All the sermons taught and preached regarding the gospel of God, the grace of God, are stirring incredible conversations in my church. This thrills my husband, and it thrills me. The majority are receiving revelation and, in their words, are "breaking free, bit by bit...chains are falling off of me." Some are reveling in truths they've seen before, but can't get too much of. Some are wrestling, straining at parts, not really the whole. It's all good. Wrestling, even, is fine - it is part of the process! Certainly, we've seen it before, and we've seen amazing growth come from it. In fact, wrestling can be healthy, when a man wrestles for blessing, refusing to let God go until it comes.
Almost all are joining the conversation, and this is such a precious thing! Tim and I intend to guard the safety of the believers to open their hearts to one another, without fear of being sidetracked into conflict. Few things are more important. Honest dialogue (versus contentious argument) is the heart of every true believer - it is the very essence of the teaching style of Jesus, and the very spirit of the Epistles. Mature believers can winsomely discuss truths that are primary.
Human hearts, what they think and what they believe, matter so much to the Father. He is always out to adjust what we are thinking and believing, because not one of us has arrived at full revelation.
Harvest has always been a safe place to receive or wrestle, celebrate or strain, join in or sit it out, hide or seek. We have nothing to impart to each other, other than that which Christ has wrought in us anyway! The messages we have been hearing are revealing to us just how much has truly been done IN us, as opposed to merely just how much has been heard BY us, over all the years we've been in church.
This is where the grace of God gets rugged. Grace and "personal peace and affluence" are not the same things. Grace does not seek our happiness as a "first thing", it seeks our restoration. Joy and happiness are secondary things...always by-products of a fully favored soul, restored and redeemed by the costly blood of Christ. Amazingly, we are discovering that the message of the gospel does not always initially bring "happiness" even to the saved. The gospel can stir us and poke us at our foundation, revealing weakening beliefs we've had, that we'd rather gloss over. We so much prefer to be thought of as having it all together, sometimes. I know I sure do.
This is why I am going to be the first and the last to always declare, "I am undone!" It keeps my heart in check, and keeps me on the receiving end of what my prophet friend Joe Ewen said would be "great grace displayed in my life."
Our opinions about 'happiness' need re-thinking from the ground, up. My hope to feel happy is normal, but if I am to follow the footsteps of Christ, in order to know happiness, I am going to encounter the fellowship of His suffering at times.
Here is what I am getting at: Grace does not mean that we absolutely must feel whole and happy, secure and complete, before we get around to loving God and loving others. Why is this?
Because, in grace, I am complete in Him already. By grace, through faith, I am complete in every conceivable way. Jesus Christ is my sufficiency..."my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."
Therefore, I can get about the happy and difficult business of the kingdom. I can start letting people in, rather than always, ever-gradually shutting them out. I will be able to point to life-long friends, and know we are trophies of unifying grace. I can have honest fellowship, rather than the false sort, that rallies around only those who comfortably share my opinion.
After all, other than what Christ has wrought in me, all I have to show you is my brokenness and ineptitude - and that is all you have to show me. I don't care who you are, or what you have accomplished, you are undone and inept without Christ. Would you like me to show you just where? I am certain you could show me just where.
So we're safe with each other, whether you act like it or not.
The more I own up to my inherent human ineptitude, with my brothers and sisters in community, the more Christ is magnified in us all. There is such a safety to the verity of "Christ in you" and "Christ in me". This means there is...oh, there is....there is Someone valuable and good - of inestimable value - in me and in you. Christ in the believer is not a metaphor, it is every bit as real as the clay feet that walked the earth, and were nailed to a cross. He....lives....in....us. I can celebrate THAT. I can look for what - or rather, Who - is right about you, and not what is wrong. I can relate to you from the foundation of grace.
Rugged realities, these. Some cannot yet see the value of brokenness and radical grace, because their own abilities are keeping things together quite well for them....for now. But those who encounter Rugged Grace are free to let go of personal peace, cheap happiness, and false affluence, to embrace a sweetness and depth of Christian community, based on the reality of our inability, and His sufficiency...a Christian community that has real power.
True transformation - spiritual, moral, relational and otherwise, is inevitable in a setting like that.
Come....all who are thirsty. Just come.
