Not a Sparrow Falls Without God

Satan wants us to fear death (Hebrews 2:14-15). 

But God’s truth counters:

“Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31).

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).

“But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you…” (James 4:7-8a).

Satan wants us to fear death. 

But God is greater than Satan (1 John 4:4). 

And God’s perfect love in and through Jesus Christ keeps us in peace:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:18-19).

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2: 14-15).

Therefore, Jesus implores us:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Blessed, indeed, are all “who die in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13). 

As Many As Received Him, Now Submit to Him

One of the most misunderstood aspects of Christianity and Scripture is that of the role and identity of women. 

I cannot even begin to cover this hobgoblin here. 

But every now and then, something will pop so clearly out of the Bible that I feel I can perhaps attempt to speak to this topic and perhaps put ever so slight a dent in the oft mistaken worldview attached to women and Christianity.

This is the verse that jumped out at me:

“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” NASB translation of John 1:9-13

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” NIV translation of John 1:9-13

As I delve deeper and deeper into the actual history of Christianity, which exposes what the very first churches actually were like, and as I continue to grow in the knowledge of God’s Word and study context, interpretation, original word-meanings and usage, I am a bit perplexed, but not really surprised, that man—even as Christians—has and continues to drum up legalisms and denominational doctrine that cannot be unequivocally supported by Scripture.

So, for instance, the early church looked nothing like the church today. But if one chooses to "do" church in any way other than the currently accepted corporate model, one will receive all kinds of push-back and even have their very faith called into question by the “traditionalists.”

Along those lines, a shoot-from-the-hip mentality has also attached itself to the topic of women and Christianity.

The liberal church has elevated women above men, literally or metaphorically holding that God is female, and the only good pastor is a female pastor. So much for equality and inclusion for all, including men!

The conservative church, on the other hand, has elevated the male over the female, holding that, not only is the only good pastor a male, but the only pastor is a male. Women are included, but relegated and delegated. Women will never stand at the pulpit as bearers of God’s Word.

I’ve lived on both sides of the fence: a die-hard women’s liberationist, having been groomed in its tenets by a strong-willed and male-jaded mentor and taught in a public school system securely strapped onto the women’s lib bandwagon.

Then, at the age of thirty-eight, I experienced the other side as a member of several conservative Bible-believing churches which promoted an entirely different animal: the woman as sacrificial helper. 

The result is that my upbringing indoctrinated me into believing that being a wife and mother is bad, while having a career outside the home is good.

And my early Christian formation indoctrinated the tenet, “once married always married” and that the pastor of the church is the sole authority of the congregation while the husband is the sole authority of the home.

Now, it was also often taught that the pastor and husband were “given” this authority by Christ. The problem with this is that, once that authority is "given," the pastor and husband can come to see and live within their authority, but Christ? not so much. 

Thus, having been "given authority” seems to come, in their minds, with a license—sometimes camouflaged as a “duty”—to do exactly what Scripture condemns: “lord it over.” 

Another risk in this handed down interpretation of authority is that an anointing of leadership often goes to one’s spiritual head, and all of a sudden the leader is hearing all sorts of “calls from God.” To persuade them otherwise is futile. Once a leader “hears from God,” Godly counsel from others often goes right out the window. 

Hence, all of the "church" splits and turmoil that we see around us. 

And the liberal church protested by giving all, or the only "legitimate" authority, to women. 

However, as we learn from John 1, our faith originates from and in Jesus Christ Himself, not any man or woman. 

And that is the beginning point of this sincere exploration into the role and identity of women as Christians.

Having laid this groundwork for where I want to carefully go, I will come back and delve further into the topic. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11

“So then, no more boasting about human leaders. All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.” 1 Corinthians 3:21-23

“Submit yourselves, then, to God.” James 4:7

The Antidote to Other People Bothering Us

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Luke 6:41

I think we get the picture: the antidote to other people bothering us is to look with a critical eye towards ourselves.

So how do we do it?

How do we go from obsessing over, say, a person named Fred’s "specks," to seeing our own?

How do we go from this:

“Fred bothers me. I always stew over something he said. I find it inconceivable that he could think the way he does. He is so….I can’t even explain it. I just know he and I are not on the same page.”

