Category Archives: head to heart

Who is a God like you,
       who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
       of the remnant of his inheritance?
       You do not stay angry forever
       but delight to show mercy.

       You will again have compassion on us;
       you will tread our sins underfoot
       and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Micah 7:18-19

Wow, is that not incredible?!  God delights in showing mercy!  It’s not just some requirement that He needs to check off the “How to be a God of Love List,” but He actually delights  in it.  This is just absolutely stunning to me.  I like to imagine the scene around God’s throne:  as He points out to the 24 elders, and four seraphim sitting around Him that He’s once again lavishing forgiveness, mercy and grace on a human, He has a big, beaming smile on His face!   

There’s just one small glitch in this system.  God has given the human race tremendous dignity in that we have a free will.  He has given us the right to choose either mercy or judgement.  He will not overstep our human free will, and He cannot  show us mercy unless we ask for it. 

And so, now we find ourselves face to face, again, with a God of justice…with the reality that, although God is aching to show mercy, many, many people will reject it.  And there’s only one other option.

Judgement.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I accept the entire Bible as the divinely inspired and infallible Word of God.  Not one word found in it’s pages is untrue.  Isaiah 55:11 says that the Lord’s words will not return to Him empty, meaning that the words He has spoken will  come to pass.  Actually, many of His words have already come to pass; for instance every single prophecy concerning Jesus’ first coming was fulfilled.  Amazing, isn’t it?  (Which is why it’s so perplexing to me that many people are so apathetic towards the study of His second  coming! …But that’s a subject for an entirely different post, one which I hope to write soon.)

So, that final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, no matter how unpalatable it may be to us, will  happen, along with many other end-time prophecies.   A time is coming when God will judge the the nations of the earth.  Many of us may be tempted to avoid it altogether, to take the “pan-millennial” position – meaning “It’ll all ‘pan out’ in the end anyway, what difference does it make to me?”  But the question is not whether or not it will pan out – for it certainly will – the question is, “Will it pan out well for you?…For your neighbor?…For your children?”

The book of Joel is an amazing little book.  Three chapters jam-packed with a ton of information for the end-time church.  I love it.  I’ve been hanging out there for a while.  (Read it through some time soon, it only takes about 30 minutes.)  Joel wonders whether it’ll all “pan out” in some different language:  “The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful.  Who can endure it?”   (2:11b)  The peoples of the earth ask this question again in Rev. 6:17 – The great day of wrath has come, and who is able to stand? - as they realize that it is the Lord who is pouring out judgement on the earth.   

This is a question that has been gnawing at me for quite some time.  Will I be able to stand?  Yes, by the grace of God I believe I will be.  But what about my children?  Or the multitude of unbelievers and nominal Christians who will be in utter confusion when the “great day of wrath” comes?  These are sobering questions.

Part of being able to stand, I believe, will be in coming into alignment with God’s heart and His will.  Rev. 19:2 is quite a remarkable verse.  It tells of the great multitude in heaven (us) saying, “Salvation and glory and power to our God, for His judgements are true and just.“  Wow.  In the presence of God, when all the information is disclosed, we will all say that God’s judgements were true and just.  Again…wow.  I don’t know about you, but I want to be able to say that now.  Not in a “Ha! You-got-what-you-deserved” way, but in a way that mirrors God’s heart.  In a way that mirrors His ache to show mercy, but His need to act justly.  This is only possible, I believe, inasmuch as we draw near to His heart, feed ourselves on His word, and ask for wisdom and revelation into the time of history that we are entering.

Joel 2:12-14 reads,

“Even now,” declares the LORD,
       “return to me with all your heart,
       with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

 Rend your heart
       and not your garments.
       Return to the LORD your God,
       for he is gracious and compassionate,
       slow to anger and abounding in love,
       and he relents from sending calamity. 

 Who knows? He may turn and have pity
       and leave behind a blessing—
       grain offerings and drink offerings
       for the LORD your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
       declare a holy fast,
       call a sacred assembly.

