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He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.’
– Revelation 3:1
Without Christ, we are worse than zombies. With Him, we are more than conquerors.
Someone once asked English evangelist Leonard Ravenhill if he prayed for the dead. He answered, “No, I preach to them!” He went on to lament that church pews were full of people who sang about God and talked about God, but who didn’t have a living relationship with Him.
Most people you ask on the street will probably tell you they believe in God. Unfortunately, that’s not enough. Jesus’ half-brother James reminds us, “You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2:19-20 NKJV)
According to the Bible, we’re all dead in some way. Those who have never accepted the sacrifice for their sins are spiritually dead. Those who have, are dead to sin and alive to righteousness.
Someone has noted dead men don’t feel pain. No one can talk them into anything. They can’t be tempted. They don’t hear the voice of their enemy.
But then, neither are they capable of feeling joy or hearing the voice of their Captain. That’s why it’s important to be dead to the world, but alive to Christ. In Him we live on a deeper level than we can ever experience without Him. Although turning away from the pleasures of wickedness gives us momentary sorrow, obedience to His Word ushers us into worlds without end, an eternity of life.
The question, then, isn’t whether or not we are dead. The question is: To whom are we dead? To God, or to the devil? And how do we know?
The key is to look at what voice we obey. Of course, everybody is tempted. Everyone sins. But is our belief that of the demons, who merely know God exists? Or is it a faith demonstrated by more than an outward show?
It is by obedience to His Word that we demonstrate our belief, our trust, our faith in Him.
During the short journey upon this earth, we are dead men walking. By the power of His grace, may we walk toward God in the newness of His life.
I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
– 1 Corinthians 15:31
Slightly Obsessed #083: Dead Man Walking
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Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.
– Chinese Proverb
You know it’s happened to you.
That one guy in your office or your class constantly needles you. He cajoles you into taking on more of the work he’s supposed to be doing. Or the new female co-worker repeats gossip about you to people you respect and admire under the guise of asking for prayer. They both offer copious and unsolicited advice on every decision you make.
Day after day, their irritations buzz around you like persistent flies. You swallow down the anger fermenting in your gut, smile, and tell yourself you are doing the Christian thing to bite back the urge to speak up. You seethe in silence.
Then you have a bad day. An innocent remark or minor disturbance finally pushes you over the edge. You lash out. From the shocked faces of the people caught in the crossfire, you realize you may have over-reacted a bit.
Sometimes, it’s worse. Sometimes you have smashed a hatchet into the forehead of a friend.
What should we do when an iceberg of disaster lurks under the surface of our relationships?
Most of us grew up being taught to “turn the other cheek.” It’s true God commands us to respond with grace in the face of an attack. But Jesus never walked away from speaking the truth, in love, to those with whom He came in contact every day. It’s healthy and more respectful of others to face an issue before it has grown into a full-blown disaster.
I, too, am learning from painful experience how to dodge the icebergs of disaster on the tumultuous sea of relationships. Here are a few tips I’m learning in my own journey:
- Draw reasonable boundaries around your personal and professional life and refuse to let others cross them. If you gently pull someone back at their first step into forbidden territory, it’s so much kinder and easier on both of you.
- Give to others the respect and honesty you want from them. If you have shared gossip about others, it smacks of hypocrisy to be shocked when they share gossip about you, too.
- Pray for them. “Pray for those who despitefully use you.” (Luke 6:28) Resist the urge to turn a prayer session for them into a mental replay of all their sins against you.
- Live in grace. The word grace means “undeserved favor.” Favor is a gift bestowed on the undeserving. It helps to remember we, too, are undeserving. We live in a fallen world. People will fail us, just like we fail them and God.
- Focus on the good traits in those around you. Let them know you appreciate these traits. You might be surprised how much that changes their attitudes toward you.
- Respond, don’t react. When a problem looms on the horizon, don’t ignore it. It’s so much easier to address an issue before you invest so much emotional energy in it you can’t be impartial or fair in your response.
While we live on this earth, our relationships with others will be an ongoing learning process. But with the Spirit of God living inside us and leading us, we can be the extension of His grace instead of condemnation to those with whom we share this moment in time.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
– Colossians 4:6 (ESV)
Slightly Obsessed #082: When the Problem Isn’t the Problem
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Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check.
-Psalm 32:9
She sits in the coolness of the green grass in the shade of a large Austrian pine.
It’s a sparkling fall day. A hint of autumn scents the late summer air. It would be perfect day for this young German girl, except for one thing.
A long chain is anchored to the pine and attached to a collar that always encircles her neck. She learned a long time ago not to fight the metal. She sits in resignation and yearns for the freedom just beyond her reach.
Someone walks over and offers her water. She stands hopefully and wags her tail.
We would love to let her go, but we know what will happen. The moment she is unchained, she will be gone.
Our son acquired Solo, a German Shepherd cross dog from the local animal shelter, a couple of years ago. We soon realized she would not be a dog who would tag along at our heels on a walk outdoors. Her time living large on the street and her boundless high energy made her a challenge to control, let alone enjoy.
Two years of hard work have turned Solo into a sweet companion. She now loves her daily walks with the leash. She lives in the house, thrives with her new “family,” and is generally well-behaved.
