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Giving Jesus the Key

I recently lost one of the two keys to our Toyota mini-van, and the Lord didn’t reveal its location. I thought I could just go down to Home Depot and have another key made, but the associate there told me otherwise. He said that they have Toyota Blanks, but the key will only be able to get the outer door unlocked. If I put it in the ignition, the car can’t even be started!

It turns out that you have to have an authentic Toyota microchip key in order to drive the car. When the microchip in the head of the key comes close to the sensor near the ignition, the computer unlocks and allows you to start the car.

I guess there is a little value in having a key that gets you into the car only… if I lock the true key in the car, then I could use the valet key to get in without calling the Triple-A service. Actually, “valet key” is not the right term for this copied key, because a valet key can actually start and run the car. I will call the copy key the “fake key,” because the promise that is wrapped up in a real car key is that you will be able to use the car for something other than sitting in it or storing items within it.

Many who call themselves Christians give Jesus the fake key to their lives. The key allows Jesus to get inside the car and sit in a seat, but they don’t really want Jesus driving them around. After all, Jesus might drive them places where they do not want to go. He might drive too fast or two slow, or he might scrape the paint finish or even crash the car! They like Jesus well enough that he can come along for the ride, but they don’t trust Him well enough for Him to do the driving.

He might interfere with where they want to go in life!

Occasionally, I will drive past a police car that is parked on the side of the road. A sidelong glance reveals that the policeman in the driver’s seat is actually an inflatable balloon, designed to look like a policeman. I understand that the Police Department uses this decoy around town in different spots in order to affect a calming of traffic. When people see the “manned” police car, they are likely to slow down if they are speeding, and to be on their best behavior.

Perhaps you have an inflatable Jesus in your car? You blow him up with your own breath and place him in the driver’s seat when you park your car at Church. Those who drive or walk past see that Jesus is in the driver’s seat, and people think well of you. When it is time to leave Church, however, you look both ways before you get into the car, and then you reach in and throw the balloon Jesus into the back seat. You think to yourself, “I can’t get anywhere I really want to go with this Jesus in the driver’s seat!”

The balloon sits quietly in the back seat while you drive to Sin City. Catching a glimpse of the balloon’s eyes in the rear view mirror, and feeling a tad guilty, you grab your coat and throw it over the head of the balloon Jesus. This is the extent of your relationship with Jesus. You prop up the balloon and move it around, promoting “Jesus” to the driver’s position when it is advantageous to do so, and then unceremoniously demoting the colored air bag to the back seat and covering its “eyes” so that you won’t feel guilty as you do the real driving. You hardly ever talk to it, except when you want something badly, and when you don’t get what you want, you think you might as well be talking into the air.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23.

Perhaps you have done more than buy an inflatable Jesus, and you have really given Jesus a key—the fake key? Is it possible that you’ve kept from giving him the microchip key that is the all-access key that he’s waiting for? Perhaps the key you’ve given Him is the car key of promise, but in reality, it is just a lock-picker for the door. So Jesus is allowed to come pick your lock from time to time, and maybe he can sit in the seat sometimes, or store some of His stuff in the back seat, but you’re not willing for Him to drive you where He wants you to go. He can sit in the driver’s seat, but like the inflatable policeman, He’s just there for effect. He can’t take you anywhere…

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Heart of Stone… Heart of Flesh

A friend has been meditating over the space of a few years about the new heart that God has given us. He wishes to comprehend the victory that Jesus has given us over sin and death, and to apply the new creation heart to live victoriously and become an overcomer. This is a noble, but frustrating, pursuit. Believing that we have been given a free and victorious heart, we have to reconcile the victory that has been won with the simple fact that we are far from perfect, and we “lose” battles every day.

In fact, to have the fallen flesh is to operate in brokenness, and to interpret God and the world around us through a grimy lens. Even in my best moments of, what seems to me, complete surrender to Him, there is some degree of self-preservation or exaltation that is unseen, at work beyond the edges of my consciousness. God knows that we are unable to present a heart to Him that is completely devoid of the concerns of the flesh. And so God operates in continual grace to a constantly broken and needy people.

It is a JOY to the Lord to fill His people with Himself, and to do things through a people who acknowledge that they need Him desperately and are looking toward Him like helpless children. This kind of heart is soft and receptive to the Spirit, and desires what God desires. But no heart started out this way. We know from Jeremiah that the heart is desperately wicked, and we know from Paul that there is no one who seeks after God on his own. God Himself draws us and opens our eyes to Who He is:

Hosea 11:4. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.

John 6:44. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Romans 2:4. …God’s kindness leads you toward repentance…

So God Himself opens our eyes to be able to see Him, and He gives us a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

We are tempted to think that this new heart is one that is able to gain victory over sin, and that it has the capacity to throw off the domination of sin. After all, we are a new creation! We begin to adopt the idea that we have the final victory over sin already, and that all we need to do to resist sin is to believe hard enough that the victory is already ours. Subtly, our eyes can be diverted from an ongoing dependency on Jesus to a pursuit of perfection of our own righteousness.

If our primary goal is to be victorious over sin and to be an “overcomer,” we will be constantly frustrated. We supposed that we just hadn’t believed strongly enough… that we are more than conquerors. If God has already given the victory, and we are still experiencing defeat, we rationally conclude that our faith is lacking, and assume that we just need to work up the strength of our faith.

But what is the goal of the Christian life? Are we supposed to reach some state of sinless perfection, or perfect obedience? God knows that we can’t do this, and yet we often make this our chief pursuit, taking on an impossible behavior management project which, we suppose, will please Him. A behavior-centric focus to the Christian life is a path to burnout and disillusionment, and shifts the burden of perfection from the shoulders of Christ onto our own. Our faith and sanctification must be Christo-centric, because Christ is our very life!

Hebrews 12:1-2. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

This kind of persistent pursuit is a testimony of His grace rather than our obedience—of His righteousness rather than our own. HE is the perfecter of our faith, and not we ourselves. He is the Author and the One Who has made us holy, and it is HE who sanctifies us as we still inhabit the body. I can’t will myself to stop committing sin, but I am able to humble myself as one who recognizes the bankruptcy of his own righteousness, and ask that God do in me what I can’t possibly do.

Col. 3:1-4. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

When I eagerly submit to the reign of Jesus in me, and Christ lives and breathes and speaks and thinks through me, then I have nothing to boast about for myself, and I will find myself in awe of His presence and power, and in the difference He makes in my life. I won’t worry about my progress in becoming an overcomer; I will be enamored with the One Overcomer, who overcame for us, and christens us overcomers despite our incomplete obedience.

So, what is the “heart of flesh” that God gives us, spoken about in Ezekiel 36:26? I think the answer is grasped when we consider what the “heart of flesh” is contrasted with—the “heart of stone”–that God removes. The description of our former heart, the unbelieving one, focuses on its hardness and coldness. This hardness is primarily toward God Himself, and to His truth, but is evidenced in our lives by a strong self-will to pursue our own ends or to secure our own security. This might even look like a life of selflessness in some people, as they try to win acceptance from others and from God through being a people-pleaser. Self-salvation is the goal for this hard-hearted condition.

God opens eyes in our stony hearts so that we can see Him, and agree with the truth that we can’t save ourselves, and, at that moment of belief, God removes the heart of stone, the hard one, and gives us a heart of flesh, that is soft toward Him—yielding and responsive. Before receiving Christ, truth could be poured out all over our stony hearts, but none of the Living Water could be absorbed nor find purchase. Since we now have a heart of flesh, purchased by the blood of Jesus, God makes it soft and absorbent, like a sponge, so that our hearts can be made full of Christ and grow in Him.

Even so, our new fleshy hearts can get dehydrated through our neglect of God and His truth. We can still harden our hearts toward Him, and when we deny the Living Water passage through our hearts, our hearts begin to dry out, shrink, and become hard to the touch again. A sponge left on a stone outside, to dry in the desert sun, will become hard and brittle in pretty short order.

But this new heart, dry and hard as it can become again, has many holes in it that are made for receiving and holding the water, so that it can be made soft quickly, the moment we call for Him, and God’s refilling occurs—a re-hydration of the Spirit.

The heart that we have been given cries out for the Living Water, and will not find rest nor peace outside of fellowship with the Lord. This new heart is holy, and has been given a True North direction by which to orient itself. The new heart is more sensitive to changes in direction, and has new desires to return to the north heading when straying east or west, (or south!), in order to be at home with the Lord.

