Why is it important we know we are loved?

As an extension to my last post, If I had a magic wand and could impart any spiritual gift, what would it be?, I want to share why it is so important to know we are loved.  I believe it is important to know we are loved so we can be effective in bringing His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.  I have seen (and experienced) as a Christian many days, weeks, hours, months, years, decades trying to get "right with God."  At times, there has been an overwhelming fear that salvation would soon be lost if and when I made the "wrong decision," had the wrong theology on a specific mater, etc.  Instead of resting comfortably on His lap with child-like faith and asking, "What's on your heart, Lord?" I was walking around feeling guilty, ashamed and wondering what I had to do to make "penance" for my latest sin.  While I know we may now scoff at the religious tradition of buying penance for sins, I can see why people would do it and I believe that for some this physical act would relieve the guilt.  I guess what I'm saying is that even today people walk around feeling guilt-ridden and having no seemingly way to get rid of the guilt.   But I really believe that this obsession with guilt is a misunderstanding of Jesus and His and the Father's heart towards us.

Colossians 2:11-14 (NCV)

 It was through Christ’s circumcision, that is, his death, that you were made free from the power of your sinful self. ¹² When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him through your faith in God’s power that was shown when he raised Christ from the dead. ¹³ When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. 

Do you see what the cross did for us? It forgave ALL our sins, it canceled the debt - it has been nailed to the cross, left behind.  But perhaps we metaphorically run back to the cross, tear that piece of paper off and hold it before God saying, "But what about this one?"  However, it doesn't say that the record was resurrected with Jesus. Perhaps the nails on His hands should serve as our reminder that the record was left behind so we can move on.

Hebrews 1 & 2 work through these struggles with us.  We see that the Israelite people were never able to enter God's rest and we are warned that we too do not want to be caught missing out on His rest.  While that passage has made me uncomfortable, as I've struggled with it, I've come to realize that they never wanted to accept God's grace, which is why they were unable to enter His rest.  And as I've seen in my own life and the lives of others, when we are trying to  live for the law, from the law and/or in light of the law, we continue to miss out on the promised rest.

Hebrews 2:14-17 (NCV)

¹⁴ Since these children are people with physical bodies, Jesus himself became like them. He did this so that, by dying, he could destroy the one who has the power of death—the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who were like slaves all their lives because of their fear of death. ¹⁶ Clearly, it is not angels that Jesus helps, but the people who are from Abraham.^{[b] 17} For this reason Jesus had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way so he could be their merciful and faithful high priest in service to God. Then Jesus could die in their place to take away their sins. ¹⁸ And now he can help those who are tempted, because he himself suffered and was tempted.

Understanding that we can confidently come before God's throne of grace in our times of weakness is key, key, key.  So this is just the background information that lays the groundwork for the question, "So what then?"

His Kingdom come, His will be done

(If you really want to work through these concepts with an expert check out Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright) 

I was struck the other day by Jesus words considering the kingdom:

Luke 17:20-21

Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of God come?”

Jesus answered, “God’s kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you will be able to see with your eyes. ²¹ People will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ because God’s kingdom is within you.”

We are the carriers of His kingdom!  Our world and our churches ask, seek and looking and searching for God's kingdom daily and I think they main reason they are missing seeing it is because they are looking in the wrong places.

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 

¹¹ This command I give you today is not too hard for you; it is not beyond what you can do. ¹² It is not up in heaven. You do not have to ask, “Who will go up to heaven and get it for us so we can obey it and keep it?” ¹³ It is not on the other side of the sea. You do not have to ask, “Who will go across the sea and get it? Who will tell it to us so we can keep it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

NT Wright says in his book, Surprised by Hope:

The method of the kingdom will match the message of the kingdom.  The kingdom will comes as the church, energized by the Spirit, goes out into the world vulnerable, suffering, praising, praying, misunderstood, misjudged, vindicated, celebrating: always - as Paul puts it in one of his letters - bearing in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed.

We need to be captured by God's heart and understand His heart if we want to be reflections of it in the world today:

Psalm 146: 6-9

Who gives justice to those that suffer wrong 

and bread to those who hunger.

The Lord looses those that are bound;

the Lord opens the eyes of the blind;

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; 

the Lord loves the righteous;

The Lord watches over the stranger in the land;

he upholds the orphan and widow;

but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

These are the values we are called to carry.  This is the heart we have the honor and privilege to represent.  His Kingdom is here today, it is within you and you can easily spread and extend it by simple acts of love to anyone who walks in your path today - whether family, friend or foe.  Be confident in His love, beloved.

