The Light, not Twilight

Our world seems to live every day in the dark. At times the Church looks to this same darkness in order to “reach” those who need to know God. There is a search for meaning, hope, a hero in the hearts of the people all around us, and sadly a few have given up and are willing to exist in the darkness, not even trying to find a way out.

It is into this same kind of culture that the Light burst forth 2000 years ago. How bright the light of Christ appears in such a dark world. The darkness that we now live in is the perfect place to bring forth the Light.

Take heart my friends, we are the hope. It is to us that Jesus gave the great commission. God into ALL the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and I am with you ALWAYS even to the end of the age.

Jesus totally knew that the false image of God would dominate the best seller list for months, as The Shack sits on the top #10 list on every bookstore shelf in the country; that Twilight would claim the hearts of His daughters; that movies like Transformers would present lustful images to ours sons taking them to places of desire they should not be taken to; that the youngest among us would be fed a line of hopelessness from a movie about Wild Things, and that those same kids would be led to worship a man instead of the One who all of our hearts were made to worship.

It is into this age that He chose for you and me to live, and it is those of us who hold the name Christian that He chose to bring the light into the darkness. Don’t get me wrong, we are sooooo flying upside down, but we have the knowledge that our Savior lives and that He is at work all around us.

Paul experienced life just like we do at times. When he walked into one of the most immoral city in the Roman Empire, the city of Corinth, the Bible says that he entered with fear and trembling. Now this was not a metaphor for how he kind of felt inside. No, Paul was physically shaking when he entered the city gates. He was all alone at the time. Silas and Timothy were still hanging out in Berea, and Paul had just left Athens, failing to see the Spirit move among the people of that great city even after he delivered one of his most eloquent messages.

Paul felt rather useless when he entered Corinth, but he did something that a lot of us DON’T do when we feel we have failed. He surrendered his life fully to Christ, to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. No too often, when we feel that God has not used us, we withdraw, go into a hole, take our toys and go home. But not Paul. He sought more of Jesus and kept going, not worrying about the result.

Corinth was the home of the cult of Aphrodite. The city was filled with sexual immorality because of this, and that sexual immorality was not left at the door of the church. Yet, through the faithful preaching and teaching of Paul and other men of God, the city was forever changed as the Light of Christ entered its streets.

Every day we have the chance to walk into Corinth. Kids are put in our paths who think that salvation means picking up the trash in the neighborhood to help save the planet. They need to know that work is good, but it isn’t the answer to eternity. They need to be loved for who they are, and shown Jesus.

There are teenager girls dying to talk to us about how wonderful Edward is, so we need to engage them. We need to say, “Ya, Edward’s cool, but he isn’t real, and even if he were his salvation is death, but there is someone so much more wonderful, who loves you and defeated death. Jesus is the answer to all your heart’s desire.”

There are young men so captivated by the images on a screen, that they live lives no different from those who once worshiped at the altar of Aphrodite. They can't have a real relationship with a woman because they have been made to feel less than as men. These young men need to experience the love of God in their hearts, and then their lives can be saved.

The world seems so dark at times that I just want to keep the doors locked. I don’t want to be faithful to anyone but my own little family, to keep it safe from all the wrong in our culture, but that is not how we are suppose to live. We are to be lights in the darkness, to stand up for the innocent, to share the love of Jesus in the smallest way to every person we meet, and who knows, that Light might hit just one person's heart and drive the darkness out! So, if you are sad about what is going on all around us, know that He has chosen you for just this moment in time. Take heart, He has overcome the world.

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have OVERCOME the World. John 16:33

Where the Wild Things Are

Jesus Hates Zombies and Lincoln hates Werewolves, well that is a title for a graphic novel if I ever heard one. Our world looks for heroes in the strangest places. We now equate, Jesus with an American president, and I am surprised the author did not have the zombies and werewolf as the good guys.

If Jesus hates zombies, he hates vampires, but that fact might greatly upset a whole generation of girls who believe the greatest men of our day, are a 90 year old vampire, who looks nineteen and a teenage werewolf. Girls (and not just girls) swoon at the thought of knowing men like them. They have no repulsion toward the bloodletting that one of the characters indulges in, nor do they recoil at the idea of a wolf sleeping with a woman. Their hearts throb in anticipation as a vampire sneaks into the room of a girl their own age every night without anyone knowing. They long for a smelly werewolf to sit at their door to protect them.

Our world seems to be flying upside down, as Dallas Willard points out. And the sad thing is that the culture doesn’t even care, because there is not right side up. There is an emptiness, and a searching among us. Yet we are looking and searching in the dark. Hoping that some supernatural being will save us from our mundane existence and add excitement to our lives. Thing is that, that Supernatural Being died and rose again 2000 years ago to save us, yet we ignore him in favor of the "undead".

Funny, we are even willing to embrace someone else’s dream to gain our own hope of salvation. That is right, Stephanie Meyer had a dream about a vampire that led her to write the Twilight series, and through that dream came T-shirts, and discussion groups, and pilgrimages to the small town of Forks in Washington state.

At least in the pages of the Twilight books, there is the hope of redemption, the dream of an eternal future. One that is seriously misguided, but still it is there. I realized today that there is a part of the world that does not even have a false savior to give them hope. Part of the world is living in such utter darkness that they don’t even believe that there is a way out of the bleakness of human existence. They visit a place called Where the Wild Things Are, and discover there is no redeemer, there is no better tomorrow, there is only pain and sorrow.

If you are not familiar with this title, it is a very short children’s book, about a boy who visits an island inhabited by fantastic creatures called the “Wild Things”. That said the short children’s book has been transformed into a motion picture, in which a boy filled with anger and rage flees to the Wild Things, and discovers that they are just as angry and destructive as the place of pain that fills his own heart. He promises them that he will be their king and save them from sadness and pain with his invisible shield, but in the end, they discover that he is a fraud and all their hope for happiness is dashed when he fails to save them from themselves. The boy returns home to his own mother, his own family, with the simple words spoke to or by one of the unhappy Wild Things, “It’s hard to be a family.”

There is no redemption just the reality of the darkness, joylessness, hopelessness of life to endure until death. That, in the end, is the takeaway the movie leaves the audience with. I left the theater utterly depressed, thankful that the sun was out in all of its Arizona glory, and that the Son of God reigns in all of His.

I have always told my children that no matter what story, what movie, what book, or play, that I can find Jesus in it in some aspect or another. But today, I told them that I was wrong. Today, there was NO redeemer in Where the Wild Things Are. When the Son is absent, then too is His light and all that is left is darkness. The makers of the movie must have felt this as well, because the forest the Wild Things live in is without life, the world they exist in had a sun, but it is muted by clouds, and the lives they live are filled with bitterness, rage, betrayal and violence.

When a vampire is the hero of the young, and a movie for kids is filled with so much “realism” that they leave the theaters in quiet contemplation, we know we are flying upside down, about to take a nosedive into the earth.

The postmodern age looks to darkness for redemption and when it does not find it there, it discovers that the darkness is devoid of all hope.

The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.

Even within the walls and halls of our own churches, the younger generation is looking to darkness to redeem them. Will we be like the generation Jesus first came to, the one who crucified him, who were His own, but did not recognize Him because He came as light.

In Him was LIFE and that LIFE was the LIGHT of MEN!

Faith Without "Perfection" Is Real

I was visiting with a friend of my mom’s today; well actually, she is also a friend of mine. She is recovering from surgery, and is headed home from rehab tomorrow. She is a great lady, who has been going through some really hard physical trials. While recovering from her latest test, she confessed that she wasn’t as “godly” as she wished she would have been while being in the hospital.

As she was sharing with Mom and me, she talked about different nurses coming in to check on her. How there were a few of them who would see her reading a devotion or her Bible and stop and ask her what she was reading. Those who were believers would get a chance to share a moment of fellowship openly with her, praising God or giving Jesus glory. I am sure others, who were not followers, still respected her devotion to her faith.

