Monday, December 28, 2009

Knowing the Love of God

All we really need is to know is how deeply loved we are by God.

If we really experienced being profoundly loved by God, think of all the issues in life that would become unimportant.

1. I would no longer have to try and find my significance in other things. I would be significant already.

2. The meaning of my life might still be a question, but it would not carry very much power to it because I would have nothing to prove.

3. I would be able to love others out of security and not insecurity.

4. Th center of who I am would be a place of peace and not storms.

5. Fears and worries would no longer have a foothold because I would know that God will take care of me.

6. Sin in my life might discourage, but no longer devastate.

7. In fact, much of the reason I sin - to find comfort & self-protection - would already be met and sin would not have such power over me.

8. I would be free to be who I really am because rejection by others, while painful, would no longer threaten the core of who I am.

9. I would be able to take more and greater risks, because the outcome would not threaten my sense of acceptance by God.

10. I could love God and others without the selfish motive of needing to be loved. My love would be pure.

11. I would be able to live out of my real identity as a son/daughter of the Father.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Stages of Learning and the Presence of God

I have have been having some fun thinking of being in the presence of God in terms of the four stages of learning. The four stages of learning may be presented as a quadrant like this:







We start out as an unconscious incompetent. We don't experience the presence of God and we don't even know that such a thing is possible.


In the next stage, we learn that it is possible to walk in the presence of God, but we also realize that we are not experiencing His presence. We are now a conscious incompetent.

As we seek to walk in the presence of God, we become conscious competents. We experience His presence, but it takes concentration and effort on our part.

At some point, though, being in the presence of God becomes second nature to us. We no longer have to think about it. We are now unconscious competents. In the Apostle John's choice of words, we are now abiding in Christ.

Using this framework, here are a couple of thoughts that may be helpful:

1. Learning to walk in God's presence is a natural process that includes a lot of trial and error, especially in the transition from being a conscious incompetent to a conscious competent. God designed it that way, just as He designed how we learn to walk. Therefore, there is no need to get upset at ourselves as we struggle. The struggle is an essential part of the process. And whether we realize it or not, we are learning something valuable each time we try.

2. The enemy would like to discourage us or cause us to feel condemned by our failures. In truth, learning to walk in God's presence is a process and not an event. Therefore, there is no guilt or shame in failure, just as a child learning to walk has not guilt when he or she falls.

3. The conscious competent stage is characterized by work. In that stage, staying in God's presence is a matter of doing. In the unconscious competent stage, however, doing falls away and we enter into the act of being in the presence of God. In effect, learning to walk in God's presence starts out with our focus on ourselves and our efforts, and it ends when the focus shifts to God's love and His keeping us in His presence.

4. Most writings about experiencing the presence of God are written without a sense of growth in mind. As a result, we may feel like our efforts are futile if they don't result in mountain top experiences that we read about. In fact, those efforts are all very valuable because they take us along the path into even deeper places in the presence of God. It just takes time and perseverance.

5. It seems that many who want to walk in the presence of God get discouraged and quit when the going gets hard. They read about how easy it is to be in God's presence and decide that it must not be for them. When we realize that each stage experiences the presence of God differently and that the struggles we face today will bring us to a point of breakthrough, then there is good reason to keep pressing in.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christianity with Power

In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples that they would be given power for ministry. It reads:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Here are a few thoughts on this verse:

1. The verse is not referring to merely receiving the Holy Spirit. That happened to the disciples earlier (John 20:21-22).

2. This empowering was so important that Jesus told the disciples to do nothing until they received it (Acts 1:4).

3. This verse was fulfilled in Acts 2 at Pentecost and it involved much more than speaking in tongues. After Pentecost, we see in the disciples a new boldness, unity, and spiritual power. There is also a remarkable lack of selfish ambition.

It seems to me that we in America lack spiritual power. Only a small percentage of what is accomplished by most churches is the unmistakable work of God. Much of what we do is based on human efforts and abilities instead. What will it take for us to finally enter into power? Here are a few ideas:

- We need to admit that the way we function now is powerless. It is time to quit pretending that our candles are bonfires and confess our poverty before God.

- Like the disciples, we must wait on God, seek after Him, and receive power from Him.

- I do not think that receiving God’s power is done merely “by faith” as we often think of that phrase. Receiving things by faith is often an excuse for being lazy. Instead, there has to be an intentional pressing in that costs us something – an ongoing asking, seeking and knocking. That is faith at work in a way that allows us to receive.

The American Church is losing ground with each passing year. And sadly, rather than humbling ourselves and seeking God, we are caught up in all kinds of human efforts to make things better. The only solution that will work, however, is a genuine move of God in power.

