The power that God has given us is in our will. We choose to align with Him or not
To love or not
To slow down or speed up
To be grateful or greedy
To worry or trust
To exercise or lounge
To work or laze
This is the image of God in us, the fruit of self-control, the practice of discipline.
Choose today.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The words of Jesus. Eugene Peterson’s take puts good perspective on it: It’s your life that must change, not your skin!
What does that mean, though? Jesus also told us that the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s kingdom is at hand. At hand means it is within our grasp–reachable in the given moment. But it is a spiritual location made difficult to enter because of the realities in our lives that own us. Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. Jesus said that, too.
Epictetus is quoted as saying, “It doesn’t matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another…where our heart is set, there our impediment lies.” What is being impeded though?
It is our access to the Kingdom that is impeded.
Early on, after Adam and Eve made the decision to try to be gods instead of simply being with God, people were given the law. God instructed them to follow the law and life would go well for them. Notice the law did not get anyone into “heaven” as we picture it. Imagine with me, though, what a life lived by the law would look like though.
There would be no betrayal, no murder, no jealousy or envy, no lying or cheating. And if we were following these guidelines–everyone–then there would be no worry or anxiety or fear. If you read Paul the Apostle’s list of the fruits of the Spirit you would see a good description of this kind of life.
Is this an oversimplification? I don’t think so. The law is not a religion. It is instead a chosen way to interact with creation and God. Religion is man’s way of manipulating God in order to be god.
Access to the kingdom of God, then is impeded by the misalignment of our hearts and minds–our lives to be sure–from God’s intention to our own. What we need is repentance.
Repentance is the renewal of the mind that Paul mentioned in his letter to the Romans: Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Repentance is also death of the old life, the old way of thinking and seeing. It is the opposite of what happened with Adam and Eve. What died in them was the very thing we are seeking, what is called “New Life” in Christian circles. This new life is a healthy mind, healthy soul, healthy spirit, and body. These things are inseparable. God created them all at once and they weren’t somehow magically separated by sin–they were merely corrupted, and each one affects the other. This is why the renewal of our minds is so important. Beliefs create reality.
What do you believe then? Many want to believe, and maybe they do, that God will only work supernaturally to heal and deliver and save. But what if everything is supernatural? Since God created the universe, there is no separation of the natural order from God’s institution. Every breath you take, every season, every birth and death are part of the way the universe was set up to work. It is our own belief that power and control can fulfill us and save us (oddly enough from ourselves) that has corrupted the world. Jurassic Park was a tale of sin in this way. Seeking power and control brought destruction.
Right now in the world there is a coexistence of God’s instituted creation and order and our rebellion or impotent order, and the more we try to clean up our mess and focus on our own ways the more death and war and sickness and corruption is created. We must kill off our passions–our desires that go against the way God laid out for us–and follow Jesus. We do not do this as if we can earn anything by it, but to live well in the land.
Strip away every thought of institutional church. Think only of the simple ten commandments. Think of love, of mercy, of justice. Practice these things. It is not religion. It is laying hold of the kingdom of God that is in our reach. Then we will have peace even in the midst of the corruption of the world.
This is the fruit born in keeping with repentance.
This is the kingdom now as we wait on what Jesus has gone to prepare for us.
It is the practical prior to the promise.
Read “actions” as programs and attempts to fix the problem.
Community and real relationships will do more than forced time together, or as Dallas Willard calls it “well-calculated distance.” But we have to relearn what that looks like, how to really engage.
The quote is from “The Lost Discipline of Conversation.”
I’ve been studying and practicing generosity the past month. Money can be a tiresome and wicked dictator when we give it authority in our lives. But to have it as a tool, as a necessary part of day to day living and not as a goal or a purpose, then it cannot be our master. That’s freedom. Don’t take the money. Give what you can.
The following post was inspired after seeing a comic strip and reading the comments that followed on Instagram. It was titled “Why Not Believe In Yourself?” and was created by @nakedpastor
Why did God create us?
It’s a fair question and there are plenty of varied answers. But since we are so self-reliant none of the answers seem to satisfy, even the right ones.
I ascribe to the answer that God is love, and he wanted a free, reasoning, family with which to express this love. So he created a world with a garden, he placed some free, reasoning, hard-working people in this world and began teaching them to tend to and care for the creation by tending to and caring for them.
But they, being the free, reasoning, curious people God created, heard from another creature in the garden that they could be like God if they simply ate the one fruit he denied them–so they ate it. And we have all been trying to fix it since then–God doing his thing and us doing ours.
Perhaps that’s an oversimplification. My theological tendency says it is, but that’s honestly a question for another time.
God made us to love. He put his image in us. We corrupted it, but it is still there. Love is still there. Compassion is still there. Mercy. Justice. The desire for relationship and partnership and purpose.
And if I believe in God, shouldn’t I believe in myself as well? Did not Paul write that it was no longer he who lived but Christ in him? Was that literal? Was it metaphor? Is the new life he spoke of a new us or a replacement of us with Christ? The tendencies to overthink are interrupting again.
