General

Now That He Is Risen…

/ Jana / 1 Comment

Have you read the Day After story lately? Of just what happened after Jesus rose from the dead. (Do you ever just get startled when you read words like that?  It is really mind blowing…)

The soldiers see an angel. They faint. The women see Jesus. They weep and then run to the other followers. Then Jesus begins a series of appearances. From the Emmaus road download to two lucky listeners to the amazing 500 witnesses, He was out and and about.  Seeing and being seen. And I was pondering something.  Even when Jesus appeared to them, He was instructing and teaching of more to come. What else could there be after the dead being raised to life?

Fasten your seat belts. This could get sticky….

Lent has always nettled me a little. The idea of fasting and “denying” oneself as  a way to prepare for the death of Jesus always has seemed out of whack. I didn’t know why until this week. Of course it is a beautiful tradition. Of course fasting is a beautiful discipline. Of course we prepare our hearts each year to remember the suffering of our Lord.

But. Let’s look at what Jesus said. Even He rebuked the religious leaders of His day who wondered why His followers were not fasting. Jesus replied that you don’t fast when you are at the party. You fast when the party is over.  Or perhaps when the next party is getting ready to come. While we talk a lot about fasting and somberness prior to the Resurrection, it is only AFTER the Resurrection that Jesus instructed His followers to pray, and fast and watch.  What were they told to get ready for?

The Coming of the Holy Spirit.  The Third Person of the Trinity. Father, Son and Spirit.

Makes me wonder why we don’t throw a party celebrating Pentecost like we do Easter and Christmas. The Spirit is worthy of receiving, worthy of a party, worthy of preparing our hearts for. Makes me wonder about fasting now, after Easter, in anticipation of Pentecost. Fasting is, after all, a way to make room for more of God. It is a way to weed out those little affections that crowd out the Real love.

Think about it. There is more to come on Living in Third Person.

The Power of Posthumous

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I have been pondering the similarities of the Nativity and Resurrection. So I looked up the definition of the word, “Nativity.” Funny how I have never known what that meant. Here is a shocker. It is Latin for “birth.” In particular it talks about the Holy birth of Jesus Christ. Resurrection speaks of rising from the dead. And even Webster doesn’t mention any other person’s name in this definition but Jesus. Funny that.

But then when I started looking at death, I stumbled upon the word, “Posthumous.”

Check out the definition:

  1. Occurring or continuing after one’s death: a posthumous award

WORD HISTORY   The word posthumous is associated with death, both in meaning and in form. Our word goes back to the Latin word postumus, meaning “last born, born after the death of one’s father, born after the making of a will,” and “last, final.”

Postumus was largely used with respect to events occurring after death… Because of its use in connection with death, however, later Latin writers decided that the last part of the word must have to do with humus, “earth,” or humāre, “to bury,” and began spelling the word posthumus.

This makes me laugh.  Think about Jesus. He is the last Adam. His Life is a work that continues on after His death. He was buried and His work continues on. It continues not because someone discovered His worth and value after His death, like some remote artist. No. His work continues because He lives again. His Life lives in us and He continues to work out His plan through us. Truly, He is Risen indeed.

What kind of Posthumous Award could we give Jesus?  Our lovesick hearts is all that He desires.

Blood and Water

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Let’s stretch a little shall we? Here are two words to consider: consecrate and purify. Or in other words, set apart and cleansed.

There are a lot of parallels between the birth and death of our Lord. I have never thought it before. Ever. But now I am seeing them everywhere. Let’s look at the blood and the water.

Jesus came to this earth through blood and water. In childbirth, Mary’s water broke, and she delivered her Son in the same way we all arrived, by pain and blood. And when we look at Jesus’ death, we shudder at the blood and pain. But when they pierced His side, blood and water also flowed out.

Why does this matter? Because all through the Old and New Testaments you see the same thing. Blood and water. In the Holy of Holies there was blood on the altar and a laver of water for washing. With Elijah there was a blood sacrifice and 12 jars of water. Even Jesus was baptized before He was crucified.

