The Astounding Honour of being Chosen

Some thoughts from a Christmas message I gave...

God takes hold of us – he redeems our lives – he reveals himself to us – he moves us from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of his dear son…. He CHOOSES us to be his friends, to hear his secrets, to bear his life and produce his fruit.

We have really been robbed by this feeble phrase we keep using about our conversion - ‘I made a commitment!’ We are a chosen people, set apart for his goodness and glory. CHOSEN and cherished and appointed and set apart for his glory.

I love all the cameos of people in the Christmas story. There’s the young woman Mary and her solid reliable man Joseph. There’s the grey haired, pregnant Elizabeth and her bumbling husband Zechariah. There’s the old man Simeon, eager with hope, ‘Now I can die in peace. My eyes have seen your salvation.’
And the faithful, fasting, old Anna, dancing with joy over seeing the Messiah – unable to contain herself.

When Mary was told she was chosen to bear this most holy child, the long awaited Messiah - her only words were “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me as you have said. “ No drama, no questions…only humility, awe, a deep sense of honour.

And she hurries to see Elizabeth – and Elizabeth is given the awareness that Mary carries the Messiah - the Spirit overflows in her with a joyful cry – “You are blessed above all other women. And what an honour that you should visit me! You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
Can you hear the awe and amazement in her – and see the insight she has? Insight comes as we humble ourselves toward God’s amazing choices and plans. When we place ourselves UNDER his word, we are in a position to get understanding, and see more of what it means.

And Mary has an overflow of joy and exultation:
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour …” She is awed at being chosen. Astonished at what God is doing. She describes his mercy and his might, ‘He scatters the proud – he exalts the lowly – he satisfies the hungry.’ Her focus is on HIM. This is what happens when we know we are chosen.

And she bears fruit that lasts – not just the child she bore – but the words she sang. People have praised God with her words for 2,000 years and will until the end of time. The life of John the Baptist, that Elizabeth had the honour to bear, has changed lives all through the last 2 milleniums… and will keep doing it. This is what happens when we say ‘Let it be to me as you have said.’

And there’s our special word woven all through this story… ‘chosen’…chosen to bear the Messiah, chosen to carry the forerunner John – chosen to ‘pray in’ the hope of Israel – chosen to seek outJesus said: “You have not chosen me … throw that idea out - but I have chosen you…”
Does this astonish you – are you humbled and awed by this? Does your heart overflow in worship and praise and proclamation about the greatness of God as a result? I have chosen you… what for?

We are chosen to hear his voice - as a friend hears the confidences of one who trusts them. ‘You are my friends, not my servants, because I have confided in you everything the Father has told me.’
We are chosen to hear the secrets of the Father. He wants to share his heart with us – he wants to share his longings for those you love – for your neighbours and workmates – for a world that will see him one day. WHAT AN HONOUR… are we listening with an open heart?

We are chosen to reveal his goodness. “Let your light shine so that everyone will see your good works and say ‘Wow, isn’t God good!” Our lifestyle – our choices are intended to make people astonished at God. We are chosen to be his representatives through the kind of life we lead.

Do you struggle with feeling you not good enough? Every time we say “I’m not good enough’ we deny the work of the cross. It is a quite offensive to God to keep looking at our own level of righteousness. He only looks at Jesus – so should we. ‘Is he righteous enough?’ is God’s question. Yes – then so are you. God says “I’ve got it covered.” He has included us in Christ, immersed us in Christ - so there is never any question again of our righteousness.

Do you say ‘But I can’t do these things?”
Every time we say “I can’t do this…’ we deny the ability of the Spirit to work in us - and we say the promises of God are not true.

Why do we do this? Why do we evaluate our performance in an unscriptural way all the time? It is because we don’t know how gloriously, astoundingly saved we are. I heard a speaker say recently - ‘We need to know how saved we are.’ What we are saved from, and what saved for. We need eyes to see that we are chosen, and appointed, and fully provided for.
1 Peter 1:3 “I have given you everything you need for life and godliness.” He has redeemed us out of the hand of our enemy - and has chosen us for a mission – an adventure with him – and all we need to accomplish that mission has already been made available.
What did Mary say to the astounding announcement she received, ‘Let it be as you have said.’ Let what you have said come to pass. That’s faith. Do we say that? ‘ I am chosen – how amazing, what an honour!
I am appointed to bear fruit that lasts. Let it be! Let it be!’ It is the agreement of our whole being with the wonderful purposes of God. Chosen – picked out from the crowd – and appointed – given a role and an assignment – that will bear eternal fruit.

Do you know what that appointment is? What is it that God has shaped you for in this life? You have talents, skills, gifts, longings, dreams. You were crafted by him – his work of art – for good things that will reverberate into eternity – EVEN BEFORE YOU WERE BORN. (See Ephes.2:10)

This appointment/assignment from God is not determined by a role you might have – or the place you serve. It is about what you impart into this world – into others. Hope, encouragement, wisdom, resources, bringing order, bringing clarity, comforting and healing…The assignment stands – even if our roles and responsibilities and relationships all change. Find it – and you will find fulfillment wherever life takes you.

Christmas Contrasts

Such strange contrasts this year...
Heaps of snow in the UK and Europe - tropical heat here in NZ with 95% humidity!
Bumped into a friend in the mall and she spontaneously said, "I hate all this!" - meaning the shopping, the glitz, the commercialism. "It has nothing to do with the real thing," she said. So we had a conversation about what to do with this peculiar thing called Christmas.

I am currently preparing for the Christmas Day Service - my angle is all the surprises that hit the different characters in the story... and the surprise to us all that God cares so much that he sent Jesus. Does it surprise us? The lavish grace, the extreme lengths of his love...? It is so easy for us to yawn our way through the story and not be impacted. I heard a minister at the local meeting say, "What can we say that we have not said before..." Mmmm... This is why I ask the Lord each year to see something fresh in this story. And he does not fail to reveal something to get excited or moved about.

I was surpised (gobsmacked) to go to a little house party and see this woman's home festooned with about 100 Santas, many of whom sang or danced... and numerous angels and lights and cutsy toys with Christmas clothes... the whole place was packed with it all - everyone had their mouths hanging open... She should charge for a visit! There were three nativity scenes too (one quite big and beautiful) and also a Santa cover and floor mat for the toilet!!! It was truly bizzare! I came home 'Santa'd out' and feeling very sad actually.

Then in contrast - the wonderful 'Random Acts of Culture' U Tube clip of the Messiah Hallelujah Chorus being sung in a big shopping mall. It made us weep with the joy of declaring who Jesus is in the midst of hedonism and commercialism. So, so wonderful.
Talk about contrast!

When we first settled back in NZ after 16 years in Africa, we found Christmas hard to do here. It was end of a long year... we were all tired and looking forward to a long hot summer holiday - and Christmas seemed to start end of October in the shops... and it seemed hard to make it meaningful. So we decided on 3 important things to include:
1. Find a time/way for meaningful worship - which was sometimes going to a lovely choral concert like the Messiah - and sometimes doing an evening at home of reflection and readings just to focus and worship.
2. Give to the needy in some way - we have done dinners on Christmas day for the lonely, given surprise gifts of money and food to needy families we know etc.
3. Tell the real story somehow. For some years we put on a Carol Festival with the story and carols and a brief message (not a concert - or a formal 9 lessons..)- we have also visited neighbours with carols and a blessing prayer - and had a local carol evening and told the story. It seems a shame not to use this time of year to proclaim the good news.

Again this year we have aimed at these three things. The rest we can do or not do. If family are around we get together - if not we share with good friends (our chosen 'family').

Then I got a newsletter from Michelle Perry, a remarkable woman working in Sudan - read her Christmas update here and marvel with us. Please note, she has only one leg! and God uses her so powerfully. http://theunpavedroad.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/christmas2010.pdf Here is a snippet -

Jesus was born in a filthy stable to an unwed teenage mother in the back corner of an oppressed occupied land, spent His earliest years as a political refugee, grew up learning simple carpentry from his earthly father, spent His time among the forgotten and rejected and called a rag tag group of ruffians to turn the world upside down with love. He loves to use the very things we least expect and show up in places we would run from. What, beautiful Jesus, do you have planned for this storm‐tossed patch of earth and its peoples?
So Jesus, You said to ask of You (Ps 2:8). Here I am. For Christmas this year, I would like a nation. Sudan. All of it. Every tribe and language and dusty forgotten corner, every war‐torn bit of outback, each of the 3 million orphans longing for a home: I want them all. I want Your glory to cover this nation as waters the sea, to see a tidal wave of love sweep through our midst.

All I want for Christmas is.....? What? What is worthy of his love - his sacrifice?

The unsatisfying symbol

After taking communion this morning at church, I thought 'Why would Jesus have instituted a symbol or ritual that could become empty and meaningless?' We take communion every Sunday - and I am not sure I want it that way. It seems hard to make it 'meaningful' each time. Many looked very disengaged. And I always wonder if it keeps us too plugged into his death for us - and not launching into his life and Kingdom and eternity... and all those other great things. Hmmm...

And tonight - again in the wee small hours (which is often when my head connects with my barely conscious musings and allows them to surface)... after a visit to friends and a lovely meal and precious conversation...we were given a luscious, very heavy Christmas cake to take home, dense with fruit soaked for two weeks she said, and the top smothered in all manner of dried fruits, and almonds... yuuuum! We had a tiny bite each when we got home - and David said, "I would prefer it with custard" because it is so very rich. Feasting, rich food...such is Christmas.