This new heart is responsive to the Holy Spirit, and can be roused to condemn our direction when we stray, and hears the Lord calling, when we wander from Him and rebel against truth.

1 John 3:19-24. “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

So this new heart is not the exact same deceitful heart that we once had, but we still have “sin in our members” that tempts our hearts to follow the lies, the old patterns, and the dead trails that our old stony hearts could not help but trace in the past.

Romans 7:23-24. “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”

If our new hearts are drawn away by sin in our members, we will experience the wounds of the spiritual battle, and can even be taken captive in some ways by the enemy. Our hearts are often willing accomplices to the “sin at work,” and we allow ourselves to surrender our bodies temporarily to the enemy.

Galatians 5:16-18. “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”

Here is the answer, again, in how to live. Live, being led by the Spirit, not as one who is trying to keep the law perfectly, but as one who knows that he can’t. If we think, act, and speak in Christ, submitted to Him consciously, and rely on His power and presence, we will truly live, and He will give an eternal weight of glory to our moments that is an additional blessing to the grace that sustains us and makes up the continual difference between our impotent obedience and Christ’s perfect obedience.

If we keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), then 2 Corinthians 4:17, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

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God Surprises

My wife, Wendy, says she doesn’t like surprises. It wasn’t always this way. When we were younger, I’d say, “Road…” and she’d say, “…Trip?” and then we’d be off on an adventure. We would jump into the car and go, just for the fun of being together in a new place. With every child we added, however, (six times!), spontaneity became more difficult. Right before adding our fourth child, I secretly planned a surprise for Wendy, and God moved in such a way that none of us will ever forget it.

This was back in 2004, when we were about to travel as a family to China to pick up our first adopted daughter, Darcy, who would be 13 months old. Wendy was neck deep in preparations, and obsessed with constant thoughts for this baby who had been selected for us. Will she be afraid of us? Will she bond with us? What special needs might she have? And on, and on. I felt like we needed to get away for a few days as a couple before going to China, as our lives were about to change forever with the new baby, but I knew she would never agree to a getaway. Another trip to plan? Fuhgeddaboudit!

She’d have to be kidnapped. So that’s what I planned.

Unbeknownst to her, I canceled my upcoming seminar in Boston the next month, and made reservations for two at The Grove Park Inn, in the mountains of North Carolina, for the same days. I would just not tell her that I cancelled my seminar, so that we’d all have to get into the van on the day of our trip to “drop Daddy at the airport.” After all, I had written the details onto the calendar beforehand…I just never crossed them out.

My two biggest problems? What to do with the kids, and how to pack Wendy’s bags with her necessaries without her knowing…

And I had brilliant solutions—BRILLIANT!!!

For the kids, I arranged with two families to meet our family at an exit beyond the airport—after I intentionally drive past and miss both airport exits to drop me off for my flight—and they would take care of the kids, and Wendy and I would continue on from there to Asheville. Little by little, over a few weeks’ time, I squirreled away some of the kids’ clothes to a rarely used closet, and into small suitcases for their sleepover with friends. The slow disappearance of clothes would go unnoticed.

For Wendy, the solution was elegant. I needed to know what makeups and skin and hair products to bring, but also what clothes and shoes would be comfortable for her, and I would have to pack most of her bags at almost the last minute. (It’s one thing to steal children’s clothes from clean laundry baskets over a few weeks, but taking my wife’s favorite makeup before she puts it on, that very last day? The surprise would be over before we even left the house). And now, cue my brilliance:

“Hey, let’s make a checklist ahead of time, for our trip to China, so that we can be sure we have everything we need when we pack.”

Wendy likes the idea of organization, so I thought she’d jump all over that one. Not so fast. Making a checklist required more work for Wendy, and she was sweating out a lot of details with the adoption agency, and the Chinese and American governments, and she was focused on jumping through all the hoops to complete the official requirements and paperwork to expedite the adoption. She wasn’t going to take the time to make up a checklist for her makeup—she was just going to put off making those decisions until the night before jumping on the plane to Beijing.

Cue Brilliant Plan B: “I see you’re busy with a lot of stuff… how about I make an inventory list of the items you might need from your drawers and cabinets, and then you can just highlight the ones you want to take to China, and check them off when you’re packing?”

She seemed to be okay with that. (Honestly, I don’t think she was paying much attention to packing details. In the middle of January, we were still a month and half out from going to China in early March. My Grove Park Inn reservations were for three days near Valentines’ Day)…

I quickly discovered that a plan can be both brilliant and stupid at the same time. I realized this when I opened Wendy’s makeup drawer, ready to catalog her items. Husbands, have you ever looked inside your wives’ makeup drawers? Wendy had hers neatly arranged into compartments, but there was a dizzying array of tools and makeups. And I would have to assign names to them, like “eyelash curler/crimper,” and “eyebrow tweezer,” and “scissor handled tweezer,” and “foundation brush.” I had to catalog lipsticks by color—“red lipstick in ribbed silver case,” and “natural red-brown lipstick in black case,” and list them separate from chapsticks or “moisturizing lip balm…”

Travel size Q-tips and cotton balls and facial soaps and mascaras and makeup removers and facial lotions and skin lotions and six different types of shampoos and conditioners. Hair driers and curlers and straighteners. Feminine products of different shape and size. I catalogued them all!!! It took me a few hours to go through the cabinets, and the resulting checklist was shocking in detail and length. I typed it up and put little blanks beside each item, (for the check mark), and proudly presented it to Wendy.

She was very nice about it, but I could see that the list was way “over the top” for the need it was supposed to fulfill. She set the list aside for “later.” Much later. In fact, I don’t think she ever looked at it again. So much for my brilliant plan to pack Wendy’s essentials. So far, the only one getting surprised was me!

Time was running out, and Wendy’s avoidance to the first checklist kept me from wasting hours in the closet. I had no brilliant plan for packing Wendy’s clothes. I tried to pay attention to what shoes she preferred, the clothes she slept in, the dresses and blouses and pants and accessories, and the jewelry she wore. But I couldn’t pack those things ahead of time, and certainly couldn’t pack the things that she would reach for on the day of the trip. If she reached for particular shoes to get out the door, and I had already packed them, that would be a sure giveaway. And I realized that she would choose different shoes and clothes for a getaway to the mountains in February, and depending on the weather and the type of activity that we would be doing. What a dilemma!

In the meantime, the kids were awesome… I told them my plans, and told them not to tell Mommy. It was a risk, I know, but I wanted them to be in on the surprise. I wanted them to feel a part of something big and wonderful, and to experience the joy of preparing something happy for someone else, and I wanted to let them know ahead of time that they would also be staying with their wonderful friends. This way, the whole family would have a part of blessing Mommy, and something to look forward to.

(Also, they would probably see me taking extra suitcases down the back stairwell to the garage on that Saturday morning, or doing other strange things, and I didn’t want them asking me in front of Mommy what I was doing, or asking Mommy directly).

Well, the big day arrived, and the kids did their part to get themselves extra ready, and to collect their own toothpaste and toothbrushes. I finished packing my things as Wendy was getting ready, so I could be sure that she was going through her whole routine. While she was showering, and since our closet was separate from the bathroom, I was able to collect her clothes and underthings, sweaters, socks, hoses, and shoes without her noticing. I had reminded her and everyone else what time we needed to leave, and tried to instill some urgency for her to get ready quickly. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, in retrospect, but I really needed her to get done and out of the bathroom for good so that I would have time to grab all her bathroom necessaries.

When she came out, I asked if she could help get the kids something quick to eat before we go, as we were down to the ten minute mark. I mentioned I needed to get a few more things, and then I would join everyone downstairs, ready to go. So she went. Finally! My heart was beating fast now, as I had very little time to make a lot of important decisions.

Secure in the knowledge that Wendy was done with the bathroom, I enacted another brilliant idea. I would take ALL the items in the bathroom drawers. I opened each drawer and took each compartmented tray out, stacking them up, and I grabbed the hairdryer and a couple of other loose implements to throw on top. I was just getting ready to pick up the trays in my arms when I heard footsteps coming right up to the bathroom door. I grabbed a newspaper and placed it on top of the pile of trays and bathroom items and swooped everything into my arms to face away from the door.

Wendy opened the door and started heading past me to the toilet, and I pivoted around her to keep my back to her. Miracle #1: She didn’t ask me why I had an armful of stuff, and she didn’t see what I had in my arms…

Heading out the bathroom door, I called over my shoulder that we needed to hurry. “I’m going to miss my plane!” (True statement). And I prayed that she wouldn’t need any last makeup after she used the bathroom.