But despite lots of hard work, if we don’t keep her restrained, she will run away from the generous acreage allotted her onto the neighbors’ property and through the fence onto the highway. Worse yet, she refuses to obey our calls to return.
Because of this, she can’t even sit in the yard with us without being chained. She hates it. We hate it. She misses out on so much because she won’t obey us. We all miss out on the joy.
Some days I look at her and wonder:
What freedom have I lost because I haven’t learned to listen to God?
In what ways is my life chained to my disobedience and lack of trust?
What does my Master have planned for me that awaits my surrender to His voice?
Like Solo, our past can shape our responses and hinder our future. Like her, we miss out on so much because we refuse to obey the one who bought us, because we do not understand the nature of our Master. He is good. He is wise. He loves us. We can trust Him.
Obedience brings freedom.
Slightly Obsessed #081: Yearning to Be Free
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So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
– Ephesians 3:17-19
I grew up with the idea God was a harsh taskmaster and distant deity.
It wasn’t my parents’ fault. They were loving people who never spoke of God in those terms. It wasn’t from church, either, since we rarely even went to a church in those days.
Somehow, those, I believed God as a mysterious entity, either forsaking us altogether or sitting back on His throne in heaven with His arms folded across His chest as He waited to pounce on us at the first hint of misdeed. I desperately wanted to believe in something beyond myself, but I had no idea what that meant.
As I grew up, my hunger for God drove my search for Him. Who was He? What did He look like? What would happen to me when I died?
I finally picked up a Bible, started in Genesis, and read it all the way through.
I was flabbergasted by what I read.
Every chapter and every book revealed a Person I could never have imagined.
From the pages of Scripture emerged a being so holy, so beautiful, so much more in every way, it took my breath away.
To Him I gratefully gave my heart.
Shortly after my conversion, I took a walk in my yard one lovely summer day. The clean rays of the sun bathed my small flower garden in sparkling light, beckoning me to join the splendor. I strolled around to my roses.
I had never really paid much attention to them before. Now they, like the whole world around me, seemed more alive. I felt quite literally like a new person, as if scales had fallen from my eyes.
I once lived as one born blind. Now, for first time in my life, I could really see.
Absorbing the wonder of it all, I gingerly clasped the stem of a thorny rose between my fingers and pulled it toward me. The petals danced in rosy hues of pink around a fragrant center. I bent down and breathed in deeply.
As its sweet aroma filled my senses, it occurred to me that this rose in all its delicate design came from the mind of my God. This both thrilled and intrigued me. What kind of a God could throw lightning down from the sky and yet craft something so fragile?
By then I understood He was my Savior. The idea that He could also be so amazingly creative, tender, powerful, and caring totally rocked my world. Saving people is just the beginning for Him. There is so very much more. Decades later, I realize I have still only just begun to fathom Him. It will take an eternity to plumb the depths and heights of this incredible King. His kingdom, like His great mind, is limitless.
Now I see why we have been given forever.
Slightly Obsessed #080: Limitless
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And Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’
– Mark 12:17
Whose image is stamped into your soul?
They slithered into the Temple, snakes on the hunt. A group of Pharisees and Herodians sent by the Jewish leaders conspired to catch Jesus in a statement appearing to foster rebellion against Roman authority. The Pharisees were a sect of the Jews. The Herodians were a political party of affluent Jews who backed Herod Antipas, the ruler in Galilee during Jesus’ ministry.
They put on their most sincere faces and circled Jesus as they sprung the question.
Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or not pay?
– Mark 12:14,15
Jesus saw the trap. He wasn’t fooled by their deceit. He asked them to bring Him a denarius. This common first century coin represented a day’s wages to most people. Jesus didn’t even have that much money to His name. Someone produced one for Him, and He asked, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (Mark 12:16)
They were confused. Jesus had neatly sidestepped their trap. It was obvious whose inscription was on the coin. “Caesar’s,” they answered.
“Pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s,” He replied. (Mark 12:16-17)
The Bible tells us that those present that day were “amazed” at His answer. It’s no less stunning two thousand years later.
The Greek word for “render” means “to pay back.” It implies a debt is owed to the one whose image is reflected. Money bears the image of government, so we must pay our taxes to the government.
Our souls, on the other hand, bear the image of God.
Our bodies belong to God. Our minds belong to God. Our children belong to God. The Body belongs to the Head.
To God we owe our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. The Bible commands us “To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1)
To others, we owe a debt of love. We are commanded to “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.” (Romans 13:8) This is not a Scripture forbidding the borrowing of money, but an admonition to pay all debts when they are due.
True submission to God’s authority rises above personal and national politics. It both frees us and reminds us of where our true allegiance should lie. Now, at a time when more and more people live for themselves and withdraw from the lives of others, God commands us to give.
Now, more than ever, it’s time to “pay back.”
Slightly Obsessed #079: Made in His Image, Part 2
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Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’
God created man in His own image, in the image of God. He created him; male and female He created them.
– Genesis 1:26-27
You were born to create.
Do you ever wonder what God looks like, and what it means to be created in His image?
