Tag Archive | John

Orphaned Souls

Apr3

I heard a phrase on the radio the other day I can’t get out of my head – orphaned souls. K-Love was plugging an organization that gives shoes to orphans, and they call their benefactors orphan souls. But the DJ on the radio kept saying orphaned souls, and that misspeak intrigued me.

When I heard it, I immediately pictured sad, abandoned, third-world children, but I quickly mused orphaned souls can come in all ages, financial conditions, and countries.

I struggled with an exact definition of what an orphaned soul is.

It could be a child with no spiritual parents. This may be a result of not having actual parents, or the actual parents may be present but unaware of and/or uninterested in spiritual things. With no parents willing or able to direct the child’s spiritual formation, he or she becomes an orphaned soul. As they enter adulthood, these children continue to feel the effects of having no idea how to care for their souls. So I hear…

An orphaned soul could also be someone whose soul was tended to when they were growing up, but, upon becoming adults, they are no longer being shepherded. Maybe they’ve given up their former beliefs. Maybe they buy into the idea that spirituality is private. Maybe they used to go to a church but got burned and don’t want to go back. Or maybe they still go to a church, but their hearts aren’t in it – they are simply there out of ritual or because they think it earns them some points with God somehow. In any case, they are adults who all but neglect their souls.

A large percentage of people in this world fit these definitions.

I think the reality is everyone, no matter their age, can become orphaned souls if they aren’t purposefully pursuing a relationship with Jesus within the body (i.e., not on their own). It’s hard to be your own parent, and, spiritually speaking, we all need parents to help guide our souls in our faith.

Pastors, priests, ministers, elders, chaplains, deacons, mentors, etc., can all be, and hopefully all are, spiritual parents, shaping souls via sound Bible teaching and consistent displays of Jesus-like love.

But they will, at some point or another, fail us.

They will move away. They will die. They will have an affair. They will teach you something nutty. They will give you bad advice. They will let you down. So I hear…

And then you’ll feel spiritually orphaned again. You may even be spiritually orphaned again.

What will you do? Who will shepherd your soul to ensure it is well taken care of?

Psalm 68:5 says God is a “Father to the fatherless.”

Psalm 146:9 says God “sustains the fatherless.”

Hosea 14:3 says “the fatherless find compassion” in God.

And, of course, Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10), longing to take care of His sheep’s souls.

We all, at one point or another, have been orphaned souls. God places people in our lives to help direct us, but, ultimately, He is the Director, the Father, the Shepherd we need. The most amazing men and women are no substitutes for the Lord. Cultivate your personal relationship with Him daily that He may father you.

 

 

 

 

Now is our Time for Grief

Nov13

My kids and I talk about Heaven a lot.

My 3 year old is just trying to wrap her brain around the concept of Heaven. She knows it is a place where God lives, and if you love Jesus, you get to go there. When I remind her of these facts, she inevitably says, “I love Jesus! When can I go to Heaven?” I always tell her the same thing, “When God decides it’s time.” And she always tells me the same thing, “I want to go right now…”

My 5 year old has more complex thoughts about Heaven. She mostly wonders what it will be like. She wants to know details and  wishes God had given us more descriptions of Heaven in the Bible. She wonders if we will all live in one big house, or if there will be lots of houses… She wonders if the houses will be made of gold… She wonders if we will walk or float in Heaven… She wonders if we will be singing praises to God all the time or just some of the time… She wonders if there will be Burger King in Heaven… I don’t tell her that would be my version of Hell.

I like my older daughter’s imagination. I like how she daydreams about eternal life with the Lord. I can’t tell her for sure what Heaven will be like other than Heaven will be all good and no bad (which is why I’m pretty sure Burger King won’t be there…).

I am more on my younger daughter’s plane, longing for Heaven, no matter what the details are. I know it’s good, and I want good now. I know it is pain-free, and I want pain-free now (Revelation 21:4).

But it’s not time yet.

