Month: May 2011

Superman, I am looking for You
More than a man, I am looking for You
I know You always have been
I know You’ll always be
Heaven’s Prince, I’m looking for You
Oh My King, I need to see You
I know You always have been
I know You’ll always be

Revulsion rose up and everything in me wanted to keep walking and ignore what I saw. Barely had I gone two more steps when I knew what I was supposed to do. I made my way back to my car. Kleenex seemed less than adequate so I found a flyer talking about some seminar of signs and wonders I was never going to. The paper was quite thick in its construction though.

I walked back to the playground that children came to enjoy. Bending down I kept thinking to myself, “Did you ever think you’d be led to do this?” Using the flyer, I scooped the dried condom up and put it in a nearby trashcan. Revulsion still flooded my senses but I felt no anger, only sorrow. When we have no respect for ourselves, how can we possibly respect others?

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

* Lyrics by Bernice Johnson Reagon, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock

Our freedom is at hand

Isa 61:1 (NIV) The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners

Tolerance is an embraced mode of thought and ideal today in our societies of freedom. Tolerance has “some” wisdom in a sense to understand how others may not always agree with our own thoughts and opinions. Biblically speaking we are even taught to “avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife”. I propose a thought…tolerance is meant as a love language offered by those who seek to live peaceable with one another.

I enjoy soaking in the language of love right up until I am confronted with truth. We are never to twist the truth to justify being tolerant and even compromised. Tolerance for the sake of peace is an incorrect perception. Tolerance for the sake of our own freedom is again an incorrect perception. Going back to what the Word speaks when it says to “avoid foolish and ignorant disputes”; I looked into the deeper meaning of the word foolish. According to Strong’s it would mean, “dull or stupid, heedless, absurd”, just to be brief. In the dictionary it refers to “resulting from or showing a lack of sense, unwise, lacking forethought or caution, trifling, insignificant”. My thought process was that this word never said to avoid disagreement. It does not say avoid discussion just so we could be tolerant of each other. It spoke that we are not to be foolish in such things. It also speaks “a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

In Acts chapter 17 when Paul came to Thessalonica, he did not come to foolishly dispute anything. He came in love, but would only speak truth. The results were divisive, and telling verses were spoken, “these who have turned the world upside down have come here too…And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things”. Paul and his companion Silas were sent elsewhere and this is where we find the encouragement to know what true tolerance should be. “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.”

Accepting anything less than truth is compromise; it becomes the world’s twisted version of tolerance.

Scriptures 2 Tim 2:23-26, Acts 17:6,8,11

Walk like a man, be a man, man up, act like a man! I have heard these statements throughout the years used in many ways with many inferences. I sometimes wonder at how such colloquialism begins. I was amazed when I found there to be a scriptural understanding for these statements. To be a man really means to follow God.

1Ki 2:1-4 (NLT) As the time of King David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon: “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. Observe the requirements of the LORD your God, and follow all His ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. If you do this, then the LORD will keep the promise He made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow Me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.'”

I have given much time and thought to “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction”. Lacking maturity, I once thought fear of the Lord to mean how He would smite me for the sake of my nature to be sinful. In my foolishness, I did despise this fear and ran as far as I could get from learning anything about Him or what His word said. I have since learned the word fear was not only what I knew it to mean, but so much more. Fear also means to have reverential awe of.

As I am changed day by day, my “fear of the Lord” becomes more a wonder at His goodness. I am awestruck at His very heart for someone like me. I am in wonder at how patient He is with me to learn and grow. I am amazed by the depth of His love for me. I tremble in the revelation He has every right to pour out His justice, but chooses instead to show mercy and compassion.

My fear now is redefined, it is how lost I would be without Him. How hopeless my life would be living in the empty vanity of humanistic wisdom.

Scripture Pro 1:7

“I am mistaken…” These words I spoke, but they weren’t easy. I knew I would look foolish, but truth was of greater value than my foolishness. I have wondered at the value of such candidness in our society as of late. Taking the path of least resistance is often what we do to prevent confrontation. I admire the peacemakers and try to live my life as such, but I wonder at the history lessons we may be ignoring. Will we compromise truth to keep the peace? Will we fail to admit we’ve made a mistake because we fear looking foolish more than we fear being truthful?

If we are fortunate to be open to it, there comes a place in our lives where we begin to discover who we really are, and just as importantly, who we are not. Identity is a tricky thing in our culture because it’s the condition of being oneself and not another.

Our culture sends mixed messages about the importance of identity. On the one hand they are always promoting those who seem like the maverick or innovative one, but then they conjure up endless ways to promote duplication of the very thing which made them different in the first place.

Identity in truth never sends a mixed message. Walking in that identity however can be daunting to look at, especially when you are meant to start walking it alone. I was reminded today of how Abram was told, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.” Of course Abram took someone with him. I can only imagine because he did not want to be alone on the journey.

Peter was desirous to do the same thing. He was told by Jesus, “Then feed My sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Peter looked at the other guy walking with them and asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?” Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow Me.”

That last sentence is the one which will make all the difference in any life….“As for you, follow Me”. My own identity will always be wrapped up in the truth of that sentence. As I am obedient to follow, step by step, I find my identity. I find my character.

Scriptures Gen 12:1, John 21:17-19

We’d let our back yard alone for a long season. There were reasons we never discussed but I knew my own heart about it. It was time to move forward though and I set about the task. At one point I found myself turning up dry and lifeless dirt filled with weeds. My hands, feet and every muscle began to ache with the effort, but I loved seeing the underlying soil.

Eventually I stopped for a bit and just rested my eyes on the truth of what I was seeing. What looked so hard, so forgotten, so overrun with ugliness was nothing permanent, it just hadn’t been tended to. Beneath the surface there was soft and fertile ground we could plant into.

I lay aside my tools and looked down at myself. I was covered in dirt from my head to my toes but I just didn’t mind. As I worked in my yard digging into the deeper soil, I knew my Father was doing the same in my heart. I was His garden to be made over.

Eze 36:26  And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.