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DEATH. Day 9 of Lent. Death runs in the family.

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.” Eccl 7:2

Death runs in the family.

It’s a fact of life. Man is like grass, a vapor. Our Days Determined. Every one of them numbered before we were born. Our life has a limited number of days we cannot “go one day beyond” them. God orchestrates life. He is sovereign over His creation. God’s “eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16).

Our length of time is established by God and that gives us the assurance to trust Him as we journey through our days. When the religious leaders tried to take Jesus by force to have Him arrested He said “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here” (John 7:6) so God knows what we will face. All the evil of this world and the affairs and schemes of men cannot change what God has sovereignly ordained ahead of time for your life. God is for us. Nothing can take us from His hand. He is with us, we should never fear.

Yes, Death runs in the family but our length of time is established by God and that gives us the assurance to trust Him as we journey through our days. Today. We should ‘seize the day’- Carpi diem! We should pray “teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). And “show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is” (Psalm 39:4) so that we can live abundantly and intentionally on purpose.

Life is so short, “your time is here”, now.
Live today. Don’t wait until tomorrow.
“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deut 30:15-19).

Choose life. Repent-think differently-return to the Lord. And Live out your purpose.

If we are blind to ourselves or deny the reality of a coming death, it is possible to live under a delusion. We think we are in control of our life, we are not. We even think we are good people, doing good things, living well, for a purpose, but maybe not.

Meditating on this word, Death, gives us a needed reality check just like a funeral makes us pause and reconsider our own life.
What if you could read your obituary? See how your life finished up. How you were measured. Here is the story of a man who did just that~

One morning in 1888 Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, awoke to read his own obituary. The obituary was printed as a result of a simple journalistic error. It was Alfred’s brother that had died and the reporter carelessly stated the death of the wrong brother. We would all be disturbed under the circumstances, but to Alfred the shock was overwhelming because he saw himself as the world saw him.

The “Dynamite King,” the great industrialist who had made an immense fortune from explosives. This, as far as the general public was concerned, was the entire purpose of Alfred’s life. None of his true intentions to break down the barriers that separated men and ideas for peace were recognized or given serious consideration. He was simply a merchant of death. And for that alone he would be remembered.

As he read the obituary with horror, he resolved to make clear to the world the true meaning and purpose of his life. This could be done through the final disposition of his fortune. His last will and testament–an endowment of five annual prizes for outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace (the sixth category of economics was added later)–would be the expression of his life’s ideals and ultimately would be why we would remember him. The result was the most valuable of prizes given to those who had done the most for the cause of world peace.

It is called today, the “Nobel Peace Prize.”

Death runs in the family but our length of time is established by God and that gives us the assurance to trust Him as we journey through our days and fulfill our purpose.

It only takes 40 days to create a life of purpose.
Read Rick Warren’s book-
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? ( Expanded Edition)

February 26, 2015

LISTEN. Day 8 of Lent. We are starved for quiet.

“We are starved for quiet, to hear the sound of sheer silence that is the presence of God Himself.” Ruth Haley Barton

What is it to become quiet? To just be, silent.

It seems we can always hear the ‘buzz’.
Our world glorifies busy.

And the intense rush of instant and now and going there and doing this is an incessant white noise of loud that only seems to surge.

There’s family, those friends you can’t do life without then the grind of secular work, that pulse of agendas in the background and the pursuit of those dreams. We all juggle life the best we know how to do and fit God in, not always first and sometimes last and often in the midst of all the noise.

“Silence is the most challenging, the most needed and the least experienced spiritual discipline among evangelical Christians today.” Ruth Haley Barton explains in one of my all time favorite books, Invitation to Solitude and Silence-experiencing God’s transforming presence. Barton says, “We are starved for mystery, to know this God as One who is totally Other and to experience reverence in His presence. We are starved for intimacy, to see and feel and know God in the very cells of our being. We are starved for rest, to know God beyond what we can do for Him. We are starved for quiet, to hear the sound of sheer silence that is the presence of God himself.”

There are seasons when life roars with activity like a rock concert and when the mute button gets pushed we get incredibly nervous. We’re suddenly alone, with ourselves. It feels odd, almost scary.

