The past few days were unearned. I was a guest of people I care deeply about who own a magnificent three-story villa on a beautiful lake. When both they and my husband were called away by other obligations I had all three stories of luxury to myself to write, to meditate, to pray.
I didn’t own the villa. As a retiree there is no way I could afford a place like this. In fact, I could probably not afford to rent a place like this for even one night. It was a free gift. Other than cleaning up after myself and making sure the door was locked when I went out for a walk along the shore early in the morning I had no responsibilities toward its upkeep. My only obligation was to enjoy it.
Dusk on the Water
And I did. I sat in the hot tub on the roof garden and contemplated the stars. I sat on the bench beside the lake and absorbed the pink sunset flickering in the water. I helped myself to peaches freshly plucked from a tree. I slept in a bedroom almost the size of my house. I even came to appreciate the fact that in the interest of interpersonal connectivity the owner disconnected from the internet. It was just me and God in that villa by the lake.
I felt the Lord saying, “Thus is my grace. It’s a gift. You have done nothing to earn my love. You can’t earn my love. Just sit in my presence and let me love on you a little longer.”
Today, back home, with responsibilities and guests of my own to minister to, I am aware that every breath I take is a gift and I am determined to enjoy His continued presence, for He has promised to never leave me. He is here.
We must now explain what the power of human reason is, in regard to the kingdom of God, and spiritual discernments which consists chiefly of three things – the knowledge of God, the knowledge of his paternal favour towards us, which constitutes our salvation, and the method of regulating of our conduct in accordance with the Divine Law. With regard to the former two, but more properly the second, men otherwise the most ingenious are blinder than moles. I deny not, indeed, that in the writings of philosophers we meet occasionally with shrewd and apposite remarks on the nature of God, though they invariably savour somewhat of giddy imagination. As observed above, the Lord has bestowed on them some slight perception of his Godhead that they might not plead ignorance as an excuse for their impiety, and has, at times, instigated them to deliver some truths, the confession of which should be their own condemnation. Still, though seeing, they saw not. Their discernment was not such as to direct them to the truth, far less to enable them to attain it, but resembled that of the bewildered traveller, who sees the flash of lightning glance far and wide for a moment, and then vanish into the darkness of the night, before he can advance a single step. So far is such assistance from enabling him to find the right path. Besides, how many monstrous falsehoods intermingle with those minute particles of truth scattered up and down in their writings as if by chance. In short, not one of them even made the least approach to that assurance of the divine favour, without which the mind of man must ever remain a mere chaos of confusion. To the great truths, What God is in himself, and what he is in relation to us, human reason makes not the least approach.
19. Man’s spiritual blindness shown from John 1:4-5
But since we are intoxicated with a false opinion of our own discernment, and can scarcely be persuaded that in divine things it is altogether stupid and blind, I believe the best course will be to establish the fact, not by argument, but by Scripture. Most admirable to this effect is the passage which I lately quoted from John, when he says, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not,” (John 1: 4, 5.) He intimates that the human soul is indeed irradiated with a beam of divine light, so that it is never left utterly devoid of some small flame, or rather spark, though not such as to enable it to comprehend God. And why so? Because its acuteness is, in reference to the knowledge of God, mere blindness. When the Spirit describes men under the term “darkness” he declares them void of all power of spiritual intelligence. For this reason, it is said that believers, in embracing Christ, are “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” (John 1: 13;) in other words, that the flesh has no capacity for such sublime wisdom as to apprehend God, and the things of God, unless illumined by His Spirit. In like manner our Saviour, when he was acknowledged by Peter, declared that it was by special revelation from the Father, (Matthew. 16: 17.)”
-John Calvin, Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 2, parts 18 & 19
“Gentleness is not apathy but is an aggressive expression of how we view people. We see people as so valuable that we deal with them in gentleness, fearing the slightest damage to one for whom Christ died. To be apathetic is to turn people over to mean and destructive elements, to truly love people cause for us to be aggressively gentle.”― Gayle D. Erwin, Spirit Style
I have told my kids to avoid burning bridges. It’s amazing the way people turn up in our lives thirty years after we were sorely tempted to tell them what we thought of them and their stupid job the day we were told to clean out our desk. What is truly amazing is that people can change and thirty years later enemies can become friends.
