Does anybody else get tired of pat, worldly answers that never hit the deep spots? Even the answers that are wearing Christian clothes but just don’t fit? What about a “Dear Jesus” column? What if Jesus Himself spoke into the real needs of our lives?

In my first WGR class, I asked the women there, “What would you like to hear a Bible study on? What are your questions?”

The answers flew like popcorn:

Sex!
Broken relationships.
What about boredom?
How do you dream?

We try to tackle those questions in class. I’m also going to try to tackle them here. Each Wednesday, I’ll post one of the questions that I get every week from the class, from your emails, and from the women I meet with.  I don’t have all the answers.  But Jesus does. Together, we’ll try to see what Jesus says as we journey together.

In and Through Him,

Jana

Getting ready to walk into a very sticky meeting, one I will talk about tonight at WGR, I shot up an arrow prayer:

God, you here?

The restaurant had a Thomas Kinkade print with this verse under it: Isaiah 55:12.

Isaiah 55:12 (New International Version)

12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.

In the WGR class, I taught that we (yes, you and I) are the pearl of great price (Matthew 13-44). Needless to say, there were ricochets of emotions as we discussed our own Disbelief that we hold that kind of value to God. Is it really possible that we are items of luxury, purity, and extravagance – all that pearls represent?

Here, the morning after, I find even more brilliance in God’s analogy. I gave every woman a real pearl last night. But what they did not know is I went to the store, looked at strands of beautiful pearls, ran them through my fingers. There were bowls of individual pearls and I dug my fingers through them, touching them, examining them. All of them beautiful. All of them made from the same arduous effort of strain, pressure and time. Then I chose out of the many the ones that would become my own.

So a woman speaks up and says, “If there are 7 billion people in the world, how can one, namely me, have any value? If there is a whole bowl of pearls, how would one pearl gain any notice?” Perhaps here is an answer.

In the store, for a brief moment, I sensed God’s tender perspective about you and me. Just because there were many pearls, didn’t mean I couldn’t see them. I touched them, observed them, noticed their size, shape and color. Even when they were separated into like groups, I still loving touched them individually. I appreciated the value of each one. Each one had complete worth to me. They were still pearls. I still respected the quality of what they were made of, what they Were. Pearls.

Our God is big. He does not live in same dimension that we do. He readily sees us all. Yet he has the desire and effort to lovingly see, appreciate, and enjoy (!), what he has made individually.

You are an expression of luxury, purity, extravagance. And he has chosen you as his own.

Here is a list of scripture references, used and unused from yesterday.

May the Word of God soak deeply into your roots… Continue reading →

So what does it mean to faith God? I just watched the movie, “Faith Like Potatoes.” Twice. It challenged me to ask with whether I really believe that in doing His work He is able to do far more than we ASK or imagine. But I am not sure I am ASKING enough. Are you?

We spend a lot of time analyzing whether we are doing His work. Maybe that is the wrong end of the stick. God’s job description might be much more simple than ours. Giving our all to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”

But I am talking about the the Asking. What am I willing to ask of my Husband, my Dad, my Creator and then walk in belief that He is happy to say yes…That he is for me. That he is Good in all his ways.

The Bible says that we have not because we ask not. Can we walk in boldness without arrogance? Can we believe without doubting or grabbing the glory for ourselves?

I have been pondering the word, “worship.” From the Greek, proskuneos, its definition has and can be taken several ways. But being more straight forward, I meditated on the literal definition, “to kiss toward.” My results were provocative at bare minimum.

I listen to lots of different kinds of music, much of it Christian-oriented, so you hear the word worship. A lot. Almost flippantly so. We almost make it sound kind of — arduous…like worship is a chore, a duty-bound obligation we give to God. Which does not sound nearly as fun as kissing. So I decided to do a test.

This last week as I heard the word worship, in song, in scripture, in books, I substituted the phrase to kiss toward something. Or rather, some One. It really challenged my intimacy with God.

I was stirred to ask: Am I conscious that there is someone receiving my kiss? Am I aware that to kiss someone well requires some attraction, some adoration? Am I being whole-hearted in this moment, this moment alone, as I throw my kisses around in word, deed, and song?

So where are you throwing your kisses?

I looked at the posters hung on the bathroom wall of the music store. A guy holding a violin. A woman cradling a flute. A man grasping a trumpet. And, my personal favorite, a beaming man holding a tuba proudly, as if it were a bouncing baby boy.

What on earth had these seemingly non-descript, non-modelish, non-Brad Pitt-ish people done to have their somber, stoic, smirking or smiling faces, and their prized instruments, mounted on posters?

Then it hit me. Each of these people were masters of their instruments. They had taken the mundane middle and high school instrument, and with hours of devotion and practice they had turned it into an instrument extraordinaire. Somewhere these average Janes and Joes must have heard someone playing their instrument so well, so above average, so all together “other,” that they aspired to be like masters they had admired.

Passion does that. It takes two seemingly unimportant, obscure, random elements and creates something so beautiful that it creates a following, complete with posters.

Passion produces dedication which often produces such excellence that people want to take notice, want to hail, want to yell: this is worthy of my attention.

What can produce such an outcome? As a Jesus follower, it interests me to hear people call for more Bible verses and more service as the pathway to the Christian experience. In essence they are saying, more practice. But as in anything first comes inspiration then aspiration.

It is the passion of Jesus that makes me want to be like him. Seeing Christ in action inspires me to be like him. Seeing lives transformed, wholeness in place of brokenness, peace in the midst of storms, inspires people like you and me to be like the Master we admire. In fact Jesus promised us this very thing. “No man is above his master, but in due time he can learn to be like him.” Seeing the God life lived out inspires us to live a God life.

Jesus lived (and lives) with such passion for the goal, passion for the broken, passion for what we have been promised that he inspires us to be like him. And what is that promise? “That you will do even greater works than these,” Jesus said. Passion. Wonder if we have posters on the bathroom walls of heaven?