Here we get into the details about faith and life

What Do You Seek?

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” John 1:38

What do you seek?

These are the first words John records Jesus saying. It’s not an inquiry. Jesus isn’t looking for information. It is an invitation, rather, to speak from our hearts. In our English Bibles, the question is translated a number of different ways.
What are you looking for?
What do you want?
What are you after?

A fair question to ask any Jesus follower.

What are we looking for? What is the desire of our hearts, the longing of our souls?
Do we want to be part of a movement? Do we want to enhance our reputation? Do we want peace? Acceptance? Validation? Personal redemption? Jesus knows we want all those things, but He offers something we need even more.

Jesus’s question is even more profound.

Two verses earlier, John the Baptist had clearly identified Jesus as the Lamb of God. He affirmed Jesus was the one who would take away the sin of the world. In light of that, Jesus’s question is, “Are you seeking what I can give, what I alone can give?” It is much like, “Do you truly know who I am?”

They called him “Rabbi.”

It was respectful, but it was limited. Seeing Jesus as a wise teacher was safe. It fit with their ideas of how God operated, how the universe worked. The Incarnation, a God who would sacrifice Himself, was more than they were ready to grasp.

What do we seek?

A rabbi who’s a little wiser than we are, who’ll answer our questions, solve our problems.
A rabbi who’s manageable, familiar, predictable?
Or are we seeking the Lamb of God?

Help Untangle the Graveclothes

By Paula

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” John 11:42-43

Does anything about that miracle catch your attention?

Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, but Lazarus was still bound in the graveclothes. Lazarus didn’t walk out looking like he’s just arrived from an extended spa vacation.

Jesus also didn’t snap His fingers and cause the wrappings to dramatically drop to the ground. No. After watching Lazarus awkwardly waddle or hop or whatever he did to get out of the tomb, after letting everyone around see Lazarus–alive but struggling–Jesus called on those nearby to step up and help him out. Like the feeding of the 5000, others got to participate in the miracle.

In a similar way, every day, all around us, Jesus is calling people out of spiritual, eternal death.

They come out of the darkness and into His light, but they are still bound in graveclothes. They aren’t perfect. They still carry old attitudes, habits or ideas with them. They stagger and stumble. All too often, we shake our heads at this point and walk away.

Can you imagine anyone walking away from that cemetery in Bethany? Or refusing Jesus’s call to get Lazarus loose? Me either.

It is up to us to participate in the miracles around us by stepping in and helping untangle new believers from their old graveclothes.

Not in a snotty sanctimonious way, but with a humble realization that somebody had to untangle us as well.

We also have to recognize that sometimes, folks are going to get tangled back up in those graveclothes. And honestly, so do we. Jesus could snap His fingers and make everything perfect, and one day He will. In the meantime, this is His plan–that we help each other, that we give and take, that we grow and go.

So don’t stand back watching. Step up. Help unwrap and untangle.

Fear Is

By Paula

Fear doesn’t limit itself to late October or long nights or lonely seasons. No, it slips in during happy times and waits until you notice it. Sometimes it dresses itself as worry or anxiety, but it’s still fear. Occasionally it disguises itself as anger or compulsion or something else, but that only makes the costume harder to see through. It doesn’t change the fact that fear is there.

Fear is a curse.

It grays our hair, etches lines in our faces, strains our hearts and steals our sleep. Fear is almost as old as sin itself. It drives us from the presence of God, like Adam and Eve in the Garden. It kills our joy, clouds our vision and snatches our dreams.

God knows this about us. He offers to make an exchange. Because He loves us with a perfect love, one that is complete, unconditional, and neverending, He will cast out our fear. Cast out. This is authoritative. This has the muscle to back it up. This is “get out and never come back.”

Then to fill the spaces where fear lived, He offers peace. His peace. The supernatural kind that’s beyond explanation. The peace is ours to keep. And He will make this exchange as many times as we need.

Even after we open the door and let fear in one more time.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3

Struggling to Believe

By Paula

Sometimes when we follow Jesus, He asks very difficult things of us. Take the apostle Paul for example. In our comfortable 21st century existence, the kind of hardships Paul endured are less than appealing. Even if we don’t face physical persecution, emotional upheavals can leave us in a place where we find ourselves struggling to believe God and His promises.

The fact is we are often unaware how much our life experience colors our understanding of God and His word. If we are carrying emotional scars from a difficult past, it may be next to impossible to believe that God is loving, that He welcomes us, that He delights in us, that He will never leave us or forsake us or any of the other amazing promises He makes. We may grudgingly concede that the promises are true for others, but we balk when it comes to believing they are for us.

We can’t undo the past, or erase those scars. So how do we embrace those truths?

Admit there is a struggle.

One of my favorite statements in Scripture addresses this. It’s in Mark 9:24. A desperate father came to Christ seeking healing for his son. You can almost hear the anguish in his voice when he says “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” He doesn’t fake. He doesn’t give the Sunday school answer. He is very humble and very genuine.

Realize the struggle is not a deal-breaker.

In fact, it’s common. In Scripture, we read about people like John the Baptist, Job, Paul, Moses, Elijah, Sarah, and so many others who had trouble grasping God’s promises. After Jesus’s resurrection, Peter went back to fishing. Maybe he thought he’d blown his chance to do great things because he failed so miserably in his denials. Maybe he thought something like “Jesus, I believe you can save me. I’m just not sure you can use me.” One word, Peter. Pentecost.

Finally, understand it takes time.