During a locust plague and a coming military invasion God leaves no mystery as to what he requires from His people.  In the midst of crisis we are to gather in sacred assemblies and fast and pray with broken hearts.  This  is the Lord’s wisdom for this hour of history and this is what the church’s message needs to be in the hour of crisis:  that the Righteous Judge is very kind, that He wants to relent…that He delights in mercy.  But we need to ask for it.  And don’t let the “Who knows?” trip you up.  That’s just to ensure that we don’t reduce repentance to some sort of a formula.  God wants a response from our hearts, not our intellectual minds.

This is what the prayer movement is all about.  It’s not a fad.  It’s not some gimmick-y way of making prayer cool.  It’s about gathering together in sacred assemblies and rending our hearts before the Merciful, Righteous Judge so that He can, in a way that lines up with His justice, relent from sending judgement and leave a blessing in it’s place.  The Lord is raising up houses of prayer all over the globe so that whole geographical regions will be covered by His mercy during the end-time judgements.  The city of Goshen in the story of the Isrealites’ exodus from Egypt is an Old Testament picture of this biblical principle.  It was a “pocket of mercy” or a “city of refuge” in the middle of Egypt that was spared some of the ten plagues that God sent as a judgement upon Phaoroh and his nation. 

The prayer movement is also about declaring the Lord to be Right and True and Good even when our unrenewed minds may not be able to fully comprehend this.  As I mentioned in part 1, it’s going to be essential for the Church to be clear, prophetic voices in the time of crisis.  We will need to know and proclaim that it is our God, the Righteous Judge, who is “shaking everything that can be shaken,” but that He delights in showing mercy, and a repentant heart is what is needed to receive it.  Wow.  I’m game if you are. 

Hey all, take 20 minutes and listen to some encouraging words from Mike Bickle and Allen Hood the day after the election.  Follow this link, scroll down to the bottom of the post, and press play on the picture.  It’s so good!  It includes the little story from Allen Hood that I wrote about in the previous post too.

As well as this being some incredible prophetic words for the Church, this little 20 minute clip may help you understand what exactly this “prayer movement thing” is that Dave and I are so sold out on (and why we may seem so crazy-radical ).  It gives quite a bit of insight into it, I think.

I’m not quite ready to move on to part II yet.    I have some thoughts on this post-election Thursday that I’d like to share, and, actually, they are in perfect keeping with the Righteous Judge theme.

I’ve had a lot of peace all along about the outcome of this election.  I’ve really felt that who ever the Lord wanted in the White House would be there.  He sees the bigger picture, and I trust Him.  I’m also very excited to be alive to see a black man as president of the United States.  Yesterday, while I listened to the live IHOP-KC prayer room on line feed Allen Hood (love Allen Hood) shared his memories of going to a school where black children couldn’t drink from the white children’s drinking fountain…and he’s only in his late thirties!  (I think)  So, I think the fact that Barack Obama is our new president is a wonderful testimony of how racism and prejudice are fast becoming a thing of the past.  Awesome!  

We also, now, as the body of Christ, need to pray for our new president.  Not just quote a few Bible verses about how we’re supposed to, but really  pray for him.  That he would be filled with wisdom and truth and that the spirit of revelation would be upon him.  Wow, wouldn’t it be awesome if he was convicted of his position on abortion?!

But now…for a different perspective, and you may think that these thoughts are in contradiction to what I’ve written above.  I am of a different opinion.  More often that naught, when God gave someone prophetic words in the Old Testament, they also functioned as an intercessor.  And, lest you fear I’m suffering from some allusions of grandeur, we are all  called to be prophetic voices for God.  The apostle Paul tells us to “eagerly desire” the gift of prophecy above every other gift.  (1 Cor. 14:1)  But God is not a communist in this area.  If we want more of Him, then we have to give Him more of us!