To this:

Willingly and unequivocally seeking out the log(s) in my own eye?

What we don't realize is that, while we’re so flummoxed over Fred, we are inoculating ourselves to our own faults, becoming immune to their very real existence. 

The amount of energy we expend on being “frustrated, consternated, angry, mistreated, slighted, misunderstood and one-upped by another person, preoccupies us from noticing when we do the exact same thing.

Because we, too, frustrate, cause consternation, make angry, mistreat, slight, misunderstand and one-up others on a regular basis. 

As Christians, the idea is that we would be made aware of these tendencies and outright dysfunctions, and go to God to curb and curtail them. 

So how do we get from obsessing about Fred to holding our own selves accountable?

What if we took the time, energy and dedication that we put into cross-examining other people and cross-examined ourselves instead? 

What if we allowed God’s conviction all of the time so that we could be purified of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) instead of fixating on the unrighteousness (or self-righteousness) of other individuals?

This is where I always have to put in the “It doesn’t mean” sentence. 

And I do this because so often people think that when we say, “take the log out of your own eye” that we become doormats, with all Godly discernment going right out the window. 

Examining ourselves means God’s examining of us revealed to us because we ask Him to reveal it to us (not for the feint of heart, but so rewarding!):

“Search me, O God and know my heart;

Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

And see if there be any hurtful way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24

With this revelation of God, we quickly discover that taking the log out of our own eye does not entail remaining or becoming the brunt of all sorts of enabling and manipulations of other people, or condoning or continuing to expose ourselves to abuse of one kind or another. 

No. 

This heart-to-heart with God takes us from a place of weakness (ignorance) to strength (wisdom).

What it means is, there are always going to be people who “get our goat.” 

Figuring out why is not a bad thing, because we are bound to learn something about ourselves. Maybe we will see a sin tendency, or outright active sin in our life, or area of un-forgiveness, that can be put to bed, finally, with God. 

Trying to sincerely and objectively, with prayer for God’s insight, understand what makes another person tick can bring us to a place of very new perspective that leads to compassion and forgiveness, and maybe even a greater peace with the other person when in their company. 

Who knows, as we begin to “walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light (1 John 1:7), we may find that our fellowship with others improves—not because they behave any differently but because we and our attitudes do. 

We may find that people and situations that used to drive us crazy now only perturb us at worst, or humor us at best. We can get through these social interactions because we are monitoring ourselves instead of the other person. And we are monitoring ourselves via the Holy Spirit.

So, we may ask, “What if I do this and yet the other person still manages to get under my skin, and it takes me hours or days to recover from time spent with them?” 

This is a very good question, because for people who are more sensitive to social interactions—even wonderful interactions—and who become overwhelmed say, with several days of having to participate in hours of conversation accompanied by different people, being relational can take a mental, if not physical, toll. 

God made all of us in His image, and as we look around, we certainly see variety in his peopled creation. 

All individuals are not the same, nor does Christianity prescribe they become the same. 

In too many passages to mention, the distinction is made between those of various nationalities, skin colors and sex, as now being one with Christ. 

When we hear there is no longer male or female, Scythian or Jew, what we are hearing is that as a male, female, Scythian, Greek or Jew, we are all one in Christ, based on faith in Christ, not works (Galatians 3; Colossians 3; Ephesians 2). 

Within the uniqueness of each person the foundation of His Truth can enter in, and as we are brought into His salvation through Jesus, we maintain that uniqueness. 

God, through the working of His Spirit with us, channels our specific temperaments and talents into a refined giftedness and joy that He intends for our good and His glory. 

So, for example, if we are naturally shy—or naturally gregarious—God transforms that into a blessing instead of a curse.

If we are needing to consistently be doing something physically active, God channels that need into right activities as opposed to sinful ones. 

If we are more on the quiet side and can sit for long hours reading or working thoughtfully on a project, God guides that ability into a fulfilling redemption of time and effort. 

This is what I like to call Christian simpatico, where I, in my area of God-given and properly channeled attributes, and you, in your God-given and properly channeled attributes, make life better for us together, apart, and in the wider unbelieving world. All within the grace of knowing that I cannot adopt your attributes, nor you mine. Nor should we; nor does God expect it “in order to get along.”