The Bible doesn’t tell us God’s physical appearance, although we get intriguing clues. In Genesis 3:8, Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” In Exodus 33:19-24, Moses was given a glimpse of the back of God as He passed by. In Exodus 3, He spoke out of a burning bush. Yet John 4:24 tells us God is spirit. He is three Persons but one God. John 1 tells us Jesus Christ existed as the Word before His coming in the flesh.
What God looks like is a mystery. In what other ways, then, are we made in His image?
We mirror Him in that each of us is three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Our bodies are the physical manifestation of who we are, as Jesus was the incarnation of the Godhead. Our souls are our essence, the part of us that makes us who we are. Our spirits are the part of us that communicate with God.
But wait, there’s more. Much more.
God made us with the capacity to love deeply, to sacrifice ourselves for others, and to desire the best for them. We were never meant to live alone. He placed in us a yearning for fellowship, acceptance, and companionship.
He gave us the ability to appreciate beauty. He created us with the desire to create for the pure joy of it. From the mind of mankind flows a ceaseless fountain of paintings, sculptures, architecture, mechanics, music, literature, and theatre. Not all of it honors the Creator. Much of what we do, in fact, springs from rebellion to the very Father who gave us life.
This must surely grieve Him. But think how He rejoices when His children use the gifts He gave them to honor Him.
What secret dream do you have? Whatever the outlet, be assured it’s never too late to begin creating for God.
Sure, we all must work and pay the bills. But don’t be ashamed to listen to the voice calling you to reach beyond your comfort zone.
You were made for more. Go for it.
Slightly Obsessed #078: In the Image of God, Part 1
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I called out of my distress to the LORD, and He answered me.
– Jonah 2:2
God gave a tough assignment in a big city to His servant Jonah, a mission the prophet was loathe to accept.
The ancient city of Nineveh took three days to walk through and is thought to have been the home of over 600,000 people. The capital of Assyria, it was well-known for both its cruelty and its pagan worship.
To this city God called the prophet Jonah to preach repentance. He wasn’t happy about the assignment and tried to run from it by boarding a ship to Tarshish, apparently believing God didn’t check boarding passes. God promptly schooled Jonah on the principle of His omniscience.
God knew where to find him.
A terrific storm arose and threatened to sink the ship. Jonah knew the storm was a result of his disobedience, and he convinced the sailors to throw him overboard. That stilled the storm, and the sailors turned to God in awe and thanksgiving.
Relegated to the sea, Jonah probably prepared himself to die. God wasn’t going to let him get off the hook so easily as drowning, though. He arranged for a whale to scoop him out of the water and deposit him in its stomach. In the whale’s belly, Jonah had time to reflect and pray for three days before he was vomited out onto dry land.
The God reminded him once again of his calling. This time, Jonah obeyed went to Nineveh and gave this message to the city: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” (Jonah 3:4 NLT)
The people of Nineveh were cut to the heart by the edict. The king of the city commanded every person and animal to be covered in sackcloth, a symbol of mourning. No creature was allowed to eat or drink. Every person was ordered to cry out to God in repentance for his sins. God saw this, withdrew the judgment, and an entire city was saved.
That made Jonah mad. All this trouble just to look like a fool.
He went outside the city just in case and built himself a shelter to sit under while he waited for destruction to hit. He was happy when a plant grew up to provide him some shade from the sun.
To his dismay, the plant was destroyed the next day by a worm. Not only had his prophecy proved wrong, but now he sat in misery in the heat. He begged God to take his life. Instead, God rebuked him for his hard heart.
Jonah, the reluctant prophet, grumbled and stumbled in his calling and left thousands of saved souls in his turbulent wake.
People love to argue whether Jonah was really swallowed by a whale and lived to tell the tale. But what was the real miracle? That Jonah survived three days in the whale’s belly, that an entire city repented at the preaching of one man, or that God could use someone so very flawed to bring salvation to others?
This should give us hope as we grumble and stumble our way through life. When we run from God, He will pursue us, discipline us, deliver us, and repeat the process until we obey. He will send us into the belly of the whale if that’s what it takes to get our attention. He will expose our hard hearts and teach us His compassion for a world poised at the edge of destruction.
We may struggle. We may fall. We may thrash against God and get swallowed up by our rebellion. But God’s plans will triumph, because it is His power and love, not ours, that secures the victory.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?-Psalm 139:7
Slightly Obsessed: 077: In the Belly of the Whale
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Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world.’
– John 8:12
Our newborn son was very ill.
Kevin lay in a sterile room fighting pneumonia. He was just three weeks old; so tiny, so new on this earth, already having to fight for life. I stayed with him as long as I could, unable to hold him, watching his efforts to breathe as I broke into little pieces.
The doctor was hopeful, though. Kevin would recover, unless there was some undiscovered birth defect affecting his little body. My mother’s heart melted in the face of the unknown. I felt so very helpless.
Finally, I needed to leave him and get back to our other two children. Reluctantly, I left the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit with a heavy heart and climbed into the car for the hard drive home. A spring storm darkened the skies, adding to my gloom. How I hated returning to that empty crib!
This trial was the first challenge to my faith since my recent conversion to Christ. I wanted to trust the Savior, but I was consumed with fear. I was still dealing with lingering doubts about His existence.
