grace
Plugged In
by Linda Rex
It’s amazing the things that come to mind when I begin to write a blog. Usually they are lots of reasons that I not write it—other things I need to be doing. It seems that it is easy to let life get in the way of sharing God’s good news with others.
Reading books or hearing speakers that attempt to motivate me to share my faith can be quite intimidating. Some have a particular method of proclamation. Others insist on a certain venue or recommend a particular tract or movie to assist in sharing the gospel. Attempting to share one’s faith seems to be a huge, difficult project that requires special techniques, talents and acuteness.
When I begin to be overwhelmed with the hugeness of sharing the gospel, then I remember the simplicity Jesus called us to when it comes to sharing our faith in him. In reality, sharing the gospel is simply extending our relationship with God out to include others.
Including others in our relationship with God does not require a lot of the things we think it requires. It merely requires love—something that is a gift of God in the Spirit. God pours over us and into us his love for others and we express it. It is God’s peace—the peace in the midst of conflict and struggle that passes understanding—that we share with others who are in conflict and are struggling.
It is significant that Jesus commanded his followers to remain in Jerusalem until they were clothed with the power of God, the Holy Spirit. It was when they received the gift Jesus breathed on them that they were able to go where Jesus was sending them and do the work he had given them to do.
Sharing the life and words of Jesus is simply living and walking in the Spirit. It is sharing the life God has given us through his Son. God gave himself to us in his Son Jesus, through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Now that that eternal life we have in Christ is coming into real existence in our life, our human existence, through the Spirit. What is true objectively—our life is hidden with God in Christ—becomes true for us ontologically—we are conformed to the image of Christ.
As we are conformed into the image of Christ, that life includes others we are close to or who we share life with. As we share that life we have in Christ with others, the grace of God becomes manifest in their lives as well. God shares his life with us in Christ, we receive it, and we share that life with others. God makes room for us in his life. We make room for others in our life and therefore in his life. There’s that lovely word perichoresis again—making room for one another.
The Father sent Jesus so we would be included in the life and love of God as Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus sent us so that others might be included in his life and love as well. Sharing the gospel is simply sharing life—the life God has given us in his Son and has empowered us to share with others by the Holy Spirit.
This leaves me with no excuse—I must share with you, what God has given me in his Son Jesus. It is too wonderful to keep to myself…
Thank you Father, for including us in your life through your Son Jesus. Thank you for the gift of the Spirit who brings us to life in Jesus. Thank you for empowering us to share that life with others. Please bring those people into our lives that you would have us share life with and grant us the courage and love to include them in our life with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
“So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” John 20:21-22 NASB
Expectancy
by Linda Rex
One of the things that I enjoyed when my children were younger was buying them gifts for a special occasion. Months before the event I would be listening to them as we did things together, trying to see what kind of things they enjoyed and what they might be interested in having. We would walk through a store while I was getting some household items, and I would watch them linger over a toy or game that caught their eye.
I’d watch them plan out the number of chores they would have to do or how much allowance they would have to save up to buy it. Often it would be more than what they could manage immediately. They’d talk about it occasionally, maybe even hint around about it, but for them it was just a dream—their heart’s desire that they couldn’t see their way to achieving.
So it was with much secret delight that I would find a way to purchase the item and wrap it up so I could give it to them on a special occasion. Then I would expectantly look forward to the day when I could watch their face light up with joy as they opened their gift.
Can you imagine with what expectancy God awaits to reveal his Son to us in all his glory? And how he joyfully anticipates the day when you and I along with all his children will be revealed in the full glory he has given us in Jesus Christ—a glory that is already ours, but is for now, hidden with Christ in God? (Col. 3:3-4)
The ascension, which we will celebrate this Sunday, is so significant an event!
Jesus brings each and every one of us into the presence of the Father in the Spirit, so that our redemption is secure. And each and every moment, as a living Lord bearing our humanity, Jesus Christ intercedes for us and intervenes in our lives day by day.
He is actively working, building his temple, the dwelling place of God, even now—working for the day when everything he accomplished in his life, death, resurrection and ascension into glory will be worked out in our human sphere, when his kingdom will be on earth as it is in heaven.
And we get to participate in what he is doing in bringing his kingdom here on earth! We can stand expectantly waiting and doing nothing. Or in our expectant waiting, we can be busy participating in his work of bringing his kingdom to earth.
We can respond to the lead of his Holy Spirit as God shows us ways to love God and love others. God has given each of us a way to participate in what he is doing in the world—let us do it in union and communion with the Father, Son and Spirit and with one another day by day.