In Christ,

Learning to Live: Present

A lesson for my life for several years has been - learning to live: present.  Personally, it seems so easy to vacillate between the past and the future, but to stay firmly in the present, that is hard.  Our culture  easily embeds us in this swinging pendulum: Facebook asks us to continually share what just happened in the past (and often to highlight only the good of those moments).  Our smartphones alert us to what is to come.  We have calendars full of events a year in the future.  We can set reminders that alert us to what will happen in 1 hour, 10 minutes, 5 minutes and more.  Even with all these reminders, I often find myself walking around with the feeling that I am forgetting something, something important.

But I often find that I haven't forgotten anything, except, perhaps to enjoy the present moment.  Perhaps, enjoying the present moment is an element of childlike faith? Why? Because it is something I see my children do all the time.  They do not worry about the past nor the future.  They play, they laugh, they enjoy, they get annoyed, they shake it off and play and laugh again.

Because being present is no longer natural for me, I've had to become intentional about pursuing it.  Here are some things that have helped me over the years to realign myself to the present:

• Understanding more about God: Through the years, I've had to learn to let go of the neurotic feeling that God was standing somewhere beyond me, tapping His foot waiting for me to get there, so that when (if) I arrived we could move forward together.  For many years, the voices  that surrounded me, held out a carrot saying that tomorrow was better with God. Tomorrow I would be holier, tomorrow I would be more peaceful, tomorrow there would be more joy.  Well, I suppose, I am more peaceful, holier and joyful than I used to be but it didn't happen by continually chasing tomorrow.  It happened when I woke up to the fact that He is with me TODAY, no matter where TODAY places me.  It happened when I realized that He is in charge of His Kingdom (not I) and that He has invited me to be a collaborator with Him in the Kingdom.
• Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
• The people walking in darkness
      have seen a great light;
  on those living in the land of deep darkness
      a light has dawned.
  ⁶ For to us a child is born,
      to us a son is given,
      and the government will be on his shoulders.
  And he will be called
      Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
      Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
  ⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace
      there will be no end.
  He will reign on David’s throne
      and over his kingdom,
  establishing and upholding it
      with justice and righteousness
      from that time on and forever.
  The zeal of the Lord Almighty
      will accomplish this.
• Henri Nouwen, "Wherever I am, at home, in a hotel, in a train, plane, airport, I would not feel irritated, restless, and desirous of being somewhere else or doing something else.  I would know that here and now is what counts and is important because it is God himself who wants me in this time and place. (Monk Habits for Everyday Life by Dennis Okholm from chapter 8: Staying Put to Get Somewhere)"
•  C.S. Lewis: The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them for eternity.  He therefore wants them to attend chiefly to two things - to eternity itself and to that point of time which they call the present.  For the present is the point at which time touches eternity.  Our business, as demons is to get them away from the eternal and the present.
  
  
  It's far better to make them live in the future, all their passions point in that direction.  The thought about the future inflames hope and fear.  It is also unknown to them so that making them think about it will make them think of unrealities.  In a word, the future is of all things the least like eternity.  It is the most completely temporal part of time - for the past is froze and no longer flows and the present is all lit up with eternal rays.  Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future.  Gratitude looks to the past, love to the present, fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead. (Screwtape Letters Letter 15)
  
  Years ago I heard a sermon by Erwin McManus where he said something to the effect of, "If you need a vacation to enjoy your life, then you need a new life."  This really struck me at the time, because I felt like I was in survival mode and that vacations, those one week, once a year things, was what I was surviving to live to make it to.  In those obscure places, existed the ability to live in joy and freedom.  His words awakened me to the fact that this wasn't what I needed to live for because God had indeed offered me life for today, in fact it was sufficient for every day.
  
  So years later, I think it is working:
  
   Common, everyday life is holy.
  I find myself wondering where my phone is and realizing that I haven't touched it in over 3 hours.  I find myself holding my kids, smelling their hair, looking at them in the eyes, laughing genuinely with them. 
  
  
    Living present, enjoying the gift of today.
  I find myself finding joy in the small, monotonous everyday tasks of folding laundry, vacuuming, sweeping; not wishing those tasks away or seeing them as an inconvenience.  I find myself enjoying work, recognizing that it is a holy task that allows me to partner with God in everyday life. 
  