(see http://www.harvestchurch1.com/, audio resources page, Joe Ewen's message entitled "Come" from January 21st of this year...)
"Take Two of These and Call Me in the Morning..."
God's prescription for God's Peace:
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!
Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4: 6,7)
I call this passage my “emotional health” passage, because “mental health” IS emotional health. We see a stunning promise, preceded by some gentle conditions. If you’ll indulge me, I have a few thoughts about these verses – nothing cerebral, mind you. I have been living these words lately, not merely memorizing them or pondering them. I am experiencing these realities in fresh ways.
We’re told that the peace of God, a peace that surpasses our human capacity to obtain , has ultimate and final power to guard our heart and mind through Jesus. That word “guard” means both to protect from hostile invasion – to keep evil outside the walls - and to keep what is inside the walls from “taking flight”.
Enemies kept out; mind and heart kept safely inside.
This tells me two things right away – my thoughts and emotions are under threat of hostile invasion. So are yours. If the danger were not real, I would need no guard. No one is immune to lurking invaders, ever seeking to rob us of our sense of wholeness, and to vandalize our relationships with others, marring whatever beauty that formerly existed.
Secondly, I also need supernatural help to keep my thoughts inside the guarding walls of God. Without Him, I could, quite literally, “lose” my mind. Without the ever watchful vigilance of a Peace outside myself, a peace surpassing my human ability to obtain, my mind could “take flight” on me.
Just a few prerequisites exist – gentle admonitions. Do you really want supernatural peace? How badly do you need it? Are you willing to take a few simple steps towards it?
The first step is to “rejoice in the Lord always”. No one can rejoice in the Lord “always” without always gazing at His character and nature, and His character and nature were summed up and fully expressed in Christ. Jesus’ life, His finished work on the cross, followed by His powerful resurrection reveal realities so profound, I could meditate on these things “always”, every day, for the rest of my life, and not exhaust the possibilities for celebration and transformation.
If you are sitting under preaching that exalts Christ, that paints consistent pictures of the beauty of His grace, and repeatedly brings you THE good news (not just “any” good news) – you are among the blessed minority. Rejoicing in the Lord “always” will come considerably easier to you, when you are always confronted with the gospel.
The next condition to receiving this promise of a guarding peace is a no brainer. If there is no peace in our relationships, there is no peace in our minds. This next step has everything to do with relationships. I can’t resist how Eugene Peterson worded this verse in his paraphrase, “The Message”:
“Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them.”
This is such common sense! If the saints of God would follow this one admonition, there would be far fewer offenses. There would be much less tension, and no difference of opinion would be insurmountable. Friendships would flourish, and the peace of God would guard them – keeping the vandals firmly outside our walls. We could relax with one another….trust the Jesus in one another. There would be no need to resort to convoluted manipulation, no room for affection to grow cold. Our love of the brethren would be bursting with sincerity.
Many can quote Philippians 4:5 – few endeavor to live in it. And we wonder why we don’t experience peace.
The final steps are simple – but don’t confuse simple with “easy”. We’re told not to be anxious about anything, but rather to use every reason to worry as an excuse to ask God for help. At this point in my life, if I were to take every anxious thought, and turn it into supplication, I would truly fulfill the call to “pray without ceasing”.
But it isn’t just prayer that brings supernatural, guarding peace. Somehow, thanksgiving is transformational. A grateful heart has power to put every anxious thought into perspective. Gratitude alone will change your life, and mine. It will scoop us out of our depression, it will get us up out of our beds, it will inspire us to kiss our spouse and mean it, it will make us aware that to have one friend is a gift beyond all measure – a gift to be held close to the heart.
I’m thinking that God’s prescription for God’s peace is somehow a small reflection of how the Godhead lives. God is saying, “Do what I do. I rejoice in the Son. The Spirit rejoices in the Son. The Son rejoices in the Father. I am on the side of the saint, always. If I am for you, who can be against you? Why not imitate me, and be on someone’s side for a change? It might be more fun to be “for” someone, instead of “against” something. I, the Lord, am angry with the sinner – I will never be angry with a saint. I am at peace with you, so be at peace amongst yourselves. I am near you, so draw one another near in your hearts. I, the Lord, never experience lack or need or emptiness – thus I do not know anxiety in any form. Come to Me with your empty cup, and I will become to you both your portion AND your cup."
