glory

So Here’s The Rub

/ Jana / 1 Comment

So here is the rub. If God made us and thinks we are beautiful, why are we not to make our lives about being beautiful?

 As with everything in the journey with Jesus, it is about our heart motive. We have one of two choices. To worship the created or the Creator. We can be led astray by the enticements around us which lead us to hypersexuality, idolatry, and despair.

Or we can follow the path of Jesus.

He said,  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)

Never forget that God looks at the heart. When there is an understanding of who we are, because of whose we are, the game is over. I take care of myself because it is a way of worship, a way of saying thank you to my maker. It doesn’t increase my worth. It just polishes the shine of a diamond. Of course you are beautiful. Of course I am beautiful. And, no I don’t need your eyes all over my body to confirm that. I don’t need your knowing smile of appreciation to make me tingle.

I knew the walls were falling one day when I pulled up to a gas station and saw the pack of males. In the past, I would have either made eye contact and smiled to draw their attention (Trophy Woman) or I would have ducked my head in shame knowing they would not notice me (Invisible Woman).

But that day, I got out of my car looked to the sky and smiled. “He delights in me,” I said out loud. I nearly skipped into the store to pay for gas. I was overwhelmed by love of the One True Beholder.

And the guys… I have no idea what they did. I totally didn’t care.

Excerpt taken from Unhindered, Chapter 41

Let’s Get Real Here:

What do you think and feel when you read that God is your One True Beholder?

The False Woman

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Let me give you an couple of illustrations of the False Woman.

There was a photo I got by email. It The photo captures one lone woman, pale and plain, holding a sign that said, “Women are not decorations.” She is glaring at the short-short clad women in Hooters® tank tops standing right beside her. They are bronzed, dyed and pushed up. They look at her with mocking smiles, and pity.

The only caption was “Think she is jealous?

I looked a long, long time at that photo.

My first reaction was, no actually I am not jealous. I am sick. I am sick for both groups of women who have totally missed the point of being a woman. God’s woman.

The False Woman has two faces, or two ends of the spectrum. Most of us live somewhere on the spectrum. One face, or end of the spectrum, is like the Hooters® girl. I call this obsessive desire for beauty the Trophy Woman. The other face, or spectrum end I call the Invisible Woman.

The Hooters® girl has determined that it is only what’s on the outside that counts. She has to look “just so” to be considered a “Worthy Woman.” Her success is measured by her bust size, her waist size and how many heads she turns. So much so, she is paid to turn heads. Not only does she live for that look, she is prostituting her beauty, and gets paid to let guys look down her shirt.

Let’s revisit the email photo. The homely protesting woman has determined that it is only what’s on the inside that counts. She has bought hook, line and sinker that it is only about “Inner Beauty.” She’s decided all that fluff and primp effort is vanity. Somewhere she has believed that she can’t win at the beauty game, so she has quit the game altogether. Can you see her complete lack of effort is just an extreme opposite of the Trophy Woman’s obsessive effort? I have found when you dig a little with the Invisible Woman, just like in the Trophy Woman, there is almost always a gaping wound.

The Invisible Woman wears a mantle of heartache. Her face, her countenance, her posture, screams out unloved, unattractive, uninvolved, unaware of God’s original design of a woman. To somehow separate herself from the Trophy Woman lie, she goes to the opposite extreme.

When I talk about beauty God- style, it is not about denying it, but about embracing it.

 In this photo you can see the pain in the protestor’s eyes. Somebody somewhere told this woman that she was not lovely. And she believed that lie. When you see a woman who is un-tended to, I don’t mean no make-up, I mean un-invested in, un-cared for, you know who I am talking about, she is living out of a definition other than her maker’s.

Whether Trophy or Invisible, both women represent the same problem from the opposite ends of the spectrum called the False Woman. If we don’t live in God’s definition then we settle for the Hollywood cultural definitions of womanhood, we let ourselves be put in assigned boxes:

Got it,

Might get it,

Used to have it,

Never had it.

We have been put in these boxes, like it or not. So when we look around the room and see all the other boxes, we have to do something to make our assigned box seem like home. So we rationalize our health, our body structure, our genes, eating patterns, our drama and trauma stories, whatever it takes, to justify the box we have been assigned to. But guess what? All of these boxes are lies.

All of them. Lies.

Exerpt taken from Unhindered, Chapter 41

Let’s Get Real Here:

Where do you fall on the False Woman spectrum? Can you name the lies and wounds that hold you there? What do you think of beauty God-style?

What Did Jesus Do?

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Dr. Hagar wrote As Jesus Cared for Women and through that book he really flushed out some lies in my belief system. It was so refreshing to read the heart of a man who saw that Jesus didn’t look down on women. He loved them, restored them, elevated them, honored them, listened to them. Jesus didn’t try to put them in boxes. Jesus wanted them to be free.

He didn’t die so that they might be discounted and discredited as the weaker sex. He died to release them from the curse, from spending all their energy running after a man or from being ruled by one. He died so His women would be free to love Him, fully.

Have you ever considered how Jesus radically rocked the world in His treatment of women?

