Living Into The "Impossible Imperatives"

Have you ever read a command in the Bible, heard a sermon, or a book about spiritual things and thought, "There is no way I can do that?" I read a passage over twenty years ago in a book called The New Pilgrims in which the author talks about a man named George.  After being in close contact with a missionary from a third world country, George had a light bulb moment about his over-consumption . The author spent only three paragraphs talking about George, yet these paragraphs were some of the most impactful I ever read.  When George and his family realized they were living in sin-the sin of affluence, they decided they needed to repent.  Yet, how does one repent of a lifestyle? George and his family did it one step at a time.

"They realized that repentance is not "saying sorry and keeping on doing it, but a lengthy period of turning to God in sorrow for forgiveness.  It involves putting right the wrong, with the intention of treading new paths in the future.  Therefore they entered a two year "time of repentance".  They sold their large house in a prestigious suburb and moved to a smaller one.  They swapped their enegy-hogging car for a small model.  They examined their food intake and improved the quality of their diet.  George lost forty pounds. Money saved was given away."

Over the Labor Day weekend I picked up a magazine at the Wind Hill common house at Gilchrist in Three Rivers, MI.  I read an article and below is what I gleaned from it and my Bible reading as reported in my journal:

"I read an article called "Enlightening Annoyances" by Robert C. Morris.  It was about abiding in the vine.  He spoke of a life dominated by do's and don'ts and how he began an apprenticeship with Jesus.  The pivotal moment came when he realized instead of pushing down his emotions when he read a verse like, "Love your enemies," which he knew he could not do, he'd bring his anger to God.  He'd start by living out his anger. "That moment was pivotal in my becoming a disciple of Jesus the Life Master, my 1st conscious step of living into the challenges Jesus sets for us rather than trying to live up to a set of rules.  I had taken my first step as an apprentice of Jesus, learning his art of cultivating the soul's receptivity to grace."  

After I finished that article I went onto my Bible reading of the second half of  Matthew chapter one. In this passage Joseph finds out his wife-to-be, Mary, is pregnant.  An angel sent by God tells him to go ahead and marry Mary.  He prefaces the statement with "Do not be afraid."  

George, Robert Morris, and Joseph have had a word from God, a next step in their faith journeys. This got me to thinking about "impossible imperatives" in life and wondering if they are all preceded by God's "Do not be afraid."  "Peter, don't be afraid, get out of the boat."  "Joshua, do not be afraid to enter the promise land."  "Karen, do not be afraid, trust Me that I will provide for you when you and Don are no longer working." While not always spoken, I believe that anything God wants us to do that causes us fear or doubt comes with a "Do not be afraid."  

Obeying can happen incrementally, like in the case of George.  He did not beat himself up when he realized he was living a life of too much affluence.  He could have felt overwhelmed or guilty.  If that had happened he probably would have rationalized and kept living the same lifestyle. Robert Morris chose a different than his typical response when he realized he did not love his enemies.  He admitted the truth of it, felt the anger, and asked God to help him.  Joseph could have put Mary away quietly, but instead he believed the angel and went ahead and married Mary.  I can choose to fret over the future or I can trust the God who has taken care of me all my life.

The aha moment dawns or the fork in the road appears.  We can embrace the new knowledge. We can walk toward the fork and listen for the still small voice of God. "Don't be afraid."  Take that step of obedience, that step toward Jesus. 

Reading Through The Bible

At my old church a few people would read the Bible through each year. I knew that would be too much reading for me, so I decided  I would read through the Bible in two years.  I found a two year reading plan and began.  I took notes on passages that I felt I would like to talk with my grandchildren about; I filled 3 steno pads.  It was quite an accomplishment, but in the end I felt like even reading the Bible through in two years was too much reading to be able to absorb or meditate on it. (I did use the Bible references in my notes for a book I self published in 2015 for my grandchildren.)

Fast forward a decade to this past summer.  I was wondering what it would be like to read through the Bible slowly and I found a five year plan online.  I also bought a five year thought a day journal  and on August 29th I began.  Most days I have gotten something out of my reading worth sharing.

A coworker has been bugging...uh, I mean encouraging me to continue to write.  So my plan is to write my discoveries and applications to this daily reading plan.  

If you are interested in the link to the five year reading program, here it is.

Reckoning the Real

Reckoning the Real

If you have listened to me for long enough you will have heard me speak of little "t" truth and big "T" Truth.  In this blog I dub little r real for the visible world and big R Real for the spiritual world.

The following thoughts were formed by meditating on a section from The Pursuit of God by A.W Tozer.  The section is at the end of section 4 about the word reckon.

According to Tozer we need to reckon by faith the invisible, spiritual world.  The spiritual world is the big R Real world, while the visible world is actually the little r real world.  Most of us concentrate on the little r real world?  Why is that?

