The Truth You Know

     I opened up my email with a message that I had been tagged in a photo, on Facebook of course. Being one who doesn’t consider myself very photogenic I always look with trepidation never knowing what someone else thought was “cute”. This time was different, as I looked at myself I was overwhelmed as I realized how differently I saw myself from the way I used to, I’m not talking so much about my outward appearance but more about the worth and value of the person I am inside, which made me very aware of how much the knowledge of God’s love for me has changed me. It isn’t the truth alone that makes you free, but the truth you know.  I also realized that while there are many areas where satan has lost the battle it doesn’t mean he quit fighting.  He just moves into some other area that hasn't yet been permeated with grace, where the law is still in operation in order to put us, all of us, under his accusations and condemnation.

     I was reminded that Jesus said, “nothing will be impossible to him who believes”. In that moment that particular truth spoke to me in a way it never had before. You see we must believe all  that  God has revealed in His word concerning us, how much He loves us, , how His thoughts towards us are for good and not for evil and who He has created us to be.  If the enemy can get us to doubt on any level the truth about Gods heart towards us he knows he has the upper hand. The only weapon that will defeat the enemy is The Truth, because the only weapon he really has to use against us is deception.

Follow Me

     So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life. We turn away from the familiar abiding places of the heart, the false selves we have lived out, the strengths we have used to make a place for ourselves and all our false loves, and we venture forth in our hearts to trace the steps of the One who said, "Follow me." Excerpt from the book Sacred Romance pg 149. Italics, mine.
 

     Follow me…..this is the call of the Lord, It isn’t about where He is going as it is about who it is we are following. But beware, any doubt we have of His intentions towards us will render us incapable of following Him. Jesus  said, “If any man would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me". To be sure, it is only in denying our self and taking up our cross that we are enabled to follow Him.

Psalm 51:6 behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

     Jesus is the truth and we can only walk with Him to the degree we are willing to walk in truth, not lies or deceptions we have embraced as truth. Sometimes that will mean that He has to expose through His presence the lies we are holding on to, often places that have become comfortable and familiar even though the reality is, they are a source of death and not life.
 

     There are times when Jesus says to us, “follow me” but where He is going isn’t really a place we want to go, unless our desire to be with Him exceeds our desire to stay away from the place in our heart He is headed. But how often upon hearing those words follow me does our mind go to a place that is physical, a place that is external outside of our self? The idea that following Jesus means being a missionary in Africa (though for some that might be the case) or you think of some situation or circumstance you have been avoiding, when all the while Jesus is going to a place in your heart that is keeping you from experiencing the life He died to give you.

 

     Being in a place recently where it seemed I couldn’t find Him (can you relate?) is the reason this meant so much to me. I couldn’t find Him because where He was I didn’t even realize existed, let alone embrace going there with enthusiasm. Then in my desperation to find Him I was open to  where He was, even if it wasn’t a place I particularly wanted to go. I understood that if I wanted to find Him then I would have to go where He was and quit looking for Him where I wanted Him to be. Isn’t that usually the case? It is a mistake I seem to make more often than I care to admit, but eventually I figure it out.

     For me it was a place in my heart where some emotional debris had floated ashore after years of being gone or so I thought. It is amazing how a storm can bring something back to the shore of our hearts that we thought no longer existed.

Mystery

My main interpretive task, as I understood it, was to distill from the Bible principles, technique, a series of points to ponder or steps to take. It was to compress the infinite into the numeric, corral the miraculous into the pragmatic, tidy the messy earthiness of the Bible into a neat-edged moral-ism, parse its poetry into prose – or worse, propositions. In short, it was to banish mystery…… The worst consequence of losing our imagination, our wonder, is that we no longer see the Christ-ward life as an adventure. We see it as a duty, a chore, a list of dos, don’ts, and how-tos. We think the point of life is to stay safe and undisturbed as possible. We think borderland is not a bad place to live. The stories we read in Acts about the church “turning the world on its head” (Acts 17:6) – well, what would that kind of thing do to our tax-exempt status?” 

Taken from: Your God Is Too Safe: Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can’t Control by Mark Buchanan

     How true this is. We are drawn by your majesty and mystery,yet at the same time scared to death of it. Your majesty that speaks of your omniscience, omnipotence and beauty that words can't describe that makes us feel safe while at the same time makes us feel vulnerable. Because that same majesty that tells us of your power and might also demands a surrendering of ourselves to the very omniscience and omnipotence it displays. And of your mystery; we love that you are mysterious but then we want so much to be able to dictate when you are mysterious and when you are not. We want to tell you when and how to reveal yourself. We even fast and pray in hopes of somehow bringing you under control by our actions, that by our doing something we can push some cosmic spiritual button to get you to behave in the way we desire. and how offended we can be when you don’t.

     It is true there is part of us that desires a God who is safe, but then a God who is "safe" is not the God who came to save us.  A safe God is not one who would risk it all by coming to earth via the womb of a woman to reconcile men to himself. As you have often reminded me; I want you, but I want you on my terms and you will not be had that way. The truth is although I am not always comfortable with that I am also glad, because if I could have you that way it would make you less than what you are. I would rather know you in truth even if I am offended by what you reveal than to not know you at all. I realize more and more that if I would live the life you have chosen for me, the more I will have to live by faith. Faith is what draws you, and  the atmosphere in which you dwell. The problem with knowledge is it seeks to create an environment in which faith becomes unnecessary. Yet without faith it is impossible to please you.
January 25, 2010