Monday President's Day Musings 2013

In the past few weeks  there are several things that I have heard people say and that I am sure that I have said over the years that have stirred in my understanding that I am going to address today for the purpose of encouraging us to move on through some of the things that trip up our walk with the Lord.

The freshest on my mind is a statement I have heard repeatedly when I am in "church."  And that is the statement, "I knew the Lord was asking me to do it but I really didn't want to do it. But I finally did it because I knew I should."   Every time I hear this kind of statement or something similar, the scripture comes to mind as we used to sing it in the "old days."  "I delight to do thy will O Lord, and it is not grievous to walk with you."  


What is in our hearts when we say to others and maybe even to the Lord, I don't want to do this?    Jesus didn't say that as he prepared to go to the cross. He was willing to do whatever the Father asked of Him. Did he find going to the cross comfortable, did he "like" the idea?  Of course not and he asks the Father if it be His will that the cup could pass from him. But that is different than us saying to God,  Lord, I don't want to do this, and then doing it because we "should."  

Now many of you are going to seriously disagree with me on this issue and I can hear those comments already. So I hope to build some fences around what I have to say.
 We  do need law and we know that "law" is our school master until we come to the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, I believe that and put my faith in that even as we taught our children about the laws of life and liberty and family functioning, etc.  This part of this article is about we as Christians who "have come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ."  Are we still doing what we "should"  which is a legalistic response as if we were still under the law of sin and death and if I don't do it I will be punished?   Of course that is our root heart whenever we address our own choices from a perspective of "should, ought to, need to, have to."  In chemical dependency treatment we call that "junky thinking" and in the mental health field it is called "irrational thinking." 


When we walk in the "law of liberty in Christ Jesus" we leave the law of sin and death behind and it becomes a "heart issue."  When we talk to the Lord and tell others things like "I knew the Lord was asking me to do it but I really didn't want to do it. But I finally did it because I knew I should"  it reveals a heart issue that is still under the law of sin and death, rather than the law of liberty in Christ Jesus.  When the Holy Spirit prompts us, we respond out of the awareness of His Love for us, not out of a sense of obligation or duty, unless we don't yet really understand the Love of God in Christ Jesus and the freedom that He gives us and that is revealed to us out of the acceptance we have in Him.

When we verbalize that I "have to do something" other than out of what I call the necessity of consequence such as I have to turn the faucet on to get water out of it"  we are functioning out of what I often call "external motivation" which some would say comes from our survival skills learned from 0-6.  Maybe it is time we who say we are in Christ Jesus  finally believe and put our faith in who He is and  learn to verbalize and relate out of the security that we have in the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Then we will have an attitude of praise and thanksgiving and we will be free to share and speak forth of how we "delight to do your Will oh Lord, I delight to do thy will. For it is not grievous to walk with You, O Lord, I delight to do thy will."

This is  a process of being found "in Christ" of being changed into His image and enjoying the process of walking in fellowship with the God of the Universe who has called me His Beloved. Me, imperfect, human me, is loved and accepted. He loves to hear our struggles, so we can freely tell the Lord what we are struggling with.  But that assumes relationship and intimacy and therefore acceptance.  The "shoulds" "oughts" and "musts" assume obligation and legalism which is far from the intimacy that comes when we know how much we are loved and cared for as His Beloved.

A second thing that is on my mind this morning:  Several times recently I have heard people say something like, "That's just not where I am at."  Or " I am not under conviction for that."  Or  "If I am wrong, God will forgive me." The last comment was made by a person whose relationship with Jesus Christ I am familiar with personally and in whom I know the Spirit of God has worked mightily. Yet, this person said this in a newspaper article in which he espoused his biblical understanding of liberty and justice and "equal rights" to marriage of same sex couples which then justified his recent marriage by a Methodist pastor who in the same article it was mentioned violated the tenets of his denomination's pastoral positions.   My heart sank the first time I saw this man and his significant other on the front page of a local paper when the same sex marriage bill was passed by this state as being one if not the first couple to get a marriage license in this county.

What grieved me more than knowing this precious fellow was in a same sex relationship was the public declaration that what he was doing "was not sin."  I know several same sex couples and when one was asked whether or not they were going to marry the person replied. "Goodness No!! We are having a hard enough time getting along as it is, we aren't about to get married."  Another's comment was that her significant other was very religious and would never marry."  I had a measure of relief when I heard both of those two comments because they were not saying it was "right." 

