Tag Archives: the Gospel

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 24

“On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” 

Acts 16:13-14

Thank You Father, that You are the opener of hearts to Your gospel! Today I lift up every place where Your word will be preached, and I ask that You would open the hearts of those listening.

I pray for divine meetings to be set ups for Your gospel, Lord. That as Your people come in and go out, they would encounter those whose hearts You have opened to the gospel, and that we would be obedient to speak Your word to them.

Open the mouths of Your people Lord. Give the timid ones courage to speak and give the bold ones wisdom as they tell Your good news. I pray that in every gathering of believers, no agenda of ours will usurp Yours. I pray for sensitivity in Your pastors today, Father, sensitivity to the leading of Your Spirit.

Father, they were looking for a place to pray, and instead found people who needed to hear Your Word. Oh, may Your people be willing to forego our own plans in order to obey the moving of Your Spirit. May we have eyes to see what we are not looking for, and a readiness to obey with the gospel.

I pray for Your Word to run swiftly today Lord, through the streets of our cities and the nations. And I pray that You will prepare the hearts of those who will receive it with joy.

In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.

Matthew—We Can Stop Inviting Jesus

“‘Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.'” 

“‘Lord,” another of His disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” – Matthew 8:19-22

narrow

Jesus was clear that following Him would not be a journey of 5-star hotels, but a narrow gate to a narrow road and most of what we clutch in our hands and our hearts will not fit.

He was equally clear that there is an urgency in the Gospel and no other perceived obligation can come first. To the man’s request that Jesus wait until he tied up his loose ends, Jesus’ answer was no.

But what really caught my eye was the missing invitation.

Neither of the men invited Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. Instead, they each said they would be His follower.

And for some reason, that became meat on a bone for me. A bone that I need to pick with us, the ambassadors for Christ, the disciple-makers, the carriers of the Gospel. So many of us present people with the same message, in varying forms:

“Invite Jesus into your heart/life to be your Lord and Savior, and you will be saved.”

We need to stop presenting the Gospel as though it is our invitation to God.

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!” Acts 2:36

Our invitation does not make Him what God has already made Him.

I think the real reason that our invitation to Jesus has become a point of contention for me, is that it feels too much like we are standing on a level playing field with Jesus. Like we have the power over whether or not He is Lord.

“…so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11)

It’s not that the Christians have a Lord, and everyone else doesn’t. Jesus is Lord of all. The question will never be, is He Lord and Savior?, but did we obey the Gospel and receive life? Faith is an act of obedience, not an invitation. (Romans 1:5, 16:26; Romans 10:15-17)

I know what you’re thinking. The invitation gives them a starting point, a way of expressing verbally what is happening in their heart. It’s semantics, really.

Except it isn’t. I cannot find even a theological principle that implies our ability to extend an invitation to the Creator of heaven and earth, for anything. Even our opening the door that He is knocking on is not our invitation to Him, it is our yes to Him. He’s already at the door. No invitation needed. (Revelation 3:20)

Gospel means good news. The good part is not that we can invite Jesus in. It is that He can make us stop being dead.

 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world… But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses.

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift. (Ephesians 2:1,4, 8 – emphasis mine)

Lazarus comes to mind as a physical picture of a spiritual event. He was very dead. Jesus neither gave an invitation nor waited for one. He gave a command — “Lazarus, come forth”. Disobedience would have kept him in the grave. Obedience brought him out.

Invitations are nice, polite. Unintrusive. Friendly. I think maybe that’s what we want the Gospel to be.

But it isn’t. The keys to death and hell were not politely handed over, they were taken with earth-shaking force. There was nothing friendly about the atonement for our sin.

The Gospel is bloody and real and hell shattering and it is not about making bad people good, or hurt people better, but about making dead people live.

passionofchristqi4

This was not to make us better but to put an end to our death. 

It leaves me a little wrecked with wonder as I look back through this lens and see what really happened in April of 1989 when I thought I was inviting Jesus to come into my life to be my Lord and Savior.

In reality, He stood at my tomb and commanded me to come forth. And in His love, goodness, and mercy, He took my invitation as obedience and removed my grave clothes.

Oh. How I love Him.

Heroes: Enoch—Who will look for us?

We’re walking through the Hall of Faith together, in Hebrews 11. A link to the previous post will be at the end of this one.

“By faith Enoch was taken away so he did not experience death, and he was not to be found because God took him away. For prior to his removal he was approved, since he had pleased God.  Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.”

Just like that. He walked with God, pleased God, and then he was taken away. I assume the words ‘he was not to be found’ imply that people, the ones who had been left behind, were searching for him. This stirs something in me. Enoch points to the end, to the day of Christ’s return to take His Church to be with Him!