As I turned onto the main highway heading out of town, the clouds parted behind me. The sun hit the squall ahead of me and a glorious rainbow arched across the sky. At that moment, something alien washed over me. I was bathed in a powerful and golden sense of the presence of God as understanding flooded my soul. In that moment I knew these three truths:
God is real.
Everything will be okay, whether Kevin lived or died. God assured me Kevin was safe with Him, whether in life or in death.
This is why the Holy Spirit is called The Comforter.
I cried all the way home. That day God radically invaded my comfort zone to reach me, filling me with the knowledge that He is not a concept, a principle, or a force. He is a sovereign being, and He wants to reveal Himself to mankind. Kevin quickly responded to treatment and was soon discharged from the hospital. But my journey in learning about the God to Whom I committed my life had only just begun.
Only much later could I appreciate the fullness of that moment with the rainbow and what God wanted me to see.
In science, a prism is a transparent object that breaks white light into its spectrum of colors. Light is made up of all the wavelengths we perceive as colors, but our eyes can’t see them until the light is broken. The rainbow we see after a rain is the result of the refraction of sunlight by water.
Hence the physical illustration of a spiritual phenomenon.
God is light, the source of all life and all power. Because we are limited beings, we can’t comprehend Him, necessitating the incarnation of the Word into flesh. Christ’s coming and sacrifice broke the holy light of God into the many facets of His divine nature for us to see.
We often rage at God for the heartache He allows in our lives. We resist the tears. We beg Him to remove the source of brokenness that could be the very place where God is revealed in all His beauty. Don’t despise the grief. He can use our heartaches to pull back the veil on the holy place to find a multicolored cloak of grace.
Your tears are His prism, the place where God’s light is broken to display His beauty in your life.
Believe this and trust Him. Praise Him in the storm. Listen for the holy whisper in the rain:
God is real.
You will be okay.
This is why the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter.
Slightly Obsessed #076: Prism
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When the Nazis came for the communists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a communist.When they locked up the social democrats,
I did not speak out;
I was not a social democrat.When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a trade unionist.When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a Jew.When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out. *– Martin Niemoller
They have new faces, a different mantra, but spew the same hate.
On June 10th of this year, when the Islamic State was declared in Mosul, Iraq, the militants promised tolerance to the Christians living there. Iraq has been the ancestral home to millions of Christians since early Christianity.
The promise of tolerance quickly dissolved. Those Iraqi Christians who had not already fled Mosul on June 10 were surprised when loudspeakers began blaring this edict from the new Islamic State:
Convert to Islam, pay a tax to the State, or face death.
Thousands of Christians have fled the city. Militants confiscate their possessions at the Islamic State checkpoints. Does this sound familiar?
This is 2014. But change the date to 1938, the place to Germany, the oppressors to Nazis, the oppressed to Jews, and you have the beginning of the Holocaust. The Nazi regime targeted the Jewish nation, Christians, and anyone else who did not fit into the ideal Aryan Nation.
Today is another time and place, with a new oppressor.
But the dark clouds of hate emanate from the same source, from an enemy whose one goal is to destroy all who worship the true God on this earth. Its grip is quickly spreading through the nations.
Once again, politicians deliberate while tragedy unfolds across the continents. It is not time to be complacent. It is time to pray without ceasing, to speak out for what is right, to reach all we can with the gospel, and to support our suffering brothers and sisters around the world.
Or one day, there may be no one left to speak for us.
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.
– Hebrews 13:3
*http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
Slightly Obsessed #075: The New Nazis
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Awake, O north wind,
And come, O south!
Blow upon my garden,
That its spices may flow out.– Solomon 4:16
Mother grew up in the South and often longed to surround herself with reminders of her old haunts after she and dad moved to the Pacific Northwest.
One thing she really wanted was a mimosa tree. Grandpa Griggs brought the seeds up to Mother from Arkansas one year and told her, “I don’t know why you want a durn old mimosa.”
Mother ignored him and managed to get one seed to sprout and grow. She planted it under the yard light, for some inexplicable reason. It grew slowly in the inhospitable soil and stayed small.
But we kids loved it. Its leaves were magical.
Grandpa’s “durn old mimosa” was a Mimosa pudica, a native of Central and South America that found its way to the Old South of the United States. Mother managed to get one growing against the yard light pole in northern Idaho, far from the motherland.
Mimosas are also called “sensitive plant,” or “touch-me-not.” The stems of its branches are lined with little leaves that recoil and instantly fold up when touched. They also close up when the sun goes down each evening. Because we lived in the country and had little to entertain us, my brother and I liked to go out and torment the mimosa.
As the tree matured, it bloomed frothy pink pompoms that smelled heavenly. When I grew up, married, and had my own home, I got some seeds from Mom and managed to start a durn old mimosa of my own.
We put it in a sunny corner of the yard where it had good soil and gave it lots of water. Since Mom’s plant had always struggled, I had no idea they could get big and bloom prolifically, shedding sheets of pink pompoms in the grass.
That was probably why Grandpa Griggs didn’t like mimosas. But to me, their surpassing beauty, sensitive nature, and fragrance is worth the annual mess. When it’s covered with flowers and the summer breeze blows its sweet perfume across the yard, it fills my heart with joy.