Many of us have a history of fornication and adultery, and some have some history of same sex relationships, all "sex sin".  There is a difference knowing something is sin, and a violation of the plan of God and not knowing how to relate differently and declaring that something one is doing  isn't a violation of the law of sin and death. 


 I so often say, knowing something is wrong doesn't mean I know how to do whatever behaviour is healthy. Knowing adultery is wrong doesn't mean I know how to have a healthy relationship.  Knowing being drunk and drinking when there are consequences in my life are "wrong" or "destructive" doesn't mean I know how to live life without drinking or using.   So when we make the kind of statement that declare that what we are doing isn't "bad" or isn't "wrong" or "isn't sin", we have gotten "stuck" with no way out, having in one sense closed a door on any possibility of doing things differently.  I know that up until this kind of declaration was made there was an arm extended toward this brother.  He sent me a note with his wedding invitation saying that he wasn't going to send me one but then realized that was "mind reading" and assuming I wouldn't want an invitation or attend.  But he decided since he would love to have me there that he gave me one.  I did not go but did share my appreciation for the invitation and it is nice to know that he knows clearly where I stand and yet he knows I value and care about him.  One day I was sharing with him and assuring him I didn't condemn him and said, How could I condemn you? If I did I would have to condemn myself as my adultery and fornication are also sex sin."  At that point he interjected...but I don't think it is sin."   End of conversation.  Is there forgiveness when we engage in such behavior and don't call it sin or bondage even if we are as this person is, deceived?  I will leave that to the Lord for who am I to make that kind of assessment.


The other kind of statements that lead to this discussion are "That's just not where I am at" . This is yet another justification of a place that I find might myself.  When I teach on "denial" we learn that rationalization, justification, explanations, excuses and alibis are one type of denial and denial is a psychological mechanism that allows me to continue to do something with negative consequences that I don't want to change."  The other statement I hear is "I am not under conviction for that."  Another statement that basically says, "I don't want to change my behaviors yet."   If there is something I "see" that isn't what it "could be" then I am under conviction and God is extending His love to me and desiring for me to ask Him to help me be willing to deal with that area of my life. Yet if I don't "see" the love of God, we can be sure that in some way I will find further consequences from those choices that the Lord allows to come into my life so that I "taste" of the consequences and my desire to have Him turn me so I will be turned is worked in me.

How little we know the love of God and how He longs for us to draw near to Him.  The precious Holy Spirit always comes first to us to show us where we fall short of His Life so that we can look to the Rightness of relationship that is ours in Jesus Christ, secured at the cross, knowing  Holy Spirit also will show us that the enemy is defeated and the law of sin and death no longer is at work!

Looking at this from yet another perspective, we do come to understand that the way "denial" is broken is by laying more ground of the security that is ours IN CHRIST.  As we walk more in the security of His love and acceptance, as we "renew our minds according to the Spirit of God", little by little our hearts are changed so that we can choose to welcome changes that He is calling us to make.

And  from yet yet another perspective for both these areas that I have brought up today; were we to have the mindset that obedience to the Lord is not about "doing", is not about doing what we "ought to" to gain his approval, but walking with him in what HE IS DOING because of what HE HAS DONE, many of the above issues would be easily resolved as we enter into that Sabbath Rest.  How many of us are still of the frame of mind that says, I need to do this because it would please God?  How many of us are still trying to please a God who already has accepted us and a Lord who died so that I am freed from works to try and gain his acceptance?  How many of us still spend much of our time in "dead works" seeking to do what God has already accomplished by HIs Spirit?   Is that not also "sin" or "missing the mark?"  Obviously if I am working to please God, my energies are being used to secure a place of approval as if Jesus Christ had not already died and been resurrected and sent Holy Spirit to dwell within me.  Is that putting Jesus on the cross again?

When we begin to walk in Christ, in fellowship with HIm, we learn to speak what He is speaking, do what He IS doing and walk with Him where He is walking.  And then, the greater works that the bible speaks of will be manifest.   Ouch!! It appears this is where a whole lot of us seem to be coming up "short."  And isn't that awesome to recognize?  If I didn't fall short, it would mean that I wasn't listening to Holy Spirit at all and it would also mean that I am not being conformed to His image, that I am not "working out my salvation."  Ah, what a contradiction or is it a paradox...working out my salvation while "at Rest" in Christ Jesus!!