Our witness is to be real, and sometimes when we are real, we might be a bit testy, or upset, but that actually helps people see that we aren’t playing at our faith or putting on a show. The Jew in the Shakespeare play, “Merchant of Venice” says at one point, “if you cut me, do I not bleed.” Meaning, just because I am a Jew doesn’t mean that I am not human. So too, Christians hurt, they bleed, they laugh, they cry, they live as humans, yes fallen humans, that have the hope of one day living with Jesus without their sinful natures.

My friend might not always be the best patient, nor the kindest wife, nor the most gracious person, but what she always is, is a sincere follower of Christ. I know that even in her most trying times, when she is struggling with her attitude that she is still seeking Jesus. And when that moment of impatience passes , I know that she is openly confessing her attitude to the Lord; asking not only for His forgiveness, but for His strength to be more like Jesus the next time.

It is this seeking, this asking, this confessing that God is looking for. He knows that we are just dust, that we are never in this life going to be perfect, nor superhuman, nor little gods. It is not our trying, nor our working, nor our attempts at perfection that please God, but instead our seeking.

“Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.

For we must believe that He exists

and that He rewards those who earnestly SEEK Him.”

(Heb. 11:3)

It isn’t the doing everything just right, that pleases Him, it is the believing in Him, that makes Him happy. And I have to say I am soooooo absolutely thankful for that, because I will never attain perfection in this world, and this causes me to look forward to eternity so much more than if I thought I could work things out here.

When I read faith, the kind of faith that pleases God, includes believing that He REWARDS those who seriously seek Him, so much of His Word, and the Christian life made sense. Often times we look at men like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David and wonder how they could be the best of the best. They carry such titles as “friend of God”; “Israel”; “most humble man”; and “a man after God’s own heart,” even though they all committed HUGE sins: lying, murder, manipulation, adultery and the list goes on and on. However, when seen in the light of Hebrews 11:3, their lives of faith, their titles, their place in the Hall of Faith found in Hebrews 11 makes total sense. They were human, they messed up, they fell short of God, but each and every one of them BELIEVED that God was real, that He REWARDS those who earnestly SEEK HIM.

Now some of you will say we are told in Scripture to be “perfect, as I am perfect.” This is true, as those who have surrendered their lives to Christ, we are called to live set apart lives, to be holy. The desire to be holy “set apart for a higher purpose” is there within each of us. That is why when we behave badly we run to the Lord in confession. It is the Holy Spirit of God pressing on our chest every time we break God’s moral law. It is that same Holy Spirit that seals us until the day of Christ and makes us holy. He does the perfecting so we don’t have to.
My friend is one of these seekers, just like my Mom, and countless other women I know, who please God because of their faith. They not only believe, but they live for Jesus. They fulfill Matthew 6:33, which says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (needs as well as rewards) shall be added unto you.”

Do not expect human “perfection” from yourself, or from anyone else you know, just live out your life in faith, and trust our God with the perfecting.

Empty Tombs

I recently traveled to Europe. It was amazing to be in a place bursting with so many thousands of years of history. Walking around Roman baths, gazing upon gardens King Henry VIII strolled through, taking pictures with the actual Code of Hammurabi, and sitting in the halls of power where the history of the world was once decided, I was filled with wonder.

Memories of past greatness overflowed every place my husband and I visited. Castles, palaces, towers, abbeys, cathedrals, loomed all around and an image of those who lived before us now sitting all around us as a cloud of witnesses permeated my mind. At one point, after a day packed with museum visits and guided tours, my husband said, “Enough with the dead people.” And, I had to agree. The overarching images of those who went before weighs heavy on a mind.

Even heavier on my heart however was the sadness I felt as I entered some of the most amazing building ever built that were designed to honor God, places like St. Georges Cathedral in Windsor, Westminster Abbey in London, and Notre Dame in Paris. The edifice itself produced wonder in the heart of the tourists who came into its great shadow. The height, the size and the ornate beauty of each building did make everyone look up into the heavens, and the shear enormity of the nave, made one feel small and insignificant. The age that built such works of art desired a lasting reminder of their devotion and hoped that ages to come would use the churches they created for worship, but sadly those uses for worship have passed.

Yes, places like Westminster and Norte Dame are still used as churches, but as I walked through their dark passages, the words Jesus spoke to the Pharisees came flooding into my mind, “White washed tombs” He called them and their lives, but these huge buildings no longer had any soul, any heart beat. Over the centuries, religion replaced faith.

The Cathedrals of Europe have become the empty tomb Jesus emerged from on the third day, filled with reminders of Jesus, but lacking His spirit within their walls. People file through on a daily basis, they look at the cross at the altar and have no knowledge of the meaning that belongs to that image. They take pictures of painting they recognize but have no clear understanding of their significant. Priests stand to the side watching their visitors wander their halls, proud of the draw their sanctuary has upon so many, yet offer no guidance to point those wanders to the one the church was built to worship. Those “churches” are still alive. People gather in them, wait in line to enter their doors, even pay to spend hours in their halls, yet they have lost their purpose, and with that purpose gone, they are no better than museums to an ancient past that has little meaning past a passing interest in history to those who enter their doors. They have gained the whole world, but lost their souls.

As I thought of the emptiness of their walls, I too thought about my own life, and how I often walk through it claiming a life committed to Christ without ever spending any real time with Him. I began to ask myself if I have replaced faith with religion, relationship with church attendance, devotion for doing. Do I look like the real thing from the outside; say the right things, act “godly”, seem pious, appear wise, but am I really just an attractive shell, that reminds others of a true faith that is now only lived out in past memories, a museum for what the Lord once did in my life? I pray that I am not like the white washed tombs Jesus accused the Pharisees of being, nor like the Cathedrals filled with people yet devoid of purpose, nor like the tomb that Jesus left behind. No, as we approach the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, I pray that the Spirit of the Risen Jesus fills your heart now and always.

I am so very thankful that my King, my Sovereign Lord, is unlike ancient kings and queens. I do not have to use my imagination to know what He is like, nor wonder if He will live on through history. No, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is so very different because He alone defeated death. He is ALIVE and His Spirit lives within the hearts of each one of His children. The Church of Jesus is not an ornate Cathedral, instead it is made up of all believers and is eternally alive in Christ.

Living Water

Each one of us has a thirst that we are trying to satisfy with something. Often times we attempt to meet that need with food, alcohol, the internet, relationships, and work, but none of these things ever quenches it. The woman at the well tried to meet the thirst in her heart with men, and then one man came along and radically changed her world. She found out that only He could satisfy her parched soul. She discovered that Jesus is the Living Water.

As she walked to the well, her heart hurt. She had to get water at noon, so that the other women in the village would not be there. However, she did not want to have to go when all the other women were gone. She was lonely. She was thirsty for friendship, for someone to reach out to her and accept her. How long had it been since she felt accepted? Had she ever really known what acceptance felt like? Would she ever know what it meant to be loved?

When she got closer to the well, she saw someone sitting on its edge. She breathed a sigh of relief. Well, at least it was a man. They were not as catty or as cold as women were, and she knew how to please them. She slowed down her step, hoping he would go away when he saw her coming, but He did not. She noticed that He was not from Samaria. He was a Jew. Why was He here in Sychar, a city in Samaria?

These might have been the thoughts of the Samaritan woman as she walked toward Jesus one afternoon. After meeting Him, she would finally know what it meant to be accepted and to be loved.

Around

John 4 begins by explaining that Jesus was drawing large numbers of followers, people baptized by His disciples, not just curious onlookers. The Pharisees were starting to get nervous. At first, they thought John the Baptist was going to be the one to challenge their authority, but it was becoming clearer to them that Jesus was actually the rising star.