I ran the load in my arms down to the minivan and got the kids into their seats. I had everything taken care of, but I grew concerned that Wendy wasn’t out already to get into the van. I ran back inside… “Come ON, honey—we’ve got to GO!” I yelled, from the foot of the stairs. Anyone in the house would have heard that yell, no matter where they were.

For a few breathless moments, I didn’t hear anything, and then she responded, sounding confused. “I… I can’t find my lipstick!”

OH. NO. She’s looking through her drawers! Not only will she not find her lipstick—those drawers are as bare as the day before we moved in! There is nothing in them!!!

The realization that “the gig is up” hit me, and I burst out laughing, and the only thing I could think to say is, “I got it already!” I was sure she would say, “What?” and want me to explain how all of the bathroom items completely disappeared, but instead, she said, “Oh! Okay!”

I was stunned. Miracle #2: God must have put a holy fog over Wendy’s mind as she stared at an empty drawer, looking for lipstick… and my assertion that I already had her lipstick? Yeah, that’s never happened before, and probably will never happen again. That was Miracle #3, that she didn’t think it was strange for me to have thought ahead for her and brought her lipstick in the van with me.

She has to know something… maybe she’s just playing along, I thought. Just in case the gig was still “on,” I ran out to the car and fished her lipstick out of the back before she came out, and jumped into the driver’s seat. Moments later, she came out into the garage like everything was fine.

All RIGHT, God!!!! I don’t know how You did it, but we’re still going, here! Thank You!!!

I think the kids were about to burst during the twenty-five minute drive to the airport… The next stage of the plan was coming up… I had to make sure I was so deep into telling something complicated to Wendy that I “accidentally” miss the exit to the airport.

Fast approaching the airport exit, I eased the van into the right lane so that she would assume I was going to take the exit until the last second. I launched into some intricate logistics explanation, and I ignored Wendy saying softly that I needed to get over into the exit lane. She interrupted me at the last second, “Jeff, move over!” but it was too late.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was distracted.” (True statement… I was distracted by all the complicated interactions that had to happen perfectly until just the right moment).

“Okay, fine!” she said, “There’s another exit coming up in a mile… make sure you take that one or you’re going to miss your plane!” So I started talking again, immediately deep into the description again, except this time, Wendy kept giving me directions while I was talking. “Okay, stay in this lane. Okay, the exit is coming up.” I kept talking over her directions. “Okay, get into the exit lane… Get INTO the exit lane… JEFF! MOVE OVER!!!” I kept talking over her escalating demands.

… and… we missed the last exit to the airport.

“JEFF!!! What are you THINKING!?! YOU’RE GOING TO MISS YOUR PLANE!!! I can’t BELIEVE you MISSED THE EXIT AGAIN!!!

The combination of me looking like an idiot, and Mom’s outrage, was too much for the kids. We all erupted with laughter, giddy that the miraculous surprise went the entire distance.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?!” Wendy was giving me the “you’ve got some ‘splainin to do” look.

I began with, “Surprise!” And then I explained that we were not dropping me off at the airport, but that, in fact, we were dropping the kids off at the next exit, where the Knights and Brights were waiting to receive them… And that I had packed everyone’s things so I could “kidnap” her and continue on to a surprise destination for three days and two nights.

We pulled into a parking lot to meet our friends. They all had big smiles as I told the short version of the story about how it all came together. Dazed, Wendy heard my side of the morning’s events, and how God had orchestrated the final steps of the plan. None of what happened registered at the time as odd, but looking back, Wendy was amazed at the number and size of the clues that were left.

We laughed for the next hour in the car, until we reached Winston-Salem, at all the preparations and the coordination of people and events to pull off the surprise. We stopped at Hanes Mall so that Wendy could look over what I had brought for her, and yes, we needed to go in and do some supplemental shopping. I don’t remember what we had to buy, whether it was clothes, or shoes, or some combination, but it was a small price to pay for the element of surprise.

The Grove Park Inn was amazing. The shingle style architecture, with lots of natural wood and stone, and built in the 1930’s, is one-of-a-kind, and the mountain setting and views were special. The package came with dinner both nights, and breakfast each morning. The best part is that we could choose to eat at their highest-end restaurant, The Horizons, for one of the two dinners.

When we went to Horizons, we were almost the only customers that night, and the waitress encouraged us to enjoy ourselves, and take our time. We ordered the cheese tray as an appetizer, and were both shocked by the size of the tray, and all the different kinds of specialty cheeses and crackers on it. There was some wonderful shrimp bisque soup, and fruit, and salad, and Ostrich medallions, and for the main course, Surf and Turf, featuring Lobster and Kobe Beef Steak! The profiterole desserts were fantastic, too. When I saw what the meal would have cost if it wasn’t included in the package, my jaw dropped. We never would have spent that kind of money on a meal. How wonderful to spend three hours together, delighting in each other’s presence over a gourmet meal—we will never forget it.

In reflecting on our experience, I am struck with some spiritual parallels. God is constantly thinking about you, and me, and all people, everywhere, all through history. And He arranges little secret surprises for us. Sometimes He uses nature. A starry sky, a golden sunset, a friendly animal. Sometimes He brings us a friend, or uses a smile, or help, from a stranger. Sometimes He involves food… a delicious meal or a refreshing snack; or a smell—laced with nostalgia—of coffee, or flowers, or a tobacco pipe. There are simple pleasures all around us.

Sometimes it takes suffering to call the heart home, or pain to find a depth of fellowship with Him that we would have missed, otherwise.

He is constantly inviting us to trade the distracted and harried lives we live for a more intimate, deeply spiritual one. We were created for fellowship with Him, and with each other, and yet we can be in the same space, and look right past, hardly noticing. There are times in marriage when we look right past our spouse, because we are so distracted. We’re “there,” but not “all there,” if you know what I mean. This can happen with a friend, with a son or daughter… with anyone. And it most certainly happens with God.

God’s not asking for a 3 day getaway, or even a 3 hour meal. You can “get away” with Him in the moment, but it does take intention—to wrestle the heart free from the grip of distraction and obsession, and to look with it into the eyes of the LORD.  God surprises, but we have to look for Him to see that the action is His, and to appreciate the love and care He puts into every moment, every detail of life.

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Second Surrender: Split-Second Surrender to the Holy Spirit

“Whe-yelp…” Lemuel lifted his baseball cap and scratched high up on his forehead. “You’re gon’ take a raht down’t the secont laht, bah the Pigg-ly Wigg-ly, an’ keep a-goin’, oh, ’bout three mahl an’ sommat, ’til you see the ol’ mi-yill on the layeft. Hayaf a mahl mower, you’re gon’ see a whaht feyance on the raht, and a yeller dawg is gon’ chase ya… jus’ keep a-goin’ ’til the dawg stops, look to the layeft and you gon’ see a reyed barn up the hiyill. Turn leyeft raht theyer…”

I never liked asking someone for directions. In the first place, I didn’t want to trouble others, and in the second, I couldn’t be sure that the people I was asking really knew their way around. Third…I might misunderstand what they were sayan.

Like it or not, that’s the way it was, before smartphones. You had to consult someone as you traveled—and all you had was an address and a folded paper map—and you depended on others to help you fill in the details that were in between the squiggly lines. Best thing was to call someone at your destination before you even set out, and write out the directions. If you got lost, you’d stop at a gas station land look for someone that had been there as long as the fuel pumps out front…

And that’s where you’d meet the Lemuels. You could trust them. Anyone that could tell you what to look for when you take that raht turn—and where the yeller dawg lies in wait behind the whaht feyance—knew what he was talking about. Back then, you needed visual cues, because country roads didn’t have green metal labels. Maybe they still don’t.

But now, roads have invisible data tags, so that an internet search can show you where you’re going. Just type in the address on your smartphone and do what it tells you. Satellites track your position and tell you how many minutes remain until you reach your destination. We can even see traffic congestion on our phones, so that we can choose an alternate route if the usual one has the snuffles.

Our lives depend on where, and on Whom, we put our trust.

Life itself is like going on a trip, and the ultimate destination is “fellowship with GOD.” See First Surrender: The Gospel, (“Good News”), About a Relationship with GOD, in Four Points. The most important aspect of the trip is not physical, involving physical nearness, but rather, spiritual, involving spiritual intimacy. Our souls move vast spiritual distances each day, running from God in different directions, or turning to Him, whenever we notice and own up to forgetting or ignoring Him.

