For Christmas, a friend gave me the book "Heart of a Lioness" by Irene Gleeson, a missionary to the children of Uganda for 22 years before her death in 2013. She served in the heart of a war zone, founding a school and rescuing myriad children from the brutalities of being forced to be child soldiers and sex slaves. My friend said, "When I listened to an interview by her, the Lord whispered, "Get Ayrian the book."
I began reading it with reluctance. Irene's second husband left her on the mission field when the country decided to shut down the school even after the Australian couple had endured numerous hostilities and miraculous deliverances from death. All I could think was, "How depressing."
But I started reading with the question, "Okay, God, what is it You want to tell me?"
I read about Irene's salvation after years of rebelling against God and her recounting of the Lord's simple directives, guiding her and her husband, comforting her in loss, and strengthening her in adversity. I thought, "Well, You do that for me, Lord."
She shared about the Lord directing them to the mission field. I thought of the word God spoke to me when I realized He really did want me to go overseas: "I will give you everything you need." And He did.
She shared about God strengthening her to forgive and continue the school on her own after her husband abandoned her. I thought about the days I sat by myself in a little cabin during my DTS, struggling with loneliness and emotional abandonment. The Lord stepped into that cabin and spoke clearly to my heart, "I will never turn My back on you."
I recalled the times when God gently warned me of crisis, preparing my heart to respond like Jesus. He showed me something was wrong concerning my marriage while we were stationed in Germany, just nights before I found my husband viewing pornography. My response was filled with grief and yet forgiving.
Years later as I washed dishes, living with my children at my parents' house, the Lord placed a swift vision before my eyes. I saw a bonfire and my ex-husband burning hundreds of copies of my book Love that is Blind. The Lord said, "If he burns your book, will you forgive him?" I said, "Yes, Lord" and relegated the vision to the background of my mind, assuming the Lord had simply been testing my character. I didn't know how accurate the vision was until I discovered that over 10 boxes of my book that I had left in Oregon no longer existed. I said in shock, "God told me something like this would happen." My ex said derisively, "Serves you right."
The Lord has faithfully shown me numerous times visions and spoken words that bear witness to a current work He is doing or a direction He wants me to take for the future He has for me and the children. When I lived at my parents' home, I repeatedly saw visions of the children and I living in a two-story home with bedrooms upstairs, a white-picket fence and a tree in the yard. The visions were consistently the same but I didn't relate them to a prophecy. I just accepted this spiritual haven as a place where the Lord was gentle and kind to me, husband in my divorced state just as He had been in my hurt while married.
Then one day, I saw with my spirit my Heavenly Father's eyes twinkling as He said to me, "I have a surprise..." I tried to hear the rest, but His words trailed off, tantalizing, teasing, loving. That afternoon I received a call. There was a four-bedroom, two-bath home available for the kids and I in a good neighborhood if I wanted it. It had laundry hook-up and had been newly remodeled. I jumped at the chance, switching my deposit last minute from a much smaller home with no laundry hook-ups. That month as I climbed the stairs of my new home, the Holy Spirit opened my remembrance. I ran to the window and looked out and began to laugh with joy. The white picket fence wasn't around a large yard, but it was there, around my patio, and a small tree stood just a few feet beyond. And here I was--upstairs where the kids and I slept and prayed our bedtime prayers!
Even as I rejoiced over my new house, great distress hit me as two of my children's misbehavior at school escalated beyond my control. I cried and wept and begged God for help. The after-effects of divorce had become massive, triggering stress-related outbursts. In the middle of my day--agony a burden I couldn't shake--the Lord showed me a vision of a gorgeous orange sun on the horizon. He said, "What do you see?" I said numbly, "A sunset." For it felt like the end of hope to me. He said gently, "Look again. It's a sunrise." And as I looked again with the eyes of my spirit, the sun burst over gorgeous mountain peaks with all the beauty and promise of a brand new day.
Two weeks later as I drove the kids to school, we took a slightly different route to their new school, my heart still ached over whether I had made the right choice to transfer them and whether it would help. Just as I turned onto the street to their school, the exact replica of the vision appeared right before me in reality. My breath caught. The mountain peaks were gorgeous and snow-covered in the distance behind MountainView Elementary, and the sun was bursting up and over them with orange then sparkling yellow brilliance. How amazing! The Holy Spirit confirmed the truth within my soul and I knew with absolute certainty: I had made the right choice. We were going the right direction. Jesus would heal my children of their anger, confusion, and orphan hearts.