The Jewish leaders decided to send someone over to try to stir up things between John the Baptist and Jesus. John’s disciples were agitated and they came to John along with a “certain” Jew. They asked John, “What’s up with this guy Jesus. Aren't you bothered that He is baptizing more people than you are?” (See John 3:22-36)

I picture John the Baptist as a hippie type, surfer dude. He might have responded to the leader like this, "No worries dudes. I am down with Jesus. He is righteous. I’m not here to get dudes to follow me. Jesus is going to become epic and I'm canned. That's gnarly. I came to make the way glassy for Him and then I'm out." In other words, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30).

John’s reply was simple and clearly revealed his deep faith. The Pharisees effort to cause conflict between John and Jesus failed. That said, when Jesus learned about the attention He was drawing among the religious leaders, He decided to go up to Galilee for a while. He left Judea and headed north, toward Samaria.

Most Jews traveled around Samaria. They believed that by going through the Samaritan region they would become unclean. Jews saw Samaritans as half-breeds, not worthy of God's love. The Samaritans had once been part of Israel, but after the Assyrian invasion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., they were forced to intermarry with Assyrians, thereby losing their position as Jews.

The gospel writer says that Jesus had to go through Samaria to get to Galilee. Now He did not have to go physically around Samaria. Religious Jews went east, across the Jordan, then north until they passed the Samaritan region, and finally went back west, across the Jordan, to enter Galilee. Jesus chose to go right through Samaria to get to His destination. Jesus did not live by the same standards as the religious. He did not have the same prejudices that the Jewish leaders of the day held. He was concerned about people, and about carrying out the Father’s will. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believed in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John. 3:16).

Jesus did not go around Samaria. He knew that the shortest way between two points is a straight line. He also knew that if He went around, He would miss something He needed to do. He would miss the Father’s will.

Thirsty

Jesus arrived in Sychar, a city in Samaria, around lunchtime. He was thirsty and hungry after His six-hour journey. He took a seat by the town well. His throat was parched and covered in dust. He determined to ask a woman carrying a jug for a drink of water. Read the interaction that took place:

When a Samaritan Woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) (John 4:7-9)
Jesus was not concerned with whom she was, what He was concerned about was the state of her heart. He told her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying this to you, ‘Give Me a drink’ you would ask Him and He would give you living water" (Jh 4:13-14).

The woman did not know what to do with Jesus. I can picture her standing there looking at Him wondering if He was all there.

Imagine some guy coming up to you at the gas station, wearing an Armani suit and driving a BMW, asking you to fill up his gas can. You might look at what He is wearing and driving and think to yourself, “Why is He asking me to fill up His gas can?”

He realizes what you are thinking and offers you gas for life. You look at Him like He is crazy and He proceeds to promise you that if you listen to Him he can make sure you are filled up for good, and all the time you are wondering how a guy who cannot pay for his own gas, can promise to give you fuel for the rest of your life.That might have been what the woman at the well was thinking. What kind of water can this man have, if He does not even have a bucket to draw water out of the well right in front of Him.She said, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” (John 4:11).
She knew that there was something different about Jesus. He had something she wanted, but she could not put her finger on it.

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water I give him will never get thirsty. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

Jesus finally had her full attention. She was thirsty, thirstier than she even knew. The woman finally realized what she was thirsting for all those years. She said, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4:15).

Go

Look closely at Jesus’ response. He does not give her three easy steps to salvation. Instead, He told her to admit to her own state of need. He instructed her to do something that would reveal the state of her heart, and her willingness to receive the gift He was offering her. Jesus said, “Go call your husband and come back” (16).

The Samaritan woman could have answered Jesus in several ways. She could have reacted in anger, telling Jesus to mind His own business. She could have lied about the men in her life. She could have even taken the cynical route and asked which one, but she chose to be honest with Jesus. She replied, "I have no husband” (17).

Jesus was impressed by her openness, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband” (18).
This was the reason that the woman was coming to the well by herself, in the middle of the day. She was a woman of loose morals, one any "God fearing" woman would shun.

Jesus saw her differently. He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. 9:13).

Thankfully, that is still true today. The following is the story of a modern day woman at the well:

I can say that I accepted Christ in 1982 at the tender age of 19, but I only believed in Him with my mind. I began attending church and a Bible study with my sister and some friends, but I had to move away from the area shortly after being saved. That's when my trouble began. I settled into my different life in a new city and at the age of 20, I met and married a man who essentially did not believe in God. I fell into the same way of thinking. I was very lonely in my marriage, trying to get a college education and make lots of money. I had an emptiness inside that nothing would fill; not my husband, money, or my career. My husband and I were both proud, selfish, and demanding people, and eventually our marriage ended after seven years. I fell into a very demoralized way of living during the year following my divorce. I began to go out and party with friends, I neglected my responsibilities at home as well as taking care of my dog. My language was foul. I slept with several men thinking that would ease the pain and emptiness I felt inside.

It didn't. Working too much didn’t help either. Looking back, my life felt like it was as filthy as a toilet.Following that year, I was working as an MRI/Nuclear medicine technologist, and I met my current husband. We married in 1993, and moved to Seattle, WA in February 1997, so that my husband could take a job promotion. We had two small children. Jesus literally began this time to pound on the door of my heart.In Seattle, I began working weekends as an MRI technologist in one of the local hospitals. I was often very stressed and tired at those times because of the workload, but I truly enjoyed my job, my coworkers, the doctors, and patients. It was there that Jesus paid me a visit.I remember the day clearly. On Saturday, December 7, 1998, I was scanning a patient for back pain, and as I looked at her, I could tell she was ill in other ways. The whites of her eyes were yellow and her color wasn't good at all. I felt she had hepatitis at the very least. I began to scan her for her back pain. At a point during her exam, the scan protocol called for an injection of a contrast agent into a vein in her arm. I came into the scan room to give her the injection. I was in a great hurry as I injected her. Just as I pulled the needle out of her arm, I stuck myself with her contaminated needle in my left palm, just below the left index finger.I had been a technologist for 15 years and I had never stuck myself with any one's needle before but that is exactly what had just happened! I was so scared and bewildered and, not wanting to add to this patient's considerable level of pain, I did not tell her what had just happened. I finished her exam and she went home without knowing what had occurred.I tried to carry on the rest of the day, thinking that I was a healthy person and that nothing could happen to me because of the needle stick. I went into the bathroom about two hours later, and as I looked into the mirror, I heard my heart's voice saying to me, "You are going to die and leave your kids without a mother."

My future somehow flashed before my eyes and I knew that what this voice was saying was true. Right there, beside a toilet, I fell to my knees and begged God, "God, if You can make this situation alright, if You can heal this woman, then I won't be sick either! Please heal her and me! I know who You are and I know You can do this. I believe in You! I'll be Yours!"I got up from beside the toilet and immediately called my unit manager and the patient, telling them what had happened. A flurry of activity ensued. I went to the ER for therapy, the patient came back, and had her blood drawn for lab work. Things were crazy in the ER but so many miracles happened that evening that it would take too much time to recount them all. One thing's for sure, I saw God mightily working right away for my good.The next day, which was Sunday, I returned to my regular work shift, not knowing what the patient's lab results would show. I went to the computer terminal to check her blood results. Well, God worked two miracles, because first the patient did not have one thing wrong with her blood! In fact, her blood work was better than mine was! Secondly, God cured her, and through her being cured, I was never infected with anything. She was completely free of any problems yet I saw her with my own eyes and knew she was sick!

Well, I really heard Jesus calling me because I had just turned my life over to him the prior day in a radiology bathroom next to a toilet. I had faced my own future and found it lacked eternity! It lacked Jesus Christ!Now, looking back over that time, I cannot thank Jesus enough for all He has done for me, even when I didn't care at all about Him. He showed me my horrible spiritual condition that day, being filthy like that toilet was. But He flushed away that toilet full of all my sin and now, I am free to live as Jesus' friend and disciple. I am deeply grateful to Him for all He has done and is doing in this world. Most of all, I am so very thankful for His presence in my life. I am no longer alone and Jesus gives me the ability to live powerfully for Him. He is with me always!As for me, I am redeemed of the Lord and I will say so! "For God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Jesus took the woman at the well to the same place he took the woman in this story. He showed them, their “horrible spiritual condition,” revealing their thirst for Him.