So, here goes…(oh dear, I don’t think your gonna like this).  Something else I’ve noticed in the Old Testament is that many times, as a judgement, God gave the people of Israel a king after their own hearts.  The story of how King Saul came into power is a good picture of this.  (1 Samuel 8)  The people of Israel begin to cry out for a king like the other nations, and God basically says, “Okay, you want a king like the other nations…I’ll give you a king like the other nations.”  And King Saul was a very destructive and evil king. 

The ultimate expression of this will be the Antichrist.  The first seal that Jesus removes from the scroll in Rev. 6 is the first judgement that is given to planet earth.  I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.  (v.2)  As a judgement, God removes His restraining hand (for, what we may not realize, is that throughout history, when things seemed very bad, it could have been a lot worse, if not for God’s restraining hand) and allows an evil man to come into power.  Note that he is given a bow, but not an arrow, indicating that he will rise to power without bloodshed, although what happens in the wake of his “arrival” is absolutely terrifying.  In the next three judgements we read of wars, famine, pestilence…a fourth of the earths population will perish.  Wow…all this because God chooses to step back, and basically says, “Okay, have at it.  You think you can govern yourselves…go ahead.” 

So, while I am at peace that God’s man will be in the White House, I am troubled that we have put him there.  God has given us a king after our own hearts.  Yes, I said “We.”  Many of us may not have voted for and supported a man who will make it easier for a woman to have an abortion, but we make choices every day that support his position.  We’ve grown apathetic and tired of hearing about abortion.  We gorge ourselves on entertainment, and feed our covetousness, thereby dulling our spirits so that we don’t feel the need to cry out to the Lord about an end to abortion.  We choose not to let our hearts be broken about an issue that just seems too big, too far away, and “not our fault.”  Lord, have mercy on us!

I don’t believe many of us realize the gravity of the evil of abortion, of having the innocent blood of 50 million babies on our hands.  Do we know that the Lord, in His justice, demands a reckoning for the shedding of innocent blood?  (Gen. 9:5-8, Num. 35:33)  President Lincoln believed that the Civil War was a day of reckoning for the injustice of slavery and the shedding of innocent blood done in the name of economic gain and racial oppression.   He said this about the civil war,

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

If what Lincoln came to conclude was true and if 600,000 men died on the battlefields of the Civil War to pay for the bloodshed of slavery, what will it mean if God brings a day of reckoning for the shed blood of conservatively 48 million aborted babies since 1973?  I fear that this day of reckoning will come upon our children, that my sons will be fighting in bloody war in order to appease the Lord’s justice.  For this is another Old Testament principle:  an individual can have a vibrant and deep relationship with the Lord, and he can be in right-standing with Him, but the Lord’s dealings with a nation are different altogether.  Think of how Daniel, although he was a righteous man, entered into Israel’s judgement as Babylon besieged their city. 

I would like to believe that the many Christians that voted Obama into power did so believing that somehow he would stem the tide of abortions in our country (although this is beyond my comprehension).  I don’t think this is the case at all though.  Human sentiment, and not the fear of the Lord was the motivating factor for most, I fear.  (By the way, if you do have a Biblical argument for supporting Obama I would love to hear it.  I’ve yet to hear a good one)  Jesus says seven times in Revelation, “Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  Does the church really think that the Spirit is speaking about our economy, a war, education, ect., when a reckoning for millions of babies’ blood is required?  Oh dear, if our nation does not repent, stop abortion and ask the Lord for mercy for the shedding of innocent blood, a day of reckoning  will surely come.  For He is just…and his justice will not sleep forever.

As a bit of a prologue, I want to say that I’ve been chewing on and digesting these things that I am about to share with you for quite some time now.  Read away…

As many of you know, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading the Bible lately.  It has really been amazing.  The word of God is  alive!  The four gospels have been the main source of my delight, and I’ve fallen in love with the person of Jesus all over again.  And the Psalms…wow, so incredible!  (By the way, did you know that many of the Psalms were written in a 24/7 house of prayer?!  Yep, King David actually payed singers and musicians to minister to the Lord day and night around the Ark of the Covenant during his reign.  (1 Chr. 15:16-21) Cool, eh?) 