For something this critical, God won’t stand for any easy fixes. He is willing to take the time to ensure we “get” it. We will be forever changed afterward. In Scripture, folks came away from their struggles with new names, new callings, and on one occasion even a new limp, but all of those signified a fresh intimacy with Yahweh.

What have you struggled to believe? How did you work (or how are you working) to grab hold of it?

Weddings and Other Plans

By Paula

A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9

My sister got got married in October a few years ago. She and her husband (that looks pretty cool to see it officially in print) had met in college. He is from Virginia, and she is from Kentucky. He chose the college because it offered a degree in the field he wanted to pursue. She chose the college mostly because it was where I had gone. In addition to the joy and celebration, the wedding taught me some important things about God’s plans for us.

God’s plans are long-term.
I would have never guessed at my own college graduation, that the stage had been set for my then four-year-old sister to meet her husband, but it was. We tend to look for the evidence of God’s plans as they unfold in the next few weeks or months. God always acts with eternity and the ultimate consummation of His plans in view.

God’s plans are not just linear.
To bring my sister and her husband together, God orchestrated the seemingly unrelated actions of dozens of people to accomplish His purposes. Think of it, everything from registering for classes to ensure they met, to the relationships with mutual friends who reconnected them, all put them on the path that ended this weekend at the wedding. There is no random chance event in our lives. God is using all of them.

God’s plans include us.
A decision I made thirty-some years ago (wow, that is painful to write) played a role in my sister’s marriage. Someone else decided to build a degree program in emergency medicine that drew a Virginia guy hundreds of miles from home. The decisions we make impact others. There’s no denying that. When we seek to follow God’s plans, He uses our obedience to further His greater plans. That’s a humbling reality.

I love the a-ha moments when I recognize how God had moved in my life or in the lives of others. Not only am I amazed that He lets me be part of it all, but it gives me reassurance during those times when I can’t see His hand anywhere.

When have you seen God at work?

Holiness

By Paula

If I had to write a list of adjectives to describes myself, it would be in the second ream of paper before I came up with the word holy. Maybe that’s because at some point in our imaginations, “holy” became “holier-than-thou,” and we don’t want any part of that. Or we picture seclusion, scratchy clothes, bland food and lots of praying and chanting. In 1 Peter, the apostle writes to a group of believers who are living in a hostile culture facing continued persecution. While encouraging them to faithfulness, or perseverance, might seem more logical — and he does both of those — Peter stresses holiness.

What is holiness?

The short answer: holiness is the expression of God’s perfection. But it also denotes those that have been set apart by God, for His purposes. So Peter’s advice on how to live a Christian life in the middle of a hostile culture under the ever-increasing threat and reality of persecution is to be set apart by God, for God.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
1 Peter 1:13-15

Holiness requires mental preparation.

The mind can help us push through when we’re ready to give up, or it can feed us devastating lies that cripple us. Paul reminds us it is one of Satan’s favorite avenues of attack, (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) and he encourages us to have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:16)
Mental preparation for holiness means identifying the goal and committing to the steps it takes to get there. The steps include things like identifying thoughts or attitudes that are not Christlike and getting rid of them. It means opening up to the Holy Spirit’s inspection when we think we’ve done the job of getting stuff cleaned out. And it means understanding this is not an afternoon or even a weekend project. Holiness is a lifetime discipline. Discipline comes from the same Latin root as the word student. It is important to remember that students sometimes fail. When that happens it doesn’t mean we give up. It means we begin again.

Holiness requires obedience.

Obedience, not conformity. Obedient to God, not conformed to the world around us. In the ways we analyze our situations. In the way we seek solutions to our problems. In the way we conduct business. In the way we work. In the way we relate to others. Holiness means we follow God’s standards and not what feels right, seems right or looks right. We don’t act one the basis of what we deserve, what is justified, or what is owed to us. We act on the basis of God’s grace and mercy.

For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Leviticus 11:44

Holiness requires action.

It’s not enough to agree that holiness is a good thing. It’s not enough to acknowledge that I should be living a holy life. I must do it. I must put forth the effort and do the work. ‘Be holy’ is as much of a commandment as ‘thou shalt not kill’ or ‘love thy neighbor.’ So I have to be diligent. I must not allow ungodly, unloving thoughts to stay in my mind. I must take action when the Holy Spirit prompts me.
Peter began verse 4 with “therefore.” If the commitment to holiness is a burden or we don’t feel particularly motivated or obligated to it, then we don’t understand the wonder that salvation is. We don’t comprehend what it cost. We don’t realize what it’s worth. I’m pretty sure the two are directly related.

The measure of my holiness and the passion with which I pursue it are a direct reflection of my love for and devotion to a Savior who suffered and bled and died to accomplish it.

What Do You Seek?

What do you seek?

A fair question to ask any Jesus follower.

Jesus’s question is even more profound.

They called him “Rabbi.”

What do we seek?

Help Untangle the Graveclothes

Does anything about that miracle catch your attention?

In a similar way, every day, all around us, Jesus is calling people out of spiritual, eternal death.

It is up to us to participate in the miracles around us by stepping in and helping untangle new believers from their old graveclothes.

Fear Is

Fear is a curse.

Struggling to Believe

Admit there is a struggle.

Realize the struggle is not a deal-breaker.

Finally, understand it takes time.

Weddings and Other Plans

Holiness

What is holiness?

Holiness requires mental preparation.

Holiness requires obedience.

Holiness requires action.

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series