Such Shalom! Such freedom!
I need the peace of God. The peace in which the mysterious Trinity eternally dwells is unruffled, unthreatened, relaxed, relating, healthy and whole and happy. That’s God. It stuns me past expression to realize that I can dwell in that same peace.
It. Is. Available.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!
Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4: 6,7)
I call this passage my “emotional health” passage, because “mental health” IS emotional health. We see a stunning promise, preceded by some gentle conditions. If you’ll indulge me, I have a few thoughts about these verses – nothing cerebral, mind you. I have been living these words lately, not merely memorizing them or pondering them. I am experiencing these realities in fresh ways.
We’re told that the peace of God, a peace that surpasses our human capacity to obtain , has ultimate and final power to guard our heart and mind through Jesus. That word “guard” means both to protect from hostile invasion – to keep evil outside the walls - and to keep what is inside the walls from “taking flight”.
Enemies kept out; mind and heart kept safely inside.
This tells me two things right away – my thoughts and emotions are under threat of hostile invasion. So are yours. If the danger were not real, I would need no guard. No one is immune to lurking invaders, ever seeking to rob us of our sense of wholeness, and to vandalize our relationships with others, marring whatever beauty that formerly existed.
Secondly, I also need supernatural help to keep my thoughts inside the guarding walls of God. Without Him, I could, quite literally, “lose” my mind. Without the ever watchful vigilance of a Peace outside myself, a peace surpassing my human ability to obtain, my mind could “take flight” on me.
Just a few prerequisites exist – gentle admonitions. Do you really want supernatural peace? How badly do you need it? Are you willing to take a few simple steps towards it?
The first step is to “rejoice in the Lord always”. No one can rejoice in the Lord “always” without always gazing at His character and nature, and His character and nature were summed up and fully expressed in Christ. Jesus’ life, His finished work on the cross, followed by His powerful resurrection reveal realities so profound, I could meditate on these things “always”, every day, for the rest of my life, and not exhaust the possibilities for celebration and transformation.
If you are sitting under preaching that exalts Christ, that paints consistent pictures of the beauty of His grace, and repeatedly brings you THE good news (not just “any” good news) – you are among the blessed minority. Rejoicing in the Lord “always” will come considerably easier to you, when you are always confronted with the gospel.
The next condition to receiving this promise of a guarding peace is a no brainer. If there is no peace in our relationships, there is no peace in our minds. This next step has everything to do with relationships. I can’t resist how Eugene Peterson worded this verse in his paraphrase, “The Message”:
“Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them.”
This is such common sense! If the saints of God would follow this one admonition, there would be far fewer offenses. There would be much less tension, and no difference of opinion would be insurmountable. Friendships would flourish, and the peace of God would guard them – keeping the vandals firmly outside our walls. We could relax with one another….trust the Jesus in one another. There would be no need to resort to convoluted manipulation, no room for affection to grow cold. Our love of the brethren would be bursting with sincerity.
Many can quote Philippians 4:5 – few endeavor to live in it. And we wonder why we don’t experience peace.
The final steps are simple – but don’t confuse simple with “easy”. We’re told not to be anxious about anything, but rather to use every reason to worry as an excuse to ask God for help. At this point in my life, if I were to take every anxious thought, and turn it into supplication, I would truly fulfill the call to “pray without ceasing”.
But it isn’t just prayer that brings supernatural, guarding peace. Somehow, thanksgiving is transformational. A grateful heart has power to put every anxious thought into perspective. Gratitude alone will change your life, and mine. It will scoop us out of our depression, it will get us up out of our beds, it will inspire us to kiss our spouse and mean it, it will make us aware that to have one friend is a gift beyond all measure – a gift to be held close to the heart.
I’m thinking that God’s prescription for God’s peace is somehow a small reflection of how the Godhead lives. God is saying, “Do what I do. I rejoice in the Son. The Spirit rejoices in the Son. The Son rejoices in the Father. I am on the side of the saint, always. If I am for you, who can be against you? Why not imitate me, and be on someone’s side for a change? It might be more fun to be “for” someone, instead of “against” something. I, the Lord, am angry with the sinner – I will never be angry with a saint. I am at peace with you, so be at peace amongst yourselves. I am near you, so draw one another near in your hearts. I, the Lord, never experience lack or need or emptiness – thus I do not know anxiety in any form. Come to Me with your empty cup, and I will become to you both your portion AND your cup."
