Walking. Just Walking.

 It is a mystery indeed.

I know that God is holy and I know that I am not but how…how do I live in this chasm between Him and me?

Sometimes I think we make Jesus’ story into a movie or a novel with interesting characters and great plot twists. And it plays well as such. He is compelling and the story is fascinating, surprising, heartwarming, heart wrenching. We can leave the theater saying

THAT was a good story

digest our popcorn and go back to futility.

But how do we live this Christian life? How do we move on past the acceptance of His sacrifice and live each day as new, changed, fruit of His labor?

God has explained through the astounding brain and surrendered heart of Paul that it is a give and take, an exchange, a process by which we ease from this world of strife to His Kingdom of light.

Us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:4 

Walking. Just walking.

He challenges us to walk in pace with the Spirit. To learn step by step how to walk each day in this new forgiveness and grace. He knows that a person who is not conditioned or in shape cannot run and the marathon of life is beyond comprehension at the onset. But walking, little by little, building strength, we can do it. You can do it.

You have no good choice really. God says: To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6

Why would we turn away this offer of life and peace? If you are truly in love with your Father God then you must already know that living in step with your flesh, your crazy impulsive feelings and reactionary words never ever brings peace or sustains life. It always results in death: endings, separation, conflict, and sorrow. His Word says the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.

Enmity:

a feeling of hostility or ill will, as between enemies; antagonism… deep-rooted hatred.

Why would we ever allow this to happen? How can we let this God who is love from the beginning of time become our enemy? How can we not bow in obeisance and joyfully follow where the Holy Spirit leads?

Tilt your head to catch his Voice whispering to you. Know the things that have become weapons of war against God your Abba Father.  Tear down the fleshy fattened grotesque ideas and words and habits that have become the foxhole you have suffered in. Surrender to His gentle guidance. He will teach you how to walk into this Kingdom with your head held high.

It makes me laugh with pleasure when I think of enormity of the benefits of walking in His leading, in His Spirit .They are simply:

Life and Peace.

And Family…

you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”  it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17

And because of this adoption: an inheritance.

A promise of a forever love.

Isn’t that what your heart longs for:

 the sweet gift of the growth of life,

the heart soothing voice of peace

and the comfort of family belonging?

I know mine does. Start walking then.

Reference:

The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament

copyright1990

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 

Exceedingly Abundantly Broken

I listened to her quiet crying over the phone. My soul ached to make it better but, as usual, there was nothing I could do right now except listen.

I prayed as she talked, God what can I do? And the thing He showed me is this: I can’t make a happy ending for her. Shoot, she can’t make the happy ending.  This is not consoling. I am frustrated and tired of sadness and hopelessness. As I sat there holding the phone I thought: What is happening here? What are you saying, Lord? Where is the hope?

I saw my tattered-$6-basic-been-around-the-world Bible. I reached for that Light. 

God brought me to Nehemiah. An ancient Old Testament guy, who saw some miracles in his lifetime.

Listen, God said, I am speaking through this old old story:

Nehemiah loved God with all his heart. But he was far from home, his place of worship and his support group of friends who believed like him. He had only his faith in the LORD to keep him going. As a matter of fact, his homeland was destroyed and his temple was in ruins. When he discovered this news, he wept at the enormity of the devastation to his people, his beliefs. So he prayed and fasted to ease his grieving mind. I can just imagine that he pleaded with God to send warriors and skilled craftsmen to rebuild his city and temple. He could just see gifted architects and strong young men rebuilding the fortifying walls around his home again. After all Nehemiah wasn’t a laborer, he was a servant in the royal courts.

His job: cup bearer to the King.

Cup...Bearer?

Cup bearer: serves the King drinks. Sometimes must take the first swallow in order to prove it isn’t poisoned. Knows royal protocol and is basically a royal servant on the order of a butler… 

Not a builder. 

Not an architect. 

And certainly not a young buck who can haul stones for a wall.

But God had other plans. He wanted His city fortified. His people called to repentance and taught His Word once again. He wanted to restore them and show His glory to them and through them once again. He chose to make this happen using the most unlikely man in the most unlikely way.

And guess what happened? Nehemiah risked his life in asking the King for some time off to go rebuild this wall…

                             and he got it along with the King’s blessing.

He faced a lot of opposition while he was in Jerusalem, but that wall got built in an astonishing 52 days. (When was the last time you saw a construction project that got done ahead of time?)

Every time I read Nehemiah I hear God say:

Not everything in life turns out the way you expect it to. I am most glorified when the broken, ill equipped, and flawed people are put in situations where they cannot possibly make anything happen on their own. Be open to my way of working in your life. Trust me.

You and I would have never chosen Nehemiah to get this job done. But God did and He is still glorified for it today.

