More Than A Compass

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Of all the words that Solomon penned, these verses are among my favorites. The simple wisdom of Proverbs 3:5-6 is an incredible foundation upon which we can build our lives. It's an anchor for our souls. While life is often filled with questions, we can rest in the person of the Lord and His heart for us. It matters not where the course of life takes you, He is faithful.

It's important for us to understand some things about this verse if we are to apply it correctly. I often hear people say "I'm trusting the Lord for _____________________." What they are saying is that they have a need and that they believe that God will provide that need. While I'm not against this type of faith per se, I do think it misses the point of the above verses. Trust in the Lord doesn't need to revolve around a particular thing. Trust needs to be centered upon who He is. When we read that we should acknowledge the Lord in all of our ways, we need to note that the Hebrew actually says "to know, to learn to know, to perceive and see, to find out and discern." This moves our understanding to a much deeper level.

To Know
To Learn to Know
To Perceive and See
To Find Out and Discern
all point to an experience of the Lord. An experience of authentic relationship. I get to know the Lord as I am learning to know Him. I perceive the Lord in every situation so that I may see Him. I find out and discern what the Lord is doing in my life and in my circumstances. Don't allow these verses to be cast by the wayside. Our Heavenly Father has always wanted us to experience Him in our lives. To have face to face relationship. Heart to heart. If not, we will simply abide by principles and rules. Missing out on the joy of intimacy.

The more we know the Lord, the greater our discernment of what He has placed within us. The greater our understanding of how our passion fits into the Kingdom. The more we see Him in our daily lives.

Life is not a crap-shoot. Faith is not a roll of the dice. It may seem like that at first, but as we mature in our faith we will discover greater confidence in who He is and who we are in Him. As this happens, faith becomes second nature because we are building it upon our trust in Him. Much like a child who learns to walk has to eventually trust their legs. We are learning to stand. We take every day step by step. Eventually, as time goes on, we don't even question where our feet land. Have you ever considered that faith could be as normal as walking?

I trust in the Lord. I have experienced His goodness. I have heard His voice. I know His love. While these are all areas where I can grow, I have developed a confidence in who the Lord is for me. Knowing that He is for me, and trusting that His Spirit can guide me, allows me incredible freedom. There are times that I deliberately step into what the Lord has planned and purposed for my life. There are other times that I discovered it. In each of these instances it was trusting in the person of the Lord that made them possible.

Maybe that sound too simple for some. Too easy. My question for them is: Was I not designed to walk in faith? Was I not created to walk in relationship?

Belief in God is not contrary to human nature.
Trust in the person of the Lord is not against our makeup.
How I wish we would understand that NOT believing and NOT trusting are opposed to who we were created to be.

Looking for direction in life?
Trust in the person of the Lord. Learn to know Him. Perceive how He works in your life and see Him. Find out what He has placed within you and discern how the two of you can make it happen. This life was designed as a partnership with our Creator. Every thing He has given to us is a means of expanding His Kingdom and filling the Earth with His glory. Don't lean on your own understanding. Be fully convinced in who He is. And make sure you take the time to be fully convinced of who you are. He is more than a compass pointing to the true north. He is more than a plan that provides the right steps. He walks with us. Willing to guide the way. Excited to be on the journey with you.

Awakening to the Revelation

Jesus, revealing the nature of God, could have made just two statements during His life and would have still turned religion on its head. Two major points of difference between what He was revealing and what was currently being experienced. And even 2,000 years later we struggle to see this.

Jesus' ministry was fully of revelatory statements. He often portrayed "G-O-D" in a different light. However, I simply want us to focus upon two statements today. Two instances where Jesus turned religion on its head. Two verses that should get our attention at the core of our being.
"For God so LOVED the world..."
and
"When you pray, say, 'Our Father...'"

What I want us to focus upon with these two statements is not only the revelation they provide to the nature and character of God, but to the very nature and essence of religion.

#1 - God is not some distant deity who is angry with humanity, but a loving God who is concerned with our wholeness.

This is something religion knows nothing about. The gods of the ancient world were consumed with sacrifice. They were incredibly indifferent to human existence. Humanity itself could only serve to the greater good of these deities. They knew nothing of love, except for the benefit it brought to them personally. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in our understanding of Greek & Roman mythology. Unfortunately, many of these concepts have crept into Christianity. That, along with a very Old Testament view of God, has led to our demise. We fail to see a God who is for humanity, and therefore, miss out on the wholeness He longs to bring us into.

#2 - God is not a localized deity only fixated upon the nation of Israel, but is in fact the Father of ALL CREATION who longs for relationship.

