As grace is first from God, so it is continually from him, as much as light is all day long from the sun, as well as at first dawn or at sun-rising.
– Jonathan Edwards
Tag: photos
Pedestal Perching
One of the commonest causes of failure in Christian life is found in the attempt to follow some good man whom we greatly admire. No man and no woman, no matter how good, can be safely followed. If we follow any man or woman, we are bound to go astray. There has been but one absolutely perfect Man on this earth-the Man Christ Jesus. If we try to follow any other man we are surer to imitate his faults than his excellencies. Look to Jesus and Jesus only as your Guide.
– R. A. Torrey
I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn from great heroes of the faith from the early church fathers to contemporary writers, podcasters, preachers and conference speakers. I honour them. I quote them. I pass on what I have learned from them. But I don’t put them on a pedestal or follow only one person. That’s not fair to them, and it would be dangerous to me.
When I quote someone it does not mean that I accept everything they have ever said or written. The freedom to exercise the discernment Christ gives everyone in whom he lives is far too precious to surrender, but I do value truth when I hear it.
We all need to learn and sometimes that means living with incomplete concepts and trusting that more mature people may have a grasp on paradox and aspects of Christian living for which we do not yet have a grid. There is grace for that, and humility makes room for trust. Sometimes, however, we are prone to looking to public figures instead of looking to Jesus Christ for our answers.
For many years people, especially women, were given the impression they were not educated enough or spiritual enough or had enough authority to respectfully ask questions. Many have not been in a position to reject teachings or practices that didn’t line up with what the Holy Spirit and the scriptures were revealing to them. If they dared they found themselves rejected.
No one knows the perfect truth but God, but even if they did they still wouldn’t lord it over anyone. That would attract attention to themselves and distract their audience from being Christ-centered.
If you are coerced into obeying a church leader who doesn’t permit honest questions or any thoughtful disagreement, that’s not the mutual submission the Bible talks about. It might be time to get your eyes back on the One who sets you free. It might require you to forgive, bless, and move on.
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Days of Preparation
The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
but the victory belongs to the Lord.
(Proverbs 21:31 NLT)
This morning Facebook reminded me of an old post I wrote when my granddaughter was about three years old. I enjoyed her ability to give directions around her city when I was babysitting for a few days.
“Go past the tower (tall building) and wait for the green light. Then turn and go past Costco and there it is – Walmart!”
This amused me, so when we needed groceries after her swimming lessons I asked for directions to Superstore.
“Nana, have you been to Superstore before?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Then look into your memory and you can find the way there all by yourself.”
Today I face another battle where the odds are seemingly against me. I’m doing much better at avoiding panic this time, but I needed this prompt to remind me to look into my memory and acknowledge the times when we did all we could – and it was not enough. But God took what ever preparations we made and did something greater than we ever could have imagined.
Resting in the Lord is not about passively flopping on the ground and awaiting rescue. We pick up our five smooth stones, gather as many empty vessels as we can, prepare a sacrifice on an altar, stand before Pharaoh’s armies with nothing but a stick, march around a city seven times, pick up our beds, walk all the way to Damascus to pray for a guy who wants to kill us. We make preparations, we prepare the horse for the day of battle (again), but we know that the victory belongs to the Lord.
That’s resting in the Lord too.
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In the Midst of Mysteries
The walk of faith is to live according to the revelation we have received,
in the midst of the mysteries we can’t explain.
– Bill Johnson
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Gracious Light
To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. Resentments cannot be held with the same tenacity when we enter his gracious light.
– Richard J. Foster
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Shake It Off
Can we talk?
There are times on this road when we run into ambushes and a hail of arrows comes out of nowhere. Accusations. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. Lies. Slander. Outright hatred.
The thing about an ambush is that it is meant to catch you off-guard with your shield down. That’s why the source of them is often a shock. David wrote in Psalm 55: “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshippers.”
I sometimes wonder if this close friend was Jonathan.