The Lord exposed the Samaritan woman’s need. He did this by going to the place she had gone to for years to try to satisfy her thirst. He went to her comforter to get to her heart. He asked her about the men in her life, because He wanted her to understand that nothing she had tried before could make her whole, make her stop thirsting. In this way, Jesus gave her a chance to be real, and through her honesty, the knowledge that she was not righteous, He was able to show her who He was.

Jesus went to the center of her problem. He went to the idol in her life; that thing she thought would save her and never could. She ran to men to try and slake her thirst, but they failed her every time. They just made her thirstier.

How many of us in this room still endeavor at times to refresh our parched soul with people, things, and/or activities? We might even have a relationship with Christ, but still fall back into old patterns or new ones that are just as devastating. Too often, we desire to meet our own needs. Sadly, when we do this, it is like drinking a cup of coffee when we are dehydrated. Our attempt only dries us out more.

I am not immune from this type of spiritual dehydration. Within two years of surrendering my life to Christ, an eating disorder ensnared me. This disorder manifested itself in relationship to the insecurity I was feeling in my marriage. My insecurity was not related to my husband, but to my past. My father left my mother just two years prior to my own marriage. I projected the fear of loss and abandonment onto my own relationship, and felt sure that if I kept my body trim that my husband would not leave me.

The interesting thing about eating disorders is that they might start with a desire for a healthy body, but they quickly move into obsession. Any disorder is more about emotional issues and control than anything else. By controlling my food intake and body image, I believed I could control my husband and my fears of abandonment.

All I really achieved was bondage to those fears. Instead of resting in Christ, I chose to try to manipulate things I thought were under my control to make me feel safe and secure. It was not until I realized I could never make myself truly safe, and allowed Jesus to have control over my life and well being that I finally had the security I was trying to achieve. He was the only one who could satisfy that thirst in my life.

ANYTHING can become our idol. Walking can change from a healthy everyday activity into a compulsive behavior, eating can move from a physical need to a self-comforting tool, Bible study can start out as a time of deep connection with the Lord and move into a guilt ridden activity. God created us for worship. If Christ is not at the center of our worship, then we will worship something or someone else.

The woman at the well chose men, what have you chosen? Is it your husband, your kids, your career? What would Jesus ask you to go and get if you asked Him today to give you living water? What do you need to confess to Him even now, because He is always sitting at the well waiting for you to drink of the water only He can offer?

Sidetrack

Pay attention to how the Samaritan woman dealt with Jesus’ focus on her comforter."Sir, the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." (John 4:19-24)

She was uncomfortable. Things were getting a little too personal. Just as Jesus was getting to the deep issues of this woman’s life, she tried to change the subject. She tried to divert attention from her use of men to something that was not as close to home.

She tried to sidetrack Jesus from the main issue in order to inquire about a “spiritual” matter. Since she had this man, that was no doubt a prophet standing in front of her, she thought she should ask Him something important.

We are no different in our desire to shift the focus from those sins that are comfortable to us to peripheral issues. I do this. It is easier to have a theological discussion than to confess our sins. It is more comfortable to study the Bible than to allow the Holy Spirit to use it to convict our heart. It appears more “godly” to quote passages of Scripture than to deal with the things that have taken control of our lives.

Jesus did not get sidetracked. He came to satisfy her thirst, not have a debate with her. He told her that the Jews worship God and that salvation is for them, but there would be a time when believers would worship God not in a central location but in spirit and truth. God is spirit and He wants to be worshiped in the spirit. Jesus invited the woman at the well to worship Him in this way.

Jesus invites us to worship Him in exactly that same way today. He wants us to stop trying to sidetrack things, and surrender our wills to His. When we do this, we discover a life overflowing with true worship: “Present yourselves as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of service” (Rom. 12:1).

Messiah

Jesus surprised the Samaritan woman. She quickly began to realize that He would satisfy her thirst. When she came to that point, the Lord did something very special for her. He did for her what He did for the woman in the hospital bathroom; He revealed His true nature, His secret identity. When the woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us,” Jesus declared, “‘I who speak to you am He’” (John 4:25-26).

Can you imagine what those words did to her heart? Even as I share this with you, my heart is racing. I am the one you have been waiting for, I am the Christ, the chosen One of God.

I am the Messiah

At that moment, the woman received the Living Water. She did not need to debate any longer. Jesus did not have to prove Himself to her. She believed. The evidence for this is found in verse 28: “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’”

Drink

Once she grabbed hold of Jesus, she introduced Him to everyone. She did not care if someone was unkind, she was not worried about who might reject her, and she was not concerned about what people would say. The Samaritan woman received the acceptance she had thirsted for all of her life, and she was going to share the water of life with everyone she met. “Many of the Samaritans from the town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (39).

After drinking the living water, she was never the same. “Her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much; but he who has been forgiven little loves little,” Jesus said this of another woman, but it applies to the woman at the well. (See Luke 7:48, 50).

If you have ever come across someone freed from the bonds of sin, someone who has been greatly forgiven, you know this woman. You understand what Jesus meant when He said that they loved much.

I had the honor of meeting such a woman several years ago. This woman loved Jesus more than anyone I had ever known. She never stopped talking about Jesus. She never stopped talking about what He did for her.

The story of her salvation freely flowed from her lips. Her sin and her past did not come out as freely. They were things she knew Jesus had already dealt with, and they no longer needed to be remembered, let alone talked about.

When I first met her, she reminded me of a schoolgirl in love for the first time, who wanted everyone to meet the one person the sun and moon circled around. She was never ashamed to say the name of Jesus. She introduced everyone to her best friend.

If anyone rejected Him or His love, she was devastated. She did not hurt for Him, or for herself. She hurt for them, because she knew that their souls were parched and if they just drank the water that liberally surged from Jesus’ heart, they would never be thirsty again. Jesus so saturated her that she could not help pouring out His love on everyone she encountered. Even when rejected, ridiculed or rebuked, she never faltered in her devotion to her Savior. Set free from so much, this woman loved Jesus in ways only she could understand and for reasons only she fully knew.

The woman at the well was just like this woman. She arrived at the point in her life where she realized that Jesus was the only one who saw into her heart, knew all there ever was to know about her, accepted her for who she really was, and still loved her. He loved her the way she longed to be loved.

The Samaritan woman discovered that Jesus was the only one who could satisfy her thirsty soul. He is the only one who can satisfy yours. Jesus is more than enough.

Pride and Prejudice in Christianity???

In the Book of James, James tells us that there should be no favoritism within the church. As believers there should be a common bond of Christ that removes all pride from our attitudes toward others and with the absence of pride there should be no prejudice toward any individual or group. However, this has not always been the case. Even from the beginning, the church has not always left prejudice aside.

Had Jane Austin addressed this issue in the Church she might have said, “Neither 100 lbs a year nor 10,000, neither master nor servant, neither unmarried at 27 nor married at 16, for all are one in Christ.”

Instead it was Paul who addressed the need for equality in the body in Galatians 3:28,
“Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Jane Austin did attack the issue of misconceptions toward others based on wealth, position in society and family background. Pride and Prejudice is a story that reveals how pride, and from that pride, prejudice can separate people from one another. Her main characters, Elizabeth Bennet and John Darcy are filled with condescension and critical judgments toward all those around them, including one another. It is not until their love for one another over powers their pride that they begin to see that they have judged each other unfairly. They made assumptions about each other even before knowing who the other person was.

This prejudgment of other people is common in the world, but sadly it is just as prevalent in the Church.