In Luke, chapter 17, Jesus speaks of that day that Enoch’s story foretells.

I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: One will be taken and the other will be left.  Two women will be grinding grain together: One will be taken and the other left.

And then in 1 Thessalonians: 4:17 Paul tells us…

Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.

And suddenly I am filled with fresh hope. Because although I know the truth, and I know that this day is coming, I get bogged down in day-to-day life down here and I tell ya, it can feel like this is it. So I find myself holding onto this life with both hands clenched tight as though this earthly existence is all I get. When I forget the truth, things down here appear much bigger, much more important, than they really are.

Every thing we have on this earth will be left behind. All the trappings that we had to have, that we worked to build, that we believed would bring the peace and the happiness we wanted…none of it will survive the final hour. That leaves us with this:  who will be left behind when Enoch’s story becomes mankind’s story? Who will look for us but will not find us?

And so I find Enoch pointing not only to the rapture of the Church, but to the urgency of the Gospel. Enoch reminds me that there is no thing on this earth more important than the people on this earth, and whether or not they will one day be counted among those who will be “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.” 

By faith.

Paul told the Thessalonians to encourage one another with his words concerning the end, so this is me, encouraging us…

Editable vector illustration of a man winning a race

One day we will discover that this earthly life is not the end, but the beginning. One day, our race here will end and we will all be gathered at the finish line with Jesus, our great reward!

Who will be with us?

Previously:  Cain & Abel

Heroes: Cain & Abel—What are you pointing at?

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

I’ve read commentaries. Looked up the original words in Hebrew. Tried every way I know to peek underneath this verse, but the fact is, God never tells us why He preferred Abel’s offering over Cain’s. But we can still go deeper and find the treasures hiding here.

Cain’s response to God’s rejection of his offering is anger. Not repentance. Not humility. Anger and pride. And God took it as a teaching moment and said to him ‘If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Cain did not take it as a learning moment, and instead, killed his brother.

I think, and it’s just opinion talking here, that Cain’s offering was like a man going through the motions with God. It was made more out of obligation than faith. And when he saw Abel, and not himself, receiving the approval of God, he showed his true heart.

It’s almost like Cain’s offering is pointing directly at a spirit of religion. And a spirit of religion is always a mask worn by pride. Note that Cain did, in fact, bring an offering to God, giving the appearance of obedience and reverence. But then God unmasks Cain’s pride by refusing his offering. Once unmasked, we see Cain’s anger and petulance toward God, even when God questions him about the disappearance of his brother.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

Unmasked, Cain’s true attitude is on display. And then, we see even deeper, when God tells him the consequences for killing his brother.

“But Cain answered the Lord, ‘My punishment is too great to bear! Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.’”

Again, no repentance. No sorrow for his sin. Only prideful concern for self. And while we can see this on the backside of this story, we know that God knew it before it ever happened. 

In contrast, Abel’s offering was given by faith. And his offering was “some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions”.  The fat is defined as the best, or most excellent of any kind. 

So Abel’s offering, by faith, was a blood offering, made from the sacrifice of the first-born, the best, or most excellent of any kind. And, ultimately, Abel was persecuted for his faith, was he not?

So, if Cain’s offering points to a spirit of religion, is it possible that Abel’s offering points to the Gospel of Christ, and His Church?

jesus-cross

For some reason, this makes me weep, this treasure buried back in the beginning. Not just a collection of stories that we blow the dust off every now and then, but markers pointing to the cross and to the Firstborn, the perfect lamb, who offered the Father His life as our ransom. So that we could become His Church.

And I am compelled to ask God, what about me? What do I take from this for my own life?

Slow down and take a deeper look at what you do ‘for Me’. Do your offerings point to the Gospel of Christ and His Church, or do they point to a religious spirit? Simply put, are your offerings to Me coming from faith, or from pride?

This question goes far beyond tithes and offerings. It seeps into our ministries, into our volunteering, into how we operate in our giftings, our prayer lives, our giving, and even in our presence on social media. The question goes deep into everything we do, including our relationships with others and with God. Because our whole lives are to be the offering.

Are we bringing offerings that please God? Or do we just assume He accepts whatever it is we do in the name of Jesus?

There’s a good chance someone may discover the answers on the backside of my story. But what makes me stop and need to put my face on the floor is this…

God already knows.

a deep drink from the humility well and keeping the realms straight

poor“The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.” – Luke 4:18 / Isaiah 61:1

Yesterday, I spent a good part of my day drinking deep. Sitting right here, in my favorite spot, listening to worship music and reading scripture. I happened on Isaiah 61 and I heard Him whisper something. It was faint, but I heard it.

