Transformed Changes and changing

More questions…

Have we chosen to be “Christian” because of the benefit we receive? Have we “purchased” this benefit?

OR…have we been purchased? And if so…for what benefit? What purpose?

Chris⋅ti⋅an⋅i⋅ty

–noun, plural -ties. (dictionary.com)

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Consumer: “an organism requiring complex organic compounds for food which it obtains by preying on other organisms or by eating particles of organic matter” (Merriam-Webster)

I wonder…how many ways could this be true?

What do you think?

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I think I have finally surrendered (maybe more like given up) the dream of being a full time musician. Sold my gear, stopped booking concerts, and stopped writing songs. Tough choice for me…it has been a long standing dream.

Of all the songs I have written, my favorite is quite easy to pick. It is not that it has the best melody or greatest composition or production…it is the core of the message that compelled me to write the song…

Genesis 6:6 (NIV)

“The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”

This thought led me to the question, which became the song: “What Does it Take to Break (Your Heart)?”

You can’t break someone’s heart if they do not love you intensely; intimately.

Intimacy can be defined as: being “characterized by or involving warm friendship or a personally close or familiar association or feeling”…or “showing a close union or combination of particles or elements: an intimate mixture”…or “of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the inmost or essential nature; intrinsic: the intimate structure of an organism.” (dictionary.com)

I wonder if this is what God had in mind when He inspired the writing of 1John 4:

vs 13 – “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” (NIV)
vs 16 – “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (NIV)

Or, as the Message translation puts it…^13-16“This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.”

I have been feeling an absence of deeper intimacy. My heart longs for more than I have experienced. I have wondered why I don’t get a sense of God’s intimacy…I get that He loves me…I get that justice and mercy are served at the cross, and that HE PAID it for me…I can intellectualize that God obviously loves me…but I have longed to feel it more. I fear that if I don’t, I will choose false intimacy as a supplement / replacement / substitute.

This morning, I have come to wonder…why does He have to make me feel that He pursues me with intimacy? We all long to be pursued in pure intimacy…but who is more worthy than He? He is the Creator…and He has allowed His heart to be broken by His creation…a sovereign, omnipotent God permitting, embracing brokenness in His heart, for the sake of His treasured creation.

Should this not compel us to pursue Him with intimacy…and if so, how?

1 John 3: 18-20 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 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.”

Posted under Transformation

Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

This is a puzzling scripture. It sounds very spiritual and full of martyrdom. Until recently, I felt I knew what this passage meant, and in part, I did. Yet, this morning I find I am understanding it within a new light.

My daughter gave me Donald Miller’s latest book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” for my birthday. I have always enjoyed Miller’s pointed phrasing, objective views and paradigm challenges. One of his earlier writings “In Search of God Knows What” is one of my all time favorites…but I digress…In this latest book he talks about lessons learned while editing the story of his life. (A great read)

I think I have always wanted to live an impacting life. I have wanted the words and actions of my story to move people to conviction; to discover something they didn’t know before, and especially to come to a compelling awareness of the Creator’s love for them. Somehow, though I know I am powerless to “compel” anyone toward God, I came to feel that I was responsible for this so much so that I assumed the lead role; more than that, the authorship.

I didn’t actually decide to remove God as the author…I just sort of forgot. It’s hard to tell when I have taken over…but the signs are there if I take the time to follow the trail. Loneliness and depression are common signals. These emotions reveal that I have begun to wonder whether or not I will be successful in my story. They expose a selfishness within my plot: I must be discovered, affirmed, validated…as if the pure essence of the gift of life were not enough.

I am a creature…the writing of my story was initiated by the Creator…He enhances the story each day grace-fully…and He will finish it.

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Chicken or the egg…which came first…yadda, yadda…

The end justifies the means, or not…yadda, yadda…

The sin of Sodom, as outlined in Ezekiel, was “arrogance, self-indulgence and indifference”…indifference in this case = unhealthy.

The sin of Sodom establishes an interesting foundational perspective: “The poor may or may not NEED us…but we definitely need the poor…for it is through love, compassion and charity that arrogance, self-indulgence and indifference are transformed.

Which brings me to yet another challenge / question / principle…you decide:

1. Is it that we accomplish vocational purpose through transformation?
or
2. That the purpose of transformation is served through vocation?

If it is #1, then we are focussed on the outcome of our efforts, primarily the effect of whatever we put our hand to do…which of course is not such a bad thing. However, we may be prone to justify the means based on the end.

If it is #2, then we must do what is right and deal with the consequences, trusting that God is accomplishing something in us, no matter what we see as the end. In this case the journey itself is our end…

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Matthew 7:21-23 (The Message)

^21-23“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance— isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’

John 12:49-50 (The Message)

^47-50“If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn’t take it seriously, I don’t reject him. I didn’t come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I’m saying, is willfully choosing rejection. The Word, the Word-made-flesh that I have spoken and that I am, that Word and no other is the last word. I’m not making any of this up on my own. The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me what to say and how to say it. And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That’s all I have to say. What the Father told me, I tell you.”

Clearly we can fall to two extremes…being “busy” at our own agenda is the root of both.

If the Son of God did ONLY what the Father told Him to do, and say…how much more must we?

Indifference…to anything but what occupies the Father’s heart…

Posted under Transformation