A New Wardrobe

I’m not much into clothes shopping. 

In fact, I don’t like shopping much at all except for my kids at Christmas time and when their active play puts holes in their jeans a lot sooner than growth spurts put their shirts into storage. My unconcern with staying in style means that my personal wardrobe consists mostly of items given to me by my mom and sister who enjoy using their fashion sense to help me out.

So it comes as a huge blessing to find out that my Heavenly Father is also intent on helping me dress in style—heaven’s style! My wonderful Daddy tells me in His Word that He’s selected the right wardrobe for me. His tags don’t read Calvin Klein or Levi Strauss. His handmade garments come crafted by the Holy Spirit. Eugene Peterson, in The Message Bible, translates Colossians 3:12-14 this way:

So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgiven an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

These qualities are reflective of the fruit of the Spirit. And there’s more:

             God has given us “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Is 61:3).

             “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation…the robe of righteousness.” (Is 61:10).

He has also provided the right shoes so we can be “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15).

Eugene Peterson offers us an even more spectacular picture in his translation of Ephesians 5:26-27 where he writes, “Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant in holiness.”

Wow. I want to be dressed in Christ’s wardrobe every day. And that means spending time with Him, letting His presence drape me with the robes of compassion, mercy, and grace.

We abide in God's presence as we lift our thoughts up to Him—every worry, every fear, every hurt, every need, every delight. When we do this, our entire thought life is transformed into communion with God. And that transformation affects far more than our thoughts. It influences the whole of our personality, attitude, actions, and demeanor.

The psalmist wrote, “In Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11). Dressing in our new wardrobe--the one created for the new "us"--fills us with incredible delight in our Heavenly Father who sees all that we need and gives us His very best.

F.F. Bruce declares with laughter, “God’s peace is joy resting. His joy is peace dancing.” Yes, Holy Spirit, weave faith, hope, and love into my tunic of salvation so that it sparkles with glorious, insuppressible joy and peace!!!

Algebra 101

“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” –Jesus  (John 17:21)

All of creation testifies to the glory of God—even mathematics! During my algebra class last semester, I was amazed to discover spiritual truths hidden within the natural order of numbers. And why not? God created the rules and application of algebra the same as He created the stars in space and the hairs on our heads. Certainly, He loves to use every opportunity to teach us more about Himself, and when we pay attention, these opportunities are limitless!

One lesson in particular stood out to me: it regarded “Unity” or “Oneness”.

In algebra, one of the primary goals of mathematicians is to reduce a complex fraction of factors and numbers to its simplest form. For instance, picture the fraction: 5a72b(33c) over 34x41y3z. This fraction has no common factors. It can’t be reduced within itself because two or three or four or thirteen cannot divide evenly into all the numbers. This fraction can only be simplified—or, put another way, brought to “oneness” –through an external manipulation of some sort.

I believe that God sees the diverseness of the human race and the distinct differences of each human being the same way. Certainly, He created us as beautifully unique, so our complexity is not a bad thing! However, I Corinthians 12:12 says, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” Jesus desires a Church that is One with Him, yet the rifts and differences between Christians are often strong and sharp!

How then does the Lord bring “oneness” to His Church, His Bride? How does He make us one with Him and each other? In algebra, the Lord helped me to understand the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about this transformation. Primarily, it is a covering of grace until we all reach the “perfect man” spoken of by Paul in Ephesians 4:13.

Using the algebraic example above, the Holy Spirit represents the mathematician who understands that numerator and denominator must develop common factors which make the differences insignificant. The fruit of the Spirit’s work is kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and love, which create a reciprocation of grace when developed in the lives of believers. The Holy Spirit births within each of us a “new man” made in the image of Christ. This new man, spoken of by Paul in Ephesians 4:20-24, is the common factor we all possess. In algebra, this means that 5a72b(33c) willingly multiplies to 34x41y3z. This creates a big long number that seems even more complicated, but the work of the Spirit, our mathematician, isn’t done yet. At the same time He is at work in us, He is at work in others. The denominator also accepts the same bonding process: 34x41y3z is multiplied to 5a72b(33c).

Here’s the amazing truth hidden within this simple procedure: When the factors in the numerator exactly mirror the factors in the denominator, they reduce down to 1. One on top; one on bottom. And one over one is simply: 1. Ephesians  4:4-5 says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Jesus has created us equal in Him! He’s generated, by the power of His Spirit, a new man, which is our new nature, made like Him in us!!! (Romans 6:5, 8:29)

Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Does this Scripture mean we lose our uniqueness when the Holy Spirit performs His equalizing work in us? Not at all. Rather, our individuality no longer calls the shots. Through the power of the Spirit, we submit to His work of love in our lives, and we are able to lavish on others the kindness and grace which the Lord has given us.

