Monthly Archives: July 2014

What is God Like?

What Is God Like? part 6

Leave a comment

True Narratives Smashing Distorted Concepts

“God is Holy”

False narratives

God is wrathful. God is mad all the time, and wrath and anger are essential to His nature because He’s holy and we are not.

God does not care about our sin. This would actually undermine the entire Christian story.

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.   ~H. Richard Neibuhr

Jesus’ narrative: Wrath is God’s right action

Many passages of Scripture do indeed speak of wrath, judgement, condemnation. Integrating His wrath and love is difficult for us, but since Jesus did, so must we.

Passion versus pathos

It’s not an option to only embrace the parts of God we are comfortable with a la Thomas Jefferson.

Agape– to will the good of another, to see the precious jewel at the core of every person. God’s love is seen more as parent to child than infatuated teens. It does not wax and wane.

We humanly connect wrath with being out of control. God’s wrath is not a crazed rage but rather a consistent opposition to sin and evil. God hates (detests) sin. Even this concept is tough for us.

In the Bible, His wrath is pathos not passion.

Passion– emotional convulsion, loss of self-control

Pathos– an act formed with care and intention, the result of determination and decision

It’s actually an act of love! God is fiercely and forcefully opposed to the things that destroy His precious people.

Wrath is not a permanent attribute of God. Whereas holiness and love are part of His nature, wrath is contingent upon human sin. If there were no sin, there would be no wrath.

A necessary reaction of a good and beautiful God to evil.

God’s wrath is a temporary and just verdict on sin and evil. Remember, it’s our rejection of Him, not our sin that brings judgement. It is our lack of choice.

Example of the formation of MADD

Holiness is the essence of God

There is no sin, evil, or darkness in Him. He is love and holiness and cannot be otherwise. This is not true of wrath. Wrath is not something He is, but something He does. While it is correct to say God is holy, it is not correct to say God is wrathful. Wrath is the just act of a holy God toward sin (unbelief?). God is first holy and pure. Wrath comes from rejection of God by humans and is a necessary part of His love.

Our God is a consuming fire [Hebrews 12:29]

Love loves unto purity. ~George MacDonald

God loves us so much that He longs for us to be pure and works tirelessly to make us pure. God is against sin and thus for  humans:

He is always against sin; in so far as, and while, they and sin are one, He is against them- against their desires, their aims, their fears, and their hopes; and thus He is altogether for them.

God is against my sin because He is for me, for my purity conforming to the image of Jesus. If I am for sin, God is against those desires because they cause my destruction.

I am prone to excusing my sin or rationalizing my weakness, but God is not. Sin hurts me, Him, and others. His kindness and love lead to genuine repentance. This is how He burns it out. You cannot be truly happy or have shalom with allowed sin in your life.

You don’t really want an unholy God

You don’t really want the permissive parent. Being soft on sin is not really loving because sin destroys.

I want a God who hates anything that destroys me. Because the true God not only hates what destroys me (sin & alienation), but also takes steps to destroy my destroyer, I love Him.

The necessity of hell

Love does not demand love in return; it’s not coercive.

Hell is simply isolation from God.

Gehenna

People choose hell, barring God from their life, thus the doors of hell are locked from the inside.

“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” many of us say (John Milton). There is part of human life that resists relinquishing control to God.

God cares deeply about sin because it destroys His precious children. And God longs for holiness in us because it is the way to wholeness.

God willingly sacrificed Himself to put an end to the problem of sin, breaking its power and taking away our guilt. We are able to triumph over temptation through Him. On our own we’re totally screwed. Using what He’s provided, we are totally victorious.

Grace is more than overlooking sins

Example of girl feeling justified in her sinful behavior because of the message of God’s love.

People need to know God’s unconditional love first, before being able to deal with sin it seems. We assume wrath comes before grace.

Until we have been assured that we are loved and forgiven, it is impossible to address our sinfulness correctly. One must feel safe. Otherwise we will operate out of our own efforts to change, and this is a losing battle.

God’s first word is always grace, then we will understand holiness.

What is God Like?