The enemy is real and clever. The enemy is Satan, (the Devil), and the fallen angels, (which are demons). He, and the demons under Him, have organized a vast right wing and left wing conspiracy against God, and seek to keep God’s crown of creation—people—from ever reaching “fellowship with GOD.” (Ephesians 6:11-12). They pose as other gods, or aliens, or angels of light, pulling us away, (through enticements), or pushing us away, (chasing us with unmasked evil). (See 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, for pulling, 1 Peter 5:8, for pushing). They will use every means to give people false directions, so that those who don’t know Christ stay “lost,” and those who do find Christ get distracted and absorbed by the physical world—forgetting where we are, how we were made to travel, and where GOD is, in the spiritual one.

Their words, their advice, their directions—none of them can be trusted—they are lies designed to put spiritual distance between you and God. (See John 8:44-45). Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Satan seeks to draw you off, away from God, to himself, luring you to some high clifftop so it’s easy to pull or push you over. “Yes, this is the way! Just look at that scenery! Here, give me your hand. I’ll lift you up. OOPS—Buddafingas! LOOK OUT BELOW!!!”

Or they are like the gang on the wrong side of town, when you take a wrong turn and you find yourself in a dark and unfamiliar place full of eyes. You wouldn’t dare to step out of the car to look for a Lemuel, and all the street lights were busted long ago. Instead, you crack your window next to a shadowy figure in the road, and ask for the way out. The glow from his cigarette bobs and blinks in the vice of a right side smirk, while smoke and half truths signal from the left. He’s sure of himself, this one…but he’s not telling you the way out. His instructions are precise, with a key misdirection to a dead end, where eyes and bared teeth sharpen in anticipation of victims. If only it was just a yeller dawg!

You drift forward into the night as narrowing eyes follow, watching to make sure you take the turn. Melting into the shadows, the stranger whips out a smartphone and makes a call. “We got one.  He’s alone.”

None of us is truly alone, of course, though we may feel we are, (or we are persuaded by lies that we are). And even if we walk through the valley, (or drive through the alley), of the shadow of death, God is with us. (Psalm 23:4). He can be trusted more than any Lemuel, and He most definitely has been around longer than the gas pumps. Acts 17:24-28. 2 Chronicles 16:9. This doesn’t mean that we will avoid trouble, and it doesn’t mean that we will not suffer harm, or even death, but it does mean that our God is with us, and for us, and that if we trust in Him, we already have reached our ultimate destination, “fellowship with God,” so that we don’t need to fear death they way we used to.

…And we have an opportunity for fellowship with God that is deeper and more intimate than just asking for directions, or talking to a friend. When we received Christ, we also received a gift beyond forgiveness of all sins, in addition to a future in Heaven with Joy in the presence of the LORD forevermore, even more personal than the gift of communication and fellowship with the King of Kings… and yet many Christians misunderstand or pay little attention to the gift.

The gift is the power of God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, working around you, and from within you.

Jesus said:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” John 14:16-20. NIV 1984.

How do we know that we have been given the Holy Spirit? Because Jesus promised to give us (believers in Christ) the Holy Spirit. The entire Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—participates in the filling of each believer, as the Trinity is “three-in-one.” The Father gives the Holy Spirit to live within us, and Jesus is in us, and we are in Him, and He is in the Father. The Spirit is a Counselor and Helper, and is placed in us permanently, at the moment we believed in Christ.

Paul wrote about this permanence:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14. NIV 1984.

We are sealed, at the moment of belief, with the Holy Spirit, as a non-refundable deposit from GOD, guaranteeing our salvation. This verse presents strong evidence that salvation can’t be lost. There is not a case in the New Testament where God un-seals a believer, taking back the deposit and guarantee that the Holy Spirit is. If God were to take back the deposit, the promised “guarantee” would be a lie, and God’s glory would be tarnished. God can’t lie, nor does He break promises.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians about the effect of the Spirit:

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22.

“The Spirit is placed ‘in our hearts,’ καρδία, ας, ἡ, ‘kardia,’ the center and seat of spiritual life, ‘the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors.'”THAYER’S GREEK LEXICON, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:11-16. NIV 1984. (The Holy Spirit can speak through us, so that the mind of Christ is employed, if we are yielded to Him).

He is working moment-by-moment, whether you’re complicit or rebellious.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18. NIV 1984. (The idea is to be complicit with the Spirit—be filled—(extend an invitation to God to work through you right in the moment)—and keep being re-filled, moment to moment).

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:26-28. NIV 1984. (He intercedes, and keeps interceding, even when we are not praying, or when we don’t know what to pray, or even when we are rebellious. He intercedes according to God’s will, not the will of man. We don’t even understand what the Spirit prays for us, but we do know that it is for our good).

“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” Luke 12:11-12. NIV 1984. (The Holy Spirit will speak through surrendered people).

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. Colossians 1:28-29. NASB. (We can strive, within the power of the Holy Spirit, according to God’s purposes).

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5:16-26. NIV. (“Walk by the Spirit,” and “keep in step with the Spirit”… This is the idea of taking a step in the Spirit, and taking another one, and another one. This is what I’ve been teaching as “The Surrendered Moment.” Surrender to the Spirit in the moment, and do it again, and again. Keep on doing this—it is the spiritual life that God has provided for us to live, if we choose).

Jesus said:

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 16:12-15. NIV. The Holy Spirit will lead you in truth, and He will give you truth to share with others that points to our ultimate destination: “fellowship with God,” and He will empower you to do things you can’t do in your own power.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I never liked asking for directions. We all tend to try and find our own way as our default way of life, rather than put our lives into the hands of someone else. It is a trust issue. When things get desperate, when we find ourselves on the wrong side of town, we begin looking for help. At that point, we almost have no other choice than to trust others in order to make it out of the trouble we’re in.

How much better it is, to fellowship with the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to develop a moment-to-moment trust in Him! I have been there, but I can’t say that “I’ve arrived…” My trust waxes and wanes, and my attention to God, and my intention to function within the power of the Holy Spirit, is inconstant. But I know that, in any and every moment, my God is with me, and I can give up my desperate and exhausting desire to control and accomplish everything my own way, and open my life up to The Ancient of Days, to be carried along in the Spirit. When I do, I’m able to do things that would be impossible for me to do, (it’s the Spirit within me), and able to see and say truths that were inaccessible to my feeble mind.

When we surrender to God in the moment, He saves us in the moment. One second, we feel lost, and the next, we understand where we are. And though we may still be in a tight spot, on foreign soil, or enduring incredible pain, we are reminded that we are “home again” in the Spirit—in the strong and loving hands of the Father.  In a split second, we can see and feel the shining light from God, Our Comforter, in the darkness, and draw on infinite resources, so that others may also see Him with eyes of faith. To this end we journey, every moment a new beginning.

 

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First Surrender: The Gospel, (“Good News”), About a Relationship with GOD, in Four Points

Without a First Surrender to God—ending the rebellion of your soul against Him by receiving Jesus Christ—you do not have a relationship with Him, and you are not experiencing the abundant life He offers. Here is a summary of the First Surrender.

1. We are created for relationship with GOD the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created all that can be seen and touched, as a gift, and as an environment for love and relationship.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26. NIV.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” Acts 17:24-28. NIV.

Jesus co-created everything with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and He Himself is the life and light that is the greatest gift to mankind…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-4. NIV.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9. NIV.

2. God’s gift of holy friendship with sinless humans was broken by sin. “Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Romans 14:23. Failing to believe and trust God, and deciding to go our own way, we rejected the gift of light and life in Christ that was ours.

…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned… Romans 5:12.

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… Romans 3:23.

For the wages of sin is death… Romans 6:23.

When man chose to sin, he separated himself spiritually from GOD, and experienced a spiritual death and darkness that leads to physical death, and ultimately to permanent separation from God throughout eternity. The sinful nature—where we naturally think and act in unbelief—passes down from generation to generation, and we are born naturally rejecting the light and life of Christ. We are born spiritually dead, and separated from God.

3. Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father to die on the cross for our sins—paying the penalty of death and separation that we deserve—so that we can know and experience the life and light of God’s love forevermore.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:18.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas,** and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles… 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.

4. Knowing the truth about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Each person must receive Him personally, to experience the life and light of God’s love forevermore.

About receiving Jesus:

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:9-13.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:35-40.

Jesus says: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20.