Here is the thing–for years Christian religious leaders have used interpretations and manipulations to retain their power, which is the complete opposite of what the man they claim to follow did. And part of that manipulation has been to convince mankind that he is worthless.
Is it true that without God I’m nothing? Of course it is. He made me.
Do I have free will? I don’t know; did I sin today?
But it is also true that I am the most valuable part of creation (Yes, you are too). Jesus didn’t die on the cross to give me worth. Jesus made the sacrifice to make me his righteousness because he knew my worth. He endured the cross for the joy set before him. That joy was being back with his Father and being with his bride–the church.
So this is what I want you to hear. You can believe in yourself because you are worth more than gold. Believing in God requires you to believe in yourself. If you think you have no worth, then God must not be who he claims to be. Then Jesus is traded his life for nothing. Your worth (or lack of it) is not what is separating you from God; it’s the lack of righteousness or right standing with God because, like the rest of mankind, you have just been trying to fix it all yourself without any help.
You may not be righteous without Jesus, but that is because you’ve only heard lies and half-truths about the good news of Jesus. He gave you his righteousness expecting nothing in return. All you have to do is take it.
Take it every day by turning to him with your lostness, your anxiety, your confusion, your frustration, your shame, your guilt, your questions, your depression, your anger, your…you get the picture. Just follow Jesus.
He’s already done the hard part.
In 1 Kings chapter three, God is talking with young king Solomon, and he says this to him: “And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
Keeping my statutes and commandments (pause for dramatic effect), as your father David walked.
This is an interesting choice of words.
David was not allowed to build a temple for God because he had shed a lot of blood on the earth. He was a soldier. There is nothing wrong with being a soldier, but this kept him from creating a permanent structure for God to dwell with his people. God wanted a man of peace.
David also committed adultery. He took one look at Bathsheba and didn’t seem to waste any time abusing his power to get her into his bedroom. This could also be tied to his “man-of-war” characteristic–he wan’t out fighting with his men, got bored, and found something unhealthy to fill his time.
David was a murderer. Upon finding out Bathsheba was then carrying his child, he tried to manipulate her soldier husband Uriaha to get them so sleep together so he wouldn’t get caught. When Uriaha refused to do so because of his integrity and commitment to protecting the kingdom, David gives orders to set him up to be killed in battle.
I think if we knew more of the details of David’s life we would find he was just as good at making bad decisions as you or me.
He wasn’t perfect. His life was a series of up and down seasons where he went from a man of bravery and integrity to someone manipulating others through his authority to get what he wants. He wrestled with evil thoughts, and he seems to have been depressed at times. But David was far from perfect.
But he was a man after God’s heart
God states that in 1 Samuel and it is reiterated in the book of Acts. Despite the sinful actions we see in David’s life, he was still after God’s own heart. God still chose him. He loved David. And David now rests with God.
That takes a lot of pressure off. If one of God’s favorites can make such a mess of things and still fulfill his calling then so can I. So can you.
Listen to this: God wants us to be perfect. Scripture says so, but that word translated to perfect isn’t like our word. The meaning is actually closer to “complete” than without blemish. We might say, “Restored.” God is not after perfect behavior. He is after your heart. He wants your heart so he can restore it.
We have done such a good job throughout history of turning God’s plan for restoring everything into a religious set of steps and rules that we have taken our eyes completely off of the need we all share: completion. Restoration. Healing.
Even David needed these things. His behavior, like ours, was a symptom of a broken and wounded heart.
Your addictions. Your anxiety. Your fear. Your doubt. Your anger. Your sadness. All of these are the bleeding from the wounds in your busted heart. And God wants to put it back together, heal it, make it perfect and whole. He is the only one capable of doing this. Your religious activities will not make you perfect. They will not complete you.
So stop beating yourself up.
Yeah, you.
The places of healing are in the valley of the shadow of death.
Justin Roberts
Ask God to come in. Invite him into your story and converse with him about the state of your heart. Follow him through the places of healing. The places of healing are in the valley of the shadow of death according to what David wrote. So you will probably have to face some ugliness from your past. You’ll see how it affects you and your relationships now. And you will begin a process of healing.
Here is the best part. That healing is not toward making you whole again. Your healing emanates from a whole heart. The rest of you has to catch up. And you’ve got all the time in the world for that.
So be patient.
Give yourself grace.
And stop worrying about what you’ve done or what you will do. That’s already been covered.
The following is from an interactive study I led at the church where I pastor. To hear the full message and discussion, please Click here.
Reading through Lamentations and attempting to relate somehow to the utter ruin and hopelessness that pervaded Israel’s psyche and spirits at this time is not easy. Their loss was communal, it was spiritual, it was deeply felt. This month we passed the 18th anniversary of the World Trade Tower attacks. That is about as close as we can come to sharing in their pain and loss.
We also recognized Suicide Prevention Week, and that week began with the suicide of a well-known pastor in California, Jarrid Wilson.