Because here is what so often happens, in reality:

Many Christians translate “take the log out of your own eye” to mean “sacrifice one’s self at all costs;” and never set limits with anyone. Everybody but me comes first. All the time. 

This merely gets back to a works-based Christianity, trying to “should” our way into God’s good graces by being the most sacrificing. But in the end, something usually gives, and it is usually us collapsing in an explosion of resentment.

But if we understand taking the log out of our own eye as first getting to the bottom of why certain people rub us wrong, we may quickly get to crux of the matter so as to formulate a solution. 

Because when we honestly try to understand why a person bothers us, we often come to understand aspects of ourselves that we would never have recognized or acknowledged.

This is the sort of honest assessment we discover with God, and then give to God so that He can purify us in His truth: truth about ourselves, about others, about Jesus and His Word, and what our Christian life in Him can yet become. 

And in this time of soul-searching with God, He will reveal not only explanations about ourselves, but other people as well: why they do what they do or say what they say.

This may lead to re-evaluating how, when and where we spend time with certain people. We may find that relationships that once stressed us out begin to thrive under “new management”—healthy compromises in the form of boundaries, guidelines, and the setting and curating of all future expectations, especially with new acquaintances. 

And then there are times in which we’ve gone as far as we can in trying to find a happy medium in response to others’ attempts at dominance, control and manipulation, and we arrive at a place of peace with God about allowing distance in the relationship. 

Navigating the world of social interaction is a great challenge. 

But if we remain in the Light as He is in the Light, and trust ourselves to Him for the truth about ourselves and others, and how to proceed in those truths under the greater Truth of His Word, we will have right and wise fellowship with one another. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

The Christian Life As Time Goes On

As I approach the 20-year mark of being a Christian, I sometimes wonder, 

"What is insight groomed by age, and what is insight imbued by Christ?" 

And I believe, of course, it is both: God allows life to be the portal through which we either grow closer to, and more reliant upon, His Son, or, over time, distance ourselves.

Certainly one can obtain sage perspective without Christianity: I would posit that one who does this is in fact growing up in the basics of Christ’s ethic without having lived under Him as Lord and Savior. 

Anyone, I believe, who has found a modicum of functioning integrity in their life is, perhaps without knowing or perceiving it, founded on God’s principles. 

For me, however, the living out of an Aesop’s Fable "good" attempt at living always came up short when I thought about death—that of myself and of others. 

The secular world of actualization also never satisfied; no matter how hard I tried in work or in play, or what I accomplished, it seemed that it was never enough, be it in quantity or quality. 

So while I could perhaps fool others with an “up” persona, and yes—even myself at times—in the end I was internally disgruntled about many situations and people, and often overcome by a pervading inadequacy. 

The point I’m getting at is this: without Christ, anything legitimately good that I understood to have originated with me became the basis for pride since I didn’t have anyone else (Jesus) to credit it with. 

Any other “good” that was, in fact, not good by Jesus’ standards was deemed to be "good" by the world’s standards, or simply by the fact that I was “human.”

So if I cheated, or cursed, or partied all night: that was deemed okay because I’m a “human with human needs;” or because the majority of people in my life also cheated, cursed and partied, making these actions fine—in fact, to not do them would be weird and elicit negative judgment.

Also in the secular "good life," the norm in relationships is always to watch out for one’s self and blame everyone else. It’s what I saw modeled all around me and thus, adopted, before I was blessed to pick up the Bible and begin reading. 

That's when Christ came along with His upheaval: the beginning of the true straight and narrow. 

And straight and narrow it is, with yet a pretty wide berth of grace. And that is what I will get to in the next post.

copyright Barb Harwood

Why So Disturbed About Corporate Church?

How do we reconcile our faith, founded on love, when, in actuality, we don’t love being in traditional fellowship situations which the Christian church has historically mandated? 

How do we repent of hearts torn asunder by the conflicting “should” of gathering together while at the same time internally wishing we could solely honor Jesus’ need and modeling of going away to a quiet place (Luke 5:16; Mark 6:30-31)? 

What if we, as introverts (for lack of a better term), are committed to the lonely and thoughtful places of Christ and service, while wanting to jettison the corporate church part?

