Deep in love with Jesus

Sitting at Your feet is where I wanna be

I'm home when I am here with You

Ruined by Your grace, enamored by Your gaze

I can't resist the tenderness in You

I'm deep in love with You, Abba Father

I'm deep in love with You, Lord

My heart it beats for You, precious Jesus

I'm deep in love with You, Lord

These words from a song by Michael W Smith touch something deep within me. So often the love of God is very theoretical – we know it to be true but we don’t feel it. Yet love is an emotion and should be felt. It’s not a piece of information.

For years this was my situation. I knew in my head that God loved me. I could pray with great conviction God’s love for another but I just never felt it. I kept talking to God about this. I knew that if only I could feel God’s love, so much else would fall away; feelings of inadequacy, guilt, shame and condemnation. These just would not be able to exist in the warmth of God’s loving gaze.

At this point I just need to say that feelings are not a reliable indicator of truth. Feelings follow truth not the other way around. What do I mean by this?

 ‘Feelings are just feelings. Nothing else,’ my boss used to tell me. He is a Godly man but this saying drove me mad. My feelings were very important to me and I felt that they were a very accurate gauge of reality.  Over the years I discovered by painful circumstances that he was quite right. 

What he meant of course is that feelings are in fact a very poor indicator of both reality and truth. Feelings can make us slaves to lies and whilst I am not for a second suggesting we ignore feelings, they need to be used as what they are – a pointer to our emotional or physical condition at that moment. They can be a signpost to blessings or problems but they are not necessarily an indicator of truth.

‘I feel so alone and rejected’ shows our emotional state. The truth is that Jesus said He would never leave us or forsake us.  We are not alone or rejected. 

So feeling God’s love is vital because the truth is that God loves us so passionately, deeply and dearly that we will never fathom it. We ought to feel his love but so often our feelings condemn us. It is at that moment that declaring the truth is vital.

The truth is that God loves us. The truth is that we are his dearly beloved children. The truth is that we are the apple of his eye. The truth is that there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The truth is that we are saved by grace; there is nothing we can do to earn or keep God’s love. The truth is that as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

It was at this point I got my breakthrough. God had forgiven me but I had not forgiven myself. I still condemned myself for my many mistakes but if God had forgiven me, who was I to hold myself in the bondage of unforgiveness? As I released myself, the feelings followed the truth and I knew God loved me and I could feel it.  It was a wonderful moment.

Now, like Michael W Smith, I love to sit and enjoy God’s adoring gaze, to reflect on his great tenderness and acceptance of me; to know I never need to do anything to earn this love but I can just sit and bathe in it.  What a blessing to know that God will never reject me, abandon me or get cross with me. I am his precious child. Hallelujah!

Moving past tragedy

I confess that today I am writing about something of which I have no personal experience. I am talking about personal tragedy by which I mean circumstances that are outside the experience of most people and which have such an impact on a person’s life that it changes them forever. Nevertheless, despite my lack of experience, there are some in the Bible and others who I know who have suffered and overcome this level of tragedy.

Most of us have had some very difficult circumstances such as the death of someone close to us, the loss of a job or an accident, all of which will have impacted our lives. However there seems to be a level of tragedy which can affect a life in such a way that they find it almost impossible to move on. Life stops and they get stuck at that moment and though everyday life continues, underlying it is a sorrow of the heart or even a bitterness of the spirit that seems impossible to shift.

However there is always God; the God who loves us and for whom nothing is impossible. Only he can heal the bitterly wounded and rescue those drowning in sorrow. We see it most obviously in Job, the man who had everything taken from him and who battled with God and his unhelpful friends but who never gave up. God then intervened and following Job’s incredible God encounter that literally shook him to the core, God restored and increased all that had been lost.

I know of a lady in South Africa who was married with two sons but the marriage was on the rocks. The husband persuaded a doctor friend to have his wife committed to a mental institution though there was nothing wrong with her. By the time she persuaded the doctors there that she was perfectly sane and was released, her husband had absconded from the country, taking their sons with her and clearing out all their money from the banks. She had nothing and even her own family were unhelpful. She has never seen her husband or sons again.

This level of tragedy could have caused her life and especially her relationship with God to come to a grinding halt. Instead, over time, she found forgiveness and healing and God has used her to talk to others in similar circumstances to help them through and out the other side of their tragedy to a place where their lives can begin to function again.

The key seems to be acknowledging all that has gone on and letting God touch every area. There may be areas that are so painful, so difficult that they have to be hidden away till God and time have done a measure of healing. Then they can be brought gently out for God’s divine touch. There may have been great injustice and only letting God help you find forgiveness will bring release and healing.

Why? will almost certainly be the word on your lips and in your heart and you may not ever have a satisfactory answer to this question. God however wants to take your hand and help you climb over the wall that Why? represents and help you trust him with that answer. He wants to help you move on. He wants to rebuild your life. He wants to give you hope.