The Gospel is only good news to the poor.

And just like that, He cracked open my heart and I saw how deprived of poverty it had become, how much self-sufficiency was being masked by spiritual maturity. I saw and I wept.

Because spiritual poverty is what makes the good news good. 

Twenty-seven years have passed since Jesus found me (I did not find Him. He was never lost.) and here is the truth that I am prone to forgetting…I am still as poor today as I was that first day.

Because twenty-seven years later, I still can’t do one thing to be right with God on my own. I still can’t earn His grace, or cover my own sin. I have not arrived. My hands are still empty. I am impoverished to the core of me. I can’t even obey Him without Him. I just start thinking I can. And when self-sufficiency rises up under the mask of maturity, bad things happen.

accusationMy finger starts to point at other people. People who are poor like me, but for some reason, they should know better. A harshness slips in and quietly asks compassion to leave. Grace becomes a given to me, but not from me. Rules become far more important than people, love is something that must be earned, and God is pleased with me but not with you.

When I forget that I am poor, it breathes life into the Pharisee in me.

And then God invited me to drink humility in deep. To drink in good news that is still good.

To consider my own poverty again. To find grace amazing still. To remember that I am a saint, chosen, sanctified by God, redeemed by Christ, part of the family of God, gifted by the Holy Spirit, befriended by Jesus and loved by the Father, and that I am poor. I have no righteousness of my own. I have nothing in me with which to earn eternity.

Before the spirits of darkness, I have authority. I am to give no ground, make no compromise, wielding the sword of the Spirit without mercy. Before the enemy of my soul, I must remember who I am because of Christ.

But not so before men. In earthly realms I am to be clothed in humility, full of compassion, honoring others above myself, turning my cheek, loving those who would do me harm. Before men, I must remember who I would be without Christ. I must remember that I am poor.

realms

Beloved, do not confuse the realms you walk in.

what i’m learning at the fire hydrant

fire hydrantI had no idea what it would really be like, this year devoted to going deeper with God. They tried to warn me. They told me the discipleship training school would be like trying to drink from a gushing fire hydrant.  But, I’ve never tried to take a drink like that, so it was like trying to explain childbirth to a woman pregnant with her first child. All it really ends up doing is scaring the stuffing out of her, because childbirth has to be experienced, not explained.  This can also be applied to drinking from a fire hydrant.

But now I know.  The gushing water is overwhelming, and you miss a lot of what is pouring out. But what you are able to drink in is glorious. What you drink in brings the revelation that you were dying of thirst.  What you drink in makes you abandon trying to catch water in your hands and compels you to go in face first. Yeah…it’s that good.

I love words, but even I don’t have enough of them to try to explain all that God has been teaching me and doing in me.  On top of the training school, I just spent a week receiving training in the core values of my church; teachings I would have paid money to receive at a conference. Yeah…they were that good.

So, I will try to pour out drops of what is being poured into me. Drops, in the form of direct quotes from some of the teachings, along with my own quotes, written in flurries into my journal during the sessions.

 

“If we lower the bar so that we can live up to it, we miss the whole point, which is total dependence on God. God never lowers the bar.”

 

Instead of “what do I do?”…it needs to be “what do I believe?”. We behave what we believe.

 

“The capacity to perform the things of the Kingdom is directly tied to the depth of our intimacy with Jesus, not with the breadth of our knowledge.” 

 

“We will never get to the end of ‘in Christ’.”

 

“Insecurity produces dominance.”

 

“We can preserve our physical virginity, but prostitute our hearts.”

 

“The ulterior motive of God is to bless you, not to use you.”

 

I didn’t ‘find‘ Jesus. I ran from Him and He pursued me and caught me.

 

“I refuse to allow the praises of men or the revilings of men to deter me from the will of God.” 

 

“Are you deaf enough to the opinions of man, to fulfill the call of God on your life?”

 

“The most deceptive people in the world are deceived people who think they are speaking truth.”

 

I was made a sinner without sinning, and I was made righteous without being right.

 

“Judgement came after only one sin. Grace came after many sins. Which is stronger?”

 

“Do not make assumptions. They make bad theology.”

 

Brokenness…a condition of the heart that is becoming aware of its utter and complete need for God alone.

 

“When you [walk in] sin, something dies, and you don’t get to choose what dies.”

 

Brokenness is a lifestyle, not an event.

 

Will I fall on the Rock, or let the Rock fall on me?

Rock

 

I don’t want to miss the point of a position of authority.  It is not about me, it is about raising others up.

 

Underleaders:  Are passive. Only do what is asked of them.   Overleaders: Aggressive. Do too much. Usually start out prideful.  Both are marked by insecurity. Collaborative leaders:  Humility dominates. They come with a vision. They ask “what do you think?”.