And you know what? He keeps doing exactly what He's said. Like Irene, I've been a missionary and I've struggled through fear and abandonment. But what the Lord wanted to show me as I've read her book is that we don't have to be on or heading to the mission field for Him to lead, comfort, and sustain us. He speaks to all of us, all the time. If we're listening. If we want His guidance. If we want Him.
It's just Who He is.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Saturday, November 22, 2014
When Divorce is Mercy
(All Scripture
quotations are taken from the New King James except where indicated otherwise.)
Today, I’m going to approach a difficult topic, mostly
because it’s been on my mind and heart for quite awhile and there are probably
a lot of people who wrestle with the same questions I do regarding God’s
perspective on an issue that affects a lot of people’s lives in this day and
age. I’m talking about the subject of divorce.
I’m not digging into this topic in order to look at every reason
divorce occurs. I think we can all accept the fact that none of us are perfect
and failed relationships occur because of selfishness. After all, if we all
loved like Jesus, divorce simply wouldn’t happen.
However, because of the Fall and mankind’s innate
self-centeredness, God set up some guidelines for handling certain unacceptable
behaviors within the marriage covenant. I call them the three A’s that equal
the great “I”: adultery, addiction, abuse. And they all stem from
“I”-centeredness, or in Scriptural terms: Idolatry of the heart.
Thank God, not everyone suffers from the 3 A’s, but all of
us, to varying extents, suffer from the Big I. As believers in Christ, we are
called to continually submit our attitudes, words, and behaviors to the
refining work of the Holy Spirit through His personal touch, His written Word,
and fellowship in His Church.
Since we have all hurt one another at times, I praise God
that Jesus set an example for us when He said to the self-righteous religious
leaders, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). He
reminded them of the Father’s heart when dealing with broken rules, “What God
desires is mercy and not sacrifice” (Matthew 12:7).
Jesus set an example of mercy that we are commanded to
follow, so when someone admits their failures and repents of how they’ve hurt
another, we don’t hold their pasts against them. We recognize with gratitude
that God’s mercies are new every morning, and we seek to extend the same grace
He does (see Lamentations 3:22-23). We extend the second chances that Jesus, at
the Cross, purchased for all of us. After all, if not for grace, who could
stand? As believers, we recognize that our right-standing with God is through the
righteousness of Christ alone.
But there is another question pressing on my heart, a
question that a number of pastors will answer with a definite yes, but with
which I painfully disagree. The question is this: Is divorce always a sin? And
the question that automatically comes after it: Is remarriage after divorce to
someone other than the original partner always sin?
I believe the heart of the Father as well as Scripture
answers to both: Not always. It depends.
To make a judgment call on a behavior, one must know the
reason behind the action. First, sin is anything that separates us from God.
It’s rebellion and pleasing self above pleasing God. It’s the big “I”. Second,
sin is always a matter of the heart, which may or may not be identifiable by
behavior.
Let me give two examples among many in Scripture. First,
consider Mary, the mother of Jesus. When she became pregnant by the power of
the Holy Spirit, her neighbors and family judged her. Joseph, because he was a
God-fearing man, felt he had no choice but to divorce her. But her heart was
right with God (Matthew 1:18-20). Her pregnancy was not the result of sin but
of complete surrender to God’s will (Luke 1:38). Second, consider Jesus healing
on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were irate that He would break a “holiness” law
by working on the Sabbath. Jesus declared that the Father was more concerned
with setting captives of demonic bondage and human suffering free than in
keeping traditions and the appearance of holiness. (see Luke 13:10-17, 14:1-6,
16:15)
These examples do not refute the fact that all too many
divorces occur simply because couples are not willing to submit to the refining
work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Relationships, especially family ones,
are the primary place where God teaches us to love sacrificially. He said to
husbands, “Lay down your lives for your wives as Christ laid down His life for
the Church” (see Ephesians 5:25-29). In a culture of instant gratification and
give-me-my-rights mentality, too many people tell an unhappy wife or husband, “Sure,
go ahead. You’re unhappy. Get a divorce and find someone better.” That’s not
the Father’s heart.
God will never advocate divorce as a quick out when a
relationship gets costly, and godly leaders will be diligent to remind
struggling couples of the verse in Malachi 2:16, “God hates divorce.” Then they
quote Jesus in Matthew 19:6, “What God has joined together, let not man
separate.” And if someone’s really intent on divorce, an even more humbling
verse is applied: Jesus said, “Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual
immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who
is divorced commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9).
