Families4Him

It’s 2012! Another year has passed; another one is here.  It is a wonderful time to contemplate our “state of the union.” No, I’m not referring to our political state (even though we’re bombarded on the media about that right now), but I’m referring to the union with our covenant God. What did we experience from last year and what did we learn?

You and I are in a covenant relationship with God. That means it is a binding agreement that invokes a commitment of all parties to remain in “union.” With that in mind, how did you experience union with God last year? What are you carrying over into a new year in your journey with God?

Perhaps 2011 was one of those amazing years for you. Your family did well, your social environment was healthy, and your church involvement was faithful. Your personal life; relationships, finances, security, health and faith were mostly stable. There were some bumps in the road but, by and large, it was a good year. You feel your union with God was strong and secure.  He has blessed the last twelve months and you enter 2012 with a heart full of gratitude and devotion.

Others of you may have experienced 2011 vastly different. You may feel as though you’ve been in a valley the entire twelve months and you were secretly glad the year was over. You begin 2012 with hopes that it’s got to get better. Whether it was broken relationships, difficult finances, poor health or disappointing situations, you experienced a rough go of it. Your relationship with God was either characterized as strong (“He got me through it”) or disconnected (“I didn’t know what to say to Him”). Either way, you are possibly physically, emotionally and spiritually worn out as you enter into 2012.

Probably most of us were not exclusively in either of these two camps but a combination of living through some of both. Our experiences were as varied as our circumstances and consequently our expectations for 2012 are influenced by baggage we carry with us from 2011. That’s only part of the state of the union.  The other part is God.  

The fact that God is in covenant union with us is incredulous. We live in a sin filled world and much of our suffering comes from either our sin or other’s sinning against us. How can a holy, righteous, perfect God be in union with such depravity? He made a plan, an inconceivable sacrifice, so that this union might happen. It’s called grace. His end of the covenant is that no matter what happens in our lives, He will be with us. He gave us His Son, Immanuel, God with us. Listen to His heart:

                “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.    I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isa 41:10)

                “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isa 43:1-3)

                “. . . and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)
               
“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory
 that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.” (Jn 17:20-22)

Whatever we experienced in our past year, one thing can be for certain. God was with us. That’s His part of the union. If a union is as secure as the strongest part, then we are in a good place. We may have a list of circumstances we would like to ask God to remove for us this year (called prayer), but He may reply the same way He did to Paul’s request by reminding him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

May I encourage you to spend some time this New Year thinking about the state of your union. Is God’s grace truly enough?  Can 2012 be summed up with the words of the Psalmist:

                “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

                You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

                Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

                My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart,

                And my portion forever.”  (Ps 73:23-26)

                                               

On Memorial Day Darrell and I drove to Illinois to be with our kids for a week. It is an important week in our family as we celebrate Josiah's birthday (5th), Kate's birthday, Darrell's birthday and our anniversary (35th) all within 4 days. Great fun! Of course, we mostly celebrated this special little girl! Charis is growing so fast and loved her expressions. Of course, mommy makes her smile the most!
Enjoy the pics.

  My thoughts this weekend have been on "coming clean" before God. I'm sure that comes from step study being on my heart. It 's difficult to participate in steps one through four and not think about "coming clean!" These steps demonstrate so profoundly how far we will go to "pretend" to be who we are not. In the end, just who do we impress by wearing masks?  I find myself wondering  if God is impressed at all with His children.  I know that sounds pretty negative. I truly don't intend for that question to be a judgment as much as a question of amazement. I have a holy sovereign God who has shown His heart by becoming intimate with me as a Father. He has provided a way for me to call Him "Abba" to emphasize how close this relationship really is. He gives me gifts, none of which I deserve or can ever come close to repaying. In my faithlessness, He is faithful. In my lack of maturity, He always provides and leads. He never leaves me, in fact, He lives IN me. With all that in mind (and 66 books full of more),  how do I impress my Father?