Tozer claims we have bad thought habits.  He says the world of the senses intrudes on our attention the whole of our lives. We habitually think of the visible world as real and while not denying the reality of the unseen world we doubt the realness of it.  In other words, we flip the capital and the lower case letters.  We deem the big R Real world to be the one we can see.

Part of our bad thought habits, and our uncorrected thinking as Tozer sees it, is the contrast we make the spiritual and the real.  That contrast does not even exist!  Yes, a contrast between the spiritual and the material, the temporal and the eternal, the visible and the invisible but between the spiritual and the real?  NO!

If we want to truly follow God in Spirit and in Truth we must correct these thinking errors and seek to be other-worldly.  In other words we need to have a big R Real world focus.  To Tozer:

 "The "other world", which is the object of this world's disdain and the subject of the drunkard's mocking song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of our holiest longing.  BUT, we must avoid the common fault of pushing the "other world" into the future.  It is not future, but present."

I have taken road, path, journey, as my metaphor for the race talked about in the New Testament.  Hebrews says we run our race looking unto Jesus. I, like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, am on my way to the Celestial Kingdom with my little scroll of God's word in hand.  Lovely picture, right?

But while reading this passage in Tozer I began to see that although my goal is to stay in the middle of the path and not wind up in Doubting Castle or Vanity Fair....maybe I'm not most of the time "looking unto Jesus".

What if one of my eyes symbolically is seeing the little r real world and the other eye is seeing the big R Real world.  My eyes are working together but my concentration is on the visible little r real world because hey, it's visible.  Which kind of makes sense for me because I keep wondering why I can't stay present to God throughout the day.  I keep getting sucked back into the visible world.

This got me to thinking, what if I patch up the eye (symbolically) that is constantly seeing the visible world, to the point of mostly living like the visible world is the only world?  What if I put a patch over that eye?

This led me to do some reading about eye patches.  I thought this info from WebM.D. was so interesting:

Amblyopia, commonly called "lazy eye," is an eye condition in which one eye is not used enough for the visual system in the brain to develop properly. If one eye is weak, the brain ignores the images from it and uses only the images from the stronger eye, leading to poor vision in the weak eye. Normal vision develops with regular, equal use of the eyes. Treatment for amblyopia includes patching the stronger eye to force the weaker eye to develop better vision. Early treatment can usually reverse the condition.

Did you hear that?  Normal vision develops with the regular, equal use of the eyes.  But I don't want normal vision.  I want that spiritual vision, the vision that sees the unseen, the big R Real. 

Most of you know that I recently got off FB.  I'd say I was prompted by the Spirit to from reading this book, another book called The Shape of Living by David F. Ford and doing a Beth Moore study on the book of Daniel. 

Some think that you can be so heavenly minded you are no earthly good.  I think Tozer would reject that.  After all, even with an eye patch I will still be able to hear, smell, taste and touch the visible world.  But I will be seeing more of Jesus, high and lifted up.  I may even see the powers and principalities and be able to shout out some warnings to others.

Maybe getting off FB is my attempt at an eye patch. 

I have really appreciated this book.  So much food for thought.  So good that my plan is to read it every year on New Years Eve.  Maybe we can do it together.

As usual PEACE OUT, or maybe with my eye patched,  the new sign off should be MAY THE PEACE OF CHRIST BE WITH YOU!

If you like what you are reading on my blog, could you please share it with your friends on Facebook and on other social media?  Thanks!

So Long Facebook

This world is not my home.  I am just passing through, trying to be light in the darkness.  My light is but a flicker here and a flicker there.  I find my mind and feelings overwhelmed by the culture around me.  Understandably sitting in a culture numbs me to the effects it is having on my life.  

I am choosing to get off Facebook  because my presence on it does more harm to me than good to others...at least from what I can tell.   I will miss some of you, but there are other ways to be in touch with people. 

Many recent thoughts, at least in the last year or so, have me convinced that this is the right thing for me to do.  Off the top of my head I can think of these:

1.  The beginning of Hebrews 12 :  We are told to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings to us.  I have to say that FB is a weight.  If I am trying to run my race, I don't need the weight of FB around my ankle.  This weight takes the form of time spent on FB when I could be doing more profitable things.

2.  The gospel verse about more of Him and less of me.  That takes intention and intention takes time and energy.  FB is about me, mine, my opinions, etc.  Yes, some of it is about others but for me, it is a way to express MYSELF.

3.  Paul in the New Testament says he is determined to know nothing but Christ.  Novel!

4.  I have been told I am preaching to the choir.  Well, that sounds like a colossal waste of time to me!

5.  I have just started a study of the book of Daniel and am struck by the resolve of Daniel to not be polluted or watered-down by the culture he finds himself in.  That took a lot of guts.  Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

6.  The end is near.  No, I have no idea when.  If the Lord returns today, would I want Him to find me on Facebook?  No.

7.  People are perishing all around me.  You'd think I could find some more profitable uses of my time.  For example, how about praying more?  Hmmm.  Good idea. 