At this point, couples can submit to the Word of God, fall
to their knees and beg the Holy Spirit to give them the power to love even when
it seems impossible. And God hears their prayers. Or they can harden themselves
to the Word of God and say, “I’ll do what I want. God wants me happy.” And they
don’t understand that a change in circumstance isn’t where joy lies. Joy rests
in the bosom of the Father, doing His will, and heeding His voice.
But what about a third scenario? The scenario that occurs
when any one of the 3 A’s is involved: adultery, addiction, or abuse. This is
when one spouse cries out for God’s love to be able to endure the inexcusable
and love the other spouse even in the midst of extreme pain and repeated
offenses while the other spouse keeps right on doing their “A”, unbelieving or
uncaring about how much their words, attitude, and actions are hurting others.
In this scenario, after crying out for love that surpasses human love and
receiving it yet still enduring great pain and torment, the spouse with the
soft, gentle heart cries out, Oh, Lord, who
can stand?
Ministers will point out that separation is permissible
within Biblical guidelines. Separate in order to reconcile…which in some cases
is sufficient to bring a spouse to recognition of his/her harmful behavior,
words, and attitudes. But what if it isn’t?
Jesus said, “Moses allowed a man to write a divorce document
because of the hardness of your hearts.” (Matthew 19:8) Whose hardness then? I
think a lot of believers live with an abusive spouse because they are afraid of
the condemnation of the church if they are the ones to initiate divorce.
Which leads me back to my initial question: Is divorce always
sin?
To answer that, I have to ask a couple more questions.
First, can God sin? No, of course not. Second, can God condemn something He
Himself has done? No.
So let’s read Jeremiah 3:8-10. “She saw that I divorced faithless Israel because of her adultery. But
that treacherous sister Judah had no fear, and now she, too, has left Me and
given herself to prostitution. Israel treated it all so lightly—she thought
nothing of committing adultery by worshipping idols made of wood and stone. So
now the land has been polluted. But despite all this, her faithless sister
Judah has never sincerely returned to Me. She has only pretended to be sorry.
I, the Lord, have spoken!” (NLT)
This Scripture leads us to a dilemma. God says He hates divorce
yet He declares that He divorced Israel. How can we reconcile these two
seemingly contradictory statements? We know God isn’t hypocritical, so the
answer lies in context. What is the context of God initiating a divorce?
Idolatry.
Not adultery. That is simply the metaphor used to explain
why God hates idolatry so much. So what is idolatry? Not just the pagan idea of
bowing before a statue. Ezekiel 14:2-5 tells us idolatry goes much deeper than
that. It’s rooted in the heart. “These people have set up idols in their
hearts.” In fact, in Jeremiah 8:9-12, God takes it a step further. He outright
states to those in rebellion: “Behold,
they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom do they have? Therefore
I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will inherit
them, because from the least even to the greatest everyone is given to
covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely….
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all
ashamed, nor did they know how to blush.”
“I’ll give your fields and wives to others.” This statement
is in the context of slaying the idolaters. Throughout the Old Testament, God
brings this indictment: “You are covetous liars, pretending to love God but
living for your own pleasures and covering your sins with religious jargon and rituals”
(see Isaiah 58:1-4). Jesus brings the same indictment of those who serve in
appearance, “They bind heavy burdens,
hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not
move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by
men…. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’
houses and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater
condemnation” (Matthew 23:4-5, 14).
Religious, emotional, and psychological abuse within
marriage are even more rampant than physical abuse. How do I know this? Because
the statistics show it. Physical abuse never stands alone. It occurs after the
stage has been set with verbal beatings and a destruction of the partner’s
self-worth. Psychological abuse manipulates the mind, making the partner
believe they are going crazy because the lies they recognize with their heart
are always denied and rationalized and the abuser is always changing the
“rules” of the relationship. Emotional abuse happens when a person is devalued,
told they deserve to be hurt, and that they’ll never be good enough. Religious
abuse occurs when the other forms of abuse are justified with religious verbiage,
including Scripture. Religious abusers quote verses that highlight the spouse’s
“sins” and put the abuser in charge. Both men and women can use Scripture as a
cloak for vice.
How sad.
And God hates this abuse and pretense even more than He
hates divorce.
He said to idolatrous Israel, “Because of your
transgressions, I have written you a certificate of divorce” (see Isaiah 50:1).
God was calling them out on their sins and refusing to be united with them
anymore.
He still calls abuse out today, in any form that it occurs.
