For those who are in need of love...

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, 

he had us in mind, 

had settled on us as the focus of his love, 

to be made whole and holy 

         by his love.  

Long, long ago 

he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. 

                       Ephesians 1:4

The Bible tells us two great truths:  

1) We were made for a different place 

2) We will get there. 

Honest. How can we be sure? 

The capacity for love and joy,  and empathy and hurt  in the human heart tells us that 

there is a "more". 

The more is not made by the hands of man. 

The more cannot be touched but is can be felt in an embrace. 

The more cannot be smelled but it can be detected in the spring rain. 

The more cannot be heard but is screams with joy at healing and a weeping at pain. 

The more, my friends is Love. 

And Love is a noun, not a verb. 

His name is Jesus. 

Jesus is the more and he took all the less upon himself. 

My daughter says that he gave up all his presents for us. 

In so doing, be brings us to the "there" which is infinitely better than the here. 

The here may lots of things from the there...joy, peace, love...but it still has the here mixed in. 

The wonder is that when we are filled with Love, Christ, the noun, we do not just experience the new place and the more, but we begin to live in it. 

  

Jesus said these things. 

Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said:

Father, it’s time.
 

Display the bright splendor of your Son
So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.
 

You put him in charge of everything human
So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge.
 

And this is the real and eternal life:
That they know you,
The one and only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

The adoption papers have been signed. Sealed. Delivered. 

Bethel Live- Closer Ft. Steffany Frizzell-Gretzinger

through the eyes of Jesus

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. 

He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. 

When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. 

The images that have been surfacing from Kieve have been haunting. 

Masterful works of art and light capturing all the real-life drama and emotion of life and death. 

Men with robes and a crucifix standing on a wooden palate. Their Ark. 

Shields, helmets, guns -verses-whatever the hell you can find or steal. 

When I first saw these images my heart was pounding for the valiant priests who stood before the powers of be defiantly waving Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in the midst of hell. 

But today it is different. My eyes have shifted focus. 

I have a coin in my pocket given to me from a friend. It has a cross on the with the image of a Jesus carved through it.  It has the effect that when you look through it you see all the world through Christ's outstretched arms. 

My eyes have shifted focus. 

Look, see Jesus on the cross? He is facing both sides. Nailed, stripped, and beaten. 

The Lamb of God offered for all who would turn to him and be saved. 

  

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. 

He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak

 and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. 

And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. 

We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. 

But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death 

while we were of no use whatever to him.

 

There is beauty in the brokeness

God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
    God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
 

Madame Day holds classes every morning,
    Professor Night lectures each evening.

Their words aren’t heard,
    their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
    unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

            Psalm 19:1-2 (Message translation)

God tells us that He made everything perfect: perfect trees, perfect mountains, perfect cows, perfect people. 

But then because of the old there-must-be-greener-grass mentality, it broke. 

Trees rot. 

Mountains collapse. 

Cows get sick. 

People die. 

This is not how it was supposed to be. It is not perfect. 

Thankfully, God can, and does, turn all things to his glory. 

 
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, 

he left nothing outside his control. 

At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

                                                                    Hebrews 2:7-8

How does this play out in daily living?

Well look at say, sand. 

What is it? 

Broken rocks,  bits of garbage glass and dead sea animals. 

Look at fall leaves. Why do we see the colors?

The leaves that are about to die. 

But sand is beautiful and Fall takes our breath away. 

So even in the midst of brokenness we see beauty.

Not that the brokenness is beautiful in and of itself. 

That is not in Gods' character:

 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. 

                                  1 Thessalonians 5:9 

 The sovereign God is there, doing what He does best...and only he can do. 

Restore. 

I was changed by a man wearing bird on his head

I sat spell-bound as a missionary named John Cutts began his talk at the church where I was serving as the assistant. He had an image of men wearing only feather, paint and long gourds holding  poison-tipped hunting arrows up on the huge TV screen we had rented for his presentation. 

