Squeezed and Pure

A couple of things were going through my mind, thinking about some of the difficulties we go through in this life, and how it is that God is using the trials that … let’s face it … are just part of life to teach us how to trust Him and to reveal and purify the motives of our hearts. In a way, I was thinking how I was glad to have gone through some of the things I have gone through, because now for the first time I think I’m starting to get real in my relationship with God. I thought about what I wrote in “The cord of three strands” about keeping it real, and this verse came to my mind.

1Peter 1:6,7

…now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine

For some reason I was thinking about the colour orange, and the song “Orange Crush” was going through my mind… I look across at the kitchen bench, and see an orange juice bottle. On it are the words Pure… 100%. Freshly squeezed. The brand is McCoy.

God is preparing our hearts, teaching us to keep it real, so that our faith may be proved genuine. As our genuine faith is revealed may it point the way to Jesus. That is coming. When others see our reality they will see Jesus.

Hebrews 12:7,8 and 12-14

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13″Make level paths for your feet,”[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Holiness here, I believe, speaks of purity and keeping it real.

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Wait for Him… Abide in Him

I’ve been meditating on Isaiah 30 today; God promises us rest if we turn to Him:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength
but you would have none of it.

How hard is it for us to do that… and when trouble strikes how easy it is to look to the tangible: our own resources, the resources of society, our friends, our employers, our workplaces, our education, our family. Yet in times like these where are we to turn when these fail us?

You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

Isaiah prophesied this when times were tough: Assyria was breathing down the neck of God’s people, and captivity beckoned. Rather like today. As captivity beckons, who do we turn to?

“Woe to the obstinate children,”
declares the LORD,
“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;
who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,
to Egypt’s shade for refuge. who go down to Egypt
without consulting me;

…

Through a land of hardship and distress,
of lions and lionesses,
of adders and darting snakes,
the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,
their treasures on the humps of camels,
to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.

The effort involved in “travelling to Egypt”, to attain the “useless” help of the arm of the flesh, is just not worth it.

I am reminded of Jesus’ words:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

What to do, then, in times of trouble. Obviously, not nothing. No, we are to seek the Lord:

…the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.
How gracious he will be when you cry for help!
As soon as he hears, he will answer you.
Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you,
saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

God himself will send the help, the teachers that we need.

Though he gives us the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, as soon as he hears, he will answer us. As soon as he hears. Has he heard from you today?

God’s still got a plan…

Whew… what happened?  Before you know it, three weeks has gone past, and you’re asking yourself … “How?”

Well I’m asking myself “How?”

I’ve realized just how easy it is to slip into the old “striving” ways, and how hard it is to learn to abide in God’s rest, and yet how easy it is when we do abide in God’s rest.

Today I was reminded of that verse: God’s still got a plan.  So we momentarily forgot about God and His plan after somehow exhausting ourselves again with sleepless nights and unnecessary anguish… guess what … God didn’t forget.

There it is again, like the Hollywood sign, emblazoned in heavenly neon, across Mt Zion in our mind’s eye:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The breath of heaven arouses us, like Holy smelling salts, and we’re like…. whoa, where am I?

God’s still got a plan.  More than this, God’s still got a plan for our lives.

Thankyou Jesus, Thankyou Jesus, Thankyou Jesus…

The Double Portion

Ever felt like you’ve had enough? I have

Ever felt like life just isn’t fair?  I have

Ever felt that life doubly isn’t fair, because you trusted God with your life, and you felt as if God let you down somehow?  I have

Ever decided that God’s promises didn’t apply, at least not to you, at least not on this side of eternity? I have

Ever gotten mad with God because the evidence of His goodness was lost in the badness of life? I have

Ever reached that “Comfortably numb” place of “whatever” indifference?  I have

Ever felt like ripping up those bits of paper where you wrote down the things God said He was going to do in you and through you?  I have

But yet today I’ve been drawn again to God’s word, and to what He says to us again and again, and I’m forced to admit, as the weight of His word presses down upon me (it’s a good weight) that I’ve been wrong.

God is faithful to His word.  He hasn’t forgotten us.  He will do what He said He would do in my life.

“In my life, Your will be done”

God says to His people Israel, in perhaps one of their darkest hours, in exile in Babylon, a pagan nation:

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the LORD’s hand
Double for all her sins.”

And again

you shall be named the priests of the LORD,
They shall call you the servants of our God.
You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,
And in their glory you shall boast.

Instead of your shame you shall have double honor
And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.
Therefore in their land they shall possess double;
Everlasting joy shall be theirs.

First, God promises comfort.  Our warfare is accomplished.  We have a great high priest who has carried our griefs and borne our sorrows.  Our sins have been paid for, in duplicate.