At the Last Supper, Jesus used water to wash the disciples feet and gave them wine as a symbol of His blood.  Think God is trying to tell us something? Blood and water. Consecrated and purified.

It is the blood that pays for sin; it is the water that washes us. We are not only paid for, we are cleansed, forever. He is trying to tell us, “Everything you need, I have. Everything it takes to live this life, from birth through blood and water, to the resurrected life, through blood and water, I have accomplished this in you, for you.”

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [with blood] to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)

Consider today what it means to be set apart and cleansed by God.  When Jesus uttered, “It is finished,” it was not the end of His life He was referring to, but rather the beginning. . . . The beginning of our lives made holy, and wholly new.

Kissed the Face of God

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There are two kisses that changed the course of history.  Mark Lowry summed up the first in his song, “Mary Did You Know?”  He thoughtfully and beautifully penned the words,

“Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.”

I just can’t get over that visual. Of holding and caressing the newborn face of Jesus and also knowing that “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.” (Hebrews 1)  But another kiss to that Holy face was a catalyst beyond compare.  “Jesus asked him, ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’ ” Luke 22:48

One kiss was proof of the prophecy fulfilled that she was holding in her arms. The other kiss was also a prophecy fulfilled. But it makes us so uncomfortable. Many people try to reason through the betrayal of Judas.  Some say he acted out of disappointment when he realized Jesus was not the warrior king to overthrow Rome. (Yet.) Some say he was jealous of Jesus, others say he was a plant from the beginning.

But Jesus picked Judas. And He loved him and walked with him for three years, teaching and exhorting.  Is it possible, even remotely, that Judas betrayed the Son of God for sheer money?  Is it so difficult for us to believe that we would trade the Truth of God for cash in our pockets? 

This is a question to reflect on. It may hit closer to home than we think. Do we gamble, trade, bank on a sure thing jingling in our hand, more than the God in our midst? Perhaps our answer makes the redemption story all the greater. For He loves us still.

Enjoy this song that really speaks to this kind of love.  “And I don’t know what to do with a love like that…”

 And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn’t hit

And I don’t know
What to do with a love like that
And I don’t know
How to be a love like that

When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do

Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something

And the problem it seems
Is with you and me
Not the Love who came
To repair everything

And I don’t know
What to do with a love like that
And I don’t know
How to be a love like that

When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do

Where there is pain
Let us bring grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Let us be brave
Where there is misery
Let us bring them relief
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Oh surely we can change
Something

Oh, the world’s about to change
The whole world’s about to change

All Creation Groans

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I got it again this year.  The email about how pine trees produce new growth that looks tiny crosses. Only this year I didn’t doubt, or scoff, or mock because last year I took the time to look and see, time to watch and pray. Sure enough, certain kinds of pine trees go through a growth spurt that looks like tiny crosses right before Easter. Every year. Right before Easter. Regardless of when Easter comes.

A lot like Bradford Pears.  One year when Easter came in early March, and experts said it wouldn’t be that early again for 200 years, the Bradford Pears still burst into a glorious white display. Why?  Because all creation groans. Because “all heaven and nature sings the wonders of His love.” Because the budding beauty of Spring has less to do with the calendar and more to do with the earth receiving Her King.

Remember the star of Bethlehem?  It is just evidences that the Eternal Love story God foretold and retold since ancient days is for our benefit.

And I don’t know about you, but on Good Friday, such a showy display of beauty feels out of place.  More like flowers at a funeral. No matter how pretty and sweet, they don’t cover the scent of death.

But on Easter morning, when you are crumpled at the empty tomb, distraught from His absence, and you hear Him call your name, all this changes. “Woman why are you weeping?”  It is in this breathtaking moment,  you turn and see Him alive, and well, and Risen. In this moment, the splash of colors and sweetness on the wind is like a Lover’s bouquet in a nail scarred hand. And the words on His lips are the best proposal you have ever heard.

“Never will I leave you or forsake you.”