And let’s do it in expectant joy! Our ascended King rules even now and is handing us the gift we’ve only dreamed of having. He’s saying to you and to me: “Open it! It’s yours! I bought it, made it, just for you! You’ll love it!”
Thank you, Daddy-God, for the great gift you’ve planned from before time and have prepared for us. You gave everything up so we could have this gift. And you gave us your Son and now you’ve given us your Spirit. We have been given all we need for life and godliness. What a gift! Thank you so much! We receive it with great joy and gratitude. Amen.
“And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-11
When God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle…
By Linda Rex
It never seems to fail that when someone I know is suffering through a really bad experience and is finding it impossible to bear any more suffering, that a well-meaning soul will say, “God never gives us more than we can handle.” I cringe inside because I’ve experienced the reality that sometimes God does give us more than we can bear. So when I hear that phrase, everything inside of me wants to scream out, “He does too!”
This is an unfortunate reading of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which actually talks about temptation to sin, not about suffering or affliction in general. In the NASB it reads:
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
The context of this verse, then, focuses on temptations rather than afflictions or trials. In my opinion, overwhelming trials and afflictions are not what Paul is talking about here.
When reading Paul’s epistles, we see that he talks a lot about trials, afflictions and sufferings that are beyond our ability to bear. He talks about participating in Jesus’s sufferings and death so that we can share in his life. We learn from Jesus and his apostles that it is in dying that we live. It’s all about death and resurrection.
And suffering and grief are not just random events that have no purpose or value. They may be tools of the darkness and be designed to defeat and destroy, but the Light has come in Jesus. All these things must submit to the lordship of Christ, and fulfill the will and purposes of Almighty God. As the scripture says, we overwhelmingly conquer in Jesus.
The point is that God has in mind our perfection, our full reflection of his image. He also has in mind the renewal of all things. We don’t see the things God sees, nor can we fully understand his purposes or his methods. Our view is severely impacted by the pain and sorrow and suffering we may be going through at the moment and we may be unable to see that God does redeem and heal and restore in the end. Our humanity limits our ability to grasp the significance and purpose of all we experience in our lives.
God does indeed allow us to be “burdened excessively, beyond our strength”, even to the point where we despair of life. We are constantly “delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake”, but for a reason. God is refining us “as silver is refined.” He is teaching us to quit trusting in ourselves and to start trusting him completely. He is teaching us to die to ourselves so that he may fully live in us and through us. He is reminding us that we are the clay pots in which his divine Presence dwells.
The key to it all is what we believe about God and about Jesus Christ. Do we believe, really believe, that Jesus is who he said he is—the Son of God and the Son of man, and that he lived, died and rose again in our place? Because in the end, death is destined to end in resurrection. Just as Jesus died and rose again, so we too will have times when death seems certain, if not preferable, but which will in the end result in God raising us up to new life.
There is healing after loss, after divorce, after abuse. There is restoration after brokenness and destruction. We don’t always experience it immediately or completely, but God has declared it done and complete in Jesus Christ. He is our assurance that there is never anything he won’t go through with us, in us and for us. He said that nothing can separate us from the love he has for us in Christ.
So when God gives us more than we can bear, we can ask him for the grace to bear it. We have the opportunity to trust Christ to be for us in the Spirit all that we need in our moments of despair, struggle and grief. God doesn’t always take away the difficulty—we may have to go through it completely from one end to the other. But he will never fail to bring us in the end to the glorious result he had in mind from the beginning. So don’t lose heart. Don’t lose faith. Because Jesus is a risen Lord and God is faithful and he is love.
Dear God, in the midst of our struggle, loss, despair and grief, remind us that you have given us a risen Savior, a resurrected Lord, who has brought us, is bringing us, and will bring us, to new life in himself in the Spirit. Grant us the grace trust you to do what is best in every situation and to carry us through to a glorious and joyful end in your presence forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
“For You have tried us, O God; you have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; you laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, yet You brought us out into a place of abundance.” Psalm 66:10-12 NASB
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,…” 2 Cor. 1:8–10 NASB
“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” 1 Pet. 5:10
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” 2 Cor. 4:7–11
The Irrevocable Blessing
by Linda Rex
One of the most unbelievable and amusing Bible stories is the one about the talking donkey and Balaam the seer. As a child I would imagine what it was like for the prophet to be riding along, trying to get his donkey to go where he wanted, even striking him to force him through a narrow passage. And then, all of a sudden, the aggravated donkey started talking: “What have I ever done to you that you have beat me these three times?” What a start that must have given Balaam!
