What Do You Call an Abomination?

All too often one man's blessing is another man's curse. We long for the control found in a black and white world of rules, but rarely do we get what we want. And this is a gift from God, for as William Young says in The Shack, "Rules can't love you." If we try to force these rules to replace the one who gave them and adjust their significance, then we prove Blaise Pascal right when he says:
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

When I try to think about why we perpetuate this, all I can think is that it has to do with the human limits that we would like to put on God in our attempts to further our own understanding of Him, and this is not an understanding brought to us by His revelation of Himself, a thing gifted into our acknowledged spiritual poverty. Rather this is an understanding we seek to garner for ourselves, thereby making ourselves His equal. Why do we limit God this way? Why can't we just trust Him? In fact, why can't we even see ourselves doing this? For instance, is it not easy to "play God" as we read verses like the following and promptly designate a "player" for each part that is being honored or condemned? More importantly, couldn't someone else read the same verse, taking the same people we called "righteous" and "wicked" and reverse them in his own reading? How can this be??

• He who covers a transgression seeks love,
  But he who repeats a matter separates friends.
• An evil man seeks only rebellion;
  Therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
• Whoever rewards evil for good,
  Evil will not depart from his house.
• He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just,
  Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
• He who has knowledge spares his words,
  And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.

God made me laugh the other day in an interpretation He gave me from His word for a strange dream I had in which I wandered around doing the work He gave me totally naked but for a pair of shoes. I was self-conscious about my lack of attire, but oddly no one else in the dream seemed to notice I only wore shoes. And in the end, because I'd been faithful to the work I was given, I received an even better pair of shoes...but still no clothes. (He's often playful with me like this...making me shake my head while He chuckles gleefully.) Soon, He showed me a purpose in this imagery, it was a way of calling me beautiful...His words say:
Sgs 7:1
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter!

If you read the rest of that chapter, the woman being described is described in minute detail, and could easily be bare, but for her sandals. She is being admired for her loveliness. But it took me a while to see the dream through this verse, to "receive" this message from it.

What's more, don't we picture glamorous glittering sandals showing off the beauty of her feet as she moves when we read this verse? But I've been walking around in an orthopedic boot meant to immobilize my ankle due to some tendon irritation caused by a bone spur. So here as I limp along like a pirate with a peg leg--this is His time for giving me the sense of the verse and of the dream. (And if you've done any back-reading in this blog, you'll know why the boot is indeed making my foot lovely in His economy.)

It makes me think, what if Samuel hadn't been ready to see beauty and the call of God outside the obvious? What if he hadn't asked Jesse, "Isn't there another son besides these seven you present to me?" How would David have become king? I think more now than ever, we leave our Davids out in the field and forget they may be chosen kings. Or send them to battle as errand boys, all the while missing that they are God's chosen warriors. Why do we do this? Why do we spend all our energies comparing ourselves to each other while ignoring those who have not yet attained any Christian-world status except in the pond of God's say-so (a pond many don't see anymore anyway as they're busy trying to decide whether to be big fish in little ponds or little fish in big ones...ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.)

I think Tozer speaks well about what leads to these errors:

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.

And the bottom line is: as humans we simply can't copy this relationship potential. We as parents can love our children individually and without preference, but we can't give ourselves with that "100% available to everyone" margin. Eventually, one of our children is going to get sick and need adjustments to be made, adjustments that come from time and attention that might have gone to another of our children.

Thank goodness God judges the hearts, because underneath it all He sees that for many who appear cruel in their judgment, the seeming cruelty springs from a heart's desire to be deeply special to his Creator. Still, in our limited vision we have a tendency to want to put God in a box so we can comprehend Him on that level. We want to "know" what it means to be acceptable to Him, and we measure it by how acceptable we think others are to Him and whether we'd be acceptable to Him in the same circumstances. So we lapse back into debates about eating meat sacrificed to idols without knowing it.