Paul says in Philippians 2:1-3, “If there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

For a long time, I believed that this debasement meant devaluing myself, saying I wasn’t special or worth much. But that’s not what Jesus says. He says we’re each precious, the apple of His eye, cherished and beloved in His sight. (Zechariah 2:8, Isaiah 43:1-4) No, the equalizing work of the Holy Spirit is not one of demeaning oneself but of lifting others up, treating them with the same incredible value we experience the Lord giving us so that they might experience and believe His great love for them too.

Do I feel beloved and precious to the Lord? Then may I see others the same way! Do I experience the passionate, personal love of the Lord poured upon me as His beloved? (Song of Songs 1:2) Then let me be the friend who stands next to the Bridegroom and rejoices to see His passion for others! (John 3:29)

Did Jesus allow others to debase Him, surrendering His privileges as God Most High? Yes, He did. Then may I also have the humility to walk past the insults of people who wound me, whether knowingly or not, without retaliating against them but continuing steadfastly to love them. “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps…who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.” (I Peter 2:21-24)

The Lord has called us to unity, and the equalizing factors He has offered us are the fruits of His own Spirit at work in our lives: forgiveness, peace, and mercy as well as blessing, joy, and love.

May our lives radiate the fullness of His glorious grace!!!

Divine Union

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

I Corinthians 6:17

At the beginning of creation, God designed marriage to illustrate a vital truth about His relationship with humankind: the loving fellowship, mutual service, and intimate fidelity between creature and Creator. The unity of two distinct items does not occur merely as an exterior bond, such as two lanterns glued together, but as a shattering of the glass that keeps each flame apart followed by a merging of the two flames into one. For the human soul united with the Triune God, this experience can be pictured as two hearts of flesh, soft and pliable, ripped into pieces by pain and suffering: the first, a human soul broken by the realization he or she can never be good enough or strong enough to be everything God requires; the second, Christ’s soul broken upon the Cross when He took upon Himself all the sins of the world. At the moment of divine union, all these hurting pieces are gathered together in the grace-filled hands of God then fused together into one new heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, the pieces intermingled to such a degree that every thought, every emotion, and every desire vibrates with love for the other.

As with every experience of God, divine union occurs only through sheer grace. No amount of ascetic piety, good deeds, vigilance, or temperance of heart and soul can merit divine touch or divine presence. God, by His very nature, is Love; therefore, He longs to pour Himself into every human soul. However, like an adulterous wife, each of us runs after other loves, and so He waits. He waits for us to come, broken, before Him, longing only for Him and for His touch. Brokenness produces humility, which frees a believer from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—all of which hinder the awareness and experience of God’s active presence in a believer’s life. God knows the moment when the soul is so depleted of all false, fleshly, and demonic loves that He is able to pour Himself utterly into the cavity of the believer’s heart, enabling the believer’s emotions and neurons to experience a pure and fulfilling mergence with the fullness of Love Himself.

Origen of Alexandria, one of the earliest Church fathers, perceived this passionate romance in the Song of Solomon. He wrote in his commentary, “It seems to me that this little book is…a marriage-song, which Solomon wrote in the form of a drama and sang under the figure of the bride, about to wed and burning with heavenly love toward her Bridegroom, who is the Word of God. And deeply indeed did she love him, whether we take her as the soul made in his image, or as the church…who has been joined to him.”

Indeed, the Bible is replete with analogies of Christ and His people being presented as Husband and Wife. The prophet Hosea utilized mystical language when he presented Yahweh’s passionate appeal to His people: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her…. And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, That you will call Me ‘My Husband’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master’. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord” (Hosea 2:14,16,20).

For the New Testament believer, spiritual transference into the Kingdom of God occurs at the moment of salvation: accepting Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10). At that moment, this person receives the Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry out, “Abba, Daddy!” (Romans 8: 15). We become members of the Church, Christ’s bride (Revelation 21:7-8); yet Christ’s love is not limited to the whole. Instead, divine union occurs as a subjective experience within an individual because the Lord passionately pursues and bestows His loving grace upon each individual member (I Corinthians 12:27).

As a Christian struggles to overcome sins of the flesh and of the mind as well as demonic temptations, the covenant of spiritual marriage to God is much like the legal document signed by husband and wife. The covenant is solid and binding, declaring a legal truth: the two are a couple. Yet, as with every human marriage, acting as one takes time. Every decision made for the good of the other person, with a conscious awareness and desire to act in accordance with the spouse’s will, deepens the feelings of intimacy. Such degrees of intimacy also exist in a believer’s relationship with God.