Jesus was talking to His disciples right before his murder, and he told them, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy… Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy,” (John 16:20,22).

The immediate context of the passage is Jesus describing the Jews’ joy over finally killing the “blasphemer”, Jesus, while the disciples grieve over the gruesome loss of their Friend and failure to understand the spiritual victory that was taking place. Jesus is telling the disciples their grief will turn to joy on the third day when He rises and proves Himself God by defeating death.

The broader context, I suggest, is the modern world enjoying their sin while the modern believers grieve over the state of brokenness we find ourselves in. People are broken. We don’t work right. Bad stuff happens. Pain is the norm. And believers grieve because we know in our hearts and from the scriptures THIS IS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!

But just as Jesus told His disciples, He tells us today, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice.”

The believer knows Jesus is coming back. We’ll either go to Him or He will come to us, and our joy will be unbounded!

But it’s not time for that yet. Sure, we can experience joy today while we daydream about Jesus coming back. But that joy is limited. Bounded. By the confines of broken people in a broken world.

No, now is our time of grief. Expect it. Accept it. But don’t get stuck in it.

Instead, learn to view the pain differently.

I’m learning by revisiting One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp.

Now is our time for grief, and we will not waste that grief. We will use it to experience the Father more deeply.

Why Christians Can’t Keep Their Religion to Themselves

Oct2

I’m not enough of a biblical scholar to know for sure, but I feel safe in saying that one of the first examples of evangelism (if not the first) occurred before Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In fact, the incident I am talking about occurred before Jesus had done much of anything in the way of communicating His special relationship to the Father and to us humans.

In John 1, Jesus has just started assembling His first followers. John the Baptist, the only person at this point who understands that Jesus is the Messiah (with the exception of Mary and Joseph), is talking Jesus up to his own followers, telling them to stop following him and start following the only One really worth following – Jesus.

(Side note: this is the litmus test of an awesome leader – he or she who points you to Jesus, not to themselves, is the only kind of pastor worth learning under.)

For all we know, John’s followers really have no idea who Jesus is. He may not have been anymore than a stranger or a peculiar townsman to them. But they know John. They trust John. And if John tells them this Jesus guy is special and they ought to follow Him around, they’re going to do it. Their relationship with John has that kind of power.

When they start to walk behind Him, Jesus, “turn(ed) around…and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ ‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him,” (John 1:38-39).

Don’t you wonder what went on that day? A day with Jesus… at His home… conversations, chores, maybe some discussion of Scripture…

Whatever took place, it was significant. Because the next three verses say, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus,” (John 1:40-42).

Wow!

The first instance of evangelism took place within established relationships. Andrew trusted John. Simon trusted Andrew. And Andrew and Simon both personally came to know the Messiah that day. There was something natural, unforced, and organic about it.

(I’m not 100% against evangelizing to people you don’t know. If the Spirit leads, people do come to accept Jesus in those kinds of situations. We just have to be super careful about our presentation to strangers, lest we become those judgmental, harsh, prideful street evangelizers that misrepresent Jesus so often.)

Why was Andrew’s first inclination after being with Jesus to go and tell his brother?

Well, we can assume Andrew and his brother have spent years waiting and looking for the Messiah. All Jews were eagerly awaiting the Savior their scriptures spoke of.

Can you imagine spending your whole life looking for Someone?

Sure you can. Because, whether we realize it or not, we all are looking for Him.

As soon as we are able to understand bad things happen, as soon as we experience firsthand the emptiness we feel inside because this world just isn’t right, we have an emotional and spiritual void we look to fill.

Unless we have parents who guide us toward Jesus, we try to fill our emptiness with whatever is available – people who make us feel better, activities we excel at so we can get praise to make us feel better, entertainment to block out the real world to make us feel better, etc.

But we lose those friends that were so good at pumping us up.

School and sports and our achievements end, and no one is praising us for changing diapers for 5.5 years straight without losing our ever loving minds.