It’s been troubling too, though, I have to say.  The Old Testament stories, the Prophets…they seem to paint a picture of a God that is in complete contradiction to the God of the rest of the Bible.  He just seems so angry.  For the most part the Old Testament is avoided, reduced to a couple dozen stories suitable only for children’s church, and we’ve missed the overarching theme of the whole book.  God’s message is this:  “I WILL have a people for myself.  And if I can’t have you NO. ONE. WILL.”  At best, most of us just skim this portion of scripture and then breathe a sigh of relief… “Gee, I’m glad God isn’t like that  anymore.” 

I don’t know though…are we to believe that God has somehow morphed from a God who once burned with holy anger against sin and unrighteousness into one who now winks at it?  I personally don’t believe so.  The God of the Old Testament is as real today as He was back then.  This does not negate the fact that He is slow to anger, long-suffering and rich in love.  We are experiencing this side of His character right now in human history.  However, God is not  tolerant.  He is holy and just…and His justice will not sleep forever.  And as Jesus’ second coming draws neigh God will once again begin to operate as Righteous Judge of the earth in order to cleanse it and prepare it for His arrival. 

Much more troubling than this, though, is the fact that the Church at large has no comprehension of God as this Righteous Judge.  Never-mind the fact that the idea of God sending a natural disaster or military invasion – sending…not just allowing, but sending – as we read of in the book of Joel, is offensive to non-believers, it’s incredibly offensive to us as well.  Remember when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast?  And when a certain televangelist spoke out that it was the judgement of God?  He was immediately shot down.  I myself remember thinking, “Oh my, what a dork.  It’s people like him who make other Christians look like losers.”  And just a couple weeks ago I found myself in a conversation with a friend about this topic and she said, with absolute certainty, “Oh, God doesn’t do stuff like that.” 

But… doesn’t he?  Now, don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not saying that Katrina was in fact a judgement from the Lord, but I am  saying that this is very much within the realm of possibility.  Even an ameteur reading of the Old Testament, as I’ve been doing, is proof that God sending a natural disaster as a judgement against sin is not  in contradiction to his character.  We think of God mostly in terms of Jesus, the meek and tender lamb, and indeed Jesus himself said that he was the likeness of the Father (John 14 :7-11), but we forget that the wrath of God which was poured out on Jesus is also very much a part of his character.  And hear this:  if Jesus does not bear the wrath of God for a person – or nation! - he will  dispense it upon them.  Isaiah 63:1-6 gives us a chilling picture of this.  As well, it is Jesus who opens the seals on the scroll in Revelation 6, thereby releasing the first set of judgements on the earth. 

So…I don’t know where you are with all of this.  Maybe (you think) you have this all figured out (if so, please share!).  Maybe you’ve wrestled with these issues in the past and have given up.  Or maybe you think I’m completely off my rocker!  Where ever you are, I encourage you to go on your own journey into this.  Prove me wrong, if you can.  I believe, just as the apostle John did in the book of Revelation, we should “eat the scroll.”  (Rev. 10:9)  We are meant to wrestle with these issues, draw near to the heart of God, and ask for wisdom and revelation into them. 

“Why?” you ask, “Why does any of this matter to me?”  It really, really does.  In the years and decades to come I believe it’s going to be absolutely essential for the Church to have clarity on this issue.  As crisis and calamity continue to esscalate (and they will) the Church will need to arise with an unclouded, prophetic voice in the midst of it.  I love the picture we are given in Isaiah 24.   This prophetic scripture obviously has an end time fulfillment (since it hasn’t happened yet) and it describes the earth as the judgements of the Lord come upon it.  And in the midst of the devestation a voice arises:

They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
         They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD. 
    Therefore glorify the LORD in the east,
         The name of the LORD, the God of Israel,
         In the coastlands of the sea. 
    From the ends of the earth we hear songs, “Glory to the Righteous One.”