"I'm not sure how this pictures will go over, 

but I wanted to show you a picture of one of the 

people you will be feasting with at the banquet

for all of eternity!"

I'll be honest, as a white-bread-suberbian-Connecticut-kid who never heard of missionaries growing up it took me a while to let the image and the force of the message settle in. 

"This is your brother. 

When the Bible talks about every tongue, tribe, and nation

this is what it means. 

This is your family. 

John began to tell us about how these followers of Christ have ceased tribal warfare and now go to villages to spread the message of the love of Jesus to people who once killed their own. War took up most of their lives, as did the fear that came along with it. 

But then they heard of the God who died for them, 

and their lives were never the same. 

The area of Papau, New Guinea where these children of God live is a never-ending sea of ridges and valleys that form a near impenetrable fortress between themselves and other tribes as well as the outside world.  The depth of isolation caused this region to birth a full one-fifth of the worlds' languages. Love from the outside world desired to bring iron axes, medicine and water but the planes could not land until an airstrip was built. 

This village had spent 28 years clearing the land by hand! Impressive indeed!

But it was the story John told of the airstrip that failed that changed my life for ever. 

"They make a test of the new airstrip in an unloaded plane. The big day had come and the whole village cheered as the plane landed. 

The pilot got emerged from his cockpit and was instantly surrounded with cheers and yelling. 

He had a lump in his throat as he delivered the news;

'I am sorry, but this strip will not work with a fully loaded plane'

the villagers didn't say a word but went and picked up their primitive tools and began to build a new strip right along side the one the had just spent ten years working on. 

Baffled at the lack of complaint he asked one of the elders about it. He replied;

If we don't build this new airstrip the villages 

down rive will never get medicine. 

If they don't get medicine, they will die. 

If they die, they will never hear of Jesus. 

We cannot let that happen. 

If I die before I finish the work, 

my children will continue."

These villagers understood what Jacob saw when the angels ascended and descended the ladder from heaven. They went about the tasks God gave them to do, without fear, without grumbling, without complaint.  

They trusted the end of the story and so lived it out in the middle. 

May we do the same. 

God gave me the bird because he loved me

He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

       Psalm 91:4

Years ago I adopted a chronic feather-plucking Yellow Naped Dwarf Macaw parrot named "Randy". I was his eleventh owner in nine years.

It was a love born of pity: he was ugly but cute, loved me but hated women, and like all parrots needed the same amount of care as a baby for good health. 

His feathers began to grow back, and he got nicer. 

He was insanely lovable as all rescued things are. Randy would lie on my chest and I would rub his back as his feathers grew in. I could see his new pin-feathers, and watch his veins pump and  his heart beat under his skin. 

This ugly-nobody-wanted-feather-plucking-bird taught me about the character of God as told in Psalm 91:4.

When you are under a wing, you feel a heart beat

When you under a wing, you feel warm

When you are under a wing, you become as near as one-flesh

But it gets better. 

God  also promised to be our shield. That's protection in battle. That's keeping us from harm and death. 

And God said he is our buckler, not "belt-buckle". That just keeps our pant up. 

The buckler holds the sword. The sword is our weapon. It destroys the things trying to destroy us. 

Warmth, love, defense, protection. 

When besieged,
    I’m calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
    I’m collected and cool.

                                                                                Psalm 27:3 (Message translation)

  

a mom and dad pass on thier faith

Today (Genesis 23-24, Matthew 8)

So Abraham left his family, security, and inheritance because of God's promise.
He wandered through hostile territory without body armor,
without drones,
without night vision,  or an army.

The God of the Angel Armies was with Him.

He had his son (finally) so that the promise God made to make him into a great nation would be fulfilled then God asks him to sacrifice him.  But God does what only God can do and all ends well.

Then years pass and  the little boy of the promise grows up. This kid was going to father a great nation, a multitude of people that could not be counted!
From him would come a King whose line would always sit upon the throne!
Nations would bow out and yield their lands to his sword!