Unfortunately, since encountering the Risen Lord is a subjective experience within an individual’s heart, some Christians believe the only way to be free of spiritual deception is to reject all mystical experiences. They believe spiritual unity occurs in heaven, apart from feelings, through a believer’s adherence to fundamental doctrine and Biblical morality. However, late Christian counselor Brent Curtis points out in his book The Sacred Romance, “Above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart. It cannot be lived primarily as a set of principles or ethics. It cannot be managed with steps and programs. It cannot be lived exclusively as a moral code leading to righteousness.” Many Christians in both Protestant and Catholic traditions testify that God can be experienced through the senses and that He desires to reveal Himself in this way.

Bernard McGinn, professor emeritus at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, explains the lifeblood of mystics throughout Church history: “The mystic wants to penetrate to the living source of the biblical message, that is, to the Divine Word who speaks in and through human words and texts.”  Evelyn Underhill, a contemporary Christian mystic, summarizes the muscle tone of a mystic’s heart this way: “The Christian mystic therefore is one for whom God and Christ are not merely objects of belief, but living facts experimentally known first hand; and mysticism for him becomes, in so far as he responds to its demands, a life based on this conscious communion with God.”

TobyMac, a popular Christian pop/hip-hop singer, expresses divine union with beautiful clarity in his song Captured. Speaking of Jesus, he says, “Like blood in my veins, You’re my sustenance. The moment of trust, the ‘me’ becomes ‘us’, the ‘we’ become ‘one’. Your gift is my gust of wind ‘til we meet again. All I want to do is get into You. You’ve got me captured by Your love. All I wanna do is stay here with You. You’ve got me raptured. Can’t get enough!” Yes, Jesus is real, present, and powerful, and He disregards man-made religious boundaries. He is Himself, the Word of God made flesh, and He is above all human pride, fear, and prejudice. For a mystic, spiritual connection with Christ means that the unseen indwelling of the Holy Spirit develops into a deeply felt, conscious awareness of Christ’s interior and exterior presence.

Melted Sugar

Okay, time for some fun. I’m calling this entry “Cooking 101 with Jesus.”

Yesterday, the Lord gave me a picture of His kitchen. He had two pots on the stove. One held butter, the other sugar. We were making No-Bake Cookies. Yum!!! He brought the flame under the sugar pot to a steady flicker. (We’re dealing with the gas stove of the Holy Spirit here; ie, Romans 12:11, II Timothy 1:6.) J

The butter the Lord said represented the respect we give one another as fellow believers. Our respect for the work of the Holy Spirit melts our hearts and keeps us soft and sensitive, responding to His grace and power at work in our lives through the ministry of the Church.

The sugar He said represented His love, the extravagant sweetness He places in our lives that make our cookies (the deeds we do for His Kingdom) so scrumptious!

To my curiosity, the burner under the pot of butter began to act up. The flame shot high, burning too fast, then too low, leaving the butter cold. The Holy Spirit said, “Place the butter with the sugar, so they are in one pot.” Respect and love work best when melted together. A good illustration of this is the reciprocation between spouses (Ephesians 5:21-33). Another is submission within a body of believers, where we respect one another’s free will and individual choices yet remain united through the love of the Spirit poured into our hearts (Romans 15:1-2; Philippians 2:1-2).

Then Jesus did something that shocked me. After I combined the two ingredients in one pot, He took the five-pound bag of sugar on the counter and dumped the whole thing into the pot. The sugar filled the pot and overflowed, making a mess all over the stove and floor. I stared. Was it an accident?

Jesus smiled. “My love is extravagant.”

I studied the mess and decided that if Jesus had that much love to give, I needed to get a bigger pot. So I switched the pot for a big kettle, but Jesus just can’t be outdone. He walked in with a twenty-pound bag of sugar, hefted it onto His shoulder, and poured…and poured…and poured.

Laughter bubbled up. “Jesus, You win! No matter how big the pot I find, Your love overflows the brim.” I sat cross-legged in the mountains of sugar on the floor and gazed up with a smile brimful of delighted adoration. “So what am I supposed to do?”

He smiled. “Cook. And let the little children dip their fingers in the sugar that has overflowed the pot. My love cannot be restricted to boundaries. I give My Spirit without measure.” (Luke 6:38, John 3:34)

Eugene Peterson expresses it this way in the Message Bible: “Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” (Ephesians 5:2)

Jesus isn’t interested in measuring cups or the human boundaries we set on loving people. He said, “Melt the sugar in the pot and get more butter. Make an even bigger batch.” What we do for others, we do for Him (Matthew 25:40). He desires the condition of our hearts and souls to be incredibly soft and pliable—more than pliable, liquid gold—for Him to pour out His love, and even our lives, in any fashion He desires (I Thessalonians 2:8, II Timothy 4:6).

