shame

God is Not Ashamed of You…Part 1

/ Jana / Leave a comment

“God is not ashamed of you.” Ryan Wyatt said at Fuse Church on Sunday. The comment hung in the air — as if suspended by our deep longing and yet our persistent unbelief — as if we all collectively held our breath at the boldness of the notion.  He repeated the phrase. This time a declaration.  “God is. Not ashamed. Of you.” 

You could tangibly feel the relief. We exhaled our corporate breath and Truth laid over the congregation like a warm blanket, comforting and covering us all.

God really is not ashamed of you. Nor is He disgusted, disappointed, embarrassed, or fretting over you.  Imagine it. God in heaven wringing His hands over your latest goof up, saying, ‘Oh my, oh my, what ever will I, the God of all creation, do about this creature of mine?”

Get it? Not gonna happen. Ever. Infinity.

If you think you have that much cosmic power, you might need a bigger God. I’m just saying.

I want to belabor this point.  It applies to all: the couple living together, the businesswoman who cheats on a deal, the unfaithful husband, the screaming mom, the binging teenager, the person who swears to do better with his selfishness and yet repeats it daily…God is not ashamed to call all of us His children. How can it be?

It’s called the grace factor. While we are made in His image, there is a huge difference in God’s emotional capacity and ours. Thank you God. ThIMG_4791is is really good news for people who are still running from God, or holding Him at arms length, or won’t look Him in the eyes.

Perhaps, you are afraid He will act like you act. Or how your mom, dad, pastor, friend, or spouse acted.  Perhaps, you are afraid of the expression on His face.  You think He is thinking about your sin and you want to hide from Him. But this is one of the greatest deceptions in the Christian life.

If you belong to God in the name of Jesus, then your sin is gone. Period. It’s paid for. It’s not that God is in denial. But that He lives in fulfillment.  The law has been satisfied. Death for sin.  Jesus for you. Done. You now live in a too-good-to-be-true-but-is-true reality of Grace.

Which brings us to a much bigger and better conversation.  If God is not ashamed of you, and He is not talking about your sin, then what IS He talking about?  What IS the expression on His face?

I want to take a few blogs and talk about living from the look on Jesus’s face. Selah.  Living from…the look on His Face…

But for today, will you take a moment just to still your heart, and your world?

Let your spirit see the expression on Jesus’s face. Even now, close your eyes. Take a deep breath and just look and listen for Him.

I trust once you let him remove the veil of shame from your eyes, you will see something, Someone, better than you expected.

More to come.
“My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”  Your face, Lord I will seek.” Psalm 27:8 

 

Photography by Salem Spicka, “Veiled Woman” from Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Okay, Enough Already!

/ laurajones / 2 Comments

Do you ever just get knocked down by the world and its ridiculous attacks? Are you ever just shocked at how big  and how deep the Lie goes about the Value of a Woman?

I don’t know whether to cry, scream or throw up. When the first offer and photo came through my email, I tried to stuff the outrage down.  And now the email offer has resurfaced. But instead of it being a onesy thing now it is a GROUP thing. Classes of women groping and balancing. What am I so pissed about?

Pole dancing classes. Are you kidding me???  Do we not have enough porn shoved down our throats without trying to mimic the deception even more? Are you not already tired enough of trying to keep up with the world’s faulty concept of beauty?  The dieting, the surgery, the self-loathing? The comparison, the envy, the jealousy that leads to even more harmful acting out?

Really women? Really? Is this our sum total?

Does this woman’s posture do anything but reduce us to body parts for consumption? Ask most men to look at this photo, or better have him recall a time on film or DVD when he watched pole dancing,  and see if women grinding to poles makes him rise to anything remotely holy….
I am all about a woman being and feeling healthy and assured of her own worth. I am all about the “wow” factor of the female race. I am all about blow-the-house-down great sex. But I am also 100% convinced that women who try to imitate porn stars (women and men who are in need themselves of rescuing) look to the wrong source for inspiration and definition.  The women I talk to don’t need help being “sexed”. We need help being loved and cherished and adored for who we are, not just for the way we contort our frames around steel.
Is anybody hearing me? Did anyone even flinch when this offer came through?
We were watching a harmless movie with Salem and they snuck in a 30-second clip of pole dancing and men gawking. Her natural disgust and shock was immediate. “What is that?” she asked incredulous.  “Men and women wasting their strength and beauty on empty sex.” I said.   “Gross.” said the 13-yr-old.

Yep. It’s gross.

Women, what we need is how to tap into the real beauty, the passion, the fire that God has for us. In this place of true intimacy, we don’t feel like objects. We feel valued and enjoyed by our Maker. Then we can move to share that with our husbands. But we don’t create intimacy by imitating prostitutes.
“The man and woman were both naked and they felt no shame.”