I confess again this is an area of which I have no personal experience but I know and read about others who have overcome personal tragedy through the God whose love is limitless, who is bigger than anything we can think or imagine and who never leaves us – ever. He truly is the God of all hope.

No sense of entitlement

If you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Luke 6: 32

But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.  Luke 6: 35 – 36

One thing that is very prevalent in UK at the moment, especially amongst the younger generation, is a strong sense of entitlement. They feel they are owed work, money, entertainment, youth clubs and so on. It is their right to have these things. They see that others have them so they also want them. What they do not see is that people have often worked hard for these things and they are the fruits of their labours.

My sister was a local magistrate and one Christmas a woman came before the bench charged with shop lifting. She was unemployed and felt her children deserved a good Christmas and so she had stolen £500 worth of Christmas goods in order to give them the Christmas she felt they should have. She did not think there was anything wrong in what she had done.

Recompense and compensation are all around us and we are constantly told it is our right to have them. If you have an accident, someone must be blamed and you must get compensation. Everything is someone’s fault and they must not only recognise their fault, they must pay for it.

As Christians we must guard against any sense of entitlement especially to redress and compensation. We are not entitled to anything yet through Jesus and his incredible sacrifice on the cross, we have absolutely everything. It is by grace, the unmerited favour of God, that we receive it all. However in order to live in the fullness of all that Jesus has for us we must follow his example. Jesus was entitled to the highest honour, respect and glory. Yet he was mocked, scorned, ridiculed, beaten and crucified. What he did though was forgive his oppressors.

We may not be treated in this way but we too will have times when people mistreat, misunderstand and misuse us and the way Jesus dealt with his enemies and those who mistreated him is the same for us. He says forgive your enemies and do good to them. We may feel that if someone has wronged us we must have an apology and they must put things right but that is not Jesus’ way. We cannot demand compensation and restitution. Like Jesus, we must forgive those who hurt or misuse us and we must bless them as well. Too often though we think we have forgiven people, yet we go on speaking ill of them. In so doing we hurt ourselves most of all. However as we bless them, we release them from our unforgiveness, bitterness and judgement and any sense that they owe us anything and in so doing, we release ourselves also.

A sense of entitlement never brings anything good to us. A loving joyful acceptance of God’s amazing faithfulness and abundant provision to us brought to us by grace brings blessing upon blessing to our lives.

Love your neighbour as yourself

Love your neighbour as yourself Leviticus 19: 18

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19: 26

Joyce Meyer says she found it impossible to love other people when she didn’t love or like herself.  I can agree with that!  I was at my most prickly, awkward and downright difficult when I didn’t love, let alone like myself.  I constantly compared myself to others and came up short every time. In order to try and make myself feel better, I would criticise others. I covered it all over with a veneer of jollity but there was a harsh, unkind edge to it. There was not a lot I could do about it because I needed a God who loves me more than I will never understand to come and set me free from all that criticism and unkindness.

This is the greatest miracle of all; that God, who created the universe with his word, would come down to earth to love and die for me.  He took a hurt, bitter, rejected and under it all dissatisfied person, cross with herself and everyone else, and with love draw her to himself. He took all my sin, shame and guilt and nailed it to the cross and then loved me till all that angry bitterness was soaked away in his love.

I am not perfect but I am forgiven and when I do sin, God in love points it out, not to make me feel bad but to set me free. It truly is incredible – beyond belief but that is the amazing God who loves us. He made each of us to be unique, completely different to everyone else so comparisons are useless. There is no way we can compare ourselves other than we are all humans and some are saved and some are not. God’s command to us is to love them; the saved and the unsaved, the lovely and the unlovely, the disagreeable and agreeable, the friend or enemy.

I used never to be able to say anything nice about anyone including myself but other Christians by being kind to me showed me the way of kindness; others being gracious to me to showed me grace. I marvel now at the longsuffering patience of people and when I get irritated with other people’s lack of grace or kindness, I remember how I used to be.

Underneath every angry, prickly, difficult person is a hurt, rejected human being who needs the love of God shown to them by those who have already received his love, mercy and grace.  I am so thankful to those people who put up with me long enough to show me the Father’s love and tell me about his forgiveness freely given to everyone who asks. That was the start of the Great Adventure.  It is a process that will continue to the day I die but as I receive more and more of the Father’s love, I am able to love myself and therefore to love other people.

 

Honour your father and mother

³ Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God said, ‘Honour your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’  ⁵ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ ⁶ he is not to ‘honour his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Matthew 15: 3 – 6

The Pharisees came to Jesus to complain about why his disciples were not keeping the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they ate.  I find it interesting that of all the examples Jesus could have used to show their hypocrisy, he used God’s command to honour your father and mother.  The Jewish leaders had introduced a huge number of  ‘traditions’ for the people to follow which were weighing them down with their demands and they were even being used to circumvent God’s laws.  Jesus took them back to God’s law and reminded them that not keeping it, even for what sounds like a very good reason, was not right and his commands were far more important that the traditions of the elders.