Idolatry sets “I” up as god. Ask anyone who has come out of
the abused end of an abusive relationship. They’ll say immediately, “Yes, my
spouse/partner wanted my total obedience I was to be completely subservient to
his/her will or I was disciplined (punished). I had no voice.” In essence, an
abuser wants worshipped.
When abuse occurs, the abused as well as the abuser always
has a choice. The abuser has a choice to repent of following the pride of
Lucifer and setting themselves up as god (see Isaiah 14:12-17). The abused has
the choice: Do I obey (worship) God or man? (see Acts 5:29)
Remember the temptation in the desert? Lucifer, now Satan,
said to Jesus, “Fall down and worship me.” Jesus rebuked him completely, “The
Lord your God, Him only will you serve” (Matthew 4:8-10).
Pornography also is a sin of idolatry. And Jesus said to
even look at someone with lust (sexual fantasy) is also adultery (Matthew 5:28).
He wants to expose the heart. He also wants us to understand how intensely God
feels about idolatry/sexual immorality. Idols/lusts of the heart are equal in
God’s eyes to the outward action.
Remember what the Apostle Paul said? He said, “How can we
eat at the Lord’s table and the table of demons?” (I Corinthians 10:20-22) He
said the table of demons is a symbol of idolatry. And he said we have to
choose: whose side are we on? Are we going to serve God with a pure heart, or
worship demons?
Did you know that the call to “put away” foreign wives in
Ezra 9-10 and Nehemiah 13:23-29 was the only way back to holiness that the
priests offered? In Old King James’ English, to “put away” meant to divorce.
It’s the same verbiage that prophets used in calling people to “put away” the
foreign gods among them. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to
put strange wives from them because their foreign wives had introduced foreign
gods (idols) into their homes. These men wept in grief, but did as they were
commanded because of their deep desire to be right with the Lord. At that time,
the children from these unions were considered contaminated by sin and were
also put away (Ezra 10:1-3). In the New Testament, Paul declares such an action
is not needed if the unbelieving partner is willing to stay because the
children are consecrated by the believer (see I Corinthians 7:14).
Paul further writes that if the unbeliever chooses to
depart, the believing spouse is not under bondage to remain in the marriage or
under bondage of the Law’s condemnation (I Corinthians 7:15). We are not
responsible for someone else’s choices.
However, there are times when an abusive or idolatrous
partner refuses to leave. An abuser’s mentality views the spouse and children
as “property.” The status and control
they have the relationship is exactly what feeds their ego, so they will use
anything—whether physical battery or religious condemnation—to keep the other
spouse in submission.
Dear Ones, the Holy Spirit is continually calling His people
to purity and full submission to HIS Lordship. He will call us as a couple if
we will listen, but He will honor our free will and call us as individuals if
He sees that one partner is willing to submit but the other spouse continually
hardens his/her heart to the conviction of the Holy Spirit (see Hebrews 3:7-13).
He calls us to “Come
out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is
unclean, and I will receive you” (II Corinthians 6:17). The Apostle Paul
writes, “If the unbeliever is willing to stay, let him/her remain. Do not
divorce them” (see I Corinthians 7:12-13). Why? Because God is drawing the
hearts of the lost. But for those who “profess to know Christ but in works deny
Him”, God has a stricter demand (see Titus 1:16 and Matthew 18:15-17). His
convicting presence will confront that son or daughter until they repent or
outright rebel. This rebellion will often escalate the religious abuse and any other
abusive behavior against the people who dare bring accountability. In Jeremiah
44:15-27, Israelite men were confronted with allowing their wives to worship
idols, but they refused to repent. They sided with their foreign wives, and
Jeremiah told them that God would no longer speak to them.
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul states clearly in I
Corinthians 5:11-13, “But now I have
written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually
immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an
extortioner—not even to eat with such a person…. Therefore, put away from
yourselves the evil person.”
Dear Friends, are there ever circumstances where God grants
permission for divorce, declaring it is no longer sin but rather a pursuit of
holiness? I am answering a definite Yes. In cases where the refining process
has brought one spouse to the Cross while the other spirals into darker
idolatry: The answer is Yes.
Even more than that, in such cases, His “Yes” to divorce is
an act of mercy.
In the Old Testament, a man or woman who deliberately defied
God through idolatry or adultery was to be taken out and stoned (see
Deuteronomy 13:6-10 and 22:22). In certain cases, where the offense was subtle
yet malicious, the Lord smote the offender Himself. Think of Abigail’s cruel
husband, Nabal, whom the Lord killed. Abigail then accepted David’s proposal of
marriage (I Samuel 25:37-39). Think of Tamar’s marriages, where God struck down
the men for their refusal to fulfill their God-ordained duty to her (Genesis
38:6-10).