Within weeks after I graduated from high school in 1994, one of our classmates took his own life.
It wasn’t that long ago I attended a meeting of Boy Scouts whose friend had taken his own life in his home.
One of my mentors and dearest friends’ own son took his own life just a few years ago.
What this reveals to us is that as followers of Jesus in modern America we may not have an event that compares to the exile of Israel and Judah to Babylon, but something in our world is bringing many of us to the point of anguish expressed in verses 15-17 of chapter five of Lamentations.
The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart has become sick,
for these things our eyes have grown dim
Listen to this made personal:
The joy of my heart has ceased and disappeared;
any dancing I felt like doing is now spent in weeping and lamenting losses.
My honor and respect is gone; no one cares
My life sucks, but it is my own fault!
Because of this my heart is weak and sick, I can’t do this anymore
and my eyes are full of tears so I cannot see.
These are difficult words to hear. These thoughts and feelings are even harder to carry. But these thoughts themselves are not sins. They are declarations of facts and feelings and thoughts that exist. The writer of this poetry had feelings that were valid. They were real in the realest sense.
Imagine telling this author or any of the other Israelites, “You can’t feel that way! You can’t say that! It’s not right! It goes against all God has made you to be! Just read more Scripture, say more prayers, make more sacrifices, and everything will be fine.”
Why do Christians tend to think that negative feelings about life and God are sinful? Is there a point at which they become sin?
As Jesus followers, we must become advocates and not judges for people who suffer from mental illnesses. This means we have to stop sweeping these things under the rug, and we must start talking about them. There is no stigma on someone with a cold. We don’t judge the person with cancer for having cancer. Neither can we pass judgement on someone suffering with mental illness.
Something that I have read many times lately is that depression and anxiety, in a lot of cases are physical issues, not emotional or spiritual. The imbalance of chemistry within our bodies is one of the effects of the fall of man and the curse that brought. This is why people who struggle with this kind of depression don’t respond as well to meditation, prayer, etc. Unless God chooses to physically heal them, they will continue to struggle with the illness. Yet, 50% of evangelical Christians believe that prayer and Bible study alone will cure serious mental illness. Try telling a person with chronic pain or cancer that same thing.
These verses in Lamentations are the cries of someone who has not merely lost hope, but has left it behind, quite possibly because they are unable to see the end of the tunnel. This kind of depression manifests in different ways—sadness, numbness, negativity, anger, or it may not even show up with some people as they hide in shame due to the stigma.
But those who struggle in this manner are not without hope. The remaining verses of this book also reflect the thoughts and prayers of a Jesus-Follower who lives in depression or other mental illness. Here they are in the NLT:
But LORD, you remain the same forever!
Your throne continues from generation to generation.
20 Why do you continue to forget us?
Why have you abandoned us for so long?
21 Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again!
Give us back the joys we once had!
22 Or have you utterly rejected us?
Are you angry with us still?
Verse 22 in the ESV says, “unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.”
Just because someone is in a state of anger and confusion and frustration and depression—sometimes blamed on God—it doesn’t mean they do not still believe in Him or even put their faith in God. In fact, I would propose that someone who is angry at God and expresses it is better than someone who stops believing because of their anger and walks away from the faith in apathy.
The Psalmists dealt with these same kind of paradoxical thoughts. In Psalm 44, we read, “But you have rejected us and disgraced us
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have made us turn back from the foe,
and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You have sold your people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face
16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
Psa. 44:17 All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
Recently, a friend shared with our small prayer gathering about the concept of both/and. We can love someone and be angry. We can have faith in God and doubt the future. The separation of ideas of being either/or is a purely Western concept. Israel did not see it the same way. This is why the poet in Lamentations can faithfully say, “Unless you’ve given up on us….” God can love us and leave us because of the broken covenant. Glory be to Him forever that He has not left or forsaken us, but instead made a way to reconcile us to Him through Jesus, His Son. Amen!
What is it that enables someone who is suffering with depression or anything else for that matter to still have faith in God?
The answer to the question is revealed here in these verses and in the end of Lamentations. We’ve said something along these lines before, but it bears repeating over and over because we have short memories sometimes.
If our faith in God is based upon our circumstances then our faith is in the circumstances or in men, not in God. God’s character is what enables us to trust Him, not what is happening in our lives.
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If our faith in God is based upon our circumstances then our faith is in the circumstances or in men, not in God. God’s character is what enables us to trust Him, not what is happening in our lives. This is the hardest pill to swallow when we pray for deliverance or healing and it doesn’t come. Our limited human flesh wants mercy and forgiveness, we want to be right, we want instant gratification, we want it our way. But God said to Paul what we all need to remember in these moments: My grace is sufficient for you.
His grace is bigger than our fear, our anxiety, our depression, our numbness, our anger, our frustration, our loneliness, our listlessness, our sins—everything that seeks to injure us must face the grace of God. And God’s grace is for us. Even if we suffer with mental illness, physical disease, or consistent anger. His promises stand, even if they are slow to be answered in our estimation.
The Thousandth Man 