And before she can see any of it, his mother dies. Away from her family, her land, her tribe. Abraham is left with nothing but God.

But as my kids bible reminds us: God + Nothing = Everything

Yet this man's heart was heavy. His wife was gone, the one who dreamed dreams with him.

Now I am sure that Abraham and Sara shared the stories of the promise with their son over and over. Every kid asks why.
Why are we here?
Why is our clan so far away?
Why do we act so differently?
Why are you so old?
Why can't I marry that cute girl from town?

The old lie could have easily poisoned his heart now
..."did God really say?". Yes, God really said.

God proved is steadfast love. Time and time and time again.
God comforted Abraham in his old age with a tomb for his wife and a wife for his son.
He could close his eyes in peace.

Many, many, many years later a man named Simeon would get the same comfort in his heart.
This man held the child of the promise.
This child would be sacrificed.
He was the Lamb of God.
He held in his hands the steadfast love of God, Jesus.

He is King of realms we cannot see;
He commands the elemental forces of nature of wind and water.
He commands dark forces of demons.
He commands all matters of sickness.
He commands over death.

I pass this onto you.
The steadfast love of God endures for ever.
His promise is his promise. I know that for a fact

God cares less about what the Bible says...

God cares less about what the Bible says, he cares more about what it does..to the reader.  It is not self-help book, it is a book about how God helped us.

True, it does contain expectations, desires, and commands. It also has history, poetry, stories, and truth, always truth.

You see God's desire  is NOT simply conforming, 

but rather transforming.

We can "do" without "becoming". We can love without being loving, we can give without being gracious, we can withhold violence without being forgiving. Jesus called these folks out:

 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! 

You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, 

but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. 

People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

                 Matthew 23:27

The only way to allow the Bible to transform you is to read it. Most folks read parts of it, glossing over the pieces they don't care for either because it is difficult to understand (which some is) or it reveals to them what they really are.

But some may say "I don't want to be like Westboro Baptist Church!" Me either. I want to be like Jesus. He hung out with lawyers, prostitutes, demon possessed, men, women, sick, and healthy. He was killed and forgave the man who nailed him to the cross. He saw off in the distance clearly His father's plan of redemption and turned the world upside down. That is what I want to be like.

What about you?
Join me for 365 days. I'll post a reading plan that takes about 5 minutes of your day. Let it sink in you and challenge you, comfort you, cause you to make amends, and make you leap for joy. When there are some hard parts I'll unpack it a bit and always I'll bring it to bear on the here-and-now.

We were all made for glory. We were all made to be beautiful. We were all made to be whole.

I know what I’m doing. 

I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, 

plans to give you the future you hope for.

 

“When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, 

I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

“I’ll turn things around for you. 

I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

                               Jeremiah 29:11-14

the readings for today 

God is better that octomom

One of them said, “I’m coming back about this time next year. 

When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son.” 

Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man.

Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. 

Sarah was far past the age for having babies. 

Sarah laughed within herself, 

“An old woman like me? 

Get pregnant? 

With this old man of a husband?”

God said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh saying, ‘Me? Have a baby? 

An old woman like me?

’ Is anything too hard for God?

 I’ll be back about this time next year and Sarah will have a baby.”

Sarah lied. She said, “I didn’t laugh,” because she was afraid.

But he said, “Yes you did; you laughed.”

                Genesis 9:16-18 (The Message)

This passage may be pretty familiar with some. "Is anything too hard for GOD" is comforting. We chant it like a talisman when times get tough. It's like a good luck charm when our team is loosing, or we can't find a parking space up close at the mall. 

To be fair, for many it is an anchor when hell hits full force; a phone call from a policeman, news of another school shooting, one more time a spouse is hit. Yes, God is sovereign at all times.  

But that should grab us here misses most of us due to modern translations. It may read something like this: 

Now she had no more eggs left in her. 