What Is God Like? part 5

Leave a comment

True Narratives Smashing Distorted Concepts

“God is Love”

Our father who is as near as the air we breathe, we your children are often troubled in mind, hearing within us at once the affirmations of faith and the accusations of conscience. We are sure that there is in us nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just You are. Yet You have declared Your  unchanging love for us in Christ Jesus. If nothing in us can win Your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving us. Your love is uncaused and undeserved. You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith we are loved. Help us to believe the intensity, the eternity of the love that has found us. Then love will cast out fear; and our troubled hearts will be at peace, trusting not in what we are but in what You have declared Yourself to be. Amen.

False narrative: God only loves us when we’re good

God’s love is conditional, depending on how He feels about us.

He turns away from us when we’re sinning & the only way to get Him to turn back around is through good behavior.

Have you heard something similar to the “swivel-chair” narrative in your own life?

The world of performance-based acceptance

We learn performance & conditional love from very early on in life.

We must teach our children that their actions, & not their identity, is being evaluated.

We learn from the world that our acceptance, value, & worth are based on external talents, abilities, & performance. We project this on to God [Psalm 50:21].

Think of how people answer the question, “What must you do to get God to like, favor, & bless you?” People generally say things like “I should go to church.”

Think about that word choice. Where does that come from?

Has the performance-based narrative been a part of your experience? Example?

We think we can control how God feels about us by doing those things on the list & avoiding sin.

Legalism- the attempt to earn God’s favor or avoid God’s curses via pious activities. This is superstition. Performance-based acceptance is a dominant narrative for many of us despite the fact that it leaves us in a state of constant uncertainty & anxiety.

The good news is that this is not Jesus’ narrative & He seemed to go out of His way to  show us this by word & action.

Do you sometimes feel that God’s love depends on your behavior?

Jesus’ narratives

Nowhere does the Bible tell us that God only likes us when we’re doing good things & not sinning.

YHWH’s actions

A God who welcomes sinners

Matthew 9:9-13–Calling Matthew the tax collector to follow Him. They were thought of as traitors & cheats. Rabbis were normally very selective when choosing disciples. Jesus dines with him. The religious leaders did not approve of this at all

If someone were to look at the kind of people you spend time with, what would they assume about your main narratives?

But Jesus says He came for the sick, the unrighteous. He says-toungue in cheek-that He did not come for the “righteous” [self-righteous]. We say, “Maybe He can forgive & love them if they promise to improve.” But this is not what Jesus taught. In actions & words He proclaimed that God loves sinners-as they are, & not as they should be.

God loves sinners  [John 3:16-17 Romans 5:8]

The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God Himself at the very center of this community as its prime Sustainer and most glorious Inhabitant. [Eph.2:19-22; 3:10] ~Dallas Willard

We yearn to be loved without condition.

The prodigal father

Prodigal means recklessly extravagant.

Asking for your inheritance was like wishing your dad dead.

Luke 15:20–God looks on us with compassion even when we have done the very worst to God we can possibly do. When we give Him the finger, He just hugs us tighter.

It was disgraceful to hike up your robe & run. Could’ve had son stoned, but hugged & kissed him- a sign of forgiveness. Robe, ring, shoes- signs of restoration, the rights of a son. Position restored. Lost nothing. Deserved none of it.

It appears God is very fond of sinners [not sin, He hates it].

The elder brother & me

The second half of the parable is aimed at the religious leaders who did not approve of eating with “those people”. It was aimed at the ones not comfortable with God’s unconditional love for others. Think of Jonah.

The elder son had all the privileges & presence of his dad, but did not like it that grace was being shown to “this son of yours”- he refuses to call him his brother.

The chief point is that it is not our sin that separates us from God, it is our self righteousness. Some would say it is not our sin, but all the things we do, even good, to earn favor & position with God. It is a refusal of grace, & it does not turn God from us, but us from God.

Sometimes it’s not God’s grace towards rebels we don’t like, rather we have difficulty with it being shown to us. The earning favor narrative is so deeply embedded, that it’s hard to just let go, accept, & rest in it- in what He’s done for me.

The truth about God

Love (III) by George Herbert

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of sin and dust

But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

If I lacked anything.

“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”;

Love said, “You shall be he.”

“I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,

I cannot look on thee.”

Love took my hand, & smiling did reply,

“Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame

Go where it doth deserve.”

“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?”

“My dear, then I will serve.”

“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”

So I did sit and eat.

FINIS

Glory to God on high, and on earth peace, Good will towards men.