We are going to need to be that voice.  In Part II of “The Righteous Judge” I will share more of what the Bible says the Church’s message should be in the hour of crisis. 

Here are some things that I’ve been ruminating on as we find ourselves in the throngs of this election season…

To me, this hard-fought political battle we’re in is indicative of something far greater. Like it or not, this planet is steadily being propelled into the End Times, and the battle lines for the hearts of humanity are already being drawn…and in this country alone, there is a huge number of people who actually want a leader who represents nothing more than the pinnacle of human achievement.  We are so poised and ready to follow a charismatic, humanistic leader that it’s not even funny. 

Yes…I did just mention the End Times and eluded to the Antichrist in that last paragraph.  To many, I know, the End Times are a topic studied only by some fringe groups of Christians – the general sentiment being that it’s a waste of time – and the Antichrist, for the most part, is just regarded as some exotic, Disney-like, evil-guy who’ll do…uh, evil stuff.  Let me assure you, they are both very real – the Bible includes a goodly amount of neglected information about both – and they’re coming. 

This Antichrist-guy is most likely going to be incredibly smart, 1000 times more winsome than Obama or McCain could ever be (although, you might agree that calling McCain “winsome” would be a bit of a stretch ) and he’s probably not going to look like Jafar off of Aladdin.  Add to all this that his humanistic message will be accompanied with demonic signs and wonders.  (Rev. 13, 2 Thessalonians 2)  Wow.  And as he assends to power, and decieved people sing his praises, his unspoken message will be something like, “Oh yeah, and that group of obnoxious people who are saying you shouldn’t follow me, you won’t mind if I just annihilate them, will you?  They’re really messing my plans up,” and thousands of believers will be martyred.  Much of the world will turn a blind eye.  This is ominously foreshadowed by the fact that many, many people – pro-life, believers even! – are totally willing to ignore the fact that Barack Obama has the most liberal and atrocious views on abortion because his ideas on social action sound “good.”  …But here is my contention:  as believers, we don’t have to feel that we can be “tricked” into following a leader like this; this election can act as a barometer of sorts for us.  Let me explain…

We need to get settled in our hearts now  who our Savior is. We need to have clarity about what this earth really  needs in order to be made new.  It is certainly our duty to vote in these coming elections, although I don’t believe that our hope, as Christians, should lie in their results.  I truly believe that “Change you can believe in,” will only come through the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus’ cross and a whole lot of prayer, not  through a human man.  The idea that, “Hey, we’re not so bad.  We just need the right leader in the White House and everything will be fine,” is pure and unadulterated humanism.  To borrow and reverse Obama’s little tagline… “No, we can’t.”  We’ve never been able to.  Ever.  The past 6000 years of history are a testament to this… and if we really think that, “Yes we can,” it’s as if we’re saying, “Well, thanks Jesus.  Your shed blood is very much appreciated, but…um, we can set up righteous government here in America without it’s transforming power.  It was a nice thought, but…”  

I’m not just trying to be cheeky here.  I’m very serious.  Many of us may not articulate our thoughts like this, but if we are hoping in either man winning this upcoming election to “fix” our nation, our hearts are very much in the wrong place.  I love what it says about Jesus in John 2:24-25:  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.  He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.  Mmmm…smart guy.

No, planet-saving - nation-saving – is way out of our league.  What we need is a Deliverer who transcends our sinful, putrid squalor.  And, by the grace of God, we have One.

 

Hello all!  …Well, it’s no secret that I’ve been seriously neglecting my blog.  My apologies.  There are really a number of different reasons that factor in to my neglect.  One big factor – and this came as a huge revelation to me the other day – is that my blogging career thus far in life did not include a three-year-old!   Oh boy, three-year-olds are busy little creatures.  Full of curiosity and energy, love for life and…well, energy.  And add to this that Noah, just like my first two three-year-olds, can’t seem to slow down for a nap (and if he does, he’s up till 10:00 pm…no thanks!) leaves me with very little down time.  Yet, all this is tempered by the fact that I know first hand how quickly these precious toddler/preschool years go by, and so, I strive to enjoy every moment with him.