The bottom line, I believe, is that this relationship of preferencial equality in the eyes of our God, this is a thing we can never really understand in this lifetime, we can only trust He speaks truth when He says He can fully love us and fully love the ones who hurt us. He can give that love with equity, yet without a stain to our dignity. This we can not emulate, so we can not really comprehend it--at least not that I've seen, but I pray for it to become more real to me with each passing day.

For now I walk according to this: no matter what my "opinion" of another person, I will myself to interact with him or her and intercede in prayer while bearing in mind what Tozer said: that You have given Yourself to that person as fully as if I did not exist, as if that person were the only one for You. This is my surest way to commune with Your purpose on behalf of another. But how often will we pray in this manner? Lord, make me able.

She Counts!

subtitled: Roll with the Changes

A while back, I posted this blog about a dream that had not yet come to be fully revealed:

http://sdmen.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-having-conversations-with-god.html

Now, I'm finding potentialities are being defined through the bizarre imagery of that dream...Specifically, I was working in a room with a woman who is a friend and prayer partner of mine. Suddenly in that room appears a rack of coats that we've been given charge over. I ascertain that the coats should not get wet from the water that had suddenly begun spewing out of me as I was suddenly like a fountain. We moved the coats into another room we could see through an interior window. In that room sat a ridiculously bug-eyed young man who was "bad" in my dream-self's estimation. We returned to the room where we'd been working after giving the coats over to him. We were satisfied that we'd done the right thing. Then suddenly, a man who was my principal last year but is no longer employed by my school re-appeared in the dream, sitting in front of that interior window. I sat down next to him to say hello, and he leaned over and kissed me. The point of the kiss seemed to be that the man on the other side of the window should see it.

Many hesitate to share such dreams, expecting pop-psychology psychoanalysis to make anyone and everyone see the symbolic revelation of my own most personal darkness, things that one would rather keep secret from the public at large. Such is the nature of modern-day dream interpretation. I've learned not to be so worried whether my personal character becomes a target in dream revelation, even weird, seemingly "improper" dreams, because in "these" dreams, the imagery has more to do with what God is revealing that with what I am like in my secret self. (smile)

I blogged (as seen in the link above) that all over Proverbs is the use of imagery attaching the idea that fountains of water represent wisdom shared. I figured that out last spring. (The woman from my dream and I have been praying together over the imagery of this dream for months now.) As the summer progressed, I experienced a few things that made me think I was approaching the time when the rack of coats image would be explained. Then just the other day, I came across these verses in Proverbs 27:

13 Take the garment of him who is surety for a stranger,And hold it in pledge when he is surety for a seductress.

or in the NIV:13 Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger;hold it in pledge if he does it for a wayward woman.

Suddenly, my having a rack of coats could point toward a situation where someone(s) vouches for an other when he (they) shouldn't. Still a little vague, but something to go on. That these ones should be moved outside the realm of receiving "wisdom" from me began to make sense, as I'd prayed to know how I was to "recognize" these coats when they "came into the room."

Likewise in Proverbs 24, I found this:

23 These things also belong to the wise:It is not good to show partiality [to those] in judgment.24 He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous," Him the people will curse;Nations will abhor him.25 But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.26 He who gives a right answer kisses the lips.

or in the NIV: 23 These also are sayings of the wise:To show partiality in judging is not good:24 Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent”—peoples will curse him and nations denounce him.25 But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come upon them.26 An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.

Another indicator besides dreams that runs along this train of thought: I'm going to miss two days of school these first two weeks of the year for two seemingly diverse medical issues: I must see a podiatrist as my heel has a bone spur that is seriously affecting the tendon and I must see a dentist as I have several fractured teeth that need attention before they fall apart in my mouth. ThenGod showed me this:

Pro 25:19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble [is like] a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

I remembered that sometimes it isn't just dreams that a prophetic gift brings, but the opportunity to be a living enactment of something scriptural. So I continued watching, and I began to believe it was time to share these new discoveries of scriptural connections with the woman who is my partner in these things.

