Our Lord Will Not Let His Beloved Go

A wonderful truth, taken from Rebecca Manley Pippert's book, Out of the Salt-Shaker and Into the World, to ponder as we enter the Easter season:

   
    "We can learn a great deal of information, be full of zeal, master conversational skills, walk closely with God, participate in his community on earth and still blow it. That is one reason God told us so many stories of individuals in the Bible. He knew we would need the encouragement!
     Take Peter. He loved Christ, and yet he constantly made mistakes. His most grievous error came in the last moments of Jesus' life. Jesus had told Peter he would deny knowing him, but Peter staunchly rejected the idea. After Jesus was arrested, Peter denied three times ever knowing him. He even invoked a curse upon himself if he knew him. As the cock crowed, what Jesus said had come to pass, Peter had denied the Lord.
     Imagine how desolate Peter felt after Jesus' death. The last contact Peter had with Jesus was the scene of his own betrayal. In Jesus' most difficult moment when he needed support the most, Peter had turned against him. Then a few days later Peter was told that the Lord has risen. Jesus was alive; his friends had actually seen him. 
     How did Peter feel now? He probably had ambivalent feelings. On one level he would be ecstatic, but on another afraid and ashamed. Maybe the Lord had given up on him. Maybe Jesus would feel Peter had made one too many mistakes.
     But God knew how Peter felt. He had a messenger tell the women who first came to the tomb, 'Go tell his disciples and Peter' that he had risen (Mk. 16:7). 'And Peter' - two of the most beautiful words in the Bible. So the disciples went and said, 'Guess what? Jesus has risen! A messenger from God told us to go and tell you he's here. And, Peter, he said to tell you especially!' Only two words, but they brought a world of hope to a man.
     And what did Jesus say to Peter when he saw him (Jn. 21:15-17)? He asked, 'Peter, do you love me?'
     And Peter said, 'Yes, Lord, I do.'
     And so Jesus asked again, 'Peter, do you love me?'
     Peter perhaps hesitated a bit, and then said, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.'
     And then Jesus asked the third time, reminding Peter only too well  of his recent painful history of thrice rejecting Jesus. 
     'And Peter was grieved' and he said, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.'
     Peter realized that Jesus knew who he was, his fallibility, his limits, his warts. And yet Peter loved Jesus. Jesus knew that too. He had known Peter's faults long before they ever dawned on Peter. And Jesus told him, 'Feed My Sheep.'
     Earlier Jesus had nicknamed Peter (Mt. 16:18). Of all the names to choose, Jesus picked the least likely: he called him Rock. We might have selected another, like Shifty or Quivery or To-and-Fro or Sandy. But Jesus chose Rock.
     Jesus is telling us something through this. First of all, he knows us - me, you. He knows your limits, your broken promises, your failures. But he also knows that beneath all of that, you have a heart of love for him. He knows that you care. And Jesus also has a name for you, a name you would have never picked for yourself, or dared to dream. He sees what he is making you into; he knows what he has in store for you. And he gives you a name that suits what you are going to become. We are people of hope and not despair because we have a future that has been secured by God. 
     More important than our wobbly love for him is his absolute unswerving love for us. When Peter told Jesus he would always remain faithful to him, Jesus knew his resolve would crumble. Nonetheless, he said, 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail' (Lk. 22:31). And he went on to say, 'When you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.' Our Lord would not let Peter go. His love is the absolute of the universe.
Rebecca Manley Pippert

Paul Tournier on Crossing the Threshold Into Maturity

Quote for the Day:

"...there are moments in a man's life which may be decisive turning points. Moments of crisis, in which he may be tempted to run away from himself, to add one more defeat to his life in order to hide other defeats; or else he may, on the contrary, begin to be really honest with himself, have the courage to make a frank reckoning of his faults, to accept their consequences, and to mend them in order to start again with an entirely new life." 
Paul Tournier, in his book, The Healing of Persons

"...only before God can we get rid of the formidable barriers which prevent a man from speaking frankly about his shortcomings..." Paul Tournier

The Temptation of Identity

    Quote of the day:

     "Then Satan tempted Jesus in one other profound way. He tested Jesus at the point of his identity....
     How did Jesus handle this temptation about his identity?...Jesus' answer was 'It is written.' What was the basis of Jesus' understanding of reality? Was it his feeling on a particular day? No. Jesus derived his sense of identity from his relationship to God and from the written Word of God. 
     If Satan attacked Jesus first at the level of his identity, we can expect a similar assault. Jesus shows us that our self-image, our sense of worth, our understanding of who we are must be rooted in God's Word. How we happen to feel about ourselves on a particular morning has nothing to do with it." 
Rebecca Manley Pippert, writing in her book, Out of the Salt-Shaker and Into the World



"Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.'" Luke 3:21-22

Flannery O'Connor on Christianity's Enhancement of Learning

Faith "is more valuable, more mysterious, altogether more immense than anything you can learn or decide upon in college. Learn what you can, but cultivate Christian skepticism. It will keep you free - not free to do anything you please, but free to be formed by something larger than your own intellect or the intellects of those around you..." 
Author Flannery O'Connor, in a letter to a college student seeking her guidance on living his faith while attending college. 