Think about it. Jesus went through the same religious training as the Elders of Israel. He was a Rabbi among rabbis. He understood their history. He interpreted their Law. He was familiar with the god they spoke about. However, even in the midst of all of that, He came out on the other end with a very different view. He knew God as His Father. He was able to see life, Israel, Himself, and the whole world through a different lens. He understood the prominence of Israel in the place of human history, but He also recognized the need for the entire world to hear the truth about the nature and character of God.

You see, the best religion can offer is some kind of appeasement on your part. A sacrifice or two that would distract the attention away from your failures at least long enough to another day of atonement. Hoops that could be jumped through to keep you (and the nation) in the favor of the god that you worship. This is NOT the Abba of Jesus.

His revelation of the the nature of the Father calls us to repentance (to rethink and reframe our understanding and our lives). To see ourselves in a different light and relate accordingly. To rediscover the One who walks WITH His creation.

This understanding. This way of life. This revelation. It is drastically different. It points directly at our wrongheadedness concerning the nature & character of God. It sheds light into our darkness and reveals that in many areas we have gotten it completely wrong. It tells us that there were some things we were ignorant of or we simply neglected to see. And while I would love to say that 2,000 years later that we finally have it figured out, the reality is that we still miss out on these two foundational truths.

I just heard a guy the other day address a group of students. His primary talking point was that "God is a HOLY GOD who DEMANDS perfection." This statement bring us right back to a legal understanding of God. A god who is primarily concerned with moral uprightness, law keeping, and the like. A god who is indifferent to humanity. It misses out on the amazing revelation of the Father through Jesus. A God who is Holy but understands that His holiness speaks of the fact that He is wholly different from any other imagined deity. He was holy before creation. He was holy before sin entered that creation. He was holy before the Law was brought into human experience. Wholly set apart. But what bothers me more about this way of portraying the nature of God is that it completely misses the point that Jesus was making. LOVE is the very nature & essence of His Father. Out of His love He sends, He gives, and He lays down His life. Out of love He extends mercy. He is not looking for robots to perform His will, but for sons who will walk with Him.

May the revelation of Jesus forever change our concept of God. May we embrace the light of this revelation over the darkness of our ignorance. May we awaken to the reality of our sonship and share this reality with others. May we see our Father's Kingdom come & His will be done Earth as it is in Heaven.

Enjoy the journey!

...And The Two Shall Become One

I hate to admit it, but I got it wrong. What I thought I was reading, hearing, and believing; turned out to be quite different. I'm talking about marriage. The incredible bond between one man and one woman. The lifetime commitment of growing together, learning about the other, and the falling deeper in love with your spouse kind of marriage. I got it wrong. What I realized is that the "I DO" didn't DO IT.

The "I DO" didn't DO IT because the "I DO" is only the beginning. I read a quote about marriage that really sums up what I'm trying to say here: "A strong marriage isn't magically created when you say 'I Do'...It's built on a lifetime of 'I Dos': I DO love you, I DO cherish you, and I DO choose you." While we may like to think we are one. And in many ways we are simply through the commitment of ourselves to the other. The reality is that we are BECOMING one.

I was thinking about this verse the other day when that word really jumped out to me. BECOMING. I heard the Lord say afresh that "the two shall become one." Emphasis on the becoming. I was blown away. What I saw unfolding before me is the process. The life together. The continual pursuit of one another. The old King James English came back to me. It's the "Cleaving" that ensures the "Becoming."

It's been a while since I talked about this, but I was reminded of a series of blog posts I wrote concerning the subject of marriage and the idea of pursuing your spouse. You can actually search "the continual pursuit" and come up with several posts. The pursuit imagery comes from the word "cleaving." It figuratively means to pursue to overtake. Carrying the idea of a hunter chasing after his game. Don't get me wrong in this. Your wife is not a trophy to be captured. She is a treasure worth seeking out. She longs to be discovered, to be cherished, to be pursued. I have yet to talk to a woman who does not want to be pursued by her husband. In the same way, I have never talked to a man who doesn't want to have his wife long for him either. Your husband is not a social status to be achieved. He is a warrior that needs a cause. This is the art of cleaving. This is the process of becoming.