Of course, another factor that has been distracting me from blogging (and all types of media) is my previously stated desire to be satisfied with the superior things of God, and not  the lesser pleasures of this world.  After our 40 day media fast, I really felt a conviction to continue to press in to God’s Word and spending time in prayer.  And with this conviction also came the conviction that playing the “as-a-stay-at-home-mom-I-don’t-have-time-to-spend-time-with-the-Lord” card is really a very poor excuse!  As a mom of four kids, I know for sure that I can juggle many different things at once.  Spending time in the Word and in prayer and with my kids need not be any different. 

So…there you have it, why my posting has become so sparse.  I hope to strike a “balance” soon…but then again, I’ve been contemplating the idea of balancing the good  with the best.   Should not the best hugely outweigh the good?

Here’s another statement Jesus made that convinces me that living in relationship with Him does not negate the fact that we should also strive to live in obedience - ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  (John 14:15)

So what were His commandments?  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start…

The Sermon on the Mount Lifestyle

I think many believers feel that the Christian life is just too mysterious to really grasp.  The tension lies between the ease and the difficulty of a life of wholeheartedness. The difficult part of wholeheartedness is not in its mysteriousness.  Wholeheartedness toward God, which is what we are to truly desire, is walked out by doing the main, plain things of Scripture.  It’s not complicated, but it is difficult to deny our fleshly desires and pride.  Jesus spelled out what wholeheartedness before God means in His Sermon on the Mount.  It contains the non-negotiable principles, or “constitution” of the Kingdom of God.  It’s Christianity 101!

So, what does the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle look like in our day-to-day existence?  There are five types of “fasting” described in the Sermon on the Mount. 

By giving, we fast our money.  (Matt. 19-24)  We are trusting God to return and multiply back to us the financial strength that we have given away.  We all know the story of the widow who gave her last two mites.  Like this widow, it is important in the fasted lifestyle to give in such a way that we feel its impact, and not just give out of our wealth and surplus. 

In serving others, we fast our time and energy.  (Matt. 6:3-4)  The time “wasted” in serving is time that we cannot use to establish our own personal comfort and pleasure.  Thus, we trust the Lord to work for our increase in a way that surpasses what we could have accomplished by spending that very same amount of time on establishing our own cause.

The third expression of the fasted lifestyle is prayer.  (Matt. 6:6)  In prayer, we fast our time and emotions.  When we give our time to God in prayer we miss opportunities to build our ministries, businesses or to recreate or be entertained.  We also give our emotional energy during prayer as we pour ourselves out to intercede for others and feel what God feels.

By blessing our enemies we’re fasting our words and reputation.  (Matt. 5:44, 6:14)  This is also known as meekness.  When we bless our enemies, we give up the right to the emotional and social strength we might have gotten from fighting back.  This means refraining from words that would have exposed our enemy , defended our position, and strengthened us with the sympathy and support of others.  When we lose that natural strength, imitating the Lord’s silence before his accusers, we are forced to gain strength and comfort from God.  This is probably the most difficult form of fasting.

Finally, Jesus calls us to the fasting of food.  (Matt. 6:17-18) Abstaining from food is what we typically think of when we refer to fasting.  The difficulty in fasting from food is not to much the hunger as it is the weakness.  And when we are physically weak we are forced to entrust ourselves to the Lord for both strength and comfort, and as we do so, we become focused on encountering God.  

Once again, unless done in a heart of love, these activities are empty and vain.  And they aren’t a substitute for pursuing 100% obedience.  God doesn’t keep score of our good works and bad works so that they may balance each other out.  You can’t bargain with God, and offer Him more of your money to make up for living in immorality.  It doesn’t work that way.