This story from Numbers 22-24 captures the imagination of children and adults alike. But by focusing on the more unbelievable aspects of the story, I think we can miss a fabulous expression of the love and devotion of God to his people and to all humanity that is hidden in these passages.
Balak, the king of Moab, was getting nervous. The huge multitude of Israelites was traveling through the plains near him. The Amorites had attacked them, but they had defeated the Amorites, taking away from them land and cities that had once belonged to the Moabites. Balak feared that his nation would soon be overwhelmed by the Israelites and be defeated as well.
So Balak sent a message to the seer Balaam and requested that he place a curse on the Israelites. Balaam’s reputation was such that the people of his day believed that whoever he cursed would be cursed and whoever he blessed would be blessed. Balaam countered this by saying he could only do what God allowed.
As the story progresses, we see that every time Balaam tried to curse Israel, he ended up pronouncing a blessing over them instead. Balak, of course, was offering Balaam great wealth to do as he asked. But Balaam was unable to curse the nation of Israel. God had determined that Israel would be blessed and not cursed. And no prophet, king or anyone else was going to reverse God’s will.
Finally, after three tries, Balak and Balaam gave up. Israel not only had a blessing declared over her three times, but in the midst of this blessing, God predicted the coming of a scepter rising from Israel—this statement we understand today to be a reference to the coming Messiah.
It was God’s will that Israel be blessed because God had chosen Israel to be his very own people. He was in covenant relationship with them. And one day all people would be blessed through them—this was a promise he made to Abraham, their forefather. God had determined that Israel would be blessed and through them in their Messiah, all humanity would be blessed. And nobody can curse what God has determined to be blessed.
Even though in the future Israel would sin over and over again, turning away from God to the local gods of the nations around them and participating in their sins, God did not revoke his commitment to send a Messiah. He did not stop loving them and working for their ultimate blessing and the blessing of all humanity in Christ.
Israel, and all of humanity for that matter, have rejected God and disobeyed him, yet none of this has annulled our eternal relationship with God in Christ. God in Jesus took on our humanity and joined himself to us forever. Our relationship with God is secure—we are “blessed … in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph. 1:3 NIV) God may chasten us as sons (Heb. 12:7 NIV), but his love and blessing do not change. We are reconciled to God in Christ—we live in union with him. It is now a question of fellowship or communion, not union.
We are all God’s children, in Christ. Our badness or goodness does not alter God being for us, with us and in us. It does, however, alter our experience of this reality. When we deny who we are as God’s children, made to reflect his image, and we attempt to live outside the divine life and love, we experience alienation from God. We believe we are outside, excluded from God’s household, when in reality we are included, having been created and renewed in Christ to live in relationship with God and each other. So we experience fear and anxiety instead of God’s love, power, and self-control.
God has included all humanity by making a place for each person at the wedding supper of the Lamb. And he has handed to each person the appropriate wedding garment, Jesus Christ. We can choose to not even show up at the banquet. Or we can refuse to trust in Christ at all and depend solely upon our own ability to put together the perfect wedding ensemble to wear. Or we can choose to put on Christ instead of our old garments of self-justification and carnality and fully experience the joy of the wedding party. God has given us the freedom to choose. What will we trust in? What do we believe to be true about ourselves and about God?
God has determined to bless all humanity and not to curse us. He has determined to bless us with salvation, with an intimate relationship with himself in Christ through the Spirit. All the efforts of the evil one and his cohorts to curse you and me or to destroy that relationship are futile in the face of God’s heart toward us in Christ, which is good. We are all under God’s blessing, not his curse.
And with that being the case, shouldn’t we guard against ever cursing another human being? There ought to only be praise on our lips, for God has determined that they are his chosen ones as well, and they are under his blessing, not his curse. The evil one and our sinful nature may find many ways to lead us into sin, but none of these change the reality that we are reconciled with God in Christ and are held forever in an intimate relationship with him in the Spirit.
Holy God of Glory, God of Israel and of all humanity, I thank you that you have chosen us as your people, and you have done and are doing everything in your power to ensure that all humanity might share in your blessings forever. Renew in each of us a vision of who we are in Christ, and grant us the grace to experience for ourselves and to share with others the wonder of the intimate relationship you have given to us in Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.
