Law, rules, and priorities

Some thoughts this Monday morning June 9,2020.

 

These are some of the most confusing times in the history of the United States when values and rules that the nation was founded upon are being changed, threatened, or ignored.  I admit it is difficult to know how to walk through the circumstances of our lives and maintain the mindsets that we have had regarding previous values and rules and foundations of this society and our lives.

 

I read an article yesterday by Brittany Breese wife of NFL Drew Breese. It got me to reconsidering some of my "values" in light of things going on in this world.  What are my "values" based on and what role do "my values” play in my interactions with my fellow human beings?  

 

Recently a friend of mine shared her take on the now often mandated "face mask" issue. She said she isn't going to wear them and put her decision within the framework of what the scriptures say about eating or not eating foods offered to idols.  

 

Do I agree with her? I am beginning to realize that whether I agree or not, my first responsibility as a believer in Jesus Christ IS NOT to hold up MY standard of values in relationship to hers, but to listen to her and seek to have insight into what she is concerned about and perhaps struggling with.

 

I tend to be one that holds up high standards of right and wrong IN MY OPINION.

And as things begin to crumble around this society, I realize that I have failed to put relationships above standards.

 

This morning I read a post where a top executive in government slammed a person who took a stand to put relationship issues above a previously "personally determined standard" which the executive himself held in high honor.  And Holy Spirit spoke pointedly to my heart that I often do this.

 

My daughter who lives in Seattle where there have been 10 nights of riots/looting/fires following protests called me on the choices of priorities that I chose to speak about. For I had pointed to the riots/looting/fires as consequences of the protests, and she shared that I was missing completely the hurt and pain and frustration of the human beings that were protesting legally. Like Drew Breese who at first said that kneeling at a football game was dishonoring the American flag and then apologized realizing in this day, that honoring the American Flag is not the ultimate priority in life...that he realizes today, that kneeling is a way of communicating to those that are hurting and feeling oppressed that someone is listening. Communication and listening above a highly held standard of the flag’s value.

 

I know well within myself, that my values and standards OFTEN stand between me and hearing and listening and showing personal interest in folks whose values and way of life might be different from my own.

 

A new friend recently told me how her daughter who was a drug addict and lived on the streets and liked her freedom to come and go and do what she wanted finally got through to her. “MOM.... quit telling me to live the kind of life you do. I don't want to have to go to work and be consumed by a job like you do, or live a lifestyle like you do. True, I don't like the consequences of my life style, but I don't want yours. Mom, I don't keep telling you to come try my life style...that yours is wrong. Mom, I just want you to be with me, to hear what I am doing like I like to hear what you are doing even if it isn't what I choose as my life style.”

 

How do we validate a human being who is in a lifestyle that violates our own standards and values?  

 

One of the things that I hear the Lord saying to His Church in these conflicted days, is HUMBLE YOURSELVES.... turn from your wicked ways, praying...THEN I will hear from heaven and bring healing to your land.

 

He doesn't speak to the homeless who are "comfortable" in their life style or the drug addict or alcoholic to change so he can heal this land...but to us who proclaim His Holy Name.... that we are to come to the conscious awareness that we are human just like the people under the bridge, the protestors, the rioters, the criminals in our prisons.

Many of my fellow believers don't even know what it means to be human...and therefore it is impossible for them to be humble. Often we excuse our humanity by saying, I'm just human. I make mistakes.  While that is an aspect of our humanity.... my humanity says, I am flawed, at the core, and there is nothing you do as a human that I am not capable of.

 

Jesus made it clear as he dealt with the difference between the way the Law, which is holy, looks at things and the way God's Love and Life in Christ Jesus addresses things.

Ok, I haven't murdered anyone...I'm ok under the Law...but Jesus said...if you call a person a fool...you are guilty of murder.   Yikes.... if you look on a person with lust and desire, you are guilty of adultery/fornication.  

 

A few days ago I listened to a local pastor talk about his time in the woodshed with the Holy Spirit. And God was dealing with him with his anger...and he shared with his people, the struggle he has in laying down his anger.... which by the way is the result of our "judgment" of a situation that it is not "what it should be."  Ultimately, the problem with anger, which is an emotion that comes from my thinking/mindset about a situation, is that most of us validate our anger based on our assessment of what is right or wrong according to me.  Or maybe it is according to what I think God thinks.