Then I thought again of communion. We take a tiny square of bread, and a thimble sized amount of juice (or a sip of a common cup.) Mmmm is that an inadequate symbol for the rich feasting we are called to enjoy 'at his table'? Would that bread satisfy a real hunger? Would that juice satisfy a real thirst? Does this tiny taste in any way speak of the lavish love and the abundant grace that is there for us. I pictured the broken body - the whole body - not a tiny little bit... and the blood gushing from his side - a river, not a thimbleful! Something doesn't make sense here.

Does our neat and tidy and tiny symbols speak loudly enough to us of the rich feast? My husband decided some while back to take the biggest piece of bread on the plate - because he believes in abundant grace! But here's the worry - are we also just nibbling on HIM, just sipping a drop now and then? Do we really hunger and thirst and say 'I will not let you go until you lavishly bless me?!!!' Have we in our deepest heart a sense of the mighty ocean of love for us that flows from the Father's heart - or the groaning table of grace that we can feast from. Are our images too small - so our expectations are too small?

The Scripture so often uses the word 'ALL'. "All grace for all situations.." "The God of all comfort.." No limits here. No tiny morsels.

What if next time I led communion I talked about this - and used lavish amounts of bread and red juice... ? That would startle us all! But the next time - would we just go back to our tiny portions. Sigh... what to do? Father - your wisdom please?

"Fear not!"

How many times are those words spoken in Scripture. I heard someone once say 365 - one for every day of the year. I haven't counted! But even in the Christmas story they are spoken a number of times.

In the Kingdom of love - the realm where God rules in all his goodness and love - there is no fear. His perfect love has cast out all fear. So is fear the root of sin and disobedience? If we trusted and did not fear, we would have no cause to sin, surely?

Jesus tells us not to fear lack or need. "Seek first the Kingdom of God... and all you need will be given you." Paul assures us in Romans 8 that we do not need to fear condemnation or being unacceptable, or being accused or being separated from the love of God.

I am becoming more and more aware of how love banishes fear. Whenever I find fear rising (about my computer messing up - about people not co-operating on something I consider important - about failing to meet deadlines or find the mental space to write a promised piece...) I speak to my soul about being loved, now, by Abba Father ("He is loving me right now") and I speak to him as my big Daddy who can fix anything even while I sleep! I am more and more aware that I do not have to carry the 'weight' of things. That is his role, not mine. "Cast (throw rapidly) your care on him, for he cares for you." Soooo simple really.

But my heart still needs to learn - in all those little nooks and cranny's - to rest, to trust, to enjoy waiting for his answers. My 'make it happen' personality has to lie down quietly until the anxiety is replaced with restfulness. It feels almost like a game now... "Oh - here it comes again... that anxiety... now just lie down, my heart, and rest again in his love... there - that feels better! All will be well." I see waves rising and falling... and they seem smaller than they used to be. Hallelujah!

"Faithing" or Resting?

I heard a new phrase from a video clip by Denise Jordan (see www.fatherheart.net) where she said she was often "Faithing it" - meaning speaking in faith in order to push through difficult circumstances.
I realised that I do that a lot. When adverse things happen, or threaten, or my feelings go negative, I speak the truth in faith and this 'steadies the ship' and I don't succomb to fear.

But there are other ways to get through the testings. Ways that do not require so much work! Trust/faith is also about resting. Learning that I am, to God my Father, his little child, has enabled me in a new way to rest, take my hands off, lean back into him and know that the 'battle belongs to the Lord' and I can trust him to work it out. So I can simply say 'I can't do this/work this out/fight this battle.. - it is yours Abba. You are my big Daddy. Please do something.' This is so restful, so simple. I do it regularly now. Much less of a sense of self-effort.

As the Dilmar ad says, "Do try it!"

Christmas contemplation

From Bennan Manning (see previous post for p.1)

…The contemplative at Christmas, living one day at a time in a state of preparedness (in fact, homesickness) for the fullness of the Kingdom, listens intently as Paul tells the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

On an icy winter’s night two weeks before Christmas I was at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. All flights had been cancelled due to fog and freezing rain. The airport terminal was in bedlam. Thousands of people were clustered at the ticket counters demanding a projected departure time; others were wrapped in stoic silence. Children were crying, the public address system was blaring and the defeated were bellying up to the bar. I was tense and apprehensive. I had to get to Texas to start a retreat the next day. How could the Gospel be preached in Dallas if the weather wouldn’t shape up in Chicago?

Directly across from the plastic chair in which I was slumped sat a middle aged black woman with a child cradled in her arms. She was laughing. The world was collapsing, thousands were stranded, O’Hare was a shrieking snake pit and she was laughing! Irritated but also intrigued, I said to her,

“Ma’am, every other person here tonight is rattled and miserable. Would you mind telling me why you’re so happy?”

“Sho,” she said. “Christmas is coming and dat baby Jesus – He make me laugh.”

I repeated it to myself , Dat baby Jesus – He make me laugh!

Hmm! Am I getting too serious about life? Have I let my sense of childlike wonder fade? Am I so caught up in preaching, teaching, writing and travelling that I no longer hear the sound of rain on the roof? How long since I stopped making snowballs and flying kites? Am I growing uncomfortable with Jesus telling me to model my life after the birds and the flowers? Am I irritated with people, like this woman, who don’t seem to realise how serious life really is? Has getting serious about life meant becoming sad about life? Is living just another word for endurance?

Years ago I learnt that the name Isaac means laughter. When old Sarah was told she would soon be pregnant, she laughed in disbelief. But God had the last laugh. A son was born to them in their old age, and the mirthless human laugh of despair turned into the Father’s laughter of love. “They named their son ‘Laughter’ for he was a sign of the triumph of God’s levity over man’s gravity,” writes John Shea.

Jesus is God’s final laughter. Laughter is the celebration of incongruity, dissonance, lack of harmony. Nothing could be more incongruous in Hebrew tradition than a virgin having a baby. Christmas is a reminder that we need the laughter of God to prevent us from taking the world too seriously… The Christian law of levity says that whatever falls into the earth will rise again. God’s laughter is his loving act of salvation begun in Bethlehem, and Christian laughter is the echo of God’s joy within us.

Christmas is the awesome mystery of the messianic Son of God in diapers. For the contemplative at Christmas it is “glad tidings of great joy” that fills his heart with the laughter of the Father. I suspect that this is what my friend Carey Landry had in mind when he wrote that reverent and rollicking song, “And the Father Will Dance as on a Day of Joy.”

As Advent draws to a close, go to the Father and ask Him, “Abba, why are you dancing?” See him point to the manger and hear him say, “Christmas is coming and dat baby Jesus – He make me laugh!”

…My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, if you have been struck by the grace of Christmas, if the Lord in his mercy has given you the courage to accept acceptance, if you are convicted that Christmas is the decisive breakthrough of the passionate love of God in Jesus, if you trust that God is faithful to his promises, that he will finish what he began, that amazing grace is at work right now, that you have only checked into the hotel of earth overnight and you are en route to the heavenly Jerusalem, then in the immortal words of John Powell, “Please notify your face!”

On the other hand, if you have not been struck by the grace of Christmas, ask for it and it will be given.

The Contemplative at Christmas

I can’t resist a great quote about Christmas from a book we are reading by Brennan Manning “The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus.” So lovely. It is a call to contemplate – to consider, ponder and wonder.
Chapter 12 ‘The Contemplative at Christmas’
He begins by quoting Paul Tillich
“To be struck by grace does not mean that we are simply making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against special faults, and in our relationships to others. Moral progress may be the fruit of grace, but it is not grace itself. Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life… Grace strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness… and our lack of direction and composure has become intolerable to us.
Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as though a voice were saying “You are accepted. You are accepted by that which is greater than you… Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.”
If that happens to us we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed.”

…In prayer we discover what we already have. We already have everything, but many of us do not know it and therefore don’t experience it. Everything has been given to us by the Father in Jesus. All we need now is to experience what we already possess. The most precious moments in prayer consist in letting ourselves be loved by the Lord.

…The contemplative at Christmas grows quiet before “the light (that) shines in the darkness” (John 1:5) He stills his soul and becomes tranquil like a child in its mother’s arms. He takes in to himself the mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation and love that are embodied in the Child of Bethlehem. He surrenders to the grace of the Word made flesh. He accepts acceptance.

…Hope remains unruffled by all the legalists…party poopers and prophets of doom who have appeared on the scene since that memorable midnight when Mary spanked her baby and the infant Jesus screamed joy into a hushed and waiting world. In the messianic cry, the Christmas contemplative discerns a sonorous, saving voice:

“Sshh! Be still. All is well. I am here. Do not be afraid. be afraid. The world is no longer in the hands of the Evil One but in the arms of a loving Shepherd. In the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently. No suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting; no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Nothing can ever separate us – not troubles, worries, persecutions, not lack… not attacks or invasions. There is nothing in life or death that will ever come between you and the love of God made visible before your eyes in this manger tonight.”

(more coming...)

Our lens on life

There is an itriguing chapter in Hannah W.Smiths book 'The God of all Comfort' which is entitled 'Much more versus much less'.
She says our view of things a)does not affect the reality of things but (b) our view affects our taking hold of these realities. "And while our safety comes from what things really are, our comfort comes from what we suppose them to be." Ahaaa! So very true.

How many times are we left oomfortless because we do not see things his way, and therefore cannot take hold of his comfort and encouragement.
I have heard two such cases in two days - where their view of reality is obscuring the richness of grace offered to them by our compassionate Father. And both push away any suggestion of there being a different view of their situation. They are locked into their stronghold of fear and despair.

Hannah goes on to write about the 'much mores' in Scripture... the abundance that is there for us - which we can find so hard to access if we have a 'much less'/poor me/ victim mentality.