Introverts, like extroverts, love people; but unlike extroverts, we don’t love them all at once (in groups where people take it upon themselves to own us) or all of the time (meaning, we don’t love to always do everything, most things, or even a lot of things, together). 

We might get along fine one-on-one with other introverts or those who are more even-keeled, but struggle with excitedly enthusiastic or high energy individuals or crowds. 

We may take a long time to develop relationships and trust, and freak out if we sense being “glommed onto” by people who exert social expectations that make emotionally draining demands of us, and to which we lack the assertiveness to politely say “No.”  
Consistent and long-term exposure to intense and coercive eagerness, and the assumption that we want to live every aspect of life in aggregate, wears out the introspective and reserved to the point of mentally shutting down. That’s when nothing could be better than a one-way trip to the Faroe islands to find solace among the Puffins!

The opposite is true for extroverts. The more physical, exuberant, busy, impassioned and people-infused they are, the better. To spend an hour or two alone causes them physical and mental aggravation, creating a desire to go start a committee or track down members of their small group to have a picnic with.

The tragedy is that the “you-rah-rah” joined-at-the-hip church has become the predominant construct of evangelical Christian interaction, and is often set in stone as being the only “truly spiritual” way: (not to mention the “holding one another accountable” thing, which is commonly just another way of saying “be in church on Sunday and come to all of the organized events”). 

It looks something like this:

“You must get involved in multiple whirling dervish ways and come alongside and live life together laying yourself down sacrificing all the time for others so that you will never have one free minute to yourself and why would you ever want to be alone that is selfish look what Jesus did for you how could you ever not want to come to church or join a weekly small group and what is your ministry—where can we sign you up?

The above is all in fun with a large dose of truth as to the way it actually is. And to the introverted, this is how it is filtered: Now I am being forced into someone else’s idea of what “spiritual” and “community” is, and it isn’t always Biblically balanced or founded.

The thing is, introverts don’t want to be left alone; we want to be left alone to be the people we are, with the temperaments and personalities God imbued in us, and encouraged and accepted in that capacity to worship, serve and fellowship. 

Over time, for some if not many folks, the sense of being talked at (because we can never find the words, courage, assertiveness or space to verbalize our perspective—and it’s never really asked for since everything’s already been set in stone by the extroverts!) creates in a more quiet person the desperate need to take a time-out in order to rescue and salvage our Christian sanity.

For me, this has meant a lack of desire to ever set foot in a church. 

I make this admission fully aware of the push-back it elicits, because I’ve already heard it: I’m not wanting to be held accountable; I’m not willing to get out of my "comfort zone"; I must not believe in God, really, if I’m not an active member of one particular church. 

It’s as if the extroverts who make these claims against the socially awkward, subdued folks don’t know us at all, or refuse to want to know and relate to us in a manner that goes against their “shoulds.” And yet they expect introverts to interact with them on their terms all of the time.

It is the proverbial one-way street. 

I have spent oodles of time with quiet people. Somber people. Really fun when-you-get-to know-them-intimately people. 

They are some of the most committed Christians I have ever run into. 

They live their Christian life as strongly and consistently as any more effusive Christian. Not as visibly, in the traditional corporate church sense. But under the radar. Often outside of the "church."

Perhaps the corporate church will never endorse these so-called “loners” and their ways. But God has clearly created them, for no less a purpose than He created extroverts. 

And it is God, not the outspoken cajolers in the church, who will have the final say on private hearts (Psalm 139:1; Jeremiah 17:10). 

And I believe God endorses the socially less-engaged as faithful servants right along with the others, because He most of all knows we need them, and in fact, is why He created them with their gentle, behind-the-scenes, frequently-awkward natures (1 Thessalonians 4:9-11; 1 Peter 3:3-4; 15). 

Sadly, the corporate church has done a huge dis-service to many a person’s walk with Christ by taking that walk and translating it into extroverted terms, saying these are Christ’s expectations. And introverts have let it happen.

But left alone, and by that I mean, released from extroverted peer pressure and the expectation to be someone they are not—and can never pretend to be—they are free to indeed live out the being of the apple of God’s eye that they in fact are. To be who they are in Christ, with Christ setting the parameters, not the socially one-dimensional corporate church with its one-size-fits all demands of people in the name of Christ. 

Copyright Barb Harwood