Paul wrote what he did in Galatians 3:28 because of the attitudes people within the body of believers had toward others. In Galatians, Paul had to confront Peter about the hypocrisy he had shown toward Gentiles after a group of Jewish believers arrived. Prior to believers from Jerusalem coming to Galatia, Peter had eaten freely with Gentiles believers, but when these other men came he began to pull away from the Gentiles. He was afraid of those Jewish believers who were of the circumcision group coming against him. With his actions, Peter actually caused several other Jews, who had been with him prior to the arrival of those from Jerusalem, to treat the Gentile believers as if they were less than Jewish believers. Paul confronted Peter. He said “We who are Jewish by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” In this, Paul was reminding Peter of the gospel message, the same message that Peter had taken to the Gentiles.

In Acts 10, the Lord called Peter to the home of a Gentile, a Roman soldier by the name of Cornelius. Cornelius and Peter both received visions from the Lord drawing them to one another. One day Cornelius was praying (Cornelius was a religious man apart from Christ) and all of a sudden a man appeared to him in shining clothes. This man told him to send for Peter. Either on that day, or the day right after, Peter was praying as he waited for dinner. He had a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven with animals on it…clean and unclean (there were certain animals Jews could eat and others they could not eat and the sheet contained both types.) In the vision the Lord told Peter to get up and kill and eat. Peter said no Lord. I have never eaten anything unclean before. Then the Lord told Peter that nothing He had created was unclean. At that moment Peter woke up, and the Spirit told him to go down stairs because men were waiting for him. Peter realized that his dream directly related to the men who were waiting for him. The Lord told him to go to the house of a Gentile and proclaim Christ…this was not something a Jew ever did. They believed they would be defiled if they went into the home of a Gentile, so for Peter to be told that he was to go to the Gentiles was a huge thing. God knew that he needed to be prepared and that is why he had the dream when he did. It was not related to food, but instead to mankind. “Nothing I made is unclean,” the Lord told Peter and then He sent him to the Gentiles.

Peter left for Cornelius’ house that very day. When he got there, Acts 10:27 tells us that Peter walked into the house. He is stiff and looks very proud. The crowd parts for him, so it is clear that he is a man of great standing. Everyone bows or curtsies as he passes by. This is the point where he and Elizabeth see each other for the first time. He walks up to the door of Cornelius house and looks around. He has six of his fellow Jewish believers with him. I am sure they stood even further back than Miss Bingley did when she was introduced to the Bennetts. Peter steps into the house, and just as everyone at the ball parts for Mr. Darcy in reverence, Cornelius falls at Peter’s feet. Unlike Darcy, Peter tells Cornelius that he is no different he says, “Stand up….I am only a man myself”.

Imagine Darcy standing there with all these lower ranked country people. He is used to high society, perfect manners and dress and now he is standing among the rabble and expected to dance…he tries to make Lizzy not sound too bad after Bingley asks him why he is not dancing. Bingley points out that Elizabeth Bennet is available and attractive…Darcy says she is tolerable, but not attractive enough to tempt him.

He walks up to the door of Cornelius house and looks around. He has six of his fellow Jewish believers with him. I am sure they stood even further back than Miss Bingley did when she was introduced to the Bennetts. Peter steps into the house, and just as everyone at the ball parts for Mr. Darcy in reverence, Cornelius falls at Peter’s feet. Unlike Darcy, Peter tells Cornelius that he is no different he says, “Stand up….I am only a man myself”.

Peter says this, but not five minutes later…possibly in his nervous state he says, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him.”
Peter in like manner points out that he should not be in the house of Cornelius, BUT Peter takes a different course than Darcy. God has shown him that he should not call any man impure or unclean. So Peter chooses to obey and he proclaims Christ to the rabble, to the Gentiles.

Through Peter’s obedience, because he chose to over come his own pride and prejudice toward Gentiles, Cornelius and all those in his house believe in Jesus. They believe that He defeated death and gave himself for them. Acts 10:44 says that while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message (the Gentiles not the believing Jews). Peter ORDERED that the Gentiles be baptized in the name of Jesus.

Peter overcame his pride and prejudice through obedience to God, but the other believers…now called the circumcised believers believed because they saw that God does not show partiality. God did not first have Peter explain why Cornelius needed to be circumcised before he could come to faith. No, it was through faith in Christ alone and His work on the cross that Cornelius and the members of his household came to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

Now, I wish all pride and prejudice in Christianity had been swept away that day at Cornelius’ house, but sadly it was not. Peter even struggled with it again later on, and Paul had to confront him about his attitude toward Gentile believers.

Where do our prejudice’s lie today? It is easy to sit back and look at Darcy or even Peter and point out how ridiculous their behavior was, but it is much harder to look at our own pride or our prejudice toward others as ridiculous. I know that I can pretty much justify every feeling I have. I can say well this person makes me uncomfortable, or this person is just wrong, and in that way, I can be right and keep my guard up.

As I thought about what I was going to write on this subject, I tried to think of areas of division we have in the body of Christ today. Where do we run into prejudice?

Is it the kid who is sitting with our kid in youth group, the one who has black everything on? Don’t we all applaud the youth pastor doing outreach until the outreach kid is hanging out with our own kid?

Is it the twenty-two year old women three rows in front of us who has a great figure and wears everything to remind us that she has a great figure? Don’t we wish we could tell her how to dress, but that would mean we would have to actually talk to her…then we might find that we liked her and at that point her dress might not seem as offensive as it did when we were sitting behind her judging her?

Is it the music minister who sings all those loud songs and seems to rock the house every week, instead of leading us to sing in the “right way”? Sometimes we wish he would just sing a hymn, yet when we open our hearts, we realize that How Great is Our God brings a brokenness to our hearts just as powerfully as How Great Thou Art.

Is it that woman with the baby in the middle left? Doesn’t she know there is a cry room she can take her baby too? Doesn’t she know you came to church to hear the pastor preach, not her kid scream? We all say we are thankful for children, until children disturb our time. We need to remember our time as new parents. The fear, weariness and the need to be out with other believers so we could be refreshed to go home and sit up at night little one showing the love of Christ to him.

Or it could be so many other things.

If Peter had allowed his prejudice to out weigh his love for Christ, he would not have been the first one to take the gospel to the Gentiles. The gospel would have still been spread, but Peter would have missed out on seeing that wonderful day when grace was poured out on the Gentiles. When the larger picture of Christ’s great gift was shown…For God so loved the world, that he gave His one and only Son that who ever believed in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The gift was not to the Jews alone…but to the world.

Darcy overcame his pride and Elizabeth her prejudice when they had the time to get to know one another. When they let their guard down and opened their hearts to one another. Peter overcame his customs and traditions when he listened to the voice of his Lord and obeyed.

We are no different from Darcy or Lizzy or Jane Austin. We struggle in the same ways that Peter and the Jewish believers did. What changed the path that they all were on was them opening themselves up to be known and to know others. I have been very hard on Darcy tonight, but the reason that the thought first came to my to do this devotional is that I am Mr. Darcy. I tend to walk in a room and look around to see where I fit in. In all reality, that is all Mr. Darcy was doing, the difficulty he had was that he was a man of high rank, and therefore he had to be acknowledged. I am sure he would have rather have come in quietly looked around and gotten comfortable before he began to talk to anyone other than those around him. I am much the same way. I have to figure out where I fit in and then I can begin to talk to people. Darcy confesses at one moment that he does not have the “happy manners” that Wickham has sad to say neither do I. We all have weaknesses that cause us to struggle and it is only when we let down our walls and start to see the good in others that we can do away with our prejudices

Neither purple haired post-modern nor suit clad modern, neither stay at home mom nor working woman, neither Hispanic nor white, neither male nor female….for if we are in Christ then we are one.

Romantic Adultery

In Matthew 5:27-28 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Jesus was clearly addressing men in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount. He said that mentally taking a woman in a lustful way is no different than actually sleeping with her.