I am finding that in threatening situations where I could be so discouraged or wounded - as I decare the good purposes of God - 'he intends to do me good in this'- the whole menace melts away and my heart is strengthened by the reality I choose to view life from. The English mystic Julian of Norwich said once, after reviewing the many trials and testings that were happening during her life-time, "His meaning is love." Sounds obscure? I think it simply means that God only sees us in love and intends for us to be held in his love come what may. We cannot attribute to him anything else. Because that is who he is. Our trial doesn't test if he loves us ('he would not allow this if he loved me...') - it simply tests if we can trust in his love and his loving purposes come what may. When our heart is at rest in his love - no storm can snatch us away from that safe place.

The Two Sides of Comfort

My husband David wrote this for our church newsletter.

The Bible is full of “throw away lines”, brief comments or asides that are packed full of meaning. I noticed one in last week's passage, 2 Corinthians 1:4.

Paul says that God 'comforts him in all his troubles', a simple remark, but one that carries a lot of weight for Paul because of his history. Later in the letter he lists some of the situations he has been in – thrashed with forty lashes five times; beaten with rods three times; stoned; shipwrecked three times; in danger from all kinds of people and in all kinds of situations and so on... (See 2 Cor 11:23 for the full list). If anyone needed God’s comfort it is Paul and he says he always gets it. What a testimony!

And there’s more to his comment. The comfort he receives has breadth and depth to it.

The comfort Paul speaks of has two sides to it – the word “comfort” is both a picture of soothing and also a picture of strengthening. It’s a combination of a parent gently and soothingly tending to a little “wounded soldier” who’s fallen over but also dusting them off and saying. “OK. Let’s have another go at this”. We often use ‘encourage’ as a synonym for ‘comfort’, meaning that we’re trying to speak courage into someone who’s facing troubles.

The Bayeaux tapestry is a series of woven cartoons of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066. One panel shows a bishop on his horse poking a big lance into the backs of a line of soldiers getting ready to embark for England. The caption reads, "Bishop .... comforts the troops". That’s obviously not the soothing side of the word!

In all his troubles Paul knows the tender compassion of his loving Father but he also experiences God planting courage and strength into him to get back up and go on. May we, like Paul, receive both the gentle soothing and the strong encouraging and fortifying love of the Father of compassion and God of all comfort.

From Misery to Ministry

I am still chewing on how God comforts us so we can comfort others - and was reminded of this quote:

“I am struck by the number of persons who are led to undertake a most creative work through their experience of their own or the world’s deep misery. They move from the initial experience of misery to some form of soul-searching and through to an experience of mystery, before they are led to the work they feel called to do. In moving from misery to meditation, to mystery, to ministry, these persons are, in fact, moving from compassion to contemplation to communion to creative commitment.
Afterward, they have no trouble telling me how they came to do what they are presently doing; but as they are moving through misery to meditation, however, they usually have no idea of what is happening to them, or of where their life is leading them. They are hurting and scared to death. As the cycle completes itself by moving from mystery to ministry, however, it is as though their pain reveals its purpose. All along it is meant to teach them
• How to be true to themselves,
• How deep their spiritual resources go,
• How to be true to a Power beyond themselves,
• And how to serve others creatively with compassion.
What went down in pain, then, comes up in praise; what went inward in suffering comes outward in service.
(From ‘The Art of Passing-over’ by Frances Dorff)

The Lord our Dwelling Place

Ps.90:1 "Lord you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations."

The comfort or discomfort of our outward lives depends largely upon the dwelling place of our bodies; and the comfort or discomfort of our inward life depends similarly upon the dwelling place of our souls. Our dwelling place is the place where we live, and not the place we merely visit. Our souls need a comfortable dwelling place even more than our bodies...and where the soul is full of peace and joy, outward surroundings are of comparatively little account.

The Lord declares that He has been our dwelling place in all generations, but the question is, Are we living in our dwelling place - or are we wandering, hungry, thirsty and faint? (Ps 107) The Lord urges his invitation upon us. "Abide in me, and I in you" and he goes on to tell us what are the blessed results of this abiding. The truth is, our souls were made for God. He is our natural home, and we can never be at rest anywhere else. "My soul longs, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."

How shall we describe this divine dwelling place? David describes it when he says: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; in him will I trust; he is my shield, my high tower, my refuge, my Saviour." This means that when we live in our dwelling place we shall be perfectly safe and secure from every assault of every enemy. I do not mean no trials will come...but they cannot penetrate into the sanctury of the soul, and we may dwell in perfect peace even in the midst of life's fiercest storms.

The fortress we are called to is soft, tender, and full of comfort; "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge." (Ps.91:4) Like a mother hen with her chicks, we are enfolded, protected and comforted. Here there is no fear. Say what the psalmist says "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust."

From 'The God of all comfort' by Hannah Whithall Smith

God's astoundingly simple plan

I keep pondering on why the Father puts us 'in Christ'. The N.T. is full of this truth - and yet we seem to miss it's implications and it's power.
1. Being in Christ means we are 'hidden' in him - he clothes us and our Holy God sees only the perfect life and sacrifice of Jesus - so we are acceptable - we don't have to work for our own righteousness.
2. Being in Christ means we are loved equally with Christ! This seems astounding to us, because we see our 'miserable little selves' as seperate and 'unworthy'. But he makes us worthy by placing us 'in Christ'. What a simple solution!
3. Being in Christ means we are close to the Father's heart. We are near and dear - beloved and cherished, as we would feel about the sweetest little child or grandchild who we can't get enough of! Are we basking in this love?
4. Being in Christ means we share in his inheritance - the riches of his grace, the riches of his glory. Have we begun to explore these yet?
5. Being in Christ means the source of our life is in Him, not in the world around us or people in our lives. The loves and losses can be held lightly. We are his, and he is ours. Always.
Father has thought of everything. Can we trust in this marvel?

The fruit of humility

"Clothe yourself with humility toward one another..." 1 Peter 5:5.
I wonder if we realise that Jesus was perpetually 'clothed with humility'? Do we not see him as that amazing person who could raise the dead and heal the sick and perform miracles; who had people falling at his feet with wonder? Yet if we looked at his life from the perspective of heaven, as the angels do... we would marvel at his humility - at his simple trust in his Father - at the containment of his unlimited powers - at the covering over of his glory - at his becoming a meek and humble 'child'...

Have we a right view of humility? It is not a cowering servitude, or a denial of our giftedness or uniqueness. It is a willing surrender of our 'glory' to serve the good of another, while at the same time an acknowledgement that we are 'nothing' without him - his life, his grace, his love flowing through us.

Humility serves our heart need to be at rest, to be secure in one who is greater than ourselves, to be safe from feeling we have to 'run the world' or carry the burdens of life alone. This is why God 'resists the proud' but runs to the aid of the humble of heart. Brennan Manning says "He not only cannot resist them, he cannot refuse them anything." (The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus)

I have been endeavouring to serve some people who I want to show Father's love to through mowing and clearing up for some days. It has brought me joy...despite aching muscles... and now I find I need to go further and ask for forgiveness for ways I have offended them in the past. Humility will lead us to stripping off any self-justification or feelings of superiority. But I am confident this will align me with Jesus and bring the Father joy more than ever.

Honest seeking

A young couple in their 30s we have been sharing with, have struggled to make a big change in their lives. He has finally decided to quit his difficult job and move back to their home town and see if he can find work that satisfies his heart and his skills. This is testing their trust in God severely.

When they announced on Sunday that they were leaving shortly, we all felt how much we will miss them, but realised it was the right move. My husband talked with him afterwards and affirmed him and gave him a big long hug. (He is 6'6" and my husband is 6'3"!!)
And the young man emailed David later and said "Thank you for your encouragement and the hug. I realise I am seriously lacking in father-love affirmation and touch." What honesty - from a man who usually is not very verbal. How do we know, when we hug someone, if they have a great need for this sort of affirmation? My response to David when he told me was, 'Hug him some more before they leave!!'

His wife told us something lovely she had become aware of. Their little todler daughter was always falling and bumping something - and each time she would put her arms up to mummy and want to be picked up. This mother realised that she did not automatically do that with her Abba. She admitted that when things got painful in life she pouted and cried and complained... but did not reach up for his comforting arms. Wow... what a lesson to us all. She had us in tears with her.

How honest are we with others about our 'learning to love' discoveries?

Is that enough?

Jesus was talking to his disciples just before his arrest and he said, "No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

In one of Jack Frost's DVDs (Experiencing the Father's embrace) he comments on this statement of Philip, "that will be enough." Jack says, 'Wasn't it enough for him to see Jesus raise the dead, and heal the lepers...?'
But I like Philips request. "Show us the Father..." How often do we ask this of Jesus? For Jesus came for that very reason, to make a way back home to the Father, and to reveal him to us. There is a real sense in which every time we look at Jesus we 'see the Father' as they are one... but there is another dimension, when the Father himself, as a tender daddy, is revealed to our inner heart, where we need his comfort, his tender words, his assurances. This is a spiritual/emotional revelation -more than an 'understanding' of the mind.

But I am also intrigued with Philips statement 'that will be enough for us.' What is 'enough' for us? Do we settle for so little and say 'that is enough?' I regularly listen to believers talk and pray who seem to have settled for just 'getting along' -
for the occasional answer to prayer, for a life of struggle, but not victory, for a dreariness, not delight, for none of the miracles, but mostly just grace to get through. We don't seem to ask for much, we settle for a '1st gear' Christianity, and seem to ignore much of the Scriptural promises of his comfort and his enabling. Why? Have we been disappointed, and no longer trust? Are we in fact 'unbelieving believers'? Or have we been taught to settle for this low level faith? I remember a long time ago hearing from my father that he had arthritis in his hand and could not write me a letter so he dictated it to his secretary. I replied - did he ask for prayer from others about this hand? He replied to me, "God has more important things to deal with than my hand." Huh? If he knows the number of hairs on our head, and the fall of every sparrow....??? Go figure!