Pride will cause me to fight for my gifting.

 

I am an ambassador. I represent God everywhere I go.

 

            The Kingdom cannot come without the Gospel.

 

                      The Kingdom coming means hearts are transformed. A Kingdom means there is a King.

 

                                    “There are greater places in God than we have ever been.”

 

Fire will come upon my works. Only those done for Jesus will survive. Am I doing things to feel better about me? To gain a position? To promote me or my gifting? Motive matters!

 

“We will not be fascinated with the gifts, but fascinated with Jesus.”

 

“It is more about reliance on Him than development in me.”

 

For every “yes” you give to God, you give 1,000 “no’s” to the world.

 

“Life is at work in places because death is at work somewhere [in us].”

 

“None of us has the capacity to be the full revelation of God.”

 

captive

“Living in bondage will cause us to forget our identity, and God’s identity.”

 

We cannot filter our beliefs through experience. 

 

We cannot separate the voice of God from the Word of God. The more we are grounded in His Word, the more we will hear His voice.

 

If what drives us is the need to be somebody, we will not complete the call of God. It can’t be about us having a cause or a mission…it must be about God getting glory and people getting His salvation. It has to be about Him and Them.

 

I cannot confuse identity and mission. If I do, then when I fail (and I will), it will shake me. I will determine that my ministry success is my worth. And, I will reject what God speaks if it does not line up with what I believe to be my calling, ministry, gifting, etc. 

 

“God, what is the next step of obedience for me?”

 

Fulfilling the great commission means putting a burden for others above my need for identity.

 

I can’t look at God’s mission through the very narrow lens of my part in it. I have to look at the whole mission, and then ask for my part.

 

I don’t need to hear, “well done, good and powerful servant”, or “well done, good and perfect servant”. Just let me be found faithful!

 

“What is God’s will for my life?” needs to be “what is God’s will?”.

 

Do I see what I have as mine, or as God’s?

 

“Any dingbat can be a problem finder. Leaders find solutions.”

 

Indicators of where my treasure is:  what I spend my time on; what I talk about; what I am unwilling to give up; how I live my life.

 

Do not despise even the smallest provision.

 

I need to grow deep enough in God to handle not getting what I want when I want it.

 

They’re just drops of water. Scribbles from the journal of a thirsty woman who has found herself, by the grace and goodness of God, positioned in front of a fire hydrant.  There is more, so much more, that I haven’t dripped out here.

Next weekend, we will go on our Fall Outreach, where we will share the gospel in Norman, Oklahoma, with our church plant there. In the spring, we will go on an international outreach to a location still unknown.

In between those two events, I will be found face first at the fire hydrant.

leave there. come here.

Look down. That’s my new thing. If I’m walking, I’m watching. For crickets. Or spiders the size of my fist. Or tiny lizardy things that are blazingly fast when you’re chasing them around your kitchen. I live in Texas now, so the way I do life has changed. I will never again go to Taco Bell when I want something mexican(ish). I am now free to say y’all, and to smile and say hi to everyone I see. Because über-friendliness isn’t weird down here, it’s just the way of life. So is slow driving, but I can only adapt to so much at one time. So I wave and smile as I pass everyone on the road. That’s about the best I can do right now.

If I pull back from my microscopic stare at my life, the view is dizzying. There came an invitation. Pack. Let go and just go. Leave known, go to unknown. Trust. Believe. Now go.

Illinois seems so far behind and at the same time just right over there. Texas is so present, yet elusive. I’m not back there, and not yet fully here. But God isn’t waiting for me to get acclimated. I feel His breath blowing on embers. I hear His deep calling to mine. Pray. Listen. Hear Me. Feel Me. Know Me. Come higher, go deeper.

On the surface, it may seem like just a location change. A few minor adjustments and life should just keep on keepin’ on. It could be true if my God did anything on a surface level. If His invitations were ever to ordinary. But that has never been the case. Ever.

His voice has been whispering to me in the quiet hours… “called is invited. look at the invitation. look closer at what you have been called to…see what I have invited you to.”

The Gospel is a bloody invitation to step from this life into another.

To undergo a radically altered existence. To live beyond ordinary, beyond self, beyond…here. It isn’t about inviting Jesus into our lives. It’s about dropping everything and running to Him to find life. It is His invitation to leave our lives to be with Him, and in being with Him, to become like Him.

We are those called by God. The invited ones. Not once invited, always invited. To more.

This is what I am compelled to explore. The calling of God. This continual invitation to leave there…come here. Come closer. Come higher. Come deeper. You have been invited to more than you think.