Monday, May 20, 2013
Thirsty
I want more Jesus. I want to know him more and love him more and feel his presence more. I want to hear him speak more clearly. I want him to take me deeper than I would ever dare go on my own. And I know that I could not understand fully what I might be asking for, and believe me it terrifies me sometimes, but I know that whatever God calls me to do, he will supply me with what I need.
Some lyrics I love say it well, "Flood water rain crash down, soak the ground, still I thirst for you."
Jesus, you satisfy me completely and yet I am forever thirsting for more of you.
Recently I told a friend whose heart beats like mine that I just want more Jesus, and she replied, "You are the exception."
"That's weird," I replied, "because the very nature of who Jesus is- we can never have enough." How can we experience brief moments in his presence and not desire more of him with our entire being? How can we taste a shadow of the beauty and joy and love of the kingdom and look upon this lost and broken world and not cry out from deep within our soul "thy kingdom come"?
"Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior."
Monday, May 6, 2013
Like a branch in the vine
In the past two months, God has been hammering home that I must abide in him. I keep reading and re-reading John 15, when Jesus tells his disciples that he is the vine and they are the branches. I have heard this many times, but I am marveling at how new and beautiful the words seem.
Several weeks ago I was down the beach playing volleyball. One of the guys was sitting on the sidelines because he had recently got a tree tattoo on his inner forearm. "Any significance?" I ask him, "Or do you just like trees?" He said there was actually a lot of significance, mostly based in Matthew chapter 21, in which Jesus curses the fig tree that does not bear fruit. His tattoo is a reminder not to be fruitless. Amazing.
Then, this past Sunday, I heard in a sermon (on John 15) that "there is no such thing as a fruitless Christian." Basically they are mutually exclusive, they contradict each other. To be a Christian is to be a person who bears fruit for God's kingdom. This is something that I have no trouble understanding- our role as workers, kingdom-builders, fruit-bearers.
But the message that God is making sure I understand is that I am not to be so concerned with the doing but instead to be concerned with the abiding. The more I abide in him and in his love, the more I will bear fruit that will last for the kingdom. He will work through me, but I need to abide.
I think of a branch and a vine. How the fibers of that branch are connected to the vine and through them all nutrients and water travel, through the vine to its branches. I want every fiber of my soul and body and mind to be in Christ- that I thirst daily for his presence and his word. That I know that cut off from him, I will die, just as a branch would die cut off from the vine.
If you are like me, you look at this world and see a lot of pain, a lot of people who do not know God, and all of this means that there is so much work to be done. But Christ says, apart from him we can do nothing. We can do all things through him, but nothing apart from him. We must abide in him. We must conform our will to his. We must be people of prayer. We must seek him first. We must rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us, speak through us, act through us, open our eyes and our ears to all that God is showing us and telling us.
Jesus, teach us to abide in you like a branch in a vine. Use us for your kingdom.
Several weeks ago I was down the beach playing volleyball. One of the guys was sitting on the sidelines because he had recently got a tree tattoo on his inner forearm. "Any significance?" I ask him, "Or do you just like trees?" He said there was actually a lot of significance, mostly based in Matthew chapter 21, in which Jesus curses the fig tree that does not bear fruit. His tattoo is a reminder not to be fruitless. Amazing.
Then, this past Sunday, I heard in a sermon (on John 15) that "there is no such thing as a fruitless Christian." Basically they are mutually exclusive, they contradict each other. To be a Christian is to be a person who bears fruit for God's kingdom. This is something that I have no trouble understanding- our role as workers, kingdom-builders, fruit-bearers.
But the message that God is making sure I understand is that I am not to be so concerned with the doing but instead to be concerned with the abiding. The more I abide in him and in his love, the more I will bear fruit that will last for the kingdom. He will work through me, but I need to abide.
I think of a branch and a vine. How the fibers of that branch are connected to the vine and through them all nutrients and water travel, through the vine to its branches. I want every fiber of my soul and body and mind to be in Christ- that I thirst daily for his presence and his word. That I know that cut off from him, I will die, just as a branch would die cut off from the vine.
If you are like me, you look at this world and see a lot of pain, a lot of people who do not know God, and all of this means that there is so much work to be done. But Christ says, apart from him we can do nothing. We can do all things through him, but nothing apart from him. We must abide in him. We must conform our will to his. We must be people of prayer. We must seek him first. We must rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us, speak through us, act through us, open our eyes and our ears to all that God is showing us and telling us.
Jesus, teach us to abide in you like a branch in a vine. Use us for your kingdom.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Blow up the Boxes
As humans, we like boxes. We like putting objects in boxes, containing them in boxes, organizing them in boxes, carrying them in boxes. We like putting ideas in boxes too- categorizing, labeling, organizing our thoughts. Our God is a god of order, and we, made in His image, enjoy ordering our world- physically and mentally.
I have found, however, that people oftentimes put God in a box. We put limitations on the limitless. Most people, whether they realize it or not, are uncomfortable with the idea of an infinite God. We love a great and powerful and very very big God, but we are uneasy with his infinity. We put him in a box, a big one, so that we can still make out the edges. We love feeling the edges of things and to think that God has no edges, that he has no limits, that he has no end- well we cannot quite wrap our minds around it. As much as I love theology and having theological discussions, I have found that many of them seem to draw a box around a God who can never be contained in the human mind.