But first, I prayed: God, it appears that treachery, a wolf in sheep's clothing, is what You're indicating here. Who would You have me trust with what You're saying? Who should come alongside me in prayer over these things that are completely mysterious right now and that show no signs of coming true in this day? I don't want to breed hysteria or panic. Nor do I want to breed contempt. Especially, I don't want--in my zealousness--to warn off the very ones You're saying should be allowed to walk in judgment. How do I keep from saturating with this wisdom someone who later might show up as one of those coats I'm called to put away from me? Am I even supposed to share all this with the woman who appears as my partner in Your work, O God? Taking risks is always a feature of vision-casting. I'd take the risk of believing in my own vision of her as my partner. I talked to her. I went to share the first of those scriptures with her...the one about taking a garment from someone who is collateral for a stranger.

And so You used that leap of faith to refine the vision, as is also true of this walk of visioneering. It happened like this:

We randomly ran into each other in the office of the church's bookkeeper. D (my friend) was in there because she worked for the church's summer camp for kids and it became her job to correct a mistake made by the coin-rolling machine. It had rolled coins improperly--putting dimes in the penny rolls, etc. She was dumping the rolls of coins, checking them for mistakes and re-rolling them where the machine had made errors.

When I asked God, Did I do the right thing in sharing with her what You're teaching me about this situation, O God? And, if I did wrong, will You fix the results?" You answered me: "Consider what she was doing when you spoke to her."

I thought about it. She was correcting mis-rolled coins. The machine-the system that we presume is surely far more infallible than a lone human--it was this machine that actually erred grossly, and this woman went in its wake and rectified the problems it caused. Not only that, but the type of problem--mis-rolled money--put me in mind of Proverbs 20:10:
Divers weights, [and] divers measures, both of them [are] alike abomination to the LORD.

So was it right to share with her? I got an emphatic Yes! along with a greater discernment of her role in God's work: she would see and make right the divers weights and measures that are an abomination to the Lord, and in a world where the "machine" we presume to be reliable proves faulty. God, bless her in this calling! What a task to have the Lord entrust to your hand. I am honored to be companion to her, lifting her up in this work for You! Strengthen those hands You've given her, God! Let it be she doesn't faint!

Just the other day, her husband, K., gave me another scripture to pray about: Psalm 73. I wonder if he realized it, too, had a garment reference that works with understanding this dream You gave me? The Psalm in total contains the reflections of someone who has made the effort to have a clean heart, but who sees the prosperity of the wicked and nearly slips into envy of that ease of life so often found in those who walk apart from Thee.

One of the descriptors of these wicked ones is in verse 6: Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them [as] a garment.

Interestingly, the next verse explains the "bug-eyed" boy in the next room in my dream, because verse 7 says of these wicked: Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

My Bible references another Psalm as companion to this one in some of its imagery: Psalm 109. It is called the Song of the Slandered.

Do not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
5 Thus they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.

6 Set a wicked man over him,
And let an [fn1] accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few,
And let another take his office....

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be continually before the Lord,
That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the broken in heart.
17 As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing [this "cursing" is about one bent on accusing Your children, not just about someone who is a potty-mouth] as with his garment,
So let it enter his body like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
20 Let this be the Lord's reward to my accusers,
And to those who speak evil against my person.

This Psalm is truly a prayer for empowering God's agents to deal with one who is deeply anti-Christ in the way he interacts with Your people.

Finally, just this morning in church, the speaker reminded us what Paul's role was before Jesus Christ got hold of him: he held the clothes of those who killed Christians. When he realized what he was doing, he surely left off that job and never held a coat in that manner again!

Now, if I were taking notes in a lecture, here is what I'd say I've learned so far. May God receive my "homework paper" and make red letter corrections so that I can re-submit it for further review:

• Someone (or several ones?) will vouch for the wrong person. It could involve a "wayward woman."


• This partiality for someone who is actually in judgment at the hand of God will ultimately lead to public disgrace for that person who has been given the authority to "assess" the righteousness of others.