Man's anger does not produce the righteousness of God. God has provided the cross for us to lay our anger down on and allow the power and life of Christ in us to come forth according to HIS MIND, which He paid the price to dwell in us.

 

My friend today was struggling with the issue of whether to go to church services where it's required to wear a face mask along with having to call and indicate what service one will attend in order to have proper social distancing.  She admittedly hadn't heard from the Lord yet.... and to my failure...I admit that I suggested that if she'd lay her "standard" of wearing a mask down at the cross, she might hear from the Lord. So I ended up doing just exactly what I've been talking about.  I didn't identify with her struggle to know how to relate in the midst of a confusing time.... instead I gave an unsolicited suggestion which in itself just “laid out another judgment.”

 

The protests that are going on around the world are awakening many in the Body of Christ to something that has long been deficient in our community and fellowships.

 

How often someone shares something and we reply with a seemingly appropriate "bible verse" or admonition?  Yep, guilty here.  How hard it is to even lay our right scriptures down at the cross...let go of "our rightness" and maybe just hug someone...(in violation of social distancing even, maybe?)  I notice the protestors are so concerned about the injustice they have identified with that social distancing and the fear of getting covid19 is way down on their "value system"...though it appears the utility of wearing face masks is way high because it keeps them from being identified and protection from tear gas!

 

So what am I saying?  Humility/humbleness humbling ourselves before the Almighty God means that we are free to be human and in total need of Him, in total need of His love to even love someone. And more, that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which we personify in laws and in THE Law...kills us. It keeps us from being free to be the weak and frail humans we are that God has chosen to indwell and pour His spirit upon. All law tells us we aren't good enough...and encourages us to keep making an effort to be good and do “right” which ultimately we can never do 100% because I am human.

 

I hear Jesus saying this in the story of the rich young ruler. And some of you may be at odds with me over this understanding of scripture...The young ruler comes to Jesus...but he isn't recognizing him as LORD, Messiah, but...a good man...a good teacher...1st mistake which Jesus immediately addresses...why call me that? No one is good but the Father...and then the young man asks what more he can do to "please God" as he's done all he could in keeping the law. And how does Jesus respond? Jesus responded to him as someone who is looking to the law to save him, to approve him so in that vein, Jesus says, “OK...young ruler...go sell all you own and give it to the poor.” and the young rich man went away sorrowful.

 

Under the law...there is NO END. There will always something else we will have to do to please the Father.... because the law was given to show us our humanity, our inability to please God.  Pleasing God isn't possible except by the Spirit of God working in us.

 

He alone makes us acceptable to God.

 

Jesus died to make all men acceptable to God. Until we recognize our base humanity...and realize the death that reigns in our human flesh, we will have no fellowship with anyone.... because that is the only ground to really recognize our humanity...to be humble and truly relate to other.  It is where and only how I can see my fellow human beings as equals, equally corrupt in heart and therefore FREE OF MY JUDGMENT. Ouch.

 

And the neatest thing is that it is also the place where I AM FREE of my own anger, resentments, and expectations...free to admit them and lay them down rather than carry them as weights and anchors of my soul.  Here I can relate to my fellow humans who are hurting, those who carry weights and have their souls twisted from years of injustice....

 

Does it mean I go out and protest on the streets? I can't even respond to that because that is something each person much assess according to whether or not he's willing to pay the price to do or not to do...just as I must. But can I listen to him if he choses to protest and I don’t? What if he's caught up in rioting or porn or addiction?

Can I relate to him where he is?  Probably not unless I live and move and have my being in Christ Jesus...because He does relate to every human being for whom He died, whom He created to live in Him.... But what if they reject Jesus...then I ask...Father what are you doing and how do I co-labor with you in that person's life?  Will I weep with those that weep even if maybe they week in loud voices of protest?

 

Even writing this from the comfort of my 40 foot Fifth wheel surrounded by flowers and green trees and the quietness of a rural setting...I have to ask once again, Lord how am I relating to You, to your children, to my fellow believers, to those who are angry? It comes down to how do I relate to my husband who is angry? to fellow believers who are angry with the angry protestors? Those who are angry that they are told to wear facemasks and they don't like to be told to do anything, much less wear facemasks that makes it hard to breathe normally?  