I wonder if that’s how God feels about us.
I am a transplant. I don’t belong in this place. I belong somewhere else, in a heavenly garden fit for a King. He took the seed of faith that I offered to Him, watered it, and planted me in this world to grow, reach to the sky, and bloom for Him.
When life has tormented me; when I recoil against Satan’s taunts; when my soul folds up against the night, I am still the plant God has nurtured, watered, and loved. When life gets messy and I shed remnants of my old nature all over God’s green earth, He delights in the fragrance of my trust.
He chose me to be here. Now. In this season. He has chosen you to grow where He has placed you, too. Rejoice in the knowledge that His Spirit moves across your soul, releasing its beauty to the world.
You are worth the work and the mess. Bloom on.
Slightly Obsessed #074: Transplant
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I know your deeds and you toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
– Revelation 2:2-4
Ephesus was a thriving harbor city in first century Asia.
It served as a center both for trade and for the pagan worship of the Greek goddess Artemis, the equivalent of the Roman goddess Diana. The splendid Temple of Artemis was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The early Christians there endured much opposition to the gospel. Acts 19:21-41 relates the account of a silversmith named Demetrius, who made a good living crafting silver shrines of Artemis until the gospel pulled people away from pagan worship and hurt his business. He was nearly successful in creating a riot that threatened Christians and the work of God in the city.
The Ephesian church had this and other challenges to its existence. Besides the attacks from the outside, the church suffered from false teachers propagating their own brand of theology. The Epistle to the Ephesians addresses their struggles, correcting their doctrine and offering encouragement to this beleaguered Body of Christ.
Paul personally warned the Ephesian church:
After my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
– Acts 20:29-30
Some thirty years later, in His revelation of the last days to John, Jesus acknowledged the Ephesians’ tenacious fight for the faith but chastised them for leaving behind their first love. He told them:
Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
– Revelation 2:5
Today the area of Turkey where the Ephesus once stood is nearly devoid of Christian influence. A city that once fought for the faith and shone for Christ now sits in darkness.
This is a sobering reminder for us. Christ’s words were directed to Ephesus, but they were meant for us, as well. We must remember our faith is not about what we are fighting against, but what we are living for. Our love for Jesus ignites the oil of the Spirit in our lives. Our passion for the Savior alone is the flame that drives away the night and illuminates our world.
It’s good to contend for the faith. It’s wise to test those who want to exert authority over us. It pleases God when we endure through hardship and persecution for Him.
But it’s not His goal.
He wants us to be in love with Him. If we do that, the rest will follow. And our faith will set the world aflame.
Slightly Obsessed #073: First Love
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But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.
– 2 Corinthians 4:7
We are jars of clay.
Earthen vessels, cheap to make, easily breakable, disposable. At the time of Jesus’ first coming, these jars were used for everyday chores like holding garbage and sewage.
They were just mud fashioned into common containers.
Like us. The apostle Paul describes us in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 like this:
- Afflicted
- Perplexed
- Persecuted
- Struck down
- Carrying around in our bodies the dying of Jesus
It hardly seems a fitting description for God’s crowning creation. We don’t like to think of ourselves as common and disposable and carrying around death. We try instead to make people believe we are powerful and indestructible. We hate weakness in ourselves and in others. We feel like failures when we can’t measure up to society’s and God’s standards.
God doesn’t hate weakness, though. Our weakness is essential to the revelation of His glory. Our frailties are the perfect backdrop against which He can paint His grace.
If we could save ourselves, we wouldn’t need Him. If we could serve Him in our own strength, we would be revealing our greatness, not God’s.
And although we are jars of clay, we’re not made to carry sewage and garbage. We’re created to contain the surpassing treasure of God Himself. We are the new temples, earthen containers overflowing with His majesty.
His sacrifice has made us clean; His Spirit has sanctified us to be vessels of honor. Now we are complete:
- Afflicted, but not crushed
- Perplexed, but not despairing
- Persecuted, but not forsaken
- Struck down, but not destroyed
- Always carrying about in our bodies of the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be revealed in us
So don’t despair when your humanity overtakes you. It’s the perfect time to look to the God of grace and watch His power overcome your darkness. Acknowledge and revel in your weakness. Let the great treasure within you pour out of your being.
Embrace your frailty. In Christ, you are anything but common.
Slightly Obsessed #072: Earthen Vessels
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
– 1 Peter 1:3-5
I inherited a terrible disease from my mother. It grows with age, and it has infected my daughters.
I love to collect stuff.
I fear for my granddaughters.
Although my mother was a prolific collector, and I have many things passed down to me from her mom, until recently I had only a few heirlooms from my paternal grandmother Jean. The one I treasure most I have had it for more than three decades, although I have nearly lost it more than once. It commands a lot of space, and it demands to be near a sunny window.
My “heirloom” is an angel-wing begonia, appropriately named for its large, waxy leaves that grow in the shape of an angel’s wing. It is a descendant of the original start Grandma Jean gave my mother decades ago. It’s fitting my most cherished possession from her is a living thing.
Grandma Jean was poor in possessions. She lived a hard life, married unwisely, worked at menial jobs, buried an infant son, endured illness and countless beatings from my grandfather, and still managed to raise three wonderful children: my dad and his two sisters.
