How I’m Made
I would like to be better looking, taller and more atheletic. I would like to be more subtle in my thinking. I would like to speak less and more carefully. I would like to have more imagination and creativity. I would like to be able to sing. I would like to be more skilled with my hands. I would like to be one of those people that everybody just naturally loves to be around. But………..
One of my great-aunts described me once as “the runt of the litter” in our family. Women’s heads do not turn admiringly to me when I enter a room. Nobody ever picked me first for their team. There is no subtext with me. I take things at face value and assume everyone else does too. If I have an opinion, I’m unlikely to keep it to myself for long. My inclination is to be practical, work hard, and do what needs to be done with resources presently at hand. I can’t draw a straight line. I can’t sing a note. I’m not a handyman. I identify a lot with Charlie Brown.
We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
God made me the way I am, not the way I would have designed myself. Everyone around me is also the work of God’s hand. None of us are all we would like to be but God didn’t ask us for input. He made us the way we are for His purpose and, most amazing of all, He loves us.
Shield
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16 (NIV)
We don’t live in the Garden of Eden anymore; this world is a war zone. Satan and his crew bring sin and death. The picture here is of an enemy shooting flaming arrows at us that can kill us quickly, or that can set fire to and burn down our lives….destroying those around us. Jesus came to rescue our hearts and souls, and He has, but in His wisdom He has not removed us from the battlefield. We need to pick up our faith in Christ every day and carry it with us, to defend ourselves…… and to defend those around us who we can. Sometimes the protection we offer with our little shield is the ONLY thing between them and ”the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
Just in the past couple of days a good friend has been diagnosed with cancer, a neat young man wrecked a vehicle and is in the hospital with a fractured skull, and a precious young lady in a lot of pain chose to hurt herself. How do you explain heartbreakingly hard things like that? I think my friends were wounded in the battle.
I pray for their shields of faith to be as strong and dependable as the God our faith is in. I pray for their physical and emotional and spiritual healing and recovery from their wounds. And I pray that those of us still on the field will wake up to the battle raging around us, suit us, and step up to defend our brothers and sisters. It’s life or death.
Justify Yourself
But he wanted to justify himself…. Luke 10:29a
This sentence fragment is from the story of a guy who asked Jesus what he was supposed to do. Jesus quizzed him on what he understood the bible to tell him and the man quoted verses that said people were supposed to love God and love our neighbor. Jesus basically told him, “OK, do that.” However the guy wouldn’t just take that at face value. The next verse begins, “But he wanted to justify himself…”
Doesn’t that little phrase explain a lot? Does for my life. I don’t struggle too much knowing what I should do. I struggle to DO it. And why? Because I want to do what I want to do and then justfy myself, make excuses, explain away, dodge, evade, etc, etc, etc.
I’ve been thinking about things that prevent me from moving forward in life and in my relationships with God and with people, and I think this is a huge issue for me . Of course it’s much easier to see in others, in the excuses they make for the stupid, sad, dangerous, dreadful things they tell themselves to justify their decisions and the way they chose to live their lives. But I do the same thing. For all of us, self-justification that absolutely sucks the life out of us might begin something like….
“Well, that’s just the way I was brought up….”
“This person did this to me, so …….”
“I don’t have the (insert one or more) time/money/energy…..”
“But I really don’t have much choice because……”
‘Everybody else would think…..”
“That’s good for you, but my situation is unique because…..”
Or even, “I’m just trusting God…. (to bail you out of disobeying Him?!)
Justifying myself is simply how Satan gets me to lie to myself.
Seventy-seven
Lamech said to his wives,
”Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Genesis 4:23-24
Welcome to the strange and wonderful world of the Old Testament! Between the creation stories and Noah is some of the oddest stuff in the bible. In this passage, an otherwise fairly obscure guy named Lamech gets to brag to his wives about how super-bad and macho he is. Maybe I’m just dense, but I wonder why this makes the cut to be included in scripture. But then I remember something like an echo that turns this idea upside down…..