In the Ten Commandments it actually says ‘Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you’ Exodus 20:12. It was not just a social nicety to honour your parents but had a condition attached to it of living long in the land.

In this day and age it is vital that Christians promote a positive attitude to parenting by both helping our children honour us and not let them be disrespectful and by being gracious and appreciative of our parents.  Most parents need all the help they can get – it has to be one of the most difficult jobs to do well – and God regards it as vital. Bringing up children in his ways with a proper respect for others is essential.

For some it is an easy thing to honour parents but for others whose parents may have been abusive or have deserted them, it can be very hard. Honouring them can feel like eating sawdust – it chokes them. However God did not say honour your parents when they make a good job of it or are nice to you.  Honouring is unconditional. So how can we do this for parents who have not been good to us? I believe the way we talk about our parents is vital. If we have or had good parents let’s be thankful and appreciative even if they have become difficult in old age and even if they were the most dreadful people let us honour God by being gracious and forgiving to them. Letting go of the past brings release to our lives and not speaking ill of bad parents honours us. 

Even the best parents make mistakes but it is always a shame when we only fully appreciate them after they have gone. So whether dead or alive, good or bad let’s talk positively to and about our parents and honour God as we honour them.

Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved —you and your household. Acts 16:31

It is a very sad fact that many people who regularly go to church believe that their attendance and a life of good works will gain them access to heaven when they die.

Randy Alcorn in his book Heaven tells the story of a professional singer and her husband who had been invited to the wedding reception of a wealthy couple. She had sung at their wedding and afterwards they all went to a prestigious hotel where the reception would be held on the top two floors overlooking the city. As they waited in line to be received waiters were serving canapés and drinks and they were excited to going to such a wonderful event.

When they got to the head of the line the maitre d’ asked their names but they were not in his book. The lady explained that she had sung at the wedding but the maitre d’ said that if their names were not in his book they would not be received at the reception no matter who they were. A waiter showed them out, past tables laden with wonderful food, to the service lift.

On the way home her husband asked her what had gone wrong and she tearfully replied that she had been too busy to reply to the invitation and assumed because she was the singer at the wedding she would have access to the reception.

This is such a powerful illustration of what will happen to many people at the final judgement. They will have assumed that because they did good works they will have access to heaven. They may have been at church every week, sung in the choir, served at the soup kitchen but it will not get them to heaven. We have to accept Jesus’ invitation. It is free but it is a gift that has to be received.

Peter said on the day of Pentecost, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2: 38 People don’t like the mention of sin and repenting taking the line that they are ‘not that bad’ and compared with others they are pretty good but we know ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ Romans 3:23.  We must receive the free gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

I feel such an urgency to be a more effective witness to those who have not yet received this wonderful free gift. I want to take them by the shoulders and shake them and tell them they are going to hell which is both true but not very helpful!  The reality is that people’s default destination is hell not heaven, not the other way round. Everyone hopes their default destination is heaven hoping they have done enough good things to get there and that a God of love would not send them to hell. God does not send them to hell – their sin does and yet God has given EVERYONE the get-out- of-hell-free card but we have to accept it. We have to acknowledge our sin and humbly ask for forgiveness which is never denied.

Today let’s pray that God would give us the wisdom, grace and boldness to tell people the good news of Jesus’ wonderful saving work and his free gift of eternal life in heaven with him. I want to plunder hell and see my family and friends with me in heaven – don’t you?

The balloon of offence

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Romans 12: 14
Bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you Luke 6: 28

It is an unfortunate fact that offence is just as rife in the church as anywhere else. I do not know if this is because we expect higher standards from Christians especially Christian leaders so we get very disappointed and offended when people do not come up to the standards we expect.

God spoke to me today that offence is like blowing up a balloon. The more we feel offended and think and talk about it the more air we put in the balloon and the more life we give to it. The balloon of offence is easily inflated but it is also easily deflated.

They key is our old friend forgiveness. I wrote about this on 5^th February under the title Forgive and be forgiven but just to briefly recap, forgiveness is not a feeling but a choice. We choose to forgive no matter how we feel. Forgiveness releases both ourselves and the one who has offended us. In particular it releases us from bitterness and resentment and is one of the major keys to walking the path of freedom that Jesus won for us on the cross.

Unfortunately offence binds us back up again and the more we inflate the balloon of offence by hanging onto the hurt and talking about it to others, the larger it all gets. Forgiveness though is like putting a pin into the balloon but to get the complete freedom and victory we not only have to forgive but also to bless those who have hurt us. This is really important as blessing is like pouring good things over the person who has offended or hurt us. Like forgiveness, we may not feel like it, but it is a choice to make and as we make that choice I can assure you it helps tremendously. It is hard to hang onto anger and hurt when we bless people who have hurt us.

If someone has offended you, forgive them and bless them. Deflate the balloon of offence and urge others to do the same. The devil loves to keep offence going round and round the church. Let’s stop his schemes and love, forgive and bless one another.