Standing at four-foot-eleven with a soft, gray-tinged, orange fluff of hair framing her tiny Irish face, Grandma Jean was an unimposing figure. Tender-hearted and gentle, she never once raised her voice in my presence. She carried herself with a serene dignity that belied her diminutive appearance and harsh life.
In the days before my folks gave their lives to God, Grandma Jean was the most vocal ambassador of Jesus in our family. I was skeptical about Christianity during my teen years but intrigued by her joy, peace, and total assurance of God’s existence. The first time she and I talked about God, I assumed she was a sweet – but ignorant – elderly woman. God soon taught me the difference between humility and ignorance.
She was humble. I was ignorant. Our talks ignited my search for truth that would one day introduce me to my Savior.
Grandma Jean was fighting cancer the year I married; she died before learning that our first daughter would be named for her. I don’t remember the year that Mother gave me a start of Grandma Jean’s begonia. But over the years, that plant has alternately grown to the ceiling, withered back, and nearly died—only to flourish once again. When it’s become diseased, I’ve had to throw the plant away and start over with some cuttings from it.
The roots of our family have grown intertwined with it. It seems, over the years, to ebb and flow with us. When we are hurting, it wilts and turns yellow. When we break out into another season of soul-spring, the plant thrives once again, rewarding us with a display of tender pink blooms and turning its angel-face up to the sun.
Once when it was looking especially droopy, I muttered to our youngest daughter, “Sometimes I’m tempted to throw this thing away.”
Grace looked at me in alarm and exclaimed, “Mom, you can’t throw that plant away. It’s an heirloom.”
An heirloom. I was struck by the words. It was Grandma Jean’s treasure; the only one she had to give. It’s our reminder of a living faith, the thread which unites our family and draws us ever toward Him in love. Because of Grandma Jean’s faithful witness, I can look at that plant and be reminded to thank God for my beautiful inheritance—the gift of everlasting life.
Slightly Obsessed #071: Heirloom
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He has also set eternity in their heart: yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
– Ecclesiastes 3:11
We know it’s there. A gnawing restlessness springs from deep within man and testifies to a sobering truth: We are meant for more.
We just can’t figure out what more is. More sex? More money? More validation? More enlightenment? Throughout history, humanity has turned to a pantheon of pleasures and gods to feed the need. When the pleasures aren’t enough, we hunt for another deity to fill the void.
Society isn’t against gods, as a whole. One ancient city, in fact, covered their spiritual bases with altars to an assortment of gods. In Roman times, the learned men of Athens held council at the hulking rock formation known as the Areopagus, where the ruins still command a sweeping view of the city. Considered the religious center of Greece, Athens was filled with altars to various gods. To be on the safe side, they even erected an altar inscribed “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD,” in case they missed one. (Acts 17:23)
They worshipped every god they knew about, but they could not calm the restlessness in their souls. The accursed emptiness was still there. Eternity was in their hearts, but they didn’t know how to fill it.
It was to this place the apostle Paul was taken to defend his teaching about a God of whom they knew nothing.
That day at the Areopagus, Paul introduced them to the UNKNOWN GOD.
There he proclaimed to them what they worshiped in ignorance. He explained that the God who made the world and everything in it was the Lord of heaven and earth, too magnificent to dwell in temples made by human hands.
Paul then declared to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, the mystery revealed, the God who came in the flesh to pull back the veil on the UNKNOWN GOD.
We all have a place in our hearts only God can occupy. Nothing else fills that void. We try, though, in our ignorance. When that fails, we erect a fresh altar to a new obsession, hoping to ease the longing.
Still, it gnaws at us. All our money, time, energy, and emotions—enough to fill a city—can’t quench the thirst for the source of life.
We don’t have to live this way.
Two thousand years ago, a man stood on a rock and declared the revelation of God to humanity. He said, “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.”
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
– Acts 17:29-31
Now we see. Now we know.
Today, right now, wherever we are, we can revel in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the privilege of knowing what billions of people have longed to understand: He is not THE UNKNOWN GOD. He is the Lord of the universe, and He’s waiting to reveal the majesty of His justice and grace to us.
He’s as close as the whisper of His name.
Slightly Obsessed #070: Do You Worship the UNKNOWN GOD?
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The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.– Joel 2:31
They predicted a bad moon rising.
More specifically, a “blood moon.” I really didn’t want to awaken from a deep sleep to gaze at the skies. But I had asked my husband a few hours earlier to awaken me to see the lunar eclipse with him. So I stumbled downstairs to witness the rising of the blood moon everyone was talking about.
The fitful night sky cooperated with us, parting the occasional sea of clouds long enough for us to get a good look at the spectacle. It would have been an interesting sight at any time, but this one had been propelled into the news by a book connecting the tetrad phenomenon (a string of four partially or completely eclipsed moons) with the Jewish Passover and end-times events.
Scriptures from the book of Joel, Acts, Matthew 24:29-30, and Revelation 6:12 do warn of terrible signs and wonders in the sky, including references to the moon, as heralding the coming “day of the Lord,” the return of Christ. There is a problem, however, with connecting these Scriptures with a lunar eclipse.