Such Shalom! Such freedom!
I need the peace of God. The peace in which the mysterious Trinity eternally dwells is unruffled, unthreatened, relaxed, relating, healthy and whole and happy. That’s God. It stuns me past expression to realize that I can dwell in that same peace.
It. Is. Available.
My "Baby" Turns 16 !
Yesterday, March 11th, Isaac (the baby of the family) turned sixteen. How is it, that my youngest is that old?
He opened his gifts from the family earlier in the week, and a few more gifts yesterday morning...a hamster and tricked-out cage from Sarah (Isaac named the little guy "Rhino"), clothes and "cool" sunglasses from Hannah, more clothes from brother Josiah, and a new cell phone/MP3 player from mom and dad.
Then, we invited the youth group to our home, yesterday evening, and treated them to a bonfire, pizza, and birthday cake.
Today, I recover. ::smile::
He had been waiting for this all morning...
A Card from Hannah...
Opening his gift from mom and dad (who is looking on, with obvious fatherly love...)
The little boy still peeks out of the face of the near-man...
Friends Kevin and Phillip, at the youth group gathering, at our house last night...
SOME of our guests, packed in our dining room (there were more teens behind me!)
"Make a wish!"
Icing is the best part, you know...
The "Baby"...
He opened his gifts from the family earlier in the week, and a few more gifts yesterday morning...a hamster and tricked-out cage from Sarah (Isaac named the little guy "Rhino"), clothes and "cool" sunglasses from Hannah, more clothes from brother Josiah, and a new cell phone/MP3 player from mom and dad.
Then, we invited the youth group to our home, yesterday evening, and treated them to a bonfire, pizza, and birthday cake.
Today, I recover. ::smile::
He had been waiting for this all morning...
A Card from Hannah...
Opening his gift from mom and dad (who is looking on, with obvious fatherly love...)
The little boy still peeks out of the face of the near-man...
Friends Kevin and Phillip, at the youth group gathering, at our house last night...
SOME of our guests, packed in our dining room (there were more teens behind me!)
"Make a wish!"
Icing is the best part, you know...
The "Baby"...What Does God Give? (On an Almost Wordless Wednesday)...
Ps 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Today At My House...
The bedclothes got changed out from fall/winter, to spring/summer today. Ahhhhh! 
Spring, outside my window...
A carpet of fairy-flowers!
Our Tennessee state flower (the iris) pushing up through the soil
The promise of things to come
Sunshine and poetry
The bluebirds have nested here!The Standard Has Been Raised Higher...
I understand those in the body of Christ who, through bad past experiences, or their own secret sin, are anxious about the grace message - nervous that suddenly, everyone is going to go around sinning with gleeful abandon. Or even sinning with slightly less guilt. Guilt is one of the best manipulators known to man - a very effective, though temporary, behavior modification tool, is it not?
One of the things I hear is that, "Christ raised the standard - therefore grace raises the standard of behavior, it never lowers it!"
You are exactly right.
Listen. Few people hate sin more than a pastor (and his wife). Few people have seen the ravages of it the way we have. Because of the sacred nature of "clergy confidentiality", we know stuff about people that no one else knows. My husband knows things that I will never know. He will take certain information about people to his grave - it was spoken to him in confidence. We've seen things we can't talk about - so whatever you have heard about from us....it probably isn't the half of it. Rest assured of that. We hate sin.
We'd be the last people to encourage home-wrecking, body- wrecking, relationship- wrecking behavior. But guilting people out of it will only suffice them in going right back to it, eventually. Manipulation and control only go so far, in the human spirit. Though seemingly effective, they are the poorest motivators in existence.
So yes, absolutely. Jesus "raised" the standard.
He made it absolutely unattainable. He made it impossibly high. He preached to those under the law as though they were....those under the law. He put the goal so far out of reach (light years away from their grasp!) that they would need some other recourse than their willpower.
According to Jesus, if a man glances a woman's way, with any inclination towards thinking she's hot....he is an adulterer. If I decide that a brother is an idiot, I am in danger of hellfire. (What's that smell????)
