“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt 28.19-20 NIV) (emphasis added).

When my twin sister and I were five years old and finishing our last year of pre-school, our mom signed us up for an overnight campout. Tents, food and fun were provided; and all we needed to bring was a sleeping bag and an overnight bag. I was so excited! When we arrived, my mom walked us to one of the camping attendants to check us in. After a few moments, my mom knelt down and gave me the most alarming news of my young life: My twin would not be staying with me.

For the duration of my camping trip, I did not say a single word. I observed the movement around me like I was having an out of body experience. I remember watching three girls in my tent talking and laughing, and I just stared at them like a deer in headlights. One girl kept shining her flashlight at my face, and the girls would whisper and giggle. The girl finally tried to ask me a question, but I gaped and said nothing. It was as if I had been given a new set of eyes, and everything I saw was strange and dreamlike.

The next morning I got out of my tent and stood outside until an adult asked me if I was hungry. I nodded my head, and he led me to the breakfast station. I sat alone eating pancakes, while my brain worked overtime trying to figure out if I was supposed to engage in life without my twin. Luckily, my mom came to retrieve me a few hours later. On the way home, my twin talked excitedly about all that she had done with mom, and I sat quietly unable to understand or communicate my altered reality encounter.

As my intimacy with God grows, I’ve noticed that my dependency on Him has become my new reality. I can’t function without relying on the Three Persons of my Creator. God is my Father. Jesus is my Savior. The Holy Spirit is my Counselor. God has beautifully chosen to interact with me in three distinct and wonderul ways; and I’m learning to know and relate with each Person of the Godhead.

God created me and knows me. He has given me a preordained purpose for my life. He loves me like a perfect parent and expects great things for me. He is Controller of the Universe, yet He cares about the small moments of my day.  ”Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me’” (John 8.42 NIV).

Jesus has been tempted with sin and carried its weight on the cross. He has walked in flesh and knows what I’m going through. He prays for me and gives me strength to live in a world and body corrupted by sin. His righteousness covers me, so I can commune with a Holy God.  ”For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority” (Col 2.9-10 NIV).

The Holy Spirit guides and teaches me. He unlocks the promises of the Bible and applies them to my life. He dwells within me and whispers correction and praise into my heart. He uses the stories of my life to grow me into the image of Christ.  ”And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14.16-17 NIV). 

God loves me so much that He offers Himself to me in three unique ways, so that I may better know the richness of His nature. I desire my life to be so engulfed in His fullness that I’m unable to engage in living without His presence. I pray that my days are so completely wrapped up in God that every interaction, thought and word I speak has the sweet aroma of His glory and His Spirit. I want my reality to be solidly fixed on Him, so I fear His absence in my choices more than I fear the opinions of others, the impossibility of circumstance or the enormity of my faith-steps.

Rooted Belief

“And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15.5 NKJV).

Abraham believed God. God promised him that he would be the father of many nations, yet Abraham and his wife had not conceived a baby yet. Years passed after God gave Abraham this promise, and God blessed him with protection, prosperity and prominence; but the kingdom-promise of a heir with his wife, Sarah, seemed hopeless. However, it is in this season of impossibility that God tests the legitimacy of our faith. Will we believe God at His Word or will we be persuaded by the physical evidence in our lives? Our true allegiance uncovers when we find ourselves in a desert land of doubt, and God quietly watches our resolve either strengthen or disintegrate. When circumstances mount against our kingdoms-promise, we must rise up carrying the weight of our hope and shout to all who will listen that we still believe. And in our free-will decision to stay rooted in our faith, we will stand righteous before a Holy God.

 ”The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9.24 NLT).

Righteousness Found in Hell

 ”The the Lord said to Noah, ‘come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation’” (Genesis 7.1 NKJV).

The Bible never said Noah was perfect, but he found grace in God’s eyes because he was righteous in his generation. The Bible says that the wickedness of humans was so great during Noah’s time that God was sorry He ever made them (Gen 6.6). Obviously, Noah grew up in an extremely corrupt and perverse family, culture and generation. Some Christians may have a preconceived notion of righteousness based on the trending culture of Christianity existing today. These Christians incorrectly judge others based on outward appearance and/or conduct that do not fit into their world-view of righteousness. However, like Noah, the circumstances surrounding these people may be extremely corrupt and perverse; and God sees the heart of those who are trying to trudge by faith through the swamps of ungodly experiences, upbringings and legacies. God gives grace to people who are fighting against the darkness they’ve come to know and understand and who are trying to live for God in a Christian world totally foreign to them. Because of the cross, God attributes righteousness in the center of their struggles, and the Holy Spirit transforms them from differing levels of glory into the image of His Son. Jesus reaches down into the individual hells of all His children and pulls them into His love, mercy and forgiveness; and as they cling to Him, they find grace and strength to loosen the strong-holds of sin.

“Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life” (Titus 3.7 NLT).

The Taste of Sin

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” (Genesis 3.7 NKJV).

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is symbolic of our free-will to eat of fruit which embodies the absence of God. God is the Tree of Life. We taste of Him and find life. We find God in our prayers, the Bible and the Holy Spirit which dwells among us in this imperfect world corrupted by sin. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil only offers us death. The more we eat of its fruit, the further into a pit of darkness we fall. When Adam and Eve used their free-will to defy God’s loving command to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they opened their eyes and saw their nakedness, their shame. Today, every time we defy God’s loving commands, we take bites into this tree, and we expose our Spirits to shame. Thankfully, though, Jesus took our shame – past, present and future – and we are forever made clean if we have accepted His gift of salvation. However, our minds, hearts and souls are subjected to the knowledge of sin we have freely consumed. But if we determine ourselves to continue eating from the Tree of Life, the effects of our sin-knowledge will dwindle and lose potency.

“I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on me!” (Psalm 119.8 NLT).

When God is stretching my faith, and He is asking me to take steps outside of my comfort zone, I have the same reoccurring dream – Elevators. When I dream about elevators, I’m always apprehensive to walk in them. They look unstable and ready to plummet to the earth. Though my mind is screaming for me to stay away, I realize that there is no other way for me to get to my destination (regretfully, there are never any stairs in my dream). I take a deep breath and step into the elevator, relinquishing control of my life.

In my dreams, the elevators have been wobbly, forcing me to balance in the middle. The elevators have taken me up when I wanted to go down. The elevators have even left the building, soaring across the city horizon like a gondola. I slide back and forth in my floating elevator, praying that I make it to wherever I’m supposed to go. In all of my dreams, I never reach my destination. I wake up relieved that the dream is over but upset that there is never any resolution.

I wonder if Noah felt like this when He was tossed about in the Ark during a storm that seemed to never end.  Or if Abraham felt like this when He walked through a Promised Land where he was the stranger. Or if David felt like this when he hid in caves from a blood-thirsty king who claimed his throne. Or if Jesus felt like this when He willingly endured the shame of our sins on the cross.

How can we have peace when we obediently walk into circumstances that test our resolve and stretch our faith? Romans 15.13 promises that there is peace in believing.  If we can just hold onto our belief in God’s faithfulness, in His promises and in His Word; we can claim peace that everything will turn out good for those who love Him and are committed to His purpose (Romans 8.28).  Though all the circumstances around us may try to make us fear, we can stand firm in the knowledge that God’s ways are beyond our imaginings (Isaiah 55.8).

I have to trust that God’s plan is not limited to a man-made elevator. Though I have no idea what God may be doing, I have faith that He will show His glory in the middle of my confusion. When my elevator finally makes it to its destination, my faith will be confirmed and strengthened.  I will be filled with a fresh power to face my next trip of faith on another crazy elevator ride; and, hopefully, this time I will sit in complete peace instead of hanging on for dear life.

This article is a guest post written for Interlacing of a Living Fractal.

The Light in Darkness

“And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1.4 NKJV).

God spoke light into existence on the first day He created the heavens and the earth. He divided the light from the darkness, but Scripture never says that He created the darkness. Because God created the light, the absence of light came into existence – darkness. God did not create Evil, but since God is Good, the absence of Good exists – Evil. Because Adam and Eve used their free-will to taste from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, humans are now exposed to the presence and absence of God. God is all Good, and by His nature, He cannot dwell with anything less than perfectly Good. Our free-will causes us to the walk through the dark valleys of this world; therefore, we are separated from God. However, Jesus died to give us His perfection and to take our imperfection. When our faith and God’s grace collide, we are made perfect and holy before a perfect and holy God; and we are no longer separated from Him. God gives us the light of His Spirit, which not even the darkest valley can snuff; and we become followers of Jesus through the power of His Word – the Bible.   

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1.5 NKJV).

I began the Bible fresh for the New Year. I dove into God’s perfect creation and His gift of free-will to His beloved people made in His image. I saw human’s embrace of sin and the consequent corruption of God’s perfect design. After Cain killed his brother, Abel; Eve gave birth to Seth, the son of redemption. Seth began his family, and the Bible then reads something that I thought interesting: “And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD” (Genesis 4.26 NKJV) (emphasis added).

This verse struck me because the wickedness and judgment of people is quickly covered in the subsequent chapters. If people were calling on the name of the Lord, why did God cause a flood to erase almost the entire population from the face of the earth? How did Noah find favor and grace with God to be the seed of God’s redemption plan for humanity?

Finally, I read four little words and found my answer: “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6.9 NKJV) (emphasis added).