What is 'enough' for you? How about asking for a hunger and thirst for more? More revelation, more encountering, more enabling through the Spirit.

His glorious soul-satisfying "I am..."

I am exploring the phrase "the God of all comfort" and reading Hannah Whitall Smith's book of the same name. I am aware that in my deep heart I do not yet know his comfort in some places.

She begins by talking about his name "I am". Let me quote:
"Every attribute of God, every revelation of his character, every proof of his undying love, every declaration of his watchful care, every assertion of his purposes of tender mercy, every manifestation of his loving kindness - all are the filling out of this unfinished "I am."

God tells us through all the pages of his book what he is. "I am," he says, "all that my people need": "I am their strength"; "I am their wisdom"; "I am their righteousness"; "I am their peace"; "I am their salvation"; "I am their life"; "I am their all in all."

This apparently unfinished name, therefore, is the most comforting name the heart of man could devise, because it allows us to add to it, without any limitation, whatever we feel the need of, and even "exceedingly abundantly" beyond all that we can ask or think.

But if our hears are full of our own wretched "I ams" we will have no ears to hear his glorious, soul-satisfying "I am." We say, "Alas, I am such a poor weak creature," or "I am so foolish," or "I am so good-for-nothing," or "I am so helpless"; and we give these pitiful "I ams" of ours as the reason for the wretchedness and discomfort of our spiritual lives, and even feel that we are very much to be pitied that things are so hard for us. While all the time we entirely ignore the blank cheque of God's magnificent "I am," which authorises us to draw upon Him for an abundant supply for every need.

If you are an uncomfortable Christian,(not comforted) then the only thing to give you a thoroughly comfortable spiritual life is to know God. The psalmist says that they that know God's name will put their trust in him, and it is, I am convinced, impossible for anyone really to know him (experience him) and not to trust him. A trustworthy person commands trust; not in the sense of ordering people to trust him, but by irresistibly winning their trust by his trustworthiness."

Further reflection has led me to believe that there are a number of reasons we do not access his comfort.
a. We have deep wounds of not being comforted as a child and have come to believe that no-one is there for us when we are in distress, so we become stoic. ("Go to your room, and when you have stopped crying you can come out!")
b. We have come to believe it is 'part of who we are' to complain, or express self-pity or cynicism... we would not know ourselves if we did not have this pessimistic streak!
c. We have the habit of seeking comfort in people feeling sorry for us, in the substitutes of TV, food, spending money etc... and do not consider we dishonour our "God of all comfort" and rob ourselves of his grace.
d. We are suspicious of optimistic 'sunny' people and think they are being 'unreal' because life is full of trials and hardships.

More of this coming....

Are you comfortable with love?

This question has rolled around my inner being for a week or so. Heard it on Jack Frosts DVD series "Encountering the Father's Embrace." (www.shilohplace.org - cannot recommend this enough!)

Mmmm... I think my answer is Yes and No. No... to a mushy, clingy, needy expression of love. But yes to what I have experienced of God's healing, renewing love. No to words of 'I love you' that do not bear fruit in the coal-face of daily life. But yes to that joyful bubble of "Thank you Lord!" that surfaces as I read the Word and see the magnificence of his ways and his love.

But am I comfortable with receiving love from others? It depends - or it used to depend on who they were I guess. But I must say I have been hugged and held (sometimes for 4-5 minutes)and gazed at with love by more people in the last 2-3 months than for years before that! And many of them were strangers, or only just met friends, and they were both men and women. Such is the way of those exploring the love of Father's heart together. We have become comfortable with sharing his love together, believing our arms and eyes and voices can convey something of his divine, completely accepting and fully affirming love.

Am I comfortable with giving this warmth and love? Before I met Father's healing love a couple of months ago, I would say barely. Only when ministering to a hurting person - or greeting a good friend. But I am learning - and believing - that as I embrace others they too may just encounter HIS divine love that now has more place in me. And I found that a woman who previously annoyed me a lot by her attitude to life (negative, fussy) and who I avoided because of her long tales of woe, I just go and hug her now. No feelings of discomfort within at all. Astounding! That has to be the unconditional love of Father - who wants to comfort her agitated soul through me. It no longer feels awkward like it used to. Interesting!!?

The power of love

I used to find it hard to put together the words 'power' and 'love'. My perceptions were that power was force, and love was tenderness (even mushiness!). How wrong I was!

I saw the power of love a few weeks ago. At a weekend seminar on the Father's love a man in his 70s, comfortably retired, was exploring who God was. And in a time of prayer he was held by a motherly woman (20 years younger!)and he wept as Father's love filled his heart. Within two days of that encounter he has resigned everything associated with being the head of the local masonic lodge! If that is not 'the power of love' I don't know what is!

Who would not want such encounters! Who would not want to be so changed without days of argument..! His heart was washed and filled by Father's divine love. And nothing is the same any more.

I was talking to a younger woman yesterday who is hurting so bad because her mother will not spend time with her, but does with her sister. She aches to be loved by her mother in a way that takes away her pain of rejection. But she is looking in the wrong direction. The nurturing love of Father (who has mother love too - for that is where it all comes from) can fill that void and so complete her that she can forgive and not need to ache for this from her mother. We were created to be filled with his love. Anything else is a bonus. I am praying I can help her see that and reach out for this powerful love.
He comes as we abandon our search for substitutes - and our holding onto the debts of others. "You owe me nothing!" is a most liberating posture. Looking at our Father and saying "You have all I need" is the only way our aching hearts will be filled.

Divine Dominoes

I am agog at seeing 'divine dominoes' falling in a friend's life. It is a real 'WOW God' time! She has loved and served God passionately for years. In her early adulthood she researched and wrote a book for a mission agency about transformed lives. She and her husband have also written books together.

But the last 20 years or so have been such hard slog - lots of physical pain, as well as deep spiritual and emotional pain overwhelming her life. She is gifted and skilled and deeply earnest. Why had God not 'come through' and brought her out into 'a spacious place' as he promises? We had prayed with her often in her times of distress and pain, and nothing seemed to change. (So had many others)

But then... in June this year she was nudged by the Spirit to look out a tape made 20 or more years ago on the Father's Heart. About a week later I emailed her that David and I were going to the 6 day Fatherheart school 5 hrs away by car. Did she want to come with us? Something went ping! in her, and she thought... 'Is this God?'...and she came with us and was profoundly changed by healing encounters with her Abba, Daddy.

Then on the last day she and I were in conversation with a woman with an international ministry who mentioned she was trying to write a book but couldn't - it was not her... she needed a writer. I said my friend was a recognised writer... and more dominoes began to fall. They began talking - and since then she has been back to talk and record interviews and the whole thing is underway.

But get this! Just six weeks later there was a gathering of people there from around the world with stories that were needed for the book... so my friend was able to be there and interview 20-30 people whose stories will be put in the book... WOW! And at their times of prayer and being with the Father, more healing came, and words about the future. There is now the 'spacious place' - the fulfilment of years of seeking and groaning before a loving God. And there is also a sense of being 'at home' with kindred spirits in ministry that has eluded my friend for some time. WOW! We are marvelling at what has happened - so fast! So right. So amazing. What a privelege to be a little part of this story.

"When the time had fully come..." Mmmm. This is an interesting part of God's ways. He has a time and a way that will bring him full credit (glory) by causing things to be that were not! Isn't that better than any manouvering or organising we can do? But it takes a steadfast holding onto a faithful Father who is full of goodness.

Filling the holes

Been realising there are emotional/spiritual 'holes' in me. Whenever I was sick as a child, I was not comforted or fussed over much. I had to be stoic and accept that the household just went on without me. This has made it hard for me to receive the comfort of the Father (and his nurturing 'mother' qualities) in times of pain or distress.

Last night I was sick with a bad chest and cough. My ribs felt bruised from the violent coughing. David wanted to take me to the emergency doctor at 10pm at night. I said wait till morning. I dosed up with everything I could lay my hands on, and David anointed me with oil and I tucked up in the bed in the spare room so David could have a good sleep. I lay there just saying over and over, "Father, I am yours - you are loving me and healing me now." I slept soundly and woke without the cough or the bad throat, and feel almost normal again. Wow!

But I realise there are these holes - gaps in what I can receive and realise. More Father. More of your nurture, comfort and healing of my heart, my emotional make-up, not just my body.

Spiritual Agoraphobia

I heard this great phrase from James Jordan on his teaching CD 'The False Covering of Fig Leaves' (availalble on www.fatherheart.net)

Spiritual agoraphobia. The fear of big open spaces...in spiritual terms - the fear of not having things in a small, comfortable, manageable space. He was talking about how we can confine our knowledge of God (and knowing him experientially) to what we can understand within our framework of what we have discovered so far. But of course he is infinite - and often the scriptures use the phrase 'beyond knowing'. He can do 'far more than we can imagine...' Hallelujah for that!

All around the world the Lord is doing things beyond our imagination (check out Iris Ministries for one - with Roland and Heidi Baker www.irisministries.org) and showing his love and his power in unprecedented ways. Why not in our lives? Why not throw open the windows and doors of our minds and hearts and say 'More - Father, more - Lord Jesus, more - Holy Spirit'?

When the Scriptures talk of 'mysteries' it means things that are 'veiled' or hidden. Bill Johnson astutely says they are hidden FOR us to find (because we seek) not from us. There are many things we have not yet had revealed to us from the Word. It is not just logical truth to be understood - it points to spiritual realities that only our heart and spirit can taste and grasp. And we do not know when or how he will do it. He is sovereign. But an open and seeking and child-like heart will always be READY to see and taste and experience more, and perhaps understand as well some of the 'mysteries' of the Kingdom. Oh for such seeking hearts.