Movies and concerts and other forms of entertainment only last a couple of hours; then we have to come back to reality and face the fact that this world is screwed up. That we are screwed up.

We begin to get cynical. We admit nothing will ever satisfy. Not fully. We spent years looking for Something, and we never found it.

Just like Andrew and Simon.

But, praise God, they didn’t stay lost! And we don’t have to either.

Someone who knew the Only Answer – John, in this case – came along and told Andrew Who he’d been looking for his entire life.

Andrew checked out Jesus and realized in the course of ONE DAY that John was right!

“It’s true! It’s true!” Andrew’s soul must’ve exclaimed. “Jesus is what I – we – have been looking for this whole time! He is the Messiah! He is my Messiah! I must tell Simon!”

And out of that joy, Andrew spread the word. “I’ve found What you’ve been looking for! Look no longer! Waste no more time!”

But Andrew didn’t stop there. No, after he told Simon about Jesus, Andrew brought Simon to Jesus!

Praise God!

And that, dear unbeliever, is why we Christians can’t contain our enthusiasm!

It took us, personally, so many years to discover What we’d needed. But, by His grace and other people’s willingness to share truth with us, we found Him. And we love you so much, we want you to find Him, too!

But, Christians, we must not stop at simply telling others about Jesus; like Andrew, we must show them Jesus.

Yes, I am aware we can’t physically bring people to Jesus. But we can show people the Jesus inside of us – His love, His kindness, His warmth, His truth, His goodness, His patience, His Word, His compassion.

As James 2 says, faith without actions isn’t really faith at all. Yes, tell others about Jesus, but don’t stop there. Love well. Show Jesus.

 

 

 

 

Do You Know Who God Is?

Aug14

Our pastor challenged us on Sunday to evaluate whether or not we have an accurate view of how holy God is.

The implication is we tend to humanize God and lose awareness of how majestic and grand and wholly above us in rank and perfection He truly is. And when we are not consciously aware of how awesome He literally is, our worship and our morals become lax.

Our pastor stopped there, but my brain did not.

I’ve been wondering how my day-to-day would change if I were more consistently focused on God’s grandeur. If I could be perpetually caught up in the fact that He is GOD – Creator, Sustainer and Savior of the ENTIRE universe – how would my approach to life change?

While I don’t yet consistently think of Him, I have successfully focused on Him for a minute or two before.

After the pastor finished his sermon on Sunday, this song played:

While I sang along, I thought about the passages in Scripture where people saw God. Isaiah, Ezekiel, John… They all tried to describe what they saw, but they lacked the words to accurately convey God. What they did communicate perfectly, though, was the awe and humility they felt in the Lord’s presence.

Upon realizing he was in the presence of the Lord, Isaiah said, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty,” (Isaiah 6:5).

In that moment, Isaiah recognized the depth of his sinfulness and the height of God’s holiness. Isaiah knew he was unworthy to be in the presence of God, and he had a healthy fear of the penalty (death) God could rightfully inflict upon him for being unclean in God’s presence.

In Revelation John attempts to describe his vision of the resurrected Jesus Christ in all His glory. Although John’s similes and metaphors don’t capture precisely what he saw, we know exactly what John felt. He said, “When I saw [Jesus], I fell at his feet as though dead,” (Revelation 1:17). John was OVERWHELMED by Jesus’ presence. His brilliance and grandeur was too much for John to process. Two other times during John’s vision, he falls down in a posture of worship, unable to contain his feelings of awe toward the Lord (Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9).

Ezekiel responds similarly in 1:28, falling facedown when the Lord speaks to him.

These men had a proper perspective of God’s supremacy.

I wonder if, while seeing the seraphs hover around God’s throne, singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory,” Isaiah fretted about what the Israelites thought about him (Isaiah 6:2-3). As a prophet proclaiming the judgment and wrath of God, Isaiah didn’t have many friends. In fact, he had a lot of folks who would rather kill him than continue to listen to his “message from God” about how God was going to destroy them on account of their sin.

