Faith

Does Jesus Matter in Life?

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Does it really make any difference if we are Christians when we are facing real life circumstances?

I wonder if the average Christian truly has any expectation that the presence of God will actually impact the situations he or she is living through. And I also wonder, do we lack expectation because we lack faith?

Right now in my circle of life, there are all kinds of car issues. Our old van is more and more refusing to go into reverse. Laura’s transmission gave up the ghost all together. Shimmi just got hit with huge auto repair bills. On top of these needs I have loved ones facing foreclosure, facing medical debt collectors, and using roofing loans to pay for groceries.

Does an eternal Jesus matter in these concrete issues?

My mind goes to the Narnia stories by C.S. Lewis. Lucy was the first of four children to experience the all together Other Reality of Narnia that was far more real than their everyday England. And over and over people would doubt, malign or question the reality of Aslan, the great Lion who was the True King of Narnia. And over and over, Lucy looked for Aslan. She asked for Aslan. She hoped for Aslan.

And over and over, Aslan showed up in the most surprising ways. Unpredictable yet unchanging. I am learning to believe that if you never have need of a god, you are doomed indeed. It is in those “God I am hopeless unless You show up on my account” moments that we see we need a God, and we are not God. I think this is a good thing. And God is happy to be God for us. I think this is the best thing.

In one Nania scene when all seems lost, Aslan remarkably shows up, to which Lucy remarks, “You came!”

“Of course I came. Did you question that I would, child?” Aslan asks.

Lord give us Lucy hearts. Teach us to look for You in the hardest of moments with hearts of faith. And teach us to wait expectantly for Your appearing in our hard places.

“You surround them with your favor as with a shield.” Psalm 5:12

Driving Blind By Faith

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It was one of those moments when the Supernatural overshadowed the natural. I was taking the girls to school just like any other of hundred trips down the same road. But this morning, the familiar road was completely clouded by fog. As we came down to the intersection, you could barely make out the traffic light. Instead of being able to see the rise of the the next hill with its traffic lights, cars, trees and buildings, instead of being able to see like we did every time, there was only a wall of fog.

You literally could not see more than fifty feet in front of you. I thought to myself, “Am I really going to drive blind?”  Then came the Supernatural moment. 

“We live by faith and not by sight.”

And we drove on, straight into the wall of fog. 

Why did we do that? Because we had some sense of what was ahead? Maybe.
Because it was rote and routine? Maybe.

But really it was because we knew where we were going. We had Faith that somehow, some way, we were going to make it where we were going. Even though we couldn’t see all the details, we knew we would get there. As we kept going, the road continued to clear before us, little by little.

If you can do this in the natural, how much more power do you have to do this in the Supernatural? Because in Christ, you not only know Where you are going, but also you know Who is with you. Don’t be afraid to Faith God just like you faith those roads in the fog.

Keep driving, and let Him bring revelation in the middle of mist. He knows where you are going and He will get you there.

Things Are Not As They Appear

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First. Let me say how thankful I am for hot, running water; electricity that rarely goes out; and computers that work. These are a few of my favorites things.

Second. I am so fired up about  the WGR class beginning Aug. 31 at Fellowship Church. This is going to be a great semester as we reach toward freedom.

Third. It is a good thing I get to blog every day because my cup runneth over. Zim stories, post Zim revelations, parenting growing pains, a disturbing trip to the mall, my post-it notes update, funny Man stories….I’ve got a lot of words to get out. Whew. Let me tell you what is burning most in my heart today.

As we were very first flying from Knoxville to D.C. on our trip, the sky was near impossible to describe.  It was as if we were floating in the “ocean” of air. There was a layer of clouds that looked like white crested waves, another large blue layer filled with small “fish-like” cirrus clouds moving slowly as if in schools.  It was a magical moment to be flying in a plane and have the sensation of scuba diving. Softly, I heard the Lord whisper, “Things are not as they appear.”

Hmmm.  I tucked that comment into my heart, feeling half encouraged and half warned. Later that night, three other people had similar impressions from the Lord, to not be deceived by appearances. In retrospect this is one of my greatest takeaways from this experience with God: we walk by faith and not by sight.

The sheer act of walking with God is one of close communion. Close enough to hold His hand, hear His whisper, feel His warmth. But it is also the sheer act of walking with God that invites us to lay down the need to know and control our own lives. Or perhaps, more importantly, lay down the arrogance that we can rightly translate our lives and circumstances.

Things are not as they appear. Here are some examples:

• The ticket lady had given us the cold shoulder. Our missed flight was not her problem. So while burning time in the airport, we began practicing our music. The three of us just sang out to the passing throng of internationals:  “Declare His glory  among the nations, For Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise. Declare His gory among the nations. Among all the peoples His marvelous deeds.”  A few moments later, the same woman who had completely rejected us, turned and put us up in a beautiful hotel and re-arranged our flights.

