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.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
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."
"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."
Monday, August 16, 2010
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."
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."
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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?
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?
Thursday, August 5, 2010
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.
"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.
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