Then, not only do we have twice the pardon we deserve, on top of this, God promises us twice the blessing.

Again, God speaks through the prophet Zechariah:

Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you.

Prisoner of hope.  Does that sound familiar?   Are you a prisoner of the hopes and dreams that God gave you years ago, that even now, you’re still awaiting their fulfilment?

Even today, He declares that He will restore double to you… if you simply return to the Stronghold.  Return to the Name of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

“The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.”

“Salvation belongs to our God” we sing in a quavering voice, as if “hopefully” we can just make it to the end of our life and squeak into heaven.  As if “Salvation” was something that we might just be fortunate enough to accede to, if we just hang in there long enough, scraping by on the few crumbs that God’s given us for now, that just might be enough to get by if we’re lucky.

No!  Salvation means so much more than that.  It means hope, life, blessing, fulfillment now!!   That’s the “helmet” of Salvation that strikes utter terror into the camp of the enemy, when he sees that holy hat of war placed on the heads of the soldiers of the Almighty.

Why then, do we not yet see it?  Why do we not yet see the double portion, the back-pay, God’s favour, yet?

Perhaps that’s not really a question we should be asking, but it could be this simple:

James says “You have not, because you ask not”

Jesus says “Whatever you ask in My Name, I will do it”

Perhaps we’re luke warm?   Perhaps our love has gotten cold?  Perhaps we just need to get over ourselves and back to the throne of grace.

We might need some wisdom from God to get the answers.   We might need to seek Him for the answers.

But the truth remains.   God will give us the double portion.  It’s in His word, and He will fulfill His word.

Are we expecting it?  Why not?  It’s in His word, and it’s for us.

Forget that sanctimonious carry-on “Oh, that’s for the faith people”, “Oh thats the health and wealth gospel”, “Oh I’m suffering for Jesus”, “Oh, the thorn in the flesh”  etc. (boring to go on, you know what I mean)

No its the gospel Gospel, and it’s for you and I.  Perhaps we have not because we ask not.

Hold Fast to That Which is True Part II

The Bible teaches us again and again to hold fast; we are to speak the truth, we are not to be vague.  We are to let our yes be “yes”, and our no “no“, we are not to be double minded.   We are not to despise prophecies.  We are to test everything.

The disturbing fact is, when God speaks something over us, or through us, or to us, it’s all to easy to lose the moment in the glory.  How could this be?  When experiencing the glory of God, its all too easy to feel invincible, that the clarity of the moment will remain when the glory lifts (not departs, just lifts, as in is no longer tangible).

Then as we return to the tyranny of the familiar, the word becomes all too distant and vague and unbelievable, and before long we forget it.   God instructs us to write his word on our doorposts, to strap it to our foreheads.  That is true of the written word, the Bible, and it ought to be true of the things that God shows us, that we know that He’s shown us, that He’s confirmed to us.

Maybe now would be a good time to dust off the word that God’s spoken to you, the vision God’s given you, the dreams Gods given you, and take a good look at them for what they are.  Don’t let the distorted goggles of disappointment and the choking black smoke from the fires of your current circumstances cloud your judgement and cause you to forget what God has promised.  God will do whatever it is He said He would do.  God is still true to His word.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and don’t you forget it!

And those circumstances—just what are they?  Just as Jesus said to Peter “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed that your faith should not fail” Satan and his diabolical henchmen also ask to sift us, and will send anything in their power to discourage us from what God has clearly spoken.

Fortunately, Jesus has prayed for us too, and our brothers and sisters in Christ are going through those same struggles.   If you faint in the time of adversity, how small is your strength? Similarly, while Jesus is sleeping and the storms of life knock the boat, remember Jesus’ words, as He rebukes the wind and the waves and calm prevails: “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”.

You of little faith, why are you so afraid?   God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

You who are disappointed, remember Jesus’ words “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” So the other ten doorways were dead ends?   So what?   Jesus has asked the Father, on your behalf, and He has provided many rooms for you.  No matter what life may have thrown your way, He who promised is faithful.  Don’t you dare let life steal from you the joy of the great cloud of witnesses, cheering you on in heaven.  And don’t you dare think you have it harder than they did.  Press on! Remember the promises of Hebrews Chapter 11, and fight the good fight of faith!

Treasure in Heaven

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.

Jesus promises us treasures in heaven and fruit that will last.  Paul reminds us we…get a crown that will last forever.  We are promised a great reward, if we faint not (do not give up).

I guess my reflection for today is this: do we realize just how great an inheritance is laid up for us in heaven, and have we allowed ourselves to get distracted from our primary goal in life, which is to lay hold of this inheritance, for which Christ laid a hold of us?