• Honesty will prove a better breeding ground for community spirit under God than will an orderly commonality that springs from fear of judgment and harrassment. Fear of judgment may only make sin go into hiding. In other words, making the effort to appear above reproach may only free up the secret sin to run more rampant in the dark, rather than being the proof that someone walks in integrity as we'd hope it to mean. (So often it seems we put all our eggs in the basket that weighs "the appearance of evil." I personally believe the people of God are always better off with a David, broken before Nathan, than with a Saul, costumed before the medium of Endor.)


• None of this will show itself until "times of trouble" hit.


• A friend of mine will be called to recognize and play a part in setting right this inequity in the weighing of things that matter to You.


• Despite what You foretell here, these ones/this one that You blatantly classify as evil will nevertheless appear to have all they ever ask for, and some may follow one who seems to get everything he wants. The pride of this favored status will breed a sense of appropriateness in adopting "violence" (and not just indifference, although that would be bad enough) toward Your needy ones.


• One who is falsely accused will break this pattern, being heard by God when he prays that the garment of accusation should return and be borne by the one who wove it in the first place. As he curses, so may he suffer a curse.


• My friend and I, in praying behind the scenes over this, will have an awakening much like Paul knew when he realized he was unwittingly holding the coats of those who were persecuting the God he most longed to serve. Give us the strength to accept such a revelation if that part is right, O God. And, remind us continually to embrace the atmosphere of Your sanctuary where discernment is--like air--breathable, lest we become bitter and "offend the generation of thy children."

And thank You in advance, O God, for being a teacher who requires mastery-learning before You take me any further. Thank You that no matter how long it takes me to "get" one of Your lectures, Your timing remains perfect. You always have me perfectly prepared when the exam rolls around!

Finally, thank You for showing me yet again the elegance with which You convey a message: taking one small image (a dream of a rack of coats) or taking one frustrating event (re-rolling coins that should have gone rightly into their papers in the first place) and using these to define a ministry calling and a divine pupose that You confirm through many glistening gems found embedded throughout Your holy book.

Once again, Your brilliance is breath-taking!

What Do You Call Authority?

(a fantasy on the story of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, a possible epilogue
and the corroborating verses)

"Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is."
But when the time neared, a man--a porter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Then Jesus Christ, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the Lord Jesus said to him, "All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours."

And the man removed from thence unto a mountain and pitched his tent, and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. And the Lord granted the man authority there. Some did say, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, He is there!' But the man said, do not believe it! For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, Christ Himself did tell us all things beforehand. And so the man said before all creatures of heaven and earth: "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. Now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church." So the man came again unto the place of the altar which had been there at the first: and there men called on the name of the LORD.
And the man reminded the people of the words of the Lord Jesus: "For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord." And though the abomination of desolation did likewise stand in the place where it ought not, sowing tares of confusion, still the elect remnant of the people did call the porter blessed and did acknowledge that he came in the name of the Lord.

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Jerusalem. And news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He was among them, glorified by all.

NOTES:
'These things says the Son of God: ...But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations--
'He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'--
as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star...
...I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'
Rev 2:18, 25-28,
Rev 22:16
Rev 2:29

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
Proverbs 29:2

And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Daniel 7:27

If any man speak, [let him speak] as the oracles of God; if any man minister, [let him do it] as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
I Peter 4:11

[For the Son of man is] as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Mark 13:34

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
John 10:1-3


But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils...[He said]If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast [them] out? therefore shall they be your judges.
But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
Luke 11:15, 18-20

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matt 13:45-46

"Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God...The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl.
Rev 21:9-11, 21


Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
I Cor. 15:24-28

[Jesus says] Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"
Mark 13:31, 37

As Paul said to the Romans...

...God forbid! I offer this in answer to the progression of thought that might follow from my last two blogs, prompting the question: do you disrespect the office of pastor entirely now?