It is really about POSITION. What posture do we take - what way do we face? Our words frequently reveal our posture because the mouth cannot help but speak what the heart is full of! Are we keeping our eyes on heavenly things - on him who is our Wisdom, our Life, our very Source? Or are the trials and testings of earth our focus? I have to keep checking my posture and my position. It slips... looking down - looking at others - looking at myself and my failings...

"Father - lift my head to fix my eyes on your sufficiency at all times. To whom else shall we go... And may my vision have vast horizons and endless possibilities in you."

Where IS the Father?

I was just listening to Barry Adams on www.fatherheart.tv/teaching-videos (inspirational stuff!) and he said he always thought the Father was 'way up there somewhere' because of the Lord's prayer, "Our Father, who is in Heaven." And something went ping in my head. If we pray this prayer often, will we have a false view of where the Father is? Barry did.

So did Jesus MEAN us to keep praying it? After all he later said that the Spirit would come and consequently he, Jesus, would live in them and so too would the Father. John 14:23 Mmm... It is clear that we cannot confine the Father to either Heaven or 'our hearts' - as he is above and beyond all things. But somehow we can miss this reality, of the Father's love actually invading our hearts and the deepest places of our being because we have this picture of him being 'up there in Heaven'.

There is always a danger of taking one scripture and making it exclude the truth of others. He is not JUST 'in heaven' - he also comes to us now, in our hearts, here on earth. Psalm 139 describes it well. "Where can I flee from your presence?" Actually - no-where... but we do have the capacity to shut him out of our hearts and our deepest memories and subconscious mind. He awaits our invitation to come in and heal and reveal and comfort and cleanse and make new. What a privilege - to invite in this guest and ask him to take over! Why do we resist such perfect love...?

Being unravelled...

Over the last few days I kept crying. I was being unravelled. An area of pain that I am bringing to the Father to heal was exposed. I just kept saying, "Father, I forgive... Please come and fill that empty space with your comfort and love."

I wondered if I should go to church - I might become unravelled again and 'make a scene'. But I went, and I didn't. But someone did unravel. It was our worship leader, as she led the final two songs. The Lord had touched a place of deep pain in her during the preaching. David, my husband, was preaching from Galatians 3 and 4 about becoming sons and heirs - and he said that the Father, our Abba, not only loved us deeply, but also had a deep affection for us. He was 'very fond of us'. This touched our worship leader - as she knew God loved her - but to know in her heart that he LIKED her was too much. She had experienced much disapproval in her growing years.

She was prayed for - and another woman took over leading. Father's love was at work... may there be much more unravelling. It is his way of bring light, truth, healing, love and comfort into our hearts. This is the 'power of his love'. Let him do some unravelling for you - it is so, so healing.

Our Joyful God

More from John Ortberg. 'The Life You've Always Wanted.'

G.K. Chesterton's writings are filled with the centrality of joy in the character of God and his plans for mankind. Jesus came as a Joy-bringer. The joy we see in the happiest child is but a fraction of the joy that resides in the heart of God. Chesterton speaks of this in a memorable passage:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we are.

We will not understand God until we understand this about him: "God is the happiest being in the universe." ...and God's intent was that his creation would mirror his joy... Joy is strength. It's absence will create weakness.

True joy, as it turns out, comes only to those who have devoted their lives to something greater than personal happiness. If we don't rejoice today, we will not rejoice at all.

He watches me as I sleep

I was reading John Ortberg's great book "The Life you have Always Wanted" and this passage touched me deeply.

"Sometime ago I woke up in the middle of the night... I looked at my wife, Nancy, sleeping beside me and suddenly I was overwhelmed by the most intense sense of love. It was as if I saw our entire married life in one kaleidoscopic viewing. One scene after another replayed in my mind... For the longest time I just watched my wife in wonder as she slept. It was one of the most tender moments I have ever known.

Then something happened that I did not expect. Propped up on one elbow and watching Nancy sleep, I thought, While I lie in bed sleeping, God is watching me. As the Psalmist expressed it, "He who keeps you will not slumber nor sleep." And the thought came to me that God was saying something like this:

"I love you like that. While you lie sleeping, no one can see you, but I watch you. My heart is full of love for you. What your heart is feeling right now as you watch your wife, what a parent feels watching a child, is a little picture for you, a gift, so you can know - every night when you go to sleep - that this is my heart for you. I want you to reflect on this at night before you close your eyes. I'm watching you, and I'm full of love."

It was an overwhelming moment. I had the sense that God himself was somehow speaking to me. These were not just thoughts about God, but thoughts from God. I felt that God want to speak of his love to me - personally."

His Restful, Joyful Yoke

We all know the inviting passage in Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus calls us to come and find rest..."For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." It evokes a longing in us to find this way of living. I always saw his words as meaning we must be yoked to him... walking as he does, resting when he does.

But recently I have seen this differently. Look at the verses above it. Jesus is exulting in the Father (imagine a real loud 'Yahoo!') and praising him for revealing spiritual realities to child-like hearts and not learned adult minds. Then he describes how he relates to his Abba - his Daddy, God and says "No-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." And out of this he says "Come to me... live like me... and you will live restfully."

I thought, 'What is the yoke Jesus has that he offers to us in order to impart rest?'
Clearly it is Jesus relationship to his Father! He is yoked to his Abba! He and the Father walk together, work together, delight together. And he is saying, 'If you too are yoked (held together so you must do it all in union) with my Abba, your life will be restful, gentle, humble, full of delights, insightful and powerful without straining - just like mine is!' WHEN HE REVEALS ABBA TO US - THEN WE CAN LIVE THIS LIFE THAT HE DID. What a wonder! What a joy! What simplicity!

So let's ask, and keep on asking - "Jesus, reveal our Abba, our Daddy to us. Help us to be those 'little children' you talk about, with the heart of a trusting son or daughter with our all-loving, all-powerful Dad. We want this restful, gentle, joyfilled life that you offer, every day."

The Butterfly and the Blood

I was pondering on the simplicity of a child and remembered a visit to a wonderful flower display with our young granddaughter. She was probably 3 or 4. It was a lovely old wooden church in Waikanae, NZ, and there were exquisitly beautiful flower displays set up around the main chapel. The perfume was heady! Plus there was a string trio playing lovely baroque music - cello, viola and violin - up the front by the altar.

Ellie admired the flowers - she loves them - and when we sat down near the back of the church to soak in the beauty of the music and the flowers and the aromas... she floated gently down the aisle dancing... up, down, around...graceful and completely free (her mother was a dancer)like a butterfly, just flitting here and there. She got to the steps and knelt and bowed and then got up and danced back slowly and gracefully up the aisle to us. There were many wet eyes upon her by now. And she came to us and bent forward and offered us something. We took it - and I asked her, "Ellie, what are you giving us?" She bent towards us solemly and said "The blood of Jesus"... then turned and fluttered her way down the aisle again, leaving us unravelled on our seats!

"A little child shall lead them..." and she did. Into pure worship! What an act of worship her dancing was. What power in her imitating a priest offering the cup. Why do we need to grow up? This innocence, this simplicity is all our Abba asks! It is what he delights in.

He writes on our hearts

We often talk about 'inviting Jesus into our hearts" - but did you know that when he is there he begins to write on the walls!!
We can study and listen and learn all about the Scriptures, and the 'how to's' of our life with God for years and years... and it will not change us, unless he writes it on our hearts.
For we will always externalise (especially under pressure) what our hearts are full of - what is written on them. Paul used the phrase "you are a letter written on our hearts." We carry this inner letter where people and the Lord have written on. What is written there will produce our attitudes, our perceptions and our responses to life and to the Lord.

Jesus said a number of times that we must be like little children. This is because little children have hearts wide open to be written upon. All that is written upon their open hearts in the early years shapes their perception and attitudes to life.
What is he writing on your heart today? Does your heart know with absolute certainty you are deeply loved, you are delighted in by your 'Daddy', that nothing can separate you from his love, that whatever happens he wants good for you.
I am finding this truth so liberating. He can erase the lies and distortions with his cleansing blood, and write 'truth in the inward parts'.

Being analytical and a 'let's not panic' kind of person - I used to think all this heart stuff was mushy and sentimental. But it is not! It is true and noble and strong and tender and so, so satisfying and inspiring and mind-blowing...and strengthening and tender and insightful and overflowing and beautiful and like a scrumptious meal or a wonderful soak in a hot pool...and exciting, like you are setting off on a wonderful adventure and can't wait... WE WERE MADE FOR THIS!!
Anything less is BOR-ING or exhausting! Have you discovered that?

His Lavish Love

1 John 3:1-2
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (NIV)
Don't you love that word "lavished"! He has lavished his love on us by making us his children. How is love lavished on a child? With lots of hugs and smiles and kisses, words and attention. They feel secure, special, bonded, close, satisfied.

Is this how we feel as Father's child? Or is he (to us) an emotionally absent Father? Many are emotionally detached from their Abba. And it is because of all the closed doors in their heart - not a lack of love on his part. It does not make sense that we should be created with mind, will, imagination and emotions and Father does not touch our emotions.

We have been led to believe that we must not trust emotions in our life of faith. There is some truth in this. Our emotions fluctuate, and are not a true measurement of our faith. But this does not mean that we must not feel his love, or his joy over us, or our own responses of love and joy and peace. His love is tangible; I have known it like refreshing water, like the effect of sitting in a hot pool on a cold day (ahhhhhhhh!) like a soft billowy feathered eiderdown, as a deep sense of inner restfulness, as a deep delight that bubbles up with giggles or yahoos!