When I was in college, my heart began burning for unity in the Church. We have greatly divided the Body of Christ, and I believe our disunity is the greatest attack of Satan against Christianity. When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, he prayed for future believers- that we may be one as He and the Father are one. Imagine that- imagine all believers having the same unity as exists in the Trinity!
Unfortunately, many people think that unity means we all look the same. I have taken part in many different denominations and traditions within the Body, and I am blessed to have worshiped the same God in so many different ways and have met so many different people who I know are truly my brothers and sisters in Christ. I cannot say to the ones who kneel in silent prayer that they are more or less necessary than the ones who dance with joy just as I cannot say to my eye that it is more or less needed than my mouth. As I was seeing the Holy Spirit working in the many different parts of Christ's Body, God has slowly been blowing up my boxes. He loves to blow up the box, to astound us, to fill us with wonder. He not only seeks to exceed our expectations but seeks to exceed them one-hundred fold.
One of our greatest obstacles to unity is our box. We build our box for God and hold so tightly to it. When fellow believers do not fit our box, we cannot fully welcome them as brothers and sisters. We are afraid to blow up the box in fear that everything we know might come crashing down. I have met many people who cannot conceive that God's blessing is on a church so different from their own. I have heard some evangelical Christians say that prophetic gifts and praying in tongues were only for the years following Pentecost in the first century. I have heard Protestants from a variety of churches say that the bread and wine cannot possibly be the actual body and blood of Christ but must merely be a symbol. I have had a Catholic friend be astounded that the summer I felt God's presence most strongly was the summer I could not attend one Catholic mass. I have had friends insist that Christians who have passed from this life cannot possibly be interceding for us.
Whenever you put a limit on God, be sure to ask yourself if that is a truth revealed to you by the Spirit or if it is a rule constructed by your own human reasoning.
Before you reach for the edge of your box and reinforce its walls, ask God to show you His truth. Know that God is more and can do more than you can even imagine, so do not try to limit Him. Pray that your heart will be open to know him more deeply and pray that God will blow up your boxes. Stop trying to feel safe and instead expect God to astound you. God works in more ways and in more places than we can even fathom. Be open to his infinity, and He will amaze you. And above all, pray for unity in the Body of Christ and that God will create unity between your heart and the hearts of true believers very different from you.
Heavenly Father, blow up the boxes we build for you and continue to reveal Yourself to us even though our minds can never contain You.
I have found, however, that people oftentimes put God in a box. We put limitations on the limitless. Most people, whether they realize it or not, are uncomfortable with the idea of an infinite God. We love a great and powerful and very very big God, but we are uneasy with his infinity. We put him in a box, a big one, so that we can still make out the edges. We love feeling the edges of things and to think that God has no edges, that he has no limits, that he has no end- well we cannot quite wrap our minds around it. As much as I love theology and having theological discussions, I have found that many of them seem to draw a box around a God who can never be contained in the human mind.
When I was in college, my heart began burning for unity in the Church. We have greatly divided the Body of Christ, and I believe our disunity is the greatest attack of Satan against Christianity. When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, he prayed for future believers- that we may be one as He and the Father are one. Imagine that- imagine all believers having the same unity as exists in the Trinity!
Unfortunately, many people think that unity means we all look the same. I have taken part in many different denominations and traditions within the Body, and I am blessed to have worshiped the same God in so many different ways and have met so many different people who I know are truly my brothers and sisters in Christ. I cannot say to the ones who kneel in silent prayer that they are more or less necessary than the ones who dance with joy just as I cannot say to my eye that it is more or less needed than my mouth. As I was seeing the Holy Spirit working in the many different parts of Christ's Body, God has slowly been blowing up my boxes. He loves to blow up the box, to astound us, to fill us with wonder. He not only seeks to exceed our expectations but seeks to exceed them one-hundred fold.
One of our greatest obstacles to unity is our box. We build our box for God and hold so tightly to it. When fellow believers do not fit our box, we cannot fully welcome them as brothers and sisters. We are afraid to blow up the box in fear that everything we know might come crashing down. I have met many people who cannot conceive that God's blessing is on a church so different from their own. I have heard some evangelical Christians say that prophetic gifts and praying in tongues were only for the years following Pentecost in the first century. I have heard Protestants from a variety of churches say that the bread and wine cannot possibly be the actual body and blood of Christ but must merely be a symbol. I have had a Catholic friend be astounded that the summer I felt God's presence most strongly was the summer I could not attend one Catholic mass. I have had friends insist that Christians who have passed from this life cannot possibly be interceding for us.
Whenever you put a limit on God, be sure to ask yourself if that is a truth revealed to you by the Spirit or if it is a rule constructed by your own human reasoning.
Before you reach for the edge of your box and reinforce its walls, ask God to show you His truth. Know that God is more and can do more than you can even imagine, so do not try to limit Him. Pray that your heart will be open to know him more deeply and pray that God will blow up your boxes. Stop trying to feel safe and instead expect God to astound you. God works in more ways and in more places than we can even fathom. Be open to his infinity, and He will amaze you. And above all, pray for unity in the Body of Christ and that God will create unity between your heart and the hearts of true believers very different from you.
Heavenly Father, blow up the boxes we build for you and continue to reveal Yourself to us even though our minds can never contain You.
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