Yet, even as melted butter and sugar are not easy for anyone to handle except the Lord—they’re too hot and drip all over the place—so the Lord adds our humanity to the mix of our melted hearts, allowing others to "handle" us in the interface of common, everyday life. Our humanity is like the oatmeal flakes added to the No-Bake Cookies recipe. Once the ingredients set up with the oatmeal, anyone can pick them up and “taste and see” the work and love of God in our lives—prayerfully and hopefully experiencing it in a fresh, mouth-watering way, exclaiming with delight, “The Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)

PS. We often here of the "milk of human kindness" and people's personalities are sometimes referred to in terms of "chocolate" or "vanilla". It seems fitting that in this recipe of loving others that friendship and personality get melted into the mix!

Freedom

Jesus, Jesus,

There’s a playground built up in my mind

All the free rides a girl could want.

Except there’s chains attached and I feel the weight upon my soul.

The devil lies and says the price is paid

For every ride I take.

But a lifelong pass to self-indulgence,

shreds my joy and robs my faith--

stealing everything that's You.

It's sad to say the playground's here

When You've torn it down before.

The lures, the taunts, the whispered lies,

The counterfeit image waltzing like grace.

Addictions don’t stop with stronger resistance,

Not when the playground music’s still playing.

You come with a sledgehammer

to smash up those rides.

But it’s my mind and I get to choose.

Grace traded in for a license to sin.

Oh, God, did I do it again?

“You’re part of Me,” You say and swing that hammer high.

“My lovely bride; I want you pure and without blame.”

Oh, Jesus, I choose: I relinquish all hold

On masquerades that only poison the soul.

So shatter these thoughts, the proud imaginations of my heart.

Replace with good the ugliness, and take me in Your arms again.

"So since we’re out from under the old tyranny [of the law], does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits."  Romans 6:15-17, The Message Bible (brackets mine)

Paid in Full

Paid in Full.

Jesus stamped these words on our past: on every mistake, every sin, every riotous thought that hasn’t honored Him. He stamped the words, inked with blood-red stain, on every wrong conception and misperception we have about Him, ourselves, each other, and this world.  It’s not just that He cancelled our debt from back then, but that He continues to pay the debts we incur every time those misperceptions hurt us or wound others.

It’s like going to a doctor for wounds inflicted by jealousy, fear, anger, or even unintentional prejudice—just to name a few of the ways a soul gets wounded. The Doctor removes the bandages that friends carefully applied, anoints the injuries with healing oil, and prescribes antibiotics for infection. Then at the clerk’s counter, the bill gets totaled. XXX amount for the doctor’s expertise; XXX for the medical supplies. Responsible, we write a check to pay the bill even as our hearts pinch with our pocketbooks because the check represents more than money. Each check means trying to do better next time, keeping more rules and all their fine print, and walking on egg-shells to keep from offense. It’s all the stuff Paul tells us in Galatians that the Law demands for right-standing with God. Such a high price for basic health care. But we need soul-provision, and the Holy Spirit is the only soul-physician around.

Then as the weight of our future failures fall heavily upon us, stooping our shoulders and bowing our heads, in walks the CEO of the medical center, the top Executive who pays the salaries of all the people on hHs staff and who owns the building with all its specialized equipment.  But He’s more than the CEO: He’s the Man we’re dating; the Man absolutely in love with every single one of us.

He takes the check we wrote—the payment that comes from bruised pieces of our hearts—tears it into tiny pieces and smiles at the clerk. “I’m covering this account. Every expense accrued on it in the past and from this day forward is paid in full. By Me.”

And it’s just that simple.

We need the Great Physician’s loving care, the generous oil of the Holy Spirit provided through the ministry of His church, and the merciful grace of family and friends. We’ll need these gifts every day of our lives, and we’ll need to give them out as lavishly as we’ve received them. The cost is more than we can ever afford to pay, but our heavenly account already holds our Bridegroom’s sprawling signature with the beautiful words, our guarantee: Paid in Full—For All Eternity.

Paul, former pharisee and appointed apostle, says it this way: "I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a 'law man' so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how and enabled me to do it." (Galations 2:19, The Message Bible)

And just in case we still don't get it, Paul presses home the point: "The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program [of rule-keeping] should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him." (Galations 3:11, The Message Bible; brackets mine)

And by the way, the CEO, the One we’re courting, He has alot of titles, alot of names. Most of us known Him best as Jesus.

Our Servant/King

“Every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.” Hebrews 3:4

Jesus is still building things. He’s still the gentle Carpenter from Nazareth as much as He is the King of Kings. Just as He did at the Last Supper when He laid aside His garments to wash the feet of His disciples, He still takes on the quiet role of a servant as He works in our lives.

Often when the Lord speaks to me, He gives me pictures to help me better understand a concept. In recent months, I saw Jesus working on a set of wooden stairs, descending from heaven. They were being completed top down, not yet touching the bottom floor (only God can do carpentry like that!). Jesus glanced toward me, unusually attired in blue jeans and flannel shirt. He was incredibly gorgeous, with short dark hair and a gold earring that glinted from one ear.  An earring? I was so surprised, yet I recognized Him and my heart skipped a beat.