Today, suffering spouses are crying out in their heart for
God to protect them, cause a radical change of heart in their spouses, or get
them out of a relationship that only hurts them over and over. Yet, as they
seek counsel, there are still church leaders today who heap on shame and
condemnation, contributing to men and women staying in marriages that are not
marriage at all because the abuser has turned the union into a master-slave
relationship. And the abused goes along with the sham to keep the outward
appearance and avoid being labeled with a scarlet letter.
So Jesus in His mercy peels off the label “Marriage” and
exposes the slavery and idolatry it’s turned into. And He reminds us of that
Scripture, which says if a brother (or sister) has sinned against you and
refuses to repent after the church has confronted him gently on the error of
his ways, to treat such a one as an unbeliever (Matthew 18:15-17). And I believe—no,
I know—that Jesus gently whispers, “I know the truth, little one. Don’t be
afraid anymore. I’ve come to set the captive free” (Isaiah 61:1).
When we dare to believe, the yoke of oppression lifts as the
last vestiges of our union dissolves like mist. Because the Holy Spirit can
never be one with the demonic spirit that an unrepentant heart has embraced
(see I Corinthians 6:15-17 and 10:14-22). So we are set free while the Father
whispers, “I’ll pursue my lost son or daughter. I’ll never relent. How can I
give them up? My compassion and pity overwhelm me!” (Hosea 11:7-9)
And in His great mercy,
He says, “Divorce” and relents from decreeing “Death.”
He wants to set two captives free.
But I can only make the choice for me.
Yet this realization leads us to our second weighty
question: Is remarriage after divorce to someone other than the original spouse
sin?
After all, Paul the apostle says that a spouse who separates
or divorces is to remain single or reconcile the marriage (I Corinthians
7:10-11). If a divorced spouse(s) repents and shows a genuine change in
attitude, word, and behavior then reconciliation is possible. Even when God divorced Israel, His ultimate
intention was to bring them back into union with Himself (Jeremiah 3:12-14).
But HOW was He going to bring them back? Not as idolaters
(adulterers, addicts, abusers), for holiness cannot embrace uncleanness and
light cannot fellowship with darkness (II Corinthians 6:14-16). Instead, God
declared, “I will make a new covenant with you. I will put a new heart in you
and give you a new spirit. I will write my laws on your heart so you will obey
me and know me as the Lord” (see Ezekiel 36:25-27) In other words, God’s plan
throughout history has been to redeem us out of darkness, purify Himself His own
special people, and fellowship intimately with us by giving us as a chaste,
pure bride to Christ (Ephesians 1:4-6, II Corinthians 11:2).
When we trust in Jesus’ redemptive work on the Cross, we are
united with Him. We become “one spirit with Him” (I Corinthians 6:17). In this
way, marriage represents the beautiful intimacy and union that God has created
us to have with Him. Reconciliation and remarriage, therefore, would only occur
after trust has been reestablished that both partners will pursue the Lord’s
will and heart for marriage together.
But what about remarriage when the other partner remains
single?
In today’s society, this question is generally waived but
for those of us who want to be remarried (or have remarried) a Godly person,
when we read the Word and because we have a deep longing to walk in the will of
God, the first-glance answer provokes an intense pain. It would seem that,
except in cases of out-and-out adultery, Jesus is sentencing us to a life spent
waiting either for the original spouse to repent and genuinely change (which
may never happen) or being single, even when we have children to raise and a
God-given desire to experience what marriage was meant to be.
First, is there any hope of reconciliation? Second, what
does mercy for the abused say?
As shown above, divorce in many cases is the Lord’s mercy.
In cases of the 3 A’s, it is meant to bring freedom to a captive and not
punishment.
In Romans 7:2-6, Paul explains how grace in Christ Jesus
swallows up the requirements of the law. He explains it in the context of
marriage: “For the woman who has a
husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the
husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while
her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress.
But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no
adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you
also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be
married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead that we should bear
fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were
aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now
we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so
that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter.”
In other words, our union with darkness has ended. In fact,
we’re the ones who have died to that old way of life! We’ve been buried with
Christ and raised with Him, so Paul is able to exclaim with joy, “Who shall
bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who
condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:33-34).