It is easy for us as women to AMEN the pastor who preaches Jesus’ words from Matthew 5. We shake our heads in agreement; as the men are told that they are sinning when they take that second look at the woman jogging down the street or consciously linger over the woman in a bikini at the pool, looking at her through their sunglasses. Our security, as women and wives, is stolen every time our husband stares at a magazine covered with the cleavage of some actress, while we stand next to him in line at the grocery store. When we hear the words of Jesus spoken to our men by the pastor on a Sunday morning, we feel protected. We are thankful someone is defending us against the sadness that arises in our hearts when we realize that we are not attractive enough to hold the gaze of the man we gave our lives to on the day we said, “I do.”

However, ladies, the message Jesus conveyed is not just for men. Sadly, when we hear it preached we rarely think of ourselves, our own moments of indiscretion, and our own thoughts of infidelity. We listen, all the while sitting next to our husbands in a “holier than thou” position, elbowing them in the ribs, giving them a sidelong glance, making sure they are taking in every word, all the while not hearing the Spirit move in our own hearts because we think we don’t have any issues in this area.

Every act of sin begins with a decision, so if a man takes that second look, he made a decision to take it, and at that moment, he chose to remove his wife from the center of his desire and put that other woman in her place. In like manner, any time a woman romanticizes about a man other than her husband, she is choosing to replace her husband with a figment of her imagination. If she then allows that figment to live at the center of her affection, she will become more and more discontented with her own husband, and will either continue to live in the false romance of her mind or actually decide to seek out her dream man elsewhere.

To women, Jesus could have just as easily been saying, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you that every woman who willfully causes a man to look upon her with lust has already committed adultery in her heart; whoever talks about how hot the guy in the movie she just watched with her girlfriends has already committed adultery in her heart; whoever dreams she is married to the character in the novel she is reading instead of to her husband has already committed adultery in her heart; whoever flirts with any man who comes along in order to feel good about herself, has already committed adultery in her heart….”

Mental adultery is just as real for woman as it is for their male counter-parts, but it does not always manifest itself in the same way.

Don’t get me wrong, we notice attractive men, and in our modern day world, of visual stimulation and coed living, we women have become predators in our own right. Equality does not simply mean equal pay for equal work anymore. No, it means catcalls, crude comments, hitting on men, and making a big deal about the hot guy who walked by the window at work. Women now watch television or movies and notice the physique of the male lead just as much as his caring demeanor. Once men like Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, and Jimmy Stewart captured the hearts of female audiences, but now being sincere, strong and caring is not enough. Leading men have to be as “beautiful” as their female costars.

Women also know that their physical appearance draws attention. We like to be looked at, and when that desire to be noticed becomes the focus, well anything goes. This is where we cause men to stumble the most. If we understood how much of a draw we are to them, how God created them to be stimulated through sight, we would make different choices in how we dress and how we act. Instead of just the tank top, we would put a jacket on over it. Instead of a bikini, we would wear a one-piece suit. Instead of the low cut blouse, we would wear a crewneck top.

When we draw the knowing look, the lingering stare, we have achieved our goal of being worshipped, but in so doing, we have caused a man to commit adultery. When looked at in those terms, we might just decide to dress for our husbands and please them, leaving all the other men to be pleased by their own wives.

Add to this heightened sense of sight and physical awareness, a woman’s desire for romance, and the door for adulterous thoughts is thrown wide open. Romance for a woman is not simply candy, flowers and romantic midnight strolls. It is a man who loves her unconditionally, provides for her physically and emotionally, protects her heart as well as her life, and willingly lays down his life for her on a daily basis. The problem is that this romantic hero does not exist, well he does exist, he is just not human, so what tends to happen to most women with this fictional version of their dream man is disappointment. Too often we, as women, allow fictional characters to place an unrealistic version of the real thing into our minds and hearts. So, when our husbands come home from work, throw their clothes on the floor, sprawl out in the recliner, turn on ultimate fighting, and ask us what’s for dinner, our romantic and real worlds collide, and if we aren’t careful, the romantic version will win out and replace the real thing.

One woman I was well acquainted with fell down this romance trap. She stopped seeing the value of her husband and replaced their relationship with one of her own creation. She began fantasizing about one of her friend’s husbands. She saw how this man lavished gifts on his wife and kids, how softly he spoke to his wife, how he romanced her, and provided for her every need. Mentally she began to rearrange marriages. She took the place of her friend, and began to live out her friend’s life in her romantic imaginings. The illusion of this “perfect” husband filled not only her waking thoughts, but also her unconscious dreams.

Within a couple months, this woman began to pursue the man of her dreams, and for his part, had he heeded the words of Jesus, that to look upon a woman lustfully is to commit adultery, he would have saved himself, his family, this woman, her family and their church family a great deal of pain. Instead, he allowed her physical beauty, as well as her desire for him to overwhelm his judgment. They walked into an adulterous relationship, and made plans to abandon their families so that they could be with “the one person, they were meant to be with”.

When I confronted this woman, I pointed out something she had seemed to miss. I said, “If this man is so good, and loving, and utterly perfect as a husband, how can he do what he is doing to his wife? If he can take this most selfish of acts, leaving his wife for you, what makes you think he won’t leave you for someone else?”

It was not his physical appearance that caused her to abandon her children and husband. No, she had so built this man up in her mind that she was willing to destroy everyone’s lives in order to have her fantasy. Once the Lord revealed her sin to her, and she rejected the course she had set for herself, she began to realize that this man was not what she had made him out to be in her own world of perfection. She found that her husband was the greatest romantic in the world. He forgave her infidelity, her claim on another man, and accepted her back as his wife.

The act of adultery begins in the mind, but the spark arises in the heart. It is the location of our romantic sensibilities, and out of it flows the issues of life. Whatever we have been holding onto, meditating on, allowing to enter into our feelings, will flow from our hearts into our minds. Once we have given into our own selfish desires, there is little to stop us moving forward with something we never thought we were capable of doing. No matter how discrete we believe ourselves to be, we are still hurting our spouse, ourselves and the heart of God, when we choose to allow another person to come between us and our mate, no matter how real that other person may or may not be.

Jesus finished up his warning on lustful thoughts by saying, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

So, if Jack Bauer (24), Jack Shephard (Lost), Tom Wells (Smallville), Hugh Jackman, or Christian Bale is causing you to lust, cut them off. If the gym makes you look at other men, stop going. If you are fantasizing about your kid’s teacher or your friend’s husband, then stop spending time with them. If Facebook connected you with an old boyfriend, whose marriage just fell apart, do not accept his friend request. If the book series you are reading causes you to create a fake man to be in love with, throw it away. It is better to lose some money, experience rejection, miss some entertainment, or gain some weight after quitting the gym than to suffer the consequence for your lustful decision. Our husbands aren’t stupid. They are one with us, so even if we are simply daydreaming about another man, they will know and there will be pain in our marriages.

In the end, mental adultery is not about our husbands, it does affect them, but it is not about them. No, when we are lusting for other men, the real problem is our relationship with Jesus. Romantic or visual lust is sin, and all sin is rebellion against God, so, when we struggle with impure thoughts, we know our heart is not right. We have taken our focus off our Savior and placed in onto ourselves. Self-focus leads to self-gratification, but there is no such thing as self-gratification, we always want more.

Truly, what we are looking for cannot be found nor met by a man. The desire to be loved unconditionally, provided for physically and emotionally, to have our hearts as well as our lives protected and cared for by someone who willingly laid down his life for us can only be found in Jesus. He is the only one who can meet our every need, and satisfy our hearts desire.

Building Relationship

I do not want the gathering of information or facts to be the focus of anything I write or teach. My overall desire is to lead women into a deeper relationship with God, and through that relationship understand that Jesus is more than enough to meet every need in their lives.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Phil 3:8-10

Conversation of Relationship: Prayer

Jesus set the standard for knowing God. His example shows us how to sustain our relationship with the Father.
Read the following passages of Scripture. Write down what you learn and observe from them.