“He took up his discourse and said, “From Aram Balak has brought me, Moab’s king from the mountains of the East, ‘Come curse Jacob for me, And come, denounce Israel!’ “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? … Then he took up his discourse and said, “Arise, O Balak, and hear; Give ear to me, O son of Zippor! “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? “Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.” … “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.” Numbers 23:7–8, 18-20; 24:17
“With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. James 3:9–12
Course Correction
By Linda Rex
Recently, just for the fun of it, I’ve been watching some old episodes of Lost in Space. Since these were made back in the 1960’s, it’s amusing for me to see what was considered science fiction back then—reel to reel tapes and punch card computers, dials and buttons. The clothing and hairs styles of course are very 1960ish. And all these space adventures took place in the 1990’s and 2000’s (We aren’t even doing manned intergalactic space travel yet and it’s 2014!).
The ongoing pain-in-the-neck on the Robinson family’s space voyage is Dr. Zachary Smith. He seems to be the picture of every worst human trait—greed, dishonesty, laziness, and so on. He’s always finding a way to get out of having to work and spends his time getting himself and everyone else into dangerous predicaments. Whenever there is the slightest issue or problem, he goes into a despairing decline: “Oh, the pain…”
Vainly the Robinson family tries to reform him, but to no avail. Over and over, they swear they’re going to cast him adrift or abandon him to his fate because he deserves it. But once again, they choose love and grace over giving Dr. Smith what he deserves.
One night as I was working on a project and watching another episode of the series it occurred to me that in many ways, this whole thing was like a picture of the divine perichoretic relationship and us as humans. How often we are like Dr. Smith—annoying and offensive and downright diabolical. And yet, the Father, Son and Spirit continue to make room for us in their relationship of love and unity. We deserve to be cast adrift, to receive the full consequences for our choices, our unloving and corrupt behavior, but once again, God covers us with grace in Christ and brings us home.
Sadly, like Dr. Smith, we can receive warnings, corrections, and even the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and yet keep returning to our old, comfortable way of doing things. We can have a mirror held up and be shown our shortcomings and yet keep on following our destructive path.
But this isn’t how it needs to be. Because we have a God who is committed to us becoming all that he created us to be in Christ. He has formed us in his own image and will not cease to work toward that end in conforming us to the image of Christ.
One way in which we participate in this process is by choosing to allow the difficulties, strains and struggles of life to be used by God to transform us. We allow God to use sorrow and pain as a means of discipline—not punishment, but rather as a training tool. We let the strong winds of suffering build spiritual muscle in us.
We permit God to make changes in the way we think, believe, and act by responding to his Spirit and filling our minds with his Word. We choose to do the hard work of growing up in Christ rather than making every excuse in the book to keep from having to face the truth about ourselves. We, for the moment, choose sorrow over laughter—taking seriously God’s call to follow Christ wherever he leads on whichever path he chooses to take.
Unlike Zachary Smith, we don’t have to spend endless space miles caught in the corruption of human sin and depravity. When God goes to work, we become new people. It takes time—our whole life. But as we willingly participate in what God is doing to transform us—turning to Christ daily, trusting in his grace—change will come. Who we are at the beginning is not who we will be in the end. We have God’s word on that.
Thank you, Lord, that you have promised to perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish us. You have given us the privilege of sharing in your eternal glory in Christ. We trust you will finish what you have begun, in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. Amen.
“Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.” James 4:9
“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:10–11
“As You Wish”
by Linda Rex
The thought came to mind this afternoon that it is easy for any of us to imagine that everything in this world ought to revolve around our wishes. I am reminded of the line from the movie “Princess Bride” which was repeated more than once by the hero of the story. It was an expression of his love for the beautiful princess. When he was incognito, she recognized him by his use of the phrase, “As you wish.”
There is a freedom that comes with love—a freedom that may put the relationship itself at risk. This is the freedom to not love the other, if one wishes. It is the freedom to think, act and relate in ways that are unique to oneself rather than in harmony with the other party. It is the freedom that comes with personhood—with being self-aware, being created with a human, made in God’s image, identity.
Some of the saddest relationships I have seen are those in which this phrase is used improperly. One or the other of the parties involved is so controlling and/or insecure that the other is never allowed to have a differing opinion, a separate will, or an individual choice. Or the person has willingly given up that freedom, thinking that is what having a relationship requires. But this is not a healthy relationship—because there is a person in this relationship whose personhood is being violated.