So then God does not deal with us according to the past but
according to our present identity in Christ. We are beloved children of God,
and “If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not withhold His only
Son but delivered Him for us all, who shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things?” (Romans 8:31-32)
Proverbs 18:22 says,
“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” The
glory of the New Covenant is that blessings are given, not earned. In fact,
Paul says we’re foolish if we believe after we’re saved that we have to now
earn the goodness of God in our lives (Galatians 3:1-3). Our Heavenly Father
delights to lavish His love upon us, and because our righteousness is in Christ
(and not by keeping a law-code), we can be confident that He will work all
things together for good and withhold no good thing (I John 3:1, Galatians 2:16,
Romans 8:32, Psalm 84:11).
This means we can trust our Father’s heart. We don’t have to
go out there looking for a new spouse, for God promises to be our Husband
always (Isaiah 54:5-6, Hosea 2:19-20). Neither do we have to live under
condemnation, believing that because we’re divorced God can no longer bless us
with a beautiful marriage (Romans 8:1-4). Jesus is a personal God, and He deals
with us on an individual, unique, and specific basis. He speaks to us as
individuals and leads us along the path He has created for us into a future He
created for us before time again (John 10:27).
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
The Big Reversal
The Old Testament spends its entire volume dealing with the
outward behavior in order to get to the heart. In other words, it focuses on
external behavior but with the intent of exposing the corruptness of human nature
(Jeremiah 17:9). The purpose for revealing our innate wrong way of thinking is
not ultimately to condemn us but to get us ready for the Coming Savior (Ephesians
4:20-22).
Once Jesus walks this earth and accomplishes His mission of
paying for all humanity’s rebellion, a big shift in focus occurs. No longer
does God have to deal with us from the outside in, but He declares that He will
live in us when we receive His payment (John 14:23). In other words, now He can
work from the inside out (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Therefore, after Jesus’
ascension, the New Testament deals primarily with our heart, often called our inner
man, showing how a new identity and the power of the Holy Spirit enable us to
please God and bless others (Colossians 3:9-10). Behavior is now dealt with as
a maturity issue (Hebrews 5:12-14). Just as children are human from the start,
yet they must learn new skills, so the New Testament authors reveal the Lord
works with us who believe (I Peter 2:2).
This Reversal is so vital to understand because it changes
the way our symptoms (outer behavior) are diagnosed and treated. It also provides
a freedom from conformity and man’s opinion based on outward behavior so that
we can be open, vulnerable, transparent, and honest as God works on our hearts
(Ephesians 6:6). This Reversal provides God the way to hold us each accountable
for our heart attitude rather than just the appearance of righteousness
(Colossians 2:16-23). It also frees us to walk in mercy, forgiveness, and grace
rather than shame, condemnation, and judgment.
The amazing thing about the New Covenant (the Reversal) is
that it allows God to prioritize mercy over judgment (James 2:13). It doesn’t
mean His holiness has changed, but that an eternal payment has been made. He
poured out His wrath on Jesus (Isaiah 43:10). When we accept Jesus’ stand-in
for us, then we’ve stepped under the covering of His death, like an umbrella
that repels the rain (Romans 6:6). Jesus took God’s wrath—the punishment we
deserved—for us and replaced our heart of stone with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel
36:26). Isn’t that amazing? He says, “No longer is your heart deceitful and
desperately wicked, incurable. I’ve destroyed that old heart and performed
heart surgery. You have a new heart! A pure heart, clean and whole and
righteous, the home of My Spirit. You are now the temple of the Living God (I
Corinthians 6:19). I live in you so I will no longer punish you for your sins
but I will help you grow so that you hear My voice and have the power to obey
(Philippians 2:13).”
The Apostle Peter said, “We have been given great and
precious promises! The divine nature!” (II Peter 1:3-4) Incredible. Impossible.
Accomplished. The divine nature means a relentless submission to the will of
the Father, just like Jesus (Philippians 2:5-8). It doesn’t mean we’re perfect
yet. God is working on our souls—our wills, hearts, and emotions. But because
we know He is working, we can be kinder to one another (Ephesians 4:32). We can
delight in each other’s growth and development like siblings delight in each
new developmental stage (Hebrews 10:24).
Praise God, we no longer have to be afraid of judgment and
we no longer have to strive to get our behavior to match people’s expectations
(Galatians 6:13-15). Did you know that rules aren’t necessary when the heart is
right? It’s true. Rules are simply a way to try to define what a humble,
righteous heart looks like (I Timothy 1:5). The Apostle Paul tells us that
rules are for the unrighteous and self-centered (I Timothy 1:9-10). Do we still
have to have rules in place in our homes, businesses, schools, and countries?
