; believing that God can and will change someone’s heart is tougher for me.  I’m so grateful that He does, though.

And I like the way Neil breaks it down as far as sinner/saved:  the change that happens to us on the inside happens all at once, at the moment we’re saved.  We will never be any more saved than we are at that moment.

The outer change, though, takes place over time - for the rest of our lives.  He could have stopped there, but he goes on:  But the progressive work of sanctification is only fully effective when the radical, inner transformation of justification is realized and appropriated by faith.

Hunh? 

After reading it several times, then turning the book sideways and upside down to see if it helped any (it didn’t), here’s what I got…  The outer work, the one that’s a process, only actually happens if the inner work has been done.  We won’t be able to get better at not sinning if we have been saved.

Did you get something else?  If so, please share!  I’m in the tall grass here.

I did love the ending, though, which challenges us to shift our thinking to that of Jesus Christ as the core of our being, enabling us to live in a way that pleases Him.

...and Johnny, we're very glad to know you feed your dog...

February 1, 2011

To sin, or not to sin…

I’ll admit it – I’m okay with ambiguity.  Sure, some things in my world are very black and white, but when it comes to the really big questions, rarely are things that simple. 

When it comes to God, I think there’s a certain pride in feeling like we’ve got Him all the way figured out…  The fact is, we need to know the essentials, like the fact that our sins are totally forgiven by Christ’s work on the cross.  But the rest?  I, for one, have many questions that are unanswerable this side of heaven.

Were you cheesed by the fact that Neil spent a whole (long) paragraph on rhetorical questions?  But how can all those things be true if we still sin? 

I was glad for the heads-up, that we will be finding out over the next few days the answers to why we still sin if we’re a new creation. 

For now, let’s embrace the mystery, and let ourselves be challenged as we tackle these questions…

Isaiah 55:8-9 says this:

“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”