But as Isaiah focused on the true glory of the Lord, his concerns about his popularity and safety probably faded into the background of his mind, if they didn’t fall off his radar completely.

I wonder if, while he was in the presence of the Lord, John worried about loneliness. He was currently exiled on an island, under house arrest, virtually alone. I bet a lot of his needs for fellowship and emotional intimacy with friends and family were going unfulfilled. He may have been a pretty depressed guy, loathing his very existence.

And then he saw the Lord.

While he was in God’s presence, I have a hunch John didn’t give one thought to his problems. I bet his needs didn’t seem so pressing, and his wants probably didn’t feel so dire.

And I’m thinking the same can be true for us.

I’ve experienced flashes of this in my Christian life. For literally a minute or two, caught up in the TRUTH of God’s greatness, I’ve experienced the camera of my soul zoom in on Him while my problems blurred in the background.

In those precious moments, I didn’t think about the problems. I didn’t even seem to notice them much. And when I did catch a glimpse of them, they felt irrelevant. They no longer produced anxiety or despair in my spirit. They were distant… for a couple of minutes.

I think God wants us to experience minutes like these more and more often. Moments of focusing on His greatness need to become the norm in our lives. When we accurately understand the glory of the Lord, everything else in our lives falls into it’s proper place.

Talk is Cheap

Aug10

My 5 year old, Lexi, had her first soccer practice ever last night. She was supremely cute in her bright pink everything, including cleats.

Her coach seems like a great guy, but he, admittedly, knows little about soccer. He asked for help, so I volunteered to assist him.

During one of the drills last night, Lexi stepped up for her turn. Before I passed her the ball, she called out with great excitement, “Mommy, I’m not going to do anything wrong!”

Hmm.

I passed her the ball, and she successfully completed the two-part skill. As her ball rolled into the goal, she smiled widely at me and hollered, “Mommy, I didn’t do anything wrong!”

As I praised her, my parent radar went off.

Why is she so worried about doing something wrong? Where is this perfectionist tendency coming from? Have I caused this? Am I too hard on her? Am I always correcting her? Do I not encourage her enough? Or is this just the result of her being a first-born?

Lexi’s goal was not to enjoy soccer or have fun at practice (although, she did). She was solely focused on not doing anything wrong. Perhaps I will uncover why that is when I am able to see her response when she does do something wrong.

Is she scared of punishment? Is she trying to impress me or others? Does she believe she is only valuable if she performs well? Will she be frustrated with herself if she messes up? Will she take goof ups in stride with a smile on her face?

It’s hard to know what’s behind her thoughts, but, as her mom, I want to do everything within my power to assure her that my love for her does not depend upon her performance. She can be the worst soccer player in the history of the sport, and I will still love her with relentless affection.

While it’s important I tell her that is the case, it’s more important I show her. Talk is cheap, as they say.

I need to be purposefully embracing her, complimenting her and lifting her up when she fails at things. I need to give her proof I really do mean it when I tell her I love her no matter what and her value doesn’t depend upon her performance.

God tells us the same things. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us because we are us, not for what we can do or achieve.

But talk is cheap.

And He knows that. So He proved it.

Before we could accomplish anything, He sacrificed His life for us. He laid down His life for us to prove His love for us (John 15:13).

Romans says it well, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:7-8).

But aside from our salvation, I think God is still proving His love for us. Or at least He wants to if we give Him the opportunity.

When we fail I believe God wants us to come to Him so, like a good parent, He can embrace us, compliment us and lift us up. He wants to continue to give us proof He really does mean it when He tells us He loves us no matter what and our value doesn’t depend upon our performances.

But do we allow Him that opportunity?

When the air around us is thick with the stench of fresh failure, how often do we go to the Lord for that comfort we crave?

Personally, I prefer a bowl of ice cream. Or a television show. Or sleep. Anything to distract me and make me feel instantly better.

But my soul doesn’t need these things. When I fail I need my Father’s reassurance more than anything else.