I am so grateful that the Lord put a guard over my mouth sometimes (although, alas, sometimes I shouted over it.) I’m so glad gentle folk did not curse me when I was so angry and hurt by some folks in the church and walked away in disappointment. (Discussions about which denomination would be the greatest in heaven were as tiresome to me as the disciples squabbles were to Jesus.) I am so thankful the gentle ones not only talked about grace; they practised it.
“Speaking the truth in love” is less about criticizing that part of people’s lives which is dead or rotten and more about pointing out the part of them that God sees – the part of them which, like the water lilies I saw in this pond with its dead wood, yearns to live and grow and blossom.
It also struck me this week, whilst reading the apostle Paul’s qualifications to write the letter to the Galatians, that God knew who Saul was going to be even when he was violently opposed to Jesus Christ and threatened his followers. God saw something in him even then and chose him in advance for a special mission. Unlike many of us would have, given the opportunity, Christ did not curse him. When Jesus spoke the truth to him it was to tell him who he really was.
Today I read another blog publicly condemning some well-known ministers. One commenter was quite willing to call them “accursed” for what he considered to be inaccurate doctrine.
There is a reason why Paul told Timothy and Titus that leaders need to be able to teach, but with gentleness. It could be that God is simply not finished with the people they are charged to serve and love. It could be that people whose understanding of God is not yet complete (and whose is?) are people in process and need, like Apollos, to be taken aside and gently and lovingly taught by someone who actually has a relationship with them, rather than be publicly executed by a stranger.
Decisions to remove those who have become toxic to the body from positions of influence can only be made by those who love deeply and are willing to lay down their lives for another in their care. Poor teaching is best routed by good teaching.
We do not need not be contentious in order to contend for the faith.
Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. (2 Timothy 2:23-26)
Wow! The little counter over on the left says this is my 500th blog entry. And I was worried I would have nothing to say after the first month.
I never knew, when I dared to overcome my technophobia to find an outlet for my poems, paintings, photos and musings, that God would have so much more to teach me than overcoming fear of computerese. I sometimes questioned the wisdom of writing about events of this annus horibilis before there was any evidence of it becoming annus mirabilis. And who knew it was going to be an annus horibilis anyway?
What if things don’t work out? What if I die of ovarian cancer? What if the depression comes back? What if our miracle grandbaby doesn’t make it to term? What if our son-in-love dies of necrotizing fasciitis? What if our son and his family never recover losses from the flood? Maybe I should wait before I write about them, to make sure God answers our prayers.
Then it occurred to me that I am not in charge of God’s P.R.. This is what it is like to walk in faith, not knowing how the cliff-hanger ends. (And honestly I did not make this stuff up. It has been a horrible time -and a miraculous time.) I have also noted that my anxious questions starting with “what if” seldom come in God’s tender voice.
So to celebrate 500 posts I have chosen not the five most popular blogs but five with the most meaning to me -some of them written in blood and some of them written in tears of joy. Five, because the number 5 is symbolic of grace, and Charis, my chosen name, means grace in Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament. (Psallo means song, and since I have lived a life full of songs it seemed appropriate.)
Right off the bat I’m going to cheat on my own rules because these two posts are part of one story that cannot be separated (and I can do that -my blog, my rules, and my bending of rules) This is about how God took something utterly horrible and turned it into something miraculously wonderful. These were written during the time many excellent doctors expected our son-in-love to die from multiple overwhelming complications after contracting an extremely severe case of flesh-eating disease. He has been restored to full health and the story is just too too too good not to tell over and over -so it goes first. Love is Louder and Love is Louder part II
For the second I am going back into history. After spending decades drowning in soul-crushing depressive mental illness, I was raised up out of the depths. Bluer than Blue
One of the hardest parts in co-operating with Jesus’ healing work and recovering from the prison of the past is the struggle with forgiveness. Letting Go is a poem about stepping away from practised anger and entrenched bitterness.
Red Button, Yellow Button is one of my favourites because the older I get the more I appreciate the insightful wisdom of children before we educate it out of them.