Of course, because none of us are perfect yet and too many people assume that
liberty means we get to do whatever we want (Romans 13:1-5). But God’s liberty
means we get to do whatever HE wants (Galatians 5:13). And that’s a big
difference.
So the Great Reversal allows God to plant His heart in us
and transform our thinking to mirror His (Romans 12:1-2). Once we’ve accepted
this heart change, the Curse is broken over our lives. The Bible says, “Jesus
became a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13-14). This means, He’s saying in effect, “I’m
not going to hold you to a punishment that is more than you can bear. I’m not
going to punish you at all! I’m going to help you grow and bless you. That
blessing includes the greatness of My lovingkindness and mercy. It means I’m
going to give you second chance after second chance after second chance, and
add no sorrow to it (Proverbs 10:22). My discipline will be like a chiropractor’s
care. When something is out of place in your life, you’ll feel its pain like a
dislocated shoulder. But when you bring your attitude and behavior to Me, I’ll
fix it from within you. I’ll adjust your thinking and behavior to be like Mine,
and then you’ll sigh with such relief and gratefulness, you’ll never be afraid
to come to Me for My correcting mercy and grace again!” (Hebrews 4:16, 12:10-11)
The Purpose of the Law
When Adam and Eve sinned, God spoke a curse over man, over
woman, and over Satan (Genesis 3:14-19). The Curse’s purpose became immediately
obvious: it identified each one as rebellious. It’s purpose was to punish that
rebellion, but it could never cure it. Nor did the sacrifice of the lamb to make the outer coverings for Adam and Eve atone for their sin (Hebrews 10:3-4). Rather, the sacrifice and the punishment were to show guilt and
remind them of how terrible it is to listen to the wrong voice, to disobey God.(Romans 5:12-19).
In Genesis chapter 4, another curse is pronounced. This
time, God declares to Cain, “Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the
ground. Therefore, you are cursed…” (v10-11). Cain cries out, “My punishment is
more than I can bear!” (v13) His cry is the echo of every heart when a true understanding of the penalty for sin occurs (Romans 3:19, 6:23). When Israel becomes a nation and receives the Law
from the Lord on Mount Sinai, curses and blessings are pronounced upon the
people according to their behavior. The curses are meant to stigmatize and
punish anyone who disobeys the Law while the Lord promises to bestow blessings
on those who adhere to the Law and show that their hearts are set on obeying
His voice (Deuteronomy 27:11-28).
The Apostle Paul explains much later in history, as a
redeemed Pharisee, that the Law was designed to identify everyone as sinners
but it could never save anyone out of that sin (Romans 3:20, Hebrews 7:18-19). In point of fact, the law
condemned us all and etched an eternal identity of ‘hopeless sinner’ upon each
and every one of us, because there is no one who meet the perfect standards of
Heaven (Rom 7:7-24). Because of this stigmatism, this hopeless state, Jesus stepped in to pay for our sins with His own blood and place a new heart in us by the power of His Spirit. This is why Paul so fervently and joyfully declared the Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection, because He offered us what the Law could not: a new identity as children of God, forever free from condemnation when we accept the payment of Jesus' blood upon the Cross and the power of His Spirit giving us a new heart(Galatians 3:13, Romans 8:15, Ezekiel 36:25-27).
However, between the time of Moses and Jesus, the Israelite
nation began to view the Law as a way to separate ‘sinner’ from ‘righteous’.
They took the requirements, placed upon outward behavior (for only God can see
the heart) and based their judgment completely on people’s outward behaviors.
