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Gideon’s Wonderful Weakness

May 22, 2013 • Categories: view of self • by

Baby in army fatigues

The Gift of Weakness

I love the story of Gideon, a man filled with insecurity and doubt, who delivers his people from an exceedingly strong enemy by the empowerment and direction of God.  In case the story is new to you, here is a brief synopsis:  Israel turned away from God to follow the idols of the Amorites, and so God removed his protection over them.  They were oppressed for seven years by the Midianites who destroyed their livestock and crops; Judges 6:5 says that the Midianite tents were as numerous as a swarm of locusts. The Israelites were so oppressed by them that they subsisted in caves, mountain clefts, any hiding places they could find.

Finally, they cried out to God for deliverance, and God sent the angel of the Lord to Gideon, the weakest and least significant member of his clan.  I love that.  It is a great comfort to me that God has a different set of criteria than our culture for choosing a person to carry out his will.  We naturally gravitate to those with beauty, strength, intelligence, charisma, wealth, popularity, but God chooses ones from among the overlooked and rejected, and he makes them great.  In 1 Samuel 2:8-9, Hannah declares, “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.”  In Luke 1:53, Mary says, “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.”

God’s Graciousness

Is it surprising to you that one of God’s greatest desires for you is that you simply and freely be yourself?  No more, no less. So what does this have to do with our life of prayer?  God shows us through his response to Gideon that:

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What Is the Full Extent of Jesus’ Love?

May 14, 2013 • Categories: view of God • by

picture of sister love

“Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world
and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world,
he now showed them the full extent of his love.” – John 13:1

What was the greatest sign of Jesus’ love for us?

Naturally we would think of the cross. It was there that Jesus took on our sins as His own and died so we would not have to. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). It is the greatest gift that can ever be given. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

However, in John 13:1 the Bible tells us that washing the disciples feet was the sign revealing the full extent of Jesus’ love. How is this possible? The New Testament gives little record of the account, especially in comparison to the cross.

What is so great about the feet washing?

This line of reasoning has caught me off guard, as I also would have thought the cross would show the full extent. However, I have thought of some potential reasons. I invite you to leave comments below on your thoughts.

1. The number of times to show His love.

The cross was a one-time event. Never again does Jesus have to go to the cross for our sins. Washing our feet is a regular occurrence. When Peter encouraged Jesus to wash his whole body, Jesus hinted that we would have to get regular foot washings.

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Choosing a Life of Child-like Trust and Delight

May 1, 2013 • Categories: view of God • by

carousel02

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  - Ephesians 3:17b-18

Sometimes, when we pursue God in prayer, we can become exhausted by our own earnestness, and by the anxiety that we aren’t praying well enough, often enough.  We can believe God’s love is meted out to us according to our performance.  We forget his grace.  When I was praying about what to write this week, I felt like the Lord longs to establish in each of us a child-like trust and delight in his person.

Embracing the Truth of God’s Delight in Us

I have a two-year-old who, each morning, rises at dawn and comes running through the house shouting my name.  When she sees me she runs even faster to get to me, a look of delight on her face.  This ritual fills me with happiness and makes my delight in her even greater.  She trusts me, and right now, I am her world.  As she grows and becomes more independent, that will change, but for us as believers, we are called to be children in our hearts our whole lives.  We are called to a relationship with a God of infinite kindness and compassion who calls us to run to him at any time with complete freedom and joy, even when we’ve made a mess of things.  There is no condemnation in Christ, and so there is no fear of punishment.

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear… -  1 John 4:18a

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The Fear of the Lord is Just the Beginning

April 10, 2013 • Categories: view of God • by

Child on the Street

The Wisest Man to Ever Live

King Solomon is known as the wisest man who has ever lived. He took Israel from a war-time culture to the greatest time of peace it ever knew. He established the culture to enhance the life and experience of the people.

Solomon gave insight into the wisdom he received in the book of Proverbs. Through little pearls of insight, Proverbs gives guidance to common sense. Wisdom, Solomon says, begins with the fear of the Lord.

What is the Beginning of Wisdom?

Does it surmise that if you want more wisdom, then you need more fear of the Lord? I will like to propose that the fear of the Lord is just the beginning. And, if we don’t move past this level, you will either create a set of rules for your relationship with God or give up entirely.

Why is the fear of the Lord the beginning? The fear of the Lord gets us to believe that God knows what is best even when we think we might know better. The fear of the Lord puts us into a place of humility before the Lord. The fear of the Lord puts perspective on our lives.

Teaching Obedience to Your Children

As a parent, there are times when I need my children to obey. It may be not to hit their sister. It may be not to run out into the road. It may be not to say offensive things to others. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Still, obedience should never be the end goal of parenting. Our goal is love. I don’t want my kids to live out of a set of rules, but I want them to be so full of love for themselves and others that they naturally overflow in love to others.