Matt. 26:36-46

Matt. 14:13-23

Luke 5:15-16

Luke 6:12-16

Jesus talked to the Father about everything. After a day of ministry He did not sit around with His disciples and talk about what went right that day, how they could have done this or that better or what the next day held. No, He went to His Father and shared everything with Him. Jesus was able to with stand the cross because He stayed in His Father’s love. The Father and I are One.

Foundation of Relationship: Surrender

Read Psalm 51 written below:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the in most place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Who is crying out to God in this Psalm?

What does his prayer reveal about his relationship with God?

How was he able to be so transparent in his prayer?

How do we get to the point that we can totally share our heart with God?

Our heart seeks relationship. That is how we are made…even more so since we are women. We hunger and thirst for someone to know us and love us for who we are. We want to be known as we know.

No person can fully meet our deepest need for relationship. No matter how hard we work at any earthly relationship, it will always leave us wanting. God did that. He does not want anyone to fill up that emptiness. It is left there for Him, so why do we avoid the deep conversations with Him? Why do we only fall on our knees when we are hurting? If we could talk to our God like we talk to our husband, best friend or even our counselor, we wouldn’t feel so empty. We would not try to fill that emptiness with things that only hurt us, because we would not feel alone.

God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17: 27-28

Revelation of Relationship: The Word

Every relationship is built on two way communication. It is not enough to talk to your friend. You have to listen to them in order for them to feel valued and loved. God is no different. He speaks to us in many different ways: trials, other people, circumstances, His Spirit, but one of the key ways is through His Word.

In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1:1-3

Consider the following portions of Scripture, and write out what you believe them to be saying.

How important is the Bible to the overall well-being of a Christian?

Psalm 1:1-6; specific emphasis on verse 2

Psalm 119:11

Psalm 119:97-104

Does it sound odd to think of loving the law? The word law for us means something very different than it did for the writer of Psalm 119. For us it is this thing to obey so we don’t get a fine, or have to go to jail. We know it protects us, but I don’t think we would say that we love it. The law being spoken of in Psalm 119 is not the law as we see law, although that type of law was included. The Torah or the Pentateuch is the law being spoken of here. The Five Books of Moses make up the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

• Based on this understanding of the law, what was the psalmist saying in Psalm 119?


• What did he love?


• Why should we meditate on the Word of God?

Look up the definition of meditation in the dictionary. What is the definition? What kind of meditation do you think is being spoken of in the Psalms?

Psalm 19:14

Psalm 104:34


Philippians 4:8 tells us to think about "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy." What could be more praiseworthy or excellent than the Word of God.

The only way we will ever know the heart of our God is by seeking Him. How blessed we are that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Our Creator gave us the Bible to reveal Himself to all of mankind.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it. Rev. 1:3

These words are specific to the book of Revelation, but I believe that if we read the Bible, meditate on it, and then apply it to our lives we too will be blessed.

Father, relationships are hard to build and to maintain. They take time, which is a commodity that we seem to always be short on. As we seek You, give us the wisdom to know what things are taking time away from our relationship with You. Be it service to the church, work, other friendships, books, or a multitude of so many other good things. Help us to let go of the good for what is the best, so that we might know You more fully. It is in the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

The Shack

Created in our Image

Story is a key component of the postmodern era. William P. Young recognized this and hit a homerun with his novel, The Shack. He also picked up on another major reality of the psyche of our day, and that is relationship. People are hungry for it, starved really, that is why we have Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and unlimited texting. The postmodern person wants constant community. In The Shack, Young reveals a God that wants the same thing. A God that is just but lives, above all else, from a heart of mercy; a God who cares deeply for every single person who ever has lived, or ever will live on the earth.

This is one of the reasons that The Shack reached the New York Times Paperback Bestsellers List, and has stayed there. People want to know that they are living within a story bigger than themselves, but that they are still a valued part of that story. Tim Keller says, "The postmodern era has produced in its citizens a hunger for beauty and justice. This is not an abstract culture, but a culture of story and image."

All of us, who have grown up in the age of television, fit into this postmodern category. Story and image go hand in hand with our day. We read books, but our constant food is visual, be it YouTube, CNN, movies or sitcoms. We are a generation stimulated by vivid imagery and compelling story (even not so compelling that is why we have twenty-four hour news that runs the same fifteen minutes of "news" all twenty-four hours).

William P. Young uses both compelling story and vivid imagery within the pages of The Shack. The book begins with Mack, a middle-aged man, snowed in for the day. Mack walks outside to get the mail, slips on some ice and hits his head. He gets up from his traumatic spill to recover a mysterious letter from the mailbox. The letter reads, "Mackenzie, It's been a while. I've missed you. I'll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. – Papa."

Mack freaks at the letter. Papa is the name his wife affectionately calls Father God, and the shack Papa invited him to is the place he had to go in order to identify the blood-stained clothing of his missing six-year-old daughter, who was abducted from a campsite while Mack was saving one of his other children from drowning.

At first, Mack thinks the letter is some kind of sick joke, but soon decides to check the request out. He packs up and goes to the shack. It is at the shack that Mack comes face to face with the Trinity, and it is at the shack that Young provides one of the most dramatic illustrations of the Godhead ever written.

As stated earlier, our postmodern time places a high priority on interconnectivity. Jonathan Edwards once explained the "interconnectivity" that is the essence of the Trinity, "It [creation] couldn't be [created] in order to get love and adoration, since as a triune God he already had that in himself. Rather, he created a universe to spread the glory and joy he already had. He created other beings to communicate his own love and glory to them and have them communicate it back to him, so they could step into the great Dance, the circle of love and glory and joy that he already had."

Young brings this idea of God's perfect community to life in the three characters he created to represent the three members of the Trinity. Perfect unity through humble community is the theme Young carries throughout the entire work. On page 122 of The Shack, the Asian-woman, who is identified as the Holy Spirit says:

Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or 'great chain of being' as your ancestors termed it. What you're seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem, not ours….Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge….it's one reason why experiencing true relationship is so difficult for you (Jesus now speaking)…Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you. (pg. 122-123)

Throughout the narrative, Mack is constantly invited into their relationship. He is brought into the unity of the Trinity and finds healing. He lets go of his anger, finds peace in knowing that his daughter is with God, and understands that justice will be served not by him but by the sacrifice of Jesus. The end of the book has Mack reclaiming the lost body of his little girl. He finds closure and wholeness in God's loving embrace, trusting that he has not been appointed judge and is able to release the man who murdered his daughter in God's hands.

The Shack speaks powerfully to a generation of people touched by story, and uses story to minister to the hearts of those who have been broken by the world. Many people are running to The Shack to find a relational, loving God. One who will do anything to reach them, and spend time with them, not judge them nor condemn them for their failings. Young reveals God as knowable, tangible, and down to earth. He has brought God into the context of the present day, removing past stereotypes and replacing old ideas with new possibilities.

For Young, Papa or God the Father could not come to Mack in male form; because of Mack's past, his own abusive father caused him to be unable to find relationship with a strong, male Father. Instead, Young chose to portray the Father as a boisterous, warm, loving, African-American woman. He also wrote Jesus as a regular guy. Someone to hang with, who was totally cool with you no matter where you were at. With the Holy Spirit, he went around traditional portraits as well. Her name is Sauya, and she is an Asian-woman, who is transparent, and loves to work in the garden. A chaotic place, well at least that is how Mack perceives it, in which she sees perfect order and wholeness.

William Young definitely understands the world we now live in and the values that are important to an age of people who are spiritually hungry and who feed on any idea that might make them feel good about themselves and the world around them. That does not make them feel judged nor condemned for their life choices. The Shack provides answers to hard questions, and gives comfort to those who have doubted the goodness of God.