Silence only emerges for most of us in the middle of the night. We wake up and the clock says 3:15am. Again. We count sheep or bills, worry about the kids or work out a problem. Or maybe you pray. Interceding for others or just resting in worship. But are you ever just silent. For most of us our mind never rest.

Last night, at 3:15 am, I just went ‘shhh’.
Be still.
I left off the rest of the verse, and know that I am God or my mind would have started to engage and meditate.
I just practiced silence and I offered that sacred invitation.
Spirit, I give you permission to come in and do what you do in this soul of mine.

Silence. And there, they say, is the presence of God Himself.

click link below to learn more about Ruth Haley Barton’s book:

Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence

February 25, 2015

Kingdom. 7th day of Lent. The Kingdom of God is like…

We often come from the perspective that life started with us-
our story is our frame of reference.
We know the family tree, maybe back three generations, and we’ve been schooled with world history to know antiquity but our existence is perceived through our own history.
Our story. Our story world. Once upon a time, I was born and lived like this. It’s what I know, it’s from where I see and hear and experience life. It’s my perspective.

And the word KINGDOM today reminds me that too often my perspective is incomplete, faulty and at times wrong.
The KINGDOM is God’s perspective on life.

The Kingdom of God is the experience of blessedness, like that of the Garden of Eden, where evil is fully overcome & where those who live in the kingdom know the eternal ALIVENESS and undefinable FULLNESS of God that is exemplified in his vast attributes like love, power, peace, joy, and righteousness.

The KINGDOM is the message Christ proclaimed.
There were two bookends of his good news message.
He would start his teaching this way, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”
And he would end it like this “If you have eyes to see then see and ears to hear then hear.”
He warns us at the end, don’t miss what I just said to you.
You might hear and not hear. See and not see.
Huh? That’s right. All of our faces housed the big question mark.

For years that’s what ‘The Kingdom of God’ did to me too. I would listen. Hard. I would hear. But I couldn’t get it. What this kingdom was about. Had it come with Jesus? Was it coming back? Where was it? How did I reach out my hand and touch it?

In Matthew 3, John the Baptist proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Repent. Is that how we get the Kingdom ‘in hand’? John was calling out the religious and today some of the religious need to be called out to bring forward the fruit of repentance too. For the religious, self-effort people we hear in these words, “Straighten up, God is coming and when He gets here he is going to be really ticked.” It’s like when mother used to say, “Straighten up and wait till your father gets home.” We totally understood ‘the hand’ that was about to reach out and touch us of discipline because of our crooked living that went on while he was away.

But wait. I remember this truth… “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.” John 3:17

It’s like we see things up-side-down.

So if Christ came to help, to put the world right again, I have to go back to my definition, the Kingdom of God is the experience of blessedness, like that of the Garden of Eden, where evil is fully overcome & where those who live in the kingdom know the eternal ALIVENESS and undefinable FULLNESS of God that is exemplified in his vast attributes like love, power, peace, joy, and righteousness.

Suddenly my definition of ‘repent’ isn’t working besides my definition of Kingdom. Again, I’ve made Repent about behavior that occurs when I change the CONTENT of my mind, and switch the direction of my behavior. Instead I need to redefine Repent to be about my spirit. Renewing my mind I think differently about how I’m seeing things. Think differently afterwards because “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Keep reading on in Matthew and chapter 4 we read, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

John the Baptist grew up in a corrupt religious system and the forerunner was warning us to prepare ourselves. To get ourselves ready. The Kingdom of heaven is at hand, has come near.
Jesus has come near. Jesus the ever existing one didn’t grow up in a corrupt religious system. The King of this Kingdom is I AM.

I AM has a Kingdom perspective.
I AM is the eternal ALIVENESS and undefinable FULLNESS of God exemplified in his vast attributes like love, power, peace, joy and righteousness.
I AM has come near. And in Him was LIFE.
“Aliveness” was near.
Aliveness, filling the atmosphere of the kingdom of God.

BEFORE creation- there was a Kingdom- filled with everything that makes things work. Imagine power and love and peace, joy and righteousness were the atmosphere soaking this place.

Jesus wants to tell us about this so he starts teaching this way-
The Kingdom of heaven is like…
Not telling us how to do earth- telling us about a reality that exist spiritually- of aliveness- the atmosphere the fullness of God.