And he says to us "You are my beloved child, in whom I delight." In John 17:26 Jesus is praying that "the love you (Father) have for me may be in them." This delighted, tender love is the same love Jesus experienced. You see Father's love does not have variances or degrees. It is not that one day he loves us a lot, and another, not much. His love is constant, unvarying. This is what is meant by 'eternal' - not fluctuating or varying or dying away.

1 Jn 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out/casts out fear." Have you known this perfect (complete) love that drives out fear? I experienced that profoundly recently as a time of desolation was brought into the light and cleaned out and his perfect love drove out the fear of abandonment. I had been left at the hospital to have my tonsils out at about 3 years (as they did in those days) and it devastated me. But it was locked away. This 'orphan voice' was heard when I was alone, but I never knew it was such a deep pain until the Father brought it out recently and healed it.

Invite this perfect, unchanging, lavish love of Father to come and open the doors of your heart. He wants to be emotionally present for you, every day, every hour, so he is your delight, and you know you are his.

Finding Father's heart

So you recognise you have an orphan heart - and know you need Father's love? What now?
1. Own the walls that have been built up to protect your heart. All of us have been hurt at some time by parents or authority figures. So we build walls to protect our vulnerable hearts. We adopt a persona - the joker - the tough one - the pleaser - the bookworm - the knowledgeable one - constantly busy - task orientated - mad about sport... Or we become unco-operative, questioning everything, resisting authority. We all have walls we hide behind. They are a natural defense mechanism. The trouble is they also shut our hearts off from the love of our Perfect Father - our Abba. We need to own this, admit it to him and ourselves.
2. Dismantle them with forgiveness and asking forgiveness. Once owned, we can then dismantle them by firstly forgiving those who wounded us - often unintentionally. They were themselves wounded and broken people. They could not give us the perfect, unconditional love we were created to function with. We need to forgive them - release them from debt - tear up the IOUs. But then we need also to recognise that we also sinned, against them, by shutting off our hearts. It helps pull down the walls if we write a letter to our parents, admitting the ways we shut off our hearts and withheld love and honour and asking their forgiveness. Perhaps we cannot send it - they have passed on - so reading it aloud will help us. But if they are still alive maybe one day it will be right to humble ourselves before them and speak about this. We can be assured the grace of our Father will help us do this, and it will soften the hearts of our parents towards us also.
3. Keep asking Father to wash and heal your heart. Only the love of Father God can wash and heal our deep wounds of rejection or offense that caused our closed hearts. Keep inviting him to do this wonderful work.
4. Become 'as a little child' - with humility, simplicity, and need. Jesus said a number of times that we are to become 'as little children'. You see the Father's love must come to our 'little child' heart. Our emotions never mature or grow up. The way we handle them does, but feelings feel the same as a child, adult or senior.
So our little child heart needs to be open to our Heavenly Daddy, our Abba, our Papa... for it is not the accomplished adult who sits on Daddy's knee, but the little child, who knows they need love and affection, comforting and encouraging. When we come empty-handed, trusting and dependant, THEN he can 'Father' us and comfort us and pour in his tender love.
It is astounding when this happens. We feel safe and secure, we feel very special to him, we know we are precious and a joy to him. Anything we experience on earth like this with parents, grandparents or others is just a 'taste' of what we can experience with the perfect love of our perfect Daddy. This is what he created us for. Make that journey towards his completely satisfying love. Get others to help you. It can happen in a brief time as we set our heart to pull down the walls. Do it today.

More Signs of an Orphan

Orphans live with comparisons. Their image of themselves is low so they see others as more blessed, more loved - getting all the breaks.
A son/daughter revels in being affirmed and valued and precious to their Father. So they don't need to compare. They are content, and know their loving Daddy will not withhold any good thing from them. They know they are loved even when they fail.

Orpans seek comfort in counterfeit affections, addictions, cmpulsions, escapism, busyness, accomplishments and hyper-religious activity...believing the busier they are the happier they are.
Sons/daughters find true comfort in resting the Father's presence and love. They can be alone, and be quiet easily. Nothing else compares to this quiet resting in his love.

Orphans often relate to peers through competition, rivalry or jealousy. They cannot genuinely rejoice of the success or advancement of another because they are not secure in themselves.
Sons/daughters value others and sincerely rejoice in their successes. They honour them, seeking unity and humility.

Orphans often resort to accusation and exposure of others faults while denying or trying to hide their own. They don't feel good about themselves, so attempt to make others look worse and so build themselves up. They evidence criticalness, control, possessiveness or lack of respect and honour.
Sons/daughters seek in love to 'cover' others with faults and sins. This is not hiding, but protecting them from humiliation and destructive exposure as this is resolved because they love the person and want them restored.

Orphans struggle with authority figures, usually because they have been wounded by them. They feel vulnerable and are suspicious and distrustful of any authority but their own. They feel that supporting the goals of another is allowing themselves to be used.
Daughters/sons feel relaxed and confident and open and teachable towards authority figures. They are not a threat. The past hurts have been healed by their Abba, and they are secure in him as their ultimate authority.

Orphans have difficulty receiving correction. They take it as a personal offense or a rejection. They justify themselves, focus on the faults of others, blame others, get angry and accuse and shut their spirits off to those trying to help them.
Sons/daughters are able to say "I am sorry, I was wrong" easily. They want to be changed, and receive correction without fear, seeing it as valuable in their maturing process. They are sad they have "offended love" and not acted lovingly.

Orphans have difficulty expressing love to those they disapprove of. They avoid them. Unconditional love is foreign to them.
For daughters/sons who are drawing on Abba's love daily, they want to give it way to all they meet. They are open, transparent and affectionate, seeking how they can meet the needs of others. They feel compassion or sadness for others, not disapproval.

Orphans live life as if they don't have a home. They feel as if they are away from safe harbour and don't know how to get back. Nothing satisfies, nothing feels permanent, nowhere feels like home.
Sons/daughters are at rest and at peace in the safe harbour of their Father's love. They feel at home with Daddy. Whatever the storms of life, they have a safe place in his love.

(Highly recommend 'Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sons' by Jack Frost
Also his first book 'Experiencing Father's Embrace'
They are revolutionary!)

Our condescending Father

This may sound weird, but I am on my knees, late at night, writing this with the laptop on the bed in our spare room, where I sometimes sleep if working late or needing space. It seems appropriate.
I feel a sense of wonder. So much seems to be opening up in my understanding and my heart is regularly melting within.
I have been pondering on our view of Jesus... as 'anointed and empowered by the Spirit' to do the Father's will. We look at this and say "we must be like this." And it's true... but my experience has been that it is sporadic - times knowing he is flowing in us or inspiring or giving insight or prayer...and other times we feel empty and lost and so 'unspiritual'. But the key to Jesus' life was first of all that who he was and how he operated all came from Father - then the Spirit came to empower his ministry. He was rooted and established in his life with his Father - with Abba, Daddy. He didn't say, "I only say what the Spirit tells me, or do what the Spirit does..." It was Father he emulated, it was Abba he spoke from. How have we missed this?

I find two things happening to me, now I have met my Papa, my Daddy. When I was up town shopping, everyone I looked at my heart said "Father loves you so very much - you are so precious to him." Everyone! It just leapt up from within.
Then I find I am happy to be simple, dependent, uncluttered - and constantly asking my Daddy for his interaction and thoughts and direction on my daily tasks. It is as if I am a little child holding his hand. Previously I was easily driven with tasks, deadlines, oughts... with anxiety and stress gnawing at me off and on that I had to speak truth to to steady myself. That seems so foreign to this life with my Papa. It is a wonder... and a delight... and "more than I could imagine."

We marvel at the wonder of the cross, at the giving and suffering for us. But is this not too a thing of wonder, that Almighty Father, Lord of the Universe, should condescend to dwell in us, and reveal his heart, and pour out his tenderest love upon us. Such is his good pleasure!!!

What's an 'orphan heart?'

An orphan heart is one which has not met it's true Father and felt his love. In the story of the prodigal son, both sons evidenced orphan hearts. Hearts that had not known the true nature of their Father's heart and felt 'beloved' and secure.
The younger son took all he could and went off and wasted it. Grasping, rebelling, distancing himself, using 'partying' to fill the void. It was only in deep need that he saw - had a flash of insight - that he was better off back home with his Dad.
The elder son evidenced that he felt he had 'slaved' for his Father, and was unaware that everything was his and he was in full partnership with his Father.

All these are signs of the orphan heart.
Orphans see God as a Master to appease. Must pray more, serve more... always more to do to please him - always feeling inadequate.
A son/daughter sees God as a loving Father who accepts them unconditionally. They know they don't have to 'earn' anything.
Orphans are independent and self-reliant. They feel they cannot trust anyone so have to make it happen themselves.
Sons/daughters are interdependent, knowing they need Father's love and wisdom, and the love and gifts of the community of faith.
Orpans live by the love of law. They want rules, principles, regulations, and obedience.
Sons/daughters live by "the law of love." They see the greatest truth is living to receive Father's love and give it away to the next person they meet. They know that "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom.13:10b)
Orphans are insecure and cover it up with trying to do all the right things. They rarely experience inner peace and rest.
Sons/daughters are resting in the Father's embrace daily and know their security in God does not depend on their behaviour, but on the grace of God and the work of Jesus.
Orphans seek approval and praise, but can never feel secure and satisfied.
Sons/daughters know they are totally accepted in God's love. They already have acceptance in Christ.
(Taken from "Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship" Jack Frost.
More coming...

Our deferring Trinity

So many new awarenesses... feel like I need a fortnight off to explore them all!

Been looking at how Jesus related to his Father. He continually said "I only say what the Father says... I only do what the Father is doing." Clearly his eyes were continually on his Father, much as a little boy would watch and imitate his dad. This is a picture of a dependent child - not a masterful adult. Not my will, not my words, not my actions, not my power...but His. If Jesus needed his Daddy (Abba) then how much more do we?