I was reminded of the preciousness of that office when it is accepted graciously and humbly by a person called to it when just yesterday I took my youngest to spend the night with a friend, whose father happens to be a pastor. I sat in their church's foyer, visiting with the pastor's wife, (who is also the mom of my son's friend.) In my estimation, I've operated in my gifts and received from theirs better with this couple in ministry than any but maybe one other couple. I am of the opinion that when people really "get" the idea of being one body but many parts and those parts operate correctly, it is as lovely a thing to be as is available to mankind. And when the people of God can navigate even those times when one part or another becomes a "less honorable" part requiring modesty in the integration of the whole, then all the more is God honored by those who perceive His plans and cooperate! And if one part has the discernment to suffer and rejoice with another part, what an amazing honor to God that can be! I know, because this family has operated alongside mine in this way, even as I believe we've operated this way alongside theirs, too.

Thank You, God, for giving me the privelege of being able to profess that I've indeed walked these verses with Your people!

I Corinthians 12:

18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don't need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don't need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

What's My Motivation?

...says any actor when he struggles to know how to present his character, through both the verbal and non-verbal cues. Herein, even the second-rate touring company no-name can be bounding ahead of the highly-touted religious leader, for he's closer to Solomon's thinking when that master of wisdom spoke of the ways that seem right to a man, but that the Lord nevertheless is a judge of the heart. Consider Mary and Zacharias. Both were told of miraculous conceptions looming on their horizons. Zacharias asks, "Whereby shall I know this?" Mary asks, "How shall this be?" The responses to the heavenly pronouncement look similar in content, but must have been quite different in tone, for Zacharias was told in no uncertain terms who was talking to him (I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God!) and was told he'd be struck dumb during the time the announcement was being fulfilled "because thou believest not," said God's messenger;whereas Mary was simply given the answer to her question regarding how this miracle could be accomplished, I presume because this information would serve to stabilize her faith.

Another example? Andy Stanley in the book, Visioneering, addresses the story of the spies sent into Canaan, both those sent by Moses and those sent by Joshua. Andy says, "The primary difference between the first group and the second group of spies was not what they saw. It was how they interpreted what they saw...The spies Moses sent interpreted the data from the standpoint of Israel's military potential and strength...Joshua's spies on the other hand, interpreted the data differently...They were looking for confirmation, evidence that this was the right time to advance the vision." Whose spies are we when we are sent to investigate a situation? Do we calculate with the revealed vision in mind or only with attention to the strength of our enemy? If I speak with the tongues of men and angels...what is my motivation?

My husband, in reading my last blog entry, said, "You should be ready to answer why you posted that if anyone should read it and ask."

He's right. Reading over old entries, the theme becomes apparent that I do occasionally get on a rant about organized religion in general when it blindly goes the way of the Galatian church. I notice this same idea I wrote about showing up in a recent entry in my Oswald Chambers devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. On August 4, he says, "The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship." How many of us connect the "atmosphere" in a house of God to that relationship, ranking it above any bearing that church's publicized works might have on the place's atmosphere? We look backward at what is already finished through the lens that shows relationship with God as the motivation for good works, but how do we look forward? In terms of vision-casting, faith without works may be dead, but works without the launchpad of faith are just distracting.

So why do manias about so-called purity creep like weeds into places where people's hearts are genuinely sprouting with the love of God and are really receiving a call up into His purposes? Why do people lose touch with verses like..."to the pure, all things are pure," and so they try to construct a complicated meaning behind that simple verse about Divine Sovereignty. Are they not unwittingly being like those spies sent by Moses when they complicate such a verse? And then there's this one: "all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." Why do people throw all their attention and meditation on the parts of this passage that seem to justify restricted activity but fail to give wonder and reflection to the amazing point of freedom made in the first half of each compound statement? In fact, in terms of grammar, we treat these sentences as if Paul constructed them differently. We see them not as two independent clauses of equal weight, but rather as one subordinate clause we should rush through on our way to the significance of what follows it. But do these two ideas really sit unequally on the balance like that?

Why do we forget that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...period. We read that verse with an afterward in our minds: ...while God shows us how to fix the problem that's causing us to have to "love" under such a strain in the first place, as we assume we are on our way to an easier love directed toward a perfected recipient.