We talk a lot (in church) about “missing it”, but I wonder sometimes do we even get it at all, like even close? Do we understand—at all—what it is that God has for us, and do we understand how to get it?   I’ve talked about good old fashioned desperation, and  I second that (second myself…sheesh).  It’s time for some good old desperation to allow God to lead us to His inheritance for us.

Because I believe on the other side of eternity, the great beyond, the great gig in the sky, whatever, there is an inheritance that I either get or I get to see burned up.  Well, guess what?  I wanna get it, I don’t want to get to see it burned up (I’m not talking about salvation, I’m talking what makes it through the flame?)

How do we do this?

We get specific.  We get focused, and we engage our lives with everything that God has for us.

“I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.”

we pray, like men possessed (in the best possible way)

…The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name

And we get to know the Masters business.  To do so means forsaking our business and our busy-ness.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Above all, we’re normal.  Not wierd and religious, just people doing what we can, where we are with what we have. God has a way of intertwining His will with our lives, if we will just let Him (the letting Him is the issue here).

God, have your way in my life,  Lead me on Jesus and show me the inheritance you have laid up in heaven for me, and give me a passion to focus and engage so that I can grab a hold of it, for your sake Lord Jesus Amen!

Exceed Your Vision

Do you have a vision? Or if you do have a vision, is it a God-sized vision?

God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask—or imagine… and He wants to develop our vision so that it exceeds “our” vision (if you get my drift).  He wants a God-sized, impossible vision, and He wants us to believe it.

He says to us “Call to me, and I will answer and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know“

If anyone lacks wisdom—lacks vision—they should ask God, but they must believe and not doubt (lest they be as a double-minded person, unstable in all that they do).  And if the vision isn’t immediately crystal clear, keep asking, keep seeking… [actually it just needs to be "plain" not crystal clear]

The band I’m listening to on iTunes at the moment is called the “Desperation Band”

Maybe God is waiting for some good old desperation before He provides the picture… just a thought

Or maybe He’s provided all of the picture that we need, and we haven’t walked in the light that we already have.  God’s plan is usually revealed like an unfolding… little by little, each step a step of faith.  He patiently waits for us to walk out in the light we already have, and as we follow through, more is revealed.  To the one who has, more will be given, to the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken…

God makes our footsteps firm, and He’s not bothered when we ask for more certainty each step of the way. If you’re not sure about the next step, ask Him.  He will give you the vision you need. True faith is not blind faith.  Faith is not blind, faith requires a vision that transcends and supercedes natural vision.  Ignorance isn’t a problem to God—in fact “ignorance” coupled with desperation is a prerequisite to hearing from God:  The one who thinks he knows does not yet know as he ought to know.   The word of God doesn’t refer to blind faith, the word says “we walk by faith, not by sight.“  The vision of faith is far greater than the vision of the eyes, or the vision of human planning, or of any human endeavour.    Faith is the actual evidence of things hoped for, the very substance of things not yet seen.

What to do, then, when one has no vision?  How then are we to know the way we are to go?

Pilots are taught, early on in their training, how to fly in conditions of low visibility.  Such conditions are known as “instrument conditions”.  Pilots in instrument conditions cannot afford to fly by their senses, and their feelings, because these are invariably wrong.  In instrument conditions, a pilot must determine his position and his course by his instruments, and his instruments alone.   Failure to do this will result in disaster.

Likewise, God often requires of His children that we learn to “fly” in instrument conditions, when there is little or no vision.   The instruments are the word of God, the Bible, prayer, faith, hope and above all love. As long as we plant ourselves in God’s word, we cannot lose.  As long as we bring everything to Jesus in prayer, how can we worry?

Jesus tells his disciples to “keep” his word.   The word of God isn’t always easy to understand, nor is it easy to digest.  In fact sometimes digesting Gods word is like chewing dry weetbix.  It is in these times that we must learn the definition of perseverence (which literally means to “stand [stay, abide] under” in New Testament Greek).  God is teaching us to fly by our instruments and not by our feelings.

God is faithful.  He will not let us be tempted [tested] beyond what we can bear, but when we are tempted [tested] he will provide a way out so that we can stand up under it.  Persevere.  Stand under (understand?)

“You will seek me, and find me,” says God, “when you seek me with all your heart.“

Come see
Come see with spirit eyes
Come see
The door is open
Come near
Come weary and ashamed
Come near
His arms are open
His arms are open

Come live
Come live in freedom here
Come live
The chains are broken
Come rest
Come take his gift of grace
Come rest
The word is spoken
The word is spoken

Come see
Come see with spirit eyes
Come see
The door is open
Come home
Come lay your burdens down
Come home
His arms are open
His arms are open
His arms are open

Hold fast to that which is true

“Do not treat prophecies with contempt; test everything; hold fast to that which is true.”