Larry Crabb would say it is a choice between first thing and second things. In other words, God or self. When I'm trying to mask my weaknesses, faults, sins, failures or brokenness, those are all about self. When I'm open to God's grace in my life to give me His strength for my weaknesses, why then would I even consider wanting to hide my weaknesses? My faults, failures and sins are masked mostly because of pride.  How's that worked for me? Not! I believe if I were to impress my Father, it would come from a heart of humility, servant hood and selflessness. In other words, it would look like God's other son: Jesus!

Along this line of thinking, I was blessed Sunday morning with thoughts from Isaiah 58. God is strongly admonishing his children, who were in Babylonian time out, to get real. In the NLT the words he uses are: "they act," "they seem," "they ask," and "pretending" (vs. 1-3). They are whining because they have done such good stuff and yet God's not been impressed or even noticed (vs. 3).  Fasting, probably the most outward form of religious piety, was masked. Behavior was right, heart was untouched. God's response:  you can't "expect your voice to be heard on high," nor is that a "day acceptable to the Lord." (vs. 4-5). God's not impressed.

What does it take? Verses 6-12 God lays out important "if . . . then" scenarios.  To sum it up, He says if we will get out of ourselves and have His heart, then He will be impressed.

What does that look like? God leaves no guessing or doubt. When I help the downtrodden, broken, lonely, destitute and oppressed people around me, then God says He will guide me, strengthen me, satisfy my needs, heal me quickly, and when I cry for help, He will say, "Here am I!" There's not much that can top all that! This is the word from God that keeps me confident that efforts to create a ministry as Celebrate Recovery which specifically reach out to the people on God's heart is what impresses God. The amazing part is that everyone wins. When I help others, God helps me, but the most important thing is that we help God by doing his work here on earth. Isn't it remarkable to see the contrast between what we commonly think impresses God and what Jesus told the Pharisees? Or what God himself says to his people through almost every prophet? I hope you will read Isaiah 58 many times and that it will impact you as it has me. We have such an awesome God!

  This month is 4th step month here for Healing Grace Step Study and there's always a mixture of feelings that go along with that.  It is the step we'd rather not do. Why are we that way? It is the great human cover-up. I suppose you could say it started in the Garden. It was the first step four!  The inventory began with the question: "Where are you?" That was followed up with "What have you done?" Those two questions came from God the Creator who already knew the answers to both the questions. So what result came from that inquisition to two naked people hiding in the trees? I just have to grin at that visual. But, the grin goes away when I know they were no different than we are.  Transparency with God (nakedness) was pure until human pride and thus,  cover-up took over.  The result was fear and shame. Yes, it started in the Garden and the same major characters are at play: God, Satan and human pride.

A spiritual inventory is a wonderful exercise to help us come out from hiding. We KNOW the rest of the story; how God went to extreme lengths to renew our relationship so that we could once again walk with him in the cool of the day.  We are challenged to define our masks and then have the freedom to peek out from under them to see the vast range of opportunities that He has laid out for us. It's those God-moments that are so big we miss them through the eye holes of our masks. Our vision is so narrow, so darkened, and so constricted as we" hide in the trees."  We also KNOW that God's heart is over-flowing with Grace (the reason for the cross) so that when we answer "What have you done?" on our inventories, He's covered it all.

Yes, there is a mixture of feelings in step four. Our human cover-up holds on to the masks of fear and shame. However, our hearts have to be overjoyed at the relief we can have when we know that Grace is our new "cover-up." Let's see, a mask of shame or a cloak of Grace; which cover-up will I choose? Hmmmm.  

  The news in the last few days has been  a reminder of the state of our world. First there was the bombing in Libya and the alleged killing of Gadhafi's son and grandchildren. There are the continual revolts in Syria and other Arab nations. Then came the news of Osama Bin Laden's death.  As I sit on the couch and take in the seemingly limitless opinions of the experts and media, I am reminded over and over  the words of Jesus before he left this world: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do  not be afraid. . . . Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, . . . My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." The old man John reminds me that "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one." Yes John, I'm reminded of that daily!