It’s happened again. I spent another restless night vacillating between what-did-I-say incredulity and forming I-should-have-said arguments with someone who was not even there. My actions were completely misunderstood and the fiery darts aimed at my head remind me of the time I accidentally leaned too close to the Bunsen burner in chem class. Ka-ploof!
I’ve said a lot of stupid things in my time. I’ve been guilty of monopolizing a conversation, of not taking enough time to understand another person’s point of view before responding, of trying to fix people who believed I was the one who needed to be fixed. I deserved a blast of “correction” in those circumstances. But this time my attempts to respond to a cry for help and to extend love stirred up a pocket of hatred which, although it comes from a source totally unrelated to me, is now aimed at me like I personally started World War II. And World War I. And the Black Plague.
I realized I was falling into the trap of being defensive, and entrenching myself in a position which is not what I really believe about who I am nor about who the other person is. I poured out my heart to the Lord.
“Remember what I told you? ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
So what do I do about this pain?
The first thing I saw this morning when I checked my messages was a short video by Tera Carissa Hodges posted by a friend. She was sharing something God showed her in the incident after Paul was shipwrecked on an island. While gathering firewood a poisonous snake latched onto his hand. The people’s reaction was that he must have been an evil person after all and this was something he deserved. “Karma”, if you like. In dream symbolism a snake can represent aggressive lies.
He shook it off. The poison had no effect on him. Instead the people marvelled and responded to the good news of the Kingdom of God revealed in Jesus. She entitled the video “Shake it off.”
Those were the words that stood out in answer to my question: Shake. It. Off.
Sometimes I walk around with those stupid arrows of cruel words stuck in me for far too long. I watch little children at the beach smash each other over the head with little plastic shovels. They cry, they forgive, they shake the sand from their hair and get on with life. Ten minutes later they are building something fabulous together — or somebody’s mom steps in.
Have you been unfairly attacked by someone close to you when you thought you were in a safe place?
Shake it off. God has plans even for this. You are his beloved child.
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Snap
I delete a lot of photos. Because the camera lies.
I have deleted photos of people with eyes half closed, limbs twisted in odd configurations and facial expressions from disgust to lust, none of which reflect the personality of the subject. They were snapshots of moments in time, captured moments on the way to more meaningful moments.
I kept this photo in my collection because I find it visually interesting. Some photos are like poems and condense an expression of an entire day into a moment. Some photos suggest cause for judgment where there is no actual cause. It is a snapshot. That is all.
Yesterday I realized how easy it is to make a snap judgment based on one moment. Social media can set these snap judgments in concrete. Mob justice is a terrifying thing. Mobs don’t have the time to make an effort to see the larger context. They grab only what they want to project onto the snapshot from their own hearts. Angry, unloving people accusing others of being insensitive, power-seekers labelling others as the source of avarice, perpetual victims waving the flag of someone they presume to be an oppressed innocent, worshippers of personal peace and prosperity attacking those who would seem to be in competition for the avails of a life of careless ease…
Only God sees the heart. Only God understands the context of an entire life — and not just a person’s past, but their future as well. Judgment based on a snapshot without the wisdom and insight given by the Holy Spirit is highly inaccurate. It is easy to imprison people, especially public figures, in the restraints of one moment in time. (Can I admit a profound distrust in media lately?)
I am learning when I pray for someone to ask the Lord how he sees them first. It is invariably a better picture than my own.
This is a photo I snapped one day. I don’t know the people. I don’t even remember the context. I do not attach any agenda meaning to it. It’s a fraction of a second in time. There is more to these people’s lives than this.
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Hope Full
To live without hope is to cease to live. – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The thief approaches with malicious intent, looking to steal, slaughter, and destroy; I came to give life with joy and abundance. – Jesus Christ
If you are listening to a voice that says it is too late, that you are under judgment, there is no hope, you are listening to the wrong voice.
Jesus came to give life with joy and abundance -not mere happiness and more stuff.
Life.
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Into His Amazing Light
It is for you now to demonstrate
the goodness of him
who has called you out of darkness
into his amazing light.
(1 Peter 2:9)
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Green
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” – William Blake
Charis: Subject to Change 