Lord, teach us to come to You when we need to experience Your immovable love afresh.

Lose Yourself

Jul16

God has been trying to teach me something huge the past 18 months.  And, in pure human fashion, I have been slow to learn.  It got to the point where a couple of weeks ago I more or less pleaded with the Lord, “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TEACH ME?!  I DON’T GET IT!  MAKE IT CLEARER!”

And because God loves me, He did.

He has spent 2 weeks making it perfectly clear that I am selfish, and it’s time I change.

Through scripture, sermons, Bible studies, friends, and the Holy Spirit, God has been gently but clearly saying, “Life isn’t about you.”

I suppose He has been saying this for the past year and a half, but I’ve been hearing it as a polite opinion instead of a non-negotiable fact.  Most of the time opinions go in one ear and out the other.  What really gets my attention is someone with a megaphone 3 inches from my face belting out, “LIFE IS NOT ABOUT YOU, KELLY!”

God is too polite to go that route himself, but preachers often do it for Him, and I am thankful for that.  Because the majority of my American life tells me life IS all about me.  So I need someone louder than the noise of the world and of my own selfish nature to get my attention.

Philippians 1:21, it turns out, does not read, “To live is Kelly, to die is gain.”  No, “to live is Christ…”  The very point of our existence is to glorify Him, not satisfy ourselves.  Every choice we make should be with Him and furthering His agenda in mind.  Where we live, what we do with our money, how we spend our free time…  We are to live every moment with Him in mind.

Philippians 2:3 doesn’t say, “Do everything out of selfish ambition and vain conceit.”  No, “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit…”  Not one single thing!  NOTHING we do should be motivated by what’s in it for me.

Gonna brush your teeth?  You shouldn’t do it to have a pretty smile; you should do it to take care of the body the Lord has given you.  Gonna apply for a higher position at work?  You shouldn’t do it so you’ll have more money to buy more things you don’t need; you should do it to have the opportunity to bring a Christlike influence to more people in your company.  Gonna have that third kid?  You shouldn’t do it because you have two girls, and you really want to have a boy; you should do it because you are committed to raising children who love Jesus and make an impact in this world for Him.

The rest of Philippians 2:3 doesn’t read, “In hubris consider yourself better than others.”  No, “in humility consider others better than yourselves.”  Not equal to, not the same as, but better than you!

The elderly person driving 20 under the speed limit in front of you?  Better than you.  Your spouse that won’t clean the bathrooms?  Better than you, too.  Your boss that drops huge projects on you at the last minute with no regard for the 1,000 other things you are in the middle of?  Also better than you.

(Ok, they aren’t actually better than you, but you’re to act like they are, per scripture.)

Jesus said if we want to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves (Matthew 16:24).  He wasn’t speaking in some spiritual hyperbole.  He wasn’t referring to abstaining from things for piety’s sake or to earn religious points with God.  He was referring to serving Him and others with our whole beings.

Because Jesus knew what we/I often forget.  LIFE IS NOT ABOUT ME!  It is about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  This whole circus we call life is for Him – to know Him and to make Him known (John 17:25-26).

Let’s operate through that filter today…  and every day.

Repentance Without Remorse?

May26

I’ve spent the last week or so asking God to convict me about something so I could repent and then begin to repair what I’ve broken through my sinning.

While I was freely admitting in my mind that my action had been sin, I didn’t feel bad about it.  I wasn’t sorry.  I felt justified.

Satan used this lack of contrition to paralyze me.  He fed me heaping spoonfuls of this lie: if you don’t feel sorry, you aren’t sorry, and you can’t apologize or rectify the situation unless you feel sorry.

I agreed with Satan, and I felt stuck.  After all, I couldn’t will myself to feel bad for what I’d done.  Even if I wanted to feel totally broken up about it, I couldn’t make myself feel that way.

And then it occurred to me…  what if I don’t have to feel bad in order to repent?