We are worthy because God says we are, through His Son, not through anything in me. So it is we who refuse God. He will never refuse a contrite heart. This must be more than mere belief, even the demons believe & tremble, it must be faith that takes hold.

“Just be with Me. I don’t need you to do  anything for Me. My desire is for you to love Me & let me first serve you.”

Then we will serve others & obey Him as a response to God’s love, not out of motivation by guilt. Love is the great & long-lasting motivator, not guilt, shame, or fear.

Daily Meditations

July 11 / Proverbs 11 / Matthew 11

Leave a comment

lighten-the-load

Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus is that guy with whom you can just hang out & totally be yourself. You don’t have to put on a mask, because He sees through all your bullsh*t anyway. How relieving this is to know He loves you, not what you do.
Just be yourself, because your true self, who you were made to be, is beautiful & loving & enjoyable to be around.
It doesn’t appear Jesus hung out much with the self-righteous.
We keep ourselves from being close to Him. He doesn’t keep from us. It’s the stuff you do that you think is required to be close to Him that can actually keep you far away.
Proverbs 11:17,25,27
A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.
Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. [ESV]
Committing to God is simultaneously a commitment to ourselves. Pleasing Him automatically pleases ourselves. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, we have everything we desire. Serving others benefits us greatly, probably more than we know.
Neuroscience is showing us how much our brains befittingly rewire the more we are self-forgetful.
You can start by forming the very good habit of encouraging at least one person everyday.
Daily Meditations

July 10 / Proverbs 10 / Matthew 10

Leave a comment

mandela-forgive

Proverbs 10:12

Hatred stirs up trouble, but love forgives all wrongs.

Love forgives all wrongs.

Love forgives all wrongs.

Love forgives all wrongs.

Love forgives ALL wrongs…

Easy?

Hell no.

Necessary?

Heavens yes.

Proverbs 10:17

Whoever accepts correction is on the way to life,
but whoever ignores correction will lead others away from life.

Matthew 10:37

Those who love their father or mother more than they love me are not worthy to be My followers. Those who love their son or daughter more than they love me are not worthy to be my followers.

Jesus here expounds on Micah 7:6, cited in verses 35-36, to make a point virtually inconceivable to most of his hearers. Loving family members, especially parents, was one of the highest duties in Judaism; the only one who could rightfully demand greater love was God himself [Deut.6:4-5; cf. Deut.13:6-11; 2 Macc. 7:22-23].

I’m guessing this is still pretty inconceivable to most people who hear this today even. On the surface, it sounds harsh. But as we take time to think it through, doesn’t it make all the sense in the world? If Jesus is who He claimed to be, then He is our Source of life and love itself, for He is love embodied. And so we were made to love Him above all else. Only then, can we love others, namely our parents and children, like no one else, for we will be filled with divine love which is selfless and unconditional.

How in love with the actual person, Jesus of Nazareth, are you?

Who do you love more than Jesus?

What do you love more than Jesus?

Fear of losing what you love most leads to the dark side. Why not love most that which you can never lose?

Daily Meditations

July 9 / Proverbs 9 / Matthew 9

Leave a comment

Jesus feeds lamb

Proverbs 9

My sheep know my voice because they know me intimately, they can easily recognize it. They’ve hung out with Me enough to hear my voice clearly even from a distance. They can distinguish between the voice of wisdom and the voice of foolishness.

But to the untrained ear, to the one who rarely puts himself before Me, it is frighteningly difficult to discern between the voice of wisdom and the voice of foolishness.
We have all witnessed this in ourselves and probably more clearly in others. Someone feels justified in doing something foolish because they are fooled.
Matthew 9:13
For I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough. [NLT]
Jesus did not come to invite the self-righteous, those who see no need of repentance. [Think of this for a sec..He did NOT come to invite those who are self-righteous. That’s heavy. You are most screwed when you don’t think you need help] He did come for sinners, those who know they need to repent.
He rejects the proud.
He never turns away a truly contrite heart approach to Him.
Daily Meditations