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-22
Think “seventy-seven” is a coincidence? I’m not one of those weird bible number freaks that spins strange mathemetical models to explain Revelation (sorry if I offend) but isn’t that kinda spooky-cool?
In the middle of the euphoria of finding a neat connection, let’s not miss Jesus point that instead of going “psycho billy ninja” on those that offend us, our call is to forgive, and forgive, and forgive, and forgive……
Art
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:37-38 (NIV)
Yea, we just did that verse a couple of days ago but it’s my blog so we’re gonna do it again. I’d like to say the reason these verses are especially meaningful to me is because I’m a holy person that gravitates towards long hours in scripture constantly gathering insights that I am compelled to share with you on this blog. I’d like to say that, but that would be wrong because it is not true. These verses rang in my head when I heard a song the other day on a CD by Jennifer Knapp. It’s called “Hold Me Now” and here are the lyrics:
From glass alabaster she poured out the depth of her soul
O foot of Christ would you wait if her harlotries known?
Falls a tear to darken the dirt
Of humblest offerings to forgive the hurt
She is strong enough to stand in your love
I can hear her say….
I’m weak. I’m poor. I’m broken, Lord, but I’m your’s.
Hold me now. Hold me now.
Let he without sin cast the first stone if you will
To say that my bride isn’t worth half the blood that I’ve spilled
Point your finger and laugh if you choose
To say my beloved is borrowed and used
She is strong enough to stand in My love
I can hear her say….
I’m weak. I’m poor. I’m broken, Lord, but I’m your’s.
Hold me now. Hold me now.
Now these lyrics aren’t scripture, and they don’t translate on a silent computer screen like they do sung aloud, but they are definately what I would call art. I know less about what constitutes art than just about anyone, but to me it is something that captures my heart somehow. End of definition. Listening to Jennifer Knapp sing these words that she wrote touched me and made me tear up and connect me to these verses about a broken woman coming to Jesus with nothing held back, and His response.
Some of y’all out there have the ability to produce art. It is a gift. Don’t waste it. Using that gift for His fame and glory is a high honor and, for some of you, a responsibility. I just wanted to say “thank you.”
Attitude Adjustment
Paul writing to people at Philippi….
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourself with was also in Christ Jesus… Philippians 2:3-5 (NASB)
Wonder what a church would look like that actually did this? That really valued others (outsiders) more than (ourselves) insiders? That did NOTHING, get that, NOTHING from selfishness? That had the attitude of Christ towards people He came to serve and die for?
Wonder how MY life would look different?
Approaching God
When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. The she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:37-38 (NIV)
This is part of one of the most emotionally raw scenes in the Bible. The woman in the story knew who Jesus was, what her life was like, and approached the Son of God holding nothing back. Jesus’ response to her was not rejection or condemnation, but forgiveness and favor.
The message for me is that in order to come to Jesus that way, she had to let go of any pretense of respectability. Too often I forget who and what I am and I let my pride, my self-image, my reputation, my desire to look ”OK” in front of others get between God and I. When I do that I sometimes fool others, more rarely fool myself, but never fool God. I’m really not OK and when I approach God I need to remember that.
Goats
Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—
I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’
“Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’ ”He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’ ”Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ’sheep’ to their eternal reward.”
Matthew 25:41-46 (The Message)
Sheep
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:34-40 (NLT)
The Shepherd-King in Jesus’ story praises His people (sheep) for a very specific type of action. They cared for other people in practical ways, and not even as an intentional part of their “religion.” They were oblivious to the fact that they were doing anything for God; they just acted out of something inside them that made them love and care for people. And evidently they didn’t discriminate against the unloved and unlovely. The connection, association, even identification of God with “the least” of people is revealed unmistakably.
In this particular story from Jesus, His own aren’t recognized and praised for devotion to God, moral purity, or good intentions. What they DID for people was what counted. I find this more than a little convicting. I’m not a very good sheep.