I think that when this happens, God will be seeking out people who are willing to abandon themselves and their reputations and their security to follow Him. God will not be looking for the talented or the leaders to further His purposes. He will be looking for people like Mary in Nazareth – people who have no other qualification except that they are willing.

Am I willing? Are you?

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Worthless Christian Activities


1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NIV)

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.


Yikes! This passage gives us a very strong warning that it is possible to do all kinds of Christian things and then discover that God considers all of our work to be pretty worthless. Can you imagine serving the Lord for years and discovering that He thought all that you did was a waste of time? Sadly, I think this is true for most Christians and Christian ministries. I know that is the case for me.

You see, although Paul warns us about worthless activities (wood, hay and straw), he does not tell us what God's standard is for evaluating our work. What makes what we do wood as opposed to gold? The answer is found in the book of John.

John 15:1-5 (NIV)

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."


Here at the end of these verses, Jesus says that if we are not abiding in Him, we can do nothing. What does that mean?

To start with, abiding in Christ is not simply being a Christian. It is living in a love relationship with the Lord in which we have an active, on-going communion with Him. We are able to sense what the Holy Spirit is saying and we respond in loving obedience to His leading.

Secondly, when Jesus says we can do nothing, what He is telling us is that apart from abiding in Him, nothing we do matters to Him. We can do plenty of things apart from Christ, good and bad, so the saying that we can do nothing must apply to the value of those works.

So, here in John, Jesus says that if the things we do are not birthed out of an on-going love relationship with Him, they are worthless in His eyes.

Sadly, I think much of my Christian life has been wood, hay and straw. I was taught how to be a performer for God, not a lover of God. It also seems to me that most American Christians fall into that same category - and most churches and ministries as well. We have programs and activities and we are very, very busy. But in the process, we, like the church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-5), have lost our first love. As a result, even if God uses our efforts, they amount to very little in His eyes. Our works, because they are not grounded in a genuine relationship with God, are wood, hay and straw, if even that.

So, if you have a very successful ministry, but do not have a deep love-walk with Jesus, do not deceive yourself that God is pleased. He is using your efforts, but they are wood, hay and straw. Likewise, if all you do is mop floors for a living, but your work springs out of a deep love for your Savior, then there is precious gold every time your mop slides across the floor.

What will is take for us to quit doing all kinds of stuff and learn instead how to be lovers? At what point will we finally lay aside our wood, hay and straw so that we can pick up the gold, silver and costly stones that are found in loving God?

Monday, November 30, 2009

Finding Ourselves

A few decades ago, it became popular for people to step back from life and take time to find themselves. They would leave college or work and venture out into the world to discover who they were. Many became temporary hippies. Others made it their vocation.

What these people had right was that they understood how the world around them had defined them and they wanted to find a place of deeper meaning. They did not want to be known as an accountant or as so-and-so's child. They wanted to discover who they were apart from those things.

What they had wrong was the notion that humans can define themselves apart from the world around them. We all get our identities either by what we do or who we are in relationship with. Men tend to focus on the task-based identity, i.e. "I am a writer." Women, on the other hand, lean a bit more towards the relational identity, i.e. "I am Kevin's wife." In either case, we cannot separate who we are from the world of tasks and relationships we live in. That's just how it is. The idea of the autonomous identity is a false one.

The problem, however, is that when we choose to find our identity in the tasks and relationships of a fallen world, we will end up with a fallen identity. The mirror we are looking in is too badly damaged to give us a true picture of ourselves.

The only way to discover our true self is to draw our identity from the One Who made us. It is as we understand who we are in relation to God that we see our real identity. Therefore, the more we are able to see God for who He really is, the more we are able to see ourselves for who we really are.

And, as we look upon the cross that Jesus died on, we discover that we are the well-loved children of an incredibly loving Father. We can then step into an eternal identity that is better than any earthly identity we could ever find.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Walking by Faith

There comes a point in our Christian growth when God calls us to walk by faith. Walking by faith has two key components - having faith and surrendering. This means that our walk by faith may have a couple of different stages to it (Note: there is no set path from stage to stage, however).














Baby Stage (Low Faith, Low Surrender) - In this baby stage, we do not really trust God, nor have we surrendered ourselves to Him in a significant way. We are walking by faith in name only. This is the typical starting point for most of us. The key indicators of being in this stage is that our life matters a great deal to us and we do not think God can or will take care of us.

There is a second group in this category of low faith and low surrender, but they are not babies in the faith at all. This group consists of people who have such a negative emotional picture of themselves and the Lord that they cannot trust Him or surrender themselves to Him in a significant way. Typically, they are well aware of their struggles and really want things to be different. However, they are in the ICU Stage (Low Faith, Low Surrender) where much healing needs to happen before they can walk by faith.

