Tag Archives: Jesus

How many times?

02 Friday Mar 2018

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Forgiveness.

Such a hard topic because we all think we walk in forgiveness, but then we still have this twinge of ….something when we see that person. Am I right?

I have walked many seasons in my life, and in each of them I have learned much about forgiveness. Not that I am an expert, but I have really been pondering it lately.

I had a really hard situation several years back and really wanted to not have the noose of unforgiveness binding me or the other person.

When I ran into this person that really hurt me several months ago {not having seen or talked to her since ‘the hurting’} I genuinely smiled, asked how she was, didn’t have any of that white-hot ugly in my heart, and wished her a great day. As I walked away, God told me {yes Joy Behar, God does talk to us, and only His sheep hear His voice} “that is what forgiveness feels like, this is what is feels like to be at peace with someone”. Not that the situation was right, or we will ever be best pals again, but I was free of the bond of unforgivness.

How do you know when you have forgiven someone?

I get asked this all the time. In the past, I would answer, until you don’t hurt anymore, or until you can bless the person who hurt you. But now, I answer until it’s complete in you and you have peace.

Many times we rotely quote “seventy times seven”, and offer it a very unsticky band-aid. It is in the bible, but what does it mean? Do we multiply the numbers? Do we look into the Greek or Hebrew and have a discussion on it?

I would like to suggest something I think God has shown me.

Peter asks Jesus, do I need to forgive seven times? And then Jesus responds, seventy times seven.  So here is what I think it could mean.

Seven in the bible is the year of Jubilee, completion, the year debts are forgiven. What if Jesus is saying I want you to forgive until it is complete in you. That you are totally completely forgiving and at peace. Not that what was done to you was right, but you deserve to live free, at peace, complete. Completely at peace with them.

Not a multiplication problem, but a numbers game if you will. Forgive until your heart is totally in jubilee, until the forgiveness is complete and you can look at that person and feel nothing but peace, compassion and completeness.

So, is it possible Jesus is saying, forgive until it has been completed in your heart and that my peace completes you.  That forgiveness has been completed in me.

How many times? until it is complete.

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unglued.

13 Thursday Jul 2017

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Have you ever felt like you are coming unglued? unhinged? In other words, becoming broken. Again. I use the word unglued because God has glued my brokenness many, many times, but for some reason it feels like maybe the glue isn’t holding.

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Now I know that sounds bad. Like what God has fixed isn’t holding. But in truth, God fixes and it is finished. Unless.

Unless we begin to pick at the glue.

The enemy is such a sly little bugger that before you know it, your glue starts to lose its effectiveness and you feel the effects.

Jennie Allen in her latest books Nothing to Prove talks about “If I were the enemy, I would” and then she list many things. Good things, but things that slowly over time cause us to feel unloved, alone or distract you with good things, social media or even ministry.

Then little by little you begin to feel and long for the times when you felt accepted, important or loved. Every photo that pops up on your feed causes you pain and confirms that “they like them more than you”, or “you will never be as good as her”, or “you have nothing to say”

A piece of glue begins to peel away leaving an exposed crack.

The enemy is very good at seeing that peel and he begins to rip away at it.

And we let him.

He is such a jerk!

But this is me.

Over time when we neglect any relationship, it will go away.  I remember an old poster in the dentist office “ignore your teeth and they will go away”.  It’s the same for our relationship with people, family and most importantly God.

When we try to keep the glue holding by ourselves and not allow our relationship to turn the glue into a sold adhesive that will never crumble, we begin to feel the same issues that cracked us in the first place.

It’s always hard to admit or to even realize that it all comes down to “In the beginning God…”. God spoke and it was finished. God breathed and it was created. God fixed His gaze on you and said I will complete what I started in you. But we have to let him. We have to take our vessel and all its cracks and broken pieces and let Him glue us.

How? The only way I know to have relationship is to be with someone. We have to be with God. Intentionally spending time with Him so he can reveal and heal at the same time.

How? Being honest. Admitting that we are lonely or we have used Facebook as our God.

We find time for everything else that is important to us, but we neglect the One that is omnipresent in us. Who alone can only heal and bring wholeness to us.

For most of us, it isn’t even a sin issue that causes the glue to dry and peel. It’s those little distractions that the enemy tricks us into believing so easily, and we convince ourselves and others that we are fine. Nothing is wrong. We are just fine. But we aren’t. Deep inside we are hurting.

Today I feel a little unglued.

But I know who holds the bottle of glue.

 

 

 

Impossible Possible Peace

07 Friday Jul 2017

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If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. This is the words of Paul in Romans 12:18.

Sometimes  it feels that it isn’t possible doesn’t it?

