2010 January :: Mikki's Blog – Living in the Grace and Love of God

Archive for January, 2010

Jan

The Yucky Stuff

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We know the story. When we read through John 13-17, we can feel the transition happening. Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for what is before them. He tells them repeatedly that he is going away and they can’t come. They are totally confused. Their mission has been to follow Jesus; that was his first words to most of them, “Follow me”. And now, what is this he is saying? They can’t follow anymore?

In the midst of all his instructions, Jesus begins to tell them about his new commandment. “Love one another.” They don’t even really hear it at this point. They don’t seem to even respond to this new word from Jesus. They keep asking about what Jesus means about leaving them. Peter says, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now?”

Jesus cares about their hearts and responds to their distress by telling them not to be worried. And he continues to bring up this love thing. Over and over. “You gotta love each other; this is how people will know you are mine.”

Why do you suppose that love would be challenging for them in the days ahead? They were about to be thrust into a storm such as they’d never seen before. Accusations would escalate. Tempers would flair. Fear would tear their hearts apart. They would watch Jesus be taken from them and crucified. Read more...

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Categories : Relationships, fasting

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Jan

Love’s Not Always Easy

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…love one another fervently with a pure heart. 1 Peter 1:22

Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1

If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4: 11

By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35

The fruit of the Spirit is love… Galatians 5:22

Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8

If love were always easy, then perhaps the Word wouldn’t give us so many admonitions about it. Over and over again we are told to love. Love God. Love one another. Love ourselves.

The war over love is really a war over our hearts. Many things can fill our hearts. Strife, hatred, anger, lust, greed, bitterness. The Word teaches us that whatever is in our hearts will come forward in our words and in our actions.

Romans 5:5 says that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and then goes on to remind us that God demonstrated His love for us in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us.

We can add fuel to the fire of love in our hearts by humbly reflecting on how Christ gave his all to show us God’s love for us. The realization that God loved us while we were completely lost in our sins, when as to yet, we had done nothing for him, yet His pure undeserved love poured out for us and gave Christ as a sacrifice because God so longed to have us, to be in relationship with us – that revelation can and should fan into flame the fire of love on our hearts.

Would you stop for a moment and think about how God gave His love for you? Would you ask the Father to blow on the embers of your heart and fan into flame His love? Would you ask Him to show you who you can love better? Would you ask Him how you can love better?

Open Our Eyes Lord

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The cross was confusing for the disciples. Although Jesus had shared with them what would happen to him, they had no context for understanding. All they knew at their present moment was that their leader was gone and that all they had given the last three years of their life for now seemed to be destroyed. They were afraid and disillusioned to say the least. The events of the last week just didn’t fit into any paradigm of thinking that they had. They had gone from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to seeing his dead body upon a cross. They had experienced the joy of the crowds shouting, “Hosanna”. They had experienced utter confusion, pain, and doubt as they watched their leader crucified.

It had been a roller coaster week.

Their emotions were spent.

Their physical bodies were exhausted.

Their minds were confused.

Yet God was right in the midst of it all.

How Jesus must have longed to rescue them from the hours of pain during those days just as a parent longs to rescue their child from pain. Yet at times, we who are parents know that we must not rescue our child from their present difficulty – not just yet. The journey is important. In fact, it is a requirement.

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to them, “And their eyes were opened and they knew Him.” Luke 24: 31

“And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” Luke 24:45

At the right moment, Jesus gave them understanding. It didn’t come from their own resources. It came from Christ. It clicked just like when a combination on a lock clicks into place and the lock opens.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit can do that for us. And when it happens, you know it. The treasures of the safe become available to you.

I wish I could tell you that the rest of the story was an easy, pain-free ride for the disciples. It wasn’t. But it was one of great adventure as the disciples became literal world-changers. Many more times, they would need their understanding to be opened. And such is the life of faith.

As we participate in this time of fasting, may we embrace the journey of faith for whether we find ourselves in dark, confusing days or in days of joy and celebration, God is right there in the middle of it all with us. As we seek to follow Him, we can rest in the assurance that at the right moment He will open our understanding.

The Beauty of Brokenness

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The centerpiece of our Christian faith is the sacrifice of Christ. As he hung on the cross, he was broken. Broken for our sin. Broken in his body. What we might call a bloody mess. Yes, no matter how sanitized we would prefer to make our mind’s snapshot of Christ on the cross, the reality of it is that Christ hung there broken.

A man who had never sinned received into his literal physical body all the sin of all mankind and took the penalty that such sin required. And it broke him.

His physical body was broken. Nails in his hands and feet. Long thorns thrust into his skull. His face bleeding from the places man had pulled his beard out. His back, torn into pieces from the whipping he had endured. His body crushed from falling under the weight of the cross on the way to Golgotha.

His heart was broken as he experienced separation from his Father as he lived in his present darkness. He experienced our confusion, our loneliness, our doubts, our fears.

He was broken for me. He was broken for you. That is the beauty of brokenness.

May every time we experience the reality of brokenness, whether our own brokenness or the brokenness of others, lead us to remember Christ who was broken for us all and may we live in grateful love for the One who through brokenness has become our healing and our salvation.

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Categories : Salvation, brokenness

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Jan

The Body of Christ Broken for You…

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Today I spoke those words many times as individual congregants participated in communion. Often I spoke the person’s name who stood before me and personalized the message. Deborah, the body of Christ broken for you. Josh, the body of Christ broken for you. As each person broke off a piece of the bread symbolizing the breaking of the body of Jesus, the holiness of the moment was tangible. More often than not, the one standing before me had tears in their eyes as the realization of what Christ has done for us all permeated our hearts. It was a sacred privilege to serve others in this remembrance of Christ.

And I thought of what a beautiful way it was to begin our 21-day fast together as a body of Christ. The very observation of communion calls believers into a place of introspection. Scripture teaches us to examine our hearts as we partake of the Lord’s table. Together we acknowledged our sinfulness and His sufficiency and we experienced communion with Christ and with each other.

As we enter this fast together being led by the Holy Spirit, may each time we say no our fleshly desires remind us of the sacrifice of Christ who offered up His flesh for us.