So why don’t we see Christians pursuing this lifestyle here in America?  I believe we think that our 21st century western culture is immune to it.  We’re quick to make excuses:  “Our lives are so busy.  How can God expect us to fast our time and energy in prayer and service to others?  It was different in His day.” or “I have to defend myself or I’ll get taken advantage of.” or “Surely God doesn’t expect me to give in such a way that I wouldn’t be able to pay a mortgage on a nice, big house?”

Dave and I have been listening to an excellent sermon series called The Culture of the Kingdom by Billy Humphrey.  It’s phenomenal.  But as I listen, I just want to cry.  We’re so entrenched in pursuing the American Dream – mammon – here in the Western Church that I can’t see the way out. 

In Revelation 22:17 it says, “The Spirit and the bride say ‘Come.’” (to Jesus)  Well, it doesn’t take a revelation from the Holy Spirit to observe that the bride (the Church) is not  saying “Come.”  We’re too preoccupied with our padded and cushy lives to truly desire Jesus’ second coming.  And Jesus is not going to come to a mediocre, ho-hum, take-Him-or-leave-Him bride, He’s going to come to a bride with hot, fiery, passionate love for Him.  A bride that’s crying out, “Come Jesus.  We want you here!  We love you!” 

But here’s the good news.  We will get it.  The above verse is proof of it.  It might take some shaking (either self-inflicted or from God) to remove those props that keep us from wholeheartedness, but we will, in the years and decades to come, come into alignment with the Spirit and cry out for Jesus’ return.  That’s why Dave and I are so sold out on the prayer movement.  Among other things (and I plan to explain more about the prayer movement in a future post) it’s all about corporately going after wholeheartedness, and crying out in prayer for Jesus to come back.  It’s awesome.  There’s no other place we’d rather be!

Holiness.  What is holiness?  In my opinion, there is a huge deficiancy in the area of holiness here in the Western Church.  This is another reason why I love IHOP:  they call believers to holiness.  Not that anyone can ever be 100% perfect and holy, but holiness should  be what all believers are striving for.  It’s the enthusiastic “Yes!”  in our spirits that steals God’s heart; our sincere desire to please Him that counts, not  perfection.  Somewhere along the way this message has gotten obscured and clouded.  Now we seem to believe that if we can’t be perfect, then why even try?

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day no doubt believed that they epitomized holiness, yet they were rebuked many times by Jesus himself for their legalism and religiosity.  Today, I think, we misinterpret Jesus’ words against the Pharisees and, because we don’t want to be labeled as “legalistic,” we then err on the side of becoming licentious; since being a Christian is about “a relationship, not rules” we think that all rules and discipline are bad.

Which is so not true.  Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it.  (Matt. 5:16-18)  The issue then is not relationship or  rules, but relationship and  rules …and  one’s heart posture.  Yes, we are to live in relationship and fellowship with Jesus, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that the clear expectations that Jesus sets forth in His Word about how a believer should live in meekness and holiness can be taken as a personal message staight from Him to us!  And, of course, if we pursue a lifestyle of radical obedience in an effort to earn a right-standing before God, instead of it being and expression our love, devotion and desire to align ourselves with Him and what he values, then we are indeed like the Pharisees. 

*Sigh*  I’m wrestling with this.  Our family is stepping out into living a “fasted lifestyle,” - (fasting food, time, energy, money and words; also known as the “Sermon on the Mount lifestyle.” I plan to expound on this in my next “props” post) – and…it’s hard, misunderstood.  These words from Mike Bickle, the director of IHOP, in his book “The Rewards of Fasting” sum up my thoughts,

I have had many conversations where people urged me to play more and pray less so that I might live a more “balanced” life as they do.  People want you to be happy with what makes them happy.  When you’re happy with something else, they sometimes feel rejected or judged by you.  People often feel judged by the lifestyles of those who do not have the same desire for possessions, comforts and pleasures.  They insist that you need more socializing and entertainment to keep you from getting too far “out there.”  The multitudes called John the Baptist demonized.  (Matt. 11:18)