It feels impossible. If it says, “IF possible”, that to me is saying that it can also be impossible.

Before you begin getting mad at me, be at peace and let me finish.

I have learned this the hard way, that the next part of the verse it critical to my understanding of possible.

“As it depends on you”.

It is up to me, the possible it up to me, to live at peace.

There are times (and I have experienced them) that we try to make peace happen with someone, and it doesn’t seem like there is peace in the relationship. Why? Because relationships are hard, messy and very risky. And sometimes there are seasons and friendships come to an end of the season, or the break is too wide to mend.

Sometimes reconciliation looks like a separation, or a ‘break in the relationship’.

But, in the midst of this, you can be at peace.

How? How is it possible to “be at peace” when it looks like there is no peace?

Being a Pastor and a ministry leader, I have learned this the hard way. I thought to be at peace meant I had to jump through hoops to make the other person like me.

Almost like I was (or did) try with all my strength to get them to approve me, approval meant peace. Or to get them to like me, as if that would give me peace. I was in a constant state of rejection because of this. It was killing me, and those around me because I was never really at peace. Within myself or with anyone.

So I started to really look at the verse, and focused on the next words; as far as it depends on me.

A new revelation began to take shape.

I can be at peace with someone, even if they are mad at me, or there is a break in relationship. As much as it depends on me, I can be at peace.  How? because my peace comes from God. Our peace comes directly from God, and that depends on me.

The word peace in the Strong’s Concordance is the word Shalom and NAS Extensive Concordance means: completeness, soundness, welfare, ease, peace.  In the Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language the word peace is described as a pact.

If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at ease, at soundness, live in completeness with everyone.

I can be complete only because my wort, value, approval and identity come from God. I don’t have to chase people and force relationship or force peace to happen.

I have learned that when I am at peace, “complete in Him”, He brings peace to the relationship.

There will be people who have no idea they hurt you, or even care that they hurt you, but you can live in a place of peace, because of  the One who is your peace.

It is possible to do the impossible and live at peace with everyone, because my peace doesn’t rely on them.

Jesus tells us in  John 14:27 “My peace I give to you”. He is telling us that He gives us our completeness, our soundness, our ease, our peace. He give us this pact – that He becomes our peace.   In one of my situations, talking and reconciling is not possible, but I am at peace. I know that my peace comes from God and I can extend that peace into the situation, not of my strength, but by depending on the One who is my peace.

“As far as it depends on you”, you can be at peace. The impossible is now possible.

 

 

 

 

 

STumbLing

30 Friday Jun 2017

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First, my apologies for not writing much lately. I have been in a season of rest and restore. Spending time with my new little love Owen Davis. My first grandchild! And I have just been contemplating the Love of God in my life, nature and through the Word.   It was much-needed and I feel a sense of peace that I have never felt before.

I have been reading Romans this summer. Really reading and letting it sink in deep to my heart. But I’m stuck on Romans 9:32b

They stumbled over the stumbling stone. (NIV)

I think I have stumbled,  or am stumbling.

How many have stumbled over God? Over Jesus?

Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. (MSG)

 

How many times are we going to go sprawling, tripping over Jesus to do good projects?

Look at these definitions of Stumbling:

Verb (used without object), stumbled, stumbling.
1.to strike the foot against something, as in walking or running, so as to stagger or fall; trip.
2. to walk or go unsteadily: to stumble down a dark passage.

3. to make a slip, mistake, or blunder, especially a sinful one:

to stumble over a question; to stumble and fall from grace.
4. to proceed in a hesitating or blundering manner, as in action or speech(often followed by along).

5. to discover or meet with accidentally or unexpectedly (usually followed by on, upon, or across):

They stumbled on a little village.
6. to falter or hesitate, as at an obstacle to progress or belief.
verb (used with object), stumbled, stumbling.
7. to cause to stumble; trip.

8. to give pause to; puzzle or perplex.

Noun:
9. the act of stumbling.
10. a moral lapse or error.
11. a slip or blunder.

Now,  read them again and use the verse and think of Jesus.

They (we) struck our foot against something, in our efforts to do something, we proceeded in a blundering manner.  stumbling-block

How often have we not looked to or at Jesus, stumbling over our own projects, ideas or thoughts?

Maybe it is just me. But I don’t want to be so busy or focused on doing, that I literally stumble over the One I think I am doing something for.

Maybe we need, or I need to slow down enough to see what Jesus IS doing and join Him there, not look for what He HAS done and try to repeat it.

Maybe we need to spend more time with Him as our Cornerstone, so that we don’t stumble over Him in our hurry to be famous.

Maybe we just need to stumble into Him and not over Him.

Today, I am stumbling.