    Because, this IS the day that the Lord has made.
  I also find myself giving myself grace to be human: to be crabby, impatient, frustrated, grumpy - inviting God to lead me through the dark places that still exist within me.
  
  So let us rejoice and be glad in it.
   
  In Christ,

Confidence in Christ

http://i1366.photobucket.com/albums/r775/mlcphotoclub/Communion/Communion_10_zps94b214b2.jpg

Even as I write the title to this post, I cringe at the cliché those words can bring.  We need to have confidence in Christ can sound so spiritual and heady that even as the words drift off the page they easily get tangled up into our misconceptions and misunderstandings:  

“Yes, I need to have more confidence in Christ.  I will work on that and put it at the top of my to-do list.  As the day goes by, I will try to remind myself that I need to have more confidence in Christ.”

While words are powerful, it is easy to mix them up with misunderstanding and rip the mystery and depth right out of them.

In the past 5 years, I have fallen in love with liturgy and the church calendar.  These were tools that facilitated the renewal of my tired heart.  Liturgy has challenged me, it has centered me, it has calmed me and it has given me confidence in Christ.  

I have written before about why I love Daily Prayer, so I won’t go into all the reasons again, other than to say I still find myself in love with it.  It weaves all of Scripture together for me on a daily basis, the Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament and the Gospel.  I’m reminded daily that I am part of a story that is bigger than I am and that this great Creator has been intimately involved in human history for thousands of years and He will still be there when I am long gone. 

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“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.” ― Julian of Norwich

We live in a world of heartbreaking news.  There is no way to wrap our minds and reality around the tragic events that plague our world.  I read in the news about 200 Nigerian girls who have been raped and tortured for months and then I look across the room at my daughter, the same age no doubt as some of these children, who is carefree and loved.  And my heart cries out, “Why not the same for them?  Why did their childhood have to be torn away?”  And I pray for their precious babies, conceived in horror, will they find a life where they are loved, embraced and cherished?

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As these words wrap around me, I begin reading Paul.  I’ve come to realize that there are some in the Church who view Paul as harsh and demanding.  They can never quite measure up to “his expectations.”  But I think that for many who feel that way it happens because they have separated these holy words from the story of life.  Somewhere along the way we’ve lost the mystery, the awe and the beauty of Scripture because we have turned it into merely a rule book that reminds us of how far short we still are from God’s beauty and holiness. Instead of an invitation to learn about God’s love.

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I have found no other way to experience life in my own life apart from Christ.

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But I love Paul and he no longer strikes me in this way.  He is passionate and he struggles with putting words around the beauty and mystery of the cross.  He has seen human history, he has studied religious history, and he understands firsthand how cruel humanity can be.  Yet he has fallen in love with a Saviour whom he is willing to die for.  When he sees humanity putting confidence in themselves and selling short the beauty and mystery of the cross, yes, he does get upset and expresses it.  But I don’t see it as an angry, why don’t you get your act together?  Rather I see it as a cry “What can I do to make you see with my eyes?  What must I do to make you understand?”

Ephesians 2: 1- 9

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So what does confidence in Christ mean to me?  It is something that is always changing, growing and challenging me.  But it means learning to rest in the beauty of who He is and learning to walk in His love.  

Love not guilt, 

grace not shame, 

mercy not me trying harder. 

Loving the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and my neighbor as myself.  

Starting here, always, every day, every hour, every minute.  

He loves us (period).  

He loves us – believe it.  

He loves us – accept it.  

He loves you, yes you.

Let’s start there. Let’s live it out as reality in our lives so we have something to offer this brokenhearted world, to bring life, hope and healing to their hearts.  Sometimes I think we are so busy fighting our own hearts, our own weaknesses that we find ourselves with nothing left to offer.  But perhaps if our confidence was in Christ alone we could walk forward offering the Bread of Life, the water that is free and available to all who are weary & thirsty.  

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Drink deep His love.  It is healing, it is real, it is life-giving and it is the hope our real world needs.

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“God loved us before he made us; and his love has never diminished and never shall.” ― Julian of Norwich

So I end this post with a song, “Looking for You” by the Lone Bellow.  I have fallen in love with this haunting song and I’ve wanted to share it with you all.  I don’t know the intention behind this song, but for me I see it as a call from Christ’s love to our hearts.  Sometimes we are captured more easily by music then words alone.  If you are feeling lost and broken, maybe this song will minister to your heart and encourage you to put your trust in Christ’s love. 