My initial reaction was, “Well, if I don’t feel sorry, then my repentance would be insincere, worthless…”

But as I considered this idea a little longer, I began to wonder if that was really true. I wondered how often feelings of contrition were tied to repentance in the Bible…

The Greek word behind repent means to change one’s mind for the better, and, except in one case, was always used in the New Testament in regards to sin (Vine’s).  Feelings of contrition are inherent within the definition, but must they be in order for someone to turn from what they know is sin and pursue righteousness?

In its most basic form, repent means to choose to do something better.  Whether you feel like it or not.  Whether you feel bad about what you did to begin with or not.

If this is true, we are no longer paralyzed when we don’t feel remorse over sin.  We can still repent.  We can choose to act in a better manner next time.  We can move forward, toward righteousness, thwarting Satan’s plan to immobilize us in our pursuit of Christ.

Don’t get me wrong, feelings of contrition would definitely help motivate us to resist temptations, and I think praying for the Holy Spirit to convict us emotionally over our sin is a worthy pursuit (John 16:7-8).  (In fact, if we aren’t desiring to feel broken over sin, we have even bigger problems (Ephesians 4:17-32).)

But when the feelings of remorse just aren’t coming, we don’t have to sit and wait for them.  We can pray for them to come, and we can choose to turn from our sinful choices and pursue better choices.

“I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” Acts 26:20

The Question Every Non-Christian is Asking

May22

There’s an important question every non-Christian is asking.  And we Christians, at least in my demographic, are just now beginning to realize it.

Every unbeliever is asking us Christians, “Will you love me even if I don’t accept your Jesus?”

For too long I, and most evangelicals I know, have approached sharing the Gospel as “the goal”.  When we meet an unbeliever, our chief objective is to verbalize the Good News as quickly as possible and “seal the deal” on their salvation.  If we are met with resistance (and why wouldn’t we be, having not invested in the person at all?), we give up on that person and move on to the next.

Which means we are answering their question with a very loud “NO!”

Sharing the Gospel like this communicates to unbelievers that all we care about is their making a decision to accept Jesus and the Bible’s teaching about Him.  To be sure, we are very much concerned they believe in Jesus.  But if that’s all we care about, then unbelievers become statistics, in our minds as well as from their points of view, losing their values as people and as individuals.

And I don’t love statistics.

I don’t love numbers.  I may get a little excited when the church announces figures each year of the number of people “saved”, the number of baptisms performed, etc.  That might cause me to ooh and ahh for a moment.  But I can’t recall last year’s stats.  I have no idea what the numbers were.  Because I don’t love numbers.

I love people.

People have faces and stories and hearts and needs and wants and baggage and hopes.  And when we begin to change our perspective on evangelism, we begin to value unbelievers for who they are, regardless of whether or not we ever get a chance to share Jesus with them.

Our evangelism formula changes, then, from:

I share Christ → You accept Christ → We form a relationship

to:

We form a relationship → You may or may not accept Christ → We continue relationship

This shift in perspective is necessary not because we value the Gospel too much (there is no such thing) but because we - I - value people too little.  We don’t love people as Jesus loved people.  He was motivated to love people because of their innate value as people just as much as He was motivated by His concern for their having an eternal relationship with the Father.

“Just as much”?!  Someone’s spending eternity in dark, torturous hell seems a little more important than whether or not I love them well, you might argue.

Image via freedigitalphotos.net

It’s easy for me to think that.  Logically, that makes sense.  But my logic is not always God’s logic (Isaiah 55:9).  So we must ask ourselves, is this idea biblical?

What did Jesus teach us about loving people?

“‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,’” (John 13:34).

How has Jesus loved us?

“‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you,’” (John 15:9).

How has the Father loved Jesus?

Well, as a parent myself, I can imagine the Father loved Jesus with every fiber of His being, investing huge amounts of time, emotional energy, and unlimited acts of service in His Son.  And Jesus loves us that intensely.  And Jesus wants us to love others that intensely as well.