RECEIVE JESUS NOW: THE FIRST SURRENDER

How do we receive Him/come to Him/look to Him/open the door to Him? Belief is instantaneous. One second, you don’t believe, and the next, you do! Receiving is your response, the personal expression of your faith to GOD—a calling out to Him, in your mind or out loud—from your heart. Receiving involves three aspects of belief.

Pray… Prayer is thinking, or talking, to/with God. You are believing that God exists and that He hears you, when you pray sincerely. Prayer is the medium of surrender.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13.

…to Repent…Repentance is a turning from thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors that ignore or oppose God, an expression of your belief that you have sinned and are separated from God, and a sorrow for denying Him.

I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Ezekiel 18:30.

Repentance involves confession, which is agreeing with God that we have fallen short of the glory of God, in thought, word, and deed, and that we have not trusted Him.

‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly…’ 1 Kings 8:47.

Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. Proverbs 1:23.

…And Surrender…

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:6b, 7, 10.

If you believe these things, then pray to God–confessing, repenting, and receiving. You can pray the following, or something like this. (The words are just vehicles for the attitude of your heart. God knows your heart, beyond the limitations of words).

My God,

I have not trusted you. I’ve been trying to do life without you, and I realize now that I can’t know you, or the life you offer, when I am full of darkness. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins, and suffering to save me. I open the door to you, and receive you as my Savior and LORD. I surrender myself to you. Lead me in the life you want for me. Thank you for forgiving me and and giving me eternal life!

Amen.

If you just prayed this prayer, CONGRATULATIONS! You now have new life that is not like your old life. You might not feel any different, but there is an unseen reality that would take your breath away, if you could see what just happened with spiritual eyes. To uncover the truth of your decision in this moment, see the post: Second Surrender: Split-Second Surrender to the Holy Spirit. This next post will also show you how to trust the LORD in day-to-day life.

Did you just pray to receive Christ? Let me know through the Contact Form. I would like to encourage you by email with some next steps.

*Scripture quoted in this post comes from: Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®. I have added text formatting, such as changing the font to bold, italics, or underlined, to add emphasis. I encourage you to read the verses in context of the passages. I prefer NIV Copyright ©1984.

**Peter.

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Defining Moment: Good Samaritan Freefall (Part 2)

Lee was hailed as a “Good Samaritan” in the local press for putting his life on the line to help motorists in need. If he landed as a believer in Christ, then He fell into the loving hands of the Father, where there is no more sadness, no more sickness, sin, or pain, forevermore.

If he was not a believer in Jesus Christ by the time he hit the ground, however, no amount of do-gooding during his lifetime could save him when his ice-blue eyes beheld the Lord face to face, even in sacrificing his life for another! For those who do not believe and rely on Jesus Christ as Savior, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God!”   Hebrews 10:31.

God has used Lee’s death to change my life, and I pray that God will use this as a wake-up call to people everywhere.  (If you haven’t read “Defining Moment: Good Samaritan Freefall (Part 1)”, you should read that post first, detailing the Lee’s story).  One day, every one of us will fall into the hands of the Living God.  Will you land as a friend, welcomed into eternal glory, or will you land in permanent unbelief and denial?

To the unbeliever, this is another reminder that you just don’t know how long you have left. God knows, and if you think about it, every second brings you closer to the moment when your soul leaves your physical body at your death. I think it would be sobering if we each carried a clock around with us that counted down the years, months, hours, days, and seconds to our own deaths. I once saw a short Christian film called “Clocks” that illustrated that idea.

I suppose many people would take advantage of this, however, and put off dealing with the Jesus question until perhaps a few days before death. Many people imagine they can have fun all life-long until right before their death, when they suppose that they’ll finally “make peace” with God.

Perhaps the knowledge that you only had 18 years to live would cause you to want to “live life to the hilt” and engage in risky and sinful behaviors or thrill-seeking. Imagine the irony of finding out that one of your risk-taking adventures was actually the cause of your death.

What a short-sighted way of looking at things! This view totally overlooks the fact that one is spiritually dead until Jesus makes us spiritually alive! Would you really want to live your whole life spiritually dead and miss living what Jesus calls “life more abundantly?”

And what if you had confidence to put God off because your clock said that you still had 10 years, 5 months, 2 days, 14 hours, and 21 seconds left? You assume that you have 10 more years of sentient health, and miss the possibility that you will step outside in a few minutes and be involved in a car accident that puts you into a coma, where you will spend the rest of your clock time until your body finally succumbs… You ended up consciously putting off the Lord in the “now” because you were sure that you still had time and a coming “then,” when in fact your “no” in the “now” is really your final answer!

All you can be sure of is right NOW!

2 Corinthians 6:2. “For He says, ‘In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.’”

Do not wait to truly live, but receive the Truth, accept Him, and begin to live truly this very moment what you believe!

And if you believe, and you have received Truth and Life in Jesus Christ and the promised Holy Spirit, the fall of the Good Samaritan underscores how precious every opportunity is to help people on their journey to understanding Christ and His love for them.

When Lee and I talked that afternoon in November on the sidewalk, neither of us knew that he had so little time left. I had no idea that I might be the last person to ever speak with him about Jesus. I had no idea how important it was that God spoke at that time and in that way through me to someone who desperately needed to hear the truth one more time!

Perhaps the greatest gift to me through this surreal experience was the personal epiphany of the “surrendered moment.” Though I’ve never read it phrased this way, this idea is not new to mankind. God’s people have written in times past about being filled with the Spirit moment-by-moment. But God made a timeless truth new and fresh to me.

This is a reminder and an exhortation that there is an urgency to each moment, and a fullness of His eternal power, that God chooses to deploy through the surrendered thoughts, words, and actions of His people. This is GOOD NEWS! We are not limited in the NOW by our failings and our past. The fullness of God is available to EVERY believer, and He WILL exert His eternal power within our moments when we set our hearts to honor Him and prepare the way for the Living God to live out Christ in us!

It is true: every single person who ever lived will surrender to the Living God at the moment we see Him face to face. It will be, for most people, the first moment of complete and utter surrender. At that moment, there will be no choice, and it will be too late for them to surrender to Him in such a way to be saved for all eternity. This is what God says about that moment:

“For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11. NASB.

Surrender to Jesus is inevitable—unavoidable—sooner or later. Perhaps it is easier for us to comprehend a surrender to an overwhelming presence in that awesome moment on some future date, but we resist the idea of surrendering in the NOW when there is nothing to shock and awe our senses, and the call and activity of God seems more a whisper than a supernova.

God’s arm is not too short to reach from His throne into our momentary troubles, and His power is not diminished in any way by being less visible now than on that great and terrible future day. His desire is to use the broken and foolish things of this world to display His power. Those who know that they can do nothing apart from Him—and in their desperate weakness and desire to see God’s salvation in their moments—they are the ones who will see His wonders from day to day!

Wendy and I didn’t go downtown on that day in November trusting in our own intellect or talents or even spiritual gifts. In fact, we were way out of our comfort zones whenever we would go to be with the homeless people of our city. Every time we went, we would feel so empty and inadequate on the way downtown, and we would pray that God would prepare the hearts of those we would talk with, and that He would give us words to say, and that He would love others through us, because in and of ourselves we had nothing of lasting value to give. We were desperate for God to do something, feeling that we were being poured out like a drink offering, and that there was nothing in our broken cups for us to offer.

But it is precisely the emptiness of the cup that God is looking for in the hearts of His people. He wants those who understand their impotence and emptiness to look to Him, and those are the cups He loves to fill up with Himself and His power, that the glory of the Lord accomplishes what He will because His people made room for the Lord Himself to pour out and to work as He desires!

“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” Psalm 126:5,6.

We surrendered the moment to God, knowing that we cannot make any heart believe, but trusting that God will do something supernatural with that moment that is beyond our reach. And He always does! If you doubt this, refer to Romans 8:28. When you surrender a moment, and it goes by, it may seem like nothing eternal really happened. It may seem like things get worse when we surrender a moment, or that God is not paying attention. We likely will forget more surrendered moments than we remember, thinking nothing significant happened.

But we are measuring with our human yardsticks! Throw away your measuring tape that looks to quantify something that can’t be measured. Why are we so concerned with a specific result? It is God working and not we ourselves, so if God does this or that thing through us in a certain moment, or if He doesn’t, we should never be disappointed with His presence or embarrassed by a lack of specific results looked for! The fact is, God LOVES those surrendered moments. He is most glorified in the times when His children cry out for Him as their only hope; when we acknowledge that without Him, we can do nothing! (John 15:5). And we ask Him to do what in reality we cannot do on our own.