I’ve come to the conclusion that many people call on the name of the Lord, but very few people make it a priority to walk with the Lord on a daily basis. I know this because I used to be one of them. I loved God with my words, my hopes and my intentions; but my thoughts, actions and decisions over the long haul revealed that He had very little hold over my heart. I wanted to love God from a distance because I was scared let Him into the crevices of my life. If I loved God with all my strength, mind and soul; I would have to give Him complete control and confront my own selfish nature.

Intimacy with God ignites the most romantic, heartbreaking, fierce, loving, tumultuous, exasperating, fulfilling, difficult, revealing, joyous relationship that even the best films in Hollywood couldn’t capture. Walking with God is not always easy. Yes, it is beautiful, exciting and rewarding; but, nevertheless, it takes a lot of faith, trust, sacrifice and obedience. Merely calling on the name of the Lord would be so much easier because it can be dictated by our standards, timetable and needs. However, calling on God without really walking with Him would eventually lead to our stagnation, idolatry and ruin.

So as I walk with God, I’m reminded that like any relationship there are seasons of pressing, refining and breaking; but there are also seasons of growth, renewal and victory. And the one thing that I’ve learned that makes my load lighter and the yoke of faith with Christ easier to bear is that it’s not about who I am, but about who He is. And He is perfect in every way, and that truth gives me peace, hope and joy. If I could just tuck myself into His grace and remain in the fold of His love, I would find the strength to walk with Him to the end of the earth and back.

“If we only have the will to walk, then God is
pleased with our stumbles.”
C.S. Lewis

While my husband drove us home from church, I sat irritated in the passenger seat. The sermon was amazing as usual – all about expecting “greatness” from God. This reminder used to encourage me; but after six years of waiting for God to publish my first book, I felt disillusioned.

I’ve been down this road many times – trekking down the Valley of Baca going from spring to spring on my journey to meet God in Zion (Psalm 84). I didn’t want God to refresh my soul again because I knew it meant another year of trekking, another year of sacrificing my nights sowing my words without a harvest, another year of believing God’s promises by His faithfulness alone. Another year…

He promised me when I was young and ignorant that I would write books for Him, but I never realized how difficult and long the journey would be. I never thought that I would beg Him to take the desire away, so I could walk away from it all. How would it feel to live free from the destiny-burden He created for me?

As I huffed in my chair, I thought of all the dreams I gave up to follow God’s bidding. Maybe I could dabble a little bit in my old dreams. I could teach a college class or two. I could write a few articles for the newspaper. I could shut out the voice of the Holy Spirit always telling me what to say and write. I could…

I flipped down the mirror on the visor and analyzed my face. Who was I and what was I doing? As I stared at myself, I noticed a stray hair on my eyebrow that I forgot to pluck. Instantly, I came out of my introspection and grabbed my purse to find tweezers.

As I looked, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “You teaching a college class is like that stray hair. It doesn’t fit the shape of your design.”

God has such a finite and unique plan for each of us, and we must carefully groom our plans to fit His purpose. There are many wonderful achievements we can pursue, but if they are not a part of God’s will for us, they become idols. The worst decision we can make is to cheat on God’s best for our lives with seemingly good things. We need to pluck out everything that doesn’t align with God’s plan, so that our purpose is plainly visible and distinct.

We don’t want undefined lives….or bushy eyebrows.

Questions: Are you ever tempted to cheat on God’s best in your life? What is your stray hair that doesn’t fit your destiny? How do you encourage yourself to stay the course?

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit” (John 15.2 NASB).

You can also read this article at the Internet Cafe.

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18.18 NASB).

One afternoon, I found myself driving solo in my car, which is rare for a mommy of three young kids. When I’m alone, my thoughts tend to consume me and I’ll begin to talk to myself. I started thinking about God and how much He loves me. He gave me free-will which corrupted His beautiful design, so He poured His perfect Spirit into flesh and died for me on a cross.

Jesus redeemed my imperfections, and the Holy Spirit encourages me to continue using my God-breathed imagination within the limitless possibilities of my free-will to give glory to God. My sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, and all God sees is the beautiful fulfillment of my purpose. I know I will make mistakes, but I claim grace and walk boldly to His Throne of Mercy (Hebrews 4.16). My confidence and security rest in God’s faithfulness alone, and I eagerly hunger for all of His promises found in His Word, the Bible.

As I contemplated how blessed I truly am to be an adored daughter of the King of the Universe, I couldn’t help but yell out my praise and honor to Him. I screamed my adorations so loudly that I was glad that all the windows were tightly rolled up. My boisterous proclamations gushed into the air; and peace, joy and love overwhelmed me. My faith no longer felt uncomfortable or weird because I firmly believe I have found the Truth to all life – we are a beautiful creation beloved by our Creator!