“Like it happened to someone you know…”

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After I killed the easter bunny in the WGR class, I spent the rest of the evening talking about the pieces and pictures of this incredible rescue story, of Jesus saving the world. Then I asked the women what is something they were asking for this Easter to help them go deeper into the Redemption Story. Some said greater awareness of God. Some said more dependence. Some were just full of joy and gratefulness and wanted to share that more.

But one woman took my breath away.  She said she wanted the crucifixion story to be more real to her. She said she didn’t want to just say that Jesus died on the cross, and suffered all those terrible things, and not care. She didn’t want to be able to roll that off her tongue and have no emotional reaction to it. “I want to feel and believe it like this happened to someone I know.”

I gently said, “But we do know him.”  She said, “I know we do, but I don’t think about Jesus like I think about my boyfriend.  If my boyfriend went through that, I would be devastated, it would kill me, I would feel something.  I want to feel like that about Jesus, but I don’t.”

Jesus loves to answer these kinds of prayers. I so, so applaud this honesty.  And it makes me ask, is He someone we know? Do we really care what happened? What do you feel?  Guilt, obligation? Gratefulness, confusion? Unspeakable joy?

When I first heard her comment, in my spirit I thought, I DO know Him, I do care about what happened to Him.  But then the Holy Spirit showed me, “Now you do, Jana. But when He died for you, you did not.”

This is God’s love in action. That while we were yet sinners — cold hearted, dead in our sins, grieving him not, concerned not one whit for his agony — Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Oh the beauty of celebrating the Redemption Story. To realize since the beginning of time, He is the ever-pursuing God.  Jesus did do, and is doing whatever it takes that we might experience this Holy relationship; that we would recognize the gift of “knowing Him,” and Him knowing us, up close and personal.

Look for Love this Resurrection Sunday.  May you discover the power and beauty of what happened to Someone you know.

Take a Breath, by Guest Blogger, Beth Hungerford

/ Jana / 1 Comment

The Lord gave me a really cool spiritual picture.  Jana was talking to me about sin issues and how when we have a break-through that it’s like God is bringing us up for air and letting us take a breath before we have to go back down and keep working through the issue.  In other words, we are not done; He’s just giving us a breath and a sense of making progress.

Here is the picture He gave me.  We were playing water polo during swim practice several summers ago.  Brittany, my very fun and extremely competitive coach, was on the other team.  I was having a great game and had scored 2 or 3 times practically unguarded.  Brittany was getting frustrated that no one was defending me so she switched from offense to defense.  The next time I got the ball she wrapped her arms around me from behind so tightly and completely that I couldn’t move and plunged me under the water in hopes that I would let go of the ball.  After a few moments she brought me back up said, “Take a breath,” and immediately dunked me right back under.  This is such a strong picture for me of what Jana was talking about.

As I thought about it more the Lord clarified it a little making a distinction.  Brittany was taking me under trying to get me to give up and stop fighting whereas the Lord’s goal is for us to be free and have a deeper and closer walk with Him.  He lets us struggle until we are ready to give up and then brings us up for air to let us catch our breath and says, “Ok you ready? You are stronger now and you can hold your breath longer so this time we are going in deeper and it’s going to be even more amazing.”

This goes for more than just sin issues.  I need to remember this the next time I find myself having to deal with something I thought I had already worked through.  We weren’t done, He was just giving me a breath.

Sugar or Blood?

/ Jana / 1 Comment

There are a few things that really get my knickers in a knot.  And the easter bunny is in the top three.  When it comes to honoring, loving, enjoying, and celebrating the Holy Days, I get pretty steamed by cheap counterfeits. Now with Christmas, I can hold my head just right and see some value in the story of St. Nick, aka Santa. He was a man who loved Jesus and loved others in His name.  Sure “Santa” has been sanitized of any God truth, but the origins are noble. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t like Santa either. He is a pointless distraction from the Birth of God.  But the easter bunny is not only ridiculous, it is blasphemous.