–The adulteress He forgave. But He looked down at the ground, instead of cruising her.

–The Samaritan woman He asked for water. He asked of her. That in itself was a gift, to interact with her as a capable equal rather than someone to be shunned. He offered her abundance instead of judgment.

–To the sinner who washed His feet with her hair, He defended her devotion in public and declared that what she had done for Him would be told for all eternity.

– To Martha, He first revealed that He was the Resurrection

–To Mary, He first appeared as the Risen Lord.

Is it possible that Jesus forgot that women were property? Forgot that the weaker sex was to stay behind a man?

Or did Jesus purposely turn the male order on its ear? Did Jesus clearly become the only man she was to stand behind? Her one true spiritual leader.

We have a Spiritual Leader. His name is Jesus. And He is really great at His job.

Of all the things a man can and should be, and all the things a woman can and should be, why put on labels and pressures that we were never meant to carry?

Perhaps this side of the cross, the woman and the man are to again co-rule as co-heirs. They are to stand side by side, arm in arm, under the banner, authority and love of Jesus Christ. Just as He said that the “two became one flesh and to let no man tear it apart,” this hope of oneness lies in the power of Christ working through each face of His image.  This union is about a God-created intimacy where both bring all they have to the table, male and female, and as one under Christ they live life and serve and further God’s kingdom.

Do you see that when we as man and woman both live in our original intent, with our definition and desire met in our maker, then there is a supernatural harmony in relationship? Instead of bossing or clawing, we are both restored to walk together in our journeys with God.

Excerpt taken from Unhindered, Chapter 40

Let’s Get Real Here:

What would change in your life if Jesus was your spiritual leader?  Does it change the way you think of yourself to see how Jesus valued women?

What’s the Point?

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With our eyes set on glory, let’s take a look at God’s original design.

I had a haunting question about the point of male and female. I really wanted to know the purpose of a female. Was the purpose of a woman just to help the man? This is what I was taught, implicitly or explicitly. We are to have his kids, give him sex, clean his house, be his “helper.” And if that was really the sum total of God’s design then why did it feel like there was an untapped region in my heart? If God is for me, then why would God’s design hurt so much?

I wanted to know what was the original intent of the designer. What was God up to when He made the sexes?

How it is that the church never seemed to read Gal 3:28-29  which says:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 Heirs? What promise? The cross reference of verse 29 takes you to Romans 8:

 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co‑heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

 What on earth does it mean to be co-heirs with Christ? To share in His glory?

As they say, inquiring minds want to know. And I needed to know desperately.

I inquired of the Lord. I begged Him to teach me, show me, reveal to me, help me figure out what He was up to. What was the original intent of the designer?

Please, tell me who I am. What were you thinking, when you thought of me?

What was I to do? All through the Scriptures the Lord tells us to seek Him, search for wisdom, ask for wisdom, look for understanding as if looking for treasure. Jesus said, “knock and it shall be opened to you, ask and it shall be given to you.” (Matthew 7:7-8) So it was no surprise that the Lord began speaking, in lots of places.

It began with the Silence of Adam by Larry Crabb. Then John Eldrige gave beautiful insight in his book Wild at Heart. The Lord used both of these books as pieces of my own puzzle. Eldrige ventured to say that there was more to us than we dared believe. It was water to my parched soul.

Then the Lord brought writings from Watchman Nee . They stirred up a spiritual hornet’s nest, buzzing around all that I had believed about myself and God.

In Romans 3:23 we read ”All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

God’s purpose for man was glory, but sin thwarted that purpose by causing man to miss God’s glory.

When we think of sin, we instinctively think of the judgment it brings; we invariably associate it with condemnation and hell.

Man’s thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins,

But God’s thought is always of the Glory man will miss if he sins.

The result of sin is that we forfeit God’s glory.

The result of redemption is that we are qualified again for glory.

God’s purpose in redemption is

Glory.

Glory.

Glory.

Watchman Nee The Normal Christian Life page 104

Me? Glory? Are you kidding?

The Lord kept bringing truth to my soul. From the Word, from books, from leaders. Then came a pure gift of love. I read Waking the Dead by John Eldridge and prayed a simple prayer.

 God I want my heart back, my whole heart.

Excerpt taken from Unhindered, Chapter 38.

Let’s Get Real Here:

How’s your heart?  Do you want it back?

Glory on the Horizon

/ Jana / 3 Comments

Dear Bog Family,

While the team and I are in Zimbabwe, I want to invite you to start asking the Lord about Glory.  His glory. Your glory. The glory that we pray will break out in Zimbabwe and cover us at home. 

We have a some fun postings set up for you and we’re  inviting you to dialog with each other on the site while I’m away.
Wonder what the Lord will stir up….?

For His glory,
 Jana

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

Ezekiel 36:25-28

Take this heart of stone and make it yours. It really was that simple. And that hard. To take something as hard as a stone, my heart, and turn it into a heart of flesh — beauty for ashes, as it were.

