Category: Jesus Christ

IT’S STILL TRUE

20140530-190412-68652651.jpg

When we are invited into the “fellowship of His sufferings” and the “gospel of weakness” is preached to our soul and makes us its convert, and, like Job, we are left with hanging hands, questioning heart and smitten soul…we need to be able to face the most urgent questions of our lifetime.

IS GOD IN CONTROL?

and

CAN I TRUST HIM TO BRING ME THROUGH THIS INTO A BETTER PLACE?

The Psalmist said,

“it is GOOD for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn to trust Your ways.”
Psa 119:71

He preceded that with this stunning piece of insight:

“YOU ARE GOOD, and You do good…”
Psa 119:68
(Notice the order; we want to reverse those clauses)

Allow me to share some insights God showed me recently from Romans 8:18-39 – one of Paul’s strongest sermons ever.

Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait…

Children of the Burning Heart

20120417-130320.jpg

“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionists, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart…

“Come near to the holy men and the holy women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God…

“David’s life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and His Psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder…

“We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him…In the midst of this great chill, there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will NOT be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, “O God, show me Thy glory!” They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.”

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, pp. 15-17

Forgiving: A Lenten Possibility

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

Unforgiveness will turn you into someone you never intended to be, displaying the attitudes and qualities you detest in others. – Nancy DeMoss

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. – Josh Billings

A happy marriage is the union of two forgivers. – Ruth Bell Graham

At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21-22, MSG

____________________________________________________________________

I’ve heard some amazing Lenten sacrifices in this year’s offerings, from much-needed radiation treatment for an advancing cancer to finally laying down grief in the loss of a dearly loved parent.

Here’s one I have not heard, although I have no doubt it’s being offered:

How about forgiving?

There are some really great wins and guarantees to our forgiving an offense:

(1) it lessens its intensity

(2) it reduces its frequency of reminding you of the offense

(3) it expands my capacity to (finally!) be a loving, inoffensible person

If we truly see the wealth of what can be gained by simply forgiving, we might not only adopt it as a Lenten possibility, but a lifetime reality.

To fail to extend forgiveness–even to someone who does not request it–puts the offended person in a bunkered-down state. Moving forward is out of the question. There is no future for an unforgiving person, only the baleful reliving of the past. Over and over again. It is deadly toxic and crippling.

Of all the things that choke and poison spiritual growth, resentments are probably the most devastatingly effective.
E. Stanley Jones

Stop living as though someone else is to blame for your life. Get revenge on whoever offended you by letting them out of your debtor’s jail. The joke will be on them. While they think they are getting a reprieve, it will be you who will finally breathe the fresh air and run through fields of wildflowers beneath cobalt skies. Go on, forgive them. Release it. Let it go.

And, for mercy’s sake, move on.