She was post-menopausal and she knew it!

Her monthly cycle had stopped so long ago

she had forgotten all about it. 

Add to the mix:

1) God had promised that she would have a son long ago

2) God had promised her husband they would have many, many, many children

3) Not having a son then was a huge social disgrace

So you see she was waiting, waiting, waiting for many, many, many years after God's first promises. Around seventy years to be exact. 

So she was living like a follower but not really trusting on the inside. Now remember, she was waiting. 

And God did what he promised in a way only he could do. 

He literally placed life in her where there was no life.

It is of little wonder she laughed. 

Yeah right! A baby now! 

I've been waiting for the "check in the mail" for over 70 years!

I get laughed at! My husband said you promised

So I waited, and waited and waited

And now you say a baby?!

I DON"T HAVE ANY EGGS!

How is that gonna happen?!

Answer:

I am God. 

And so the child was named Issac, "Son of Laughter"....because God always has the last say. 

And what he says, he does. 

Later he would tell another woman that she would have a baby too. It was was impossible as the first time. She was a virgin. 

She didn't laugh though, she trusted and said "so be it".

Where are you today? How are you talking to God? 

Disbelief, or trust? 

Life from death, joy from ashes, light from dark...

he alone can do it...and he delights in doing so

 

What's love got to do, got to do with it?

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. 

This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Matthew 5:43-48 

  

If I were to be honest I would have to say that I find this the most challenging piece of text in all of Scripture. Why?  Because I, like all others, have a natural tendency to seek retaliation against those who have harmed me. But to be fair, let's look at what Jesus is not telling us to love. 

This passage  was told to the inner circle of those who were following him. The command is not one to allow all sorts of evil things to just happen. God demands justice and protection of the innocent in the here-and-now. 

It is not in God's character, if we know that a an innocent person is being abused to simply love the abuser in order to win them over to Christ and allow the evil to continue without challange.  

Yes, God loves us while we mock him, but we are indeed our brother's keepers. 

So if God is not saying just love everybody  and let him deal with it, who are we called to love here? Who are these enemies? 

They are the ones who would be hating Christ's followers simply because they were his followers, and the ones who would be hating future disciples as well. 

We were given the clue earlier on in the same chapter:

 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down 

or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. 

What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. 

You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! 

And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. 

My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble."

We are called to love the enemies of God because God loved us while we were enemies of him. 

We are not called to love the actions of hate or cruelty, to allow them to continue.  We are called to look at what evil is being done and to make sure we do not do it.   

We are called to not pay back evil for evil (Romans 21:12) but also to not tolerate evil, especially in the church! 

So we discipline each other out of love, not retaliate of hate. 

We love those who hate us because we proclaim Christ. 

We await the day when He is in our midst, and we no longer have any enemies.

God is (like)Goo

"Hey dad! Did you get the running food I left on the tailgate?"

When I do long-runs on Saturdays for road miles (15 miles and up) I make loops past my house and use it as an aid station for water and power gels. My kids call it "running food".  Without it, I would never be able to run long distance.  It puts back into my body what the running has taken out.


God is like this, in a way.
He our strength and salvation at all times
He is the one who made our blood, legs and lungs and keeps them working.
He causes the sun to rise and fall.

Yet, he comes in a very special way to those whose strength is tapped out:

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

Perhaps you are finding yourself there today, up your driveway, looking for Gu. 

To you I say drink deeply from the water 

For those who have found the source but are in need, the tailgate in the house of the Lord is always dropped. 

The rub is we can only lead a runner to water...

 

what to you trust your life to?

um, what's that?
Oh, I tied these off myself. The knots solid, what's up?
That chord isn't used for  tying gear. It's just fancy string.
oh, well they said it was ok!
They were wrong.

I had just tied into my climbing rope and was about to head up Bastille Crack, a classic several hundred foot classic route in Eldorado Canyon in CO when my  climbing partner noticed something odd about some of the gear I had slung over my shoulder. It wasn't safe and if I fell hard it would not have prevented me from falling to a potential death.