In that moment, with the full force of Jesus’ loving gaze upon me, I felt like a spoiled rich girl, incredibly pampered by her Heavenly Father, who had just fallen in love with a Worker in His house. All I wanted to do was be with Him. I didn’t care if the project wasn’t completed that He was working on. I didn’t want to just be recipient of His work in my life; I wanted to join in.

Just like in this analogy, throughout Scripture, we see Jesus inviting us to join Him as active participants in the life of faith He’s called us to. In fact, He sometimes slows His work to a halt until we join Him because everything He does depends upon our willingness to participate in relationship with Him. 

In psychology, we learn a lot about causal and correlational relationships. Causal is when Jesus speaks and the world comes into being. Correlational means Jesus speaks and we have a choice: free will. Will we act on what He’s said or squirm away from the truth He’s imparting to our hearts? When we edge out of Jesus’ project, it comes to a standstill. He’s perfectly capable of building staircases without us, but He’s chosen to seek our cooperation. He won’t force us to accept His truth.

Isaiah 28:9-10 says, “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,  line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

In this way, God stays radically committed to His plan of redemption: a people who have chosen to surrender and get on board with His ideas and His plan. The Holy Spirit reminds us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”

Maybe that’s why I saw Jesus building the staircase from top down, because my human wisdom isn’t going to connect me with His plans for my life. Rather He imparts His vision and His heart to me, adding to it, step by step, as I participate in faith. Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest, “When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs…. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time.” When we get on board with God, He gets the work done in us, yet it is our great privilege to kneel down next to Him, holding the nails and boards in our hands, giving them to Him as He asks.

As for the earring I saw, the Holy Spirit whispered a reminder to me about a law in the Old Testament concerning servants. Exodus 20:5-6 says, “If the servant says plainly, ‘I love…my master, I will not go free’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door …and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl and he shall serve him forever.”

Philippians 2:7 proclaims the amazing truth that Jesus “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” Hebrews 5:6 says of Jesus, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Jesus truly is our Servant/King who has a bigger plan for us--a bigger work that He’s doing in our lives--than we can ever accomplish on our own. Do we have such a yearning for Him that we will join Him, no matter what He’s doing? Building staircases, washing toilets, revitalizing our hearts?

Yes, Jesus! I’ll join You. No matter where You are or what You’re doing, I choose to jump on board with Your plans. Thank You for the power of Your Spirit at work in me, accomplishing in my life what I can never do on my own. May I always give You all the glory!!!

Lavishly Loved by Jesus

We’re pampered by Jesus. We don’t hear that very often, but we are. Oh, not in the way the world views pampering: few of us drive around in fancy sportscars or wear diamond watches on our wrists. But we’re pampered nonetheless.

Just listen to John’s exaltation: “How great is the Father’s love that He has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1) And Paul exclaims in the same fashion, “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him…. He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.” (Ephesians 1:3&6 The Message)

The Sons of Korah proclaim in joy, “The Lord will give grace and glory! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly!” (Psalm 84:11)

Are we righteous on our own? Not at all! Jesus took our sin debt and placed us in right-standing with God. Our Heavenly Father sees us through the lens of His Son’s deep love and sacrifice for us. What is good? Not the riches or fame or beauty that the world chases after; not the lusts of the flesh or of the mind; not the pride of life. Everything became confused at the Fall in the Garden of Eden: our perception became distorted. But oh, how much our heavenly Father loves us! He longs to restore us to His vision for our lives, His way of looking at things.

Just look at the picture God Himself paints in Ezekiel 16: “’I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil…. Your beauty…was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,’ says the Lord God.”

This chapter is a pleading of Father God for us to come before Him with hearts full of praise and adoration for the lavish gifts He’s given. He knows how temptation steals into our hearts, beckoning us to squander the oil and pastry, the silk and the gold on false loves and fleshly idols. “’She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but Me she forget,’ says the Lord.” (Hosea 2:13)

Proverbs 21:20 declares, “There is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.” In Scripture, oil often represents the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Oil is useful for a fragrance, an antibiotic, and a cleansing potion. Oils were used to purify the system of contaminations, to soften the skin, and to saturate individuals with such a beautiful scent that they were intoxicating wherever they went.  Tommy Tenney devotes an entire chapter in his book Finding Favor with the King on understanding the use of oils in the purification process that Esther went through before she was allowed to approach the king. How much more should we, God’s favored children, long to immerse ourselves in the presence of the Holy Spirit so that we are well-pleasing to the King of Kings, our Beloved Husband?

