Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thankful That God Loves Me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My prayer is that your heart will overflow with gratitude as you experience the depth of God's love for you.

On that dark Friday afternoon when Jesus hung in agony on the cross, the two Marys and John focused their attention not primarily on Christ's suffering, but on the suffering Christ himself. They were completely enthralled by the one who "loved us and gave himself up for us" (Ephesians 5:2).

Brennan Manning points out that for these loved ones of the Lord, Christ on the cross was a burning and divine reality, and their lives would have been "utterly incomprehensible except in terms of it" (Signature of Jesus, 68). Manning continues: "Mary Magdalene would have been buried in history as another tragic heroine if it were not for her immense, passionate, and uncompromising love for the person of Jesus." It's likely that John would have lived out his life as a disillusioned disciple at best.

Yet, these loved ones of Jesus stood with him as he was brutalized and painfully murdered.

Jesus said of Mary Magdalene: "Her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much" (Luke 7:47).

Jesus said, "Know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). What is the basic truth that sets free the Marys, John, and all followers of Christ who walk, skip and jump in freedom today? It is the truth Christ shows us about a God who loves us beyond our worthiness or unworthiness, beyond boundary, limit, or breaking point.

The personal experience of God's love is the power that frees us to become illuminated, transformed and transfigured as were Mary Magdalene and John the Apostle. The experience of knowing God's love is the dynamic life-giving force that has created all the extravagant lovers in Christian history.

Four hundred years ago, a 34 year-old widow named Marjory Kemp wrote this prophetic word: "More pleasing to me than all your prayers, sacrifices, and good words is that you would believe that I love you."

My heart is filled with gratitude from knowing the love of God for me! The Christ who brought God's love to us in human terms says: "Take up your cross daily. Forgive those who hate you or hurt you, cheat you or slander you. Reject the world-wisdom that welds your identity to money, power, pleasure and the psychological insights of the social sciences. Find your true self by surrendering your heart to the "reckless" love of God for you!

I invite you join me this Thanksgiving in a commitment to live with St. Paul in this glorious, life-giving freedom: "I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

This is the good life of knowing God's beautiful, constant love for us and for all.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

God Risks Trusting Us With Freedom!

Ever since Jesus announced: "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free," people have been attempting to explain away his remark. Some suggest what Jesus meant is that we are free not to sin. This is true--we are free not to sin. And we are also free to sin.

Perhaps the radical truth of freedom in Christ sometimes makes us frightened of freedom. It feels like a wild freedom that would allow a person to choose right or wrong, good or bad, this way or that way.

Freedom in Christ is a "wild freedom" that opens to each of us the option to run toward Christ or away from Christ. Freedom in Christ means I am free from everyone else's definition of freedom for me. In relationship with Christ and because I am free in Christ, I receive a freedom where I only answer to him. Being free in Christ means I am free from the concerns of others that I might not use my freedom in constructive and correct ways.

Freedom in Christ is clearly about being alive in the Holy Spirit and seeking to know and follow God's precepts. Saint Paul said: "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). The Psalmist stated: "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts." When we intention and seek to follow God's commands and to be spiritually alive in God's Spirit, we are set free to roam in the wide open spaces of God's limitless love!

God's Word teaches that God trusts us with freedom, even though we might not always be able to fully handle this wildly powerful privilege. God trusts us with freedom even though we will sometimes mis-use this precious gift.

God lovingly chooses to provide for us the Holy Spirit's intimate presence to guide and inspire our choices, and God gives us commands and precepts to define a righteous use of freedom. But God always takes the "risk" of preserving our most important freedom--the personal freedom of choice he has graciously given to you and me.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

The Courage To Be

I've borrowed this title from Paul Tillich's deeply insightful study published as a book in 1952 by Yale University Press. Dr. Tillich states that "Joy is the emotional expression of the courageous Yes to one's own true being." He suggests that fear and anxiety are healed by being "taken into a courage to be..."

Honesty requires personal courage and the willingness to accept the truth of reality. Brennan Manning notes that "honesty involves the willingness to face the truth of who we are, regardless of how threatening or unpleasant our perceptions may be." He goes on to say once we accept the gospel of grace we learn to hang in there with ourselves and with God. We learn our mind tricks by experiencing how they defeat us. We begin to recognize our avoidances, acknowledge our lapses and the truth that we cannot handle life well on our own.

Self-confrontation and finding the courage to "be" requires the strength that is available to us in God's relentless love and boundless grace toward us. We must refuse to use failure as an excuse to quit trying!

Without personal honesty, I can too easily construct a virtual image of myself that is quite impressive. The tragedy is that such fabrication of a "false self" tends to open the door to a deadly complacency that replaces delight in God.

It is all too tempting to resist the truth about ourselves. We prefer reassurance about our virtue and value. The church can be particularly susceptible to the need to feel "successful" and "righteous." A preacher said to one of his friends, "We have just had the greatest revival our church has experienced in many years." "How many souls were added to your church membership?" "None. We lost two hundred."

To be alive is to be broken, and to be broken is to stand squarely in the need of God's love and grace. Honesty about our truth keeps us aware of our need. Faith in God's truth brings us alive in the reality that we're sinners saved and healed by God's love and grace!