 

These are things each of us must work out before and with the Lord Himself and His word....otherwise we just put up another "law" or "rule" by which to insulate our own beings from the reality of our human nature and our total need of Him.

 

Meri Ford

 

Questions about rights and responsibilities

Questions about rights and responsibilities  by Meri Ford

In this time when things are changing by the day, I have way more questions than I have answers as relates to the what and why and when.

One of the questions I have stems from something I remember being taught back in the 70s. If you are focused on your rights you are probably aren't fulfilling your responsibilities.

We live in a country that extended certain "rights" to its population through its Constitution.  In the news and in conversation I  often hear people talking about demanding their rights, defending their rights, and blaming a variety of circumstances and people for the loss of what is believed to be their "rights." And at the top of those "demanding"to exercise their rights in the face of "governmental  declarations" are a lot of those who would call themselves "believers in Jesus Christ" defending their governmental right to freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. And each time I hear these things, I find myself wondering, "Is this matter of "constitutional rights" something foundational to our faith in Jesus Christ, or is it something tied to the "babylonian system of governance?"

I hear folks say who often quote  an old saying...if good men sit back and do nothing.....

or to quote John Stuart Mill (not Edmund Burke) more precisely  Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” So I wonder does that justify some of the "fighting for our rights" in 2020 and in years gone by?

 A question that some  of you will answer yes to and some of us are still wondering about. 

As believers what inalienable rights do we have?  NONE as it represents the "babylonian system of governance" or modern day governments. As believers we have one right that no one can take away and that is to live in Christ Jesus....and whether I live or die physically, my life is hid with Christ. Beyond that, do I have any rights?  I see none in the record of the Word of God or any of our foundational  "theology" but I do have responsibilities and obligations totally independent of what "human government" might impose but based in who Christ is in me.

When Peter and others preached the gospel of Kingdom of God they didn't wait for the approval of ruler authorities nor did they justify their preaching based on some inalienable right. Rather they simply were obeying the Word of God as their personal responsibility before the Lord and were willing to pay the price. They knew the price that each could pay if they were arrested for continuing to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.  

I do question today if having the right to congregational meetings constitute the same foundational "obedience" to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul and Peter and others throughout history often given their lives to doing.  

A local pastor has "renamed" his congregation  Relocation Church....and saw 10 years ago in a vision that they wouldn't be able to meet in the church building in his small town.

So they relocated to an area that allowed cars to drive up and appropriately space and continued what they "normally have" with some alteration as a normal church service out of doors.  My question, "Is this the kind of "change" in congregational life that God is calling for amidst this global Sabbath Rest, just a physical change in location of the congregations so they can continue to worship and gather together as they always have?" It is my question...and I'm not sure of the answer but this seems to be the same thing we have always done in a different dress of maybe a different color and style. I appreciated this  same pastor's sermon that I heard on Facebook and his heart cry was that we seek the Father and his heart and be drawn closer into relationship with him, a message I hear Holy Spirit resounding across the globe. But do we just "put that message of intimacy" into the same basic format of congregational gathering than we've had for years in the USA and maybe the western world? What would Holy Spirit really want of us as He calls us to intimacy with  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Recently I listened to a Sunday service by another local pastor...who had been my personal pastor 30 years ago who has returned to this area.  I admit that I didn't listen to the whole service because the first 25 minutes was service as usual as if it were 30 years ago. I was disappointed.  The ecclesia is generally considered irrelevant to the majority of Americans and much of the world, often no longer even presenting a "threat" to their self-centered lifestyles or idolatry. And how else could it be when much of our congregational gatherings are centered around the life style of the congregation itself, save maybe 20 min or so of the "preaching"?

Is our fighting for our rights as Americans a godly act, or could it be rebellion in a very disguised role for us who are called Believers in Jesus Christ?

Is the "conservative stand" taken by many evangelical and charismatic churches (or on the other hand liberal stands by other groups of church people )and others more a proclamation of their right to their own moral thinking, than it is a matter of living out a personal intimacy with Christ Jesus?  

Is the "church" in China and in Islamic countries suffering because they don't stand up for their "rights" or because they are living out their personal responsibilities to their Lord and Saviour?  Are the thousands of believers dying in Nigeria and other parts of Africa experiencing the result of their failure to "have rights" or is it the result of them living out their personal relationship in Jesus Christ to the death? Is the "church" and the message of Jesus Christ growing in those countries or is the "church" dying due to their lack of rights...dying like we're seeing happen in the USA and much of the West?