And then there is the deference. Jesus points us to Father - The Spirit points us to Jesus - and the Father says "Look at my Son, I love him so much. Listen to him." Jesus said, "No-one comes to me except the Father draws him." Then he says, "No-one comes to the Father except by me." The Father draws us to Jesus, who in turn is the Way to the Father, and the Spirit speaks into our hearts enabling us to cry "Abba, Father" and to exalt Jesus as Lord. WOW! What a picture of the nature of love. Deferring, exalting another, adding to and assisting one another.

We can't do this of ourselves. Our orphan, unloved hearts are not capable. But once the perfect love of our perfect Father washes and invades our hearts we can! Increasingly and more naturally. What a way to live! Secure in the love of Abba, Jesus and the Spirit and free to defer to others without losing anything. "This is life, that they may know me and the one who sent me."

Let your lion lie down with your lamb

This is from Henri J. M. Nouwen 'The Inner Voice of Love'
There is within you a lion and a lamb. Spiritual maturity is the ability to let lamb and lion lie down together. Your lion is your adult, agressive self. It is your initiative-taking and decision-making self. But there is also your fearful, vulnerable lamb, the part of you that needs affection, support, affirmation and nurturing.
When you heed only your lion you will find yourself overextended and exhausted. When you take notice only of your lamb, you will easily become a victim of your need for other people's attention. The art of spiritual living is to fully claim your lion and your lamb. Then you can act assertively without denying your own needs. And you can ask for affection and care without betraying your talent to offer leadership.
Developing your identity as a child of God in no way means giving up your responsibilities. Likewise, claiming your adult self in no way means that you cannot become increasingly a child of God. In fact, the opposite is true. The more you can feel safe as a child of God, the freer you will be to claim your mission in the world as a responsible human being. And the more you claim that you have a unique task to fulfil for God, the more open you will be to letting your deepest need be met.
The Kingdom of peace that Jesus came to establish begins when your lion and your lamb can freely and fearlessly lie down together.

Meeting Father's heart

David and I have just spent a week at a Fatherheart school in Taupo (NZ). It was revolutionary! Hearts were healed and bathed in the Father's love - ours, our friend we went with, and heaps of others there. It is a combination of truth and love. And as the truth helps us see our own hearts, and realise what his heart is truly like - the team love us just by holding us when we weep, and breathing his love over us. I discovered my heart was shut off from my Father's love because of an experience as a child when I was left at a hospital to have my tonsils out around 3 yrs. I have experienced God's love before, but never like this - and never with the whole change of outlook - a real paradigm shift - like this.
A key understanding is that Jesus related to God as Abba, Daddy, and his stance was one of a child, dependent on his Daddy to show him what to do and give him the ability to do at all times. If we want to be like Jesus we too must become as little children to our Daddy. Matt.11:25-26. But our hearts often have walls around, due to hurtful experiences - and we release that through forgiveness and opening our hearts again. We can know, as Jesus did, that we are Father's 'beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.' And what joy flows!
You can get DVDs or CDs of this material - or go to their events. All on www.fatherheart.net

Unexpected Grace - reflections on John 4

The meeting was unexpected,
even more so the speaking.
After all, she was a Samaritan, and a woman,
shunned and ashamed.
He broke convention greeting her,
(the unconventional woman, drawing water
at an unconventional hour)
meeting need with need, “Give me a drink.”
This was the first grace, the unexpected meeting.

Then there was the second, he offered her a gift.
She didn’t know she needed it,
or what it really was,
but he offered it all the same.
“Living water,” he called it,
“so you’ll never thirst again.”
This was the second grace, which only later flowed.

The third was startling, from a complete stranger.
He put his finger on her shame.
“Go call your husband..... “
and out it all came,
dragged into his healing light.
No need to hide anymore, what relief.....what grace.
(How did he know? Was he a prophet?)

The fourth grace was very strange.
A profound theology lesson on worship,
“in spirit and in truth...”
at the well, in the heat of the day,
to a gentile, an immoral woman!
Why theology and not admonishment?
Why worship and not law?
(Did he know her that well?)
‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.....’

Yet another grace wells up, the joy of being fully known.
“Come see a man who told me everything I ever did!”
Releasing truth, the freedom to be fully loved,
the exuberance of the light!
This fifth grace flowed over, unexpectedly,
to water the thirst of many others.

The sixth grace was abundant -
“Many believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”
The ripened harvest was gathered in,
and the Grace-giver was well fed!
His friends, meanwhile, remained quite puzzled.
A harvest in Samaria?
But then, grace is usually unexpected,
as well as abundant.

Why pray for our neighbours?

For most of us, our live are very full. Jobs, family, friends, colleagues, church responsibilities, home maintenance, hobbies, and recreation fill our days.
But where we live is part of God’s plan. Even if you did not ask the Lord for his direction when you chose to live there, God intends for you to be a doorkeeper to his presence and his power in the neighbourhood where you live. Everywhere we, his people are, is both a sacred place and a mission centre.

Secondly, we are assigned to be priests for every area of our influence. “For you are a kingdom of priests…” (1 Peter 2:9) The responsibility of a priest is to take the needs of others into the holy place before God and speak to him on their behalf. We delight in being free to come to him for ourselves, but that is only part of what ‘priesthood’ means. We need to take upon ourselves the names of people whom God has given us influence with or responsibility for, and bring them regularly to God’s throne. We are priests for our street and our workplace. Will you ask the Lord to put on you a priestly prayer garment? When you enjoy his presence, will you remember to take others with you into that holy place and present their needs before God?

Thirdly, God wants all to be saved, to come to know him and enjoy his favour. We have no idea who will receive him or who will reject him. So we cannot be selective about who we should share his love with. Everyone deserves an opportunity to know him. His Shepherd heart aches for all who are lost.
Look at Luke 15 – the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son. Why did Jesus tell these three stories? What are the common elements in these stories? The longing of the one who searches. The joy when they find... SELAH! As you see your work colleague or your neighbour or their house let this thought run through your mind, “God wants you to come to know him. Jesus died so you can enjoy the favour of God.” I guarantee your heart will begin to ache with his concern and you will find yourself open to the voice of the Spirit prompting you as to what you can say and do about it. This is how truth changes us inwardly.

Fourthly, in your street there are people hungry to know God. Not sure about this one? Don’t you think that in 100 people there would be two or three (or more?) who are seeking God, or curious about him? Around 33 houses have, on average, 100 people in them. What if you walked up and down your street, or your part of it, and counted out 30 or so houses? Then you said to yourself, “In this area there are some people hungry to know God – and God is longing to meet them – and I can help them meet him.” Try it – and I will guarantee that your heart will become hungry to find who they are. Then you’ll begin to wonder how you can connect them to the Father who seeks them.
Taken from my prayer website www.prayerchangeslives.org.nz - devoted to provoking and equipping prayer in churches and homes.

The seed needs the soil

Dutch Sheets writes such helpful books on prayer and spiritual growth. I was reading 'Roll away your stone' and was struck by two truths I knew, but he put very clearly.
1. When we are born again, made new, we have a new spirit, but an old soul. The new spirit is pure gift. The mind, will, and emotions are BEING renewed - and need our co-operation.
2. Truth that sets us free comes in SEED form, and it needs the soil of our faith and co-operation to grow and produce that freedom.

He explains the strongholds that develop in us over the years, and gives wonderful examples of how truth applied and declared has done it's double work of breaking down the old and building up the new.

I find myself wanting the 'quick fix' - the ministry prayer or prophecy that will break off things in me that need to go... and sometimes that has happened. But more often it is cultivating the soil so the truth seeds can grow and do their cleansing and renewing work.

New truth has been planted in me recently, that has given me an expanding sense (like being pregnant!) that something really good is going to burst forth. It feels like layers are being peeled off, and I feel somewhat vulnerable and unsure...but the new growth has not yet appeared. I am restless, there is an inner ache of longing... constant prayer bubbling up... but I cannot be passive. Jesus said "The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it (yes, doing that) and by persevering produce a crop."

Lord - enable me to persevere in the truth... keep the soil moist - sit in the sunlight of your smile, and delight in what is emerging.

He has made us for himself...

Augustine said, "He has made us for him, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in him."
I was quoting this in a message last Sunday and it hit me as I said it - "He had made us for himself..." not for ourselves! He fashioned us by his hand, he breathed his life in us, he has ordered our days and our place and time in history... and through Christ he has redeemed us and brought us home... and yet - we still barely register this astounding fact - he has made us, and redeemed us, for himself!

This is why he goes to such extraordinary lengths to get us back - why he pays the ultimate price for the way to be made open. He made us for himself and HIS heart is restless until we find our rest in him!! We are so 'self' conscious when we say "how could he love me?" It is not about me - it is about him and his yearning heart. And we live with such a huge self-consciousness instead of a huge HIM-consciousness. Such is the deceptive nature of the fall, of sin, and the world it has created. The reality is that the more God-conscious we become - ie the more enamoured we are of our Abba, Daddy and our Lord and elder brother Jesus - the more we become our true selves, full of "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit..." - and the more we are aligned with his heart.

"You made us for yourself..."
What would happen to our hearts, our minds, our focus and our fruitfulness if we soaked in this wonderful reality? I am expecting to find out soon - because I cannot get this phrase out of my head. As I turn it over in my mind, and on my lips may it descend to my heart and fill my soul, and open the floodgates of my spirit in praise and revelation.

The winds are his messengers

Been challenged by a great story in Lynn Reddick's book 'The Two Minute Miracle'. He tells the story of Bobby, a rebellious young man who left home in anger and went into drugs and disappeared. His parents were in anguish, not knowing if he was dead or alive. One day his dad, driving on the edge of town, stopped to pray out his agony. He pointed his finger towards the north and yelled with all his might, "BOBBY, COME HOME!". Turning to the south, he shouted into the wind, "BOBBY, COME HOME!" Then to the east and west, the same words.