2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” God is actively looking to prove Himself strong through those who are surrendered.

Surrender is not something that was meant for people only after they die—surrender is meant for God’s people constantly while they are living, and surrender reveals in those moments the promised “Christ in me.” (Galatians 2:19-20, and Philippians 1:21). As we string together a surrendered moment with another one, we begin to see and understand the abundant life, and to discern the supernova within each whisper, to realize a crumb of a moment might feed thousands, and to take a step of faith—ruby red slippers or not—trusting only in the strength and love of our Scintillating Savior.

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Defining Moment: Good Samaritan Freefall (Part 1)

At a particular moment on a sunny-but-brisk Saturday morning in November 2009, I was about to be shaken to the core by a man I had never met and might never see again.

I had been serving monthly at that time among the homeless people of our city with my wife, Wendy, not because we felt gifted for or attracted to this kind of ministry, but because we had a growing hunger for God, and a willingness for Him to use us however He desired. I can see looking back that God led us with little bread crumbs of “yeses” to a land that might as well have been Oz to us, where its people struggle to meet basic needs between skyscraper shadows. We emerged from our cocoon in the suburbs, fresh and rested from a night in our warm bed, spreading our wings to meet with stranger-friends of the inner city.  In the meantime, they had slept on cardboard or under bridges, or not at all, huddled against life storms, derailed and forgotten like boxcars left to rust.

Before I go on about how my world shifted on its axis, I think it important to say that the LORD puts out little bread crumbs each day, disguised as “almost nothing” moments. Jesus linked the sustenance of bread to action when He said His food is to do the will of the Father. He would take a little nothing moment, a leftover crumb, like talking to a woman at the well, (John, Chapter 4), and turn it into something very significant, so that within hours, many believed in Him because of that woman’s testimony about Him in that moment, and many more believed after seeking Him out and hearing for themselves. And the half-life of that moment of simple conversation echoes throughout eternity, not just because it was written down in the Bible, but because Jesus followed the Father’s lead, and lives were changed when He asked for water. I suspect that we miss the opportunity to do the big things that we imagine we’re going to do because we ignored the little crumbs that would have opened the gates to it. We ignore the seeds of trees while looking for the forest.

The crumb that opened the gates to Oz for us happened months before that fateful Saturday—such a little thing, really. Wendy and I used to meet regularly with friends over coffee for fellowship and encouragement in the LORD at a Borders Bookstore, and we noticed a group of Christians that would come and have a Bible study together at one of the long tables there on the same nights that we would go. One evening, I had a notion to go and introduce myself and encourage them. These people were warm and exuberant about God—we were friends instantly—and my little “yes” to go and speak led to another little “yes,” to sit with them on their next study. That’s where we learned about their “Matthew Ministry,” patterned after Matthew 25:31-46. They served the poor on Saturday mornings in our downtown, distributing clothing, toiletries, food, water, and other necessities to whomever walked up. And with another “yes,” we agreed to go and see how we could serve, too.

The deep intention of this ministry is to go the extra mile to connect in a personal way and minister spiritually with each of the people who come. We often had a chance to support, encourage, share truth, and pray with our new homeless or drifting friends, sharing the love and truth of Jesus. We shared bread crumb moments, and trusted that God could take them and accomplish more than physically feeding 5,000+ people with bread and fish, just as Jesus did more in speaking to the crowd than He did in giving them physical nourishment.

On a Saturday in early November, at Moore Square in downtown Raleigh, I was approached by “Mankind.” Lee was his name, but his friends called him “Mankind,” since he was about 6’4” in height, built like an NFL lineman, and because they thought he resembled the wrestler, “Mankind.” His blonde-dyed hair set off his steely blue eyes—cold in color, but rendered warm by the gentleness of his face. He explained that he was going through some rough times, living out of a car, holding down a new job—but there was hope in his eyes that we didn’t often see out on the sidewalk hardscape… he was reuniting with his ex-wife and daughter.  For about forty five minutes, he was an open book, sharing pages of his life with me as we talked about his past, present, and future. Neither of us knew the secret that he only had a few more days to live.

I asked him if he knew the Lord. He didn’t put an exclamation mark on it when he answered, “I’m  an atheist.” We talked about Jesus Christ. I asked him, “What makes it difficult for you to believe in Jesus?”

His eyes got that far-off look, as if he was looking back through time, and he said church people he had known were so hurtful and hypocritical.  As I listened to Lee open up his wounds for inspection, I was asking God to give me ears to hear him, and to give me words that were true and right that would speak to his heart’s cry.

I heard myself say that Lee should ignore the bad behavior of self-proclaimed Christians in forming a true picture of Christ. Many who call themselves Christians don’t actually know Jesus themselves, believing in “Churchianity” instead. Many believers are not following Jesus in their daily lives, or are ignoring or misunderstanding the life that Jesus is calling them to live.  We uphold a standard of thought and behavior, and righteousness, that is higher than we are able to reach ourselves. But there is grace and acceptance for those who recognize their need for the Savior, and who receive Him and HIS righteousness. And God loves all people, whether we receive or rebuff Him. And God loved Lee; He wanted Lee, “Mankind,” to turn to Him.

I encouraged Lee to re-form his opinion about Jesus by going to His Word, and reading for himself what Jesus said and did.  The Bible is the most accurate picture of the Savior.  His image burns true and bright on the pages of scripture, no matter how imperfectly we, as Christians, reflect that light.

Toward the end of our time together, I gave him a Gospel of John booklet from the Pocket Testament League, and I challenged him to read it and learn about Jesus in His own words and actions. If only he and I could hear the secret whispers, “Mankind will die in 21 DAYS!” He listened to me intently and earnestly, and at the end, he let me pray for him, that God would reveal truth to him, and he actually asked me to pray for his ex-wife and his daughter and her other child.

We gave him a warm winter coat that fit perfectly; clothes and other items for his family. I felt that I had made a new friend, and that here was a man close to turning toward God in Heaven. I couldn’t help wondering if he had met the LORD before, when he was young, and then run from him? I looked forward to seeing him in the coming weeks.

When he turned to go, I didn’t realize he was close to the end of a skydiving free fall, and he needed to pull the rip cord fast. I had told him about believing in Jesus, even helped him put his hands on the truth with the Gospel of John, and gave him instructions on pulling the rip cord through talking with God and repenting—turning to God and placing his full trust in Jesus and what He has already done for him—but he put it off. I watched him walk away, his new burnt-orange colored coat falling back into the milling Saturday morning crowd. That jacket wasn’t padded enough to save him, and the ground was rushing up at him faster than any of us could imagine.

John and Linda, our friends in Matthew Ministry, broke it to me at Bible Study. “Did you see Lee on the news?”

“No! What happened?”

Night had fallen on November 29th. Lee was driving on the I-440 Belt-line on his way to pick up a Christmas present for his daughter when cars up ahead collided at high speed next to the concrete median barriers. Lee put the brakes on his home-on-wheels, jumped out into the time-ticking fray in split-second sacrifice, and ran to a crash victim by the barrier. Oncoming traffic deflected and scattered at speed, dodging cars and people, and one car peeled pell-mell through an opening toward the barrier where Lee was helping a young motorist. Like deer in the headlights, pinned in place by fear with nowhere safe to run, they did what probably most would do in the situation: they hopped behind the waist-high concrete barrier, assuming in the darkness that there was solid ground in the median beyond it. At that one spot, however, the beltline is actually a bridge, and the safe and solid ground they sought was 70 feet below the road level. They fell.

The 18 year old landed in the water and miraculously had no major injuries, but Lee landed on the rocks and probably died instantly.

I was stunned to hear it. He had been so full of this life and hope, and suddenly he had neither.

Lee knew all of the essentials about Jesus from our previous conversation. I had prayed for him that he would come to know Jesus, and he had been given the Gospel of John. Did he read it? Was he changed by the truth? Was he a believer when he went over that railing? I don’t know.  No matter what belief Lee held when he hopped over the railing, there is still a chance that Lee is with God in heaven! As long as there was still life and breath and conscious thought, Lee still had the chance to turn and believe.