Perhaps you have the answers to some of these questions...I'm not sure that I do.

But hopefully you will seek the Lord and be open to hearing what He is saying about these things as they apply to you.

Meri

Awakening without Repentance?

Awakening without Repentance?

I hear so many calling for prayers for an end of Covid19 pandemic. I hear others calling this the devils way of keeping the harvest from being brought in.

From the first time I heard people calling for God to end the Covid19pandemic, I was revolted in my spirit, not because I wouldn’t want this pandemic to end,  for I surely do and grieve over the loss of lives and livelihoods it has brought by our human response to it. Yet…consider…without repentance, without yielding our lives to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and learning to live out of His Life that comes to dwell in us, forsaking our idols of various kinds, what would lie in store for this nation?  

Is it possible to have a great “revival” without repentance?  Is it possible to have a great revival without the “good news of the Kingdom of God” which begins with repentance from dead works…all the things we do to please God and “do right” as if to be righteous apart from Him was being preached?  Without repentance from the arrogance of this century’s achievements and our immorality what will be the end?  My past life is testimony to what a professing Christian can do without letting the Lord deal with root issues of lust and desire rooted in the control of our own lives. And the price is very high though God’s grace is more abundant!.

What will happen to this nation if we go through this pandemic and the “Church” doesn’t clean house? If the “church”, we called out ones into the Kingdom of God from the way of the world, don’t repent of our fleshly lusts that proliferate in our overeating, our sexual immorality, repent of our desires to achieve and accumulate and be valued, and repent of our desire to be in control of our own lives and using others for a variety of self centered goals and purposes, what lies ahead?

I hear a few voices calling out to the masses of believers. …Repent…let the Lord clean your houses, bring new mindsets to your thinking that align with Him, prepare your heart as you prepare the ground for summer harvest. Plow up your fallow ground so the early and the latter rains can bring forth a harvest of souls.

At the same time, over and over I hear scriptures being preached and spoken from mouths of believers…..pieces of, portions of scriptures out of context!  Ps. 91’s promises without the condition of “abiding in Him”  and other scriptures dependent upon our taking up “our cross”…recognizing our paths lead to crucifixion and follow Him even as he took up his cross and conquered death allowing us to Live in Him, by Him, from Him.

I am chief among sinners and am learning these lessons AT GREAT EXPENSE myself.

I am learning today to walk in freedom, having cast aside my former ways in recognition  that they were “sin”, death producing, self-satisfying ways that brought destruction into my life. How grateful that God’s grace is greater than the consequences those years  that continue to produce ungodly results throughout segments of my life.

God will go with us as “believers” even though we maintain a life of immorality, even though we might bully fellow believers, we might tolerate immoral behavior among our fellow Christians without speaking Truth to them. But there is a price to be paid when Satan has an opening in our lives. And all the positive confessions won’t affect an inner change until we repent and allow His sanctifying work to cleanse our lives.

A great awakening is prophesied to be coming forth …..and will the awakening be accompanied by repentance?  Signs and wonders will abound, miracles will happen, but will it change the heart of America? Will we let the Lord take the place of our dependence on what is now a global economy, and government paychecks, and viruses that know no borders among nations that have no borders?

Will the nation itself rise up and deal with its Asherah poles and other idols and thrones in the high places of our lives carrying a variety of different names of aberrant behaviors  and deal with the offering of our children to the gods of self-desire and expediency? How can the nation rise up when these things proliferate in the house of the Lord and no repentance is being preached? It’s not a message of repent or go to Hell…which may be true, but the GOOD NEWS is that Jesus paid the price for our freedom from our self centered life styles and mindsets, and offers a new way of life IN HIM by HIS SPIRIT….requiring a “turning from” the way of thinking such old behavior is based on and receiving the indwelling life of the Lord Jesus and learning to walk with Him in ongoing fellowship.

It only takes a cursory reading of the prophets in the Old Testament to see how God deals with nations He has used, that He has richly blessed like the USA who turn from Him to their own self centered ways, drawing from sources of strength other than Himself.

For too long the “church” has preached a personal salvation…while the great commission was about nations. Only a repentant “church” that is growing in the sanctifying work of Jesus Christ is secure enough in Him to have a message to this nation or any other nation.

May it be so.