I don’t think you and I would have chosen a prostitute to protect the next leader of the Israelites either.

Or a runty little shepherd boy to be King of Israel.

Or a Beauty queen to save all the Jews from execution.

Or fishermen to be evangelists.

Or a Pharisee to teach about grace.

Or the son of a teenage mother to save the world.

So when life is looking impossibly hopeless and all the plans you have tried to fulfill to make things happen are shattered and destroyed, be encouraged. God is finally able to get to work in your life to make miracles happen. If you will only let Him.

He who created life out of dirt can make hope and happiness come out of the most broken, ill equipped, flawed, and faithful people on earth.

Ephesians 3:20-21

New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

credits: 

The Wall that Nehemiah Built http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=35&Issue=2&ArticleID=7

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+3%3A20-21&version=NKJV

What's It Like Outside?

I hate snow
Spring is too cold...rainy...short
I like summer but this heat is killing me
We are all sick because the weather cant make up its mind if it will be hot or cold…

Well…
People have copious opinions about the weather. It amuses me to hear people make it a topic in everything from polite conversation to vehement verdicts. I mean it is just the weather.
As God said, “Did you make it?”

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow…
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen? Job 38: 22, 29-30

I am a bit perplexed when people hate something like this so emphatically. The way I look at it is like this: God made this world and everything in it. And it is good. So I look for the good in each day He gives me.

May I challenge you to do the same?

Look for the Creative Creator in a sparkling never repeated magical fall of snowflakes.
Soak in His luxurious love as you feel the tangible heat of a humid blaze of sun.
Lift your face to the breath of His Spirit as a spectrum of leaves dance around you.
Remember His eternal promises as beauty is born anew through a spring rain.
Experience His power as you fear coming storms.
Know His touch as grey catfooted fog slips in at the end of the day.

He who created us to learn in so many ways just wants to teach us through the novelty of each new day. Don’t take for granted the hand of the Creator. He has fashioned this day just for you.

The Web

I walked through autumn

the colors enchanted me

shining through a weakening sun

I was swept into the wood

Wandering through a rain of leaves

as I walked I spoke with my lord

exchanging pleasantries about the day

but soon a silken web wound about me

entangling delicately a sparkling silver  restraint

unable to go on I paused to be free

apprehended  as I was

I knew in my soul it was His desire to stop me so

apprehended by my lord

in gentle silken bands

of yearning and  mercy

caught in the tender trap of his love and call

apprehend me my lord

catch me away from myself and my intentions

capture me and hold me until the stillness is within my soul

and I am sure of the way to continue

hold me until I am subdued

at peace

Desire

The beauty of a winter afternoon

 is only found by a seeking mind

the soft sun backlights

the bones of the trees

like  moonlight

outlining her body

diaphanous and thin

revealed

cold wind

soaked in dampness

lifts your face yet

tries to close your eyes

it is too rare to put up for public display

the nakedness of this earth

the lovliness of grey

breaks my heart

until I cry

tear shaped ice glitters

in the gentle winter afternoon light

only a seeking mind

will find this beauty

beauty that is enough

Enough

Slender

Bright

Pretty

Charming

Outside everything was easy to identify

Pleasant words

Easily traced the outline

everyone could see

One dimension

flat and shiny

She thought it once mattered

But it was worthless at the end of the day

Digging through the flesh

Cutting open the superficial

There was bedrock of

Justice

Above everything

Black and white

Justice

But she didn’t know if it had any value after all

She wasn’t made of pretty

She wasn’t only smiles and perfection

She wanted to find mercy and grace

But like the curves of a medieval angel

There were none inside her thin heart

She thought fairness was enough

Wasn’t justice His heart?

Her soul had never been parted from His

She ached to be apart from Him

But the shiny package was empty inside

All she had to give was

A whip that drove her

To uphold fairness at all costs.

Distracting Noises

This morning I happened upon a verse I had not read before: Isaiah 30:33

"Topheth has long been prepared;  it has been made ready for the king. 

Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; 

the breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze."

Pretty strong language.

 I was curious. What is Topheth? 

What in the world happened there? Why does God’s Holy anger burn against it so? 

I did a little research. And I found out basically, it all goes back to sin.

Doesn't everything?

First, there was a god called Molech. Its origins are in all ways evil. It was a god who produced sun, or warmth - in theory of course. In practice Molech was only appeased by death. Primarily the death of children. First born, new born, babies. Or perhaps, if the need was there, some children up to age six or so.

Really? The death, by sacrifice, of babies?