So what are the pastry, the silk,  and the adornments that Ezekiel speaks of? They were literal for historical Israel at the peak of her glory, but they also represent an ongoing truth about our souls. Stormie Omartian writes in Just Enough Light for the Step I’m On: “Hunger for God’s Word like food. Thirst for it like water. Soak in it like a Jacuzzi. Put it on like a garment. Weave it into your soul so that it becomes part of the fabric of your life. When you do, you won’t just be trudging up the trail. You will be dancing in the footlights.”

Jesus longs for us to spend time with Him; He loves to pour over us His fragrant perfume and to beautify us with the radiance of His love. Most surely, yes, most surely, He loves to pamper us!!!

Jesus, I’ll adorn myself with Your truth! I will bask in the glory of Your grace and let You weave faith into a beautiful garment for my soul. Yes, I’ll sit at my Father’s table and partake of the Bread of Life and the Wine of Your love! I’ll rejoice in Who You are and remember that all these gifts come from Your hand—not for me to look at my own reflection in a mirror, but for me to stand in amazement and gaze and gaze and gaze in breath-taking wonder at the love in Your eyes.

Grace Like Oxygen

As a mom, I’ve changed a lot of poopy diapers, cleaned up a lot of messes. Very young children must eliminate waste the same as the rest of us; they just haven’t learned how to control when or where. They also aren’t able to clean up the mess they’ve made, so moms, dads, caregivers—we do it for them. We wipe bottoms and wash vomit from faces because we love them and understand that our toddler’s body is just doing its job: getting rid of unwanted elements. That’s how bodies stay healthy.

God has also designed our souls to eliminate waste, to reject the harmful substances we swallow. But like little children, sometimes we don’t know how or where to get rid of the waste. Hurtful words spill out of our mouths onto others; bad attitudes create messes nobody wants to clean up. But God does. And so do other loving, mature Christians who understand that “closet-time” must be learned. As we grow in our Christian walk, we discover that God is gently training us to expel our frustrations, self-pity, and angsts in time alone with Him. In the quiet of His presence, He helps us identify the things that harm us, eliminate them, and wash our hearts and minds anew in the cleansing water of the Word through the power of His Spirit.

As with physical children, if proper and private elimination of soul-waste is not learned, friends and family begin to express concern for their loved ones who are not progressing toward maturity. A pervasive illness of the soul often occurs from the intake of a toxin or from an untended wound that turns to gangrene. The soul warns us of its unhealthy state through symptoms that bubble to the surface, showing up in bouts of bitterness, anger, self-pity, and lack of self-control.

When we are not experiencing Christ’s peace, joy and love in our lives, do we submit to checkups from loving friends and family to help discern the reason for their absence? Can we accept others’ insights if they share concern about symptoms of illness? Even more, do we accept the medicine provided by the Master Physician, the Great Lover of our souls who sees the exact reason for our illness?

His truth “divides between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) How wonderful to know the Counselor who never misdiagnoses a trauma, never prescribes a wrong medicine, and never turns His back no matter how nasty the smell and sight of our souls’ gangrene may get!

Jesus, thank You for loving me enough to peel back the bandages of works that I slap over wounds I don’t want others to see. Thank You for exposing the injuries inside me to the pure oxygen of grace so that infection loses its dark power. I praise You for the oil You pour over my heart, burning into my very core as Your love destroys the lies that contaminate my trust in You. And I bless Your name, precious Savior, for the price You paid so I can be laid upon a bed in Your Father’s house and receive the fullness of Your loving care!

Pursing the King of Kings

So where do we begin in our pursuit of this Jesus who loves us so passionately and gave up His Kingly rights to romance our hearts? Scripture tells us where to start this journey to meet with Him: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving; enter His courts with praise.” (Psalm 100:4)

Yes, Jesus, we praise You and thank You for the incredible gift of Yourself. And unlike any other gift that we could live without, we desperately need You. Marie Barnett says it so beautifully in her song Breathe: “This is the air I breathe…Your holy presence. This is my daily bread… Your very word spoken to me. And I can’t live without You.”

Tommy Tenney writes in his book, Finding Favor With the King: “Most of the time, we enter the court of the King according to the protocol of His presence…. We thank God because He has done something wonderful in our lives that we want to acknowledge and remember. We praise Him because of who He is, because of His attributes, or because of His ways. He is worthy of praise—period—whether we are having a good day or a bad day.” (p46)

Tenney continues, “But there are more rooms in the palace than the outer courts and the inner courts…. [W]orship…transports us into the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber, the sacred dwelling place of God’s glory…. We humble ourselves before Him simply because of who He is.” (p47)

Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, requires humility in the person who craves His glorious presence. Why? Because while He is passionately in love with us, He is also a holy God. Pride simply cannot be in our hearts if we desire to have a heart-to-heart encounter with our wonderful Savior. Jesus shared this in His parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector. “Do you think this man went home justified [who praised himself and condemned others]? No, but God accepted the man who beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Luke 18:11-14, my paraphrase)

James and Peter both felt it necessary to warn the church: “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”(James 4:6, I Peter 5:5) And God makes it very clear when He proclaims in Isaiah 66:2, “On this one I will look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at My word.”