• I was prayer walking around the orphanage, asking God to renounce the evil that several of us had sensed was trying to gain a foothold.  As I walked the property, I saw the iron barred gates at the entrance.  I thought of the scripture that says the gates of hell will not prevail against them. I was intently praying this promise and walking toward the gates to touch them.  Out of nowhere, a small child appeared two steps ahead of me and closed the gates. It took my breath away. Not from fear. But awe. Was God showing me the answer to my prayer?

On and on we had these “moments” that seemed common, but a with a spiritual weight. I have come home with a greater confidence and greater calm.  It is one thing to sing “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” It’s another thing to actually live it.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

Burn Us Up

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I’ve been sitting in I Peter 1: 7 lately:

“These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Burn Us Up, by Shane and Shane really speaks into this idea. Enjoy!

There were three before the king.
There were three who wouldn’t bow to him.
For when you heard the music play and you were standing you would burn.
They looked at him and said…

Burn us up. Burn us up. Burn us up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
We give up. We give up. We give up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
Oh won’t you throw us in the fire.

The king enraged at what they said.
Sent the three away to find their death.
The palace stopped in unbelief when the guilty raised their hands to sing.  

They looked to Him and said…

Burn us up. Burn us up. Burn us up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
We give up. We give up. We give up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
Oh won’t you save us from the fire.

You are able to deliver from the fire of affliction!
It’s the declaration of my Lord!
You’re not an image of gold!
You’re the God of Old.
You have made us. Come and save us. We are yours!
But even if you don’t we will burn.

So burn us up in the furnace of your desire.

Pink Pigs and Black Lab

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Her name is Lucy.  She is a black lab that is a little over four months old. Wondering why you haven’t heard much about her?  Because her future has been on shaky ground these first 3 – 4 months…. What was I thinking to go back into Puppyland? But the verdict is in. She is definitely going to live, and live with us. I am so glad because this morning she provided a beautiful “Ah-ha” moment with the Lord about Unanswered Prayers.

The Lord and I have been talking a lot about the difference between feelings, facts and faith. Feelings are good, only not enough to build a life on. Facts are good but can be deceiving.  What are facts to me, may be not quite the whole picture from God’s perspective. My friend Mary made a great distinction between facts and Truth. She said facts are information but Truth is power.  Wow.  I loved that. And then finally, or rather ultimately, there is Faith. Belief in the unseen power, love and goodness of God. Ahhh– the squeeze begins.

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood.”
“Faith proved more precious than gold.”
“His ways are higher than our ways.”

Talk about tension.

God is revealing everything in my life that competes for His affection. I am pretty sure I want this or that. And He says “No, but you can have more of Me.”  I ask for something else. He says “No, but you can have more of Me.”  And on it goes.

I don’t feel bad about the process. I don’t think He does either. He is trying to show me how I go looking for the wrong thing, the lesser thing, the Un-needed thing over and over. He is painfully but lovingly showing me how I believe in what I can see more than what He has promised me. Enter Lucy.

Lucy has a whole bag of toys: Old shoes, a red lobster, an orange pumkin, and her favorite, “Blue,” a blobby blue toy with a face. Go figure. But every single day, I said every single day, Lucy sneaks into Charis’ room and nabs a pink pig slipper and lays down and begins chewing on it.

Every day I say no.  Some days she brings it to me as if to say, “Today?”  Other days, she waits ’til I am distracted and slinks off to her bed with it in her mouth. And of course I see her and take it away and give her one of her own toys. She seems oblivious to the fact that her whole world is governed by me; that I know the condition of her toys. I replace them as needed and buy her new ones just for fun. I buy her food and make sure she eats. I even clean up her many messes, some that are true accidents, and many that are on purpose.  But I do more than provide for her. I enjoy her.  I am here for her, but she is also here for me and my family.  There is an emotional exchange between us.

I am like Lucy more than I care to admit.  Every day, I ask for some stupid pink pig. Every day, I think that I have to scrounge, or that I can sneak, when the reality is, my world is governed by my Living God.  But I am more than a family pet to Him; I am His bride.

Really. You are too. Really.  Maybe faith is believing that those pink pigs are only distractions and the safest place I can be is in His arms.  There has been a Holy Exchange between us. I am here for Him. And He does more than provide; He enjoys me.

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32

Can You Feel It?

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I was in this crazy meeting the other day, and my friend/mentor said: “The problem with Jana is she has to FEEL everything. She has to have a feeling before she takes action, or a feeling before she believes the facts.”

He kept talking, but I noticed everything went on pause for me as I considered what he said.  Is this a good thing or a bad thing to need to FEEL everything?

Yes. Both. I had to do a lot of work to learn how to feel emotions, love and confidence. I had to dig through a lot of rubbish to find my heart. So I don’t dismiss this progress. That’s the good part. But I also see that if I don’t FEEL the right thing, or enough of some thing, I pause, or stall, or panic. That’s the bad part.

Somewhere in here is the need for Faith.