This Kingdom is upside-down. It’s contrary to what we think we know most of the time and totally contradictory to what the world would have us believe. We have to have the Spirit to help us perceive it properly to know Christ is at hand. He is near to us. Not pointing a judging finger but offering his hand. And what does he want? Right behavior?

Oh, please get this.
He wants a relationship. With you.

Spirit speaking to spirit. Aliveness. Fullness. At hand. Near. Yes.
The Kingdom of God is the experience of blessedness, like that of the Garden of Eden, where evil is fully overcome & where those who live in the kingdom know the eternal ALIVENESS and undefinable FULLNESS of God that is exemplified in his vast attributes like love, power, peace, joy, and righteousness.

February 24, 2015

Transgression. Day 6 of Lent. Stay in your lane.

TRANSGRESSION. Day 6 of Lent. Stay in your lane.

Stay in your lane. #lent #lent2015

To transgress is the action of going beyond or overstepping some boundary or limit

Michael Massa explained, “Transgression is to move against. We move against others because we are more powerful than others, or at least we think we are. Power is needed for protection, but it also gives us an ability to transgress that we would otherwise not have. Out transgressions can be / are forgiven, but to prevent transgressing – intentionally or carelessly – we need to continually be on guard not only against the power of sin, but also against our own power over others.”

God made the boundaries in creation. Jeremiah 5:22 “Should you not fear me?” declares the LORD. “Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.”

God stated the moral boundaries in the ten commandments let’s call those the lanes on the highway. He gave man a soul thermostat called conscious let’s call that the brakes and accelerator. Then Christ pronounced the summation of all the commands like this, “Love God. Love others.” Love is the steering wheel.

Love for God and for others keeps you from transgressing-moving out against others and overpowering them to get your way.

Stay in your lane.

February 23, 2015

FORGIVENESS. Day 5 of lent. The Gospel of Grace.

#FORGIVENESS. Day 5 of #lent.

A definition for forgiveness could be — giving up my right to hurt you, for hurting me. – Releasing your debt to me.

We forgive because we have been forgiven by God (Ephesians 4:32). We forgive in obedience to God (Matthew 6:14-15; Romans 12:18). We forgive so we won’t become bitter and defile those around us (Hebrews 12:14-15).

God is faithful to forgives us. 1 John 1:9

Robert Muller said, “To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love.” Today I connected God’s love to His forgiveness. I rested in how much God loves me instead of how often I disappoint Him.

To lived loved we must be faithful to forgive our self as God has forgiven us.

This statement from Brennan Manning is one of my favorites

Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last “trick”, whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school.

“But how?” we ask.

Then the voice says, “They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

There they are.

There we are – the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to faith.

My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.” ~Brennan Manning from the Ragamuffin Gospel

February 22, 2015

SEED. Day 4 of Lent. Scatter Grow Gather.

#SEED. Day 4 of #Lent. Scatter Grow Gather.

There is a cycle in my life that follows this rhythm with each new season.
Scatter. Grow. Gather.

So when I think on a seed, just a tiny speck of matter.
A bit of hope. A potential beginning.
Symbolized by the Word of God, so a truth.
Spoken to us if we’re listening. Ready to be ‘planted’ or acted upon. With faith and obedience, perseverance and care.
God calls us to grow. But the process is strange.

“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.” John 12:24

To grow we can’t hold on to life just as it is. Seasons change.
From the Father’s hands we are scattered.

Relocated. Rearranged. Re-positioned.
Taken from one season and dispersed into another.
Called forward.
Reminded we can’t go back.

In faith alone, we trust.
We are a seed. DUST. Fragile and frail. A tiny speck of matter.
We PROCLAIM Christ as our priority and trusting Him as THE WAY we are to go we believe in His faithful process.

We die to self. We let go.

Of homes. And children. And expectations.
Of old ways. The familiar. What was comfortable.
Of leadership. Positions. People. And places.
And it is dark and still and feels like death.

There is denial. Then doubt. Dismay and grief.

It is new. All so very new.
And we are so weak here.

Fragile. Frail. Afraid.
A seed. Just a tiny speck of matter. A bit of hope. A potential beginning. Grows. Spirit urges us out. And up.
And as we surface something new begins.

We grow.
And the season cycles. In its highs and lows.
As we bear fruit here.

Gathered into a harvest for His glory.

February 22, 2015

SIGN. Day 3 of Lent. The Way.

SIGN. Day 3 of Lent. THE WAY.

Directional signs are everywhere.

We watch for them. They get us where we are going.
But sometimes we can think, “If I just change my circumstances – get out of this church, job, school- or change my relationships- get out of this marriage, friendship, work situation- I’ll finally be happy, free, satisfied.” We let our feelings ‘direct’ our movement out, around or away from a dissatisfying environment. We exit here. Go our way.

Yet, wherever we go, there we are.

We find the new direction just took us back to the same old place.
Here we are again.
Finding freedom is never about our outward circumstances.
It is about becoming transformed within our circumstances.
We have to know ourselves and know our God to find the way.
And that journey takes some direction to learn what it means to be free from ourselves and transformed.
Jesus says I am The WAY.

Jesus recognized the dead end problem of “here we are again”.
He came to make a way to replace our old self with a new self that is free. He says the way for you to be free from yourself is to think differently afterwards. Repent.
But we first have to see the contrast of what we repeatedly try to do and what Christ is really asking us to do.

Jesus calls us to think differently.

We continually try to think different – by changing the content of what we think. Our thoughts are this-stop gossiping, start praying, stop cursing, start encouraging. We’re still eating from the tree of good and evil where we exchange evil for good. When we just think different all we are doing is trying harder. We get stuck in a vicious cycle. Driven to find a way out, we pursue an escape and the direction “out” lead us into the very thing that has us trapped. Then the cycle begins again and the continuing dynamic leads many into deeper bondage and dissatisfaction. Been there?

Jesus says that self-effort is the dead end way.

To think differently refers to the way in which we think.

THE WAY in which we think is to renew our minds and be transformed in Christ. But how do we think differently.
We just abide in Christ and His Word.
We seek first Christ.
Focus on Christ as our priority not the circumstances or self effort.
Then, mysteriously Spirit helps us change the focusing lenses over our eyes and the filters of our ears. When we see and hear things differently it becomes almost impossible to do things the same way-the dead end way- of before.

Jesus spoke about THE WAY like this, “Repent.”
Think differently afterwards because “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Here. With you. In you. Around you. Here is the love and power of Christ. I AM THE WAY.

I AM with you. Always.

The SIGN of that is simple. Peace.
The Presence of Christ in me.
Chi Ro encircled.

Jesus Christ is THE WAY of Peace.

“I certainly still remember him; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the LORD.
“Set up for yourself road marks, Place for yourself guideposts;
Direct your mind to the highway, The way by which you went.
Return, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.
“How long will you go here and there, O faithless daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth–
A woman will encompass a man.” Jeremiah 31:20-22

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7: 14

February 20, 2015

PROCLAIM. Day 2 of Lent. What is your priority?

Proclaim. Day 2 of Lent. What is your priority?

There’s that question linked to this religious season;
“What did you give up for Lent?”

It makes many evaluate how they’re doing 7 weeks into the New Year. Did those resolutions stick? Are they habits?
Ugh. But grace.
Lent gives us a chance to return.
Remember, we’re dust. Fragile, frail, flesh.
Grace is ready to give us a re-do, a re-start.
Just get the list out and re-prioritize.
Remember the goals. The action plan.
Those priorities-

The problem is there’s a list. The word priority is singular. One.

One thing that is regarded as more important than another.
One thing that is treated as most important.
Our prime concern.
Our most important consideration.
The primary issue that proceeds everything else before it, and takes precedence in our time, to our treasures and through our talents.

One priority. New answers.

What are you giving up for Lent? Self.

What is your one priority. Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ.
The first before anything else.
The center of life.
Take a lesson from Martha and Mary (Luke 10:42)
Lay it all down and abide.
“Only One thing is needed-Christ”

Take the Lent list – the things you are fasting not to do and the duties you are committing to do- and restructure it.
Remember, as Bob Hamp says, “Freedom isn’t the absence of something- caffeine, sugar, sleep, alcohol, social media.
Freedom is the presence of Someone, Jesus Christ.”

Change the way your are focusing your energy off the priorities and onto the Priority. Lay your crowns down.

And crown Him the priority of your life.

Proclaim your priority today.

follow:
my Pinterest board on LENT

LENT2015 in daily pictures

https://www.facebook.com/LENTPHOTOADAY/timeline?ref=page_internal

February 19, 2015

Ash Wednesday. DUST from day 1 of Lent. Are you doing something religious?

DUST from Day 1 of Lent. Are you doing something religious?

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and I went to a local service. It’s what I call ‘High Church’, the serious service my Bible church raise sons moan is the up-down, up-down recite, recite, recite. But it’s where I grew up and it feels like home to me even though I’ve never been to Trinity Lutheran before. This church has been in the cultural district of downtown Fort Worth for 70 years. The building has that sixties feeling about it in the Googie architecture style, showcasing a high up swept triangular roof, curvaceous outings paired with geometric shapes and the bold use of glass, steel and neon colors. The stain glass is a tide-dyed ombre of colors that’s picked up in the altar cloths embroidery on purple and the baptismal has doves, shells and fire carved into its wood like the iconic symbols I’ve seen on old peace posters. And there are candles, waiting to be lit and I wait, still and silent, inviting Spirit to speak to my spirit.

The entrance of the Cross arrives where the congregation stands as if a bride were coming down the aisle and yet it is our Bridegroom. His golden cross bore up in tender hands of a teenage acolyte. Light shines from the candles now and we stand for the confession of sins, a convicting list of self-indulgences I agreed I had done and then those commands I had neglected to do. My response, “Have mercy on us, O God.” I was invited for the imposition of ashes; kneeling at the altar the mark of the cross was applied to my forehead with the just words from Genesis 3:19, “Remember, that you are dust, and to dust you will return.” I feel solemn and want to stay at the altar and pray but there’s a line behind me so I rise and sit and meditate, because today is just this-

Remember. You are Dust. Dust.

I stop trying to move ahead to the propitiation and resurrection, to the amazing grace and powerful love that transform me and stay here in Ash Wednesday. The readings are from Isaiah and Matthew reminding us of the fasting God requires and a caution to beware public piety. I smile, looking at the bold dark mark on the pastor’s forehead-our ‘religion’ couldn’t be more public today and the Homily asked the question I’m thinking, “Are you doing something religious today?” I ask myself that and know mysteriously that doctrine and experience are working out something very spiritual in my heart. These ashes placed on me have a meaning.

Remember.

I was remembering with a deep respect for my roots in the faith that came from “high church”. I was reorienting my soul in this season of life that was grieving things from the past, old ways of family life and ministry, still disoriented with new ways of empty nesting and life without teaching and limited fellowships. Scattered again God had steadily been gathering my spirit like a pot over fire about to boil and today, Ash Wednesday, I spent the day remembering.

Remember. You are Dust. Dust.

You are Dust. Dust. Finite. Frail. Fragile. Failing.
Dust. Gathered. Scattered.
Dust. Formed. Reformed.
Dust. Pruned. Protected.
Dust. Dying. As we were meant to do. Dead to self. Alive to Christ.
Dust. Returning to our place. In the Potter’s baptizing hands, dust becomes washed, wet, reborn.
Clay.
Purposefully crafted. An empty vessel. Filled. Water. Light. Love.
Meant to overflow. Not indulge itself. Inwardly or outwardly.
Remember now. Me you keep on following. Abide in me. Spirit filled. you are fruit. you overflow.

There was a prayer; Merciful God, we return to you. Accompany our journey through these 40 days. Renew us that we may provide for those who are poor, pray for those in need, fast from self-indulgence and above all find our treasure in the life of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a blessing given: Go forth into the world to serve God with gladness; be of good courage; hold fast to that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the faint hearted and hurting; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all people; love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember. You are Dust. Dust.

February 19, 2015

Curious? a black and white God in a 50 shades of grey world

CURIOUS? A black and white God in a fifty shades of grey world.

Curious? Aren’t you.

The ads are everywhere 3000 times a day someone is trying to get you to buy into the 50 shades of gray World system. And lately the lead line is- Curious?

Four years ago a friend whispered during lunch, “Have you read that new book, Fifty Shades of Grey?” I hadn’t heard about it yet, but within a month there were stacks of paperbacks in Sam’s and I was seeing it in high school girl’s hands and the buzz was building past the beauty salon and gym.

I read it because I was curious.

Christian women were asking me about it and I didn’t have a ready answer or a segue to bring the gospel into a conversation with unbelievers. So I used that for a righteous excuse to read a dirty book. It wasn’t the first book with sex in it that I had read, I’ve read the #1 best seller, the Bible, and it has a lot of sex in it too. God doesn’t give us the titillating details but from the steamy stanzas of the Song of Solomon to the threshing floor with Ruth and Boaz sexual sparks are kindling into fire throughout the Bible. Some forget God designed sex (Gen2), God commands sexual intimacy for the married (1cor7) and God warns us about the destruction of lust (romans 1). He also records all the varied ways Biblical characters, many of them the heroes of the faith, failed in this area and we read stories about rape, incest, homosexuality, infidelity, abandonment and abuse.

“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 cor 10:11-3

Curiosity is a clever little word. It’s tricky. It lures the mind and shows you ‘the door’ concealing what’s really behind it. It asks with a bit of a hissing lisp, “Don’t you want to see what’s inside?” It even reminds you as you glance at the door, “Remember, the rules, “Thou shall not open that door. Good people don’t even touch that door.” But ‘rules are made to be broken’ because fear is imperfect and desire is powerful and we all have a little rebellious attitude in our fallen DNA that makes us sneak our hand into the cookie jar. The television, the radio, the internet and the ‘in’ crowd remind us that the door is still there. And we are outside it, left out. We are enticed. Curiosity now helps you scheme, a way to sneak really, justify, rationalize, find an excuse. And a way. The secret passage. In the dark our hand is on the door. And we open it ultimately to find it wasn’t curiosity at all. We got conned in a system as old as time called temptation.

“The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.” James 1:13-15

Curiosity doesn’t just kill the cat, it kills our innocence. We know now. More than a loving God wanted us to ever experience. We know. Now. Our eyes are open. And there is a kind of death that happens inside of us. We can’t go back. We have seen, we have heard, we have experienced, what God wanted to protect us from.

Reading Fifty Shades of Gray, my curiosity had opened a door into a story world of domination. Terms were like a foreign language and though I knew the writer was plotting out a redemptive love story with very compelling characters there was nothing romantic about the intimate partner violence (IPV) in nearly every interaction between the two main characters. The abuse included: stalking, intimidation, isolation as well as other forms of physical abuse none of which are the foundation of a healthy relationship or could be in any way twisted to define love. God is love and He defines the way of love in 1 Cor 13 as being patient, kind and unselfish, caring more about others than self.

I read Fifty Shades of Gray over memorial weekend at our family’s lake house and remember my college age niece seeing the book and saying, “I read that. All my friends have read it.” I closed the book and cried. Fully convicted. Fully convinced that our culture had opened a door and behind it was devastating deception and destruction to God’s truth about love. I loved my niece. She was young and impressionable and innocent and her Millennial generation’s Cinderella story had a new name, Fifty Shades of Gray.

That’s the problem we should have with 50 Shades of Grey – not just the sex, but the acceptance of the deception of the truth and the introduction of domination and sexual submission, of absolute power and acceptance of abuse in a relationship as the new norm in our culture which was founded on freedom.

Don’t be tempted by your curiosity. Knowing the truth will set you free and love, not fear, will commit you to overcome your curiosity and not open the door. There is a way out of this curious romanticized lie, stand for the truth, for love and for women. Know the facts and tell your friends.

Twenty-five percent of women are affected by intimate partner violence (IPV) romanticized in Fifty Shades of Grey.

Twenty-five percent.

1 in 4 women live Fifty Shades of Grey as their real life story with no happy ending.

Instead of spending $50 dollars to see this movie that romanticizes abuse, help those already affected by intimate partner violence (IPV) by joining the #50dollarsnot50shades campaign.

Spread the news. Encourage your friends to skip the movie and donate $50 to shelters and agencies that support abused women.

I donated to Shared Hope International but I know the time you spend to search for a charity in your area will be personally beneficial to you and a blessing to others. Live Loved.

February 17, 2015

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