May the Lord quicken to each of you who read this what He desires for you to "see" and what is pertinent in your walk in Christ Jesus!!

Meri Ford

516 Park Rd
Winlock, Washington 98596
360 523 4503

renewedhope@peoplepc.com 

Friday Musings  February 15, 2013

My heart is stirred as I sit here at my computer this afternoon.  These past few weeks as I become well aware of the changes that are taking place all around me, knowing most of them are completely out of my control, I keep being brought back to the Rest that is mine in Christ Jesus.   That Rest that the Israelites and all of us who operate in our own self power and knowledge cannot enter into. Scripture calls it The Land of Rest in places.  That is the "land of our inheritance." But it isn't a place or a thing. Rather it is Himself that we are drawn into by the Holy Spirit as we lay down our own desire to fulfil even God's will!

One of the phrases that was in the post I just sent out that really got me stirred was this:


Our spirit man can adjust to the Spirit realm as we consciously release our previous naturalized view of spiritual things. Entering the narrow gate into the wide world of kingdom living is not possible with intellectual thinking from our old world souls trained in doubt and unbelief of spiritual things. God abiding in His people by Christ Jesus in His yielded and willing people will renew and retrain our souls to follow the Spirit. (McGatlin)

And Couchey said:

He spoke, “Son, when you focus upon the evil works of the enemy and what he is doing you become vulnerable to the dark fog of fear and anger. If you allow the fear and anger to find a place in you, you will be compromised and your rest in Me will turn to warring. You cannot remain on this mountaintop while in that state of unrest.Moses allowed man’s fear and wrath to overtake him and its offense kept him from entering the Promised Land. Man’s wrath CANNOT accomplish My purposes. Do not be offended by the world and its wickedness, for if you do so you leave MY mountaintop. Keep trusting in Me and do not allow the offense of wickedness to take you captive.


I was in conversation with someone today and while I heard her heart cry to hear more of the Word, to learn more and more and more,  my heart was aching.  I remembered so well my days of "acquiring knowledge", accumulating it and filling up back pack after backpack which in the long run became a weight that I carried around.  Then learning what to use in what situation became a serious responsibility far beyond my fragile human being to carry. 

I love God's word and have to admit that I really would like to know much more of it as I get revelation of Jesus Christ. But in this hour, it is as if He is calling, "Come to Me, Rest in Me and I will quicken to you everything you have need of to your understanding."

I am so thankful for some of the great bible scholars and teachers we have today that preach the Word with an understanding of words that make so much more meaning to the scriptures than I have ever received from preaching in past years. It is as if the doors of revelation are opening so wide in this hour. BUT....if I hear these men with the desire for knowledge of the Lord and about the Lord instead of knowing Him, walking with Him, all that knowledge becomes a weight and burden that keeps me from the intimacy that He is calling His church/bride to in this hour.

My flesh man, my adamic desire to be in charge, to do it the "right way and avoid the wrong way" is very strong and I hear it in my own words and thinking and in the mouths and writings of others so frequently that I am so in need of His Spirit to speak loud to me above those passions and desires, that I might lay down that control over my life and yield to His Spirit's uprising.

Do I understand this?  No. I don't understand why when I responded to that inner direction to pray for my trainer Wednesday that He didn't manifest His healing power when there are so many so hungry to see His provision and all that is embodied in the name of Jesus!  Why didn't the grace that does not need the receiver's faith flow to my trainer?  I know God spoke and I know He is at work. Will I trust that even when I can't see any manifestation of His word in that woman's life?

I don't have all understanding but I know this.  My life is in Christ.  What He does or doesn't choose to do when I call upon His name and put my faith and trust in Him is beyond my control and I can rest in His arms even when I don't understand.  I can't see what HE did or He is doing. But I trust His Word, for JESUS is The Word and my life is IN him.

I found myself waking in the night a couple nights ago thanking Him for his healing power and healing in my husband's body and mine and several others.  That is something new for me to know His uprising in me in that way and the peace and joy that HE is when He is at work in and through me and I cooperate through praise and thanksgiving is beyond understanding even as the Word says.