Let me explain.  The bunny is a symbol of fertility, as in to mate in the same way rabbits do.  With speed and frequency, resulting in many offspring. Doesn’t this sound, I don’t know, holy? The egg is a symbol of new life. You take a sperm and an egg, and voila’ you have new life.

However, this is not the story of Jesus, the the Slain and Risen Lamb of God.  In His life, from virgin birth to brutal death and miraculous resurrection, sex is not the issue. Creating life is not the issue. Procreation has been giving to humankind and the animal kingdom. 

More than new life, Jesus was the Lamb chosen for slaughter for the Passover meal. It was His blood that was posted on our door frames so that the angel of death might pass over us.  And when He was killed, it was not candy and colored eggs we received, but the access into the Holy of Holies. Communion with God because the veil was torn.

In the empty tomb, we don’t see “new life.” This is not merely life created by human effort, or animal instinct. This isn’t a maternity ward.  This is a Miracle.  The Holy Dead was resurrected. Jesus was brought from death to life.   And with His resurrection comes all our hope and joy of life from now through all eternity.

What has the easter bunny ever done for us, or our children, but make us fat and satisfied with a sugary delusion?  It is not fun, not harmless. It is a false idol. No more, no less.

“To Tell the Old, Old Story”

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It has become for us like putting up the Christmas Tree, only at Easter Time.

We take out and unwrap each piece that we have made or gathered. And as we do, we reflect on its specific contribution to the greatest story ever told.  There is a donkey with yarn fur. A clay bowl. A paper Jesus with red crayon marks on His hands and feet.  And more. We call it the “Resurrection Scene” and we put it on display a few weeks before Easter. Why?  Because it became absurd to us that we would spend so much time and money to “deocrate and celebrate” the coming of Christ, and not “decorate and celebrate” His death and resurrection. For without these two events, Jesus was just a baby.

This year we are making a scurge. It was Salem’s suggestion because she has been studying armor and medieval weaponry for years. But I am watching to see what the Holy Spirit does in her heart, as her hands create a weapon like that which ripped the flesh of her Lord.  Our Lord.  Ripped for us. “By His stripes we are healed.”

And now, just for review… someone tell me what on earth the easter bunny has to do with this beautiful story?  What can candy and a farcical absurd notion of rabbits laying eggs possibly add to the power and awe of our sins being washed away by the blood of the Lamb?

What could be more “magical” than a dead man being raised back to life? How great our joy.

As Heather Says, “Simmah Dahn Nah.”

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Translation: Simmer down now.

Not sure this isn’t beating a dead horse, but I want to circle back around on the blogs from last week. There was a lot of concern/instruction about my upset on the pregnant question. Thank you. And tons of concern about the offending woman. Thank you.

But I want to clarify that wasn’t about her. If I didn’t make that clear, let me repeat. It was about me and the Lord. As my friend Lyschel said, “she just happened to be the person who delivered the blow to the piece of the dam that loosed some stuff for you.” Amen. And the irritation of the moment was worth the revelation from God later.

However, glossing over the irritation, or denying it, or padding it, might not have resulted in the same revelation. Why were we so concerned about even broaching the topic? Is the idea of offending so off limits? Is it un-Christian? Is our every conversation to be without emotional upset?

Do you think Jesus offended people?

I am quite sure He did. In fact I think God purposely blows us up emotionally to get to our heart. Just like He did me last week. It is okay to be offended. It is okay to be angry. It is okay to express all of that. The better question is what do we DO in the that moment.

It is also okay for us to learn grace, to learn how to speak the truth in difficult moments. What if we were not talking about social faux pas, but life and death issues: porn, abortion, eating disorders? What then? I think there will be all kinds of sparks flying in those conversations.

In my first blog on this topic, I said, “Grace is not the same as silence.” I chose silence that day, because I lacked grace. And in my human observation, we don’t get to grace without practice. We learn it, one difficult encounter at a time. He doesn’t waste anything. I am so glad.

I don’t think God’s goal is for us to”be nice.”  I think His goal is that we”speak the truth in love.”  And then gives us a lifetime to practice.