8.  And like I have said before, for me, Facebook is pretty isolating.  And no, I don't just want to share pictures of my food....which seem to get the most attention of anything I happen to post!

I had the most wonderful weekend.  I went away with Linda and we had some of the most spiritually uplifting conversations I have had this year.  Ditto to Alicia Harley when we discussed Benner's Presence and Encounter.  I want to interact like this with others often. Ok, actually I'd like to do it daily!   I don't know how to make that happen BUT I am sure it's not going to happen on Facebook. 

I am very interested in what you are reading, thinking, and praying about and how it is effecting your life.  I hope you will email or text me about it.  Maybe we can meet for coffee or Face Time (whatever that is!) or Skype.

Thanks for listening.

Ironic Evidence

James 5:1-6 in The Moffatt Translation of the Bible

Come now you rich men, 

weep and shriek over your impending miseries!

You have been storing up treasure in the very last days;

Your wealth lies rotting and your clothes are moth-eaten; 

your gold and silver lie rusted over,

and their rust will be evidence against you,

 it will devour your flesh like fire.

See, the wages of which you have defrauded 

the workmen who mowed your fields call out, 

and the cries of the harvesters 

have reached the ears of The Lord of Hosts, 

You have reveled on the earth and plunged into dissipation,

You have fattened yourselves as for the Day of slaughter, 

You have condemned, 

you have murdered the righteous unresisting.

When I read this the first time, the first half of the passage about the moth-eaten clothing and the rusted gold and silver being "evidence" against the rich man jumped out at me.  The tangibility of the evidence!  It is not something only God can see or judge.  It is right there for all to see.  This moth-eaten and rusted evidence got in this condition through lack of use.  While others suffered, the rich were piling up stuff they couldn't even use.

And now, on a second look I see more.  The rich had amassed their wealth on the backs of people who so needed an income they didn't even protest the low wages.  

Not only can God see the initial tangible evidence, He has heard the cries of the defrauded poor.  Here is His take on the rich in this passage:  You are partying and having a great time, or so you think.  In actuality you are fattening yourselves up to be slaughtered.

Oh the irony!

How Not To Lose Hope As A Christian in A Minority Culture (Part 7)

This is a seven part series that was originally given as one meditation for a vespers service at Central Christian Church in Grand Rapids Michigan.  In my opinion, people who are living their lives with the Bible as their authority are in a minority in our country.

I took a FB test recently that told me I was a pessimist.  While I have never been a sugar plums and puppies kind of person, I have been a half full girl, not a half empty one.

I have so changed since 9-11.  Since I do not believe our country will be improving any time in the near future, am I doomed to be a pessimist?  NO!  I can pray for an attitude adjustment and I can tell myself the TRUTH, the way that I always have when times have gotten tough in my life.

Truth Seven:   I do not know where our current history in the USA will lead. 

Yes, it sure does feel like a slippery slope of badness to me.  But

feelings are not facts.  I remember reading "The Christians Secret of a Happy Life" years ago by Hannah Whitall Smith.  She talks about feelings being the caboose of the train.  Facts, Faith, then Feelings....in that order.  How I feel about any given circumstance really has little weight in the grand scheme of things; a train can run without a caboose.

I end this pep talk to myself with this scripture from Deut. 29:29:

"The secret things belong to the Lord but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children."

Dear God, Help me to put the revealed truth I know into practice and leave the secret things to you.

How Not To Lose Hope As A Christian in A Minority Culture (Part 6)

This is a seven part series that was originally given as one meditation for a vespers service at Central Christian Church in Grand Rapids Michigan.  In my opinion, people who are living their lives with the Bible as their authority are in a minority in our country.

I took a FB test recently that told me I was a pessimist.  While I have never been a sugar plums and puppies kind of person, I have been a half full girl, not a half empty one.

I have so changed since 9-11.  Since I do not believe our country will be improving any time in the near future, am I doomed to be a pessimist?  NO!  I can pray for an attitude adjustment and I can tell myself the TRUTH, the way that I always have when times have gotten tough in my life.

Truth Six:  I need to think about the energy I am leaking while railing against the degradation of our culture. 

I am wasting energy moaning and groaning when this energy could be used to keep my salt flavorful and my light shiny.  Maybe I should make a list of the things I could be doing instead of venting my frustrations.  After all, "We're not in Kansas any more, Toto!"

It will be next to impossible for me to stop grumbling and live out the call of God on my life faithfully alone.  It will help to have a church home where I can pray and encourage and be encouraged by others.