Yet as I read articles like I posted today, there is a fleshly desire to "run to and fro."  Maybe I need more impartation from those who are gifted in the Spirit.  Maybe I need to do this or that, more bible study as my friend said, more church attendance, more freedom from past hurts and pains, before He can do in me what He has promised. Yet we know faith is NOW...in the present and unto each of us is given the measure of His faith that is needed to trust in Him in the now!!  To accomplish the issues of today, the household duties, the yard work, the calls to family, and all those "little things" that our daily lives involve which we are called to do out of His Rest, operating with our words out of His Peace, our being Oned with Him....whole and holy....in Him moving forth in all we do out of that wholeness which describes Peace...there is no deviation or division in Peace. It is whole, holy, one.  Oh to walk in this with my husband, my children, the people at work, at the grocery store...to Know Him not only in Me but as He is in the world around me, as He is working in other lives.....and I will know it only by "faith."

Father call us, draw us to yourselves that we might know you more, be more conformed to the image of Christ that you have predestined for us to be filled up with and relate to this sick and dying world with.  Father, shape and mold us as fits your holy purpose and plan for the days which lie ahead.  Father,  may we be found "enduring in You" to the end, lest we fall away and separate from The Vine and be cast into the fire and burned.  Lift us up Father even where we don't know that we are cast down tempted to put our roots into the ground/earth rather than live among the branches of the vine, drawing and drinking from HIm.  Thank you for the pruning you do that more and more of you might be released in and through our daily lives. May the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be found to be Oned in You...and therefore acceptable to you and "righteous."

Meri Ford

renewedhope@peoplepc.com

Sunday February 10, 2013    "Just People"

As I sit here today I am aware of so many different things. First is the joy of being alive even though it seems physcially there is a seeming lack of abundance of energy. So I am enjoying sitting here in my rocking chair with my keyboard on my lap writing down a few things.

My husband got a phone call this week he said from someone from the congregation that I fellowship with inviting him to a men's breakfast. Now some of you will probably say," How nice!!"   If someone called you that you didn't know, hadn't met and had no idea who they were and didn't even recognize their name, would you be very excited if they called and invited you to join them for a "men's breakfast"?    Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking about, or maybe I really do know and don't want to think about the meaning of what they are thinking when they invite people to do things like this.

I was having lunch with some folks after a Sunday service, getting acquainted with them, and one of the men said as we departed, "we are praying for your husband that he will start coming to church."   Then he added a quick comment, " That is what you want isn't it?"

I think he was shocked when I said, "NO!" and I said it rather emphatically.  That wasn't what I wanted. What I longed for was people to get acquainted with my wonderful husband,  to come by our home and find out what a neat guy he is.  He is a neat guy and worth their time to make his acquaintence no matter whether he goes to their church services ever!!

Years ago I encountered some of this same kind of thinking and it often still puzzles me as to what kind of "message" we call the "Good News" when I see things like this happening. Years ago the home I was living in with my husband at the time, had several trees fall on the house and many in the yard.  People joked in the neighborhood when I told them where I lived. Oh the house that the trees fell on!!  Yep, that was our house. And we were so thankful that the trees just hit the side of the house as they fell between the house and the barn with just limbs doing damage as the bodies of the trees landed on the ground beside the house.
Our daughter who was 2 at the time was sleeping in the room that the trees clipped but her crib was on an inside wall and she was in no ways injured and her room suffered cracks in the ceiling but no broken glass or anything. I was so thankful when this happened knowing what provision the Lord had made some weeks before.

One morning in prayer the Lord spoke to my heart and asked me to ask Him to put two angels on the roof of our home.  Now I don't see angels but I knew that when he asked me to do this that they were there and I thanked him for doing it. When we saw how those trees fell I knew that those angels had been doing their job and made sure those trees fell in the space between the house and the barn. They had stood back on the property at least as far back as the back of the barn and maybe half way over from the barn. They had to fall at an angle to fall between the house and the barn...maybe 20 feet?  I am not good at distance so that is a guess!!