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Anticipating Good Things

March 27, 2013 • Categories: worldview • by

Good Things Will Come

There is nothing more satisfying to a giver than a gracious receiver. Hardships are inevitable, but gifts and blessings from God are abundant even in the midst of them. As lovers of God we are called to know Him to such a degree that we would stake our lives on the truth of His goodness, kindness, love and power. To know God intimately is to be full of hope for a bright future and full of faith to see it realized. It means the death of fear as a guiding force in your life.

Mastering Fear

God calls us to “fear not”, to be “strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9). Zephaniah 3:16b-17 says, “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

It is very important to God that we master our fear in order to take hold of his gifts and blessings. When you surrender your life to Christ and run after him with all your determination and love, God’s gifts are truly enormous in scope. He never gives to just one. The gifts to the one are meant for the many. Everything you are given will feed and sustain others, as well. The most important thing to prepare for is not hardship but blessing.

Preparing for the Wave

Often, when preachers talk about past experiences of revival, they use the metaphor of a wave. Waves shake things up, sweep some things away and deposit others. The release of God’s presence and power among the people flows very much like a wave.

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Why We Always Have Hope

March 1, 2013 • Categories: worldview • by

Why We Always Have Hope

Man’s Disconnect with God

Most of us have been told since a young age that God loves us, but in the experience of our lives, nothing can feel further from the truth. In this world of individualism, we are bombarded with an opposite and seemingly more powerful message – you are the only one looking out for you. Generally speaking, people accept the latter, and God is barely given a second thought.

Living our lives thinking the best in life is only what you can make out of it, leaves us believing that we must meet certain standards to feel good about ourselves. We are left with a fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear, fear, and more fear.  And we do not know with whom we can confide our fears because we also have the fear that if people found out who we really were, they will reject us.  We are left hopeless and lonely.

Depression, a Natural Consequence

Depression is one consequence of this loneliness. It affects everyone of us, whether it is a personal struggle or the struggle of a loved one. The RAND Corporation reported that “depression costs employers more than $51 billion per year in absenteeism and lost productivity, not including high medical and pharmaceutical bills.” If God really loves us, why do so many people hate their lives? Why does it feel like God left us alone?

Man’s Search for Relief

Fortunately, God did not leave us alone; we have only forgotten him. Having lost an understanding of how our lives are so intimately woven together with God, we connect ourselves more to the fantasies around us than to Him. Look at what people get caught up in—sports, politics, soap operas, “reality” shows, etc. All of these offer a taste of meaning, adventure, or connectedness, but none of them offer the real thing.

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Intimacy Creates New Life – How to Naturally Birth a Ministry

January 25, 2013 • Categories: feeling unwanted • by

Birth a Ministry image

Intimacy Creates New Life

One of the first commands God gave us is to procreate: “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), and multiplication is the natural overflow of intimacy. It is God’s math: the two shall become one and the new one shall become a multitude. “Out of your seed I will bless the nations” (Genesis 22:18).

When everything is as it was created, each couple will want to have offspring which will come through the intimate relations of the couple. As the love grows between the couple, they will naturally want to team up and pour out their love on something that has parts of both of them. Their desire is, “I want to become so ‘one’ with you that we will have a child that is the perfect union of the two of us.”

New Life Apart From Intimacy Creates Orphans

Unfortunately some people get together not for love but for what they can get out of the other person. Because the natural tendencies of coming together produces offspring, they have a child that they don’t want because that child is not a mixture of two people in love, but a result of selfish gratification. These children are the ones that often become orphans.

God Created Us as an Overflow of Intimacy in the Godhead

God was so in love with Himself (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), that He wanted an object of their joint love. “Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Mankind was created out of love within the Godhead. You were created because God wanted another person to join into the love relationship of the Godhead. You were made as a recipient of God’s love.

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Offering Hope and Future to Orphans

January 17, 2013 • Categories: feeling unwanted • by

image of Fantine and Jean Valjean in Les Miserables
image courtesy of Les Miserables

“You don’t understand. I’m a whore, and [my daughter] has no father.” – Fantine

“She has the Lord. He is her father, and you are his creation.
In his eyes you have never been anything but an innocent and beautiful woman.” - Jean Valjean

As promised, this post will discuss the new adventure ahead. As I have explained, I have a passion to translate people who feel unwanted to know that God wants them because of how I grew up. The good news is those that feel unwanted are closer to experiencing all of God than others that are finding love in other things. It is not until we realize that God is all we have that He will ever be all we want. People who feel unwanted are in so much need of God, but they are also very close to receiving Him.

Doors are opening up for my family to move to Asia to work with orphans. Without parents to call their own, orphans naturally feel unwanted. They feel that have no past and no future. Life is lived in the present and the best to hope for is to get by. We want to give them a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

Orphans in this part of the world have governmental funding to care for their basic needs in an orphanage until they turn 14 – 18. Adoptions are not allowed after the age 14. At this point they age out of the system and the transition to life out of the orphanage depends on that particular institution.

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