As I yelled out my praise, an image of heaven flashed in my mind. I could see myself kneeling at the Throne of Glory. I was surrounded by others also shouting and worshipping God. The glory of God surrounded us, and the desire to give Him honor and praise became automatic. But there was something special about my praise – all the times I shouted Glory to God by faith on earth echoed in my voice. Every verbal belief I let loose on earth followed me into heaven. In heaven, I no longer needed faith to see God’s glory, but all the proclamations of faith I shouted because of my choice to believe gave emphasis, weight and power to my eternal expression.

We all have free-will. Jesus died to give it to us. Though there is much good we can do with it, we must never forget to praise our God by faith. We were created to worship. We can choose to worship many things; but only when we worship our Creator, will we find our true joy (Psalm 43.4 NLT). So let us let loose our worship by faith on earth, so that eternity will echo with our praises of glorious belief!

“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1.8-9 NLT).

“Jesus replied, ‘Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives’” (John 12.23-24 NLT) (emphasis added).

As I headed to the department store, I saw a seagull sitting in the middle of the parking lot. I walked by him, and he barely moved. He rested in the center of traffic. “He’s going to get hurt,” I thought. But the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus’ words that God protects the little birds (Matthew 6.26), so I quickly bought what I needed from the store and went back to my car. I scanned for the seagull, and my eyes widen when I saw him. He was crushed. A car ran over the lower half of his body, and pieces of his yellow legs and wings were scattered around him. I didn’t understand what God was trying to teach me, but I kept my heart open.

Later, I was driving to my sister’s house, and I saw a several black birds huddled together on the street. They surrounded a comrade that had just gotten run over. Again, I thought about the Scripture of God’s protection, and I told myself that if I saw one more bird, I would know that the Holy Spirit was definitely showing me something. That evening as I was leaving the gym, I saw a beautiful cormorant duck sitting by the curb. He looked confused and lost. I drove by him hoping he would take flight, but he slowly waddled closer to the edge. He was dying and could no longer fly away.

If God loved these beautiful creatures, how could they die so miserably? I found my answer in the Gospels. During this time my mood was especially somber. I was coming up to Jesus’ death on the cross in my yearly Bible reading, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I knew what was about to happen. Jesus would be crushed for the freedom of His beautiful creation designed in His image – humanity. My mood worsened with the Christmas holiday because we celebrate the birth of Jesus: the perfect baby born to save us. But the flip side to His divine birth is the inevitability of His horrific death.

I started to notice a theme, however, as Jesus’ time to die came closer. When Jesus prophesied about His death, He would simultaneously prophesy about His glory. It seemed that the ugliness of death was a precursor for supernatural glory. And a thought struck me: When that seagull lie dismembered on the ground, did God’s unseen glory shine through? Was the bird’s essence tucked away as a seed for the New Earth (Isaiah 65.17 & Revelation 21.1)? Is there a beautiful aspect to death that can only be realized by faith?

Then I thought about all life. Parents across the globe welcome their beautiful babies into this world with the knowledge that their bundles of joy will be crushed one day. A car, an illness, an accident or old age will eventually destroy their lives. No one is exempt from the gruesome hand of death. We all will be crushed; and if our hearts are not set on God and eternity, this existence can seem like a cruel joke instead of the gateway to our real lives.

Even Mary’s excitement over Jesus’ birth must have been dampened by the prophets words of the sorrow she’d feel when He would be crucified: “Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (Luke 2.34-35 NIV) (emphasis added). All life ends in death, but Jesus’ life gives us so much hope because He chose to die alongside us. And His death is a seed that births our future glory – a glory that begins once our physical bodies are crushed. However, we must have faith to believe it and trust to claim it.

Jesus gave a simple promise to the man hanging on his own cross of death next to Him: “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23.43 NIV). Life ends bleakly on this earth. We will all be like those birds – we will disappear from existence and people years from now will walk over our graves. We will die in pain, crushed and forgotten. And although there is no proof or evidence to the glory Jesus claimed and the paradise He professed, I choose to whole heartily believe. I base my life on Jesus’ promises, and I trust there is more to this existence than birth, death and a little in between. My spirit longs to live forever, and I know God has planted eternity in my heart (Ecclesiastes 3.11).

Now when I see the baby Jesus in the manager, I’m reminded that my Creator chose to experience the excruciating sting of death with me. I’m not alone, and I don’t have to be scared. As I draw closer to Jesus and stay my gaze on Him, I begin to see that this earth is not my true home. This life is only a shadow of the beautiful New Earth that God is preparing for us – an earth where sin can no longer cause us pain, sorrow and fear (Hebrews 11.14-16). We will never be separated from the presence of God and the awesome attributes of His glory, and He will gather His blood-soaked creation in His arms and see only the righteousness of His Son.

I desire to confidently reiterate the Apostle Paul’s words: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1.21 NIV). To die IS GAIN! I will remind myself that only when a seed dies, will the full harvest of life be realized. As I mourn seeds of death around me, I will profess the crop of unseen Glory that’s produced in the paradise of our real lives.