So what is humility? One of the key ways the enemy can trip us up is by redefining the words we ought to know, skewing their meanings away from God’s intention into a human perspective. But in order to run after our Heavenly Bridegroom, we must know what pleases Him. Humility always acknowledges my frailty and gives all the glory to God. Are there areas in our lives where we tend to pat ourselves on the back, saying to ourselves, “Good job! You were really smart to think of that. You’ve really done well with the gift God’s given you?”

Oh, dear friends, I hope that we catch ourselves and direct all the praise where it ought to go. Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another man praise you and not your own mouth. A stranger and not your own lips.” If someone compliments you, well and good, but let us always seek to turn the attention to the Master who gave us the talents. Without Him, we are nothing. We can do nothing. “So why do you boast as though you have not received?” Paul asks the Corinthian church. (I Corinthians 4:7)

True humility directs all the glory to God. It is a conduit of praise and thanksgiving and worship. And then we find ourselves stepping with bare feet onto holy ground.

Everything I Need

Jesus has the funds. He has the funds to make every one of us millionaires if He wanted. He has the funds to meet my expenses today. He said so. Not me. (Malachi 3:10, Matthew 6:30)

So why doesn’t He? If He has all this treasure in heaven, why doesn’t He pour out His riches from His storehouse instead of holding it up? Christians have spent a lot of time delving into what might be the reason or reasons. Almost always the reason involves a lack of something on our part: a lack of faith, lack of tithing, lack of wisdom, lack of responsibility, lack of ____________. You fill in the blank.

May I suggest that maybe there’s another way to look at this dichotomy? Maybe we have it backward. Maybe it’s not our lack that shuts up heaven’s blessings. After all, Jesus knows we lack—in every area of our lives. In fact, we don’t just lack, we’re powerless to achieve anything good without Him. Jesus said, “Without Me, you can do nothing.”

But we do have Jesus. As Christians, we’ve placed our trust in Him and accepted His Spirit in our hearts, transforming us into children of God. Isn’t it true what Paul said: “He who did not spare His only Son, but delivered Him for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) Yes, it’s true, so may I suggest that we turn the equation around?

We deserved NOTHING, yet God spilled His own blood to redeem us from Sin’s grip. He looked at us in the filthiness and weakness of our obsessions, lusts, addictions, and pride…and said, “I want them. I’m passionate for them. I’ll pay the price to buy them back from the Taskmaster of demonic wisdom that seeks to seduce them every day, saying, ‘If you’ll do it, you’ll get what God’s denying you.’” Oh, the love and mercy of God!!! Satan’s lie fell through at the Garden and it’ll fall through every time we act on it. So God stepped in. Jesus said, “Enough! I’ll show you TRUE life, and if you’ll have Me, I’ll make sure you never lack again.” (John 10:10; my paraphrase)

So why do we look at our pocketbooks and feel lack? Why do we see lack in our relationships, workplaces, emotions, and prayer times? May I suggest that the frailty of human flesh must become the springboard for seeking more of God? Not more of His blessings, but more of Him. Just Jesus.

It makes sense after all, when Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) Yet, how can we experience joy when the bills are piling up? Where is peace when a relationship ends abruptly? What has happened to right-living when I give into the same old sin?

Scripture always points us back to the Person of Jesus Christ. Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” Isaiah 26:3 promises, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose thoughts are stayed on You because he trusts in You.” I Corinthians 1:30 declares, “Jesus…became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Oh, Jesus—YOU are the answer. Every single time.

This amazing discovery does not ask for mere intellectual assent to the Word. No, rather Jesus Himself is calling to our hearts, creating in us such a desperate need for Him that we won’t be content until we’ve seen Him—seen Him face to face and prostrated our war-torn bodies before His nail-pierced feet.  Then His peace sweeps in and we know—we KNOW—that we are safe, so utterly and completely safe, in His hands.

Dancing Barefoot

"Come and see a Man who told me all I ever did!" The Samaritan woman couldn't contain her excitement after her encounter with Jesus. She ran into the city where she lived, a disreputable woman, and didn't care what anyone thought of her. She had just seen Jesus and heard His astonishing declaration that He was the Messiah, and she wanted everyone to know about this amazing Man.