Think about it.
Don’t let your brain go all Hollywood and visualize drums beating and crazy people carrying babies to a big fire then…
Cut! Crying mother and its over.
This was real. You can go to archaeological digs in the Middle East right now and see thousands of dead baby bones. Thousands of dead babies. One account says at one point the nobles- the upper class, affluent people- thought the god was angry with them because instead of giving their own babies they were buying babies from poor people and giving them as a substitute sacrifice. So their response was to repent and offer up 200 of their children all at once. But in their zeal more than 300 children were actually slaughtered.

The god was represented by a large hollow metal statue. Being the god of the sun’s warmth a fire was lit inside of the statue. Some accounts have the tiny babies being dumped inside the hollow burning part all at once. Some say the statue had outstretched hands ready to receive the little ones. Perhaps it was spring loaded and then fed the children into its own fiery belly. One account says that was probably too mechanically complex. The babies were just placed in the statues’ hands and left to slowly burn to death over several hours as the fires grew hotter and the heat transferred throughout the statues’ metal body.

Do you think that precious innocent one was screaming in terror and pain?
Crying out in the confusion of being abandoned and tortured?
If they were old enough, calling out, “mama, mama”...

Without a doubt they were crying.

So how do you keep a parent from being moved by this? 

Play the drums louder. 

Add some horns and flutes. Chant.
How do you keep anyone from being moved by this?

Mask over their cries with distracting noise.

The practice of Molech’s sacrifices has gone on for a very long time. Leviticus shows us God’s admonition to the Israelites way back in chapter 18 verse 21 
 "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD." 
 Even though this edict is very plain, some leaders and people of Israel actually practiced this ritual. Where?

Topheth.

It was a place right outside of Jerusalem where the sacrifices were performed. The word means “altar” but it was not a place of beauty it soon just became a garbage dump. It was a place where death and discard reigned. There was a continual fire burning, probably to mask the smell. It was also called the Valley of Hennon. This place was so vile it eventually gave birth to the Greek word Gehenna which we know today as Hell.

The Scripture from Leviticus is pretty plain and straightforward, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD."  

Why shouldn’t you sacrifice your children?
Not because it is hurtful to the parents or will seriously deplete your population growth? 

No, because it profanes God’s name. It hurts the very core of who He is.  

We are all defined by our name. God chose to reveal Himself to us by His many descriptive names. He is our Redeemer, Provider, Healer, Shepherd and on and on. It is of great interest that God forbids sacrificing children because it compromises who He is. It profanes or negates His Holiness and goodness. What a connection. God must truly see these innocent ones as a reflection of His purity and power. He must value them as a piece of Himself; a precious reflection of the Creator of the Universe in a sweet small human form.  Don’t misunderstand, there were sacrifices of adults as well. But just as God has clearly explained to us what is right and wrong, so also the demons know evil and good. The worshipers of Molech were fully aware of the abomination, the blatant evil, involved in this practice and did it anyway because they knew, as well, the wondrous power of the holiness of God. If they were to effectively try to bring down the LORD they must fight fire with fire. Pure innocence compromised allows evil to reign.

Totally irrelevant to us today?

God’s Word is never irrelevant. It speaks to us throughout time.

I can hear the cries of the innocent babies echo from sacrificial fires burning strong and bright, right now, today. The children of the world are being sacrificed as easily as they were thousands of years ago. Every time I choose to indulge in a North American luxury and turn my face away from images of malnourished toddlers the drums beat louder. Every time I think the numbers are too great and I cannot possibly make a difference another worshiper pushes past me and tosses an innocent one into the flames.  Every time I ignore the cries of the children next door being beaten and silenced I pour fuel on the fires of evil triumphant. Each time I give in and say "some" abortions are needed...

Do not tell me that children are of value to you unless you can take a stand; do something besides cry and turn away. Do not raise your hands in praise beside me and offer worship to God as His name is profaned by your indifference and ignorance to the cries of the little ones.

I pray that one day we may truly see the Holiness of God and comprehend our unworthiness of His love. Then perhaps we can value what He holds most precious and guard it with our lives. Then perhaps we can understand how beautiful to Him our prayers for the protection of His children truly are. How valued are our few dollars when used to buy rice for hungry tummies. How life changing and life saving is our compassionate response to their needs. How tenderly loved by God we are when we simply hand a needy mother a blanket to hold her baby in instead of having it ripped from her to be tossed into the fire.

The weapons with which we fight this evil are simple: faith, hope and love. 

The greatest of these is Love.

References:

Bob Westbrook 9/11/99  http://www.trumpetsounds.com/topheth.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna

http://www.preceptaustin.org/god's_name_-_a_strong_tower.htm

http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/profane.htm

The Bible and the End of the World: Should We Be Afraid? By Margaret Nutting Ralph

http://www.biblestudytools.com/leviticus/18-21-compare.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch