4jlkelly

Tag: Lent

  • HOME. Day 16 of Lent. Living in light of eternity.

    HOME. Day 16 of Lent. Living in light of eternity.

    HOME In-my-fathers-house-there-are-many-dwelling-places

    This is not my home.

    I recently moved. Again. So people who know me will nod their head at that opening statement. They’d tell you the Kellys move a lot. They rent homes while they build homes only to sell the house they’re in. After living in 3 states and 9 different cities inside 3 apartments and 10 different houses during 27 years of marriage, I can honestly say, “I’m not HOME yet.” I consider Heaven my Home and it keeps me living in light of eternity.

    Hebrews 11, the great chapter about faith and the faithful reminds us of this~ “Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.”

    If your time here on earth were all there is to life, then you should really live it up and I mean immediately. If you don’t believe there is a God or a coming judgment or a final destination than you should forget morals, ethics or values or any consequences of your actions and indulge yourself. Be selfish, get it all now, make yourself at HOME here on earth if you thinks this is all there is.

    But God…He planted eternity in the human heart (Eccl 3:11) God designed us in His image and wired our brains with an inborn instinct for immortality. Even though we know death runs in the family, we feel like we should live forever. But one day we will die physically, it will be the end of our time on earth but not the end of us. We are DUST. Our body frail and finite, a temporary container for our spirit.

    God calls our earthly body a tent and refers to our future body as a house. “For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not hand-made—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less. 2 Cor 5:1-5

    Heaven isn’t a false hope. This life is not all there is. This is not my home. And we know this because God put a little of heaven, that eternity into our hearts. David, knowing he was tempted to hope in the temporary treasures of this life, asked God to remind him of this reality, to remind him that our lives are extremely short. Our lives are so tiny that David uses words like “fleeting,” “nothing,” “breath,” and “phantom” to describe man’s life. In this short life we are offered many choices where to call Home, eternity will offer only two: Heaven or Hell.

    Our relationship with Jesus Christ on earth will determine our destination in eternity. Love and trust the Lord Jesus Christ and spend eternity with him or reject His love, forgiveness and salvation and you will spend eternity with yourself, apart from God.
    C.S. Lewis said, “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right then, have it your way.’”

    Jesus promised, “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3)

    Our world will tempt us every day to have a temporal perspective, to live as if our current life is all there is. The only time most people think about eternity is at funerals. We need to think more about eternity not less. More about death, which is simply the door to eternity, not with fear but with anticipation knowing the deeds of this life are the destiny of the next and LIVE for Christ. We must continually renew our mind with the truth of eternity. That life is fleeting and knowing Christ by faith is just a preparation for knowing Him fully for eternity. Living in light of eternity reprioritizes how we live today. Relationships matter more than riches. Service matters more than being served.

    The Kingdom of God is upside down to the kingdom of this world. Have you accepted the fact that we are called to be foreigners, transients? Are you HOME yet?

  • NEW. Day 15 of Lent. To understand NEW we have to get the OLD.

    To understand NEW, we have to get what happened with the old.

    New day 15 of lent
    In Genesis 3 one event with 2 significant impacts occurred when Adam/Eve ate the forbidden fruit. The couple walked away from the tree not realizing what they had set in motion for mankind. They knew something was NEW, different. Because Adam tried to become his own “Source” of life – to be like God as the Serpent suggested 2 things happened-
    Adam and Eve were disconnected from the Source of life.
    Adam and Eve had connected to a NEW, different, and completely ineffective source.
    They now were connected to themselves- battery charged by the knowledge of good & evil, let’s say. They now looked at a source of knowledge other than God. They now chose the energy of self-reliance- taking the knowledge of good & evil into their own hands, which literally meant that it was now up to them to figure out what was wrong and up to them to now make it right.
    NEW Adam was now reliant on himself for power-life.
    And if his power-source got low, he couldn’t siphon power off himself to re-charge, and eventually his life-power would run out causing a physical death.
    NEW disconnected Adam & Eve immediately began to feel “EMPTY”.

    Their way of life changed; their way of feeling alive; that ALIVENESS they’d experienced connected to God was gone, their way of understanding, way of taking in and knowing truth was now formed by knowledge instead of given through the wisdom of a relationship with their Creator. They had a sudden AWARENESS of Shame-the universal ‘something is wrong with me’ that uncomfortable, painful, terrifying sense of being disconnected that feels stark and lonely-the experience associated with death. It changed their way of relating to each other (blaming) & even their way of relating to themselves (used their limited knowledge of good and decided they ought to hide-so they hid then they began to cover up with fig leaves) & awareness caused them to begin to take on a ‘personality’ over their essence. Hiding, hiding, hiding is our response to how empty we are and the beginning of our ability to LIE to ourselves and believe it which is now our NEW instinct.

    It would have been like taking a computer and disconnecting it to power and reconnecting it only to a data cable. Data alone can’t sustain power-life, but if data is all you can access, you will try to start to draw power from it.
    Man felt dead and empty. Gone was ALIVENESS and FULLNESS Christ speaks of that represents the Kingdom of God. (see day 7 of Lent blogs) This universal disconnection is called SIN. When Adam & Eve rebelled against God and ate from the tree of knowledge, they weren’t just guilty, they were disconnected. SIN in Spanish is defined as “Without”. Literally we are without our connection to our Life Source God and Creator. Sin is a condition before it becomes a behavior. We chose to disconnect from Life and reconnect to knowledge/self and the sinful things we do are a result of emptiness. We want to feel alive. This is the OLD problem.

    Understanding what changed with Adam & Eve is important when trying to understand spiritual transformation-renewing our mind to be NEW. Unfortunately a critical thing that changed with the Fall was UNDERSTANDING, man’s way of learning. It’s difficult to see when you can’t find your glasses, it’s even hard to find your glasses when you don’t have your glasses on…in the same way our ability to see accurately is unfocused by the problem we want to solve so bad as believers. We are born into the likeness of Adam, disconnected from the ALIVENESS and FULLNESS of the Source of true life and we have been connected to our SELF, our knowledge of good and evil as our source of life since our physical birth.
    The knowledge of good and evil does this, it leaves a world of Empty people that are trying to find the solution for feeling Dead. People who think they see what’s wrong and people who think they KNOW what can fix it- just START DOING this and STOP DOING that.
    SELF EFFORT won’t fix the problem. Trying as hard as you can, won’t fix the problem. Self-discipline, spiritual disciplines, and religion-a system of faith and worship, that you PRACTICE out, won’t fix the problem. It plays out like this:
    QUICK FIX- I don’t like the way I feel & I don’t like the awareness that something is wrong with me- so I REASON out the problem isn’t me but something else- it’s you, it’s this marriage, it’s my environment-anything besides me- now I feel better.
    Or I feel empty- if I just… get married, have kids, get that job, take that bible class, I will be fulfilled.
    Or I feel dead inside- let me numb that feeling with a moment or two of false aliveness and use sex, alcohol, material things, working out (vanity), gossip, food.
    Or I can do good and feel better, I can be religious, serve and give.
    Your quick fixes fail, again and again only to be repeated, again and again. And then condemnation sets in because self-effort won’t fix this OLD sin problem. But this feeling of disconnection=deadness and emptiness-is so strong and painful we’ll do anything to make it go away- blame, hide, lie to ourselves- which hurts others and our self.

    The Old problem is we disconnect from God our Creator and life, and reconnected to ourselves who are empty and dying.
    Death is in us. We are dead. We are stuck being Us.

    The Old problem is unsettling at best and overwhelming at worst.
    We are perpetual sinners. Remember sin is the condition of being separated from God and any ‘fix’ we turn to in order to fill the absence of God in our hearts is simply a symptom of sin lived out in a transgressing behavior-some look really good, others really bad. Both are motivated and driven by emptiness.
    How do we free ourselves from us? From this Old Problem?

    We have to re-connect with God.

    Jesus died to exchange the life in Him for the death in me.
    Jesus died to forgive me for who I am not just what I’ve done.
    Jesus sets me free from who I have become and not just the habits but the mindset of the knowledge-connection to what is good and what is evil of our self-effort.
    Jesus makes a connection to the Source of Life possible.

    “There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we all know you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”  Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.”
    “How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?”
    Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
    “So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.
    …This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 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 MSG)

    We can be born again. The NEW birth. Born again we are born from the breath of our Father God and not the womb of our mother. Born again we are reconnected, not just restored to the family, but reconnected to the Source of Life and made spiritual men and women again. We are alive. Given New Life.

    New Life lives differently, sees differently, thinks differently.
    New life shifts from doing (self-effort) to being (God abiding).
    New life changes its focus off behavior problems-the START DOING this and STOP DOING that cycle, and onto the power source of transforming behavior- Christ.
    New life is lived by faith, which comes from hearing the word of God.
    New Life is a restoration of the intended life God had for man connected to Him.

    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Cor 5:17

    “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”                Ephesians 4:22-24

  • DREAM. Day 14 of LENT. I dreamed a dream.

    DREAM. Day 14 of LENT. I dreamed a dream.

     

    DREAM. My first thought about this word was a song- I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables but not the way Anne Hathaway sang it. I thought of that infamous episode of Britains Got Talent, did you see it? If you have time watch below; if not I’ll tell you about it. This “nearly 48” year old woman, Susan Boyle steps out like a wiry-haired church lady in a vanilla colored frock and is presented to Simon and staff.  Susan said she’d always dreamed of being a professional singer but no one had given her a chance.  No one in the audience was giving her a chance either until she began to sing.  In moments she had the nay-sayers on their feet with a standing ovation even as she still singed.  And truthfully, the video account is so shocking and awe inspiring to me it is the best account of what dreams are all about when they suddenly come true. Unbelieveable!

    We all dream in the ordinary way. Unless you pulled an all-nighter, you had one last night. Do you remember the Technicolor series of images, ideas, sensations and emotions which told that involuntary story while you slept? Dreams occur when one first enters into what is called Rapid Eye Movement (REM), the deepest sleep time. The average person sleeping for eight hours a night can dream up to one to two hours of that time.  Once you get the brain down to the minimum possible activity . . . your mind is free. In the dream state the mind is more impressionable to the day’s events and often plays back composites of what was said, thought or done. It replays events and puts together bits and pieces that can make sense or not make any sense. Fragmentary ideas or loosely connected circumstances and thoughts make up dreams and it can be totally subjective sorting out its meaning with varied interpretations.

    Biblically speaking we know God used dreams. God planted the DREAM of leadership that was longed for by Joseph and jealously ridiculed by his brothers as an unrealistic and foolish hope-“us, bow down to you, not.” Solomon was given the promise of wisdom in a dream and Gideon was encouraged to victory through the interpretation of a dream. Jacob dreamed of the stairway to heaven and Joseph was given the blessing to marry Mary and step-father Jesus and the warning to escape Herod and flee to Egypt all while asleep and dreaming.  The visions and dreams recorded in the Bible were given to specific people for a specific purpose- God’s purpose.

    Just because one receives a dream or vision does not mean it is from God. Satan can give dreams and visions. He did so with Jesus “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (Luke 4:5). This was something seen-a vision by his supernatural power to tempt Jesus to sin but Jesus resisted.  We have to test the spirits to discern their intent-is it for good or evil? Solomon reminds us, “For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.” Eccl 5:7

    Dreams are different than visions.
    A dream is a story communicated in picture that takes place when you are asleep.
    A vision is when you are awake and see reality part and are either watching or end up participating in it as John did in the book of Revelation or Isaiah did in the throne room of the most high God. God formerly used a variety of means to communicate with man, which would include dreams or visions. Scripture more often tells us the word came to the prophets- in other words they had an encounter with the word, the Son of God. But in our day, His revelation is not normally through these means but through the Lord Jesus Christ whose revelation is final and superior and revealed in the Word the Bible.

    Yet Luke records, “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

    Putting the two definitions of DREAM together- what if you had to exist in a culture of oppression and fear.  What if you always dreamed of a life where you were free and loved and fulfilled and alive.  And what would you do if suddenly Jesus began to appear in your dreams? There His presence brought peace and love, ALIVENESS and FULLNESS like nothing you had ever experienced.  With Jesus you felt absolutely safe for the very first time, valued and perfectly loved in the dream. What if He came to you with the same single message? And what if that same dream continued for over thirty days? Thirty weeks? Thirty years? What if on the thirty-first time he told you that tomorrow you would meet His friend and you were to ask His friend to tell you all about Him? And what if it happened? The friend of Jesus was there, at that place you went to every day, they were dressed just like they were in the dream and when you approached them and ask if they were Jesus’ friend, they said, “yes,” and they told you all about their friend and savior from the Bible.

    What if I told you this story is true?

    It is about a Muslim woman. And she wasn’t the only Muslim experiencing this dream. A staggering number of Muslims are being introduced to Jesus through a vision or dream so powerful that they eventually turned from their lifelong religion of Islam and embrace Christ as their Savior.  These conversions are despite living in a culture where converting to Christianity can result in execution. Jesus is reaching out to the Muslims and they are responding. Did you know that Iran has the fastest growing church in the world?

    Tom Doyle has spent the last 11 years working as a missionary in the Middle East. He was initially skeptical about reports that God was speaking to Muslims in supernatural ways. But his mindset changed when his friend told him: “God showed me that my theology does not determine His action.” Doyle says these dreams are opening the door for Muslims to hear the testimony about Jesus from Christians in countries where spreading the Gospel is forbidden. While the West associates Islam with terrorism, Doyle believes the majority of Muslims are peace-loving. “I believe Islamic terrorism is Satan’s attempt to keep the Gospel message away from Muslims,” he writes. Nothing can stop the Gospel from spreading.  “More Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus today than ever before. In fact, we believe more Muslims have become followers of Jesus in the last ten years than in the last 14 centuries of Islam.”

    Unbelievable! I had no idea this was happening, did you? We should pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for the bold witness to, and courageous conversion of Muslims. You can read more about it in Tom Doyle’s book:

    DREAMS AND VISIONS: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?

    And watch for the dreams to convert one of my characters in the FURY series Book Three Effect this fall. DREAM ON!

  • GO. Day 13 of Lent. Wisdom from Dr. Seuss.

    GO. Day 12 of Lent. Wisdom from Dr. Seuss.

    oh the places you'll go

    Remember what Dr. Seuss taught us all in Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

    The story begins with the decision of the unnamed protagonist to leave town and take a journey. The protagonist travels through several geometrical and polychromatic landscapes and places, eventually encountering  “The Waiting Place”.

    ..for people just waiting. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or a No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite  or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.  Everyone is just waiting.

    This last book by Dr. Seuss was written in 1990. And I wonder if today the phraseology wouldn’t have been, “The busy place” for people just busy. Busy on cellphones or tablets or laptops, we’re all busy tweeting or skyping or instagraming, watching our Netflix and following blogs, drinking our StarBucks and GPSing in cars, busy going here and taking us there, glorifying busy, busy everywhere.

    Busy is never an excuse for procrastinating and not “going” where God calls us. Good things are often the enemy of God’s best and waiting always serves a purpose in our journey.  It produces anticipation and provides time for planning.  No one naturally wants to wait so the task requires sacrificing our selfish desires and placing our trust in God’s timing. Waiting can be a protection and waiting patiently indicates maturity.

    The lessons I always come away with in this story are:

    You have to start to finish – “You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!”

    God provides what you need– “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

    Stay balanced to succeed “So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.

    Persevere through fear -“All Alone!  Whether you like it or not,  Alone will be something  you’ll be quite a lot. And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance  you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.”

    Gratitude lifts the spirit-“When you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.”

    Waiting is the mean time of faith-“You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
    headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
    The Waiting Place…”

     

    Get your copy of Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

  • PROMISE. Day 11 of Lent. Yes and Amen!

    PROMISE. Day 11 of Lent. Yes and Amen!

    PROMISES yes and amen

    For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ
    with a resounding “Yes!”
    And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”);
    ascends to God for his glory.
    2 Corinthians 1:20

    What IT IS WRITTEN can you claim today as your promise?

    ENCOURAGEMENT
    God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.
    1 Thessalonians 5:11 (MSG)

    FEAR
    Fear not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10

    COMFORT
    Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.- 2 Corinthians 1:2-4

    CHILDREN
    Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.- Proverbs 22:6
    I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.- 1 samuel 1:27

    STRENGTH
    That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.- Ephesians 3:16-19

    PROVISIONS
    But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.- Philippians 4:19

    FORGIVENESS
    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9

    DIRECTION
    Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.- Jeremiah 33:3

    HEALING
    Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. – Jeremiah 17:14

    For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD…- Jeremiah 30:17

    LONELINESS
    God sets the solitary in families…- Psalms 68:6

    SALVATION
    That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. – Romans 10:9-10

    ASSURANCE
    For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    – Romans 8:38-39

    TRANSFORMATION
    A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.- Ezekiel 36:26-27

    OBEDIENCE
    I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.
    – Philippians 4:13

    PERSEVERANCE
    He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength.- Isaiah 40:29

     

    yesandamen

  • WITNESS. Day 10 of Lent. Go and Tell.

    WITNESS. Day 10 of Lent. Go & Tell.

    j.l. kelly

    I went to an AA meeting once. I’m not an alcoholic, but as I sat there in that smoky room full of the transparently pure, I wanted to be as brave as the people in that group. I coveted that place. A place where I could go and be among people who got my problem and stand up when I needed to and share my current and ongoing struggle.  I want to listen to the witness of the over-comers. Hear the mysterious soul balm of encouragement as simple truths are told again, like old stories we’ve heard but perhaps today, have forgotten, and we remember. “Oh, yeah,” nodding our head, that is so true. I wanted to watch the courage of the one in the back, get up and take that long walk to the front, and grab the lectern with a white knuckle grip and recount the five days he’s gone without giving in and how every minute he wanted to and he’s still not sure how he didn’t. But God…  and we swallow and we tear up and inside something shifts and we find courage ourselves.  I want to lift my hand up in agreement and let that woman who is telling her story know I’ve been there too.  Yes. I’ve been there too.  And it’s going to be okay. We’re all working the program. Applying the Big Book. Making amends and watching out for resentments and curbing our expectations.  And I want to visit with that old man, he only said a few words but they were so wise. And I can catch him at the coffee pot, he likes it black and hot. Me, I drowned it in cream so I don’t burn my tongue. And as I stir I say, “Thanks for sharing.” And he answers, “Keep coming back.” AA was a witness of the love and power of God and His people. And each person’s opening introduction became a witness to me.

    As the church we are a Witness to the evidence that Christ saves and we are also called to testify to the evidence we believe. The fruits of the Spirit are a witness of the evidence.  Our words, service and giving testify to what we believe.

    It’s not an option, we are commanded to witness. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And we are promised we don’t go alone. Christ is with us. To the very end. We forget that sometimes. We think we are going it alone. But His presence is our peace and power.

    Last week I got that call to “go”.  It wasn’t to a geographical place but it was a call to witness. God had prepared my heart with a desire to participate in Lent.  Then God put in my path something that He knew would make me stop and see how he wanted me to participate.  I’m a visual learner, so when he wants me to have eyes to see, he often gives me something He knows will catch my attention.  Since I love words, the title captivated me. A WITNESS THROUGH THESE 40 WORDS.  On Ash Wednesday I began with the chosen word DUST.

    The first few days were hard. It felt more like an assignment in obedience. And my secular job is in the height of busy season, so I was getting up earlier to make it happen.  I was keeping the blog on the down low too. Until I saw a scene from an AA meeting on a TV show.  Someone got up and said their name and those words, “I’m an alcoholic”.   And Spirit said, “you need to say it.” And I knew what He was talking about.

    As a writer I battle the ebb and flow of insecurity in my calling.  As a teacher sometimes I can think what I have to share is just an opinion, my opinion and who wants another one of those.  Doubt was holding back what God wanted to go out as a witness. So it was time to say it-“I am Jessica and I am a writer.”

    I have witnessed to this before, to my closest friends in crucial moments. It’s usually said softly, with a nervous energy keeping my eyes jumping and my body squirming and then a rush of words runs after the statement because please just get me out of the awkwardness of this.  See, I don’t really believe it. Yet. But at times I do. And God keeps me right here, totally reliant on Him just like an alcoholic. And then He sends His people to share a witness. Of what my words meant to them.  Like He did yesterday. And I know that my obedience mattered. That my witness had a purpose. Just as yours does. To someone else.

    We are to go. Witness. Of the evidence that Christ saves and witness to the evidence we believe.

     

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

    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

    silenceandsolitude

    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

    invitation-solitude-book_2

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

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

    kingdom_of_god #lent #lentphotoaday

     

    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.

     

  • 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.

     

     

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

    #FORGIVENESS. Day 5 of #lent.

    forgiveness

    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