The Bible makes it plain that during the traumatic last days before Christ’s return, the blood moon will only be a part of a cataclysmic judgment executed upon a rebel world. The earth will be in complete turmoil, reeling from war, pestilence, famine, and disasters on an epic scale.
Stars (probably meteors or asteroids) will fall to the earth. Much of the world’s water supply will be polluted. Many animals and people will die. There will be a great earthquake so powerful it will move islands and mountains out of their places.
It will be a time marked by fear for those who rejected the gift of redemption offered by God through His Son, Jesus Christ. They will not be standing on their porches admiring the moon. According to Revelation 6:15, they will be running into caves and praying to the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.
If anything, last night’s display is a solemn reminder the grace of God won’t last forever.
Today He is mocked and ignored by an arrogant generation. He waits in silence, holding out His hand and beckoning us to come to safety. But one day, without warning, the door will close.
And God will judge with a heavy heart.
The blood moon tetrad phenomenon is a beautiful display of God’s creative power. But if we’re looking for signs and wonders, we haven’t seen anything yet.
Slightly Obsessed #069: Blood Moon
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I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
– John 10:10
Morning has broken.
The day starts well enough. The earth is turning, the sun is shining, and I’m breathing.
So far, so good.
Then the battle begins. A stray word or a look of irritation from someone annoys me. A myriad troubles are dumped upon my path.
It never takes much to drive me from the beautiful world to which I awakened. It’s easy to embark on the bus to nowhere, revisiting old hurts and traveling painful roads that should have been long-abandoned.
I’m always over-packed for these trips because it requires so much baggage. It’s hard to travel light when you’re headed out the door to a pity party.
Before long, I’m out of gas. I’m all alone on a back road because no one wanted to make this trip with me.
Ironically, I’m holding the ticket to a better destination.
Since Jesus bought my way out of my private hell and reserved a place for me in His kingdom, I have no reason to ride the rails of self-pity. Every day can be a place of new discovery in a wonderland of His creation.
When my brain is overloaded, I can simply fly away into a place of freedom by thinking about God’s blessings. When my heart is hurting, I can be instantly at His throne of grace. When I am lost, I can find new direction by going no farther than to my knees. I can travel through time in God’s Word to new worlds of faith told in the great stories of past pilgrimages.
It’s amazing how much lost time I can make up by simply getting my eyes back on the right road. I’m tired of riding the bus to nowhere, going around in circles and wasting this beautiful life God has given me on side roads of worry and sorrow. God is calling me on a journey to the highlands. But it takes a special vehicle to get me there.
It’s a bus called Praise.
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Slightly Obsessed #068: The Bus to Nowhere
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Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
– Matthew 23:37
What more vivid and tender picture of a protective momma can there be than a hen with her chicks?
When I was growing up, I had a calico cat named Roseanne. Roseanne was an outdoor cat who loved to roam our eight acres of Idaho countryside. Not spayed until her later years, she was one of the most prolific cats I have ever seen—much to the dismay of my parents. Roseanne had kittens everywhere: under old boards, in our aging pink DeSoto sedan, in a cozy box if I found her soon enough. One spring she gave birth in the ancient hay barn next to the chicken coop.
Then her kittens were discovered by a setting banty hen whose own nest had been destroyed by a predator. The hen’s mothering instincts took over and she immediately adopted them. She spread her wings and hovered over them as protectively as she would have her own chicks, pecking anyone who threatened her new brood. Roseanne sat nearby, either unwilling to take on the misguided hen or just enjoying the break.
God used the imagery of a mother hen repeatedly in the Old Testament to describe His love toward His people. God longed to have compassion on His people, to gather them up and protect them. Over and over, they rejected Him. They killed the prophets He sent to them. They scattered from under His protection and suffered at the brutal hands of their enemies.
Then God arrived in the flesh, pouring out Himself in their image in the ultimate act of compassion to His rebel world. Here was their King, their Protector, their Refuge, their Deliverer, standing before them.
Still, they didn’t understand.
Jesus wept at the hardness of their hearts.
It’s easy to look back on the people of Jerusalem and see what they missed.
And yet, how often do I wander like an errant chick out from under His protective wings and straight into the claws of the predator? Why is it so hard to trust in God’s goodness, His wisdom, His compassion?
Why do I think I can run my own life, when in God’s eyes I’m just as helpless?
The only job a chick has is to stay put and grow up. No one wants to think of themselves as weak. But acknowledging weakness is a good thing. It’s what God’s been waiting to receive from His people:
Confessing our weakness. Returning to His side. Staying put and maturing under His protection.
Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me,
For my soul takes refuge in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge
Until destruction passes by.
-Psalm 57:1
Slightly Obsessed #067: In the Shadow of His Wings
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Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
– 1 John 2:28
Are we really supposed to be watching for Christ’s return? What does it matter, as long as we’re saved?
One Christmas Eve the extended family was coming for the first time to our place for dinner, and I had worked myself into a frazzle getting the house ready. Late in the afternoon, when my nerves were frayed into sharp little spikes, I finally finished waxing the floor in the kitchen and entry. I declared to my poor family that anyone who set foot on the floor before it dried was in trouble.
Big Trouble.