We learn from God what it means to be persons, each with a separate unique identity but made to live in harmonious relationships with God and others. Jesus, as God taking on human flesh in the incarnation, showed us that he had an individual identity which reflected God in which he was free to choose, to love and not love. And at the same time he never did anything apart from or opposed to the will of his Father. In the Spirit, he lived in harmony with and in obedience to the will of God. He loved freely and fully.
Jesus taught us that God is Father, Son and Spirit—each unique, equal and eternally one. How is it that three unique, equal individuals can at the same time be one? Here the church fathers coined the term perichoresis or ‘making room for one another.’ There is the kind of freedom in love where each party makes room for the other to be fully who she or he is. It is God’s nature to be fully free in love in this way. Each says to the other, in essence, “As you wish” and yet no one’s personhood is ever violated.
And because of Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension, God has included us in that divine relationship of love. In sending his Spirit to us as humans, he has made a way for us to share in the perichoretic union and communion in which he lives. He’s willingly risked it all to give each of us the freedom to love or not love, as we wish.
But at the same time, God calls us into a new way of being, a new way of loving and living. He calls us into a relationship with himself in which we are to say to him, “As you wish.” And he says to us, “As you wish.”
This is why, when all is said and done, the choice to not love, to not be in relationship with God, to reject all that God has done for us in Christ to give us new life and forgiveness, is ours to freely make—and God will honor that choice. He will work as long as he is able with all that is in him to bring us to a change of mind and heart, but the choice is ultimately ours. And he will honor it, even though it may break his heart.
So, as once again I am frustrated by the demands of a thoughtless person, I say in my soul, “Father, as you wish,” and in the Spirit of that submission say to this person with grace, “As you wish.” I am mindful of all the times I have made thoughtless, unreasonable demands and so, with sincerity, I freely choose to forgive and move on. Perhaps another time love will require a different answer, but for now, this is enough.
Heavenly Father, thank you for saying to each of us freely in love, “As you wish,” and for calling us into a relationship with you in which you provide for us in Christ by the Spirit the heart and will to say to you, “As you wish.” Grant us the grace to live freely in love with one another and with you in this way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
“And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’” Luke 22:41–42 NASB
Taking the High Road
by Linda Rex
This morning I was reading about the spiritual discipline of sacrifice. I got to thinking about how so many of us love hearing stories about people who put themselves at risk for the sake of an animal or another person. These are the kind of stories that go viral on the Web—everybody loves a hero.
The thing is—there wouldn’t be heroes if there weren’t people who were willing to sacrifice something, including their own life and well-being, for the sake of someone else. But where does this willingness to lay down our lives and our well-being for another come from?
It is my belief that such a heart and mind is not something we drum up out of our own humanness. Really, our natural tendency is not to sacrifice but to self-protect and be self-absorbed not self-sacrificing. I mean, really—if you or I were asked to give our month’s salary away so that someone who is homeless could live somewhere, would we do it?
We’re happy to give if it doesn’t cost us anything. But what if it cost us something, cost us a lot, maybe even cost us everything? Would we do it? Speaking for myself—I have a long way to go to be truly self-sacrificing.
I believe that this heart of self-sacrifice and service is something that comes from outside of ourselves. It is the heart of the God who made us. And we all share in that Spirit of self-sacrifice that was expressed in his gift of his Son Jesus to all humanity.
When I see a mother daily sacrifice her hopes and dreams, her possibility of a meaningful career, for the sake of caring for her disabled or special needs child—I see the heart of the Father. This is the Spirit of self-sacrifice that is a beautiful reflection of God’s perichoretic love—making room for another within the family circle at tremendous cost to oneself.
When I see a spouse tenderly visit and care for his or her mate each day even though the loved one has forgotten who he or she is, I see the tender and faithful love of God at work. This expression of love in the face of forgetfulness or rejection has its roots in the patient, longsuffering and faithful love of God, who never turns us away even though we may turn away from him.
I was reading a story this morning about a soldier who put his life at risk during the Vietnam War to care for a Vietnamese woman’s child in the middle of combat. What would drive a solder to lay down his or her life in this way? This Spirit of self-sacrifice has its roots in the nature of God who is love. It is an expression of the heart of the God who was willing to lay aside his divinity so that he could share in our humanity and reconcile our self-centered, selfish nature with his at tremendous cost to himself.
When faced with different options in life, the question occurs to me—will I take the high road? Will I do the difficult thing? Will I risk anything, maybe even risk all, for the sake of another? Will I do something that will cost me something, maybe even everything? Or will I take the easy road?