Lets face it—God doesn’t always speak to us in the way that we would necessarily have Him were we to have a choice in the matter.  No, He often speaks to us through the channels that, naturally speaking, probably offend us the most.   And He’s been doing it for centuries (well, millenia… at least).  Consider Balaam, who God chose to speak to through a donkey.  Or Ezekiel, Hosea, Jeremiah and Isaiah. If you’re religious, you might not want to think about this, but the fact is, would you have listened to a butt-naked maniac with a personal hygiene problem, and a seriously scary nervous disposition?

No, God speaks in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes, He even speaks to us, and we just don’t get it.  Our poor self-image finds the concept of God speaking to us the most offensive of all.  But He does speak to us.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah:

He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,  ’they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?
 

So Jesus speaks to us, somewhat cryptically, “Don’t you understand any parable?”

The correct answer, I believe, is “No, I don’t understand, Lord. Please help me to understand.”

So when God speaks to you cryptically in ways you don’t fully understand, via ways that you don’t fully understand… don’t throw out what God is saying in the bathwater of everyday life. God is speaking!

You have seen many things, but have paid no attention;
your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”

And more than that

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

and

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Could it be that we, at least in the measure that God is speaking to us (which He is, O ye of little faith), are His servants the prophets?  Then surely God is speaking to us about that new thing that is springing up.  And if He is speaking to us, surely we ought to be praying expectantly, and believing intently, that the very thing He speaks of will indeed come to pass (if we do not faint!)

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
neither are your ways my ways,” 
declares the LORD.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
so are my ways higher than your ways 
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow 
come down from heaven, 
and do not return to it 
without watering the earth 
and making it bud and flourish, 
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth: 

It will not return to me empty, 
but will accomplish what I desire 
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

For God does speak—now one way, now another— though man may not perceive it.

The Archaic and the Eternal

I have heard it said, many a time, with respect to the truth of the gospel, the reality of sin and redemption, death and the resurrection, the eternal King Jesus and His defeated foe… that such concepts were so completely “archaic” that they “could not possibly” apply today.

The thought that crosses my mind is “Since when does eternal truth ever become outdated?” In this deluded, depressed, demoralized postmodern society that we live in,  we have the audacity to pigeon-hole centuries-old truth as “archaic”.

If the Truth has been outmoded, then with what exactly has it been replaced with? Surely we must have something infinitely better to show in our society now we have suddenly—at last—become released from the shackles of antiquity. What is it that is somehow much better than the Truth which motivated such as the American Revolutionaries, and those who were responsible for shutting down the slave trade, and the Reformers (many of whom paid with their lives simply so we could have access to God’s immutable word, the Bible, that “archaic” diatribe that it is), or in more recent times General Montgomery, whose pronouncement “The Lord mighty in Battle will give us the victory” preceeded the first military victory for the allies in World War II. Shall I go on? Are we to somehow ignore history?

Since when do we presume to have attained the intellectual superiority to dismiss the glorious truth that our forefathers lived and died for, the real platform upon which all of the freedoms which we now take foregranted, were actually built? So that now we discuss whether or not it is “relevant” to deign to pray before parliament sits, or before school or even at school at all, or in public ever? There is a reason why Christian society has been blessed in the past, and it behooves us to understand our past as it truly was, not how revisionist history might try to paint it.

God is not mocked. Let God be true and every man a liar. The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

And let Christians not forget God’s promise: “If my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked [lit. bent] ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”.

Lord, heal our land!! Come and send revival!! We need you!!!

Oceans will part

The refrain of the song in my head is
“Oceans will part, Nations Come, at the whisper of your call…
“Hope will rise, Glory shown, In my life your will be done”

There is something about the will of God in our life that engenders the miraculous. In order to step into the future God has for us, we are led to a place where the impossible confronts us head on, and we are left with nothing else but to step into his plan. The parting of the oceans and the establishment of Gods purposes for our life are one and the same. One is an outward manifestation of the supernatural, the other an inward but no less incredible impartation of miraculous grace.

But why are we so surprised at the need for the miraculous? (or why I am I so surprised…) Doesn’t Jesus promise us that whosoever believes in Him, rivers of living water shall flow (gush?) from their innermost being. Where else does that overflow of supernatural grace come from but the miraculous presence of God pouring forth into our lives. It is no less incredible than the mighty Red Sea, split asunder as Moses lifts his staff, no less gobsmacking than the river Jordan rolled back as far as the eye could see, the reproach of Israel driven back to Adam.

So it is with the miraculous working of God’s will in our lives.

In my life, Your will be done. Not the comprehensible, categorizable, understandable plans that I can conceive. The incomprehensible, improbable, impossible will of God for my life. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived”. But God has revealed it to us by his spirit. How incredible is that.