Faith, I am coming to believe, is not built on feelings, but fact.  There are the FACTS of God that are true whether my feelings line up or not.  These facts have been in existence long before and long after my feelings stir, blaze, and fade.  And my answer to the gap that exists between fact and feeling is worship.

I declare over myself the realities of the Living God. I renounce the “spirit” of despair and announce the goodness of the Spirit of God.  I worship the Truest thing I know, the Love of God. And by faith, I believe my feelings will catch up sooner or later.

How do your feelings dictate, translate and frustrate your life, your successes, even your failures?

Seth Godin’s Blog really hit the spot this morning…  As you read it, do a heart check and get moving.  “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

I don’t feel like it

What’s it?

Why do you need to feel like something in order to do the work? They call it work because it’s difficult, not because it’s something you need to feel like.

Very few people wake up in the morning and feel like taking big risks or feel like digging deep for something that has eluded them. People don’t usually feel like pushing themselves harder than they’ve pushed before or having conversations that might be uncomfortable.

Of course, your feelings are irrelevant to whether or not the market expects great work. Do the work. Ignore the feelings part and the work will follow.

~ Seth Godin

Impossible = Miracle

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This revelation is too big to eat in one sitting.  So today’s manna is an appetizer portion with one of those big, leafy, lettuce things under it.

Do you ever listen to your own prayers?

I need…. I need…. I need….

I want, I won’t, I don’t, I can’t…

Are You…will You… aren’t You…when, why, how are You going to….?

It really is kind of scary. Not that God doesn’t love our heart felt cries for His help. He has complete mercy and grace for His children.

But what if we are praying all — I don’t know–wrong? What if we don’t have to persuade God to action, but rather we pray to persuade ourselves to believe?

Do we want lives of ease and even boredom, or do we want to see God in action?

Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives. We want everything in our favor. But maybe God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Maybe faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are. Maybe our impossible situations are opportunities to experience a new dimension of God’s glory.

pg 24, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

I am so confronted by my desire for divine relief instead of the display of God’s glory. How bad is your situation? Pretty bad, huh? Then it is really, really important for us to know: Just how big is our God?

Main course on Monday.

You Know Better Than I…

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Last night in the WGR class, the Lord brought back to mind a fantastic song of faith.  It is from the movie, Joseph, King of Dreams.  I tell you, every time I watch the movie or even hear the song, I cry.  It seems the song always finds me in a place of need, and the words invite me back into the arms of my loving God. I also cry because of the picture of Joseph’s journey— from the golden child favored by his father, full of promise and dreams, to sold as a slave and then prison.  What must it really have felt like?

His story strengthens me. Did Joseph think God had lied? Did he feel despair or abandoned?  Did his dreams strengthen him in the dungeon, or haunt him?  Joseph’s life is a parable of our own.  We have dreams and plans, but God has His own path for us. I am finding that sometimes, actually most times, we have to go through worse to get to better.  Joseph learned to see God in it all. Every step of the way.

I want that too.  I want faith and love even in the dungeon.  May God strengthen and persuade us that His ways are better and are altogether good, and He uses all things to accomplish His purposes, for us and for others. “What you meant for evil against me, God meant for good.”

Even Joseph’s dreams could not have predicted  or prepared him for the path that led from the dungeon to saving a nation.  What did God deposit in the dungeon that prepared Joseph’s heart for the days ahead? Perhaps only this: “You know better than I.”

And that was enough, for Joseph and for us.

Here is a link to watch the movie clip with the lyrics. I hope you are blessed as much as I am every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oL6HlzQZLo

Eye on the Prize

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“Count them happy who for their faith and their courage endured a great fight.”

This was inscribed on a Charleston statue in honor of the Confederate defenders of Ft. Sumter 1861-1865. But when I read it, I didn’t only think about blue and gray uniforms, or redcoats and colonists, or Yanks and Brits against Nazis.

I thought about being “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” as we endure this great fight of faith. It is a battle. It does require courage and faith. And, if rightly grounded in truth, it does make us happy, even when it costs us our lives. But what are we fighting for?

Hebrews 11:1 says faith is believing in things hoped for, and evidence of things yet seen. So we do well to KNOW what we are “faithing.” What is it that we are hoping for, what unseen thing are we banking our whole lives on?

Sure the church answer is, “heaven.” But that sounds almost a little too scrubbed clean. Too far off. We need something that is up close and personal. As close as a bullet whizzing past your head. Certainly in those sweat-soaked, heart-pounding moments, you have to KNOW what it is you’re risking your whole existence fighting for.

“I have come that they might have life to the full,” Jesus declared. And when He said it, the impact was as rousing as a mud-soaked soldier lifting a tattered flag and yelling, “FREEDOM!” What we battle for is Freedom. Freedom to live in Christ in all His fullness. Unhindered. Not one day, but Today. His power revealed in us to love, to heal, to live as He did. Christ in us is truly the hope of glory that we live and die for.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,
and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2