I think Robert Frost had it right. To take the untraveled road, the more difficult path is the better choice. It is the choice inspired by the One who has given us the power of choice. With our gift of free will, will we take the high road, the road of sacrifice? Or will we continue in the cyclonic black hole of self-absorption and self-centeredness? May God grant us the grace to take the high road in every circumstance in which it is needed.
Lord, thank you for always choosing to do the hard thing whenever necessary. Grant us your heart of service and self-sacrifice so that we may be an accurate reflection of your divine perichoretic love. We need your grace in this as in everything. Thank you that it is there for us in Jesus. Amen.
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12–13 NIV
Mourning in a ‘Pain-Free’ Society
By Linda Rex
I love reading. I have a stack of books that I gathered while doing my thesis that I wanted to read but didn’t have the time to enjoy. Now that my schoolwork doesn’t take up all my down time, I’ve begun reading some of these, a few chapters each day.
This morning I was reading a chapter in the book “Authentic Faith” by Gary L. Thomas. This book is an interesting overview of certain spiritual disciplines that we as the Christian church in America sometimes overlook. I feel that learning and practicing spiritual disciplines as a means of putting ourselves in the presence of God and opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit to work is an essential part of our spiritual formation or growing up in Christ.
So, as I started to say, I came across the spiritual discipline of mourning. Now I would have to assume that mourning is not something we as human beings would naturally choose to do. If anything, I’m thinking that most of us do everything we can to avoid feeling pain or having to deal with difficult situations, horror or suffering. Taking painkillers for pain is considered normal behavior in our society. So much so that they are often abused. And many people use other forms of dealing with pain that are not always healthy—alcohol and drug abuse for example.
Unfortunately, the reality is that pain, suffering and grief are a part of our natural human condition. I believe one of the reasons such suffering, evil and pain are a part of our world today is because we as human beings do not practice the spiritual discipline of mourning. When an evil is perpetrated against another human being—we may make that a big news story in the media or on the Web, but how does it affect us personally? Do we feel the pain that goes along with the evil? Do we weep at the injustice and groan inwardly at the carnage? Are we then motivated by our sorrow to right the injustice or to heal the hurt? Rarely.
I don’t know about you, but too often I find my own self turning away from the story because I can’t bear the pain. I turn away and miss God’s invitation to mourn with him over the suffering in his world. I fail to participate in Christ’s suffering by refusing the opportunity to weep and sorrow over the injustice and depravity I witness. I too often am blind to the grief of others or am insensitive and thoughtless in responding to their suffering.
This week many Christians the world over participated in the observance of Ash Wednesday. The observance of this day marks the beginning of the season of Lent, which precedes the Easter celebrations marking the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lent is typically the season in which Christians practice penitence, fasting from certain foods or items in acknowledgement of their need for and appreciation of God’s grace.
One of the things I think we can overlook as we consider the concept of mourning evil, grieving losses, and practicing penitence, is that these things are not something we as Christians have to do all on our own as though they are something we owe God, ourselves or each other. Rather, we practice penitence, repentance, grief, and mourning as a participation in Christ’s grief, penitence, repentance and mourning. It’s never something we do on our own—we are joined with God in Christ by the Spirit, and we share in his grief, his suffering, his mourning over loss, sin, evil, pain and injustice.
Just as Jesus obeyed God’s call through John the Baptizer by being baptized on behalf of all humanity for the remission of sins, so also did he obey the will of the Spirit who led, or drove, him out into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. In the midst of Jesus’ penitence on our behalf, he came face to face with evil. And he did not look away.
He did not give up his penitence to stifle the hunger in his stomach. The devil was right that Jesus could have made the stones into bread, but Jesus never used his divinity to serve himself. He only used it to serve others and to serve us.
Jesus did not give up his penitence, his identifying himself with us in our humanity and sinfulness, even to prove his identity as the Son of God. Nor did he pursue his own shortcut to glory by submitting to evil and turning his back on humanity. He chose the path of humility and humanity, of being the Servant Messiah even when it meant he would be treated like a common criminal, rejected, crucified and murdered by those he came to rescue.
Jesus went all the way with us and for us. And as the perfect reflection of God, he demonstrated to the core of his being that God is for us and against evil in any shape and form. If God in Jesus was willing to choose to do this so that we could be and would be free from the clutches of evil, how can we do any less ourselves?
Significantly, after Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem to the adoring cries of “Hosanna”, one of the first things he did was to weep over the city who refused to repent and receive the Messiah God had sent them. He grieved over the pain, the suffering, and the evil. He mourned.