If I detest him, I am a murderer.
Let me tell you....I desperately need an old testament "city of refuge" (where "accidental murderers" could flee for safety) because I find myself detesting certain people - even a few so called Christians I've known. (Uh....no one in my church.) I also have days where I am convinced all the world are idiots except for me and my husband, and he is questionably wise. I have days like that. And don't think I don't mean it. I do. Which means the flames of hell are one-eighth of an inch from my behind.
If you think you can meet the so-called "higher standard of grace"....you are an....idiot.
::cough::
There I go again. See? I need a city of refuge today, I need a saving from hellfire, and I have not even had my lunch yet. This day is not over.
Thank God, Hebrews 6 says this: ...that we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast...
Don't think for one minute that those Hebrews did not know exactly what Paul meant when he talked about fleeing for refuge. Oh...they knew.
Christ - my refuge from my insufficiency. Christ, my substitution. His obedience to that impossible standard has become MY obedience. There simply is no other way to look at it. If that makes some people apply grace incorrectly - that is a reflection of their own unbelieving heart. I refuse to modify the beauty of the gospel to suit fallen, human idiots.
There I go again.
One of the things I hear is that, "Christ raised the standard - therefore grace raises the standard of behavior, it never lowers it!"
You are exactly right.
Listen. Few people hate sin more than a pastor (and his wife). Few people have seen the ravages of it the way we have. Because of the sacred nature of "clergy confidentiality", we know stuff about people that no one else knows. My husband knows things that I will never know. He will take certain information about people to his grave - it was spoken to him in confidence. We've seen things we can't talk about - so whatever you have heard about from us....it probably isn't the half of it. Rest assured of that. We hate sin.
We'd be the last people to encourage home-wrecking, body- wrecking, relationship- wrecking behavior. But guilting people out of it will only suffice them in going right back to it, eventually. Manipulation and control only go so far, in the human spirit. Though seemingly effective, they are the poorest motivators in existence.
So yes, absolutely. Jesus "raised" the standard.
He made it absolutely unattainable. He made it impossibly high. He preached to those under the law as though they were....those under the law. He put the goal so far out of reach (light years away from their grasp!) that they would need some other recourse than their willpower.
According to Jesus, if a man glances a woman's way, with any inclination towards thinking she's hot....he is an adulterer. If I decide that a brother is an idiot, I am in danger of hellfire. (What's that smell????)
If I detest him, I am a murderer.
Let me tell you....I desperately need an old testament "city of refuge" (where "accidental murderers" could flee for safety) because I find myself detesting certain people - even a few so called Christians I've known. (Uh....no one in my church.) I also have days where I am convinced all the world are idiots except for me and my husband, and he is questionably wise. I have days like that. And don't think I don't mean it. I do. Which means the flames of hell are one-eighth of an inch from my behind.
If you think you can meet the so-called "higher standard of grace"....you are an....idiot.
::cough::
There I go again. See? I need a city of refuge today, I need a saving from hellfire, and I have not even had my lunch yet. This day is not over.
Thank God, Hebrews 6 says this: ...that we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast...
Don't think for one minute that those Hebrews did not know exactly what Paul meant when he talked about fleeing for refuge. Oh...they knew.
Christ - my refuge from my insufficiency. Christ, my substitution. His obedience to that impossible standard has become MY obedience. There simply is no other way to look at it. If that makes some people apply grace incorrectly - that is a reflection of their own unbelieving heart. I refuse to modify the beauty of the gospel to suit fallen, human idiots.
There I go again.
My Other Life...
Okay...so I am not always reading my Bible and scribbling footnotes to almost every verse. In my other life, I am a Scottish Penny Wedding Planner. (Go on...ask me about Scottish Penny Weddings!) Here is a tiny slice of my day (trust me...a very tiny slice...this doesn't show the half of it...the EIGHTH of it...will I make it to May 15th?)
"Where's the Tartan plaid ribbon?"
A pew, or in our case "row" marker...one of six. Made of peonies, in bloom mid-May, hydrangea, and Scottish heather...I made it myself. ::perky sniffff::
The mess that is constantly on my dining room table...
A bridesmaid's dress - the wedding will be "jewel toned"
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