This is why, when Jesus began His ministry, He spoke ruthlessly against the
attitude of a Pharisee. He exposed the sins of their hearts, not allowing them
to hide behind the appearance of good behavior (Matthew 15:18-20). He called
them white-washed tombs, full of dead man’s bones. He said they needed to
cleanse not only the outside but also the inside (Matthew 23:25-28). And He
preached the entire Sermon on the Mount with the intent to expose every flaw in
a self-righteous person’s thinking. He said, “You haven’t committed outward
adultery, but you’ve lusted in your heart, and to God, it’s the same thing”
(Matthew 5:28). He said, “You haven’t physically murdered anyone, but you’ve
lived hating that person and using all your power to hurt him in all other
ways. To God, it’s the same thing!” (Matthew 5:21)
In all His dialogues with the nation of Israel, Jesus’
message is strong, personal, and clear: “God sees the inside. God judges
righteously (John 5:30). It’s all the same to God. He cares about the heart
attitude and not just the behavior (Luke 11:40). You’re wronging people and
creating new traditions to call it good (Matthew 15:3-9). But the purpose of
the Law is to show you how much you need a Savior (Romans 7:7). Yet you’ve
turned God’s commandments into a cudgel that you wield upon others instead of
falling to your knees in repentance (Luke 11:46). David said a broken and contrite heart is what
God desires, and he was right (Psalm 51:17)! I told Samuel the prophet, ‘Man
looks at outward appearances but God looks inside the heart’ (I Samuel 16:7). I’ve
come to this Earth to die for your sins, but you won’t receive Me if you don’t
believe you’ve sinned!”
The whole point of Jesus’ strange harshness is to get the
nation ready: ready to cry out in repentance and desperation for the mercy He
was about to offer at the Cross (John 7:37-39). He ate with sinners because
they already recognized their deep need for healing, mercy, and restoration
(Matthew 9:12-13). They longed to be in fellowship with the One they had always
been ostracized from. But the Pharisees, who upheld all the Laws and kept ‘sinners’
out of God’s holy presence, needed to know that they were in the same boat
(Matthew 23:13). Jesus longed for them to recognize their need so they, too,
could receive forgiveness and a new nature (II Corinthians 5:17).
Labels:
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Thursday, November 6, 2014
Beautiful Life
Medical Expert Testimonies on the Beginning of Human Life:
“This is the moment of conception, when an
individual’s unique set of DNA is created, a human signature that never existed
before and will never be repeated.” --In the Womb, National Geographic,
2005
“{The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and
a sperm, is the beginning of a new human being.” --Before We Are Born:
Essentials of Embryology, 7th Edition, 2008.
“By all the criteria of modern molecular biology,
life is present from the moment of conception.” --Professor Hymie Gordon, Mayo
Clinic
“After fertilization has taken place a new human
being has come into being. [It] is no longer a matter of taste or opinion…it is
plain experimental evidence.” --Dr. Jerome LeJeune, Professor of Genetics, University
of Descartes
“It is incorrect to say that biological data cannot
be decisive…It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life
begins at conception.” --Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University
Medical School
“The beginning of a single human life is from a
biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter—the beginning is
conception.” --Dr. Watson A. Bowes, University of Colorado Medical School
“…conception marks the beginning of the life of a
human being—a being that is alive and is a member of the human species.”
–Judiciary Subcommittee
Pro-Choice Advocates Agree:
“There is no doubt that from the first moments of
its existence an embryo conceived from human sperm and eggs is a human being.”
–Peter Singer, ethicist
“We need to contextualize the fight to defend
abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the death of a fetus
is a real death.” –Naomi Wolf
“I think we have deluded ourselves into believing
that people don’t know that abortion is killing…yes, it kills a fetus.” –Faye
Wattleton (Planned Parenthood)
“We can accept that the embryo is a living thing in
the fact that it has a beating heart, that it has its own genetic system within
it. It’s clearly human in the sense that it’s not a gerbil, and we can recognize
that it is human life. The point is not when does human life begin, but
when does it really begin to matter?” –Ann Furedi (British Pregnancy
Advisory Service)
“I accept that abortion stops a beating heart and I
accept that abortion ends a potential human life, even in the very earliest
weeks of pregnancy.” –Ann Furedi
“I definitely do want to talk about the fact that
when you are pregnant, there is a baby growing inside of you.” –Judith Arcana
(Abortion Counseling Service)
What determines YOUR worth?
“SLED=Size, level of development, environment,
degree of dependency.” --Stephen Schwarz
Pro-Choice arguments are about WHEN human life gains value!!!
Amazing
Pictures and Citations
During in utero surgery, 21-week-old Samuel
Armas grasped his doctor's finger! He is a healthy boy today.
|
Miracle:
Amillia was born at just 21
weeks and six days into her gestation--two weeks before the legal abortion limit at just 9.5
inches (24.13 cm) long and less than 10 ounces (284 g).
“Behind the scenes- the model of a fetus in the womb. On
Mother’s Day, one of the most startling broadcasts will be In the Womb on
National Geographic Channel. Pictures of unborn infants are not new but this
two-hour Brit documentary uses the latest in 3-D scanning technology to provide
exceptional images of a baby girl from conception to birth.”
Quotation References
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