Jesus calls us to a more holy and perfect life. We cannot achieve this beautiful reality on our own. But where we actually are is the starting place for his love and grace to bring us increasingly into the good life of being more like Christ.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Freedom and Restraint

Chuck Swindoll wisely notes that our job is to free people; God's job is to restrain them. He says God is doing his job much better than we are doing ours! His contention is that the vast majority of believers need to be freed, not restrained.

Institutional religion dislikes surprises or any "uncontrollable spirituality" that might threaten the status quo. Some who display a loud and boisterous faith have been politely asked to quiet down. Others who enjoy dancing their faith rather than sitting in the pew have been made to feel uncomfortable or asked to leave. Occasionally it has happened that someone will talk about their faith with unrestrained passion and then be met with expessions of concern about the inappropriateness of their emotions. A courageous soul allows others to see their brokenness, and they are reprimanded for being too open or "glorifying their sin."

But those of us who have heard the haunting sound of Jesus' voice and sensed life, hope, healing and adventure in the Gospel--we who are willing to speak up and question the deadness around us, to express our desire for life--we must not keep quiet, even if everyone around us tells us we are crazy! Those who are traveling in the predictability and safety of "the herd" will call those who are freed in their faith crazy and will try to silence us.

A blind man sits by the roadside begging when suddenly a growing crowd jostles past him and he hears that Jesus is coming his way. His heart begins to race. Jesus of Nazareth! This is the one they say can heal blindness! He gets to his feet and yells, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 18:35-42).

Instantly the crowd shouts at the blind man, "shut up! Keep quiet!" Everyone around the man tries to silence him, to keep him from creating a scene, to keep him from "annoying" Jesus.

It is the nature of us human beings to silence those who interrupt our routine activities and understandings.

The late Mike Yaconelli wrote of speaking at a conference where he mentioned that a woman in his church whom he deeply respected and considered to be one of the most godly women he knew--"smokes and sometimes uses colorful language." After his presentation, he was made aware of a pastor in the audience who demanded that all of his church members attending the conference boycott Yaconelli's presentations.

After the conference, Mike contacted this pastor in an effort to understand why he had become so upset. The pastor heatedly responded: "How dare you tell the audience that one of the most godly women you know smokes and uses the language of the world?"

In his spiritual world, there is absolutely no place for smoking, swearing, godly women. He didn't want to hear otherwise. No exceptions.

Yaconelli wrote: "In the real world where I live, this woman is not an exception and remains one of the most godly women I know."

Perhaps you're asking: "Doesn't freedom and liberty have its limits?" Shouldn't we learn to restrain our freedom and be able to hold ourselves in check? The answer is a clear "yes." Grace can be abused. We never want to exercise our liberty without wisdom or loving concern for how our choices might offend, wound or discourage others--or be destructive to ourself.

Limitations are appropriate and necessary, but Scripture does not counsel us to restrain one another. To force or "legislate" restraint on someone else is us trying to do God's work. This is legalism.

The best restraint is self-restraint that is our response to the inner nudges of the Holy Spirit in our individual life.

Our job as followers of Jesus Christ is to free people; God's job is to restrain them!

"If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

With blessings and Love,

Duff

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

"Please, God" or "Please God"

My tendency of temperament is toward being a "people pleaser." I love to sense that my presence in the lives of others is positive, helpful, constructive and appreciated. The way I measure this too often is through paying attention to whether or not I'm being petted, stroked and told what a good boy I am!

I was deeply moved by a personal story shared by Dr. Len Sweet where he was falsely accused with some pretty nasty accusations. The way he re-focused and gathered himself at that time was by facing the question, "who am I going to please?"

I'm finding much of my prayer life at present is dedicated to getting rid of that comma in "Please, God." When that comma is removed and my perspective and intention becomes "Please God" then my attitude in prayer changes from "What can you do for me?" to "How can your beautiful, good purposes be fulfilled in my life?"

As followers of Christ we do well to remember that even Jesus did not live to please himself or other humans. The governing goal of his life was this: "I have come to do your will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7). He said and lived this truth: "I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" (John 5:30).

Why do we put the comma in "Please God?" It could be because:
  • We don't fully trust God.
  • We don't really believe Jesus when he says: "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
  • We struggle to receive the promise that God "richly furnishes us everything to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17).

Jonathan Edwards suggested that God doesn't have a giving problem, we have a receiving problem. He said, "the pleasures of God are an infinite ocean."

I'm sure I'll continue to be energized by positive responses to my presence in the lives of people. But my greatest desire is to be a God pleaser, not a people pleaser. The difference is gigantic! When our desire is to please God, we will be more than able to make it safely through the difficult storms of life. When our desire is primarily to please and be approved of by people we can count on betrayal, loneliness, mistrust, disappointment and relational failure. As someone said, "Wait for people's approval, and you'll wait forever."

The sign on a secretary's desk reads: "I can please only one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either!"

You and I can, by faith, hear God's voice as Jesus heard it at his baptism in the Jordan saying: "You are my beloved son/daughter. You bring me great pleasure" (see Mark 1:11).

Thanks for the joy of journeying to God's heart together!

With blessings and love,

Pastor Duff Gorle