Why?

“‘By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another,’” (John 13:35).

Unbelievers will scratch their heads.  ”Why do these people love others so well?  HOW can these people love others so well?!”  And, because they feel loved by us and are comfortable in our friendship, they will ask us these questions.  We will then be able to share Jesus with them.  And if they don’t accept that explanation or choose to adopt it as their own, we are to keep loving them, per the argument above.

Jesus commands up to share the Gospel (Mark 16:15).  But He also commands us to love one another (John 13:34).  He is concerned with both aspects.  Are you?

Jesus is Praying For You Today

Mar30

Prayer is good.

Praying for each other is good.

And I appreciate people who pray for me in the privacy of their own minds.

But I am taken to a whole new level of honored when someone prays for me out loud in my presence.  I am humbled.  I am touched someone would take time out of his or her life to talk to God on my behalf.  I feel valued when someone lets me eavesdrop on their intimate conversation with our Father about me.

These are the emotions I experience reading John 17.  In this chapter, Jesus is praying to God the Father for Himself, for His then-disciples, and for all believers to come.

We have every reason to assume that Jesus is praying in front of His disciples.  They are conversing in the last verse of John 16, and the first verse of John 17 reads, “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed” (John 17:1).

Can you imagine listening to Jesus talk to God the Father?  Just to hear Jesus pour out His heart about Himself would have been moving enough (John 17:1-5).  But then He prays for the disciples in their presence (John 17:6-19).

Jesus spends the first three verses commending the disciples to the Father.  Jesus tells God the disciples have “obeyed your word” and “accepted [your words]” and believed “with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me” (John 17:6-8).  In other words, Jesus is vouching for the disciples.  JESUS.  Not just some random person.  Jesus Himself.  What an honor that must have been for the disciples to hear.

After Jesus verifies the disciples’ faith, He begins to pray for them (John 17:9;11;13;15;17;19).  Jesus asks the Father to protect the disciples while they remain in a world hostile to them and the Gospel they represent (John 17:14-15).  Jesus asks for protection from the evil one and for God to “sanctify [the disciples] by the truth” (John 17:17;19).

The footnote in my Bible defines sanctify as “set apart for sacred use or make holy”.  How honored must the disciples have felt for JESUS to ask the Lord to use THEM – a ragtag crew prone to doubt, density, and denial -for Kingdom purposes?

There is a curious verse in the middle of Jesus’ prayer for the disciples.  In verse 13 Jesus says “I am coming to you (God the Father) now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

Jesus is explaining that his praying for the disciples in front of the disciples will yield the full measure of His joy within the disciples.

And I kind of know what He means.  When someone pours out a heartfelt prayer on my behalf, I feel valued. How much more so when the person praying is Jesus Himself?

Lucky for us, Jesus prays for us in the next section of the chapter (John 17:20-26).  Jesus prays for “those who will believe in me through [the disciples'] message” (John 17:20).  To be clear, that means every believer who has ever lived since that first batch of believers who walked and talked with Jesus Himself.  The discples’ message – the Gospel – is still being spread today.  And anyone who believes in Jesus on account of hearing that message is the subject of Jesus’ prayer.

So what does Jesus pray for us?  Unity.  Unity with each other, and unity with the Godhead.  Jesus also prays, “I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory…”  I think this is Jesus’ invitation for us to experience His glory during our earthly lives.  But what does that mean?  Maybe it means having spiritual eyes to see Him working around us.  Maybe it means working with Him to accomplish Kingdom objectives – like spreading the Gospel, seeing hearts changed by the Word, and serving others with Christlikeness so they will see Jesus in us.

Jesus finishes His prayer for us by asking that “the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26).  I don’t think I can come up with two greater gifts than the Father’s love and Jesus Himself in me.

Jesus prayed for you.  And He still – currently, continuously – prays for you (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1).

Knowing this, may you have the full measure of His joy within you.