How long does it take for belief to happen? It’s instantaneous, isn’t it? Belief in Christ is instantaneous. One moment, you’re not believing, but then, you believe! And at that moment of belief, God forgives you of all your sins (past, present, and future) and puts the Holy Spirit within you to seal you as His own child, and to empower you to live in Christ as a new creation. All that happens instantaneously, at the moment of faith, because Jesus Himself has done the work to provide salvation already. A simple agreement in the soul confirms the efficacy of the work He did for us.

Lee had two seconds of falling before he hit. Maybe he pulled the rip cord at the last second and called out a believing “JESUS!” in his heart and was saved? (He didn’t have to recite the “Sinner’s Prayer” as many suppose; the thief on the cross didn’t say the “Sinner’s Prayer,” either, and yet Jesus recognized his saving faith). A physical parachute deployed at 70 feet from the ground is useless. There isn’t time for the chute to open and slow the fall. But a spiritual parachute deploys immediately and is 100% effective. Even if he was a still a stone cold atheist when he hopped over the barrier, it is possible he landed a 100% believer in Jesus Christ, falling from the jaws of death at the gates of Hell into the hands of THE WONDERFUL—the LIVING GOD!

If only it is so!

Be sure to read the continuation of this post:  “Defining Moment: Good Samaritan Freefall (Part 2).

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Lost TV Remotes

It’s not natural for us to count on GOD in everyday, mundane circumstances—matters that seem to be below Him and not worth bothering over. Not long after finding the diamond, (read this first:  The Lost Diamond),  we had lost the remote control for the TV, (again), and I looked and looked everywhere, feeling along all seams of the couches. I searched the room thoroughly for about twenty minutes.

Only then did I ask God about it, and He showed me, (after another twenty minutes) not one, not two, but three remotes within the bowels of our couch. Apparently a cavity opens up within the couch when the recliner leg pads are extended outward, and over the years the original TV remote control, (and two universal replacement remotes), had been swallowed by this Bermuda Triangle compartment, and held captive—despite a couple of re-locations.

I told my family how God had led me to the remotes, and how I searched for Him, and how he set the remotes free from their captivity. We all had a good laugh. It is all too easy to explain away the move of God, however, especially in practical situations where a little more diligence, a little more wisdom, a little more skill is applied, and lo, the desired result is achieved. Nevermind, God! I found it!

Two days later, God provided another living demonstration for us. My son, Nick, had gotten a toy plastic Nerf gun, complete with sponge darts. The “weapon” was capable of rapid firing a number of rounds in three seconds. Anyway, he was having fun shooting these off in the house, but then he lost one of his darts.

He looked all over the area for it, and I started to join in the search. After looking around a bit, I told Nick that he should ask the Lord to show him where it is. I reminded him about finding the diamond, and finding the remote controls a few days before. He laughed at me, and said something to the effect that it wasn’t that big a deal and that God wouldn’t do that, anyway.

I turned my head in the next instant and saw the dart across the breakfast nook nestled into a shoe along the baseboards. “Look, the dart is right over there in that shoe.” Nick was happy to have the dart back, but didn’t really believe that the finding of it was helped by the Lord. Nobody likes to admit being wrong, and there is always a secular explanation to these kinds of minor miracles, but I reserve the pleasure of seeing the Hand of God all about me, even if others would explain Him away.

Maybe you’ve asked God, and your diamond is still lost, and maybe your TV remotes keep disappearing forever, and perhaps even your Nerf dart is completely invisible to you, but one question burns to be answered as your life flows and ebbs: have you sought the Lord more diligently than all the “important” items or successes that seem beyond your sight and reach?

Have you invited Him into the commonplace crannies of your daily life? Or has your search for these things, and your frustration with God over losing or not getting them, actually turned your heart in other directions, away from the God Who Sees You? Perhaps you could undertake to search for Him in your life, and consider that He may not appear or act the way you think He should? Like the diamond in the parking lot, He is the stone of greatest importance, invisible to the myriad casual passersby, but uniquely accessible and valuable to the one who looks diligently for Him.

Your lost diamond may stay lost, but make sure you find HIM.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33. NIV 1984.

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The Lost Diamond

A few years ago, we received a distressed call from our close friend, Barbara. Her daughter, Saki, recently engaged and within about a month of her wedding, had lost the diamond from her engagement ring some time during the day. She had been collecting her and her fiance’s possessions from each of their families’ homes, and delivering them to their new apartment that day, in multiple trips. Late in the afternoon, she looked down at her ring, and panicked when she saw that the setting was empty. Can you imagine, the symbol of your future husband’s promised love, gone, before you even wed?

The ring was vintage jewelry that her fiance, Austin, had specially picked, and the diamond was beautiful and of significant size.

But even a large diamond can seem very small when it is lost in the wide world, and it could be anywhere: her parents’ minivan, her parents’ house or gravel driveway, Austin’s parents’ house or driveway, or the new apartment or parking lot, to say nothing of a store or gas station. Not only that, but she had parked in different spots during the day to make deliveries from the van, and she had to walk varying distances along the sidewalk before turning up the pathway directly to their specific apartment building, and up and down the staircase to their second floor unit. Sometimes she even cut across the lawn to save the time and distance of staying on the sidewalk…

Several families dropped everything to go over and search for the diamond at the apartment complex. It was the one place that Saki kept coming back to, during the day, so we all converged there with prayer in our hearts, and high hopes that the diamond would be found. Saki reasoned that the jewel probably got dislodged or loosened when she was taking things out of the van or placing things in the apartment. Of course, the jewel could have fallen loose at one of the parents’ homes, but given that she had spent more time at the apartment than anywhere else that day, it became the focus of the investigation.

It seemed an impossible task, searching to find the missing diamond in front of the apartment complex with about a dozen other friends that had come right over, shining flashlights in the dark, and searching across the asphalt, under cars, along the sidewalk, through the grass, up the flight of exterior building stairs, across the landing, into the apartment, and through the carpet into every room.

Have you ever shined a light across asphalt at night? There are millions of shiny, reflective, sparkly stones, like the quartz and mica that are ubiquitous in the mixes here in North Carolina. Everything that sparkled looked like a diamond, but nothing we scrutinized actually was.

We looked for hours that night, and many of us came out the next few days and searched long in daylight. As desperation started to set in, I even thought of using our Dyson to vacuum the lawn where Saki had cut corners on her multiple shortcuts! We could suck up any loose lawn debris and then open the vacuum compartment over a sheet to examine the contents of its gullet little by little. The neighbors were already suspicious about what was lost, but can you imagine hearing a machine outside and looking out the window to see a grown man vacuuming the lawn?

“You there—what are you doing?”

“Oh…just doing a little tidying!”

I decided against vacuuming.

For several more days, Austin and others looked over and over for the diamond. He was beginning to talk about ordering a replacement stone, since the wedding was coming up, though we were all still praying that God would show us where the diamond was lying. Hope, in the meantime, was dying.

On the following weekend, I wanted to go just one more time to look for the diamond. My wife, Wendy, was leaving home to shop with our daughter, Tess, and I suggested that they could drop me off at the parking lot of the apartments so that I could search while they shopped. Wendy was skeptical, but I insisted, so I grabbed my rain jacket, (since it looked like we were going to get some rain), and we headed over to Austin and Saki’s place.

By the time we got to the apartment, however, the sky had gotten very gray, and a storm was threatening through a ceiling of dense, dark clouds, with rumbling thunder in the distance. I was resolute. I told Wendy that she could leave me there, and that I would be alright.

“You’re crazy! You’ll be soaked from head to toe by the time I get back,” she said. She wore me down, convincing me that searching for a diamond in the rain would be futile. The water would make everything slick and glossy-looking. I knew, however, that a hard rain could wash the diamond down a stormwater drain forever, so I insisted that I should at least get out and look, “just for a minute!”

As I got out of the van, I was doubtful, and felt a little sheepish. “I must be crazy,” I mused. (To think that the diamond could be found in one minute after so many had looked for hours upon hours—it was crazy! And it was probably resting at a completely different location—perhaps at one of the parents’ houses—but still I felt an inexplicable optimism that God could show me right now). Closing the door of the van, I prayed to God one last time. I said in my heart, “God, you know all things—you know where this diamond is! If it is ever going to be found, please show me where it is. I can’t do this on my own…”

As I crossed the drive lanes to a parking spot we knew was one Saki had parked in, I was praying, and the thought popped into my mind, “Could the diamond look different from what I am expecting, sitting on the ground? Something perfectly round when viewed directly overhead…”

This was my thought as soon as my eyes started scanning the pavement. Within five seconds, I spied a round, quartz-looking stone nestled in a cranny in the asphalt—too perfectly round among a sea of natural pebble bits—and I knew instantly that it was the diamond!