Back to my questions:  we had trees that had fallen all over our property. Not just those three that landed between the house and the barn.  I think I counted 11 trees that blew down...might have been 15. After all, it was way back in 1985 when this happened and my memory isn't quite as precise as it used to be!!    With trees down all over our yard which was about .25 acre facing on a main east/west state highway with lots of traffic, I would have thought that many of the "Christians" that knew us would have stopped and offered their services to help us clean up the yard and buck up the trees that were fallen. We lived in a community with lots of loggers many of whom are "cutters" whose expertise is cutting down and bucking up trees.   I watched some drive by and none ever stopped even though they lived in the neighbor hood and often waved as they went by.   Instead, it was one of our "non-Christian" friends with severe back trouble who brought his Stihl chain saw and helped us clean up the property.

I am sure many of those Christians would have loved for my husband to have "attended their church services." 
But what was there that none could go outside their "religious framework" and meet people in the neighborhood where they live?

I am a drug and alcohol counselor and frequently people will say, "Oh how difficult a job you must have." Or, "it must be really hard to work with those people."   I used to hear the same when I worked in the nursing home with "older folks."  My comment today is the same as it was then, and a comment my husband is well known for saying, " They are just people." 

The essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God has poured out his love at the cross TO ALL PEOPLE!!  There is no longer a measurement by which we are to measure ourselves or others as to their acceptability or lovability.  God paid the price in the death of his own son, to take away the price that we all had to pay for being more concerned with making ourselves feel good, wise, beautiful, than valuing the presciousness of our relationship with our Creator, Father, Saviour......

Who is loved by God?  Everyone!  Does everyone walk in that awareness? Of course not and as a result their actions may determine just how I share the kind of Love I know with them, but it neither qualifies or disqualifies them.  I have learned  in some very special ways this past year that many of the "categories" of behavior that we often define as unacceptable because they hurt our bodies, or hurt others, don't disqualify people from love.  And I am so thankful that I no longer have to wear my God Hat and tell others how "wrong" what they are doing is.  We find in some communities that this kind of judgement prevails on issues with strong pros and cons on both sides.  

A friend recently told me about a video she watched on Islam.  She shared how it broke her heart to watch and listen to the way it was presented. Yes, the facts about jihad and Shariah law are based on reality.  But Muslims are people. No one said Love would always be welcomed and True Love is sacrificial. It treats people with worth and value in the face of behavior that would maybe dispute the value of someone's life itself.  God's love in me does this. MY LOVE...well, it is short fused, limited, often based on my own values and standards, and my own personal self worth, which as a human being is always limited.

My friend told me with tears that as she watched the film on Islam that despite the fact that it was a "converted Muslim" that told it,  she didn't think it spoke of the kind of love that we who live in Christ Jesus will have towards people.  Do I treat people different because they believe that I am not important?  Do I treat people different if they don't like me?   If I do I don't yet know the love of God that I can live out of if I live "in Christ."  But then, do I always live "in Christ"?  Nope...sometimes I live out of my own way of thinking, my own desires, my own needs and demands.   So why wouldn't I be able to identify with anyone who might do some of those things more or less than I did them?  Does it make any difference if I did self seeking things in the same measure as another?  Maybe I never killed someone in the name of my God, but did I humiliate them, or call them a name, or ridicule them? Then in essence I am just as guilty of being in my self and not in Christ as any other person.

I think of the story of the Good Samaritan that depicts the kind of love God has for us in Christ Jesus.  He cared  for the person and was not as many of us are who look at a person and ask ourselvs if they 'deserve it." Are they the right sex, gender, race, color, attitude? If we are seen by God through such "standards" none of us are deserving because we aren't 100% which is what a Holy Almighty God requires to have fellowship with him. Yet, if we see ourselves through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ, we are welcomed in the Father's eyes in the same measure everyone else is whether they see themselves that way or not!!

What good news it is that the Father loves us...and sees us not through the Law which condemns us, but sees us through the blood which covers and fulfills the law that Love might flow out to us and from us in increasing abundance as we share this love with others.

We will get this opportunity to live this kind of life on an increasing basis as this world continues to unravel due to the sin that is unleashed. We are encouraged as Christians to "extend the tent pegs of our tent"  over people.  It was never, "Come to my tent and sup with me" but Go, extend your tent over those that know not My Love.   We are called to extend the Kingdom...not build our own kingdoms and "congregations" for the praise of men.  God will build His own church, we are to extend the Kingdom and He will train and teach those we cover as we love them with the love of the Lord.  That love is full of knowledge, wisdom, counsel, joy, peace, patience longsuffering, gentleness, goodness and faith!


Meri ford