Jettisoning the Man-Centered Christian Life

As I reflect over the past 16 years of being a person born anew in Jesus, and as I consider the trajectories and landings of others, I am convinced more and more of the sovereignty of God in the salvation and spiritual maturing of each person.

Whether we, or our children, were raised in a “Christian home” (and the endless definitions of what that constitutes), or whether we never held a Bible in our hands or crossed the threshold of a church, God is sovereign.

And I believe, as I reflect more on this, that one of the stumbling blocks those of us who have come to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior mistakenly set up for others, as well as for ourselves, is that we replace a man-centered secular ideology with a man-centered “Christian” walk.

What I mean is that we engage in Christian activities that revolve around Christ, or point to Christ: whether it be the sorts of sermons we gravitate towards, the youth groups we invest in or the schools we send our kids to.

I think back on all the energy and time I dedicated to my kids showing up at youth group, being in church and even attending a Christian school, and I realize that where all of those endeavors fell short was the fact that we were doing these things because we thought this is what a real Christian does.

I am not ungrateful for the Christian Bible study I attended, the Christian school my children enrolled in, or the Godly pastor I listened to on Christian radio. Those were places God led me and my family when I did not yet even believe in Jesus Christ.

That was how God exposed me to His truth and set me on His path. I am forever grateful.

What I am talking about—and perhaps what I am talking about can only happen after all of the man-centered Christian striving—but what I am now talking about is that, once I began the road of Christ, I walked it as I saw others walking it, not as Christ.

Therefore, the activities I’ve already mentioned, in addition to a growing interest in politics and social issues, un-checked by Christ, bred in me a strong spiritual pride.

It forced an outward regeneration more than an inward one.

Perhaps it was inevitable I go through that in order to get where I am today: in Christ alone and Him in me.

Now that sounds very grand. But in fact, it’s pretty pared down.

Sixteen years in to living with Christ, I’ve finally shed the spiritual striving: the verbal sharing of faith on my terms and timing (not God’s); the being in church because I think it’s what God requires of me (regardless of whether or not church today is even remotely what Jesus had in mind) and the end of following certain pastors and Christian authors like a groupie.

I now understand that I was living for Christ in a me-centered, man-pleasing manner. I wanted to measure up to the outward Christian expectations I witnessed around me, and those verbalized to me from “mature” Christians. I was all about doing my best in the Christian world.

That is why I believe that, although I was truly saved and had begun to mature in Christ, I still lived repeatedly in known sin: such as impatience, defensiveness, unforgiveness and a lack of healing and victory over childhood issues that continued to trip me up.

Yes, I had freedom from alcohol, which was a fantastic launch. God used that struggle to ultimately break me and bring me to the end of myself. But the building of Christ in my life was stunted by, once I was saved, me attempting to build Christ in my life.

It is an inside-out turnaround, now living Christ versus living for Him.

Relationships are healing, trust in God alone is undergirding, Christ is providing compassionate perspective on other people and insight on their struggles, healthier responses to situations are forthcoming, interaction with others is easier and more desired, and emotional and mental maturation is taking shape. It is Christ, not man, who lives and trusts and loves first.

As the “Christian world” recedes, Christ, indeed, looms large.

copyright Barb Harwood 

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

Understanding and Setting Boundaries With Difficult People

I love this short video clip with Vanessa Van Edwards, in which she discusses how we can be in relationship with sometimes difficult people without getting pulled into their modus operandi. 

I'm sure we will all gain insights on why we, too, are sometimes difficult to be around. We can take these insights to God and ask Him to help us mature in our dealings with others, and with our own insecurities that so often trip us up in social situations.

Here's the clip:

Failure to Love Often Starts Here

When we gossip, backstab, share other people's news, are nosy, and use other people's life situations as talking points to blab about, we are not motivated by love. Instead, we are satiating our own appetite for drama and attention, often motivated by jealousy, resentment, lack of self confidence and pride. 

We often couch these comments with the false justification, "I'm concerned" (so therefore we discuss something about another person with everyone but the person we claim to be so concerned about!)

Or we simply can't resist being the Town Cryer, to say, "Did you hear about?" regarding the  purchases, job changes, pregnancies, and marital struggles of other people. We love appearing as the one in the know, with special inside status on information.

And then there is the simple lack of self-control and integrity when people run at the mouth and have a negative editorial comment about the way other people do everything: from the raising of children to the kind of car they drive to the way they comb their hair.  

I put all of this under the heading of gossip. It is the cacophony of self that time and time again rules out love, no matter how much the people who participate in it claim otherwise. 

This first state of affairs, the affair of our mouths, must be first overcome in order to begin to love consistently in spirit and in truth.



"For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another." Galatians 5:14-15

"Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man,
But any fool will quarrel." Proverbs 20:3

"He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets,
Therefore do not associate with a gossip." Proverbs 20:19

"With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor,
But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered." Proverbs 11:9

"He who despises his neighbor lacks sense,
But a man of understanding keeps silent.
He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets,
But he who is trustworthy conceals a matter." Proverbs 11:12-13

"A perverse man spreads strife, 
And a slanderer separates intimate friends." Proverbs 16:28

"A fool does not delight in understanding,
But only in revealing his own mind." Proverbs 18:2

"He who guards his mouth and his tongue,
Guards his soul from troubles." Proverbs 21:23