The change in her drew everyone's attention. She totally threw socially acceptable behavior aside and proclaimed the truth with joy and delight. Why? How could she do that? Because she'd looked into Jesus' eyes and seen the beautiful truth for herself. He is the Messiah, the Savior of the World! He's the One who loves us without condition and spread His own arms out to die for the wrongs we've done. The embrace of the cross takes us into the embrace of His heart--forever!!!

"These shoes will pinch a little," Jesus told me just a few days ago as I tried once again to take on a responsibility I wasn't meant to have--the desire to share had turned into a need to convince. But Jesus isn't asking us to persuade others to believe our testimonies, only to share what we have seen and heard. When we've looked in the face of Jesus, what other arguments are necessary? He says it's the work of the Holy Spirit to convince and change a heart and bear witness that someone's spoken His word. It's for us to be like little children--delighted and transparent in our 'eyewitness' sharing of our faith.

Have we seen Jesus? Can we, like Akaine Kramarik and Colton Burpo who have seen visions of heaven, say with wonder, "He has the most beautiful eyes!" Has Jesus looked at us, as He did His first disciples and as He did the Samaritan woman? Oswald Chambers said in My Utmost for His Highest that in the place of the heart where Jesus looks at us, we become soft and pliable to His touch. We're changed, melted from the inside and out with a love that overtakes all fears, questions, and self-consciousness.

Todd Burpo, who narrated his son's experience in Heaven is For Real, says, "What is childlike humility? It's not the lack of intelligence, but the lack of guile. The lack of an agenda. It's that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride and position to care what other people might think." I'm not sure I've ever been unconscious of what others think of me. But I'm learning to be. I'm learning to dance barefoot in the grass, that amazing field of grace songwriters Big Daddy Weave and Amy Grant have written about in their songs: Field of Grace and Out into the Open.

Todd Burpo put his finger on the spot the Holy Spirit has been seeking to revitalize in me--that child-like honesty and joy deep in the soul that presses me to say exactly what I know to be true without trying to fit it into other people's boxes. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 "unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Todd Burpo says of this passage after his son's experience, "[W]hat is required to enter heaven...is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it is hard."

What areas is the Lord desiring to revitalize in you? What 'boxes' of human wisdom and argument do we need to question and toss out? The Infinite desires to be known or He would not have come down to earth as a humble Carpenter. Jesus wants us to rediscover the wonder of who He is. I've discovered that when I throw wide open my arms and accept Jesus for exactly who the Word says He is then I again experience the Divine swirling me upon into the heavenly.

And I dance there with my Beloved--barefoot in fields of grace.

Standing, Arms Wide, Freefalling into Grace

"You'll need every bit of what you learned at YWAM," Jesus said to me a few days ago, and now I understand what He meant.

I need every bit of grace and mercy and freedom from judgment that Jesus extends to start this blogspot because fear would slap ducttape over my mouth. Two years ago I gave up my blogspot about Scripture jewels to return to China, and now I'm a divorced mother of four young children, immersed in a second year of college, studying secular psychology. What do I know about the perfect Christian life? Nothing, but I know the truth that Gerald May wrote: "Grace is God's passion." So here I am, letting go of fear and freefalling into the arms of beautiful grace to share again.

My heart overflows with all the goodness God has poured into my life, and I feel like TobyMac in his song Tonight, "Like a river no dam can hold, being driven by a Source overflowing our souls." God's grace and mercy are so big, so wonderful, and so gentle to the wounded heart that, like Peter and Paul before the Sanhedrin, I "cannot help but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20).

Isn't Jesus wonderful? Isn't He the most beautiful Man who ever lived? Doesn't He hold our hearts with such joyful love? For surely His heart rejoices when we rest our souls in Him. So I invite you on this blogspot to join with me in sharing what Jesus has done. We're His witnesses of His mercy and grace, and the world needs to hear it.

When I talk to people, I talk about "My Jesus." Why do I do this? Because we need a personal Savior. Jesus is real and close to each one of us when we call to Him. When we accept His testimony of Himself, recorded in the Bible, He becomes for each one of us "my Jesus, my Savior, my Healer, my Deliverer." The world needs to know this Jesus. They need to experience what A.W. Tozer said, "We can seek God and find Him! God is knowable, touchable, hearable, seeable with the mind, the hands, the ears, and the eyes of the inner man."

When I say, "My Jesus" I mean the Savior of mankind who lived and bled 2000 years ago and rose again, triumphant over hell and the grave. Hallelujah! The Father has left His record of proof in the documents composing the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible. He authenticated His life, death, and resurrection in a way that puts secular history books to shame, preserving and declaring the truth by His Spirit, confirming to our hearts and minds that we are adopted as His children when we fix our faith on Him and not on our own efforts or the devil's lies.

So help me, please, all of you who rejoice to know this Savior, in discovering more and more of our precious Jesus, falling even more radically in love with Him, and rejoicing in the passionate depths of His love for us.