But I went up anyway.

Why? Because I guess I didn't really trust him. I trusted myself more.

Stupid me. Stupid us, eh?

We all do this, trusting what we "think we know" instead of trusting the One who Knows us.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
 

You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

 
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.

Psalm 139:16ff

We can't trust our lives to ourselves, or our own devises. 

Yes, they may look safe and secure, but they will not hold up to a death-fall. 

Only one can withstand that. Tie yourself to him and be safe. 

So what do we do when everyone tells us they are right and you are wrong? 

Go to God, ask him, search His word...

If we sold Jesus on the roadside...

One of the greatest blessings about returning to Tanzania each year is that I learn so much and gain deep insight into life just by being there. My eyes are open, my nose smells everything, my lungs taste both the fume-seawater-dust air of Dar es Salaam and the crisp night sweetness of midnight in the villages.

All along the roads, every road, everywhere a truck, or a bicycle, or a donkey travels you will  find people selling their wares. For the first time traveler it is of-putting but I imagine if a Tanzania were to be bombarded by the marketing in America they would say the same.

The sellers simply walk up to you (very few are pushy) and hold up what they need to sell in order to be able to eat that day. Maps, fish, nuts, DVD's...whatever.

A simple head shake no suffices most of the time.

If need be, you can break out the very rude Swahili word "hapana" which means "no".

Tanzanians are very giving people. Cultural context demands it. They offer what they have to strangers, feed the sick, help the poor, and have the utmost respect for the elderly. Yes, there are jerks everywhere but trust me, Africa is like that.

So to say "no" goes against everything they are.

I imagine God feels this way when we go against him, his love and his provision.

He has given us everything. The air, water, plants, lungs, love, laughter, blood drops and rain drops.
He stands by displaying his glory with each sunrise, each new born baby, each rush of the wind and so many say hapana.

He offers all of humankind Jesus, who is the chipati of life, free of charge. More satisfying and life-giving than the roadside bread the sellers offer over charcoal stoves and we walk by, daily, saying hapana.

Why? Well you have your reasons, but mine can be pretty much summed up because I like control.

I am letting go a bit more. I want the chipati that will last for ever. I do not want to offend God who gave me his son, freely showing his love and mercy.

Take and eat, this is his body, given for you.

The big lie

"As a dad, I know the power of a voice. I can hear my children's cries over the din of hundreds of other competing noises. Parents are wired like this...and kids are too. Yes, they may choose to ignore our calls but they hear the voice.

Many, many years ago two children were deceived by a liar who said not to listen to their dad. The lie was simple. One little word caused a world of hurt, pain, isolation, and separation. 

It has led to all wars, rape, murder, and abuse.

It is the source of all evil, pride, and hate.

The word is found in a book used by many.

"did God really say...?"

That one little word really set those two up to doubt everything. 

It ushered in distrust, which leads to second-guessing, which leads to fear, which leads to...

Children, yes, God did say please don't not because he was withholding good,

but because he was restraining bad.

The good news is that we can turn to him and say sorry and he forgives us. 

I do this with my kids. When they misbehave I send them off to sit on the step and think for a bit then we talk. 

I call them over and we follow this line:

Come back please. I love you. Why were you on the step?

I didn't listen and I ......

Why do we tell you not to.....? What is my job?

To keep me safe because you love me. I'm sorry dad. 

I forgive you. I love you.

This, my friends, is what God does for us. 

God sent those two two kids he made and loved away for a bit. 

It broke his heart, but he couldn't let them continue doing what they did. 

He simply asked what did you do. 

They didn't fess up, so they were sent away again...but God made away to get them back and say I love you. His son Jesus would take the blame and punishment.

The terrible thing they did was not trust God. Simple. 

It's all I want from my kids. 

Trust. 

How about you?

While you come back and trust?