Legally my wife and I became one in the act of marriage. However, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and relationally takes time. Our vows of commitment to one another were a seed that was planted deep within us. We nurture that seed. We give it room to grow. We ensure its safety. We do what is necessary to allow what is in our heart the opportunity to flesh itself out in our lives. I believe one of the greatest struggles in marriage is what we do with the seasons that tend to come in and out of our marriage. There will be times where we endure the storms and we enjoy the peace. There will be times of struggle and times of complete and utter joy. Together we learn how to shorten the difficult seasons and lengthen the joyful ones. Maturing, Learning, Laughing, Crying, Being - Together. That's the process of becoming.

Marriage does require endurance, but ONENESS is worth it. It's the pinnacle of our relationship. In the same way that Jesus could say, "I and My Father are One", we should be able to say, "My spouse and I are One." This requires self-giving mutual love. It means the fleshing out of all that we say we believe. It's about being love to one another consistently. Forgiving quickly. Extending mercy continually. It's the willingness to fight for the identity of our spouse and living in ours. Does that sound like wedded bliss? Did your realize this is what you signed up for? While it may sound like hard work, maybe even an impossible endeavor, the reality is that this union can be the greatest expression of the Father's heart for humanity. The most beautiful reflection of the life of the Trinity.

The continual pursuit. The lifetime of chasing. The process of becoming. All of it a picture of what the Lord is doing in conforming us into the image of Christ. Let's not sell ourselves short. Good enough can't be enough when Oneness is the goal.
Do I believe this is possible? With everything in me.
Do I believe this will take time? Possibly a lifetime.
Do I believe it's worth it? I've committed my life to it.

Enjoy the journey!

That I May Know Him

At the beginning of this year I shared with our Pioneer Family about experiencing the person of the Lord. I felt that much of what we would encounter corporately & personally would flow from this word. As this year has progressed, I'm discovering more and more just how timely this prophetic utterance has been in my own life. It put me on a path of discovery, of rethinking paradigms, and experiencing the Lord in a much more personal way.

Life is a journey. I remember being a young preacher interested in knowing the faith. I wanted to articulate what we believed. After 20 plus years in ministry I'm beginning to see that even though my goal was admirable, it was not the best path for life. I can know the faith. I can articulate what we believe. I can debate the necessity of Christianity. But this does not mean that I know Him. It does not mean that I give good witness to who He is for me and the world.

The Apostle Paul could list a ton of achievements from his life in Judaism. Instead, he counted them as rubbish. The goal of His life was to know Him. To know this Jesus he had persecuted. To know this One who was in the beginning with God, who took on flesh, who died and rose again, who now sat at the right hand of the Father. He wanted to know the person of the Lord. To experience His heart. To think the way that He thought. Sound like an insane endeavor?

As a way of encouragement, let me share with you the difference in this approach to life:

#1 - Knowing Him is not the same as Knowing Of Him

Knowing "of" Him is second hand information. In other words, we can believe what we have heard but there is no experience. No encounter.
The question you need to ask yourself is, "Is it enough to know of His goodness or do I want to experience it myself?"

#2 - Knowing Him is not the same as Knowing About Him

I can know a lot of stuff about a lot of people, but it does not mean I know them. I know about George Washington. I know about Michael Jordan. I know about the Pope. I don't know any of them on a personal level. I may be able to share facts and figures but I cannot share them with you. Our relationship with the Lord must go deeper.

Make the Transition

Determine in your heart that you want to know HIM. Allow the Scriptures to bring you into an encounter with the person of the Lord. Allow prayer to be a means of communicating back & forth. Allow the Holy Spirit to be so real in your life that you never question what the Lord is saying or doing. This has to matter. Experiencing the person of Jesus is a vital part of our faith. It's not for the elite. It's not for the "special" ones among us. Each and every one of us are invited into an experiential relationship. Something that goes beyond goose bumps when we hear a song. Something that goes beyond an exercise in emotionalism. This is a real relationship with a real person. Jesus is not some mystic being hovering in the heavens. He dwells within us. The Spirit testifies of this truth in our lives. Don't miss this reality. Don't exchange His with-ness for a religious experience.

The greatest prayer you can pray in this endeavor is simple: "Lord, I want to know You. Above everything else. I want to hear You. I want to see You. I want to encounter You. I will not be satisfied with less."

Trust me when I say that this is a journey you will not want to miss. The Lord is excited about manifesting Himself to you. Excited about showing the realness of this relationship. Longing to bring you closer and closer to who He is and who you can fully be in Him.

Enjoy the journey!

Are You Ready???

Greetings everyone! After a long break, I'm excited to get back to writing again. It's been a wonderful couple of months.

There will be a new blog post tomorrow. It will be good to be sharing life with each of you. Are you ready? I am.

May the rest of your day be full of His goodness. Blessings to you all.