The postmodern generation desires a savior. That is clear from the overwhelming success books like the Twilight series, based on a noble vampire giving eternal life to a young woman he loves selflessly, even if that life is as the undead. This “savior” and others, however, are poor imitations of the real thing, and sadly, William Young’s character of God is just a caricature. The god found on the pages of The Shack is not the God of the Bible, but instead a manmade god, created in our own image; one that feels comfortable and safe, one that we can relate to and manage because Young’s god is like us.

The postmodern does not believe that there is one truth, or that anyone knows what truth is. They also do not believe that any one text carries any more weight than any other, and if it is argued that one text means a certain thing, they argue against that interpretation saying; Who are you to say this is the right interpretation?

So, when Jesus says in John 15: 9-10; “As the Father has loved Me, I have loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep my commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love,” William Young can say something contrary to Scripture and still be right because of his personal interpretation.

In The Shack, the character of Jesus directly contradicts John 15 when he says, “Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you.”

In the words of Shack Jesus, rules destroy community, and obedience in not necessary in a loving relationship. However, a straightforward reading of John 15 reveals Jesus as saying that obedience and love go hand in hand, that we remain in God’s love through obedience. The word for command in these verses means, “prescribed rule by which things are done.” Jesus actually tells His disciples that perfect community comes from obedience; “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love that this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

According to Young, commands or hierarchy are unloving. Jesus did not mean that He kept the Father’s commands and we are to keep His commands because that would diminish relationship. But that, in and of itself contradict the actual teaching of Jesus, as well as the actions of His life.

In Jesus’ own words, there is a cause and effect, an expectation of obedience in order to reveal a heart of love.

Not only did Jesus teach that there were certain commands we are to obey, He also explained that there is a “hierarchy” within the Trinity even as the Godhead is totally one and fully equal. In John 14:28 Jesus says; If you loved Me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.”

Jesus over and over again proclaimed that He had not come to carry out His own will, but instead to fulfill the will of the Father. He submitted to His Father the night He was taken prisoner. He prayed to have the cup of the cross removed from Him, but surrendered His will to the Father’s will. Philippians says that Jesus was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. “I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.” Within the perfect relationship of the Trinity, Jesus obeyed His Father. This relationship is no less loving or united because of this.

The unity of the Trinity is real. There is no question they are in complete and perfect relationship, because they are one, desiring for humanity to experience the same kind of oneness, God created marriage. He gave the woman to the man to complete him, and within that relationship He placed man as the head of the wife, and Christ as the head of the man.

One point that Young makes that is quite insightful is that God does not simply want headship over us, but wants all of us. He wants to be at our center, and the modern idea of hierarchy hinders this kind of Christ centered relationship. If believers say there are levels of commitment, then they rank God as first and give Him the best of themselves, but keep back a part for the next item on their list. The idea of complete commitment in a God centered life is a strength within the postmodern paradigm concerning relationship.

That said, Young denies the distinct roles that each member of the Trinity fill, and the unique position the Father fills within that relationship. The authority of the Father is played down by Young’s character construction. Emasculating Him in the process. Which leads to the other factor and one of the largest areas that Young goes against traditional Christianity, he removes the male picture of God, replacing Father God with a female version for a time.

Now, as mentioned above God created them, male and female, in His image. Man and woman are unique in all of creation being made in the image of God. Both aspects of male and female exist in God, and together they make a whole image of God. The question arises then, is God gender neutral. Apparently, Young acknowledged that Jesus did come as a man, because that is how He portrays Him in the book, but argues that the Holy Spirit and the Father are not.

This “interpretation” of God is interesting simply because it diverges from the one given of Abba God by Jesus. In Mark 14:36, Jesus, Himself calls God, Abba or Father in Greek. He never describes the Father as a mother or in female form. Jesus was born of a woman, He had a mother, but it was God, Himself, who was His Father.

In Scripture, God is called the Father: of all rational and intelligent beings, whether angels or men, because he is their creator, preserver, guardian and protector; of spiritual beings and of all men; of Christians, as those who through Christ have been exalted to a specially close and intimate relationship with God, and who no longer dread him as a stern judge of sinners, but revere him as their reconciled and loving Father; the Father of Jesus Christ, as one whom God has united to himself in the closest bond of love and intimacy, made acquainted with his purposes, appointed to explain and carry out among men the plan of salvation, and made to share also in his own divine nature. Blue-Letter Bible.com

Young argues that Mack cannot receive love and comfort from Papa in a male form, so God came to Mack as a woman. The interesting fact that is missing from Young’s assessment and the assessment of the culture at large is that men, no matter how dysfunctional their fathers, still look for male figures to fill that role. Very few men go to an older woman for counsel. They leave their mothers at some point and become men, and men do not go back to a woman, apart from their wives, to be affirmed. They go to other men. This is a truth of nature, and one the Young seems to miss until the end, when Papa says to Mack, “Today you need a Father”.

It is when men finally find a godly Father figure, either their own father, or a coach, or a youth pastor, or an older man to mentor and shepherd them that they begin to recognize the compassion of a loving Father God.

In Young’s worldview men are unable to receive love from other men and incapable of giving love, Neanderthals, unable to love and care so women have to come in and take their place.

This view directly relates to the world and day we live in. The feminization of all culture leads postmoderns to reject the goodness and strength of men. Fathers have lost the position of wise counselors and leaders even within the walls of the Church in the postmodern culture. Now, in order for this generation to be able to relate to God, God has to be a woman, or at least has to be a woman until the man is healed enough for God to come as God.

Finally, William Young presents a picture of God, that some would simply say is an allegory, a sketch of the real thing, a symbol to point people to God. Like the King or the Prince spoken of in Pilgrims Progress or Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, but The Shack goes further than these books dared go. Aslan is a symbol, but never presented as Jesus. God is called Lord, King, Prince in the Bible, but John Bunyon never drew a picture outside of those names.

Young moves past allegory to actual description of God. The characters in his book are portrayed as God. Given physical bodies, personality and words, presented with authority as truth, as conversations that God would have. Yet, Jesus said that He alone was the exact representation of the Father to the world. Why is that not enough for us, today? Why do people, Christians need a new kind of representation of the Father, when they have the perfect representation in Jesus?

Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe. He is he radiance of His glory, the exact expression of His nature, and He sustains all things by His powerful Word. Heb. 1:1-3

Many people have found a renewed interest in God through the story woven by William Young. People have found healing of deep hurts, of lost relationships, and new relationships with God, but the question that arises is this, is it the one true God that they have found or one man’s image of God.

The fictional tale of Mack’s loss and healing is not alone in the annals of Christian literature. Mack is not the first man to come face to face with God after losing his child. Job lost not one child, but ten and was utterly unable to save any one of them. The “great sadness” as Mack’s depression was described fell upon Job like a blanket of despair. He fell naked to the ground as he lost everything.

God came to Job, just as Young had Him come to Mack, but the one difference in their experience is that the Shack god was a man made creation, based on the perceptions of a writer. The God of Job is God. He came to help Job, but He also came in His full authority and power. He questioned Job asking, “Where were you when I established the earth? Tell Me if you have understanding…have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place so it may size the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who argues with God give an answer…Get ready to answer me like a man; would you really challenge my justice? Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?”

Job answered Him, “I am so insignificant. How can I answer You? I place my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not reply; twice, but now I can add nothing.”

Our postmodern generation would bring God down in order to lift themselves up, but Job realized healing when he came face to face with the one true God and humbled himself, not to some bohemian, communal experience but instead to the Holy perfection of God. God came to Job in the fullness of His glory, with authority and power, causing Job to recognize his place in the world. And in all of this, Job did not sin, and God restored, “blessing the latter part of his life more than the earlier,” because of his humility.

The Shack, if taken as a work of fiction, not a Bible study is a good read, an uplifting tale of healing. The church, however, is beginning to use it as a textbook; one to introduce their people to God. Instead of introducing them to the God of the Bible they are introducing them to the god of William Young’s imagination, which he created in our image. The only book that can introduce humanity to God is the one He wrote, the Bible.

All Scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2Tim.3:16-17

Do not have other gods besides Me.