A Little Change of Perspective Goes a Long Way

Jan10
With the Lights Out

Image via Wikipedia

Hi, my name is Kelly, and I am a rebel.

I’m sure this is true of all people to some degree or another, but I feel particularly prone to resist authority.

I blame my older brother.  He modeled rebellion well for me, for which he spent the better part of the 90′s grounded.  I also blame alternative rock stars.  Kurt Cobain, in particular.  He was my idol for 3 or 4 years, and his anti-authority attitude rubbed off on me.  Lastly, I blame my friends at the time, who were a lot more courageous than me in bucking any and all authority, but nonetheless inspired me to resist rules and rulers in the depths of my heart.

Oh, and I guess I blame myself, too…  If I HAVE to…  Personal responsibility, blah, blah, blah…

All that to say that I had many years of training in refusing to submit to authority.  But I was usually too scared to outwardly resist, so I just kept those disgruntled feelings stewing inside of me while I towed the line.  Then, afterward, I’d sit around with my rebel friends and talk about how stupid those rules were and how stupid those authority figures were for enforcing those rules.

Enter God.

He came into my life when I was 16.  And all of a sudden, THE Authority Figure desired my joyful compliance.  I had to be rewired.  I had to learn that He was trustworthy.  I had to learn that obeying Him was actually in my best interest as well as His.  I had to learn to follow Someone else’s rules, not so I could get into Heaven, but as a sign that I really do love God (John 14:15,24; 1 John 5:3).

To be honest, I have to relearn these things a lot.  It’s hard for me to not slip into the mindset that God is a demanding authoritarian whom I must obey or else run the risk of severe consequences.  I often forget that He is love, subconsciously transforming Him into a harsh Disciplinarian whose chief concern is that I obey Him simply because He says so.

THIS IS NOT AN ACCURATE VIEW OF GOD!

It totally misses His heart for me.

At the core of who God is, He LOVES me (John 16:27).  And if we don’t understand God’s desire for our obedience in the context of His love for us, we turn Him into something He isn’t – a tyrannical authority figure.

We must leave this faulty perspective behind and intentionally adopt this new one – this correct one.

Because God loves us, He wants what is best for us.

God tells us what to do because He knows better than we do what is best for us.

If we obey Him, we experience what is best for us.  God is overjoyed that we trusted Him and loved Him enough to obey Him.

If we do not obey Him, God is grieved.  He is angry and sad that we, His precious children, are experiencing less than the best.  And he is sad that we did not trust Him or love Him enough to obey Him.

More concisely, when we disobey the Lord, He is first and foremost heartbroken.  Anger may be His secondary response, but immense sadness is His first emotion.  He is sad for us.  He is hurt by us and our lack of trust in Him.

What’s my point?

This slight change of perspective ought to help us resist temptation much more easily.

Our previous line of thinking was this: I shouldn’t do ______ because the Bible tells me not to or because God will be mad at me.

Our previous reaction was this: Frankly, who cares?  I want to do what I want to do.  He can be mad if He wants, but I’ve got to take care of me.

Animosity and isolation, then, rule our hearts, distancing us from God emotionally and making Him the “enemy”.

But with this shift of perspective, our thinking becomes this: I don’t want to do ________ because I don’t want to make God sad.

Love becomes our motivation.  We feel like we are on the same team as God.  We love Him; He loves us; and we’re in this crazy life together.

This same change of perspective can be applied to relationships with other authority figures in our lives.  Bosses, parents, pastors, spouses.  When they ask us to do something we don’t want to do, we can choose to be angry and do what we want to do anyway.  Or we can change our perspective to one of love – I don’t want to hurt this person by selfishly disobeying.  Perhaps this will make it easier for us to submit in these relationships as well.

**Insert your own disclaimer here that we shouldn’t always obey everything someone tells us to do just because they are in a position of authority over us.  I don’t want to take the time to write such a disclaimer because that should be obvious. :) **

Being motivated by love to resist temptation to buck authority… that sounds like Jesus to me.