Photoshop recreation. The diamond was upside-down in a cranny of the pavement. For some reason, it appeared whitish, and not shiny, but it was perfectly round. God gave me a thought, “Round,” and I looked down, and there it was. In a sea of imperfect stones…

 

Can you imagine what I felt? The exhilaration of experiencing God, (and it had to be Him), as He drew me to the spot and gave me eyes to see what I needed to see? In my heart I was “walking and leaping and praising God!”

The diamond was upside down in a cranny of the pavement, and didn’t appear clear and transparent, but rather looked whitish. I suppose it was reflecting some of the matrix around it—I don’t know—I didn’t stand there examining the setting. If I had any sense of posterity at that moment, I would have whipped out my phone and taken a picture of it as it sat waiting for me in the pavement.

Bent over and trembling with adrenaline and excitement at experiencing a miracle, I pinched the diamond from its niche, leaped over to my van a few feet behind me, and threw open the door. With a flourish I stuck my arm across the driver seat to wave the diamond in front of Wendy’s face and yelled, “I’ve GOT it!!!” I was pinching the diamond so hard between my thumb and forefinger that it could not be seen…

Wendy, supposing I was playing some sort of sick joke, said, “Jeff, that’s not even funny!” She was already annoyed at the delay and this was no time for humor.

So I placed the diamond on the plastic island between the front seats, and the three of us leaned in to look at what simply could not have been real. I think I held my own breath as if the whole thing was a dream until someone else could pinch me. Wendy and Tess blinked in disbelief, again and again, inching closer, as if to reset their eyes and turn the faceted jewel back into a piece of broken glass handed over in jest. After a few breathless seconds…“Ohmygoodness!!! Is that really IT?” More pauses. I couldn’t speak. I just looked on, dumbly, fighting the tears of gratitude to the LORD for what He had done. “What!?! I can’t believe it—I thought you were joking! I was about to get really mad!”

What a celebration ensued! What an incredible miracle— how it all unfolded… how we had to search diligently, with great patience and, yes, with faith.

In a way, I’m glad that God didn’t show us all immediately where the diamond was… we would have been tempted to think, “well, of course it’s right there under our noses. Nevermind, God, we found it!” No, instead there was this beautiful struggle, this constant fellowship of going back to God and counting on Him to come through, no matter what the odds.

And whether the diamond was to be found or lost forever, the main thing is that we sought and found the Lord, who is precious beyond all the wealth of every kingdom. The diamond that is, even now, set within Saki’s ring, is a symbol to me of searching for and finding God. He is the greatest treasure, but oftentimes we don’t recognize Him in the setting. We’re looking for something more dazzling, not imagining that He can appear common, or lie waiting quietly in the most mundane parking spot. Or worse, we assume that He’s not around, because we’ve given up looking for the impossible. We don’t seek Him with a whole heart, because our hearts doubt that He will deliver us this time, anyway.

I will never forget watching the LORD deliver at the last instant, in the shadow of a storm, meeting me between two painted lines on the barren asphalt.

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:12-13. NIV 1984.

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Waiting For An Answer

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:5, NIV.

One of my biggest disappointments with this earthly life is that I can’t see the Lord face to face while I am living it.

Every one of us loves to spend time with a special friend. When I’m together with that person, I know I’m accepted and loved just as I am, and I don’t have to pretend to be someone else to win approval. The conversation we have is stimulating, encouraging, insightful… and meaningful!

Oftentimes, a friend will have a viewpoint and experience outside my own that I find refreshing or relieving, and there comes a lightening of my burdens through our being vulnerable and sharing together. Sometimes my friend can sympathize with me and comfort me, or help me break out of the despondence that threatens to overwhelm. Sometimes my friend can help me laugh in the middle of my struggles, or remind me that better days are coming. Sometimes a friend can say something very challenging, and it may take me days, weeks, or months to wrestle with that truth to come to a place of deeper understanding.

Nowadays, we can get a fairly instant response from a friend if we really need to. We can call them on a smart phone, or message them, or tweet, or email, etc., etc. We can post to our walls on Facebook, and many friends can chime in with a response at one time. It’s comforting to have such instant means to connect to someone.

Even now, though, it’s sometimes hard to reach a friend. Perhaps you’ve left a voicemail for a friend, with an expression of urgent need, and then you don’t hear back from the friend for a week. We have such an expectation of instant feedback that we might be tempted to think less of the friend somehow, forgetting that our friends have burdens and responsibilities, and sometimes are forgetful, just as we do, and are.

In the year 1776, in the American colonies, you couldn’t just pick up a phone and call that special friend. You’d have to either get out and walk, or saddle up your horse and ride, or get out your quill and ink to write a letter, in order to at least convey a message to your friends. If you could only write, and depending how far the letter would have to be carried by horse, it could be weeks before your friend could come to you personally, or return a letter.

With the Lord, it is different. I can’t go out and walk or ride to where He is, and see Him face to face. I can’t call Him on my cell phone, and hear the sound of His voice responding to what I say. He doesn’t send me instant tweets or write on my Facebook wall, or “poke” me. I can’t even send a letter by horse, and receive one back from from a heavenly rider.

When I ask God specific questions, He doesn’t speak audibly. When I have a major decision to make, and I have the time to go to Him, again and again, before having to make a choice, He doesn’t write His answer in the sky. Sometimes, I’m tempted to wonder if He is even listening, as when I talk with a friend that dozes completely off while we’re talking. (I’ve been that dozing friend on too many occasions, when exhaustion and comfortable surroundings conspire to slay me with sleep).

Too often, we grow impatient with our “slumbering” Friend. We distrust the One who does not seem to check His voicemail. We grow tired of having a Father Who seems to consistently return silence when we “poke” Him. Did He miss my snapchat—I thought He sees everything?

But our God does not slumber, nor sleep. He hears my voice when I call, no matter how far away I can imagine He is from me, and He knows my every thought, before I think it. Through the prophets of old, He has spoken, and still speaks, into every situation and experience known to mankind.

The real issue is this: how far will I trouble myself to hear from Him? Will I walk across a room and pick up a Bible and search the words He has given to us all? Will I take a moment and ask Him to show me something in His word or in my heart, to open my eyes, to His Truth and His Presence? Will I try, again and again, to hear from Him if I remain perplexed or feel alone?

God absolutely loves it when we treat Him as Someone worth being pursued, sought after, and praised, no matter what life circumstances come. If there is a perceptible distance between me and God, I know it is I who created that distance, it is I who turned away, it is I who wronged the greatest Friend I’ll ever have.

Sometimes it takes awhile to recognize that we’ve left our God out of our lives. Since we are creatures of routine and pattern, we can coast within our roles and our rituals, thinking all the while that we are including God in what we are doing. We can even serve, pray, think, speak and act spiritual, but deep down, have what God must know is a casual indifference in our heart of hearts.

Oftentimes, it is a period of suffering that wakes me up to the reality that I’m just coasting on the powerlessness of my own gas. What a blessing it is to suffer, if I reconnect with God in a more desperate way! It is a privilege to see my own limitations, to peer over the edge of the abyss, and realize that I am at the end of myself… and that God must absolutely save me from myself, and work in power, with resources that I cannot possess apart from Him.

At moments like these, I gain my clearest picture of Him, because what happens next allows me to experience Him, and to see the beautiful and complex mosaic that He is working out. Sometimes He saves me within my circumstances in a dramatic fashion, sometimes in a quiet way, and sometimes I have to look around and wonder if anything is different, only to find that my heart towards Him is tender, and that my craving for His nearness and life is deeper than before. It is this last salvation that is the most precious, when I realize I have everything I truly need in Him, even if life circumstances should grow harder.

And this is the heart God is after… this is the Life He wants to grow in me. It is invisible to the naked eye, undetectable in the sight of the world, and oftentimes forgotten, or overlooked, by the people who are called by His name.

This invisible life is what God loves and rewards. He sees the heart that longs for Him, that looks for Him, that begs Him to BE the difference. He has determined that the righteous shall live by faith, and not by sight.

I said before that one of my biggest disappointments in this earthly life is that I cannot see the Lord face to face… well, my greatest opportunity to bless the Lord is to cultivate a heart that sees Him despite having eyes of flesh, and that values Him above all else that parades before me.

Lamentations 3:18-26. “So I say, ‘My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.’ I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”

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