Who can really "believe all things" (both good and bad means all) about someone and maintain love? Only Christ. But, He can impart that love to us. Why do we seem to be more receptive to that love-transmission from Him when we're obscure in the public eye? I think Paul addresses that at the end of Galatians.
Gal. 6 starts:
1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load.

I notice so often we forget how to "restore" someone, and only want to invest time/energy/reputation to the degree that we "recommend" things; and what we call making him "carry his own load" is really just a mask for asking him to carry our condemnation. Why? I spoke of making the work of prophets more difficult in my last entry. Paul in his wisdom cut directly to the answer to why. If we all walked in verses 3-5, the prophets could give freely the evidence of signs and wonders straight from Your hand, O God. But we step in and become amateur providences. Again, why? I think that with leadership may come the tendency to lose touch with divine providence. Just what do we believe God imparted to us? Just how do we define authority over both an other's mistakes and successes?
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Who really believes it? Who doesn't step in and try to "help" God fulfill this law of sowing and reaping? Not that I condemn those leaders! I'm one of them. I, too, have a garden and understand intimately the "image" that garden puts out in the neighborhood. Who wants to be a gardener brazenly allowing all who pass by to see a weed-infested bed? And what gardener could look like anything but a fool if he says to those passers: "Ah, but you should see the harvest I pull out of there!" So in the end, we're sucked into what Paul says to the Galatians next:
12 Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised (made clear of weeds.) The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ (avoidance of public ridicule caused by our following the recommendations of the actual Land-owner and our Boss.) 13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh (having the motivation of a desire to boast in the loveliness of the garden we've been hired to manage, and justifying that boast because we still call it The Boss's garden. But haven't we actually taken it for our own if we do this? Paul seems to think so.)

And we are all prone to this! We're just unique from each other in the things we call weeds. That's what makes it so amazing to consider the parable our Lord Jesus used to speak of the nature of His Father's "style" of leadership:

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' 28 He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' 29 But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

What Do You Call Work?

Specifically, holy work?

Certainly prophets, priests, missionaries...these do work we call holy.

But I'm thinking specifically on those we call prophets, the ones who are called to publicly address the re-setting of the natural course of the river that flows from the throne of God, men and women who do this work because God calls for the course change and they are intimate enough with God to be given the vision of that change. One of the greatest ploys Satan ever managed to make effective in the Church of the Bride is his bid to convince believers that this sort of prophecy no longer operates. Everything that needed to be said has been said already, so why do we need modern-day prophets and apostles to hold up signs indicating God's call to a different course. Why do we need them to remind us that He said there would be an "unusual act" out there somewhere. Never mind that modern-day prophets do not contradict that everything needing to be said has been said as they, too, hold the Holy Book out as evidence supporting these "new things" God is doing. No, these offices atrophy under the vast auspices of the pastoral calling, and we are told this is the fitting pattern for this dispensational era.

Really, now??

These philosophers would tell you that a prophet today could do little more than stretch out his arms and shout, "Just keep doing what you're doing! Listen to your pastor, as he's getting it all exactly right and his office is after all the only one left of any direct-link to the heart of God. Never mind that even King David needed a prophet to hold him accountable before God. Never mind that Peter needed Paul in the office of a "sent one" on the Lord's behalf in the heart of Peter. Rather, we say to you, 'Way to go! Keep heading the direction common sense, your pastor, and the latest book of tips and techniques tell you to go! Particularly, let's just keep on with what's made sense to us for the last 2000 years. That's a boat no true prophet should feel compelled to rock. Not if he's hearing from God!"

Really, now??

No where is a prophet called to such a message. God doesn't "design" someone to come down and say that. What he fashions someone to step up and say is the very thing common sense wouldn't bring into being. When He wants to "do a new thing" He tells of it first through a prophet. Hence, the dilemma in the life of the prophet, because when you get right down to it, people don't want God to do new things. They want to smile and nod about His immutability, His unchangeable ways, and they want to believe we're both on the same page, talking around the same topic. But we're not. And because we're not, Jesus' words are confirmed when he says that if we wouldn't actually kill the prophets today, we'd at least bury them, i.e. bury what they had to say about any new work God might be about to do, even now.