I had barely walked upstairs when I caught sight of my husband throwing the rug back down on the wet and sticky floor at the front door entry. I literally screeched at him as I flew down the stairs to retrieve the rug.
Halfway down the stairs, I froze mid-screech.
Aaron had opened the door to visitors. Unexpected, important visitors.
I wanted to die. There was no way they could have missed my performance.
They graciously gave no indication they heard my freak-out on the stairs. But my embarrassment was complete and profound. I had totally shamed myself at their coming.
One day God is going to surprise us.
Jesus will appear without warning in the sky to claim His people. I can guarantee it will be unannounced. Although we can’t know the day or the hour, we can see the season coming upon us. We can feel the change in the air and know something is coming upon the earth.
Actually, Someone is coming. He is coming soon, and the more completely we have lived for Him, the more joy we will have at His coming.
The Bible urges us to conduct ourselves in such a way so if He should arrive at any moment, we will not be ashamed to see His face. Our hearts should always be packed and ready for the trip home.
On that Christmas years ago, my selfish efforts to impress my in-laws made my family miserable and embarrassed myself when it really mattered.
God doesn’t care about our efforts to impress Him and others. He sees our hearts. He cares about how we live in those moments when we think no one is looking. He longs for us to live every hour as if it were the moment He arrives for us.
He is coming. Be ready. Someone very important is at the door.
But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.
-Luke 42:45-47
Slightly Obsessed #066: Unexpected
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He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.– Psalm 104:32
Where do you run when your world shakes?
This week television cameras caught the moment a 4.4 quake rocked parts of Southern California. Newscasts were in progress when the quake hit. Replays of the footage showed newscasters caught off-guard in the middle of their broadcasts. Some sat with apprehension at their desks; others were overcome with fear and dove unceremoniously for cover.
Although California is used to occasional shocks, it’s been several years since the state has experienced a significant quake. This one was followed by smaller shocks. Experts have been warning for years a monster earthquake there is inevitable. No one knows when the Big One will hit.
But residents there know the damage done and the lives lost in previous quakes. They instinctively run for safety when the shaking starts.
A desk. A doorway. Anything offering protection for the moment.
It’s a striking visual of our reactions to inner trauma. Memories of past tragedies and failures are triggered by an event that shakes up our world. We react in fear and dive for any available emotional cover. Anything to give us the illusion of security.
Bad relationships. Drugs. Sex. Alcohol. Work. Dark places disguised as doorways to safety.
Then one day our world falls down. The Big One hits and everything crashes in around us. We’re crushed in the rubble of destroyed lives.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
There is a fortress, a refuge from the pain, a safe place from the enemy of our souls.
God has promised us security within His walls. Jesus Christ is our champion, our king, our advocate and fierce protector. He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing God. Nothing can separate us from His love. Nothing. The earth can split in half beneath our feet, and God will deliver us safely into His kingdom.
Feel your world shaking? Never fear. Run to the fortress. God is waiting for you, and the door’s open.
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.
-Psalm 46:1-2
Slightly Obsessed #065: Fortress
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Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.
– Satan to God (Job 2:4-5)
Do you ever wonder where God is when something bad happens to you? Does it feel like God doesn’t see what’s happening—or doesn’t care?
In one of the most fascinating reads in the Bible, the book of Job pulls back the veil on heaven to reveal a jaw-dropping discussion between God and Satan. The first two chapters alone tell us a lot about that other world beyond our natural senses. It says even more about the intimate way God orchestrates events in our lives. This revelation can help us understand and accept what we experience on this side of heaven. From these chapters we learn:
Satan still has access to God.
- The “sons of God” evidently came regularly to “present themselves” to God. Satan, the record says, came among them. God doesn’t seem to be surprised at his presence. This explains Revelation 12:10, in which Satan is called “the accuser of our brethren,” who “accuses them before our God day and night.”
Satan doesn’t sit around in hell awaiting souls to torture.
- He tells God he has been roaming about on the earth. This corresponds with 1 Peter 5:8, which tells us Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
God is the one who initiates the conversation with the devil about Job.
- This is our reminder nothing happens outside the knowledge of God. Romans 8:28 tells us all things work for good for those who love the Lord. God had a higher plan for Job and a message to all humanity through Job’s life. This was to be accomplished through Job’s suffering. The plan was God’s. The means was the devil.
Job’s trials had nothing to do with his sin.
- He was a righteous (though not perfect) man who served God in every way possible. He even offered sacrifices for his children in case they sinned. His life as a husband, father, and man of God was beyond reproach. God was not punishing him.
Satan accused Job of only serving God to get favor from Him.
- God allowed Job to be afflicted to prove Satan’s accusations wrong. In the rest of the book of Job, we discover Job ended up healed and restored. In the process, his eyes were opened to a new understanding of the God he served.
You may be going through terrible physical or emotional suffering today. As you pray, the silence from heaven is deafening. You’re sure God has totally forsaken you. You can’t possibly see what He is doing, or what you did to deserve it.
Take some time and read about Job, the man who proved Satan wrong.
I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
I have heard you by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.
– Job 42:3, 5-6
Slightly Obsessed #064: Skin for Skin – The Man Who Proved Satan Wrong
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