Even though we can have great joy that God in Christ has once and for all triumphed over evil, we also are privileged to suffer and grieve with God over, and in the midst of, the pain, injustice and evil of this broken world. God has given us eternal hope in Jesus and we can, in the midst of all that breaks our heart, point suffering and grieving people to the One who suffers and grieves with them and for them. We can, in Christ, participate in God’s work to relieve the suffering and right the injustices in the world. In the perichoretic life and love of Father, Son and Spirit, there is room for the depths of grief and suffering, the struggle against evil and injustice, just as there is room for the fullness of joy everlasting. For this we live in gratitude.
Lord, we are grateful for your grace, for the reality that we are never alone in our grief and sorrow. You grant us the privilege of participating in your suffering just as you, Jesus, took on our humanity with all its weakness, suffering and brokenness. Grant us the grace to cease our efforts to kill the pain, and to begin to just walk in the midst of it with you, allowing you to redeem all that is evil, hurtful and unjust, and to cause it to serve your purposes rather than the purposes of the evil one. For you, God, will and do have the last word in all these things, and we trust you to love us and do what is best for us no matter what. Gratefully, in your precious name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
“For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.” Romans 8:16–18 NLT
Rain in the Desert
By Linda Rex
I remember a brief visit to the Arizona desert. The setting sun was painting the sky with brilliant colors. The saguaros and Joshua trees were silhouetted against it, and the air was crisp and dry. The desert was beautiful, but it was dry and parched. The only thing that would have made it even more beautiful, that would have made really it come alive, would have been rain.
Sometimes, like the desert, we may feel dry and parched. We feel an inner emptiness that nags at us that we really can’t quite put our finger on. We try to avoid dealing with it, so we cram ourselves and our lives full of all kinds of stuff, none of which truly fills that emptiness. Our life may have a stunning beauty and be full of all kinds of stuff, but nothing quite takes away that nagging feeling of thirst.
The sad thing is that we can be doing all kinds of things for God, and still feel this way. This is because we have forgotten who we are and what we were created for. We weren’t created to do things for God, but to do all things with God.
Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it and to be fruitful. And God walked with them in the garden—sharing life with them as they went along. God did not just put them in the garden and then walk away and say, “Take care of it. It’s all up to you now. You’ve got to get it right or else.”
But he did give them a choice—the same choice he gives us. A choice between life on our own—choosing for ourselves what is good and evil—or true life, life in communion with him forever, trusting him in every situation. Even when Adam and Eve made the wrong choice, God intervened and promised them that evil would not have the last word. Their failure was not the end of the story. It was redeemed in Christ.
Because Christ took on our human flesh and lived, died and rose from the grave in union with us, all of life is a participation in God’s Triune life and love. We can try to live life as though we are here on earth all by ourselves, tackling everything ourselves on our own. (Our track record with that hasn’t been the greatest.) Or we can live life in an intimate relationship with God moment by moment through Christ in the Spirit.
Through Christ God sent his Spirit so that we could share in his life. We are free to ignore the tree of life, the Spirit, if we wish and continue to hide away from God. Worse yet, we can declare ourselves aligned with God and with Christ as our Savior, and yet live as though it’s all up to us. Either way we end up making demands on other people that they cannot fill. And we live with an inner dryness that we try to stuff with all kinds of things that are never quite enough to fill the emptiness.
Instead we can choose to live our lives as a participation in Christ’s life, believing that all of life is taken up in Christ. Whatever we are doing at the moment, we are doing in union with Christ and as we are walking in the Spirit, we are doing in communion with God in Christ. This is the perichoretic life of the Father, Son and Spirit—making room for one another. God has made room for us in his life. We make room for God in ours. We make room for others in ours as well. We live gratefully in God’s true freedom based in love in a warm, loving relationship with God and each other.
This means that we live, moment by moment, with an awareness of God’s presence. We begin to tune into the presence and power of God’s Spirit. We make some effort to listen to the Word of God and the promptings of his Spirit. We begin to make room for God in our hearts, our minds and our lives.
Every act of life, no matter how trivial, is not an unusual thing for God—he is not surprised. He already knows all about us. He knows us intimately. Nothing is hidden from him, no matter how good we are at hiding it.
He wants to share all of life with us, just as we would with a best friend, a lover, a brother or sister. God wants to do all of life with us, not just the parts we get right. That’s why he gives us his unconditional love and acceptance—his grace. And he loves us so much that he’s not going to leave us where we are—he’s going to grow us up to reflect the perfect image of himself, Jesus Christ. He’s going to work to heal us and make us whole. He’s going to transform us.