I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. (Romans 12:3 The Message)
Anyone who has spent time with a toddler knows about free will. One of the first words nearly all of us learn to say is NO.
Someone pointed out to me this morning that Jesus never preached about grace. It’s as if, for him, grace was a given. He demonstrated grace and lived the Father’s love, but his verbal message to us over and over was “You must have faith. Faith is your part.”
Faith is what engages grace.
I wanted to give my little granddaughter a frozen strawberry yogurt on a stick as a treat. She loves strawberry yogurt. It was very hot and I knew she would enjoy what I had prepared for her.
But she is 18 months old. She has free will. A parent learns quickly that you can pick up a child and take them where they do not want to go, but you cannot make them eat, or sleep, or use the potty or give grandma a hug. You can cajole, entice, plead, reward, punish and otherwise manipulate them, but you cannot make them do any one of these things – nor do it for them. They have a will.
Love does not permit me to shove a treat down her throat.
I had a yogurtsicle (and a warm wash cloth to help with the consequences of her inexperience). I also had a lot of love and hugs for her, which she did not earn, that I wanted to lavish on her, but in order to receive it she had to turn and respond to me.
I think this is a picture of our relationship with God. He has infinite grace and love to offer us, and we have the ability to say no. If we did not have the ability to say no, we would not have the ability to say yes.
I want a relationship with my granddaughter. I love her simply because she is my granddaughter. She doesn’t need to do anything to earn that love. I will love her even if she doesn’t turn around, but she will miss everything I have for her if she doesn’t make the choice to come to me.
God has so much love, so much grace, so much goodness waiting for us. He only wants us to respond to him. Trusting him enough to turn around from our ability to say no and acting upon our ability to say yes is called faith. It’s essential. Love does not permit him to shove his goodness down our throats. It is written, And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
It’s all about relationship. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. (James 4:8)
So stand strong for our freedom! The Anointed One freed us so we wouldn’t spend one more day under the yoke of slavery, trapped under the law…
Dead Sea Fence
We, on the other hand, continue to live through the Spirit’s power and wait confidently in the hope that things will be put right through faith. Here’s the thing: in Jesus the Anointed whether you are circumcised or not makes no difference. What makes a difference is faith energized by love. (Galatians 5: 1, 5,6 The Voice)
Perhaps the reason we see so few essays on the benefits of close enough is that those writers who understand that the wide-spread application of excellence burns entirely too many calories and occupies more than it’s fair share of active brain space have already moved on to more interesting topics -because they can.
Some things need perfection: open-heart surgery, bridgework (both dental and municipal) pouring foundations, keeping books, inspecting nuclear power plants, maintaining aircraft. Some things don’t: tossing out ideas, telling stories, breaking traditions, playing T-ball, making beds, smoothing ruffled feathers and serving pretty good American-style coffee in the Middle East.
Teachers sometimes struggle with resisting the temptation to hang one more suggestion on a student’s performance or project. Of course, everything can be improved, but sometimes close enough is good enough for now. We all need to extend ourselves enough grace to simply enjoy what we have accomplished so far. Not everything needs the albatross of potential hanging around its neck.
Sign it. Stick it on the fridge and let’s go for coffee.
Some people are so encouraging. Sometimes we don’t even notice how gifted they are until after we walk away feeling more capable and built up by their ability to see what God sees in us. It is then that we feel a bond of love and appreciation toward them.
Here’s a secret for those of you seeking mates. We tend to fall in love with people who help us like ourselves. We long to be around those who respect us and who let us see our own beauty reflected in their eyes. The fun part is that when we learn to bring out the best in people, amazingly, they tend to see the best in us.
When we need to correct our children or our employees or the ones we are privileged to mentor the goal is not to impress them with our competence, but rather to give them an enhanced vision of their own capabilities. This is building people up rather than tearing them down with harsh criticism that comes from a need to prove ourselves.
The reward for winning the game of King of the Hill is possessing the mound alone. The reward for lifting someone else up the hill is that they ask us to join them in their rejoicing on the mountain top. This is the fruit of grace.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
Charis: Subject to Change 