But many would balk at my saying this. "What are you talking about? Don't we pour over the lives of the prophets in our Bible reading every day? Don't we quote them, even memorize their words and quote them?"

OK. I'll grant that. But let's consider whether that Bible we quote could have happened if we had been the landscape wherein it was written. Could it have been created--literally--on "our property" that is designated as holy unto God? Let's make a list of those whose work would be censored right out of existence if it were actually happening now, shall we?

1) Ezekiel would be a goner. For one thing, he was extremely callous at his own wife's death. For another, he cooked his meat over animal dung--even though he said that God made a concession to his sense of purity as he couldn't bring himself to do what God wanted, which was cook over human dung. We would never accept a priest who said he "heard from God" that he should practice acts of impurity were such impurity translated into modern-day equivalents. Nor would we be at ease with that lack of compassion or even culturally acceptable personal feeling over his wife's demise. Was he really so able to be naught but a sign and a wonder? Or were some sociopathic tendencies slipping through a good facade? Let's give him the boot just for good measure and thank God for revealing the truth to us about that one!
2) Isaiah, would we really let him wander around our campus naked for three years? For three minutes? Especially if he said he did it as a sign from God. He's got his walking papers.
3) Elijah? Shacking up with that widow and her kid during the drought? What ever happened to staying away from all appearances of evil? (You're nit-picking if you say, "Yes, but that was a New Testament edict.")
4) Elisha? Too lacking in tact and diplomacy with people who are outside influences. Consider how he snubbed Naaman. Wouldn't even afford that foreign dignitary the common courtesy of a personal appearance when the guy came to see him, just sent him a message. A terrible offence. We can't afford the likes of him putting our "community reputation" in jeopardy that way.
5) How about the guys that are not so big-league? Better screen them, too. Hosea is out. Marrying a whore, for goodness sake? And when she runs off, and we breathe a sigh of relief, counsel him compassionately that it was God's intervention; but he runs after her anyway. He brings her back, plops her down in the middle of us, and says, 'Let's try this again.' Would we not maybe say, "You know, God gave you a second chance and you were so pig-headed about this particular woman that you lost all your good sense of how to serve God with your life. She's obviously become your God." You think we wouldn't take that point of view?
6) And then there is Abraham, the forefather of us all who call ourselves children of God. What if he preached to us that something was an abomination to the Lord in the days when he himself couldn't possibly be tempted by it, but as soon as he was in circumstances where he could commit that offense, he turned 180 degrees and began to say God called him to it? Is this not exactly what those around Abram faced when he led them away from a land whose people worshipped the moon by sacrificing their children. Did the lack of child sacrifice in his own company not support the idea that they walked under a doctrine that disapproved such acts? He surely condemned such a thing as child sacrifice when he had no child of his own, but once he had sons, did he not change his tune, saying this very act of child sacrifice was the call of God on him: how would we receive that seeming change of heart in worship and service? Would we say God's character was compromised? Would we say Abraham's was? Would we see it as a leap of faith on Abraham's part or as an act of gross backsliding into a domain of sin that only then could really tempt him?

And if we would even send Abraham away without acknowledging his faith, then whose seed are we?

In the words of the modern work-world visionary Peter Drucker: "So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work."
How difficult would we make the work of the prophets should they spring up in this day, writing Your word under our world-management?
Would we even have a Bible if it depended on us to receive those through whom God sent His word? Do we know what it means to honor that parcel of the law that reminds us to be circumspect with regards to anything touching the Sabbath?

You see, it all comes back to that holy-work idea. In every one of these situations, we are forced to consider what Jesus calls the work of the Father: that work which is not about the things temporal or naturally sensible, but rather a work that touches things eternal and full of the mystery of a higher mind whose ways and plans are beyond man's natural expectations.
Consider Christ's words in John 6:

26 Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

May we begin again, O Lord, to believe in Your "sent ones" so You can renew the days when we truly do Your work alongside You!