July 8 / Proverbs 8 / Matthew 8

Leave a comment

Christ_in_Storm_on_Sea_of_Galilee_Ludolf_Backhuysen

 Proverbs 8:6-8

“What I tell you is right.
 What I say is true.
 Everything I say is honest.
 Nothing I say is twisted or false.”
     -Woman Wisdom/LOGOS
Speech is so very important (see the Letter of James in the NT), and wise people emulate Woman Wisdom in this regard. They avoid speech that is characterized as gossip, rumor, slander, and lies. They do not speak at length on what they know little about, and they realize and acknowledge the fact that there is much for which they do not possess plenteous information.
Just the other day I received a text message from someone ridiculing another person, with the unwritten invitation to join in the bashing party. Thankfully, these years of pouring over Proverbs has implanted a resource always at the ready in my frontal lobe. My response, therefore, was simply the reminder that Jesus is always drawing us closer to Himself, is ultimately in control, and who knows what good the Lord has in store. It was genuine, from the heart, and quickly shut down the would-be gossip fest which always does harm instead of good. Praise be to God our Father.
Key in these situations, I feel, is to draw attention to God and back to the person doing the slamming. It’s quite the beautiful buzzkill.
Matthew 8:26
Jesus answered, “Why are you afraid? You don’t have enough faith.” Then Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm.
I want to live my life without fear because I follow the One
who made everything and therefore in control of everything.
The wind obeys my Master. What shall I fear?
Whenever I am scared I imagine Jesus standing before me asking, “Why are you scared, you of little faith?” in a calm, gentle voice and soothing presence.
A life of moment by moment trust and surrender is what He desires of us I believe.
He made everything and can do anything.*
In this story, Jesus broke through the disciples’ fears, and convinced them of the power and presence of God; and THAT is the essence of miracle. That is the desired effect, not fodder for debate on whether it was a natural phenomenon or supernatural or coincidence, etc.
I love Augustine’s comparison of Christ asleep in the boat to faith asleep in the heart. Sometimes it must awakened by a great storm. At some point, we must rouse faith awake by  the desperate cry of, “Wake up, Lord, we are perishing!” Then, there will be a great calm.

*Because of the gift of free will, I do not believe God controls every single thing per se. I think He graciously grants me the the ability to actually choose what I have for breakfast. If everything single thing that happens is God’s willing it to happen, there would be no such thing as free will or choice, or any need to pray His will be done, for that would always be happening. But I do believe that God is in ultimate control, and therefore has, and will have, the last word, and it will be good. I also believe that He dose break in and act in our lives now, especially through prayer–which is our choice to practice of course.

Daily Meditations

July 7 / Proverbs 7 / Matthew 7

Leave a comment

iphone_addiction

Proverbs 7:10

The woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, and guarded of heart.

“Guarded of heart” here, as the Hebrew suggests, means that this woman does not give herself emotionally or spiritually. She offers herself physically though. In that way she is very open indeed, but holds back in any truly intimate way. Therefore, it will cause a rift, a tearing in the mind of both, as it goes against God’s design for our sexuality.

This is what neurotheology is showing us more and more–the dis-integrated mind. More specifically, the pre-frontal cortex, which is where integration and emotional health are to take place.

Giving yourself to this extent physically, but holding back emotionally and spiritually will quite actually tear you apart. It will foster dis-integration, double-mindedness, making you unstable in all your ways.

You can extrapolate what tearing must go on with regards to pornography as well. There, you are giving yourself physically to a picture, a computer screen, where there is not even a real chance of intimacy at all. All you’re really screwing is your mind.

To have a full sexual relationship with somebody is to give physical expression to what is meant to be a covenanted relationship–that is, stable, faithful, permanent. To say physically, “I am giving myself to you,” while emotionally and spiritually holding back from covenanted commitment is in fact to live a lie–a split in the personality which is ultimately stressful and destructive.

-David Atkinson

Matthew 7:13-14

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

A friend emailed me last week that she was listening to K-Love and they asked the question, “Could you go a day without your i-Phone?” And the consensus was “No. No, I could not go a day without my i-Phone.” Even the DJs agreed. Is this what we’ve come to? As Christians in 2014 America? That we must follow the masses? That we must “keep up”? Keep up with what?

Matthew 7:13 was my friend’s answer to her own rhetorical question. If the masses are doing it, chances are it is the mind-numbing, “sheep-walking” road to destruction. Not the mere possession of an i-Phone, mind you, but the having to have one everyday at all times to get by mentality is what we’re looking at here. We don’t have to do anything the world would have us do. The only thing we have to do is listen to Jesus (Luke 10:42), to seek first God and His kingdom (Matthew 6:33). When you think about it, and you should definitely take the time to think about it, there’s not many things we have to do, just a few–love God, love others, listen to Jesus, golden rule–and the rest of life will take care of itself.