In Christ,

Gentle Beauty

Romans 2:4 (NCV)

Perhaps you do not understand that God is kind to you so you will change your hearts and lives.

If someone were to observe me for several days they would begin to notice something about me; I am one who follows the sun.  It starts in the morning. My husband and I’s bedroom faces the rising sun and especially right now the bright glorious sunrise kisses me awake every morning.   

As I start my work day, I open all of the shades in my house and plant myself in the chair that is nearest the glorious rising sun.  Sometimes this will involve me switching between a couple chairs and squeezing myself smaller and smaller to get the last bits of direct sunshine as the sun begins to fade.  If the weather is warm enough, I’ll take my computer out on the back deck and sit in a chair that is still exposed to the sun.  As the day progresses, the sun switches to shining on the front end of my home, so I will then move to the front room or porch to soak in the sun.  Again, if the weather is warm enough, you will find me sitting smack dab in the middle of a sunny spot.  

Towards the end of the day, you will find me searching for a glorious sunset.  We usually get one out our front window or if I’m lucky enough I will drive to the lake so I can sit and watch the sunset.  I told my daughter that a perfect day for me, would be chasing an everlasting sunset.

The start of the day in the sunshine is like a gentle kiss from my Savior.   After my niece’s death 6 years ago I went through a season where it physically hurt my heart to get out of bed.  In sorrow and confusion, darkness was what I seemed to constantly feel in my heart.  During this painful season the Lord gave me Psalm 19:

1-6 (NCV):

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies

Announce what his hands have made.  Day after day

They tell the story;

Night after night they tell it again.

They have no speech or words;

They have no voice to be heard.

But their message goes out through all the world;

Their words go everywhere on earth.

The sky is like a home for the sun.

The sun comes out like a bridegroom from his bedroom.

It rejoices like an athlete eager to run a race.

The sun rises at one end of the sky and follows its path

to the other end.

Nothing hides from its heat.

This is where I began each day during that difficult season.  Reading this Scripture daily as the sun rose in my bedroom.  I loved the image of the sun coming out like a bridegroom from his bedroom.  The announcement of the sky.   

There was a joy, a joy that continued daily and didn’t fail.  A joy that started each day, and did not grow tired nor decide to check out and take a day off.  It didn’t get disillusioned by life; there was something greater than all the sorrows of this life that was worth announcing day by day.  His creation spoke a message, a silent yet powerful message, and this is where I sat my heart for a season.  As the sun rose, I lay in bed and allowed the message of the sun’s joy in life to speak to my heart.

Another reason, I fell in love with this Psalm because from the very beginning it drew me in with its gentle peace but also because it continued on tying His creation to the power of His word (7-10):

The teachings of the Lord are perfect;

They give new strength.

The rules of the LORD can be trusted; they make plain people wise.

The orders of the LORD are right;

They make people happy.

The commands of the LORD are pure;

They light up the way.

Respect for the LORD is good; it will last forever.

The judgements of the LORD are true;

They are completely right.

They are worth more than gold, even the purest gold.

They are sweeter than honey, even the finest honey.

Just as I could rest in the faithfulness of His creation, I too could rest my heart in the faithfulness and beauty of His Word.  His teachings were perfect.  They give strength.  His Word could be trusted.

When your heart has been through a war, there needs to be a time for healing.  Psalm 19 provided a safe place for my heart to heal.  It allowed me to take the extravagant beauty that I can so easily see around me and parallel it to Scripture.

There are benefits and pitfalls to being a Christian your entire life.  It provides a solid foundation that takes a lot to demolish.  However, you also get exposed to LOTS of versions of Christianity some really good stuff and some not so good.  Combine all that information with a perfect storm of tragedy and your heart, mind, soul and spirit can end up a mess.  What I learned (and still learn) is that Jesus is a gentle Savior, who knows how to gently and patiently untie the greatest of messes.  Just as I place my body physically in the light of the sun every day, spiritually, you will find me too following the Son.  Immersing myself in His Word; knowing that my understanding or use of it won’t always be perfect or clear.  But what I do know is that it is trustworthy, it is pure and it does light up my way.

In Christ,