Now don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not suggesting that I’m anything “like Mike.”  He has “fasted” large amounts of his time and energy in prayer and has striven to live in meekness and holiness over the years.  And I can’t begin to relate to how misunderstood he often feels.  What I guess I relate to in this statement is how it articulates the “great divide” between the “fasted lifestyle” and the western lifestyle (which has, sadly, permeated the Western Church).  The western lifestyle is all about getting – getting a bigger house, more stuff, a better paying job…so that you can buy more stuff – and living in comfort, pleasure and ease.  When you “kick these props” out of the way, you’re definately swimming against the current!  Really, for the most part, you’re percieved as being religious and legalistic (and  wierd).  Which is not at all the posture of my heart.

So…I don’t know where I’m going with all this.  These are just some of my very disjointed thoughts.  Thanks for reading. 

First off, I wanted to to direct you towards an excellent sermon by  Billy Humphrey from OneThing 2005.  I listened to it shortly after I wrote Part I of “Kicking the Props Away,” and all through it, I was saying, “Yes!  YES!  Exactly!”  In an indirect way, it’s also about being poor in spirit, and communicates what has also been on my heart, but unable to express the way he does.  It’s an hour or so long, but trust me, it’s a good way to spend an hour!  In fact, I’d vouch for any and every Billy Humphrey sermon.  I’ve listened to many now, and have been really stirred up by all.

Now…I wanted to share with you (again at the risk of sounding preach-y) some things that I felt the Lord speaking to me as I spent time with Him over this past month.  I spent a good portion of time reading the Bible…slowly and devotionaly, and asking God to reveal Himself to me in it’s pages.  For some reason, I thought I’d start in the Prophetic books.   The message in these books, admittedly, is pretty weighty, but they also reveal the passion of God towards His people; His jealous zeal for us.  A constant theme that the Lord spoke through his prophets was “Get rid of your idols.”  He sent prophet after prophet to His people to warn them of coming judgement if they didn’t forsake their idols.   Talk about patience, eh?!  

So, after reading chapter after chapter with this message I was left perplexed.  “Why, oh why, didn’t they just get rid of their idols?”   It seemed like a pretty clear and simple message!   Then God began to show me, in a very loving way, how similar I was to the Israelites.  I began to feel convicted of many things that I choose above God…like, all the time, every day.  Somehow, I’d tricked myself into believing that these things were benign.  For instance, just about every evening, I liked to “veg” in front of the TV. 

Not a big deal, right?  But let’s think about what “vegging” is.  Vegging, for me, is very soothing…soothing to my soul actually.  It fulfilled a longing that I had.  Different things soothe different people…some “eat their emotions,” still others feel elated when they’re shopping.   Yet we know, don’t we, that only God should fulfill the longing of our souls?  A pretty clear and simple message…but, just like the Isrealites, our idolatry is so wrapped up in fun, entertainment and fulfillment, that we’re constantly warring against putting things before God.  And actually, the scary part is, that most of us here in the North American Church, aren’t warring.  The message of the prophets of the Old Testament, is as relavent today as it was back then…and just as ignored.

Hebrews 12:26-27 tells us that once more, God is going to shake everything that can be shaken.  In other words God  will “Kick the Props Away,” so that “what cannot be shaken may remain.”  Wow.  God, in His great love for us, in his jealous zeal, is going to remove everything that hinders us from loving Him – our idols.  I believe that this day is coming soon.  Possibly in my lifetime, but if not during mine, then during my children’s lifetime.   And right now, I want to be building a foundation in my life, and in my childrens lives, of things that cannot be shaken, so that, when the day of shaking comes, I will be able to stand firm.   

Whew!  This is heavy stuff, is it not?  I tremble under the weight of it.