Two days later there was a knock at the door. It was Bobby! After a tearful reunion his dad asked what brought him home. "Dad, I was sitting on the front porch of an old shack on the edge of the desert in Arizona, stoned out of my mind. A wind started blowing and suddenly it grew stronger. Dad, I could have sworn that I heard your voice in the wind, BOBBY, COME HOME! And Dad, I got here as fast as I could."

WOW! "He makes winds his messengers..." (Ps 104:3b) Yes, Lord. Take our prayers on the wings of your messengers as we call the prodigals home!

The Father's embrace

I've been pondering on the embrace of the Father in the story of the prodigal son. First he runs to his son - imagine him, hitching up his garments, making a spectacle of himself, and pounding down the road... because he wants to get to him before others can taunt him, or abuse him or beat him up. This son has so dishonoured his father that the locals could attack him! So he runs.... and when he gets to him he flings his arms around him and kisses him over and over, tenderly, earnestly, repeatedly! This skinny, smelly, awkward and shame-filled young man is smothered in his father's love! What a welcome. What a sight for the villagers, who know the sorry saga. What a Father! What a picture of our Abba, Daddy.

It is a custom of mine now and then to ask people I don't know well to tell me how they came to faith in Jesus. Many of them describe how they came to "make a commitment", but then never tell me what GOD did! It is quite frustrating - and revealing, actually. I would think that if they had met the running Father and been swept up in his effusive embrace (or felt "the love of God being poured into their hearts through the Holy Spirit" - Rom.5:5) they would be hard put not to tell me!!! Have we sold people short, by telling them they had to 'make a commitment'? Shouldn't we rather tell them about this running, embracing, enthusiastic, merciful, forgiving Father who is searching for them daily with an aching heart?

I notice too that the Father interrupts the son's repentance speech and says to his servants, "Quick, get the best robe..." Quick? I had never seen that word before. Quick! Without hesitation - move fast! Why? Why not a leisurely stroll home? I think because he wants his son to be 'covered'. He wants all to see he is now 'honoured' and accepted. We interpret this as 'the robe of righteousness' that we are clothed in when we repent and turn to Christ. "Quick!" says the Father, "get the robe and cover him." This knowledge of being made right, made clean and new, having all our sins covered over can be that quick! Done in an instant! "Quick!" says the Father. I think he means it for us. Let's expect it, when we bring others to him.

Praying to hear Abba's pounding feet again for those I love...

It's your call

"Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." James 4:8
The Scripture depicts the Lord as the seeking Shepherd who will relentlessly pursue those who are lost. But the 'found' are asked to "seek his face", to "draw near", to "seek him with all your heart". This is because he now responds not to our helplessness, but our HUNGER.
This is my challenge at present. Not filling the spaces but giving them to him to fill.

How much do you want what he has for you? How much value do you place on his presence or his power in your life? Will you pursue him until you take hold of him in a way that transforms your life? This will mean setting aside time to work together on what he has shown you. Take an hour or two this week to do this. Pray the Scriptures. Tell him you MUST meet him as Abba, Daddy and know his fondest love. Every night as you are going to sleep keep crying out for his Spirit to reveal to your deepest heart this perfect love. Don't settle for less than your birthright - your inheritance.

It is easy to give mental assent to something new that the Lord says to us, and file it away as "a good truth". This is like getting your main course and displaying it in a cabinet! How do we 'eat' the truth until it becomes a part of us? We pray it - we chew on it - we keep it before us, asking the Spirit to make it a heart reality, not just a head understanding. When we 'hunger and thirst' after him, he will come to us. LORD MAKE US A HUNGRY PEOPLE

We are never far from rain

It has rained and rained over the last 2 or 3 weeks, with only half a day of sun here and there. But the earth is now soft and releasing the rain into rivers.
Bill Johnson said "We are never far from rain." This is because even in the valleys and the barren places in our lives the earth calls for rain, and the sky above is waiting to "pour out water on the thirsty land." Such is the way of the Father. Such is the way of his Kingdom.
It takes our calling, our crying out, our persistent and INsistent knocking...and he comes. And nothing else matters then. We dance in the rain. We drink in the rain. We bathe in his presence... then it's time for it to flow. The living water flowing out from our innermost being.
Are you waiting? Are you calling? Crying out? Insistently knocking? It is the seeking ones who receive. The hungry ones who will not be denied.

Don't stop - until he comes and rains upon you... and yours - and the dancing begins!

The only wise God, our Father...

I have finally, in the last two or three years, been able to rest in the all-knowing, all-loving wisdom of God, and allow myself to slow down and listen and not over-react, knowing that sooner or later he will show me the way.

And this week he has done it again, in grand style! There have been three areas of my life where I have groaned before him wanting a light to go on. And what he has brought to my attention speaks powerfully to all three. How neat is that!

I have been soaking myself in free mp3 downloads of the teaching by Mark Stibbe on Healing the Orphan Heart. Can I recommend it to you? They are at www.saltlight.org/europe/resources/speaker/mark-stibbe(get the first 4 on the list) and also www.kingsgateuk.com and look for his messages - Receiving the Robe and the Ring, and From Slavery to Sonship. You can also buy his books and CDs on his website www.fathershousetrust.com

He quotes a wonderful revised version of the 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my Abba, Daddy,
Therefore I am never in need.
He makes me rest in green meadows
And leads me beside peaceful, refreshing streams.
He always holds my hand and guides me along the right paths, bringing honour to his name.
Even when I have to walk in the dark valley of death,
My Abba Daddy is close beside me, so I am not afraid.
When my enemies are close he puts on a feast for me!
And he welcomes me as a special guest, anointing my head with oil and many kisses!
My life overflows with his generous blessings.
I know for sure that Abba Daddy's goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and one day I will live in his house forever.

What a Father!

Testing, testing, one, two, three

Ever noticed that when you grasp truth in new ways, or testify (or write) about the goodness of God that you are then tested in it - often severely? It has happened to me in the last few days. Had to return to my own blog (journal?)and reread my own words in order to take hold of the truth I needed to push out of a life-sucking discouragement!!

I guess this is like Jesus after his baptism, affirmation and receiving of the Spirit. He was then "led by the Spirit out into the desert to be tested." Almost like "now here's your chance to prove it." I notice that the enemy uses our weak points to get in and test us; the unmet longings, the places of 'unrest' in us. This clearly reveals places where more surrender and trust needs to work through down to a new level. I can see too that no one else can make the choices for me about setting my face to seek the Lord and him only when under these assaults.

So - lots of YES places - as well as the apparent NO!

This also appears to test my study focus. I am preparing a message for this Sunday on how the love of the Father, poured out upon us by the Spirit, heals the 'orphan spirit' we all have. When we feel left out, abandoned, having unmet needs, not secure, not satisfied, not 'at home in his love'... we evidence again this 'orphan' mentality - because we have failed to drink deeply, and often enough, of the perfect love of our perfect heavenly Father.

Come Holy Spirit, pour out the love of the Father upon us again... cause us to drink until we are satisfied again, and able to delight in you as our source and our strength. Amen, amen, amen.

All Grace - at All Times?

Chewing on the rich promise in 1 Peter 5:10
"After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you."
The suffering/trial/distress is temporary, the grace is all-sufficient as it is an expression of his nature, the glory is eternal and depends on Christ Jesus not us, his tender mercies are personal - "will HIMSELF..." and his work is comprehensive; perfecting - restoring - completing, confirming - assuring, strengthening our hearts and minds, establishing - making steadfast and sure.
Have you noticed how often "all" is used in Scripture? 2 Cor.9:8 "And God is able to make ALL grace abound to you, so that in ALL things at ALL times, having ALL that you need you will abound in every good work."
What would happen in us if we prayed to "The God of ALL GRACE"? Grace for all situations - be it patience, resilience, steadfastness, courage, wisdom, insight, generosity...
Oh for a deeper revelation of the all-sufficiency of his grace in all things at all times. Yes Lord!

But then, there is God.

Had a yo-yo day. Inspired for an hour or so, then downcast after a disappointing conversation, then inspired again.... Realised my eyes were on the wrong things.

Reminded me of something I had read the other day. A quote from the old saint Hannah Whitall Smith - a woman married to a man antagonistic to God and to her. "I was passing through a great deal of questioning and perplexity, and I felt that no Christian had ever had such peculiar difficulties as mine before. I went to a deeply spiritual woman for help...pouring out all my troubles. When I had paused, expecting sympathy and consideration, she simply said, "Yes, all you say may be very true, but then, in spite of it all, there is God." I waited for a few minutes for something more, but nothing came. But, I continued, surely you did not understand how very serious and perplexing my difficulties are. Oh Yes I did, she replied, but then, as I tell you, there is God. And I could not induce her to make any other answer.
It seemed to me most disappointing and unsatisfactory. I felt that my peculiar and really harrowing experiences could not be met by anything so simple as merely the statement, Yes but there is God."
She describes how she doubted the woman's ability, but went back a number of other times with exactly the same result! And then she "dimly began to wonder whether after all God might not be enough even for my need... From wondering I came gradually to believing that, being my Creator and Redeemer, He must be enough; and at last a conviction burst upon me that He really was enough, and my eyes were opened to the fact of the absolute and utter all-sufficiency of God. My troubles disappeared like magic, and I did nothing but wonder how I could ever have been such an idiot as to be troubled by them, when all the while there was God, the Almighty and all-seeing God, the God who created me, and was therefore on my side and eager to care for me and help me. I had found out that God was enough and my soul was at rest."