When we feel that nagging inner thirst, we need to ask ourselves—am I doing life on my own again? Where’s God in all this? Who is God for me in this moment, in this situation? Am I doing life for God or for myself? Or am I doing life with God—together with him in joyful companionship and friendship?
Whenever we find ourselves in that dry spot where we’ve started going the wrong direction, all God asks of us is to turn around. He beckons to us, “Come—join me in my life and my work! Share life with me! You don’t need to do this all by yourself.” And he runs down the road to meet us and embrace us. Because he’s always expectantly looking for us to join him. Let’s not keep him waiting.
Holy God, thank you so much that we don’t have to do life all on our own. Thank you for your real, intimate presence with us and in us by your Holy Spirit. Forgive us our tendency to live life our way on our own without you. Grant us the grace to make room for you in our lives, our hearts and minds, and to live each moment in an intimate relationship with you. Fill our thirsty souls with your real presence—we long for you. We’ve lived too long in this desert place without you. We praise and thank you for your faithful love in Jesus. Amen.
“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9 NASB
Grace in the Rough Stuff
by Linda Rex
In my last blog I mentioned that “There are lots of opportunities in life to celebrate pity parties.” I followed this with a comment about our common human experience of at times feeling forgotten and unnoticed. Then I began to talk about Hagar’s experience.
Unfortunately, this may have given my readers the impression that I believed Hagar was having a pity party out in the desert, sitting next to a spring of water somewhere feeling sorry for herself. In reality, she was no doubt reflecting upon what had just occurred and was frightened and upset. When God, the One who saw her, came to her in her distress, he had something to say to her about the whole situation in which she found herself.
This all began because her mistress, Sarai, was unable to conceive a baby. According to the cultural norm of the time, but against the wishes of God, Sarai offered her maid Hagar as a surrogate mother. Hagar’s child would become the family heir in place of the baby Sarai could not conceive.
The problem arose when Hagar conceived. All of a sudden her attitude toward Sarai changed. She despised her. And Sarai could not tolerate this. In her frustration, she went to Abram and laid the blame at his door. In response Abram gave Sarai permission to do whatever she wanted with Hagar—she was considered their property. Sarai acted according to the cultural norms again, and rather than treating Hagar with God’s grace and wisdom, she treated Hagar harshly.
In response to this abuse, Hagar fled. Thankfully in the wilderness she found a spring of water, and it was there that the angel of the Lord met her. Hagar’s response to the angelic visit was to name the spring after the God who saw her there in her distress.
Which is a little surprising when you think about what God said to her through the angel. He didn’t pat her on the head and say, “Oh, you poor thing.” He didn’t sympathize with the injustice of it all. He didn’t criticize her for her behavior and attitude toward Sarai. Nor did he excuse it. He merely said in effect, “Go back and do what’s right. I will redeem this. This child has a future and a purpose.”
John’s gospel tells us that Jesus’ response to another woman facing unpleasant circumstances and unwanted consequences was exactly the same as that of the God who sees us. This woman was being accused by some Pharisees of committing adultery. When all was said and done, Jesus never accused her nor did he excuse her. He merely said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go, and sin no more.”
Jesus’ response exactly reflected the response of Israel’s God—God’s response to our failures, the struggles and consequences we face in life is grace. God takes whatever happens in our lives, whether we caused it or not, whether we are the victim or not, and determines that it is not the end of the story. God, in Christ, has redeemed and will redeem it all—he will cause it to fulfill his ultimate purpose and will. He will work it to good as we love and serve him in the midst of it.
What he asks of us is to leave all these things in his hands and to go and do what is right. He wants us to trust him to make it right, to restore what is lost, to forgive what we’ve done wrong, and to heal what is broken. He wants us to rest in him and just live in gratitude for what he has done and will do for us, and to bear witness to his grace and truth in Jesus. He gives us his Son and his Spirit and says to us, “Go and do what’s right. I’ll take care of all this. Trust me.”
Thank you, Father, for your precious gift of grace in your Son and through the Spirit. Thank you that no matter where we are or what we’ve done or what’s been done to us, it is redeemed in Jesus Christ, and you will use it to accomplish your purposes in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We thank you in advance for the grace to trust you no matter what has happened, is happening or will happen in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” Then the angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” Genesis 16:7–10 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 