So how do I respond to all this news? How do I react to the deaths of  evil people like Gadhafi's family or Osama Bin Laden? There may be a moment of a sigh, but the moment is extremely short. If I get caught off guard to think the battle between good and evil, between God and Satan (not equals by the way)  can be advanced by ridding our world of a life or two, I greatly under-estimate our enemy. For every Bin Laden there are many waiting to take his place. For every dictator, there are worse waiting in the wings. I would be admitting how small my vision of the Kingdom of God really is. As I stated just last week, the war between the spiritual worlds already happened and God won!  Satan is a sore looser and will fight to the end, but the truth is . . . he still loses.  My sanctification is demonstrated in the power of the resurrection and that is still the Power that will overcome. He is Alive!

So what can I celebrate? John gives me a clue: ". . . for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has over come the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."  That means not ideologies, powers, nations, or  weapons have the upper hand in ridding the world of evil. Only God will do that in His time. My celebration comes through faith that God's plan is the only plan to save this world. My work is to bring as many from darkness into light as I possibly can for my time here on this wicked planet. My heart's work is sanctification; holiness that comes by the Word.

  We woke up to a damp, drizzly, cold Sunday morning. We had coffee and then headed out for the river that runs in the middle of Wichita. The weather wasn't ideal, but the spirit of the event couldn't have been better. The Riverside church of Christ was offering this service so along with a small group of people, we gathered at the river. We sang songs of triumph, praise and thanksgiving. Had communion and moments of silence.  The weather was chilly and damp but my heart was full. Even the ducks on the river added their sounds of praise!

Easter morning. Can't imagine how the heavens rejoiced. I wonder how the angels in amazement bellowed praise and honor for the risen Lord! The noise must have been thundering, especially to the ears of the enemy who had his short-lived moment of victory. Never again! What a thought! God's plan was accomplished and now He could be reunited with mankind because the price of sin had been paid. My sin. My debt. Paid in full for me. "How can I keep from singing His praise?" Yes, my heart was full on that riverbank.

The word for the day for me is "Power!"  It is my Father who brought back life from the grave. It is my Father who won the battle in the spiritual war. It is my Father who did everything He ever promised to do. Therefore, it is my Father who will rescue me from the darkness of this world into His marvelous light. It is my Father who will win my spiritual battle as I armor myself. It is my Father who has never lied or not carried through with everything He has promised me. My Father is powerful. That renews me today. His life of power is in me. What have I to fear? Thank you my Father!

  There is a church sign I saw last week that said something to the effect: the saddest day and the happiest day were just three days apart. That's pretty remarkable. Then I think of my life. . . .

I do feel very sad in my heart today. I keep thinking of what was happening to Jesus on this day and it wounds my heart deeply. I think of the physical pain on his body. I think of the anguish of his emotions as he looks into the eyes of his accusers. I think of the humiliation, the crushing of the spirit, the shame that went with the events of the day. What motivation would cause a man to willfully live a day like that? I know the answer, and it hurts to confess it. He was thinking of me. Not the "good" me, no, the sinful me.  The prideful, self-centered, untrusting, fearful me. The me that deserves that kind of day as my destiny. It's difficult to grasp that kind of love. To describe such torture as a gift of love is almost beyond human digestion.

It makes me sad that the price had to be so high for me to be God's child. His payment for adoption was to sacrifice his only son so he could have this wayward daughter. Then I have to contemplate  my life today.  I have sorrow in my heart for how I've been treated, how I have felt rejected, how I have been humiliated, how I have known pain. . . I continue in that sorrow. At this moment on this day, Jesus is in the tomb. It would seem that in the spiritual battle going on that he lost. It would seem he took all my sins and buried them with him. It would seem I now have reason to stay in my sorrow. It would seem . . . 

  Hi friends!   I actually began writing a week ago and will now post what was on my heart. This is an appropriate time of year for me to post because it is a time of new beginnings. It is the season for life anew as I'm reminded of the power of God to make things new. It is a renewal of my vows to my Father to be faithful. The empty tomb declares there is nothing I can experience that God can not bring to His glory. It is a time to end the grieving and the focus on the seen rather than the unseen. It is the realization that "he is not here, he is risen!" is a declaration of what this life offers is never permenant. Halellujah! 
In His Grip,
Elaine