Self-Sufficient Stage (High Faith, Low Surrender) - When we believe in the goodness of God, but we are not yet ready to lay down our self-will to Him, we are in the self-sufficient stage. It is possible for us to have been Christians for a long time and to be well-regarded by others, and yet still be in this stage. This is especially true if we are very talented or have a lot of worldly wisdom. Because our hearts are so deceitful, it is also possible to live in this stage and not even be aware of it. The key indicators are that we still consider our lives to be important and we still think too highly of ourselves. It is a place of great, albeit subtle, pride.

Wounded Stage (Low Faith, High Surrender) - Frequently, people who have been wounded in the past are willing to surrender themselves to the Lord, but do not have any expectation of receiving anything good from Him. They are willing to pay the cost to follow Jesus, but they walk by faith in not being blessed instead of in being blessed. Because they simply cannot face the disappointment of being let down once again, it is easier to just not expect anything. The key indicators of someone in this stage are unresolved abuse, rejection and authority issues.

Faithful Stage (High Faith, High Surrender) - The person in this stage has embraced the paradox of losing their life to gain it. He or she places no importance on their life anymore - they do not love it even to death. They exist only to serve the Lord. At the same time, this person has discovered the tremendous love that the Father has for them. As a result, they gladly trust Him and have no fear of what may happen.

Notice this, though, what may happen may not be pleasant. The person in the faithful stage is no longer personally invested in how their life turns out. Their life is fully surrendered to God and they have released any claim they may have had on what God does with it. Instead, their satisfaction and success in life is found in the love of the Father - and this allows them to have great faith that whatever the Father does with them is good.

Also keep in mind that the stages presented here are not distinct categories. There are gradients to faith and surrender. Rarely will we find ourselves exactly in one category or another. However, we can begin to see what our dominant tendencies are and ask the Lord to work specifically on those areas so that we can mature in our walk with Him.

Conclusion - The way we grow in being able to walk by faith is simple: The more we know the Father and His love for us, the better we can surrender, the more faith we can have, and the more healing we will experience. So, we don't exert ourselves to generate more faith or greater surrender by ourselves. Instead, we make it our goal to press in to know the Father. As we do that, all the rest gets taken care of.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Freedom in Christ - Free to be Ourselves

I have been spending my time lately contemplating freedom. Here are a few thoughts:

1. We limit our own freedom: Although most of us say we want to be genuine with others, we are often afraid of what others may think. So, rather than be genuine, we perform, presenting to others who we think they want us to be, not who we are.

This masquerade has a couple of unintended consequences. First, we begin to think that we also need to perform for God. We act differently at church than we do at home. We become dishonest in prayer - telling God what we think He wants to hear, not what we actually think or feel. In doing so, we lose the opportunity for a real relationship with God. It all becomes a dry act of religion with no life in it.

Another unintended consequence is that as we get better and better at performing for others, we lose sight of who we are. We begin to identify ourselves with the persona we present to others more than the person that we really are. We become lost. As a result, it becomes increasingly impossible for us to have meaningful relationships with others since who we really are is never a part of the relationship.

2. We limit others freedom. We all have a natural tendency to try to define a person in a particular way. When we make our definition of someone rigid and inflexible, our relationship with them will be limiting on who they are and uncomfortable for them. Probably the best example of this is when we are around family members who have not seen us in a while. When we are together, it feels like they are squeezing us back into who we used to be instead of letting us be who we have become. We notice the discomfort when it is we who are being squeezed. Still, we continue to squeeze others because it would become uncomfortable to us if we were to actually give them the freedom to change.

3. Freedom is found in Christ. The best way to allow ourselves to be who we really are is in a genuine relationship with Jesus. When we know the love of God in a deep and personal way, then our deepest needs for security & belonging are met. Then, we are able to risk being ourselves from a position of strength instead of having to fiercely guard against rejection.

In addition, when we cry out to God to know Him more, He begins to work in us the healing we need to be who we really are. You see, He wants a relationship with us and not any persona we put on. So, seeking intimacy with God calls forth from within us our genuine selves and puts us in a place of emotional security that gives us the courage to live genuinely with others - and to let them be genuine with us. This process is not always as easy or pleasant as it may sound.

Still, perhaps today, Jesus is calling out to us. If you are like me, your genuine self has spent too much time buried away. And now, the Savior is walking up to the tomb, calling out to the Lazarus in each of us, "Come forth!"

4. Freedom is Attractive. Of course, what I have written here is just one aspect of the freedom God gives us. There is much, much more. However, in a world that is hungry for real people, the freedom to be ourselves is perhaps even more appealing to them than the message of salvation. We, as lovers of Jesus who live life genuinely, will naturally call forth to the many Lazarus's we meet. Our own honesty will cry out to them to come forth, too.