Dwell on that a minute. Ashes. Burned beyond recognition. Substance and form reduced to charred, grey dust. Now think of something beautiful coming out of an ash heap. Something wonderful, breath-taking, confounding— out of a pile of ashes.

Who can do that?

God can.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19 

Nothing thwarts the plans of God.

And what is His plan for us?

Beauty for ashes.

God uses many experiences, or tools, in life to persuade us to turn to Him. But often these “tools” look different from our expectations. We want blessing and favor. We want to be comfortable and safe. We want guarantees of success and privilege.

However.  This God is not concerned about comfort zones. He is zealous for glory, for righteousness, for holiness, for His image to be seen in His creations. (Isaiah 9: 6-7)

In our weaknesses, the grace of God blazes and His glory shines the brightest. Why?

Because any measure of self-sufficiency, self-worth and self-esteem has been burned up. Ashes. It leaves only His beauty to be adored.

What we call hard times, God calls release. Release from all that hinders us from being what He has created us to be. Christ in you the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

It is the hope of God’s glory which fuels change. And this hope is based on the very great promises fulfilled in Christ. Christ is IN us. His glory IS IN us. Not by our doing but by God’s doing. There is an unveiling happening here. There is a transformation underway. There is an unleashing of glory on the horizon.

Unhindered.

Excerpts taken from Unhindered, Chapter 37

Let’s Get Real Here:

So as we explore glory, we look to the Creator to be our source, our motivation, our hope. And above all things, we look to Jesus to be the only one to define us. So who am I now and who are you? The Lord says we are beloved, crowned with glory and honor, sons and daughters of glory—His delight. Who do you say you are?

 

Glow in the Dark

/ Jana / 2 Comments

According to Molly Mahoney in the movie, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, “Sparkle” is “something reflective of something bigger that’s trying to get out.”

What is in you trying to get out? What is bigger than you that makes you sparkle?

Why does a notion like that, of more, of shining, get in our heads and knock around? An entire movie trying to tap into the hidden beauty, greatness, Sparkle within us. And here goes God revealing Himself again. Connecting dots. Showing off. Wanting us to see Him. Last week we discovered what it means to be “in the light of Your presence.” This week are the pearls tucked inside Psalm 34, Psalm 16, and 2 Corinthians.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5 NIV

Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
      all radiant from the shining of your face.
   Ever since you took my hand,
      I’m on the right way.
Psalm 16:11 The Message

When Moses came down from the mount with two stone tablets in his hand, his face was radiant. Shining from the presence of God. But he veiled himself from the people. Fast forward through the cross and you see the complete opposite. Corinthians says, “Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And we with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of God.”

Have you seen it? When people change before your very eyes?  I think of my friends Ben and Kristen. The difference in their faces is unmistakable. They glow. Or take Lora or Heather after a powerhouse time with God at a retreat. Talk about radiant. Even Chuck blew me away the other day. He spoke to teens for the first time in a long time. And the glory in his face was a wonder to look at.

You can’t buy that kind of makeover. You can’t work it up, plan for it or lose it. You don’t even take credit for it. You just look at it in awe. Think of it like this: Salem just bought a glow-in-the-dark ball. You can’t do anything to make it glow in the dark. You can’t argue, talk, or fake it to make the ball glow. All you can do is put the ball in the light. And then it can’t help but glow.

He is the light that has come into the world, into us.  Christ in you the hope of glory. He is the bigger thing we reflect. And it is His life that is breaking through our little realities. Go sit in the glory of God. Go soak in the light of His presence. And then we will all sit back and enjoy the sparkle of God that you become.

Extra, Extra, Read All About It…

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Chuck saw this great tagline on the side of a truck. “We are the extra that makes extraordinary possible.” I love this. It goes right along side with something the Lord has been stirring in me.  God has placed within each of us His creative presence. Think about it.  You already understand the notion because we say, ‘I got my artistic bent from my mom.’ Or  ‘I got my sense of direction from my dad.’ Get it? We can naturally link our talents, gifts, and quirks to our parents.

So what did we Supernaturally get from our Heavenly Parent?  Our ability to create. Something of beauty, usefulness, impact. Something that makes us all sit back and say, “Wow, how did you do that?”  To which our honest reply is, “Me and God, we did that together.”  There is a hum, or flow; there is a spiritual tandem that happens when we put our hands and hearts to a task and ask His hands to be in there too.

But here is the challenge.  We are tempted to Cope instead of Create.

What I am seeing is our enemy knows this creative connection and he hates it. He hates the relationship that grows with our Maker during the creative process. He hates the outpouring of God’s glory that the end product generates. He especially hates the healing that comes when we use all that energy to do something With God, rather than coping in effort to hide From God.

So the enemy does all he can to lure us away from any creative process. Give me food, sex, TV, drugs, sports, even books. Give me anything to numb out. But the greatest works of art, music, architecture have been born from a broken heart. People who took human angst and with God’s supernatural connection brought beauty from ashes. Whether big or small, renown or recluse, we were born to create good.

Where is your extra that makes the extraordinary possible? Don’t cope it up and hide it out. Let it out. We need to see what you and God can do together.