The road to life is hard because it is lonely in the grand picture of the world. This is why we must daily encourage one another on this narrow road we travel. We must remind each other of where it leads–to life, and life abundant and eternal.

And “sheep-walking.” That is Seth Godin’s term. I find it more descriptive than “sleep-walking” through life. Just turn off your brain and follow the masses–all the way to destruction. Even preaching or performing miracles can end in destruction (21-23) if done without truly knowing God, without obedience to His will as directed by His Holy Spirit. How one can perform miracles without true belief is hard for me to comprehend (perhaps it refers to people who are all outward with no inward commitment to the will of God). Nonetheless, Jesus tells us it is possible, and we therefore must heed His warning, for He was and is the revelation of God, of Truth.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd that we can and must sheep-walk to. We would be wise to build our house on Him (24-29):

The concluding parable makes clear that  Jesus has been offering the disciples a solid foundation of teaching on which to build their lives and ministry. But it is up to them to put His words into practice. Otherwise, they are like the fool described so often in Proverbs, who is not the intellectually challenged person, but rather the person who lacks good moral judgement. It is not common sense that Jesus’ wisdom calls us to, but rather a Christian sense, which only makes sense in the context of a Christian vision of the world, a belief system attested to by ethical commitments and behavior.

-from The Renovare Spritual Formation Bible

Daily Meditations

July 6 / Proverbs 6 / Matthew 6

Leave a comment

essentialism

Proverbs 6:6-11

The sluggard is lazy, constantly making the soft choice, losing one opportunity after another after another after another, day by day, moment by moment, until he lies there helpless in his wasted life.

Here’s three things Proverbs says about the sluggard:

  1. The sluggard will not make up his mind (v.9). How long will you lie there? He has no definite answer. He will not give an honest refusal, but he deceives himself by an endless sequence of little compromises.
  2. The sluggard will not finish things (26:15). On the rare occasion when he finds the motivation to get going, it is too much for him, and the impulse dies. He does not stick with a task all the way through to a strong finish. He is a shallow person.
  3. The sluggard will not face things the way they are (22:13). Rather than embrace the challenge of life, he dreams up excuses: “There’s a lion in the streets!” he says. A lion down on Main Street? I doubt it. What’s really out there is a life, a job, a mission to fulfill for Christ.

[This is taken from the book Proverbs: Wisdom that Works]

Matthew 6:33

Seek first the kingdom of God.

Let your care for your souls and another world take the place of all other cares: and let all the concerns of this life be made subordinate to those of the life to come: we must seek the things of Christ more than our own things; and if ever they come in competition, we must remember to which we are to give the preference.

-Matthew Henry

From day one this has been the principle guiding truth for The Ripple Effect. We asked ourselves, “What if this is true?” What if we put God first in every aspect, minute, and decision of our lives to the best that we know how? What would happen?

We firmly, experientially believe that if you put God first, seeking Him, His kingdom and  ways foremost  in your actual daily living and thinking, that you will have everything you need–that, beyond needs, you will experience abundance of Life that far surpasses mere existence, but metamorphoses into a life of meaning, purpose, and joy.

God desires to hear from us and share in every detail of our daily lives. When we converse with Him, ask for help, share our experiences, we begin to live at another level of awareness. We begin to live in gratitude and peace.

I’ve been thinking that God’s love may be about the only unconditional blessing from God (thank God it is unconditional!). But this elusive life of peace that everyone so deeply desires, but looks anywhere but God for to no avail, is conditional…upon our total surrender to God, upon our obedience to Him, upon our drawing near to Him.

We are told to seek first the kingdom of God, not to merely believe it exists and then sit around waiting to have all our needs met. Not only the needs of food, clothing, and shelter, but of love, peace, and joy.

As we often challenge here at The Ripple Effect, try talking to Jesus more than you talk to anyone else, just for a day even. Try to think about Him more than you think about anyone else, even for an afternoon. Then observe and reflect on what happens in you and in your life. Start to take notice and become a witness of your emotions and circumstances rather than a victim to them.

There is no true inner peace in anything but God alone.

It is our hope, and our sincere prayer, that these daily writings point you to that truth, to God alone through Jesus Christ.